The sun had begun to set across Orario. The cold air hit my face as Raza ran, making the dried blood on my cheeks crack slightly.
Raza was running past the streets at an unbelievable speed as she stopped in front of a giant building, Pantheon, the main building of the Guild.
The imposing structure was one of the few buildings in Orario that didn't seem to conform to any deity's aesthetic whims. Its purpose was purely functional, to manage the adventurers, monitor the dungeon, and maintain some semblance of order in a city filled with gods and their powerful children.
Despite the late hour, the Guild was still bustling with activity. Adventurers of all races and sizes milled about, some celebrating successful expeditions, others lamenting bad luck or poor decisions. The smell of sweat, blood, permeated the air, creating that distinct adventurer musk that seemed to follow dungeon-crawlers everywhere.
She walked in pushing through the door.
"Hey! Sophie! I'm here!" Raza yelled into the building, her voice cutting through the ambient chatter like one of her spells.
Out of the blue another elf with long white hair and blue eyes same as me, appeared in front of us. She was dressed in the Guild's uniform, a formal outfit that somehow managed to look both professional and completely impractical for any actual adventuring.
"Hello Raza, what can I help you with?" Sophie asked, clasping her hands together in that formal Guild employee way. Her eyes drifted down to me, still perched on Raza's back. "Oh and who's this little guy?"
Before Raza or I could answer, her eyes fully settled on me and then widened as she yelled, "Why is he all bloody?!"
I glanced down at myself, the wounds weren't bothering me much anymore, another curious effect of my emotional dampening, but they certainly looked impressive.
"Get off her, get off her!" Sophie yelled as she carried me off Raza's back and putting me on a counter and yelling to an elf with brown hair.
"Eina, hand me a high potion, now."
'Great Sage, isn't she -'
[Yes, she's Bell's future advisor.]
'She seems to be an intern right now.'
[Correct. Based on the timeline, Eina Tulle would still be in an intern position at the Guild, learning under Sophie.]
Eina went under the counter, grabbing a red glass vial and handing it over to her colleague. She cast a worried glance my way, her green eyes widening slightly behind her glasses as she took in my battered appearance.
Sophie grabbed the potion quickly before placing it at my mouth, saying sweetly, "Drink up, this will fix you right up."
I took hold of the potion and drank it, grimacing slightly at the bitter taste that reminded me of cough syrup mixed with something metallic. Immediately I felt the effects on my body, my cracked rib mended itself with an odd popping sensation, the shallow cuts, bites and gashes across my arm closed themselves, leaving behind nothing but faint pink lines that would likely be gone by morning.
The warmth spread throughout my body, a pleasant tingling that seemed to seek out every injury. I could feel the swelling in my face recede, the throbbing pain in my leg fading to nothing. Within seconds, I felt physically better than I had all day.
[Status Updated: Endurance I (17) → I (18)]
'Interesting, so healing potions can increase endurance stats too. That's useful information.'
[Correct. The body adapting to rapid healing appears to provide a small excelia gain, this will diminish the more potions are drunk.]
"Are you okay now?" Sophie asked, her eyes scanning me for any signs of remaining injuries.
"Perfectly fine," I replied, flexing my fingers experimentally. The potion had done its job well.
"Hah, okay that's good," she sighed before turning to Raza, her expression morphing from concern to anger in an instant. "And what were you thinking?! Why didn't you give him a potion yourself?"
As she was getting accused, Raza tried to defend herself, raising her hands in a placating gesture.
"Hey, those cost a few tens of thousands of Valis—"
"You're a level 4," Sophie interrupted, her voice rising. Several nearby adventurers turned to watch the developing spectacle. "That's pocket change to you."
"Still, he seemed fine, no reason to waste my money."
"You, you, you," Sophie repeated with incredulity, her fingers curling as if she wanted to strangle the other elf. "You absolute cheapskate, he's a kid who got hurt."
Raza turned to face me, a pleading look in her eyes. "You were fine, weren't you?"
I didn't know how to answer that question so I just nodded. The pain hadn't bothered me much, and the wounds wouldn't have been fatal. But I suspected that wasn't the answer Sophie was looking for.
Raza then turned to face Sophie, triumph written across her features. "See? He was fine."
BAM!
Sophie slapped the back of Raza's head, the sound echoing through the now-quiet Guild hall.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow, what the hell was that for?" Raza rubbed the back of her head, glaring at the Guild employee.
