The Protagonist System

96 Adventure Waits For No One

The Adventurer's Guild Hall was quite large, several stories high, and had a large cloth banner of the guild's symbol on it. No written words were there, probably because not a lot of people could read on this world.

I pushed open the large creaking doors and stepped inside the large open area. It was filled with statues, armor and weapon displays, creature skeletons, couches, plants, and a dozen tables with various adventurers sitting at them. There were also short plinths and short street lamps scattered around for some reason. Did they not have normal lights to hang from the ceiling?

A pretty blonde barmaid was passing by and turned around to face me. She was holding several large tankards of ale easily, as if they weighed nothing. “Welcome to the Adventurer's Guild. If you're here to eat, please sit on any available seat and someone will serve you promptly. If you need job guidance, head to the counter inside.”

“Thank you for the help.” I said and waved to her.

The barmaid's happy smile seemed to freeze on her face when her eyes actually saw me. My armor really was quite eye-catching, which was why I made it that way.

“Hey!” A muscular man at a nearby table almost shouted.

The barmaid made an 'eep' sound and quickly walked off.

“I haven't seen you around before.” The man said and pointed to my chest. “That's some really fancy armor you have there.”

I nodded and walked over to him. “It has caught the eye of a helpless maiden or ten.” I joked and he laughed. “I just arrived in town and came right here. I want to become an adventurer to fight the Devil King's army.”

“Is that right?” He asked and turned towards me as he raised his tankard. “Welcome to the gates of Hell! HAHAHA!”

A bunch of other guys laughed, too.

“If you're looking for the guild's admission desk, it's right over there.” He said and pointed where to go. “Good luck!”

“You're going to need it!” A bunch of them said at the same time.

I lightly slapped his shoulder in thanks and walked down the indicated path across the hall and passed the bar. There were a row of teller windows that had no one behind them, except for one. Behind that one was a short blonde woman with her long hair done up in a nice style and she had a boatload of her massive cleavage out on display.

“Hello. What can I do for you today?” The pretty woman asked.

“My name is Satou Kazuma and I want to become an adventurer.” I responded.

“I see.” She said with a fake smile. “In that case, you need to first pay the registration fee.”

I nodded and reached for my money, then realized something. I didn't have any of the local currency. I had a simple solution for that, though. “I just arrived in town. You wouldn't happen to accept foreign currency in exchange, do you?”

The woman looked a little confused, probably because everyone on this world must use the same currency. “It depends on what the currency is made of.”

That made me smile and I took out several galleons to place on the counter. The woman gasped loudly, which gained a few curious looks from the people at the bar. She didn't say anything as she picked one of the coins up and held it, then smelled it, then bit it. A shudder went through her before she put the coin back down.

“I believe we can come to a satisfactory agreement of exchange.” She said with a real smile. “And please, call me Luna.”

After seeing that reaction, I couldn't stop myself from teasing her and took out a 2 inch by 4 inch slab of gold from my backpack. It was an inch thick and made a heavy thump on the wooden counter when I put it down.

“What about this? Do you accept smelted gold in trades for local currency?” I teasingly asked her.

Luna shivered again, a full body one this time, and softly moaned. “P-p-please tell me you have more to exchange.”

I couldn't refuse such a sincere request, so I put another one top of it, then another, then ten more.

“Oh, dear goddess.” Luna muttered and I saw her rubbing her thighs together.

That was when I pulled out the big guns and dropped a full brick of 99.99% purity gold onto the counter.

“Ohhhhh.” Luna moaned and the front of her shorts showed a wet spot. With surprising quickness, she pulled all of the gold into her teller window, then she grabbed my hand and easily pulled me through as well. Barely a moment later, we were in a back room and she was on me like a ravenous beast as she tried her best to devour me.

Half an hour later, we were dressed again, she was quite satisfied, and I followed her out through the actual doorway that was off to the side of the teller booths. She was back to being her professional self after paying me a ton of local money in exchange for my solid gold bars. I tucked the money away as she put a weird magical measuring device on the counter.

“Allow me to formally explain the procedure.” Luna said and I nodded. “Adventurers each have their own occupations and this is your registration card. It's magical, so it keeps track of all the monsters you've vanquished.”

“Sounds handy.” I said and she smiled.

“As your level increases, you earn points that you can then spend to learn new skills, which you can then level up as you use them.” Luna said and beamed a smile at me. “Please work hard and level up as much as you can. I know you can do it!”

I nodded and she motioned to the device.

