“Foster, what are you doing?” Kyla asked with a loud groan, looking at the guy that stopped in front of a shop’s window for probably the fifth time while they were on their way to the Mage Tower. Slowly, Foster turned his head, “Oh, sorry, that just looked really cool. I really don’t know much about magic, so this place seems just kinda… you know, really cool?”

Kyla looked at Foster and sighed slightly, walking up next to him. She looked into the shop window, seeing things that were basically just small gimmicky toys created by artificers. She looked up at Foster with a smirk, “You know, there might be some even cooler stuff in the Mage Tower.”

“Well yeah, probably. But I was just wondering how that stuff works.” He pointed out. This was the first time that he had really seen magic like this. Sure, he had experienced magic before, in the form of Thiodrus using it to communicate with him, or Kyla using something similar to magic to cast miracles on them in the dungeon. Foster had even used magic himself before. But this… was a whole other deal. It was full-on magic. The sort of thing that seemed just impossible. Any one of these things would turn the whole world-view on earth upside down, while here? They were just toys being sold at any one of these shops in this part of town.

Kyla crossed her arms and looked at the things in the shop again, “We’ll be going around to figure out something about Octer’s new skill anyway, so we can ask about these things while we’re at it.”

“Hm… sure, let’s do that.” Foster slowly nodded his head, and finally moved away from the shop window. Relieved that they could finally move on, Kyla quickly rushed back up to his side. It didn’t take long until they did reach the Mage Tower. They were quite close to it already, and it was a huge building, after all.

It seemed to be the largest structure around here, towering far above anything else, as if they had expanded along with the rest of the city. The building continued downward as well, but the only entrance seemed to be up here on the top layer, as if the others had been closed down. The moment that Foster and Kyla stepped through the doors, they saw colorful decoration along the walls, people walking around with scrolls, wands and staffs in their hands. It wasn’t nearly as crowded as Kyla and Foster had thought, but it did make sense. Magic users were rare, and even then, they could be split up into many categories, most of which had their own organization to deal with things like that.

Magic users were prideful, and they wouldn’t like being placed into categories they didn’t identify with. That was why, for example, Druids had their own organization. They of course used magic, but they were so far removed from how Wizards handled it that they couldn’t be called the same thing, and they didn’t want to be called the same thing either.

“Wizards, and just those that use the sort of magic that you have access to, are a lot more… scholarly, usually. It takes a lot of work to learn new spells beyond what a class might teach them.” Kyla said, finishing her explanation as the two of them were walking through this large open hall. Foster let out a loud groan already, “I guess that’s that for learning new spells then. Because that’s probably not gonna happen, no matter how cool the spell is.” He said with a wry smile, and Kyla looked at him awkwardly, “Seriously, why was it you that got his hands on a fusion class?”

“Iunno.” Foster shrugged, as the two of them soon reached the reception desk on the other side of the room. The young woman sitting there looked at the two people standing in front of her. She seemed fine with Kyla, but when she looked at Foster, her face basically contorted into something that could only be called disgust.

“I’m… here to sign up.” Foster explained, and the woman in front of him looked back with a frown, “You? You’re a martial artist, so why are you here?”

Grinding his teeth, Foster grabbed Aster from his hair, and placed him down on the desk, “I’m a magic user, and I’m here to sign up and register my familiar.” 

The moment that the woman saw the familiar, something that proved that Foster was indeed a magic user, her disgusted expression immediately disappeared. She still didn’t seem happy that someone that looked like Foster was trying to sign up, but at the very least she wasn’t looking at him like he was the scum at the bottom of the trashcan.

“If you wish to sign up, please make your way to the second floor offices. Room 7 should be open for you.” She explained, and Foster quickly picked Aster up again, “Cool, thanks.” Foster replied immediately, as he turned around toward the stairs, walking to them annoyed. As they left, Kyla glared at the woman sitting at the reception desk as well.

“Urgh… how nasty…” Kyla grumbled quietly, and Foster shrugged, “Yep, but there’s nothing you can do about it. Let’s just go, I’ll sign up and then we’ll see what to do after that.” 

— 

Collapsed and defeated, Foster looked at the ceiling. Never in his life did he think he would have to face something like this. Nervously, afraid of what he would see, he looked at his hand. Completely cramped up, it clutched the pen.

“Fuck, that hurts…” Foster let out, as he set the pen down for a moment, clenching his fist to try and get rid of that uncomfortable feeling, before going back to signing and filling out all these documents. Signing up wasn’t actually that complicated, but registering Aster as his familiar? That was something bothersome. Incredibly so.

“Alright, that should be it for now, then.” The employee in front of Foster explained. Luckily, this one didn’t look at him like he was garbage, but treated him normally. He pushed the copies of some of the documents Foster signed into an envelope, and handed a small stamp to him.

“This will be your personal stamp. It is a sign that you are part of our guild, so please don’t lose it. You are expected to use it whenever you do things regarding the Mage Tower, so please simply use it to stamp the wax seal, just to test it.” The employee explained, and Foster slowly nodded his head, really wanting all of this to be over.

The employee poured some molten wax over part of the envelope, and Foster quickly pressed the small stamp onto the wax, soon seeing the pattern that it formed. It wasn’t anything special. It was just something like a fingerprint, a unique pattern to identify him with. Or at least, that’s how it was explained to him before. Once the wax hardened again, Foster could put the envelope into his bag, and slowly stood up.

“Now, there shouldn’t be any issues with your familiar. If anything happens, as long as you can prove within 48 hours that it has indeed been registered, there won’t be an issue.” The employee explained, walking toward the door with Foster.

“Right, thank you. But I do have some other questions, if you have the time to answer them.” Foster explained. Now that he was finally done signing up, he could ask if they knew anything about Octer’s skill.

“I can show you around the tower, if you would like. You can ask any questions you have then.” With a calm, professional smile, the employee looked at Foster, who immediately agreed. He wanted to see what this place was about anyway, so that might not be a bad idea.

And so, the employee opened the door, and waited for Foster to step outside, where Kyla was still waiting for him.