Days turn into weeks as I was brought up as a freelancer class in Hanami. According to protocol, guilds are supposed to give strict training regiments fit in their job classes. All guilds followed this to prevent leaking of information of the guilds the applicant wishes to sign up for. If they wished to quit during the training, their minds would be wiped over of what was taught and they would either be assigned another class or go to another guild. But lucky for us we managed to stumble no problems so far. On the bright side I was allowed to send letters to my other friends as long as they were approved by the guildmaster. However our supplies from the apartment at the East L.A. section would be with Hanami until we managed to get a foothold on our job classes.
I was given five silvers a week as an allowance, only for to be paid back with extra once done with training via loan. Over the few weeks I was trained with a little combat training, survival skills, and some magic lessons. I would visit the guild association four times a day to receive training for the freelancer class and two days to get personal training for the guild with one day a week for rest.
But it was only during training that I realized why the class was so unconventional in the first place. A freelancer doesn't have any specific skills learned. Instead he is to learn skills from other guilds and his own by a cost. Each skill learned will cost two silvers or twenty shillings each but each of them are split into tier. There were tiers from A being the highest and F being the lowest. However the tier above A was S. Only a few can learn S rank spells and techniques so they could cost a gold coin. In total their are a total of seven. The rest below S rank are required permits to study each rank, coating around ten shillings. E and F however are only half the price due to the fact that they are used for utility. An example will be the Tinder spell. The spell's first and second tier would belong at rank F since it's only meant to light fires. However at tier three, the spell would be ranked D since it can be practiced to conjured as several high attack spells. The ranking is also graded by a level ratio between one to a hundred. E and F are at a maximum of twenty, D is at forty, C at sixty, B at eighty, and A with the highest score of a hundred. However an S-rank skill is beyond measure since it doesn't fit the norms of the tiers. Permits expire in a year so they have to be renewed for the freelancer to continue to practice. But also depends on the level you have in order to gain the skills. Level was a nominal way to keep track of experience of the person. There are also job promotions to determine the height of experience in rank and authority of what kind of spells or skills to learn but that really depends what class you have. The higher the number, the more it determines how strong and experienced the individual is. Add that with the job class rank then it will give you a layout of the skills you are meant to learn. But in return, freelancers are not allowed to teach or give information about magic and spells they are able to learn without proper permits. Spells are to be treated sacred and must be used with the utmost respect.
Soon after it was time for my initiation to Hanami. All guilds have one and differ by their own. Mr. Williams and Rebecca were still at their training since it takes a month and a half to complete. However support classes such as Tyrell have it simmered down to a month. From what I heard from him is that initiation request depend on the job class and guild. His was to repair and enhance broken metal wares and weapons. He barely managed to pass though due to the time constraints.
I on the other hand I was at the guildhall eating my breakfast. Even if today was the day, they were really keeping me waiting. It was already mid morning and I haven't seen any sign of Magna, Richard, nor Sakuya. But by the time I was finished with my breakfast, Angela the receptionist came in front of me. "The guildmaster will see you now." She told me.
I walked up the staircase and entered the guild master's office. There waited the three of them with papers scattered across the desk. "Sorry to keep you waiting, we were just looking for your initiation request." Sakuya apologized. "It's fine, it's been awhile since I took my time eating either way." I replied. Once she fixed the papers on her desk Sakuya paid attention to the task at hand. "Rin, may you summon your scribe?" She asked me. My mark of the navigator glowed from my chest. Out of my hand came a large book, floating in the air. As Sakuya was about to get the Scribe, her hand flowed through it. She soon realized this mistake and got a special gloves to get a hold of it. The scribe book is a record of the freelancer along with the skills and capabilities they posses. It also keeps records of here they have been, information they have gained, and what they have done. It can only be used by the freelancer that owns the scribe. In order for someone to read the freelancer's scribe, they would need something called a permission glove. It is an item that allows the person to use the scribe, only given by the Scribe's owner.
Sakuya then proceeded to read through my scribe for review. She looked quite pleased. "I'm surprised you managed to reach level fifteen during your stay here." Sakuya says, "Yet then again you managed to slay fifty dire rats, twenty goblins, five desert wyvern younglings, twelve ghouls, a griffin, and…. A pale anti-magic saurian…?" The guildmaster then looked at Magna and Richard menacingly. "It just happened! It's not like we couldn't do anything about it!" Richard exclaimed with him and Magna raising their hands out of surrender.
