A new day had begun. Kaen woke up and looked around the room. "Am I the first one up?" – he thought, standing up and scratching his belly. He went to the bathroom, where he noticed the light was left on. "They left the light on," – he said, opening the door and seeing a stranger sleeping in the bathtub. Kaen, startled, jumped back and made a hole in the wall with his head. The scream and the crash from hitting the wall woke up Gamble and Aki, while the rest were slowly waking up. Gamble immediately ran to Kaen, asking if everything was okay. The man in the bathtub also woke up and, seeing Gamble, tried to escape, but Gamble grabbed his hand. The guy used an unknown spell or technique and repelled Gamble with electricity from his wrist. The boy jumped out the window, but Akira was waiting for him below, looking at him with a terrifying gaze. However, Gamble caught him with a mana rope. When they pulled him back up, they saw that the same man who was standing below was still sleeping. Puzzled, Gamble said, "Sorry blah blah blah. How did you did that illusion?" Gamble, surprised, replied, "What illusion? You just stopped, and I tied you up." The boy started to think, and Gamble asked, "Why were you sleeping in our bathtub?" The boy answered, slightly sad, "I didn't feel a lot of mana from you guys, so I thought you weren't mages or anything like that, so I wanted to sleep and leave while you were still asleep." Kaen, still sleepy, said, "Man, I broke the wall because I got scared... you're going to pay for that." The boy smiled and said, "I've never had money in my life." Gamble looked at him for a moment and asked, "Name and surname, no lies." The boy replied, "Kazoto Arashi, call me by my surname." Gamble firmly said, "No," and untied the boy, removing the band from his forehead and the patch from his left eye. "You don't have money, so you'll work it off with us," Gamble said, putting on his hoodie and waking Akira with a solid kick. Akira woke up, and Akira urged him on, while Kaen asked, "Where did you get that scar?" To which Kazoto replied, "Long story, too long for a stranger." Kaen responded, "We can become friends while you work it off. I'm Kaen," extending his hand to Kazoto, who shook it with a smile, saying, "Nice to meet you, fox boy." Kaen, with a grin and slight irritation, replied, "My name is K A E N, Kaen." Twenty minutes later, Akira and Gamble were ready to leave. While putting on his shoes, Gamble asked the now-awake rest of the team, "Who’s coming with us?" "Me and natsuki will go to the store for the house" and Kaido replied to akira, "Where are you two going?" Akira answered, putting on a scarf, "We're going to register at the guild and do some missions to start our own." Kaen, Kaido, and Elarina were eager to go, but Aki interjected, "I need two people to help with the house." Surprised, Kaen asked, "Aren't we moving somewhere?" Gamble replied, "We'll be living near the capital, just 30 minutes away by running. Giene and your mother should already be home if I’m thinking correctly." Elarina volunteered to help with the house. Kaen and Kaido really wanted to go on the mission. Akira thought for a moment and asked Aki, "Can you manage with just the two of you?" Aki smiled and nodded, saying under her breath, "They really do remind me of you." "Did you say something?" Akira asked, and Aki shook her head with a smile. As they left, Gamble said to Kazoto, "Listen, don’t run away because Akira can track you by your mana. Don’t try to attack us because he will kill you. You’ll work off 400 gold coins." The boy shouted, "400??! WHY?" to which Kaido responded, "20 for fixing the wall, 1 for lodging, and 379 for shocking Gamble with electricity." Kazoto snickered and put his hands in his pockets, saying, "You know I'm from the thief clan, right?" Gamble smiled, turned to Kazoto, and said, "You know I'm a Gambler, right?" Kazoto laughed under his breath, and Akira noticed something strange. In Kazoto's eyes, there were four lightning bolts connected to the pupil. Blue lightning bolts, a black pupil, and a yellow iris. Akira also noticed a red vein appearing at the corner of his eye. Akira decided to keep an eye on him. When they reached the "Seekers' House," Gamble said, "I’ll take Kaido and Kazoto, and you take Kaen and quickly get a D rank," speaking to Akira as they entered the bustling adventurer's hall. Kaen and Kaido marveled at the interior while Kazoto looked as if he didn’t want to be recognized. They approached the woman at the counter, and Gamble said, "We’d like to register and get our markers." The woman