"Ameron Lavere."

She's so glad she finally remembered her last name. That was getting embarrassing.

She smiles at the clerk. "My party wants to delve the dungeon, so I need to get all officialized so I can join them. That's what you're for, right?"

"Right! Anyone can sign up as an E-rank adventurer so long as they pay their guild dues and understand the guild rules. Advancement up the ranks depends on a variety of factors, but each rank advancement is a major accomplishment. I'm sure you'll get your first star in no time! Er, right. You start as an E-rank with no stars. You can earn stars in a variety of ways that boil down to proving your competence and commitment to delving, and when you have five stars you are eligible to advance to D-rank! Stars also come with minor benefits. T-though if you don't want to delve as an adventurer we can look into guest arrangements."

"I'm not about to let my party delve without me," Ame says.

Her healing slime oozes from her shoulder onto a free bit of countertop.

"How much are the dues?"

"Oh, you already have a party! Wonderful." He doesn't sound entirely pleased. A bit regretful, maybe? "Many new adventurers have trouble finding a group that fits." He frowns slightly at the slime. "Um, it's seven silver per month for E-rank, and many of our services cost extra at the lowest rank. We can defer most of it and garnish your loot, if you'd like."

Is he...? Yeah that was some lacking-an-excuse-to-talk-to-the-hot-girl displeasure. Ame contains an affectionate eye-roll. 

"I can spare seven silver."

She hands over the coins, brushing hands more than necessary.

"Oh, great!" Blushsmile. 

He collects biographical and party-role info, the names of her party members so they can register them together, asks whether she wants banking services for an additional 1 silver a month, and then asks Ame to press a hand to a sleek black rectangle, to record her mana signature.

Ame can give a one-paragraph summary of how her party got together and what each of them specializes in, as well as all their names. Ame declines banking, since she has no excess money to put in an account.

He reads out the adventurer's guild rules (which mostly consist of 'DO NOT cheat on your dungeon tax'), tells her about the free housing (it's a nice inn-like arrangement but you need a successful delve under your, um, belt), and eventually runs out of things to talk about while extending the time he can look at Ame for, except- Oh, he can do a complimentary skill reading if she touches a different sleek rectangle!

He's cute, and his poorly-concealed attraction is cute. Even if she's not planning to do anything overt right there while he's working and the people behind her are waiting, Ame is paying more attention to him than to the signup process and puts her hand on the new rectangle without considering the implications.

"-Um." He blinks at something behind the counter, where a computer screen would be in the DMV. And blushes much harder. "Um. Let's, uh, look over your delving-relevant skills, uh, where, where's that section- Sorry, I'm being terribly unprofessional I can just give you the sheet-"

That's a face.

Wait. Skill reading. That, uh, there are possible worlds where letting that happen was unwise.

Calmly, Ame takes the sheet and looks to see what exactly caused him to make that face.

He hands over the paper, averting his eyes and blushing.

At the top are her stats, then some General Skills like Money Handling and Map Reading. Then more, broken down into sections.

There's a section on sex related Skills.

A... Fairly big section. Lots of things have subskills upon subskills. Flirting, teasing, seductive movements, detect-desires, more like that, and of course a dozen or more kinds of sexual performance, broken down into a rally wide array of Skills. She has high levels in a lot of them.

There is not anything referencing the Axiom of Physicality.

"Oh. Right." Ame smirks at the poor flustered boy, inwardly relieved that none of her secrets were revealed. "That."

It hadn't actually occurred to her that her skills would all translate into Skills like that, but it makes sense.

It's interesting, seeing both those Skills and the combat Skills she's earned since all listed out plainly like that. She gets a little caught-up in reading them all, remaining absorbed in the document long enough for the party behind her to shuffle impatiently.

Ame finds the relevant section of combat Skills and hands the folded sheet back to the clerk with a wry smile.

(The line still moves with five other clerks doing intakes, but she does get a couple of glares, yes.)