Eventually that anger just faded into a big sigh. "Anyways just make sure to not get into any trouble. Here's the request form and the maps of Cletus with the areas around it." She instructs me, "Since we cannot just let you out, Richard will act as a facilitator. You have a week and a half. If done past it then you would need to repeat the initiation request again. Got it?" I nodded my head in agreement. Sakuya then hands me a few maps to begin. I then cast a spell called Reference. It has the ability to copy sources of information from references such as books and maps to be copied into other sources. On this case I managed to absorb the data from the maps and now they can be found inside my scribe. This was actually considered one of those S-rank spells. The only reason for it to be S-rank was because it was only used by freelancers due to they were the only class with scribes. But from what I can tell this was mostly for utility purposes.
From there I managed to retract my scribe and found everything was in place. There were even stats based on my six attributes. These attributes strength, agility, vitality, willpower, luck, and, intelligence. It had the same ordinal ranking F to S. I managed to get an S rank on willpower and intelligence but the rest were at least B rank. Will power is based on how good are you in conjuring magic so it was pretty much common sense I would have it that high. There were also special skills. These are rare skills only a few people had. I had demonification for my demonic form, incarnation for being allied with Tsukuyomi, and Reincarnation for my many past lives. These skills would be separated into three: acquired, genetic, and fate. Acquired skills can be gained, genetic are born traits, and fate are blessings and curses. But with the info provided by the scribe, it was a lot like a gaming menu that of various role playing games.
All of this was actually basic information. But with that, it was time to go and my journey began. I looked at initiation request form and read the details. It read that I should learn at least two skill from other guilds then hunt down a bear. According to Cletus law, in order for a freelancer to learn a skill, they must have permission of the guildmaster. They weren't specific on what kinds of skills I should gain so I decided to take a chance in learning magic. The first guild we went to was a magic guild. Magic guilds specialize in studying magic. If there was a good place for me to learn, it's places like this. Richard new a good place to ask for advice. It was the mage guild known as Thoth's Beak. We came inside and went in to the receptionist. "Welcome to the Thoth's Beak, how may I help you." The receptionist asked. But before I can speak, I was stopped by Richard. "Let me handle this." He told me.
He approaches the receptionist in a slave manner. "My friend here is a freelancer and he wishes to learn some magic skills." Richard said. "Okay, what rank is he?" The receptionist asked.
"He's not in any rank, he's in the middle of his initiation request."
"Is that so?"
There was much distaste in the receptionist's eyes. He felt he didn't have that much obligation. The man instead closes the conversation and denies our request. We tried to ask three more other guilds but we were denied the same response. Some were even only exclusive to several species such as elves and orcs. One even said, 'No Terrans allowed.' It was uncomfortable but it bat my eye. I was more focused on magic. "This sucks, why were we rejected all this time?" Richard asked. "Beats me… maybe we did something wrong." I replied.
"You did something alright." Someone said from behind. It turned out to be Magna. He then goes in front of us and ask what we were doing. We explained to him the situation. Knowing what we were going through Magna decided to explain to us. "Even if Rin has a high affinity with magic, magic guilds rarely teach magic to outsiders, especially Terrans that start out." He explains to us, "The only way for Rin to learn magic from other guilds is to learn it on his own till it's recorded at his scribe, is already in a guild, or get a recommendation."
Knowing this information kinda made us rather annoyed. It just all the more meant that we wasted our time. But then again there was a rule for freelancers not to share information based on magic. "Thanks Magna. Why are you here?" I asked. He started to pat and jitter as he was finding something. The orc took out a request form. "I was just going on my rounds, on a request." Magna tells us, "You guys on the other hand were the talk of the Town."
"It can't be helped. This guy is our first freelancer." Richard told him.
"You know the more people are gonna take advantage of him they know a newbie is out."
"You got any other ideas?"
"Try non-magic guilds. They're more lenient."
"I guess...yet I don't know if Rin's okay with it."
"I don't mind." I tell the both of them, "I could use something related to hunting a bear. Besides, I'm starting to run out of bullets."
"Try a hunting or Craftsman's guild. You may not get much but it's gonna be useful." Magna told us.
"I guess I can stop Gentle Hand. Maybe Tyrell can help me out." I pointed out.
"While we're at it we might as well head to the Hunter's Fangs guild. I think I might know someone that can help." Richard added.
"I'd suggest you learn from the Gentle Hand first. If time is at hand you might as well take the basics." Magna suggested.
"We'll get to that." Richard told me.
