The aura she emitted verified that claim immediately. It made Seth, who was over 50 levels lower, want to bow down and pay respect. Seth hated the idea of being forced to do nearly anything and so he resisted the bow with as much force as he could muster.
Seth did not mind paying respects, after all, she was technically his branch leader, but Seth hated bowing, so he simply refused to do it. If the branch leader had such low self-esteem that she needed to have everyone who entered bow, then Seth would rather take himself to the City Sect mission board and look for a mission to do there.
The branch leader looked at Seth, her brown eyes stared at him struggling against her aura. At lower levels, many are not told why they emit aura, but the branch leader knew exactly why she did, and she could stop it as well. It was an easy way to check the personality of the newbies, a simple test of will, so to speak.
She released her aura, learning that this was a particularly defiant one, and said, “What is it you want?”
Seth had to take a breath and for the first time since he entered the room, he got to have a look around. Needless to say, someone at this level was wealthy and this expressed itself in her room. Not in gold and gems but in ranked weapons and armour that seemed to litter the room.
They were everywhere, on armour stands, hanging on the wall, and laying on her desk. Seth learned a small characteristic of his branch leader and it made him wonder who made the mission he had.
“I would like to a mission. One that is over my level limit.” Seth was not an eloquent man, his words were not as graceful as a poet, nor as clear as a scholar but he liked to think he had picked up a thing or two from the politicians back on Earth. For as much as they were wonderfully corrupt, they were also great public speakers.
“You have a want and a problem, and I am here to solve the problem. What do you want me to do? Allow you to do the mission anyway, even considering your lower level, or should I show you why I set that mission to level 40+. You are aware that you can only enter my office every 6 months, yes?”
No, Seth had no idea. He just heard it was the place to go to if you had an issue. No matter, Seth should hardly have any other issues that he couldn’t solve himself, so he said, “Yes.”
“Alright then, the reason the level is set to level 40 is because of a certain mechanism they have protecting the item. Called a Soul Intimidator it pressures souls that come near it with pressure, much like the one you felt as you walked through the door. The first 75 levels focus almost entirely on the soul and are the reason that nearly nobody in a regular position is supernaturally strong.
The reason it's set to 40+ is because it’s what I thought was the level around which the intimidator starts weakening however you seem to be better than most at resisting it, so I’ll happily give you the mission if you tell me why that is?”
Seth didn’t really think it was a sensitive subject, so he answered her. “From my father, I grew up with his `suppressing me` as you did and so eventually I grew a mild resistance to it.”
The woman looked unsurprised; it was likely the most boring answer. “Fair enough, the mission is you just hand that sheet over.”
Seth handed the sheet over and the woman pulled a stamp out from her desk. Instead of a normal handhold, it was instead a handle one would usually see on a sword. Seth summed up that she was a fanatic.
“A nice reward on this one,” she said looking at the reward and Seth agreed. It was why he accepted the mission in the first place. A rank 10 Dagger, that was the reward for a heist into a Baron’s Mansion.
Seth thought he could do it, after all, he had already stolen from one Baron so another should be just as difficult. Thinking so, Seth answered the woman.
“Yes, rank 10 should be enough for it to last quite a while.” The woman smiled, she seemed to disagree.
“You can never have enough weapons, trust me, it's always good to have too much rather than too little.”
If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
Seth didn’t think she was wrong, it was merely just a privileged answer, so he smiled in return and walked out the door.
Seth then left the guild tower entirely and made his way back home. He had a month to rob this Baron and for now, he wanted to sleep.
The morning came and Seth woke to the sound of carriages and horses hitting their hooves on the stone roads. Even though he was 3 floors up, the sound seemed to not care about such a distance at all. Seth yet again felt envy for the guild's hideout. Those geniuses knew this issue and their answer was to go even higher!
Seth swore to get higher in the world, for his sleep!
Anyway, enough of his morning ramble. Seth woke up and got dressed, he wore his most outlandish clothing and brought a sketch pad with him as well.
He was going to write what he saw today, as every mission seemed to get more complicated than the last. With everything ready Seth set out down his stairs and outside his apartment building.
The stone road made Seth’s shoes far less messy, so he no longer needed a doormat. It was a small but nice change as scrubbing one's shoes clean was never a fun activity, especially doing it every day for months.
Seth walked down this road towards the noble district of Babylon. This time the security was not just for play and Seth had to actually plan his way in.
The wall separating the two was 2 stories high so Seth could not just jump over it and people walked the walls making sure nobody tried to do exactly that. Seth frowned and had to find another way in.
Seth could play dress-up and act, but they looked at the ID and specifically for an emblem every noble was given once their title was bestowed. So, She had to look for another way.
Seth watched as nobles entered through a gate, which was like the city wall entrance, but the guards had far better armour and gave of much more aura. One thing they didn’t check was the carriage of the noble, Seth assumed it because they were sneaking in mistresses but maybe he had read too many novels.
The best way, Seth decided, was to hang on the bottom of the carriage. Now Seth only needed to get on the underside of one. Seth went back into the city and looked for a noble carriage which wasn’t too hard after looking across the roads of the richer shops.
The coachman was meant to be looking out to stop this sort of thing, but most were just chatting, so Seth chose the one furthest from their chatter and climbed under the carriage. One thing he didn’t account for was how much strength it took and although Seth was strong he could only hang for 3 minutes and maybe 5 if he put his all into it.
Seth realised only then that it would be harder once the carriage was moving so he ditched that plan immediately. His next best plan was to somehow hide in the carriage, so Seth quickly snuck inside.
A noble's carriage was surely different, it was so spacious and instead of wooden seats there was lovely, ranked fur lining the seat making sitting down much more comfortably.
Seth looked frantically for a hidden compartment and almost immediately found an area where he could hide. Under the seats was space and so Seth climbed in and covered himself with his overcoat.
Thanks to his flamboyant dressing this morning he managed to cover his entire body with a dark blue coat. Seth waited in the darkness as he heard the nobles return. It seemed as though a group of friends went shopping and since they all were of the same class they were all nobles.
Seth was not shocked; this was fairly common In the handbook for noble politics. It was simply gaining connections in youth, which was morally ambiguous, but it helped a noble in the long run to have friends in similar places.
Seth heard the nobles shout at the drivers, but it ended quickly as each separated from each other and they climbed in their subsequent carriages. Seth heard his noble open the door.
“Idiotic idiots! How much do they think that poor viscount has left? Ah, god those idiots are going to drag me into their little blackmailing aren’t they.” A sigh came from the seat above him.
The driver finished loading the back of the carriage with the bought items, a place never thought of once and he started returning to his master's home.
The master in hand could not stop sighing, “Why did I have to make friends with such, such goblins. You insult them once and this is their response, I guess their fathers told them to send a message.”
Seth heard the voice and only then remembered he could have just climbed into a carriage of a level 100+. That would have been suicide but luckily he picked up a young noble and not an old monster.
Seth berated himself over such a large blunder. He was letting the name of his class down. The master continued his rant for a while and Seth got the point that this man was actually a pretty nice person. He felt guilt and anger at his friends only until he continued.
“You don’t blackmail them like that, it leaves evidence. If I had done it I would have left nothing, not a whisper. Father taught me to send a message but send it discreetly, I guess theirs missed that part out.”
Nobles were always the same, Seth had only momentarily been confused.
The carriage travelled on until it reached its destination where the master left and, after a second, Seth also climbed out.
He found himself inside the garage of a mansion. Seth was panicked, to say the least. He only was he in a high-danger environment he was also there for no reason before he could panic any longer he looked closer at the emblem on the carriage.