{August 12 239 2E}
The Watchful's registration office was mostly empty, save for a handful of new recruits who were getting their paperwork out of the way at the last minute.
Lianna arrived at their glass doors that bright, Saturday morning with the same amount of desperation, albeit for slightly different reasons.
As she made her way into the office, Lianna made a beeline for the clerk behind the front desk and said:
"I'd like to get reevaluated."
Automatically, the man asked:
"If your stats are the same, your application will be denied immediately. Before applying for a reevaluation, you should consider the following: have you Awakened? Have you-"
"Yes."
"-trained for..." the man stopped.
His eyes lifted off his PC and met Lianna's, where he came to understand the truth. The heterochromia made it obvious.
"Oh..." He muttered, before quickly picking up a phone and calling someone. "Sir, there is an Awakened Player here who wants to be reevaluated. Yes, yes... Alright." He hung up. "Please, sit down and the evaluator will be with you shortly."
Heterochromia meant one thing. Lianna had made her realization just as quickly as this man did.
Lianna now possessed 2 Instincts.
Instinct:
Love Conqueror
{Gain rewards from completing System quests. The harder the quest, the greater the reward}
The Instinct's description did not mention too many details as to the rewards Lianna could get, but since she already had a quest currently active, she had a general idea.
Quest:
{Apply for the Watchful's Search and Rescue division}
{Reward: Luck: C-}
That reward wasn't particularly useful in a tangible way, as the Luck attribute was something nobody could truly say they understood, but still, it was telling.
[So, if I do these quests, I could get better Attributes out of it? That's pretty insane, isn't it?]
A short while later, the same evaluator Lianna had seen at her school showed up, wearing the exact same suit and tophat.
He noticed Lianna sitting by the desk, saw her different-colored eyes, and walked straight to her.
"Good morning. Do you mind if we conduct the evaluation right here?" He pointed at the clerk's desk.
"Not at all, sir."
The evaluator placed the same metal contraption he'd brought to her classroom on the desk. Lianna stood up and walked over to it.
"You remember how this goes?" He asked.
"Yeah."
"Good. Go ahead and place your hand on the machine, then."
Lianna did as she was instructed. Red, flame-colored mana flowed from within her body, out from her fingertips, and into the object, where it was then directed at the man himself. He nodded and then asked:
"Do you know what the System means by rewards?"
Lianna did know. Or at least, she had an idea. But, she instead answered:
"No."
She had to, given that the System said:
{You cannot allude to anything regarding the Instinct that you've received. Doing so will result in the immediate removal of your new Instinct}
[I'm guessing that's meant to stop me from telling people "hey, can you do this for me? It'll complete my System quest" or something.]
"I see..." The man leaned back, crossing his arms. Lianna took that as an indication that she could take her hand off the machine. "Without knowing what specific rewards you could gain from these 'quests', it's hard to know if you'll be useful out in the field. Especially since your potential has not changed from the last time I evaluated you. It is still F-tier."
[Wait, what? My potential didn't change!?]
For a player to have Awakened and for their stats to have remained completely unaltered like this was unheard of. At the very least, Lianna hoped her potential would grow a little.
It still being F-tier, however, meant that even if Lianna spent all her life training her stats, all she could do was improve them, maybe, by one letter grade.
She was still useless.
"Um, sir," Lianna stepped forward. "Even though I don't know what rewards I'll get, theoretically, they should still be important, right? Why else would the System give me this power?"
"Ah... You are probably not wrong about that," he conceded. "But, still, with those stats, and your complete lack of potential... But, then again..."
He considered it for a while. Lianna couldn't blame him. If she was in his position, she wouldn't know what to do either.
"Alright," he muttered, "alright. I've decided."
The man stood up suddenly. Lianna took a step back.
"I... I will tell Headquarters to accept your application. You are right," he nodded. "If you Awakened, well, it may be for a good reason. However, I will put an asterisk next to your report. If you fail to perform out in the field, if you get hurt, or if your inability to perform gets someone else hurt, you are to be expelled from the guild immediately. Do you understand?"
"I-I understand!" Lianna responded. "Thank you."
"Don't mention it," he replied before handing her a card. "Head to this address. The tailor there will hand you your uniform. Good luck."
As soon as those words left his mouth, Lianna got a message.
Quest Completed!
Luck: C-
With the card in hand, and so much elation in her heart that Lianna's cheeks started hurting from grinning, the newly declared recruit of the Watchful went to walk out of the office.
[... That was just Step 1, though,] Lianna reminded herself. [Now, well... The land whale in the room just got a little bit bigger. That girl I'm supposed to marry... I wonder when I'll see her.]
The front door swung open, nearly hitting Lianna in the face.
The person who had opened it, however, stopped herself before she could accidentally strike Lianna.
The scent of foreign flowers was the first thing Lianna noticed. This was followed by the girl's sharp, silver eyes, narrowed in her direction. The woman had short, blue-white hair in a wolf cut, and wore an elegant, slightly boyish, white suit as she stood before Lianna.
"My apologies," she said. "I was in a hurry."
Her voice was slightly high-pitched but still flowed out from her pale lips as smoothly as water poured out from a pitcher.
Lianna stared back at this girl. She'd never experienced this before.
Seeing someone so beautiful her heart nearly stopped.
Swallowing, she stepped aside.
"It's okay!" Lianna told her.
Without a word, the girl simply nodded and walked in.
Lianna inhaled sharply, fighting the urge to look back.
[Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit! If the girl I'm supposed to marry is even half as pretty, then I'm going to be the luckiest woman in Telvan!]
---
All Lianna could think about on the way back to her home was her registration.
It was done. Lianna was now a member of the Watchful. A recruit with no access to most of the guild's actual resources yet, but a member nonetheless.
It was exciting! It sent chills down Lianna's spine just considering it. It was a big moment in her life, it was everything she'd been hoping for, and it was...
Stressful.
Suddenly, she had responsibilities. Suddenly, she could actually be someone now.
She recalled all the nights as a child when she'd walk to her orphanage's rooftop, lay down, and just look at the night sky, thinking about some of the Players she'd see walking down the street. Right now, as she lay in her bed, she could almost feel the cold, late-night air on her skin, like she was right back in that same spot.
"..."
Seconds, minutes, hours passed by, all while Lianna remained in her bed, frozen.
Eventually, a thought spoke up from the back of her mind, echoing in the walls of her skull, that finally broke her out of this trance.
[... I'm horny.]
Her phone buzzed.
Lianna looked down at it.
shiramoonpie: sooo....
shiramoonpie: are we still on for tonight?
Lianna breathed a sigh of relief.
[Thank the fucking heavens. I was gonna lose my mind.]
Typing out a quick response, Lianna got up.
If she was going to have some company tonight, she'd need to get ready.