The college district faded behind them once the bus doors shut.
Aren stepped off onto a street that felt entirely different from the advanced, futuristic feel of Imperial Mystic College.
The buildings here were older, stacked tightly together with hanging lanterns swaying overhead and signboards jutting above alleyways to tell others that their shop was located inside.
Red paper charms fluttered along storefront windows. Sowhere nearby, a vendor was shouting about fresh skewers. Out of all the places he’d been so far, this was the closest Imperial City had ever felt to Sun City.
I should take Anna and Dad here when I have the ti.
Daniel walked ahead as always, paying for a skewer before turning around.
"Welco to East Ward," he said casually. "This is where the Urban Bounty Hunting Committee operates."
"Well, one of the branches anyway."
Aren glanced around.
"This is... less official than I imagined."
Daniel chuckled.
"That’s the point."
They crossed a narrow street as scooters buzzed past and a delivery drone flew by overhead.
"The Committee isn’t so heroic organization," Daniel continued. "It’s a middleman."
"A middleman?"
"Think of it like the old rcenary Guilds you read about in history."
They passed beneath a row of red lanterns strung between two buildings, their shadows stretching long across the pavent.
"Requestors submit contracts," Daniel explained. "Private citizens. Businesses. Even smaller municipal departnts. They deposit money and outline a task."
"Monster suppression?" Aren asked.
"That among others," the Senior continued. "Arresting rogue mystics, artifact retrieval, escort work, the whole shabang."
"The Committee verifies the request. They do their own research and assign a difficulty rating on said request."
Aren frowned slightly.
"And then?"
"They match the contract to a licensed hunter of equal capability."
They turned into a narrower side street where the noise dipped slightly, replaced by the clatter of mahjong tiles from an open second-floor window.
"Hunters are ranked in stars," Daniel continued. "One through five."
"And I’m guessing I’m not starting at five."
Daniel smirked.
"You’ll start as a One-Star Hunter."
Aren nodded slowly.
"So I take one-star requests."
"Exactly. Low-risk patrols, minor disturbances," he continued on. "Hell, my first request was finding sobody’s cat."
"And did you find it?"
Daniel paused for a second before responding softly.
"No..."
They turned one final corner before stopping in front of a shabby wooden building. Aren frowned as he looked at the na of the place outside.
Mountain and Seas Bookstore.
Aren opened his mouth, starting to doubt.
"Are you sure—?"
But the comnt was imdiately interrupted by Daniel, who was already pushing the door open.
"I am," he said quickly. "Just follow."
The small bell above the door chid softly as they stepped inside. Warm air greeted them along with the scent of ink and paper. The interior was a lot bigger than it looked from the outside.
Shelves lined with old books were everywhere, looking as though they hadn’t been touched in decades.
Aren’s mind swam imdiately at the details of the place...it was too familiar.
Wasn’t this where that old man gave —?
Aren’s gaze drifted instinctively toward the back-left corner. There was where the old man once sat, the sa one who’d given him the book, the information he needed to evolve his Snake to Dragon bloodline.
But there was no old man. Only a young clerk behind the counter, lazily flipping through a paperback novel, completely uninterested in their arrival.
"Strange..." Aren muttered.
Daniel turned. "You said sothing?"
He shook his head. "No, nothing...just felt like I’ve been here before, that’s all."
That eting hadn’t happened yet. It was still years away.
Still—
The familiarity lingered like déjà vu.
Daniel tapped the wooden surface twice.
"One copy of To Start Climbing the Mountain," he said casually.
The clerk finally looked up. And without a word, he closed his book and disappeared through a narrow curtain behind the counter.
Aren blinked.
"...That’s it?"
Daniel glanced sideways at him.
"Did you expect a sliding door and dramatic lighting?"
"Yeah, kind of..."
The clerk returned with a small tal plaque, a clipboard, and a suitcase.
"First-ti applicant?" he asked flatly.
Aren’s gaze flicked once more toward the back corner before returning forward.
"...Yeah."
The clerk set the suitcase on the counter and flipped it open. Inside rested a crystalline sphere sort of similar to a relic that existed in the future.
An Ether ter.
"Standard verification," the clerk said. "Place your hand on the artifact."
Aren stepped forward.
Should be fine? These only asure ether quality and quantity anyway.
The dampener around his wrist humd faintly against his skin, restraining the natural flow of his ether. Aren decided to place his other hand on the sphere instead.
For a mont, nothing happened.
Then light began to fill the interior, deep and saturated.
A projection shimred above the artifact, lines of script forming in midair. The clerk’s neutral expression shifted ever so slightly.
Ether Quantity: Extre
Ether Quality: Extre
Daniel straightened a fraction.
"...Upper threshold of Line 3," the clerk murmured.
Aren could feel it too, how the dampener was holding his ether down as the torrent of energy threatened to surge out of him. Without it, the numbers would have climbed higher. But this was already brushing the ceiling of what a Line 3 Mystic should display.
"Maybe I did recruit a genius?" Daniel looked at him in astonishnt. "I was joking before, but are you really hiding more things?"
Aren looked away, avoiding him as Daniel pressed his face closer.
But that was when he felt sothing...like the device tapping directly into his Records.
Shit! It asures Bloodline too?!
He retracted his hand imdiately, almost elbowing the Senior’s face. Daniel pulled back before speaking.
"Hey man, what’s got you so riled up?"
Before Aren could answer, the clerk’s pen clattered onto the counter. His eyes were locked on sothing behind the crystal.
"...Dragon..."
His voice ca out thin.
"You’re... a dragon..."
Silence swallowed the bookstore. Daniel blinked once.
"...What?"
Aren felt his stomach drop.
Not...good...
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