S-Rank Heart

Chapter 7 - Joining a Guild

Andrea slid a paper across the desk towards Noemi. They sat alone in Andrea's office. Noemi had dressed up in a semi-formal outfit, while Andrea wore her usual office clothing.

"To start, this is a nondisclosure agreement," Andrea said. "It's declaring that the guild and its members will not disclose your information, including your true rank."

Noemi read through it and verified that, indeed, Andrea spoke truly. They both signed it.

"Now, before we discuss the contract," Andrea said, reaching under the desk and pulling out a small, round device with a crystal in the center. "I'm sure you're as curious as I am to find out your true rank."

Noemi stared at the device. "You'll treat me as a C-Rank regardless of the result here, right?"

"Indeed."

"Even S-Ranks can't clear A-Rank gates on their own," Noemi said. "I value my life highly. I don't want to risk it for money, or rely on other people to protect it."

"An understandable stance," Andrea replied with a nod. "Though I know our members are reliable, as we said before, we won't force you to do A-Rank Gates."

"Okay."

Noemi took a deep breath and held her hand over the crystal. Andrea watched the monitor. The energy readings ticked up until it reached C-Rank. Noemi had made it a habit to hold her energy at that level to avoid anyone seeing her.

"Don't hold back," Andrea said with a smirk.

"I'll release it now."

Andrea didn't need to stare at the graph in order to notice the spike in energy. She could feel it emanating from Noemi. The monitor quickly became useless, the readings shooting up through the top of the graph as error messages filled the screen.

"It's done," Andrea announced with a smile. Noemi retracted her energy. "Unsurprisingly, you are an S-Rank."

"Okay," Noemi replied, not looking happy in the slightest.

"As you know, all the other guilds, both here and globally, would have a great interest in you," Andrea said, weaving her fingers together. "If you went public, you would have countless offers in the hundreds of millions that we could never hope to match."

Noemi shook her head. "I don't want the attention, and that's way more money than I could ever use."

Andrea nodded, pleased. She opened a drawer and pulled out a stack of several papers. "Then, here's our contract offer."

Noemi's eyes glazed over as she flipped through the documents.

"I'll summarize it," Andrea said. "Your annual salary will be ten million Euros to start. As a signing bonus, Violet will custom make an entire set of equipment for you to your specifications, valued somewhere in the vicinity of twenty million Euros, and we'll also give you three million Euros immediately."

"That sounds, um..." Noemi pursed her lips. "High for a C-Rank."

She recalled what she'd earned from the dungeon break. If B-Rank Gates were ten times as profitable, then that would be two million Euros for the cores. Split it ten ways, factor in the cut for the guild, about forty times a year... The guild had to be taking a loss, paying her that much.

"You're a C-Rank that can ensure all our members return alive from their raids," Andrea said with a warm smile. "That's worth a lot to me. Beyond that, we provide health, dental, and life insurance, and as promised, you will not have to participate in A-Rank raids."