Merchant Of Yliaster

The crowd slowly flowed back into the guild, the show was over. The hunter was staring at Maxwell intently. Maxwell guessed that the man's pride was hurt.

Subskill Unlocked For Soul's Dominion:

Dominion: Consume: Command the dominion to consume a target by utilizing compatible energies in your repertoire.

Huh? Neat, subskills like these were useful despite not having a level, as they automated the processes they described while making them more efficient. The system being as reluctant as it was to interfere with Maxwell's skills, he would take whatever he was given.

It was not long after that the terrified clerk from before was taking Maxwell's information for a membership. The hunter from before, named Gray, stood beside Maxwell. As far as he could tell, this guy, too, had a unique personality.

After Maxwell passed his small test, the man's whole personality flipped, and now, he was tailing him like a fanboy. Maxwell didn't know what to think, and this persona he was forming limited his options greatly. He just sent annoyed glances at the man from time to time, but the hunter wasn't fazed at all.

"I simplified some things, but I still need a name," Ren said, as he showed him the card he was preparing. His class in the membership card was mage, and his level was <27, as that was Gray's level. He was a bit surprised that he could be so private, but it was not hard to think that this was expected.

If anything, being open about what your powers and abilities were was considered to be weird after the initiation. He stared at the empty name section thoughtfully.

Of course, there was a pretty good name he could take, but he was a bit concerned about what would happen afterwards. He couldn't help it, though; it was simply too good to pass without trying.

"Put in Drakhabgar," he said, and felt the darkness energy around the room shudder for a moment. For a fraction of a second, all shadows in the room were darker, and they moved unnaturally. They somehow gave him the same energy as an excited puppy.

The Dark Mask of Drakhabgar is resonating with your soul.

The Vestige Approves.

The Dark Mask of Drakhabgar can now be stored in your soul space.

I can't complain; this definitely turned out better than before. Maxwell thought. He could feel a channel form between him and the mask. Its nature was a bit similar to what he had with Blueberry, but it was not on the same level.

The mask, which understandably felt like a mask before, now felt like he was not wearing anything on his face. It didn't even block his sight.

Being able to store the mask in his soul's space would be very useful, as he could put the mask on directly whenever he wanted, minimizing the possibility of his identity getting exposed. Of course, it was also much cooler this way.

He looked up from the card to see people around him throw anxious glances at shadows, apparently having noticed the change. He considered whether he should embrace this creepy first impression he created. It would certainly help when he needed to convince people to do something.

"Don't worry, they got a bit excited hearing my name," he said, deciding to proceed with this.

The amount of exasperated glances he received was simply too many to count, most of them being mixed with fear. This was a medieval world, and superstitions were still there; if anything, they were enhanced as the world became more magical.

The clerk wrote his name on the card with shaking hands, and as he wrote the last letter, they watched in surprise as the card turned pure black.

"Umm.. It usually doesn't do that." The clerk said, looking at the card disbelievingly.

Maxwell was a bit surprised to see that the names of the gods were so powerful. He was not sure what would happen if someone used his name if this were the case. He really hoped that the effects were more visible due to he being close.

"Will there be a problem?" He asked. His card looked completely different than usual after all.

"No. As you are backed by Mr. Gray, you are considered a veteran on paper, and all veterans get personalized membership cards. We usually hand them out after you take one mission at the least, but this can be your personalized card," the man said, managing to calm himself down.

"Where are the missions?" Maxwell asked, getting to the point immediately. If he was going to earn anything by this creepy persona, he wanted it to be fast and efficient communication.

He was soon led to the upper floor, taking the stairs he had seen before. The second floor still had the same casual air about it, but it was much less crowded compared to the lower floor.

He could see big books on pedestals, and some were looking through these books. It made sense that they would place the missions on books instead of a board, but he was a bit curious how they handled more than one party taking the same job.

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"The system really made organizing such things easier. Our staff here have abilities enabling them to edit books really fast, so whenever one selects a mission, it gets removed from all books." The clerk said, giving him a basic rundown of how their system worked.

They, though, passed through this floor to reach a different stair. Maxwell could see some people looking at him curiously.

Soon, they were on a different floor, and this looked a lot different from the ones before. The tavern-like look was completely gone, and there were no books around. A row of small cubicles lined one of the walls, filled with personnel.

"This is the veteran exclusive floor, most of the veteran missions are quite classified, so we can't put them in a book like before, instead, every mission is selected by us, according to the known qualities and wishes of Veterans when they want to take on a job of this level." The clerk said, before glancing at him thoughtfully.

Maxwell was pretty sure that the man was considering who would take him on in this daunting task.

"I think Dave would suit you pretty well as your organizer." The man said after a minute of consideration, before leading him to the cubicle in the right corner.

