Elemental Cats

Every building affiliated with the Explorers Guild was marked by a rectangular map with a round compass on it. The same compass was also used to identify explorers directly related to the guild and their strength by using different colors and details in design. Because there are no benefits to faking or stealing them, lower level compasses aren't enchanted with anything special, but higher level ones are marked with a special identification that only the craftsmen at the guild's headquarters are allowed to learn how to make.

Since explorers tend to spend a lot of time in the wild, one of the guild's objectives is to be the link between society and explorers but also to work as a communication system among explorers. Gathering and compiling reports, trading information about discoveries, and being the middleman for selling materials found in the wild. Aside from that, guild staff usually oversee new exploration areas and make danger assessments in order to protect the explorers. Or at least warn them about what they are heading into.

Toz entered the almost completely empty building. Aside from a few older men sitting at the bar to the left, drinking. There was only a red-haired receptionist to the right, at the desk for official guild business, doing some paperwork.

Hearing a knock on the desk, the receptionist looked up only to get flustered when he met the emerald green eyes of the black-haired man looking directly at him.

"S-sorry! Didn't see you there. What can I help you with?" he quickly composed himself and said.

"I came to get an explorers' badge"

"Okay, then I need you to fill in this formulaire before you show you are capable of defending yourself"

Toz quickly filled in the details like his name, where he was from, and any specialization or profession.

After looking it over, the receptionist stamped it and placed it on a pile of similar papers under his desk.

"Then I'll lead you to the sparring area for the live combat test."

"Ok"

"You only need to prove yourself capable of defending yourself, or any other skills that can be of significant assistance in the field."

"You saw I wrote combat as my specialization, right?"

"Well... yes, but honestly, most people do that because they do not have anything else to write and underestimate the level of skill needed to survive in the wild."

"I see."

The short walk to the back continued in silence.

When they arrived at the open area, Toz saw a tall woman with her red hair in a ponytail practicing her sword on a wide slightly raised surface of solid stone. The entire area was surrounded by a fence, and sets of wooden sparring weapons were stationed next to the door.

"Mom, I brought an applicant for the explorers' badge"

As the woman turned around, Toz could see a likeness between the receptionist's and the sword-wielding woman's face.

Looking at Toz with a scrutinizing gaze, the woman said,

"Are you ready to go at once, or do you want to warm up first? Since no one else is here, you can take your time."

"No need. I'll just take off my coat before we begin."

Toz moved to the side and placed the coat on a half-empty weapon rack. The almost imperceptible creaking made the woman's gaze flicker before her attention returned to the young man, who was at least a head taller than her son and slightly taller than her.

His body, previously entirely hidden by the large coat was now only covered by a simple shirt, with its arms rolled up by hands that were now picking up a wooden sword.

The woman, upon seeing the movements of his upper body more clearly and the defined muscles on his forearms, realized instinctively that this test might be unnecessary. That feeling intensified when he moved with silent but confident steps onto the arena.

"I have a feeling this test might be redundant, but I can't just not do it based on a feeling, so let's quickly get it over with," she said to Toz.

"Alright."

They both got in their positions while Toz summoned three metal spikes in front of him as well.

After the receptionist, now acting as judge, called for the test to begin, Toz moved the stakes forward while at the same time throwing a shadow at the examiner's eyes with his free left hand.

Since the examiner had to shield her eyes, she used her mana perception to track and dodge the flying needles without noticing Toz's presence disappearing.

As she opened her eyes to look for her opponent, she felt a dull blade pressing on her neck from the side.

When she was preoccupied with dodging and shielding her eyes, Toz had rushed in front of her and got past her guard without her noticing.

Thanks to Toz's surprise attack, the fight was over in an instant. His ability to hide his presence and his speed in crossing the distance of several meters between in a flash completely overwhelmed his opponent.

"M...match over!"

"Damn...!"

After the judge's belated reaction, the swordswoman also processed what had just happened.

Using a fast casting speed and blatantly displaying his attribute to mislead his opponent to focus on reacting to spells while trying to get closer and planning how to deal with his melee capabilities while in reality, he has a high speed and another element to disrupt the senses to support a surprise attack.

From start to finish, the match was in Toz's hands.

With a quizzical look, after she finished her analysis, the swordswoman asked Toz,

"What is someone as strong as you doing here?

"Oh, I don't mean to pry. I am just curious. No need to answer if you do not want to"

Toz looked thoughtful for a moment before answering.

"Well, it's my first time leaving home, so I decided to play it safe, but I might have overestimated the level of strength necessary to explore…."

He ended the sentence with a continuously lowered voice while slightly averting his gaze.

"Oh...

"Well, never mind that then, you are definitely more than qualified to explore this region. Unfortunately, with my qualifications, I can not give you more than a first level badge," the swordswoman said as she invited Toz back inside.

Toz's home city was far from any unexplored areas, so he had not had any previous opportunities to get a badge. And although a first level badge was the lowest, it was enough to qualify him for exploration in all first level danger zones, such as the so-far discovered areas in the wilderness outside town.

The receptionist had tried to give Toz his coat, but since he could not lift he quickly let Toz do it himself with an embarrassed smile.

Seeing the receptionist's struggles, Toz understood why the coat was unexpectedly cheap and that it most likely wouldn't be stolen if he ever left it alone.

It was a special coat with a bunch of pockets on the inside. The outer coat itself was made of a sturdy material that provided great defense, but the really special stuff was on the inside. A great fabric for enchanting made up the inside to provide temperature regulation, self-cleaning and additional comfort. Then there were the pockets made from a medium level spatial fabric, especially suitable for bending space. With a few enchantments, the available storage space inside the pockets was greatly expanded and could store several cubic meters of items in total. Unfortunately, the weight of the items was not reduced, and time flowed as usual.

Since Toz had put a lot of equipment and preserved food in his pockets, the coat naturally weighed a lot, not to mention the weight of coins and the spatial rings he collected from the bandits. Because the spatial rings were of the lowest level, they barely provided any extra space, but they slowed down time and reduced weight to a certain degree, so they were still commonly used. They could at least be used as a wallet or to store a light snack.

With his business finished Toz, headed back to the inn so he could organize his items one last time before officially starting his journey and getting an early sleep so he could get going first thing in the morning the next day.