Chương 276: James Picard

"Even just that is going to be hard to do," Manager Halsey said, scratching his head.

"I can get you all the documents you want, but there are only so many B Rank Ice mages you know."

"What about B Rank Spatial mages?" Damion asked.

"You want to claim a different affinity?" Manage Halsey asked in disbelief.

"I'll grant you that there are more B Rank Spatial mages than Ice, but even with Spatial affinity being more common than Ice, it is difficult for Spatial mages to rise in Rank. Your disguise might work for a while, but once you go on any mission, the ruse will be up. As soon as you can't store loot for the team they will know and then will report that you don't have a Spatial affinity."

"I don't intend to use the license to get work, just to avoid being tracked everywhere I go."

"Well, I guess that could work," Manager Halsey said.

"Do you have a name you'd like to use?"

"Here," Damion scribbled a name quickly on a piece of paper and handed to Manager Halsey.

"Give me a few minutes to dummy up the paperwork." Manager Halsey began working on his terminal and then after a few moments got up and left his office. Damion assumed the man had to retrieve the new documents. While he waited for the Fire mage to return, he pulled up the Magic System notification that popped up not long ago.

Ding [Spell Concealed Aura mastery increased to B Rank] Ding {Quest Completed} [Quest: Increase a Magic Spell in Rank – Status: Complete – Reward: 100 Experience, 500 Store Credit] A few months ago, 500 credits would have had him jumping for joy, but this quest just pushed him over the 400, 000 credit mark. Now he was paying more attention the big quests he had.

Discover the Origin of Goblins, Fix the Flaw in Magic, Discover the Goal of the Iblis, Learn the Truth of Magic 2, Master Nashto and Find Your Own Labyrinth. These quests had rewards of 100, 000 credits each and the last three 1, 000, 000 credits each. But even if he completed all those quests today, he would still be well short of the 100, 000, 000 credits needed to purchase the Anti-Regression potion. With the improvement of Concealed Aura, only things at A Rank and higher could now detect his magical presence.

This was a big improvement for him but, because of Phil, it really did not make much difference. Just like his fake id would not help in shielding Phil, the Snow Hawk could not conceal its magic aura and thus everything and everyone could see it was a C Rank Ferocious Beast. Damion knew he could avoid attracting attention in most places by simply telling Phil to wait outside of any city or town he visited. But if he wanted to move unnoticed through the wilds, Phil needed to somehow learn to disguise itself too.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Unfortunately, Damion did not know how to facilitate that. The Snow Hawk was growing, Phil had gone from early C Rank to upper C Rank in the last few months, but that was still a far cry from B Rank. To make matters worse, he did not know if there was something he could do to help Phil advance. The best he could do was feed the Snow Hawk the Ice affinity cores he had.

Each time Phil consumed one, the Ferocious Beast had an increase in magic power, but Damion was down to just a few F and E Rank cores and then he would have to start feeding it the D and C Rank ones. What he really needed, was access to the dungeon in Levande, unfortunately, he had already grown too strong for the dungeon, still it was not out of the question of buying more cores.

"Ah, here we are, one fresh set of identity papers and payment card," Manager Halsey said as he returned to his office.

"Thank you."

"Don't mention it. I did want to ask though. Before Helga left, did she mention anything to you?"

"What do you mean?"

"When you came straight here, I was thinking perhaps she had told you to come find me. Perhaps hoping I could pass on a message to you from her, or something of that nature."

"No. She didn't mention you at all. I came here on a whim. I figured if anyone could help me with a fake adventurer license, it would be someone in the Adventurer Association itself."

"A good guess. So, she didn't mention anything about a message?"

"She gave me a message holder a while ago. Said to wait until I left school and reached B Rank, but I haven't viewed it yet. I thought I should be somewhere secure first. Away from prying eyes."

"A good plan. Do you have a place to stay for the night?"

"I was going to check in with Mage Leland and Mage Flannery. See how their operation is going. I figured they would let me stay for a while. I also have a new business proposal for them and a few things to work out before I head off into the wilds."

"Into the wilds?" Manager Halsey asked, worry in his voice.

"Yes. I am going to take quests from the Mage Association and Crimson Order. Build up my reputation with them, while working on mapping the world for the Explorer guild."

"All three?" Manager Halsey was astonished. It was not uncommon for people to take missions for the Mage Association along with missions from an Order or special requests from guilds, but usually the Mage Association was the one on being secondary. To him, it sounded like Damion intended to treat all three organizations as secondary while pursuing something else entirely.

"I intend to be exploring, and I might as well take missions from them whenever I can. There is no sense in not doing so and it might just lead to unexpected gains."

"You aren't intending to go into the Red Zones are you?"

"Not until I am stronger," Damion replied.

"Good. Would you be going as you, or as… James Picard?" Manager Halsey asked, remembering the name Damion had given him for his new identity.

"Exploring as me. I want anyone keeping track of my movements to see me staying well out of anyone's way. But if I intend to stay in a Green or Yellow Zone city for a time, I'll use my new identity."

"Then there is one glaring problem with your plan."

"And that is?"

"Your hair." Damion had only had his light blue hair for a year, but he had already forgotten it was the mark of an S Rank Ice affinity. The new adventurer license and name would be useless if he still looked the same.

"I'll think of a way to disguise it," Damion said. The simple solution was to wear a hat or dye his hair. But he felt those might be too easily seen through. A better solution was to come up with a spell that could cast an illusion over him, though that might be a Mind affinity spell, and high Rankers might still be able to see through it. What he really needed was a spell that could alter his physical appearance. That would be the surest method. Of course, he had no idea if such a spell was possible