A/n: My chapters keep getting longer... I hope I didn't make too many mistakes. Also, dropping a review or two would help greatly with my motivation as I want to see how I'm doing ^.^
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“Well then, from the looks of it the gates have closed for the day. I guess we’ll have to camp out today.” Cyrus noted as he watched the large gate to the town close before the guards retreated inside.
“Yeah, sorry, we probably could’ve made it inside if I didn’t take so long with that dragon.” Seffy apologized.
“Eh, don’t worry too much about that. It probably wouldn’t have made a difference anyway.” Cyrus replied back.
“In any case, let’s set up camp.” Cyrus spoke as he started pulling out all sorts of items from both his spatial ring and his backpack.
Soon they had set up a large tent and threw the rest of the camping gear inside. They then made a fire with Cyrus using his nature magic to conjure up some wood then burning it. Taking out some earthenware pots, they cooked up the magical beast meat that they had managed to collect along the way through the forest. Soon, they started wolfing down the food as they were hungry from the long day of traveling, especially Seffy as she used up the most energy fighting the dragon.
It seems that they weren’t the only ones camping out as they could see other small fires lighting up the plains in front of the forest they came from. Looks like a lot of people couldn’t get in today.
Cyrus suddenly had a thought as he pulled out some more of the pelts he had collected. In all honesty, after walking through the forest he had already collected more pelts than he would ever need so he threw most of them out.
Taking out his convenient magic needle that he always uses to sew with, he started stitching up pieces of the pelts together. After a while, he had made two face masks out of the pelts of the White Fenrir Wolves he had killed in the forest.
Looking at his own handiwork and design, he seemed satisfied with them before he placed them on the ground in front of him. Throughout all this, Seffy was just looking intently at him, wondering what exactly Cyrus was doing.
Using a short stick he found lying next to him, Cyrus began drawing a circle around each of the masks using his mana as replacement for ink. He soon drew more circles that were inscribed within one another all around the masks. In between the spaces of the circles he started drawing old, ancient runic formations as they glowed from his mana.
After he finished drawing everything, he threw the stick aside before he pointed his index finger and loaded it with dark magic. He then proceeded to press that finger against one of the face masks. Immediately after, the runic formations and circles surrounding it instantly converged with the mask being the center. A magic circle could soon be seen inscribed on the front of the face mask as it glowed bright before disappearing as if it were never there. Cyrus did the exact same thing for the other mask as well.
He then picked up both masks and after carefully examining them, handed one of them to Seffy who was still engrossed in what just happened.
“What is this?” Seffy asked as she tilted her head to the side in confusion.
“It’s a face mask.” Cyrus replied.
“I know it’s a face mask! I’m asking what it really is. I’m sure all those things from before wasn’t just to make an ordinary face mask.” Seffy retorted.
“Oh, well why didn’t you just say so?” Cyrus asked, clearly amused before he continued. “This is an enchanted face mask that was infused with my dark magic. If you put this on, it will naturally change its color to blend in with your face, as if it weren’t there in the first place. Not only that, it also uses dark magic to create illusions that will drastically weaken a person’s presence in the area. It essentially makes it so that, even if people see you, they will ignore you unless they focus on you. It’s quite the convenient tool if you want to infiltrate somewhere undetected.” Cyrus finished.
“Ah, I see now. But why do we need it? We aren’t going to sneak into anywhere, are we?” Seffy asked as she wasn’t sure what they would need it for.
“Nope, all this really is for is to remain inconspicuous. Even if I do say so myself, I think the both of us are pretty attractive. Because of that, I’m sure that our looks alone will attract the… rather unsavory kind of people, both men and women alike.” Cyrus explained.
“Ah, I see. So basically, you don’t want me to be ogled at? How very thoughtful of you.” Seffy smirked as she took a jab at Cyrus.
“Eh, to be honest, it doesn’t really matter to me what people think when they look at us. It’s simply because it would get annoying if we kept getting stopped because of our looks.” Cyrus shrugged his shoulders as he played off Seffy’s remark.
