The room I entered was similar to a dreary classroom with the dim lighting from the lanterns on the walls.
"... What the hell?" A voice mutters by my ear. I look to see a middle aged man with a bulky build and a multitude of scars on his face. On of his eyes were clouded white but the other was as black as a void. Talk about creepy. "It's rare for halflings to walk in here, but a full blood goblin? Huh. Been wondering when you lot would finally grow some balls to come here."
"...I take it there's really not as much prejudice against goblins as I've heard before."
"'Prejudice'? Big word for a goblin. You a house goblin looking for extra pay?"
"What? No. I just got here. God I don't wanna explain that story again."
"No. No. It's fine. sit. My bad for being nosy." He chuckles. He's a pretty laid back guy despite his looks. "So what you here for? Mage? Marks man? Oh! Maybe brawler!? Hadn't had one of those in a while." I can tell if he's serious or just picking on me.
"Sorry. I'm just here as a scavenger. I got to start small since that's how I started out. Figured I'd make it a profession."
"Ooh!! I don't think anyones gone for that before. So your a full on oddball huh? Hahaha!" His laughing is so contagious. "Alright let's see,... I need to get this out... And this..." He starts muttering again as he starts pulling out random looking items. Little crystal orbs the size of grapefruits. Just one of those could fit in the palm of my hands. With how big they are anyway. "You know most scavengers would go to Previlion, the next town over on the east side, to get their license. This is more of a wild game guild but we could use a lot more guys like you. You know what your preferred job entails, right?"
"Most of it is gathering items from odd places like caves, rivers and lakes, special forests and such. I could also try my hand on looking around the city for abnormalities too, right?"
"Yeah. Good on ya! But they can also take on odd jobs like clean ups for special cases like the undergrounds, going on missing quests, treasure hunting, and even secret quests that are only available for certain types of scavengers. Think you can name off some of those scavenger types?" He just gave me a sly smile. This was a test question. No. He's been testing me from the start. Seeing how much I know about my choice for profession. I couldn't help but smile back with confidence.
"Assassins, 'black' dealers, support in combat, maze hunters, and the basic would be a seeker. Am I missing any?"
He looks to me with amaze as his smile widens. "... Yeah. Actually there is one that's not in the textbooks. Wanna know?"
"Of course."
"It's the 'all-rounder'. They basically deal with all types of the scavenger class. And is actually a hard title to earn. Because it requires a special skill that most nobles are able to learn and is highly regarded. But~ not a lot of them set their sights on it since they have their basics of their own."
Now that sounds like fun! "Hehe! I see. So how does this test work exactly? You got a lot of crystals there."
"Ah. Yeah. The first two are here to see where you stand as a life. What your age and elements are and what blessings you may have to match those elements. The rest are to see what type of scavenger would best fit you from your current experience. You just gotta put your hand over each one to read it."
"Okay."
"Alright. Let's get started." He taps the first orb from his right and it floats over to me. I raise my hand to it and a two numbers appear on it. One and nineteen. They vanish and one new number appears. Eighteen. "Eighteen years!?"
"Huh?" That sounds accurate to my previous life.
"Ah. Well I didn't expect you to be eighteen. Most goblins start at two years at the latest in their part of the sect." Are you serious right now!? What the hell is with that development logic!?
"So what? I'm old compared to other goblins?"
"No. No. Since goblins are fast learners, they pick up on things faster than most other species. Especially in survival. Were you not raised around you own?"
"No. I wasn't. But I don't really care where I'm from."
"... You really are an odd one huh."
"Shut up. I know that." At least my body reads the same as my last life. My birthday looks the same as the normal Mayan calendar reading. January nineteenth. The orb floats back to him and he sends the other my way. This one changed through three different colors. Night blue, a deep dark green, and an off white. It did this a few times until it floated back to the old man again. He doesn't say anything and rights something down on a sheet of paper. He looked a little puzzled at what he saw. Mister Halliway told me about the gods and their colors. I guess those colors are my blessings. Blue is Liluna the god of the moon and sun for health and healing, green for Bateyalo, the god of charm and white for the god of life, Hayula. My concern is the darkness of the first two and how dim the last one was.
"I understand what blessings I have now but what was up with the shades of those colors?" I ask. This pulls him from his puzzled state of mind to look at me.
"Oh... Right. You don't have an element as far as I can tell. Else it would have flashed a shape while the colors were going. As far as your blessings go... You have the moons healing, 'dark' charm or 'charm of the whisperer'... One of those two... And grand life. I gotta say you got the weirdest set of blessings I've ever seen and I've seen some weird ones like from the god of happiness there were those with eagle sight or those with blind wisdom. Since the yellow god, Palitoh, is the god of the all seeing."
I better ask Mr. Halliway what those blessings mean.
We then go through the rest of the orbs to see where I am for my current skill as a scavenger. They float to me all at once and I raise my hand to them I hardly even moved when the last two start flashing my blessing colors. I hear a pin drop all of a sudden and look up to see him leave the room. He left in quite the rush too. What in the world? It took him a while to get back and some younger guy walks in with him. He looked like an elf with his long ears and white hair but he had a beard. He wore a large coat with the guild mark on it over a neat navy blue suit. He was kind of short for an elf though but I'm sticking with it. He looks over the paper and looks to me to see the orbs still glowing over me.
