Kazu wakes up again when the bed shakes roughly. He looks towards where Anna is sleeping to see her jumping out of the bed, and a pillow flying at his face. She immediately turns to face him after she lands. Kazu lays the caught pillow back on the bed.
Anna animatedly asks, "Where are your pants? Where is my dress? Did we do... um... you know... the se... um..."
Kazu interrupts her, a mischievous smile on his face, "Anna… do you not remember? You laid down in the bed, invited me in… after I laid down you... well... fell asleep… we just slept... you did cuddle up to me a bit... you looked too adorable and comfortable to wake, and I did not mind, so I just went back to sleep." Anna still looks a bit confused. Kazu slides to the edge of the bed, reaches out, and takes her hand. "Anna, you are safe with me, I will never harm you or let you do anything in a drunken stupor… Well, except for letting you cuddle me…" Kazu says the last part with a playful grin.
Anna looks at him, smiles, and retorts, "Are you sure that's all that happened, if that is it then it seems you liked my cuddles." As she speaks her eyes drift down, "Someone must think I'm pretty, I see someone that wants to be introduced."
Kazu laughs with a slight blush, but keeps his composure, "Anna, like I have said before, you are a beautiful woman, and don't feel slighted by this, but this issue has more to do with waking up than just your beautiful bed hair, dried drool and your shirt half tucked into the back of your bloomers."
Anna blushing looks at Kazu with a skeptical grin and replies, "Sure Kazu... I'm sure it has nothing to do with the beauty before you..." she said while striking a pose and motioning towards herself. "Let's just say I believe you... If you are not excited to see me... then why did you notice my shirt situation? Just admit you like my booty. It's okay if you do."
Kazu laughs, "Are we talking about the booty that you kept bumping me with as I tried to help you to bed?"
Anna turns around and motioned towards her butt. "This little thing could never do any harm to a big strong man like you."
Kazu still smirking, "That big ol' thing almost knocked me out of the room several times."
Anna laughs, "With that smirk, it looks like you liked it... Well... as much as I would enjoy us teasing each other all morning, I need to get out there and find a job." She looks around the room, finds her bags, and pulls a few items out of them. She then heads towards a wooden partition. Behind the partition, Anna giggles, "Yay, I found it." There is a sound of a trickle of water hitting wood. "This will take forever… Oh, Kazu... can I get your help in here."
Kazu jokingly responds, "Yep, but keep in mind I do not have enough soap to wash that big ol' thing."
Anna chuckles, "Well darn... I was wondering… Can you fill this bathtub for me... If I try to do it, it will take me hours, but you could probably do it in seconds."
"If that is all… Sure, let me see what I can do." Kazu responds as he steps behind the partition. He checks the drain stopper and concentrates on filling the tub using water magic. Through trial and error, he also uses some fire magic to heat the water. Ten seconds later the tub is filled with warm water. Kazu gets a bar of soap from his bag and hands it to her, "There you go... enjoy your bath. And look, I do have enough soap for your cute little booty. Drain it when you are done, I'll refill it for my bath."
Anna blushes and thanks him for the soap and for filling the tub as he heads back to the other side of the partition. Kazu decides to lie back down in the bed while he waits for his turn. After a few minutes, Anna starts talking to him about their plans for the day. During the fairly long conversation, Anna finishes her bath, wraps herself in a towel, and comes back to the bedroom side. "Kazu, it's your turn."
He heads to the bathing area with a smile and a nod to her. They continue their conversation as Kazu bathes. Once they are both bathed, dressed, and ready, they gather what they need for the day.
Kazu walks to the door to unlock it, he informs her he figured out how to magically lock the door. He offers to show Anna how to lock and unlock the door. She declines, asking him to show her in the evening since they only have 10 more degrees before breakfast is no longer served. He places his hand on the door, and says "Reserare ostium" and they head downstairs.
After eating breakfast, Kazu heads off to the Hunter's Lodge, and Anna heads off to do some job hunting.
Kazu comes across a building with a wooden sign hanging out front, no words, just a shield with two swords crossing it. He heads inside, figuring it was a weaponsmith's shop.
