After 15 minutes of explanation, I had learnt a lot from Pluvia.

The first thing she explained was what talent effected. According to her it affects the learning speed of skill, as well as the cultivation of energy. According to her energies that grew within their rank like my qi are the only ones affected. Something like a one time enhancement that didn't grow in the level would not be affected. hat sjfha ajfhasjfsa

The second thing she told me was that your talent was changeable. Some rare items could improve it. Though it was not usually more than an increase of 1 or 2. she also said some enhancement allowed you to steal talent, as well as pass that talent on.

When I worried my talent would be stolen, she explained further. The limits to those enhancements were very severe, So it was unlikely they could steal my talent.

Other than this she knew nothing else about talent. Moving on, she explained training manuals

Other than what I had learnt myself , she only knew that there were stages to learning.

The first is called establishment. This is when you understand the basics of the skill. Like how I understood that hate was the basics of the raging sword skill. The next stage was inspiration. This was when you learned a new way to use energy through the skill. When I asked what happened when skills of the same type, like two skills to use energy externally, are learnt. she told me As each skill is individual they would always have a different method to attain their result. She said that even if two skills let you harden your skin, one might use the energy to overpower the cells, whereas the other might pull thing in the air to surround the skin.

Having been sat nearby both Alice and Gareth had understood what was said.

Solomon: all right, I've got it. Thinking about it, maybe I should get a talent stealing enhancement. If my already crazy talent improves further, I could learn hundreds of skills.

Pluvia: I wouldn't recommend it. Usually, the limits to those enhancements is extremely severe. Even if your talent was ten times what it was, the limits on your power would weaken you too much.

From the serious expression on her face, the limits must've been severe. Though I had given up on getting it myself, having a teammate with such an enhancement would be useful.

Solomon: okay, I'll put it out of my mind. Anyway, we've got some free time till they pick a skill. I'm going to chill out then. Leaving them to find a suitable skill, I went and sat in front of the TV. Since the last mission I had all my time either training or making plans for the team.

Turning it on I was surprised with the layout. Unlike normal TV's, there was no channels. A list of recommended videos, as well as a search box were there instead. Unsurprisingly, most of the recommended videos were anime.

laying back into the sofa I turned on one of my all time favourite anime, death note.

Walking over to join me, Pluvia sat next to me.

As I kept watching a new sense of realism was added. It was almost certain that someone out there had the death note. The thought that they could kill me instantly made me nervous. But in the end I couldn't worry about every possibility. There were too many different powers to plan for them all, so I would deal with them as they came.

while I was lost in my thoughts Pluvia had shuffled towards me, leaning against my shoulder.

Pluvia: it's been so long since I could relax freely like this, thank you Solomon.

Surprised by the change in attitude, I replied to her.

Solomon: don't worry about it, if anything I should thank you. I would be long dead without your help.

Pluvia: that's not true. I've met many people in my life, but your special. You have something no one else does.

Solomon: what's that?

Turning my head to look at her, I was entranced by her bright blue eyes.

Pluvia: I'm not sure.

She replied while looking up at me. feeling the atmosphere becoming a little too comfortable, I quickly rose to my feet.

Solomon: whatever it is, lets forget about it for now. Alice and Gareth have probably chosen by now, lets go check.

Walking to the door, Pluvia followed behind me. As I walked out into the main room, a bright light flashed before me. Recognizing it as the light that appeared when you brought something, it seemed they had already brought the skills.

Seeing me come out, Alice beckoned us over.

Alice: Solomon, come look. We've chosen our skills.

After walking over Alice held a book up to me. On the cover was a weird shape. Like a triangle with the top cut of. Inside of this triangle was a spiral and 6 lines, 3 on each side.

Scouring my memories I placed this simple as the earth bending symbol from avatar.

Solomon: this is from avatar, right?

Alice: yep, look.

Pointing to the computer, she had left the description up.

Earth and stone levitation

25 point cost

A book detailing the earth and stone levitation technique in avatar. The user can cause a stone to hover up, then send it flying with kicking or punching motions. The size of the stone lifted depends on the energy used.

Solomon: quite an interesting skill, but, why choose this? Don’t you already have meteor to do the same thing?

Though it was a good skill, it wasn't much different from meteor.

Alice: it does the same thing, however one thing appealed to me. It lets you levitate rocks. I'm hoping to learn how it does so. If I can maybe I can do the same thing with fire water and air when I get the enhancements.

