Arga pulled her sword from the Barhemoth’s body and shattered gems the size of my fist fell to the ground beside its corpse.

“I should clean this up before we leave.” I held out my hand. “Devour!”

The skill tree suddenly popped up in front of me. It opened to the Barhemoth branch and suddenly two more skills that were locked, now appeared to me. Although those two became unlocked, some new ones appeared around it, locked.

{Proficiency for Barhemoth skills has increased}

{Skill: Makrum Beam gained}

{Skill: Stein Guard gained}

My eyes lit up with excitement as I focused on the new skills I gained. The further I read into them, the more jolly my smile grew, to the point where it attracted attention.

“What’s got you all happy?”

I didn’t hear anything around me, it all sort of blurred out as I stared at the screen in front of me.

{Stein Guard Lv1} - {A shell of Barhemoth armour is created to shield the user. Only works against Mana attacks}

“This might be a game changer…I want to test it right now, I wonder if it can handle a blast from dragon’s breath?”

“Does he usually talk to himself like that?” Veldor asked.

Arga’s mouth curled into a giddy smile as she nodded. “Pretty much yeah.”

“I guess I’m the only sane one here…” He let out.

The sparkle in my eyes shifted over to the second bubble on the skill tree, one that brought less excitement. My expression stiffened and my eyes shot wider.

{Makrum Beam Lv1} - {User releases all their mana into one beam of focused energy. Doing so will leave the user without any mana.}

“This one’s a bit risky to use…if I end up missing, I might just take myself out of commission for nothing. Best to keep this one on hold for now then, right?”

“Hey! Are you still with us, we need to get going?” Veldor waved his hand in front of my face.

I pulled away from his hand and the screen vanished.

“Sorry, I just uh…got distracted by something. Should we get going?”

“That’s what I’ve been saying. Geez, pay attention would ya!”

“Ha-ha-ha…I’ll work on it.” I laughed it off.

***

Kana sat at the end of the room, facing towards a large desk where a man in a suit sat behind. Two men stood beside him. It was an intimidating presence, to say the least.

Both the men that stood there looked important, they were well-groomed and wearing highly priced uniforms. The one sitting opposite Kana was in a league of his own though, from the moment he sat down it was as if a man of impossible standing had entered the mix.

His eyes had been down on the papers on the desk since they sat down but then, suddenly he looked up to her. She locked eyes with him and flinched. The heavy bags under his eyes were on another level of sleep deprivation.

A workaholic like Kana mentally bowed down to her superior in the field of hard work.

“Alright then, Miss Mills I’ll get straight to the point. I’m a representative for ASH’s senior management and there’s a case we need more information on.”

Kana nodded in agreement, unsure if she could say anything at the time. She felt as though any words that came out of her mouth would have somehow landed her in trouble, or even worse, landed Rei in trouble.

It was completely understandable for her to react like that, after all, the person sitting opposite her wasn’t just her superior, it was her boss's boss. One of the heads of the whole organisation–speaking to her, a regular worker on the ground floor.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“I see here that your adventurer client, Rei Alos was involved in the Heaven's Gate incident on the Seventh Floor. That was good paperwork on your part, very detailed.”

“Oh…uh thank you. I just took down everything he said and tried to make it sound nice…sir.” She added.

She felt nervous and played with her thumbs over her lap. They rolled around in an endless circle trying to catch each other and matched the speed of her heartbeat. The pace quickened over time, nearly too fast for her fingers to keep up with.

“He did well to survive something like that, having only been a Rust rank. Seems a little odd, don’t you think?”

The lifeless brown tint of his eyes stared through her. She saw nothing but her squirming expressions reflected right back at her.

“...not really.”

“Is that so? Well, I do find it strange.” The man waved his finger to the men beside him without breaking eye contact.

One of the men at his side walked over to the door to the room and opened it, shortly after, someone new walked in. A man dressed in neat clothes with a bandage around his head.

The representative gestured to the new figure and continued his stare with Kana. “This is Migi Sunbrey, a member of Heaven's Gate. He happened to meet mister Alos briefly during the conclusion of the incident on the Seventh Floor. He had quite an interesting story about him in his report. Care to guess what it was?”

Kana’s head lowered, there was no getting around it.

“You’re…referring to his unique skill then, I presume?” Kana raised her head.

A new confidence surrounded her and all the nervous shaking in her hands had since left. There was a determined glint in her eyes, one that struck the representative once they locked eyes.

He was taken back and had to regain his composure.

“Ahem! So then you knew of this information and chose not to report it?” He asked.

“I did, for the best interest of my client.”

His brow raised and with a suspicious tone he said, “Explain.”

“This very meeting is the reason I chose to hide his identity. A matter of this importance caused someone of your position to meet with me, just for the sake of his unique skill. Had Rei been here, he would not have been allowed to continue with his ventures into the Tower until this matter was resolved. That same level of curiosity isn’t limited to ASH, the whole of Istoria will want to learn more about him.”

“Shouldn’t that be acceptable, do you believe fame is something to detest? Or perhaps…do you simply not like the rules set by ASH?”

“It isn't that I detest the rules or fame, quite the opposite.”

“So then?”

“It’s the hindrance to my Adventurer's progress that I detest,” Kana stated firmly.

Both men standing behind the desk winced, their eyes jolted open with surprise that she had said something so blunt, to her superior no less. Just before they could object, the representative replied.

“Is that so?”

“Yes, it is. With his identity in the public eye, especially after such an incident involving Heaven's Gate, he would have had no chance at returning to the Tower without a crowd of meddlesome adventurers to block his every move.”

The two men beside him were speechless. Their mouths hung open but both their stares were aimed at the representative.

He remained silent and joined his hands together over the desk, in front of his face. He rested his forehead against his hands and went into a deep thought.

Kana kept quiet, not a hint of fear on her.

“Do you realise that it is every consultant's obligation to report any skills and information on their clients in the personal files of said adventurer?”

Kana nodded. “I do.”

“Then you are aware that failing to do so and upholding information from the association is cause for termination, correct?”

“Yes.” She responded firmly.

…

“Well then…you should also know that the priority of every consultant is their adventurer's best interest. I believe that’s the case here, so there isn't much we can do about that.”

Kana’s stiff expression softened as the representative stood up and made his way to the door. She was at a loss for words and fumbled for what to do. It all ended so suddenly that she hadn't had the opportunity to process it yet.

“Sir…are you sure? This is highly irregular?” One of the men asked.

“Quite sure, I see no reason to pry further into something that’s going to go public tomorrow anyways.” he turned to Kana and grinned. “Miss Mills, continue the excellent work here at ASH.”

“Y-yes sir!” She jolted upright in attention.

As Michi and the other two men left the room, the representative turned back and caught Kana’s eye once more.

“If I can leave you with one more word of advice. Protecting him, it can only go so far.”

‘What does he mean by that? Did I do something bad after all?’ Kana pondered.

“His announcement as a unique skill user will go out tomorrow and all that attention you wanted to hide him from will come rushing in at once. It’s what comes after, that will make things difficult for him.”

“I don’t understand sir but what comes after?”

He let out a smile. “I’m sure you’ll figure things out for yourself soon enough,” he said as he walked out.

Finally, alone again, Kana was left with her thoughts. Only, she didn’t hang on to those thoughts for long. Kana dropped to the floor on her knees and melted down like a puddle, exhausted from that encounter.

She spread out across the floor, limp as a cloth.

“Never again…I hope I never have to act brave like that again!”