Inside he is greeted by a wide assortment of bladed weapons, shields, and a fairly grumpy-looking clerk. "Hello valued customer, how can I assist you?" he said dryly as if he said it for the 1000th time today.
Kazu walks up with a smile, "Hello, I need a sword, a spear, two daggers, a dozen throwing knives, or similar projectiles, can you help me with that?"
The clerk responds, "If you have the coins I can... come this way, sir."
The clerk shows off his available swords, and Kazu picks out a sword that resembles a Tachi, but with a European-style guard, grip, and pommel. Next, they move on to the spears. Kazu settles on a standard spear, with a slightly longer reach. Moving on to the knives, he settles on two Garab-style knives. Finally, they reach the throwing knives, and all he sees is what he would generally refer to as steak or kitchen knives.
Kazu asks, "Can you make some knives to my specifications?"
The clerk responds with an affirmative, and Kazu sketches a throwing knife onto a piece of wood, marking where the center of balance should be. After settling on a price for the custom knives, Kazu pays for the Items, 1 silver and 8 copper coins. Kazu places the sword, and spear in his spatial bag, he then attaches the knives to his belt, one on each hip. Before he leaves, Kazu remembers to get directions to the Hunter's Lodge, a magician's shop, and to leave the inn as a contact point for when the knives are done.
Two turns and 150 meters later he enters the Hunter's Lodge.
Upon arriving at the lodge he heads to the counter where a 1.6-meter tall 30+-year-old woman, with an athletic build and red hair, is standing. She is stunning in a knee-length blue dress with a white sleeveless top, black corset, and black boots.
"Excuse me," Kazu asks, "Who do I talk to about joining? I am an experienced hunter, fighter, researcher, and a bit of a magic user."
The woman smiles up at him, "That would be me, young man, there is a processing fee, and an ability test, once that is done we will make your card, and then you will be a hunter."
"Excellent," Kazu replies, "How much is the fee, and when can I take the test?"
"Well young man, the fee is 10 copper, and the test can start when I find a proctor... wherever they disappeared to." The woman says.
Kazu hands her the copper coins, then she takes him back into the testing room. "Please wait here and a proctor will be with you shortly... hopefully." She instructed.
After several minutes a scrawny, yet healthy-looking man in a faded black robe and carrying a staff with a blue crystal on top walks in. "Hello, I am here to run your tests. First I want you to use your weapon of choice to attack the dummy. You have two attacks to do as much damage as you can."
Kazu nods then reaches into his spatial bag and pulls out his sword. In little more than a blink of an eye, Kazu slices at the wooden dummy, going from the top of its head and stopping 30cm from the floor. Immediately after the first attack, he begins his second strike. Dropping his sword, and grabbing his knives, Kazu stabs the sides of the dummy, where the ribs would be, driving his knives into the dummy until the guards hit wood.
The proctor replies, "Excellent, you left a good gouge in the wood with the sword, and completely embedded your knives. You can retrieve the knives now."
As Kazu removes the knives, the two halves of the dummy fall to the floor.
The proctor dropped his pen and stared at the dummy, "That's... that's not supposed to happen. There is a steel core in the center, and you sliced that in half... how... Just... let me see your sword!"
Kazu picks up and hands over the sword. The proctor begins examining it, looking for any abnormalities.
Kazu explains, "There is nothing special about it. I bought it right before I got here. If you are wondering how I cut through the core... with enough Pressure and force over a small area you can cut through almost anything. Luckily the grain of the metal was aligned correctly, otherwise, I would likely not have made it all the way through with that particular sword."
The proctor handed the sword back, "Ok If you say so... I guess we will test your defenses now. I am a magic user, so I'll have two of my party members help with this part." Kazu nods in acknowledgment as the proctor calls two hunters into the room.
The hunters take position on either side of Kazu, and ready their wooden practice swords. To the wonder of the 3 hunters in the room, Kazu places his sword back into his bag and assumes a defensive stance. Both hunters, doing their best to ignore the disappearing sword, attack Kazu at the same time. One hunter aims for his chest, the other for his legs. They miss as Kazu jumps, and grabs the roof support beam. He then brings his feet up to the beam next to his hands. Hanging from the rafter like some kind of bat man, he lets go with his hands, then kicks off. He shoots down from the ceiling tackling both hunters to the ground.
