A New Star Chapter 53

The Adventurers Guild had a Hall on the edge of the Merchant District just next to the Central District, which made more sense when one considered the amount of commerce they did in buying and selling beast parts and materials. The place was a five story tall wood-and-stone edifice, a monument to the Guild's power and wealth, the whole structure thrumming with power, and I meant that literally. The place was enchanted out the wazoo, with multiple layers of runes carved into every pillar, every beam, every floor tile, and even the counters in the massive main hall. I took it all in as I entered, stepping inside and lowering the hood of my cloak as a combination of scents, cedar and pine and beer and sweat and woodsmoke, all hit me at once. The place buzzed with a frenetic energy, the roaring of voices, some in song, some in jest. The place had a vitality about it I hadn't felt since my last life, and good cheer combined with alcohol in the air to create a heady buzz, the oil lamps lighting the hall bright as noon no matter the time. 

There was a counter to the right side of the doorway that led into the main hall from the foyer, a smaller room I had first passed through that had two guards sitting watch. I turned and headed for the counter, navigating my way around a bawdy man drunkenly singing something raunchy in an off key while his table mates looked like they were considering throttling him. I wended my way to the counter, walking up to the back of a short line to wait for an attendant to be free. Luckily, they had three people working the desk and the line thus moved quickly, my turn coming up in just a few moments. 

"Welcome to the guild! How can we assist you today?" the attendant, a medium-height, brown-haired and green-eyed woman, asked me. 

"I'm here to register," I replied calmly. 

"To register? Do you have any identifying documents?" the attendant asked, giving me a strange look. 

"Will this suffice?" I asked, passing over a signed notice documenting my name and standing. It was something that an official with an affinity that allowed for truth in contracts or verified truth-seeking could make and would act as a simple identity card for me. If I could use this to get a guild tag, then that tag would be officially accepted anywhere, with few questions asked, which was another reason for my doing this today. 

"Let me check the document," the attendant replied, taking it and scanning it herself before using something that looked much like a magic magnifying glass. After a moment, she looked at me, still with a strange frown on her face, saying, "Is this information correct?" 

"Unless it's change since I had it made two days ago," I replied slightly sarcastically. 

"And…you're only ten years old?" the clerk asked, her tone entirely disbelieving.  

"That is correct," I said calmly. 

"Do you, uh, mind waiting a moment?" she asked. 

I sighed heavily. "If you insist." 

The attendant gave me an even stranger look before she hurried away, and I turned and leaned against the counter to watch the room while I waited. Other people were being seen by other clerks at the counter, a steady stream of general riffraff making their way through the process during the course of the hour. There were plenty of people spread throughout the hall drinking and smoking and cavorting, filling the place with an endless din that one often had to shout over to be heard. That, or use an affinity that could transmit one's words with ease even through a noisy place. I watched as teams formed, headed out to complete tasks, returned from long hunts, and moved into the back or upstairs, either to train or rest.  

"Kid," I heard after a few minutes, turning to find a monster of a man, likely with some minotaur blood in him, standing behind the counter. His voice was like thunder in a hailstorm, and he had heavy scarring on his hands and arms, all visible with his sleeveless tunic. He had a shaggy mane of brownish-black hair that cascaded down his back in a rough, coarse wave, ending right at the small of his back.  

"Old man," I returned lazily, having to crane my head back to look him in the eye even with my already great height. 

"You the ten-year-old trying to get a tag?" he asked gruffly. 

"That's me," I said with another sigh, already able to tell where this was going. 

"Come back when you're a little older, pipsqueak," he said, ready to turn away. 

"Unacceptable," I said coldly, grabbing my mana in a way I was long familiar with from manipulating my qi and pushing it out around me, crushing down on the area around me. It didn't have a great affect on the inanimate objects around me, not at my current level, but it produced a major effect on living beings. Several of the other adventurers staggered slightly and all three of the clerks collapsed, one of them directly passing out and being caught by the massive man's outstretched. 

"Enough of that," he growled, snapping at me with a strong affinity, which I casually dispersed before ending my pressure. "You're not all talk, then." 

"I should hope not," I returned tartly.  

"Still, I'm not quite comfortable with giving even a powerful kid a tag," he said, scratching at his thick mane.  

"Then fight me," I said coldly. That statement produced an audible gasp, with the clerk that had been working with me looking at me like I had just grown a second head. Even the other four or five adventurers who needed something from the counters had stepped back a bit, giving my looks like I had just signed my own death warrant. 

"Not sure you know what you're askin', kid," the man said coldly. 

"Either fight me or give me a tag. I have little time for your nonsense," I replied with an edge to my voice. 

"Fine, fine. If that's the way you want it, follow me," he said, walking out from behind the counter and making his way to the back of the main hall. The crowds parted before him like the seas before a great dreadnought, the man not even needing to say anything to have a perfectly clear path wherever he wanted to walk. 

We moved through a door at the back, several others following behind us, likely curious at what was happening. Adventurers were, by nature, an unruly lot, and I should not have expected any kind of military discipline from such a ragged bunch. There was, however, an air of comradery and good cheer about them that was a bit intoxicating, though whether that was to do with all the booze and pipe smoke, who could really say? As it was, we had a motley group follow us into the back hallways, where we moved to what I assumed was a training room. There was a hip-wall about ten feet into the room, though it only came up to the top of my thigh, the area by the door separated from a dirt floor with equipment arrayed around the walls. In the front area, where the floor was still tiled stone, there were racks of training weapons and gear. The big man ignored all that and walked through the half-door separating the dirt floor from the front part of the room, walking across the dirt before turning to face me.  

