Two days later, three men dressed in black suits arrived into Nichol’s hospital room. Through Sen and with the open display of the badges adorned to their left chest, Nichol recognized them as people from the Rangers Association.
Then, their Section Chief, Clint Bowen, handed Nichol his business card. ‘Oregon Rangers Association (ORA), Reconnaissance Department, Section Chief Clint Bowen.’
As they are responsible both for monitoring the Mazes and exacting law and order to the Rangers, the Reconnaissance Department or RD is the largest of the Association’s departments and is led and comprised of their strongest Rangers.
“It took you a while.”
“It seems like you’re expecting us.”
“Please, after a flop like that?” Nichol snorted. “The fact that two big organizations were involved? Me awakening? You’ll be here alright.”
Mr. Bowen pulled up a chair and sat down beside Nichol’s bed. The other two stationed themselves at the door. He then start filling him up with what happened after incident.
“So it was like that, huh?” Nichol said when Mr. Bowen was done.
When the incident reached the involved organizations, they flood the Association with complaints especially the Soldiers Guild that lost three Rangers including Hudson who was a Rank C. They blamed the Association for their inaccurate reading of the Maze and demanded them to take responsibility.
However, the Association retaliated that Rank measurement of fresh Mazes had always been tentative since it can only read the Mana signatures of the spawned monsters and not of the Boss.
Before proceeding how the Mazes are ranked and its types, here are first all the common facts one must knew regarding the Mazes:
1. Mazes appeared randomly all over the world and if not cleared within 30 days, it will become permanent and overwrite the land where it was spawned.
2. Clearing a fresh Maze grants rewards, clearing permanent Maze, don’t.
3. Permanent Mazes will eternally spawn monsters.
4. Permanent Mazes will continuously extend and evolve if not cleared from time to time.
5. When a Permanent Maze is cleared, it will reset.
6. Monsters appearing in the Maze after each reset are random but the rank remains the same not unless No. 4 is neglected.
7. Rangers can always exit the Maze without the need to clear it as long as they haven’t entered the Boss Room yet.
8. If a Ranger died inside the Maze, the Maze will devour them.
Now moving to the Maze ranking, it is split into two types, the Initial and the Official.
The Initial applies to both the fresh and the permanent Maze. It reads the Mana signature of the Maze and rank it based on the level of the strongest monster detected. However, since the measurement does not reach the Boss Room, from data taken from all the previous cases, the Association gave it a tentative rank through this formula:
(Level of the strongest monster) + 1 = Boss’ Level
Since the dawn of ranking the Mazes, this formula, though not 100%, had been consistent. Deviants appear from time to time, it’s not 100% as just mentioned, but 100% of all the recorded cases transpired in Mazes that are Rank 3 and above due to them having higher concentration of Mana.
That’s why no one expected that a Level 4 Werewolf would appear in a Rank 2 Maze where Mana concentration was supposed to be low. This incident was unprecedented.
Meanwhile, the Official can only be applied to permanent Mazes. Here, the Maze will be measured, raided, and cleared, mostly by the Association and their affiliates. The level of the Boss will be identified and the Maze will be ranked based on the Boss’ level.
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When Rosewill and Soldiers requested to raid the tentatively ranked Maze, it’s part of the agreement between them and the Association that the former will conduct all the necessary preparations and precautions for worst case scenarios including the possibility that the Maze will reveal itself to be a deviant which is what happened.
Due to this, the Association is cleared from any legal or financial liability and unwilling to procure only losses, the Guild Master of Soldiers Guild shifted his fangs to Rosewill especially that not only it was their idea to raid a fresh Maze, their Rangers also didn’t suffer any casualties.
Presently, they are still negotiating.
As for the matters with Nichol, Mr. Bowen told him that the Association sent him here not only to assess his ability and aid him for his Ranger Registration but to settle too some issues they’d identified when they tried to pluck information about.
“You won’t find anything,” he told him. “Because I don’t have any of those.”
