After a moment, we realized that doing that right in front of the Town Hall entrance might not have been such a good idea. Indeed, passersby were already giving us awkward looks. We moved to one side of the square. Now that we knew we wanted to stay together for a while, how should we start?

  I had an idea, "Okay, we need a simple objective for now. Like, having enough money to pay for food, lodging, and clothes." I looked at our clothes. Leims had his worn, dirty, and charcoal-soot-covered garments. I had my priestess clothes, dirty, torn, and no longer appropriate now that I didn't belong to the Order. Abbia still had her piece of cloth covering her body. Even though it was the only garment she had. "By the way, Abbia, why do you only have this piece of cloth? Don't elves have clothes?" Abbia looked at me confused. She thought for a moment, "Yes, elves have clothes. But after I left, I wanted to swim. This cloth is actually a towel. But once in the water, I was attacked by monsters and had to abandon my things in a corner of the forest."

  Leims seemed about to say something, "Yes, Leims? A suggestion?" He clearly didn't expect me to notice him. "No, it's nothing. But where can we find a job? It's already hard enough for me, so with two women, one of whom is a frail elf, it's not ideal." I thought about his remark. It was indeed relevant. But I already had a plan! I smiled proudly, "I already know where to go for that, don't worry! We're going to become full-time adventurers!" Leims looked clearly unimpressed. Abbia, meanwhile, didn't understand what an adventurer was.

  Well, this is off to a good start.

  I looked at Leims, "What? Do you have a better plan, perhaps?" Looking defeated, he shook his head no. Abbia still didn't understand, so I explained to her, "We're going to become adventurers. From what I know, we'll be given quests to do in exchange for money." Abbia, however, asked, "What kind of quests?" to which I proudly replied, "I don't know." Leims put his hand over his face in despair.

  After asking passersby where to find the local adventurers' guild, we headed towards it. It was located right in the middle of a commercial alley, where blacksmiths, swordsmen, alchemists, and other guilds were popular. Curious and contemptuous looks were common this time. Big delinquent guys, knights in armor, dazzling mages, and in the middle of all these people, us. Even Leims was no longer acting cocky in front of these people. Abbia was almost completely withdrawn under her cloth. Her ears attracted a lot of attention. I had to lead the group; I was the only one with a minimum of composure in front of intimidating people—professional deformation, I suppose.

  Finally, we arrived in front of a wooden door. A sign with a parchment, the emblem of the adventurers' guild, was placed over it. Once inside, dozens of adventurers were present. All eyes turned towards us. Even I began to want to shrink little by little. I advanced with a facade of confidence towards the counter. Mocking laughter could be heard here and there. Once I reached the person in charge of reception, she didn't seem delighted to see us. "I'm sorry, homeless people are not allowed to stay in this establishment."

  I love it when we start on a healthy basis.

  I tried my best not to let my voice waver, "No, we are here to register as adventurers." The secretary maintained a skeptical gaze. "Very well... So, can you write?" I answered yes. Leims, visibly on the verge of a nervous breakdown and wanting to finish as quickly as possible, asked the secretary, "And what about the registration fees?" The secretary immediately replied, initially with an almost palpable disdain. "...There are none. However, the guild takes ten percent of every quest reward, and bronze and iron rank adventurers must complete at least one quest per week. Otherwise, they will be expelled from the guild." No one dared to ask what the ranks corresponded to. Fortunately, a booklet summarizing the guild's operation was provided to us, with, of course, a bronze badge each. I wrote our names on a form and checked the box 'as a team'. So, we were officially adventurers! But without any financial means.

  We immediately left the guild; the place was starting to make me seriously anxious. Abbia was already on the verge of fainting. We moved away from that street as much as necessary. Once in a small, less-frequented alley, we could breathe. After two weeks in the forest, with no contact other than these two, it must have seriously damaged my social ease. And these damn torn clothes probably didn't help either!

  Right... let's read this brochure.

  I opened it; Leims and Abbia didn't seem any more interested than that. "Don't you want to know what it says?"

  "I can't read." "Me neither. Well, not human script," they replied.

