Jaylin stood in line at the Izelix guild office, as the people in front of him took their surveys.
The owner of this guild is named Izel Sammons. His father owns a mana potion manufacturing company, he’s is well received and know as a philanthropist. His son, equally, if not more wealthy, is said to be less...pleasant.
He’s an elder of the some important tower thingy in the middle of the city.
Jaylin stifled a sigh. Exilis I don’t care.
Please shut up.
Ah, well when you’re wondering what to use to fill in the surveys I guess you can just make shit up.
Exactly. Shut the fuck up.
...
The silence echoed within Jaylin’s headspace, shock emanating from Exilis direction.
Hahaha!
Exilis broke out into raucous laughter.
I’ve managed to infect the God of Magic with my “lack of regality” I’ve truly accomplished the impossible!
Did you not hear what I just said?
Pffft! Oh no Master! You’d better go and raise Arceus from the dead for some speaking lessons! Hahaha-
Jaylin’s eyebrow twitched.
Kekekeke-Exilis laugh morphed into a cackle. Don’t worry Master, once I’m cured of this horrendous disorder, I will surely lend you my aid-
There was a loud crack as Jaylin clenched his fist in a crushing motion.
Exilis felt half the mana in his storage crumble and scatter.
He stopped talking abruptly.
Jaylin did not like destroying mana. In all the years Exilis had been with him, he’d never seen him really destroy any. Not even when...
Exilis shuddered at the thought of the memory.
Even as he watched Jaylin gather the scattered mana back together, clearly having not finished the job once again, he felt fear in his nonexistent heart.
Only on the brink of death, your pride collapses, sword.
Exilis gathered up his courage, going through the familiar process of regaining his composure.
...Even as a sword, I’ve still gotten more girls than you.
Hearing his timid retort, Jaylin’s lips curved ever so slightly. Your shame is still nonexistent.
The staff at the registration counter were quite shocked when they heard a loud breaking sound from the middle of the room, but after finding nothing, they continued their job.
Soon enough, Jaylin went up to the front and filled out a question sheet.
Quite simple really, easy enough to lie his way through. Things like his motivation or real world experience, surface level questions.
Of course there was also a segment about the head of the company, Izel, that Jaylin made the currently compliant Exilis fill out.
He went back over to reception counter and one of the employees halfheartedly skimmed through his survey then handed him a small I.D card.
“This is your guild identification card, right now you are a probationary member. Head over to the lounge and you will receive a random D-Level commission. After successfully completing this, you will become a temporary worker. The deadline for this is a week. If you do not complete a commission in that time, your identification card will lose validity and you will have to pay for another one.”
Jaylin half listened to the employees monotonous voice while he was looking at the I.D.
It was less of an I.D and more of a keycard. Jaylin examined the thin black card between two fingers as he lamented the laziness of the company. The card had a magic rune on it that would allow entrance into the ‘lounge’. The rune was incredibly weak, and could collapse at any moment, but it was arranged in the way that a novice magician would think it was strong. The rune formation itself was relatively good, but the way it was made is very haphazard. The mana wasn’t arranged properly and might be torn away from the rune if someone in the vicinity tries gathering some mana into their storage.
Jaylin sighed and turned his attention back to the employee who was starting to get annoyed.
“Excuse me sir, I asked for the next in line, is there a problem here? I won’t hesitate to call security if you loiter any longer.”
Jaylin glanced at the man then turned and walked away.
The employee felt miffed, but the next person in line came up, looking impatient for his turn. The employee had no choice but stifle his annoyance and continue with his job.
Jaylin slid the card into his robe after using it to get into the lounge.
Glancing around the lounge for a moment, he observed the people within it. He’d seen a notice outside the building about a probationary member reserve day. Exilis told him it was just an excuse for the company to get rid of all those low level quests by appealing to the lowest common denominator, ambitions yet inexperienced rookies. As someone who had just spent decades around that lowest common denominator, Exilis was no doubt well versed in these things.
Exilis’ information on the guilds were mostly superficial. He had no idea of the schemes that ran rampant on the inside, particularly with this guild, an organization that hadn’t even needed general I.D verification to apply as a member.
Ah, but of course, the schemes and tricks were not what Jaylin needed. He needed to know what he was expected to do on a fundamental level. Judging by the group discussions occurring nearby, he assumed others had that information.
Sitting at a table a distance away from one of those groups, he rested his chin on his palm, and calmly began to eavesdrop.
The people mentioned something about commissions, which they also referred to as quests. There were four of them, two middle aged woman, a young adult man, and a hooded and masked female. Jaylin saw that she was 16. They seemed to be discussing who out of them was the luckiest. Curious, Jaylin began to look at them more obviously. The teenage girl had a device within her mask, that Exilis informed him was a voice modulator. She really had gone to extensive measures to hide her age. But the company, not even bothering to check further, was most definitely to blame as well. They would even allow people who didn’t have a general I.D like Jaylin to register.
Jaylin’s snooping was interrupted by a waiter, who came over to his table and asked him if he wanted a refreshment. He asked for the one modern beverage he knew, Robusta coffee. The waiter looked at him strangely for a moment, before telling him that they didn’t serve that drink, and offered him another drink. Jaylin declined and Exilis piped up abruptly.
