Ryuji walked through the massive reinforced wooden doors of the mercenary’s guildhall and over to the now empty counters near the doors leading into the back training area of the guildhall. Upon walking into the guildhall, there was an open area that was wider on the left than the right. This was the area where the quests were posted on the left wall. Just past that, there was a series of counters. The counter with the three arches closest to the entrance were for taking and turning in quest assignments. Those were followed by a counter that stuck out farther from the wall with a pair of arches for more complicated matters.
Ryuji was headed for the latter pair of arches so he could register himself and his party. When he got to the counter, there was nobody manning either and the clerk at the quest window or arch closest to them said she would get somebody. As Ryuji waited, he looked around at the rest of the building. The right side of the building was given over to a bar that Ryuji had never been in. The bar was mostly open with columns supporting the second-floor apartments and offices above it. The stairs for the second floor were to the right of the service counters along with a pair of doors, one to either side of the stairway. Ryuji could see a landing at the top of the stairs where a few of the mercenaries were talking and laughing.
Ryuji’s quiet observation of the guild hall was interrupted by a soft coughing sound behind him and he turned quickly to face the clerk who was patiently waiting. As Ryuji turned, he recognized the beautiful face of the young clerk girl that had helped him the last time he was there almost a month ago. He couldn’t quite remember her name and could tell from the look she was giving him that they were having the same predicament.
Ryuji put his fist out in this world’s version of a handshake as he reintroduced himself. “Hello again. My name’s Ryuji or at least it is until someone who knows me tells me differently. You told me last time I was here that my guild registration would be good for a bit of time and I would just need to come back when I was ready to complete it.”
The blonde clerk looked up at him with a warm smile as she pushed her fist against his and felt the slight pressure before they both dropped their fists. Listening to what he had to say she remembered him pretty clearly but not his name. she was far too busy to remember every mercenary to walk through the doors of the guild hall. She looked him up and down and then looked at the two women behind him and recognized both of them as regulars. “My name is Rayna. Great to see you again milord. I see, so you took my advice and hired a couple of mercenaries to take the entrance tests for you? *when he shook his head, she looked closer and spotted the sword on his weird belt. That couldn’t be what it looked like, probably just for bluff. * The sword will be your weapon of choice then?”
Ryuji could see the confusion mounting on the faces of the three women. Rayna’s he could almost understand if mages were that rare and since he apparently shouldn’t be able to do magic yet. The confusion on the faces of his new companions he couldn’t fathom. “What’s with you two? You look like you have a question so out with it.”
Kyarako was the quicker of the pair and was already asking just as Ryuji finished speaking. “What do you mean milord? Did I miss something? Is there something you forgot to tell me?”
Realization dawned on Ryuji who suddenly adopted a sheepish look while explaining. “Oh, yeah. Sorry about that. I’m actually a noble, I thought I had mentioned it.” He said this while pulling up on the chain through the small gold and silver bar pendant around his neck.
As the others began to freak out a bit, Ryuji turned to a very bemused Rayna and continued. “It was suggested that I go train with the wizard Dorn. I took the advice and am going to register as a wizard. I’m still in training but I was told that even if I could just perform a bit of wind magic it would ensure my registration with the guild.”
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All three women looked about ready to pass out but Rayna regained her professional composure first. “That’s quite the claim. You do know that you will have to demonstrate the ability to cast the wind spell in question, correct? And that you will have to do so in front of witnesses, milord? I can’t take the word of a third party, if that’s the reason you brought them here.”
Ryuji could feel the grin creeping across his face. “Lead on. I don’t mind. Oh, also, I have a message from master Dorn. He says that he will be taking on apprentices after this but only those that can demonstrate some aptitude for magic. However, I do believe that my dark-elf friend here is going to be applying for the next available apprenticeship with him so you may want to hold off on the announcement. Certainly, you’ll want to see if, in fact, I can even cast magic as I claim.”
Rayna felt awkward as she led the elf noble into the dirt-floored rear of the building. This larger portion of the massive building had been left without floor paving stones to make it a better area for practicing. As she walked towards the rear of the building she caught the eye of the gnome war-priest Shrane who was filling in for Glace, the cleric today. She motioned him over before looking to another sun-elf named Laren Goldenleaf and motioning him to follow them as well.
As the procession reached the rear wall of the old building, all eyes turned to Rayna expectantly. Just as Laren was about to state his inquiry to the human girl he saw the face of the other sun-elf and realization dawned. Shrane, having never even seen Ryuji was the one to speak. “Okay, young lady. I believe an explanation is in order? Why have you called us away from all those thousands of nonexistent people we were supposed to be training? Hurry up now, You see them all tapping their feet over there!”
As the ever-present thought of the relation between gnomes and chibi anime characters surfaced in Ryuji’s mind he decided he quite like the grinning instructor who was dressed like some kind of chunni character. Rayna seemed less impressed but still smiled as she answered his question. “It requires the presence of three guild employees as witnesses any time someone registers as a magic user of any kind. That makes your presence the most important here master Shrane.”
The gnome turned to regard the elf wizard and looked him up and down, his eyes finally settling on the belt before he spoke. “Shall I assume that we are to have a demonstration of wizardry? Haven’t had a new wizard join the guild in, what, ten years or so?”
Rayna smiled with a look that was screaming please don’t be some kind of prank or noble’s legal trickery. “Just so, master Shrane. So, please tell us which type of magic you’ll be demonstrating milord Ryuji. You mentioned wind magic, do you know any other types of spells?”
Ryuji was quite ready to do the presentation at the head of the class and smiled at them all before answering in a very matter-of-fact tone. “I will be demonstrating my aptitude for all six elements of caster magic consecutively. *The last word was in Japanese and he had to backtrack* One after another.”
A rather annoying and pompous voice called out suddenly from what Ryuji knew was a tower of a meathead, who would undoubtedly be surrounded by a pack of moronic cronies. “Oh, really? Bullshit! Well, go on! this farce I’ve got to see firsthand.”
Ryuji turned to face the mountain of testosterone-fueled derision whose name he had unfortunately committed to memory. “Hello, Locke. I’d be happy to demonstrate my proficiency in magic to you. It was your suggestion that I should seek the assistance of master Dorn, after all.”
Ryuji concentrated to block out the chorus of jeers and sniggers as he popped the cork on his somewhat shallow and wide vial of powdered stone. Technically, for the first-level spell he was going to perform, he could have used plain dirt. He carefully controlled his mana as he dipped his finger down to the grainy sand and pulled out a rod of the powdered stone that was about the width of a pencil lead and only a couple centimeters long. He then drew a brown ring in the air with his mana and used a perfected flourish to both draw the circle perfectly but also to follow it immediately with the triangle inside. It took him less than three seconds to draw the central symbol for earth and all the associated glyphs to set the range and effect of a raised mound of dirt a meter high.”
By the time Locke looked back at the party he realized that the elf was looking at him while actually drawing a proper magic circle in the air. His laughter died in his throat as he suddenly realized his peril a moment too late. The brief hesitation where the disbelief of what he was seeing caught up with reality cost him the chance to avoid the spell. Suddenly, Locke found that he was sent flying a couple meters in the air as the ground beneath him suddenly bulged up like one of his biceps!