AN: Hi guys! This is my first fanfic story, and I just wanted to say I felt inspired by a lot of the other content creators for Overlord fanfiction (looking at YOU, atheistbasementdragon). Please feel free to let me know how I did and leave a review in the comments. I hope you enjoy!

The area before Barsik had once housed the former Adventurer's Guild Hall, but now the building had been torn down and something new had risen in its place. Far from marking the end of adventuring within their fortress-city of E-Rantel, the new adventuring headquarters appeared alive and well. New armored teams and individuals entered inside once every minute or two, even in the early pre-dawn hour at which his team had chosen to meet.

He was not an easy man to shock, but the tales of what lay within the rising structure before Barsik did just that. Reports of trials by combat involving monsters, elements, and labyrinth-like pathways. Beyond the overwhelming difficulty of assembling these tests, the unbelievable generosity provided by the new national guild was unheard of. Healing magic was provided immediately, even to the lowest level adventurers testing out their skills. And all of the training, tests, and aid provided by the guild would be for the most part – free.

"Hell, do they shack you up with a woman for free in there too?" suggested Gord, another of the party of four. Barsik, held back a grin and kept his gaze on the new Sorcerous Kingdom Adventurer's Guild Hall.

"Let's not have any of that when we enter this place. You know we're all here cuz we're piss-poor from not working for a season, and if they kick us out from poor behavior it'll be a hell of a ride to anywhere that's still hiring freelance adventuring teams. Besides," Barsik puffed his chest out, "We have a standing to uphold as a former orichalcum-ranked adventuring team. I think it's safe to say that we're all ready to be ranked under the new guild rules, so we can continue our service to the city, as well as to our purses." That last bit earned a light chuckle from his comrades.

Barsik turned his gaze to his another party member, Rane. "Did you hear of any other tidbits of information worth sharing before we check it out for ourselves? You know I don't like surprises. From what we've scrounged up so far I doubt there's much we could come across that would be more absurd than what the bards and taverns are saying about this place. But we wouldn't want to fall flat on our asses in front of the greenhorns just because they've had a couple months to practice..." Rane shook his head, as did their final member, Arkina, beside him. They had all heard the stories of this new guild, even from outside of the Sorcerous Kingdom. They had waited out the first months of the new guild's grand opening, not even a year since the formation of the Sorcerous Kingdom. Their purses could afford them the luxury to wait and make sure it wasn't a trap to lure the kingdom's adventurers to the Sorcerer King's indentured servitude. But now curiosity and pursuit of good fortune brought them to these doors.

A bit of prior research had revealed that the guild held short 45-day long seasons in which adventures must have their strengths be reappraised before they could take work through the guild that month. To Barsik and the rest of his team, it seemed quite wasteful to require use of the adventurers' time so often, but it played to their advantage. All, or most, of the talent in the city would want to test themselves as early as possible in the season, and that meant that the majority of the talent in the city could likely be scouted in the busiest hours of the first day of the season. Barsik's team knew this, which was why they stood in front of the guild on the first day of the fire season, and the first day of the next adventuring season.

There was nothing left but to verify the rumors for themselves, so the former orichalcum-ranked adventuring team Berserk entered the guild.

Barsik hesitated a moment in the entryway, then advanced to the line queuing in front of what he could recognize as the receptionists' counter, followed by the rest of his teammates. His hesitation was due to the fine carpeting he needed to step on to do so. It was a wonder how the soft and luxurious floorpiece remained so clean with hundreds of adventurers treading over it daily, and he concluded that it must have a minor enchantment on it. This show of extravagance was certainly a step up from the previous guild hall, but as he glanced around the main body of the building about him, Barsik realized that the piece hardly stood out from the rest. A series of lamps of continual light decorated the walls and kept the room much brighter than the pre-dawn light had been outside. Some tapestries and weapons – though they were more like art pieces than functional tools of war – caught the eye across some of the otherwise blank spaces of wall. There was a new built-in counter on the far wall with the apt title Sorcerous Kingdom Runecraft displayed above it on a banner. On display were some fine sets of armor in a variety of makes and sizes. Barsik knew now wouldn't be a great time for shopping with his party's light purses, but the gleam of some of the medium sets of armor's glowing sigils certainly caught his eye. The shop also had a display of potions of various colors – blue, red, and a sort of purple were prominent. 'Poison?', Barsik wondered. He wasn't certain he well knew the character of the new nation, but that seemed a bit extreme to have on display in such a public area. That said, the previous guild policy had been no tradesman endorsements of any kind, so even having a shop at all in the new guild seemed strange. Beside the armor shop was the bulletin board for currently unfulfilled jobs, much unchanged since the old days. But from the gathered intel he knew that no jobs could be taken until adventurers registered and underwent the seasonal evaluations, so Barsik would lead his team through that process before considering current jobs.

