My best friend

Ari and Sophie follow me outside the guildhall, and there I see Amelia waiting for me. She is probably very eager to finally fulfill our childhood promise and go adventuring with me. She will have to wait just a little longer. But I notice something different about her. She’s wearing some new clothes. She’s got a white shirt with a V-cut which allows some view of her breasts. This alone already makes her look far different from the demure Amelia I am used to. The skirt for one is shorter than usual. Short enough to reveal her knees. This is also the first time I see her wearing boots instead of shoes.

I am unsure whether it is a good idea for me to call her out on her change in wardrobe so I just say, “Amelia … You look great.”

Amelia immediately begins blushing and says, “Thanks. Some of my guild members said my usual clothes were getting old, so they took me shopping. This is what they suggested, but I’m not sure. I honestly feel a lot more exposed than I should be.”

So, that’s the reason. I was about to compliment her on her clothes, but Sophie was ahead of me. She started explaining how each of these clothes was meant to draw attention to her natural beauty. Looks like Sophie is quite knowledgeable on fashion. We manage to interrupt Sophie enough to inform Amelia about our trip to the post office so we can get going. Then as we walk, Sophie and Amelia continue discussing fashion.

It might just be my imagination, but as we walk the streets of Riledo, I feel like I’m being watched. Not in the way that someone is shadowing me, or there is a carriage slowly driving through the streets behind us. Rather, everywhere I go, people turn their heads and stare at me. Some people who are in mid discussion even stop talking when they notice I am walking past. Is this because of my very public rank upgrade? Aw man. I was warned that because of that, I am going to be a ‘celebrity’ now. Is this what my life is going to be now? To constantly be in the center of attention, even if I don’t want to? I wish I had never become famous.

Inside the post office it was even worse. We delivered our letters to a young office clerk who was apparently very nervous about handling our letters as soon as she saw me. She even started blushing. I do hope that was because she was merely feeling warm. Then there was a pair of girls behind us who were constantly whispering and regularly let out a subdued giggle. I was happy to get out of there.

After that, we headed straight for the crafter’s guild. Which was another uncomfortable journey through the streets of Riledo. At least I was able to distract myself by noticing some carriage we walked past was the same that was behind us before we entered the post office. Just a person who had business a little further up.

This time we had to leave Dark Dragon controlled territory and had to go through some places controlled by other guilds. Not any hostile guilds, though. These were guilds that had an alliance with the Dark Dragons. Though I did feel like some stares came from adventurers who might want to test themselves against me. I sure hope there is no rumor going around that if they can defeat me, they can have a rank upgrade themselves. I don’t think it works like that. I did however get startled by a young girl suddenly running up to me. She pressed a flower in my hands, then she quickly ran away again, to a group of 4 girls, which I presume are her friends, where they all started giggling. Thank the goddess Kiara didn’t see that. She might become jealous.

The crafter’s guild is a place the likes of which I had never seen. The entire building was made of metal plates that were somehow stitched together. On just the outside, you could see a lot of pipes, all leading towards a central shaft, from which a lot of black smoke was billowing.

In front of the main entrance were a lot of tables. The ones closest to the entrance were where adventurers came to sell some special loot they collected on their travels. I see someone trying to sell rusty armor, probably taken from a long dead adventurer while exploring a dungeon. There is another person trying to sell some alligator skin and a group of adventurers who have brought some giant beetle shells. The tables a bit further away are stalls where representatives from the crafter’s guild are showing off weapons and armor of all kinds. Adventurers from several different guilds are perusing amongst those. Though the thing I notice most of all are some heavily armored people who proudly bear the symbol of the crafter’s guild on their chest. I guess that sometimes, adventurers from rivalling guilds meet here and get into a fight. That’s why the crafter’s guild has their personal security **** around.

In my case I need to neither sell nor buy anything. I just need a repair done. We find the appropriate stall, one specifically for adventurers seeking to repair their gear. The stall is being run by a dwarf with long blonde hair and braided beard. As I approach him, he sees me from afar and simply the look in his eyes tells that he recognizes me.

“Hey, aren’t you that fella who upgraded to rank A in the tournament?” He asks.

“Indeed I am, sir craftsman.” I reply. “But please don’t make a big deal out of it. I am just your regular A rank just like all the other A ranks.”

