Receiving the form and a pen, Mat looked through the details it asked for. Written on the brown parchment paper were letters of familiar English, the glorious Roman script, and Mat sighed in relief again at the grace he was given by getting thrown in a world where he at least knew the language. Certainly, that made life quite a bit easier.
He filled his details with little care, mainly focusing on his name, age, and date of birth since those were the only ones he was compelled to answer. It asked for other things as well, such as his "Class", "Address", or "Level". Since there was little more he knew—certainly not his date of birth—he left them all empty.
He casually lifted the brown paper, and brought it to the receptionist Mathilda. Handing it off to her, he rubbed the back of his head, and nervously said, "In my village, most people that don't go out don't really have any identification, and since I was an orphan, nobody really cared to remember the day I was born.
"They just told me that I was born in spring, so they started celebrating my birth on the first day of spring.. So, I guess, if you think it would be right, can I write that as my date of birth?"
Mat asked the gentle lady, adding a little bit of the backstory he came up for himself. From what he experienced with the guard, he deduced that it wouldn't be hard to pass this as an excuse. On top of that, he wasn't really lying, since he was born in a village in the mountains… except that the village was a castle and the villagers were all undead.
Part of the reason he wanted to do this was also because he wasn't familiar with the dating system of this world. Previously, he had noticed that this was the third month of the year, and seeing the weather and the lush forest he had walked from, he deduced it to be the spring time.
Of course, he wouldn't speak it out, since he wasn't certain yet. So he planned to direct the receptionist to give him the answers.
Once she went through the form, the lady who was hearing his explanation nodded, and passed the form back to him.
"You can write your birth date as 1 March then. It's unfortunate that your birthday just recently passed. Could it be that the villagers kicked you out just when you turned 14? But you're so young.. it does seem a little cruel to kick out a child like that." She said as she put her index finger on her bottom lip, and thought in wonder.
T-this lady… Mat felt a loss of word, unable to understand how she would reach such a conclusion.
Madam, isn't your thought process too wild, to expect so badly of people you don't even know? Mat sighed in his heart, and gave her an awkward smile.
"No, no, it was nothing of that sort. All the people in my village were super kind, and they never hurt me. It's just, that ever since I was little, I wanted to be a great adventurer, so I wanted to head out to the world as soon as possible. In fact, they only let me out before they made sure I was old enough! And the village elder also gave me his old armour as a parting gift!"
The lady's eyes brightened at his excuse. She pounded the bottom of her right hand's fist on her left palm once, as if she had figured out the secret to world's political unrest.
"Aha! That makes sense. There are certainly quite a few people coming in Duskendale every day to become an adventurer, although they are often older than you. Ha ha, forgive me I misunderstood your situation and said bad things about your village, I hope you won't be offended. Although you do seem short for a 14 year old…"
She said the last part of her word's as a whisper, but they stood close enough that Mat could hear it clearly.
He slightly shook his head, and tried to not focus on the non-deliberate provoking of the woman in front of him.
He wrote his date of birth, and signed is name with a pronounced "M", doodling the other characters somehow. When he lifted his pen, he sensed a feeling rushing through his body, and something akin to a wave a of energy flew out of his pen into the paper. The signature glowed up and glimmered for a moment, before it went back to as it was.
The form had taken just a little bit of his mana, for what purpose? He didn't know, but he had guesses. It was likely to be something like mana signature that would be unique to different people... or at least that's how it works in fantasy, right?
He'd remembered the month and the year from the guard's registry, and guessing from the lady's words, had noted down his "accurate" date of birth.
March 1, 519
That was the date he was supposedly born on. Mat had gleamed from the guard's register that today's date was March 13th, 533.
The lady took the form from him, and looked through it again, and nodded at him in approval. Then, she pressed it onto her table somewhere that was out of Mat's sight, guarded by the high front of the receptionist's table. Then, she moved her hands around in vague motions, and then, a small flash of light appeared near her hands.
Mathilda, the receptionist, then pulled out a brownish, copper like badge, and handed to him. "Inject your mana into it for a moment, it will then record your level. After that, you won't have to fill that detail manually. Although people themselves can see a lot of information about themselves in their status, the adventurer badges are only designed to gleam at levels, so that people can't scam their way up ranks. When you have chosen a class, you can come back and use your badge to let us know and we will update your class in our database. Since you left it empty, and you only came to Duskendale, I assume you do not have a place to stay here yet?
