I, finally recovered from the hilarity that was Bill Masterson, step up to the counter, where both Ashley and the receptionist are waiting for me. I nod my head, and wait until Ashley clears her throat and says, “Mr. Greyman, I am standing in as the Guild House Leader. We’ve brought the Charter as you requested. Will you now tell us which test you wish to take for advancement in the adventurer’s guild?”

I smile, “Guild Master, I am the duly appointed priest of Anubis, Egyptian God of Embalming, Mortuaries, and Guardian of the Dead. As such, I am requesting the test for Necromancers for myself, as well as the test for Clerics.”

As I say these words, the entire room is silent once more. Even Ashley is quiet, and looking at me like I just kicked her dog. Which, to be fair, is entirely not true, and she knows it. But the immediate repercussions will be interesting.

As I think this, the adventurers across the room from me kick over their tables, huddle behind them, and are holding various weapons like they are about to use them. That is until Ashley shouts, “Stand DOWN!!!”

It’s loud enough, and coming from a person of high enough strength, that everyone at the tables, with no exceptions, is putting their weapons down and backing up slowly. As they do that, Ashley looks at me, and I smile.

“You understand that we have to go to Chicago to take that test?” she says.

“I’m aware. I’m also aware that any Necromancer who adheres to his chosen deity’s creed, and wishes to join the adventurer’s guild is to be allowed. And that the Guild Leaders in an area are required to move as quickly as possibly to confirm that the Necromancer is in fact loyal to his or her deity. Which is why I asked for the Charter, the passage I’m referring to is in Section B, chapter thirteen, paragraph twelve.”

Even she pauses at that one. Then she sighs, “Anubis made sure that exact paragraph was added in for you, didn’t he?” I just smile. Anubis actually added it in because it’s never a good idea to limit your resources, and Necromancy can be a valuable asset. Not to mention that certain spells can be considered necromantic even though they aren’t actually, they just accomplish the same effect as necromantic spells.

While they look it up, I look around for a moment, and when I hear Ashley go from being quiet to cussing, loudly, frequently, and speculating on my family heritage, I start paying attention again.

“You must have just read the next paragraph. So yes, you do in fact have to escort me to Chicago in the fastest manner possible. Which would be your Griffin.”

More cussing. I’m just droning out what she’s saying, as it’s fairly unimaginative. I mean, if she called me a scrotum sucking, dumpster diving, stain on the backside of a camel’s ass, I’d be listening. However, she’s not, so I’m not. She’s mostly just stringing bitch, fuck, ass, and cunt together in different word combinations. Yeah, boring.

“Yeah, I know,” I say,” I’m a right bastard and all that. But the sooner we get to Chicago the sooner you can pretend none of this happened or whatever.”

She glares at me for a moment, before huffing out a, “Fine.”

Unexpectedly, the receptionist steps forward at that moment. “Umm, ma’am? Can I meet up with you in Chicago? I think I would like to join his party.”

Ashley stares at her for moment, before glancing at me. I don’t think that helped her any, because I’m just as bewildered. I was expecting to have to pay quite a bit to even get anyone to consider joining my party.

“Miss McGuire, I only have one question as I know you are a D rank Ranger. Why?” Ashley says, slightly glaring at the poor girl. Now that I know she’s a ranger I’m actually sort of excited to have her along. Rangers are survival specialists in the extreme. From what I understand, the Ranger’s Test to become a D rank is they are put into the middle of the woods by a team of rangers, left with nothing but the clothes they are wearing. They have two weeks from that point to hunt at least a D rank monster and bring it back to the Guild Hall.

“Ma’am,” says Ms. McGuire,” The biggest reason is that he’s never going to fit with a traditional party. He’s both a spellcaster and a cleric, which will cause problems in any party because he can fulfill two roles. Unfortunately for me, I have the same problem. I can deal damage at ranged, which normally means I’m a damage dealer, however I am also considered a support person, because of my survival skills. I know more about traps, various natural cures, and can track anything from wolves to Trolls with ease. All of those things mean I’ve been forced to be a receptionist. So what better party member for me, than someone who has the same problem?”

Ashley looks at the girl and throws her hands up in the air, storming out of the Guild House. I find it largely amusing, as I hold my hand out to the young woman, and say, “My name is Daniel Greyman, what’s yours?”

She looks at me, with slight surprise. “You’re not upset that I basically just joined your team without asking you?”

“Of course not! I might be able to manage in the wilds, but that doesn’t mean I have any actual idea what I’m doing. You would be most welcome. Also, it works because I don’t have that much money right now, and I was planning on using most of it to try and get party members, which might not even work. So having you along already is great!”

