“So, probably something I should have brought up earlier, but are we going to do anything about the body of the man I killed?” I asked
Lady Xing just snorted “do what exactly, any kind of law enforcement is overworked, unhappy and don’t care unless someone is dropping a large bag of money in front of them, it will be deemed a robbery.” Carefully looking around she quickly lead me down increasing dark and dank back alleys
“Also in a worse case scenario they work out he was a classer and whilst that would draw more attention classers are not bound by mortal rules in alot of cases, which means that they aren’t protected by said laws either.”
“Any other world shattering revelations you want to drop on me?” I exclaimed “what do you mean that the laws are different?”
“Shut up and put your mask on” she said slipping on a bright red mask of her own with two black daggers forming an impression of a smile. As she did so a set of silver chain armour appeared covering all her other clothes, the only other notable thing about her clothes was a red glove decorating her left hand, looking almost as if she had dipped it in a bucket of blood. “We have almost arrived.”
Quickly slipping on my own mask I followed Lady Xing into a large building, the closest building to the gate, which was generally considered one of the worst places to live in the city. Despite this fact the building was in surprisingly good condition with a large plot of land and three stories, which was enough space to rival most inns. A bright red lacquered door stood proudly at the front, unfortunately mired by what appeared to be a hand axe deeply embedded into the door, which prevented it from swinging fully open. A roughly hewn sign proclaiming that this was the adventurers guild lopsidedly hung above the door.
“Clearly the occupants of this place probably aren’t the most sophisticated of fellows, I thought watching as lady Xing firmly opened the door wincing at the groan of the hand axe hitting the wall. I quickly followed in behind her.
Scanning the ground floor it mostly looked like a traditional main floor of an inn. If one excluded the fact that everyone was armed to the teeth. The clearly rougher members of society glared at them in disdain, looking all the more irritated as she confidently marched to the reception area of the guild.
“Yes” the lady behind the counter squeaked looking around and seemingly overwhelmed by the gazes of everyone that seemed to pierce into them.
“New license for this one” Lady Xing said dismissively, “set the inductee as crimson”
“I’m sorry who? Is there anything after crimson?”
“No just crimson” she growled at the now very terrified receptionist. “And expedite the process to make it happen today.”
Behind them a man scoffed and slammed his hand on the table with his mug. “Your not crimson.” He said laughing.
“Unfortunately I can’t expedite it, that would need to go through the guild master” the receptionist said paling more with every passing second
“Well get him down here”
“I cant, he asked to not be disturbed” the receptionist was almost whispering at that point.
“Look at me bitch crimson is over class 750 at the latest count and has single handedly saved the city on two occasions, don’t lie.”
“Don’t be disturbed he said” Lady Xing asked
The receptionist nodded vigorously
“ well I’m sorry to say that he is about to be disturbed.” Lady Xing replied as she took two steps over to the heckler and grabbed him by his head and slammed it through the table.
“You guilders are so weak these days” she remarked as I quickly moved back towards the entrance ready to dart out very suddenly as the entire building glared at Lady Xing in shock. The man only groaned weakly in response. “Well who’s next?”
Half the bar roze to their feet.
***
“On what plane of hell happened here?” The guild master roared as he came down the stairs to a destroyed bar, some of his best men crumpled on the floor and on ruined furniture with various bruises and different states of consciousness.
“Glenda care to explain” he asked turning around to the receptionist who raised a shaking finger and pointed into the corner where Lady Xing and I sat on some of the last functional chairs in the entire building.
“She came in and claimed to be crimson, John doubted her and she put his head through his table.”
Already seeming to understand what had happened next he sighed and put his head in his hands and deeply sighed.
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“And lots of people jumped up to respond but it wasn’t enough, she just demolished them.”
“Indeed” Lady Xing nodded turning from where she was pretending to converse with me whilst we had waited. Shockingly even after we had destroyed more than three quarters of the furniture in the building and had knocked out over half the patrons it had still taken the guild master almost three minutes to return after we had decided to sit down. “I even only used stats, a rather poor performance from the largest guild headquarters in the country.”
“Crimson, what possessed you to decide to come here and completely ruin the ground floor of my guild?” The guild master asked completely ignoring the question about the adventurers lack of skill.
“Oh off your high horse Borris” Lady Xing snapped “this is mostly your own fault, I asked very politely to see you and I was told that you weren’t to be interrupted knowing full well that I have permission to see you at will for any reason.”
“And so wrecking the floor was a suitable response?” Borris exclaimed? “How is that reasonable”
“Do not test me boy” Lady Xing said appearing in front of him as if by magic a knife already placed firmly under his chin. “You know the law and where I stand.”
