"You took that out by yourself?" The assistant at the guild asks

"Yes."

"That's a bluestream deer," she says. "It takes at least 50 Magic or Strength to fight it."

"Yes."

"Aren't you only twelve?"

"Yes."

"So where's the person who actually killed it?" She asks.

"Hi, that would be me. How much can I get for it?"

"Kid," she says. "You were selling slime cores and nothing but for more than a week now. You're nowhere near powerful enough to challenge a bluestream deer. It would have killed you in moments."

"It did hit with me a powerful water jet," I say. "But that wasn't much of an issue. And I was only killing slimes because I was working on my aim."

"Uh-huh," she says. "You're a kid from the slums who only just managed to find a teacher for magic, kid. Where did you steal that staff from? And the beast corpse, too?"

Footsteps approach me from the side, and I look over to see a man who looks to be in his thirties standing there. He's dressed in light, leather armor and has a sword on his left side. The man has a serious, grim expression on his face.

This isn't how I was hoping this would go. Is he going to try to claim my kills now? I'm not powerful enough to take on an experienced adventurer. Not yet. I'm only Level 8, and most of the people here right now are at least Level 30. Some of them may even be two-affinities.

"Are you a mage?" He asks. "Or a physical fighter? I'm assuming mage considering how scrawny you are."

"I'm a mage."

"Okay," he pulls off his leather breastplate and his tunic, leaving himself bare-chested. He's well-muscled, probably from all his training with a sword. "Hit me with a spell."

"What?" I ask.

"The same spell you supposedly killed the deer with," he tells me. "I have more than 200 Constitution, so you're unlikely to harm me even if you are powerful enough to have killed the deer. So hit me, kid. If your attack is strong enough to have killed the deer, then I'll make sure you get what you're due. If not, however… theft is a serious crime."

"Oh," I say. "Okay."

More than 200 Constitution? He can definitely handle my attacks, then. I have less than 150 Magic.

I conjure an [Air Bolt] and shoot it at the man's chest, hitting him square in the center of it thanks to the close range. The man grunts as he loses his breath.

"Damn, kid," he says. "You pack a punch. I'd estimate that at around 100 Magic. If you've been training for only about a week, killing slimes, I'm going to assume you've hunted larger slimes but left their cores. I've noticed your water net, so you have, at the very least, affinities for water and wind. That would be +3 Magic per Level there. I doubt you're over Level 30, so we can assume you probably have at least two other affinities. Fire's a possibility, as is light. That would grant you +7 Magic per Level, then factoring in your starting amount, that's only Level 14 or so. Entirely feasible if you're hunting slimes all day for a week, and targeting bigger ones as well as the smaller ones. Am I correct?"

A lot of people are watching now, and the way he broke things down… is impressive. He was able to deduce that I have more than two affinities. The fact that he knows about my water net means he's seen me a few times and remembered how I was bringing in the cores over the last week.

My wind spell told him I had two affinities, and he deduced two more just because of how hard my [Air Bolt] hit. Was he basing that on how much Magic they grant per Level, then? How much does a fire affinity give per Level? A light affinity? They equal four combined based on his numbers.

I think that's what seven minus three equals. Math isn't really something I learned or needed. The System takes care of all of that for me with my Status, and I didn't even need to know how to read to understand it, I just could.

Though the guy did just out me as a four-affinity at the minimum. I'm not going to confirm I'm higher than that. I'm also not going to correct his assumption about how powerful I am right now. When Thomas and Colt first talked to me, I didn't know I was abnormal, I thought I was normal.

Going around and telling people I'm a seven-affinity probably won't go well for me. I'm to weak for that.

"Yes," I nod. "You got them all right. I killed a really big flame slime yesterday, and it boosted me up a few Levels, so I went to the forest today to try to earn some more money than cores give me. I killed some goblins first, and that's where I got the staff, then I fought the deer. I got lucky with the deer and didn't hit any bone on my second shot. You were right with my Level, too."

"I can see that," he says. "Theresa, pay him for the corpse. Your name is Max, right?"

"Uh… yeah?" How does he know my name?

"You mentioned it the other day," he tells me. Did I look confused? "Back when you first asked about selling the slime cores here. You were asked about how you were and mentioned your name was Max."

"Oh," I say.

"My name's Daniel," the man introduces himself. "And my father is the master of this particular guild. I'd like to speak with you in private, if that's okay. It's regarding that staff you have strapped to your back."

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Daniel is powerful enough to do what he wants with me, so even though I don't trust him and don't want to go, I agree to. If I say no, he'll probably not give me a choice.

Theresa assesses the deer and pays me twenty-four silver as Daniel pulls his shirt and armor back on.

I accept the coins, then reach into my pants and pull out my pouch. I open it up and put the coins inside before tucking it back into my pants. That's way more money than I expected to earn today, and I want to make sure it's safe. It's going to go towards buying me some more stuff.

I'd like to rent a room for the night, but that's not a good idea. No one will do that for a kid so obviously from the slums. They'd be more likely to call the guards on me on suspicion of theft, and then my hard-earned coins would all be taken by the guards.

"Let's go," Daniel says, then leads me upstairs.

The guild has three floors to it, with the first floor being where most people interact. It has a kitchen and staff that man it, tables for people to eat at, job requests on boards all around the main room, and the space for people to talk with the guild staff and sell stuff.

I'm not a member of the guild, so I have to sacrifice a bigger portion of my earnings to them when I sell stuff to them, but it's near the slums I live in and the gate I use to leave the city. Plus, they didn't immediately turn me away when I came in asking to sell cores, even though my tattered clothes, dirty body, and skinniness all scream 'slums'.