It wasn't long before it was their turn to be seen, and a receptionist beckoned them over. To his surprise, it was a familiar face. "Darla?" he asked, and she smiled politely. Barsik was of the persuasion that it was always important to remember the names of even minor figures within organizations that he did business, and it seemed that he was in luck. He'd remembered this receptionist from the old guild, so it appeared that some of the workers had stayed over into the new system. He hoped that it was by choice and not by force, but if appearances were anything then at least she was living well and had good working conditions. Now, would his former associate provide him any interesting information about the goings on of this new system?

"Former orichalcum-ranked Berserk, I am happy to see you after these few seasons, I hope that you are well? May I assist you in registering with the Sorcerous Kingdom Adventurer's Guild?" she asked politely.

"Hell, that's why we're here." Gord commented. He didn't seem in a particularly happy mood about a lot of the recent changes to the guild, but it was clear that he was also relieved to be working with a familiar face.

Darla nodded. She took out a thin piece of paper and quill, and offered them a serious face. "Sorry about the formalities, but it's policy to take down all the information verbatim even from known associates. Now, party name?"

She continued to ask some basic questions about the party. They would keep their current party name, Berserk. There were four party members. They wouldn't need any information about the city, but would like an introduction to the new evaluations and ranking systems of the guild. Curiously, she asked for a short introduction including the name of each party member, age, and their main fighting weapons. So he began.

"Barsik Yarer, 32, close range fighter. Great sword, backup weapon's a mace-and-chain and shortsword. And there's this," he said, indicating the shield at his back. It didn't weigh nothing, but he'd thanked his lucky stars he could depend on some of the protection it provided. Once, Barsik had heard an arrow ping loudly off of the upper back of the shield he carried, and he swore then to never enter unknown combat without it.

Darla indicated she was ready for the next group member, and he began. "Gord Een, 35, warhammer, spiked warshield."

Next, "Rane Jir, 27, bow, shortsword, dagger."

Finally, "Arkine Astar, 25, just my staff."

Darla gave them a smile as she finished filling out the document. She left for a moment, returning with four strange metal plates. Gord groaned, "Don't tell me we're starting as iron-plates."

The receptionist shook her head. "No, it'll be up to your own performance evaluations what rank you start with, though I doubt you'll be that comparatively low. Do you see those doors over there?" She indicated to two doors to the right of the counter, the close one labeled Individual the other Party. "You will all enter the door on the left, and follow through the next open door to the evaluations hall. There you'll have the option to test your strengths at a variety of booths individually. Don't worry if some of them don't play to your strengths, only your top three scores matter to determine your final score. Once you've finished that you should each be qualified enough to enter one of the individual combat rooms. Your performance there will determine what ranked rooms your party will be able to enter."

After this description, Barsik wasn't the only member of his party showing visible confusion. What was the point of all these tests? Darla nodded, and explained further. "The point of all of this is to make sure that adventurers don't try to tackle harder problems than they can handle, similar to how the ranking system of the former guild wouldn't allow a copper plate to take a quest meant for a gold rank because they could be hurt or worse, and the job may not be satisfied. Well within these walls there is a guarantee that all sustained injuries will be healed and death is guaranteed to be impossible, but we still don't want inexperienced adventuring parties to attempt rooms they're not prepared for." Barsik understood. He had no doubt that whatever "rooms" the guild had available for training purposes would pose no difficulty to his party, which had been second only to the well-known adamantite-ranked adventuring parties and perhaps a few other orichalcum-ranked ones in the past. But it made sense that they would have to prove themselves before entering such trials, so he nodded his assent. Seeing this, the receptionist moved on.

