Chapter 106 - Registration

'Ten gold pieces to have my name and rank checked by a machine. Being an adventurer might not be that bad. I need this thing to hurry up, I've been standing here for ages now.' He waited patiently in a rather small room. A massive apparatus stood behind him, it glowed, flickered, and made a weird rumbling sound. For the most part, he looked oblivious, the thing behind could not be further examined. From what he sensed the moment the hands touched the globe, part of himself got sucked in. 'Did it take in a bit of my mana?' he wondered; Melisa stood in awe. Staxius didn't pay heed to her facial expression but she was shocked.

She walked closer for it didn't work as it normally did. A test to gauge one's strength and eligibility to become an adventurer was done in minutes, if not seconds. However, this had gone on for too long. Staxius waited, she waited, the machine worked tirelessly. The gauges began to move uncontrollably and shook violently. "Is this thing remotely safe?" Staxius asked with a hint of sarcasm. "I think so, well for the most part yes," she shouted over the noise it made. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN FOR THE MOST PART?" He yelled back, steam blew overhead. 'Is this thing going to explode on me,' Staxius thought, 'is that thing going to explode on us?' Melisa thought the same.

The strange rumbling grew more apparent, the smoke seeped into the hallway then proceeded to invade everywhere. "WHAT IS HAPPENING?" Diane rushed inside, the few people sitting quest hall grew cautious. Some left out of fear, some tried to enter but it was prohibited for anyone without permission. "This is boring, let's head out and do the Escort quest." A deep voice spoke, "lead the way," a feminine voice agreed.

"Diane, Diane," Melisa called out from the smoke infested room. "What is it?" she walked slowly and coughed, the smoke was dense and thick. It made seeing more than an inch in front impossible. "Could you guys please calm down?" Staxius shouted, "this is your fault, I'm sure of it," Diane yelled across. "Please don't start arguing now," Melisa spoke in turn. "How can we shut this thing off?" he asked once more, "no clue, the machine is autonomous – it will when it needs too," Diane added. "At this rate, we'll all die by suffocation." He voiced a very important point, "we can't just have you take off your hand from the device. It took ten of your gold pieces to go through this test, we ain't leaving till you have your rank and stats." Diane added, she was adamant. "Can I at least remove one hand then?" He asked for the smoke had made him annoyed. "Yes, as long as a piece of your body is touching the device, you should be fine," Melisa replied.

'The smoke is thick, think of something. You're a mage, you should be able to use magic,' Staxius thought long and hard. The elements he had were rather limited, the focus on augmentation magic had made him neglect on learning spells and elemental magic. "Avon, can you do something about this?" he mumbled, "sure can," the spirit replied.

A faint breeze manifested, the doors opened. "What is going on?" both assistants were at a loss for words, *Clap,* a loud noise made all silent. The smoke felt alive, slowly it headed out into the hallway. Everything grew clearer by the second, "who is responsible for this?" Melisa asked and the culprit showed himself. "There you go, master," before they stood Avon and Staxius, the latter patted the former's head. Without any notice, Avon vanished into thin air, "…" Melisa's face looked blank. "Who the hell are you?" Diane's mind was overwhelmed. The device steadied its rampage.

"What a great piece of equipment," he glanced and stared at Diane intently. "Not our fault," she left with her cheeks flushed from embarrassment, it was the first time he broke through her cavalier behavior. "Thanks for waiting," her mind got back to normal, the globe Staxius held broke. It took him by surprise, the blue hue from said globe scattered around the room. They levitated, sparkled, and sent jolts of electricity to one another. It was as if they communicated with each one. *Whoosh,* all the floating shards of glass shot back onto the pedestal. Each collided with one another at such speed that the shard shattered at the moment of impact. This process continued until a rectangular shape presented itself. "Your guild card will be ready shortly," Melisa approached and watched the process finished. "This is the bit I adore, just seeing all those broken pieces come together as one. It gives me a feeling that even the fiercest enemies can unite to fight a common foe," she mumbled thinking Staxius would not hear any of that. "That's a beautiful thing to say," he smiled, "- I agree with you, one day the animosity between people will die out when all our survival is questioned," the rectangle began to glow, letters were engraved.

"I do apologize, I ramble on about that sort of thing unconsciously," she hid her embarrassment. The card began to shone brightly it dazzled the room. It looked like a sun being born, "it's so bright, I've never seen anything like this." Her eyes closed, Staxius turned away. A few seconds later, the light grew dimmer, "…" her whole body stopped moving. The card was of a silvery color; "What happened?" Staxius asked, her only response was… nothing.

