Jason lay out on the couch in his living room, staring up at the ceiling. The trip back hadn't been quite as exciting as it was to get down. To be fair, that was probably due to how shell shocked Jason had been.
He was talented. According to the Delver, Julius, he was insanely talented. In any other context, that sentence would sound rather arrogant, and Jason still thought it was rather arrogant, but he felt that it encompassed his situation fairly well.
However, Jason still couldn't quite come to terms with his situation. So what if he was talented or whatnot? He was clear that his talent was not that special, and Julius had explained that they, while rare, still had people with similar situations. Of course, his specific Innate talent was what drew his attention.
Dragon Eater. Jason still felt a little thrill run down his spine every time he thought about it. The name sparked a reason why he hadn't noticed anything different, but at the same time, where would he even see a dragon in the first place? Those creatures were almost exclusively found within the Abyss itself.
Talent and dragons aside, Jason now was stuck in a dilemma.
The teen cast a glance at his Holo that had been buzzing non stop ever since he left the Abyss Stone Appointment. He had read through the first couple when they came, but he stopped paying attention when he realized that almost every Delver company or group within his City Pillar had contacted him. To say he was overwhelmed was an understatement.
Of course, not every single one contacted him –the bigger names he could recognize didn't do anything. However, that was barely a silver lining. Jason had read enough to guess the basic gist of every single one: join our sponsored Delver college.
He wasn't stupid… Well, not that stupid. Jason knew, from his couple minutes of extensive research via Holo, that each company or group sponsored different Delver colleges that fast tracked or focused more resources onto Delvers that signed contracts with them. Some of the larger companies even had their own exclusive college that worked to funnel more Delvers into their own teams.
The only problem was that Jason didn't really want to go any of those routes. He might not have much idea what he wants to do, nor does he yet have much knowledge about the Delver industry, but his time running around the City Pillar taught him to sniff out shit deals. And any contract that forced him to go to a college sanctioned by the company that wanted to use him seemed like a deal that he wouldn't even have time to regret.
As such, the only solution seemed to try and apply to the Delver colleges themselves. Though, that came with the caveat that he would be one of the last people looked at for acceptance.
Jason turned into the couch, grunting as he tossed his ideas around in his head. According to Julius, he had talent, but the sheer amount of messages on his Holo actually put those words into perspective. That only made him stress over what exactly he should do.
"Son, you've been groaning on the couch ever since you got back." His dad chimed in from the kitchen, and Jason caught the scent of lemon as the man moved to the couch. He moved Jason's legs to the side as he sat down and held out a hot mug of lemon tea. "Here. Have some and calm down."
Jason demurely took the drink, sipping the blistering hot liquid as his nerves calmed. "I'm fine."
His dad laughed. "I'll believe it. Now, talk. Was the appointment really bad enough that you ignored me for the entire trip home?"
"Err, no…" Jason said sheepishly, sipping his drink as a way to not answer. He admittedly blanked when he got the news, and he had been messaging Julius –who actually answered all of Jason's questions patiently– back and forth as he kept receiving more and more offers from minor Delver groups.
"Then, was it good?"
"Uh, I think so. The Delver involved said…" Jason paused as he remembered how he couldn't talk about the information he learned. "Well anyways, I apparently got a bunch of offers for colleges… uh, surprise."
His dad blinked for a few seconds as if he needed to process that information. Slowly, his lips curled into a smile. Jason watched as his dad seemed like he had been electrified; the man rose to his feet, slapping his hands on Jason's shoulders and grinning from ear to ear. His voice was several octaves higher, clearly excited.
"That's great! That's amazing! I knew you could do it, son. How many reached out to you? One, two?"
Jason tried not to reel back from his dad's exuberance. "A… uh, a couple more than that."
His dad's eyebrow rose minutely. "How many exactly?"
"Around," Jason took a moment to look at his Holo. He had stopped counting the ones that were just repeating themselves. "A hundred."
The black and white haired man's grin only grew larger with the information. "Great. Great! I knew you had it in you, son. So, what's got you down now? Too many options to choose from?"
Jason shrugged. "I guess… I read some things, and I am not too sure I want to sign away my soul to become some company's hired Delver."
"Right… I never thought about that." His dad stalled his seemingly crazed mood, rubbing the stubble on his chin in thought. "I heard enough second-hand grumbling from some of the Delvers that I worked with who had similar experiences when they signed with their companies." He offered a lopsided grin, trying to lighten the mood. "Well, that just goes to show them that they're suckers for listening to some suit-and-tie cogs, right?"
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"Makes sense." Jason said with a smile.
"Of course it does. By the way, did you get anything from the big four?"
Jason pursed his lips as his dad brought up the one thing he was confused about. Adam had originally stated that, should his talents be enough, he'd get an offer from one of the four on the spot. It was one of the reasons he was a little apprehensive about accepting anything else; among all the other reasons he could come up with.
The teen pulled out the paper sheet that Adam had given him yesterday, turning it over as if it had some secret that he couldn't decipher. He shook his head dismissively when he found nothing.
"I see… Well, you shouldn't get too upset about them. They are places that only some–"
His dad's words were cut off by an abrupt call that came from his mom. Jason hesitated to accept it, looking at his dad in suspicion. It hadn't even been a couple hours since they went line diving in the morning, so Jason didn't think they would be called in for questioning just yet.
