Two figures walked down a dirty alley that rejected the pleasant glow of the sun. A well built man wearing a gray and black two piece suit, one far too elegant for the back alleys they currently traveled, led the way with confident strides. Behind him was a woman dressed in an equally elegant white and purple blouse with a long gray skirt. Her eyes darted back and forth as she walked just behind the man while gripping her skirt tight.
They walked for a short while before they stopping in front of a heavy metal door that was covered in an assortment of chains and locks. Leaning against the door was tall man covered in a tattered black hooded robe.
"The hell you want?!" The hooded man snarled.
The man in the suit felt the girl cower behind his back at the sudden harsh words. He examined the face under the hood for a moment and noticed the mix of human and animal ears. Rage swelled for just a second before he held it back with a sigh.
"It's Shaul, I have business with Leo. Let me in." He said, disguising his rage in an overly polite tone.
"Shaul, huh… What's the passcode?" The hooded man asked.
"… The fool's dusk is upon us." Shaul replied as his eyes narrowed.
"Alright, give me a second to open up." The hooded man said as he turned around to begin the painstaking process of opening the dozen locks on the door.
"Damn mongrel thinks he can talk to me like that." Shaul whispers under his breath.
Clicks and clacks echo through the alley during their uncomfortable wait. With a loud groan, the thick door in front of them finally opens.
"Go on." The hooded figure says while gesturing inside with his head.
Inside was a smoke-filled lair of debauchery. Men and women in various stages of undress sat on couches in front of tables topped with booze and powders of questionable origin. At the front was an empty stage surrounded by wooden chairs.
"Follow me." Shaul said to the woman at his side.
Her body had gone so stiff that she could barely move her head up and down in reply.
Shaul takes an immediate right, walking past a dirty bar packed with cheap booze, attended by a horned man who glared as they went, and went straight into curtained off room. Inside was a large circular table with two men sitting around it.
The first was a blond human with a tall but thin build. He wore a suit that was nearly identical to Shaul's. Next to him was a gray wolf beastkin man with red tattoos underneath his yellow eyes. He wore simple leather pants with a black furred vest. Even as he sat sprawled out in his chair, his incredible height was obvious. It was enough that he would stand a full head above the human next to him, who was already tall in his own right. His long limbs made him look skinny, but in truth he was deceptively muscular.
The wolfman sat with his head resting on his fist while a dark elf woman massaged his shoulders from behind.
"Ah, Shaul! Just in time." The blond human said as he stood. "Who is this woman behind you?"
"Good to see you too, Leo. This woman is Ella, and she has some interesting information we can use." Shaul answered while grabbing the woman's shoulders and pulling her in front of himself.
The girl in the white and purple blouse, Ella, froze completely. She couldn't even lift her face to look at the imposing figures in front of her.
"What kind of information?" Leo asks.
"That a certain young lady is going to make an appearance in the slums as a part of some pathetic attempt at diplomacy. It's obviously just for show, but it'll give us the perfect opportunity. Tell me, how goes the outpost?" Shaul asked as an eerie smile worked it's way onto his lips.
Understanding his intention, Leo shared his grin.
"Oh, it's going great. The runes from the mage's guild are working perfectly, and the artifacts are doing even better than we thought. Once Selvet provides us with the men we paid for, we'll be set." Leo said before turning to the wolfman.
"I already told you, that sack of cash you brought in won't cut it." Selvet replied without bothering to turn his head.
"You dare mock us you beast!" Shaul shouted.
"ME?!? You idiots got a whole crew killed with nothing to show for it!" Selvet snarled, showing his large and threatening fangs. "How do you expect me to find guys who would want to work for you after that? Especially with this crazy plan you got them working on. Forget 50,000 tiss, you'd need to pay double that, at least a tass per man for people to even consider it."
"One tass per man? Are you mad?!" Shaul shouted.
"Hold on, Shaul." Leo said calmly while raising a hand to stop his comrade. "Selvet, we can agree to that price, but in exchange we would like their assistance with this small opportunity that turned up."
"The young lady was it? For that price I can definitely find enough guys willing to do it. How soon do you need them?"
⁘⁘⁘⁘
"Ughhh!" Reid grumbles as he sprawls out onto a large wooden table.
"Reid, that's not proper manners. You can't fall asleep at the table." Anna said while leaning against her spear. Her eyes lidded as she fell further and further, nearly falling out of her seat.
"Wake up kid, you're about to fall over." Amadeus spoke in their mind.
"Huh!" Anna shouted as she shot back up.
Reid slowly lifted his head as the inn's waitress approached with a cheerful smile.
"Here's your food!" She said while placing two plates topped by a salad and a rice like grain. She looks between the downtrodden faces of her customers before asking "Rough day?"
"You could say that. Our mentors had us doing fight after fight in the dungeon." Reid replied.
"That sounds rough. Most new hunters who stay here only do one run and call it a day." The waitress said.
"That makes sense. We're actually lucky in that regard." Anna said.
"How so?" The waitress asked while tilting her head.