Borris raised his hands slowly and very dramatically. “so what can I, the lowly guild master do for the red hand of the crown”
Lady Xing scowled and pressed the dagger in further. “Not call me that for a start, you know how I feel about that name. Also when I ask for the guild master let me see you, and maybe let the idiots on this floor know that mocking, as you say the red hand may reduce their life expectancy dramatically.”
“You know that wasn’t what I was actually asking” Borris scowled slightly moving back to prevent his throat from being slit as he spoke “why did you come into this building, also you will be paying for the damages.”
“You and what army” Lady Xing scoffed “your threat would seem more reasonable if I hadn’t just gone and wiped out half the building using purely stats and was capable of beheading you at a thought. But I want a full bronze solo operative membership for this one.”
“Unacceptable” the guild master said “that requires at least a year of service and several tests, we have no idea if she is even capable of doing any of that.”
“She isn’t at the moment but you will give it to her anyway.”
“Absolutely not, we have standards here, what will people say if they see someone skipping up the ranks with no actual experience.”
“Most likely complain about nepotism until they prove themselves or more likely get themselves killed, your son was an excellent example of the latter.” Lady Xing snarked
Borris’s face went purple and voice turned deathly quiet. “Do not speak of things you do not understand witch.”
“Then don’t interrupt official orders” Lady Xing remarked shoving a letter to his chest if you had not interrupted me in the first place and had competent people in the building we would spare such discussions. But you tried to punch a stone user only discover they were hiding the metal shell inside.”
Borris read the letter lips thinning as he read. Crunching the paper in his fist he turned and shouted “Glenda get her the bronze solo operator license, and you gawkers find somewhere else to be unless you want me to charge you!”
It seemed that the injured people on the floor miraculously recovered and exited the building at a rapid pace, and in no time at all the floor had been completely cleared.
Walking back to the desk I was quietly asked to place my hand on a glass orb by Glenda who still sat shaking like a leaf
“Why? What does it do I asked in trepidation. The purpose of the mask was to hide my identity and if this revealed it the mask was as good as useless.
“It creates a profile marker that can be used to confirm who you are, and is required to give you your membership.” Glenda sai
“Do it” Lady Xing casually said waving her hand in dismissal, her eyes still locked with The Guildmaster who was glaring at her angrily.
Trusting Lady Xing at least somewhat, I carefully placed my hand on the orb which glowed slightly, Glenda looked at it in confusion.
“An issue” Borris asked looking over and to my horror sounded darkly excited at the thought.
Glenda jumped and quickly responded “No sir I can make the ID no problem! The orb just needs to be replaced clearly as the result is just coming in slightly faded for some reason.”
“Bah” Borris waved her off seemingly disappointed however I saw a thoughtful expression cross Lady Xings face out of the corner of my eye however as I looked back her face was schooled into an expression of perfect neutrality.
“What would you wish for your identity to be miss” Glenda asked
“Lady Ink” I stated firmly making sure no trace of doubt entered my mind despite my lack of certainty about the name.
“Well she has your name sense” Borris said dryly and I tried very hard to not show any discomfort.
Soon afterwards after a minute of watching the wheezing and groaning of a very poorly maintained artificer machine I received from a still incredibly flustered Glenda a bronze card with Lady Ink written firmly along the top and a S stamped inside a circle in the bottom right corner.
Lady Ink came over and peered over my shoulder to examine the token closely and nodded firmly to herself, and I watched as Glenda seemingly sunk into her chair sighing in relief . Afterwards she turned to leave throwing over her shoulder, “I assume that when we go to the Hunters guild tomorrow there will be a bronze token for lady ink there.”
“Of course you damnable witch just get out” Borris shouted to her back as I scrambled out after her.
“Well that went rather well, I thought” Lady Xing exclaimed waking out.
Looking at her I noticed a familiar orb in her hand “Is that the orb I just used” I gasped.
“Of course, I have to give the assassin’s Guild something to give you a card and there is no way in hell you are going down there until you are significantly more powerful, Also it gives Borris more work as now he can’t just pass this to the hunters guild and that’s always fun.” Walking through one of the few public parks the city had and maintained close to the gate to inspire and intimidate foreign guests , she slid the orb and a note into a hole in the roots.
“A dead drop spot” she said noticing my confusion, “someone will pick it up later, that’s not important”
“What is important then?” I asked looking at her warily suddenly very sure I was stepping into a trap.
“What are you hiding with your class little princess” Lady Xing asked her eyes boring into me as if piercing into my very soul.