"Per the orders of the Guild Master in agreement with the Lord Mayor and Garrison Commander, the Forest is off limits to anyone less than Gold Rank. All bounties, contracts, and rewards for such are suspended for those Silver Rank and below at this time."

"What the fuck?! I hunted these goblins just yesterday! The guard gave me a writ of completion!"

"Then you should have turned in the contract yesterday. The order is effective as of this morning and your contract has been suspended, there's nothing I can do."

"Horse shit there's nothing you can do! Do you know who I am?! Give me my pay damn it!"

"Sir, I recognize that you are a Silver adventurer in good standing with the Guild, but I am unable to issue rewards for Silver and below Forest contracts at this time. Please come back when the order has been lifted."

"And when the fuck is that supposed to be?! I need to pay my rent this month asshole!"

"The order stands until further notice."

"Argh damn you! I'll show you you cu—hurgh!"

"Sir, threats against Guild staff will not be tolerated." Biting back a sigh, Todd carefully pulled his Platinum aura back as the angry man passed out from just a small amount of pressure, making a meaty thump with his head against the desk as he collapsed to the stained wooden floor in front of his desk. A quick cast of healing magic ensured the fool didn't die to some freak accident as sometimes happened with head blows as he gave a nod to Sasha, the morning's Guild enforcer, directing her to the unconscious adventurer.

Todd watched impassively as Sasha dragged the unconscious man into the back of the guild hall to the "drunk tank." Every Guild hall worth its name had a tavern where adventurers could get a meal and a drink or ten that helped keep operating costs down while also creating positions for high ranking adventurers to retire into as a way of transitioning back into polite society after a lifetime of violence. Of course, having an attached tavern run by high rankers whose first reaction to the unexpected tended to be swift and immense violence and patronized by adventurers still high strung from a brush with death and well on their way to becoming the same as the staff that ran it meant that having a secure place to throw those who got too rowdy wasn't just logical, but an absolute necessity.

Sasha would no doubt place him in one of the cells to sleep off the aura suppression safely without getting robbed if he were just thrown into the street or pressed into penal service if given to the guards. The Guild didn't surrender its members lightly, at least not a Silver who'd had to fight their way up the ranks. After all, the Guild wouldn't exist if they just threw out every adventurer with a penchant for reacting violently. Not that the Silver would be getting off lightly. He'd find himself with a reduction in payouts for his next few contracts. Assaulting Guild staff didn't come without consequences.

The rest of Todd's shift passed by in a blur of angry adventurers and altercations, some of which ended peacefully, some of which found Sasha dragging another guild member off for a nap and a fine. The next day was more of the same. On the third day after the proclamation, Todd had finally figured out the best way to defuse any potential confrontations with the low rankers. Overwhelming bluntness.

"No. Check again next week or get knocked out." Todd yelled, dismissing an Iron team while Ned, another Guild enforcer, cracked his knuckles and stared them down. The leader, a foppish pretty boy that seemed to care more about his looks and prowess in bed than prowess in combat, gulped and backed down nervously, leading the gaggle of women that was his team away.

For a few blessed minutes Todd had nothing else to do but stand behind his counter and stare at the door, counting the faint ticks of the enchanted clock behind him. Just 27,697 seconds to go until his shift was done. 27,696. 27,695. 27,694. … 27,252. 27,25— Todd stopped counting as a large group of people entered the Guild. The first people weren't all that unusual. Academy students by the looks of things. A group of Silver ranked and a group of Irons, probably trying to sneak in a quick contract before the next term started up. He was sure they'd be a problem for him when they found out all that remained were Forest contracts that they'd be barred from, even if they had the right rank. No, what really captured his attention were the two that came in trailing behind the students. A pair of beastkin women, a catkin in black robes and a foxkin in white.

Not that that was all that remarkable. Beastkin in these parts were rare, but he'd encountered their people many times, even partied with a few. No, their races weren't all that remarkable. What first caught his attention was how well controlled their auras were. The two beastkin women simply didn't exist in his passive aura senses. Such control was practically unheard of, something only aura masters such as the Guild Leader were capable of, but no one became an aura master before at least Diamond, and there were only three Diamonds known to be in the city.

Confused by such control, Todd fed some mana into his eyes, boosting his aura detection by tying it to another sense. The room darkened as his eyes started to take in aura rather than light while people became human shaped shadows surrounded by glowing light. The shadow that was Ned held a thin and tightly controlled cloud of luminous silvery-white, the color shared by the bartender for the Guild's tavern and half the waitresses, the rest a rich Gold. The tavern's patrons became a crowd of Golds, Silvers, Irons, and Bronzes of varying strengths and levels of control.

But all of that became a background as he focused on the group purposefully striding to the Guild's contract board. The students' auras were the first thing that surprised him. Though he could tell without boosting his senses that they were Silvers and Irons, he hadn't been able to judge their control. Or rather, he hadn't chosen to. They'd all felt on the weaker end for their ranks, unsurprising for a bunch of Academy students coddled by their professors and Advisors, but his boosted senses revealed ten rings of tightly controlled aura. The Silver ranked students had control bordering Ned's, appearing like silver outlines of light, while the Iron students were covered in a layer of condensed clouds, like the dense layers surrounding the eye of a typhoon.

