26.1. Spirits

The next day, we met up with Edithe at the lobby of her inn in the morning as it was closer to the temple; she was dressed in different clothes from before— her bloodied and ashened white robe was now replaced with brown cloth garments. Apparently her robes were enchanted— she only used it for combat. This was considered her ‘casual’ clothing…. whatever that meant.

We started in the direction of the Sanctuary of Fauna, no longer questioning whether we would be going after Lucerna. The only thing in our mind now was how we were going to be going after him.

He was a powerful [Djinn]. Supposedly, he was now Level 50— gaining over 8 levels since I had last seen him. That was a big jump; I had gained only 8 levels during that time, and I had mostly been fighting since I arrived at the Mortal Realm.

We had to become stronger, so the first thing we were going to do was get Edithe new summons— new Spirits. We reached the white temple building as the streets began to busy itself with Human life; we caught some glances from passersby, although none of them seemed to focus on me. They all focused on Edithe because of her… level?

“It’s normal. People stare at me because I’m a Gold Ranked adventurer.”

I cocked my head, confused.

“What’s a Gold Ranked adventurer anyway? I keep hearing you guys talk about it, but no one ever told me.”

Daniel sighed, shaking his head. But Edithe just explained.

“The job of an adventurer is divided into various different ranks: Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond. Generally speaking, adventurers are promoted when they reach their next Class advancement. That means usually Levels 10 to 40 will be Silver, Levels 40 to 70 will be Gold, 70 to 100 will be Platinum, and 100 to 150 will be Diamond. Anyone above Level 150 is no longer ranked by the Adventurers Guild, considered to be Elites— however they are rare. Only a few dozen Humans reach that level every generation. Maybe a handful of those are adventurers.”

I looked at her curiously.

“So why are people staring at you? You’re only Gold, right? It doesn’t seem too amazing compared to any of the others ranks.”

“Because a large majority of adventurers only ever stay in Silver, Salvos. Maybe they might get Gold in their lifetime, but only when they’re twice my age or older. The same goes for non combat Classes too— in fact, it’s even worse for them. And especially in a smaller city like Hazelbury, someone my age at my level walking around is kind of noteworthy.”

I nodded slowly, following the Human woman as she guided us through the halls of the temple. The [Priest] we had met the other day was here; he saw us, then Edithe. He stepped aside as she bowed slightly at him, before we crossed through the garden.

“And your Classes are… like Subspecies, right?”

That was what I had been told by Daniel; he didn’t explain it too much in detail, but I got the gist of it.

“Yes. Us Humans don’t have a Subspecies like you Demons, Spirits, or monsters do. We just have Classes we can choose once we hit Level 10. Sometimes, people wait a few more levels to hopefully get a more specialized Class. But that would result in them having a slower start since we don’t get Stat or Skill Points until we choose a Class.”

“So you have no Classes at all until then?”

“None at all. Just Levels and General Skills. That’s it.

“Huh.”

I caught a glimpse of the girl I had seen when I was last here. She was lying on the lap of a woman, eyes closed. I narrowed my eyes and identified her.

[Human]

As it turned out, I didn’t even see her level. It was like looking at an animal— or a tree. There was no description attached either; she was just a Human according to my General Skill.

We pushed open the door to the smaller building disconnected from the main temple, finding ourselves standing in front of the summoning pool as two [Priests] were tending to it. Sakura was floating faceup on the water surface. She glanced over at us with her vulpine eyes as we entered and I nodded at her. The [Beastkin] got up and nodded my way, before leaving the room.

I smiled, happy she recognized me, before turning my attention to Edithe as showed her badge and spoke with the [Priests].

“...for Level 30 Spirits.”

One of the first [Priest] stroked the hair protruding down from his chin.

“We certainly can tune the summoning pool to do that. But this is a smaller branch in a small city, Miss. We’re not sure if you’ll even get very many options this way. Maybe if we set the lower limit to Level 25—”

“It’s fine. I’m already putting those Level 30’s in danger. I should only be accepting those that are at least Level 35, but I have no other choice.”

“If you say so.”

The two [Priests] went to either end of the summoning pool. They placed their hands on a stone tablet there, with strange symbols and markings on them. They opened their mouths, beginning a slow chant as I felt mana surging through the water.