It wasn't a bad idea, if it worked she would be able to control all four elements. That would add a huge amount of versatility and usefulness to her power.

Solomon: that would be very useful, it's not a bad idea.

Moving on I asked what Gareth had got.

Solomon: so what did you choose Gareth?

Like Alice, Gareth also showed me his book and the description.

The cover of the book had two feline eyes. Looking at the description, I understood why

Night vision

20 point cost

A book detailing the night vision skill from sword art online. The user can enhance their eyes to see in the dark, the improvement in vision is proportional to the energy used.

It was a spell from the anime and LN SAO. Though it was a simple skill, I could see his reasoning.

Solomon: interesting choice, so you got this to help with scouting, right?

Gareth: yeah, I thought with this skill I would be able to scout at night. Also as a demonic shade, it would help me when I fight. There's no point making the area dark if it affect me as much as the enemy.

It was a fair point, although he hadn't got a skill like that yet, it would be one of the ones he got in the future. So getting this night vision skill was a good idea.

Solomon: true, so that's skills sorted for now. Let's head back.

Within an instant we appeared back in my hotel room.

Alice: so, what are we going to do now?

Having spent only a while in the guild plane, it was still early morning.

Solomon: we've got three things to do. The first is to buy new consumables. Though were not in need of new weapons, things like food and water need to be bought.

Having spent 15 days in the last mission, we had used up most of our food and water. Being that I now had a interspatial item, we didn't have to worry about carrying it.

Gareth: I can go buy what we need.

Thinking about it, he was the best option. Alice and Pluvia's appearance would draw too much attention, so that left the two of us. As I would be needed for the other things, this was the best outcome.

Solomon: that would be best. Moving on the second thing is buying a guild space.

from Gareth's scouting we had learnt about Guild space's. Most guilds would buy a space in Domain, if they did this space became theirs. In the space the guild could set any rule they wanted as long as it didn't break the already existing laws of domain. Like how the three great guilds made rules in the neutral cities.

Solomon: for this the three of us will go together.

I directed my words at Pluvia and Alice.

Alice: okay, sounds good to me.

Pluvia: sure.

Solomon: once we've brought the space I'll leave you two to organize it.

Moving on, I explained the last thing that needed to be done.

Solomon: lastly, I'll recruit guild members at the enlistment center.

This was the most important thing. And it would also be the most difficult. Both to do and to convince my teammates off. The enlistment center was a building in the center of town. Guildless people would go there in order to find guilds to join.

There were however two problems, the first being my teammates distrust of other. Though I understood their feelings, especially after the problems we've had with the people in domain, we had to recruit members. 4 people, no matter how strong, were not a guild.

The second problem was finding people to recruit. As we had heard from Gareth people would rarely join G rank guilds. The reason for joining a guild was safety. If the strongest person in the guild was only G rank, the feeling of safety was more or less nonexistent.

Alice: WHAT? ARE YOU CRAZY!?

Gareth: THAT'S WAY TOO RISKY!

Contrary to Alice and Gareth's reaction, Pluvia agreed.

Pluvia: I agree.

The looks on Alice and Gareth's face hearing Pluvia turned ugly. If both Pluvia and I agreed, as the two strongest guild members, we could overrule them.

Solomon: we have to accept others into the guild.

Alice: but what if they betray us?

Though I was of the opinion new members were needed, it didn't mean I would just wantonly add anyone.

Solomon: just because I say we need new member, doesn’t mean anyone can join. Like you, I've seen the way people act in domain.

Gareth: then how will you choose who can join.

Solomon: well as you know we're not likely to get many people to choose from, but I'll have two conditions. The first is that they are not stronger than us. As much as having another couple G ranks could help, in the long run it's risky. After all, why would they accept being led by someone no stronger than them.

Alice: that's sensible, but it's still not enough.

Though they both looked like they were starting to accept it, they still didn't consider this enough.

Solomon: the other criteria is that they have to pass my test.

Gareth: your test?

Solomon: for one mission they will join us. During that mission we will observe how they act and their personality. Afterwards we will have a vote to keep them in the guild.

Though it did not remove the risk straight away, the concept of a test mission wasn't bad. Especially when you consider the applicant would probably be unranked.

Alice: I can accept this.

Gareth: me too.