Lilith: Origin of Succubi

Eventually, we made it to the counter of the adventurer's guild.

"Hello, how may I help you?" The receptionist kept a professional tone, but I could tell she looked a bit wary based on the number of people who came up to the desk with us.

I stepped forward. "Well, we have a lot of information to update in our party roster. Firstly, these two were slaves in my group and recently their collars... fell off. So I want to add them to our group normally."

The receptionist raised an eyebrow and looked over the twins. "Sure... let me just talk to them alone first and then we'll update the roster."

"No problem," I replied.

The receptionist brought the two behind the counter where I surprisingly couldn't hear anything while they talked. I suspected this was to ensure they weren't being intimidated into continuing to serve me after their collars were removed or something along those lines. The conversation didn't take long, but it looked like she wanted to hear directly from both of them that everything was okay.

Morrigan and Torien came back from behind the counter and stood next to me again. The receptionist took her place back behind the desk and nodded. "Thank you for your patience, it seems everything is in order. We'll update them to be in your party. What's next?"

"I would like to add three more people to our party roster as well. Mimi, Sibyl, and Raya," I said pointing them out.

She started looking over a file that I hadn't noticed her retrieve. "Your group is made up of iron tier adventurers and you're adding some wood tiers to round out your ranks? Your file says you should be receiving cartography training in the capital paid for by the Traehall guild master. Have you been working on that?" she asked.

"I'm almost finished with my training, I just need to take the final test today and I'll have the certificate. We intend to head back to Traehall within the next couple days," I told her.

She nodded. "Good. In that case, I can register and add these three to your roster. Just as a heads up, when your party starts getting this large, people start to split their parties into groups to do quests. Keep in mind the guild requires you to indicate who was present on any specific quest so that we can advance rank properly. Don't send your lower tiered members to do quests they can't handle or aren't qualified for alone. Even when they succeed, the guild may choose to demote the party leader if they feel that you put your lower tiered members at greater risk than is appropriate for their rank. Even if they're strong fighters they may not have the proper experience to handle things, keep this in mind. Do you want to test their elemental affinities while they're registering?"

I turned to them. "Raya and Mimi for sure, Sibyl?"

Sibyl shook her head. "Not necessary. I know what my affinities are." I raised an eyebrow, not entirely sure that would be true after the transformation but if she doesn't want to I wouldn't push it.

I gently put my hand on Raya's shoulder and pushed her up to the desk. "We'll start with Raya here."

Raya looked excited when the receptionist pulled out the glass tablet and set it on the desk in front of us, then she gestured to it. "This will test your magic affinities. Please place your hand here."

The kitsune girl placed her hand on the tablet and her affinities lit up. The receptionist smiled. "These are great affinities. Very high fire magic and illusion magic affinities, medium affinity in light magic, and minor affinity in terra magic. You're perfectly suited to be an offensive fire mage and you can have a lot of utility using illusion magic. A minor affinity in terra magic can be helpful but it's unfortunate you have a medium affinity in light magic instead of the reverse. Still, having such a high affinity in fire magic will allow you to become pretty powerful. Congratulations, Miss Lilith here made a good choice snapping you up when she could. You'll go far in the guild if you play your cards right."

Raya's eyes were sparkling at the news. She had always wanted to be an adventurer but getting a direct confirmation that not only would she be able to, she had the potential to become very good at it. As soon as she stepped away from the counter she pulled Sibyl into a hug and pulled her off the ground to jump in joy at the news.

The receptionist chuckled at their antics as she reset the tablet for Mimi to use next. "Yay, I wanna see what I have too!" Mimi said practically bouncing in the shared excitement.

Mimi carefully put her hand on the tablet and the receptionist suddenly looked shocked. From a glance at the tablet, I could see why.

Mimi's brows knitted together, "Is it bad?"

The receptionist coughed, broken out of the spell she was in. "No! Your affinities are amazing!"

Mimi looked down at the many lit lights on the tablet.

"You have a very high affinity in spatial, metal, and terra magic. You have medium affinities in enhancement, water, and wind magics, and you have a minor affinity in everything else except for..." she leaned forward to look at the only absent space, "holy magic. Spatial magic this strong alone would give you amazing potential. These affinities are incredible, I've never seen anything like it!"

Raya hugged Mimi from behind and started bouncing with her next. "Mimi you're amazing!" At least I don't have to worry about Raya being jealous.

The receptionist shook her head. "You have the potential to be an amazing mage, Miss Mimi. With affinities like this, I would recommend you go to a magic college rather than adventuring. It would be a loss to the world if you fell in battle somewhere."

"No thanks, I wanna go with Lilith!" Mimi declared without a moment's hesitation.

The receptionist furrowed her brows and glanced at me. I put my hand on Mimi's shoulder and looked back at her. "Don't worry. Mimi is a lot tougher than she looks. She may look unassuming but she's already strong."

She frowned. "If you say so... At the very least you should buy her some books on magic theory."

"I can't read yet! But the librarian lady gave me a book to help with that!" Mimi told the receptionist.

The words sent instant relief through the woman. "You're members of the great library? Of course you would be. With affinities like this Sorsette herself must have approved your membership. Okay, as long as you stay safe out there."

