~ Chapter 46: The Guild’s new adventurers ~

[Illsyore’s point of view]

 Both Nanya and I were currently regretting the fact that we didn’t take advantage of my dungeon building skills to soundproof our room. The tired look on Shanteya and Ayuseya’s faces told me that they didn’t catch a single wink of sleep last night. Any excuse or attempt of getting out of this one was useless, absolutely useless. They were both glaring at me and Nanya, who was hiding behind me.

Seriously? You are powerful enough to reduce this entire town to breadcrumbs, and YOU are the one hiding behind ME? I thought while forcing a smile on my face.

“You both stink!” the nekatar suddenly told us.

“Huh?” I blinked surprised.

“Your scents are mixed up… Her scent is on you and yours on her. If you want to make babies, please keep it quiet, nya!” Neyalin said pointing at both of us.

Nanya was red like a tomato and didn’t dare look up.

“Stupid Illsy.” she grumbled with a barely audible voice.

How is this my fault?! I complained.

Neyalin walked away from our table to serve a grumpy adventurer with bloodshot eyes.

“I guess we can solve this in only one way.” said Ayuseya in a calm tone of voice.

“By not skinning me alive?” I asked with a smile.

“That’s for later, my dear.” she showed me a cold smile, and I gulped. “For now, you must agree on never sharing your bed with only one of us for a special night without asking the other's permission.” she declared, and Shanteya nodded.

I gulped. “Fine…”

Not like I have a choice anyway. Wait a minute… I thought and then squinted my eyes at Shanteya and Ayuseya. “Does this mean that you two…”

The two women blinked surprised, turned red in the cheeks and looked away. They were acting suspicious.

“It means nothing!” the draconian declared.

“Ahem! Anyway, this matter is closed, and we should think about what to do today. Oh, and one last thing. Nanya, did you use protection?” asked Shanteya.

“Huh? Protection? Against what?” she asked, tilting her head to the left.

I nearly face-palmed myself because she didn’t know about it, but then again, this was a medieval world. It wasn’t like I could go to the local drug store and buy a box of condoms or contraceptive pills, but there was magic, so that made me wonder about various possibilities.

“Illsy?” Shanteya asked while looking at me.

The horror on her face could be read quite clearly.

“Oh? Erm… I have no idea what that is either, but after… well at one specific point, I was asked if I wished to impregnate Nanya, and I said ‘No’.” I told her with a smile.

“You were asked? By whom?” asked Ayuseya with a furrowed brow.

“It’s a Dungeon thing.” I waved it off.

“Sigh, let’s just hope we won’t need to worry about an Illsy Junior running around breaking stuff and lifting skirts…” said Shanteya.

What sort of mischievous perverts do you think my kids are going to be?! I cried in my mind.

A graveyard silence suddenly formed around the table, with none of us saying a single word. I looked around at all of them, and after the sudden baby-making subject was brought to light, they didn’t appear to be willing to debate any further about it. Then again, I wasn’t planning on becoming a father so soon. Technically, I could build us a house, and our base stats were high enough to earn us a pretty coin, but still, not on my to-do list.

“Ahem! Illsy? What do you wish to do today or from now on?” asked Ayuseya, who was brave enough to shatter the awkward silence.

“Erm… Today, I don’t know, but generally speaking, I want to get stronger, see the world, see other countries and how their academies work. I would also like to see how this Guild thingy works.” I answered honestly.

“So you wish to rebuild Fellyore?” she asked surprised.

“Not Fellyore, but my own… I’m sort of pulled towards that idea. I was an academy before being a dungeon, and this time, I want to try teaching the students a bit.” I explained to them with a smile.

“I see. Well, in that case, the first thing we need to do is go and register with the Adventurers Guild. Many of them receive teaching jobs and may be granted special access to the academies to teach the students there. The more famous you are, the higher your chances are to get into a good Magic Academy to either teach or be taught.” explained Ayuseya calmly.

