Waiting for Kayden to return was quite boring. My fingers had mostly grown back so I put the almost completely ruined bandage away. After that, I received my papers from Nira. For the first time, I had documents stating my actual name.

My Uncle had told me that my dad wanted to call me Imuril (if it's an elven name then he should’ve been the elf), and my mom wanted to call me…. I’m sure he told me…. It doesn’t matter, I guess. I went by Quartz though. An elven name would stick out more, I guess? But if I looked fully elven, why would it have stuck out?

The name Quartz was picked because of my hair, the hair that was stained too many colors, but none stood out very well. To the dwarves, it was just like the mineral. So common and there was such a large range of color options. A useless mineral that just stood out. What an obvious choice for a half elf in a dwarven orphanage. Their naming sense was a bit too on the nose, but it was on my old official papers, there wasn’t much I could really do about it.

Only when we were alone did my uncle call me… Imuril… right?

How could I not remember this simple thing?

The parents I never knew about, and still aren’t sure if I even want to know about them, the name… names they chose for me. I’d finally be using one of them, if only temporarily, and on fake papers. And I couldn’t even remember the one my mom chose.

How could I be so sure she chose one and not even know what it was?

I stared at it. I think I asked about them once, I must have. Not that I’d remember what he had said if I couldn’t even remember if I had asked. At least, I don’t think I ever asked again. And being older now I still wasn’t completely sure if I really wanted to know about them. What difference would knowing who they are, make to my life right now?

I mean knowing why I inherited or got this blessing would probably be helpful. Especially since it had to be a rare ability. It would be annoying if that was so special it would create issues in the future. Luckily, I currently had the easy explanation of Mezu. Just claiming it was because of how our contract should work.

Well, that was until we met other avatars. If they were avatars, they might be able to converse with Alcoroth and would probably also get the quest request. At that point, they might start to question whether or not this was actually from Mezu or not.

Also, the way Alcoroth talks might give it away. Why would they choose a weakling like me if they could have bestowed the limb growing back capabilities to anyone? Yeah, I’ve learned aura and gotten considerably stronger since then but, in the end, it would’ve been faster just to pick someone strong in the first place. Well, a strong person that also suited his taste.

I sighed, laying my face on the table only to turn my head and see Alcoroth place the bag in front of me.

“I told you I’m not looking at it now.”

Mezu pushed it towards me. That same look in his eyes.

“We don’t have time. Kayden could be back any minute now. You’re the one that wants to climb the tower.”

There were footsteps down the stairs, and I pushed it back to Alcoroth who sighed and stuffed it in his storage magic. His face briefly reflected a look I had seen on my uncle’s face at one point. I didn’t know what it meant but it was gone almost as soon as I had seen it.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Are you ready to go?”

Kayden looked more dressed for the part. Instead of the loose shirt and pants he had been wearing, he now wore light armor with a dark cloak and the emblem of the Shadow Seekers on his right side of it.

“Yeah, let’s go then.”

“Alright, when we get to the elevator let me do all the talking. Also, from now on don’t say anything.”

He held out a pair of earrings.

“Huh?”

“Just put these on, they'll cast an illusion to make you look less noticeable.”

“Wait, why?”

“It's just until we get to our floor. And give this cloak to the kid. It’s got a stealth charm on it. It will help if they see me traveling with an elf all alone and not an elf with some kid. It's okay once we get to our controlled floor but before that while, there are still eyes around. You need to be as unnoticeable as possible. Your hair and outfit are not veryelven so the charm will just change the look and color of things.”

“What a pain.”

I pierced my own ears with surprising ease, I suspect the cool sensation I felt was from Alcoroth putting magic on the tips as I put them in. Which was nice of him but also quite out of the norm.

I didn’t feel any change though. My confusion must have shown, and Kayden passed me a mirror.

I looked in it to see my hair a soft even light brown color, my eyes were now brown as well and my skin was lightly tanned. My hair itself was partially braided and tied up neatly, my ears on full display. My clothes looked different too, they appeared to fit better but appeared to fit someone slightly bigger than I was.

I guess the charm only affected how others saw me, which was nice because if I felt that my ears were exposed, I would’ve been subconscious about it. Even if I knew that others would assume I was an elf, years of hiding them wouldn’t change my habits overnight.

My eyes being a different color now interested me. I thought there was nothing I could really do about them. I mean this was temporary and if the charm broke and revealed the truth, people would be more curious about why I was even hiding them in the first place. That’d be more annoying probably.

I shook my head a bit uncomfortable, it was weird seeing a change that I couldn’t feel. I passed the mirror back and took the cloak from his hands.

I dressed Mezu before putting him on my shoulders.

“Stay as still as possible, okay bud? Just until we get into the elevator.”

Mezu nodded.

“Good, lets go then.”

The streets were a lot quieter than before and even the center of town was calmer, though it was still much livelier than the back streets we took to get there. I followed Kayden through the crowd to the other side of the fountain and down an almost empty street. At the end of it was the start of some steps.

When we reached the top, we arrived at a pavilion surrounded on all sides by guards with the Adventurer Guild’s emblem. Kayden led me right through the front gates and to the softly glowing door at the back.

One of the people at the door blocked it with a spear and the other spoke up.

“Papers.”

I followed Kayden’s lead and passed my new adventurer’s card over to them.

“Is this a new recruit, shouldn’t you have more?”

“Yeah, not a lot of good people came today so he’s all I got.”

The person eyed me up and down before handing back the cards.

“Recently there was a subjugation of horned rabbits on this floor. Did you hear about it?”

“I was busy trying to get some new kids, must have missed it.”

“It’s been a while since there were beasts on this floor at all, to think that horned rabbits picked a fight with our messenger birds. Let the others know to keep an eye out.”

What the hell were they saying, if it's code, isn’t it a bit too obvious? I say obvious like I instantly knew what he was talking about. It just didn’t make sense if it was an actual conversation.

“Of course, it would be bothersome if the messenger birds couldn’t do their jobs properly anymore.”

“Well then, head on in. Happy hunting.”

Kayden nodded at the guard, and they entered the glowing doors. Inside it reminded me of when I first entered the tower. The floors and walls were black, but the boundaries were marked in a glowing blue light.

On the wall to the right of Kayden, numbered buttons appeared. Between a few of the floor numbers, there were gaps in the count but not empty spaces for buttons to be. Kayden pressed the one labeled 24 but before they disappeared, I saw a button labeled 40.

Kayden had access to the upper floors. I didn’t know why I came to that conclusion but it's what I thought of. And that meant he lied; he made it past floor thirty.

I heard a low hum and then the doors opened.