"Since our mentors are there with us, we're able to push harder than other groups. If we bite off more than we can chew, they can bail us out." Anna replies.
"Though my muscles might not agree." Reid says while tenderly rubbing his bicep.
"Haha, well hang in there." The waitress laughs as she walks away.
The young hunters sluggishly eat their meals before forcing their aching bodies back to their room.
"You can take the first bath." Reid tells Anna.
The girl thanked him as he walked back to his bed and fell onto it like a freshly felled tree. His heavy eyelids slowly sank as his wisps of consciousness slowly went out.
"Good news boy!" Amadeus shouted in the boy's head.
"What…" He replied with an exasperated tone.
"I've been doing some research into the soul absorption process and I made some fascinating breakthroughs!" Amadeus said with unexpected enthusiasm.
"That's great, and I'm happy for you, but I'm exhausted." The boy explained with a muffled voice as his face was still pressed to his bed sheets.
"I understand your exhaustion, but this information is important." Amadeus insisted.
"Fine… but try to keep it simple." Reid said hesitantly.
"I can do that, even if the calculations are the most enjoyable part of the research." Amadeus grumbled. "To start with, I should tell you that the soul has a core to it, measuring about three centimeters in radius, though it's actually 2.95424-"
"Amadeus, I don't need the exact number. Also, what is a centimeter?" Reid asked.
"It's a unit of measure from my world. Three centimeters, or the size of a souls core, would be about the thickness of your spear." Amadeus said.
"That small?" Reid asked.
"Yes, but they get much bigger as one grows. Anyway, back to the findings. I started this research by using my soul sense to observe various monsters and golems as they died. I noticed that the amounts of soul essence that dropped always came in fixed amounts, and that these fixed amounts coincided perfectly with the low mid and high rank subclassifications." Amadeus explained.
"That's a cool coincidence." Reid responded dryly. The boy was fighting desperately to stay awake.
"It's more than coincidence; it was done intentionally. Whoever made that ranking system must have realized the same thing I did. Something significant happens at those points, and I was determined to find out what. My breakthrough came when I compared the amount of essence dropped to the size and shape of the soul. I'll skip the details as requested, but essentially the change comes from the completion of a layer." Amadeus explained.
"A layer? What do you mean?" Reid asked.
"Perhaps it would be better if I show you." Amadeus said.
Without warning, the boy suddenly found himself dragged into the mental plane. In front of him was a massive chalkboard that extended the length of the Forterra guild hall. Equations, graphs, and notes cluttered the massive board. In front of the board stood an ethereal man whose body was entirely blue. He had long slicked back hair which matched the serious expression he used to examine the board. His clothing was elegant yet casual, made in a style that was completely foreign to the boy.
"Take a look at this." The ethereal man said while pointing toward a diagram in front of him.
"Wait…" Reid said, recognizing the voice. "Amadeus?"
"Yes, who else would I be?" He replied calmly.
"Is this what you actually look like?!?" The boy shouted his question.
"Yes and no. This is how I look as a spirit. The general shape is the same as it was from my old world, minus the blue skin of course." He explained.
"Oh, that's cool." Reid said while examining the man closer. "Wait… How are we both here? What happened to our body?!?" He asked in a panic.
"Don't worry, it's fine. The body's automatic systems can keep functioning for a long time even without our souls present. Though we probably shouldn't be gone for too long. Anyway, come take a look at this." Amadeus said, once again gesturing to the diagram in front of him.
The diagram was simple enough, it showed a circle followed by an arrow pointing to a circle with a bunch of bumps followed by another arrow pointing to a larger circle.
"The layers are simple. On the left you have your soul core, essence you gain gets added to that core until eventually it becomes a complete sphere, or as I like to say, until it completes a layer. Once that layer is formed, your soul be at the next tier. From what I can tell, higher ranked hunters can actually feel these layers within people. That's how they can tell what rank monsters are." Amadeus said.
"That's cool! But wait… then why does the hunters guild still require you to take an exam if you can just feel what rank someone is?" Reid asked.
"If I had to guess, they're similar, but measure different things. I would guess that a hunters rank is based more on your combat capabilities. Take us for example. Our souls hadn't completed their initial layer when we were given D rank." Amadeus explained.
"The souls rank doesn't tell the whole story." Reid thought out loud.
"Exactly."
Reid looked around the writing on the massive chalkboard before turning back to Amadeus.
"So that's cool and all, but why was this so important that it couldn't wait until tomorrow?" Reid asked while hiding his irritation behind a calm smile.
"Simple. I've worked out exactly how much you absorb from each defeated enemy as well as how much more you need until you complete the next layer is complete. With this information we can coordinate with Ida and Lena to plan exactly when we will reach the next rank. No guess work or estimations needed." Amadeus said.
"That would be nice to know." Reid agreed.
"Now with the explanation out of the way, you should probably head back to our body. You don't want Anna to come back to you lying there like a dead body right?" Amadeus asked.
"Good point." The boy replied.