The first floor of the Wild Hunt Guild was in complete shambles. Over two dozen dogs ran amuck, knocking over tables, wasting food and drinks alike. They chased off guests, relieved themselves all over the place. Runa and Sarra, accompanied by the Guild Master Serhan and Cailey, the receptionist, came down from the top floor to witness the chaos.

Cailey and Sarra found it amusing that a bunch of dogs managed to cause such an uproar in the building. Meanwhile, Runa and Serhan saw it as anything but entertaining. Several dogs made a mockery of the trained Hunters in the organization by chasing most of them off. Such nonsense couldn't stand.

Runa wondered why her Guild Master bothered having so many dogs if he couldn't even control them in the first place.

The guild members scrambled around the mess hall, trying to capture as many of the dogs as they could. Soon enough, all eyes turned to Runa. The one-eyed Huntress knew what everyone expected of her. She hated that she had to be the one to do it.

Begrudgingly, Runa wandered over to the center of the mess hall and placed two fingers in her mouth. The sharp whistle from her caused all the dogs to stop and turn their heads toward her. With their undivided attention, she squatted down and called out to them with the hopes that they would approach her.

She flashed the brightest smile she could muster, at least from her perspective. From the viewpoint of the dogs, however, they stared into the face of death. The Huntress exuded an ominous presence. One that frightened the dogs back upstairs.

Laughter filled the entire building as the guild members pointed their fingers at Runa, enjoying the moment at the expense of their guildmate.

Despite the woman's occupation as a Huntress, she loved animals. Unfortunately, no animal that Runa has encountered had ever reciprocated those feelings. Because of her imposing demeanor, most animals fled at the sight of her.

"I hate everyone," Runa complained, hiding her red face of embarrassment after the laughter died down.

Serhan stepped forward and gathered everyone's attention with a loud, clap of his hands. With all eyes on him, the Guild Master spoke, "Good afternoon, everyone! Forgive me for the sudden commotion! Someone decided to open my door without permission! I won't name any names..."

The Guild Master slowly turned his head toward Runa. His action wasn't subtle at all, but Runa didn't care.

Cailey took a step forward and decided to take over the announcement, "Now then, everyone, we have someone here that would like to join us!" The receptionist pointed to Kyros, who'd remained quiet and kept to the back of the room. That tactic of his didn't last long when the woman called him out. The Hunters found him within seconds. He stuck out like a sore thumb.

Questionable gazes traded around the mess hall, as did skeptical murmurs. Sure, they watched Kyros' sparring match against Cailey earlier. They acknowledged his strength and endurance. But, was he worthy enough to join them?

"If no one has anything to say, we'll go and get him registered." Cailey walked over to Kyros and grabbed him by the arm, effortlessly dragging him toward the basement. Serhan, Sarra, and Runa followed them.

"Not much for warm welcomes, are they?" Kyros sarcastically asked.

"What didya expect? For 'em to roll out the red carpet?" Runa responded with a sarcastic remark of her own.

"No, I didn't." Kyros shook his head.

"Don't worry about them, Mr. Kyros. They'll warm up to you eventually," Sarra optimistically said, believing wholeheartedly in her words.

"So, how this registry process go?" Kyros asked.

Eventually, the group reached a white room down in the basement. A few chairs resided around a large crystal ball in the center. Sarra and Runa occupied some of the chairs while Cailey and Serhan stood by the crystal ball.

"We'll start by gauging your Praus," answered Serhan as he placed his hand on the crystal ball. It shined along with his body once his Praus activated. The energy from the Guild Master swirled inside of the crystal ball until it finally settled—eventually flowing inside of the ball as if natural.

"In this exercise, it doesn't matter how many limiters you have unlocked. We would like to know how much control you have over your Praus," Cailey continued with the instruction.

"You’d be surprised what you can learn about a person when you see how they control their Praus. I’m curious to see how you do it." The Guild Master chuckled.

Kyros didn’t seem to notice, but that was one of Serhan’s subtle ways of information gathering. Some truth laid within those words of his. How one controlled their Praus was very important in life. The method didn’t matter.

It was all about control.

"How much do you want me to pour into it?" Kyros asked.

"However much you feel is necessary. Just make sure not to destroy the crystal ball. It costs a lot of Axia, you know." Serhan complained before he turned his head in Runa's direction again. The man was the type of person that never forgot the past. He held grudges, that much was certain.

