Bro, I'm not an Undead!

“There’s a new mage joining the Association?!”

“Look! There he is! The one with the funny face!”

“But the way he’s dressed. It doesn’t seem like what a mage would wear.”

“Who cares?! Let’s get to him before the others!”

The entire hall was torn into a mess as smaller Guilds rushed towards Skullius while the larger ones tried to approach in dignified steps.

It didn’t take long for Skullius to be swarmed by a wave of mercenaries that sought to rope him in!

He couldn’t believe he had been betrayed like this. Perhaps he should have expected it. Unlike Knights and such, the concept of honour was a mild suggestion buried in the lazy folds of conscience when it came to mercenaries.

What a sockethole.

“Sir, mage, please join my Guild! I’ll make sure you’re the new Vice!”

“No, no! Join our Guild, we’ll make you live like a king!”

“Hey, look over here please~. You won’t have to worry about your face in our Guild! We’re open minded~♡!”_.

Skullius shook his head from within the tide! The fact that UNCoddled didn’t activate here meant that no one gave a damn about his benefit. Only his skills.

This was a good thing in that he didn’t have to deal with the possible charge of mass murder.

But deep within him though, it made him feel quite lonely.

“Alright! Alright! Let’s give the man some space!” Jac pushed through the crowd and exerted his pressure as a powerful mercenary.

This pushed away the riff-raff, Skullius being left untouched after the chaos.

He sighed and turned back to the woman behind the counter who, along with her co-workers, were both excited and shocked.

Skullius glared at her and asked, “My license?”

“Right, right!” she hurriedly scrambled and rushed towards a door to the her right, disappearing into its space before coming back three minutes later.

She rushed over, wearing a gentle smile, wishing she hadn’t been so harsh before. Her hopes were to at least not end up being the enemy, should higher personnel trace Skullius’ steps.

She handed the annoyed Skullius a glossy plaque that could mostly fit in his hand.

It bore a cream colour, neatly arranged rows of texts being at its front showing the Association name, branch, his class and rank.

His class was obviously written as ‘Mage’ and the rank was D+.

Ranks among mercenaries were distributed after an officer had an evaluation test with the applicant.

The ranks went from E to S, the considerations being combat experience, stage, class, core and potential. Stage and combat experience was mainly handled in follow-up evaluations called re-evaluations.

Re-evaluations were retakes of the evaluation tests done after someone had accumulated strength that transcended their current rank. They were heavily encouraged as they reflected growth while also being used as instruments for motivation.

There were wide chasms as one moved from each rank, with the C and above ranks being infinitely superior to the lower ranks of D and E.

As Skullius looked at his rank, he didn’t find it outlandish or lacking at all.

‘I wonder what rank my Penetrator form would be?’ he wondered.

He then noticed something amiss with his identification plaque and inquired.

“Why isn’t my name here? There’s just this space that’s blank.”

“Oh, sorry. I almost forgot, hahaha,” the woman before him laughed nervously in a high pitched voice. “You insert your mana and say your name into the plaque. It will register your mana and apply your name to itself.”

“Oh..”

At this moment, the entire hall grew silent as everyone keenly listened.

This was incredibly uncomfortable for Skullius but he bore with it. The dignity of the mercenaries that remained in this hall, as few as they were compared to just a few minutes ago, seemed to be rather low.

Skullius did as he was told, a small of stream of his mana flowing into his license as he then felt it vibrate slightly while sucking in his mana.

He then pulled the plaque to his lips and spoke.

“Festos Dawn.”

Across an empty space at the bottom, his name faded in with a dark and bold text, the entire plaque releasing faint light as if depicting that it was finally whole.

The clamour returned to the hall as the chatter continued, everyone confirming that this fish was now theirs.

Jac couldn’t hide his grin.

His intention had been to make sure that Skullius wouldn’t be second guessing his decision to join. Providing an incentive to stay so to speak as two of the Energy Formers in the Capital service had fled the Association some time ago.

Fortunately for them, they had been wise enough to initiate contracts that provided confidentiality upon evaluation from their respective teachers who were quite well known but from within the city.

This wasn’t the case for the Discount Human unfortunately as now he had to deal with the fact that fleeing from the Association would incite him possibly becoming an enemy of the Association.

Luckily, Skullius didn’t have any intention to join the Capital service.

He proudly held his plague and smiled slightly.

He nodded at the woman before him who rushed to stop him as he was about to walk away.

“Wait! I should probably tell you the perks of having a license. As long as you can clear a Cluster or officially finish a request, you can gain full citizenship within the city. You won’t have to pay for entry after your pass has expired. You can also apply for weapons and resources from the Guild too. We have some quality materials!” she said with a wide smile.

“Okay,” Skullius answered hollowly before he proceeded to walk towards the request board, some of the mercenaries following after him.

Jac got in the way unfortunately as he patted Skullius’ back.

“You’re not still mad about that are you?” he chortled.

“<Sigh>. It doesn’t matter anymore does it, bro?” Skullius said while shaking his hand. He looked at the requests, finding many of them to be issued by the Guild itself. Most were for Clusters. Mainly white and blue-white, a few being blue.

“Can I take up a request and go to clear it alone?” he asked Jac.

“It’s possible but that depends on your rank. For you, that won’t be allowed as you’re only a D rank. I advise that you join a party to raid with. You’re still a fledgling that we would like to keep alive after all,” Jac replied.

This response made Skullius feel dejected. He had hoped he could go alone as he didn’t want to be responsible for other people who could possibly die from being exposed to UNCoddled.

It was strenuous, trying to figure out who was a sockethole and who was not.

Right then, a young lady with curly, red hair that reached her shoulders along with bright, scarlet eyes walked up to Skullius with two men followong behind her. A middle-aged one and one who looked to be in his twenties.

“Hey Uncle Jac,” she said to the burly man who turned and wore a bright smile upon seeing her.

“Ah, my little apprentice is already back from her trip? I didn’t expect to see you here so soon,” the burly man responded with a tone befitting of an uncle.

“Well, what can I say, I got done what I needed to pretty quickly,” the redhead said before turning to Skullius. “Hey mage. You wanna join my party?”