"Also, similar to class, you can come to us to record your level upgrades anytime you want. Every time you inject your mana into the badge, it will record your current level and when you give it to us, we will update your information in world wide guild database. Level updates are important because they determine your adventurer rank. I will not get into too much detail now, instead take this New Adventurer's Dossier to get a basic understanding of the guild, and read through it, okay?
"Since you could read the form, I assume that you are literate. If you come across any problems, or end up confused, you can come to me for explanations, Is that okay?"
She explained casually as Mat took the badge from her. He looked at it carefully, turning it around in his hand, and trying to decipher the patterns it had on its surface. The badge was like a disc of bronze, and in the centre of it was the engraving of a small sun with it's small rays pointing out at nine engraved icons before the edge of the badge.
The nine icons were as follows: a circle of life at the bottom left, from there, going in a circle up- and rightwards were a dagger, twin swords, a mage staff, a shield at the top centre, and then towards left and low were a mace, a stretched bow with a nocked arrow, a beaker with flying up bubbles, and at the bottom left was a snake devouring its own tail.
All these icons surrounded the small sun, leaving a little space the bottom of the badge which was blank, but slightly raised, as if it was supposed to be filled with something, but deliberately left blank. On the edge of the badge were three small triangular protrusions that made it easier to hold and grip the piece of metal. They were like the outer tips of a triangular that circumscribed the circular shape of the badge.
Do these symbols define the class of an adventurer? Also, isn't this is the same sign that is out on the guild's gate? It is actually a little different now that I think about it, but definitely a very similar… Mat though as he observed the thing in his hand.
Remembering what the receptionist Mathilda had said, he injected a little of his magical energy into the badge, and it suddenly glowed up in a bronze sheen, before dimming to its previous state. When he turned it around, Mat saw a similar sun engraved on it that rose up from the rest of the surface, and in the centre of the sun was a number, which said "12" in large font that covered most of the empty space inside the sun.
Is this my level? Inferring the information, Mat handed back the badge to the lady. Taking it from his hand, the lady put it behind the desk again, and waved her hands around in vague manner, before the area behind the desk lit up, and dimmed.
She handed back the badge to him again, and said with a brilliant smile that magnified her innocent charm, "It is done, heh heh. Welcome to the world Mr. Mordain Nelson, you're now an adventurer. Although it does sound weird to call a child 'Mr'…", she again whispered the last part, but due to their close proximity, Mat could still hear it all clearly.
Mat tried not to show any reaction, though his cheek twitched in exasperation anyway. He lightly bit the inside of his cheek and showed the lady a happy smile that a child would have, and took the badge from her.
"Thank you, lady Mathilda. You are really a helpful person, I look forward to working with you in the future."
She received his gratitude with ease as she said, "Heh heh, it's my job, so of course I'll do it well. Also, take this dossier, it has all the information you would need about the guild and adventuring as a newbie. You can sit in the waiting area there, and read through it. If you encounter any problem, feel free to ask me as long as I'm free here."
Mat took a thick stack of papers from her hand, and nodded in gratitude. Indeed, as provoking of a person she might be, this lady did her job well. He waved "thank you" to her, and walked to the left of the receptions where there were many tables surrounded by chairs.
He found a quite corner with few people nearby, only the two guys that he had previously seen at the reception, and sat down. He remembered them barely since he'd seen them just about 10 minutes ago, one of whom was a tall, blonde person, while the other was a shorter, black haired, androgynous person. Mat was sure both of them were guys… well at least for the latter one, he thought he was.
Now that he had given them a long glance, he noticed they were in an adventurer's attire too. The taller one donned a plate armour that shone grey, and covered mainly his chest, abdomen, waist, and thighs. To his side was a long, broadsword of simple design. At least the hilt looked simple.
The shorter man wore a similar armour, but he also carried a helm that would cover the back and the sides of his head. Beside him was resting a heavy looking warhammer with a thick head, and a long handle. Its head was clearly too big to be called just a hammer. It would be more suitable to call it a hammer shaped mace instead.
Having taken in the details of his intriguing neighbours, Mat opened the dossier he had received, and started going through the information the guild had graciously provided to the newbies like him.