Chapter 10: Your Rank

Huge uranian blue painted walls with ancient molding designs greeted the newly registered adventurer Lithea when she entered the chief's room. Her eyes feasted on the colourful paintings hanging on the walls.

"Welcome, my dear." The woman behind the white desk spoke. She's wearing a blue dress and a huge white gem necklace hanging on her neck. "Sit down, sit down."

Lithea slowly made her way to the armchair in front of her desk. She thought it was weird how there's only one armchair for her to receive her visitors, as offices normally would have two receiving.

Once she was comfortably seated, the lady brought a huge crystal ball in front of her and it floated once she settled it down.

'Eh?'

"I am the chief of the guild, Calla," she introduced, "you are Lithea Sol Clanwing, right?"

The bud who's just beginning to bloom finds the person she's weird creepy. She doesn't like the grin she gave her after saying her name. Especially on how she emphasizes her middle name. What does she have in her family?

 Lithea forced herself to nod.

"Give me your hand, dear."

The softness of her voice doesn't make it easier. It is soothing yet eerie at the same time, is it just because she's on a high rank? But her master is in a high rank as well, Lithea couldn't understand what she's feeling. But settled on the probability that she's just nervous.

Although she doesn't know if she really is nervous.

Lithea raised her dominant hand and placed it on Calla's hand.

She rubbed it and examined it with intense gaze. Lithea took notice of how her blue eyes changed their colours to amber.

Squinting her eyes to get a better look, Lithea leaned a bit closer to confirm it but Calla blinked and placed her hand on top of the crystal ball. She knows.

With a gentle smile on her face, Calla looked at Lithea's confused look.

"Let us see which rank you belong to."

Waving her gloved hand, her necklace glowed and created a white beam towards the crystal ball.

'What is this?'

Lithea watched the beam hugging the entire crystal ball and when it's done, it faded.

"Summon your mana to the ball, dear."

She felt her whole world stop, now, she can finally tell she's nervous. What would happen if she accidentally summons more than enough? Will her training be in vain?

"Any minute now," Calla smiled with her eyes twinkling.

"Err," Lithea felt her whole body reacted to the pretentious smile she's displaying, "alright."

She concentrated and took a small amount of mana to place on the ball.

Calla grinned, she had predicted what would happen after hearing her name.

From blue to amber, Calla activated her vision. A power that's passed on to every chief to help them determine which rank an adventurer belongs to.

The crystal released an enormous amount of light, Calla had to squint her eyes, it was blinding. She's never seen anything like this before, she only heard of someone who created this much light on their registration, the dark mage, the missing Nyx Ciar.

Lithea couldn't see what's happening as she doesn't have Calla's vision. Only those with vision can see the power one has. It is similar to the divine's power but Calla can only see the strength to determine their rightful rank, while the divines can see the amount of power they have. The divines' vision are helpful to determine whose mana was used in an accident or incident as it can also act as DNA for adventurers. But the downside of it, the mana only leaves its trace for a few hours, depending on how powerful it is.

Calla's amber eyes became lighter as she cannot move away from what was presented in front of her. Such power, it is so rare. She's fixated on it, she wants to know more about it. She has to be in the highest rank so she could keep an eye on her.

Afraid of Calla's reaction, Lithea pulled her hand back and the light the chief's seeing vanished.

Calla blinked and her eyes went back to blue; she stared at the person in front of her blankly.

"Excuse me?" Lithea spoke, it awakened the person she's with, "may I know my rank?"

Clapping, and forcing herself to laugh, "Right, right."

'Weird.'

"Come with me," Calla stood up all of a sudden and exited the room. Lithea was too dumbfounded at her actions; she should be on guard.

Calla entered the room at the end of the hall and she followed slowly. The plate on top of the room says 'keeper'.

'The archivist? What are we doing here?'

"Rego," Calla opened the door before knocking on it, "I have something to tell you."

"CALLA!" the person she's talking to shouted, "HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU, RESPECT MY PRIVACY!"

Lithea mentally sighed, did she make the right choice in joining this guild full of wackos?

"Yada, yada, yada," she snicker, "what I'm about to tell you is important."

"I do not like that wicked smile of yours, Calla," Rego started shuffling his papers and fixed his eyeglasses. "What is it about?"

Calla's eyes glowed and it sent shivers down Rego's spine. He knew how crazy Calla could be, years of working with her got him familiarized with how she could be. And she is strong.

"Ruby ring."

Rego's brow twitched, he is the keeper for a reason. It was between him and Calla the King had to choose for the position of the guild's Chief and the guild's keeper. With Calla's crazy tendencies, and although she's a brilliant adventurer, her personality made the King entrust him with the archive.

He bit his lower lip hard and threw daggers at Calla's with how intense he's looking at her.

She scoffed, "I cannot be killed with that, Rego."

Lithea alerted herself with the mention of being killed, she's still a foot behind Calla.

"Get to the point, Chief," he continued with his paper works.

"I have a person for that ring."

Rego took his glasses off and clicked his tongue, "what are you playing, Calla?"

She just smiled.

"We are not allowed to give the rank just on someone, we have to call a meeting and let the council know. If they approve of it, then, we can assure that person their place on the rank."

Calla sighed and turned to face Lithea who's outside, "come here, dear."