Pouting a little at how it didn’t seem affect him at all, she simply laid down as she sprawled on the ground.
“If you’re tired, then go to sleep in the tent, it’s not good for you to sleep outside like that.” Cyrus commented while he observing her.
“Eh, alright. What about you?” Seffy spoke as she sat back up.
“I’ll be on lookout. Unlike the cave, where we basically cleared out all the threats in the area, this place is crawling with dangers we need to watch out for.” Cyrus spoke back to her.
“Won’t you be tired then?” Seffy asked, growing a little concerned.
“Well, I actually don’t need sleep nor do I need to eat. I guess it’s an aftereffect from me being an undead before. I can sustain this body on mana alone. I simply sleep and eat out of habit.” Cyrus casually replied.
“Eh, wait, doesn’t that apply to me as well? Since my body was brought back from death.” Seffy inquired, now quite interested.
“Your body still needs sleep and food. You haven’t been dead long enough for something like that to happen.” Cyrus simply stated.
Seffy nodded, albeit a little disappointed. “Alright, then guess I’ll head to bed. Don’t overwork yourself though.”
As Seffy went to sleep inside the tent, Cyrus vigilantly kept lookout. As expected, he had to deal with a few magic beasts and bandits that strayed just a bit too near, but other than that, another uneventful night passed by.
Next day soon came and they packed everything up before heading out. Unfortunately for them, many of the other people who camped out in the plains were in closer proximity to the town gates so when they arrived, they had to wait in a long line.
They had already put on their face masks when they left for the gates. The masks themselves worked splendidly as no one paid attention to the two despite their outward appearances. As they stood in line, they observed the other people who were also waiting to get into Angrel. The vast majority of the people were human with the occasional elf or beastman. A large portion of the people waiting were merchants and their guards, while there are also some carriages with whole families in them, most likely nomadic traveling families. There were also some individuals and groups who looked to be like them and were just normal travelers coming in from various places.
As they were still looking around, they heard the sounds of many horses galloping. Turning around, they observed as a coach pulled by four horses rushed past the crowd toward the gate.
“OUT OF THE WAY YOU PLEBLIANS, MAKE WAY FOR LORD BUERMEN.” The coachman in front shouted loudly as the vehicle split the crowd as people scrambled to get out of the way.
As the coach made its way through, Cyrus just scoffed at it before shaking his head. “I guess no matter the time period, those types of people will always remain the same.”
“You’ve had experience with them?” Seffy curiously asked.
“More so than I would have liked to, to be honest. I can tell just from the impression they made just now that they’re the type who thinks of themselves as above all others.” Cyrus replied. “To be honest, I’d rather not affiliate myself with them; they leave a bad taste in my mouth.”
Nodding, Seffy wholeheartedly agreed since she also had bad experiences with people like them in the past. After all, the people who bought slaves were often the wealthy and the influential.
As their turn came up, they simply went up to one of the guards who were checking everyone that went through. The guard gave them a passing glance before asking them some questions. The questioning was fairly simple and got done quickly.
“Alright, show your permit to enter. If you don’t have one you have to pay an extra toll of one silver along with the with the entry fee, which is also one silver.” The guard simply said to them.
Luckily for Cyrus, he had acquired quite an amount of coins from bandits who so generously ‘gifted’ them some money.
Handing the guard four silver coins, two for each person, the guard simply nodded before they were allowed to pass through.
As they entered the town, they were met with the sight of many people hustling and bustling about. People were going in and out of both the shops at the side of the street and the inns. It was very lively as they heard the chattering of people all around them as they went about their daily lives. People haggling in the market, children playing at the side of the streets, house-wives discussing the latest gossip, and workmen rushing past each other to get their jobs done, Cyrus and Seffy took in the whole atmosphere. After having lived in a cave in the middle of nowhere by themselves for so long, they were glad to finally be here.
The buildings themselves were all made of wood, occasionally stone, and were designed in a simple way that best displayed their function as they lined the streets. In the far distant plaza, a market could be seen being held there. Even further in the distance, past the plaza, a large mansion could be seen decorating the other side of town.
