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Finally, we arrive at the reception and are served by a young female orc in her early twenties, with a curvaceous body and brown hair in a ponytail, who is dressed in expensive and refined-looking clothes.
The orc female has a light olive skin tone that blends well with her hair and brown eyes, and her voice is clear and pleasing to the ear.
In short, she is a beauty who attends to people with a professional air.
But she is not the only one.
Looking left and right, I see that all the people in the reception area of the association are young women of considerable beauty, and they are all dressed in the same dark, stylish uniform.
'It seems that the association cares a lot about the appearance of its workers...'
"Hello, I'm Rinka; how can I help you?" says the girl in a singsong voice, smiling and looking expectantly at Kaelion and me.
"I'm Kaelion, and this is my friend Xelean. I am a level 15 Shaman and level 47 Engineer. I am a silver rank member of the guild, and I come to register my friend." says the elder orc, handing a steel token to the girl to prove the information he told her.
"Oh, a Shaman, what... irregular..." she says, looking at the elder orc with some disdain, while her smile falters a little for a few moments.
'I already knew about his engineer class because of my ability and because he said so a few days ago, but his second class is as much of a surprise to me as it seems to be to the receptionist of the association, even if the class' level is not very high...'
"... So... Ok! Place your hand palm up on this stone disc, Xelean, and wait a few seconds while the device collects your information."
As she speaks, the young female orc pulls out a stone disc, very similar to the one I had used so long ago to register with the adventurers' guild, and sets it down on the counter for me to place my hand on.
'I wonder if the registration system is exactly the same…
If so, I would now have to cut my hand and put a stone token on my palm, which would be a problem as I would have to remove my glove....
But, come to think of it, the tokens I've seen from Kaelion and Gell are made of steel instead of stone...
We'll see; maybe it'll be different here.'
As I thought about all this, I placed my gloved hand on the stone disc, hoping that the female orc would not ask me to remove my gauntlet.
Fortunately, the girl didn't seem to mind and placed a steel token on the palm of my hand.
To my surprise, as soon as she does this, I begin to feel how the stone disc slowly begins to suck out some of my mana, whereupon a series of letters slowly begin to appear on the metal token.
'As I suspected, it seems there's no need to cut my hand here'
As the first words are formed, the receptionist writes them down in a notebook.
"Name: Xelean... Health 860! Wow... Mana... 860 too! What the..." As she jots down the data, the girl's eyes begin to widen like saucers.
"...Affinities... They don't really matter... Classes... Sorcerer level 75... Tsk, what a waste…" she says, clicking her tongue and looking at me with the same disdain that her gaze had when she found out that Kaelion is a Shaman.
"... Warrior... Level 75! That's... that's pretty good..." she says, opening her eyes wide again and accidentally dropping on the counter the pen with which she was writing down my details.
She unwillingly looks away to pick up the pen, and, when she refocuses her eyes on the card, her look of disdain changes to one of respect.
"... Well, that's it..." she starts to say, but then she sees more classes keep appearing.
"... Wait... There's more?! Adventurer level 75 too... and... There's still more!..." she says in a shrill voice, as if not crediting her gaze, and drops the notebook and pen again.
Then she clutches the hand that I have on the stone disc, looking with bright eyes full of interest at the steel token on my palm.
Her coworkers throw her looks full of strangeness and curiosity, although they probably haven't heard exactly what Rinka has been saying due to the bustle of the place.
"... E-Explorer level 62..." she says in a whisper and begins to squeeze my gloved hand tighter as her face begins to flush red and her breathing starts to hitch.
"... and Hunter level 75.... Four relevant classes above level 60! ... I... You... Us" she says in a husky voice.
She looks like she's about to faint from excitement at any moment, and her eyes look at me like I'm some kind of freak.
It's lucky I'm wearing a mask, because this receptionist's behavior is making me quite uncomfortable, and I'm sure it would be worse if she saw my human face.
'Hmm, it seems that on this continent the ID tokens don't show the race...
That's lucky….
However, it's funny that they use an enchanted artifact for this when they seem to despise magic so much….
But this girl's reactions are way over the top…
If my race had appeared on the card, there would surely have been an uproar that the whole building would have heard about'
I think all this impatiently as I look with some irritation at the ridiculous reactions of the young orc girl, who moments ago seemed to be the picture of professionalism, as my information appears on the card.
As my last class appears on the card, I hear a whistle next to me, followed by the elderly orc's voice, "You're a monster, kid. How on earth did you get those levels and in so many different classes at such a young age?"
"Now you know I'm more than capable of going to the top floors of the labyrinth…" I say, looking at the orc with an 'I told you so' grin, after which he lets out a sigh as a response, but seems for some reason not entirely convinced.
I then turn to the young lady, who is still holding my hand tightly and uttering disjointed words.
Clearing my throat, I say "... Ahem.... Could you let go of my hand, miss, or do I need something else to register?"
"Yes, I mean, no..." she says hastily, as her face flushes even more and her hands continue to cling to mine.
But then she stops looking at me and looks at what she's been doing, whereupon she seems to have come to some sense.
She then lets go of my hand but keeps the token, after which she removes the disk from my reach and proceeds to place her hand on it with my token on her palm. "... Now I just have to assign you a rank. With those levels... you'll be gold rank. If it were up to me, you should be a member of platinum rank, obviously, but I can't give that rank to a person who barely registers with the association. However, if you belong to an important clan, you can disregard this regulation."
"I'm not part of any clan, and it's not something I'm interested in; thank you," I say, waiting with growing impatience for her to hand me the token so I can finally leave for the labyrinth.
'I don't know what the fuck clans are, but I can ask Kaelion later if I need to.'
Now all I want to do is get away from this girl, who, from the way she's looking at me, looks like she's about to do something crazy, like try to take off my mask.
"Ahh, what a pity... Well... I could have... Do you need anything else? There are other people waiting, and I.... But you..." says the receptionist, still blushing, again losing the ability to speak coherently at times, but looking worriedly at the long waiting line forming behind us.
It seems that at least the professional attitude she displayed when we started talking was true to some extent.
'I don't know how she didn't lose her job until now if she acts like that every time someone with high standards shows up.'
"Ahh, sorry. Yes. I'd like you to give me the contact information of a platinum or gold rank fighter who can take us to the 78th floor of the labyrinth. And also… don't you have to give that token to my companion?" Kaelion says and winks at me.
The old orc seems to be having a lot of fun with the girl's reactions.
"Yes, sorry... Okay. Let's see..." she says, handing me the token and regaining some of her initial attitude after hearing the elderly orc's voice as she pulls out a book and starts checking a list of names.
"...I'm going to need some time for that. You'd better wait outside. I will search for you when I get the information... But don't go too far away, please!" she adds, turning violently towards me and looking at me with an intensity that I find uncomfortable.
If possible, I will try to avoid this female orc every time I come to the association.
'I don't have the desire or the time to deal with people who lose their self-control like this.'