“You just need to hold your hand above the crystal. With this, you'll learn your current status and what classes you are eligible for.” She said and put my card under it before she stepped back to give me room. “When it's finished, you can choose your occupation based on your stats.”

I put my hand over the crystal and it glowed brightly. Mechanical parts moved, even with no discernible moving parts joining them, then the glow filtered down into the bottom of the crystal and it formed a blue laser that started filling in the card.

The smile on Luna's face started to shift slightly into a frown as the laser kept going and going. When she leaned over to take a closer look, she gasped and stared. “B-besides your Luck stat being extremely high, even compared to a top tier Rogue, all of your stats are drastically far above average!”

Her exclamations gained us the attention of everyone in the guild hall, workers and adventurers alike.

“Saying this is amazing is an understatement.” Luna said and held up my card when it was done. “With stats like these, you can be anything you want. A crusader, a sword master, an arch-priest, and every other advanced class right from the start!”

Sounds of awe came from the gathered crowd. Luna handed the card to me with a beaming smile. I asked for a list of the advanced classes and she handed it over without hesitation. I looked through them and kept my face blank as I read about each of them.

There was the Minstrel or Advanced Bard class, the Pugilist or Advanced Monk class, the Sage or Advanced Mage class right there with Arch-mage, the Artificer or Engineer (Blacksmith Mechanic) class, the Alchemist or Advanced Potion Maker class, the Psionisist or Psychic class, the Beastmaster or Creature Tamer class, the Crusader or Advanced Knight class, and the Assassin or Advanced Rogue class.

After I read them all, I realized something. Despite being high level advanced classes, they were all closed and there was nothing else after I had mastered their specific class skills. So, I did the only thing I could do in that situation. I chose the class with the ability to learn any skill from any class.

“Give me the Adventurer Class, please.” I said and handed her the card back.

Completely dead silence came from all around me.

Luna's shaky hand updated my registration card for me. “W-welcome to the Adventurer's Guild.”

“Thank you.” I said and put my card away without looking at the skills list, since I had already mastered all of the normal skills that existed. “What kind of job do you recommend for a Level 1?”

“The outer walls need repairing.” One of the other guild workers said.

“Is it on the job board?” I asked and the man shook his head. “Then I can't do it right now. I'm here to adventure first and can work those kinds of jobs in my spare time.”

A few of the adventurers gave me odd looks.

“Miss Luna? Your recommendation?” I asked her, putting her on the spot.

Luna looked at where I had tucked my card and back at my face. She took in a deep breath and let it out. “The most basic job we have available is killing Giant Frogs.”

I nodded. “The details?”

“On the board.” Luna said and motioned to it. She was clearly resigned to losing me on the very first day, so I was going to have to disappoint her.

I walked over to the board and saw I had to kill 5 frogs in 3 days. I took the paper and went back to her. “Is that the limit of what the guild wants me to handle or can I kill more than that and keep getting more rewards?”

Luna almost looked sad as she stamped it and handed it back to me. “We'll take any amount and you get 5,000 Eris for each carcass you bring back.”

“Intact?” I asked and she raised her eyebrows at me. “I just want to know the damage limit to use on them if you're saving them for some reason.”

“They're a delicacy this time of year. It's during their mating season that they come out in force and steal sheep and goats from the local farmers. We strip them and cook them up to serve in the hall.” Luna admitted.

“Ah, I see.” I said and gave her a warm smile. “I'll be back with as many as I can find by the end of the day.”

Luna opened her mouth to say something, probably to be careful or something, and sighed. “Try to not get eaten. Frog spit stinks.”

I barked a laugh and looked at the notice details to get directions to where the main group of them were staying. For giant frogs that were the size of small houses, they could easily burrow under the ground and sneak up on people. Some farmers and their children had gone missing the last time, so the guild wanted them dealt with as quickly as possible.

With that in mind, I started to leave and headed for the front door, then paused. I walked back and gave Luna another warm smile. “I was wondering if you had something like a staging area nearby, where people could gather together to talk, form parties, or do other things.”

Luna gave me a blank look and then literally pointed right behind me at the main room of the guild hall.

I laughed and shook my head. “That won't work for what I want it for. Too much traffic.”

Luna looked confused and I didn't want to explain with everyone nearby and listening.

“I'll ask again when I return tonight.” I said, a little disappointed that I couldn't set up a teleportation circle at the guild hall, either in the yard or in a spare meeting room. Maybe I could make a small personal one at an empty lot or field?

I shrugged mentally and left the hall at a fast walk and ignored the disappointed looks on a lot of people's faces. I didn't mind the men looking like that, though. It was the women that made me feel bad. I couldn't really explain it to them, either.

