The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 59: Application Pending

Refresh the page.

Refresh.

Refresh again.

Lane kept on pressing the refresh button, even though he knew that the chances the page would suddenly get updated in the space of a few seconds were slim to none.

It just annoyed him too much. The ’pending’ status next to his application to become a field agent.

Of course, it was perfectly normal. Usually, newbies got assigned to the General Staff first. And it took at least a few days for any applications to be processed. Situations like what happened with Noah, where he became a member of a field team right after passing his exams, were highly unusual. In fact, that was the first time Lane had seen something like that happening.

He shouldn’t have to wait long though. Field teams could always use more Guides. Guides wanting to work in the field were rare, after all.

Still, Lane was impatient. He needed to plant as much Fertilizer as he could, before the Association was able to catch on to what was going on...

He refreshed the page one more time.

No change at all.

Letting out a heavy sigh, he closed the laptop and got up from the floor. It was time to go to work. As boring as the work of the General Staff was, he should at least show up on time. Make a good impression, look reliable, so that Team Leaders, especially those from the top teams, would be willing to take him under their wings.

The Guiding Center at the Association Headquarters was divided into three main areas - the public guiding space, the private rooms, and the offices. The first one consisted of rows of cubicles, which only gave minimum privacy. It was mostly intended for guiding the outsiders, such as members of smaller Guilds and freelancers, or routine guiding of retired and inactive Espers.

The private rooms were for internal guiding sessions with the Association members. They were soundproofed, and furnished with comfortable couches. There were no beds, to maintain a professional image, but the couches were big and soft, so Esper-Guide pairs could get intimate if they chose to - only that it couldn’t be said openly.

The offices were located on the top two floors. They were just regular offices, such as one could find in corporations. This was where Guides employed as the General Staff spent most of their time, when they didn’t have any guiding sessions scheduled. It was also where Lane headed first, clocking in and turning his assigned computer.

There wasn’t much to do for Guides aside from guiding, really. Aside from a few senior members, who were promoted to management positions, there wasn’t any paperwork for them to do. They only had to check their guiding requests, accept them, and then make sure that all of their sessions were registered with the system. Aside from that, they spent their time chatting, reading, browsing the Internet, playing games, and so on.

It was quite a dream job for many. The pay was not too bad either, much better than any other office work. Many Guides used to come to the Association, looking for a comfy, stable position...

Now, however, the office looked pretty deserted, with only a fraction of the desks occupied. Because, with all of this leisure, came one major problem - in case of a dungeon break, all the Association members on duty were obligated to go to the scene, whether they were field agents or not.

And with the recent two major dungeon breaks, many Guides had quit, or simply died.

Aside from the emptier office, it also had different consequences, as Lane quickly found out. Although it was his ’first day’ at work, he already had several guiding sessions scheduled...

After all, while the number of Guides working for the Association might have been reduced, it wasn’t quite the same for the Espers in need of guiding.

With a heavy sigh, Lane grabbed his coffee, and headed downstairs, to the public area.

The job wasn’t difficult. Especially since as a newbie, Lane was assigned the easiest task - guiding low-ranking freelancers who mainly did mining work. All he had to do was sit with the Espers, hold their hands, and send them a bit of his Mana, until their wavelengths were fully stabilized.

There weren’t any unpleasant incidents either. These days, Espers hardly ever dared to overstep the boundaries. The most they would do was to try to flirt or chat Lane up. But even that quickly ended, once the guiding session began.

Because Lane’s guiding wasn’t all that enjoyable. Rather than soothe and calm the Espers, he dominated over them, forcing their wavelengths to submit to him.

And Espers didn’t like that. They didn’t mind it so much if they were in need of guiding, and could tolerate it when Lane was flirting with them, but other than that, they didn’t want to receive any more guiding from him than necessary.

It was in Espers’ very nature to dominate, after all. They didn’t like to be the ones to submit.

Damien was the only odd one who had ever called his guiding ’pleasing’.

Not that Lane cared. Whether Espers liked his guiding or not, it didn’t have any effect on his job prospects. And it wasn’t something he could change either way. At least that meant that Espers wouldn’t try to unnecessarily prolong the sessions.

Two hours later, he finished his last scheduled assignment. He got up from his seat, suppressing a yawn. He was bored almost out of his mind.

Six F-rank Espers working as miners. With their low rank, and the fact they didn’t use their abilities much, they hardly needed any guiding... Lane could have finished them all in ten minutes max, if he wanted to. It was only because he was pretending to be a newbie C-ranker, that he had to take things slow.

He got into the elevator, and pressed up the button to the eighth floor. There were still well over five hours before the end of his shift.

Should he play some games? Cause socializing wouldn’t be the best idea, in case there were any spies planted by Damien in the office...

Ping!

All of a sudden, his phone rang, as a new notification arrived. Lane glanced at the screen without much interest...

And he instantly paused.

’Huh, he sure acts fast...’

It was only his first day, not even three hours before he started the job. And yet, Damien already managed to send him a guiding request.

Lane hesitated for a moment. Technically, he didn’t have to respond. He could ignore the request, or even straight out reject it. It wouldn’t be that hard to come up with a believable justification.

However... Who knows what Damien would do next, if Lane were to refuse to meet him? The man knew, or, well, suspected too much to just leave him be.

No, it was better for Lane to go along with it, at least for now. If Damien wanted to keep an eye on him, then Lane would reciprocate, by observing him carefully in return.

The elevator stopped on the eighth floor, but Lane didn’t get out. Instead, he pressed on the fifth floor, accepting Damien’s request.