“I wouldn’t mind teaching again, but Illsy, you need to learn what an actual EASY dungeon is. No more YOUR version of ‘easy’.” said Nanya with a raised eyebrow.

“That wasn’t my fault. I wasn’t born with a manual on stuff like this…” I shrugged.

“If that’s your plan, then going to the Adventurers Guild isn’t a bad idea. If we raise our ranks with them, we can even gain access to various libraries across the continent, which can offer you a general idea on what sort of books are out there. You may need some of them in your own library.” explained Shanteya.

“Books? I never actually thought about visiting the library back at Fellyore, so I don’t really know what sort of books are written in this world… or how.” I said scratching the back of my head “For some reason, I got this very very bad feeling whenever I got close to that room.” I told them.

Nanya and Shanteya looked at each other and then giggled.

“What?” I asked surprised.

“Nothing.” said Nanya as she looked away.

“Well then, shall we head off to the Adventurers Guild now?” asked Ayuseya.

“Yes! Also, I need some tutoring lessons for the local languages. All I can hear is gibberish.” I concluded and raised my hand up like a kid in class.

“I can give you some… private lessons later.” Nanya said with a soft purr, pulling herself closer to me.

The illusion ring did well to hide the claws and tail because I could feel something invisible wrapping around my waist, but the demoness was careful, she neither scratched nor cut the fabric of my clothes.

“NO, YOU WON’T!” both Shanteya and Ayuseya shouted, dragging Nanya away from me and nearly tugging me along as well because she didn’t pull back her tail fast enough, or rather she didn’t want to.

“Tch!” the demoness clicked her tongue and crossed her arms at her chest.

After we left the inn, we walked through the small town, which was called Perto by the way, and headed straight to the Adventurers Guild. It was one of the biggest buildings there, going up two stories without the roof. As far as I could see, it was spacious enough to hold the entire population of that small town in case of an emergency. Maybe that was its intended purpose after all. Either way, we entered through the front door and were met face to face with some of the adventurers on this continent.

One thing was certain, none of them wore sparkly fancy outfits or had flying monsters as pets or mounts. They wore leather or plain chainmail as armors, and their swords were either iron or steel. None of them was enchanted or even showed to be of the slightest threat to any of us. By looking at them, I was starting to believe I landed in the middle of noobie town. These guys were seriously weak looking.

“New faces, huh?” one of the adventurers threw a bored gaze our way.

He was a tall skinny man who wore leather armor with black shoulder guards and had a small dagger hanging at his belt. As far as looks went, he was no different from a regular western European: Caucasian, brown hair, and brown eyes, the whole package basically. Most of the folk in this town looked the same.

Actually, there were no people of color even back at Fellyore Academy. As for those who appeared of Asian descent, I think I saw a couple of them. So far, it didn't seem like racism was a thing in this world like it was back on Earth, but speciesism was something else. Dankyun had been a clear example of that. After all, why hate your own species when there were so many other species to hate out there?

“We’re here to register, yes.” said Ayuseya and then showed him a polite smile.

“Oh? A pretty lady like you registering with us Adventurers? What has this world come to if we need to rely on women to defend us?” he said as sarcastically as he could and then burst into a loud laughter.

There’s always an idiot like him… Still, why pick on Ayuseya? I’m the guy with the green hair here! Oh, right! I’m wearing a hoodie, so he can’t see it. I thought while trying hard not to punch him in the face.

“Shut it, Borun! Nobody needs to hear your smack talk.” said another man, a warrior wearing full-plate armor and holding a scroll in his hand.

Since he had his helmet on, I couldn’t see his face, but he appeared to be stronger or at least of a higher rank than him.

“Tch!” he clicked his tongue and looked away.

“If you wish to register, go there, but leave the demon at the entrance, we don’t need her kind around here.” he said pointing at someone on the other side of the of the building.

I thought he was a nice guy, but he just had to add that last remark.

“Please don’t insult my wife.” I told him kindly and at the same time holding back from summoning a Minotaur in the middle of the room.

“Whatever.” he shrugged and looked away.