Lithea moved beside her and she was face to face with Rego who has an unwelcoming presence.

"Don't be like that," Calla placed her hands on the either side of Lithea's shoulders, "you are scaring the poor girl."

Rego shook his head and stood to take some book from his bookshelf, "I think you are the one who is scaring the young lady."

His office is different, his walls are all shelves, and it is full of books. Ancient or newly published, he has everything he needs. But the secret is, behind one of these walls, is a secret passage where all records since the kingdom's establishment were kept and preserved.

And behind one of these shelves, the secret stash of the ruby rings was kept. And since there are six people in the rank, there is only one ring left.

"Am I?" Calla circled Lithea before facing the keeper, "you should give the ring to her."

Rego sighed, "as I said—"

"I know, but the decision is final."

He dropped the books he's taken on his desk and snapped his fingers, slamming the doors and the windows close; he locked the room.

Calla proceeded to sit on one of the armchairs in his office and crossed her legs, shaking her head. "Oh my, oh my."

Lithea was too stunned, 'what in the world is going on?'

"Who's scaring the new girl, now?" she teased.

"I will not just hand the ring to anyone!"

She leaned her back on the chair, "What if she's worthy?"

"What is your intention?"

Calla flipped her hair and grinned, "She's special."

Whipping her head towards Lithea's, she raised an eyebrow, "am I right, Sol?"

Lithea flinched at the mention of her mother's name.

"Sol?"

Rego walked slowly towards Lithea to get a better look when all of a sudden, there's a red light illuminating the room. It came from the upper part of the shelf, behind it is where the rings were kept.

"Oh," a wicked grin appeared on Calla's face.

The books from that shelf fell as a black box filled with dust tried to escape from where it was hidden. It kept banging the wall where the shelf was mounted until it created a hole for it to pass. This is an unpredicted situation, Rego has never heard nor read from the records that the ring has chosen its owner. But with her background as a Sol, a direct descendant of the swordsman who fought Azazel, it is not impossible.

"No, no, no," Rego was frantically shaking his head, "what is happening?"

Everyone in the room watched the box floating down towards Lithea and opened itself to reveal the remaining ring. Calla was so amused at what she had witnessed, she knew it was not wrong to give her the rank despite being inexperienced. She has to know who she trained under. This power, this strength, and especially the confidence the child holds is comparable to Nyx's. The first time she felt this was with their former co-ruby rank adventurer who suddenly vanished during her trip to the forbidden forest.

Her case is still ongoing, and no matter how hard the investigating unit tries, they stray further and further away from the truth. They can't find a single hint that could unravel Nyx's whereabouts. All are theories that have no strong basis.

'A priestess with a light rank, a power that could be equal to a divine, there is a possibility she can help us solve this case.'

Lithea raised her hand, she was hypnotized on touching the ring. She felt warm from it.

"Don't touch that!" Rego yelled and snatched the box. "What are you?"

His question is genuine and serious, he wants to know her background. Why was she chosen by the stone?

Calla stood and summoned her mana all over her body, her hair flying away from her face from the effect, "What are you doing, keeper?"

Her strong presence was not enough to shake him, he raised his hand and gathered every sword he's hidden in the room towards him, "that should be my line, Chief."

'What is going on?'

"What was your motive in forcing the rank to this child? The stone chose her, you very well know what's in this stone."

All of a sudden, the box flew towards Calla. Nobody saw how she did it but they assumed she used her power to take it from him.

"Calla!"

"Don't you want to know where she is?" Calla asked him, "are you not curious how powerful she is?" her eyes averted to Lithea's.

Rego formed his hand to a fist and a sword penetrated the box from Calla's hand.

"You will use a child for this obsession of yours?"

"I told you, Nyx is the reason why everything is messed up."

He sighed, done with Calla's mind games, and childish exploits. This has been going on for years since her disappearance, "our friend may be the only dark mage, but you know she's a good person."

Rego took the ring from the box and threw it to Lithea.

"It chose you, you're now a member of the highest rank of the Meadow Capital's guild, the Ruby."

Lithea stared at the ring on her palm, it kept emitting a very strong light.

"Congratulations!" The cheerful greeting from the chief made Lithea hesitate on accepting her rank. Just before all of this, the two had a serious fight within such a small room.

How could anyone take these two seriously?

Wearing the ruby ring on her right hand, the priestess from the sun temple climbs down the stairs with people murmuring and whispering. They all are curious which rank she fell under.

There are five ranks in the guild, with Ruby being the highest, next to them are Jade, Gold, Pearl, and lastly, the Bronze.

The three lowest ranks are distinguished by the badge given to them that's placed on the left side of their chest. Gold receives a gold badge, the Pearl receives silver, while the lowest, the Bronze, receives a bronze badge.

The two highest ranks are given a uniform to distinguish their rank. But since the ruby isn't complete, their uniforms are not given to them. As the Jade rank does not have a limit on the number of members they should have, their uniforms are given as soon as they pass the test and interview. They also have a badge on their uniform, but this is not the guild crest but a design especially made for their rank: a snake encircling a round object with two swords penetrating it,

"There!" someone from the crowd shouted and pointed at her, "her right hand!"

Everyone's eyes immediately traveled to her fingers.

"A RUBY RING!"