I looked at myself in the water. I look like shit, I thought. With a yawn, I started brushing my damp hair, desperately trying to look presentable. Another day of dealing with the rowdy adventurers, what a life !

  I sighed. I never really wanted to be an adventurer, or work at the guild even. It was the only place that wanted to hire me before the town became a bustling city. Honestly, I liked my job – even if some adventurers are assholes. When I finished washing myself and getting dressed, I heard the neighbor’s rooster yapping. One day I’ll eat it. And happily. Unfortunately, for now, it was my cue to head to my job.

  Posting the new quests on the board, verifying the adventurers did the quests correctly, answering the questions of new adventurers. That’s what my job was. I even had to wash the floor. Can’t those idiots eat cleanly? Damnit.

  As I was pestering them in my mind while watching them wolf down their food. I'm the one to clean behind them, damnit !

  Suddenly, the door of the guild opened up. It’s rare to have adventurers come in so late in the day, I thought, are they here to put down a quest ?

  It was a group of three young people, around fourteen years old. Two girls and a boy, dressed in ragged clothes covered in mud. The boy even had a missing bit on his left leg. What the hell happened to them ?

  The burly adventurers stopped their meal to glance at them, but continued eating right away. The three newbies assuredly didn’t interest them.

  They approached me, and the boy started speaking.

  “We’d like to register as adventurers, please.” he said.

  I scoffed, “Are you sure? Looking at you, I don’t give you a day without dying.”

  One of the girls shrugged. She was shorter than the other two, brown hair going down to her shoulders and brown eyes. Her eyes… had a weird shape. I never saw eyes like hers. Her friends looked more normal than her. The boy had blue eyes and short hair, slightly shorter than the other girl. That one had hair colored like rust, with brown eyes. Although, she looked stupider than the other two.

  Anyway, the short girl asked me “Is there any rule saying we cannot register ?”, in a tone full of attitude. Where was she even raised?

  “It depends,” I answered, “How old are you?”

  “Fifteen,” said the last member of their group.

  To be fair, I was a bit surprised. They didn’t really look fifteen, especially not the shortest one of the bunch. Are they lying?

  “Hm… Well, you need to be at least fifteen to register. That’s really convenient. I need to have you examined.”

  “What do you mean?” asked the boy. I realized that I didn’t know their names, but it would be weird to ask them right now.

  “It’s simple. We have an Orb of Appraisal, you pour some mana into it and we’ll get all your information. Name, Class, Traits, Skills, Stats. It will facilitate your registering and you won’t be able to lie about your capabilities. And if you’re not fifteen, then we’ll know.”

  “Fine, it’s quick and easy.”

  Maybe they really are fifteen if they don’t care about the Orb of Appraisal.

  Well, whatever happens to them is not like it’ll be my fault.

  I watched as the three of them used the Orb. They were all fifteen, colour me surprised. Unfortunately, I took one glance at their stats. My surprise quickly turned into dread.

  First the boy. Ashton. He’s a cleric. A damn cleric ! This is one of the most advanced classes I heard about.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  And his stats. I can understand the high HP and MP, but why would a cleric have a strength of 10 ? And a vitality of 20 ! Those stats SHOULD NOT be above 5 for a normal human being ! And his intelligence ? 150 ? Even noble mages cannot reach 80 !

  I glanced at his traits. He has three traits ?! You cannot buy traits, how the hell did he get three ?! That’s clearly divine intervention!

  And it got worse when I saw his skills. 7 effing skills. Even God’s Hand ? That’s clearly the skill of a saint !

  Where does he come from ? Is he the son of Eenir ?

  I took a deep breath. Maybe his friends aren’t that bad. Maybe he’s just the odd one. I took the sheet mentioning the name “Fauna”, it’s the red haired girl. My eyes popped. I don’t know how I didn’t yell at them right then and there, honestly. Surprising amount of self control, you go, girl !

  A ‘Berserker’ class. It wasn’t in our list of existing classes. Most definitely a unique one. Just that told me everything I needed to know : That girl will be as bad as Ashton was.

