Recruitment costs?

Severin felt his still raised eyebrow twitch uncontrollably.

He opened his mouth to protest but didn’t manage to produce any sound before the woman in front of him started laughing.

“Just teasing,” she explained with a toothy grin. “I think we will have a lot of fun together.”

Even though Severin only ever maintained a most superficial relationship with Mylana, that was their contact was usually limited to a fleeting acknowledgement of the other’s presence, he hadn’t expected her to be this flippant. He already started to regret his decision.

But his mood improved when, without hesitation, the woman then made good on her assurance and, from one moment to the next, five small golden ingots appeared in her still outstretched hand stacked on top of one another.

As soon as she withdrew her hand, however, and as she was about to feed the small fortune into the newly introduced device, an interruption from the side stopped the woman in her tracks.

“I urge you to remain patient for just a little longer. We have not concluded our investigation just yet.

If you insist on using that device anyway, I have it known that the Society will not take responsibility for any mishaps or unintentional side-effects.” This part Magda directed towards the other, older woman.

And then, to Severin, “As for you, I’m afraid you don’t have as much say in that matter. Though customers may choose to ignore the Society’s pending investigation status of any particular product-if they are willing to take the risk, that’s on them-the same is not true for you. Until the Society has completed its investigation, the product in question is not to be further advertised.

We ask for your cooperation.”

“I doubt any more advertisement on my part would even be necessary anymore,” Severin said defiantly in response to the unvoiced warning, hinting at the people surrounding them. But he ultimately conceded when he saw the strained, helpless smile of the woman who knew he was probably right, “Fine.

But you’ll have to help me take care of all these people first. Get them out. Impossible to do business in here until you are done.”

Magda cooperated. As did various influential group and guild leaders.

Half an hour later, the store was largely devoid of people. With the exception of those affiliated with either the Society or Severin.

And his would be [Employee].

“You want to go ahead then, before we continue?”

“I don’t think that will be necessary anymore. Might as well wait a bit longer and see what you guys come up with.” Samuel’s mentor answered Magda.

“What is this even about in the first place?” Severin asked. “What are you trying to do? Haven’t you already confirmed that it works just fine? More than fine, actually.”

“Hardly. The tooltip, and you as well for that matter, only ever mentioned that it was capable of removing the user’s class-orb. Now, while this might technically be correct, I think it is rather misleading. Wouldn’t you agree?

Which begets the question, what other information isn’t mentioned on its tooltip? The class-orb’s extraction is one thing. But there is not even a hint regarding its level retention. So what else are we missing?”

Much to Severin’s annoyance, even Mylana, who should have been on his side, was nodding in agreement at Magda’s clarification.

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“We can’t just take your words for it. This is too big. You yourself should best understand just how big. And yet you didn’t deem it necessary to give us even a heads-up. Or explain its intricacies. So that is why we aren’t done here just yet,” the local Society’s branch manager explained, clearly annoyed but still sporting an albeit strained smile.

His behaviour must indeed have appeared as rather suspicious, Severin realized.

If anyone should have known all about this new device and its features, it was naturally him. But not only did he fail to properly introduce them even to his customers, if anyone had actually paid closer attention to him back when the device was first activated, Severin understood that person would have found him to be just as surprised as everyone else had been.

With that thought in mind, he decided it was for the best to not draw any further attention to himself for the time being, and simply nodded.

Severin tried to ignore Mylana’s gaze on his face and was glad that the other woman, who clearly had lost some pounds since her arrival on his mountain, the one doing the investigation, had already shifted her attention away from him and towards her subordinate.

“You haven’t re-absorbed it yet?”

Seeing the young man clasping tightly the orb in question in front of his chest, it was more of an observation than an actual question.

“Go ahead then.”

“Yes, ma’am!” He said eagerly.

Severin, intrigued to witness this process in person, leaned forwards and paid close attention.

Only to be disappointed by how unspectacular the whole process was.

One moment said orb begun to shine brightly, only for it to disappear the next. Instead, it was the young man who began emitting the same bright light. And for just as briefly.

Just five, maybe ten, seconds later and the whole thing had been over with.

Apart from the big, clearly relieved smile of the human guinea pig, the probably biggest observable change was that of the dot representing the young man on Severin’s minimap, which had now updated to once again indicate his possession of a class.

“Still level two!” He exclaimed, full of joy.

“Good. Now remove it again.”

“Whaa~?! Do- Do I have to?”

A stern look told him yes. Yes, he had to.

Deeply distressed, he once again received the money. At which point, Severin realized this investigation wasn’t entirely unprofitable.

The man shuffled back towards the device which had already once separated him from his class and, as previously, inserted the money.

Like before, he then placed his hands on either side of the device.

Unlike before, however, this time they didn’t have to wait long for a reaction.

Almost immediately, the money that had just been inserted into the corresponding slot was ejected through the same opening. This opening then closed and firmly rejected the gold now laying on top of it.

At the same time, a bluish semitransparent box appeared, hovering directly above the device and in front of a visibly confused young man.

Soon, that confusion turned into relief.

“Warning!

Individual user access to the Class-Orb Removal Service is currently restricted. Please wait for another 149 days, 23 minutes, and 42 seconds for repeat access,” he read out loud.

“How troublesome!” Magda decided; a sentiment Severin strongly agreed with.

“I should quite frankly issue you with an official warning because of this. You are lucky we noticed this before any overzealous adventurer got locked out of their class,” she admonished the [Shopkeeper].

“Well, at least that should answer your questioning why we are doing this.

Argh! How troublesome,” she repeated before ordering her subordinate,

“No way around it. Go get the other classbearers. All of them.”

“Yes, ma-”

“No, forget that. Close the whole thing and get everyone. Now, go. Quickly.”

“On my way!”