Kyros stepped forward then placed his hand on the crystal ball. His body glowed a light-blue as his Praus poured into it. Like the Guild Master, it swirled around in the crystal ball.

However, it never settled. It remained turbulent.

Kyros gritted his teeth and placed his other hand on the crystal ball. More Praus poured into it, but the result remained the same.

"Okay, that’s enough," Serhan called off the exercise.

Kyros reluctantly removed his hands from the crystal ball. "So, how did I do?"

"Your Praus control needs some work. But overall, you did well. You kept your Praus contained in the crystal ball. Sure, it never settled like mine. But that doesn’t matter." Serhan said. "You can’t expect to master it on your first try."

No one saw it physically, but everyone sensed the smug smile from behind the mask of the Guild Master. While arrogant as ever, no one questioned the validity of his statement. The exercise required refined Praus control, something that very few people naturally possessed.

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"You did better than Runa when she first arrived. She shattered the entire thing on her first try. Poor girl," Cailey shamelessly leaked the embarrassing information to Kyros.

"Cailey!" Runa snapped at her.

Kyros fought off the urge to laugh, knowing that doing so in front of Runa meant certain death.

"What happens now that I've done the exercise?" Kyros inquired.

"The crystal ball registered your Praus’ wavelength and compared it to everyone else that touched it. It will compare you amongst them and rank you. But I'm the one that has the final say in your rank." Serhan revealed.

"I understand. Thank you very much for letting me join your guild in the first place." Kyros nodded his head.

"You’re not officially in the guild yet. The crystal ball takes an entire day to rank you. You’ll be a member tomorrow." Runa informed him.

"Then I will come back tomorrow." Kyros seemed all too delighted by the news. He was one step closer to completing his goal.

"Excellent! Can’t wait! You’ll receive your identification card and your guild mark tomorrow!" Serhan threw his arms up in the air. "For now, you’re free to do as you please! Why not go on and explore the town for a little while?"

"Yeah. I guess I’ve got time to do that." Kyros accepted to master’s suggestion.

"Runa and Sarra will serve as your tour guides." Serhan roped them into something unnecessary once again. Runa opened her mouth to protest, but the man continued to speak, "I hope that you find the town as interesting as I do."

"Believe me, I already do." Kyros looked over at Runa and Sarra, "Well, shall we take that tour around the town?"

Runa lowered his gaze to the floor and heaved a sigh. No matter what she wanted, it would never come true. She wasn't the one in control of the situation.

Fighting against the wishes of the Guild Master was like trying to swim against the tides of the ocean in a raging storm. Ultimately, she accepted the flow of the events and nodded her head. Everyone in the room beside her seemed excited. Runa decided that she'd play along with their little game at that moment.

However, she refused to let them manipulate her throughout the entirety of the game. Sooner or later, things would go her way.

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The dreadful tour went on for hours. First, Runa led Kyros through the Guild, getting him familiar with the building. Afterward, they walked through the town. They mostly visited several stores in the shopping district, clothing, food, weapons, and other miscellaneous places.

The tour came to an end once the sun lowered and the street lights came on. Most of the townspeople went to their homes, and many guards patrolled the town. Some of the guards wore official uniforms presented to them by the Mayor of Anemone Town, while others were clearly from the Wild Hunt Guild.

Anemone Town mainly promoted safety as one of its attraction points. That was the case for the most part. Not many monsters wandered into the town out of pure instinct, and Varvara rarely appeared as well.

"Tour's over," Runa stopped in the middle of the road and faced her followers, Kyros and Sarra. "We'll be splittin' up from here. Sarra and I are goin' back to the Inn."

As the woman turned on her heels in full preparation to leave, a hand reached out and grabbed her wrist. Runa looked over her shoulder and saw that the culprit was Sarra.

"Runa, we should at least offer him a place to stay for the night before leaving." The little girl sternly suggested. Runa tried to shake her hand away, but the girl had her in a vice grip. She refused to let go until her partner relented.

"Fine," Runa sighed and gave in to the wishes of his partner. She led the others to the Inn and left Kyros to acquire a separate room for himself. There was no way she'd allow him to stay in the same place as them.

Unfortunately, the only room available was the one right next to theirs. How much shitty luck did Runa have?

When the girls got themselves settled into their room, Sarra immediately fell asleep. She'd had a long day, so Runa was sure to let her get as much rest as she could. Quietly, Runa left the room and headed next door to speak with Kyros. There was much she had to say to the man.

