Eris hung around at the manor until Roxy returned from the Academy. She was so excited about reforming our party that she could hardly wait. We were leaning towards our original name of 'Dead End'. 'The Greyrats' was off the table. Paul agreed once I reminded him that naming our party by our last names would just turn us into celebrities (although in a way we kind of already are). Still though, it will bring only more attention to ourselves, and he didn't like the idea of that either.
"Roxy!", Eris greeted her. "Do you want to join our adventuring party? You do, don't you?"
"You're going to be an adventurer?"
"Yeah! Doesn't it sound fun?"
"I don't know if I'll have the time with my job at the Academy."
"You don't have to come with for every job. Just join us when you have the time and want to."
"Well... I suppose it wouldn't hurt. Why not? Who else is going to be in our party?"
"Rudeus, Sylphiette, Ruijerd, and Paul."
"I don't think I'll be out adventuring all the time either", I said.
"What's this about going adventuring now?", Sylphy said as she walked down the stairs towards us, rubbing her sleepy eyes as she just woke up from her nap. "You guys are making a party together?"
"I thought you said Sylphiette was in our party. You didn't ask her yet?", Roxy asked.
"Well, she was sleeping. Plus, I'm sure she won't want to be the only one left out."
"You're right about that", Sylphy agreed. "I can't let the two of you steal Rudy away for weeks on end."
With that, the five of us (Paul included), headed to the Adventurer's Guild to form our party.
"I'm sorry, but I can't include members in your party who aren't present", the clerk said flatly.
"Can't you make an exception? We were all in a party together before", Eris argued.
"Ugh, Rudeus. I don't know why you ever disbanded our party in the first place!"
"Ruijerd is busy looking for his people, and we went our separate ways. I thought our adventuring days were behind us."
"Whatever", she said, slightly annoyed. "Just form the party with the five of us for now."
"Sure", the clerk answered. "Have you decided on what you would like to use for your party's name?"
"Dead End."
"Very well. Please press here and then hand your cards to me for a moment."
The clerk had us press our thumbs on the indicated spot on our cards and then took them into the back room and returned a couple minutes later alongside a few other employees.
"Please make sure everything is in order", the clerk said as she handed everyone their cards back. Well... everyone's except for mine, that is.
"Sir, there seems to be a problem with your card. Could you please follow these men to see the branch Guildmaster?"
The employees next to her sneered at me. Their expressions told me that 'No' wasn't an option.
"Sure."
I followed the men upstairs to a room where the Guildmaster sat behind a desk loaded with paperwork. He was a somewhat elderly man, probably a retired adventurer by the looks of it.
"What is it this time?", the old man grumbled.
"Master Darius, we caught this kid trying to join a party with a stolen card."
"...And? Why are you wasting my time with this? Handle it yourselves."
"Well, he was hanging out with a pretty tough crowd", one of the men said. "We didn't want to cause a scene."
"Yeah, he was with an 'S' rank and two 'A' ranks", another one agreed.
The Guildmaster finally set down the scroll he had bene reading and focused on me.
"Wait a minute... Wha-? What are you idiots doing!?", he yelled as he jumped out of his chair.
The men who escorted me here jumped back and the one let go of my shoulder.
"This man is a genius artificer and high ranking member of the Magic Guild!", he said while scolding his employees.
"I'm so sorry", Darius said while bowing to me in apology. "I hope these fools didn't cause you too much trouble."
"Not at all. I'm just confused as to what they mean by a stolen card."
"This is it", one of the men said as they handed Darius my Adventurer's card.
Darius looked it over carefully.
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Name: Rudeus Greyrat
Sex: Male
Race: Human
Age: 15
Profession: Magician
Rank: [A]
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"No, this isn't stolen. This is without a doubt Rudeus Greyrat."
"Our mistake sir. We didn't recognize him and Mira told us he had a stolen card."
"Mira did? How strange, that's unlike her. She's always so thorough."
Darius handed my card back to me.
"Please, follow me", he asked. "I'll get this cleared up for you right away."
He took me to the backroom where Mira the clerk had taken all of our cards. There was a small Magic Item in the shape of a sphere; it looked kind of like a crystal ball.
"If you would, please press your thumb here."
I did so. Darius then took the card and tapped it against the sphere. A message displayed on the sphere.
[Error: Mana signature does not match]
"Oh, I've seen this happen before. It's rare, but sometimes these cards go bad and need replacing. Let me get you a replacement; free of charge, of course."
Darius opened a drawer and handed out a blank card.
"Press your thumb here, please."
I did so and he tapped it against the sphere.
[Mana signature not found. Create new user?]
"How strange... Now this I've never seen before. You've clearly been an adventurer in the past. This magic item should remember you for your lifetime."
I was less concerned with having to get a new card and more intrigued by how this Magic Item worked. The fact that these cards worked in different branches throughout the world meant that these spheres must all be connected somehow, just like my Lithograph Stones. Additionally, these were capable of storing a vast amount of information, similar to a database on a hard drive.
"We'll just register you as a new adventurer. Don't worry, I can set your rank back to 'A' since this was a mistake on our end."
"Uh, sure."
Darius tapped my card against the ball twice more and then pressed a couple places on it.
"The party he was trying to join was called 'Dead End'", I could hear Mira whisper to him.
He tapped it against the sphere once more and then handed it back to me.
************************
Name: Rudeus Greyrat
Sex: Male
Race: ???
Age: ???
Profession: Magician
Rank: [A]
Party: Dead End [A]
************************