Chapter 106: Chapter 101: Tests Within Tests

“Man, I really need to get casual clothes that have temperature regulation magic on them, I look so out of place compared to you two.” Ellie said, rubbing the sleeves of her heavy winter coat. “Maven, do you know how much it would cost to enchant some of my clothes with that?”

“I believe you could find an artisan who would do it for ten or fifteen gold per article of clothing.” Maven said.

Ellie winced. “Well, I suppose it’ll have to wait for when we have our own place and have a bit more disposable income.”

“You could just wear your armor if you’re cold.” Tess suggested. “That has temperature regulation, right?”

“Yeah, but full plate armor isn’t exactly comfortable, no matter how lightweight it is.” Ellie said. “And it still doesn’t change the fact that I’d look weird compared to you two. So, I’d rather just wear a coat, the walk to the guild’s building isn’t that long.”

“Suit yourself.” Tess said. “Let’s pick up the pace, then, just so we’re out of the cold as soon as possible.”

“Fine by me.” Ellie said, speeding up.

Tess and Maven sped up to match, and soon they found themselves in front of the town’s guild hall. Tess had to admit that she had been expecting a little more, but she also had to admit that it was an unfair expectation; she had only really seen the guild hall in the City and the temporary one set up for the expedition, which barely counted, so it made sense that this one was underwhelming in comparison.

The building itself was modest, no larger than Gramps’s house on Mael, and it was built out some sort of dark brown wood. With the snow piled around it, it gave off a sort of pleasantly rustic vibe, like it was the type of place you could stop by after a long day of travel for a hot meal.

Ellie opened the door and stepped inside, Tess and Maven close behind. As they entered, a bored-looking woman at the receptionist desk and gave them a disinterested look. “Welcome to the guild hall,” she said, “are you here to put in a request or to accept requests?”

“Accept requests, please.” Ellie said, walking over to the counter. “What do you have available?”

“Rank?” The receptionist asked.

Ellie gave a glance at Tess and Maven. “Technically one, but that’s only because we haven’t taken the exam yet.”

The receptionist sighed. “In that case, I’m afraid I won’t be able to assign you any requests that require leaving town or entering the dungeon.” She said. “This area is simply too dangerous for people of your rank.”

“I believe we should have records of clearing dungeons higher level than the average for this area, if you check our identification.” Maven said. “Under guild rules, that should suffice as proof that we are capable of taking non-exceptional requests in this area, correct?”

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“Provided you had no assistance, it would.” The receptionist said, raising an eyebrow. “May I see your IDs?”

Tess’s party stepped forward and presented their bands. The receptionist scanned them with a device, then turned to her computer and began typing away. As she did, a shocked expression crossed her face, replaced quickly by barely-repressed nervousness. “T-this does indeed seem to check out.” She said. “May I suggest taking a dungeon clear request first? It would make clients feel more comfortable with your skills.”

“That sounds fine to me.” Ellie said. “We’ll take it.”

“V-very good.” The receptionist said. “I’ll get that entered for you, please return once you have cleared the dungeon.”

“Thanks a bunch!” Tess said. “We’ll be back in a bit!”

As they left, Tess couldn’t resist turning on her hearing enhancements, and she was able to hear the receptionist breathe a sigh of relief as they left the building. “Seems she wasn’t expecting a party like ours.” Tess said.

“I would imagine not,” Maven said, “meeting the guildmaster’s grandchildren is by no means an everyday occurrence. Most people would become nervous in that situation.”

“Still, I was kind of hoping we could jump right into other requests once they saw that our capabilities were above our rank.” Ellie said. “Still, I suppose that it makes sense that people would like some sort of proof of our competency in this region, since we are technically rank one.”

“Well, we were planning to do the dungeon anyway, so it’s not like it’s a waste of time or anything.” Tess said. “How fast do we want to clear this? I imagine that having a fast turnaround time on the dungeon clear would look good for us.”

“Not too fast.” Maven said. “If we are too quick, I believe it would instead be suspicious. We should just proceed at our normal pace and let what happens happen.”

And that’s exactly what they ended up doing. The dungeon itself wasn’t anything particularly notable, being a rather standard dungeon that focused on wearing its raiders down via extreme cold, but with the advanced protections on their gear, the environmental effects were a non-issue for Tess’s party.

Likewise, the boss didn’t have anything worth noting in terms of its strength or the abilities Tess took from it, just…more cold stuff. The Skill Tess obtained from the Rewards Crystal, however, was a different story.

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