BXBX NOVEL Chapter 179
“No, no, it’s fine. We are done.” Vincent urgently told Gevan to stop him. Vincent was starting to feel embarrassed about the situation now.
Gevan noticed they weren’t in a meaningful conversation as he thought and decided to listen to Vincent. Gevan entered the VIP room, pulled the staff chair, and sat on it. Then he placed three identification cards on the table.
The adventurers guild identification card had a similar size and thickness to a business card from the earth. However, it became more noticeable that it is made of a thin and flexible metal after Lupa impatiently picked it up and started wobbling the card like a hand fan. She seemed to like the sound as her ears tilted back and forth.
Vincent picked the card in front of him and noticed it had multiple runes intricately carved on it as if a precise laser cutter did it. At the top were the words, “Adventurers Guild Identification Members Card.” The card looked both appealing and mysterious.
“I have already registered the three of you in the system. All you need to do is place the card’s edge on your thumb and swipe it to cut your thumb like a paper cut. Then smear the blood on the card, and after you get registered as its owner, the hidden one-time Minor Heal rune will heal your thumb.” Gevan explained as if their thumb was a card reader. Although it was going to hurt, it will heal their small wound afterward.
Lupa lowered her ears upon hearing this. She didn’t like getting hurt for no reward. No praise, no thrill of battle, no rewards, simply nothing. Lupa hesitated to go first because of this.
.....
[Lupa is strangely backing down from being the first like always. How about you go first for a change?]
Vincent looked at Lupa and smirked. ‘Lupa is cute when she acts like this. I wonder what she would say if I tell her about the dozens of paper cuts my fingers have suffered.’ He pondered.
Vincent swiped the card against his thumb like a card reader, and blood soon followed. He quickly smeared blood on the card like a stamp, and the intricate runes started to glow red, similar to the blood it was absorbing and registering.
After the light faded, Vincent released his thumb and showed it to Lupa and Ester. The paper-cut wound was no more. The card healed his thumb as Gevan promised.
The card in Vincent’s hand now displayed the owner’s name and a passport-sized picture of the card’s owner. In addition, the intricate runes didn’t look and feel carved any more. Instead, the card looked smooth, and the detailed design of the now red-colored runes looked like permanent ink.
“I wanna go next. ” Lupa raised her card and promptly swiped it against her thumb. “Ouch.” She continued before the card brightly lighted red. The light shortly disappeared along the paper-cut wound.
The card now had her name and a small picture of her face. Lupa stared at her picture and then looked at Vincent while saying, “Do I look cute?”
“Yes, you do. Hehe.” Vincent chuckled after noticing Lupa’s tail wag from the complement and her ears lightly twitch.
Ester was next. She looked at the card as if looking at a knife. Her hand trembled, but her gaze peeked at the happy Lupa. Ester wanted to be complemented, and so, with one swift motion, she swiped the card against her thumb and finished the registration process.
“Umm... is my picture good?” Ester blushed and averted her eyes.
“Yes, you look cute too.” Vincent didn’t laugh this time. He felt a bit embarrassed with Gevan staring at the show. On the other hand, Kazumi giggled while watching Vincent take the lead without a push.
“Since the identification cards are now blood bound, only their owner can use them for privacy purposes. So, all you need to do is to hold the card and say the command, ‘Display Stats.’ But remember, you need to feed the card a bit of your blood on every ten or so activations, and it won’t heal your wound again.” Gevan then looked at the frowning three and continued with a laugh, “It needs to recharge after all, hahaha.”
Vincent, Ester, and Lupa raised their card and said at the same time, “Display Stats.”
The runes on the cards lit, and shortly, a small five-inch red hologram window with their stats appeared above their cards. Their names, race, age, stats, and abilities became easy to see.
[Intresting. Now we can practice as much as we want with this card and upgrade your Inspection in a jiffy. You don’t want to cut yourself every few days to check your age, right?]
-It’s better to do so. People might think I like harming myself.-
Even though Vincent now could check his age without upgrading his Inspection ability, it wasn’t very convenient to recharge the card if, for example, on one day, he would use more than three charges.
“It works... but. Why does my mate have a star behind his name?” Lupa frowned when she noticed how she and Ester didn’t have a small star icon after their name.
