Bro, I'm not an Undead!

After all the names were pronounced it finally hit Skullius why those two had been fighting. Or rather, it wasn’t a realisation but an explanation that he happened to hear.

Apparently, the visibly violent woman had been taunted by the one she had bombarded with the flurry of punches.

She had been called Beastifina, an obvious play on her real name Bustifina, making fun of her feral nature as well as her Form Using technique.

She didn’t take it well and started beating the hell of the woman who kept laughing her ass off from brutal ecstacy.

It seemed that the whole thing had been intentional, which was why no one really intervened when they had the chance to.

Skullius couldn’t help but admire the strength of this group. Their presence pushed against him like a fiery, raging tide even when they were subduing it.

Now that he had a greater appreciation of the levels of power, he somewhat understood the power struggle between the Guilds and the level of power.

As he endured the harsh gazes, one of the ladies suddenly flashed before him in a fraction of a second, a soft breeze blowing Skullius’ clothes from her brisk movement.

It was Natalika, the blindfolded lady.

Even before she said anything, Skullius could feel her enthusiasm bubbling from her mana._.

“I see you have a sword and I can also sense that it’s of a rather high calibre. Judging by your stance, you have some basic training in the sword and are confident in your skills,” she said all this in rapid succession before pushing her face right before Skullius’.

Her voice gave both an excited feel as well as a disciplined one as she spoke.

“Spar with me. I promise I won’t lop off any part of body.”

‘She’s sharp.’

Skullius could feel from her air a cutting edge when he applied [Elevated Mana Manipulation] to sense more of her strength.

Before Skullius could render her an answer, the silver-haired lady with quite the bountiful rack spoke up as she walked forward.

“No. I don’t believe you can hold yourself back from your zeal once you’ve started. He probably won’t be enough to handle you even if you are to use one hand and fight without the aid of your sword in the bout,” Renialid said.

‘Jeez. Aren’t you looking down on me a bit too much?’ Skullius thought as a dissatisfied expression appeared on his face.

His silver eyes flashed with energy as he gazed at Renialid.

“You disagree?” Renialid asked as she narrowed her eyes.

“Yes. I disagree.”

“Oh?”

Renialid flashed a toothy smile at Skullius’ response before hugging her arms around her body which was encased in a white dress.

“Alright, that’s enough. It seems like Festos here is stealing the show quite a bit,” Tulnas said as he slid over and slung his hand around the Discount Human.

“Unfortunately, as you know, time is running out. I need to brief Festos on the details he needs to know. You can all have some time to chat with him afterwards,” Tulnas said as he pulled the Discount Human away.

He travelled up the steps with him and as soon as they reached the second floor, Skullius saw an expansive space filled with what looked like small tags that gave directions!

There were so many passages that led to different rooms that had who-knew-what!

The pristine white walls and identical doors didn’t make it look any less confusing but the arched ceiling above decorated with glistening hardwood and lights in the form of large glowing gems that were lined up neatly in each of the passages gave the place a more unique feel.

“Just follow me,” Tulnas said to Skullius as he walked on ahead, turning into passage after passage as he led the Discount Human somewhere.

Skullius was really curious about what was behind the doors and thus decided to activate [Elevated Mana Manipulation] to gain some semblance of knowledge of what was hidden.

The first thing he noticed was a massive surge of energy coming from each door that he couldn’t exactly pin to exclusively be Mana, but a strange mix.

It felt pure and impure at the same time and when he tried to extend his sensation over this mystery…

“You really enjoy prying don’t you? Or are you just used to not asking for help because of your curse?” Tulnas said without turning back.

Skullius seized trying to investigate the doors and sighed.

“There are many forms of energy. Mana, Aura, Primus, Nitros and so on. The ability to sense all of them with relative ease is granted exclusively to Energy Formers. However, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to get a feel of these even if you’re of a different class category. Diversifying is the way that many choose to advance their strength. It’s possible to reach out to Energy Forming as an complementary art from another category or even other forms without choosing it initially. This is what many call Class Branching.”

Skullius narrowed his eyes.

Appreciating energies.

This wasn’t something he was privy to.

Perhaps all Energy Formers who had gone through Academies were much more advanced than he had initially thought.

“These rooms are called Adaptation facilities. You use them when you want to try and get a feel for energies outside Mana and Aura which most people can inherently perceive. Alright, that should burn out your curiosity over this for now,” Tulnas said. “We’re here.”

The two appeared at a set of double doors which Tulnas pushed to open.

A rather spacious office appeared with a large desk made of red wood, pristine walls that carried various precious items, mostly taken from powerful Cluster beasts as well as picture frames.

The flooring was much like that of the rest of the mansion, a large window with a crystal clear glass being behind the large, comfortable chair with padded suede-like fittings over the fine wood behind the desk.

Tulnas sat on it before gesturing for Skullius to sit on the less attractive chair opposite him.

Once the two were seated, Tulnas finally addressed the issue that he knew Skullius was eager to know before the Discount Human could ask it.

“Well let’s get straight to the reason why you’re here, don’t we?” he said. “I’m sure you’re wondering the real reason as to why I asked you to join my Guild back then.”

Skullius nodded with a serious and tense expression.

“Yes. I have been wondering about that,” Skullius said.

“Hmmm,” Tulnas hummed as he leaned back on the chair. “In all honesty, it wasn’t my intention nor my insight that lead me to ask you to join. It was the intuition of a certain ‘friend’ of mine. He saw something about you that he claimed was enough for me to want you in my Guild.”

Skullius grew even more tense.

What about him attracted this so-called friend’s attention?

Did they know some of his deeper secrets?

Tulnas’ blue eyes focused on Skullius as his disposition became rather odd.

One would even say, cold.

His voice then leaked out as he finally revealed what this interest was.

“You have a Hidden class, don’t you?”

…!