“Alright, let’s see… first off, let’s go check into an inn before we do anything.” Cyrus spoke to Seffy as he started heading towards one of the larger inns on the streets as Seffy followed.
Heading up to the female receptionist, Cyrus casually asked the rates and paid the fees. The receptionist, after giving a closer look at Cyrus, blushed slightly with wide eyes as she looked at the handsome man in front of her before reverting to her usual professional mannerism. It’s not right to oogle at the customers after all.
Cyrus could only chuckle a bit at this with a smile as he received the room key from the now slightly flushed receptionist. After going up and checking out the room, they soon made their way back outside.
“Alright, now that that’s been taken care of, let’s get you some new clothes. I said you needed some earlier, but now you definitely need them after that dragon was finished with you.” Cyrus told her, nodding his head at her ruined tunic that was slightly charred and had its entire left sleeve missing.
Seffy lifted her arms up and looked down at her appearance and nodded to his suggestion. “Indeed, my clothes aren’t in the best of conditions, to say the least. These masks of yours are quite miraculous. No one seems to have noticed so I forgot about changing my clothes.”
After deciding on it, they soon went into something like a tailor’s workshop as they saw the clothes displayed in front. There was jingle of bells as they entered the store.
“Oh my, it’s still pretty early. I don’t usually expect customer’s before the afternoon.” A middle-aged woman with long curly hair walked out from the back room behind the counter.
The woman’s eyes widened a bit as she gazed at the two figures standing in her store. “Oh my, oh my, oh my. What pretty little things you two are. And those wings! Are both of you harpies per chance?” She spoke out with a smile as she asked.
“Yes we are ma’am.” Cyrus replied while bowing slightly
“Oh my, we don’t really see many of them around these parts. And especially not ones as polite as you! Most people your age don’t know the first thing about tact. So, what can I do for you two? Though, I suppose it’s a bit obvious considering the girl’s clothes. What in the world did you for your clothes to end up like that?” She asked.
“Erm, well, we have our circumstances.” Cyrus answered back in Seffy’s stead to which the woman simply nodded and shrugged.
“Well, I won’t dig too deep. Gotta respect the customer’s privacy after all. Now then I’m assuming you want a new outfit for the girl. Do you have anything in mind?”
“Well… Seffy?” Cyrus looked at Seffy for an answer.
“I don’t really have a preference.” Seffy honestly replied.
“Alright then, um, see what you can do with these pelts.” Cyrus said as he took out a bunch of the pelts he harvested from the White Fenrir Wolves. These were the only pelts Cyrus kept since he thought the color looked nice while throwing most of the other ones out. While Cyrus could probably use the pelts himself to make some clothing for Seffy, he wasn’t confident in his designing skills, especially not for girls, so he would leave it to professionals.
“Oh dear! Where did you get these pelts and so much of them at that? If I remember correctly, these pelts belong to White Fenrir Wolves. I haven’t worked with material of this quality in so long since those wolves are so dangerous to hunt.” The woman spoke excitedly, eyeing the material.
Cyrus just shrugged at this. “I’m not really aware of how special they are nor does it really matter to me. Can you make something good out of it?”
The woman vigorously nodded as he handed her the pelts. After doing so, she quickly stowed them in the back room before coming out again.
“So what’s the tailoring fee?” Cyrus asked as he started taking out some coins from his small backpack.
“Oh, don’t worry about that honey! I’m just happy I get to work with such materials again. Even in city markets, those materials are hard found.” The woman happily spoke back.
“After I get her measurements, you can pick up the outfit in about two days. Ehehe, I’m sure you’ll be pleased with the finished product.” The woman giggled a bit as she told Cyrus while leading Seffy into the back room to get her measurements.
“That’s fine and all, but we also want an outfit for right now since I won’t let her walk around in that attire for an entire two days.”
“Oh, okay. Then pick some from the premade section over there.”
“Will do.”
They left after Seffy got her measurements finished and had exchanged names after buying some spare outfits.
