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Jisung had never really planned out his life much past "becoming an adventurer," but he did know that in order to do that, you had to get out and see the world. So no one in his life was really surprised when he had simply packed up what possessions he thought he'd need and marched himself off to the nearest available adventurer's guild, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, only for a big dose of reality to hit him full-force in the face.
The adventuring life was not for the weak, the half-orc behind the registration counter had told him, and asked after his qualifications. Jisung dutifully told him that adventuring was his dream, that he had systematically been training himself out of the things he feared (and failing, in some cases, but he didn't think he needed to mention that part), and that he felt that all he needed was a chance to prove himself. He then promptly fell on his ass when he took a step forward and caught his foot on a loose floorboard. The half-orc had laughed, not entirely unkindly, and told Jisung to come back when he had a little more experience under his belt.
So now Jisung was stuck with the spectacular problem of trying to figure out how to get said experience. He wasn't able to use the guild's quest board, and few people would be willing to hire an unknown, non-guild-registered adventurer. He could go pick some fights with the local wildlife, he supposed, but that just seemed like a dick move in a number of ways. Maybe one of the guild adventurers would let him tag along, if he asked nicely enough?
He took to waiting outside the guild hall for people to walk out, then approaching them and asking about their quests. Many of them wouldn't give him the time of day; several wouldn't even acknowledge his presence at all. Some of the nicer ones at least let him down gently, telling him their missions were too dangerous for a newbie. Only one person bothered to help him at all, and that was mostly just to point him in the direction of someone who usually hired low-level guildies for various fetch quests.
It wasn't his favorite option, but he had to start somewhere, right?
The client in question was an alchemist, and she was willing to hire Jisung without asking about his credentials with the guild. All she wanted was some simple potion ingredients, after all, and considering Jisung practically begged her for the opportunity and offered to do it for a lower cost, she couldn't turn him down. Over and over and over, he went off into the nearby woods or down to a local river to grab mushrooms or flowers or whatever other sorts of things one needed to use in potions. Or at least, the easy-to-get stuff. He wasn't stupid enough to think he could get powdered dragon bone or something like that on his own yet.
He saved up the coin the alchemist gave him until he had enough to buy a relatively decent set of armor and two shortswords in not-that-bad condition. Now he could at least look the part of an adventurer, even if the guild still wouldn't let him register (which he'd tried, of course, but the half-orc snorted and asked if Jisung even knew how to use his swords yet, to which Jisung had tried to prove that he did and only succeeded in getting one of them stuck in the edge of a table and cutting his hand on the other).
Ok, so maybe he needed some practice.
The guild wouldn't let him have access to their whole training yard, but they were at least willing to part with a single dummy on a post, one that was already falling apart and likely was only given to him because it was going to need replacing anyway. Jisung didn't care. He found a safe spot to set it up (and far enough away from any casual passersby that might judge him for his failures) and began what he thought was a pretty good start: swinging in wide arcs at the dummy's torso.
It only took about seven misses and three times of falling over before he decided that maybe he should switch tactics and try out stabbing instead. This was marginally easier to accomplish, though he still misjudged exactly how hard to jab the blade in--either he would go too easy, barely piercing the burlap, or he would use too much power and then have to fight with getting the sword free again.
This adventuring thing really was a lot harder than it looked, he thought. Maybe that half-orc at the guild was on to something.
He wasn't too proud that he couldn't go back and ask for occasional tips and tricks, which some of the veteran adventurers were nice enough to give when they realized he was serious about training. He picked them up more quickly than anyone anticipated, including Jisung, and within a couple of weeks he was able to at least stand his ground when sparring against a few rookies who agreed to test him.
Armed, armored, and with enough combat training to not get himself killed immediately, he went back to the same half-orc once again, who grinned widely, gave him a pat on the shoulder, and told him to sign the paperwork. He was now officially a member of the adventuring guild.
He was an adventurer!
Something else that he came to realize very quickly about the adventuring life was how much of it was just spent waiting: waiting for new quests to get posted, waiting for one that he could sign up for, waiting to see if anyone would ask him to tag along with their party. He started to learn which people were grouped up regularly by who they came in or left with. He tried to look for ones that didn't already have too many people or people with the same skills he had; he wanted to stand out, not double up on something.
