The world had developed rapidly after the war ended. As all races helped each other and new discoveries on mana utilizations were found.
The urban cites had all sorts of facilities such as schools, hospitals, mana training centers, Cafes, even shopping places, etc. A lot of the developments were brought by the kings and thus the monarchical system in most countries.
There were also many magical places found by explorers and adventurers. And after learning about the potential treasures inside, many brave individuals entered, but most returned dead.
These places were named 'ruins' and 'Nests.' To stop the increasing deaths, the Adventurer Guild was founded having the support of the kings, it quickly grew to have monopoly of such resources.
Status in the Guild was only measured by your merits, achievements, and strength. Social hierarchy was not encouraged in the guild.
The guild branch in this refugee town, Bani, was in bad condition. This was because the town had no funds nor any powerful Ruins or Nests nearby worth investing into.
****
In front of the main gate of Bani, a young man was sitting in the waiting area, an area made for adventurers. He had shimmering white hair with few black and gold hair strands at the back of his head.
His dark blue eyes, the colour of the seas, with decent looks. With decently broad shoulders and height, his body was lean.
He wore a simple white shirt enchanted with defensive magic and black pants. His shoes also had magic engraved on them.
The pants had a variety of devices in their pockets. It was a product made especially for adventurers as it provided numerous pockets and spaces to house all their equipment.
On his waist was a sword like an Indian Talwar, but with no curved handle. The scabbard was black with elegant designs made in gold.
The handle of the sword was a bit shorter than a forearm. It was wrapped in fine white leather. There was nothing to differentiate him from any other human, but, he, was a demon.
"Oh, there they are."
He remarked as he turned his head to a group walking towards him. In the group, he was able to recognize a black-haired woman with brown eyes. She was wearing light armour of black and brown.
Two daggers were on her waist and her hair was tied to a ponytail. With black pants and brown shoes, she looked beautiful in the morning sunlight. Her brown eyes perfectly complimented her figure and attire.
Ray waved at them.
After they gathered, the black-haired woman, Kyle, introduced her team members.
Her team consisted of a shields man, an archer, a magician, and a dagger wielder (Kyle). The shields man was a male with an athletic build and medium size frame. He had light brown hair and yellow eyes. He wore a medium size metal armour. His shield was made of white metal and was comparatively small. His name was Matt and he had an amiable smile.
The Archer was a human girl named Lily. She had a slender build and wore light armour with her enchanted bow. She had blonde hair and blue eyes. Her bow had a faint glow around it that suggested that it was enchanted.
The magician had gray eyes and black hair. He also wore light brown-Armour. He had staff with crystal attached to it. His name was Tidlen. He also had awoken a gift.
Kyle introduced all of them and Ray introduced himself. And they headed outside the gates of Bani to hunt some easy animals as practice.
In the nearby forests, out side the town, they mainly hunted foxes, occasionally some wolves, which attacked them.
They had come to this forest, through a bus, and then walking out side a village. The bus used mana stones as fuel.
This hunting process was mainly for them to improve their working as a team. For Ray to get adjusted to their skills and habits and vice versa.
Kyle was less-spoken but very observant and she had many scars on her hands, meanwhile Lily was out-going but very focused while shooting arrows. Both of them were quite popular among the adventures, for their looks.
Tidlen was A bit reserved at first but then he was very informative. He was a demon, having wolf-like characteristics, but his specialties weren't much.
He could strengthen his nails and get sharper fangs to fight at close range. He said that most of their family were mages as they had better skill in weaving mana.
Matt was an amiable guy. He was a dwarf in name but didn't look much different than a muscular human. He didn't have a huge beard, he said it made it difficult while fighting.
"Though the ruins are a bit far from the town, everyone wants to enter it. It was struggle to get the pass."
Kyle explained as they boarded a vehicle to go to the ruins.
Ruin passes were given by the guild to prevent conflicts between adventurers inside the Ruins or the Nests. All parties wanted Ruin passes, even more so, if it was a newly discovered Ruin with untouched treasure. The competition would be fierce.
"These ruins are supposed to be the remains of a treasury of the dragons. So, we can expect to find some good loot inside. My gift allows me to easily cast detection magic and also weave magic more easily."
Tidlen said as he was the information gatherer of the team.
Magicians were people who used mana in different layers and symbols to 'cast' magic. They called it weaving of magic. Through different layers of mana, they could imbue different attributes to it.
To be a magician one needed high amount of mana control and not many are born with enough talent for such mana control.
Magicians and researchers were the main reason for the development of mana technology and are thus valued very highly.
"I don't really understand gifts. Are they that helpful."
'I have to act my part as a new A-rank.' Ray thought.
"Gifts are abilities that manifest in one's body when their mana level and control exceed a certain limit. This limit is different for everyone.
"Gifts make it easy for the person to perform some tasks. Gifts mostly manifest about things that the person has done a lot or things a person is innately talented in."
Tidlen explained a bit smugly.
***
After practicing and getting used to each other's fighting styles, the day of Ruin exploration had finally come. The group had taken a train to a village near the Ruins, the previous day.
Today, they had readied themselves, and headed of to the Ruins. To the Ruins of the dragons.