Todd was so distracted by such immense aura control in such young low rankers that he'd nearly forgotten about the beastkin women. Except they weren't visible in his enhanced sight. Eyes widening, Todd rapidly scanned the group of students as they stood where he knew the board was, but he couldn't find them. Then he saw it. A flicker of black that briefly passed in front of one of the tavern's patrons, blotting out their golden aura with a shadow in the shape of a fox's bushy tail. Locking onto the tail shaped void, Todd looked up and down before he finally saw it. Faint wisps of light hovered at about head height the slightest hint of gold in the shape of two pairs of triangular ears. Ending the feed of mana to his eyes, Todd blinked as light came back to him and he found himself staring into the eyes of the foxkin woman who winked at him before turning back to talk to the Silver ranked elf she came in with.

Shuddering, Todd looked away from the strange group as he processed what he saw. The beastkin were Golds, but with control rivaling aura masters. It shouldn't be possible, but the proof of it just winked at him! Even though they were a full rank below him, he knew levels and stages were only part of things. A talented and skilled Bronze could kill an unskilled Gold. It was why nobles and nations still relied on trained and equipped armies and adventurers rather than trying to just power level themselves up. True power didn't just come from levels, but talent and effort. And something told him he just witnessed talent that could cross such immense gaps.

"We'd like to take these," a voice said, emitting a faint Gold ranked aura.

Todd blinked at the feminine hand as it placed a stack of notices on the desk in front of him, the words "Gold Rank Contract" plainly visible on the top sheet. "Ahem, right," he said, taking the stack of contracts without looking at whoever handed them to him. Skimming through the contracts, he felt a faint sense of relief. While there were a couple Gold ranked contracts for the Forest in the mix, it was mostly Iron and Silver ranked ones, contracts that were going unfulfilled due to the restrictions put in place a few days ago and were just a day or two away from being thrown into the pile of mandatory assignments. Even though those Silver and below weren't able to turn complete contracts as a way to discourage them from entering the massive dungeon the Guild wouldn't cancel the contracts since that would incur a heavy penalty, so they were still active.

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Unfortunately, most adventurers saw taking contracts below their ranks as beneath them. Getting a Gold to do a Silver contract, let alone something lower, was like trying to convince a toddler to eat their vegetables. A toddler that could punch a hole through the desk in front of him. It just didn't happen. So when a Gold voluntarily took on such contracts, he only felt relief. It meant that many fewer contracts he'd have to force onto teams he had to play nice with, even if he was stronger than them.

Looking up at the Gold who was helping him out Todd froze as he took in the fox-eared woman smiling back at him. His eyes flicked between the stack of papers, her smile, and the fluffy tail moving behind her. The faint Gold aura he'd sensed vanished, his passive aura senses suddenly saying that no one was in front of him, even though he could see her with his own eyes.

"Well?" she said, smiling wide and revealing impossibly sharp incisors.

A chill ran down his spine as he took in her pearly white teeth, his mind leaping back to his adventures with beastkin. While smiling was a human and elven custom that meant peace, among the beastkin it could be seen as a threat when teeth were bared. While even most beastkin wouldn't consider it a threat for someone a full rank lower to bare their teeth at them, especially when the woman leaned against his desk in a position that compromised her defenses, he'd seen the faint wisps of her aura coming off her ears, signaling her impressive aura control. An aura master didn't need to move their body to kill. She was dangerous. A threat.

Eyes locked onto her bare teeth, his survival instincts honed in dungeons and battlefields across the continent screamed at him to act, to kill the threat in front of him before she attacked. He listened to those instincts, his mana flooding into a series of spells and skills. [Iron Body]. [Giant's Might]. [Heightened Perception]. [Shackles of the Damned]. [Dampening Field]. [Life Stealer's Touch]. The staples that earned him the title Death Touch. His muscles tensed and the world slowed as his skills activated, moments before the spells did.

The enhancement buffs would let him move as fast as a Diamond, the spells strong enough to hold even someone as strong as the Guild Master in place for a few seconds. An eternity in high level fights. More than enough time for him to grab her hand and rip her very life force from her body.

The woman's flicking tail seemed to still under the effects of his enhanced perception. His hand moved as if through molasses under the effects of [Heightened Perception], though all anyone else should see is a blur. His hand barely had time to move an inch before the woman's smile widened, ruby red painted lips parting to reveal impossibly sharp fangs. Todd gasped as he sensed a sharp aura blade press against his throat even as an immense pressure crashed down on him, shattering his active skills and freezing him in place. The mana backlash from having his skills forcibly cancelled send a crippling lance of pain through his mind

"Is something wrong?" the foxkin woman asked with an innocent smile.