"I will be taking my leave then, we should spar some day," Gray, who was shadowing them creepily for some time, said before leaving without waiting for a reply.

Oh, he is one of those, Maxwell thought. It explained why the man was so excited to be around him after seeing that he was strong. Being a strong battle junkie was a hard way to live as opponents were hard to come by.

He entered the cubicle, and could see a young man sitting ın a chair, reading a book behind the table inside. Maxwell glanced at the book, and he could see its title. All Materials Used In Construction, it read, and Maxwell just stared at it for a second before sitting on the chair. He couldn't imagine why this guy would want to know on a subject like that, but he supposed everyone had their weird interests.

To his surprise, the man just gazed at him without showing a single emotion, as he closed the book in his hand and placed it on the table. Maxwell could see that he had placed the book exactly in the corner. Everything about the man had a sense of order, and the table was unnaturally tidy.

"What kind of a mission do you want?" He said, his voice too, completely devoid of emotions. Maxwell couldn't hold his curiosity back and observed the man.

Dave - Researcher - Lvl-25

What is a researcher doing working as a mission organizer? Maxwell couldn't understand. This wasn't the time to ask that question to the man, though.

"Something simple," he replied. The man continued to surprise him as he threw him an annoyed look.

"I don't have many simple jobs," he said, and took two blank papers before laying them on the table.

Maxwell felt a brief surge of energy and mana into the papers and watched words form on them in fascination. The system-assisted skills were much more complex than what one could achieve with manual manipulation.

He checked the papers, and he was pretty satisfied with what he found. One of them was commissioned by a noble, and it was about eradicating a bandit group. The group apparently occupied a pretty important trade route, and the military was too busy with the troubles caused by the initiation to deal with them.

The other job was much simpler. A farmland to the west belonging to a different noble was infested by ants, and they wanted them gone. This job seemed like an easy one on first glance, but this wouldn't necessarily be the case, as these ants, too, would have gone through initiation.

Considering how busy ants usually were, Maxwell was pretty sure that they would be fast in gaining levels. No one wanted to fight against thousands of high-level monsters at the same time.

"I will take both," he said, and he could swear a small spark of interest inside Dave's eyes for a moment.

"Usually, that wouldn't be possible for your first mission, but it seems like they have given you veteran rights. I would advise you not to let the ant colony fester for long. They breed and develop fast." Dave said.

Maxwell finally found what was so weird about the man. With the dominion skill, Maxwell could see people's souls, and their souls changed subtly as they experienced emotions. This guy's soul, though, was like a frozen lake, unchanging and still. It was no wonder that the clerk chose him as his organizer.

Dave waved his hand, and the text on the papers slowly dissolved into energy and mana. Maxwell, evercurious, observed the mana, but apart from mental energy and man's pure mana, there was nothing he could see. So, mundane skills use pure mana? He theorized.

Everyone's mana was pure at the start, which was the stat shown as mana in the system interface. From what Maxwell understood, everyone had a mana type that their pure mana could turn into and interact with more easily, and this mana type was their personal affinity. At least that was what Maxwell theorized, according to things he had seen so far.

You could use pure mana for skills without bothering yourself with the whole affinity business like Dave did just now, but that was really inefficient, as pure mana was not specialized enough. For mundane skills, though, it made sense that the system would choose versatility over efficiency.

His thoughts were interrupted by Dave's voice. "I hope you remember the details. If you can't, those jobs are probably too much for you." The man said, and Maxwell couldn't even get annoyed as not a single smidgen of negative emotions radiated from the man as he said what he said. He was just stating a fact.

"Thanks," Maxwell said and got up to leave. He figured he wouldn't need to be very strict with his persona around this guy. The whole point of the silent persona was lost on the guy anyway.

Soon, he was standing outside the building, unsure about which job he should do. He supposed he could give one of them to Blueberry, but he was a bit anxious about sending the bird at something too powerful.

Also, apart from the general direction she was in, he didn't know what the bird was doing. She probably got impatient staying at level 19 and went for some hunting by herself.

He decided to try something. He focused on the link between him and the bird, clearly feeling that it was made from the same energy as his usual soul channels. If it were a soul channel, Maxwell figured that he could send information through it if he reinforced it temporarily.

He used the dominion skill and tried to reinforce the link, and was surprised to feel a huge amount of energy leaving his body. When he considered it, it was not hard to understand the reason, as the channel was much longer than his usual channels.

In his senses, the channel disappeared into the horizon, and his mana was disappearing at a visible rate. He quickly sent the mission with the bandits through the channel, accompanied by a vague thought of leveling opportunities hastily before the channel closed down with a mental equivalent of a snap.

I really hope that message reaches her properly. The last thing Maxwell wanted was for Blueberry to misunderstand the message as "tame the bandits" or something.

Now, though, he had an ant nest to take care of.