Chương 247: Chapter 244 - The Old Elf Routine

It wasn't a wonder why the Kingdom of Valmere had forgotten about Artigan. From his brief search on the kingdom's history, the entire world had been plagued by threats practically every other year. It was to the point where the average person knew about old elves coming out of the woodwork. It wasn't a joke, ancient Elves popping out of the woods and causing havoc was such a common threat that it had become cliche in this world.

Dwarves digging too deep, finding monsters or ancient automatons had happened four times. Three explicit nobility uprisings had been quashed. In fact, some of these issues Ryan even recognized as possible quests in the seventh Trial. Yet they had all been dealt with. At first by the Kingdom's finest royal confidants. Then by the adventurers. The Kingdom of Valmere had gone through whatever hell the Trial System could reasonably spring up on them and it had survived.

No, if anything, they used every single challenge to learn and thrive. You just had to look at the small crowd surrounding him to see that. The looks were throwing him off. Even in the Obsidian Sect, it had taken at least a week before the Realmers could overcome their fear of his aura and talk to him freely. Now, despite his Epic being multiple levels higher and with him being in realm five, they weren't flinching away in fear as much as they should have. Ryan paid attention to another person joining in the crowd.

When they saw him, their eyes bulged out and froze like a deer in the headlights. Then their eyes caught sight of his golden badge and immediately overcame their fear—like they were suddenly under the effects of a title that would protect their minds. Then they started to look up at him. Like he was some sort of a hero. It wasn't a lack of self preservation instincts like he first thought. It was simply that the badge meant more to them than anything else. It felt wrong.

Not because Ryan didn't deserve it of course. This entire world, you could say, was a result of his own actions. What felt wrong was that this was not how people of Earth and The Realm looked at adventurers. Sure some of them were looked up to, but for the most part they were just celebrities. Some more popular than others, but nobody that was an evolved adventurer simply got this level of worship just because they walked around flexing their presence.

Even when he was well known and had become popularized because of the Valee incident, people still hadn't worshipped him like this. A little disturbed, Ryan stood up and jumped away. Careful to go well below the speed of sound so he didn't disturb everyone around him. All of the phones tracked his movement as he jumped away. The capital of Valmere did have some familiar designs.

While they didn't have outcroppings on the second storey of every building, they did have a flat surface on top of every single light fixture that adventurers could comfortably jump off of. In fact, it was even better organized because each of the little platforms had arrows indicating that adventurers using these were to go one way. Though he was causing a bit of a disturbance to those that looked up and saw him on an angle where they couldn't see the badge. Oh well, that wasn't his problem.

Turning on his phone, Ryan looked up the destination to the place that interested him the most. The Adventurer's Guild. —— It was surprisingly, quite close to the prison, which made sense from a security perspective. If there was a breakout or a riot, the adventurers could hop on and sort things out. It made sense… it was just… another alien practice here. That was just one of the many things that were throwing him off about the city.

He noticed how people regularly looked up to catch a glimpse of an adventurer flying or traveling above them. You would expect them to have been sick of it by now. Even in San Kingsgrove, only tourists really paid attention to the skies. Here, everyone seemed to want to catch a glimpse of the adventurers. Actually, for a city of this size Ryan expected far, far more adventurers in the sky. San Kingsgrove normally had tens of adventurers floating about at any one time. The capital of Valmere didn't have that many.

I guess it's rarer here? It wasn't just the people. The more Ryan paid attention to things… the more rigid the design felt compared to the cities in The Realm. Like someone had made sure to make sure it was beautiful and functional at the same time. The skyscrapers all looked the same while the other buildings inbetween… well they all had a similar tasteful gold trimmed design that were similar to one another the more he looked at it. A city with central planning.

Maybe more efficient and to the tastes of a certain King. The Adventurer's Guild was perhaps the one that offended Ryan's sensibilities the most. A truly brutal institution of enchanted metal and an imposing gold and crimson entrance. A magical gate alongside security that had both wand and a small mana cannon in their holster. They took a glance at his badge, raised an eyebrow because they didn't recognize him and then lifted a device to scan his badge. Then they put a fist to their chest in salute.

Professional and organized. Ryan didn't like it. He tried to bring a little bit of that real adventurer charm into the brutal building by waltzing in with a grin. The main guild hall was an open two storeyed design. The bottom floor being an open hall where the bronze and Iron ranks sat. The upper floor was basically a balcony section where the silver and gold ranks could congregate and look down on them. Seven silver ranks and two gold ranks. Less than Ryan expected from a city like this.

