Akiol walked towards the town hall, talking to the receptionist he asked, "How may I move to the next town?"
The receptionist then responded, "It's a simple process, you just need to pay a small fee and you will be given access and one teleport scroll."
"How much is it?"
"It will be a total of one hundred gold."
One hundred gold?! That was considered a small fee? Akiol was slightly afraid what a medium or large fee would be.
A confirmation menu popped up and Akiol pressed confirm.
He then left the town hall. Finding an open area he used the teleport scroll to the new town.
The way the player towns and villages work was set to be easy to understand. From beginning to level 50 you would be in a 'village'. From 50 to 100 would be a 'town'. From level 100 to 250 would be a 'city'. From level 250 to 500 would be a 'kingdom'. The number of these places would become smaller as you moved up. So far there was only five kingdoms confirmed! What came after that wasn't released to the public yet so no one had a clue.
Akiol was surrounded by the white lines and he then found himself in a properly built town. There was a cobble path that was laid around the city. The houses were more solidly built, most of them were two to three stories tall. While still made of wood it definitely looked like it would be able to defend against an attack. A notification appeared.
<Welcome to Goldlight Town>
The name was better than last time for sure.
Akiol explored the town, when he turned one corner he was greeted by a large open square full of players and player stalls, hawking their wares at various prices. He assumed it was a market. The place was a very lively, full of people bartering for lower prices and shouting at ridiculous ones.
Akiol didn't enter the fray however, he wasn't a fan of crowds. So he continued exploring. Most of the paths lead to other houses, some of the villagers having quests and such. Normally he would ask what they needed, but he wished to finish his exploration.
He eventually found himself on a main road. To the sides there were large buildings of various types. From class buildings for the players instructors and skill learning. To the auction houses and shops. At the end of the road was the largest building in the city. Akiol assumed it was four stories high, it was nearly made of only stone, when Akiol entered the place it was mostly wooden inside.
There were even more players here than in the market. Sitting in groups at tables or standing and chatting. With a few groups and individuals walking in and out of the entrance.
Akiol saw a receptionist desk and a large quest board, which only meant one thing. This was the adventurers guild.
He jogged over to the quest board, it had more interesting quests than Red Bush Village's ones. One thing Akiol noticed was that there were letters at the bottom left corner of each quest. Most the ones on this quest board were either marked with E or D. He didn't take any for now, since he wasn't quite sure what he wanted to do just yet.
He did want to go upstairs though. He walked up to find a much more empty area similar to the first floor. With another reception area and quest board.
He walked up to this quest board and found different quests from the first floor's. One major change he noticed was that the letter markings on the bottom were different, mostly C and B.
One of the receptionists yelled, "Unless you have clearance you cannot take those quests!"
Confused by the warning Akiol walked towards the receptionist and asked about it.
"All individuals who are part of the Adventurers Guild must be ranked, depending on your rank is equal to what quests you can accept." The receptionist replied.
"May I ask how the ranking system works?" Akiol asked.
"It's quite simple, we first measure your theoretical power with a measuring device. According to the results we test you accordingly with one of our officials. Since sometimes certain individuals are weaker or stronger than what the device says the test is necessary."
"How can I take this test?"
"For a small fee we take care of the procedures and you can get your rank almost immediately."
Akiol winced at the term 'small fee' if the village's small fee was one hundred gold how much would it be here?
"I would like to do that then." Akiol said.
"Follow me then." The receptionist stood up and walked towards a back door behind the desk.
Akiol wondered if he was supposed to vault over the desk, when a part of it swung upward.
He followed the receptionist through the door and down a hallway. They soon entered a large room.
In the middle stood a large machine. It looked like a metal test tube but with pipes and wiring sticking out of it.
"Please stand in there, we shall measure your strength with this device."
Akiol thought machine was a better term than device for such a huge creation. Nevertheless he stood inside and a metal plate closed the entrance to the tube.
Akiol heard various sounds and whirs as the machine crackled to life. Above him started to glow blue.
Akiol thought it wasn't so bad when he realized that the light was getting brighter. Incredibly bright.
Suddenly he was struck by a large blue beam. It felt like ants were crawling all over him, he was helpless to the torture.
Thankfully it faded out shortly later, Akiol decided that he wouldn't ever do that again if he didn't have to.
The metal plate opened again and he walked out. The receptionist was fiddling with what looked like a computer that was hooked up to the machine, and writing on a clipboard.
The receptionist then froze and looked back and forth from the computer and the clipboard.
Turning to Akiol they said, "I am very sorry, but I need you to wait here a moment. Thank you."
Without another word they scurried off through the door.
Akiol was left alone with nothing to do, so he decided to take a look at what was on the screen.
It was a bunch of numbers and bars, he couldn't make heads or tails out of it. So instead he waited, wondering what it was that bothered the receptionist.
After fifteen minutes the door swung open, the receptionist was back with a medium built man.
Akiol was ignored as the man took a look at the screen. Nodding his head he said, "I see, so this is the issue."
The man then turned to Akiol and said, "Sorry for the late greetings, I am the guild master of this particular branch. The name's Vordu, may I know yours?"
"Akiol." Akiol replied.
Vordu nodded, then said, "Well you see there's a small issue that I need to address. On this screen it says, well."
He tilted his head back and forth slightly, like a bobble head that was tapped.
"It says here that you're a slime."