Finally, after 3 1/2 months, Irise could properly walk again.
The first thing she did?
Apply to the adventurer's guild, of course.
"Welcome to the adventurer's guild!" The friendly young lady, who Irise had come to know as Melainee, greeted her happily. "I've heard about you, Miss Irise! Are you finally joining everyone here now?"
"You guessed it!" She chuckled. Irise knew it was only about 3 months, but it had seemed like so much longer to her. Pretty soon, she'd be able to go out and hunt monsters to get coin! How exciting does that sound?
"Okay, and how many skills do you know?" Melainee inquired cheerfully.
The young woman looked down a moment and replied, "Oh, uh, I.. don't know any skills." The look on Melainee's face worried Irise. It was one of sorrow and disappointment.
"I'm sorry, you have to know at least 3 skills to join the adventurer's guild."
Irise froze.
All that waiting…
For nothing?
"..It's fine. I'll come back later, then," she sighed. The young woman treaded up to the exit door and turned the knob, walking away from the building.
Was it just all a waste? Maybe I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up in the first place. I should just give up now, Irise thought with immediate regret.
No. No more giving up. I refuse to give up. I'm going to learn 3 skills and join the guild!
For now, she'd have to work her way up to those skills. Her first step?
Killing monsters. Maybe I should start small, like, slime-level small. At least, until I get strong enough to fight bigger monsters.
Irise decided to ask Eori a question. But first, she'd have to find him.
He was probably out gathering herbs or something; she'd go look for him where he usually goes to find plants and such.
The outskirts of the forest. That was where Eori found her, actually.
Some time later, after about 30 minutes of walking, she reached the outskirts of the forest. Sure enough, there he was, inspecting a chickweed-like plant.
"Hey, Eori? I needed to ask you something," Irise called. It took a moment for him to snap out of his fascination with the kind-of-chickweed. "Oh, yeah? What is it?" He inquired, turning his head to meet her gaze. "Well, I was wondering.. is there like a status panel sort of thing?"
"There is, but you need to register into the adventurer's guild to use it. Speaking of, how'd it go?" Of course. It all comes back to the adventurer's guild.
Once Eori was finished speaking, Irise replied dejectedly, "Can't register until I have 3 or more skills." Eori looked at her with sympathy shining in his jade green gaze.
"Ah, I see.. hm, well, you'll have to do something about that, won't you?" He grinned.
During her 3 months in this other world, she'd learned that Eori was the type of person to sooth with jokes. "Yep. That's why I'm going further into the forest to find some slimes. Cya later," before Eori could say anything, Irise trotted off, farther and farther into the woods.
She scowled in frustration when she couldn't sense any slimes nearby.
Irise scanned her surroundings. Trees, undergrowth, bushes, and more trees as far as the eye could see. She decided to head farther into the forest. There was most likely monsters further down. Right?
To her surprise, she had reached the heart of the forest. A large cedar tree towered high above every other tree in the area. Animals scurried around helplessly.
Irise took notice that they seemed to be.. running away from something?
The young woman then realized something.
There was a large presence nearby.
And it was heading right for her.