Victory was what I desired to attain, too. After I asked, the priestess agreed to show me around the many guilds of the different (fighting) jobs of the Guild's headquarters.
The priestess finally was done with her never-ending waving after her colleagues left. I stood beside her, on the side of the street, where the carriages didn't pass. With the wind rustling and blowing through my hair, both the priestess and I didn't stay idle for more than a few seconds before the priestess opened her mouth: "Shall we go too, now?" she softly asked. Nodding twice, I told her I didn't know the way.
"Little man shall follow my lead, then!" After I nodded again, she led the way. "What are we waiting for, then…? Shoo~ Let's go~" Playfully opening the way, bringing her tightly clenched fists in front of us as she marched on with energetic legs, I was beside the lady, following after her. Then, with the wind blowing not on our faces but our backs, my eyes were fixated on the horizon I would at last conquer.
To skills.
Along the way, the priestess chatted with me. "Yes… How eerie that is again, Aoi. You really don't know the way to the Guild's headquarters, do you…? Haven't you come here already? I mean, you must have, right? So how eerie that is!"
From the beginning, I told lies. Presently, I continued doing that. My story was supposed to be that of a monster-hunter who did wrong on the battlefield and whose permit to deal with the Guild was hence suspended because of that. Before, I was supposed to have had a party of my own with some "veterans" who were my partners, but as my license was suspended, I couldn't quite continue being friends with them for the time being. Thus, for the time I was renewing my hunting license at the Academy, I had to go alongside my babe's party if I wanted to be able to go out and "hunt" like I desired.
Right, and the reason I didn't know the way to the Guild's headquarters in spite of the fact that I must have gone there a couple of times already, I made up some story about that, and that was it.
"Hmmm…? Is that so. …Not important. Let's dive into the reason why we're going to the Guild—you said you wanted to know more… and 'figure things out' about something you called… the 'Skill Interface' or something, right?"
"Yeah."
The System was vast and way more complex than I imagined. Back in Cetha's forest, when I finally had created my Character, I was supposed to learn more about the System, or no, Skill Interface, to be more precise, but eventually didn't due to my own carelessness. At the time I was thinking of going and learning more about the System, I wasn't even aware of that fact. Still, as something in me was telling me that this was the way to go, I felt like unearthing the System at last.
I imagine I shouldn't have mentioned the thing the System had referred to as "Skill Interface," however. First off, because the old man had let me know, back when we first met, that the "legendary, ancient, and mystic" power of the Ancient Magic wasn't to be taken lightly, so I should probably keep all of it to myself. Secondly, when I actually got to confess to my monster-hunter friends that I had the "Mana Perception" skill, which was too rare a skill, apparently… they simply didn't believe me.
"So what were you telling the guys about your… 'skills' related things and all, Aoi? It interests me—"
"It was nothing."
"Some stuff about the system…atic… skills… work or something?"
"Really, it was nothing."
"Oh… is that so. …I'm not convinced, though!" The priestess continued her little crusade to make me talk to her about the power she wouldn't believe a thing about even if I gave her all the details—details which I didn't really know myself, anyway—and I kept denying her saying it wasn't important. The damage dealer kept mocking me like a brat about "having nothing better to do than imagining myself with all these skills and abilities," also adding that "I wasn't even around the age to be dreaming about that chuuni stuff anymore," and the priestess remembered that I started to talk about my skills, the fact that I needed to know more about the System, and stuff, right around that moment.
It was then that I asked around if anybody could, after we were done hunting, show me around the headquarters of the Guild so I could get down to actually uncovering the System with my plan, so my babe said the reason why I suddenly wanted to go there must have been related to these skills I spoke of.
The priestess babe was a very talkative girl. "You were so hyped up about all these skills of yours anyway! I couldn't count the shining stars within your eyes when," she mentioned the damage dealer's name, "actually got to break down all his abilities he learned from the Guild and stuff, Aoi!"
How did it work anyway, the Guild, the guilds, and the other guilds? It was a mess, but people always got around dealing with all of it using the same noun thrice. Guild. Depending on the context, it was evident what you talked about. So, the Guild was something I already knew about: basically, the organization keeping all the monster-hunters together in a country or continent. The guilds were the tinier circles of mana-wielders within the Guild that you joined in order to obtain your (fighting) job, equipment, knowledge, expertise, and abilities. The other guilds weren't important to me, but those were yet other groups of mana-wielders in the Guild, except that these weren't job-related but more of alliances between many fighters, like a group of parties together that allowed people to participate in raids and dungeon-breakings.
The jobs-related guilds were what we were about to visit. Similar to how you dealt with the noodle-makers around the earth, you had to hand over coins to the guild you joined so you could learn from them. It wasn't a charity. Once you paid them to both be allowed to join the group and learn some skills from the master who you were under, you could start to learn from the master's expertise at once, and thus you could call yourself an affiliate to a guild.
The plan for me was to join some group, even a random guild would do, get to learn at least 1 skill, and then work things out with the System. The plan wasn't really a plan, it was blurry and undetailed, but I knew if I learned at least one ability, I could work things out from there. So, even a random guild would do for the beginning, I thought. Well, I may have thought that, but the Game had other plans for me.
Soon, I would be meeting my master of the sword, Kambe Streman. And soon, this man would be meeting the young man he called his king, Aoi… or rather, Skill.
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