“Now that that’s finished, I wonder what the best way to search for information is.” Cyrus mused to himself.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Upon hearing this, Seffy answered back with, “You could try the adventurer’s guild if there is one in this town. I heard they’re a good place to search for information since all types of requests end up there.”
“Adventurer’s guild?” Cyrus curiously asked as this type of institution never existed during his time.
“Ah, that’s right, you were dead for a long time. Well, basically an adventurer’s guild is something similar to a mercenary corps, except that the range of activities is much, much wider and also that anyone can join.” Seffy answered back.
“Ah, I see. In that case, that does sound like a good place to begin. Any idea how we would join one?” Cyrus agreed to Seffy’s suggestion.
“Dunno, I only heard of it from my parents. Not sure of what goes on in it myself.” Seffy replied with a shrug.
“Well, I guess we’ll have to find out then.” Cyrus grinned before he stopped one of the men rushing past.
“What do you want? Can’t you see I’m in a hurry?” The man grumbled back after having been delayed.
“I just have a couple questions. Can you tell me where the adventurer’s guild is and how we would sign up?” Cyrus inquired.
“Adventurer’s guild?” The man replied as he looked Cyrus up and down, finally realizing his outrageous appearance.
“From your outfit, you look like you’d be more suited to paperwork than adventuring. Aren’t you a noble or something?” The man asked curiously deciding to just ignore the wings as he doesn’t really care to know either way.
“I’d prefer if you’d just answer my questions instead of commenting about my life choices.” Cyrus replied, brushing off the man’s previous statements.
“Well, whatever. Doesn’t matter to me. You can find the adventurer’s guild on the right after reaching the plaza over there. As for signing up, I have no idea, I’m not an adventurer.” The man shrugged before answering.
“Alright, thank you.” Cyrus answered as the man turned and continued on his way.
After reaching their destination following the man’s direction, what lay in front of the two was a two-story high stone building. The building itself was pretty wide as it took up the whole block, but other than that it was pretty ordinarily designed. It had two large doors at the center of the building with an insignia of a shield and a sword pointing downwards carved into the wall at the top of the doorway.
Most of the people that entered and left the building were either rugged men or women sporting heavy looking armor or thin, pasty individuals with long robes that reached their feet and a pointed hat. There were also many who could be described as being somewhere in between the two extremities in body structure.
Cyrus and Seffy just stared at the building for a moment before entering. The inside could be described as something akin to a tavern on one side, and an inn reception area on the other. Naturally the duo avoided the tavern area and made their way over to the reception where a middle-aged woman greeted them.
“Hello, sir and madam. How may we be of service to you? Are you here to put up a request?” The receptionist said, assuming they’re here to request something after seeing Cyrus’s attire. She wanted to comment about the wings as well, but decided that it would be unprofessional to do so.
“Um, no. We’re here to join the guild. Can you inform us of the procedure?” Cyrus replied to the receptionist.
After giving them another glace as she sported a strange expression, she simply said, “Alright. Just write your name down here. After paying the sign-up fee of one silver, we will hand you your guild card which also doubles as identification.”
“Is that it?” Cyrus replied, surprised that it was that easy.
“Yes, that’s it, but there is also the option of getting your power ranking engraved on the card to serve as further identification. Though it’s recommended, it’s not a requirement. It’s mostly used as a reference for us when we recommend job requests to adventurers as those recommendations are based on what we think they are capable of handling at their current power level. That and also we allow members above a certain power ranking threshold to access our info database.” The lady replied.
“I see… can you tell me what those power rankings are? And how do we know what power rank we are at?” Cyrus inquired a bit, interested in how this world now defines power and on the chance to access the guild’s database.
The receptionist lady frowned at this, not expecting Cyrus to be this ill-informed, but soon gave the usual receptionist-brand smile.
“Hm, though I assumed it to be common knowledge but… no, nevermind. There are ten levels of power used to determine a person’s ability and strength.” The receptionist lady started.
