Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Upon entering into the Associations building, Skullius was blasted with the chatter of many Guilds discussing among themselves, most of them either crowding the board to the left where the requests were pinned or registering their Guilds for taking up a selected request.

Once a Guild chose to travel to an area reported to be haunted by beasts or Clusters, they would register to one of the men and women sitting on desks at the ends of the building hall.

Once registered, they could leave the city to deal with the issue.

Naturally, there were rewards for requests.

Aside from the payment the holder of the request had to make, the Guilds Association also issued out payments provided the Guild in question brought in proof that they had indeed slain the threat.

The more obvious evidence was the Conqueror's Halo but it usually needed to be accompanied by the head of any one of the beasts slaughtered. Preferably the Cluster General in terms of Clusters or the strongest beast if the case was for related to beasts.

Depending on the level of threat posed, a reward would be issued by the Guild.

It was a common case for some requests to remain untended to.

In these cases, the Guild would ask for any volunteers among the Guilds and if none still took up the request, it would be given to the Capital service.

Skullius was curious as to why it was so crowded today.

It looked like all the Guilds were busy and even with the many that swarmed the board of requests, there were still too many of the pieces of paper pinned, showing that the threats outnumbered the mercenary Guilds.

Obviously, the majority of these requests had been written by the Guilds itself pinpointing where most of the Clusters would be as it was impossible for such a large number of requests to have been made in such a short time.

Thankfully, most of them were low level.

Skullius walked forward as he squeezed through the crowds, listening to the conversations as he went.

"How do so many Clusters appear in such a short time? Is this happening everywhere in Pelian?"

"I don't know. I heard the City Lord advised Guilds to form smaller groups of stronger mercenaries to cover more ground. Heh! Like that's going to happen!"

"But... it does seem to be the more reasonable course of action. There's just too few of us to deal with this many Clusters, even if they are low level."

"Still, can you imagine fighting a Cluster General alone? Even if it's from a low level Cluster? A white one might be manageable but a blue-white would be difficult for even three or four of us. I'm not ready to die."

Skullius narrowed his eyes in thought.

The City Lord did not control the Guilds Association or its mercenaries. The Guilds Association itself couldn't even push around its mercenaries unless they broke specific rules. Thus, the City Lord's recommendation for how to operate was falling on deaf ears.

'Many Clusters are showing up?' Skullius thought. 'Well... that's interesting. And terrifying.'

From several positions within the crowd of individuals, Skullius spotted a few mercenaries requesting to make temporary teams to clear Clusters.

Some were lucky. Some not so much.

Skullius ignored this for time being as he went straight to the desks where the individuals dressed formally behind serving counters were working their butts off, registering accepted requests for Guilds.

The Discount Human had to wait for a while before getting the chance to be served.

When it was finally his turn, he found himself looking at the very same woman who had served him that day.

Shockingly, she still had an annoyed look on her face which was multiplied when she looked up to be see Skullius' face.

She grunted before unpleasantly asking, "How many I help you, sir?"

"I would like to get a mercenary license please," Skullius answered.

The woman was a bit taken aback.

She looked like she had a whole lot to say to Skullius as she scanned him top to bottom before shutting her mouth.

The long line of mercenaries waiting to be served behind Skullius made her swallow her length sermon and instead, she chose to give this man what he wanted. Or was it?

This man had been clueless about the basics just a few days ago and now he walked in as if he was mercenary material already?!

She could tell from his core that he was nothing special but who was she to tell him what to do?

People didn't even listen to the will of the Deities these days, how would her case be any different?

Without wasting time, she called a certain man who was standing at the far corner of the hall, leaning against the wall as he watched the scenes taking place within the Guilds Association with sharp eyes.

He was decked in a bulky silver and white armour that complimented his burly physique, short grey hair and a goatee along with sugar grey eyes visible above his neck.

He walked up to the woman from behind the counter.

"He wants to apply for a license," the woman said as her left eye squinted a little, a hidden signal being conveyed to the man who nodded and then looked up at Skullius.

"Follow me," Skullius nodded and followed the bulky man who stood gave him the same vibe as HammerDown Gruff.

They walked through a door at the end of the hall, appearing in a very confined space where the only thing of note was a flight of stairs that went down through a sizable trap door.

The bulky man descended followed by Skullius who wondered where exactly they were going.

As they descended, bright gems could be seen on the walls giving a sufficient amount of light to the surroundings.

"So, you want to be a mercenary?" the man before Skullius asked in a rather hollow tone.

"Yes," Skullius responded succinctly.

"What motivates you to do such a thing when you have such a weak core? Is it money? Fame? Women? Self validation?"

"Uhm... none of those."

"What is it then?"

Skullius remained silent for a while as he mulled it over. It's not like he didn't have an answer. He most definitely did but...

"It's something I'd rather keep to myself," he said.

"Very well. But let me warn you. I'm more inclined to reject your application. You're too immature. Your body is nothing special. I can see with the way you walk that you lack proper training. Such lack will get only you killed."

Skullius remained silent.

This man was an Evaluation officer, tasked with evaluating whether or not applicants were deserving of a license. The requirements weren't that steep but not that low either.

"I'm merely attending to you as a formality. I won't be granting you a good evaluation for a license."

The Discount Human frowned in displeasure.

'Seriously?!'

The burly man, as if sensing Skullius' bitterness went on with his reality check.

"I've worked long enough in the Guild to know people like you. If the death toll increases for mercenaries, especially if someone like you registers, we will be the ones facing the wrath of the main Guilds Association branch. I hope you understand."

The woman at the counter had told him all he needed to know. After his own inspection, he had verified it. This was another one of those wannabes that didn't know what it took to be a mercenary.

As he finished speaking his piece, the two arrived within a rather spacious room approximately 80 meters wide and 60 meters long.

There was rough, hard ground under the twos feet along with a series of weapon on almost all sides of the grey walls, runic markings like the ones he saw at the library being visible all around this room too.

"This one of the many Evaluation Rooms. You can pick up any weapon you want to demonstrate what you can do. I hope you remember what I just said though. I will NOT be granting you a license. Perhaps if you show something interesting, I might recommend you to the Capital training instead. Half off. Sounds good doesn't it?"

The man said with an infuriating level of indifference that showed his utter disinterest and lack of expectation from Skullius.

In his mind, there was nothing that anyone else of this generation could show that surpassed what he had seen from Tulnas.

That level of power and talent, it wasn't something that spawned casually, especially within smaller cities.

His power bubbled as his bright blue mana core expelled vicious waves of mana that shook the room, locking in on Skullius who was forced to kneel from the pressure.

The force that fell on him like an anvil caused fizzy blood to drop from his nose!

"Now. Show me what you can do. If there's any anything at all."

Skullius' cosmetic muscles tensed up as he was pressed down.

He had scripted what he would show, thinking that it would be easy for him to get a license but now...

It seemed he was wrong.

He grinned as he looked up, his eyes showing feverish zeal!

"Oh, I'll show you what I can do!"