If they were to stay in the same town, work under the same organization, then she had to set some strict ground rules for him to follow.

"Coming into my room this late at night, Runa?" Kyros let the woman into the room. While she made herself get comfortable on his bed, the young man removed his armor and set it against the nearest wall. "People are going to talk,"

"Funny," Despite her comment, Runa's face showed no outward expression of humor.

"You know, it wouldn't kill you to laugh every once in a while," Kyros suggested. The only times he'd seen the Huntress crack a smile or laugh was always at his expense. Did she even have a sense of humor?

"Since when did you decide to join Wild Hunt? I doubt that it was a spur of the moment decision." Runa began with her session of questioning. She didn't plan on leaving until she got all the answers she wanted.

"It was a few weeks ago," Kyros answered.

"Why? What does joinin' Wild Hunt have anythin' to do with your mission?"

"Probably nothing," Kyros scratched the back of his neck. He received a familiar glare from the Huntress as a response, but he continued nonetheless, "But that doesn't matter. I didn't join with my mission at the forefront of my mind."

"What was it then?" asked Runa, not finding any sense in Kyros' reasonings. Regardless of his intentions, she didn't want the man to make a mockery of her guild. Everything that he did while under the banner of Wild Hunt would affect the organization's reputation.

"I'm looking for someone," Kyros solemnly answered. His gaze moved to the window. "This is my best opportunity to search for them. The council hasn't yet given me an accurate time frame of when to return to Soteria."

"So, you're gonna take advantage of that and search for that person?"

Kyros confirmed the woman's assumption with a nod of his head. "That's right. By traveling around the continent, hunting down monsters, I may find that person. It's a long shot, I know. But it's better than nothing."

Runa closed her eye and nodded her head in understanding. She didn't want to question him any further on that subject. As far as she was concerned, he wasn't there to spy on the guild. Well, that much she knew from the beginning.

"Guess the least I can do is wish you good luck," Runa said.

Kyros' eyes widened, not expecting a nice thing to leave from the foul-mouthed Huntress. "Who are you? And what have you done with Runa?"

"And you wonder why I’m not that nice to you." Runa rolled her eye.

"Perhaps it has something to do with this?" Kyros raised his hand and showed the Huntress his Exousia Brand.

"Show off,"

"I didn't choose to become an Exousia."

"I know. Neither did I." Runa averted her gaze from him, knowing that she'd have to get to the nitty-gritty topic of the conversation. "Listen, tomorrow mornin'; you'll become an official member of the guild. So, through unfortunate circumstances, you'll become a member of the family."

"I think I remember some of the guild members mentioning something like that earlier," Kyros nodded his head. "Is there any particular reason for that?"

It was an odd concept for him. An organization of Hunters referring to themselves as family members. If that's how deep their level of camaraderie worked, then he wasn't going to judge them.

"Most members of the guild don't have a family of their own. Either they got abandoned as children or orphaned due to unfortunate circumstances." Runa answered and locked eyes with Kyros, wanting to get her point across as sternly possible. "It isn't always about blood connections. Sometimes, people wanna belong somewhere."

"I understand," Kyros moved his hand to his chest, knowing all too well about someone's desire to belong somewhere. He wasn't welcome in his home nation. The Soterians made that fact clear to him. "I hope tomorrow you'll start treating me well since we'll be a family."

"Don't push your luck," Runa shook her head. "You'll be a Wild Hunt member, but no one will trust you that easily."

"I'm already used to that," Kyros nonchalantly mentioned, thinking back to his days back in the military academy. Even as a student or soldier, he always had to watch his back.

"Also, make sure to keep Sarra and I out of your personal business. We have no interest in helping you with your mission." Runa stood up and headed for the door. "Remember, we're trying to keep a low until we reach the final eight of the God Selection. You're the First Exousia, so no doubt you'll bring danger to this town and the guild."

"I'm sorry," Kyros lowered his head. He hadn't considered that possibility at all. His presence anywhere brought danger to anyone and everyone around him.

"It's far too late for that," Runa sighed, knowing that there was nothing else she could do. Plans were already in motion. There was no stopping them now. "Just leave us alone, and we won't have any more problems, understand?"

"I understand."

"Good." With that parting words, Runa left the room, leaving Kyros to contemplate his next course of action.