{AN: Made a discord server with the help of my friend, here is the link:
https://discord.gg/ZCX5F5cfKq
Don't worry I will also post the link in the comments session.}
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After the old man exited the room followed by Morel, Tulia and Melynda let out huge sighs of relief. We all looked at them curiously, our gazes filled with questions.
Sighing, Tulia resigned herself and explained; "That old man is called Darro, a he is the oldest and strongest [Silver Circlet].", Well, that didn't explain anything so everyone just continued to look at her curiously.
Melynda seeing the opportunity just continued on Tulia's behalf; " A [Silver Circlet] is the highest position bar one obtained within Silverhood. There is a total of only Six [Silver Circlets], and today you met two of them, Morel is one, and so is Darro, the old man.".
Altair curiously simply decided to ask; "Can you tell us all the rankings in the organization? I've heard a bunch of rankings being throw around and I have absolutely zero clues about any of them", Melynda looked at Tulia as if to ask for some kind of permission.
Tulia simply nodded her head, and Melynda smiled and continued; " Well the lowest and your current rank is [Silver Coin], followed by [Silver Ring], and after that is [Silver Dagger], and then [Silver Circlet], there are only six [Silver Circlets] in total. And then the highest ranking, the [Silver Crown], a silver crow is the highest authority in Silverhood, he is both the organization leader, and the leader of the [Silver Knights Council] a council composed of the six [Silver Circlets], the [silver Hammer] and the [Silver Crown]. So you may hear some of them being referred to as [Silver Knights].", We all looked slightly confused at the [Silver Hammer] part, but Melynda just signaled for us to wait for a bit.
There was a pause before Melynda continued; "Those are of course the normal rankings. We also have a Crafting Division, with the lowest ranking being [Silver Gravel], followed by [Silver Beetle], then [Silver Mallet], and then, the leader of the craft Division; the [Silver Hammer].".
Something was bugging me, they have an operational division, and a crafting Division. There is definitely something missing here; "... Do you have a magic division?", I asked a little hopefully, magic is definitely one of my top interests in this world, and even if I can't use it currently it still fascinates me.
The air grew somber for a second, Turalion clenched his fists, and Tulia looked visibly upset, Melynda was also kind of uncomfortable, but she explained it nonetheless; "There was a magic division... but it ended up splitting apart some decades ago... It was a relatively bloody affair, more than half of our [Silver Circlets] died, until the [Silver Crown] was able to make a peace treaty with them... It wasn't pretty.".
Shuten also probably interested in knowing more asked; "What happened after that?".
Melynda looked even more uncomfortable, but continued nonetheless; "After that, the Magic division fused with an outside organization and became another organization entirely called The Tome or The Arcane Tome. Our current relations with them are pretty good, and you most certainly find a lot of their products at sale here. But some memories are not easily forgotten, or forgiven.".
Tulia took a deep breath to calm herself down before changing subjects; "Now follow me, I will show you your dormitories. You are all lucky because everyone who sleeps here in a room with two bunk beds, I was able to pull some strings and the three boys and the three girls will have a room for themselves each.", good so a room for the boys, and a room for the girls, quite convenient I might add. And single bunk bed empty on each room doesn't look like it's much of a problem.
We followed Tulia through one of the corridors, we passed through a bunch of halls and different corridors and places, it was something extremely confusing even for me. Looking at the wall I can see that they also have the same strange symbols and words from the underground tunnels I saw before.
"Don't bother trying to remember the way, the place is built to be special confusing. You will only know how to move inside of here after you learn our language. Before that don't even bother, you will most certainly get lost.", she said with a tone that indicates personal experience, I bet she tried it before when she was younger and lower-ranking, and also got spectacularly lost too.
A little concerned about my other two friends I asked; "And what about Aahin and Elii? It has been some time since I saw them.".
"No worries, they know how to navigate Silverhood territory well enough, they won't get lost that easily. They aren't [Silver Rings] for nothing you know?", She said in a pretty relaxed and dismissive tone, which also made me involuntarily relax. The little shoulder pat from Shuten also helped.
While we followed Tulai I couldn't help but let my mind wander on the matter of Silverhood and The Tome. Liking it or not, that smelled like some kind of political shitstorm. The leaders of both organizations know it would be extremely unwise and unprofitable to war against each other, so they made a peace treaty, but the normal people of both organizations probably hate each other guts out, a lot.
The "Good relations", they say they have must be some kind of propaganda to fuel the masses, or some kind of PR stunt to promote the treaty. And that is an extremely dangerous situation right there. It is somewhat akin to Germany's situation after WW1, they had a "treaty", but the members of the country were still extremely unsatisfied with it. Truly all this place is lacking is an Adolf, and it will surely explode in war and blood baths not much after. Yeah, I know there are some big differences with my old earth history, but I couldn't help but draw the parallels right here. History tends to repeat itself after all.
