I’ve been sifting through my surprisingly normal Class options for some time when Nyx interrupts my fun.

(Philip has been waiting long enough, we need to go back.)

So you can dote on him?

(Be fair. You get hungry too. He’s probably running out of food by now. Nobody else is coming home for him.)

Whose fault is that?

(Yours.)

Ok, yeah. Can’t really deny that one, I sigh. Can I just –

(Taking a Class can write a large amount of data to your Akashic Self. There’s no way for us to know if you’ll be out for an hour or days.)

That long, eh? Well, fine. Not like there’s much more I want to do here… Although…

I head downstairs, using a lure as a body. At this point Mimir has blabbed enough about me to at least satisfy his superiors so they wouldn’t storm my room while I was evolving, I’m sure it’ll be fine. I can’t exactly drag my henchpets along, they’re still painfully recovering from having been at ground zero of my unrestrained aura.

Speaking of Mimir, he’s my goal. I quickly find him, which isn’t difficult considering the lady at the desk takes one look at me descending the stairs and takes off like a bolt for the back. She comes back with him in tow before I’ve even reached the bottom.

“I see you’re getting bold, downright brazen now, yes?” the seeker of knowledge comments.

I shrug and answer. “You could say that I guess, the ghost is already inside the house anyway. But I want a favor, I think I know a way to pay for it that you’ll like.”

“Ho? Do go on.”

I spend the next few minutes explaining to him how he should be very happy to pull strings and register me with the guild so I don’t have to proverbially wear one of my pets and hide as a piece of jewelry if I want to enter one of the districts, or a town or settlement in a less populated plane. Mimir was skeptical at first whether it was a good idea, but he caved relatively quickly once I told him that I had a Skill that simulated the advanced passage of time. See, I’d had the idea this morning to use it to speed certain things up where the passage of time was a desired result, and Nyx helpfully pointed out that the other ascendant had an alchemy set among the tools in his laboratory. That meant I just had to sell the idea.

Once the implications set in, he actually was happy to arrange guild membership – after the successful use of my Skill. The test he arranged was a potion recipe that requires a full year’s aging and fermentation to reach efficacy. What’s it for, you ask? I have no idea, he wouldn’t tell me. Oh well. It could be the plane’s strongest liquor or god-slaying poison and I wouldn’t care. After half an hour and most of my mana, the project was finally complete and so we made our way back to the lobby. The unfortunate receptionist recoiled at my presence again – does my aura not fully turn off or can people just tell it was me?

(Your aura is definitely off, but you still unquestionably give off that aura of malevolence. You still have that title, remember?)

Ah, right. Anyway, Mimir is quick to cover for it.

“Hello Misty. This is Nemesis, a research colleague of mine. They wish to register with the guild, would you please make the arrangements?”

“It’s… it’s a monster, right? It feels like the –“

Mimir holds up a finger to cut her off, then leans in to conspiratorially whisper, “Yes, it evolved recently and unfortunately didn’t take the proper precautions to keep new Skills in check, which I’ve already admonished them for. Would you agree that it is in the guild’s best interest to take strong and recent uniques under our wing?”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

She gasps and whispers back. “It’s unique?”

It occurs to me that I must have pretty good hearing since I’m picking this whole conversation up.

(They’re doing a crap job of hiding it, tbh,) and yes, Nyx actually spells that out again.

Anyway, I’m getting bored, so I wave to them and interrupt their faux-secret conversation. So you’re Misty, yeah? Can we do the thing so I can get back home? My cat is probably starving by now and I don’t want to make the poor guy wait any longer than he has to.

(Oh, so now you care about ‘your cat’.)

Hey, excuses are excuses, and she looks the type to like animals. Looks like I was right too?

“You have a cat?” she asks.

Yes, his name is Philip. He is orange and terrified of me.

“Oh no! Well, I’m sure he’ll come around in time, right?”

I’m sure he will. Score! One guild receptionist, won over with the power of domesticated animals.

She lifts onto the counter a gadget that looks like a round runesteel plate, obviously covered in runes, with a large rough-cut crystal in the center.

“Please place your hand on the crystal and feed some mana into the device.”

How deep does this thing dig?

Mimir immediately answers as though he was expecting me to ask. “Not much, not much at all. Name, System Type and Level, Class and Class Level, just the surface information. It does not provide a list of Skills, Titles, or any other personal information – merely enough to allow for better party matchmaking within the guild system.”

Fair enough, but I doubt my lure can channel mana like she’s asking for –

(It can’t.)

So instead, I hold my lure’s hand over the crystal and manifest a feeler to reach underneath it. It wouldn’t do me any good now to have anyone screaming because tentacles started appearing from nowhere.

So I channel some mana through it, and the crystal glows a brilliant red.

Should I be concerned about that?

“Just wait, it will finish soon,” Mimir says. So, I continue channeling mana, as the red glow flows through the runes on the plate as well, until it finally… well, finishes I guess. It doesn’t give any indication that it’s done, just that Misty nods.

Is it finished?

“Yes, you can stop channeling. Congratulations, your mana signature is now registered with the Adventurer’s Guild of Khiset Mains District T-12! Because all Adventurer’s Guilds are interconnected, your registration will be usable anywhere that interacts with our system.”

She then went on to explain a couple dozen rules about working as an adventurer, but eh, I wasn’t really paying attention. I figure Nyx will probably bother me if I’m about to screw something up.

(You really are lazy, aren’t you?) she quips, right on cue.

“-And that about wraps up your orientation. Do you have any questions?”

Nope! I just need to fetch my party from our room and I’ll be on my way. Thank you very much, you’ve been a great help.

Mimir clears his throat. “I do expect you’ll be visiting again in the future, yes? I have a great many experiments to attempt. I’m sure we can continue our previous arrangement.”

Ooh, I think he just threatened me. Did he just threaten me?

(I think he did.)

I flare a quick pulse of my aura, in the shortest range I can, and watch as the fool and our unfortunate bystander both blanch and quickly step away from me.

Relax, if I was going to kill you I already would have. This visibly does not comfort Misty one bit. Merely making a point. If you want my input with your ‘experiments’, you are free to barter for my time. Now that I’m an official guild member, I won’t be cowed at the prospect of people knowing ‘what I am.’ I believe we’re done here. Good day.

I turn on my lure’s heel and march upstairs, and only a couple moments later am headed back down with my pets in tow. At Nyx’s prodding, I don’t make any detours and instead head right out the district gate, back into the monotonous gray brick walls and marked doors, with regular alleyways and crossroads.

I decide not to waste time and instead scoop up my four protesting hangers-on, and make top speed back to where we came from. My evolution came with a higher rate of speed, as well as a cool swirling dust effect in my wake as we literally fly down the streets at breakneck speeds.

Not literally breakneck, right?

“B-“

Hm?

“B-BOSSSSSSSS!” Gron howls, his cheeks flapping and tears streaming down his face – or, across his face I guess?

Maybe literally breakneck. They’re not dead or anything, right?

(I’m pretty sure the other three are already unconscious…) Nyx observes.

Ah, they’ll be fine then. If they were gonna die they would have by now.

(Ever the altruist I see.)

Hey, I slowed down! I – hey, wait a minute! I could have just left them at the guild! Now that I’m registered, I don’t need them to get into, uh, places!

(Correct. But, you’d be sacrificing potentially convenient meat shields, wouldn’t you?) she points out.

That’s true enough. Hah, guess I’ll just keep dragging them along for now.

Ah, and there goes Gron as well. Well, at least it’s quiet.