My Unlimited Rapid Growth skill unlocked the normal skill cap and my level cap, so why would I cut myself off from learning skills by taking an advanced class with only a small amount of them? It would render my goddess given power almost useless and would stop me from becoming strong enough to defeat the Demon King.

I turned left after leaving the hall and started to jog. Since I never sweat, thanks to Fate and my system altered body, I ran at a constant pace until I saw an empty lot. I came to a stop and quickly cast notice-me-not charms all over it, then entered it and spent ten minutes creating a small temporary teleportation circle. I would make a more permanent one later.

With the single person teleportation anchor in place, I ran all the way to the outer wall of the town of Axel. The giant frogs migrating were causing a disruption in several large open fields used for grazing by farm animals. My magic detection spell easily found the ones hiding under the ground and the one that was visible was shown as the distraction.

It made me wonder if they set it up to let adventurers and unsuspecting animals walk over their nesting area to attack the visible one and then they get ambushed. That would be either a calculated plan or learned behavior over generations. In either case, I was going to devastate their population this year... and secretly capture a male and a female for breeding.

Since I needed precision for what I was about to do, I took out a wand and walked over to the small hill where a giant frog slept underground. I took aim and a piercing spell went right through the thing's tiny brain. It died and its entire body was still intact. I stored it and quickly filled the space by expanding the loose dirt, just so the ground didn't collapse or leave a crater.

With the first of many giant frogs successfully dealt with and their body retrieved, I started the hunt in earnest. The giant frogs weren't going to know what hit them!

*

The main receptionist at the Adventurer's Guild named Luna, held in her sigh as she looked out the window and saw the sun setting. She was regretting what was going to happen soon when Satou came back, mostly because the idiot had refused to accept one of the Advanced Classes to start their career. He was only a basic adventurer and would never be able to unlock any advance class ever again.

Luna bit back her next sigh when the guild hall's doors opened and in strode the idiot she was thinking about. That gleaming orange-yellowish armor of his really made him stand out and caught everyone's eye and his skills in bed were phenomenal, too. It was just too bad that didn't transfer into actual smarts and common sense.

“I have returned, dear Luna!” Satou said proudly and it echoed through the whole hall, letting everyone know he had returned. He strode over to the teller windows and gave her that damn sexy smile that she regretted wasn't on a more intelligent person.

Why couldn't he be rich and smart? Luna asked herself as she forced herself to smile back. “Welcome back, Satou.” She said and looked at his armor. She couldn't see any signs of damage, or even dirt on the thing, so her initial thoughts that he would fail the easy quest were spot on. She did not let her disappointment show on her face, though.

“Thank you, Luna. I had quite the easy time of it as I dealt with the local threat, so I returned to collect the bounty on what I've handled so far.” Satou said and handed her the notice from the board and his adventurer card.

Luna softly sighed at him admitting to only taking care of a single frog and not the 5 needed to complete the quest. She was already mentally calculating how to divide up the 5,000 Eris into gold, silver, and bronze coins to give him a good mix to afford a meal and perhaps a room at a cheaper inn.

“I'll update your registration card and will give you the bounty payout per frog.” Luna said and took the card, then used her own skill to check the monster kills on the back of it... and froze at the ridiculous number.

“I know it's not much, considering the giant frog's migration pattern; but, that was all I could reach in the area and I promised to return here to let you know how my first quest ended.” Satou said with a grin.

Luna couldn't breathe. It wasn't possible for a brand new adventurer to kill 236 giant frogs in a single day. It couldn't be true! She checked it again, and again, and then turned the card over to update his level. Because his card registered him as Level 1 for every single kill, the quest completion attributed all of those kills at the same time.

A normal beginner quest was skewed slightly to help starting adventurers gain those first few levels quickly and awarded appropriate skill points, usually 3 to 4 levels after 5 frogs and 3 days of work. Each frog carcass had a bounty of 5,000 Eris and gave new members that first influx of money to get better equipment and better food.

Satou Kazuma had just killed 236 giant frogs on a single mission. That meant he would gain 47.2 times the normal bonuses, because he was only level 1 for all of it. It ended up with him gaining 188 levels and 1,180,000 Eris. It was only his first kill mission. His FIRST! No one had ever earned 188 skill points at Level 1. No. One.

“So, do you have a storage room or something nearby?” Satou asked. “I have all those carcasses in my dimensional storage and I'd like to drop them off.”

Luna lost her battle to stay conscious and fainted.