My thoughts were cut short when we started approaching a different hall, this hall had lonely three corridors, a corridor of where we are coming from, and a corridor to the right, and a corridor to the left. Both had some kind of strange door, and two guards guarding the entrance of each one.
"Right side is the male dormitories, and the left side is the female ones.", Tulia said while pointing to each side respectively.
"Now, go get yourselves settled, a hour from now on we will all gather here, and I will show you all the way to the mission hall.", after that, Tulia and Melynda sat on a bench on the hall and started talking with each other about some stuff.
"Ah, I almost forgot. The boy's room is number 678, and the girl's room is number 345. Here are the keys.", She gave us four simple iron keys, I could clearly see that Shuten's was different from the other three so there was no confusion. After saying her piece, Tulia went back to talking with Melynda. I almost sweatdropped at this, how can you forget something as important as that.
Looking at my friends I ask; "Anyone needs to do anything before going to the rooms?", everybody shook their heads negatively, I nodded affirmation and went towards the right side, Altair and Turalion following me. I looked back and Shuten easily went towards the left side, I was worried for a little bit, but she is a big girl and can take care of herself.
Soon we reached room 678. Unlocking the room I can define this room with the words, simple and practical. Two bunk beds, two nightstands, two tables, two chairs, and another door that probably leads to a bathroom. honestly, this is more than I thought we would get, and I definitely won't complain about sleeping on a bed again.
Looking at the nightstand I quickly noticed there was a booklet on top of it, reading the cover read [Silverhood: A Guide]. It's probably a book to help us familiarise ourselves with the organization, I bet there are some words of the weird language they use here too.
"Hmm, I propose we use the extra bunk bed as some sort of closet or wardrobe for us to put on things on. It isn't ideal, but it is extra space, so it's fine.", I gave my piece of suggestion while choosing the low bed on the right side.
Altair chose the low bed on the left side, and Turalion the top bed on the left side. so we ended up using the top bed on the right side as the extra wardrobe, I quickly opened my backpack and put some things I had out there, Turalion and Altair did the same. The [Elder Scrolls(eye)] is still with me tho. I would've read the booklet, but we don't have that much time, so I just engraved it completely in my memory with my [Sharingan] letting to read it later.
After getting our things organized in the room we went back to the hall, Shuten was already there and was talking with Tulia and Melynda about magic. I guess she is also interested in the arcane arts, even with her small pool of mana... Well, at least she has a [Magika] pool.
Tulia quickly recognized us got up and started walking, we had done this enough times already to know we had to follow her. For the first time, I also had some time to observe Melynda in detail, she was still using her mask and her hair was blonde, she had quite a big [Magika] pool, and she is a [Exepert] rank cultivator. She seems quite strong. Right now she is making some small talk with Tulia while she guided us towards the promised mission hall.
After a bunch of twists and turns, and at least five different halls we reached the mission hall. Altair being a total bro started describing it for me. The mission hall was big, almost as huge as the entrance hall, the walls all had some huge wooden frames that were filled with different kinds of requests and missions. there were a total of five octagonal pillars that are also filled with different kinds of missions, each pillar also has a door, but they appeared locked right now.
But what is most impressive in the mission hall is the counter filled with at least 10 receptionists giving missions to the people in the lines. Thankfully the lines aren't that big so everything wasn't as crowded as it could be.
The place was filled with people coming and going, some people used masks, some people brazenly showed their faces, some people were wearing armor, some people were wearing normal clothes, some people were wearing expensive clothing. Groups walked together and gathered in two lines that seem focused on group missions.
Tulia immediately started speaking and showing the mission hall for us: " Do you see all those papers on the walls?", we noded; " They are all high-level missions, or missions that failed for some reason or the other. If you fail a mission, your mission will be stuck there showing your name for all the organization to see. You can accept any of those missions as long as they are for your rank. If you want a fresh mission you go to one of the lines and ask the receptionist for one. The right side is asking for missions, the left side where you get your rewards.".
After that, she searched for something on her clothes for a bit and gave each one of us a big [Silver Coin], the coin was fairly big, and its two sides were identical. The coin was currently wholly blank bar the Silverhood symbol in the middle; "This coin is the proof of your identities as members of the organization. Don't lose it.".
Curiously I asked; "Aren't we in some kind of trial period or something?".
"You indeed are. If you fail the mission we will take everything back. And before you ask, we aren't worried about any of your exposing information because none of you learned anything high-leveled, so if you fail you all will be free to go.", Tulia said in a dismissive tone, but I bet everyone caught the hidden threats in there. I am just surprised she is treating her brother so impartially.