“Told you it wasn’t a good idea.” said Nanya, but she appeared to be holding herself back as well.

“It’s alright.” I showed her a smile and then patted her head, then I noticed that she was still wearing her illusion ring.

On the outside, Nanya was no different than a regular blonde human woman, so how was that man able to see through the disguise? Either way, this caused another round of ugly glares to be aimed at us, but we ignored them and moved along.

“He’s probably a Watcher, that was how he knew.” Nanya told me in a whisper, while staying close to me like a timid girl, or rather someone trying very very hard not to blow up this entire place.

“A Watcher?” I asked.

“The helmet is enchanted. When he looks at someone, it tells him what species they are, but it can’t be set to identify more than two, maybe three different ones. It’s mostly used against those who have to pay the most expensive registration fee, or against those who aren’t welcomed on the kingdom’s territory…” she told me.

If a country was at war or something, then it was natural for it to be wary of infiltrating spies, but to use something like that so people didn’t cheat with the tax? It seemed a bit extreme. Then again, it could be one of those hard-to-reason-with royal decrees. At least, I found out there were items out there that could see through one’s illusion or disguise. No use relying on them too often if they could end up undone one way or another. Well, I didn’t really care if they identified me as a dungeon or not. I was quite literally in a Supreme Ranked party, meaning there weren’t that many individuals or organizations out there who could oppose us. Nanya, on the other hand, didn’t seem to enjoy the exposure.

Before we went to speak with the one who would handle our registration to the Guild, I looked over at my el’doraw maid.

“Shanteya?” I asked.

“Yes, Master?” she replied.

“Please put the poison away…” I smiled.

“It’s not a poison, Master. It’s an extremely powerful and potent laxative.” she explained.

Thinking about it, that was actually a good combo. I highly doubted he could take off that big armor in time before an accident occurred, but still… I didn’t want any problems here.

“Just put it away, for now…” I sighed and then went to introduce ourselves to the receptionist in charge of the registration.

Still, what surprised me was the fact that these fellows spoke a language I understood and not Kalish or Kendarian. Maybe they were adventurers from the other two continents?

As for the person in charge with handling our registration, she was a petite woman the same size as Nanya in her sealed form. A big scar across her right eye decorated her pretty face. She had dark-brown hair tied up in a small ponytail, black eyes, and wore a black leather armor that probably hid a chainmail under it.

When we approached her, she first looked at Ayuseya, then at Shanteya, and lastly at me and Nanya. If I were to guess, she was probably trying to determine our strength with one gaze, but it would be a bit hard unless you were like me, a Dungeon.

“So, you four want to register, eh?” she asked and then leaned back on the chair.

“Yes!” I told her with a nod.

“That will be four silverettes for you, four for the el’doraw, nine for the draconian, and two goldiettes for the demon.” said the woman with smirk.

“Why the difference in prices?” I asked raising an eyebrow.

She shrugged.

“Those are the rules. Humans, elves, and el’doraws are four silverettes each, dwarfs are six, draconian nine, any sort of furry is about twelve silverettes or one goldiette and two silverettes, and demons or any other unknown species are two goldiettes. If you don’t like it feel free to head to another kingdom or continent for different prices. I heard that in Teslov Kingdom, humans are two goldiettes and draconians four.” she explained.

That sounded a bit weird, but it probably had something to do with the balance of population. In other words, the dominant species had the cheapest registration fees with the guild. Going by that reasoning, it was natural for a human kingdom to have a high price for the minority species. To that, the political relationships between them were added as well. Thus, if a kingdom like Teslov overcharged humans, this kingdom overcharged draconians. It was logical. That would also explain the need for a Watcher who could detect demons, who had the highest paying tax. Maybe the other species it could detect was draconian, since by furry, this woman probably meant those like Neyalin or similar to her. It wouldn’t be logical to pick a random furry out of who knew how many were out there.

Is ‘furry’ even a proper term for a nekatar or is it an insult? I wondered before I told her that we would pay.

“Good! Now then, what are your ranks?” she asked.