Ryan went up to the receptionist as everyone tried to figure out who this new gold ranked adventurer was. Ryan was taken aback by the fact there was a civilian manning the reception.

"You're not an adventurer?"

"No? Of course not sir?" It was common practice in The Realm for every single guild receptionist to be an adventurer. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

"What happens if you need to keep everyone in line? What happens if there's fights over who gets which quest? Or if someone gets a little too drunk?" She seemed to understand that he was not quite familiar with whatever they had going on here and gave him a pleasant smile.

"Well, we don't have those issues. Nobody like that would be allowed a badge in the first place." Another difference here once again. Ryan decided to let it go.

"Could I speak to Agrinth? Sorry, Guildmaster Agrinth? Him and I go way back." The receptionist blinked.

"Let me just check." She checked her tablet. There was a bit of a frown and she shook her head.

"Sorry, it says he's out on official business."" Really? Are you sure?"

"Positive. Not to worry, I've put a memo on his account and he'll know you're here waiting for him." The receptionist was now giving him the pleasant smile of a retail worker trying to stonewall someone from getting anything they wanted. Ryan was used to giving it to others himself, and knew just how pointless it would be to try to convince her otherwise. Ryan decided to ask her something else then.

"Do you know the status of my equipment that was confiscated?"

"Just one moment. Ah yes, it's with Grand Mage Fetterue, I'm sure you'll get it returned as soon as possible."

"Any timeline with that at all?"

"Unfortunately not." Ryan had a feeling that… perhaps Fetters and Agrinth were together, watching him from the scrying orb. After all, from what he'd looked up, Agrinth wasn't a Mage.

"Alright, I'll just mingle with the other adventurers while I wait then."

"Of course." He looked around at the hall that was now pretending they hadn't been listening in on the conversation. Ryan took a quick stock, just paying attention to their presence. Thirty six Iron ranks, likely human to realm one, twenty-four bronze ranks, realms one to three in strength. Seven silver ranks… all realm four? And two gold ranks above, realm six and realm seven. It was a rough estimate in strength based on their presence.

The power levels here were nowhere near as standardized compared to adventurers in The Realm. Though something about the way even the bronze ranks glanced at him showed they were in some ways better than the adventurers in The Realm. The other thing was that every single one of them—without exception, was wearing a badge. Not always on their chest either, some had it prominently displayed on their hat or were on their shoulder. It looked as if even the Iron ranks displayed it proudly.

Right, it's like the Obsidian Sect. Every single realm grade isn't guaranteed and take much, much longer. It's likely that even the bronze rankers are decades into their career. That… changed things. Ryan took a seat amongst a group of four bronze rankers. He didn't even ask and just gave them a wide smile.

"Man, this place has changed a lot since I was last here." One of the bronze rankers—likely a captain, looked amused.

"And how long ago was that?"

"A very long time. You know how it is. Sometimes you turn around for a couple years and civilization changes completely. Also, I can't really show up that often without causing a disturbance, you know?"

"Due to that awful aura?" More direct than Ryan expected, but also it did confirm the bronze ranker had balls and was used to life and death conflict. His aura didn't impress them.

"It's pretty bad huh?"

"Feels like you've waded through thousands of corpses to get it. Did you?" Ryan gave him a wink.

"Only the bad ones. Or at least I tried to anyway." Ryan shook his head, then looked wistfully beyond.

"Sometimes your best isn't enough, you know?"

"Yeah." That was all that needed to be said. The bronze ranker was experienced and understood where Ryan was coming from. Once again, different from The Realm. If you had even the smallest suspicion of being on the path of slaughter, you would be given a polite but cold shoulder from most self-respecting adventurers. These guys were more practical. Now that Ryan had established familiarity… it was time to dig in for information. Ryan tapped on the table.

"So. Agrinth—sorry Guildmaster Agrinth ascended huh? Now that's new. I remember when he was just wee tall." Ryan signalled a height that came up to his waist if he was standing. Of course, Ryan was exaggerating for effect. Agrinth was a lot taller.

"He was the cutest little brat that wanted to follow me around everywhere." Everyone stopped talking at this point to listen to them. The entire group of bronzies were interested.

"Really? You knew the Guildmaster when he was that young?" Ryan slapped his knee, like an old person from a movie he'd watched once.

"Of course, and he's still young for his advancement!" He laughed.

