Bertinald walks and moves out of the circular reception desk in the middle of the room, there are several people in the other lines who also saw the pen glow that yellow colour so some are starting to speculate.
“What was that?”, “Who’s that?”, “Think he’s an OutWorlder?”, “Can’t be, he’s human?” and more from the dozens of people there.
Bertinald moves closer and turns to Lockness, “Are you with him?” “Um we met earlier but uh” replies a nervous Lockness.
“It’s ok Bertinald, he can come with us. I trust him, let’s go meet the Master of this place.”
A confused look from both Lockness and Bertinald later and he says “Ok, follow me please.”
While we follow Bertinald into a small room with a crystal inserted into the wall Lockness asks, “Hey, why did you say that? We just met like half an hour ago.”
“It’s fine, I need allies here and you're trustworthy.” “How do you even know that?” asks a bewildered Lockness. “Trade secrets.” I reply with a cheeky grin.
At that Bertinald fills the crystal with Mana and soon the room moves up, again with the crystal elevators like the one from the Lord Head back in the day.
After a short ride up we arrive at a large circular area, with yellow carpet, red banners along the walls and several closed doors leading to other rooms. Following Bertinald we arrive at a large wooden door across the hall.
Knocking the door is soon opened by a female Elf who’s dressed in a red dress with yellow accents. “Bertinald?” “Hi Hope, two for the Master. Right now please, code Yellow.”
“Come in, I’ll let him know.” We moved into a reception area with a desk, some plants, paintings, a large wooden desk and a couch. The Elf moves through another door and soon enough the door is opened fully to let us in.
Moving inward we see a large office with a male human standing behind a large ornate wooden desk holding a glowing yellow crystal, he’s wearing what I could describe as a Earth modern three piece dark suit with golden accents along its edges and with an opal carving lining similar to the buildings.
The room is decorated with large bookshelves, assorted weapons, banners, paintings and two chairs in front of the desk. He’s stern looking, a short white beard and a small scar along his right cheek.
“Welcome, please have a seat.” Both Lockness and I take the two chairs while Bertinald and Hope stand behind us, door closed. “Well, which one of you is he?” he asks as he sits in a large padded chair.
“That would be me Sir', Michael Hayes' I say while Lockness looks quite confused. “And you are?” the Master asks Lockness, “Um, Lockness Nessgray Sir Master Guildmaster”
“No need to be so formal, so I suppose you have some questions?” directed at me.
“Yes, first off I’m surprised that the pen was able to detect me as an OutWolder but the guards at the city gate did not.”
Lockness’ eyes go wide and turn’s to me, “Your an OutWorlder! Man, I really did get you wrong.”
“Wrong?” asks the Master “Don’t worry about it, what’s your name? You know ours” I ask.
“My name is Carson Allerchester, Master of the Oghqoa Adventurer Society. I must say it’s been quite a while since the last OutWolder to arrive in this country, almost 30 years since the last one passed away.”
“Oh!” prompts Lockness “Lord Droaldoph Ca. The advisor to the current royal family, arrived here what, 50 years ago, maybe more?”
“Correct, now I suppose you are here Michael to become an Adventurer and have the security and safety of a member without being hunted by the Institute?”
“Yeap, but before that I would ask all of you to accept the invite.” “Invite?” Carson asks before a window appears for them all.
You been invited into “Temp1” Party by Michael Hayes
Accept / Decline
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
Members:
Michael Hayes
Carson Allerchester
Bertinald Campwich
Hope Attlena
Lockness Nessgray
Leave Party
All invitees have been accepted into “Temp1” Party
Use “Trust but Verify” ability? (Y/N)
Trust but Verify ability enabled.
Outcome:
Carson Allerchester: Trustworthy (99.99% accuracy)
Bertinald Campwich: Trustworthy (99.97% accuracy)
Hope Attlena: Trustworthy (99.96% accuracy)
Error: Unable to use Trust but Verify ability on Lockness Nessgray again.
