I once more found myself sitting across from Cindy enjoying a warm cup of coffee. According to her, Steph would be coming around the apartment at six after work. On the fifth floor, the Garcia’s went ahead and created two separate apartments, one for Donny, and one for Steph who was still taking care of the demonkin child.

Glancing up from my book, I asked, “So has the kid still not said anything yet?”

Cindy set her own book aside before responding.

“Nope. Not a word. We don’t even know his name. Steph did manage to catch him using some magic, but that was all.”

“Oh? What kind of magic?”

“It was strange. It was a deep purple flame, almost black, and it burned with no heat. We thought it was likely a racial ability.”

My mind reeled; my body’s improved nervous system stimulating the necessary memories. I had gone back to my very first encounter with Stephanie Williams, when I’d also met the kid for the first time. The young boy was a Black Flame Abyssal, probably a higher variant of regular abyssal rather than its own race. I don’t think he was a beta tester, but there was no good way to be sure without his input on the matter.

I recall that he was taken in by the police after his neighbor attacked and killed his parents. Yet more victims of H.G.’s emotional detachment, a rather common case. They probably couldn’t even defend themselves when the monster came from the room next door. The kid caused a fire afterword that the fire department couldn’t put out and was later taken by the police. I guess that was right before I stumbled into the station, freaking out over the bodies. It almost felt like a lifetime ago.

I thought back to the senseless carnage and destruction that the gang had brought to my otherwise peaceful life. It was shocking how far I’d come, as the idea of dozens of corpses to step over no longer filled me with dread. It was sad, for sure, and I’d much rather not have people die. But I could work past it without worry. The idea of people dying somehow had become just a part of my life, slipping into my self-identity without my notice. Was it my new instincts that caused this change? Or was it just me? I didn’t know. I couldn’t know.

As I slipped out of the memory, I had to pause my train of thought. That was extremely intense. It wasn’t exactly like I had to relive the moment exactly as it happened, but it felt like the more I focused on a part of memory, the clearer it became. If I tried hard enough, I found I could even check the badge numbers of the officers who died before I arrived, and I had seen more than a dozen bodies.

Experimentally, I tried to bring up the memory of my encounter with the very first Skullback Warrior. It was weird remembering such a drastically different body. I was still trying to fight only using my claws at the time, and the pair of large arachnids were so terrifying as I fought for my life. Not anymore, though. Not even close.

I brought myself out of the memory once more. This was a freaking awesome ability. I had perfect recall! Unfortunately, I had to actually focus on the memories to make them activate, but whatever. I would still be probably be forgetful occasionally, but when it counted, I could remember what I forgot perfectly! If I remembered to remember it in the first place. Damn.

I released an unsatisfied huff. This was more complicated than I wanted it to be. I guess I should still try and find a memory enhancing skill. It might pay off in the long run considering my track record.

Feeling like I could use a drink, I rose from my chair only to run right into Steph in the hallway.

“Vic! I’m glad you’re here! I see you managed to rank up. You look excellent! I like the white! It’s very pretty.”

“Haha, it’s good to see you too Steph. I can see you’ve ranked up as well. Congratulations.”

It was obvious as well. Not exactly as clear as a rank up was for a monster, but anyone who had seen here before could tell that Steph had reached a new standard of power. She practically bled power, her skin perfect porcelain, her hair luscious gold, and an aura of pale power bleeding off her. She was swimming in raw energy.

“Oh drat, I’m leaking again. The rank up from two to three was difficult, but well worth it. I managed to do it last week, and have been trying to figure out how to suppress the aura. It takes a great deal of concentration, though.”

“I see… I suppose that could be annoying. For me, hiding my changes is more trouble than it’s worth.”

“That’s fair. Though now that we can block identify, you’ll only have problems with strangers, so it’s not a complete loss.”

That’s right! Mr. Garcia had something that blocked identify. I had totally forgotten about it. Perfect recall showing it’s true worth.

“Yeah, what’s up with that? Is there an enchanter that you can buy identify blockers from? I want to pick one up.”

I expected a rather quick answer, but all I got was a confused tilt of the head. What’s up with that?

“Did you not get your new guild badge from Cindy? She has it for you.”

“Oh, in that case- CINDY! DID YOU HAVE A BADGE FOR ME OR SOMETHING?!?”

I looked over to see a very spooked Cindy nearly falling out of her chair. She angrily sat straight, regaining her poise.

Casually she pointed towards her right ear.

