Getting ID'd
In a fraction of a second, the burly Guildmaster flew across the training field. While mid-air, he unsheathed the massive sword he had on his back and did a double-handed overhead slash down at me. If this hit were to land, I would undoubtedly be split in twine. Clapping my two hands together over my head, I pulled off a perfect sword catch. I wrapped my right gauntlet around the dull blade to hold it in place.
All my muscles started to flex and contract as I prepared to disarm the sword from this man. Seeing my intention, the man let go of the blade's hilt and disappeared. Allowing my sense to reach out, I tried to detect his new position. I heard him chuckle, "That is enough," from behind me as he patted my shoulder. Knowing the test was now over, I took off my gauntlets and returned them to my waste. I turned around to find the man circling Luna. One hand of his was twirling his mustache while he inspected her from all around, "You are quite impressive as well, Luna, my dear! You remind me of my wife when she was young."
Turning to look at me, he walked over and tossed the practice blade aside to a staff member who had now appeared. He took my hand, which was now empty, into a warrior's grip. "A pleasure to meet you, John. My name is Briggs. Sorry about the impromptu test of your martial prowess. But I am sure you know why it had to be done." Sighing, I replied, "Yes, no hard feelings." I wide smile broke across his face, partially obscured by his mustache as he declared, "Great! Let us talk more in my office."
Bringing us to his office, he seated us and put two cups of tea before us. The Guildmaster stepped out of the office for a moment once we were comfortable. We now sat alone inside the Guildmaster's office upon a leather sofa. I had stood and placed the adventurer's tags upon the Guildmaster's desk before returning to sit beside Luna and drink some tea. After confirming it free of poison, I told Luna she could indulge as well. As she daintily sipped her tea, I decided that this tea was most similar to English Breakfast. Waiting for our host to return, I looked around to admire his office. There were weapons of all varieties mount on the walls. Next to us, with the coffee table centred in front of it, was a large stone fireplace. The rug under the table was the fur of some grey-coloured beast of significant size.
I saw Luna's ears twitch at a noise, as shortly after, I could hear the footsteps of two persons heading towards us. The door opened as the Guildmaster returned. Following him was a woman we had not met before. She was the same height as Briggs, but almost as if she existed in contrast to him, she was very slender. Her lithe body looked as if though it belonged to a ballerina. Her graceful manner of walking, with which she sauntered across the floor, only made this image stick harder in my mind. My eyes took in every detail of the newcomer as I attempted to ascertain her role in the Guild. She had golden blonde hair tied into an elaborate braid, which hung down her back to just beyond the tailbone. Drawing my attention, I looked to her bare ears, which had a bit of a pointed tip to them; it made me wonder if she is a part elf or something? Noticing her dark blue eyes reading my own, I unabashedly continued to check out her body. My eyes ran down over the polished lines of her body. She wore a light bluish-white dress, which emphasized both sets of her modest yet perky assets.
"Enjoying the view?" she asked me with an unreadable expression as my eyes came back up to rest on her own. "No complaints here." I winked back at her. Snickering at my glibness, Guildmaster Briggs introduced us, "Our guests here are John the Magebreaker and Luna the Sharpshooter. And this associate of mine is Kyana Lorcell, a Chief Administrator of the Guild."
As I shook hands with Kyana, I asked Briggs, "How did you know our classes? Do you have the Analyze skill?"
"Bah, if I had Analyze, I would be the Guildmaster of a capital city, not a small town like this. I wouldn't be much of a guildmaster if I couldn't tell what class a man is after I just fought with my own two hands. As for the young miss, a Canus with a pair of spellrods could be nothing but. Plus, as I said before, she reminds me of my wife, Laurianne, a renowned Spellslinger."
"Kyana here is going to be in charge of getting you registered with the Guild. But first, tell me what happened and how you came to possess this slave." He said, a knowing look in his eye. "Fine, it all starts with me travelling through the woods..." I launched into an explanation of what had happened. I did not say that I suddenly showed up in the world. For now, my story is that I come from another land across the sea, and that is why I am ignorant of this land.
Going through the events that brought us here, I also concealed my ability to use my System. Luna's advice that it would make me indispensable to the Guild made me extra wary of revealing too much. As for what we did with our spoils, I insisted I had a storage item and asked Briggs and Kyana to promise secrecy. Upon finishing the story, the Guildmaster and Kyana inspected each of the tags. They tapped on them while mouthing an enchantment to bring up what appeared to be a holographic projection. I activated my Mana Vision to watch the process. I discovered the flow of mana that was required to activate this feature of the tags. Looking closer, I noticed that the words they were saying seemed to coincide with the mana forming inside their brains before flowing through their arms into the medallions.
Hmm, I wonder if the magic words are only needed to help the mind correctly channel the mana required for spells. If this is how the technique truly works, it reminds me of mnemonic subconscious programming used in learning and training back on my planet. I will have to do more research on this once I have a moment to relax. Finishing with their inspection, Kyana had taken a bunch of notes in a leather-bound ledger. I hadn't noticed until just now, but she was wearing a pair of silver-rimmed glasses. The round lenses suited her, making her look like a naughty librarian. Feeling a hard stare from next to me, I looked over to see Luna unwaveringly staring at me. Dang, I don't remember investing her points in any mind-reading abilities.