“Those ten ranks, from the lowest to the highest, go from Apprentice, Initiate, Acolyte, Expert, Master, Grandmaster, Legend, Myth, Deity, and finally God rank. Each of those ranks has three levels as well, those levels being low-tier, mid-tier, and high-tier.” The receptionist continued.
“Though, many people are of the opinion that only seven ranks exist, as the last three ranks are considered something truly impossible to achieve, for people at least. In fact, in the entire Kingdom of Freynia, there is only one person with the Legend rank and he is even a mid-tier Legend. That person is the royal commander of the Freynia Army and he is considered the strongest person in this part of the human territory.” The lady went on.
“While moving through the ranks, although jumping from one tier to the other is not that difficult, it takes an extreme amount of effort to break through ranks. Even so, it can also be said to become increasingly difficult to break tiers as well in the higher ranks.”
“Similarly, we also classify magical beasts and monsters using this ranking system. That’s the reason why we have the option for power rankings on the guild card; it’s so that we use that information to recommend a request of suitable level. Though, technically, adventurers don’t have restrictions on what requests they choose to take, most of the members choose to take on the recommended requests, or at most only one level above. After all, the most effective way a person can die as an adventurer is to take on a request that they are too weak for.” The receptionist lady finished.
“Also, as a reference, I heard that the royal army commander is able to shatter huge boulders with the strength of his hands alone, whereas something along the lines of a horned rabbit, which is a mid-apprentice level magical beast, can be killed even by children.” The lady added.
“Hm… I see, so that’s how it works… Alright, I have three more questions. One is how the power rankings are determined, the other is where do we test for our power ranking, and lastly, what power ranking do we need to access the database?” Cyrus questioned.
“Power rankings are determined by how much mana a person can emit within a one second time frame. The amount is collected into a mana bauble which then processes the results. As for where you can get tested, well, we can do that for you for a price. You can also test your level yourself if you have your own mana bauble, but let me warn you, there are different qualities of mana baubles as well, and the higher quality ones will be able to collect more mana than the low quality ones. That’s why generally, unless you have an idea of the limits of your power ranking, most people take the test in official testing centers, like the adventurer’s guild, so as to more accurately read their strength since a low quality mana bauble will bottleneck above a certain threshold and thus give an incorrect reading.”
“As for what rank you have to be to access our database, well, it has to be Expert rank and above. Are there any more questions?” The receptionist lady sighed as she finally finished explaining everything.
“Nope, that is all. Thank you.” Cyrus replied as he finished absorbing all the information.
“In any case, here are the guild registration forms. Would you like to test your power rankings since I assume you don’t know yours?” The receptionist asked as she took out a form.
“Yes please, for both of us.” Cyrus answered.
“Alright, testing is also one silver.” The receptionist told him.
Taking out four silver coins, Cyrus handed them to the receptionist who quickly stowed it away. After both Cyrus and Seffy filled out the registration forms, the receptionist lady took both of them through a door in the back center of the guild. They then went through a stone hallway lit by torches as it was dark inside and soon arrived in a dark room with a large floating, glowing diamond-shaped azure crystal with many circular rings of metal orbiting around it. The receptionist left after we stood in front of the mana bauble. A middle-aged man with a greyish black beard and a gentle smile soon came out from a door on the other side of the room and walked over.
“Hello, my name is Alexius and I’m here to supervise the test, you know, to prevent people from tampering with the bauble, as well as the one who will engrave your power ranking on your guild card.” The man named Alexius introduced himself while bowing.
“Alright, let’s start now, shall we? See the area in the center of the bauble where the rings are avoiding? Please put your hand there and give me the signal to start when you are ready. As you know, after you give me the signal, you have one second to pour in as much mana as you can.” Alexius instructed to which Cyrus nodded.
‘Hm, alright, well obviously it would be bad to use all my mana. Let’s go with the most minimal amount I can manage to test the waters, and if that’s not enough, I’ll have Seffy pour in much more. After all, only one of us needs to reach that Expert rank to access the database.’ Cyrus thought to himself as he placed his hand on the crystal.