“Vic, you understand that I have enhanced hearing, right? I can hear whatever you say anywhere in the house. These huge pointy things on my head aren’t for show, after all.”

“Right. Just checking. So you have a toy for me?”

“*sigh*, yes, Vic, I have your new guild ID. I had it made when you texted me that you were starting your rank up.”

Reaching into her purse on the table next to her, she pulled out a guild badge, this one made of steel. Unceremoniously throwing it towards me, I used my tail to snag it mid-flight, the blade on the end whooshing as it parted the air. I passed it up to my hand to get a better look at it.

The badge was made from what I guessed to be mana steel, a magic compound I had been seeing some middle-tier weaponry made from. Lots of adventurers had been walking around with gear made of the stuff. Normal steel couldn’t hold up against the strain of magic, but I guess someone figured out how to convert iron into something magically viable. Mana steel usually had a hardness of 3, slightly better than kangor.

The badge looked just like the old steel one I had carried up until now, but it was clearly enchanted. The front bore the guild emblem, the crossed staff and sword with the shield on top, while the back carried a magic circle. I tucked the old one into one of the pouched on my belt for safekeeping. I would have the new one out to show off, but I would keep the old badge for sentimental purposes.

Curious about the enchantment, I used identify on the badge.

Unbound Mana Steel Adventurer Guild Rank 3 Medal: Apply Blood to Bind. Effect unknown.

Hardness: 3

Using my razor-sharp tail, I pricked a hole in the pad of my index finger. I marveled as a drop of golden ichor welled to the surface. Like before, the blood immediately began to steam and dissipate into the air, but now it was a strange luminous gold. The blood of gods from Greek mythology.

Before it could fully dissipate, I wiped the gold onto the medallion, where it sunk into the steel like water on a sponge. I used identify a second time.

Mana Steel Adventurer Guild Rank 3 Medal: Bound to Victoria Gale. This medal makes use of System metamagic and identifies the user as a member of the Adventurer’s Guild. Is connected to the unified guild network. Prevents Identify that doesn’t meet a certain strength threshold. Alerts user when they are being identified.

Hardness: 3

Well that was freaking cool. Metamagic was traditionally magic that took advantage of the rules of whatever system it was a part of to do things. In this case, it was magic that seemed to take advantage of the System itself.

“This thing is pretty cool guys. Is this medal a custom order for me, or is this standard fare?”

Steph gestured over to the kitchen table, and we both sat down. Cindy, seeing that we were all meeting, sat down the book yet again and joined us.

“The metamagic enchantment is standard fare. When you register with the guild and become rank 2, you get a kangor medal with the identify blocker. Mana steel is rank 3, so we’ve only had to give out three of those, including yours. Because the medallion is a part of the guild network, you will no longer be targeted by our anti-flight enchantments, so you don’t need to worry.”

“Thanks for that. Walking has, unfortunately, become downright annoying now. It was a good idea on your part to add enchantments to the guild badge. The identify blocker will bring in lots of people who want a bit more security during their day-to-day. I guess it will also incentivize ranking up. Just out of curiosity, are the different medals awarded for rank ups only? Or is there, like, a test or something? It would probably be a good idea to make rank not the exclusive route for advancement.”

Cindy nodded in agreement.

“I’m glad you like it, but the credit for the badge idea goes to Kaitlyn. As far as getting better badges, we are working on structuring a test for those who can’t rank up, but it’s rather difficult. We can’t structure the test until we have someone who has passed that rank, after all.”

“Makes sense to me. Hey Steph, can you back up a bit? You said that there were three Mana Steel medals out there right now, not two. Who is the third? Is it you, Cindy? Kaitlyn, maybe?”

Steph just shook her head.

“It’s neither of them. Kaitlyn is stuck trying to figure out the jump to rank 3, and Cindy is… well, I don’t know.”

Cindy quickly interjected.

“I’m still working on some spells. Now that I’ve started taking lots of time off, I have had the chance to go hunting quite frequently. I’ve even managed to get my level up fairly high, all the way to level 48. The gains in my mana are substantial. That being said, my spell craft has not yet reached the point where I can consolidate my third spell circle. I fear my sorcery is inadequate.”

“…two days ago I watched you practice welding mana steel from one hundred meters, Cindy.”

I jumped at the introduction of a new voice. I turned to my left and saw a rather impressive looking Kaitlyn take a seat next to me at the table. It seemed like the kid had fallen asleep on the couch, so she came over to join us at the table.