She blushes a bit and then laughs, “Well at least you aren’t like the last party that tried to get me to join them. They insisted they were doing me a favor by letting me join them and then made me do all the work. Only did one job with them.” She smiles at me, “My name is Alyssa McGuire.”

*****

Roughly three hours later, we were in Chicago. The paragraphs I was referencing from the Guild Charter stated, essentially, that the guild was required to use the fastest means at hand to get a potential necromancer of any rank, and their party or possible party members, to the closest main guild hall to be tested. Which is why Ashley was so mad, especially after Alyssa said she wanted to be part of my party. Today is just not Ashley’s day.

The flight was interesting. Both Alyssa and I were riding in the transport sling that was being carried by Reginald. The sling was able to hold up to three people comfortably, four or five if absolutely needed. It was a bit cold, as neither of us thought of the fact that the air higher up was colder as well. But we managed.

Along the way, me and Alyssa got to know a bit more about each other, and our “classes”. The Adventurer’s Guild instituted the class system to allow for the easy organization of individuals during combat. Every guild member that advanced to D rank was given a badge that had their class’ symbol on it. This helped differentiate who was who, and who could do what.

The basic classes that most adventurers went for were guardian, soldier, and mage. Guardians were bigger people normally, who had heavy armors and weapons, but were mostly just tanks and able to deflect or defend against a lot of damage. They were the normal key figures of a party, as they were the ones who kept everyone else from being damaged. There were several split off types of Guardians, but most of those went by different names.

Soldiers were different from Guardians in that a soldiers main job was dealing damage. They were able to focus into specific soldier roles, such as gunner, or infantry, and each different role had a different badge. However the key role of a soldier in a party was to deal damage and kill the enemy.

Lastly, there was the Mage. The Mage class is given to anyone who can use magic, with mage specific roles, just like the Soldier. There are exceptions to that rule, as the Mage only deals with normal magic, energy that can be found pretty much anywhere, and is easily converted to mana or other elemental energy.

Now, there are set specialties for each general class. Guardians have Shield Masters, Knights, Paladins, Samurai, Beast Tamers, and Cavaliers. Soldiers have Gunners, Infantry, Weapons Masters, Archers, Berserkers, and Martial Artists. The Mages are split by which area of magic they use, so the different mage classes are Geomancer, Pyromancer, Hydromancer, and Aeromancer.

Now there are a few other classes that work the same way, those being Priest, Bard, and Rogue. Priest is split up into Cleric, Friar, and Preacher. Bards are split into Singer, Musician, and Jester. Rogues are probably the least liked of the classes next to Necromancer, with the specialties being Thief, Assassin, Skirmisher, and Swashbuckler.

The fun part is, almost every class actually has “specialties” that will tie it in with another class, though the titles for those are only available after reaching C rank. So a Rogue who took the thief specialization, if they chose to become a geomancer as well, they’d be called a Tomb Raider. Me, as a Necromancer and a Cleric, I would be considered an Entomber under normal circumstances, but my role as a Priest of Anubis sort of supersedes that, so I would just keep my title of Necromancer Priest of Anubis.

He’s cool like that.

Anyway, Rangers are actually another class that has some choices with it, those being Trapper, Hunter, and Survivalist. It’s not normally a popular option for people, mostly because it takes a lot of work to be good at.

Also, the Gods were the ones who passed on the information about the different classes. However, they didn’t tell us about all of them. Just the ones that we’ve actually earned by having one person become that class and passing the test. Which is another reason why me being a necromancer is a bit of a big deal. Once I pass the test, everyone will be able to see the specialties that go with being a Necromancer.

Though I know, because Anubis told me so I could decide what I wanted early. Basically, they focus on the different magic’s that necromancers practice. Blood magic designates you as a Blood Mage. Same with Bone Magic, though it’s Bone Mage in that case. Soul Magic is known as a Medium. And Death Magic is called a Reanimator. Then there are the combination titles, one of which I am going for. Bone and Blood can combine into the ironically named, Mortician. At least I feel it’s ironically named, due to my previous profession.

Morticians are best at dealing with the physical side of the dead, and are one of the few Necromancer options that don’t actually use death magic to reanimate corpses very often. As a matter of fact, most Morticians don’t use reanimated bodies, as they serve a role more similar to a healer or a damage dealer if they’re in a party. Not to mention they can use both bone and blood magic to enchant gear.

And that’s what I’m going for first. Morticians are severely underestimated in my opinion, as most people think the scariest thing about necromancers are raising the dead. However, Morticians are fully capable of healing or poisoning people, as well as using Bone magic to various effect.

Having landed in Chicago finally, it's time to take my test!