"There's nothing on the card, nothing." She faced Staxius, "nothing means I didn't pass?" he asked. "No nothing means unknown, unmeasured, and uncalculated. This means that your potential as an individual is limitless. Are you some kind of superhuman? Never have I seen a guild card like this. It's of a platinum color…" her eyes wide open, "…impossible, you can't be platinum ranked." She nearly fainted. "You're probably mistaken," he caught her body. "Don't worry, I'm not that powerful – however, what rank did the machine assign me?" he asked in a childish tone. "The rank assign to you is over there in the basket, a necklace of some kind of material has been dropped." She stumbled her way to the device. "The necklace wasn't anything she had ever seen. The rectangle had three different materials: silver, gold, and platinum. "What's the meaning of this?" her frustration grew, it was from tier one through three. "I give up," she sighed, "the rank assign to you is tier three, I'm not risking giving you any higher. It may be gold and platinum, but I have no way to correctly say what rank you truly are. Thus, Staxius Haggard, you are to be known as a rank three adventurer." She smiled, "the machine never lies. You are to become someone powerful one day," her tone still remained confused.

"Thank you," he put on the ornament that portraited his rank and stepped out. On the guild card;

[Staxius Haggard: Silver]

[Potential: Platinum+]

Those were the only piece of information available. Gauging the potential of a would-be-god was a bit unrealistic. 'Let me guess, you didn't qualify to become an adventurer?" Diane spoke as soon as he walked out. A crowd had formed before the door, the smoke brought in more attention than desired. She spoke what she saw, his face was indeed gloomy, but it was for a whole other reason. "Not really," he placed the card on her desk, people were curious to what sort of rank he was assigned. "…how is this even possible?" she asked, her tone sharp and surprised. This brought in more people, seeing the blasé Diane act out of character was unheard of. "Staxius Haggard, silver ranked and potential to become platinum plus? What does that plus even mean, I've never seen anything like that before." She spoke loudly, the shock made her forget that people were around her. "Show me the necklace," she ordered, Staxius placed it next to the card. "Silver, gold and platinum," her eyes turned blank. "you're not human, are you?"  people caught a glimpse of what he laid on the table.

"Maybe yes and maybe not," he replied mysteriously. "Whatever," her face remained in shock but she proceeded to register him in the main database. [Staxius Haggard: Silver] the keys tapped, and the process was finished. Murmurs crashed behind Staxius, it came like waves, at times it was soft and at times loud. She took a deep breath, "before I formally register you with the central guild, I'd like you to answer some of my questions; please be honest – if you lie it will make the whole process harder than its worth." Her tone returned to normal, silver rank was the rarest of the rare but she kept her calm.

"Do you hold a noble title?" she asked, "yes, the title of king." He replied nonchalantly. "you must be joking?" her eyes turned sour, "-I said no more lies," she sighed heavily. "How dare you assume that I would lie to someone like you?" he took out his crest, "I'm Staxius Haggard, King of Arda," her eyes became mesmerized by the ornament.

*Death Element: Shadow-Step,* the sword moved faster than lightning, Staxius stood behind a figure and had his sword right near its neck. "No need to be threatened, my friend," the atmosphere around the room changed. Time felt like it stopped. "state your name and business," Staxius asked in a menacing voice. "We're but friends and allies," he walked through the sword, "we're but illusions," the figure knelt and two more appeared on both sides. "-King Staxius of Arda, we apologize for being so straight forward. We are Whisper, a branch from the Order of which no one has ever met nor heard of. We are here to relay this message to you," they stopped.

*Greetings King Staxius, we're from the Order. The machine you were to use earlier has transmitted all the information deemed necessary. We apologize for the confusion, your adventuring rank is to be Platinum – however, we must put your majesty down to Silver rank.  This is all to avoid any further problems down the line. For you see, we know that Arda has plans to open an adventuring guild of their own; away from the main kingdom. Thus, we want you to experience and learn how a guild is meant to be run first. We are allies with you, for we know that Tempest Haggard is your father. Staxius Haggard, the Order has always been watching over you; not as an enemy but as the one who is to help you when things grow out of hand.*

Time took back its course, "I apologize for being rude towards you, your majesty," Diane's tone changed. She got a message from the Order that confirmed Staxius's noble rank as king. "No need to be formal," he spoke, "-have you asked all your questions?" he inquired with a monotonous tone. "Yes, all your details have been filled out by someone who seems to know you personally." She replied.

'That aura, I've felt it somewhere. It feels like it's someone who has known me since I was born. There's also another aura about a girl, slightly younger than me, I get the same feeling from both.' When time stopped, Staxius used all he had to sense and trace back the mana of the individual responsible for it. 'It feels like father's but not really, it's more feminine.'

"Awesome, I'll come back in three days or so," Staxius took all the items and left. He was registered as a silver-ranked adventurer. Before he left for Claireville academy, Staxius walked inside the bank. There, he managed to link the old guild card; the one where all his money was previously stored to the new one. The balance showed;

[Gold: 1580]

[Silver: 98]

[Copper: 99]

Silver and copper didn't go over the one hundred mark. The reason for that was that it automatically changed into one piece of gold or one piece of silver. This was to avoid people having to carry more change than needed. Coins were heavy, thus why it converted automatically. 'Must have had one thousand gold saved up from somewhere,' the car drove.