“Ohoho, look at that.” The dwarf replies with a wide smile. “The lad is shy. Honestly, maybe it’s for the better. Wouldn’t want yer newfound fame to go to yer head. If there’s anything that makes high ranked adventurers annoyin, it’s when they start believing the world revolves around them. Anyways, what can I do fer ye.”

I pull out my broken sword and explain the dwarf how it got damaged in my duel against Url.

“Oh no.” The dwarf laments. “This makes me dwarven heart bleed. Such fine craftsmanship. It even has room fer upgrades.”

“My main concern is if you can repair it.” I calmly explain the dwarf.

“Sure, we can repair it. We are the crafters guild after all.” The dwarf replies. “But if ye face this Url again, there’s a big chance he’s gona break yer sword all over again. So how about giving this sword a titanium center. It is a material that’s harder than steel, but also lighter.”

I find the dwarf’s suggestion a bit odd so I ask, “Wouldn’t it be better to have the whole blade made of titanium then?”

“No, sir.” The guy quickly answers. “While titanium may be strong and have a better resistance to breaking, steel is still better at keeping its edge. Any sword made entirely out of titanium will have its edge chip away and the blade will become dull. The only material I know that is like titanium but can retain its edge like steel does would be orichalcum. Unfortunately, that’s a metal even more rare than titanium is.”

I end up letting the dwarf talk me into upgrading my sword with a titanium core augmented by a steel edge. Thanks to the 5 golden coins the princess sent my way, I am able to afford it. I will need to leave my sword with the crafter’s guild for a few days however.

With that done, I turn to my friends to discuss what to do next. But Sophie and Ari have both left. Fortunately, Amelia was able to tell me they simply went perusing the other stalls. We find them checking out some armor. It has a design similar to what Ari uses now, except it is better designed. The places where the armor needs to bend has smaller plates and more of them. That way it provides increased flexibility and it also covers more of the body. The merchant also assures us the armor is made to be used by a rogue, so it is specially made to be silent. This would make a perfect armor for someone like Ari. Sophie asked how much it costs, and then we discover it is too expensive for Ari to buy. But not for me.

I tell Ari just how grateful I am for her helping me by sparring and if it wasn’t for her. That if it wasn’t for her, I probably never would have made it as far in the tournament as I did and might not even have ended up getting my rank upgrade. So, I insist that I do something back for her. Amelia and Sophie then help me convince Ari it was alright to let me pay for her new armor. The merchant selling it first helps her put it on and Ari does some movements to test how good it is. She ends up really loving it. That is when I pay for her now armor. Ari is so grateful that she gives me a big hug. She didn’t say anything. Just a heartfelt hug.

When we were about to leave however, we notice a lot of the crafting guild’s guards have gathered at the exit. There seems to be a large group of people that has gathered there for some reason.

“What’s going on over there?” I ask my 3 companions.

We walk closer to get a better view. Suddenly, we hear someone from the crowd yell, “There he is! The upgrade guy!”

Wait! They’re here for me?

Then we start hearing a lot of comment from the crowd, saying all kinds of weird things.

“Are you sure that’s him?”

“Yeah man. He’s got the right eyes.”

“What? I thought he’d be taller.”

“That makes him cute!”

“Who are those women with him?”

“They must be his harem.”

“I want to be in his harem too!”

This is not something I can handle. I can’t be the attention of such a big crowd. So, I start walking away, to a place where the crowd can’t see me. The girls follow me and I end up telling them that I had no idea something like this was going to happen.

“This is not possible.” I tell them. “We have to be dreaming. How come such a large crowd can possibly be interested in me?”

“Sorry, Darx. But I’ve seen it before.” Amelia answers. “When Kase got his rank, he thankfully wanted nothing to do with me, but I did notice him drawing a crowd wherever he went. There were a lot of people who wanted to simply see him. I guess with your rank upgrade, most people heard of it, but many haven’t yet seen you in person.”

“But I’m not an S rank.” I complain. “No A rank gets the same attention as S.”

Amelia shakes her head and says, “Sorry, Darx. But rank upgrades are just as rare as S ranks. People simply want figure out what kind of person broke the rules.”

I guess I can understand their curiosity. I may need to lay low a bit until their curiosity blows over. But still. How am I supposed to return to the guildhall?