Signaling that he was ready with a hand wave, the mana bauble glowed brightly indicating that it was now in the process of taking in mana. Using all of his control, Cyrus mustered the tiniest, most insignificant sliver of a wisp of mana he can manage to produce and sent it through to the bauble. The bauble then exploded with a bright, white light that blinded everyone in the room before the light dimmed away revealing the state the bauble was now in. As the light faded, the three people in the room could see that the crystal in the center of the bauble was shivering as mana discharged and surged all over its smooth body. It should also be noted that its color also changed from azure blue to crimson red.
“Wh-wh-wh-, th-the-this. WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!?” Alexius exclaimed out as his jaws literally dropped to the floor in amazement and bewilderment while his face contorted.
“This, this isn’t possible! But, there’s no way the mana bauble could make a mistake about this, especially with one of this quality!” Alexius continued with a loud voice.
Both Cyrus and Seffy tilted their heads in confusion at his reaction. Cyrus deduced that he must have gone overboard, but he asked anyway.
“Umm, so what exactly does this mean?” Cyrus asked, although he had already guessed the answer.
“What does this mean? WHAT DOES THIS MEAN!? Boy, for you not to be discovered when you are something this outrageous, were you living under a rock or something?”
“Well, yes. Yes, I was and it was quite a cozy rock at that.” Cyrus quipped.
“You’re not supposed to answer that, boy! In any case, you seem to not be aware of what you are and what this may imply. Let me explain it to you. You see, this mana bauble is of an extremely high quality and can measure power rank up to high tier Legend rank. Now, what you did just before was completely overload this high quality mana bauble. When a mana bauble is filled to capacity and won’t take in anymore mana, its color changes from blue to red, just like what you see here! And not only that, the crystal also crackled and even I didn’t know what that was and I’ve been doing this job for decades!” Alexius quickly explained as beads of sweat started to form on his face.
“If this is implying what I think it’s implying, then you may very well have surpassed the Legend rank and ascended into Myth rank! This, this is the first time I’ve seen it, or even heard of something like this. If you’ve entered Myth rank then you’ve truly done the impossible. Not even the blessed existence that is the royal army commander has achieved something like this. You… just what are you? No, wait, that doesn’t matter.” Alexius rambled on.
Throughout Alexius’s ramblings, the only thought that Cyrus had on his mind was, ‘…Really? ’ Cyrus himself was a bit perplexed by this, not because of his assumed ranking, but because he never expected that such an insignificant drop of mana was worth that much in the eyes of the current world. Quite literally, that drop of mana to Cyrus was like a bead of water in an ocean.
‘This will definitely bring trouble if it was to be found out.’ Cyrus thought before he walked up to the man who was still rambling on about Cyrus’s potential and power.
“Hey.” Cyrus said, snapping Alexius out of his spewings. “I’d prefer it if this incident did not leave this room. It’ll cause quite the amount of trouble if it does.”
Vigorously nodding his head, he said, “Of course! Don’t worry, we respect the privacy of our members, otherwise, registration wouldn’t be so easy. Besides, antagonizing someone like you would be the last thing we want.”
“No, I want you to think of this as if it never happened. Even on the guild cards, I want it to say ‘Mid Expert rank’. You got that? No leakage. Not to your higher-ups, not your family. No one.” Cyrus smiled with his voice having a bit of a threatening tone.
“I, I got it. My lips are zipped.” Alexius stammered a bit, still nodding like crazy.
“Good. Then please test my partner and we will be on our way.” Cyrus spoke, to which Alexius nodded even harder, if it were even possible.
After another rambling from Alexius after finding out that Seffy, too, was past the Legend rank, albeit barely as the reaction wasn’t as strong, the two of them left the guild after receiving the guild cards. Of course, Cyrus also put a hex on Alexius that went unnoticed by the individual in question. It was set to bring an immense amount of pain to the target if he were to ever reveal Cyrus’s capabilities. A person can never be too cautious after all.
When everything was said and done, the two of them simply ignored everything and went back to their room in the inn and rested for the night, not even bothering to check the database.