- ---
Outside the registration desk, were three girls enthusiastically standing, waiting for it to be completed.
"How long is it gonna take?" The blond-haired girl asked, now getting impatient.
"The setting up is almost done, Miss Mae Reinhart. Please wait a little bit longer." Said a middle-aged gentleman, who was moving some stuff around on the registration Kiosk.
Mae, Leona, and Esther were getting impatient. "Just how much longer is it going to take? I for sure don't remember taking this long to get my Identity card !" Leona screamed as she slammed the desk.
The middle-aged registration desk man slightly flinched at the impact, and Esther just tightly grabbed Leona's arm from the side "Calm it down." She said, in a menacing tone.
Esther then turned to the registration man, and said in her now familiar cold voice "Please hurry it up a bit,"ย
After waiting for what felt like an eternity, The person at the registration desk finally returned with a shiny metallic card similar to Leona's.
"It's finally here!" Leona squealed in excitement as the man handed over the card to Mae.
before she could receive it, however, Leona was more excited to see Mae's options and the class she could choose, and she snatched it from Mae's hands.
"H-hey! What do you think you're doing?" Mae protested as Leona looked at all the details intently.
"Don't you think you're just being a bit too obsessed with this?" Esther asked, and promptly snatched the card back from Leona.
"H-hey! I wanna see it first!" Leona shouted and tried to grab it back, but Esther was taller than Leona, and the height difference made sure that Leona was unable to reach it.
"Here, Mae. Take a look at this. Which class do you want to choose?" Esther asked, in a serious tone as she showed the card to Mae.
The first two options were highlighted as Mage and Melee combatant.
"Which one do you think is better for me? I don't really know what to choose honestly..." Mae asked, looking to get some guidance.
"Well... If you want my perspective," Esther said. "If you're pretty fast, and are good with weapons, I think it would be best if you chose Melee combatant, but if you're not fast or strong, becoming a mage would be better."
"I think I'd like to keep my distance and be a mage for now," Mae said, as she also reached for the staff took it from Esther, and inspected it.
"With being a mage, you can keep your distance and fight, but with melee, you can get up close and personal," Esther explained, as she pulled out her staff and spun it around.
The staff was black, but under the right light, it was a sheen of dark purple.
"You fight with a staff, Esther?" Mae asked, as she tried to imitate some of the spin moves that Esther tried, but to no avail.
Esther just chuckled, walked up to the staff, and with a single kick to one of its ends, it sprung up and landed in her hands.
"Yes, I love to get up close and personal, so this is my preferred way of fighting." She said as she placed her hand on the center of the staff.
๐ค๐ญ๐ช๐ค๐ฌ
at the press of a hidden button, the staff split into two, and just outside the reach of both of her hands, the rest of the staff rotated ninety degrees, turning into two tonfas.
"Woah..." Mae exclaimed as she saw the transformation take place.
"Yeah, these are pretty handy."ย She said as she joined them back together, and it folded out into a staff again.
"wow, that's pretty cool, Esther," Mae said, and Leona was now looking a little bit annoyed.
"So, back to what I was saying... What did I say I would take again? Melee Combat?" Mae said and scratched her head.
"No, silly! You said you'd become a mage, didn't ya?" Leona whined as she leaned her head on Mae's shoulder.
"Oh, yeah right," Mae scratched her head. "I'm really sorry, I tend to be forgetful, so please bear with me hehe. I want to get better at remembering things."
"It's okay Mae, you will get better as time goes on," Esther said, laying a reassuring hand on the other side of the shoulder.
"Alright!" Leona shouted, loud enough to scare Mae and Esther "If you're gonna come on missions with us Mae, you gotta look the part first." She said, her enthusiasm high.
"So let's go to a shop and kit you out!" She said and made a run for it. "Hurry up! we need to finish it all before this mission starts!"
They all made their way to the weapons shop, which was just down the street from the bounty center, and walked into the shop, which was titled "Zorro's Shed"
To say that the shop looked like every ten-year-old's fever dream was an understatement.
The shop was lined with rows and rows of weapons, ranging from small daggers to giant longswords, all stacked and stored away, and some of the more expensive-looking ones being encased in glass displays.
"I come to this shop often... but every time I do, it never fails to amaze me, also the store owner is kind of-"
"HELLO THERE!" All of a sudden, a loud and obnoxious voice startled all three of them, causing them to scream in unison.
they turned to see a giant man with a beard, his stature large enough to overshadow all three of them easily.
"Oh sorry, did I scare you a lot?" The man said, hands scratching his beard as he appeared to be thinking.
"Y-yeah sir, you did-"
"Well, never mind! Welcome to Zorro's shed! What brings you here today?" He asked, totally cutting them off.
"U-uh, my friend here is n- "
"Oh ho! I get it! You there!" He whipped his hand out and his index finger pointed to Mae.
"Yes!?" Mae asked, being suddenly thrust into the spotlight.
"You need new gear!? Follow me!" The man said and waltzed in.