421 CH54 (418), Growing Curiosity

The first part of Grouday went by as usual, but an hour after lunch I received quite an unexpected surprise. Looking at my ringing phone, I saw that none other than Mr. Cameron was calling me.

"Son, your phone is ringing," mom spoke up when I ended up staring at my phone wondering why Mr. Cameron suddenly called.

"Aren't you going to pick up the call?" she further asked and I gave her a nod before doing just that.

"Hello, Mr. Cameron. What a pleasant surprise, how can I help you?" I did a combo greeting as soon as I picked up the call.

*bwahaha*

"Mikail, my boy, for a moment you sounded just like my secretary," Mr. Cameron said after laughing for a bit.

"Relax, leave the formalities, I just wanted to ask you how you are doing," I heard him say and I could hear the amusement in his voice.

"I'm doing pretty good. I've been pretty busy at the lab until now, but I have a few weeks of vacation on my hands, so for the moment, I'm mostly relaxing at home," I said without going into detail about what I had been busy with.

"That's good," I could just imagine him nodding while saying that. "Some relaxation is good for you, just working all the time is a recipe for disaster. Still, if you ever get bored, you could try to visit the Aura Guardians. As far as I know, you haven't visited any Aura Guardian Center since you joined, so doing that could be an interesting experience.

I'd recommend directly visiting the headquarters here in Rota for your first visit since it's after all the main headquarters of the whole order. It's also the biggest and most comprehensive one for that exact reason," he finished and it seemed that this reminder was likely a big part of the reason he called me.

It had been close to a year since I joined the Aura Guardian Order, and it was true that I had yet to visit any of their centers. I had been busy with other stuff and it slipped my mind. Still, visiting the inside of the headquarters could be interesting since I had only seen it from the outside.

"I'll consider it," I simply said, and he began asking about some other things, such as how my Pokemon were doing. I hung up a few minutes later and put away my phone.

There was no need to tell my parents what the call was about since I had not moved away after accepting the call, so they pretty much already knew what we talked about. We simply resumed playing the Pokemon version of "guess who" for a while before dad wanted to check the news and mom went to the kitchen. I had to admit that the matter with the Aura Guardian Order kept lingering in the back of my mind.

"So, I have to admit that I could not help but think about visiting the Aura Guardian Order's headquarters since Mr. Cameron brought it up," I finally spoke up about it during dinner, and mom, as well as dad, just smiled.

In fact, they looked as if they were about to chuckle and mom gave dad a smug look. While I was wondering what that was about dad spoke up.

"We have no problems with that," he said with a smile. "In fact, we have been expecting you to say that since we noticed the signs of your interest throughout the game."

'Well, that explained their smiles, but not why mom has that smug look,' I thought while looking at mom who began chuckling.

"Yes, we've been expecting you to bring that up. We've even bet on when you would end up bringing it up, and I obviously won since I know my son the best," she said smugly while throwing dad a superior look.

Dad just grumbled, but the words pure luck were pretty audible, which was obviously on purpose. Well, I honestly did not mind becoming a betting point between those two, but I could not help but feel curious about what the stakes of their bet were. Hopefully, it was something harmless, but my parents were usually mature enough not to go too far with stuff like this.

"I'll give you your massage later," dad said reluctantly, answering my question. At least I thought he did before mom cleared her throat and threw him a pointed look, showing that the massage was only part of the bet.

"Arya is the best and knows her baby much better than me," he said with about as much fake enthusiasm as he could muster and I could not help but snort while trying to suppress my laughter.

Mom had no such problems and laughed happily at his forced admission. Dad ignored her and just looked at her wryly until she stopped.

"Honey," mom called out to gain my attention. "When are you planning to go through with the visit?," she asked after I looked over.

"Tomorrow, straight after breakfast," I replied, there was no reason to delay it after all. Neither of them looked surprised at that. Instead, dad looked at me seriously before he spoke up.

"Son, lost bet or not, I'd say that I know you pretty well, so I ask you to not rush to accept any missions or such during your visit tomorrow. If you find anything of interest, take note of it come back home, think about it, and only make a decision after that," he earnestly requested and I ended up promising to do so.

After that, we moved on and finished dinner while talking about other less serious stuff. The next morning, after breakfast, I did head out as I said I would, and my first stop was Rota City courtesy of Horus/Xatu and Tatsumaki/Alakazam.

Like the aura academy, the order headquarters were also located in the southern district, but the headquarters was located at what could be pretty much seen as the border of the city. I've been to the place once before during my first year in Rota to look at the building from the outside.

I mean it was hard to live in Rota and not get curious about the building of the famous Aura Guardian Order, so I came over to take a look at it with Ace and Weiss at the time. We did not enter but appreciated the building from the outside.

