The process of registering as a Worker was very simple; it only required making a record at the Adventurers Guild.
However, after completing the registration, Tsukasa realized she had previously overestimated the level of Workers. she originally thought Workers were a high-income group like mercenaries operating in gray areas, but in reality, most Workers just did odd jobs for the Adventurers Guild.
Although there were Workers like the Four Sages whose level was comparable to Mithril-rank Adventurers, they were rare exceptions. Most Workers did hard and tiring odd jobs with low rewards, such as carrying luggage for Adventurers or dismantling monster carcasses.
Slightly higher-level Workers were responsible for traveling in the wild; once they discovered ruins or a dungeon, they would report it to the Guild to earn a commission. For Workers at the level of the Four Sages, they would usually enter the dungeon to find treasure themselves. The Guild would also hand over high-risk requests that no Adventurers were willing to accept to them.
After a brief understanding, she found that being a Worker really wasn't a good profession. Unless one was in urgent need of money in a short time, it really wasn't recommended to be a Worker. This was because Workers couldn't enjoy the benefits of Guild members, did dirty and tiring work, and had a quite low status.
Additionally, because many Workers acted very unethically, the industry's reputation was mostly notorious.
There were cases of asking Workers to help carry luggage, only to find the luggage stolen after returning from a ruin or dungeon. Asking Workers to help dissect monster corpses, only to find part of the materials embezzled. Asking Workers to help scout a dungeon, only for the dungeon's treasure to be taken directly by the Workers.
All sorts of things like this happened.
This made the reputation of Workers very poor.
"Welcome, Astrea, to the Four Sages team!"
In a cost-effective tavern near the Adventurers Guild, the Four Sages team was holding a celebration to welcome the new member.
Several people raised their glasses to clink them together, the fragrance of Ale spreading along with the spilled liquid. Tsukasa carefully lifted her glass and took a small sip; she had long known she wasn't good at drinking. She once thought she was drinking fine red wine, only to find out later it was grape juice, though she never told anyone about that. Although she later tried drinking in secret, she still couldn't accept the taste of alcohol. It wasn't that she couldn't drink it, she just didn't think it tasted good.
It was either too bitter or too spicy, not as good as other drinks.
But today's Ale surprisingly didn't have the taste of alcohol.
Although it had an aroma of alcohol, the taste was very faint.
And it had a sweet taste like maltose.
"Delicious."
She couldn't help but wonder if this was actually alcohol.
The people next to her heard her exclamation and showed smiles that said everything. Because of this one sentence, Tsukasa exposed the fact that she couldn't drink in front of them.
Because this shop's Ale was famous for being Sugar Water.
It was the lowest of the low, something only young Adventurers who cared about appearances would order to hide the fact that they couldn't drink. Because their team had a minor like Arsye, they chose this shop as their regular spot.
"Hahaha, newbie, is the Sugar Water delicious?"
The Adventurers at the next table couldn't help but laugh upon hearing Tsukasa's words. Those people reeked of alcohol; the alcohol they were drinking was completely different from this Sugar Water Ale. Tsukasa ignored the Adventurers mocking her and asked Herculean and the others, "Sugar Water? I remember you ordered Ale when you were ordering just now, right?"
"That's—"
"—right, it's Ale. It's a specialty of this shop, a drink even children can have. It's said to be made by mixing Ale with Sugar Water, but the exact recipe is a secret." Herculean threw the wooden skewer in his hand at the faces of the group of Adventurers opposite them and continued, "You don't need to care about what those rotten drunks say."
"Damn it!"
The Adventurer who was hit in the face by Herculean's wooden skewer stood up angrily, just about to teach this arrogant fellow a lesson.
But then, when he saw Herculean's face clearly, his original drunkenness cleared up a lot. He muttered as he walked toward the door, "Hmph, still calling it Ale. It's just a kind of Sugar Water. Only little brats who can't drink would have that kind of Sugar Water with no hint of alcohol!"
"Bastard, do you want to fight!"
Herculean yelled at the top of his lungs, and the man pushed open the tavern door and ran away pathetically. Obviously, he knew that their mere Iron-rank Adventurers couldn't possibly deal with the famous Worker team, the Four Sages, because the Four Sages' strength was equivalent to Mithril-rank Adventurers.
Adventurer ranks are divided into:
Bronze, Iron, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Mithril, Orichalcum, and Adamantite.
In this city, Mithril-ranked Adventurers are already quite high-level existences. As for Orichalcum and Adamantite, Adventurers of those ranks are rarely seen anywhere in the world.
Upon learning that the Four Sages' strength was already considered top-tier among humans, Tsukasa understood why humans in this world were evaluated as a weak race. The magicules content in this world was much higher than in her previous world, yet the high-level combat power of humans here was not significantly different from the humans she knew in her previous world. It truly made sense for humans in this world to be considered a weak race.
In this environment, humans in this world should logically be stronger than those in her previous world. However, among the powerful Adventurers she had seen so far, almost none could reach the strength of Hero Julius. The aura of the Four Sages, in her judgment, was probably only around a thousand attribute points, which is why she felt they were weak.
Because if they were only at that level, even if she couldn't use skills temporarily, her attributes would be enough to crush them. Without special weapons, they probably wouldn't even be able to break her defense.
If the Four Sages weren't so weak...
Oh no, if humans in this world weren't so weak, she wouldn't have registered as a Worker at all. After all, there were plenty of ways to make money. She had many technical blueprints from her previous world recorded in her mind. Even if these techniques couldn't make her a tycoon, they could certainly cover her daily expenses and tuition fees. She just wanted to confirm how strong the monsters in this world were, so she accepted the Four Sages' invitation and registered as a Worker.
Moreover, there was something else she wanted to confirm.
She looked at Herculean.
"Captain, you're a warrior who uses twin swords, right?"
"That's right."
"Then, can you teach me swordsmanship?"
"No...!"
Herculean suddenly reacted, and Arsye, Imena, and Ropatik had the same expression.
Herculean asked in surprise:
"What did you just say? You want to learn swordsmanship?"
Tsukasa Astrea nodded.
"Yes."
She wanted to verify if she possessed talent for swordsmanship.
In her previous world, she undoubtedly had no talent for swordsmanship.
But now she had the setting of being a Sword Saint's descendant.
She wondered if this setting was real.
If it was real.
Based on what she knew about the Astrea Family from her memories, she should now possess considerably high swordsmanship talent, because the blood of the Astrea Family flowed within her.
However, it was also possible she was overthinking it.
Because all descendants of the Astrea Family had red hair.
And her hair color was still its original black.
So, it was also possible she was adopted.
However, precisely because she was unsure, she needed to verify it.
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