"You... You've gotta be lying in some way right?" The receptionist looked at me with so much skepticism that it's like she's trying to tell herself that I'm not real. "Did I accidentally give you a filled out stat sheet? If so then I guess it was my mistake, here, have another one."

  "Shouldn't you look at this first to make sure that it's blank?" My tone is as dry as the desert sun. I know that if I don't make her do this much she's gonna continue doubting me, I watched her read the paper and hand them back to me. "So, blank right?"

  "You would be correct, yes."

  "Good." Like before, I made sure that the area that reveals my main class has been scratched out. I don't want anyone to come at me screaming how I'm some kind of monster for no reason. I filled out the sheet, watched as it magically reproduced my status screen, then handed it back to the woman. "There."

  "No... This..."

  "You literally saw that it was blank!" I yelled, frustrated. Are all the receptionists the same?! I had this exact same problem whenever I went to a bank in my old life! Seriously, what the hell?!

  "But you're only a kid! How come you have–"

  "Listen, I don't care about your biases, okay? All I want is for you to look at my stat sheet and determine whether or not I'm ready to be an adventurer, or at least some kind of learner because otherwise this is pointless. Okay?"

  Naturally, my outburst attracted the attention of several people in the guild but I can't care less about them right now. I'm pissed that this woman is somehow preventing me from getting what I want, which is a learner's badge.

  It's not an adventurer's tag but it'll get me started with this whole guild ordeal, I'll max out the badge so that when I eventually get my tag I can immediately get started on taking more dangerous quests.

  Except there's currently one person standing in the way of that possibility, and it's this receptionist right here, who for some reason is also annoying in this world and I genuinely can't stress that last part enough.

  "Sorry but..." The receptionist looked conflicted as she trailed off, she gave me a hard eyed stare for a moment before picking up a book from somewhere behind her and then reading through it. "... There's no law that states what age a kid should be to get a learner's badge?"

  My ears couldn't hear her words properly because I was more so focused on the fact that she just tried to find a loophole to my request directly in front of me.

  Really? How petty can you be?

  "Listen, I don't know why you're doing this but you need to give me a learner's badge, I have more than enough sub classes, passives, and stats for it don't I?" And that's really the only determining factor to that specific thing, in the game the adventurer's tag were only found at the menu screen and they're there when you pick a difficulty.

  The learner's badge is the easiest difficulty and has monsters with reduced health and damage in case the players simply wanted to experience the story of the game. For me, I've chosen it in my first playthrough because Firelight Chronicles advertised their game as "incredibly story driven" in the trailers which was the reason why it caught my eye in the first place.

  Who would have thought that my geeky ass would be addicted to it?

  Going back to the receptionist and her refusal to let me get a badge now...

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

  "Listen lady, I don't care what you think! If this is about safety then the learner's badge doesn't let you pick up any monster slaying quests!" And that's true, most of the quests that the badge allows are fetch quests with the remaining percent centering around helping old ladies or searching for a cat.

  "Wait..." She paused, her expression turning into something close to consideration. The book got picked up again— and this time I genuinely rolled my eyes, I couldn't take it anymore. — and after leafing through the pages, she nodded. "Okay! You're right, I guess it doesn't allow for any quests that involve monster hunting!"

  Okay, so that was what she was worried about? That I couldn't hunt monsters? I'm halfway tempted to tell her that I'm the one responsible for killing all the monsters that held the cores in the pouch she's holding but I know she wouldn't believe me so I didn't.

  "You're saying that I'll get my badge right?"

  "Yes actually, I'll register you right now." The receptionist went from withdrawn to excited so I guess something finally went right for me. "With the support of the guild, I'm sure you'll grow into a fine young woman one day! We're so happy to have you!"

  What just came out of her mouth is the regular guild sales pitch that's said to all the new recruits. It's like homeopathy— you know the fake medicine thing? — except instead of selling shit that doesn't work to old people who will die from them, they pitch their ideas to young children so that they sacrifice themselves trying to kill a monster.

  Obviously I'm being way too negative in terms of the guild but that's how I genuinely feel about this particular association, they're not really the best in my eyes and child soldiers are simply something I don't support, even if they're willing and all that.

  This is probably why I quickly forgave the receptionist for the way she treated me just now, I mean I can understand her point of view but at times like these I'm really reminded of that right now? I'm just a kid physically speaking.

  But I do know that I take advantage of that fact whenever I can so I guess it evens out.

  "You can fill out these forms and afterwards you will get your learner's badge, once you do there's a specific part of the notice board that is tailored to people like you and that you can pick whatever quest you like from them!" She almost sounded happy as she explained, a far cry from the retail workers that I know of. "I hear that there's a kind old wax maker who's looking for bags of bee hives, I think it's exactly on your skill level."

  Now that made me pause. She's... Not being serious right? Did she just say that collecting bee hives is on my skill level? Is she stupid? I think she is.

  "Funny thing you say that, I was just thinking of collecting some myself!" I decided to agree just to see her reaction but instead of warning me to be careful with the bees— the fairly obvious variable to this quest. — she grinned and started enthusiastically nodding.

  "Yes of course! This town always needs candles and wax is rare to go by, usually we collect tree resin and that's what the old man usually asks for but since it's close to winter all the sap has dried up." Leaving no other choice but for people to get dangerously close to bees? Are you gonna say that? No? "You're doing our community a service with this, you know? Good work!"

  "Haha, thanks." My smile was stiff as I handed her the form. "Here,"

  "Ah, Rontress? It's nice to meet you! I'm Opier, you can refer to me whenever you're in the guild okay? I'll make sure to help you out!" She read my filled out form while fumbling for my badge.

  The fact that she's so happy about it made me less suspicious of her trying to suck up to me to rise through the ranks. Actually, with how she was earlier I'm thinking that this girl most likely doesn't even think she can use me for something like that, chances are, she's just helping out a kid in her mind.

  Well too bad! Now I want to make sure that she rises through the ranks thanks to me.

  I wanna see her face then, just she waits.

  "Here you go! You can grab a quest now and I'll stamp it for you okay? There's a copy of it in storage so you don't have to worry about potentially wasting paper, the guild can just replace it if you come back empty handed."

  "I won't." My dry reply made her pause and I took the moment to go to the notice board, grab the quest, and then head back. "Here."

  "There!" She stamped it, so what she still wasn't thinking about the potential dangers of this quest during the time I left to get the paper? Some people really do have a one track mind.

  "Thank you, but uhm, can I please get the money for my cores?"

  "Oh right! I forgot!"

  A tired expression came through me when she fumbled away from the counter and I finally left her line of sight. Screw the overtly strict receptionists who won't let you process things unless your credentials have been confirmed, I think I have a new type of service worker that I hate.