"For an example, let's say that one of you earned a 3, a 3, and a 4 as your top scores in the Evaluation Hall. The first-level combat room needs at least a total of 5 points to enter, but with 10 points you'd be allowed to skip to the third level room next to it. The rooms are connected inside, but only odd-numbered rooms may be entered from the outside, so either 1, 3, 5, etc. Another way to reach the higher level combat rooms is to just enter into a lower level room and reach the higher ones the hard way, so to speak. Regardless, all party members must pass through at least one individual combat room before they can fight with their party through a party room." She gestured to the far door labeled Party. "Party rooms are also ranked in increasing difficulty, and the average individual combat room completion number across all party members must be equal to or higher than the party room level to enter."

Barsik realized something. "So that means parties are punished for weaker members, almost like dead weight. If one of the members can't complete solo rooms by themselves, then their rank makes it so the whole party might have a lower average and not be able to advance. Plus a truly weak party member might not be able to join the group at all, if they didn't qualify for or couldn't pass any of the combat rooms."

Darla nodded. "Correct, although a party is allowed to advance to the next room regardless if all party members have successfully finished the prior level of that party room category. Which brings me to the next subject – Plus memberships. The standard guild membership allows the party access to the first category of group combat, the Dungeon. In order to accept quests from the bulletin board, a party must have at a minimum completed the first level of the Dungeon scenario. More advanced quests may require higher levels of the Dungeon scenario, and they may also require additional categories of group combat scenarios to be competed before a party may accept the quest. The way to gain access to these rooms, and some other benefits as well, is through a Party Plus membership with the guild."

Barsik raised an eyebrow. What the receptionist appeared to be saying was that you needed to pay the guild first before taking more lucrative job offers, which might defeat the purpose. He decided to clarify, "And how much exactly does a Plus membership cost a party?"

She shook her head. "Nothing in gold, sorry if I implied otherwise. I forgot you're new to the city since recent changes. No, the membership requires no monetary fee, but rather one of time and effort. It enlists a new concept put forth by the Sorcerer King called 'community service' that Plus members must provide to earn their statuses. The Adventurer's Guild provides connections to local service opportunities within the city and surrounding lands to work on public welfare and construction projects, which adventurers contribute to to gain Plus membership status. This status lasts for a month before additional service is required for renewal. And in addition to unlocking additional party rooms and thus additional quests, the guild also provides a 20% discount on all Runecraft and potion items purchasable within the guild hall, and forfeits the previously customary 20% quest fee for services rendered."

That last part made Barsik want to clean his ears to see if he heard correctly, and he fought not to show the shock he was feeling. To release the normal Adventurer's Guild fee would be a substantial increase to the prize for any completed quest. It would be like suddenly having a 5th party member, but not having any change to how rewards were normally divided between the them, or performing 4 jobs instead of 5 with the same pay. Depending on what sort of services these 'community services' entailed, it could be well worth the lucrative Party Plus reward. It would definitely be something worth consulting the receptionist for, but before that the party would need to go through the evaluation process regardless. Since the receptionist had said local adventurers were well accustomed to the Party Plus system, it would likely not be difficult to dig up information from other sources on how worth it the troubles were.

Lastly…

"Thank you for your help Darla, we are most grateful. One last thing I would like to ask if I could… beyond the changes we've talked about, is there anything else I should know about how the new guild operates? How have some of the other veteran teams reacted to these changes, and is there anything we should be on the lookout for? We don't like surprises, and this new nation seems ripe enough with those to satisfy me for a few lifetimes." Barsik finished. He knew she'd probably told him everything she was supposed to, but since he knew her from before, it was worth seeing what that was worth.

Darla's face changed slightly from a more professional smile to knowing look, but she didn't look worried or upset at the question. "Yes, much has changed since the Sorcerer King came to power, but I must say once you get a good look around the city you'll see most of the changes have been for the better. You ask what other veterans like Berserk have been saying and I can't get too detailed about what lies in store, but I will say that some of the new quests are quite...extravagant." Her eye had a small twinkle, but it didn't look like she would go on further. Barsik thanked the receptionist for her time, and they advanced onward.