As he slept he had random dreams, either of him standing naked in the middle of town and no one noticing, or dreams about him jumping from free to tree like some kind of ninja. Waking up slowly, he was face down in the blankets and pillow. Turning his head he squinted at the light from the window, seeing it was still quite early in the morning, he had only slept for a few hours but he felt great. 'This must be because of my increased ability, sleeping is more efficient.'
He rolled over and dropped onto the ground, landing on his hands he began to work out, and stretch as he prepared for the day, as he stretched he watched out the window, thinking of his dream before he spoke. ''If I get far enough, could I do things like that? I'm sure people can with practice and training, hell I'm not even sure how high I can jump yet. I haven't pushed myself at all since this place can be considered a starting village. But it's just for connections, information, experiments.'' As he finished he put on his usual gear and left. Taking a simple breakfast of bread, meat, and a few carrots he made his way towards the adventurer's guild. Stopping by a few stores he stopped by the armorer first, commissioning a new set of gear.
After quite a bit of haggling and custom measurements, the human armorer said he already had a batch of materials ready to go for a set so all he would need to do is take the raw material Alex had and a few silvers for payment. With that, he was told to come around in a few hours since there were no other customers before him so Alex left to stop at the adventures guild. After returning his subjugation results, and the herbs he had collected he got ten silvers for payment due to him having left the kills in good condition. Turns out the magic that gathers in his necklace is also capable of helping preserve corpses, something good to remember and something he'd need to test later.
With that done he left the guild to head to a store that was attached to the guild that doubled as a place to sell extra items and a place to buy materials and general goods. Buying the rations he would need for at least a month along with some spices. Two sets of climbing gear, a magical lantern that doubled as a safe zone so adventurers could rest in a dungeon or out in the wilderness. It was a smaller personal one so it would affect up to five meters in a radius around it, that was enough for a small three-person camp.
Buying a brewing set, a mortar and pestle set, extra empty vials of varying sizes, a few guides to help him along with his journey, a few of the books being ''Poison brewing for novice's.'' "Potion brewing for when your alone and scared.'' ''Monster cooking manual.'' along with a few other ones, and a few books with less use for practical and more so for time passers and just to enjoy a good book.
A few daily things that would last him a while, simple soap with no smell, paste for teeth that tasted so minty it almost hurt, and a few spellbooks for tier 1. With pretty much everything he needed to buy he was left pretty poor in a wealth sense. Leaving the store he made his way to the training yard for the guild where quite a few new people were fighting, looking to get used to using their preferred weapons. A lot of people used swords, some spears, a few people using bows, and one large person using a huge great bow. He didn't have any ammunition, he just seemed to be drawing the string back to full draw, attempting to hold it there before letting the tension release slowly.
It was a large field of well-trodden ground, taking a quick look around there were multiple wooden weapons and dulled metal weapons lining one side, along with what looked like the instructor for the field. He was a pretty big guy, looking to stand a few inches taller than Alex, with a thick chest and arms to match, a large shield was over his back along with a pretty heavy looking longsword. The vibe this guy was giving off was far different than Alex had felt so far in this world, he felt danger coming from this person, having seen at least a D-ranker and been fine, this man felt very well above that. He looked it too, but what caught Alex's eyes was the fact the man was a Demi-human, with ears.
Yeah, the fluffy kind of ears, it matched his dark brown hair rather well, watching the ears his face remained straight, he was hoping there'd be a cute tail on this large rough-looking guy to complete the look but he didn't see one from where he was. Taking a breath he walked over towards the guy, seeing Alex approach he was given a nod before he spoke out loud in a practiced manner.
"Welcome to the Guild's training grounds where new and veteran's alike can take part in training to hone their skills or knock the rust off. I am Gerald, Rank-A, and instructor for the field."
Fuck no wonder why the guy was intimidating, he was A rank, the kind of people that could use a single skill to level an entire forest. Giving a nod Alex got straight to the point.
''Alex, F-Rank, I want to spar you. I'm used to fighting monsters and the like and want to hone my skills against fighting a humanoid. Other than you there might not be anyone around currently who I can try my best at.''
