Jin sat at the table in the Adventurer's guild, staring down at sprawled out parchments. He whined as Marim slapped the back of his head with rage.
"Wrong! That symbol is for girl and that one is for bird." She growls out as she stands above him with eyes of a hawk. Lileen sips at her tea as she sits across from Jin at the table.
"You must be able to read basic Empirical if you want to be an adventurer. At least try the numbers again. Count from one to ten and point at each symbol." Lileen says gently as she tries to reach over to help him. Marim puts her boot up against the edge of the table, jostling the metalware atop it, then slaps Lileen's hand away.
"No helping him! He's lucky we aren't making him learn to write too!" Marim barks as she waits for Jin to start, eager for him to make a mistake.
Jin looks down at the symbols adoring the parchment. He reaches out towards a symbol but Lileen meekly shakes her head and Marim raises her hand with an eager grin. He points at another one instead.
"O-One?" Jin says as he closes his eyes waiting for the coming impact but it never arrives. He then continues on. Eventually mistaking the symbol for water with six.
It had been a week since Jin had watched his world burn away. Since then, Marim and Lileen had escorted him to the town they came from, where they brought him to the Adventurer's Guild. At first, Jin was wondering what he would do, but after some time watching the adventurers work, he realized that he had to become something similar.
"This one is elf and this one is human." Jin says to himself late at night as he tolls away. Marim had fallen asleep on the table in their inn room beside him and Lileen went back to her bed. But Jin remained awake, partly because he couldn't sleep without vivid nightmares and partly because he was determined to become an adventurer.
Three days later, Jin sat down at the table where Marim and Lileen were chatting. Marim grinned at the disheveled look on the boy.
"Well damn, sleeping beauty. You gonna sleep in all day?" Marim then chuckles and takes a swig of her protein shake. Lileen's hair had a few leaves and twigs in it as she sighed. Her eyes were half open as she took sips of her tea.
"Wh-What happened to her?" Jin asks as he sets down his roll of symbols. Marim glances at Lileen.
"She's just got back from a minor quest. Guessing it was pretty annoying." Marim says as she then turns and looks at Jin's rolled out parchments. "Still practicing your reading, huh? Need a push?" She asks with an evil grin.
"Actually, I understand them all now." Jin says with a proud smile. Marim and Lileen both look at him slack-jawed. Lileen shakes her head, knocking the debris free.
"So what's this one?" Lileen asks as she points at a random symbol. Jin looks at it and thinks for a moment.
"That one's the symbol for sword." Jin says with a smile as he holds out an imaginary sword and swings it around. Marim dodges his swinging hand with ease then takes a sip of her shake.
"And this?" Lileen asks with a look of shock as she shifts her hand to another.
"Ranger. Just like Marim." Jin says proudly as he holds up an imaginary gun and fires it off at imaginary monsters.
"W-Woah.. How did you learn this in a week?" Lileen asks as she leans back in disbelief. Marim doesn't seem convinced as she points at a symbol.
"What's this one?" She asks with a stern look. Jin comes back to reality and looks at the symbol, trying to recall it.
"Uhm, p-p-pick another one." Jin says tremblingly. He glances up at Marim who looks down at him with a fiery grin.
"This one is for house." She raises her hand and Jin braces, but her arm come down to lean on his small shoulder. "I see what you did, kid, you got some balls for thinking you could pull it off on me though." She says with a wide grin.
"Wh-What? What did he do?" Lileen questions as she looks at the two in confusion. Marim grins up at her.
"He memorized the ones that show up in the adventurer's exam first." Marim explains with a finger pointed at the title of the page. "This one's words are only for convenience; they don't show up on the reading test."
Lileen looks down at the parchment then puffs out her cheeks and crosses her arms.
"No cutting corners, Jin. You need to understand all of these words. Plus it's going to be months before you can even take the test. You need to learn to write these symbols too." Lileen explains with a wave of a finger. Jin nods with his head hung in apology.
"R-Right. Sorry." Jin responds. Lileen continues lecturing him as Marim heads out. She stops by the blacksmith, talking to the man holding a black iron hammer.
"How's it coming along, Marim?" The blacksmith says with a gruff chuckle. Marim grins and they clasp hands with a powerful handshake.
"Oh nothing, ol' man. Just looking to get a sword. Doesn't need to be anything fancy." She asks with a hearty grin. She puts a small purse of coins on the counter. The blacksmith opens the bag and looks at the silvers.
"This'll do. Want a pre-made one on the wall ov'r there?" The guy nods towards the wall of iron. "What do you need a sword for? Ain'tcha a ranger?" He asks as Marim heads towards the wall.
"Got a new kid. Thinking he might join the party so he's gonna need a weapon. We already have two ranged fighters so someone with melee abilities is going to work best." She says as she grabs an iron sword and inspects it before returning it to the wall.
"Well if it's your party, then I reckon he'd be fine with anythin'." The blacksmith says with a chuckle.
"Maybe. But a nice sword wouldn't hurt him!" Marim says as she pulls a sword off the wall, holding it up to her face to look at the glint and sharpness of the blade's edge. She grins, realizing she found the one.