The white-haired young woman let out a bellowing laugh, her mirth shaking a few dangling braids of hair.

“I like your style, dude.” Deja chuckled. “Dario’s your name right? You’re a cool guy. Only a crazy person would think of challenging someone named The Bloody King.”

“It’s not like I have a choice right?” Dario shrugged carelessly. “It’s either that or wait to be a pig for slaughter. If given a choice between dying or fighting, I’d take the latter.”

“You could always just run away,” the girl mused. “Go and hide somewhere to become a hermit or something.”

“What, like living off the lands?” he asked with an incredulous expression. “You’re saying I should go somewhere alone and build my own house, maybe even start a farm?”

“Yeah,” she said with a grin. “Maybe there’s a female hermit out there you could meet. You could start a family, maybe have a hermit job, have some hermit kids, the whole shebang.”

“Yes, yes, of course,” Dario sarcastically agreed, nodding. “In my free time, I could go read some hermit books, perhaps follow some hermit hobbies, and say hello to my hermit neighbours—” He stared intently into her eyes, his own twinkling in hopeless mirth. “And maybe when I run out of fresh water, I could just drink my own hermit urine while I’m at it, because why the hell not, right?”

The two teenagers held a staring contest for all of two seconds before breaking off in crude snorts.

Off to the side, Miss Aimee held a palm to her face. “While I’m glad you two can make light of the situation, I do have to wonder what exactly you plan to do,” she questioned Dario.

After his chuckles subsided, he quickly became sombre and focused. “Well, like I said, I have to get stronger in order to protect myself. I have to get at least as strong as the guy who’s coming after me.”

“As strong as The Bloody King?” Deja asked with raised eyebrows.

“If I have to, yes,” he answered with determination.

“Actually, he likely won’t leave the capital city to come after you, as he has a kingdom to run after all,” Miss Aimee said with a thoughtful expression. “If anything, you’re more likely to come across and face the agents who work for him.”

“Oh.” Dario blinked at the information. “Are his agents strong then?”

“They tend to be, yes.”

“Okay, so the plan is still the same. I have to get stronger,” Dario restated.

“And how do you plan on doing that?” Miss Aimee asked with a tilt of her head. Deja looked at him, equally curious.

“You said it before.” Dario smiled. “All I have to do is go out and kill some monsters. Easy, right?”

Despite his words, Dario knew that it would be no simple task. He’d only ever fought other people before and those were fairly scrappy fights. He had never even left the confines of the city, let alone seen an actual monster. However, he was always up for a challenge, and he considered himself a pretty good fighter. It was also enjoyable experiencing new things, and what could be more novel than going monster hunting?

“It’s dangerous for a newbie to leave the city, even if there are only lower class threats around,” the older woman stated. “Since you’re a supe with your own Status Band now, you’re technically allowed to leave the city, but I wouldn’t recommend it.”

“Then what am I supposed to do?” Dario asked in frustration.

She hummed in thought. “Well... once you’re fully registered, and after your information is looked at by our management, you’ll be offered a job from the Guild. One of the options involve going out to exterminate monsters.”

“Oh, yeah.” Dario did remember being told this earlier. “Vanguard, right?”

“Mhm,” Miss Aimee confirmed. “You’d be sent out to various places on the edge of human territory in need of help against incursions.”

“Alright, sign me up then,” Dario said eagerly.

“Not so fast.” She raised her hand, palm facing towards him. “There’s usually a seven day wait period before you get a job contract. Management needs time to sort through all the legal paperwork involved with bringing in a new supe, and they also have to look through your personal background, your history, and so on and so forth, blah, blah, blah.” Miss Aimee shook her head. “I hate dealing with that stuff.”

“There’s a wait period before supes get job offers?” The corner of Dario’s eye twitched in annoyance. “I thought I was done with job searching…”

“This is still an organization Dario, and there has to be some form of order to all the chaos. This just happens to be one of them.”

“I don’t see what’s so bad about waiting,” Deja chimed in with a roll of her eyes. “It’s just seven days of doing nothing but chilling. It’s not like you’d have to deal with period cramps the whole time or anything.”

“First of all, thank you for the imagery.” Dario shuddered. “Secondly, I can’t afford to waste any time. My supposed enemy’s had almost a century to get stronger, and I won’t catch up if I just sit around jacking off all day.”

“Well... masturbation is healthy for you,” Deja said with a thoughtful expression.

“...that’s besides the point.” Dario ran a hand slowly down his face. “I don’t just want to get stronger... it’s that I absolutely need to. I have to.” He looked at Miss Aimee and implored her, “Can’t you do something to make the wait time go faster? I want to get started right away.”