"Alright, kid," he said, looking at me as I stopped across from him. "I take it you don't have a problem with a serious test?" 

"Sure, whatever," I said, stretching out and getting ready. 

"Whenever you're ready, kid," the man, who's name I still didn't know, said with a dismissive gesture.  

I stretched another moment, just enough to show that the timing was based on me and not him before I exploded forward, lightning curling off my body as I used the affinity to get up to the man in a blink. I could see the surprise register as he blocked my initial punch, the force causing him to have to take half a step back, though that was because he hadn't been taking it seriously and had just had a loose, improper stance. Before he could really recover, I stepped through The Dark, appearing behind him and lashing out with a combination of strikes before disappearing and appearing beside him, targeting his open left side with kicked backed by Pure Ice and Lightning of Heaven's Great Abyss. The strike landed with the force of a falling star, but the man was built too solidly to fall to something like that, staggering a half step before lashing out at me. Instead of dodging, which it looked like he assumed I was going to do, I met him, fist-to-fist, the impact of our punches colliding resonating with an explosive boom that rocked the dirt floor and sent a shockwave rolling all the way to the people in the waiting area.  

I disappeared again only to reappear directly in front of him, lashing out with a punch before teleport behind him and kicking at his back. He blocked both, but they were just feints, as I really was targeting his knee, which I slashed at with my left leg, trying to smash the back of the joint with my shin. He twisted slightly and met my kick with his own shin, the sound of bone cracking against bone echoing out in the room. I had a minor fracture from that, but that was not enough to even slow me down, and I peppered the man with a barrage of rapid punches and palm strikes, forcing him to work to keep up with my assault. He bellowed and a wave of sound exploded out of him, stopping my barrage before it was complete as the shockwave pushed me back, but I was already fading into The Dark even before the wave fully passed me. I emerged again right in front of him, roaring at him in turn while a gout of fire and lightning exploded from my mouth, enveloping his head and shoulders with a thunderous sound. 

"Enough! Enough," he said, wading out of the flames and patting the shoulder of his tunic out, which had only been lightly singed. Clearly, even his clothing was made of high-rank beast materials.  

"Satisfied?" I asked calmly. 

"You can more than handle an iron tag, kid," he grunted. The other adventurers whooped and hollered at his pronouncement, but I just rolled my eyes. "Come on, let's get this done and get you official member status." 

He led me out of the room, still trailed by other adventurers before the man shooed them all away. The process of getting a tag would require going over the basic of my primary affinities and their current grade and that information was private. The man led me to a separate, small room just to the side and behind the counters, which was used for just such things as tag creation and updating. He sat on a large chair across a low table with a grunt, the massive wooden construct groaning under his weight. 

"What're your Big Three, kid, and what grade?" he asked. 

"Can I at least get your name first?" I inquired, giving him a pointed look. 

"Right, sorry, forgot," he said, scratching his mane with blunt, pillar-like fingers. "I'm one of the three Vice Guild Leader for the kingdom. Name's Paul Mallock, but just call me Paul." 

 "Alexandra," I said, sitting across from him. 

"So, what're good for. I assume the darkness affinity is your main, and that lightning is strong. Bit of a complex addition working on both ice and fire at the same time," he said, leaning back in the chair, which produced more creaking noises.  

"My Big Three are The Dark, Flame, and Lightning," I said. 

"Just lightning? Wasn't any damn lightning I recognized," he grunted. 

"Do I have to be more specific?" I asked. 

"Not fer an iron tag, kid," he said. "And what's your current Rank?" 

"Lightning is J-grade, the others are I-grade," I replied calmly. 

"J-grade? You're telling me you have such a powerful lightning affinity at J-grade at ten years old?" he asked skeptically.  

"That's what I'm saying, yes," I replied calmly. 

"We do have devices that test for that, and I would normally use it on such an extraordinary claim," he grunted, frowning at me. "However, having felt your punches myself, I can guess that, beyond having a powerful body, you really are around J-grade with lightning. I'll make ya an iron tag for I-rank, but understand you have very little authority with that. It's really just an ID at that point and little more." 

"What's the easiest way I can get that up to copper?" I asked. 

He eyed me critically for a minute before replying, "Do missions. Tell you what, you do five copper missions, which I'll let ya start taking right away, then come back and talk to me and I'll give ya a brief test. Anything over copper, though, you'll have to do the proper way." 

"That's fine. I can just take copper missions off the request board?" I asked, having already looked up about Guild missions. 

"Right. Take 'em off the board and take 'em over to the counter. They'll register your party, or just you, as having taken the mission. Go do the thing on the paper and come back with either a clear report or the items requested. Copper missions ain't that hard; most of it is go get some beast cores or somethin' like that," he explained. 

"Right, sounds easy," I said. I stared at him for a moment and he frowned at me before starting right as I was about to speak. With another grunt, he pulled out a necklace made of a steel chain and an iron tag from…somewhere. He grabbed a little device on the table and put the tag in before putting a little paper card, one that had my details on it, against the device. There was a slight pinging sound and then the sound of metal being stamped before he drew the tag out of the device and threaded it on the necklace. 

"You're registered in the records, but if you lose that, it's four silver coins to replace, so hang onto it," he grunted at me.  

I looped the necklace over my head before tucking it under my cloak and shirt. I then thanked him, rising from the chair and moving back into the main hall, watching as Paul went over to the desk to talk with them. Hopefully, he was telling them I was approved for copper missions or that would be a whole thing in and of itself. I, meanwhile, moved over to the request board on the opposite side from the counter, a massive section of the wall that had notices pinned all over it.  

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