Ethan’s POV:

"My heeead!" I say wailing in pain after losing to that red bastard. I can't believe that I lost after the first 6 beers. Annoying, I'm gonna need to pay him up. I proceed to start walking downstairs where I find Aria sitting with a philosophical face while twisting her hair. She notices me as I get down on the last squeaking step.

"Hey honey, how was your night?" she expressed with a jokingly mocking tone.

"Great, never been better," I said with a throbbing feeling in my head. 

"Do you have something planned for the day" I question her as she stops twisting her hair.

"I actually am, a bit short of money as of now," she admitted with a weak smile.

"Oh yeah? Why don't we stop by and accept a quest by the Adventurers Guild." I said, presumably with a painful tone as my head is throbbing like hell. 

"I am thinking of doing it, but my stomach is hurting," she responded by looking up at her upper right side, she lied. "Also my head hurts, so why don't we go and take an easy quest like, foraging for some materials or help the people in the village," she said without lying this time. 

"Yeah sure, since I don't have anything to do, we both can work to help the people in the village," I say with a painful smile since my head throbbed extra harder this time. 

"Sure let's go, we can go at 10 o'clock," Aria said with a grin thinking as she was able to lie through me. I chuckle at the thought she might be proud of her deceitful act.

The time currently is 10 o'clock I geared up with my steel chest plate and steel kneecaps, some leather armor which is made out of Titanbear leather. One of the best leathers in this world, it cost me quite a fortune. I think to myself with a sad face for how much silver I had to spend.

2394 silver, I can even buy houses with that amount, I think to myself with my hands on the ground. 

"Are you ready yet?!" Aria yelled from down below.

"Coming!" I shouted back.

I ran down the 20 stairs through the living room supported by dark logs and out of the wooden frame to see a beautiful woman standing outside. Wearing brown tight-fitting clothes underneath the white robe, enchanted in runes for protection.

Almost a half a head shorter than me with her wooden staff with a green mana catalyst, found within deep forests or in the elven territories, gifted by Reinna since her affinity was also air. The catalyst is embedded into the open circle holding at the top beside her. A staff that stands almost a head taller than her.

"Finally, you're here!" she sounded annoyed.

"You're just early" I retorted making us both laugh.

"Let's go already," I conveyed, breaking the laughs.

"Fine" Aria responded while wiping away tears from her eyes. 

We headed to the village over the meadow, more than one kilometer apart from our house and the village, with a road laid by gravel. Saw the beautiful tree on the hill on the meadow that we pass each day when traveling back and forth, reaching out towards the sun.

We saw some kids play by the tree, a kid chasing one another with small sticks, and another one reading a book in the tree's shadow. Living their life carefree must be nice. I think to myself and look back at my childhood. Only betrayal and pain occurred.

We reached the small village, with only around 400 houses and a big church in the middle beside the Elder's hospital clinic and the Adventurers guild. The church is the tallest building, being almost 40 meters tall with white concrete paved on the walls and surrounded by a calming impression. 

As we pass by the stoic building in the middle to make our way towards the Adventurers guild, a building tall as a small hill with a wide surface, covered in brick walls and with a red-brown roof. We approach the door, easily accessible and quite wide for the people who pass through.

We make our way to the quest board, “Let’s see what we can take.” Aria announced as she went further towards the brown board at the F-D ranked quests. 

“Here this is a good one, help the elderly in the retirement homes and maybe this one too!” she pointed to a quest holding the name of “Help for the future”. The description of the quest was to help and have fun with the kids at the orphanage. Poor kids. 

“Let’s take it easy and slowly, why not start with helping the elderly?” I ask.

“Sure! Why not? Let’s start easy and later do the harder work with the kids.” Aria expressed with a heartfelt smile. 

We approached the receptionist named Lina, a new girl in her early 20’s with short blond hair, brown eyes, and a job uniform, a white shirt alongside a brown leather jacket with her nameplate on the right side of her chest, and asked to take these two quests.

“The quest has been identified and I have reserved it for you, please show me your adventurer cards for identification,” Lina said with a polite smile. 

An adventurer card is a card that shows the rank of the holder. The cards are identification cards and have many usages in many situations, only permitted to be updated by the Adventurers Guilds or headquarters.

Adventurers who break this rule are faced with harsh punishments, but we both are experienced adventurers, we are B-ranked adventures, as shown on a silver-colored card. We take up our silver cards, our name, age, where you are from, and which party you are in, shows. 

“Cool, a silver-colored card!” the new girl exclaimed out loud making everybody’s head turn towards the receptionist.

“Hey, can you please be a bit quieter?” Aria asked with a fearful aura around her, she doesn’t like a lot of attention without her acknowledgment.

“Ah yes, sorry! It’s just rarely seen within the outskirts of the kingdom, close to the coastal area.” Lina said with sorrowful eyes, to offend a high-ranking adventurer is not a good choice.

“It’s alright” I butt in, giving her my card. “Wait! Let me first get the records of silver holders, back in the document room!” Lina said almost shouting. 

We waited a bit and she got out with a large book of records.

“Can you please hand over your cards, please?” Lina said with a gentle professional smile.

“Alright, Ethan Eric Flamestone, age 28, male, height 177 centimeters, rank B, quests completed, 142. Registered as an adventurer 5 years ago. In a party named Windward Crew -"

"And for you, Aria Sarah Elrod, age 25, female, height 172 centimeters, rank B also in the Windward Crew. Quests completed 115. Registered as an adventurer 4 years ago."

"Let’s see, “Windward Crew” ah there it is, party members Andrew Featherflame, Amber Prior, Diane Belmont, Fredrick Belmont, Lilith Creed, Reinna Highmoon, all of them also in the B rank category. Everything checks out. You’re free to go, enjoy the adventures of life.” Lina said with a kind smile. 

You’re free to go, enjoy the adventures of life, is what they always say to motivate the adventurers who seek adventure, action-filled life with a life filled with fortune, a phrase from Zero’s creed. 

“Thanks and good luck with your new job, you have just started something really important for people’s health and well-being as you guide new and old adventurers towards danger -” my Aria said with a smile towards Lina. Aria continued, “So good luck with your job, treat everyone with respect and welcome them with a smile, and then everything will go smoothly!” Aria reassured her own words. 

“I thank you for the advice, Miss Aria,” Lina said as she bowed to show acknowledgment.

"See you once we are done!" Aria included while waving her hand as we are leaving the hall. "Shall we get going?" she asked with a bright, once we got out of the hall. "Sure, let's go," I say with a heartfelt smile.