Shaking off the mana backlash, Todd pulled his frazzled thoughts together, glancing around the room as remembered where he was. Adventurers and Guild staff surrounded him, most continuing on with their duties or carousing in the tavern, but Ned and Sasha looked at him with concern, the two enforcers edging towards the desk. They'd seen him preparing to attack.

He was manning the Guild's reception desk, not fighting on the frontlines anymore. Aura master or not, she wasn't a threat, just an adventurer doing a few jobs. He just broke the Guild's rules. Though Ned and Sasha wouldn't report him since no one came to harm, that was little comfort to him. If the foxkin woman in front of him pressed the matter, he'd be lucky to keep his position.

"N-No… sorry, headache." Todd said nervously.

"Oh dear, you should take care of yourself. Headaches can be awful," the foxkin woman said, continuing to smile.

A small measure of relief crept through Todd's chest. She was playing along. A good sign. He might be able to smooth things over without an official complaint against him.

"Y-Yes. My apologies for that. So you said you wanted to take all of these contracts? I will need to see your IAG badge." With every word, Todd latched onto professionalism to get him through the rest of this interaction. He just needed to smooth things over and get her out of there before she decided to file a complaint.

The foxkin woman reached into her robes, revealing pale skin and the faintest swell of supple flesh as she pulled out a golden medallion and handed it over.

Todd felt his ears grow red when he caught himself following her hand and realized he'd just stared down her robe. Flicking his eyes back up to the woman's face, his embarrassment grew worse when she winked at him, having caught him looking where he shouldn't have.

"Right, thank you," he said, desperately clinging to the shreds of his professionalism as he took the woman's medallion and pressed it against the scanning artifact. Quickly reviewing the information, he jotted a few notes down before handing the medallion back over.

"Thank you Inari. I see this will be your first time doing contracts in this area and no registered team. Do you have a team, or will you be completing these alone? " Todd plastered on his best smile, though he could feel it was a fragile thing. He couldn't wait for his shift to end and be away from adventurers for a bit.

"Of course, that will be no problem. Let me go get them," she said, turning with a flick of her tail and heading back into the tavern.

Hopefully she'd be back soon with her team and he could put their entire awkward encounter behind him. It only took the woman a couple minutes to return, but Todd felt his hope dashed upon the rocks as he took in the people following behind the foxkin. He was unsurprised to see the catkin woman by her side, figuring the two a pair given the rarity of their kind on this continent, but he couldn't help but feel Inari was pulling a prank on him when he saw the rest of her "team." He hoped she was, otherwise if she was doing what he thought she was, he'd only be provoking her when he denied them the contracts. Following close behind were the two Academy teams that came in right before them.

"Give the man your Guild badges everyone!" Inari said with a mischievous twinkle in her eye as Todd's stomach dropped.

Woodenly, the receptionist took their badges one at a time, recording each person's information on a team roster. The catkin woman's information wasn't a problem, her badge confirming her as another Gold ranker, though even it didn't, his instincts told him she was just as dangerous as Inari. A pair of Golds that could each threaten a mid Platinum like himself was a force to be wary of. No, the problem wasn't the beastkin, the problem laid with the students and the contracts Inari selected.

With every badge he took from the students, his professional mask slipped more and more. Five Silvers, recently ascended in the past couple months, might as well have been Irons even with their levels. Worse still, all five of the Irons were also newly ascended, with four having only gained their Iron ranks and Iron badges in the past month, and one still holding a Bronze badge. Students, newly ascended to their ranks, shepherded by a couple Golds. They could only be Advisors or Professors, but he hadn't heard about a pair of beastkin being assigned to the Academy.

Nervously swallowing, the man finished writing a few notes, using the time to figure out what he would say to the group in front of him. He settled on exceeding politeness and throwing the higher ups in front of the carriage.

"Thank you," he said, sliding the last badge back over the counter to the purple haired girl. Picking up the stack of contracts, he began to lay them into two piles: those inside the Forest, and those outside. One was far larger than the other. "I regret to inform you that by order of the Guild Leader of the Forest's Edge Chapter of the International Adventurer's Guild, the Guild has issued a temporary suspension on Forest contracts completed by Guild members below Gold rank. Any Guild members below Gold are currently forbidden from accepting Forest contracts and restricted from venturing into the Forest at this time. This is a policy I have no control over and cannot provide exceptions for. As your team consists of mixed ranks below Gold, I am forbidden from assigning these contracts to you at this time." Todd carefully watched Inari's face as he spoke, tensed and ready for her to start threatening him with his violation of the Guild's rules or angrily protest the Guild Leader's order.

The one thing he didn't expect was for her smile to widen even further. "Oh is that all?" With a flourish, Inari pulled a letter from somewhere and casually handed it to Todd.

Frowning, Todd took the letter, his eyebrows raising in surprise as he saw the seal of the IAG's continental council and that the letter on it wrapped in an official communication security enchantment. Such enchantments were impossible to forge and only capable of being opened with a special tool at an IAG chapter hall. That it was on this woman's letter meant whatever it said was official and well beyond his authority.

"I-I see, I'll have to notify my superior about this. Just a moment."

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