"A-Ahem. I'm surprised with Skills like that, that you want to go into a dungeon instead of a nice big city to uh." Vague hand motion. "But it is, the opposite of my job to convince you of that. Um. Street fighting... Unarmed... Daggers and buckler skill at a decent level... Some utility magic, looks like... That and your stats definitely add up to enough combat potential for E-rank! I can finalize your registration and produce your tin badge momentarily! You have a summon out but your summon skill is a bit low, I assume you're going to try to grind it?"

STR 35
DEX 48
CON 42
INT 24
WIS 23
CHA 29

HP 108
MP 38

"My mana, more than the summon itself, though my summons can be versatile that way," Ame says with a suggestive lilt.

"You know," she says more genuinely, leaning on the counter. "I've done the big city thing. Wasn't great. More likely to get spat on than hired and more likely to get murdered on the street than in a dungeon."

He opens his mouth, then closes it again. A moment later he says, "-That is really not what I would expect unless the city was in Zanzifar or something. But I believe you. Um." He deflates a little, looking vaguely sympathetic. "Here's your E-rank badge," he pulls it out of a different box behind the counter. "Thank you for joining the Adventurer's Guild, Ameron. Do you need anything else?"

Aw. She made him feel awkward. Oops. She takes the badge and pins it in her hair, smiling warmly at him.

"Just one thing," she says, leaning closer. Her hand darts out and lightly snatches up his wrist, then tugs his hand out and plants it firmly on one of her fishnet-clad boobs. "In case I don't see you later."

It turns out that is how to get a stammering blushing clerk holding as still as he can, and tittering adventurers behind her, and a warning look from the next clerk over.

Ame doesn't push it, just giggles and lets him go before she gets them in trouble.

She collects her slime, gives the clerk one last smile, and heads over to rejoin Elizabeth and Abyssia.

A serious-looking manager dressed in a feminine sort of business suit/robe combo comes over and closes down his station; Tells him to go take a break. He's not in trouble, but he needs to control himself better. They'll talk about it.

The same manager follows Ameron towards the bar, looking at the back of Ame's head intensely enough that she can feel it.

Ame feels the movement behind her, more than the intent. Attention is one thing. Attention that is matching pace and coming right up behind her is another. Ame rests one hand on the hilt of her gladius and continues toward her party members. Axiom flows into the back of her skull, the story-beats of Pelt of Caeris start looping through her mind.

It is only after a couple of seconds of this that she consciously recognizes that this is unlikely to be a violent threat, sighs, and turns around.

(Abyssia stands up and looks like she's going to come towards Ame, but Elizabeth says something and holds her back.)

"Ma'am. You seem to not understand something considered common courtesy among Adventurers. It's your first time here and Mr. Obrum was not precisely professional either, so it would be unfair to hold it against you. However. You Do Not Touch the guild's clerks while they are on the job. We take employee safety extremely seriously. Touch is a medium of attack and fraud and Skill."

"...maybe you should post a sign," Ame suggests. And also solve the systemic social problem of verbal assurances providing no solace for the desire to have one's sexual attractions validated and accepted and also care AT ALL that clerk-boy was going to be sad if she left her receptiveness to his hypothetical attentions at all ambiguous as it would've been if she'd limited herself to verbal flirting-

Ame will not be rude. There is no actual call to be rude. Ame will not verbally lash out at this hapless manager for something that is Moloch's fault.

"Some guild branches do. I'll bring it up to the owner." The sharp-faced manager lady scowls slightly. "He has to take a break to be checked over for any outside influence now, though he won't be losing any pay for you touching him. For allowing himself to be so distracted I suppose he'll need a mental resistance tutor. Anyway, since this seems to be a misunderstanding I don't think we need to do anything about it except warn you. This time."

"This time," Ame agrees blandly.

She feels kind of bad about causing a fuss, but it is taking considerable self-control to credibly indicate that she will not in the future violate this policy out of spite.