Gevan smiled and said while looking at Vincent, “I have given you what we Guild Leaders call it the Raising Star mark. Because you have the lowest E Rank possible while keeping your ground against Ollie, I assessed your combat power to be about D Rank six stars and above when you use your ability.”
Gevan pointed at the small star icon on Vincent’s hologram and continued,” I gave you that star because it will multiply the Adventure Rank exp you gain per rank difference. Furthermore, it will allow you to take quests of two rank levels above yours.”
“To keep it short. You can take up to C Ranked quests. E Ranked quests give double exp, D Ranked gives triple exp, and C Ranked gives quadruple exp. However, when you advance a rank, the one’s below your rank will only give you an additional fifty percent extra.” Gevan explained. Then he stood up and extended his hand for a handshake.
Vincent could instantly feel that Gevan is a man to be respected. Gevan knew the details about the interrogation, found out about the mutation ability first hand, and still told everyone to keep what happened in the testing hall a secret.
Vincent appreciated how Gevan behaved and then shook his hand while building his respect for the Guild Leader. Gevan then repeated the same handshake with Ester and Lupa. Gevan then ended with, “Let me guide you outside.”
Vincent, Ester, and Lupa followed Gevan out of the corridor. However, Lupa lagged behind while pouting with her cheeks puffed. It was all because Gevan shook Ester’s hand first.
Ester felt as if someone was staring at her from behind, but only Lupa walked behind her. It took a while for Ester to recall how she shook Gevan’s hand first and previously gave Vincent the potion. Thus, in Lupa’s books, Ester won twice.
Ester turned her head. Soon, she confirmed her thoughts after watching Lupa pout when their eyes met. Lupa cutely *humph* and averted her eyes.
‘Heh... I will need to teach Lupa how not everything is a competition to be first.’ Ester sighed and added a new thing to what she needs to teach Lupa and make her behave.
As this short drama transpired, Vincent secretly chuckled after Kazumi told him what was happing behind him. ‘Ester and Lupa treat each other like a big and a little sister each passing day.’ He thought with a smile.
Gevan led the three to the guild entrance door and gave Vincent another item. Vincent opened a long parchment, and a map of the city and a couple of surrounding villages were drawn on it.
“This?” Vincent asked with a puzzled frown.
“I’m giving it to you for free, but don’t lose it. It costs ten silvers to buy one. On this starter map are a few villages that are near the city. Also, you can buy a larger advance map or ask for an update from the receptionist.” Gevan explained.
“Map update?” Vincent asked again.
“For five silvers, we will use a special ink to mark your map with important information such as reported danger zones or safe areas. The map I’m giving you was updated a week ago. Nothing much has changed... well, I hear the lockdown will be lifted soon, so I suggest you study the map and plan ahead when the gates are opened.” Gevan showed a side business the Adventurers Guild runs.
The guild uses the information they gather from adventurers to update maps and sell them for a price. Only the guild staff can remove and apply the special ink. Furthermore, the map was made in a way so that only the guild’s special ink can write on the map.
All the rules are written at the back of the map. For this reason, Gevan didn’t need to keep Vincent, Ester, and Lupa in the guild any longer. Instead, he waved goodbye and then entered back inside.
“What a good day. I’ll go and check on Ollie too. I might need to ask for a favor if all things go as I’m guessing.” Gevan chirped with a delighted smile. Then he went to check on Ollie.
* Middle-class district*
As they walked towards Tula’s family home, Lupa became worried when she noticed Vincent didn’t look too well. Ester also became worried after Vincent almost fell if she and Lupa didn’t grab him in time. Ester and Lupa then decided to offer him their shoulder.
Vincent’s legs trembled from exhaustion, and he almost fell once or twice without support. Overflow exhausted Vincent, yet he only used it for less than one to two minutes.
Vincent didn’t have the strength to pay attention to those that looked at them with concern or a frown. He wanted to rest as quickly as possible. Vincent felt terrible, and his sore muscles screamed in pain after he overexerted the use of Overflow as it was his first time using it.
Later, they arrived at Tula’s family home. With Plow in her arms, Tula greeted them with a smile, but Tula quickly became worried when she saw Vincent barely standing.
“Are you hurt, big brother?” Tula worriedly asked.
Plow looked at Vincent and quickly became worried for a different reason. The little blue fox worried about its warm bed and not Vincent. Plow didn’t look bright enough to figure out how Vincent and Plow’s warm belly bed are the same being.