Milly came back with a thin chain that had a circular wooden tablet hanging off it, with a series of octagons linked up by lines at every corner... just like how the metal rod had the same sort of patterns, but with decagons instead.
"This necklace has a skill enchanted into it that will hide your class from a casual glance... hopefully it'll help your party not get constantly assaulted by others trying to steal a talent for themselves."
Xandra gave a nod. "Thank you." Her sincerity came through in the simplicity of her thanks, and Milly smiled brightly, and gave a beaming look to Hamish who scratched the back of his awkwardly. "It's nothing... the Association has a few such tools for these kinds of things sometimes. If adventurers get jealous of one another or into fights, it's not great for the defense of all order and life, you know?"
Kai gave him a true, proper bow. "Thank you for your consideration, and going beyond your duties as a guide for our wellbeing."
Pedro raised an eyebrow, and Helena giggled as she leaned to whisper in Pedro's ear. "He really does sound quite proper and old-fashioned, doesn't he? Wonder what kind of family he had..."
Pedro shrugged. "Does it matter now? He's with us, and as long as we all do our best that's all we need."
Helena looked at Pedro in surprise. "I didn't expect that from you."
Pedro snorted. "People never assume things rightly about me... ever."
Suddenly a plexiglass and rubber hand came between them to pat Pedro's shoulder. "Well, just keep being you and eventually people will learn, right? We'll be here for awhile, plenty of time to find the real us in all that."
Pedro gave a nod to Michael over his shoulder, and Helena gave a silent and polite smile, her actual thoughts hidden from view.
Meanwhile Xandra took the chain and put it around her wrist as... she was so big it would have been too tight around her neck to be comfortable honestly. So she just double-looped it over her wrist and the chain loops held the wooden pendant flat against her wrist, the engravings hidden against her skin.
Milly nodded, picking the metal bar back up and waving it over a blank sheet of parchment, and a ripple of dark purple light came from along the rod she held pinched between two fingers halfway up its length.
'That looks like a fucking blacklight.' Kai thought to himself, and this time he didn't even both asking himself what a blacklight was, he just ignored the strange word and moved on.
As the dark purple light passed over the paper, text appeared that flared bright purple for an instant, before fading into an appearance much like black ink.
Kai blinked as he looked at the papers, seeing it was like a paper version of a simplified status sheet, and rubbed his eyes.
'God reading cursive is so much harder... if this were print I could just read it upside down even! Oh... huh. Things like cursive and print I DO remember apparently. Why do you need two different ways of writing though?'
Cursive was also called handwriting... maybe there was some magical method of writing which used print instead to be told apart? And cursive is strictly for being written by hand?
'No if that was true then they wouldn't have this clearly magical method of writing also use cursive.'
He shook off his strange thoughts as Milly looked up, checking each person individually.
He looked at Xandra's current text box after wearing the
'So it just made her from a Stalwart Knight into a regular Knight... but if people notice the charm or see that she has no attacking ability, they might connect the dots... but how bad exactly would it be if people knew? It sounds almost like other parties would assault or sabotage us to try and force us to disband if it meant they could get a chance to poach her just for the potential she has as the strongest possible shield...'
Kai shook his head. 'No, that's way too exaggerated. Maybe we'd just be inconvenienced slightly.'
He was shaken by his thoughts when he felt a tapping on his shoulder.
"Eh?" He turned and looked down slightly to see Layla who pointed.
He followed the direction of her fingers to find Milly staring at him with an expression that was... strange?
Not excited like with Xandra, or interested like when she looked at Layla's "Echo Scout" class... more like she was halfway between disbelief and panic.
"Your class..." she looked around, then leaned in close. "You enslave spirit's?!"
Kai frowned. "No!" He immediately refused, as the idea of being a slave owner in any actual way was repugnant to him, like he'd been conditioned against the very idea by culture or society.
"From what I understand I make contracts... mutually beneficial ones. They fight for me, I feed them my mana and keep their cores safe... whatever those are."
Milly shook her head in disbelief. "You... equals?" She sounded as if she were hit by a confusion spell. "The way you talk... do you even know what spirits are?"
He looked to his other party members as his heart fell. 'God fucking dammit... don't tell me that out of all the main characters that I could've been in this massive group of main characters personalities, I had to be the 'your a forbidden or lost thing that is very dangerous or special' bullshit?!'
"I mean... they're living mana basically right? Souls with bodies made of mana."
Milly shared a look with Hamish. "Yes but... okay. The holy attribute is not one of the twelve attributes, right?"
Kai glanced at Helena, while everyone else stayed silent, watching. "Riiiight?"
"Well that's because the holy attribute comes from the celestial plane. In other words, the mortal plane is made up of mana of the twelve attributes, but the celestial plane is made of different types of mana, the "holy" attributed mana. Their fire mana is "holy fire", their water mana is "holy water", etc. Certain attributes like darkness don't even exist!"
Kai shook his head. "Okay, cool magic lesson, but why does this matter for what spirits are?"
Milly rolled her eyes, and Hamish cleared his throat. "Ahem! Um... kid? Souls with bodies of mana... in the celestial plane, spirits build bodies of the holy mana, right? And in the abyss, spirits make bodies of the demonic mana."
"Okay, so holy and demonic spirits are a thing, gotcha." Kai shrugged uncaringly. "Is it an issue cause that means I could theoretically be a mage using a power only the church should have, or because demonic magic is forbidden and I have the possibility of tapping into that through a demonic spirit?"
Hamish shook his head while sighing. "Kid... the 'holy spirits' as you called them go by another name."
