-Next Day-
The sun was shining brightly with a few clouds in the sky. The streets of L.A were filled with the hustle and bustle of people. A few planes can be seen at the airport of L.A, one particular plane had just landed here a few hours ago and no one had paid any attention to it, why would someone even pay any kind of attention to it as there were a lot of planes going and coming back from making trips all over the monster filled world. Even though flights were dangerous, people took the risk to cut short on days or even months of travel on foot. You might ask, what was so special about this plane?
It was not that the plane was special, it was the person who was sitting in the plane. The one who will be at the center of all the chaos that will take place in L.A. It would change a lot of things and introduce something that might even endanger humanity in the near future.
-Liz's POV-
'I just hate flights!!!' I landed in L.A. just half an hour ago. I'll tell you what, it was a short flight of two hours only but the seat was so fucking narrow that I'd rather fly than sit in a plane again even though I had booked a first class seat. It must've been because of the size of the plane, which seemed to have gone down a lot more than what I remember.
While in the flight I had taken out my phone (which I had purchased after Reinard gave me the money) and started surfing the internet, to find some information.
The internet gave me a lot of information on the Guilds spread throughout the world like, The Crusaders, one of the top guilds in the entire world was from New York city, also having seven S Rank, although they look simple on the outside like the most glorious guilds having defeated the most number of dungeons, there might be some things that even the public wouldn't know. Their headquarters is situated in New York itself, also sitting at #1 Rank among Guilds Leaderboard displaying their status to all as the hope of humanity against the monsters. The next one sitting at #2 Rank among the Guilds Leaderboard was The Angels, although having a corny ass name they were the second most guild after The Crusaders having a total of five S Rankers with their only objective of protecting the humanity all across the world, they have helped in fortifying the defenses all across the frontline cities, they were also known as the last line of defense, not because of the S Rankers but because of having more A Rankers willing to protect the cities in disastrous situations, even willing to sacrifice themselves, all the A rankers were the former people of the destroyed cities having hatred filled in them against the monsters and willing to go to any lengths to make them extinct. The next guild sitting at #3 Rank among the Guilds Leaderboard was The Holy Paladins, having three S rankers with the motto of purifying the evil of the world, displaying purity to the entire world and killing the most numbers of monsters across the globe, there were a lot of cases of them having killed citizens just because they saw evil in them but, because of having a whole Guild to support the killers of the citizens in name of purifying evil, the government couldn't do anything to them due to the political pressure the Guild was putting on them.
Then there were numerous Guilds on the Leaderboard namely Shining Sabers, The World Savers, The Cuties and some of the most corniest names I have ever laid my eyes on. All in all a bunch of corny people if I do say so myself, but their work, indeed worthy of their name.
Among all these Guilds the Top 3 were the ones I had to be cautious of as they were really unpredictable. The most dangerous was The Holy Paladins as they are most likely to be lunatics following a god and hell bent on spreading their teachings to the entire world in the name of purifying evil. Any name associated with Holy was always a cult of lunatics as far as I have seen on Elanoir and the Universe surrounding it. The Crusaders were more like the warriors of the Empires on Elanoir having absolute faith in their Leaders and to deal with every issue through fighting and fierce resolution. The Angels, although having a corny name, were genuine enough I think. They had contributed a lot to protecting the cities and I was sure that they would continue doing it. I didn't know all the inner deals about the Guilds in the entire world, so I would be taking these things only at face value and think about what to do with them later on.
As I finished reading about the other Guilds, my plane was already close to reaching my destination and after half an hour I was getting my ID checked at the airport, the fake one that I had created this morning to match with my disguise. It was already six in the evening and I decided that it's best to create my Adventurers ID at the main branch of The Cuties Guild in L.A. although it was not even in the Top 10 of the Leaderboard, it was the best choice considering that they allowed only females in their guild and on top of that the benefits they provided for giving the resources obtained in the dungeon are also more than the average. It was the only Guild that would allow me to make the connections and the money needed to fund my Merchant Guild. Yes, there were Merchant Guilds as well along the Fighting Guilds, like The Angels also had a Merchant Guild under their name to fund the cities for building heavy artillery and the domes powered by magic to keep the low level monsters away from the cities acting as a deterrent.