The second floor of the guild, I'm not sure what's up here. I never talked to anyone but the desk employees and I assumed that as a kid from the slums, I'd never even see the second floor, much less learn what's up here. Reaching it, I can see that there's a hall full of doors, but that's it.

Daniel takes me up a second set of stairs so that we're on the third floor, then leads me into an office where a really old man is sitting at a desk, looking at some sort of paperwork. The man looks up and gives me a curious look.

"This is Max," Daniel tells the man. "The boy I was telling you about the other day. I'm fairly certain he's a Level 8 seven-affinity judging by the amount of power behind the [Air Bolt] I had him shoot at me."

He could tell from the start?

"Yes, kid," he chuckles at my surprise. "I was able to tell. I'd been suspecting you were a two-affinity from the start, seeing as you didn't have a weapon and all of the cores you were selling were pierced or punched through with something. When you came in with that deer, though, I realized you had to have more, and when you hit me with the [Air Bolt]… I'm right, aren't I?"

I nod, now thoroughly worried about what's going to happen. This is now more people than I want knowing I'm a seven-affinity. Not only that, but they're all powerful or influential people. Colt is a noble's son and Daniel and the guild master are, well, part of a powerful guild.

Well, I think it's a powerful guild considering it's the closest to the northern gate.

"Don't be scared," Daniel tells me. "I kept your secret downstairs for a reason, kid. If word gets out you're a seven-affinity, people will want to take advantage of that or force you into working for them. A four-affinity is still rare, but it's not as special as a seven-affinity.

"If you need a place to stay," Daniel continues. "We rent rooms out to guild members in need at five silver a night."

"I'm not part of the guild," I say.

"You can be," Daniel tells me. "It will also give you protection from people wanting to convince a young four-affinity to join them."

"I don't trust you guys."

"That's fine," Daniel says. "It's simply an offer, and not why I brought you up here. Show Dad the staff."

"This staff?" I reach back and touch it. "It's just some cheap staff I got off a goblin mage. I think he was some sort of boss, he gave me almost a full Level's worth of Experience by himself and actually hurt me."

I pull off the staff and show it to Daniel's dad anyway, and the old man examines it for several moments in silence.

"Do you know where you were when you fought the goblin who had it?" The man asks.

"In the forest to the north."

"Do you know where in the forest?" The guild master asks.

"Um… somewhere?" I'm scared now.

"Hm," he muses. "Okay. I'm going to assume you went through the nearby gate?"

I nod.

"Then you're probably closer north of us than east or west," he says. "You think this staff is cheap?"

"It is, isn't it?" I ask. "It's only a small bonus. I mean, it gives less than a Level's boost."

"A ten-percent increase to the power of a spell," the guild master tells me. "Is significant, Max. That's one of the reasons why magic items are so valued. Even a cheap one is a big boon. If you cast a spell with 10 Magic using this staff, that's 11 Magic instead. That little bit can be enough to punch through a shield or kill the target.

"A ten-percent decrease to the cost of casting a spell," the guild master continues. "Is also significant, Max. At base, [Air Bolt] costs 2 Mana. That becomes 1.8 Mana. If you have 20 Mana, you go from being able to cast ten [Air Bolt]s to being able to cast eleven. One more spell can make or break a fight.

"Finally," he continues. "Only someone who is powerful or who is used to casting a spell can cast it rapidly without waiting. The same goes for simultaneous casting. Not having to wait a few moments to weave your Mana into the proper form can give you an edge in a fight over an enemy who has to."

Now that makes sense. I'm able to cast spells quickly because I'm so powerful. However, I do have to take time after the first four because I'm not skilled enough to keep going. I fumble the spell if I try to rush a fifth one.

"A cheap magic staff," the guild master tells me. "Would only have one of those, Max. This staff has all three of them and is easily worth more than a gold. The craftsmanship is goblin as well, which means this isn't something the goblin mage you fought simply found. No, it was crafted by a goblin for a goblin."

"And that's… bad?" I try to guess while being amazed at my acquisition.

More than a gold for the staff? That's way more than I expected to earn in a week of hunting in the forest.

"Yes," the guild master tells me. "It means that the goblin isn't just some goblin that lives in the forest. It's from a large settlement, possibly a goblin kingdom. There are a few of them further into the forest than most will go. If the goblin kingdom is sending patrols this way, then we need to prepare for a potential attack."

The guild master than asks me a bunch of questions about the encounter, including everything I can remember about the area I was in and the goblins themselves, including how they fought. He even wants to know what they looked like, what they wore, and what their weapons looked like.

"I'll have someone investigate," Daniel informs his father. "See if they can't determine more."

"Thank you," the guild master says. "Max, are you planning on returning to the forest?"

"Yeah," I answer. "I want more money and that's a good place to find stuff that will get me more."

"Okay," the guild master says. "Then will you keep an eye out for goblins? And if you find any, can you try to memorize as much as you can about the encounter and the goblins themselves? It will help us identify where they're coming from and how severe the threat is. If you can remember where you encountered them, that will also make it easier for investigating members to look."

"I can try," I tell him.

"Thank you," he says. "And you'll be compensated for any viable information you give us. Depending on the information, it could be worth more than five silver."

"He looks like he likes the sound of that," Daniel chuckles.

"Do we have an agreement?" The guild master asks me.

"Yeah."

"Okay," he says. "Daniel, take him downstairs and make sure he gets paid for the staff if he's selling it. And kid? Make sure you eat well tonight."