Divinity

Not long after we chose which guild to join, the representatives came.

The representative from The Red Knights was a B-rank hunter called Ruby Rubrum.

“Congratulations! You guys are now official F-rank hunters! The representatives will now take you back to your guild headquarters. The headquarters are all in different places, and some are very far away. So…” – Leanne

Leanne raises her arm and clenches her fist.

As she does that some stone wagons appear.

“… Your representatives will take you back with this!” – Leanne

What…

Are they literally going to drag us there?

We have legs you know…

“Well then, what are you waiting for? Get in.” – Ruby

Shin jumps in and gives a sigh of relief.

“Ahh… Finally, this is over… I need a shower…” – Shin

Me and Lett gets in shortly after.

“Alright! Hold on tight, we’re gonna go a lot faster than you’re used to!” – Ruby

I mean she is a B-rank hunter, so I guess it would be faster.

But, she’s still carrying not only our weight but also the wagons weight, so it can’t be that much faster than my top speed rig—

“AAAAAHHH!” – Alex, Shin and Lett

Holy shit!

We’re going so fast that I’m not even able to perceive our surroundings!

Everything around me is just an ever-changing blob of colors.

If we were to fight, she would knock me out before I even get to move a single muscle…

B-rank hunter are way out of my league…

--- A couple minutes later we reach our headquarters in the city Bellator.

This is a trip that would have taken days even if I ran at max speed, and we got here in mere minutes…

But what’s more impressive is the size of the guild hall!

It’s way larger than the colosseum, and the colosseum was so massive that it could probably fit more than 100 of Minima inside it!

The building is surrounded by countless Red Knights flags.

They’re just like the one Vic brought with him, just much larger.

And although the guild HQ is by far the largest building here in Bellator, it’s still just a small part of the city itself.

So, this is what a large city in the middle area is like…

Everyone in Minima knew each other, but that can’t possibly be true here…

There must be millions that live here!

We walk up to the front of the building.

There are no doors, the front is wide open.

I guess there is no needs for doors in a building of this size…

Infront of the ‘door’ there are a bunch of guards, probably to keep people that aren’t members out.

“Well, what do you guys think? It’s pretty impressive, right?” – Ruby

“…” – Alex and Lett

Lett and I just stand there in shock.

“Yeah, it’s even bigger than the Mercury guild HQ, right?” – Shin

“Correct. This is actually the second largest guild HQ, only behind the Dwarfs. The Dwarfs got by far the most members, so it makes sense for them to have the biggest building.” – Ruby

The second largest…

The Red Knights are amazing!

“You’ve seen other guild HQs before, Shin?” – Alex

“Yeah, Mercury has their guild HQ in Magnum, the city I’m from.” – Shin

“Well then, I’ll give you a tour of the guild hall. You just need to get your Red Knights ‘tattoo’ first. Otherwise the guards won’t let you in. The person who will give them to you is actually my older sister, Rose Rubrum. She’s a B-rank hunter just like me!” – Ruby

Rose arrives shortly after.

Ruby and Rose look very similar to each other; you can tell they’re siblings.

The biggest difference is that Ruby has short red hair, while Rose has long red hair.

“Welcome to The Red Knights guild!” – Rose

“You see, my sister has a very neat specialty. It lets her create ‘runes’. She can engrave certain designs into any surface and put divinity into it. It might not sound impressive, but it can be a very scary ability to face in combat, and it has countless uses outside of combat. Each pattern has its own effect. Using different patterns, she can create explosions, fire, or anything else you could think of! They can be activated manually or when someone touches them, so they make for good traps. The most scary one is the one that-” – Ruby

“Shush! They don’t need to know about that one!” – Rose

“Right… Sorry. Anyways, what we’re using her specialty for right now is to make your ‘tattoos’. The Red Knights used other forms of authentication to prove membership before, but now that they have Rose, they don’t need that anymore. When two of those ‘tattoos’ touch, they both light up. On top of that, Rose is the only one who can make them. This makes them very effective for authentication. When you want to enter the guild hall, you just put your ‘tattoo’ on one of the guards. If they start glowing, then they know that you’re a real member!” – Ruby

So, The Red Knights take advantage of their members specialties for the benefit of the guild and all its members.

That’s smart!

Rose walks up to me.

“Give me your hand.” – Rose

“R-right!” – Alex

She draws a symbol on my right hand; but to me, it was over as soon as it started.

She’s so fast…

Just as fast as her sister.

I couldn’t even see her fingers move when she drew it.

If they hadn’t explained how it worked beforehand, I might have thought it just appeared out of nowhere…

“Damn, you’re fast!” – Shin

“Well, she is a B-rank hunter after all!” – Lett

She quickly makes one for Shin and Lett too.

