The assessment board of the guild hall rested along the east wall, independent of the quest board and dungeon permit counter, which comprised, in the runners’ minds, the uninteresting half of the building. Combat rank got you through Ashveil’s streets; assessment rank was bureaucracy, dictating how many floors you were permitted to run with a standard permit, which quests were open to you, what the government’s threat evaluation for you was.

Mira had been Unclassified since she joined.

This was common enough with newcomers. The guild did not assign ranks on arrival declaration; you signed up, you ran, you clocked up some logged exits, and then a bureaucrat would pull up your records and commence the assessment process. The entire system was predicated on combat runners — high STR, weapon class, floor depth, kills. Simple stats for simple profiles.

Not so Mira’s profile. Sitting at a table close to the rear with a cup from Sena’s morning round and the notes for Floor 7 that I had collected since the guardian clear, she entered through the front entrance of the guild. Fully geared up. Crossbow strapped to her back, case of bolts to her belt, and practical hairstyle. She glanced around the room, saw me, and made her way across the room without stopping at the board first.

Mira sat down across from me and laid out a folded paper.

"Assessment done," she stated.

I looked at the paper. Official guild seal, official signature of the clerk, and her rank designation, printed on the top right hand corner.

D-rank.

"Disagreements took place," she told me. "Clear record from Floor 6 is already on file — my name is listed there. They could not deny the clearance data. However, because my strength is only nine, I was placed into the unclassified rank three times before a check of the Floor 6 record reversed the process."

"INT scaling."

"They have no proper system for it." She lifted the form and refolded it with the same neat efficiency she used when performing almost any physical task. "The clerk who reviewed it had to write an additional note explaining why the override was made. I got the impression she found it annoying."

"You’re classified as a D-rank with a Floor 6 clearance noted." 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

"And Floor 7 reconnaissance logged from last week’s investigation."

I looked at her. "Did you mention that to them?"

"Only briefly."

"What happened then."

"The clerk added another note." One side of her mouth twitched. A hint of a smile, which was Mira’s equivalent of a grin. "My account is updated. Rank tag added by system. City clearance will be in two days’ time."

MIRA — STATUS UPDATE

Rank: Unclassified → D

Assessment basis: Floor 6 clearance record / INT scaling override / supplementary note by clerk

New access: D-rank permit threshold — floors 1-4 standard, floors 5 and 6 via existing clear record

Relationship / Kai: 97 — unchanged

Corruption meter: N/A — non-game-origin

Mood: Settled / Quietly Satisfied

I dragged my Floor 7 notes across the desk and angled them so she could see orientation.

"While you were filling out forms," I began.

She picked up the notes. Read them, as always, in their entirety. Not skipping anything but staring down each page with laser focus until she found the two spots where I had marked the questionable junction in the map data.

"You flagged a junction where the three intersect?" she asked.

"It doesn’t quite match the geometry of the previous two floors. Either the floor changes its architectural style somewhere in the middle of construction, or my reading of the environmental data is incorrect."

"Possibly both. It was the same on the Shade floors, and their geometry was consistent from beginning to end. Floor 7 was different."

"Different type of stone, different height for ceilings, even. Ambient lighting was shifted in registration as well. Floor 6 had that flat greyish hue. Floor 7 is warmer, but not by much."

"Hmm. Environmental change generated by the game or an actual architectural change in the floor design."

"Not until we properly map it."

"Three-person run then, same configuration as Floor 6 for now until we have more information."

"Rin’s available. I went down to the runner board this morning — she ran solo on a D-rank floor yesterday for maintenance experience, came up clean."

Mira nodded. "Morning of tomorrow."

We sat there with our notes between us for a second while the morning crowd in the guild hall moved around us — the permit desk serving an orderly, the quest board being checked out, two C-rank runners sitting at the table closest to the entrance and comparing floor logs.

"This is where your unranked days get changed. Your classification as D-rank is going to change how people read you out in the city."

"I know."

"All those people who didn’t give a damn about Unclassifieds? They’ll be looking at you now."

"Yes. I’ve been watching them since I arrived. But it’s my turn now too."

That was fair enough, although just a tiny bit disturbing to file away for another day.

"Sable," I said.

Mira’s expression didn’t change one bit. "The document artisan in the market district. You visited her again yesterday."

"It was commissioned." Yes, it had been. A straight-forward heading — guild notice style, my name, B-ranker title, crisp lines. Good enough excuse to go back. "The corruption indicator reading on this one is seven. No flags. Nothing in the mechanics department."

"Establishment phase in progress."

"I am engaging in genuine commercial transactions with a market merchant."

"While knowing all about her corruption indicator rating, baseline, and arc progression." And she delivered the information without any sort of judgmental tone. That was another quality about Mira — she used the exact same tone when reporting information on Shade formations as she did when discussing something potentially sensitive. "I am not criticizing. I am merely pointing out."

"I know the difference between myself and how Vorn operated."

"Yes, several times." She took her report and put it away into her gear. "This is not about the validity of the difference. This is about sustainability throughout an arc."

I couldn’t say anything concrete about that so I remained silent.

She rose to check her crossbow belt out of habit. "Morning tomorrow. Undercroft entrance. Meet me at seven bells."

"Tell them where to leave a message at the runner board."

She exited in the manner by which she had entered — straight shot for the door, no extraneous motion. The hum of the guild hall filled her ears as she moved.

I reviewed the Floor 7 notes.

The geometry of the third junction of corridors popped up again in my mind. Not correct. There was something about the physical layout which conflicted with the known construction on the other floors. It was Pattern Recognition II that flagged it for me, and never let it go.

PATTERN RECOGNITION II

Environmental note: Floor 7 corridor geometry — junction at third intersection violates established floor construction patterns. Differential ceiling height of approx. four feet from Floor 6 standard. Stone coloration: warmer tonal spectrum, less dense coloring. Light source: unknown, warms as opposed to Floor 6 flat grey.

Conclusion: Inadequate information. Distinct architecture of Floor 7 from all previous floors. Begin building field records from entry one — identical to Floor 6 first pass.

It had gone well. It had also meant that Rin — a guardian with no wiki page — had eleven days of running alone, plus a simultaneous experience dump that we all got when it died.

Floor 7 was going to be different. In what way? I didn’t know. Nor did Mira. The wiki had been adding pages about post-canon events, but no page existed yet for Floor 7, save the log I submitted.

I drank the last of the cup Sena had left, took my notes, and headed over to the runner board to contact Rin.

The D-rank designation in Mira’s file was sure to make its way into the city records by morning. And tomorrow afternoon, when those guild hall clerks who added three additional notes to try to rationalize overriding her assessment had that new page from Floor 7 added, I wondered what their faces would look like.