“Erm…” I had no idea how to answer that one.

Because of my little bonus, we were literally above the Supreme Rank recommendation. The only thing missing was the appropriate skills to match the rank. However, I knew at least that Nanya was a Godlike, and I could probably consider myself one too thanks to my ability to create items as a Dungeon, but Shanteya was previously only an Advanced Rank, and Ayuseya barely scratched the surface of a Beginner Rank.

“Let us take the strength test.” suggested Nanya, and I raised an eyebrow back at her.

Strength test? You mean the one with the puny stone? We can all smash straight through it! I complained in my mind.

“Sure…” the woman shrugged and got off her chair.

Walking past us, she went to the fellow in big shiny armor and told him a few words, afterwards, she returned to us and pointed at the back door.

“Through there. Oh, and the name’s Serya.” she said.

“A pleasure to meet you. My name is…” I said and before I could introduce myself, she lifted a hand up and stopped me.

“No need. After I test you, you are free to introduce yourself to me, until then you are just A, B, C, and are those double D?” she asked and with the last one looked at Ayuseya’s chest.

The draconian covered her top instinctively. I raised an eyebrow. The woman shrugged and led us out.

By going through that door, we walked out of the building and entered the backyard, which was actually a form of training ground for adventurers, or those aspiring to become one. This place was partitioned as follows: the range practice area was to the far left, where big metal poles were used instead of easily destructible targets; on the far right was the sparring ring; next to it was a sword practice area with big wooden dummies as opponents; and between the two was a small path leading to the back gate.

“Any of you can use ranged magic?” asked Serya as she walked in front of us and pointed at the metal poles.

“All of us.” I replied.

“Oh? Interesting. So, you are all a bunch of mages?” she asked smirking.

“Sort of.” said Nanya.

“Well, blast one of those targets first, then I’ll lead you to the next test.” she said with smug look on her face. “But a fair warning, those are enchanted to resist Beginner and even Intermediary [Fireball] spells.”

“Oh?” Nanya raised an eyebrow.

I could feel the challenge the woman was laying before us. Serya didn’t believe we could destroy one of those targets.

“I’ll go first.” said Shanteya and she got behind the line from where she was supposed to shoot.

It was at a distance of about 20 or so meters from those metal poles.

“Go ahead.” said the Serya.

Shanteya pointed her hand at one of the poles and then started to chant the spell, however, thanks to the small modifications I made to her Magic Energy channels and the extra stat boost she got from me, a [Fireball] of one meter in diameter was formed in front of her. The huge ball of fire was then launched towards the metal pole and slammed at full-speed into it, exploding and even blasting the wall behind it.

When the smoke was cleared, there was a small crater where that metal pole previously stood, and two others were half melted because of the power of the attack. On another note, the enchants were powerful enough to absorb a part of the blast, otherwise, it would have reached us. Well, not like a weak attack like that would have damaged us anyway.

“Th-that was…” Serya was dumbfounded by the display of power.

“Well done, Shanteya!” grinned Nanya.

“Should I go next?” asked Ayuseya.

“C-Can you do the same?” asked Serya.

“Yes.” she replied with a smile.

“No need to then! Erm… can all of you do that?” she asked raising an eyebrow.

“Something as simple and weak as that? Sure.” Nanya smirked back at the woman.

The battle was won.

With a sigh, the woman closed her eyes for a moment to regain her composure.

“Then… we should move on. If you are mages, I’m sure you won’t do just as well in a test of strength!” she smirked.

“Oh really?” Nanya showed her a mischievous smirk. “Then what will little ol’ me do in a test of strength?” she looked up at me with apparent worry in her eyes and a cute pout.

This little devil… I thought while looking back at her.

If there was one monster here, that was Nanya with her brutish strength of over 3000. One punch was all she needed to turn this whole area into a crater. Unfortunately, Serya didn’t catch on to her play. With a smug look on her face decided to give us the test of strength as well.

I merely sighed and followed her.