"He's a kid; he doesn't know what is good for him."
"I'm standing right here," I muttered, though neither of them seemed to hear me.
The argument continued, both elves now fully engaged in what seemed like a well-practiced routine. Sophie lecturing about responsibility, Raza defending her frugality. I caught snippets about "proper adventurer etiquette" and "wasting resources." A few of the Guild patrons chuckled, clearly having seen this before.
This went on for a few more minutes than I would have liked, but finally we moved to a table where I was all healed up, though monster blood still covered my body and clothes. The dried blood was starting to itch, once I got back to the Ganesha family headquarters, I was going to take a nice long bath.
Several adventurers kept glancing our way, though weirdly they weren't looking at me but at Raza.
Sophie pulled out a ledger and several forms from a nearby cabinet. "So you want to sell magic stones?"
Raza pulled out her pouch and handed over all the stones I had gotten from my first venture into the dungeon. The small crystalline fragments clinked together as Sophie spread them across the table, her experienced eyes already assessing their value.
"Okay, how many of these are yours and how many of these are the kid's?" Sophie asked, sorting through the pile with practiced efficiency.
"All of them are the kid's," Raza replied, a hint of pride in her voice.
Sophie in turn just sighed, running a hand through her white hair. "Of course they are."
She turned to look at me, her blue eyes, so similar to my own, studying me with new interest. "Since you don't have an advisor, you can't sell them to the guild."
"Uh huh," I answered, already having expected this from my limited knowledge of the world's mechanics.
"You can sign with me though. Raza is also signed with me." She shot a glance at Raza, who was pretending to examine her fingernails with excessive interest.
I turned to Raza who was sitting behind me, her short red hair tied in a bun. The level 4 adventurer had been my guide all day, and while she might be cheap, she seemed to know what she was doing.
"Is she any good?" I asked bluntly.
Her red eyes looked into my blue ones as she answered, a small smirk playing on her lips.
"Average. She gets things done."
"Average -" Before Sophie could start another argument, her face already flushing with indignation, I interrupted.
"Fine then, I'll take you as my advisor. Now for how much can I sell these?" I wanted to get this transaction over with. The day had been long, and despite my interest in experiencing new sensations, fatigue was one I was quickly becoming overly familiar with.
Sophie's expression brightened immediately, her previous anger forgotten. "That's great! But before you sell them, we need to sign a few papers. Eina!"
Eina, the brown-haired elf, came over to our table and handed over some papers, as professional as she had been in the anime.
"Okay name?" Raza asked pulling up a pen from an inside pocket.
"Atreus Theron."
"Age?"
"Eight."
"That young," she added before continuing on with her questions and filling the papers.
"Familia?"
"Ganesha."
After she finished she handed me over the papers.
I read through the forms impossibly fast, thanks to thought acceleration, and signed wherever Sophie told me to sign. The paperwork was surprisingly straightforward, acknowledging the Guild's role as intermediary between adventurers and merchants, agreeing to their commission rates, and formally requesting Sophie as my advisor.
"Now for how much can I sell these?" I asked again, wanting to get done with this as soon as possible.
It was turning out to be a bit of a drag.
Eina handed Sophie some sort of monocle, which she used to inspect the magic stones more closely. The device must have been enchanted, as Sophie's eye widened slightly as she looked through it.
"Hmm, all of them are low quality. Kobolds and goblins, right?" She asked, sorting the stones into neat piles.
"Right," Raza answered for me, leaning back in her chair.
"How many in total?"
"89," I answered, watching as Sophie continued her inspection.
"And this was your first time in the dungeon?" She asked, looking up from her work with a raised eyebrow.
I nodded, not seeing any reason to elaborate. The number spoke for itself.
"Fucking insane," she muttered, then looked at me with an apologetic smile. "Excuse my language. For all of these, I can buy them for 945 valis."
"Not bad for your first sell, you little sociopath," Raza said, scratching my hair with something that almost resembled affection.
I didn't react to the hair-ruffling, but inside I was considering what 945 valis meant in this world. Not enough for good equipment, but a start. Besides I didn't really need money since I was probably in one of the richest familias in Orario, what had mattered was all the excelia I had gained.
"Here you go," Sophie said, counting out the coins, and putting them in a pouch, sliding it across the table toward me. "Your first earnings as an adventurer."
A/N: Yes I know that Eina made it to Orario five years before cannon but given her personality I thought it was better if she was here during the Dark Ages of Orario.