Gerald took a good look at Alex for a long moment, taking note of his stance, the look in his eyes before he nodded. When he did he stepped forward to an open part of the field, when Alex followed behind him he took note of the tail or the lack of one. Disappointed he stopped and let Gerald make his way across the field before turning. Bringing around the shield and drawing his weapon he noticed how despite his rank, Gerald's gear looked simple. This must be gear made for instructing. Gerald noticed Alex's expression and spoke bluntly. ''It's the tail, isn't it?''
Alex gave a nod, seeing no reason to hide his reason for being disappointed. Gerald then spoke. ''In my tribe, all Warrior's who get a Front line class has to get their tail removed, and have it passed down to their young so they might use it in their armor, in my usual gear my Mothers tail is there.''
Alex nodded once more as he summoned his longsword and kite shield. After a moment Gerald took note of how the weapon dulled along with the shield becoming more rounded not to have harmful corners. ''Do all beast-men have clans?" He raised his shield to cover his left side of his chest to cover his vital organs, his right hand holding the Longsword stayed to his side and idle, not far enough to leave an opening to his side or front, staying near the middle so he could react quickly to any direction he needed to. Spreading his feet to solidify his stance and tighten his core and body.
''Good stance and most do. Few beast-men don't have tribes, I can't confirm but I've heard most Snakes prefer a life of close solitude, staying rather close, but staying out of each other's affairs even in the eyes of death.'' Gerald stepped forward and he moved quickly despite the size of him and his equipment Alex didn't feel any Aura coming from him so he could tell he was suppressing his strength to that of an F rank. The only time people showed signs of Aura was usually D-rank.
Gerald stepped before him and his sword arm whipped out, just as he did Alex raised his shield, turning his wrist slightly, and using his forearm as a brace he parried the attack to the side. Bringing his sword arm around to attempt a simple sideways slash towards Gerald's sword wrist, and with a simple turn of his wrist, the blade's collided and sparked across each other. ''Your ability to summon your sword and shield and change them, that a blessing?"
Avoiding the locking of their swords Alex backed up, keeping aware of his surroundings and his opponent he began to circle slowly if knew he wouldn't be able to win a contest by strength with Gerald, so he knew that for each battle he would need to avoid locking himself in, but if he kept backing up the same way he would eventually back up to a wall.
''It is, it's useful but it's limited to my own strength and ability, I can only summon two things at a time, and changing their form requires concentration that I can't spare in combat.''
Gerald gave a nod to that before he nodded his head towards his movement, slowly turning in place to follow Alex's circling. ''Good awareness, you note the difference in strength and the fact you need to use all of the battlefields you can. You'd be surprised how many people think they can win against me in a strength contest.''
Alex shook his head. ''Then they're stupid, you may be limiting yourself to them, but your an A rank, even if you limiting yourself, you'd still be only able to go as far to limit yourself to the very top of that rank. So even in a F rank fight, you're still stronger than them. What are Classes?" Alex stepped forward and kicked off the ground, he didn't use Aura yet. Stepping forward he turned his wrist and raised his arm to go for a quick overhead slash, not putting much strength behind it and keeping it fast.
Gerald was ready, but the speed caught him, stepping backward he raised his shield and let the sword spark along it, the moment Gerald did he grinned, the man knew when to use strength or speed. Even in a fight always mix it up, even if it's just a cut, it can have toxins. Even if it didn't it'd still cause bleeding, enough cuts could fall even the mightiest of creatures, as long as they can't regenerate that is.
Pushing his shield out of the way ready to retaliate he became shocked. He looked to his right, using his vision to check both his right and his back. Not seeing Alex on either his right or behind him he grit his teeth and began to pull his shield to his left side only to feel a spark of something, Aura? Did someone in the field create Aura while training? But then a large amount of force slammed into his shield and his shield arm was thrown upwards, throwing open his guard he was surprised to see Alex there, a colorless glow slowly dissipating from his shield while the sword was still filled with a liquid level of Aura, it was strong but it still needed refining. As the sword that was still down from the previous strike, it came up fast, speed, and power. Gerald grit his teeth as he was ready to take the blow but instead of taking it the sword in Alex's hand simple vanished, the aura that it held released in a shockwave around them in a soft boom, it was just harmless wind but the sound caught the attention of others.
Gerald stood there stunned before he roared into laughter, turning to grin down to Alex. ''You can use Aura at Rank F?" Alex nodded before he stood, his shield disappeared as Gerald began to put away his weapons as well. ''I can, at least slightly, I understand the concept, but I don't know the exacts, I can only do aura without color as well, and as you saw it's more like a liquid than an actual force.''
