While Amy finished scolding the young would-be mages, a crowd began to gather in the surroundings. Clarity noticed pointing from the corner of her eye and managed to pick up a few of the louder whispers with the help of her new enchanted earring.

“What's that monster?”

“Is that a ghost?”

“No way it's gotta be an elemental!”

“Wow, what a bombshell!”

“Is instructor Kevin okay? He's standing right next to it.”

“Fair maiden!”

'Oh no. I recognize that voice.'

Squirming his way through the crowd, William ran forward with Ava and Sarah in tow. “Guess what? I just got my reward money! Wanna grab something to eat with us? My treat! Oh, by the way, I'm William, and this is Ava and Sarah.”

'Just ignore him. Ignore him and he'll go away' Clarity chanted. Rather than pay him any more attention, Clarity turned her attention towards his companions. Ava had an annoyed pout on her face, while Sarah cringed in embarrassment.

Kevin wrangled William away before he could offend the slime any more, demanding “Don't upset the monster, kid.”

Glancing back and forth between Sarah and the group of teens being corralled by Amy, Clarity noticed one particular commonality.

“You're a mage?” she asked, pointing at the staff Sarah held to her bosom.

Surprised at being addressed, Sarah quickly looked side to side as though wondering who else Clarity could be pointing at, before refuting “Oh! Me? No, no I'm not.”

After realizing what Clarity was referring to, she added “Ah, the staff right? I'm actually a priest, and most of us use staves too.”

Nobody else seemed surprised by that answer, but it left Clarity with another major question. “A priest? What does that do?” 'I know magic is real, but are gods real too now?'

“Ah! You probably wouldn't know. Priests use the power of faith to create miracles with their God's blessings!” Sarah explained fervently.

“Spoken like a true priest” Amy said, rolling her eyes, having finished chewing out her students. “Mages use their mana to cause changes by their own will. Priests donate mana to some high and mighty beings through bonds of faith, and if those beings like them enough, they give back mana imbued with their will. Priests are great one trick ponies, even as newbies, but they're generally limited to only one type of effect, like purification or healing, depending on who they worship. Of course there's dark gods too, but those are much less popular.”

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

With the distractions sorted, the two instructors finally lead Clarity into the guild hall, adventurers moving out of the way to make room for them. Of course, now that they entered the building where the bulk of the adventurers were loitering, Clarity earned even more attention.

The whispers increased as they crossed the checkered floor, all more of the same from what Clarity could hear, as the trio approached a long, finely polished desk marked for receptionists. Large chandeliers hung from the roof, likely keeping the entire area well-lit even during the night. Overall, it felt like they just walked forward in time several centuries since walking in from outside.

She brushed off most of the outside noise as unimportant, until one particular statement caught her ear.

“Oh my god, goo girls are real? Am I dreaming? I wish my camera still worked!”

Clarity tried to pinpoint the direction of that last voice and found her gaze drawn to one particular man who was standing apart from the other adventurers with a silly grin on his face. Unlike a good 90% of the rest of the adventurers in town, this guy had pure silver hair, a slightly hunched back, and numerous wrinkles lining his face. 'Okay gramps, are you really the only person who recognized the goo girl genre? I guess I can't blame you, but you really can't judge a book by its cover, huh?”

Suddenly, Clarity felt a dark premonition come over her. 'That's odd though, now that I think about it... he's the first person I've heard bring up modern tech.'

Before Clarity could delve any deeper into those thoughts, Kevin drew her attention to the desk in front of them. Behind it sat several beautiful women, each at their own work station, all donning rather professional and classy uniforms.

Leading Clarity to the leftmost receptionist, a tall blonde woman trying to maintain her work smile, Kevin explained “This is Lucy, one of our receptionists. Lucy, would you get a copy of the rules for Clarity here to look over and whip up a status card?”

Lucy, for her part, looked both confused and conflicted. She clearly wanted a better explanation for this incredibly unusual situation that had just been dropped into her lap, but was unwilling to outright ask.

Instead, she simply nodded and pulled a thick little booklet out from under the desk and placed it in front of Clarity.

“I'm going to go make sure the trainees don't need anything” Kevin said as Clarity picked up the booklet to begin reading.

“Yeah, yeah, I'll handle things here” Amy agreed, pulling a book of her own out of her storage ring and grabbing a nearby chair.

“You mean you'll sit around while I handle all the work” Kevin grumped.

“Yup!” she replied, earning herself an eye roll.

Clarity made sure to read the booklet in its entirety from front to back, fearing something similar to the magical contract that the Empire tried to force on... old JJ... before all of this happened. Contrary to her fears, it was simply a good old fashioned book, with a dash of translation magic, of course. 'Actually, I wonder if the words have to be enchanted themselves, or if something like this earring Esmeralda gave me can translate them? I'll have to ask her later.'

The contents boiled down to “follow the laws of the land”, “don't start fights that cause property damage”, “don't accept contracts with failure penalties if you can't afford the penalty”, and “protect civilians whenever possible”. Surprisingly, “don't kill people” was not a standard rule. The guild leaned more towards “don't kill the wrong people” as it wasn't uncommon for contracts to be put out on particularly dangerous humans and other races. 'I should probably avoid those kinds of contracts for now, both for my own peace of mind and for others.'

Upon finishing, Clarity gently slapped the desk with the booklet, startling Lucy who had spent the last 10 minutes trying desperately not to stare at her inhuman guest. “I'm ready to join.”

“Okay, okay, right... one second!” Lucy muttered, fumbling with a compartment on the desk. She pulled out a small metal plaque and some kind of obviously magical pen-like object.

“This will be your status card. It links back to a master index held in our main headquarters, which records all adventurers associated with our guild. The index will record your name, a short description of yourself, your guild rank which starts at Copper, and a list of all contracts completed, rewards earned, and punishments received. The status card itself will display the first three categories, as well as your status which is based on the latter lists. As long as you don't break any rules, your status will remain in good standing, but if it falls to probation or wanted most people won't be willing to do business with you anymore” Lucy recited from rote memory, clearly having given this speech many times before.

She slowly drew the pen-like tool across the status card while feeding mana into it. “Clarity, right?” she confirmed, adding the slime's name and a very short description of “Slime woman” to the card at Amy's recommendation.

Before she handed over the card, Lucy gave one last warning “Remember, don't lose this card. Your information won't be lost, but getting another one made isn't cheap, and if somebody else gets ahold of your card they can easily impersonate you” only to pause and glance down at the “Slime woman” entry she had just made.

“Well... maybe they can't easily impersonate you, but still, don't lose it, okay? Otherwise the guards are likely to stop you if they can't confirm your status.”