Kai froze.
'Oh. Oh fuck. Oh fuuuuuuuuuck meeeeeee.'
Milly sighed as Kai's face finally showed he understood the issue.
Layla blinked, still lost. She looked to the others. "Can someone explain?"
Pedro shrugged, while Helena snorted. "The church probably wouldn't be comfortable with someone running about contracting and commanding what they probably consider 'important' beings like angels... it's like someone using the Bible as kindling for a campfire. Christians won't be very happy if it happens right in front of them after all."
"What is a Chr-"
"No idea." Helena cut Layla off, helpless. 'Why do you still ask? Clearly I don't know.'
Kai slumped a bit. "So spirits... are the mortal plane's version of angels and demons. They are to this dimension what angels are to the celestial and demons are to abyss?"
Milly shrugged. "Well... spirits exist to uphold the order of the natural cycle, but you see why your class is a bit... not problematic per se , just strange? Most people don't have a class capable of treating angels and demons like tamable monsters is all... I wonder how such a thing even exists?"
Milly looked confused as she thought further. "Actually... what kind of magic even could actually bind spirits to you so comprehensively to become the base of its own entire class? The sheer amount of nodes such magic would need, and how defined the spell-chart would have to be to even function for anyone of any level... I can't even imagine!"
She looked at Kai with some concern. "Just how exactly did you get such a class?"
"I have a spiritual bloodline? Like... spirit ancestry is attached to my race, but I guess none of you can see that, only I can in my status?"
"A spiritual bloodline?! Not angelic or demonic?"
"No... it definitely says Spirit Ancestry."
Milly frowned again, and muttered. "That... maybe since you're summoned it can exist, but how could such a thing naturally happen?" Eventually she shrugged helplessly.
"Alright... well I've never heard of a class directly using spirits before. Maybe a class that draws power from a Spirit as a patron, but not one that is in a superior position-"
"Not superior. Equal. It's a contract, not slavery." Kai felt he had to make that very clear right now before this lady built up the wrong conclusions about him! Especially since he still didn't know how his class would actually work once he actually found a spirit.
"R-right." Milly nodded, clearly unconvinced, and Hamish tried to reasonably suggest an idea; "maybe he contracts with lesser spirits specifically? Theoretically even sprites are spirits right? We just usually reserve the word 'spirit' for the greater ones, right?"
Milly nodded. "Right, right that makes sense!" She seemed to be trying her best to convince herself, and Kai looked to the others nervously.
Pedro just blinked and looked at him, and calmly said "So... you should say that you contract lesser spirits from now on apparently."
Kai's lips twitched as Helena laughed at his expense. 'That... I guess... yeah it kinda seems like I should.'
Milly sighed, shook her head to refocus on her work. She couldn't let herself get distracted, otherworlders having weird classes should be expected after all! She looked at the blank parchment, and after another wave of the magic rod... it became covered in writing that was still losing that initial bright purple flash when it appeared.
"Now!" Milly clapped, trying to wrench away from the heavier and strange conversations she kept having today. "What is your party's name?"
"...our what?"
"The name. Of your adventurer group. Your party."
"...we don't have one?"
Miley sighed. "Okay... well Hamish can show you your temporary rooms you'll have the first night, and where to get dinner. Then we can get you started on missions tomorrow alongside the others that came with you... you can just give us your name then."
Milly suddenly blushed a bit. "Actually... I forgot to bring the to make sure you didn't choose a name already currently in use."
'...this forgetful lady... sigh. It's fine.'
Kai shrugged as he turned away, and they began moving away, following Hamish to the stairs in the back, and Milly began moving the parchments below her counter and preparing fresh ones for the next group.
John's party had already shown up partway through and gone to another counter next to Milly's, separated by a thin wooden barrier.
"Oh hello Takaji!" Milly smiled politely at another guide who came in with the third adventurers group of otherworlders, the one after Kai's and the fire genasi party.
Nick's group came over, and Milly sighed. 'Surely these people aren't all going to have ridiculous classes, right?'
She looked up-
'...all otherworlders are monsters with no common sense.' This was the rationality Milly was forced to grasp onto to help her survive the coming attacks to her mentality.
~ ~ ~
"So for now we have quite a few empty rooms... usually a few will be taken up by a few adventurers using them temporarily. Most successful parties will get their own housing or share a large house with a few other parties in "communal rent". Only those first starting or unable to afford or get their own places for myriad reasons will stay here all the time, or perhaps those traveling in from upriver."
Hamish nodded to the many doors down the hallway, and gestures to the stairs at the end. "Tonight is free, but a small sum will be charged for other nights. Inn's cost more, but only registered adventurers are allowed to use these rooms... they don't have any food included though, so don't expect too much. And any damage or... mess of fluids... will result in you being charged extra."
Layla looked curious. "What do you mean mess of flu-" Helena covered her mouth and smiled at Hamish with a slight strain to her expression. 'Dammit I moved without thinking... is he going to get mad again about us disrespecting Layla by not explaining?'
Hamish performed outside her expectations however, simply laughing. "If you need it explained, you shouldn't be asking about it."
Pedro furrowed his brow. "What happened to her being worthy of respect as one being willing to face death...?"
Hamish shrugged. "You're not stopping her from making her own choices with her body, which again, she is old enough to decide for herself if she is old enough to fight. You're just not answering an awkward question. She can still make her own choice with her body regardless, so there's no reason I would be mad, trust me."
Pedro nodded, while Helena let go of Layla who pouted. 'Just what the hell are they all talking about? I'm not stupid you know! Just... I dunno...'