The Paper User: Exiled for a ‘Trash Skill,’ Awakens True Power and Rises with Two Unique Skills - Chapter 4

 Chapter 4 : The Adventurer's Guild

The next morning, I headed to the Adventurer’s Guild located at the center of Tansa.

It was a large, four-story building filled with adventurers.

There were humans with longswords on their hips, elves carrying bows on their backs, and beastkin with animal ears clad in leather armor.

Each of them stared seriously at the request board posted on the wall.

“Tch! Nothing but scraps left. Two gold coins for ogre hunting? That’s way too low.”
“Right? An ogre job should be at least three gold coins.”
“Then how about this one? There’s a bandit hunt from Mifa Village.”
“Nah, bandit hunts are for large squads. A four-person party like ours would get wiped out.”
“Guess we’re stuck with gathering requests this time. Even cheap jobs are better than dying.”

I slipped through the crowd and made my way to the reception desk.

Seated behind it was an elf woman wearing a white silk shirt.

“Excuse me. Are there any groups currently recruiting members?”
“Welcome. You're looking to join a party, I assume?”

She glanced at the white plate on my belt—the mark of an F-rank adventurer.

“F-rank, huh. In that case, you’d be looking for a group that’s open to training rookies. Let me check…”

She spread out dozens of papers across the wooden counter.

“…At the moment, none of the recognized groups are recruiting beginners.”
“I see…”

My voice came out flat and dejected.

To be officially recognized by the Adventurer’s Guild, a group needed a B-rank or higher leader and at least fifty members.
But once certified, they received government support and had access to high-paying requests.

There were supposed to be over thirty such groups in this town. And not one of them was taking in rookies?

“Larger groups offer better survival rates and a steady salary, so most people aim for those. Of course, the groups themselves are only interested in adventurers with potential or immediate value.”

The elf gave me a scrutinizing look.

“Do you possess any combat Skills?”
“No… I don’t. Is that a problem?”
“Hmm… Well, considering no one's currently recruiting…”

She furrowed her brow.

“How about joining a smaller party instead of a full group? It’s still safer than going solo.”
“Are there any parties currently recruiting?”
“Let’s see… I believe…”

“There’s no party out there dumb enough to take in a loser with a trash Skill like his.”

A voice rang out from behind me.

I turned around to see Albel standing there.

“Yo, Yakumo.”

He grinned as he slapped me on the shoulder.

“Looking for new teammates, huh? Rough going, isn’t it?”

He made sure to raise his voice so the nearby adventurers could hear.

“This guy got kicked out of his group for being too weak. Said he had no future.”

“Seriously?” a blue-haired man said.

“Getting kicked out? That’s harsh.”
“It means he was really that useless,” Albel said, poking my forehead with his finger.

“All he’s got is some useless Unique Skill that lets him make paper. Who wouldn’t want to ditch that?”
“…Huh.”

The blue-haired man gave me a glance.

“Yeah, no one’s gonna want a guy like that in their group or even a party.”
“Exactly. Right, Paper User?”

Albel leaned in close and stuck out his tongue mockingly.

“Why don’t you just work as a scribe for the guild from now on? That trash Skill of yours might be useful for something like that. Oh, wait—your paper disappears after a while, doesn’t it? So yeah, still useless. Hahaha!”

Laughter rippled through the crowd of adventurers nearby.

“Damn, that’s a seriously worthless Unique Skill. Not even good for utility work?”
“Tough break, kid. If you had a better Unique Skill, you might’ve made it to S-rank.”
“Even if Yakumo had a top-tier Skill, with no combat sense he wouldn’t make it past C-rank,” Albel sneered.

“Nah, the one headed for S-rank is me. I’ve got three combat Skills, after all.”

“…Whoa. You’ve got three?”

The blue-haired man’s eyes widened.

“Two’s rare enough, but three? You’re gonna be something big.”
“That’s the plan. I don’t intend to rely on Skills alone, either.”
“Hey, why don’t you join our group?” a tall man said, placing a hand on Albel’s shoulder.

“With three combat Skills, you could become our ace someday.”
“Can’t. I’m already with the Holy Sword Order.”
“Ah, that group. They’ve got four A-rankers, right? Yeah, no way we could compare to them.”

The tall man let out a defeated sigh.

In the end, even the recruiting parties were only looking for E-rank adventurers and above.

As an F-rank, I didn’t meet the requirements.

With no other choice, I accepted a request to gather medicinal herbs.
It was one of the few jobs even a solo F-ranker could take on.

For now, I had to play it safe.

The promotion exam was coming up soon.
If I could make it to E-rank, maybe I wouldn’t get into a group, but at least someone might let me into a party.

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