Looking to not find myself in a dog-house of my own making, I extended my right hand to her. Smiling, she grasped my hand and held it in her lap, her eyes now returning to the two folks in front of us. "Thanks for returning these tags to us. We will let their families and the guild clan these men belong to know of their passing. And their families can receive their possessions left in the guild bank, in addition to the payout for wrongly provided information resulting in death." Briggs told me, a new wrinkle of worry appearing on his brow.
"Did you know these men?" I asked the Guildmaster, attempting to uncover whatever was causing him this strain. "No, I did not know them. The clan they belong to, however, is known to me. I have known the clan leader since he was a wee lad. He is the nephew of the Guildmaster of Regrad, a dear friend of mine... Now I am just thinking of how to word the letter I will have to send to his nephew to explain this." Yeah, that sounded like a difficult letter to write when you knew the recipient personally.
"Now, for you two, let's get you taken care of so that you can get your IDs shown to the stressed looking guard outside and carry on with enjoying our beautiful town." Briggs grinned. "Kyana here will register you with the Guild, explain the rules, and I have also asked her to create the registration documents for your ownership of Luna. That way, you will have no problems in the future. Plus, you will have something to cathartically tear up when you do free her." Briggs shook each of our hands before leaving his office.
Next, we headed to a small room off the main hall. The Guild had designated this room to register new adventurers, and it housed one of the town's few status stones. The status stone looked as Luna had described to me. It was a flat tablet made of a dark black stone with purple gemstone veins running through it. Connected to it by what looked like copper wires was a metallic box about the size of a retail store's cash drawer from back on earth. The box had ruins carved all over it but was currently not showing any activity under the gaze of my Mana Vision.
Kyana directed me to put my hand on the stone. As I did so, I watched a mana tendril reach out and attempt to touch my skin. Once it was nearing contact with my skin, a barrier of magical energy formed over me; it stopped the tendrils advance and injected some mana into the tendril. After retreating into the stone, a display popped out of the slate, and I watched mana flow along the wires to the box.
The display showed most of the info that would be available to me through my System. However, this info was a heavily doctored version of my own, which hid the potentially alarming bits. I guess my ability to adjust what others saw worked subconsciously since it changed what I had planned to see if I could change.
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Name: John
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Age: 20
Class: Adventurer, Magebreaker
Level: 10
EXP: 640/10,000
Stats
HP: 200/200
MP: 160/160
Strength: 16
Agility: 14
Stamina: 14
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 10
Charisma: 10
Skills
Passive
Gauntlet Mastery (Level 3): The skill holder is an expert in handling, using, and maintaining Gauntlets as a weapon.
Active
Magic Vision (Level 1): The skill holder can see mana in the air, helping detect incoming attacks, hidden traps and wards, illusions, the presence of mana wielders nearby, etc. Cost: 10MP/min.
Dispell (Level 2): The skill holder injects raw mana from their body into an item in contact range, disrupting up to 1 ward, or spell that is being channelled or cast. Cost: 30MP.
Ground Smash (Level 2): The skill holder slams their weapon(s) into the ground, causing a wave of arcane magical damage, followed by the earth displaced by the Smash to hit into those in a 3M radius around the point of impact. Can cause targets to be launched upwards if the force is greater than their weight combined with their resistances. Cost 20MP.
Elemental Fist (Level 2): The skill holder can channel basic elemental attacks through their gauntlets. Discharging at contact range or being cast a small distance at reduced strength. Current elements acquired: Water, Electricity. Cost 20MP.
Hardened Skin (Aura) (Level 2): The skill holder has skin that can withstand glancing blows and weaker magical strikes. The skin also allows impact forces to be dispersed across the total surface area instead of just the point of impact. While active, the skill holder's skin has the consistency and texture of stone while still being flexible. Cost: 100MP Sustained.
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We then heard a ding from the metal box, as a drawer opened from the front. Reaching into the drawer, Kyana withdrew a newly minted metal tag. The tag was made of dull grey metal, and upon it was written a bit of the info from the stone.
Name: John
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Age: 20
Class: Magebreaker
Level: 10
Guild Rank: G (Candidate)
While I was examining my own, a similar tag was made for Luna. I paid attention as the tendril was allowed access to Luna's body. It touched her heart, gathered a bit of mana, and retreated. Luna's tag perfectly reflected her stat sheet that I could see through my System. She did not have anything on hers that needed to be kept secret like my own and proved her position as my slave. Next, we both had to place our hands on the metal box after Kyana had unplugged it from the stone. It printed another tag, this one specifying my role as Luna's owner and master. Kyana threaded it onto the same chain as her adventurer ID before handing it to Luna.
Suddenly yawning, I quickly apologized to those around me for my rude behaviour. Today had been pretty draining. "It is getting late." Kyana waved off my apology as she looked out the window at the slow setting sun. "How about we hold off on the explanations of the ranking system until tomorrow? Besides, you two still need to get some accommodations for the night. I recommend the Inn across the street. The Guild owns it, and I believe they should still have a few vacancies. Go see Emma there, and she will get you set up."
We left the Guild, now with proper identification in hand. Stepping out into the street, I turned to find Jeorge, where he sat on the bench with his eyes closed. I cleared my throat, alerting him of our presence. Shooting to his feet, he took our IDs and jotted down the info in record time before hightailing it back to the gate.
"Ready to go get some rest now, Master?" Luna asked me from my side. "Almost, but before we do, let's go shopping!"