"... What is your name?" The elf asks.
"Tessa Greenwood. Soon to be accepted into the Halliway family after this."
"Tessa greenwool, what sort of goblin are you?"
"Uh... Dragonjaw."
"... Ah. You are indeed. It all makes sense now. Tessa, my name is Adler Mawl. I'm the master of this guild. You will be taking the second test with me and Mr Brights. Come this way please."
"Wait a minute!? What do these mean? And who else?"
"Ah... Me! My bad I forgot to introduce myself. Micah Brights. Those mean you qualify to take the seeker AND all-rounder test."
"R-really!?" Awesome!!
"Come on. We will begin outside of the wall. Might as well get this over with." ... Is he not happy about this?
I follow them out and they tell me to wait for them at the reception desk. That girl in the blue mage outfit was still here. She was sitting by the quest board looking suspicious as hell. I swear if I didn't know better, I would have guessed she was head hunting for others to party her. Vanessa and Christa enters from the front door and head to my direction.
When did they leave? And why? As they get closer I notice more bags of clothes. Ah.
"How did it go?" Vanessa asks with a curious smile.
"I get to take the second test now. I'm just waiting for the two masters to come back."
"Oh. What did you test for?"
"Scavenger. I think I'm gonna get a special teacher for it, though since it's such a rare class to have."
"Eek! Yay! Your so amazing aren't you!? I can't wait for your acceptance now!"
"Right. Speaking of which, what you get this time? More formal wear?"
"Hee hee~... Be grateful, Tessa, for yours truly has found a proper armory for you to go to." Vanessa reaches into the bag and pulls out a set of dwarven light arms sit, chest, arms, legs, and boots, complete with a utility belt and gloves big enough for my hands. It was absolutely amazing to look at but...
"...The thighs is too small." I tell her with disappointment. The only thing on me that I curse and love all together. Damn this lower half of mine.
"Eh? Awe~." Ah jeez.
"Oh don't cry about it it's not that big of a deal. We just need to ask the smithy to adjust the size accordingly. That's all. I'll go back with you after this test is over. So don't worry."
"... Do you like it then?"
"Of course! this is absolutely perfect for me once I get my license. And when i do thats the first thing we'll do and then we go have a load of girl time tomorrow. How's that sound?"
She immediately brightens up. "Yay!!!"
"... I'm still having doubts about you being a girl." Christa adds.
"Shut up." I retort. We are suddenly interrupted by the girl in blue now. She rudely steps in front of me and starts bantering.
"Hello madam Halliway! It's such an honor to meet you! Are you here to make a request? I can take a job for you if you'd like!" Can I punch this girl?
"I'm sorry. We were having a conversation, miss." I try to be nice.
She turns and glares at me suddenly. I instantly felt death rush over me. But it wasn't a threat that I felt, but more like a sense of something else being with her. It pissed me off. She turns back to talk to Vanessa ignoring me. Keep your cool, Tess.
"Excuse me." I insist. "I said we were talking. Could you not interrupt?"
"Silence! You have no right to speak to me, you lower creature. You shouldn't even be in this establishment. Your presence is intoxicating the air. Never disrupt a conversation between nobles, you spineless, wicked creature!"
SNAP! The top of her staff had fallen off to the ground. My body is pulsing and I can see the glow of my marks on my face. I take a deep breath and stare her in the eyes. She backs away and stays to the side as my eyes follow her until she stops. I look to Vanessa and relax again. The glow is gone and the pulse stops.
"... Thank you, Tessa." Vanessa suddenly says. "That was very proper of you."
"Hmph. As I've said before. No tolerance for harassment."
"Of course." She seems proud. "So as we were saying..." Before she could continue, the masters, Mawl and Brights return to see the girl shivering next to us still looking at me.
"What in the world happened here?" Mawl says.
"Welcome back, master Mawl." I say. "And Mr Brights."
"Yo!" Brights says with a big smile. I pick up the staff piece and hand it to him.
"This girls been harassing a few people for a while now. Including the receptionist. I got a bit angry and snapped at her for it after she interrupted me and my friend here. I don't tolerate things like that." I admit.
"... Huh." Mawl looks at the staff piece and looks at it in disgust. He was about to hand it to the receptionist when he pauses and hands it back to me. "You broke this? How?"
"... Uh..."
"Demonstrate for me and I will overlook this with you damaging a nobles property." Geh! "Do it here though." He points to the little orb on the piece.
"... Alright." I focus on the orb and my body pulses again but not as heavily as before and I don't see the glow. I try to focus on the feeling I had to amplify it and the orb itself starts to pulse with me. There was something in it trying to get out. A lot of something.
The girl watches and sees what I was focusing on. "S-stop that!! You've already done enough damage, you lower creature! Stop that right now!"
Good. Some fuel for the rage. A crack appears on the orb and it slowly grows on it. More. More. I need to take whatever is in there out. I can feel it. Everything inside the orb was dying slowly. The girl suddenly attacks me with a dagger and it pierces through my hand. I stopped her blade before it reached my head. Vanessa and Christa scream from the sight and I lose my focus.
"I said stop it! What do you think your doing to my crystal!? Stop whatever your doing before I send this dagger through your ugly head!"
She's lost it.
"... Try me." I retort and the orb finally bursts.