Just like that we decided to go to the Gentle Hand. We went at the Rose Line to head to the guild. To our surprise Tyrell happened to be in the front desk with the receptionist, Emily. He turned out to be ordering for coal for his forge. But halfway at their conversation Emily caught sight of me. She then gives us the standard greeting of welcoming us to the guild. Richard clears his throat and speaks. "Is the guildmaster around?" He asked. Out from down the stairs he comes with some pig's feet. "I'm here, what seems to be the problem?" Harvey asked. "No problem, just laying a bit of request." Richard replied. Harvey then puts his food on the desk and grabs a chair. "So what is your business here?" He asked. Richard pushes me up front and center. "My name is Rin Kamiyama. I'm currently going for a freelancer class and I was hoping to learn a skill here." I requested. Harvey looks at me in curiosity and stops eating. "Strange. We don't get many freelancers here, especially in guilds like this." He said. "If I am gonna be staying in Laputa then I might as well need something that would make me live longer." I replied.
"And how are you gonna do that?"
"Finding skills that would let me out of the dark."
"Why, you blind or something?"
"No, but I do wanna see what this world has in store for me."
The guildmaster than stands up and takes a good look at me. He stares at my eyes firmly. His stare then relaxes and feels at ease. "Well the boy isn't lying. Emily, give this lad some material to learn." The guildmaster demanded. Just like that I was given a list of the various things the guild is known for making. But for now I was just given a few low quality goods. There were some mundane such as making rope, paper, and handicrafts. I didn't want to even learn them because they were already in the survival guide that I read. Then there were the ones only magic can bring. These were potions, remedies, and ingredients. I looked at my scribe and it looked like my permits only allowed me to learn to make rank E-F items. Only when I'm at the guild I was able to learn techniques in crafting with higher value. It was there I decided to learn an E-rank healing potion. The potion allows the user to heal minor wounds faster. Once it gets higher, it will allow the user to regenerate faster. Once I laid my request I was able to learn it. With a few silver coins I was allowed to learn the composition. There I was brought to an alchemist to teach me how to use it. But to my surprise it wasn't that difficult. Most of these can be made just by pushing the right ingredients and let them simmer with some herbs until it becomes a syrupy juice. All that was needed was to boil it under an alcohol lamp and beaker. But somehow it felt that I did this before. I checked my scribe and the skill appeared at one of its pages. But odd enough it was next to some gibberish. It was illegible but it did bring up some memories. Out of curiosity I showed it to Richard. "What do you think it is?" I asked him. He looks at it closely. "Did you have a memory relapse or something?" He asked. I nodded my head and confirmed to him. "I'm gonna stay here a little bit more." I told him.
I started to walk around a little around the place. It was not for long that I accidentally wandered off to the guild's surplus and supply shop. It had various items made in the Gentle Hand. There were even things even found from salvaging such as clothing brands and some other weapons made by modern means. Honestly, I never thought I'd see fantasy weapons made out of stainless steel again. But later when my eyes met on some medicines and pills, I had a memory click. There I ran to the receptionist and catch my breath. "I want to buy some ingredients." I told Emily. It was an hour later I managed to make the drugs. Both of them were medicinal powder but with different uses. "So what am I looking at?" Richard asked. "Back when I was living as Hijikata, I made medicines for the troops to relieve their injuries. Apparently these were the ones I made often." I explained.
"So what are these?" Tyrell asked.
"The yellow powder works as a muscle relaxant and the green one works as a hangover cure." I replied.
Richard takes a good look at the powdered medicine. He dips his finger at the hangover cure powder and takes a lick of it. With brief deliberation his eyes opens out of recognition. "Yep, that's the medicine you give me that one time I was done drinking with the boss at Bakumatsu. Honestly, that woman even has that iron kidney as much as her past life." He confirmed. Tyrell then looks the green powder. "Does this works for body pain?" He asked. "As long as you swallow all the powder." I told him. Hesitantly the man poured all the powder in his mouth. He started to cough. I then lent him some water from my canteen. "Give a little warning next time." I told him. Down the hatch the water goes down his throat. The effects of the medicine came to effect and Tyrell felt more relieved. It looked that the medicine worked. "I feel brand new." Tyrell expressed.
I checked at my scribe and the gibberish written on my scribe cleared up to words written as 'muscle relaxer' and 'hangover cure'. Both were E-rank medicines and I thought I managed to complete part of my initiation request. Sadly those two weren't counted. As it said on paper, the skills must be learned from other guilds. Memories from reincarnations weren't included.