I finished the academy with just the rank of F. I was thinking about going back home. Not only was it the norm for gnomes, but I was also labeled a waste of resources.

  To be without a party meant risking my life, or if I had it in me, risking my reputation by just being someone who did chores.

  I had nothing against those who practice this profession, but I still wanted to be more!

  I grabbed my doorknob and pulled the door open. Now that the results were out, there was little I could do.

  If someone was also F-ranked, maybe I had a chance to be accepted into their party, but if not, I would end up starving and in an early grave.

  Looking at my empty pantry, I knew that if I had to take the risk, I would go into a dungeon and loot the living stuffings out of it.

  But staying without a job was not something I could stomach.

  Now, I, Augustine, decided that it was all or nothing. And as everyone who has made such a decision knows, if I didn't start working on my physical strength and mind, I would end up at the bottom of the pecking order.

  It was time I did something for myself. It was time I played the long game. A guild was hiring everyone who asked.

  It was my chance.

  The only one I had.

  ****

  Something about this strange sea made me think that maybe I had a future as a fisherman.

  The only quest I managed to get was fishing. The guild I entered was a guild that didn't care much about me but needed someone to fish all day, which was a setback in my plans.

  It was pretty charming to fish all day, though.

  As I saw the other F-ranked adventurers near me, talking amongst each other, I knew I had to speak with one of them.

  A pink-haired fairy stopped next to me. The boy was around my age, handsome, if I had to say so myself.

  He looked older than he should have, but that was quite normal. I had no idea if he would want to party with me, but I did know that I needed to try.

  "Hello," I told the fairy. "Would you mind if we formed a party together? You also don’t have a party, do you?"

  Starting with the obvious was not the best tactic, but I still wanted to try my luck. Besides, he didn’t have a party insignia on his robes.

  "What rank are you?" the fairy asked me.

  “F,” I answered with more than a bit of shame.

  The fairy looked down at his feet.

  "I am Rank F as well. My name is Constantine," he said.

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  “Augustine!” I told him. It was funny that our names were so similar. I offered him my hand. My hopes were hanging on whether he would agree or not.

  No one wanted to deal with an adventurer who was not in a party. I was not brave enough to approach the others who were fishing for their guilds.

  He took my hand. Shaking it.

  I could have danced back then, but I managed to hold myself back.

  The quest was a fishing quota we had to fulfill to avoid being kicked out of the guild. We needed to catch about 100 fish, regardless of their size.

  I had no idea what I would do during that time, but I didn't want to wait for the fish to bite.

  "Can you please tell me a story?" I asked the fairy. "I always love it when other people tell me stories."

  It was a nice way to pass the time.

  He took a rune out of his pocket and placed it next to my ear, and I began to listen to someone telling me how to become a negotiator.

  "My father writes plenty of these," he said. "He makes them every day. I won't need them all.”

  That would explain why the fairy was not wearing shady clothing.

  "You will give me that rune, just like that?" I asked, lowering my voice.

  "It's not just like that," the fairy told me, smiling with a dimpled smile that was after my own heart. "This is my payment to you for taking me to your party. You see, I'm a buffer," he added, which was not what I hoped for.

  I had wanted a healer or a dedicated attacker. It was more realistic to think about this as someone with a stronger build.

  He was not so slim that he was skin and bones, but he was not big either.

  "Is that a problem for you?" the fairy asked.

  I shook my head. My prospects were very few, as they were.

  "Let's also try to learn through an apprenticeship," he told me.

  I repeated his name in my mind a couple of times. Constantine. Tine the Fairy. My partner. The only person who had accepted my party invitation in the last five days.

  "What sort of apprenticeship?" I asked, knowing full well that the boy, with his parentage, knew something about apprenticeships that I did not.

  "How about an apprenticeship in sales?" he suggested.

  I repeated the sentence in my mind but couldn’t understand it. Sales? We were in the business of bashing skulls, not peddling tomato paste!

  "What is that supposed to mean? We are adventurers. We don’t sell items."

  "No, wait. Hear me out," Constantine began, touching my shoulder while watching his fishing rod. "You'll be cheated while collecting loot if you're not good with sales."

  That was something I had never considered. I was no mathematician, but calculators were created for a reason. It would be easy for someone to cheat me.

  I would surely get swindled if someone explained a calculation without giving me time to use my calculator.

  "And one more apprenticeship will be useful," he continued. "We both should know how to patch wounds!”

  “That is pricey,” I countered.

  "Yes," he agreed. That surprised me. If he knew that it was that big of a roadblock, why was he agreeing?

  "If something happens to me, I want you to patch me up. And if something happens to you, wouldn't you like me to patch you up?" he suggested.

  It was a fair exchange. But I had one argument:

  "Wouldn't it be cheaper if you took the paramedic workshop? It would put less pressure on me, both money-wise and..." I trailed off. I was good at what I did - cutting things up and shooting with a bow.

  But healing was not an art I thought I could learn. It was too complicated. My parents were simple gnomes. The only education I got was the only free one- the Academy.

  And I was only let in because I could read and write.

  "Don't you believe in yourself?" Constantine asked.

  I thought for a second this might end our partnership. But he touched my shoulder and squeezed slightly, saying:

  "You should believe in yourself. I already do because you made the first step by talking to me. Even though I'm ranked F, you gave me a chance. So, if you believe in me, why don't you believe in yourself?"

  No one had ever asked me such a question before.

  I began to blink at him, then I looked away.

  Did I want to spend the entire day fishing to earn 1000 silver coins? Was that the life I wanted? I could live that life, but I couldn't thrive in it.

  Constantine had the right idea. We needed to make more money, join the paramedics, and play the long game.

  Get rich!

  Then, with more members, we could become a real party.

  I smiled.

  Ready to do this chore now, and to work as much and as long it was asked of us.

  Lady Fate couldn’t ruin our lives with a simple rank! We refused to play along!

  And so, our journey from F to SSS rank began!