  High HP, 86. For a warrior class it’s impressive, but understandable if it’s closer to a knight. Even her 50 MP I can get behind.

  BUT 25 STRENGTH ? At that level she could probably defeat a level 5 warrior, maybe a level 10 if she’s lucky.

  20 Vitality – she’s far too resistant for a level 1! Is Berserker a mix between Knight and Shielder ?

  High intelligence as well, but if she was raised a noble I can understand it.

  Then, two traits. Bloodthirsty ? What the hell is that ?

  Crushing Blow – that’s one I heard of. Combining them feels like she was built for combat…

  Finally, the skills. Don’t talk to me about her skills. She’s a truly terrifying murdering tool… She can even transform into a hybrid!

  Please let the last one be normal. Please.

  I took the last sheet with my trembling hands, praying to Eenir and every available god of this world that she was NOT an absurd creation. I glanced at her class. I felt my heart stop beating and I’m pretty sure the muscles in my face could not move either.

  Another Unique Class, Darkstalker. And it says ‘Assassin’ right next to it. A unique assassin class ? I definitely want to join her victims right now. I can’t take it anymore.

  I took a deep breath to calm me down and let my eyes dart at her statistics.

  I sighed in relief when I saw ‘32 HP’ – before slamming my head on the table when I saw her 126 MP.

  15 strength, compared to Fauna whatever, it was reasonable. But still far too high to be normal ! 20 Vitality, whatever. At that point I don’t really care anymore.

  120 Intelligence? Sure. Ok. Fine.

  50 Agility ? Oh come on now ! I know I said I didn’t care but are you kidding me?! How do you expect me to react when 50 Agility is the stat of a level 50 Shielder ?!

  And two traits as well!

  Murder Machine? Fuck you!

  I sighed when I saw ‘Shadow Radar’. At least that’s one normal trait this group has.

  I finally reached the skills. I was happy when I realised there were only two. Then I read what they were.

  Ghost Girl. That’s one of the rarer Assassin skills, but fine. They’re anomalies.

  I might have been disappointed if she had a skill like ‘Armor Cutter’, the most common skill for assassins.

  No, the real problem was with Release. It’s the skill of high level Knights. Seriously, the only Knight of the country to have it is the Knight Commander of the Imperial Army…

  I want to go home.

  I finalized their registration, frankly thanking Eenir they decided to be adventurers. I could really give them ‘Wood’ rank, and they’re too weak for ‘Iron’ rank, so I went with the middle ground.

  “Well,” I sighed, “congratulations. The three of you are now Bronze-rank adventurers. Do you form a party?”

  “I suppose we do? We always travelled with each other.” said Ashton, the cleric.

  “Then you can do Bronze-rank quests. You cannot do a quest above your party’s average rank.”

  “I see, thank you for the information.” said the short girl – Xia, the Assassin.

  Even her name sounds foreign. Seriously, where did she come from ? The netherrealm ?

  “Hey miss!” It was the turn of Fauna, the tall one of the group, to talk to me. “What are the ranks?”

  “You guys don’t know that?” I sighed loudly. After almost killing me you’re annoying me ? Leave me alone. Seriously, why are newcomers always so uneducated about the guild’s ranking system ?

  “It goes from Wood to Copper. Those are the beginners ranks, you can’t go into dungeons and might be eaten alive fighting some low-level monsters.

  After Copper there’s Bronze, Iron and Steel, those are the ranks where you can go on monster-slaying adventures and clear dungeons.

  Finally, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Ruby. This is the top of the top. Ruby-rank adventurers are almost considered heroes. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, thank you miss!”

  “I’m not ‘miss’, call me Adeline.”

  I feel old enough when I get up in the morning, no need to have the weirdest brats of the world to remind me of that when I’m at work.

  “Let’s go look for a quest.” said Ashton. The other two nodded, and they left.

  Fucking finally.

  I turned to my colleague and said “I’m taking my break.” I let her fend for herself.