Active Water Magic Skill: Mana Waterspear

A special application of the water magic school where the caster focuses the element of water into a condensed spear of mana-infused water.

Cost: 7,500 MP Mastery: Beginner Level 1

'Huh. Interesting. This is the first time I've seen a magic-based skill with the word 'special' attached to it. I guess most magic spells summon the actual thing and don't infuse mana into them, huh? I should try that with my Lightning Bolt and Lightning Wave,' Lone thought as he looked at the next skill.

Active Water Magic Skill: Water Droplets

A standard application of the water magic school where the caster focuses the element of water into many condensed droplets of pure water.

Limit of 50 droplets at once.

Cost: 100 MP per droplet. Mastery: Beginner Level 1

'Sounds kinda useless, to be honest. Liza was definitely using them as weapons, so maybe they become deadly once the skill ranks up enough times? I'll have to test this,' Lone decided before he moved onto the third and final skill he had obtained from his 'fight' with the XXX-ranked Seeker.

Active Water Magic Skill: Dehydration

An advanced application of the water magic school where the caster destabilises the element of water, forcing all water in the targetted area to evaporate.

Limited to one target area of 1x1x1meters-squared.

Cost: 12,500 MP per second sustained. Mastery: Beginner Level 1

'Wow. That's actually pretty dangerous. I suppose I never noticed since my BR was probably auto-regening the lost water in my body, assuming she was targetting the space I was standing in,' Lone concluded mentally.

Just as he was done inspecting his new skills, he and his group had reached The Adventurer's Guild. Naturally, a commotion was caused upon Lone's group of exactly sixty people all entering the guild at once.

"What in the name of the Primals...? Why did that foxkin just walk in here with an army of women behind him?"

"They look like slaves from their eyes. I've seen those looks before back in the capital. Loads of slaves there, after all."

"Yeah, but they're very clean... Weird."

"Didn't that foxkin go out on a quest to subjugate bandits this morning? Maybe they were hostages."

"That would explain the guard, I suppose. Still, he cleared that quest in a day?"

"Maybe. I don't see his proofs of completion, but they could be in an item bag."

"Yeah. Could be."

"I heard he just came back from a fight with the Seekers in the cathedral."

"What? Really?"

"Yup. Supposedly he offed the Archbishop as well as two Seekers. Only Johnathon's left now."

"Wow. That demi has a fuckin' death wish. There's no way the Archpope will forgive him when she hears about this."

"Eh, look at his smug-assed face. He doesn't look all that worried."

"Maybe, but she's an Ancient."

"And he just killed two triple-X-rankers and an X-ranker while only being an SS-ranker. I'd bet money that he can at least run away from an Ancient."

"Shit? Really? He's only a double-S-ranker?"

"How the fuck'd 'e kill triple-X-ranker's if 'e's only an SS-ranker? 'At makes no fuckin' sense."

"Don't ask me. There is an XX-ranker in his group, but from what I heard, the foxkin's the one who did all of the killin'. He just looked at the Seekers and the Archbishop then they died."

"Fuck me sideways... There's no way I can believe that crock of shite."

"He's lookin' this way! Shut yer mouths!"

Lone was quite pleased that his fame was spreading. Maybe this would result in arrogant and strong people coming to challenge him due to how ridiculous all of this sounded, and then he could steal their skills and maybe kill one or two of the more violent ones for their succulent experience. It was a far-fetched hope, but still, one that he harboured.

Suddenly, out of the crowd of curious adventurer's, a young man burst through who was wearing the uniform on The Adventurer's Guild employees. He looked a bit nervous as he approached Lone.

"U-Um, Sir... We can't have you bringing in so many people all at once. I-It'll cause a disturbance..." As he spoke, his words got fainter and fainter.

Lone smiled. "Sorry. I didn't really know what else to do with them. Would it be okay if the guild managed returning them to their homes? As for the ones with no homes, I plan to employ them. Don't worry about any costs. I'll pay a ruby-gold coin for each woman that gets returned to their families or who is found to not have one, so fifty coins in total."

At that point, Lone remember the guard he'd kinda forced to tag along. He turned to face him and wore an apologetic smile. "I didn't really mean to bring you here. I was a bit... uh... unfocused? Feel free to go back to your station or whatever. Here're ten ruby-gold coins. Give five to your captain for the trouble. Also, come to me if anyone tries to or does steal those coins from you. I'll cripple them or something, I dunno. This was unplanned, so, uh, consider yourself under my protection I guess?"

Reginald looked very confused, but he accepted the small bag which clanked with the sound of metal as he replied, "'S'no bother. Cap'ain 'ull be 'appy to get such a fat purse. T'was scary seein' you kill them religious folk, but yous lot're good people. T'was kinda fun now that I's been thinkin' on it fer a bit."

"That's great to hear. If you ever need some help or a favour or something, look for me at the Soul Hall or at the Palace of Rest. Also at my store that I'll be opening tomorrow, I guess. I owe you for protecting these girls while I was out there training these kids," Lone said as he gestured to the teens.

Reginald scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "I didn't do nutin'. That there flying ball of yers did all of the work. Truth be told, I should be thankin' ye. Oh well. Ma always used to tell me to nev'r look a gift 'orse in the mouth before she passed, Primals bless 'er souls. Thanks fer the money, Mr Ninetails."

Lone grinned. 'I like this guy. He's simple, but he seems nice. His soul is so pure too... It's practically shining,' he thought as he shook his head. "Not 'Mr Ninetails'. Call me Lone."

"Will do, Mr Lone. My name's Reginald, but 'at's 'ard to say, so jus' call me Reggy," the guard happily said as he closed his eyes and waved before he left the guild hall.