  So I read its contents aloud to them. It explained the basic rules of the guild as well as a code of conduct. Things like 'Don't attack other adventurers' or 'You must report the presence of dungeons and underground ruins to the guild.' The basics of society, essentially. Leims and Abbia nodded each time; they really had no societal reference points.

  The ranks, however, were explained more precisely. First there was bronze and iron, who had to complete at least one quest per week. Then came the silver, gold, and platinum ranks, where 60% of adventurers were located (bronze and iron together accounted for 30%). And finally, the remaining 10% called 'Elites' were distributed across the diamond, elfium, mithril, dragonite, and finally Acondium ranks. The Acondium ranks numbered only about ten on the continent. They are named after the metal, which itself takes its name from the continent. "Does the continent have a name?" "Apparently."

  I left the two idiots to their daydreaming and continued reading. The rewards were proportional to the ranks, and only the so-called 'Elite' ranks were authorized to receive quests without going through the guild. I imagine this is mainly because, from that point on, the guild no longer had the means to make them comply. Apparently, adventurers were promoted according to their number of completed quests and, starting from the silver rank, their combat power. "Basically, we don't have to fight for now? That suits me." Leims kept stating the obvious. Who wants to fight from the start?

  Leims looked at the sun. "Well, shall we grab some food? The sun is already high in the sky." "And with what money, you dummy?" Before I could understand what was happening, Leims pulled an apple out of his pocket. And Abbia did the same.

  But she doesn't even have a pocket!

  I hadn't thought to keep any. I watched them eat, drooling and my stomach growling. And every time one of them met my gaze, they hid to eat quietly.

  What a bunch of selfish bastards!

  Oh well, let's move on... Getting angry will only waste energy unnecessarily. "So... we need a quest now. We have to go back to the guild." The two stopped dead in their tracks. "I can't read!" "Me neither!" They cried, pleading with their eyes. "We're going together since we're a team!" A look of a beaten dog passed in their eyes. As much as it might work for Abbia, it was useless for Leims.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  I ended up dragging them back to the main street, where they suddenly started walking with their heads held high and trying to look intimidating.

  Once back inside the guild. We headed, still clearly in the spotlight, towards the quest board. Escort, search for cats, farm assistance—a bunch of bronze quests were present here. The pay did not exceed twenty copper coins.

  Obviously, since the other two couldn't read, I had to read the quests to them, which didn't fail to make the others chuckle. Finally, we agreed on a cat search for ten copper coins. Enough to buy one person a night at the cheapest inn. We would therefore need three to stay tonight. Impossible given the time. We would obviously have to prioritize buying food. We had the quest validated by the secretary, not without a scornful look. When she read the quest, a mocking smile was directed at us.

  For once she smiled at us, she had to be making fun of us.

  We left the guild, quest in hand. According to the description, the cat was thin, black with white socks. It was very timid and would try to run away as soon as it didn't feel alone. Fortunately, it could be easily recognized by its blue and green heterochromia.

  "Well, don't you have a spell that would allow you to find it?" Leims alternated between me and Abbia. She looked at me hoping for a quick answer. I sighed deeply, "Magic lesson number one: a mage cannot locate anything that doesn't emit mana. That's logical, isn't it?" They looked perplexed, especially Abbia, "But animals emit mana, don't they?"

  I looked at her, confused, "Since when?"

  "Well, monsters emit it, don't they?" She tilted her head, looking thoughtful.

  "Yes, but that's because they are partly composed of mana. Animals are not. That's how we can classify them as monsters or not, by the way."

  Leims' eyes widened as if he had finally understood. Well, he most likely had just understood. "Aaah, so that's how we know?"

  Yes, Leims... yes...

  Suddenly, an unpleasant idea came to mind. "Abbia. Can you see mana?"

  "Huh? Why would I be able to? I've never heard anyone say they can see mana."

  "Hmm... So that's why."

  Leims looked at me, even more lost than usual. "That's why what? I don't understand anything."

