This got way too close. If this got even a minute longer, I would have had to blow my cover.

After taking a few breaths and sitting here for a few minutes, I regained at least enough mana for the headache to stop. Only then do I start to take my surroundings in.

This room is just too expensive. I have never seen anything like this in my entire life. The bed is the size of the previous apartments I've been living in. And now I can stay here for free, but how long, and how could Miles afford something like this? Many people seemed to know him. And everyone pas him respect. What kind of standing does he have in this town?

Well, I guess I have to ask him later. First, I'd like to wash away all the stuff that built up these last few weeks. I stand up and start exploring this apartment. To my right, there's a door leading to somewhere, so I first want to check out to where it leads.

This apartment really wants to keep amazing me. The door leads to the bathroom. In here, everything is made out of some kind of smooth white stone that's streaked with black veins.

Opposite the door, the whole wall is made out of a huge mirror. In Sanctuary, the best mirrors we could produce were the size of a book. I wonder how they manufacture something like this.

But the best feature is a bathtub embedded into the floor, almost large enough to swim in it, right in the centre of the room.

On the left side of the room are a washbasin and another mirror. Next to the basin on both sides are large towels. Further to the sides are wardrobes which, to my surprise, even are filled with diverse clothes in all sizes. They feel smooth to the touch and seem to be of very high quality. Since I have clothes to change into, I undress quickly to take a bath. Now I see what the maid meant when she said there's warm water. There are two taps next to each other, one with a small red dot and one with a small blue one. I figure out which one is cold and which hot. The hot water is way too hot to use alone, so I turn both taps on to get the temperature right. This is pure luxury. In Sanctuary, some buildings also had faucets with flowing water. But it was uncommon, and there were none with hot water.

After adding soap to the water, I start to relax, like I haven't for a really long time.

[Such baths are the best. I enjoyed them as well when I still had my body]

/We dragons take baths as well, but we don't bath in such simple water. Only the hottest magma of active volcanoes suffices to make us relax./

It was so peaceful and quiet, I could've almost fallen asleep. But then they had to add their opinions. These are the moments that I realize I have to make them go away. They always comment on everything, even my body, when I took my clothes off to wash up.

But nonetheless, they saved my life multiple times, and at times, conversation with them was the one thing that kept me going.

After drifting in my thoughts for some time, I continue washing and pick some random clothes from the drawers to get dressed.

When I look at myself in the large mirror, my sight sticks to my eyes again. Only at this moment, I notice I forgot to turn on some sort of light. It is completely dark here. But due to my eyes' abilities, I didn't even pay attention to the darkness.

As I leave the bathroom, someone knocks on the door of my apartment.

'Can I come in?'

I hear Miles' voice.

"Is someone with you?"

I have to know if I have to hide my eyes.

'No, it's only me.'

"Then come in."

Miles then enters the room and closes the door behind him.

He still freezes up for a short moment when seeing my eyes, but he then shakes his head like he's trying to get rid of some uncomfortable thoughts.

'We need to talk about a few things.' He says while taking a seat on one of the armchairs. I follow along and sit down as well opposite him.

'Your ID is already in the making, and you can stay in this room for quite some time, but I can't and won't afford this forever, so what do you want to do? You'll need to earn your own money.'

Now that I think about it...

I never thought about this. My main goal still is to get my body back for myself. But is this something you could buy for any amount of money? I don't think so. So I need to find another solution.

But where could I find it? In this town? Probably not. So I have to go somewhere else, which is dangerous because of the monsters, demons, dragons and angels. So I need to get stronger. But I can only grow stronger if I fight. So I'll fight. And this is my answer.

"I want to fight monsters to protect the people around me. And I also want to grow stronger."

I'll add the point of protecting people, so he thinks my decision is noble. But still, will he agree to this? After all, making me stronger could be dangerous because of the outbreak in Sanctuary. Who can tell if it will recure?

'So it's really like that? Are you sure you want to do this? After once taking up this job, it's hard to get away from it.'

There's no point in asking.

"Yes, I am fully aware of my decisions. I won't change my mind."

He looks directly into my bright glowing eyes for some time.

'So be it. To be honest, I already expected something like this, so I used my influence here to arrange an examination for you. It will be early tomorrow morning. If you pass it, you become an official mercenary and get the privilege of freely entering and leaving this town. But be warned, this isn't the usual examination. This examination usually only is for mercenaries that already have the silver rank. In other words, this examination will directly place you into the gold ranking.'

"Is gold rank good?"

'The ranks from lowest to highest are as follows: trial rank (some call it wood rank), iron, copper, silver, gold, platinum, diamond, mithril, adamant. Then there are also the legendary ranks, but those aren't of importance right now. I got the mithril rank, so getting you into gold is the best I can do. And even this is only possible because I am the highest-ranking mercenary in this city. There just aren't any adamantine ranks who want to settle down here. If I want to rise to the next rank, I'd have to visit another city to get examined by an adamantine mercenary. But I already did this once for mithril, so I don't think it's necessary to do it.'