Kazu stands and looks over at the proctor. The proctor is staring at him, unblinking. A moment later he shakes it off and asks the hunters if they are ok. Besides their pride, and having the wind knocked out of them, they were unharmed.
"Okay... not a defensive move, but dodging two people's attack works for this. Moving on to the next test." Looking through his papers, "It says here that you know some magic."
"A little", Kazu replied, "My friend taught me some water and wind magic… recently... I can heat water but I have not tried to make a flame yet."
"Alright," the proctor said, "Attack the two halves of the dummy, the left piece with wind and the right one with water. Okay?"
Kazu nods his head, and then he immediately hits both sides simultaneously, left with wind, sending it flying into the wall, and right with water, hitting it hard enough to break it in half.
The proctor throws his clipboard up in the air and yells, "No... no... no... two spells at once... that's not... That's it... I'm done, you passed... get out!" and storms out of the room.
Confused, Kazu follows him out of the testing room and then heads to the reception desk.
As Kazu reaches the desk, the woman behind the counter asks, "Why did he storm out back? What did you do to him?"
"I didn't do anything to him… I broke the dummy and knocked the wind out of his friends… other than that... I'm not sure... but he seemed... um... flabbergasted, might be the right word."
The woman continues, "Well young man..."
Kazu interrupted her. "Call me Kazu, my full name is Kanada Kazu, Kanada is my family name. We are too close in age for you to be calling me young man."
"Oh really", she says, "How old do you think I am?"
Kazu smiles at her, "Well looking at your flawless skin, sparkling eyes, toned athletic muscles, I'd have to say you are just about two years older than me, yeah… I'd say twenty-two years old, and not a day more."
She smiled at him, "If you are trying to get me to give you better jobs... Kazu... It's working." With a blush taking over her face, she continues. "Ummm, I'm Tara Kucia... just call me Tara. Now… let me go find that idiot, Mica, he didn't give me your test scores." Tara hurried away with a bounce in her step and even more color on her cheeks.
Kazu, while waiting for Tara to return, wonders to himself about how the ranking system here works, do they use metals, numbers, or letters? "I kind of prefer the letter system, got used to it from the Anime memes. S tier waifu and all that." Kazu mumbled.
"Who or what is Anymay meem and wifu?" Tara asks as she stops beside Kazu.
Kazu thinks, "How do I explain anime and waifus, I'll just keep it simple, and just skip the anime explanation."
Kazu explains, "In my home... country, a waifu is a woman that is desirable as a wife, there are different tiers, and each tier is decided by the person comparing the potential waifus. Sometimes the tiers are based on looks, sometimes on personality, and sometimes it's on how badass she is. There is also a man version... the men are called husbandos."
Tara giggles, "What rating would you give me?" She winks, then continues her actual job. "I talked to Mica about your test, and he says even though he did not finish your test, you passed with an A rank. He said you took out two of our A-rank team members before they finished swinging their swords. You also cast 2 spells at the same time, which is not an easy feat, or even heard of happening before. With that in mind, you qualify as an A-rank. However Due to lodge rules, hunters start a rank below the qualified rank, so we have to start you at B-rank... Though I should offer you congratulations, you are officially the highest-ranked beginner tested... Also if you are under 23 years old you are the youngest B-rank ever here... so... welcome Hunter Kazu."
Kazu replies, "Thank you Tara for the explanation, and seeing how all-around pleasant you have been, I'd put you in the S-tier waifu category."
Tara blushes slightly and then goes over the ranking system, E through A-ranks, with S-rank only obtainable by a god's blessing or recognition of a king. According to Tara, so far all S-ranks are from a king, and none have been blessed by a god, the only reason they think it's an option is that someone claiming to be a holy being told them so 543 years ago. Which is also when the country they are in Albion was founded and recorded history started.
Kazu asks, "What about magic ranking? Is there a system for it?"
