Master Of None

The party took the center of the street and walked tall. The pride they felt in returning was immeasurable. This had been the longest any of them had been gone from their homes. They walked slow enjoying the sounds of their home city. The hustle and bustle welcome over the previous common sounds of bones and scratching. It seemed as if the walk to the guild was short to them. The building soon stood tall in front of them the door asking them to open it.

Walker opened the door to see the normal groups sitting around chatting, clamoring for quests, and returning completed reports. A few new faces were attempting to gather a party spared glances at them but quickly gave up noticing they had already formed one. Clara was nowhere to be seen after a few minutes of looking.

"Excuse me miss!" Walker hailed a smaller blond woman who was running by. "Have you seen Clara? She's our party manager and we've just returned." The woman almost dropped her paperwork on the ground.

"You say your Clara's party? Wait your the one causing all the commotion? But your so young?" The woman had let her thoughts run from her mouth before she knew it. These young adventures that looked green as grass had been the reason for all the drama upstairs. Orders for preparation to receive a large amount of items had pushed the basement in to overdrive to process and make space. Paperwork had been filled out to get ahead of the soon to come influx. The guild master and Clara the floor manager had been cooped up in the office for days at one point. Whenever another employee saw them they were mumbling about impossible things. The slaying of swarms of undead? A low tier party defeating a mid tier undead golem? It all had sounded like they lost their minds. And standing in front of her the ones that supposedly did it all.

"Umm uuh um y-yes she's here pardon me before I was surprised. I'll go notify her now. Please wait a moment." She snapped herself from her daze placed down her paperwork and rushed upstairs to the guild masters office.

The sound of thudding footsteps were heard on the floor above along with the stairs until a familiar face burst from the stairwell. "I SWEAR YOU IDIOTS! If you'd been one day later you would have failed the two month requirement!" Clara wanted to tell them she was happy to see them, to ask them a million questions about what happened. However the second she heard they were back she felt the anger of knowing if they were a day later their amazing accomplishments no matter what they were would be written off as a failure.

The party as a whole was taken back, never had they imagined Clara able to yell so much so that she could silence the entire first floor. Many parties looked at her in fear knowing her position as manager of the first floor. They also were taken back by her tone and made note never to anger her. Clara however quickly realized she had made a scene and straightened her jacket clearing her throat. "Please follow me to the guild master office" the curt and simple sentence again shocked those on the first floor since she was escorting such a young party up to the guild masters office of all places!

The party may be in slight shock but they knew the exact reason. They had been unable to properly keep time in the catacombs and had just found out they almost lost the right to advance from this test. Not only would it have been a recorded failure but it also would have severely limited their long term progress as adventurers. It wasn't uncommon for a party to fail however the reason for failure is often more important. If the party failed due to encountering monsters or situations that were too challenging it was more acceptable because they could still grow stronger in the future. But if a party failed because they didn't bring proof or failed the time limit it showed that they lacked the ability to complete quests properly overall. That fact alone could end an adventurers career because having that ability was why they were relied on.

These thoughts bombarded the party as they stepped upwards towards the guild masters office. They had been so happy to slowly walk to the guild as if they had all the time in the world. They couldn't have been more wrong!

None of them dared to speak as Clara lead them to the office. Upon entering they found ibis sitting and waiting expectantly. In front of him was a stack of documents that seemed to be labeled omnipotent party. This added another layer to the stress and fear the party felt at the moment.

Clara took a seat next to ibis and they both looked at each other as if having a silent conversation. "We have been waiting for you return, here we have gathered every defeat your system sent me as your manager. Please as the party leader begin from the second your foot left the city to the second your foot entered the city. Every detail as possible and as it happened." After Clara had spoken she and ibis both pulled out blank sheets of paper and writing utensils. They looked like two students ready to study.

Walker shook off some fear accepting that the pair looked so serious because of the test. This of course was not the case but the party was still ignorant of how big an effect their actions had. Walker started explaining little by little. Clara became stuck for a moment when he explained how they lured and created their own little swarms of undead to use a new spell on. She interrupted him for the details and inter workings of the spell. However ibis became stuck on the undead golem. He himself in his youth once had to fight one and did not expect the young party to have the strength to do so themselves. The pair did not know that the story was about to shock them even further.