He ended up doing a lot of solo fetch quests in those early days after joining. Once or twice he paired up with someone who didn't want to go alone, but the partnerships didn't last beyond the one quest. Jisung was excitable, prone to getting loud and running his mouth for probably longer than anyone really wanted to put up with him. It was fine, he figured. It just meant that those weren't the people he was meant to party with. One day he'd find his people, no matter how long it took.
It was getting a little lonely in the meantime, though.
One morning, about two and a half months after he'd officially registered, a quest was posted on the board asking for help with acquiring some bat guano for spellwork. And yea, he wasn't exactly excited about going to collect literal bat shit, but the nearest known place to find it was a day and a half's journey away, which would be the farthest quest he'd undertaken so far. It was an excuse to actually get out and adventure for a little while. Camp out under the stars and all that.
He ripped down the post and took it to the sign-up counter to claim it.
He set out within the hour. If he kept going until nightfall tonight or maybe a little longer, and got an early start in the morning, he should be able to make it to the caves where the bats roosted by tomorrow afternoon. Then he could get what he came for, set up camp again, and make it most of the way home by the third day. The worst he should have to deal with would be maybe a few wild animals, but he already knew that fire was a pretty good deterrent for most of those anyway. This shouldn't be a problem.
And honestly, it wasn't. He made it to the caves with no issues, and aside from a few fly-bys from the bats trying to get tangled in his hair, he gathered the guano with little difficulty. Hell, he even made pretty good time getting out of the caves and back into the forest between them and the guild hall before the sun had set. All in all, a pretty easy day.
He sparked up a small campfire and laid out his bedroll for the night, nibbling on some rations as he did. He had just crawled under a blanket and gotten himself cozy when he heard a sharp cry and what could have been the beating of wings.
He looked around in the dark, not able to see very far past what light the campfire emanated. But it was enough to notice an owl diving towards the ground at... something that moved very quickly. Whatever it was kicked up a few leaves and screeched at the owl, who flew back up and dove again. This time, it seemed to catch its prey in its talons and took off. Jisung saw movement of the captured creature struggling, and based off the tail, it had to be a squirrel.
Poor thing, he thought. But, you know, circle of life or whatever.
Moments after this, there was similar movement of the leaves at the base of a nearby tree, and he saw a tiny head sticking out from a knot in the roots. It was an even smaller squirrel than the one the owl had nabbed--possibly even that squirrel's baby. It started squeaking--whether from fear or looking for its mother, Jisung couldn't tell, he didn't speak squirrel--and he was afraid that the owl might still be hungry and come back looking for seconds.
Before he'd even really thought about it, he was kneeling down and carefully scooping his hands around the tiny squirrel, who surprisingly did not try to run from him. Maybe it sensed that he was no threat.
"Hey, little guy," he said quietly, trying not to spook the squirrel any more than it already likely was. "It's ok, 'm not gonna hurt you."
It looked so helpless and small as it stared up at him. Jisung decided right then and there that he wasn't going to let anything bad happen to his new little friend.
"You hungry?" He looked around on the ground until he found a discarded acorn and held it up. "Will this do?"
The squirrel immediately grabbed it and started trying to pry it open with its teeth. Jisung figured that meant yes.
"Well, that's all I've really got for now. We'll have to find you some more later." He carried the squirrel back over to his bedroll. "You can stay over here with me where it's warm. I'll look out for you. Hopefully you don't run away while I'm sleeping." He carefully set it down on his pillow.
The squirrel took a few minutes to finish its meal, then curled up on itself and seemed to fall asleep. Jisung was going to have to be careful not to accidentally roll over and squash it during the night.
"Good night, little buddy," he said. "Sweet dreams. Hopefully I'll see you in the morning."
When he next opened his eyes, it was light out, and the squirrel was still perched on his pillow, but wide awake and staring at him.
"Morning," he said. "Hang on, I'll see if I can find you some breakfast." He located another acorn and handed it over, watching fondly as the squirrel set to work cracking it open.
"I think I'm gonna call you Acorn, actually. What do you think?"
The newly-named Acorn responded only with a tiny chitter and the continued noises of its eating. When it was done, it climbed into his outstretched hand, then up his arm to settle onto his shoulder.
He smiled. "Nice to meet you, Acorn. I'm Jisung. Let's be best friends."
And so a friendship was born.