You don't know the half of it lady.

The receptionist cleared her throat. "If that's everything, that will be sixty silver. Ten silver each for the registration, ten each for the affinity checks."

I cocked my head to the side. "It was cheaper in Traehall."

She smiled. "The affinity checks are more expensive in the capital. You've been slowing down the line at the busiest branch in the country," she said nodding to the people milling about behind us, waiting for the next desk to open.

I dug my gold pouch out of my backpack and started counting out silver. While I was doing that Tenna stepped forward. "Hello, Miss. While she's gathering her coin, I'd like to file a job with the adventurer's guild for this group here. An escort mission from here to Traehall."

The woman frowned. "An escort to Traehall would normally be a Steel tier quest. They're a little too low. Are you sure you want to request this team in particular?"

Tenna nodded. "I trust in their abilities. They had just completed a delivery quest from Traehall from my family members there and they have a special service that most steel tier adventurers don't have," she said nodding to Mimi.

The woman's eyes lit up in understanding. "Oh! I see!"

"I'm told they already have uunas and a carriage so we'll head to Goldenhearth and join up with a caravan on the way to Traehall."

The receptionist pursed her lips. "Very well, if you're sure of your choice I can approve it. But that reminds me." She turned back to me and glanced at the tray with stacks of silver lined up on it. "There's this other sheet here that I would like to confirm. Mr. Tarklin Silvergrove came here and indicated that Miss Cecilia of Silvergrove had left his party and joined yours. I need a confirmation that it's true. If so, with a steel tier adventurer joining your group it'll make it easier to justify approving this mission."

I nodded. "She has joined us. Is a verbal confirmation fine or do I need to come down here with Cecilia as well?"

"A verbal confirmation is fine. Under the circumstances, I'll approve this mission and assign your party to the escort mission as requested. The fee will be two gold." Tenna nodded and passed over two gold to the guild receptionist. "I've confirmed the amount. Is there anything else I can help you with?" she asked.

I did a quick scan over everyone to make sure no one had anything to add before turning back to the receptionist. "It seems that's everything."

She did a short bow. "Then let me count this silver and prepare the guild cards for your new members. One moment." She quickly counted the stacks of silver before turning back and nodding. "I've confirmed the amount, sixty silver. Thank you."

She pulled the tray away from the counter and placed the money into a one-way safe before pulling out those wooden dog tag looking things out of one of the drawers. She then went to a separate drawer and pulled out multiple sets of dog tags that looked like they were made from a dark steel.

She went through a process of marking each set of dog tags before placing them in the box and bringing them back to the counter. "These records say that you never received your iron tags in Traehall or Goldenhearth so these are your new iron adventurer's tags," she said handing the three sets of wooden tags to Mimi, Sibyl, and Raya before handing out the 'iron' tags to the rest of us. They were 'iron' tags but it was obvious they were just a dark colored steel. I handed them out to the group before returning the sets of wooden tags we'd been wearing for a long time now.

"Thank you for coming to the adventurer's guild. I hope you return to us safely."

The moment we stepped aside Tenna sighed. "Gods, I knew that would take forever. At least it's over with now."

"Where are you headed?" I asked her.

She turned to me with a confused look on her face. "What do you mean? You're escorting me now until we get to Traehall."

I stared at her blankly.

Tenna raised an eyebrow. "Is that going to be a problem?"

"Uh, let's get out of here and we can talk more about it." There were too many ears here in the adventurer's guild. It was better to tell her where we were staying outside. We left the building and walked into a nearby alley where I snapped up a quick [Zone of Silence] in the immediate area.

[Illusion Magic has increased from level 5 to level 6]

[Learned Illusion Magic Spell Mirage]

Useful, but kind of distracting right now. I'll have to look at that later.

I turned back to Tenna. "Well, we're currently staying at the Northern Greens Embassy right now. They might let you stay with us but I would have to ask permission and it would make things a bit more conspicuous..."

She looked at her apprentice before looking back at me. "The whole city is on edge right now. I'm able to protect myself under normal circumstances but if a riot breaks out and the two of us are all alone, that will be a problem."

I looked over our group not sure what I could do before Sibyl stepped forward. "I think Cecilia will be able to smooth things over. Worst case scenario we can escort her to the southern quarter if the elves say no."

"I would rather stay with your whole group if possible," Tenna said. "I don't trust the way things have been going in this city lately. It's why I'm leaving after all."

I frowned. I hoped it wouldn't be a problem but I didn't want to sour our relationship with the elves. It might also look strange if we bring another couple of people from outside into the embassy but it's not like our group isn't already getting a lot of odd looks everywhere we go. Keeping Tenna separate from our business at the Northern Greens would be ideal but she was already helping us a lot by giving us the cover we needed to leave the city without too many questions. We haven't gotten word when the riot will start and separating our groups was asking for trouble.

"Alright. That'll probably be fine. I'll talk to Cecilia as soon as we get back. Keeping Tenna safe is the job we just agreed to. Even if they don't let her stay it'll be easier to reorganize our group when we're there," I admitted. "Before that though, we should buy our two budding mages a couple of spell books." I turned to Tenna. "You wouldn't happen to know where to go for that, would you?"

Tenna smiled. "I can think of a place."