Gerald nodded before he spoke. ''That's not to bad still, you're already quite far ahead of every adventurer I've ever met. Come inside, let's talk.'' Alex gave a nod before the both of them left the training fields and then entered, once someone saw Gerald there was a nod before another guy left to the training ground, they must've switched shifts. Being lead to the first floor and into a private room for named parties he called a staff member, Alex took note that it was the beautiful elf from before. Seeing him there shocked her and he gave a nod. She smiled at him before she listened to Gerald. ''Get the rest of the party here, says it concerns the request.'' She gave a nod before taking off, Geral began to take off some of his equipment as he sat down.
''To your question before about classes, there not much special about them. You go to a guild master or a chapel and they do a little ritual with your blood to see what you're better suited for, it's 'Will of the Gods.' as they say, a lot of people don't believe it, but following that I became an A rank.'' Alex gave a nod to that before he spoke.
''Are these results announced?" Alex spoke, he was interested, but he needed to make sure that in case his whole 'Future god-hood.' / 'being with limitless potential' didn't effect the results.
''They are not, only you can see them, it is up to you to decide if you announce them, I lied in the chapel I was in, I trust the guilds, most of them at least, but the church and their people I don't much.''
After hearing that Alex gave a nod before he spoke. ''So, I'm not stupid, you wouldn't have invited me to a private room just to tell me that.''
Gerald chuckled as he finished taking off most of his heavier armor, leaving the under armor clothing on. ''I'll get right to the point then, as you know I am Gerald, Rank A adventurer. Leader and Tank to the named party 'Demi-Beasts'. Do you know of the supposed sleep curse going around?''
Alex gave a slight nod. ''It seems to only affect those with a weaker soul, it hasn't affected closer to the center of town however, only seems to be able to get a small bit through the slums for right now.''
''You're right so far, the only reason why it hasn't affected deeper because the closer to the center of town, where the guild office is the effects weaken against the barrier. Honestly, you're not even supposed to know that much, my party and I are the ones assigned to it, we had a D ranker helping us, but due to him being a local, once we found out even a little he went blabbering. You're pretty much at the rank of D, maybe near the mid-tier even. You're also new in town and are gifted with aura. We wouldn't usually do this but we need help. The dungeon close to the town? It hasn't been fully explored yet, we have a rough estimate on the number of floors it has due to mapping skills, but past the 15 floor, it hasn't been explored. There are 25 or more floors as far as we know.''
Gerald took a large sip from a pitcher of water that had been in the room previously before continuing. ''We've been assigned to not only map out the rest of the dungeon but to also discover what is going on in the lower depths that it affects people. That is where the 'draining' is originating from. No offense but we wouldn't ask a weaker rank unless we needed to. Past the 15 floors, only parties of five can go deeper. Sending word to a stronger branch to send someone would take too long. If you do go with us, we will sure to protect you if you need it, and you will be heavily rewarded due to the danger.''
Alex stayed silent, thinking over it. 'Well, I planned to head in either way, but this almost guarantees me a free ride. Even if I need to I can run.. But it'd be too strange if I just accepted with stars in my eyes... What can I ask for?' He leaned back before he spoke out loud. ''Besides you, what other members are in your party?''
Gerald gave a nod. ''We have a Bear-kin archer, she's talkative and a beauty. Rank A, her name is Sera. She is our ears. A rogue who's the quiet type, good guy but he's hard to have a conversation with, it's not his fault, he's just extremely shy, I've been with him since the start, and I'm pretty sure I've never seen him talk more than five or fewer words. He's a bunny-kin. Black-tailed or something like that, his names Dan, but we call him Danny. Our last is a mage, she's clumsy with pretty much everything not involving magic or potions. Good girl though, she's a Rabbit-kin as well, her names Maya. Both of them are A rank as well, well except Maya. She's still a B rank but we haven't been around to a guild that can do a rank up test to A."
Giving a slow nod he continued to think. ''I'll accept it on three conditions. I will be performing tests, experiments, and random things. I consider myself a scholar second to a lot of things so I like to learn about things and how they work, my experiments will never get in the way and will only be done when I know I can do them. Second, I want to become a Psuedo-Member with the chance to become a full time member even if I'm not always around. Third, I would like to use the knowledge of you and the others to train myself in multiple fields, stealth, skills, Mana, Aura, and useful tips or tricks.''
