Hiatus Gifting This Unfortunate Guy With Blessings

I haven't slept well. My imagination went wild about the contents of the last day and delivered bizzare nightmares to my brain.

I dreamt that I was in a labyrinth running away from trained hounds sent by women in armor to remove the contents of my nether regions. Then the hounds transformed into goblins that started laughing maniacally.

As I kept escaping the pursuit I noticed water filling the corridors. Soon there was only water around and I started to drown. As I tried to reach the surface a blonde knight in full armor jumped in the water and clung to my body while shouting.

"I will take you down with me!"

And I kept going deeper and deeper because of that crusader armor's weight.

I suddenly woke up and sat down. Sweat dripped from my forehead. It took me a few minutes to calm down my erratic breathing.

I decided to go out to the toilet but as soon as my feet touched the ground I could hear knocking on the door and soon what seemed to be Innkeeper's voice sounded out.

"Dear customer, there's been an alarm from the guild about the ghosts going berserk in the nearby cemetery…"

There was a slight pause and she continued.

"Please do not panic. We have special runes placed in the rooms. They are powered by feelings of Aqua-sama believers. If a ghost appears in your room please sign the form to join Axis Church and you will be protected by gracious Aqua-sama."

…

'What the hell. Was this lady trying to make me sign this stupid form forcefully? Was she also the reason why I had those nightmares? The form said something about nightmares! '

Feeling the anger rising inside me I stood up and reached for my clothes but when my hand was almost gripping them they suddenly shifted to the right.

"Huh?"

There was a creaking sound behind me so I turned around. Wardrobe doors began to open and then slammed themselves shut. Soon after the drawer in the nightstand did the same thing.

When I was distracted my things started floating near the ceiling together with bed's cover and pillows. The lamp that was also flying about started to flicker ominously.

I stood there watching a perfect image of my world's imaginary phenomenon called poltergeist.

I'll admit that if the innkeeper didn't say anything at the beginning I would be scared out of my wits.

Even if she did her spiel I would be scared if not for the fact that this 'poltergeist' conveniently left the sign-up form lying directly in front of me together with a pen.

…

I could see some runes carved onto my bed as well.

Seems like Chris was mistaken and I wasn't safe for even one day in this inn.

I stood there amidst the flying things and 'supernatural' sounds while thinking about what to do.

***

"He didn't even scream. Are you sure it's working?"

"We wouldn't even be able to hear it. My runes are blocking the sound from inside. Let him stay like that until morning and we will have another sweet lamb for Aqua-sama to shepherd. I assure you."

The Innkeeper and another lady dressed in priestly garments were whispering to each other.

"Of course, oh wise priest-sama. If the boyfriend converts then there's a chance Chris will also come back to the right path. Two birds with one stone!"

They left while giggling to themselves and planning for the aftermath as time went by.

***

"What a beautiful morning! Oh! Hello, ma'am!" I exclaimed with the most cheerful voice I could produce as I opened the door and noticed the Innkeeper staring at me together with another woman I didn't recognize.

I theatrically c.o.c.ked my head to the side when they didn't respond and kept staring at me.

"Is there something wrong?"

That snapped them back to reality.

"H-hello."

"A-ah, good morning... I spaced out for a second."

I kept the door open to show off perfectly tidy room but soon there was a sound of another door opening and Chris came out while having huge yawn.

"Good morning Chris. You were right about the beds. I slept like a rock."

"Huh?" Chris stopped mid-step and looked at me giving her a thumbs up.

The Axis duo looked at each other and went downstairs in a hurry to which I finally closed my room.

Chris looked at me with a questioning gaze so I just said "Later." and added.

"Will we be eating breakfast before going out?"

Chris nodded affirmatively and we also headed to the ground floor. The Innkeeper gave us delicious things to eat today as well and after we were done I came up to the counter and politely asked.

"Could I book a room here for a few more days?"

"Uhmmm… sure, Chris' friends are welcome here all y-year around."

"Thank you! Let's go, Chris." I grabbed the silver-haired girl by an arm and before she could say something we went outside.

"Lead the way."

I told Chris as I kept pushing her through the streets. When I made sure that no-one was following us I let go of Chris and she finally asked.

"What happened, Kazuki? I told you it wasn't safe to stay there mor-"

I have stopped her by raising my palm in front of her face and then I cheerfully said:

"I am not gonna let it slide."

She was angry when I recounted the events of the night but she wasn't so sure about my plans for revenge. It took a couple of minutes of heated discussion(mainly from my side) but Chris finally sighed and approved the idea.

But right now there were other things that needed our attention. Like getting registered in adventurers guild which was our first goal for the day.

I couldn't force Chris to keep taking care of me. I needed to stand on my own two feet soon and then repay her my debts even if she was helping me on a goddess' request.

When we turned around the corner our eyes could see a market full of stalls with various products. A huge building was standing tall behind all these wooden constructs.

"You can already see the guild's building."

It was indeed hard to miss. A giant emblem of adventurer's guild was hanging at the front in case you didn't know.

I wanted to look at stalls' content but Chris said there will be time for it later. The people manning the stalls kept shouting the names of their products. There were a lot of "Ears of X", "Eyes of Y", "Tails of Z". I wonder what people do with all of these things. I was never much of a crafter in games anyway so it might not matter much for me.

Chris stopped before the guild's door and threw a money pouch to me.

"Here you go, so no one would look at you like that clerk yesterday."

"You noticed that too?" I cringed after being reminded of that situation.