"And let me guess, the thing you showed the guards at the gate was some kind of verification to show you are a mithril mercenary?"

'Yes indeed.'

"And about this room. Can you pay for it because you earn a lot of money?"

'No, not really. This room is reserved for the highest-ranking mercenary here. So I pay a lot less for this room, but I still have to pay. But this is the only room I know of where you can feel completely safe about your eyes since this room is very secure.'

Ok, I think I understand it now.

"So I'll have to reach mithril rank, so I can pay for this room instead of you?"

'Hah! If it was so easy to reach mithril, I wouldn't be the only one here, but you're welcome to try. Just remember, gold and all ranks below that are called the "low ranks". Only at platinum begins the high rank. This distinction was made because the gaps between the low ranks are small compared to the high ranks, where a single rank signifies gigantic jumps in power levels.

Oh, and I probably should tell you about the classification of monsters. We also categorize them in the ranks from initial rank to adamantine. And then there is one more trick to it. We categorize "monsters" the same way we categorize "dragons", "demons", or "angels", but don't think they are the same just because the rank is the same. An iron rank dragon could wipe out a whole army of gold ranking "monsters".'

/Of course, they can. Even comparing dragons to some common monsters is just pure blasphemy./

'And in general, even "monsters" of the same rank are mightier than their human counterpart. So to fight a silver rank "monster" one on one, you need to be at least gold rank. You can calculate like this: In the low-ranks, 5 bronze fighters are as strong as one silver rank, 5 silver ranks are as good as one gold, and so on. So you need 5 mercenaries to take down one monster of the same rank. In the future, when you can afford one, you'll need to get a measuring device, which can tell you the approximate class of a monster you're facing, depending on the magic power it gives off.

That should be anything for today. Any questions left?'

That was a lot to take in.

"No, I first need to think about what I just learned."

Like this, we say our goodbyes and Miles leaves the room. Now I am alone again with these voices in my head. They keep praising me for making the decision to go out and fight. Now that it's said, I start to doubt my decision anyways. My goal in finding this town was to live with humans. But I instantly threw that away just to spend my time killing monsters. Again.

Trying to get rid of these unpleasant thoughts, I think about what I just learned from Miles. I wonder what rank of strength I really have. And what rank were the monsters that I killed so far. There were goblins, giant lizards of various kinds, the Huge alligator, wolves, coyotes, slimes, monster rabbits, lynx and more. There even were orcs and kobolds. While thinking about my past fights, I drift off into sleep, on a bed softer than I ever could've imagined.

_______________________________________________________________________

In the morning, I got woken by someone knocking on the door.

'Come on, you piece of ...'

I hear Miles shouting. Only then do I notice I must've overslept.

"On my way!" I shout while quickly getting dressed. I pick up my old rusty sword and run to the door.

When opening it, I see the most enraged Miles I have ever seen.

'Finally, there you are. Now follow me, your examination is in 10 minutes, and we still have to walk across half of this town.'

He pulls me by my arm. "One moment," I say.

Then I close my eyes for a few seconds. After opening them again, the illusion is cast.

"Now I'm ready."

We run straight across the town with a speed most people can't even follow. At times we jump from roof to roof or run along walls. We probably destroyed a bit of stuff in the process, but we have to hurry, and honestly, this is fun. When waking up, I was still a bit groggy because I was deep asleep not long ago, but when we reached the building with a sign above the door that reads "Guild" in big black letters, I am fully awake.

'We made it here in time. *phew* that was close. Initially, I wanted to visit a shop with you to purchase a better weapon for you, but now there wasn't enough time.'

He beckons me to follow him in, so I do as asked.

When entering the enormous building, I first step into something like a saloon. There are quite a few people who seem like they already drank one too much. At first, their gazes fall onto Miles, whom everyone instantly recognized, I guess, and then they start to look at me. Some just have a look of amazement, but most look at me like I killed their mothers. Somehow they seem very hostile.

Miles simply ignores all of them and walks straight to the counter.

'Like I said yesterday, this is the boy I'd like you to assess.' He says while pointing at me with his thumb.

The woman behind the counter bows slightly then asks me politely to follow her. Miles nods to me, so I do as the woman told.

After some time of following her through a winding corridor and going down a long flight of stairs, I reach a massive hall.

In the middle of the hall, there is a man with his back turned towards us.

'You may leave Angela.' He says plainly.

I don't know how, but I definitely know this voice.

When he turns around, I exactly know from where I know him.

I think his name was Beorn and he is the man who received us at the hotel. The large scar on his forehead and his missing arm leaves no room for speculation. It's him.