I was comparing two bounties on the E-rank board when the crowd noise shifted.
Not louder. Quieter. The way a room goes still when someone with rank walks through. I didn't look up. I kept my eyes on the holographic listings, my newly registered hunter's tag — a simple bronze chip — cold in my palm. The system had auto-generated my class upon registration.
E-rank Transcriber.
It drew a few curious glances. No alarm. Just mild confusion. *Transcriber?* Most people just shrugged and moved on. It was weird, but the Guild system spat out weird classifications sometimes. As long as it wasn't 'Clerk,' I'd take it.
An older Civil-class archivist at the far counter stopped stamping forms and looked at me for five seconds. Then she went back to her stack without a word.
My Codex was open to the bounty list, filtering for Floors 2 and 3. I needed targets. Ink to transcribe. A fourth skill to inscribe. I was scanning for something with area control, something to complement Ink Bite, Ink Needle, and Shadow Step, when the voice cut through the noise behind me.
"Well, look who it is."
I knew that voice. Smug. Condescending. I'd heard it on Inscription Day, loud and clear over the crowd's laughter.
I turned.
Zheng Kai. D-rank. Blade Dancer. He was taller than I remembered, dressed in sleek, dark combat leathers that actually looked tailored. A thin, curved blade hung at his hip. He wasn't alone. Three others flanked him – two men, one woman, all wearing the same squad insignia on their shoulders. All D-rank. They looked bored, amused, like they'd stumbled upon a stray dog in a nice restaurant.
Zheng Kai's eyes scanned me, lingering on the bronze tag clipped to my jacket. His eyebrows went up. "The Clerk? You actually ranked up?" A slow grin spread across his face. He laughed. It was a sharp, barking sound. "E-rank… Transcriber? What's that, a fancy filing cabinet? You follow hunters around and take notes?"
His party chuckled. The woman smirked.
An older hunter at the adjacent counter muttered to his partner: "Council's going to hear about this." The partner's reply was too quiet for me to catch, but it ended in laughter.
I didn't say anything. Just watched him. My jaw didn't move.
My silence seemed to irritate him. He took a step closer, into my space. The crowd around us was thinning, people sensing drama and giving it a wide berth. A few stopped to watch.
"You know," Zheng Kai said, his voice dropping to a conversational tone that carried anyway. "I think it's cute. Really. A Clerk trying to play hunter. But this is the Assignment Hall. Not the library archives. These bounties?" He jerked a thumb at the glowing board. "They're for people who fight. Not for people who… transcribe."
More laughter from his squad.
I glanced past him, at the board they'd been looking at. A group bounty for Floor 3. *Clear a Nest of Ink-Weavers in Sector C-7. Reward: 800 Credits, 3x D-rank Core Shards.*
A good haul. For a full party.
"You're blocking the board," I said.
Zheng Kai blinked. Then his grin turned nasty. "You got spirit. I'll give you that. For a paper-pusher." He looked around at the growing ring of spectators – maybe twenty people now. He raised his voice. "Tell you what. Let's make it interesting. Guild rules allow for ranked spars in the combat ring. Right over there."
He pointed to a sealed, circular arena off to the side of the hall. Its door was dark.
"You and me. Thirty seconds. If you can last thirty seconds against me, I'll buy your drinks for a month. Top shelf. If you can't…" He leaned in. "You stop pretending. You hand that tag back, and you go back to the archives where you belong. Public promise. Everyone here witnesses it."
A murmur went through the crowd. A D-rank challenging an E-rank to a spar was already a bully move. The stakes made it a spectacle.
Refusing would look weak. It would confirm everything he said. It would follow me.
Accepting meant fighting a D-rank Blade Dancer with three E-rank skills, none of them above E-grade. I had Ink Bite. I had Ink Needle. I had Shadow Step. He had a full D-rank kit, a team backing him, and probably years of actual combat experience.
Zheng Kai saw the calculation in my eyes. His smile widened. "Scared, Transcriber? It's just thirty seconds."
