Three days passed fairly quickly. Neither Kahari or Chara could leave the city lest they void their registration by not being available when they were needed. While they waited, Bedora and Nissa took several trips into the forest to hunt some monsters, both for materials and cash. Chara and Kahari spent most of their time in the Association building or the pocket dimension the arena was prepared inside of. They even had a few more duels against each other, each costing two hundred fifty crowns for use of the facilities. Now it was 2-3, in Chara’s favor, for wins. They’d even teamed up to face down a Monster Boar that’d picked up the Fire Elemental trait. They’d eked out a win, but it’d tested them to no end. As that was a proper fight, for cash and fame, they’d not been charged and with the winnings split, had earned another four hundred Crowns for themselves.

It was just after lunch that a Goblin boy in fine dress approached Kahari as he was headed back to his room.

“Miraki Kahari? Follow me please, it’s time to finish registration.”

After returning his equipment to his room, Kahari followed the Goblin. Back in the moving room, he pressed a button labeled ‘Administration’. This was the longest ride Kahari had had in this room by far, and when the doors opened, his jaw dropped. The window across the hall had clouds rolling by. He...he wasn’t in Ixul anymore, he was somewhere above the clouds themselves, though he couldn’t see the ground. For all he knew it was just an illusion on the windows, but regardless, it was a wondrous sight that took his breath away.

The Goblin gave him a moment to appreciate the view before gesturing for him to follow. They passed a number of doors, some identical to that of the moving room, but others were heavy set wood, or gilded metal. Finally they stopped in front of one labeled ‘Registration - Ixul’. The Goblin opened the door and bowed as Kahari stepped in, door shutting quietly behind him. The room had plush white carpet, comfortable furniture, and a pleasant smell of pine needles. Silhouetted against the light coming from the large windows behind him was a red skinned man with horns and fearsome looking tusks.

His clothing was fine, and while he looked menacing, he didn’t give off an air of hostility.

“Take a seat please, just some formalities, information, and your starter set.”

He waited patiently for Kahari to take a seat, papers piled high and neat on the desk before him. The man pressed a quill to paper. The first few questions were just confirmation of things he’d put down on his registration paperwork. After that came the new items on the agenda.

“Firstly, a formality. Your parents, one Miraki Ranori, and Miraki Aira, maintained an account and vault with the Association. With their tragic deaths, it’s contents have mostly been transferred to your own control. The will they left with us dictated that the weapons and armor be added to our own vaults, but the cash and potions were to be divided between you and your sisters. A small portion was also set aside for one Miraki Nui, and Robun Crellot, and the rest has been transferred to your control. The portions marked for Aiyoko and Tanaya have also been given to your control as their elder brother. Upon their rescue, unless they file otherwise, those portions under your control can be withdrawn, transferred to a bank, or they can open their own Association account. Here is a copy of the will for yourself, a ledger of the account contents, and a copy of the key to the vault itself. If the key does not work, we will replace it free of charge. If it is lost, it will be one thousand Crowns to replace.”

Kahari accepted the will, and while he didn’t recognize the handwriting within, being much neater than his fathers, it was indeed signed by both his parents. His mother’s signature matched the handwriting, and a Association representative signed off as a witness to the agreement. While he couldn’t understand the numbers presented in the ledger for how things were divided, best as Kahari could tell, they were accurate. He nearly tucked both away in his pocket.

“Next, your badge. Your name has already been engraved. We just need to sync it to you, and lock in a job of your choice. Unlike now, where your job is roughly dictated by your skills, a locked job always has it’s effects. There is a ledger here with a list of jobs for you to choose one from. Once you reach silver rank, you will be allowed to choose secondary jobs. If you know of a job not listed, it will take me a few minutes to confirm it’s existence before I can lock it onto you. Should you ever make it to High tier levels, options can be presented to create your own job, though we shall only present those rules if you are interested at the time.”

Kahari accepted the Job Ledger and began going through the contents. It was divided into different job types by their primary. Martial classes like Knight, Arcane classes like Wizard, Support like Druid, Sniper like Artillerist, and Patron like Cleric. There was a note next to most Patron classes that the Patron giving power to the job holder must approve of the contract. There were also Crafter, Producer, and Administrator jobs tucked at the back, but they were mostly civilian jobs with little to no adventurer utility.

Kahari browsed the jobs for several minutes, the man across the desk from him quietly doing some paperwork while he waited. Finally Kahari selected a job, Arcnaist. It was somewhat of a combination between a Knight, Enchanter. A Martial/Support/Crafter class. It excelled in working with magical materials, though Enchanter could produce stronger effects. As a Job ability, it gave him buffs and debuffs he could apply using SP or MP, mainly applying to equipment.

“Alright, your badge will now identify you as an Arcnaist. Prick a finger and press it against the badge so it is synced to you.”

Kahari followed instructions as the man retrieved a bronze badge, a simple rectangle that could be attached to any clothing, armor, or simply hung from the neck. It glowed white for a moment, before his name and class were carved into it. Alongside them was an indication of his current level, and his status.

“Third, your starter kit and instructions. As you were sponsored, you skip the normal probationary membership, and start as a full member. Normally you’d be given a vault or account, but you already have those.”

He placed three pieces of spell-paper on the table.

“First is access to your Bag. Every association member has a Bag, a pocket dimension they can store non-perishable items in. It’s size and speed of access are adjusted by your rank, level, and magic stat. No magic short of the Divine can enter your bag while you still live. Should you die, even if you are revived, the bag will unlock and Administrators here can access it. We have a six month waiting period barring a will or investigation before we will touch a Bag. If you were revived, reincarnated, or converted into another including the unliving, a simple test at any Association branch will relock your bag to you, though you may still access it as long as your badge is functional.”