Though calling the headquarters a building was not really appropriate since it was a pretty big, impressive-looking castle. Looking at it now, I could say that it really gave off a regal feeling, but considering that it used to be the secondary castle of the royal family before it was handed over to the order, that was no surprise.

Yes, the castle used to belong to the royal family, it was reserved for the crown prince to be exact, but it was later on given out to the order for saving the lives of the royal family and Rota during an invasion. At least that was what I had read about the events during history lessons at the academy.

Surprisingly the castle itself resembled one of the most beautiful castles in my old life, the Bojnice Castle, except that the order had walls on both sides of the moat. Well, that and that the outer walls of the castle were higher and thicker. Oh, and the castle was being maintained by the order, so the tops of this castle were still an unblemished turquoise.

Anyway, enough admiring the castle. I moved through the gate outside the moat and passed the bridge connecting the outside with the castle without being stopped by anyone. Only at the gates of the castle proper was I stopped and asked for identification as well as the purpose of my visit.

I pulled out the certificate I received from Mr. Cameron after agreeing to join the order, and I saw the recognition on the face of the guard after he checked my card with a scanner. I was free to enter after he returned my card, and after sharing that I had come to take a look at the headquarters, I even received instructions on how to find the reception hall.

That was the part of the building that dealt with newbies, apprentices, as well as guests, and also the place he recommended I head to first. I naturally saw the wisdom in heading to the place designed to deal with people who came here for the first time and followed his instruction to find the reception hall.

It admittedly took me a while, but that was because I did not think it was a good idea to run around inside the castle and because the castle grounds were pretty large. The impressive murals and paintings along the halls might have played a tiny role as well. Still, I made it to the reception hall, which was just one of the bigger connected side buildings really, and stepped through the open doors.

It was not hard to see where I had to head for an introduction as a newly joined aura user since they had idiot-proof signs hanging everywhere. Thankfully there was only one person before me and three counters, so I was directly called up after drawing a number.

I directly handed over my member's card and explained that it was my first time here or at any order building for that matter, and that I had no idea of the layout or rules as well as regulations. All I received was a smile before Vivian, that was the name of the woman sitting across from me, pulled out three booklets that she gave me.

She told me to read those later before she began what she called the "Introduction", which included an overview of the order ranks, the most important rules, where to find the most vital rooms, at least according to her, and what to take note of in the headquarters as well as any other order center.

The whole thing took more than half an hour and I moved to one of the guest seats in the waiting area after thanking Vivian for her help. Once I took a seat, I focused on the three booklets she had given me. The first one was called "Ranks, Missions, Requirements", the second one had the title "Rules And Regulations", and the last one was simply called "Maps".

All of those titles were pretty self-evident, and there was no way to get the wrong idea about their content. The first booklet I chose was naturally the one on ranks and missions. I already knew what the respective ranks were, but not the conditions to rank up.

How did one go from Apprentice Aura Guardian to Junior Aura Guardian, and then to Aura Guardian, Senior Aura Guardian, Master Aura Guardian, Grand Master Aura Guardian, and finally Legendary Aura Guardian?

Well, okay, maybe not the first seeing how I was already a Junior Aura Guardian, but the point stood, and after reading through the booklet I had the answer to those questions and more.

The first one was the easiest, everyone that joined while still being below Tier 1 ended up as an Apprentice Aura Guardian. 1 to 3 stars, depending on what step they were. In fact, all ranks below the Grandmaster rank were further divided from 1 star to 3 stars, to denote their capabilities, which was vital for any mission assignment.

As I said, the difficulty of/access to missions varied mainly depending on their star rating, which was determined by several factors, such as personal prowess, Aura User Tier, and trainer rank. As for missions, those were not only a source of Order Points, resources, money, information, and more but also the most common way to rise through the ranks.

There was only one way to rise through the ranks aside from missions, and that was reaching a certain milestone as an Aura User, but that had its limits as well. I already mentioned the first milestone, which was Tier 1. Reaching this point allowed one to directly become a Junior Aura Guardian, which was what nearly everyone started out as anyway.

Those that managed to become Tier 3 Aura Users were allowed to directly rise to the Aura Guardian rank, and those that reached Tier 5 directly rose to the Senior Aura Guardian rank. Everything after that had to be achieved through missions and merit alone.

I was currently a 3-star Junior Aura Guardian since I had yet to fulfill any mission or reach Tier 3. Aura Guardians were the staple of the order and where the majority of its members were ranked at. These members ranged from Tier 2 Aura Users, who ranked up through missions, to Tier 4 ones.

For an Aura Guardian to be assigned at least a single star she/he either needs a Pokemon team comparable to that of a Senior-Class trainer, which was a minimum of 3 silver-stage Pokemon, or he/she had to show personal prowess comparable to that since those capable of doing so were seen as being capable of retreating with their lives if necessary.

According to the requirements listed in the booklet, I would be directly ranked as a 3-star Aura Guardian once I managed to rank up.

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