MD— CHAPTER 4

Title: Solo Adventurer

With the rate of birth of the continent, the number of people going through their coming of age ceremony would increase every morning, and the one successfully passing it or failing it would increase every night. Sparow needed to play his cards right so that he doesn't fall into the latter category and then preserving his life instead of jumping at the first opportunity he gained in the form of Benjamin's job offer was one such move.

With 3968 credits still within his communicator, Sparow wore his shirt and walked out of the room and locked it away. Benjamin had left the apartment some point later in the morning and it was time for the various ordeal groups to recruit a fresh batch of members with the description of most of the groups already updated on Brisk City's official website.

With how important the ordeal groups are, such actions were necessary so that the information regarding the groups could be sent far and wide.

It took a few minutes to reach the city square and Sparow could already see the area buzzing with life. Stalls were erected outside various shops to sponsor better ordeal groups. The only category marking the difference of quality of each ordeal group being the success-turnover ratio. This ratio was determined by the average of ten youths each and this number was posted beside each ordeal group by the city itself, making sure that at the very least, the math doesn't misinform the potential youths.

"Ah! Hey, bro!" Sparow's attention was brought to a flame-haired youth with an equally flamboyant hairstyle and what he considered a 'scrawny' physique. "I never got to introduce myself in the morning. I'm Kaeman." He smiled and offered his hand making Sparow shake it with a suppressed sigh. "Sparow," the dark-haired youth offered with a straight face as Kaeman tried again, "Want to look through the ordeal groups together? Those guys are with me, too?" Kaeman pointed at a group of equally attention-attracting girls. There was a blue-haired bombshell, a green-haired petite girl that seriously made Sparow question her age, and a bespectacled, decent looking brown-haired girl.

"With them?" Sparow tried to find a compelling reason to reject the youth.

"Yep," Kaeman grinned and made Sparow realize that he didn't need to find a reason.

"No, thanks," Sparow shook his head and turned instantly as Kaeman sighed for the umpteenth time. From afar, Sparow did hear a remark directed towards him. "Why would you ask him again? He rejected you once and you should have known. And the three of us don't want to hang out with other men."

The statement made Sparow realize a few things. First, even if he joined Kaeman, his chances of joining a group with such girls were quite slim, making him go down the rare route of small partnership. Second, Sparow wouldn't have the patience to handle such a shrill voice, not if it doesn't belong to a humanoid familiar. Third, as the nameless girl pointed out, Kaeman was a tactless fellow which reduced chances of survival by a lot.

"Ah, hello!" A round-rimmed, bespectacled youth with a mushroom cut and rather academic style clothes welcomed a group standing in front of the stall of the Ordeal Group named— Brotherhood of Masters-117.

Brotherhood of Masters is a legendary ordeal group, one of the first seven ordeal groups to reach the success-turnover ratio of 10:10. After this, many cities had a fanbase of such groups with more Brotherhoods emerging and the one in front of Sparow was the 117th registered ordeal group.

"We are the follower of Brotherhood and welcome every brother looking for support. As you have seen on the city's site, our turnover ratio is 8:10 and that is only after factoring in unforeseen circumstances. To demonstrate our nature, let me present to you our strongest survivor of the day." Saying so, the speaker of the brotherhood gestured a man in a mohawk to walk forward.

"Please welcome Brother Jilk. He gained his familiar yesterday and has successfully survived his ordeal within 3 months of service."

Hearing till now, Sparow's gaze dimmed. The world wasn't an adventure and everything wasn't black and white. The existence of ordeal groups was wildly controlled by greater corporations as a means of hired services and the payment being, as expected— a familiar. But this didn't deter anyone standing in front of Brotherhood's stall as 'Brother' Jilk closed his eyes with a soft, earthen glow illuminating from his body. This wasn't the only stall exhibiting their day-long alumnus since similar earthen glow could be seen everywhere. The square was filled with such stalls and opportunistic ordeal groups.

A chirping, bell-like melody echoed from the stall as a head-sized sparrow flapped its wings and perched on Jilk's shoulder. Its eyes greyish and the feathers of the familiar quite luxurious.

"Brother Jilk managed to form a pact with a Hound Sparrow only after a few hours. The brotherhood supported Brother Jilk in his time of formation of pact so that nobody could disturb him."

Clapping his hand, the speaker continued, "Now that we have demonstrated our ability regarding familiars, I am also happy to announce that you all will be able to join Grand Familiar Fleet Inc. after successful completion of the ordeal.

'There it is,' Sparow sighed. This announcement was received, both, well and grumpily. Many who wanted a stable job after the ordeal were interested since the time of their ordeal would also act as a long-term interview. The world needed commerce to operate and the business section of the world thrived despite monsters being very real. The adventurous hearts of a few spectators sighed in disappointment and they left to look for other options.

Sparow wasn't an adventurer but he would rather be a professor after his success in ordeal than a 9-5 worker with a desk job. After all, being a participant of the educational section of the world would allow him to start with his own research which was necessary for any breeder in the familiar community. With the brotherhood out of the question, Sparow began hunting for suitable ordeal groups if there were any or he would have to register as a solo participant of the ordeal before the end of the day.

In between his roaming around, Sparow did attract quite a bit of attention. His physique provided expectancy for hard work when it came to adventuring and his face attracted a few romanticists in the crowd, both men and women. However, how could Sparow have explained the disgust he held for regular humans and his desire for monster girls in a matter of minutes?

Backing off from the stupendous offers and cultish methods some of the well-respected ordeal groups pushed on, Sparow had to go through the remaining half of the day without lunch and in pure suffering.

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Any person in his ordeal needs to select the mode of operation in completing one's ordeal. There were three types of modes— Solo, Partnership, Group. These, in turn, began to be called as Ordeal Partnership, Ordeal Groups, and Solo Adventurers. On the day of 21st birthday, every ordeal taker needs to register before the end of the day, or else they would be marked to be hunted down and well... 'erased', as the education model of the continent states. This was one of the major causes of failure back in the day but with the connectivity of today's day and age, such a problem didn't occur.

For the entire day, Sparow failed to find any satisfactory group or partnership. Maybe he was simply too picky, he would never know... or maybe he did. Ordeal Partnership cannot exceed the realms of 5 members and had rather loose laws while the Ordeal Groups can hold as many members as a population of a city and would still need to follow the rigid policies. But all the ordeal groups were sponsored. While this proved to turn the ordeal a notch difficult, Sparow didn't feel displeased. Solo Adventurers had no rules besides the constitution of the continent to follow and they could still seek out deals with various partners and groups.

Opening his communicator and going to his profile section, a portion of the worldwide connectivity heavily moderated by the government, Sparow entered his mode of the ordeal and applied it for him to be recognized as a solo adventurer.

"Now," Sparow mumbled, opening the social section and going through the deliveries available in the area, "Let's order a pizza," Sparow sighed at the lack of continental dishes.