The receptionist nodded.
“Of course. You can become a registered mercenary immediately. However, you will be placed as an Iron Adventurer,” she said.
Leo was confused. “Iron?” He asked.
The receptionist patiently explained what that meant. “Your rank as a mercenary represents what missions you can take. It typically represents how strong you are, but to raise in ranks you have to complete missions. Iron is the most basic rank and everyone starts out like that. To raise to the next rank, you will have to complete ten missions in your current rank. However, from the Gold rank, you will need to take a combat test to advance to the next rank.” She said.
Leo nodded. It made a lot of sense. It would weed out the people who thought they were strong because they were in name Aura Knights but didn’t know how to fight.
“What are the various ranks?” He asked.
“We have Iron, Steel, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Rainbow. After that, you are assigned a name.” She said.
“A name?” He asked.
“Named Adventurers are the strongest adventurers in all of Solaria. They are 6th Circle Aura Knights and above. There are less than 10 of them in the entire empire.”
Leo sucked in a cold breath of air. That was very far away for him. 6th Circle Powerhouses were essentially gods to him. The strongest person he knew was the Magistrate of Solhaven and he was only a 4th Circle Mage. But there was an Aura Knight who was stronger than him. That showed that maybe commoners weren’t as weak as they seemed to be.
“Would you like to register now?” She asked.
He nodded. “Yes, of course. Is there any way to fast-track my way to a higher tier?” He asked.
She shook her head. “No. The only way to do it is to complete the missions. However, if you can show that you are strong enough to become a Gold Adventurer at once, then you can request a combat test. However, that takes time to create.” She said.
Leo immediately shook his head. He didn’t know how the power differed between each rank, but he was pretty sure that 1st Circle Aura Knights wouldn’t be Gold Adventurers.
“No, that’s okay.” He said.
“Then you can just fill out this application and give it back once you are done. It takes 1000 Starcoins to fill it out. Before you do, I am required to tell you that the guild takes a 10% commission on what you earn. We also take a 10% tax from it on behalf of the city.” She said.
Leo was surprised at how much he would have to forfeit, but he was okay with it. He would still earn a decent amount of money. He took the pen and the form from the receptionist and quickly filled out the form.
There were only a few categories in it, one being name and the other being age. Both of them didn’t require any proof, so it was easy to just write them in. After that, he took out the money from his pouch and handed everything to the lady.
The pouch was just for him to hide that he had a dimensional ring. It was pretty normal for someone in the 3rd Circle to have one, but he wasn’t one yet so he didn’t want to attract any attention.
The lady looked at the form and made sure everything was right. After that, she put the form in a small pile beside her.
“You can come back in a week to formally collect your card. Until then, you will have to wait to do any missions. I am sorry for the inconvenience.” She said.
Leo was bummed out that he couldn’t do anything till then, so he decided to go out to finish the second thing on his agenda.
He went to an alley on the side. It was very easy to find a secluded alley like this one. It was pretty dark because the sun was still pretty low and the mercenary guild building blocked a huge chunk of the sun’s light. He took out a cloak from his dimensional ring. He put it on and quickly used Valkyr’s Deception.
The cloak turned into a lavish black cloak with slight gold outlines. He also changed his face. He had practiced a lot and finally came up with an original appearance. It took him so many days to perfect this since he would need it to look completely normal and different from him, but he was able to do it.
He changed his hair to blonde while keeping the cheekbones and nose. He changes his blue eyes to brown and accelerated his growth a lot. After that, he no longer looked like a young boy. Instead, he looked like a young man aged 25.
He walked out of the alley and he immediately realized that he went a little overboard with his appearance. He was used to a normal amount of attention because of his handsome face, but his ragged clothes never properly complimented that.
Now that he was wearing a luxurious cloak that hid his normal clothes, he looked like an actual aristocrat. His golden hair shone in the morning sun while his light brown eyes were mesmerizing to the onlookers.
The most important difference between his real appearance and this one was the false air of maturity. With his older looked, he looked like a real adult. Everyone treated a 14-year-old like a kid, so they only dismissed him as a pretty-looking boy. After all, what else would they feel toward a kid?
But his new appearance drew the eyes of many ladies who saw much more than that. They saw a very handsome man in front of them. Leo walked into the guild and saw a similar reaction. The majority of the people managing the desks at the reception were women. All of them were staring at him when he entered.
He went to the same receptionist he had gone to before and asked her the same question. But she had fallen into a daze ever since he had entered the guild.
“Hi, can I register to become a Mercenary?” He asked her.
Unlike the first time, the lady took a little more time to respond. She took a couple of seconds to snap out of her daze and became interested in the conversation. She lightly leaned forward and asked him.
“Yes of course. Would you like me to walk you through the process?” She asked him.
“I think I am very familiar with it. Is there anything I have to do other than fill out a form?” He asked her.
She shook her head. “No, you are very knowledgeable. That is all you need.” She kept her front facing him while gracefully bending down to reach out to the form he needed to fill out. She handed both of them to him. While he was answering, she asked him softly.
“What’s your name?”
Leo smiled. “I’m Orion. Orion Velmonte.”