Oz stood at the base of the Hunters Guild steps, looking up at the glass building that shimmered in the afternoon light. From the outside, it looked more like a fancy bank or one of those elite law firms than anything related to monster slaying.
He rubbed the egg roll grease off his fingers and stepped inside.
The front lobby was colder than outside, polished white floors and gold-trimmed pillars lining the sides. A long digital screen stretched across the back wall above the reception desk, displaying mission updates, emergency alerts, and rankings.
But Oz wasn't really looking at any of that.
He was still thinking.
Appraise the skill or not?
The government said it was smart. The moment you awaken, get your skill appraised. Let people know what you can do. Get noticed. Get help. Maybe even land a sponsorship from one of the big guilds.
But Oz knew there was a fine line between genius and monster, once you crossed that line people would do anything to get rid of you if they thought you couldn't be controlled
A few of the older guys he trained with had strong skills. . As soon as they got appraised, people started showing up. Recruiters, agents, sponsors. It looked good from the outside… they turned you into a celebrity.
Whether or not that was a benefit was debatable
Oz liked moving fast, but only if it was at his discretion.The world didn't need to know of his skill, at least not now while they could still do something about it.
He stepped past the reception desk, waved his new ID at the scanner, and the guard waved him through without a second glance.
The mission board was huge.
An entire wall near the back of the Guild building, split into sections: F-Rank, E-Rank, Urgent Notices, Training Missions, and Escort Requests. Each listing had a code, reward amount, location, and a recommended combat score.
He stared at the E-Rank section for a long time, reading slowly.
Most missions were simple stuff: clean out a nest of rats that had mutated in the sewer, track down a rogue slime infestation in an abandoned warehouse, escort a merchant cart to a nearby outpost.
Nothing fancy. But real enough. With Real pay.
Before picking one, Oz opened his status again and stared at the screen.
[Name: Oswald]
[Level: 1]
[Score: 12]
[Strength: 2]
[Constitution: 1]
[Agility: 6]
[Intelligence: 2]
[Wisdom: 1]
[Free Points: 3]
[Skill: Swiftstride (A+)] — (+4 Agility per level)
"Three points," he muttered under his breath.
Every Hunter got 3 free attribute points when they leveled up, depending on how they spent them and what skills they racked up they'd be offered a Class, a sort of specialization, at Level 5 and if you didn't like the options given to you or felt it you could do better you could decline, but then at you'd be forced to choose a class at level 10 or stay classless forever.
The obvious move was splitting between strength and constitution, Swiftstride meant he'd be wasting his talents if he stayed at the back and swung spells left and right. Naturally eliminating Int and Wis, for now at least, Ideally he'd like some magical firepower sometime down the line.
The next obvious one to dismiss would be Agility as it was already his highest stat by a large margin, with the boost it'd be getting every level churning more points into would make him too one dimensional.
Or maybe that was the path forward, go all in on Agi and aim for a unique class at level 5 that would hopefully balance his weaknesses, after all it wouldn't be too late to pivot after that if the options were unsatisfactory.
But then again his Constitution was low, only 1. He could dodge, sure, but if something hit him, it would hurt pretty badly.
Maybe he could put one point in Con and two in Agi. Or maybe boost Strength a little so Coco could actually do damage.
Oz chewed on his lip, eyes still fixed on the board.
He didn't need to decide now.
He could try a simple mission first. See how it felt. Then assign the points after.
On the second level of the building, behind a frosted glass door labeled [Branch Manager's Office], two people were having a quiet conversation.
Tanya Grey, a middle-aged woman with silver-streaked hair and a sharp face, leaned back in her chair with a tablet in hand. Across from her sat Alec Varn, assistant manager and the one in charge of all new awakeners. He was younger, lean, with his sleeves rolled up and a folder full of paperwork on his lap.
"So," Tanya said, tapping the screen, "looks like we had thirty-seven new awakeners today."
"Yeah," Alec nodded. "Two C-rank skills, four B-minus, and the usual flood of D and E-tiers."
Tanya raised an eyebrow. "No A-ranks again?"
"A necromancer showed up," Alec said, flipping to the right page. "Skill registered as 'Gravecall'. A-minus rank. Full summoning potential, corpse manipulation, the whole thing, but this one's a bit dark even for a necromancer, According to the skill description in order to raise the thing he has to be the one to kill it, and it resurrects almost completely intact, full memory and everything, completely subservient to the person who offed you."
"We've already forwarded their info to Central. If he didn't summon them back as walking skeletons and rotting zombies I'd say he was just bringing the damn creatures back to life."
Tanya made a face. "How old?"
"Seventeen. Kid looked terrified."
"Of course he did. You wake up one day and find out you can talk to corpses, makes sense why he chose not to hide it then."
They sat in silence for a moment before Alec cleared his throat.
"There is one other rumor that's come through."
Tanya scrunched her face, she didn't like rumors. She'd been doing this job long enough to know most of them were full of crap.
"Of what kind?"
"Supposedly," Alec said carefully, "someone awakened S-rank. In the Middle East. Klause says the mana spike was insane throughout multiple signal hubs ."
Tanya rubbed her forehead and exhaled slowly. "Let's hope it's just a signal bug."
"Yeah," Alec muttered. "Let's."
She tapped her nails against her desk for a moment.
"Anything else?"
Alec glanced down at his notes. "There was one interesting unappraised cadet from Kanvers branch.Combat score went from 8 to 12. Didn't go to for appraisal. Just took his ID and left."
"He probably got some D-rank one time fixed upgrade, there's nothing of interest here"Tanya said as she quickly scrolled through the file.
"Still just keep an eye on him. If he takes some long distance mission or disappears for any length of time, bump him into the early watchlist."
Alec gave a short nod and stood.
-
Downstairs, Oz finally picked a mission.
[Mission Accepted: Sewer Nest – E-03-B]
Objective: Eliminate mutated rat nest under Old Block 6
Reward: 40 credits + bonus for nest core retrieval
Recommended Combat Score: 7+
Status: In Progress
He let out a slow breath.
Time to earn a living.