While they were heading back toward the guild master (with Artemis accompanying them), they discussed between each others.

“So, what is your system already?” Finn asked Artemis.

“It’s what you call a hidden display skill maintainer system. I made the trade-offs pretty standard, with me being able to hint your thoughts toward what I want, and in counterparts you don’t have any slower learning curve.”

“Wait what do you mean “with me being able to hint your thoughts”?” (Finn)

“Hmm? Well what I said. Why do you think we [gods] give you systems if not to better control you? Though that’s not the case with Anthesis from what I understood. Rather [it] want to drop all [gods] to standard mortals back once more.”

“... I feel like there are Gods’ secrets mixed in here...” Tris said with mixed feelings.

“Well yeah, the fact that we were once mortals is so secret we kill anyone nearing that truth, regardless of whether they are close to a god or not.”

“... Huh?” Daler said what everyone thought while skidding to a stop.

“Well I’ll cover you so don’t worry about it. As long as you don’t talk about it to anyone there’s no problem. After all Master helps you too.”

“... Right... Let’s forget about it then. Though why don’t you kill us then?” (Daler)

“Well obviously because Master asked me to answer all of your questions while we are stopped in time and to be very servile and respectful, and to act like I forgot everything when not stopped in time.”

“... How convenient...” (Daler)

Back to the guild master’s room
“Well, guess I’ll leave then. Time will start back once I disappear, so that’s your last opportunity for some time to ask things.” (Artemis)

“Let’s just think about what we learned.” (Daler)
““““Agreed.”””” (The other 3 + guild master)

“Well, then goodbye.” Artemis said then disappeared.

At this moment, the guild master started to look a bit pale, but it was miles away from what happened back in the dungeon.

“Hah... Well then, what do you want to do next?”

“Well I was thinking of first registering Laura as an adventurer and then bringing her back home.” proposed Daler, blunt as always.

“Well... I guess that’s a possibility.” Tris smiled at that woman that never changed.
“Yup, I agree!” Jiro said, smiling too.

“... You guys, how can you be so relaxed? Haah, and now I need to fill in some paperwork...” the guild master looked a bit depressed.

“Hey, it’s all good, just set its rank to D and everything will be just fine!” Daler said, exaggerating the ‘just fine’.

“Yeah, sure... Well then, you know where the exit is I guess.” said the guild master.

“Well, goodbye then!”
“Hopefully next time there won’t be such a big thing!”¹That's a flag. :p

Downstairs, they next headed to the newbie counter, to register Laura (that looked astonished they really were going to follow Daler’s plan).

“So, you wish to sign up? Then you’ll have to have a mock battle with an other adventurer, is that alright? Otherwise you’ll have the rank 0. ...Right, first do you know how ranks work?”

“Uhm, yeah, rank 0 is for the admercs inapt for combat, then rank A is for those who can fight but not kill, B you can kill out of necessity, C is for mid-tier combat capability and you can kill if necessary, then D is about half monsters, E half mana-capable monsters, then H is between 75 and 80% of those, then it increases until Z rank where you can kill almost all monsters right?²So for ranks H-Z, the formula to know how big is the range is approximately 5*0.805008^(x – 8) where x is the rank of the rank letter, and you start at 75% for rank H. So at rank Z you can kill ~100% to 100% registered monsters. Yes I did the maths. (Also knowing what are the adventurers’ ranks is considered common sense.)”

“Correct. So, what do you want?”

“I’ll fight!”

“Then please follow me, I’ll ask a D-rank or higher admerc to make the mock battle. Though, those who know you personally aren’t possible. Do you have any scenario where you perform the best?”

“Not really, no.”

“Then you’ll have to fight in a forest.”

---
Soon, the D-ranked party followed behind Laura to watch the mock battle (Finn told them she’ll be able to join since the dungeon gave her some combat knowledge). They soon arrived into a wide place in the forest, to simulate a real scenario.

During the trip here, the receptionist stopped near the bar, to ask for someone to perform the mock battle. Someone came and presented himself as ‘Turrick’.

The receptionist started to tell the rules, which were pretty classical: the examiner was to test the examined, so Turrick was allowed to do anything as long as he didn’t kill or damage Laura. Though, that meant that they would start the examination at level A, then slowly rank up. Since the examiner was rank D, she would only be able to be ranked D at most.

Then, it started.

At first Turrick went straight to Laura, and she was easily able to cleverly divert his strike and attempt a counterattack. But he jumped back and said, “Well you definitely qualify for rank A. Now let’s see for rank B.”
And so Turrick made her pass rank B, C and D without any problem.
Though, it was worth noting that Turrick was only at the beginning of rank D, so that simply means she could be considered high rank D. After all, ranks are very spaced, even though there are lots of them.

At that point, since she passed the D-rank entrance exam, the receptionist asked,

“Do you want to continue with an other adventurer or do you want to stop now? If you stop now you’ll have to go through the usual ranking up path of going out in the wild and killing a sufficiently high-ranked monster though.”

“It’s fine, I just want to be able to join that D-ranked party without dropping their grades!”

“... Well, that’s one way to think about it I guess... Then, the exam is finished, please come back to the guild to the registering desk and wait for me there!”

rajdakin

1045 words! And finally, the arc is completed!

You may want to read the glossary, there might be some unanswered questions answered there. Also I tried to explain a bit more explicitly the five protagonists’ personality.

Anyway, since the arc ended, it would be a good time (except if the next arc is completed, obviously...) to stop reading and to give me your thoughts about this story (though, no use just telling me it’s bad, I know that already x) ). I’ll accept any constructive thoughts and I can try to implement any suggestions you tell me.

Also, thank you for reading! And I hope you enjoyed. :)

According to the poll last chapter, I will go on a temporary hiatus until I clarified and put down everything in my head (and outside too... I need inspiration ;( ). Then I will start posting the next chapters. (Also, chapter 11 is already drafted on ScribbleHub, and I have most but not all of the storyline for the next arc. So once I filled in the 3/4 blanks on the storyline I'll publish it.)