Mr. Bowen frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Remember the Heavenside Orphanage case that shook Portland 5 years ago?”
“Yes,” he nodded. “They were a front for organ and human trafficking. The things the authorities found there were very gruesome.”
“Yeah, well 5 years earlier than that or 10 years ago to be exact, I was in that orphanage and unfortunately, I belonged to the commodities.”
Mr. Bowen expressed initial shock then a sense of understanding of Nichol’s circumstances.
“I don’t know who my parents are or any of the basics like my birthday. My name is Nichol Schade as far as I know but I haven’t used the name since I escaped the orphanage.”
“We completely understand your situation now Mr. Schade. Give us a few days and we will settle your registries alongside your Ranger Registration.”
“Thank you, I appreciate that.”
“Now,” he gestured to his associates and the one carrying a briefcase joined them. He opened the briefcase in front of them and Mr. Bowen pulled out one of the two items kept in it.
It’s a transparent sphere with a white Mana Stone floating inside of it.
Nichol recognized this item or rather, this device. It’s a Divination Orb. The most accurate device used to identify which affinity a Ranger belonged.
Mr. Bowen then handed it to him and instructed, “Hold it firmly both hand and open your Skill Window, it will do the rest.”
Nichol nodded and complied.
The function of the Divination Orb is pretty straightforward. By opening his Skill Window, a trace of his Mana will be scanned by the Divination Orb. Then, it will interpret his affinity through the floating Mana Stone.
If the Mana Stone increase in size, then he’s an Enhancer.
If the color of the Mana Stone changed, then he’s a Transmuter.
If the Mana Stone emit steams, then he’s a Conjurer.
If the Mana Stone moved, then he’s a Controller.
If a completely different change occurred, then he’s a Special-type.
The result is as Nichol expected, he’s a Special-type.
The Mana Stone pixelates.
Mr. Bowen took note of the result and took the Divination Orb back. Then, he pulled out the other device inside the briefcase and handed it too to Nichol. It’s another sphere except that it’s completely black and a total of 10 slits are found around it.
This device is called the Emission Eye, and those slits are actually closed eyeballs.
Same process applied, hold it while the Skill Window is open and the Emission Eye will read his Mana.
If none of the eyes opened, then he’s a Rank E.
If an eye opened but not fully, then he’s a Rank D.
If an eye fully opened, then he’s a Rank C.
If two eyes fully opened, then he’s a Rank B.
Three eyes, Rank A.
Four eyes and above, Rank S.
If at least eight eyes fully opened, then he’s Rank SS.
An eye and a half opened.
Nichol is a Rank C.
“Rank C Ranger, Special-type. That is your result Mr. Schade.”
“It ain’t that bad,” he shrugged.
“Next is if you can give us a little overview of your Innate Skill.”
Generally, it is a courtesy among Rangers to never ask the name of the other’s Innate Skills. Even if the name is identified due to its simplicity, it is an unspoken agreement to pretend unawareness. Hence, Mr. Bowen, like everyone else, would approach their assessment through this manner.
Then again, several Rangers especially the high-ranked and high-levelled ones are celebrities and they would sometimes publicize their Innate Skills for publicity.
“And if you’re still unfamiliar with it, you can also just give us your recollection on how you defeated the Werewolf.”
“It’s still vague for me and after I receive my welcome message, I have no idea what happened next,” shaking his head, he lied. Not because he wants to conceal what he can do but due to that fact that there’s no point explaining. It’s better to do usual practice which is to demonstrate the product(s) of their Innate Skills and let everyone make their own assumption in which Nichol can’t do right now. On top of that, there’s a compulsory Innate Skill assessment during the issuance of his license at the Association HQ. Hence, there’s really no reason for him to trouble himself. “The others might have saw how I did it, you can ask them.”
Mr. Bowen nodded and stood. “That would be all Mr. Schade. Normally you can claim your Ranger License in four days but since we will also process your registries, it might take us a couple of weeks at least.”
“That is fine with me.”