"Eight billion Credits from the Dragon Slayer Guild, ten billion from the Demonsbane Guild, ten billion from the Paragon Guild, and twelve billion from the Diva Guild. The offers from the foreign Guilds are even higher, this one's over twenty billion!" I exclaimed in bewilderment, as I looked through each of the offers.

<It seems you've been assessed as highly valuable>

<Considering that you are the first Hunter in history with the ability to keep raising your Potential, I suppose that's only natural>

Yeah, but still, I wasn't expecting this.

Definitely didn't think I'd get the highest offer among the local Guilds from the Diva Guild.

The Demonsbane Guild is the most successful Guild in Sanctuary Theta, so I figured they'd make me the highest offer.

Actually, I expected the Diva Guild to make the lowest offer...did Ariella do something?

Oh, speak of the devil.

"Hey, what's up?" I greeted her as I answered the call.

"Hey! I saw your press conference, it was cool seeing you on the news! Back home?"

"Mhm, just got back a few minutes ago."

"Great! First off, congrats on finishing as the runner-up. Wish I could've seen the match live, but I was totally conked out. Watched the highlights though, and you put up a great fight!" She remarked cheerfully.

"Thanks, though I am still kinda bummed out that I lost."

"I mean, I get that, but you just gave the strongest Hunter in Sanctuary Theta a run for her money, that's nothing to sneeze at."

"Yeah, I suppose you have a point there. I did get a bit lucky, she only had the Mid Status Effect Resistance Skill, so my debuffs worked on her. If it wasn't for that, she would've overwhelmed me in no time," I admitted sheepishly.

It's fairly rare for an Ace Combatant to have a weaker Resistance Skill, most such Aces tend to have Status Effect Immunity, or at least High Status Effect Resistance.

"Huh? Wait, how do you know that?"

"Hm? Hold on, have I not told you about my Appraisal Skill? I could've sworn than I did. It lets me see all the Spells or Skills other Hunters possess," I informed her.

"For real? That sounds really useful. Also, exactly how many Skills do you have, anyway?" She responded in bemusement.

"I think you know about all of them now...I thought I'd already told you about Appraisal, guess I was mistaken."

"Yeah, this is the first I'm hearing of it. What else does it show you?" She asked me curiously.

"It's split into three sections. The first is personal details, like name, age, height, weight and gender. The second section lists Hunter details, like whether they're a Combatant, Mage or Arcane Hunter, their Class, Attribute if they're a Combatant, and Spells and Skills.

And the third section is their physical abilities and Mana capacity denoted as stats, which I can compare to my own to get an idea of how they measure up against me," I explained.

"Huh, that's pretty cool. So, wait...do you see, like, a screen or something with all these details?"

"Yeah, something like that. By the way, not to change the subject, but, uh...what exactly did you say to your Guildmaster about me?" I inquired curiously.

"What? Actually, I haven't spoken to her yet. Why?" She responded, sounding confused.

"Well, because the Diva Guild made me the highest offer out of all the Guilds in Sanctuary Theta. I figured that must have been because you made a really good case for me or something, but I guess not," I replied in bemusement.

"Can't say I'm surprised. The current Guildmaster has been intent on changing the whole women-only image of the Diva Guild, even though some of the other members have been pretty vehemently opposing it.

She knows we're potentially missing out on a lot of talented Hunters, and she wants to change that. Your powers aside, your battle sense and instincts are amazing, you've held your own against more powerful opponents many times.

From what I've seen since I joined the Diva Guild, the ability to punch above your weight so significantly is rare, most Hunters struggle against enemies stronger than them.

And sure, the fact that you've got such a wide arsenal of abilities is probably a key factor in that, but having those abilities and making effective use out of them are two completely different things. So, I'd say it's only natural," She pointed out.

"I guess, but it's not just the amount that surprised me, but the fact that the Diva Guild made the highest offer. Well, the overseas Guilds that reached out did make higher offers, but I don't plan on moving out of Sanctuary Theta, so I'll be declining those."

"Wait, Guilds from the other Sanctuaries made you offers too? That's amazing! It's super rare, I only got offers from the local Guilds myself. So, will you be joining the Diva Guild, then?" She asked me hopefully.

"Mhm, yeah. I have no reason to refuse. Between the generous offer and the fact that I'll get to see more of you if I join, it's kind of a no-brainer. Well, it's not completely certain yet, the terms of the contract will be an important factor too," I reasoned objectively.

If the contract terms end up being too restrictive or whatever, that'll be a deal breaker.

I'm open to compromising, but I need some degree of freedom, I'm not about to agree to being controlled.

"Yeah, that's fair. But the contracts in the Diva Guild are pretty standard, so the terms should be similar to mine. You should reply to all the local Guilds and say you're interested.

Once you do that, they'll send you a draft of the contract to go through, so you can compare them. I didn't do that though, I just rejected the others and went with the Diva Guild since they made the highest offer," She admitted sheepishly.

"Cool, thanks for the advice, Aria. I'll go ahead and turn down the offers from the overseas Guilds and respond that I'm interested to the local Guilds."

"H-Huh?"

"Uh...what? Did I say something wrong?"

"N-No, um...you called me Aria..."

"Yeah, because you asked me to," I reminded her.

"I-I did? When?"

"After our match, you asked me to call you that before you passed out-..."

"Ahh!! I-I remember now, it's coming back to me, I thought it was a dream...f-forget about that, I-I wasn't thinking clearly! Y-You don't have to call me that if you don't want to!" She exclaimed, sounding embarrassed.

"Do you want me to call you that?"

"Huh?"

"Well?"

"I-I...I do, yeah."

"Cool, then it's settled."

"I, um...o-okay."

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