"H-Hello there...w-welco to the Shenzhen Branch of the H-Hunters' Guild..." the receptionist said ekly. There must've been so special technologies implented so that people on the other side of the glass pane would still be able to hear the receptionists loud and clear. Sound Magic, perhaps?
"Er...hey," I replied, equally nervous. Interacting with strangers wasn't exactly my strong suit, especially when the other party was also introverted like .
Though that left wondering...if she was introverted, why would she beco a receptionist? That was a job that required constant interaction with others. I snuck a glance at one of the other receptionists on the other end of the room, and she seed to be doing just fine.
"W-What is your business at the Hunters' Guild t-today?" the girl before managed to ask quietly. Her voice was quite high-pitched, but I bet it was just because she was extrely nervous.
"Oh, er, I would like to register," I replied, looking at her again.
"...Register?"
"What, do you not allow new registrations?"
"A-Ah, n-no, it's not that..." she quickly shook her head in a fluster. "Forgive , i-it's just that...you don't seem too strong, judging from appearances."
Do I really look that weak on the outside? Well, I suppose that's not exactly a bad thing, since being seen as weak is better than being seen as exceptionally strong and drawing unnecessary attention to myself. Yeah...it's better this way.
I sighed, and narrowed my eyes. "Just be straight with . Can I register or not?"
"Y-Yes!" she yelped, slightly frightened by my sudden change in tone. "A-All you have to do is fill out this form!"
My expression softened again, and I smiled, though she had no way of seeing that, since I was still wearing my facemask. I watched as she fumbled to print out a registration form for . However, when the printing was complete, for so reason, the girl used a pen to write sothing on the paper, but I couldn't tell what it was.
She then pulled a lever attached to the table on her right hand side, and the pane in front of slid open. She handed the registration form plus a pen, and I took them, curious to see what she wrote.
Hm...? Huh, that's cute.
On the top right corner of the paper, written in letters so small it was nearly illegible, were the following two words:
Thank you.
I glanced at the girl, and saw her eyes darting all over the place. Although I couldn't see her face, which was covered by a veil, I could tell she was probably blushing. I doubted it was because she liked , since I only t her just now. It was probably just her introverted nature at play here. Still, it was pretty cute, in my opinion.
I chuckled and filled out the registration form she gave , using the marble ledge cut in two parts by the glass pane as a writing surface. Of course, right now, the glass pane was slid upwards, so the ledge was just a single platform with no dividers.
The form didn't ask much, just basic information and fighting capabilities. I filled out everything truthfully, except for my na.
Hm...should I use an alias? If I just used my real na, it could cause problems. Knowing Xuan Yang, he'll probably hire people to assassinate while I'm on a mission...especially now that I killed his son. Yeah, I think going by a fake na would be the better choice here.
...That said, what should I use as an alias, anyway?
Since the form was just asking general questions, I couldn't afford to just stand there and spend five minutes thinking up a good alias. It would seem suspicious if I took that long to fill out info I should know off the top of my head. And so, in the spur of the mont, I decided to just write 'Kai Xuan'.
Other fields included questions like 'what elents do you specialize in', or 'what is your fighting class'. I decided to put different elents than what people think I have, just to differentiate this persona from my real self even further. On the surface, I possessed three elents - Fire, Light, and Blessing. And so, for this form, I put down Water, Shadow, and Curse. To match with these affinities, I put down Assassin as my fighting class. Kai Xuan and Xuan Kai...polar opposites, perfect.
After reviewing the form one more ti, I added another short line of text right below where she wrote 'Thank you':
No problem.
I then handed the form along with the pen back to the girl. The first thing she did was look at my 'reply', and when she did, she let out a cute little giggle. Then, setting down the paper on her desk, she activated the lever once more, and the glass pane slid down. I watched as she entered all the information I gave into a database, and soon enough she was done.
Holy shit, she types fast.
Strangely enough, I could tell she was running a printer or sothing behind that glass pane, but I couldn't hear the machine's sounds. Apparently, whatever technology was infused into this glass pane only allowed human voices to pass through. It was convenient, but to be honest, I didn't know why these panes were implented in the first place. To protect the receptionists from perverted n? Hm...certainly a possibility.
My thoughts were soon interrupted by the glass pane sliding open once more. "Um...h-here is your guild card."
"Guild card?"
"Y-Yes...um, it's just a form of identification, and..." she began explaining.
Okay. So, basically, according to what that girl told , the guild card proved you were an official mber of the Hunters' Guild. It was an important item that you should never lose. If by so unforeseen circumstances, the guild card is lost or broken, then the owner of the card should apply for a new one imdiately at any guild branch.
The guild card had multiple pieces of information on it, including the owner's na, rank, and elental affinities. Each elent was represented with its respective sigil, as to save space. My card in particular, had the following information:
Na: Kai Xuan
Rank: Iron Hunter
Elental Affinities: Water, Shadow, Curse
Badges: (None)
Of course, the actual elent nas weren't written out, but instead just depicted by their respective sigils. Similarly, my rank was also indicated by a neat design that apparently represented that rank. Overall, the card wasn't all that different from a credit card in terms of size, so such asures needed to be taken to save space.
Speaking of ranks, like the mage ranking system developed by the IMF, the Hunters' Guild also had one, based on how much bounty points the Hunter had. Bounty points were achieved through quest completion, so in other words, the more quests a Hunter completes, the higher his rank will be. As an aside, more difficult quests naturally gave more bounty points, though it wasn't like a Iron Hunter could just skyrocket to Platinum Hunter through one extrely difficult quest, since quests with huge bounties required participants to be at least a certain rank.
Overall, the ranking system was as follows:
Iron Hunter - 0 bounty points.
Bronze Hunter - 100 bounty points.
Silver Hunter - 500 bounty points.
Golden Hunter - 1,000 bounty points.
Platinum Hunter - 5,000 bounty points.
Veteran Hunter - 10,000 bounty points.
Master Hunter - 50,000 bounty points.
Grandmaster Hunter - 100,000 bounty points.
Heavenly Hunter - 1,000,000 bounty points.
"Hm...? Isn't this gap between Grandmaster Hunter and Heavenly Hunter a bit big?" I asked, after looking through the brochure the girl gave .
"Well...you see, no one has ever been able to reach the Heavenly Hunter rank," the girl replied ekly. "The guild master originally just created this rank for current Grandmaster Hunters to have sothing to work towards, that's all."
Huh...so when she's explaining things, she doesn't stutter as much. Interesting.
"I see..." I muttered. "Anyway, thank you."
"F-Fwah?! F-For what?!" she cried out in surprise.
"Well, y'know, taking the ti to explain all this to ," I replied.
"N-No need to thank ! This is my j-job, after all..."
I then turned around and prepared to leave, guild card in hand. "Well then...see you."
"A-Ah, wait!" she suddenly stood up and called out. I glanced back at her questioningly. "U-Um...when will you be back?"
"Hm...I'll co pick up my first quest tomorrow. Is that fine?" I responded after so careful thought. But does that affect her in any way...?
"O-Okay! I'll see you t-tomorrow, then!"
Don't tell ...she wants to see again? Hell no. There's no way. Definitely not. Love at first sight? Bullshit. There's just no way...right?
Harboring these uncertain thoughts in my head, I turned on my heel and walked away. Still...I managed to get myself registered at the Hunters' Guild, sothing I never even dreamt would happen just two months ago. And I said this would just be to support myself financially, but...it would be a lie if I said I wasn't excited.
Hunting monsters...kuku. Sounds fun.
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