For a player, the most important thing was grinding monsters and leveling up!
But that applied to games.
In this real other world, especially when his own level was so low and weak, "safety" was what mattered most to Aaron.
The Royal Tournament was already over, and the citizens, adventurers, and others drawn in by that duel would soon start leaving one after another.
Aaron had no status in the royal capital. Right now, the only reason there had been no inspections was because everyone's attention had been on Gazef and Brain's match.
Once the capital returned to normal, someone like him from outside would easily attract notice. On top of that, there was no suitable place within the capital to grind and level up.
As for his next step,
Aaron planned to head to E-Rantel, the border city of the Re-Estize Kingdom. The problem was that his understanding of this other world was far too limited.
The journey could easily become dangerous.
So,
Aaron's purpose in going to the Adventurer Guild was to find a party that was also heading for E-Rantel.
In the royal capital,
aside from the luxurious buildings clustered near the center where the nobles lived, the largest buildings were the Adventurer Guild and the Magician Guild, both located in the commoners' district.
Because of that,
finding the Adventurer Guild was not difficult at all.
The locations of the two great guilds alone showed that, in the eyes of the kingdom's upper echelons, neither the Adventurer Guild nor the Magician Guild was particularly valued.
There were clear differences in national character between the Re-Estize Kingdom and the Baharuth Empire.
The Baharuth Empire placed great emphasis on the use of magic, whereas the Re-Estize Kingdom was the opposite, revering valiant warriors.
The reason for this polar opposite attitude
had a lot to do with a certain man in the Baharuth Empire: Fluder Paradyne, known as the "Head Court Magic Caster" and "Trump Card of the Nation," one of the four "Old Men" among humans who had surpassed the hero realm.
He had lived for over 260 years, serving and instructing from the Empire's first emperor all the way down to the current Bloody Emperor.
Such an influence naturally led to the Empire's focus on magic.
Aaron remembered that Fluder possessed the high-tier class "Sage," and had used that class to perform a magic ritual and obtain "longevity."
"In the future, once I head to the Baharuth Empire, that'll be one more high-tier class to scheme for," Aaron thought silently.
The Adventurer Guild
was built in the outer ring of the commoners' area—a very conspicuous four-story, square-tower structure.
When Aaron arrived, he could clearly see people coming and going through the guild's main doors.
He paused for a moment, then walked inside.
Instantly,
a wave of noise washed over him.
The interior of the guild was more spacious than he had expected.
There were plenty of people, but it did not feel crowded because there was almost no extra furniture or decoration in the main hall.
The entire floor was made of wood planks, and a huge chandelier hung from the ceiling above.
Directly opposite the entrance stood a large reception counter, where staff at the back were talking with several adventurer parties.
As Aaron stepped into the guild, he noticed a few gazes turn toward him, but after giving him a quick once-over, they all withdrew.
He could easily guess why.
Dressed as shabbily as he was, he looked neither like some powerful adventurer nor a wealthy client.
No one would bother paying him any attention.
That was exactly why Aaron had dressed like this in the first place—to avoid attracting notice.
"How about this request?"
"The pay's too low. The Adventurer Guild takes twenty percent, and once we split the rest between us, there's hardly anything left."
"Then what about this one?"
"Hss, that's a job only a Gold-ranked party can take. We're not qualified, are we?"
"No, this request isn't actually that dangerous. It's just an escort mission, but the road's a bit long…"
"Heh, the reward on this one is low compared to others of the same rank, but with the number of jobs we've already completed, if we can pull this off—"
"We should be able to become a Gold-ranked adventurer party!"
Noisy voices echoed under the boards where various quests were posted along the hall's walls.
Aaron walked over to the reception counter. Since there were adventurer parties already in line, he had no choice but to wait behind them.
As he observed his surroundings, he tried to recall what he knew about adventurers.
The Adventurer Guild divided parties into eight ranks—Copper, Iron, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Mithril, Orichalcum, and Adamantite.
These eight ranks were not sharply divided in terms of levels, because no matter how strong a party was when they joined, everyone started as Copper.
Of course,
as long as they did not deliberately hide their strength or refuse to rank up, a party's rank still gave a rough measure of their overall level.
He did not have to wait long
before it was his turn. The receptionist in front of him looked quite young, a girl with slightly wavy brown hair and brown eyes.
She looked about the same age as Aaron was now—sixteen or seventeen.
"Hello, what's your adventurer party's name?"
The brown-haired girl asked politely, without showing any unusual reaction to Aaron's shabby clothes or foreign features.
"I don't have an adventurer party. I just have something I want to ask about," Aaron said softly.
"Oh, do you want to register an adventurer party?" The brown-haired girl thought she understood his intentions, quickly bending down to grab a rough, yellowed paper form from beneath the counter.
"I'm not planning to register a party."
"I just wanted to ask if there are any caravans or adventurer parties heading to E-Rantel."
Aaron waved a hand and explained.
"Huh?"
The girl froze mid-motion with the form still in hand, then looked up again and noticed the short sword and leather waterskin hanging from Aaron's belt, a trace of understanding flickering in her eyes.
"You came to watch the Royal Tournament, right? I mean, you came all the way from the border city?"
"It's amazing you came this far all by yourself."
"Five copper coins."
As she muttered to herself, the brown-haired girl raised her somewhat rough hand and held it out in front of Aaron.
"Five copper coins?"
Aaron blinked, puzzled.
If he could read this world's writing, he would not have needed to come and ask the guild receptionist in the first place.
Who would have thought that after more than ten years of schooling in his previous life, he was still illiterate.
"Of course, this is the Adventurer Guild."
"For non-adventurer members, any kind of inquiry costs money. There's no such thing as 'free' here."
The brown-haired girl put on her most serious expression.
As a large, transnational organization not bound by any single country, the Adventurer Guild's strength did not lie solely in its powerful adventurers.
It was also the invisible intelligence network formed by its countless members.
If outsiders wanted access to that information, they naturally had to pay. Many valuable pieces of intel could not be measured by money alone.
That was why the Adventurer Guild was not well-liked by the upper echelons of various nations, yet still maintained covert cooperation with them.
Aaron also remembered that, behind the Adventurer Guild, there were likely shadows of the Slane Theocracy.