With a small amount of encouragement from his now deathly silent dad, Jason apprehensively accepted the call. A holographic image of his mom's upper body formed above his Holo's surface. Her face was pulled in a stern glare that forced Jason to look at the floor like a child in trouble.
"Jason…" She began, and Jason knew immediately she was annoyed. "Where are you and your father right now?"
Jason coughed, shooting a glance at his dad. The man was frantically looking through his Holo, trying to find something. His face paled rapidly, and Jason saw the brief video of two blurry figures as they rode a massive, rocket-propelled crate upwards on one of the outside wires of the City Pillar. Inwardly, the teen cursed the sheer capabilities of a Holo watch.
"We are uh… at the Abyss Stone Appointment. We're waiting for the results, so we can't talk for too long." Jason lied easily.
His mom seemed unimpressed. "Is that so? Well, tell me why I just had a conversation with someone named Adam Tarik about possible enrollment on the Origin world?"
Jason cursed the man for calling his mom instead of himself. Sure, he was still a dependent, but this felt a little frustrating.
"He had a say in something in the courts today," His mom explained as if reading his mind. "He had some privy into the specifics of your appointment, and mentioned you in an offhand statement. I am… proud of you, Jason."
The brown-haired teen blinked. He had been expecting a completely different conversation.
Suddenly, his mom's face changed, gaining a trace of something inexplicable. It seemed her experience with Delvers, despite being a completely normal human, translated into something terrifying. Jason backed up unconsciously, but realized that his Holo was still attached to his arm.
"You can go and hang out with your friends, Jason. I need to talk to your father about the importance of not being an idiot."
Jason nodded, feeling like he just dodged a charging beast. He spared a glance at his pale-faced dad, and the man only shivered as his own Holo started to buzz with a call. The grizzled hunter quickly gathered his wits, offered Jason a short grin that didn't quite reach his eyes, and sighed.
"Just go, I'll be fine, son."
Jason didn't need to be told twice. He was lucky to get away from what he knew was a clear break of the laws, and he was out of the apartment faster than he had a chance to hear anything else.
However, his above-human hearing still caught his dad muttering through the shut metal door, "at least seem apprehensive…"
The teen called up the one friend he promised earlier. It took a few rings before the familiar mohawk-wearing teen appeared on the other side of his Holo. Oliver's eyes sported a few more dark bags underneath them, but the teen still tried to give a big smile.
"Hey man, what's up?"
"Are you still up for Moxx's on 4th?" Jason asked back.
Oliver's tired eyes gained a fiery glint as he grinned widely. "Oh, it'll be a party."
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The trip down to the 4th floor was something that took around an hour or two from Jason's floor. He had enough time to look through the various offers in his Holo, and from that, he only took twenty minutes to promptly delete and ignore ninety percent of them.
Julius had warned him explicitly that many newly appraised Delvers received a ton of fraudulent contracts by Delver Unions and companies that sought to just trap the Delver in different clauses and potential benefits. Was it scummy? Well, Jason figured that anyone who fell for them would have a better time as one of the company's cogs than as their personal slave. Primarily, Jason just found it rather annoying just how many of those scams that were being sent to him.
It was only after he dismissed most of them and cleared up his Holo's messaging drive that he found a message from Adam that he zeroed in on. The older Delver had sent him a little information packet over the four great Origin colleges with a little offer of congratulations.
The packet introduced the four colleges that were set up around the largest subterranean shelters that had been built to combat the sheer cold that followed in the wake of the Great Fall. Those shelters evolved when Delvers finally carved out areas for humanity to repopulate the Origin world, and as civilizations rebuilt, those shelters became the four respective Delver colleges.
On top of everything, Jason found that each college was manned by a Transcendent; someone powerful enough to bend worlds to their whim. And despite that, they all decided to be college chairmen? There had to be a catch. Jason refused any other explanation.
He scrolled through the information packets that Adam Tarik had given him, combing over them as if expecting to find some dark secret. Obviously, he couldn't find anything beyond each school's strong points. Weapons, technology, connections, and various Delver skills were all listed for each academy.
Of course, Jason quickly noted that most of the specifics were not explicitly mentioned, but he had grown used to the aspect of Delver society. They were unnecessarily cagey about certain things, and Jason felt that they just did it on habit. Which was… well, it wasn't really that good. However, the teen brushed off the familiar annoyance.
Instead, he focused on the different aspects of each academy, finding that most of the information packets were for the Golden Crown College that Adam gave him a flier for. After a moment, Jason moved onto the other academies, and slowly, he found himself rather bored with all the information. He didn't know what was so special about any of them beyond Delver knowledge that he wasn't privy to.
The only thing that each of them showed was the various vague opportunities and the frankly absurd price tag associated with them. Jason knew his mom supported their financial situation in the Clouds, and it was because he knew that he also had an idea about how on the edge they were. She bought Holo classes for him, paid out their apartment's rent, and then also worked all day.
Jason knew that his parents would not hesitate to lower themselves if they saw he had the opportunity to go higher. However, the teen didn't want that. He did not want to force them down to the lower floors of their City Pillar for a vague promise of opportunity.
He shifted in place, feeling annoyance rise up again. The cool metal of the elevator he leaned against stymied his growing emotions, and he put down his Holo, taking his mind off things. He hoped that Oliver's little get together would stall the thoughts and emotions swirling through his head.