Kahari pricked his finger to learn the spell for accessing the bag. Once that was done the man gestured to the second page.

“This will allow you to cast the status spell. If a target is not willing, it will continuously drain mana at a rate proportional to the targets level. This third paper is an enchantment that will allow you to view your HP, MP, SP, Status, and Party Status at all times. A simple mental command can rearrange, dismiss, or alter the presentation of the number, though this enchantment does not allow for changing of the numbers themselves.”

Kahari nodded and went through both before glancing at the new information before his eyes.

He was currently at eleven hundred and forty-eight HP, six hundred thirty three SP, and five hundred thirty two MP. He could see Bedora, Nissa, and Chara’s statuses, but not their bars or numbers. Bedora and Nissa were ‘Traveling - No Threat’ while Chara was ‘Resting - No Threat’.

“Finally, a small book that will sync to the Association building in each town. It will tell you what facilities may be used or rented, occupancy, status of the Association building, and rules for the use of everything. Furthermore this book can be used to register new party members, or remove them. If the party has an official head, such power may be restricted to them, or require their approval. To form a guild, you will need to speak to a clerk to begin the paperwork. Finally it will also list any accepted quests, bulletins if in range of the building, and any borrowed materials or equipment, along with how much they cost per day or to replace if lost or stolen.”

Kahari accepted the book. It looked like it only had a small number of pages, but upon opening it, they magically appeared and disappeared as needed.

“Now we just need to finish filling out the paperwork, shouldn’t be more than fifteen minutes, and you are free to go.”

He held a quill out to Kahari, and indicated a much smaller stack of papers. Much of this was listing family members, associations with countries or churches, any known outstanding bounties, and so forth. Most of it went by fairly quickly, and once he was done the man gestured.

“You may leave, you now have access to all facilities that have not been locked at the request of a High-tier or higher member, or due to damage. I would recommend visiting some Association guild shops, or the Ixul library if you have the chance. You will need to formally register your party for ‘Operation Shadow Cat’ once your fourth member is fully registered herself. If you are not the party leader, this quest requires them to take the steps themselves. Have a nice day.”

The door behind them opened and the same Goblin from before was waiting. Next to him was the Seer whose match Kahari had watched before. Exiting with his small amount of new equipment, and badge draped from his neck. He was taken back to his room. From there he was free to explore as he wished. Instead he retired to his room to try and make sense of what his parents had left him.

He couldn’t wrap his head around the seemingly arbitrary values assigned to some things. Besides the Crowns used here in Altesia, he also saw Ducats, Crystals, Spirals, and Shells listed in the currencies, though thankfully their values were converted to Crowns already. Most of the Crowns in the vault were silver, the most common denomination. Copper was worth less, but most people used silver. Besides them there were Electrum, Gold, Platinum, and Star Mithril Crowns. He’d never seen anything about Electrum, but it was pretty much twenty to one the way up. One Star Mithril was twenty Platinum, one Platinum was twenty gold.

Kahari didn’t really know the numbers beyond the thousands range, but it was hard to grasp just how much money a Mithril Crown represented. Course it was some kind of special Mithril, an alloy known as Star Mithril, as normal Mithril for equipment was worth nowhere near that much. He knew that the mayor of Seras had Electrum, but no Gold Crowns had ever been used in or near Seras that he was aware of. He shook his head, judging by the ledger, he was sitting on around two hundred fifty thousand crowns and change. That was a baffling amount of money to him, of course only around eighty thousand of that was actually his.

He opened his book and flipped through the pages. Vaults could be accessed through the ‘Elevator’ system. He could only guess that was the name of the moving rooms he had been using up till now. Heading down, he showed his badge and key to the guard, a Emerald rank lizardman who wore heavy plate armor of some alloy Kahari didn’t recognize. The Guard nodded and let Kahari through. There was a hall beyond, once more made of simple but warm grey stone, and a series of plain doors with a keyhole.

The book said any door would work, so he moved to the first one and opened it. The door glowed for a moment, before displaying his name and opening. Inside was a small room and safes along a wall. On one wall was a tray. Checking the instructions, he merely needed to speak out loud here to have the number, quality, and type of coins he wanted.

“Five hundred silver Crowns.”

There was a thunk, and the tray filled with the coins before ejecting so he could collect them. Ten thousand Crowns in an instant. He carefully moved all the money he was using to his Bag, as well as some of the minor healing and mana potions he’d been given. Heading back upstairs with his haul, he slipped a note under Nissa, Bedora, and Chara’s doors telling them he was going to do some shopping, and check out the Association forges he now had access to. To that end, he had been left his share of the Orb Weaver Chitin, along with some Silverwood, and Orb Weave Silk. It wasn’t a lot, but enough for him to experiment with. The rest of the Orb Weaver drops had been sold, or made into ink.

Kahari wanted to explore Ixul before trying to figure out the Association shops. It seemed most Association buildings were much larger than they appeared, connecting to pocket dimensions that allowed goods to be sold from across the entire continent. Of course there was a premium fee, it cost a lot of magic to actually move from one building to another through the pocket dimension, and that included items. Entering and exiting where you came from was simple, but actually teleporting was the expensive part. To that end, most goods in the Association shops were probably high end, rare, or things like spells which could be consumed on the spot instead of transported.

With a plan of action in mind, Kahari stepped outside into a warm day. Warm by the standards of Autumn anyway, or was it Winter now? He’d have to look at a calendar. Between training and fighting, he’d lost track of time, and the section of city he was in had no trees to check. He guessed Autumn, seeing as warm days were still happening, instead of the near permanent frost of winter. Taking a step down the road to where most of the shops were set up, Kahari hummed quietly to himself. Once more, he favored the very song Tanaya tended to hum when she was busy.