In a world where artificial sweeteners are both healthier and more efficient, places that serve any bitter drinks at all are quite rare.
Oh.
Hearing his disinterest, Exilis sighed and stoped speaking, still shaken from earlier.
Jaylin turned back to the conversing group. He seemed to have missed the important part of the discussion, as they had decided on something. One of the four, a middle aged woman, was walking towards a rack filled with electronic slates. She picked one off of the rack and a hologram appeared above the slate. Written on it was a commission overlay.
The woman seemed to ignore most of this and scrolled to the location section. Seeing the name:
Leizer Street
She breathed a large sigh of relief. The people who she was conversing with cheered quietly, the teenage girl being the exception, as she slumped slightly, looking dispirited.
The smaller groups surrounding them looked at them in envy.
Jaylin however, had no idea what in the world was going on.
He didn’t get to stare confused for very long before a young man with a longsword on his back and a tall adult broke into the room, breaking the seal on the lounge that the keycard was needed to open.
The young man with the longsword pushed the two doors open violently, while the adult standing calmly by his side seemed to be the one who broke the seal. Shortly after they walked in, two men in suits ran into the lounge, chasing after them.
“Hah-Young master, Elric! Today is- hah- reserved for probationary members!
“Does it look like I care?”
The young man, Elric, turned around and scoffed disdainfully.
Elric turned back to the crowd of probationary members and spoke,“Heh, you newbies can only get D level quests can’t you? Well, whatever, I’m bored. Whoever’s got the hardest D level quest come on up!”
The probationary members all shrunk back nervously.
“Young master Elric!”
One of the men in suits shouted.
“No matter, let him go.”
The adult man who broke the lounge seal spoke. He obviously had some influence, as the men in suits didn’t dare disobey his orders.
“But sir Zaleis-!”
“Need I repeat myself?”
The bodyguard felt a chill down his spine.
“N-No sir Zaleis.”
Elric grinned obnoxiously.
“You’re the only one who lets me do anything these days Zaleis!”
Zaleis bowed.
“Nothing but my duty, young master.”
The bodyguards were muttering to each other, something about how calm Elric was earlier, and how he suddenly ran over to a guild office ‘because he was bored’.
Jaylin could sense a drama he had no interest in getting involved with, so he stood up and went to get one of the quest overlays. Exilis told him what they were and to go and grab one to get a commission. The difficulty would be determined by luck.
Elric probably would have noticed him if it weren’t for Zaleis, who was conversing with him.
Some of the probationary members looked at Jaylin in both pity and relief.
They felt bad that some naive kid went up to unwittingly draw attention.
Some hoped for him to get an easy quest, so he had the slightest chance of avoiding sir Elric.
Others hoped that he would get a difficult quest, so Sir Elric wouldn’t pick them.
But all of them though:
This poor idiot.
Jaylin choose to ignore the varying stares at all sides and walked up to grab a quest overlay.
Holding the tome, a hologram opened. The quest location was pasted in large at the very top.
Hollowed Forest
The words didn’t mean anything to Jaylin, thus, he stared at the location description, hoping for some context. Nothing of substance.
Welp.
It was at this point that Elric noticed him.
“Hey you over there! What quest did ya get?”
Jaylin ignored him.
Some of the probationary members who had seen his quest location and had been looking at him in sympathy, felt baffled.
This idiot, daring to ignore young master Elric? Truly got what was coming to him.
“HEY! YOU GONNA KEEP IG-”
Before Elric could continue yelling, Zaleis spoke up.
“Young master, he got a Hollowed Forest quest.”
Elric’s bad mood was swept away and he walked over to Jaylin, putting his arm around his shoulders like they were old friends.
He spoke gleefully and snatched the quest overlay from his hands, ignoring how quickly Jaylin slipped out of his grasp.
“Well newbie! Guess we’ll be partying with you for this quest!”
Jaylin silently glanced over at Elric, as Zaleis walked over and began to speak, “Excuse me sir, we’ll be troubling you. I assure you that despite his temper, Young Master Elric is an asset to a party. You will compensated for your time afterwards.
Jaylin, who had no idea where the hell the Hollowed Forest was, felt there was no harm in free directions, and nodded slightly.
“That’s the spirit bud!”
Elric, tried to put his arm around Jaylin again, but missed by a few centimeters.
For a moment he felt it was strange, but quickly forgot about it.
“Let’s go!”
The bodyguard had come over at this point and asked apprehensively, “R-right now, Young Master? We have yet to inform the old master of your departure...”
“Don’t worry about the old man, he won’t care.”
“B-but Young-”
“It’ll be fine. I will handle the repercussions, should Mr. Lenova apply any.”
Said Zaleis
There was an affirmation on the side of the bodyguard, but Jaylin stop listening when Exilis began speaking.
The Lenova’s are one of the capital’s rich families. They would be relatively normal if not for their friendship with the Sammons and their bullshit luck of having many talents in their family. Elric Lenova is the nephew of one of those talents, he’s said to be quite talented as well. I’ve heard that he has very abrupt mood swings.
Well isn’t that nice.
Exilis chuckled wryly.
Yeah, good luck with that.
You forget that you follow me everywhere.
Well, it’s not like I’ll be interacting with him-
Their banter was interrupted by the hooded teenage girl from earlier, who stood up and shouted, “Can I join the party?”
