Eventually Kai shook himself, focusing back on the matters at hand, and turned to Hamish.
"So... that's the end of the tour?"
Hamish nodded. "Of the city, yes. Now I'm gonna bring you to the Association... just waiting for everyone to return to being here in both body AND mind." He cracked an amused grin, and Kai looked at his party members.
Michael had also snapped out of it, as had Xandra. They gave him a nod, before looking back out to the view, the sun and the lake waters and the pillars with their mysterious and ancient aura...
The other three had glazed eyes, as if drunk off the magic of whatever they had experienced, the kind of magic that existed in any world.
Helena was the next to stop dazing within her thoughts and emotions and return to focusing on reality, then Layla, with Pedro being the last.
Hamish began to lead them down the steps, and they saw the other party with the fire genasi and their guide, coming up the steps on the opposite side.
Layla smiled at them. "It's beautiful!" She exclaimed, still so caught up in it all that she couldn't even feel the slightest bit of anxiety.
Most looked confused, and John dismissed it win a snort of derision. 'Such a childish little girl, who cares how pretty something is? Power is everything, and a castle is a symbol of power, not beauty-'
And then his group caught sight of it too, of the castle being placed to the left, and the strange yet powerfully mysterious pillars and platform.
And his thoughts of derision ceased as he forgot all about what Layla had said.
Kai and his teammates followed Hamish down back to the first level, and over to the opening off the Adventurer's Association, stepping within to find a high ceiling that made the first floor account for two stories out of three the building had, at least for the entry hall. Stairs at the back leading up could be seen, as well as doors to possibly leading to other rooms.
Within the entry hall were many tables with benches which had people sitting at them, with adventurers sitting around and talking, comparing sheets of parchment as one table had 12 people all discussing a tattered map while comparing it to one of the area, a man with purple hair and violet eyes with bright blue skin day writing notes between the two maps.
Kai noticed that group specifically cause that blue man with purple hair was the only race he hadn't seen yet.
'Oh...' Kai connected the dots. 'Genasi are partially of the elements... but there are attributes and not elements in this world. So... genasi can be of any of the 12 attributes?'
Hamish led them to a counter at the side where a lady was leaning against an arm propping up her head as she sat at the counter.
"Hamish!" She sat up, smiling as she stared at the ursa, and two blond furred ears perked up on her head, much like Hamish's black ears.
'Another Ursa, just another breed...' Kai nodded, yet Helena let out a small giggle.
The others looked to her, confused, but she shook her head. "If you don't see it, I don't explain it."
They turned there attention back to Hamish and the... receptionist?
"So what are you here for Hamish?"
"Nothing much Milly, just doing a side job for the Association, guide for the new adventurers, you know?" He leaned a bit closer and whispered, "The otherworlders."
"Oh! Right... work. You always come here for work." She nodded, a smile fixed to her face, yet Kai felt that it was a little stiff.
Then she froze and she looked at Hamish with a puzzled face. "Wait did you say otherworlders?" She looked and saw Kai and the others, and it was as if she totally had not noticed them until that point!
"OH SHIT!" She yelled as she jolted up! "That's today?! I didn't-I don't have-wait RIGHT HERE, OKAY?!" She ran off in a panic, leading to quite a few adventurers to laugh.
Hamish turned around with an awkward smile. "Don't worry... Milly can be absent-minded, but she's got a terrifying memory for who is doing what and keeps track of all the ongoing jobs any adventurer goes on all at once in her own head!"
Kai's eyes widened. "Wait WHAT? She can keep all that... in her head?!"
Hamish nodded, yet had a slightly strained smile. "Yeah... it's just that sometimes she... forgets to do parts of her own job..."
The party stood there awkwardly. What should they say to that? She could track everyone... except herself.
Pedro shook his head. "That is... its own kind of talent I guess."
Helena slow clapped quietly, looking up at the ceiling. "Indeed, a true genius must have a great flaw."
Layla looked at the counter with her brows furrowed. "I think miss Milly is very sad... someone should help her at the counter then!"
Hamish sighed, turning around. It wasn't his job to guide how new adventurers thought of other people, just to understand their responsibilities as an adventurer and what was where to be used to help them in their line of work. And Milly... indeed this poor girl made him feel quite helpless sometimes.
Helena stared at Hamish's back. "It's too bad, a girl likes a man and he can't even notice..." she muttered under her breath, only to have Michael look at her. "Sorry? What did you say?"
Helena waved it off, "Oh it's nothing."
Michael turned to Layla, who shrugged at him. "I dunno, I wasn't paying attention."
Michael's voice came out with a slight frown to its tone, if that were possible. "But don't you have like... super ears?"
Layla pouted. "Hearing doesn't help when you aren't paying attention to what's being said!" She turned away, and Michael sighed in defeat as Helena stuck out her tongue at him.
"I-I didn't mean to-it-aaaaagh..." he groaned and just let it go for now.
After about two minutes Milly came running back with a bunch of papers and a metal rod with decagons(ten-sided polygon with every side the same length) that had lines interconnecting them from one of their ten corners, like a constellation of geometric shapes all interconnected.