Miss Aimee stared at him with such intense focus that he almost — for a moment — thought she had psychic mind-reading powers like Psylink.

“If you’re serious about this, then I’ll see what I can do. I’ll talk to management and try to get them to move faster.”

“Thank you, I’d really appreciate that.”

The tall bald woman stood up from her chair. “In the meantime, I urge you to wait before doing anything. Just relax and wait for a message from the Guild, okay? It will still probably take at least three days.”

“Sure. Wait three days for a job offer. Got it.” He stood up as well and began to stretch. “Do you guys know where I live? How will you get a message to me?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Deja replied, pushing her chair back and standing up alongside him. “Knowing Ms. Psylink, your address is probably already written down and listed somewhere.”

“She’s not wrong,” her mother agreed with a smile. “That old pervert can be a bit of a control freak,” she whispered surreptitiously. “And, even if she didn’t know your address, we have ways of finding people.”

“That's... both reassuring, and terrifying,” Dario muttered.

“That’s our motto.” Deja smirked.

“Come, we’re done for today.” Miss Aimee led the group towards the door and headed out into the halls. “Your examination is officially over.”

“Finally,” Dario groaned. “I can’t wait to lie down and relax. I think you broke and displaced some of my bones earlier.”

Miss Aimee looked him up and down before adopting a flirtatious smile. “You look perfectly fine and healthy to me. Do you need me to check your body for any bruises?”

Aaand, there she was, back to being her amorous self. She was a strange woman, true, but intriguing nonetheless.

“Mom, please.” Deja rolled her eyes at her smirking mother. “You’re a bit too old for him, I think.”

“Are you calling me ancient!?" Miss Aimee held a palm to her chest in faux indignation. "I feel hurt and betrayed.”

“Whatever, I’m gonna go and tinker for a bit. I have some new ideas I want to test out.”

Before she could leave, Miss Aimee grabbed her shoulders and spun her around to face Dario. “Before you do that, could you escort Dario to the exit please? I need to head over to management to do what we discussed. Can’t waste time after all.”

“Fine.” Deja sighed. “Will I see you before you head back out?”

“Of course! I wouldn’t ever miss saying goodbye.”

“Okay. Later then.” The younger woman turned with Dario in tow.

“Later!” Miss Aimee waved at their retreating forms. “And, Dario!” she called out. “Remember to stay out of trouble!”

Dario waved back before continuing to walk down the halls, following Deja.

For a few minutes, they traversed the various rooms and winding paths throughout the building in silence. Dario had a lot on his mind, so he understood his own lack of conversation, but Deja? He was surprised since she had seemed like a very cheerful and talkative girl earlier, but now she seemed subdued or distracted.

He looked at the young woman guiding him, and noticed that she was working on some kind of device in her hands.

“What’s that you have there?” he asked.

“Just something I’ve been working on for a while,” Deja muttered, her eyes glued to whatever was in her hands. “I can’t seem to get why the pressure angle won’t match the others, even with the base cylinder being attuned to the Tellingbone gear." She brought the device closer to her face, prodding and poking it in various ways. "The pitch gears are equidistant with the tuning locks in place, so I don’t understand why…” she trailed off, muttering more nonsensical things.

“Riiight,” Dario drawled. “I’ll just leave you to it.”

Deja glanced up with a look of contrition. “Oh right, sorry, I got a bit distracted,” she said with a sheepish grin. “It’s the curse of my power class. We can’t help but think about the next best thing to make, or invent.”

“Your power class…” Dario furrowed his brows. “Ah, I remember. You said you were an Artificer, correct?”

“Mhm,” she absentmindedly responded. “It’s a rare class too, not as rare as yours of course, but definitely the most important.”

“Oh, really?” Dario asked with a raised eyebrow. “How exactly is your class the most important?”

She finally glanced up from inspecting her device and gave him a knowing smile.

“Look around you. Everything we have, all our infrastructure, all our creature comforts, it’s all due to the contributions of an Artificer somewhere in history.”

She raised her hand and twirled it around, pointing at everything and adopting a lecturing pose.

“Society today was built on the backs of their innovations. While Artificers are capable of creating supernatural things, their most important contributions involved improving our quality of life. If it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t have sturdy roads, sewers, clean running water, or even toilets." She shrugged nonchalantly. "We’d all be shitting in latrines or something, like back in the Mundane Era.”

“That’s… interesting,” Dario admitted. “But I doubt they’re responsible for everything though.”