  "Well, I think I've figured out why dark elves are so bad at magic. Magic is primarily an art of visualization. Basically, if you can't imagine something happening, it won't happen. You need to be able to understand what you're doing with your mana to be able to transform it into a phenomenon. So naturally, if you don't see it, you can't understand how it acts on the world, and therefore you can't imagine it acting. It's a bit like a person blind from birth trying to paint a landscape. You can describe it to them, but since they don't know what it looks like, they can't do it."

  Leims looked at me as if I had killed someone. Abbia stopped moving. I realized what I had just said. "A-Abbia... that's not what I meant... D-Don't worry, you'll certainly succe-" "No, it's okay... Thank you. I think I understand. Still, I'll keep trying. There must be other ways besides visualization, right? At worst, I'll discover them!"

  I said nothing. Leims smiled kindly at her, "Well... what about this cat story then? What do we do?" He put so much assurance into it that I almost forgot we were talking about magic. This guy is incredible at human relations. "Without magic, we could try to lure it. We just need to look friendly."

  "That's going to be complicated with me, isn't it?" Abbia pointed to herself. Leims and I looked dejected.

  Oh, the fool, I had forgotten she was a dark elf.

  "Ah, you forgot? That actually makes me a little happy." At least she managed to give me a small smile.

  Well, how are we going to go about it? We thought about plans as we walked. All more useless than the last. And each time, it was because it was absolutely impossible for a cat, especially a timid one, to approach Abbia. After thirty minutes of fruitless searching, we finally returned to the main road. From here, we could see the city gates and the ramparts in the distance. Leims was looking at something far away.

  "Are you okay? Are you looking for something?"

  "No... I'm looking at the ramparts in the distance. The dogs are scratching to try and get out." He pointed them out to me.

  "How can you see them from here? You can barely see humans, let alone dogs..."

  He looked at them intently. Then turned to Abbia. "What if... instead of moping about her repulsion, we used it?"

  "What do you mean?" Abbia asked him. Even I, didn't understand how he intended to do it.

  "Well, she just needs to position herself at one end of the city, and the animals will naturally move to the opposite end. We'll just have to catch it there."

  My eyes widened.

  "But yes! And we just need to do it again for all the other quests of the same type!" We finally smiled at the opportunity presented to us.

  We established a plan. It was absolutely out of the question to leave Abbia alone on the other side of the city. Therefore, it was Leims, with his very good vision, who would be in charge of retrieving the cat. Once retrieved, he would drop it off at the guild, take another quest of the type, and head back towards the animal gathering. And so on until nightfall. It was genius!

  As a precaution, I wrote the words "Search," "animal," and "lost" on his forearm. He would only have to compare the quests with these characters to take a lost animal search. And prioritize those with images so he could recognize the animals he was looking for, without having to come to me for me to read them.

  We put the plan into action. It was already late, I'd say four o'clock. It would take us a good hour of walking to the edge of the city. I made sure to choose a high spot so he wouldn't get lost on the way back.

  After hours of waiting, the sun set. Leims still hadn't returned. I assumed he hadn't needed to. Finally, he came back. A sleeping cat in his hands, and covered in scratches and bites.

  "Well? Didn't you take it back to the guild?"

  He lowered his eyes. "No... I got lost and couldn't find it... Sorry." I wanted to hit him. But I restrained myself.

  "Well, why is it asleep?" He looked up, almost proud.

  "Oh, that? Well, it really didn't want to come, hence the scratches. But since it was seriously starting to annoy me, I knocked it out." Abbia and I looked at him, disconcerted.

  "Well, shall we go back to sleep at the church?" Leims said, ignoring our expression. After a moment, even Abbia started looking at me.

  "No." I said in a sharp tone.

  "What?! And why is that?" Leims exclaimed.

  "Quite simply because we can't always tell ourselves, 'It's fine, the church is there if needed.' You see, in an emergency like yesterday, it was truly necessary. But I cannot tolerate us treating churches as free hotels."

  "And so what do you propose, Madam-don't-touch-my-church?"

  "Well, as a matter of fact, we found a bench, and not a bad one if you asked me. We'll just have to alternate sleeping so we don't get kicked out by the guards or robbed."

  "No, you're dreaming, my dear!"

  In the end, we did indeed end up sleeping in shifts on the bench.