Lone chucked faintly. 'Reginald is not hard to say in the least, but sure, Reggy it is.'

The surrounding adventurers were all very curious, astonished, and filled with greed.

"Did he just give that nobody guard ten-ruby gold coins?! That's one-hundred-thousand gold! That's fucking insane!"

"Quick! After that guard!"

A loud voice, as well as a vast pressure, slammed down onto everyone before Lone could even warn the adventurers with ill designs for Reginald.

"No one's to touch that guard! Anyone who tries will be executed by the guild's Enforcers! Don't fuckin' test me! I'll also ban anyone and their entire family from ever becoming adventurers if they try anything funny with him! I'm a Divine, and I've no plans on dying in at least another few million years, so expect that ban to last for thousands of generations!" The hall fell silent as Sarah - the grand guildmaster - stepped down from the second floor onto the first floor.

She walked up to Lone and smirked. She stopped funnelling power into her voice and she rescinded her Divine aura. "You weren't even affected by my aura, huh?"

Lone shrugged. "My Physical and Mental Pain Resistances are almost at the max level, so this kinda stuff rarely fazes me. I've got a really strong soul too, apparently, which probably helps."

"Of course you do, of course you do, and lastly, of course you do, hahaha! Always a barrelful of surprises with you, Patches." Sarah wrapped an arm around Lone's shoulder, eliciting a grumbled and a short growl from Soph.

"Don't worry, I'm not stealing your man. If it makes it easier, just imagine me as a big burly dude. I'm a lesbian anyway," Sarah announced nonchalantly to appease Soph.

"What's a lesbian?" Soph asked as she stopped her aggressive actions and held her chin cutely.

Lone was about to answer, but once again, he was cut off by Sarah. "It means I like fuckin' chicks and I stay a mile away from dicks. Hey, that rhymed. Anyway, Patches here is a buddy, not a potentially fuck buddy. So stop getting your tits in a twist, 'kay?"

Soph's face turned red. In response, she weakly nodded and grabbed a loose tail or two before hugging them towards her chest.

Sarah laughed at that and then glanced at the slightly lost-looking male employee who'd been standing there this whole time. "You, these people, The Wanderers and French Toast, go create new adventurer's plates for all of 'em. One rank up for each of 'em. Also upgrade their groups' ranks by one. They just completed two S-ranked quests together."

Lone gave Hazel a very judgemental look for her group's name. His sister just smiled weakly and scratched her chin in response.

"B-But, em, Grand Guildmaster... the... the proofs of subjugat-"

"Patches, ya got the proofs? Even if I am the boss, there are still rules here. Kinda annoying, to be honest, but the co-founder made them for a reason," Sarah said with a bit of an uncaring shrug.

'Co-founder? This is the first I'm hearing about a co-founder... The other adventurers and the employees look just as confused... Strange.' Regardless of his thoughts, Lone took out the heads of the three S-ranked bandits as well as the heads of the two Mishkohn Elders.

"Ah... T-Thanks." The timid employee used wind magic on the heads to levitate them as he invoked some water magic with his other hand to clean the blood from the floor that had consequentially spilt upon Lone bringing the heads out of his Dimensional Storage.

'Wind and water magic being used so casually? This guy's skilled. He's a... D-ranker? Maybe he's a student at The Academy and is working here part-time?' Lone wondered.

"Also, do what he asked with these girls." The employee nodded and went about his new duties. "Well, with that outta the way, how does a drink an' a bite to eat on the second floor sound? I need to talk to you guys about the war-ranked quest. Oh, I also want the juicy deets on the Seekers and that crackpot of an Archbishop."

'She sure doesn't respect the Church of the Primals, huh?' Lone mused as he smiled. "Sure. sounds good. Can't stay for too long though."

"Why not?" Sarah asked as she tilted her head to the side, making her ponytail flop about.

"Someone asked me to do a bunch of high-ranked quests. I'd prefer to complete them sooner rather than later," Lone said as he rolled his eyes.

"Hahaha!" Right you are! I wanted to talk to ya about that as well anyway, so don't sweat it. Stamping your adventurer details into new plates will take some time, so there's no real rush," Sarah said while she waved her hand about playfully.

She then looked at all of the idle adventurers that were still staring at her and Lone's group. "Whatcha all here gawkin' at? Go do some quests, ya lazy bums! There's plenty of missing cats or broken fences that you layabouts could be findin' or fixin'! Heck, maybe even go outside of the city walls and catch some bandits or kill some gobs, will yas?"

The people jumped a little and scurried off towards the numerous quest boards in a panic. "Bunch ah fools. Always actin' like it's something amazing whenever I'm all chummy with an adventurer."

Eolande sighed and closed her eyes. "Isn't it because you're a Divine? You people don't exactly grow on trees."

Sarah wagged a finger towards the floating girl scoldingly. "Some of us do. Not all Divines are humanoids, ya know?"

Scott stifled a laugh. "So this is what it looks like when sass backfires..."

Alisa jabbed him in his ribs. "Be nice..."

Eolande's face turned bright red. As a response, she puffed out her cheeks and grabbed Swind's hand. "Come on. Let's go check up on Rachel."

Swind was obviously not opposed to that idea, so he followed the girl and entered The Glade with Lone's permission.

Many eyes returned to Lone's group after two of their members had just suddenly disappeared. Sarah unleashed a bit of her Divine aura again. "What? Have yas never seen a pocket dimension before? It's rare, but not enough to stop yas from workin'! If I see any of you lot in here when I'm done talking to my friends, then ye'r sacked."

With that warning in place, she merrily brought Lone, Soph, and Hazel's group, up to the bar on the second floor where they had first met this morning.