I used the map feature provided in the phone to find the directions to The Cuties, it was only an hour from the airport so I took a taxi.
Standing in front of a 20 story building I was surprised because a Guild which was not even in the Top 10 has the funds to build a 20 story building in L.A. where prices for lands were through the roof. I entered the building and saw the same things I had seen in the Guild of Las Vegas but this was on a whole nother level. There was a map in the center of the lobby which was made of white marble, with a red carpet spread out on the floor and also the furniture was a mix of black and red. I walked up to the map and saw there was a whole lot of info on all 20 floors of the building. The first floor was for joining the guild as a member with at least 5 reception desks with a big lobby and a few sitting areas. The floors from 2 to 8 were for the members according to their ranks, from F Rank to S Rank. These floors were purely for quests, which was just ridiculous, like 7 floors only for quests. The rest of the floor from 9 to 20 were restricted for non members and were kept private, most likely living quarters for the members of the Guild.
I walked up to the receptionist who did not have a line in front of her, wondering whether all the other guilds had the same floor management or something similar.
"Hello Miss, how may I help you?" said the receptionist whose name was Ari (from the badge on her chest).
"I want to join this guild and become adventurers just like all the young generation is doing all over the world" I said young generation because I had assumed the disguise of a 35 year average woman but still a bit cute, who is most likely to be forgotten if not having paid attention to because I don't want to be remembered as I won't be doing this kind of work for a long time but I also didn't knew what the future holds for me.
"Okay, do you know about the Tests?"
"Yes, the Physical and the Mana Tests right?" I answered while asking my own question. I had heard about the test and the rules before in Las Vegas and even searched it on the internet. It was easy enough that I could pass through it without even lifting a finger but that was not what I wanted to do. I wanted to stay low profile for sometime and then build up my reputation through my work.
"Yes, Please fill this form as we need to register your information on our database and give it back to me, then go to the testing area over there." She points me to a line with only four people, who were also applying to be a member of this Guild.
I walk up to the chairs present at the waiting area of the lobby and quickly fill in fake details like my name, Lily, my age, my birthplace, my address ( which I left blank because I have not purchased a house yet) and my proof of identity, going back to Ari.
"I have filled the form but there is a problem, I don't have a house in this city yet as I have only just landed, so will it be an issue for you?" I said while handing her the form.
"No it won't be an issue if you become a member of our Guild because we provide rooms for people who don't have house but are a member of our Guild"
"That's convenient to have, I'll go wait in the line then, thanks for telling me this" I say while giving Ari a satisfied look.
"Sure Miss Lily, have a nice evening." She says with a professional smile on her face.
-Half an Hour Later-
'Waiting in the line sure is boring'. I have been standing here for half an hour to wait for my turn and finally I see the candidate before me leaving the testing area, so I walk inside the doors leading to the testing area, the same type that I saw in Las Vegas through the walls, but it was a bit small. It only had the judges at one corner of the room and a woman in the middle of the arena which was covered in a mana barrier likely to avoid the judges getting injured by some stray spell hitting them. They call out my name and tell me to go to the woman in the middle of the arena whose name is Ren.
"Do you know the rules or not?" She says bluntly as her rough voice falls on my ears. I see her eyeing me up like a veteran mocking a newbie.
"Yes I do, no killing and battle to death type of shit, only using physical enhancements and no cheating of any sorts, lest you want to be banned for years." I quickly said the rules that I had searched on the internet.
"So you've done your homework, the same applies for the mana test" She says with a grunt.
"Got it"
"Then let's get this started" Ren said while going in a defensive stance.
Although I hate physical work, I still know the importance of it as it was the only thing that kept me going in Elanoir. I take my own stance against her, a simple boxing-like stance as she just waits for me to come and hit her.
'Hold yourself back, hold yourself back...' I keep repeating this like a mantra in my head to avoid getting her accidentally killed just because I used a bit more power.