Gerald leaned back. ''Those are easy to accept, the third one will need to be run by everyone else, I'm sure they don't mind passing on less kept information and abilities, however some skills they have are clan secrets for their respective places so we might not be able to tell you everything you want, that alright?''
Alex nodded. ''Easily, it's already good enough that I have an entire A rank party to help teach me, and I'm the one getting paid for it.''
Gerald laughed at that just as the door opened and three people came in, which must be the rest of the party. In coming in two bunny-kins and a bear-kin. He leaned back to look at them, in his mind however he was at odds. 'Shit, they all look good, is everyone in this world pretty good looking or did I just get lucky where I landed?' Gerald waved as Sera sat across the room in a chair, seeming to pass out almost instantly, Maya say beside Gerald, the large hat she wore covering her entire face. Alex was able to see her before but now that she was sitting she looked small, it seemed the hat was purposely big to let her hide. Danny however remained at the door, saying nothing.
"Everyone, this is Alex, he's agreed to help us on three conditions.'' Explaining what it was Gerald got through it pretty quickly. Sera seemed to be filled with sudden energy and launched herself across the room. Slamming into Alex he got the breath knocked out of him, she hugged him tightly while messing with his dark hair. ''OH HE'S SO HANDSOME! Look at him, if he lets me use his hair to play with I'll let him know all of my secrets.'' She gave a wink to him and he just pushed his hand into her face. Pushing her down from him. ''I'll let you play with my hair so scoot, you're to warm and it's to hot out.''
There was a snicker from Gerald as he knew that pain, when he had first met Sera she did the same thing, she was actually why his hair looked so good, she had a thing for hair and what it could do. He also knew very well of her body heat. Maya spoke up slowly. ''I can try my best... I'm just worried about his safety.''
'I don't know how I feel about someone who looks like a kid saying that to me, but I'm pretty sure she could snap her fingers and I'd disintegrate so, can't argue.' "It's fine, I know the dangers, just as it should be noted that as an Adventurer I need to be willing to put myself at risk for the lives of the common folk, gear, and training costs a lot as well. But, not only am I helping people, I'm being taught by four A rankers in their respective fields. I'm also being paid handsomely, I'm not looking to die, but the risk and reward are worth it to me.''
From where Danny was standing he spoke. ''Can he fight?'' Gerald laughed before he spoke. ''Honestly, earlier we had a sparing match on his request, and if it was a real fight, I'd be heavily wounded. He can use Aura.'' He suddenly became the center of attention even more so before, everyone stared at him a long moment before Maya spoke. ''What? I thought since he had pure mana he'd be another mage.'' When Gerald heard that he suddenly looked at him seriously. ''You have Mana as well?''
Alex looked at Maya a long time before he spoke. ''I do, and I can use magic but I am only Tier 0, I know pretty much all basic spells and am starting to learn Tier 1 spells, I have not attempted to draw on my mana core yet... You can see my Mana?''
Maya gave a nod. ''Yes, and no. I can feel your mana, not see it. It's my blessing that I was born with. Usually, it's hard to unless I focus, but you have such a clear and pure form of it I thought you a mage, your magic is purer than my own, and my teachers.''
Mana cores, basically once a mage wished to step into the next stage, or Tier of power, they needed to 'upgrade' their mana core by making it stronger, and compress it. An Aura core existed as well but you didn't actually get one until Tier 3 of Aura. To become a Tier 1 Mage, you had to create your core first. It wasn't a hard process to make a Mana core, but it's quality, size, strength, and many other things determined your future prowess as a mage.
''You didn't use magic in out spar?'' Alex shook his head. ''No, I didn't, I'm focusing on my Aura and body until I can get to at least Tier 1. Once I do that I will then begin focusing on Mana.''
Gerald watched him before speaking. ''Usually, you'd pick only one to focus on, but since you have a talent with both it should be fine...''
Maya gave a nod, at least that what it looked like when the large hat bopped gently. ''Actually, there is a really old book saying that if you can focus on both, you'd be stronger. I don't remember the details of it much, but it was something about 'The better the vessel, the more it can hold.' The Vessel being Aura or the body, and Mana is the contents. The better the body the more your body could stand being a mage.''