"Einer! How are you feeling?"
"Brad? Have you been waiting for me to wake up?"
"You nearly died man, of course I couldn't just leave you by yourself."
"What happened, all of it, and why is Annali here? Is she okay? She didn't get attacked or anything right?"
Brad smirked, "You seemed pretty worried abo-"
"Can we not do this right now?"
"Fine, Fine. I don't know how much you know about magic, I don't know much either, but I've seen it before, people who overuse their mana will suffer in similar ways to those who overuse their bodies. I'm sure you've felt tired after casting a large number of spells plenty of times."
"So she's fine?"
"Yep, just collapsed from overwork."
"What happened with me?"
"Well as you can probably guess, you managed to rank up before dying. The vitality boost you got slowed down the poison and helped the healers outpace the damage it was doing."
"So I'm fine then?"
"Well sure, you're almost fully healed, but I think you should at least give your body some time to rest, I don't know if you know this but you were pretty far gone. The healers didn't want to even try to save you before you did what you did."
"Damn. By the way do you know what skill modifiers are?"
"Pff- always the curious one huh?"
Brad sighed, finally relieved of his stress and worry.
Since he first met Einer, it hadn't really clicked, but ever since the emergency quest he had felt almost like his teacher. Showing him the ropes around the guild and answering questions where he could.
However it was obvious that Einer was hiding things that he didn't want others to know, and considering recent events...
'Can I even trust him? He even has people capable of doing all that going after him.'
"So... do you?"
Brad snapped back to reality.
"huh? oh yeah, they're exactly what they sound like, and you can learn them for individual skills by practicing that specific skill a ton. Bad part is that there's so many that it's nearly impossible to get the ones you want, because they take so long to learn too. I guess you're already at that level huh? I'm going to be heading back to post now, rest well."
Brad walked off with a casual wave.
'he seemed... tired. I kinda feel bad.'
…
"Brad!"
He turned around questioningly.
"Sorry for the trouble, and thanks."
"Anytime little guy."
"Wha- hey you aren't even much older..."
Einer tried to complain, but the swordsman hadn't waited for his response and left.
Eventually, the nurse returned and used a spell to check Einer's vitals, before leaving again after saying something about bringing in those guild officials she had mentioned.
Now that he was essentially cleared, Einer felt no need to stay put and decided to check on Annali, so he escaped the thick blankets only to realize he was completely naked.
It only took about a second of sheer panic before he found his clothes neatly placed on the bedside next to his pack.
After quickly putting them on, he recognized that considering the circumstances it was pretty reasonable that his whole body had been checked for abnormalities.
Einer decided he wasn't going to take his chances with a troublesome cliché happening, so instead of going over to Annali's bed, he sat down on the edge of his own and waited awkwardly.
Eventually, a tall man with slicked back hair and a suit bearing the insignia of the Pentaz Guild peered into Einer's space.
"Hello young man, is it okay for me to enter?"
"Sure."
The man parted the curtain enough so that he could enter without having to bend down and avoid it, and as he approached, Einer noticed that every action the man took contained an air of confidence and authority.
Two more figures entered shortly after, and took up a guard-like posture on either side of the entrance. Einer noticed that both bore Jade Rank crests on their chests.
"You'll have to forgive my assistants' presence, every HQ faculty member requires at least this much in order to maintain a certain standard of safety."
'And authority assertion right? Also did this guy just try to subtly drop his position at the guild on me?'
Einer didn't let himself be intimidated, his guard now raised against what was obviously compliance inducing behavior.
The man reach out with his hand.
"I'm Duong Hao, Head of Recruiting at Pentaz's Breezy Meadows branch."
Einer stood and grasped Duong Hao's hand.
"I'm Einer."
"As I've been told."
He maintained a smile.
"So... what's up... I guess?"
Einer asked hesitantly as Duong Hao motioned for him to take a seat back on the bed, as the man drew a stool out from the corner of the space.
"What's up, Mr. Einer, is that I am very interested in you."
"Then... I'll have to apologize. Despite whatever information network you have, it seems you didn't know that I don't swing that way."
Einer tested the waters by changing his tone and putting up mild resistance disguised as a jab towards this 'Head of Recruitment.'
Duong Hao's eye's narrowed slightly, before swiftly following up with a gentle laughter.
"Certainly the cheery one, however as I'm sure you already know, I couldn't help but come to meet you myself after hearing of this incident. Imagine my surprise when one of my employees comes running in with the registration information of a level zero boy with only a given name, who registered with us not even a week ago and has reportedly ranked up to become Geode Rank!"
"I can see why that would be perplexing to even a man of your caliber."
"Ahaha you jest! The only instances in which I've seen adventurers rise faster than you are when sons and daughters of the wealthiest in the land pay to have high ranking monsters brought to their feet half-dead. Of course, that leads me to ask such a question as this."
Duong Hao paused to hold eye contact a second longer.
"You wouldn't happen to have a unique ability, would you, Einer?"
'Figured me out already, well I guess it's to be expected, I didn't really plan to nearly die and rank up in front of more than a hundred people. It can't be helped, but let's be careful anyways.'
"I don't know, that sounds pretty out there to me."
"Truly? Then you wouldn't have happened to have acquired some powerful weapon or artifact have you? If that is the case, I must certainly apologize beforehand for wishing to see such a thing for myself."
"Actually-"
"If you would like to come with me, we are already in the medical zone of our branch's headquarters, it would not take long to come have such an item appraised in order to discover it's full use, we'll even give you an offer for it then and there."