Kai narrowed his eyes, that itch of magic at work making him give more attention to the metal rod than the others, examining the etchings to properly see them instead of just noting 'Oh yeah it's carved,' seeing them shapes.
'Why does it have those shapes? Wouldn't an enchanted item use like runes or glyphs or something?'
"So, a kitsune, papagaios(parrotkin), chiroptera(batkin), fae, orc... and automaton." Milly raised an eyebrow. "I guess otherworlders really are a diverse bunch!"
"Now." She got serious and grabbed the bar, holding it over the first page. "Let's see... name, class... Warframe, how fierce sounding! And dang, haven't seen a Holy Chorister outside of the great churches... never heard of an Echo Scout, but batkin are a reclusive bunch..."
They exchanged glances. The way she was talking...?
They knew she could see their classes and race thanks to the text boxes, but she was talking like she could see more than that...
"Oh damn! That's a rare as hell title, but why is it only 5%?!"
They jumped as she stared at them in shock, each reacting slightly differently.
'She can see our titles too?!'
Could she see their entire status pages? How?!
Hamish reacted when Pedro put up his wings with the feather-fingers at the end curling into fists. "Whoah whoah, it's fine! Her class gives her an examination skill!"
"How much can she see?" Helena questioned crossly. Nobody likes being snooped into powerlessly.
"Your class level, titles, and the basic skills your class comes with, but not what level those are. And any skills you learn yourself are not shown unless she gets to a much higher level." Hamish explained quickly, a small part of him wondering why the hell these otherworlders were so defensive all of the sudden?
'It's just a part of the process to have accurate information after all...'
Milly froze, looking up at Xandra. "Stalwart Knight?!"
The orcess looked back with an expression that betrayed none of her emotions, simply replying, "yes."
Hamish focused above her, reading the text box. "Damn I didn't even notice... fuck you guys are lucky."
The other members of the party blinked, then looked to Xandra. Was her class special? It had seemed the plainest of the party though in name and purpose? It was the most straightforward class of the whole group for celestial's sake!
Hamish glanced towards them and sighed. 'They don't even know how lucky they are...' He gestured to Milly, a sort of "can you explain it?" by waving his hand from her to them.
"Well... a stalwart Knight is basically the most defensively powerful known class."
"..."
"...."
"....."
"..."
"....sorry?"
Milly coughed. "Well maybe defensively powerful isn't the right word... agh. Okay so a class that is basic like 'Swordsman' can use any attribute of mana you can learn in any way considered 'swordplay', but has no special advantages in any specific attribute. Meanwhile a 'Burning Swordman' can use specifically fire attribute mana in any way considered swordplay, but is much stronger in fire than a regular swordsman ever could be, to an overpowering degree."
They nodded, that made sense, and they were all to some degree classes with narrower ranges, like Layla was clearly meant to specialize in sound attribute skills and techniques.
"Therefore classes with specifications onto a narrower focus of the attributes or skill types, like a scout or thief class that uses any attribute but only for detection and stealth, and not attack, are generally considered stronger than a general class as they hold a much greater weight in that field."
Pedro squinted. "So... Xandra is a Knight class that uses defense as the absolute focus?"
Milly flipped her hand back and forth a little. "Not exactly? Stalwart Knights are focused on survival and protection, not defense, making them very nice to have on a team... and they are also known as being a class that can use any attribute of mana in different skills, which would usually weaken it... but because they focus so hard on defensive and protective skills, they are nearly as powerful in those attributes as a more focused class would be, just as long as they're using them for defensive purposes and skills."
Everyone was nodding in understanding at this point, staring at Xandra with sparkling eyes. "So basically... Xandra is not only a defense as good as a "Metal Knight" or whatever, but she has a wider range of attributes she can use with each being strong enough to hold up, and can mix and match them in skills to become nearly invincible!" Kai was excited as he exclaimed the last part!
Hamish chuckled. "Invincible within a certain tolerance, brute power can overwhelm any defense. But yes, Stalwart Knight's are... known for surviving. Anything. But in trade, they have absolutely no attack skills... ever. They will never hit harder than their physical strength or self-taught skills through practice can manage, even as their teammates become capable of cutting down forests in a single sword swing, they can't. Course they CAN survive being dropped in a volcano when at the level where a swordsman could cut down a forest in a single swing, so they're scary in their own way."
Xandra brooded over this new information for awhile as the rest kept talking about it, and then silence fell as the explanations finished, everyone just watching her.
She looked up suddenly, to Milly and Hamish. "Thank you for freely giving me information regarding how my class works." She nodded to them, and looked away as she stood there silently.
Milly and Hamish stared at her in surprise. 'That's all you have to say about it? This lady... is really quite calm!'
Hamish tried to suppress his envy, and suddenly felt a flash of concern.
He leaned over to milly and whispered a bit, and she looked at him with eyes widening in understanding. "Yes! Of course! You so kind to think of that Hamish..." she smiled as she got up and rushed off again, leaving the party confused while Xandra was still nonchalant.
'What is she grabbing now?'