The morning crowd had already begun to gather as the trio made their way toward the Guild Hall. People lined the front steps, murmuring to each other in tense voices. Leo caught fragments of conversation as they passed something about bandits along the west trail, another about a monster sighting near the forest ridge.
"They're saying the roads aren't safe anymore," Matthew muttered, glancing over his shoulder.
Leo shrugged. "It's none of our business."
They weren't here for rumors or drama. Today's goal was simple: get El registered.
The Guild Hall loomed ahead, a wide, stone-and-wood building with an emblem of crossed swords carved above the entrance. Inside, warm sunlight spilled through arched windows and onto polished floors. Long tables lined the sides where adventurers lounged, some polishing weapons, others laughing over mugs of ale, even this early in the day.
They approached the front desk where a young woman with cropped copper hair stood behind a wooden counter. She wore a fitted uniform with the guild's insignia sewn neatly onto the sleeve.
"Need registration?" she asked, already sliding a parchment forward.
El nodded once.
"Put your name here," the woman, Nina, said, tapping the top section. "Then your age and borne type."
El took the quill and eyed the parchment. For a second, she hesitated. Then with graceful strokes, she wrote her name, her age... and then paused again before writing her borne type.
When she slid the paper back, Nina gave it a quick scan then stopped.
Her eyes widened slightly. "Duskborne?" she asked, blinking. "That's quite rare. We don't get many of your kind around here… Miss El."
Leo's head snapped toward her. "You're a Duskborne?"
Even Matthew looked up from adjusting his coat. "Wait, seriously?"
El scratched her cheek awkwardly. "Yeah."
"No wonder you're good at both Domari and swordplay," Leo said, thoughtful. He folded his arms. "It makes sense now."
"It's not that amazing," El said quietly, clearly uncomfortable with the attention.
"It is amazing!" Matthew chimed in, grinning. "You're like… a magic swordsman. Or woman. A swordmage! A—"
"Stop naming things I don't understand," El muttered, rolling her eyes.
"I understand enough," Matthew retorted. "Like, you're a whole battle combo just walking around. You don't even need us."
Leo chuckled, but said nothing. The word Duskborne rang in his ears. He didn't know much about the borne types, but he knew enough to understand this made El special.
After a moment, Nina returned from a back room holding a small metal plate no larger than a card. She handed it to El.
"Here's your Identification. Your name and details are inscribed magically, so don't lose it. As long as you're active in the guild, this is your proof of being a registered mercenary."
El nodded, pocketing it carefully.
"Now, make sure you pick a mission from the board. Guild policy says you must take at least one mission every seven days. Otherwise, your ID can be revoked."
Matthew leaned in, whispering, "So if we take a really easy mission and then nap for a week, we're still in the clear?"
Nina looked at him flatly. "That's what most rookies try. Until they're broke and hungry."
Leo smirked. "Noted."
They moved to a round table in the corner of the hall, a bit more secluded from the rowdy adventurers near the front. The mission board loomed across the room, wooden, tacked with parchment after parchment, ranging from monster extermination to caravan escorts.
El sat with her arms crossed, eyeing the board from afar.
"Let's not rush," she said. "We'll stay here one day. Prepare. Rest. Then we take a mission tomorrow." Her tone left little room for argument. "But before that, we need supplies. We're not going to get caught unprepared again."
She looked at Matthew. "How many Gallions do we have left?"
Matthew pulled off his travel pack and began rummaging through a pouch. He counted the coins, muttering under his breath, then looked up. "Three hundred fifty-five. That includes what we had before and the money we got from selling our spare gear."
He handed the pouch over to El.
She quickly sorted the coins on the table, drawing two even piles of a hundred Gallions each. The rest she returned to the pouch.
She slid one portion to Matthew. "Buy yourself a proper sword. One that won't snap in two next time."
"Ooh. I'm getting something shiny," he grinned.
Then she slid the second portion to Leo. "Get us what we need for the road. Tent, leather flasks, tinderboxes. Anything practical. You decide."
Leo nodded, pocketing the coins. "Understood."
Matthew, however, frowned slightly. "Wait—does this mean we only have a hundred fifty-five left? That's not much, especially if we're planning to travel again soon. That might last us a day, maybe two."
El didn't look up from securing the pouch back in her satchel. "You're right. It's not much. But we don't buy food on the road."
Leo, understanding immediately, added, "We hunt."
"Exactly," El said, standing. "Money's useful, but not essential if you have the skills to survive. We just need enough to get back on our feet. After that… we rely on what we find."
Matthew leaned back in his chair, arms crossed behind his head. "Huh. And here I thought we were going on a shopping spree."
Leo smiled. "Besides, having too much money just paints a target on our backs. Especially with bandits crawling around lately."
Matthew gave a sarcastic grin. "Great. Not only are we broke, we're delicious too."
El gave him a look. "We're not broke."
"Feels like it," he muttered.
"Trust me," El said, adjusting her belt. "We have something more important than money."
Matthew raised a brow. "Oh yeah? What's that?"
"A Thornheart Slayer," she said with a smirk.
Matthew stared at her, deadpan. "I can't tell if you're complimenting me or roasting me."
"Yes," El said simply.
Leo burst out laughing.
They rose from their table and moved toward the mission board, where dozens of parchment sheets fluttered slightly under the warm breeze seeping in from the open door. Names of beasts, routes, and rewards sprawled across each sheet in bold ink, escort merchants, slay monsters, gather rare herbs from dangerous woods. Every mission bore a colored rank stamp, some dull bronze, others blood-red.
El's eyes moved quickly, scanning for something they could handle and maybe something a little more than that. She reached up and plucked one of the posters from the board, tearing it from its nail with a soft rustle of paper.
Matthew and Leo leaned in beside her.
"A Garblin pack," Matthew read aloud. "Menace rank. Not bad."
El didn't respond, but her brow dipped slightly.
Garblins were minor monsters in name only. Small, nimble, and vicious, they never fought alone and certainly never fought fair. One might be manageable. A pack could be hell if you weren't ready.
Still, it was within their reach, barely.
They turned and made their way back to the counter.
Nina glanced up as they approached, then down at the paper in El's hand. Her smile faded.
"That's a Menace-ranked mission," she said flatly. "You're just Latent. You sure about this?"
Matthew puffed out his chest, grinning like a boy trying to impress his older cousin. "Don't worry. We may look fragile, but we've killed worse."
Nina raised an eyebrow, unimpressed.
Behind him, Leo let out a quiet shiver of a sigh. "I still have nightmares about that Greater Beast," he mumbled under his breath.
Nina froze. "Gr–Greater Beast?" Her voice cracked like dry paper. "You encountered one?"
"Yeah," Matthew said with a smirk. "Almost died. But hey, Lady Luck's always been fond of us."
El snapped her fingers in front of Nina's face, jolting her back to the present. "Can we take the mission or not? We don't have all day."
Flustered, Nina reached under the counter without another word, pulled out a scarlet stamp, and slammed it down onto the mission sheet with a solid thunk.
She handed it back with a muttered, "Good luck."
As they turned away, her gaze lingered on them longer than usual—half suspicion, half worry.
And just like that, the trio had a mission in hand… and not much time to waste.