Tara nods, "There are five levels. They are Beginner, Intermediate, Expert, Advanced, and Hero. Other systems are also ranked the same way, the Bakers Union won't let you open a bakery unless you are a level 3 or higher in baking."
Kazu smiles at her, "It's interesting that the Lodges use a separate system from the other professions. Well, I guess it's the same, just with the added King or God blessed for the sixth tier. So, going back to your earlier question, by the lodges ranking system, you are definitely blessed by a god to be in the S-tier. Congratulations Tara the Hero of Beauty." Kazu then bows to her.
"Alright you big flirt, it's time to get your Hunter's Card," Tara said, as she walked Kazu to a device with a large smooth crystal mounted to it. "Let me set it to B rank real quick, and... Now, please put your hands on the sides of the crystal, it will record many things, including your magic capacity, magic affinity, age, and blood type, and they even get set up to track jobs you receive. Some of the information is not accessible unless you receive S-tier through a god's blessing."
Tara continues, "According to the history books the holy being gave us the crystals that we use for making the hunter cards. On the occasion that a new lodge needs to open, it needs an affirmative vote from two-thirds of the existing lodges to open. When they receive the votes, a new crystal device appears at the new lodge. If a lodge loses credibility with two-thirds of the other lodges, its crystal device vanishes. A vote is held on existing and new lodges every five years, in the last one hundred years, two lodges have lost their crystals, and seven new lodges received crystals. We work hard to be an excellent lodge, and because of that, we have more credibility and power than the guards. You have a kind, but take no crap air about you, you should fit in here nicely."
As Tara steps back Kazu puts his hands on the crystal, and a light from inside shines brightly. After several seconds a shiny metallic black card with silver lettering appears at the base of the machine.
Tara reaches for the card saying, "Well that's different, usually it only faintly lights up... let's see what you got here."
Kazu's card reads:
Name: Kanada Kazu _____ Age: 68 _____ DOB: 26-8-543
Affinity: Yes _____ Capacity: 00000 _____ Blood Type: None
Jobs: Tap for details
Kills: 1013 __________________________ Plants Gathered: 1208
Helped: 126 ________________________ Thieves Captured: 76
Endorsements: Self _________________ Rank: B
Tara looks at Kazu's card and queries, "The affinity, age, and capacity did not fill out correctly... and blood type says none... do you not have blood? Also, what is up with your rank and endorsement? Unless you are a king, I do not think you can endorse yourself, and if you were it would say, King Kazu, not self. Oh, wait a second... I just noticed… according to your card, you were born yesterday… you are very grown up for a newborn. Your card has errors everywhere. I'd redo your card, but it will not allow another scan until 30 days have passed or the rank glows saying you leveled up. For now, I guess you will be a bloodless elderly infant that endorses himself into a B rank." She shrugs and laughs.
Kazu replies, "Last time I got cut I bled, so I'd have to say, yes there is blood somewhere in me." Kazu ignores the endorsement since he has no explanation for either. Kazu then shifts his view to her chest and says, "Oh umm… goo-goo-ga-ga, 68-year-old baby hungry." Kazu figures a pervy joke is better than her dwelling on his irregular card.
Tara laughs and flicks her pen at him. Tara then reassures Kazu that errors on the card will not be a problem, and will likely fix themselves when he levels up.
Kazu thanks her for her help, then excuses himself so he can meet up with Anna back at the inn for dinner. Anna arrives a few hours after Kazu, moving to join him as soon as she sees him.
"How was your day?" Kazu asked.
Anna says annoyed, "Like every other first day in a new town, long, tiring, and unfulfilling. You?"
"Well mine went better, I am now officially a hunter... and apparently I am a 68-year-old baby rank B hunter. I also bought some new weapons, and now I get to hang out with my beautiful friend." Kazu says with a smile.
Anna turns bright red and immediately stares at the ground. After a few moments, she finally finds her voice. "you're such a goof... any ideas on what I can do for work? I'm tired of moving from town to town just to not find a job. Wait… hold on… did you say, 68-year-old baby... Rank B?"
