Under the oppressive heat of the sun, I stood in front of one of the tallest buildings in the city. This building easily dwarfed the others surrounding it. This building was completely colored in white with a giant logo at the top that read, 'Crescent Guild'.
I've done a bit of research before coming here, and I found out that this very guild is ranked 50 out of the hundreds of guilds in this world. It was a pretty high ranking. Just being in the top 100 was a huge achievement.
I took a deep breath before walking towards the entrance and placed my index finger on the fingerprint scanner. Its main function was just to take a record of the people who entered the building. Immediately, I heard a soft beep, and the red glowing light on the door turned green.
The moment I stepped in, I could immediately feel a change.
I was a low-level demon inside a building designed by humans meant to kill my kind.
If I was ever caught and someone somehow found out I was a demon, that could be it for me. Any second now, I could have my head cut from my body. My instincts were screaming at me to leave but I didn't dare let my panic show.
Instead, I put on the act of an amazed teenage boy as I strode towards the beautiful receptionist who had already begun fixing her hair the moment she saw me.
"Uh, good day! W-Welcome to Crescent Guild. How may I help you?"
As she spoke, I couldn't help but glance down to see that the top button of her blouse was undone. Not only that but she leaned forward at just the right angle for me to catch a glimpse at the red bra underneath her guild uniform.
There were a lot of downsides to being a demon, but I couldn't deny there were a lot of things I loved about it. This was one of them.
I flashed her a smile, and immediately her face heated up into a blush.
"Good day, ma'am, I'm here to see Jeffrey Heisenberg. I have a meeting with him."
"Oh, Mr. Heisenberg, give me a moment; I'll just confirm with him."
The receptionist immediately clicked a button on her desk, and immediately a holographic image of a man appeared.
"Good day, sir, there is a young man here to see you. His fingerprint says he's Mister Damien Seymour."
The man who was on the other end of the call scratched his beardless chin and nodded.
"Oh, I almost forgot. Send him in. And also, give him a temp keycard so he doesn't have to come to you every time he needs access to the elevator."
"Yes, sir."
The receptionist nodded and ended the call. After that, the machine on her desk that looked almost like a printer buzzed softly before a keycard was produced from it.
"Here you go, have a good day!"
I smiled at the receptionist and took the keycard from her extended hand. The keycard had all my details on it: my name, age, height, weight, and even my status as an awakener. There was even a small image of me on the right corner of the keycard.
All of this information was received from just my fingerprint. The database they had in this world was extensive, and almost everyone had access to it. It was one of the reasons why demons were easily caught, since they had information on everyone who was ever born.
I took the elevator and followed the building map until I arrived at where the man named Jeffrey was. With just a scan of my newly acquired keycard, the mechanical door hissed open.
It revealed a room that looked almost like a scientific laboratory with different white machinery lying about. Inside the room was a man wearing a lab coat and goggles. He had on a mechanical glove, and just by rubbing his hand along the surface of a large red rock, he was able to smoothen it.
The door closed behind me as I stepped in and watched him perform his craftsmanship in awe. My eyes then drifted around the room, where there were countless weapons hanging from the wall like trophies.
"Ah, you must be Damien," the man said as the goggles on his face transformed into glasses making him look like the average nerd. He had the face of a young man no older than thirty. His auburn hair was a mess as if he had just walked through a thunderstorm. "I'm Jeffrey, it's nice to meet you."
"It's nice to meet you too," I said as I shook his extended hand.
"Your father said he wanted me to teach you weapon making?" he asked as he looked me up and down.
"Yes, but only the theory behind it. The technical stuff, I'll figure out on my own."
He raised an eyebrow, looking somewhat confused.
"Wow, that is a first. Most of the time when someone wants me to teach them, they only want to start with the technical stuff without knowing the basics. No one wants to study a long graph about the thousands of different elements and their properties."
"Well, that's exactly what I want you to teach me."
Jeffrey chuckled and shook his head before heading over to one of the desks in the room. He then returned with a long sheet of paper that almost looked like a scroll.
"Here, since you're so eager, I want you to study this. This is what we usually give the interns. Every year, some of the brightest minds walk through our door for a place at our guild. We give them this to study before they are able to work on any weapon. Just studying it and memorizing the equations and formulas takes about 6 months, and a lot of the time even up to a year."
"I'm done," I said as I rolled up the scroll-like parchment and handed it back to Jeffrey.
Jeffrey stared at me and blinked a few times.
"You can't be serious. You memorized it all?"
"Yes."
In the time that he took to explain, I had already memorized everything.
Transmutation already required me to memorize a lot of formulas and equations. Naturally, my brain adapted, and I developed a type of photographic memory. It was one of the many times I was happy to have my demonic skill in hand. In a way it complimented my transmutation ability perfectly.
I quickly learned that the key to my adaptation ability was exposure. The longer I was exposed to something, the more likely it was that I would adapt. Of course, as my proficiency increases, I'll be able to adapt to a situation quicker with less exposure.
Because of this, my intelligence stat, which was my highest stat yet, was now at B+.
"Well, there is also a test you must take to make sure that you have indeed memorized the required material."
Saying that, Jeffrey then went over to the same desk and took out what seemed to be a test paper that was as thick as a textbook. I couldn't help but sigh when I saw it.
I took a seat and took the test. In just under two hours, I had finished and handed the paper back to Jeffrey. He took the time to mark it, and by the time he was done, his jaw was hung open.
"You scored perfect marks," he said in disbelief. "This is the first time I have witnessed something like this. This means you're ready for even more advanced training. Just memorizing the required material won't be enough; you need to understand it thoroughly. But this this is remarkable!"
Jeffrey hands shook as he clenched my test paper in his hands. He mumbled to himself and for a second I thought he was losing his mind.
He had this wild look in his eyes as he stared at me the same way a starving lion looks at a buffalo. He then rushed towards me and grabbed a hold of my hand.
"Initially, I thought there wasn't much I could teach you, but it turns out I was wrong. You are my best student yet! I will make the best weapon maker out of you!"