“Ok, thank you for that you can leave now.” “But all we did was join?” asks Hope, “That’s fine, all I needed you all to do. I can trust you all now.” I reply with a handwave.
“An interesting Power, or is it an Ability?” asks Carson. “Ability, I have a Gifted Power and four more Creation Powers.”
Lockness looks at me wide eyed again (he must be getting dry eye at this point) while Carson blinks in surprise. “When did you arrive here? The Crossing I mean?”
“According to Knowledge, I arrived 17th-Triloth-3407. I’ve been living on Farmers Rest Island since then and left for here early this morning via a Powered Carriage.”
“It’s now the month of Radlem so, about what a year and a half ago? That’s quite impressive!” replies Carson. “And you’ve already met with the gods, good.”
“So what’s the plan here, what do I need to do to become an Adventurer and ensure the Institute can’t get to me?” I have been keeping an eye on the Institute Map Mode and nothing on this floor so far.
Leaning forward Carson steeples his fingers, “Well joining the Society allows some protection but the best method would be to become famous and well known, the more the average person knows about you the better chance you have. That and the more information about your world is public knowledge.”
“A popularity contest?” “In a sense, yes. Now we can mitigate their response by holding an interview after you’ve signed on and taken the exam. We can get you fast tracked through that today and tomorrow.”
Alright, that can get done easily enough. “Well then, shall we get started? I have a feeling the paperwork is going to be a pain.”
After a round of smiles, Bertinald brings the forms and pens and passes them to us. We spent the next few hours filling forms and talking about my travels so far. Leaving out the bits about Powers, my clones and the Oasis expedition.
A lot about Earth as well, nothing massive but general stuff. The Memory Crystal I have was also a big help, after a few hours of forms and a small snack platter later we get all finished and start to head back down.
The plan is for us to meet up again tomorrow to go through the exam. Lockness, who knows who I am now, has been told to keep things quiet for now. I am thinking of teaming up with him as a party so we can get through the probationary period together, I know I can trust him so I figure if we get along well over this period we could do well.
And him coming from a well off family and having a full set of powers at CCC Rank (7 Powers) might also help.
We are about to leave and head back down to the ground floor but Bertinald stops us, “We might have trouble, there are quite a few people downstairs. It’s a good chance that the Institute is there.”
“Rats, well. There another way out of here?” “Yes, a service entrance to the underground sewer system. We can move through there, follow me please.”
Getting into the “elevator” we move down past the ground floor and soon are under it, look’s like the map mode takes into account 3 dimensions. I could not really tell before but it looks like the map changes automatically from a disk shape to spherical as needed. I could not see anything on the map earlier in Carson's room as we were too high up.
There are definitely some red Institute dots on the map mode I can see as we go past the ground floor, we are deep enough under the ground floor that I can’t see anything on the map mode.
The underground sewer system is a long half circle that has two walking paths on the right and left sides. The middle has a pipe-like structure that must be covering whatever waste is in a fantasy city. The entire thing is made from bricks and covered in dust and webs.
Guess spiders are multiversal as well.
Moving down it following Bertinald we arrive at another smaller outcropping, opening a door we enter another room with a crystal and imbuing it with mana the room lifts up. Exiting us into a small open building filled with repair tools, pipes and other items.
“This is one of the maintenance sites for the sewers, we should be near the docks.” says Bertinald. Opening up my map mode I can confirm it, I can also get in touch with number 3 from here. “Can confirm, one of my abilities is a map, I can’t see anyone nearby.”
Activating Voice Chat I contact number 3, “Michael to Number 3, do you read?”
“3 here, go ahead.” Only I can hear him so it looks kinda strange. “I’m near the Docks in a sewer maintenance building, you see any Institute near you?”
“I have two nearby but I am a distance from them, had some close calls earlier but should be all good, i'll head for you and poof if they follow.” “Understood.”
Turning to Lockness and Bertinald I ask “So, same time tomorrow?”