Ethan ended up waiting several hours... Kazuma must have taken much longer to decide than he originally thought. Hours after he arrived in the bustling little town, Kazuma and Aqua had still yet to arrive. Driven by boredom and the knowledge that they would eventually end up at the Adventurers Guild anyways, he decided to ask around for directions and travel there on his own.
Luckily the transfer to the world of Konosuba was accompanied by the ability to understand all languages, one of the reasons I picked this world as my first stop. (I'm not sure if this is true in the show or whether they just learn the one language for this world, but for my fiction it will simply be the ability to understand all languages for convenience's sake. In the future, I might take liberties and slightly tweak things from how they work in canon to avoid over-complications).
After asking a kind old farmer for directions, I arrived in front of a rustic wooden building with wide, large doors and windows. When opening the doors, I was greeted with spacious high ceilings, wooden beams, and long communal tables where adventurers drank, ate, and bragged about recent quests. Big quest boards lined the walls, covered in posters for monster hunts, gathering jobs, and escort missions. At the front counter, where receptionists sat with stacks of paperwork, I noticed a familiar girl with lustrous blonde hair tied back in a bun, gold-colored eyes, a red ribbon worn around her neck, and a white off-the-shoulder low-cut top that revealed a large amount of cleavage.
"Hello sir, how may I help you today?" she called out to me as I approached her desk, the other receptionists looking on jealously as my modern outfit with never-before-seen materials must have led them to believe I was a young rich bachelor.
I could see that she quickly looked down at my hands, checking to see if I was wearing a ring. Upon noticing that I was not, her business smile increased marginally as it now fully reached her eyes, and she looked at me with a greater sense of interest.
"Hello, Miss Luna." I said with an easygoing smile as I made a show of looking down at the name placard on the desk in front of her with her name displayed. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Ethan Cross, here to register with the guild as well as to pick a class. I would appreciate it if you could walk me through the process."
"Of course, Mr. Ethan. There will be a registration fee of 1,000 Eris."
"I apologize, I'm not from around here and don't have the correct denomination of currency. Could I perhaps pay the fee in an equivalent amount of gold?"
"While this is not standard, the Adventurers Guild does allow for the exchange of goods of an equivalent value in place of Eris. However, there will be a small upcharge. Will that be fine with you?"
"That will be perfectly fine," I said as I reached into my pocket and secretly accessed the inventory, pulling out what I thought would be a suitable amount of gold from Baldur's Gate 3. I then proceeded to place it on the counter. "Will this do?" I asked as she looked at me in slight shock.
"Mr. Ethan, that will be more than enough. In fact, that is significantly more than necessary, as Eris are not pure gold as this seems to be," she said as she quickly tested the gold and began to weigh it out on a scale.
"Please, just call me Ethan, Miss Luna." I smiled as she smoothly went about her work.
"Um... then please also just call me Luna in the future. Miss Luna is too formal," she shyly said with red cheeks as she made an attempt to avoid my eyes while finishing counting the money. "Well, Ethan, if you could just step over here and place your hand above this device, it will imprint your stats on your adventurer card, and from there, based on your stats, you will be able to select a class. Basic classes include Adventurer, Warrior, Thief, Priest, and Wizard. If you are lucky and have extraordinary stats, you might be able to choose among some of the advanced classes such as Crusader, Swordmaster, Arch Wizard, and Arch Priest, among others."
"Then let us begin," I said as I placed my right hand over the device, which began to shine with light as numerous parts began to turn. Slowly a beam began to form as it moved across my adventurer card with the precision of a laser printer. Once done, Luna picked it back up as she began to look at my stats, a look of shock taking over her face as her jaw began to drop.
"No way! All of your stats are ranked highly, including Luck!? With stats like these... you could pick any of the available advanced classes. You would be highly valued in any party, and people will likely go out of their way to recruit you!" she said, looking at me with a hint of admiration and barely concealed interest.
I already knew what class I wanted. With the spear from the Shield Hero world available to me, I immediately threw out Swordmaster and the other melee-based classes. Whenever I played games like Dungeons & Dragons or WoW, I always went with the magic-based classes. With the spear and stats I would gain through the weapon system, I could perfectly complement it with the class I really wanted.
"I choose the Arch Wizard class," I calmly spoke as I selected my class. The card proceeded to change with the class slot now followed by the words Arch Wizard. With this class, I gained access to powerful spells and utility unavailable to the other classes such as teleport, elemental damage, and various crowd-control spells.
"Ah, a good choice with great offensive power and a lot of utility that can support and fit into almost any party configuration," Luna said as adventurers began to mutter in the background and congratulate me.
"Tch, lucky bastard," muttered a greasy thief sulking in a corner.
"Great job, boyo! We'll surely be able to take down the Demon King with someone like you around!" shouted a large bearded man with red hair, holding up his mug in congratulations.
As this was going on, the doors opened and an exhausted and depressed Aqua and Kazuma walked in, shoulders slumped in defeat, feet dragging as they walked in.
