Chapter 20

Dalton's Inn...

[It's a good thing that you declined baron's offer to join the army but agreed to join Adventurer's Guild.]

"I know, if I joined then I had to be loyal to the king and kingdom. This would hinder my future plans. This way I would have leniency to do whatever I want as long as I don't break rules."

[Yes and moreover they would find out that you can't use Mana or Aura. When you ascend ranks above 2 stars, they would become suspicious and this would make people pay extra attention to you.]

"Indeed, I am getting more than necessary attention already and I don't need more of it."

[Now continuing our diabolical plans, what do you think you should do?]

"Why are you asking me? Shouldn't you be the all-knowing system who lead me on a path to glory?"

[No, I would help you when I can. You should be the one to take the path.]

Alex thought for a moment about how to proceed next.

'Should I proceed to the next town? I already got a lot of attention here.'

'No, I shouldn't. To become an emperor and be one, I would need a lot of connections.'

'Since many came to know about me, I should find some loyal and dependable people and strengthen connections with them.'

'Though I got too much attention, I could shape it to my own benefit.'

He pondered on how to do this before speaking to the system.

"System, I decided to stay here."

[Oh really and can I ask the reason?]

"Though I am in the spotlight now, I can use it to get some benefits."

[How are you going to achieve that?]

"Simple, most people in the town know me. They regard me as a genius, so everyone would try to chum up to me. I'll observe them for a while before making friends with them."

[How are going to decide on who to take?]

"Though this is a border town, there are a lot of good ones. There are a few factors I consider in order to consider them.

The one rule that matters is that even if they are genius but has an evil mind, they go to the 'Never Ever' list. They would never be part of any of my circles.

I would rather take commoners who are honest and hardworking, as they would have their own roles to play in building an empire. Though the powerhouses are required to create an empire, without commoners there won't be any ruling to do."

[You are right. Even if you help someone that has an evil mind, they would definitely stab you in the back when they get a chance.]

"Yes, though commoners may not be able to kill my enemies or protect my empire from enemy invasions, they would be background supporters of the empire."

Farmers are needed for agriculture, which provides food stability. Construction workers for building structures etc...

Though things like these could be done by magicians, they feel it below them. They build a few structures but not for common usage. Magicians have the capacity to grow food plants but they would rather indulge in growing herbs that help in magic.

Everything can be done easily by magicians or knights but with power comes pride. They feel it is beneath them. In the first case, they try to become a magician or Knight so that they don't need to do such trivial things.

[So what's the first thing on your plan?]

"First I need to go to the adventurer's guild and register myself. With the badge from baron I get directly promoted to E-Rank adventurer."

[Yes, it would be of great help.]

The rank of an adventurer starts with F-Rank which is the lowest. Adventures can obtain permission to do missions of the same rank or below.

Anyone who joins the guild would get F-Rank. This denotes that they are new but doesn't mean they are weak. It just means that the guild knows nothing about them. It would take twenty missions to complete for an F-Rank to be advanced to E-Rank.

Then it would take fifty F-Rank missions or twenty E-Rank missions to be advanced to D-Rank. Here the fifty F-Rank missions are not the total missions completed. This was in addition to twenty that were used to reach E-Rank, which means a total of seventy F-Rank missions or twenty of F-Rank and E-Rank each.

This would be the same to reach D-Rank. This is the highest any unawakened can reach. To cross this border one has to be more than 2-Star rank.

To reach C-Rank, the adventurer has to be at least 3-Star, in addition to completing the required number of missions.

To reach B-Rank, the adventurer has to be at least 4-Star, in addition to completing the required number of missions.

To reach A-Rank, the adventurer has to be at least 5-Star, in addition to completing the required number of missions.

To reach S-Rank, the adventurer has to be at least 7-Star, in addition to completing the required number of missions.

To reach SS-Rank, the adventurer has to be at least 8-Star, in addition to completing the required number of missions.

To reach SSS-Rank, the adventurer has to be at least 9-Star, in addition to completing the required number of missions.

The advancement of adventurer rank from C to A looks similar as each step requires one to reach the star rank above the last one. This is where it changes.

From A to S rank, there is an additional star rank. Here one has to jump from 5-star to 7-star. After that one rank advancement requires only a single star rank increase in power, but this is where the problem lies.

After one crosses the 8-Star power rank, they would disappear from the face of the world. They wouldn't interact with others as much as they would before. It was as if they lose something after reaching 8-Star.

This would describe perfectly especially for 9-star powerhouses. They are rarely seen even in large empires. The 8-star would at least make an attendance during certain important events such as war, royal celebrations, and such.

Unless there would be some earth-shattering event, they won't make an appearance even in large empires. Even the emperors would have to respect such a powerhouse or they wouldn't even know how their empire disappeared.

So the highest rank anyone can achieve in a guild is S-Rank as the other two ranks were only written as a formality.