She hadn’t grown in height, but she was covered in dense, lean muscle. The tank-top she wore barely hid the eight-pack abs ripping down her front, and her arms flexed with every little movement. To top it all off, she was entirely silent. As quiet as the grave, one might say. I was sure she had learned enough assassination techniques to make John Wick feel inadequate, just based on her bearing alone.

Now that everyone’s attention was on her, she shied away. Her ears flicked in annoyance as she continued.

“I was just saying… not inadequate. She’s really strong.”

I nodded in agreement.

“It’s good to see you again Kaitlyn. You’ve gotten stronger too. But yeah, you’re right, Cindy has never been the type of person to look at her set of skills and be satisfied.”

I shot a wink towards Cindy, chuckling slightly as she let out a very posh *humph* and turned away.

Okay, wait. If the third rank 3 wasn’t anyone in our little girl’s club, who was it?

“So, Steph, who is the other rank 3?”

It seemed she had gotten lost in out antics, because she seemed surprised at my question.

“Right. The other rank 3 adventurer is some guy who came out of San Antonio. His name’s Evan Sterling.”

I thought back to the Even I had met at the Bazaar. I never managed to catch his last name, so I couldn’t be sure. He did say he came from the west, though. Still, it seemed rather unlikely it was the same person.

“This Evan, by chance, wouldn’t happen to be a superhuman wielding darkness-based powers, who also carried around a big great sword? Oh, and he might be stalked by a crazy pink monstrosity, too.”

Steph’s eyes widened in recognition at the description.

“You nailed it in one, Vic. I’m surprised you’ve met. He actually almost managed to beat me to rank 3, believe it or not. I was just three days ahead of him. A rather impressive kid, not unlike yourself.”

What were the odds that the guy I just so happened to meet at the bazaar ended up being one of the three most powerful people in the Guild? I smelled some crazy fate bullshit afoot. Coincidences did happen, but considering that luck was a stat, and that there was a goddess of fate running amok, I didn’t want to believe in random happenstance.

I was just about to talk to everyone about the capital and try to plan a raid, but if we could have three rank 3 people there, I wanted to make it happen.

“Alright everyone, I’m going to make a phone call. After that, we’ll talk about what’s going on.”

Everyone gave me strange looks as I left, walking down the hallway out of direct earshot. The guild medal was still in my hand, so I tied it to my belt where it could still be seen. Then, I pulled out my phone and dialed Evan’s number.

The phone rang for a while, so I thought he was busy, but on the eighth ring I heard the call connect.

“Vic? Is that you?”

“Ah… Um… yep. Yeah.”

Get yourself together, Vic! It’s a phone call!

“What’s up? Is something wrong?”

“Oh, nonono, nothing’s wrong. Well, kinda. I have a little job I’m planning tomorrow and could use some more muscle. Are you around the Southern Guild Hall?”

“Yeah, actually. I just rented a room at Crescent Moon Inn. It’s right down the road, fresh built.”

“Cool. Are you free right now? I’m having a meeting with some friends about the situation and would rather not explain this more than once.”

“Sure, no problem. Where do you want to meet?”

“How about right in front of Garcia’s as soon as you can?”

“No problem. Be there in five minutes.”

I walked back into the dining area.

“Guys, I’m going downstairs to get Evan. I’ll be right back.”

Instead of leaving through the door, I left through the balcony at the back, my all-time favorite addition to the apartment. The classic fire escape was no more; instead there was a full luxurious balcony, stretching across the entire width of the building.

I jumped right off the edge and used a liberal application of wind mana to throw myself over the roof of the building. Doing a quick twist, I turned, and plunged down to the street below, right in front of the store.

The sun had set while we chatted, and it was mostly dark. A few levitating magic crystals lit the walkway, and all down the thoroughfare I could hear the sound of people laughing and having a good time in the many bars and taverns.

Just like he said, it took him around five minutes to show up. The Crescent Moon Inn was the tavern right across from the guild, and most likely the largest one in the area.

He came from the door, pushing drunken beastkin out of his way, before dashing across the road to where I waited.

“Vic! Hi! It’s nice to see you again.”

“It’s good to see you too. Come on, lets hurry upstairs. Everyone else is inside, and I don’t want to keep them waiting.”

Turning, I led Evan through the store and up the stairs, bringing him up to the apartment. This was soon to be the most concentrated collection of powerful people in the corner of the world. Those bastards in the Capital who fucked with Luna won’t even know what hit them.