After the tally, the results showed that the citizens of the Northwest Republic had chosen a total of 247,660 different surnames in the first phase. Naturally, many of them were especially creative—or downright wild—but duplication was also severe. According to the statistics, nearly 150,000 people needed to register a second time and choose new surnames. Meanwhile, 624 surnames had already been registered to capacity and could no longer be used by additional families.
Among the surnames that had already been used up their "two hundred times," the most common were place names and professions: "Easter," "Wester," "North," "South," "Wood," "carpenter," "Miller," "blacksmith"... and so on.
Without question, those who wanted surnames like these but had failed to make it into the first two hundred could only be troubled to rack their brains for another one.
"Huh? I didn't make the first two hundred?" Ruby said in surprise after receiving the notification. "Why would so many people want to use 'Sword' as a surname? That makes no sense!"
"There are plenty of retired adventurers, so there must be a lot of people who want that surname," Hops said. "Similarly, Lance, Blade, Bow—those have probably all been used up too."
"Damn it! Then what am I supposed to use?" Ruby frowned and turned to the others in the Elite Group. "What about you guys?"
"The moment my dad got the notice, he used a teleportation spell to rush to City Hall. He barely managed to get Book into the first two hundred." Sid was reading even in his spare time, as usual. "So from now on, I'm Sid Book."
"Book... that surname must be in high demand too, right?" Hops asked.
"Yeah. My dad said that among the surnames spellcasters wanted most, Mana, Aether, Magic, Book, Haven... were all incredibly scarce."
"It