"Why do you think he gave me a golden badge without actually meeting me? He had the most pinchable cheeks you ever seen on a kid. Pretty damn sassy now that I think about it. Hah! Actually, it's not a wonder he got that far." His voice completely filled up the room, aided more than a little bit by his aura. Even the rowdy silver ranks above stopped to listen. They were unsure how to react.

On one hand it was their hero, the one they all looked up to and probably worshiped as they grew up, on the other hand, if what Ryan was saying was true… could you really afford not to listen? Ryan started to exaggerate for the crowd— and the scrying spell that was still hovering over him.

"Most fearless kid in the world. Faced down armies and only peed his pants a little. An absolute vandal and a terror against authority. He used to graffiti penises on priceless pieces of art, though. Good times, good times." He lost the crowd there. Apparently, it was too much of a leap for them to imagine their upstanding hero doing anything of the sort. Ryan looked around, insulted.

"Hey, I'm being honest here. Got a Witch or someone that can read emotions? No? Tsk, all this advancement and no witches, huh? Well, if they were here, they'd tell you I'm telling the truth." An older silver ranked adventurer from up high frowned.

"Hold on… silver haired elf… knew Guildmaster Agrinth when he was young… I thought I recognized that aura. Artigan?" Ryan's smile froze on his face. It turned out that no, people hadn't just completely forgotten about him. Ryan looked up at the half elf on the balcony and no he had never seen that elf before in the Kingdom of Valmere. The bronzies at his table looked up at the silver ranker. Then they turned back to Ryan and saw the expression on his face. They put a hand on their weapons.

"You're a mass murderer."

"That was during wartime. Things were uh…" Ryan was about to say ' different then' before he realized how that sounded. Now the whole room turned hostile. They did not care about his aura or the difference in their strengths at all. The Irons were scrambling out of the way, but the bronzes and the silvers? Despite only being fourth realm and below they were all veterans. They'd been through life and death before, every single one of them. At this point, the receptionist had run through one of the doors behind her.

All the silver and golds were standing by the balcony. And Ryan was surrounded. One of the gold ranks looked coldly down at him. A veteran with multiple scars on their face.

"I thought the aura was similar. It's the exact same as those crystals in the Arnought museum." Was that how he was given away? The damned aura crystals he used to threaten the nobles and leave a lasting impact? They put them in museums?! Ryan pulled his aura in and added presence to his words. Not pushing his aura like he would do to intimidate people but just letting everything loose with everything that he was. His two strongest titles, his auras… and his classes. And the room realized they were outmatched.

"Sit down. Agrinth knows I'm here and I was given the badge for a reason. I was the one that gave your kingdom a mana cannon from an ancient civilization, I was the one that discussed with King Theskar how your kingdom might be set up to withstand future disasters. For all the mistakes I made in my past, I did so with the right intentions." The silence in the Guild hall was palpable. While they did not sit back down, they did reconsider trying to apprehend him. Ryan scratched his head.

"Ah great, the mood's ruined. Well, see you all next time." He left the hall and the Guildmaster had never come out. That at least, was proof of something. —— Guildmaster Agrinth pinched the bridge of his nose with both his finger and thumb. He had, of course, seen and heard it all.

"Perhaps it was a little too hasty to give him that badge." In his defense, he hadn't expected Artigan—no, Ryan, to go around beating his chest like a drunken dwarf in a city he knew had people that were stronger than him. He had also thought Ryan would have appreciated it more… being given actual adventurer status. Agrinth still believed that Ryan wasn't registered with the Guild back in The Realm at all. Fetterue had half her mind split and focused on the bag of holding.

The other half was focused on the weird aura crystals tinted with something she couldn't quite identify. She was clearly using whatever was the remaining for their conversation.

"I told you we should have left him in the prison for longer."

"You might be right because he's looking for your address on his phone." Fetterue stopped paying attention to both magical objects and blinked at the scrying spell. She blinked as Agrinth recognized the distinct adjustment that her mindsplit ability required after it was stopped. She quickly realized that no she did not want to leave Artigan to his own devices and talk to her apprentices the way he talked about Agrinth to the adventurers. Fetterue rushed out of the Guildmaster's office.

Rhinestone swirled his wine in amusement.

"Do you think he actually acts like that in his world?" Agrinth was silent for a bit.

"He did say he was blacklisted. Though he also said it wasn't his fault."" Ah, now it all makes sense"