Reborn as an Adventurer: I Gain a Skill From Every Monster I Eat

Chapter 85: Chapter 85 — The Guild’s Ledger

The summons came through Mina rather than a formal posting, delivered with the same brisk efficiency she brought to everything, though the specific request behind it carried more weight than her usual businesslike tone suggested.

”Garrick wants to see you,” she said. ”Guild Master’s office, whenever you’re free this week. Nothing urgent, from what I understand, just a review of your standing.”

Arlen found himself climbing the familiar stairs toward the guild hall’s upper floors two days later, a part of the building he’d never actually had reason to visit before — the one time Garrick had spoken with him directly, months earlier, the Guild Master had come to him instead, seated at his bedside in the guild’s medical wing during his recovery from Millbrook. This time, Arlen made the journey under his own power, curious rather than anxious about whatever the summons actually meant.

Garrick’s office carried the same understated authority Arlen had come to associate with the man himself — sturdy furniture, a few carefully chosen maps and records lining the walls, nothing ostentatious despite his evident standing. Garrick himself looked up from a stack of paperwork as Arlen entered, gesturing toward the chair across from his desk with the same unhurried, deliberate ease he brought to everything.

”Sit,” Garrick said. ”This won’t take long, but I wanted to handle it personally rather than through Lyra.”

”Is something wrong?”

”Quite the opposite.” Garrick set his paperwork aside, studying Arlen with the same patient, evaluating attention he’d shown during their very first proper conversation, all those months ago in a considerably less formal setting. ”I’ve been reviewing your record. Confirmed Awakened barely a year into your career. Multiple successful engagements well above your nominal rank — the goblin camp, the timber camp treant, the Ironpeak badger, an entire mountain pass surveyed alongside genuinely new species documentation. Escort work stretching as far as Ashford’s Crossing without incident.”

”I’ve had good people alongside me for most of it.”

”Modesty’s admirable, but I’ve heard similar deflection from you before, and I’ll say now what I said then — don’t let it obscure what’s genuinely true.” Garrick leaned back slightly, his weathered face carrying something close to genuine pride. ”You’re building toward something larger than what the Ashen Frontier can offer, Arlen. I’ve suspected it for a while. Lyra’s mentioned as much too, from conversations she’s had with you directly.”

Arlen felt the familiar, honest weight of the question beneath Garrick’s words, and found himself answering without any of his usual careful deflection. ”I intend to leave eventually. Not soon — I don’t think I’m ready yet, not fully. But eventually, yes.”

”Good,” Garrick said, with a directness that surprised him. ”I’d be more concerned if you weren’t planning that, honestly. Talent like yours doesn’t belong permanently confined to a single frontier region, however much this guild would benefit from keeping you.”

”You’re not upset by that?”

”Why would I be? The guild’s purpose isn’t to trap capable adventurers within convenient borders. It’s to help them grow into whatever they’re genuinely capable of becoming.” Garrick’s expression carried a quiet, settled wisdom that reminded Arlen faintly of Bram’s own old lessons, delivered from an entirely different vantage point. ”I’ve watched adventurers stay too long in comfortable territory before, afraid to test themselves against genuinely unknown danger. It rarely serves them well, in the end. Better to leave with proper preparation than stay past the point where staying still teaches you anything new.”

”How will I know when I’m ready?”

”You’ll know,” Garrick said simply. ”Or you won’t, and you’ll leave anyway, trusting the preparation you’ve already built to carry you through whatever uncertainty remains. Both approaches have their merits. I suspect, given your temperament, you’ll lean toward the former — careful, deliberate readiness rather than impulsive departure.”

”That sounds right,” Arlen admitted.

Garrick nodded, satisfied, and reached for a folder Arlen hadn’t noticed sitting at the edge of his desk. ”In the meantime, I want to formally offer you something the guild doesn’t extend lightly. Full transfer credentials, whenever you’re ready to use them — recommendation letters to any guild branch you choose, expedited processing regardless of typical wait times, and continued standing recognition of your rank and confirmed status across any branch in the kingdom.”

Arlen accepted the folder, genuinely moved by the gesture’s weight. ”Thank you. I wasn’t expecting this so directly.”

”You’ve earned it through a year of genuinely exceptional work. I don’t extend this offer to every adventurer who passes through the Ashen Frontier, only those I’m confident will represent this guild well, wherever their path eventually carries them.” Garrick studied him a moment longer. ”Take your time deciding when to use it. There’s no expiration on the offer, and no expectation you’ll rush toward it before you’re properly ready.”

Arlen left the office that afternoon carrying the folder carefully, the weight of Garrick’s confidence settling into him alongside the practical reality of what the offer actually represented — a formal, guild-sanctioned path toward exactly the future he’d been quietly building toward since his very first steps past the north trail marker.

He found Lyra in the hallway on his way out, and she studied his expression with the same careful, evaluating attention she’d shown him since the wolf pack mobilization.

”He gave you the transfer credentials,” she said, more observation than question.

”He did.”

”Good. I suggested he offer it, honestly, given everything I’ve watched you build these past months.” Something warm settled into her usually composed expression. ”You’ve earned it, Arlen. More thoroughly than most adventurers manage in twice the time you’ve been with us.”

”I don’t know when I’ll actually use it.”

”Nobody expects you to use it immediately. Simply having it, knowing the path’s genuinely open whenever you’re ready, matters in its own way.” Lyra’s expression carried a quiet sincerity that felt, in its own understated fashion, as significant as Garrick’s more formal offer. ”The Ashen Frontier will miss you, whenever that day comes. But I think we’d all rather see you become everything you’re capable of becoming, elsewhere, than watch you stay simply out of comfortable habit.”

Arlen thanked her and made his way back toward his own quarters, the folder’s weight settling into his pack alongside every other careful, hard-won piece of the life he’d built here — his journal, his growing collection of documented abilities, the accumulated record of a year spent proving, patiently and deliberately, exactly the kind of adventurer he’d always hoped to become.

He wrote briefly in his journal that evening, the entry carrying a settled, forward-looking clarity distinct from his usual careful reflection.

Transfer credentials, formally offered by the Guild Master himself. Not an expectation, not pressure to leave before I’m ready — simply confirmation that the path is genuinely open, whenever I choose to take it.

I think about everything this past year has given me. Formal Aura training, three named techniques properly mastered. A growing reputation built on genuine, careful achievement rather than luck alone. Friends who’ve become something close to family. And now, finally, a clear, guild-sanctioned door toward everything still waiting beyond these familiar borders.

I don’t know exactly when I’ll walk through it. But for the first time, I understand clearly that the choice is genuinely, entirely mine — not a question of permission, but simply of readiness.

Soon, I think. Properly soon this time.

He closed the journal, the guild hall’s familiar evening warmth settling comfortably around him one more time, and found himself, gazing toward the darkening horizon beyond his window, filled with the same quiet, patient anticipation that had carried him through every deliberate stage of this remarkable life — closer now, genuinely closer, to finally, properly beginning the journey he’d promised himself so very long ago.