Gold Ranked
-Alexis Lycan, 18 years old-
Alexis steps through a shadow on the wall. He is now standing in an alley in Neverand City. He looks behind him and sees his bedroom through the surface of the shadow. He is using a power called Gate. It linked two locations together and lets him teleport between the two. The last time he was in the city, he linked his bedroom and the alley together.
He walks out of the shadows and makes his way towards the Adventurers Guild. Over the past week or so, he had continued his early morning training. And now, he has an abundance of monster orbs and parts he wants to get rid of. He is then going to use the profits to start building a formidable defensive wall around Starfall Village.
Alexis walks by an alley and hears a young woman screaming out for help. He stops by the entrance and sees a man pinning a young girl to the ground. She is dressed in rags and clearly a beggar. Passersby see this but decide to do nothing. Beggars die every day, so another death meant nothing to them. In fact, the residents of the city are glad to be rid of another filthy beggar. They maliciously turn their eyes from her plight.
Alexis' eyes turn cold as he notices the behavior of the people around him. He turns back to the girl as her tattered skirt is ripped off and the man is getting ready to forcefully enter her. Alexis flicks his finger and the man's head explodes, painting the alley with his brains. As the man's headless body teeters forward, threatening to fall on the girl, Alexis flicks his finger again and blows the body backwards. He had conjured a thin, black needle in front of his finger which he then flicked, decimating the would-be rapist.
Alexis makes eye contact with the poor girl. She is still lying on her back with her legs open. Tears are streaming down her face leaving a path of clear skin as it cut through the grime covering her. Alexis tosses his threadbare cloak into the alley before he turns away and continues making his way towards the Guild. As cold as it is, he does not want to draw excessive attention to himself. Situations like that happened all the time throughout the city. Alexis could not help them all, so he could only help those he saw. As he walks, he once again vows to protect his land, so that thing doesn't happen to his subjects.
As he approaches a crossroads, a priest in fine robes is shouting to people walking by. Alexis was always uninterested in religion and the Gods. They did not help when his mother and the villagers were in need. Nor did they help when the villagers were ravaged and starving in the streets. The Gods did not deserve his prayers. As he passes in front of the priest, the man yells in his direction.
"The Gods are watching! The have bestowed visions to the sacred Oracles! They will send heroes to us once again! Praise be to the Gods!" The priest shouts to anyone that passes by him. He is in a religious fervor.
For each God in the pantheon, there is an Oracle. These Oracles are young women who were chosen by the Gods to receive visions and bestow miracles to the masses. The Oracles are sacred beings, and their words are law. The last time that heroes were summoned was around one hundred years ago when the Seven Demon Kings ravaged the world. So, if the Gods are truly calling forth heroes once again, it means nothing good for the people of the Empire.
Alexis looks at the priest and feels a sharp anger inside him at the mention of the Gods. His hand unconsciously reaches for the blade at his waist. When his fingers grasp the grip, the feeling vanishes. He stands there in confusion and wonders what he was just about to do. He shakes his head to clear his thoughts and jogs the remaining distance to the Guild.
The priest watches him run away with a deep frown on his face. He turns around and disappears into the crowd.
-
Alexis approaches the counter and smiles at the receptionist. It is the same beautiful woman who helped him last time, Jasmine.
"Why, hello again." Alexis smoothly says, leaning on the counter.
Jsamine giggles as she flutters her eyelashes. "Welcome back, Alexis." She remembers his name. A beauty such as him does not come around often. Plus, his destruction of the crystal helped him become a bit recognizable.
"I'd like to get rid of some materials. Am I in the right place?" Alexis asks.
"Just follow me hun, it's upstairs." Jasmine replies as she leads him towards the stairs. The second floor is full of workstations in which adventurers could dismantle and process their kills. The Guild would then offer to buy the materials from the adventurers for a little below the market price. But by doing this, adventurers could contribute points towards their ranking up.
Alexis thanks Jasmine when he is shown to a workstation. He waits for her to leave before he reaches into his satchel and grabs the various materials he has in his shadow. Fangs, claws, pelts, and orbs litter the table in front of him. He keeps a wary eye on his surroundings, but luckily most of the second floor is vacant. When he is done, he rings the small bell attached to the table. This bell calls a guild worker to assess your items. This way, you didn't have to leave your items unattended.
After a minute or two, a thin man walks towards him with a writing slate. The man smiles slightly at Alexis and eyes the table with interest.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" The man whistles as he takes stock of Alexis' haul. His eyes turn towards Alexis. "Were you looking to sell everything?"
"Yes, that's the plan."
"Excellent. Let me take a look." The man steps forward excitedly and rummages through the pile, noting values and numbers on his slate.
Alexis steps back and watches the man work. Every once in a while, the man will exclaim quietly before continuing his work. After about ten minutes he turns to Alexis, having completed his work.
"Sir, did you kill all of these yourself?" He asks clearly stunned.
"Yes?" Alexis answers, confused by the question.
"There are some Gold ranked monsters in this pile. Those usually require a team of 2 or 3 Gold ranked adventures to take down!" The man exclaims. "This is very impressive sir."
Alexis grins at the man. He makes a mental note to cut back on his hunting habits as he opens his mouth to speak.
"I was extremely lucky it seems." Alexis says simply before moving the conversation back on track. "What did the count come to?"
"Oh, dear me, my apologies." The man says, embarrassed. He deftly picks up on Alexis' unwillingness to continue that line of conversation. He hands Alexis the slate, whose grin widens when he sees the written number.
-
Alexis exits the Guild with a large satchel filled to the brim with gold on his shoulder. He had gotten an even better deal than he had hoped. There was a reason many people tried but failed to hunt Gold ranked monsters. They are extremely profitable but equally as dangerous.
As he starts to return to the alley he came from, ten knights suddenly flank him from the front and behind. They were clearly waiting for him to exit. Each of the knights are well trained and have their halberds leveled at him. Alexis immediately stills and slowly lifts his hands above his head, making no sudden movements.
A man then steps forward with finely crafted armor, an Oracle Knight, and speaks down to him.
"You're coming with us." He says gruffly. His golden hued sword is drawn and pointing at Alexis' heart.