"Ah, Ethan, you're here!" Aqua shouted with glee as she ran up to me and proceeded to press me in a hug, breasts tight against my chest. Tears ran down her face with relief as she proceeded to yell, "I'm saved! I thought for a second I was stuck with useless Kazuma here. Luckily you were sent to the same starting village!" she said as I enjoyed the feeling of her tight against me, taking a not-so-subtle look down at her cleavage.
Kazuma in the background shouted, "Oi, you bitch, what do you mean useless!?" with exasperation clearly visible in his eyes. "You're the one who sent me here! Talking this place up instead of trying to convince me to go to heaven! Oh, you're here too, Los Angeles. Looks like we can understand each other now with this new translation magic."
I noticed a jealous look from Luna out of the corner of my eye as I felt her arms wrap around my arm. With a slightly possessive look she said, "Oh, Ethan, how might you know these people?"
"They, um, happen to be from my home country... it's really far away over the ocean. You probably never heard of it," I said quickly, not yet wanting to reveal my origin to avoid any complications.
"Well, now that you're both here, you should also register and select your classes. I can spot you the registration fee since we're comrades. I just finished selecting Arch Wizard, and I'm looking forward to what classes you two can pick from."
Kazuma, with excitement in his eyes, shouted, "If you got Arch Wizard, I'm also sure to get something good. Let's do it." As I paid the fee and he went through the same process I just went through earlier, Luna picked up his card, and her anticipated look went away.
"Um, all your stats are completely average, with the sole exception of Luck, which is high... you could likely find success as a merchant or something along those lines though," she said as Kazuma looked like he was struck by an arrow of depression.
"Just register me as an Adventurer," he muttered with deadpan eyes. Internally, Kazuma thought, I need to cling to Ethan's thigh as hard as I possibly can or I'm doomed in this world!
"Well then, Aqua, let's see your card then, shall we?" I asked as she also proceeded to go through the same process. Luna pulled out the card and said, "Oh, all of your stats are quite high, with the exception of Intelligence. Other than Wizard, you can pick any of the other classes available!"
"Well then, I'll take Arch Priest so I can do my best to support Ethan," she said, looking back at me with demure eyes.
I'll take it, I thought to myself. With Aqua here to heal and revive everyone, and Kazuma to keep the future team in line as one of the only other rational people, it should be smooth sailing from here.
"We should form a party together and start leveling up. I have the funds needed to fund our party. We need to start grinding as fast as possible if we ever want to defeat the Demon..." I said as Kazuma looked at me with relief as Aqua excitedly nodded her head, going up and down like a bobblehead.
"Luna, could you recommend us to a good place to buy some equipment as well as a good starting quest?" I said as I looked back over to the blonde, who nodded her head with a smile, glad to have my attention again.
"Of course, Ethan. I recommend these stores here," pulling out a business card from the counter with a town map on the back showing its location. "The quality is excellent, and the owner will give you a fair deal. As far as quests go, I recommend the Frog Extermination Quest, as the experience is good and the danger level is not too high for a beginner party," she said, pushing her breasts against my arm, competing with Aqua.
"Thanks, Luna, I'll make sure to make it up to you later. When is your next day off?"
"Well, today's Wednesday, and I'm off work Saturday and Sunday," Luna said with a bright smile.
"Perfect, that gives us time to get the party started with a couple of starter quests as well as finding a place to stay. Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's go and complete our first quest! We'll head out and buy supplies, and I'll see you on Saturday. We can just meet up here," I said, leading Kazuma and Aqua out of the Guild Hall.
Once outside of the guild, we began walking towards the armor and weapon shop and paid for some quality beginner armor. I purchased a set of leather and chainmail armor with a fur collar. Kazuma bought a slightly more plain set of leather armor alongside a bow and sword. For Aqua, I bought a staff with a magical crystal focus said to boost the power of holy spells and a set of sleeveless robes with slits down the sides that left her creamy legs visible.
Once decked out in gear, we bought plenty of necessary supplies such as tents, water flasks capable of holding far more than their appearance would indicate, as well as some other potions and items I thought might be of use.
"Um, Ethan, aren't you going to buy yourself a staff or wand, being an Arch Wizard and all?" Kazuma asked with some confusion on his face.
I merely chuckled and said, "Follow me," as I led them outside of the shop to a secluded area where no one could see us. "Okay, keep what I'm about to say and show you a secret. I don't want anyone I don't trust knowing about this," as I shortly explained about my inventory and demonstrated it for the both of them.
"Ethan, you're incredible! This will be so convenient for carrying supplies and monster parts." Underneath her breath, she also quietly muttered, "Think of all the booze he can carry, huhuhu..."
Kazuma also looked at me half excitedly, half in envy. "That's great!" while he internally thought, The thigh keeps getting larger, so I must grasp even harder!
With everything ready to go, we set off using a map and directions we gathered in town. "Let's go level up," I said as we proceeded towards our party's first quest.