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Stephen and Mark left the forest and paid 4 rubles to enter the train to the city of Oro.
The city of Oro is the largest city and is beautiful in terms of buildings and gardens. It is the best place for tourism in this world. After the monsters attacked and after the war between the vampires, the map of the world changed strangely, and the world became one continent called the continent of Elerion. This continent is divided into four major cities: Mira, Oro, Aram, and Mor, and each city has its own special features.
Oro is the city where most of the talents appeared, and it is also the city where the Academy of Hope was built, containing the best guilds.
When Stephen and Mark arrived at the city of Oro, Stephen went toward a guild called the Guild of Stars to sell the mana stones he collected from the monsters that he and Mark defeated.
He had 50 mana stones of rank G, each worth 100 rubles, making a total of 5000 rubles, and 20 stones of rank F, each worth 300 rubles, making 6000 rubles, and one stone of rank E, worth 1000 rubles.
Before Stephen reached the guild, he activated the disguise skill, which would remain active for 3 hours due to his increased power. He took out the black cloak that had the crow's insignia on it. He wore it and covered half of his face, hiding many of his cold features.
Stephen said to Mark, "Wait here."
Mark said, "Are you going to sell the mana stones?"
Stephen replied, "Yes."
Stephen went to the guild. When he entered, no one was surprised by his appearance because most people who came to the guild hid their identities.
Stephen looked around and saw various races sitting together as teams or alone, calling their teams mercenaries. Stephen passed by them and went to the clerk and said, "I want to sell some mana stones."
The clerk said, "Hello, sir. Are you registered in the guild?"
Stephen said, "No."
The clerk replied, "You must register in the guild before you can sell us the stones."
Stephen asked, "How do I register?"
The clerk placed a form in front of Stephen and said, "You can fill out this form and enter that room to test your rank."
Stephen looked at the form. It asked what name he should be called. Stephen thought for a moment and wrote "The Black Crow (Black Crow)"
((From now on, my name will be Black Crow; I just wrote The Black Crow at the beginning.))
For the question of rank, Stephen wrote "E-".
He gave the form to the clerk. The clerk looked at the paper and said, "Black Crow, what a unique name."
Stephen didn't speak and went to the testing room located on the right side of where he was standing.
Stephen entered the room and found a dwarf sitting beside a strange machine. The dwarf looked at Stephen and said, "Sit on that machine."
It seemed that the dwarf already knew he came to measure his rank.
Stephen went to the machine and sat on it without saying a word.
The dwarf said to Stephen, "This machine measures rank and talent. Your rank must be at least F and your talent at least C to enter our guild."
The dwarf turned on the machine and looked at its screen. After a while, his eyes widened in great shock, and he shouted loudly, "Oh my god!! Talent SS! Oh my god!"
He looked toward Stephen, laughed loudly, and said, "What a rare talent you have! It's good that you came to our guild."
"What should I call you, young man?"
Stephen said, "Black Crow."
The dwarf said, "Wait, I'll give you a card for your rank. This card can be exchanged for one of your new rank whenever you advance. This card proves that you are registered in this guild. You can only take on missions one rank higher than yours."
Stephen said calmly, "I want to sell mana stones."
"Yes, you can sell them at the counter," the dwarf replied.
Stephen went to the merchant and took out all the mana stones he had.
He said to the merchant, "How much is it?" even though he had already calculated it before coming.
The merchant looked at them, calculated, and said, "Their total price is 12,000 rubles. Wait, I'll get you the money."
Stephen said to the merchant, "I want to buy a sword technique of rank E and a dagger technique of rank F."
The merchant said, "The dagger technique costs 4000 rubles, and the sword technique costs 5000 rubles."
Stephen said, "Alright."
The merchant said, "Follow me. You can choose the techniques from this way."
The merchant led Stephen to a large door and gave him a warning: "You can only choose one technique from rank F and one from rank E. No more than that is allowed."
Stephen nodded silently.
"Alright, go in and choose," the merchant said.
Stephen entered the storage room and looked around. The place resembled a large library filled with shelves containing different kinds of techniques. Stephen walked toward the rank E section.
'There are a lot of techniques. It might take some time to find a sword skill that suits me.'
Stephen looked around at different techniques—spears, bows, and others—until one sword technique caught his attention.
(Shadow Sword)
[Allows the sword and its wielder to merge with the shadows.]
'This technique is great. In the future, I can make it an evolving technique when I get its materials.'
'Alright, I've found my technique. Now for Mark's technique.'
He went to the rank F techniques section and looked through the dagger skills.
'I need to find a fast and good dagger technique for Mark.'
He found only three that met the requirements:
(Final Stab)
[The user can stab the target at a vital point, killing the target.]
(Phantom Dagger)
[The user can quickly change the dagger's position, giving the illusion that it has disappeared.]
(Gou Dagger)
[A technique where the user can enhance their dagger with mana, allowing it to pierce any object depending on the user's mana.]
'All of them are very good techniques, but I lean toward the last one since it's more useful for him because I've already taught him the mana technique.'
Stephen chose (Gou Dagger) and left the storage room, showing the techniques to the merchant. The merchant inspected them and nodded.
He gave Stephen the remaining money.
Stephen left the Guild of Stars and went to Mark.
Mark said with a slight frown, "You took too long inside."
Stephen handed him the technique he had chosen for him and said, "This skill is for you."
Mark was delighted and took the technique, looking at it. "This is amazing—it can pierce anything! As for mana, that's no problem. With the technique you taught me, it will be perfect."
Stephen said to Mark, "Let's go to the real estate shop to buy a house."
Mark said, "Great! We'll have our own home."
They went to the real estate shop, and Stephen asked the clerk to show him houses priced at 2000 rubles or less. Stephen saw a house with a basement suitable for training. He chose that house even though it was worn down because it was the cheapest one he could find.
It cost him 1500 rubles.
Stephen had 2500 rubles left.
When they received the house papers, they left the shop.
Stephen took off his cloak, put it into his storage pocket, canceled the disguise skill, and returned to his normal size.
Stephen then went to a bookstore to buy some technology and computer books for Mark to improve his encryption skill, along with books about the world, history, and school subjects for him to better understand the world. These all cost 10 rubles.
He also bought clothes for both of them, and they ate at a restaurant.
Stephen bought a watch for Mark, and they exchanged contact numbers.
When they arrived at the house Stephen bought, it had two rooms, one bathroom, a kitchen, and a living room. Each chose their own bedroom, and they slept for a long time due to exhaustion.
The next day, both woke up and began their training and studies.
Since Stephen knew how to cook, he became responsible for preparing their meals.
Stephen would go to the Guild of Stars from time to time to take on some missions.
His fame gradually started to rise without him knowing it.
And thus, three years passed.
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