reached under the counter for glass plaques without any patterns or inscriptions and said, "Please take one per person. If you’re registered, it will fill in automatically, if not, it will turn into stone." Kaen scratched his head and asked, "Why stone?" The woman replied, "The plaque needs time to absorb your mana." Kaido then asked, "Can I know how it works?" The woman smiled sincerely and answered, "The plaques are made of crystal, which is like a database. Each crystal is connected and feels the same. The plaque takes on the color of the owner's mana and records the element. We use them so that if someone loses or breaks theirs, they can transfer the recorded rank and guild money to a new one. Each mana has a different reading, allowing the creation of accounts for mission money without carrying all the cash with you." Kaido was fascinated by how the plaques worked, while Akira was piecing everything together in his mind. Kazoto responded, "In short, you have equipment that reads mana and sends data like money and element onto it?" The woman nodded. Gamble took a plaque, and it turned into stone. The same happened with the others, except Kazoto's plaque filled in dark blue with striking lightning inside. "I was already a seeker trying to earn some money," he said to Gamble, handing the plaque back to update the data. It took two minutes for the plaques to gain color. Gamble's plaque was green looked like calmly flowing water inside and with golden corners. Akira's was orange with flames. Kaen's also had flames, but they were golden, and Kaido's was also green but with a sheen of small lights resembling a starry sky. The woman handed each of them a form, saying, "Please fill this out with your information. There’s a table over there where you can complete it at your leisure," pointing to the cafeteria. Akira thanked her and walked away. Kaen and Kaido hurried, while Kazoto sighed, putting his hands in his pockets and following the rest. Gamble and Akira filled out information like name, surname, place of birth and residence, combat specialization, class, mana type, and number of spells. When they finished, they saw that Kaen and Kaido hadn’t written anything. They realized they couldn’t write. They took the pencils and wrote for them. "Surname... what's your surname, Kaen?" Kaen, panicked, responded, "I-I don't know." Akira looked at Kaen, and after a moment, he replied, "Hokoya." "Difficult?" Akira asked. After writing everything down, they handed the forms to the woman, who said, "Give us 4 minutes, and you’ll get your complete plaques." Akira and Kaen went to look at the available missions, and Kazoto asked Kaido, "If I may ask, how old are you?" Kaido answered that she was nine. Kazoto did the math in his head and asked, "So, in bear years, that would be... um... 11?" Kaido thought for a moment, and Gamble answered for her, "Exactly two weeks from now, she’ll turn 12, as she’ll finish her 10th year. And you?" he asked in return, to which Kazoto replied, "I’ll be 13 in three months." Gamble chuckled under his breath and said, "I wonder how strong you are," to which Kazoto replied, "I can destroy an entire house by myself." Gamble was in mock shock, while Kaido was genuinely surprised. Kaen and Akira returned as the plaques were ready. "If you want a photo, it would cost an additional 20 silver coins," the woman said, handing over the plaques. Gamble thanked her, and they left. Kaido looked at the plaque with her name and F- rank, and Akira said, "Okay, Kaen, we’re going on a D-rank mission." To which Kaen replied, "What about them?" "We will be doing C-rank missions," after which they split up. Gamble started looking for missions while Akira and Kaen had already run off to complete theirs. Impatient, Kazoto asked, "How much longer?" to which Gamble, taking a repeated quest board, said, "Don't be so hasty. Rule number one: always look for well-paying missions or ones that have repeated. You'll earn more." Curious, Kaido asked why. Gamble, handing the boards to the lady, said, "Repeated missions count separately, but you can do them twice at once, so you gain more." Gamble's team took a mission to destroy an ogre village nearby. Kaen and Akira took a mission, not of C-rank, but accidentally of A-rank. –F-rank adventurers are not warned about the mistake in the mission rank. On the contrary, they are encouraged to take the highest ranks as it can immediately advance their rank and earn good money "We'll stop by the store on the way," said Gamble, counting the money, while Kaido watched Kazoto, especially his scar. When they reached