The Job Offerings

The arena folded away, leaving everyone where they had been standing before the fight started. Some people had fallen to the ground in fear, while others just stared at the three creatures standing in front of them. Aaron quickly let the skin on his body fall away, Soul and Noctar returning to their original hosts. After all, Noctar was a servant to Soul, and Soul was the equal half of Aaron. The void behind Aaron's head was visible again as Soul quickly rushed up to fill the space in Aaron's skull. Aaron's white pupils re-appeared as he tossed the arena-creation device to Coranth, even though he still didn't understand how it worked. "Here. This is yours." Coranth said to Uril, handing him the pin-like device. Aaron didn't notice the shape before, but he realised that Uril's arena-creation thing was shaped like a pen, unlike Mitch's, which looked more like a rock.

"Now, I assume that you all realise that this monster is not a faker, right? He's the real deal, and he is to be treated as such." Uril announced, directing his hand towards Coranth. "This is your new S-class Summoner, Coranth Etral. His familiar is Aaron Stone, a new S-rank familiar, and he's rightfully earned that title by defeating S-rank familiar Raiken, controlled by S-class Summoner. Mitch Androtera!" Uril further explained, dragging the attention of random people in passing. Coranth and Aaron quickly walked back inside the building, not looking at the crowds and how rampant they were. A ping noise was heard, along with Mitch's voice. "So, how does your newfound rank feel?" Mitch asked Coranth, walking out of the elevator with a smile on his face. "Aaron just slaughtered hundreds of familiars. I think it's pretty safe to say that we are managing just fine." Coranth responded, looking slightly up at Mitch, now knowing his real name. "You never told me about the Combat Leaderboards." Coranth accused Mitch, who just shrugged. "I assumed you'd know about them. If you didn't know, it isn't my fault if you didn't." Mitch shrugged him off.

"If you look over to that wall, there's an area where you can take up jobs. We were going to call them quests, but some foreign game company copyrighted the term, so we had to change it to jobs." Mitch sighed, pushing Coranth over to the wall. Different pieces of holographic paper floated up into his eyes, the text visible enough for him to see it but also through it. "If you touch the jobs, you can hold them as if they were real pieces of paper. You shouldn't question the technology we used to make this possible, as I barely understand it myself. I just know how to use it, and that's it." Mitch told Coranth, prompting him to do as he was told.

Coranth reached out to the floating texts, reading them in higher clarity now that he could actually move them around after grabbing them. "This is a C-class job that wants us to use our familiars to cut down logs in the Estuary Forests," Coranth said to himself as Aaron looked at the quests since he wasn't going to call them jobs, trying to find a high-class offering that he and Coranth could get done. Aaron looked around, only seeing C's and D's before finally spotting a B-A level quest. He couldn't read the text since he didn't know the language, but he assumed it was difficult.

Aaron pushed it over towards Coranth, who looked at it in surprise. "Clearing out the Forest of Trepidation's harmful monsters?" Coranth asked himself, looking down at the amount of pay he'd get. "Huh. Three thousand Gil? That's a scam." Coranth continued before reading the actual pricing. "Oh! It's three thousand per confirmed kill! That makes a lot more sense!" He exclaimed. "Hey, Mitch, how would I claim this job?" Coranth asked, causing Mitch to sigh. "I hate having to tell people this one. The people who created this damn interactable holograph system made it in a way that forces you to punch the job to accept it. DOn't ask me why, but it was probably an inside joke between them, and now we have to beat it. Literally." Mitch responded, his head in his right hand.

Coranth followed what he had said and literally punched the piece of holographic paper that Aaron had passed to him. A little jungle played, and a green message appeared with sparkles that said 'Accepted!', much to Coranth's amazement. "I thought you were joking about me having to punch the hologram," Coranth admitted as Mitch looked at him with an exasperated expression. "You do not realise how much I wish that what I said was a joke. Those guys have put so many stupid ideas into practice that I don't know how they haven't tired themselves out from all of the idea-creating." Mitch replied, looking towards the elevator. "I'm going to go down and make sure that they know not to do stupid stuff like this again. However, everyone else has gotten used to the system, so it's not like I can change it without having a massive public upheaval." Mitch complained before looking at Coranth with curiosity. "You know, I never thought I'd lose to a skeleton. I'm still coming to grips with the reality, but in the meantime, before I have an existential crisis, you may want to start your job." Mitch told him.

"Ah, yes. Alright, I'm off!" Coranth said to Mitch before walking out of the main door, only to meet with a crowd there. He slammed the door shut, making sure that none could get in. "Use the side entrance for the love of god. If they all come into this building at once, they might break something." Mitch sighed, pointing towards the lobby's side that they hadn't gone to yet. "Oh, thanks," Coranth responded, slightly embarrassed as he and Aaron walked over to the side entrance. They were going to be starting their first quest, and they were prepared for anything.