“Trust me, if you look back into something’s history far enough, there was probably an Artificer involved in its creation at some point,” she said with certainty. “They were all... geniuses, I guess you could say. It makes me a bit happy to be like them.”

“You’re saying you’re a genius too then?”

“Well... I’d like to think so, but I haven’t really done anything groundbreaking yet,” she muttered disheartedly. However, she quickly perked up with a fire in her eyes. “But! It’s only a matter of time before I think of something!”

“Of course.” The corner of Dario’s lips twitched in amusement at her display of passion. Strangely enough, he actually did believe that she was capable of success, despite having a somewhat crude personality, as she seemed fairly intelligent and had apparently made that interesting smoke bomb for Miss Aimee earlier. “Honestly, I haven’t known you for very long, but I have a feeling that you’ll do some great things,” he said reassuringly.

“Thanks.” She grinned, showing off her pearly whites. “I know I haven’t done much yet, but I’m working on it!”

“We have that in common, at least.” Dario had a matching grin and presented a clenched fist towards her. “Here’s to working hard and achieving greatness.”

She raised a clenched fist in response and bumped his own.

“To Greatness!” she concurred. “Although, you might not live long enough to get there,” she said with an amused expression.

“Wow, really?" Dario grumbled. "Thanks for that.”

“I'm just kidding.” She rolled her eyes. "You'll be fine, probably. For all we know, the king might not even care that you're like him. Either way, you still have a lot of time to prepare, and you seem like the kind of guy who won't go down without a fight." She patted him on the shoulder. "Just... keep your chin up, and stay focused, as my mom likes to tell me."

They eventually reached the end of a hall where a sturdy wooden door marked with the word ‘Exit’ was located. Deja opened it and stood by the doorway, holding it in place.

“This is where we part ways Mr. Ass-imilator,” she said with a joking smile. “I wish you the best in your endeavors.” She bowed in a formal manner.

“And you as well, Ms. Genius Artificer,” he responded in amusement.

“If you survive long enough to become great or someone important, then remember me as that Artificer girl who can help make you cool things, like weapons or armor.”

“If I survive long enough, then I hope I won’t have to,” he muttered as he walked outside into the cool night air.

“Until then,” she bid him farewell and walked back inside, her white hair swaying.

Dario waved goodbye before looking around to find a familiar landmark.

Once again, he was reminded of how isolated the Superiors Guild was as every nearby building stood at least one hundred meters away. Fortunately, he was able to spot a distant water tower belonging to the district where his inn was located and he started walking in that direction.

For several minutes, Dario ambled along the streets of Voirsten, trying to take the looming prospect of doom off his mind. He instead turned to positive thoughts and focused on taking a relaxing stroll through the city.

It was nighttime and all around him were buildings and houses with lights streaming out of various windows, almost appearing like fireflies during a dark night with how numerous they were. There was a cool breeze in the air that caressed his face, bringing relief to the usual hot summer days.

As he walked, he looked around and thought about what Deja said. Many of the things he took for granted apparently had beginnings tied to Artificers, and Superiors by association. He looked down at the roads nearby and noticed how uniform and robust they seemed, despite the numerous people and carriages that trampled over them everyday.

Glancing up, he inspected the various houses and buildings around him that stood undaunted to life’s struggles, with some of them having multiple floors approaching double digits. Intuitively, he knew that the mix of stone and wood were capable of holding large amounts of people without collapsing, but the how of it all eluded him.

It was strange to think that all of it was due to the works of a single Superior Power Class. They had such large impacts on people’s lives that it was hard to imagine what the world would be like without them. Each and every Superior alive today had integral roles in society.

Looking down, Dario stared at his hands and realized that he was just as capable of changing the world now.

It was with that thought in mind that he heard distant screaming.

Instantly, he was on high alert and dashed over to a nearby alley. He crouched down and peeked around to look for any danger as his paranoia reached new levels ever since he learned that someone named The Bloody King wanted to kill him. Well, technically, it wasn’t paranoia if there really was someone after you.

After a moment of nothing happening, his caution abated and was replaced by curiosity. He eventually took a step outside the alley and looked towards the direction he heard screaming from. Strangely enough, none of the people around the streets seemed to be reacting to the faint noises. Were they deaf or something?

Shaking his head, he decided to go and take a closer look at what was causing all that racket. He started running and followed the sounds, going through various alleys and winding streets before coming closer to the source of all the commotion. As he neared the disturbance, he began hearing something crackling alongside some kind of roaring noise.

He turned the corner and finally saw what all the shouting was about. Up ahead was a large three-storey house with a dozen people around it in various states of pandemonium.

The building was wreathed in flames.