Ch09. Invitation

"Why are you smiling?" I raised a brow, perplexed.

She couldn't be looking at my status window, too, could she?

Even my brother couldn't when we fought, and I used it right to his face.

"You have a curious ability. I only saw it in dreams, but seeing it in person is something completely different."

"Wait." No I was even more perplexed. "You said you saw me, in a dream? How come?"

"Are you done with what you needed to check?"

She was strangely polite, for a sixteen year old girl.

"I think I am, so, why am I here?"

Her eyes became suddenly serious as she asked, straightforward.

"What do you know about the Calamity?"

And as she asked, she got up from the table she was sitting at, walking towards me.

"I know you have otherworldly knowledge, so don't worry. You can speak your mind here, we're free, I already told you that.

The question and her remark took me by surprise, but I composed myself back, and tried to recall both what I learned in school and what I learned from Nikolai and the books I bought from him.

"If I remember it correctly, they said that, centuries ago, an asteroid fell on Earth, unleashing monstrous beasts from what we now call Nests. What about it?"

"So you know that the Calamity was the event that gave birth to the first awakened, yes?"

"Yes, and later on, the awakened who chose to fight against the beasts became the first guild.

"The Shadow Guild." She said, to my surprise.

"What?"

"You heard me. The Shadow Guild was the first guild to ever be assembled, for the sake of the human race."

"But..." I was, again, taken aback. "But they say..."

"That the first guild was Dawn Guild, but it's just biased information, written in history books to make people believe that the Blake family reigns above all. But it wasn't always like that."

The conversation was taking a completely unexpected turn, and I didn't know what to think of it.

I fidgeted with my fingers, not knowing what to reply to that.

"I'm not here to blame you or anything, Kurt Blake." She said, almost as if she could read my mind. "If anything, I need your help. But we're running out of time."

"What do you mean?"

But the answer came in form of a loud knock on the wooden door behind us.

"Your brother, Quintus, and your father, Octavius, are not to be trusted."

Her eyes were deadly serious, as she spoke.

"I already know that, but..."

But she interrupted and went on, in a hurry.

"Much is at stake here, and if you don't get stronger in time, I don't know what they'll be capable of." But as I was ready to say something back, she finished. "Now, it's time for you to get going. See you in school, Kurt."

She winked at me and the door opened, leaving me speechless to a Quintus that touched my shoulder, asking.

"Is everything okay, little brother?"

"Before you go in, just know that I get it, okay? I, too, don't know if there's anything I can do for you to forgive me. But at least know that I'm sorry. And I mean it."

"Your brother, Quintus, and your father, Octavius, are not to be trusted."

Both statements swirled around my head, and somehow, I knew who I could trust.

"Yes, brother." I answered in the most natural tone I could manage to gather. "I'm fine."

It was way too much information all at once, in too much of a short period of time.

The leveling up, the quest rewards, the Shadow Guild, the Red Oracle.

Of course I was fine...

Wait...

Did she say "See you in school"?

***

"Quintus, you go ahead, there are some things I need to discuss with the neophyte."

Quintus looked at Rodrick as if the old man just slapped him in the face, and I can't say I didn't like the scene.

"Yes, I'll get going, then." My brother answered, clearly holding back the anger.

And when he finally left, Rodrick looked at me with curious eyes.

"Did you really knocked the lights out of him?"

I scratched my head, embarrassed.

"Truth be told, even I don't know how I did it. All I know is that when I awakened, I had a similar ability to that of my brother's. We sparred at home, because he wanted to find out my true rank, and I ended up overpowering him in the last second..."

"I would've loved to see that happening!"

Roderick's eyes were gleaming with just the idea of Quintus being defeated.

"But you didn't want me to stay just because of that, am I wrong?"

"You're right. I wanted you to stay a bit longer because I can't show you the whole place just yet. However, I did want to ask you, since you just awakened, and well... Defeated Quintus in a sparring."

"What is it?"

Rodrick gave a nice vibe. He looked like a bald uncle, but I knew he could be fierce in a raid, just by looking at his complexion.

I heard that the Shadow Guild was the only thieves guild in the whole country, but looking at Rodrick, I couldn't think so.

The man was built like a tank, with his brown skin looking like solid iron, and his muscles protruding underneath his shirt.

I didn't want to be enemies with him, that was for sure.

"I want you to join our guild, and I want you to think carefully on it."

Surprise after surprise, shock after shock.

The leader of the Shadow Guild, inviting me in person to join them?

"But... Why? I'm just..."

"An irregular, like Evelynn, the girl you just met."

"An... Irregular?"

Rodrick stared at me as if I had just spoken nonsense.

"Tell me how can a normal wielder, let alone an E-rank, newly awakened, beat the shit out of a fucking A-rank, despite getting all worn out in the aftermath. And I won't even start on you stealing his guild badge, right?"

Both his brows were up, and he couldn't get more expressive than that.

I couldn't say a thing towards his solid statement.

"You have something special, little man. I don't know what, but it doesn't concern me. Just tell me you'll think carefully and keep in contact. I'll prepare a good proposal for you."

Speechless, I just moved my head up and down, thinking about how my life was turning around this time.

"Now, better get going. We don't want Quintus angrier than he already is, even though I'd love to see that."

"You don't seem to like him much, why?"

"Story for another time, kid. Now go, take the elevator right at the end of the hallway, and you'll leave right at the lobby."

half shocked about everything that just happened, I left, and even though I was done with the daily quests, I needed time to think and assimilate all the information.

So I started running in a slow pace.

I had awakened, knocked my brother out, found some questions to think about, met a pretty girl, and even got invited to join a guild!

I was completely done for the day, so I had all the time in the world to just jog back home.

Life was good, finally.