I looked from him, to his smirking party, to the watching crowd. Then I looked past him again, at the bounty board.
"I accept a challenge," I said, my voice quiet but clear in the sudden hush.
Zheng Kai's eyes lit up with triumph.
"But not the spar."
The triumph faltered.
I walked past him, through his startled squad, to the bounty board. I tapped the hologram for the Floor 3 group bounty. The one his team was taking. My Codex flashed as it registered the tap.
`[Bounty Accepted: Clear Nest of Ink-Weavers. Sector C-7. Time logged: 10:14:33.]`
I turned back to face him. "Same bounty. Whoever clears it faster buys the drinks. For a month."
Silence.
Then Zheng Kai burst out laughing. A real, belly-deep laugh. His party joined in. "You're insane! A solo E-rank versus a four-man D-rank party? On a clear-speed challenge? Do you even know what an Ink-Weaver *is*?"
"I do now," I said, reading the brief description on my Codex. Area control. Thread traps. Annoying.
He shook his head, still chuckling. "You're on, paper-pusher. You're so on." He strode to the board, slapped his hand against it. His entire party's tags registered at once. `[Bounty Accepted: Clear Nest of Ink-Weavers. Sector C-7. Time logged: 10:14:41.]`
He'd given me an eight-second head start. A show of arrogance.
"See you at the bar," he said, clapping me on the shoulder as he walked by, his squad following. "Try not to get tangled up and die. I'd hate to win by default."
The crowd dispersed, the show over. I turned and walked out of the Assignment Hall, into the brighter light of the main Guild concourse.
Sera was leaning against the wall by the exit, arms crossed. She'd been waiting. She fell into step beside me without a word.
We walked fifty feet before she spoke.
"You just bet your reputation on speed-clearing a Floor 3 group bounty. Against a full D-rank party."
"I know."
"You don't have a fourth skill. Three permanent inscriptions and one empty slot. You need area control to clear a Weaver nest solo."
"I know that too."
She let out a long, controlled sigh. It sounded like she was counting in her head. Then she pulled out her data pad, her fingers flying across the screen. "The primary bounty target is an E-rank Ink-Weaver Alpha. It has a skill called Thread Trap – creates adhesive, razor-sharp ink threads in a fifteen-foot radius. Area denial, immobilization type." She looked at me sideways. "If you transcribe it during the fight, and then inscribe it *before* Zheng Kai's team finishes their target… you'd have a permanent area-control skill. And you'd win the bet."
I stopped walking. Looked at her. The morning light from the high windows cut across her face. Nothing in it moved.
"You planned this," I said.
Sera's lips quirked. Just a little. "I planned for you to need a viable fourth skill. The public competition with a known bully was your idea." She tucked her pad away. "But I did know he was picking up that bounty today. And I did know his team's average clear time for a Weaver nest is forty-seven minutes. If you're alone, and you're careful, and you get the transcription on the first try…"
"How long do I have?"
"From the C-wing entrance to Sector C-7? At a sprint, twelve minutes. The nest is in a collapsed catalog chamber. One way in, one way out. Ideal for a solo fighter who can bypass traps." She met my eyes. "If you're not inside that chamber, transcript ready, in the next twenty-five minutes, you lose. And you're back to being a joke."
I started walking again, faster now. Toward the C-wing transit hub. "And if I am?"
Sera kept pace easily. "Then you get a new skill. You win a month of free drinks from a D-rank squad. And," she said, her voice dropping, "you send a very clear message to anyone else who thinks the 'Transcriber' is an easy target."
The transit hub was ahead. The scanner gates glowed.
I pulled out the access card she'd loaned me. It felt heavier than it had yesterday.
"The message being?" I asked, sliding the card into the reader.
It beeped green.
Sera smiled. It wasn't a nice smile. It was the smile of someone who'd just set a very complicated trap and watched the first piece click into place.
"That you're not hunting for credits," she said as the gate slid open. "You're hunting for skills. And today, you're starting with his."