We were taken through the back gate, deep in the forest, where a bunch of a boulders were gathered. They were big, nearly 4 to 6 meters in diameter, but when compared to the blocks I once created for Nanya at the Fellyore Magic Academy, these ones were very small.

“All of the boulders here are enchanted so that even a Master Rank can’t break them. Well, all except for the big 10 meters one. That one was enchanted by a passing by Godlike. It’s strong enough to test Emperor Ranks. Make a crack in any of the 6 meters ones, and you are a Master Rank. Do the same for a 4 meter or smaller one, and you are Advanced Rank.” Serya explained and crossed her arms at her chest.

She didn’t believe we could even put a scratch on any of them.

“Should I go first?” asked Ayuseya.

“Please do.” I told her.

With a smile, the draconian approached a 6 meters boulder and prepared to hit it. She pulled back her elbow, clenched her fist, and anchored herself with her feet on the ground. When she was ready, she let it rip. One thing was to be mentioned though, she wasn’t able to control her strength yet, so when she hit the enchanted boulder, it was struck with a force of over 1000 strength points. The end result was a pulverized rock. It was shattered in a billion pieces and scattered in front of the draconian.

“Oh, my!” she said surprised.

“I guess I’m next.” I said with sigh and moved in front of another boulder.

Seeing as this was a relatively safe spot, I wondered just how a 1500 strength punch would compare to Ayuseya’s. Just like she did, I pulled back my elbow, aimed at the center and then let it rip. The strike was dead-center, and the result was an ear-shattering boom, a boulder that simply exploded into countless tiny pieces, and a small crater that formed in front of me.

In the end, I did more damage than Ayuseya, but it was an overkill with our uncontrollable brute strength.

“Then it’s my turn.” said Nanya with a smile as she walked straight to the big 10 meter boulder.

She didn’t even punch it, she simple stabbed her claws into it and lifted it up like a pebble. Of course, to us, it looked like she only placed her frail human palm on the surface of the rock, but the appearance of the sudden holes in it made it clear. She tossed it up in the air and then jumped after it. As soon as she reached it, she moved on top and then pushed it with all of her might. The boulder broke the sonic barrier and slammed into the ground at an incredible speed, forming a crater and breaking into more pieces than one could count.

As a result, this training area was simply pulverized by our might.

“Oh, my! Was I supposed to punch it?” Nanya said, looking back at us and batting her eyelashes.

“Technically, the boulder is broken, so… we passed, right? Or should Shanteya try as well?” I asked pointing back at the el’doraw.

Serya was looking back at me with a twitching eye and a gaping mouth. She was shocked, simply stunned by this display of power, and without a doubt, she was regretting the fact that she doubted our strength.

“Hello?” I said waving my hand in front of her eyes.

There was no reaction coming from her.

“Did she faint?” asked Ayuseya.

“Probably…” I replied.

“N-No… I didn’t, but… I… you… I don’t…” she tried to say, but her brain wasn’t allowing her to form a basic sentence.

It wasn’t that shocking now, was it? I thought to myself while looking back at the craters.

“You passed… But out of curiosity, what ranks are you all?” she asked.

“I’m Godlike, he can beat up a Supreme but doesn’t have a Supreme skill, the draconian and el’doraw are in a similar situation.” Nanya said with a simple shrug.

“I see… So what ranks should I put here?” she asked us while rubbing her temples.

“Based on skills alone, I am a Godlike, he is a Godlike, and the other two are Masters.” Nanya replied briefly.

“I understand… Follow me then, we’ll do the final procedures back at the Guild.” Serya said, showing that she was still a bit shaken by all of this.

Without further ado, we proceeded towards the Adventurers Guild to finish our registration and take our first quest. I was quite curious to know how these things worked in this world and if I could implement them somehow in combination with the dungeons I could build. That would probably be something interesting to do, and it would also bring my future academy a couple of pluses in the eyes of possible future students.

One thing remained unclear though, why did we have to go through this test when Nanya could judge our strength according to the guild’s existing ranking system? It was suspicious, but if I were to guess, she did it only for the giggles.