Chương 24: Fried Fish Inn

The knight's eyes glimmered with a hint of awe. His mouth was slightly agape, "Well, I'll be damned..." He said under his breath.

Sol turned around, facing the knight with his hands crossed, "Well, I passed right?" He asked in a loud tone.

"Y-yeah... you passed kid." The knight said, as the ugly man walked forward and stood next to him as if they were buddies.

The knight's eyes slowly panned over to the side to look at the ugly man as he spoke, "What the fuck..."

The knight slowly raised his fist at that moment, swiftly punching the ugly guy's jaw.

It whipped to the side, and his eyes into his head as his body slumped to the ground.

After a bit of cleaning up, the three goons were tied together with a rope and placed on the elevated platform in the middle of the chamber next to the knight.

The knight then exclaimed while holding the end of the rope that entangled the troublemakers, "Those of you who passed can come and retrieve your tickets now. Submit them to the front desk and you will get your Mercenary Prowess plate."

With this, everyone who hadn't left the chamber yet formed a line toward the knight.

They picked up a small slip of paper from him before exiting the same way that they came in.

After getting his ticket, Sol soon arrived back at the guild's main lobby.

He handed his ticket over to the same young lady working behind the counter, and in return received a thin bronze plate about 2 inches in height and 4 inches in length.

"This is your Mercenary Prowess plate. A Mercenary's Prowess is his grade in terms of strength and accomplishments. You are able to enter new Prowess' after completing a certain number or grade of quests. Your Prowess plate is also bound by Ether and will be used as a verification of your identification whenever you are out on quests."

Sol grabbed the Bronze plate and placed it into his pocket, "Thanks lady, you'll see me around." He said as he turned and exited the guild.

"I sure will!"

Another whistling tune filled the air as Sol walked along the streets of his city.

"Hmm... first thing's first, I'll head to the guild's inn and book a room. I can't be caught sleeping in the streets."

The guild's inn wasn't too far away. It was located a few minutes down the street.

When Sol arrived there, he noted that the name of the establishment was "Fried Fish Inn" from the large sign posted above its doorway.

The sign was a large wooden fish slightly tilted to the side with grill marks in it and its eye crossed out with a large X.

Sol looked at the line of people exiting and entering the swinging half-doors of the building seemingly at all times.

'Looks to be busy.' He mused, pushing past the half door and walking in.

A few light creaks from the swinging door announced his arrival. Even though there were so many people coming in and leaving, his presence was still noticed by many inside the inn.

As he walked in, Sol was first greeted with a downstairs bar. The bar immediately brought a warm and bustling atmosphere.

It was dimly lit, with booths of tables and chairs along with opening seating densely packed together.

Laughter and conversation filled the air as Sol thought to himself, 'Now this is more like it.' A smile appeared on his face.

'Sake...' He drooled inwardly for a moment before quickly shrugging this thought off and walking to the back of the pub where the bar table was.

Behind the counter was a middle-aged man with a large belly and a dirty white apron that was stained in all sorts of purple tones.

He had a light stubble and was balding in the middle of his head.

As the eyes of drunk men and women--mostly adventurers--followed him, Sol sat on the tall barstool to elevate his height.

"Oi, old man. Mind giving me a room?" Sol said, taking his Bronze Prowess plate out of his pocket and flashing it to the bartender.

A few surprised eyes gazed at him from different parts of the bar as he did this.

The bartender's right eyebrow raised in skepticism, "Huh?" He leaned in closer to inspect the plate.

"Pfft! Like I'd believe a snot-nosed brat like you would have a Mercenary Prowess plate!" He scoffed and turned to the side, ignoring the young boy as he cleaned a glass with a small white towel.

The few that were looking at Sol broke out into a laugh as they heard this.

"You're balls probably haven't even dropped yet." The bartender teased, empowered by the response his previous words had garnered.

"Oh? Is that right?" Sol playfully smirked with a cunning look on his face.

As he said this, the bartender faced him again. A few from the room even expressed their overly dramatized reactions to Sol's words of retortion.

"What? Are you saying I'm wrong?" The fat man proposed a question, as more and more of the bar began to tune into what was happening.

"Wrong? Listen here, plumpy, I'm saying that I'm more of a man than your grandfather's wrinkly old balls!"

...

"Pppp--" A man suddenly snickered loudly, trying to contain his laugh before letting loose, "--Pahaha!" He laughed his drunk ass off.

With this, the entire bar erupted into laughter out of nowhere.

A man slapped his knee as his face turned red from laughing, "Aahaha! That's the funniest thing I've heard all day!"

Another man beat the hell out of his friend while laughing, "Who is this kid? I like em!" This man's friend didn't appreciate the hard slaps to his back.

The bartender quickly looked around, turning slightly blue from embarrassment as he turned to face Sol, who still had a cunning smirk on his face.

"What did you say!? You wanna see who's the real man here!? Let's prove it then!" The bartender slammed his fist into the bar table as his belly jiggled.

"Fine!" Sol became overdramatic, leaning forward and slamming his fist into the table like the bartender, "Let's settle this with the most manly act of all; A drinking contest!"