Kazu laughs and shows her his card, "Tara thinks there was an issue with the crystal that makes the cards, but she thinks it should fix itself when I level up. As for work… You are a seamstress, do you know how to work leather or just fabric?"
Anna replies, "I know the basics of leather working, I can make stuff like vests, belts, chaps... but not the more intricate items, or items made from thicker leather."
"Good to know, follow me to the room, I want you to try something, if it works, then we are golden," Kazu says as they head back to the inn.
Anna and Kazu head up to the room, once inside he shows her how to lock and unlock the door. It takes her three tries to create the magic that locks the door, but only uses one try to unlock it.
"Have you ever heard of anyone enchanting an object?" Kazu asks.
Anna, shakes her head, "No, I don't even know what that means."
Kazu smiles, "Going by some books I read about magic, dungeons, and dragons… and other types of beasts, enchanting is embedding magic into an object, it can be activated by keywords, or by putting magic into it. The door is both versions of enchanting, it takes magic to lock it, but only a keyword from the locked side of the door to unlock it. I want to make enchanted clothing and other items to protect people from... well many things. We can add a cooling effect for people who work in the sun all day, a heating effect for when they are outside in winter, we might even be able to enchant a shirt to block arrows. If we can do this you can work for yourself."
Anna stutters trying to put together her thoughts, "I-I-I Did not know it's possible... to permanently add magic to an item."
"Well, not permanent like you may be thinking," Kazu says. "For a permanently embedded spell, think of it more as taking away the concentration part. You still have to add the power, just do not have to think of the spell, and if we do a wind spell, you would be able to use it since you do not have to be able to use wind magic to use it."
Anna asks, "What about the keyword ones?"
"Well those are a bit different, they are filled with magic energy, and set to only allow a portion of the power to be used with each use. For example, we sell a water pouch, which is set to fill with water when the owner says "Plena Aqua". Without recharging the magic it will only refill a half dozen times, at that point they either buy a new one or get its magic recharged."
Anna asks, "What gave you the idea to want to do this? Have you seen people do it somewhere else?"
Kazu hands her his spatial bag. "Open the bag and look in it."
Anna looks in the bag. "I don't see anything in it."
He smiles, "Now reach in it and think of grabbing a coin."
She hesitantly reaches into the bag, and a moment later she retracts her hand with a gold coin in it. "How did you do that?"
"Now look in the bag, as you drop the coin back in," Kazu instructed.
She stares unblinkingly into the bag and drops the coin, watching it fall, until it is too small to see. She looks at Kazu and asks, "How is this possible?"
Kazu looks her in the eye and with a smile he says, "I don't know, but I will figure it out."
Confused, she asks, "Where did the bag come from?"
He replies, "This is a secret, so this stays with us, okay?" She nods in agreement, so he continues. "I was given this bag by a god, with a directive to protect the people of this world and guide them."
"So are you a hero? Is that why your magic is so strong?" She asked.
"I asked the same question, but all they said was that I was to protect and guide. As for magic, I was never told anything other than the fact that I would be able to use it." Kazu replied. Kazu stands up, looks at her like it's life and death, and asks, "Do you want to try this business with me?" He smiles and adds, "Either way, I am starving, want to go eat?"
Anna tries to imitate his serious look and says, "Yes, to both. Now let's eat."
They head down for dinner. Kazu sees Tara sitting at a table with several men. As he and Anna approach her they hear their conversation. They are talking about their next mission together. Kazu steps up to the table and gets Tara's attention. Tara and her teammates turn to face him, Tara immediately greets him and then introduces the rest of her team. When done, he introduces Anna to Tara. They invite the two of them to join them. They accept and spend the next few hours eating, drinking, and chatting with Tara and her friends.
Eventually, they head back to their room. Anna locks the door, and heads to her side of the bed. She starts removing her dress as Kazu walks into the bathing area. He fills the tub and cleans himself. After putting on his night clothes, he heads to bed, where he finds Anna sprawled out taking up 90% of the bed. He moves her arm and leg enough to be able to comfortably lay down. A minute later her arm landed on his chest, and a minute after that she was cuddling him again. "Goodnight you cute little cuddle bug," he says. They fall asleep shortly after.