"Yeah... I haven't thought of it before."

With that sorted Chris pushed the door and we went inside.

The place was spacious and filled with adventurers dining and chatting. It looked just like any other adventurer's guild you could think of.

I suddenly became giddy with excitement. It was finally here, I couldn't wait.

After looking around I spotted a short line of people waiting to talk to the lady behind a counter.

"I don't see that blue-haired adventurer. I will look around while you will take care of registration."

"Okay."

'Oops, I forgot about that matter because of my excitement. Gotta stay focused.'

"Have you seen that?"

"That's big news. I wonder how much we can cash on that info."

My brain focused when I heard two adventurers in the line whispering. I tried to follow their gaze but I couldn't spot anything of importance.

"White." "White indeed."

The waitress that was collecting used mugs seemed to react to the word 'white' and frowned while looking at me - looking in her direction - and the duo in front of me but they managed to feign ignorance.

"Creep."

I got blasted with an insult for something I didn't do.

"Dude, not cool." "Yeah, seriously."

They tried to frame me! I nervously started to gesticulate and say something but the waitress just stormed off. The blonde adventurer with his blue-haired friend waited for the waitress to be far enough before they said:

"Sorry about that dude… man's gotta do what he's gotta do."

"Hey, cool mask. Are you new around here?"

I had to calm myself before I could answer. I was unjustly called out multiple times but getting insulted by a woman still dealt some damage to my brain.

"Yeah…"

"I am Dust and this is Keith." "Nice to meetcha."

They extended their hands and after short consideration I greeted them. Although they are jerks they didn't seem like a bad sort.

"Satou Kazuki."

"I've heard that name somewhere before."

The blonde guy - Dust - seemed to try to recollect something from memory.

"Nah, it must be my imagination." and he just dismissed it.

"Are you a newbie?" Keith asked me.

"Yes, I've come to register today."

"OOooh! If you got any questions then you are free to ask these two awesome senpais!" Dust exclaimed energetically but the lady behind the counter interjected.

"Dust-kun, what are you gonna teach that man? How to fail a quest? Because I remember giving you a quest with 3 day completion time and haven't seen you in a week."

"Ehehehe, there's been some unforeseen circ.u.mstances Luna-san…"

Then the receptionist 'Luna-san' started chewing out the duo about how important it is to complete quests properly and how reckless behavior like this can become a negative stigma in adventurer's future.

After the lengthy lecture and getting a punishment, Keith and Dust listlessly went towards the bar area.

"Sorry that you had to see such a scene on your first day. They are good adventurers, but they are extremely lazy. Although adventuring might seem like an easy job we have some degree of responsibility towards the citizens of the world."

I nodded deeply to show my agreement. I didn't want to be a target for this woman's ire.

"I've overheard your chat. You are here to register, yes?"

"Yes."

"Do you have a registration fee? It is 1000 Eris."

So those coins are called Eris? Huh. Remembering the yesterday trades I scrambled enough silver coins and gave them to Ms. Receptionist.

"That's 1100 Eris. Here you have 100 back."

'Arggghhhh! So embarrassing!'

"I need to explain the basics to everyone so bear with me. As I said, adventurers have responsibilities. They are required to answer emergency calls and to cull the monsters in the area. They also take quests of the varying subjects depending on city needs. They earn a living this way."

Luna-san handed me a parchment with some blank spaces.

"Please fill this out while you listen. You probably already know that every creature has a soul. If you defeat a monster or an animal part of its soul will be absorbed by your own. You could call this process 'gaining experience'. With enough experience, your level will grow and you will receive things like Skill Points to learn skills and others."

When I was done filling the blanks with things like my height, weight, age, eye and hair color and some other minor details about my appearance I handed the parchment to Luna-san and asked a question.

"About those details, do I need to confirm things like eye color by taking this mask off?"

"If you give false information then the card will not activate so there's no need. This will be enough to prove your identity."

She then handed me another piece of paper.

"Please touch this card. This will be your adventurer card and when you touch it it will show numerical values of your stats. That will help you with choosing the right job for you."

I did as instructed and saw the card filling out with details about me and some numbers. Before I could start panic about their' low values Luna-san snatched the card away and confirmed the details with the page I filled and completed the rest of it herself.

"Satou Kazuki-kun… hmmm…"

"Is there something wrong?"

"No, just one boy with the same surname registered recently as well. Are you by any chance a relative of Satou Kazuma?"

"No, I don't know him."

'Satou? Is he another reincarnated person or is it just a common surname here too?'

"Ah, then nevermind. Vitality, Strenght and Intelligence are average, your luck is kinda low but nowhere near the level of a girl that registered recently but you have high agility and dexterity. Congratulations, with stats like these you can directly take an advanced job - Ranger."

My heart skipped a bit just then when Receptionist-san started listing out my average traits and my bad luck. I honestly was worried that I wouldn't be able to pick up any combat class knowing my luck.

The lady kept explaining.

"Of course you could take basic jobs like Thief or Scout but there's little to none advantages of picking low-tiered job over advanced one."

"Then I would like to pick a Ranger as my class."

I will ask Chris for details later, she looks like someone really knowledgeable about rogue-like classes.

Luna-san fiddled with my card for a bit and then handed it back to me.

"With this, the registration process is complete. Welcome to the adventurer's guild. We look forward to your exploits. If you have any more questions don't hesitate to ask me or other receptionists or your fellow adventurers."

I politely thanked the receptionist and went towards already waiting for me Chris.