The Flying Emporium

“There is more?!” Emily exclaimed excitedly before hastily saying, “yes. Yes, of course!”

‘So, there is at least something here to see?!’ Whereas the girl was already very satisfied with the little she had seen so far, her boss was of the opinion that they had not seen anything really worthwhile at all. Still, he couldn’t help but share her excitement. Since Magda brought it up herself, it at least shouldn’t be a total waste of time. ‘At the very least, it should be something more than just another empty room,’ was his conclusion.

“Then follow me.” With that, Magda walked ahead and towards a door that so far had been hidden from their sight by the empty quest board standing a few meters in front of it. Now, however, Severin couldn’t help but wonder how he had missed it in the first place. Sure, the quest board was huge, but so was the door. It was pretty much identical to the double doors at the front.

Magda led the [Shopkeeper] and the [Employee] through the smaller door embedded into one of the larger one’s wings. The room behind it was just big enough to fit yet another of the doors that seemed too large even for someone like Samuel, on the one side, and a second, this time more regular sized door, on the other.

With just a few steps, Magda had reached the former and opened it.

Based on Severin’s previous observations of the map, he concluded the smaller one had to lead towards the woman’s personal accommodations. He restrained himself and didn’t ask. He simply followed her.

“Careful. Watch your steps.” The warning was directed towards Emily as the girl seemed all too eager to run down the couple of meter wide flight of stairs with no regard for anything else.

“Ooh? What’s all this?” Excited sounds and exclamations reached Severin’s ears even before he could even start to descend the stairs himself. But once he arrived downstairs, he could only share the girl’s excitement. Now he was particularly grateful for her presence. She could-and most certainly would-ask all those questions Severin was most interested in, but didn’t dare to ask out of fear of arousing suspicions.

The amused look on Magda’s face which seemed to say, “just a child would be fascinated by this “, only confirmed him of his opinion. The supposedly ‘knowing’ glances she shot Severin didn’t help either.

“What’s this place?” The girl asked again, now that the other people had caught up to her.

“You know about ranks, right? Adventurer ranks,” the smiling woman specified.

Em nodded. “Everyone knows!”

“Then you should also know it is us who assign those ranks. In fact, every branch must be able to evaluate an adventurer’s rank at least up to gold.”

In understanding, the girl’s eyes became even larger than they already were.

“Then this is…”

“Right. See that orb over there?” Magda asked while pointing towards a small table with a milky, head-sized round object lying on top. “That’s what we like to call The Ball of Truth. Using it is both the easiest and fasted method to determine someone’s rank. It’s also by far less the commonly used method.” The woman paused for effect, but the curious girl immediately urged her to continue the explanation.

“It is able to reveal the class and the base stats of anyone who touches it. Do you understand what that means?”

Hesitant but not any less excited, Emily shook her head.

“I know what stats are, but…“

“It means we can see what that person’s stats would look like if they didn’t wear any equipment. It also accounts for any buffs they haven’t learned themselves. Then, dependent on their class, we can judge whether or not the person is eligible for rank-up. As long as the person’s class isn’t all too rare and we have all the necessary data, the whole process doesn’t even take a whole minute.”

Severin was just as intrigued by these words as him [Employee], but he immediately found several flaws with this method. Then again, the table only occupied a very small part of the room and the other items, devices, and contraptions clearly suggested that there were other ways to address those issues. Severin debated to telepathically instruct the girl to ask certain questions in his stead, when she continued on her own.

“But this is not the only method.” She naturally hadn’t missed her surroundings either; neither had she forgotten Magda’s earlier words.

“It is not. Most adventurers aren’t comfortable having their stats exposed like this. Especially not their base stats. Not even by us. Paranoid bunch, if you ask me.” The woman shot Severin a meaningful look, who rolled his eyes in response.

“More important, however, is the fact that two people having the same stats doesn’t necessarily mean they are equally strong or otherwise useful in actual battle. That’s rarely the case.

There are a bunch of different factors to consider, such as having additional abilities. But in the end, it all comes down to skill. So, of course, we have to consider this as well. As a result, the average amount of stats we require of those being evaluated by The Ball is much higher than should normally be necessary to perform well; just to ensure that even the most talentless person is able to carry their weight. The amount of completed quests we require of them is also double the normal amount.”

“Then the other method is to evaluate someone’s skill directly,” the girl easily deduced.

Direct confirmation wasn’t needed. Instead, Magda indicated Emily to follow her; of course, Severin followed as well. But just after a few steps, she suddenly halted and pointed at a carving on the ground. On a first glance, it was easy to miss as it only had a width of one centimeter or so and appeared to be rather shallow, but following it, one would find that the carving effectively separated the room widthwise into two separate areas.

“This line here is easily the most valuable part of this whole building. Nobles, guilds, and wealthy merchants all pay small fortunes for us to engrave even just a narrow doorstep with one of these.

Just as we don’t want equipment or buffs provided by consumables or other people to distort the results of our evaluation when processing someone’s stats, we can’t allow it for the practical examination either; wouldn’t be fair.

Anyway. Most adventurers need a couple of minutes to get used to the feeling. Especially those that sleep in their gear. Say it makes them feel naked.” She shrugged as she stepped over the carving and headed deeper inside the room.

The other two shared a short look and followed suit.

Crossing the line, Severin didn’t feel any change at all. That much was expected. But for some reason, he suddenly slowed down his steps in an attempt to put some distance between himself and Magda. The next moment when he felt unobserved, he quickly gulped down the contents of a small, hexagonal shaped bottle.