“Let’s test it out!” – Lett

Lett puts her tattoo on top of Shin’s, and sure enough, they both start glowing.

“Sweet.” – Shin

“Well then, I’ll show you around inside the guild hall.” – Ruby

“I’ll be on my way then, see you later Ruby.” – Rose

We walk up to the guards, and they gleefully greet us.

“Welcome to The Red Knights guild!” – Guard

“Thank you!” – Lett

We put our tattoos on theirs, and they start glowing.

“All right. Enjoy your day!” – Guard

This building is so huge…

It’s almost like there is a whole city in here…

“Over there to the left is the sleeping area. You all get your own room. Your ‘tattoo’ works like the key and only you can open the door to your room. Just go over to the reception to get the number for your rooms later.” – Ruby

Rose’s specialty really is handy, huh.

“Over there is the mission wall.” – Ruby

She points to a large wall with countless flyers on it.

“Missions are how we make a living. People who want a specific job done, can write down a description of what it is, and the reward for doing it. They can then give it to one of the guards outside, and they will hand it over to the receptionists. The receptionists will then grade it based on how difficult it is. The grades are based on the rank system, so an E-rank mission will be most suited for E-rank hunters. Any time there is mentioned a recommended party size, it’s based on the strength of an average person of that rank. Most of the missions are from people who want our help, but some are from the guild itself. Those are for clearing dungeons. Clearing dungeons is the most important job for a hunter. They pay the most too!” – Ruby

I see…

“We’re F-rank hunters, so that means F-rank missions are most suited for us, right?” – Shin

“That’s right.” – Ruby

“Are we allowed to do missions higher than our own rank?” – Shin

“You are, but whenever you want to take a job you need to confirm it with the receptionist first. If they deem it to be too dangerous for you, then they have the right to deny you from taking it.” – Ruby

“I have a question too… How do we rank up?” – Alex

“Heh, already thinking about that, huh?” – Ruby

“It’s another exam, right?” – Shin

“Yup! It works similarly to the F-rank hunter exam. There is an annual exam held that you yourself can choose to enter. If you pass the exam, then you rank up. The biggest difference is that they are not performance based like the F-rank exam, all you need to do is pass them. These exams tend to be much more dangerous than the F-rank exam is, so we don’t want people to enter them before they’re ready. We have our own recommendation system where we look at your performance during missions, especially in dungeons, and then decide if we think you’re ready to take the exam this year or not. Obviously, my opinion is that you should follow the recommendation system. If you don’t, it will almost certainly end very badly for you… But ultimately, it is your decision. Most of the people we recommend to take an exam ranks up, while almost none of the people that we don’t recommend, but that still choose to attempt it, rank up. The system is there for your own safety.” – Ruby

“I see…” – Alex

“Ok… So, when is the next exam?” – Shin

“You’re really eager to rank up, huh?” – Ruby

“I suppose.” – Shin

“It’s in about three months from now, but you should know that it usually takes years before most F-rank hunters to become skilled enough that we recommend that them take it.” – Ruby

“Yeah, yeah… whatever… I haven’t met an E-rank hunter yet, but me and Alex were both significantly stronger than all the other people in the exam. If the average person in that exam was anywhere near the level of an average F-rank hunter, then we should be fine.” – Shin

“Alright… Just don’t come crying to me when you get yourself hurt due to your own recklessness… Anyways, last but not least, that area over there is for the A-rank hunters. Like with most other things in here, you must authenticate yourself to get in. Only A-rank hunter can get in there. Don’t ask me what’s in there though, I’ve never been there either. The A-rank hunters… They’re really something else… I’ve been a B-rank hunter for almost 200 years now, and I’m still nowhere near being recommended to join the A-rank exam…”

“200 YEARS?!!!!” – Alex

“Yes. 200 years… Do I not look my age?” – Ruby

“Uh-” – Alex

I don’t even know what to say…

200 years???

How is that even possible…?

“Alex… Did you not know that BDM slows down your aging? That’s like the biggest reason why most people want to learn it…” – Shin

What?

Why didn’t Vic tell me about that?!

“No… My teacher didn’t tell me about that at all…” – Alex

“Right! His teacher is actually my brother, Victor Lepus! Do you know him?” – Lett

“Victor? Yeah, of course! I was the one that brought him here his first day, just like you guys. He’s a good kid. He probably just wanted Alex to learn BDM for the right reasons.” – Ruby

She’s right…

If my motive was corrupt, it could hinder my true goal.

Thank you, Vic.

You were a good teacher!