the store, to Kazoto and Kaido's surprise, there was no one there. Gamble shouted, "Old man, I've come for the order." Kaido, surprised, asked herself, "Old man?" and after a moment, a bearded, well-built man came out from the back, wiping off dirt, and said to Gamble, "So the rumors were true," to which Gamble smiled and nodded. The man noticed Kaido and Kazoto and asked, "Yours? Or apprentices?" Gamble looked at the kids and said, "The girl is Kaido, and she's my student. The boy is Kazoto, working off his debt." The man tied a headband and approached the counter, taking a pencil and asking, "What do you need?" Gamble thought for a moment and took Kaido's hand. "I need something to stabilize the mana flow in her left hand. The girl has trouble maintaining mana in her left hand and almost cut it off during training." The man wrote something down, grabbed a measuring tape, and asked Kaido to come closer. After taking the measurements, he said, "20 gold coins for the bracelet and 19 for the glove." Gamble reached for the money but stopped halfway and asked, "Why is the glove cheaper?" The man replied as if it were obvious, "It's a girl. She'll probably prefer a bracelet over a glove." Gamble agreed and paid. The man went to the back again, and Kaido asked, "Do we have to waste time on this?" Gamble didn't answer, just showed her the scar on her wrist. The man came back with a box and asked Kaido to choose some stones and other decorations. Kaido looked at Gamble with a questioning gaze if she could. Gamble nodded, and Kaido started looking through them. Meanwhile, Kazoto was looking at the swords, and a ninjatō caught his eye. Gamble approached and said, "Akira designed this sword when he found a thunder steel deposit." Kazoto was impressed and asked the man, "How much for this sword?" The man said, "You can even take it for free. Akira didn't want to take it, and I can't bring myself to throw it away." Kazoto took the sword from the wall, and lightning sparked in the blade. Kaido finished choosing, picking a green stone and a yellow border for it. "Alright, give me 40 minutes," the man said, taking the items and going to the back. When a new customer entered a moment later, "Uh... is the seller here?" asked the man at the door. From the back, the man shouted, "Gamble, boy, can you help?" Gamble sighed, took off his coat, and approached the counter. "What can I do for you?" The shy customer approached the counter and said, "I'd like a love potion and a knife made of mirror crystal." Gamble wrote it down and went to the back. After a minute, he came out and said, "It will be like this: 103 gold coins for the potion and one platinum for the knife." The customer paid and quickly left, and Gamble shouted after him, "It will be ready in three days!" Kazoto looked at Gamble with surprise, while Kaido was looking at the displayed weapons. Time passed in silence until Kaido broke it and asked Kazoto, "I didn't actually ask. Why were you sleeping in our bathtub? What happened?" Kazoto replied after a deep breath, "I come from the northern village of thunder, Arashoko village. The northern village values the strength of men and the usefulness of women in the home. Anyone who couldn't cast the 'Zeus Storm' spell by the age of 7 was forbidden to leave the village no matter what. They are forced to work in the fields." Gamble, curious, asked, "But what does that have to do with you?" Kazoto lifted the hair covering the scar on his left eye and said, "When I was five years old, I was kidnapped. To challenge my village to battle, they scarred my face. But a scar on the face that blinds an eye is considered an attack on the village." Gamble was surprised, and Kazoto continued, pointing to his eye, "I awakened the Raigan. The village began to fear that I might try to destroy or subjugate them one day." Gamble thought, and Kaido asked, "So you lived on the streets for seven years?" Kazoto nodded, and the man came back with the bracelet for Kaido. "Check if it fits," he said. Kaido put on the bracelet, and when she put it on her left hand, it adjusted to her hand. Gamble asked, "I don't know how you did it, but you should change your job," to which the man replied, "No way. I won't sell myself for a few coins. Goodbye." Gamble laughed and said, "Goodbye, Zan." Kaido admired the bracelet, and Kazoto the sword. "Alright, let's see..." said Gamble, reading the mission. "The village is 20 minutes past the gate. Let's go." So let's see if Kazoto is trustworthy and how their first mission will unfold.

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