Norbert felt like he was being stretched apart, his foot first elongating, then the rest of his body followed before he stepped out the other side. Feeling his insides bouncing around, Norbert bent down, trying not to throw up the food he just had. Now realising why Cossan did not want him to drink anything alcoholic, for he would be throwing up.
Norbert looked up; once his stomach was settling, he slowly shuffled forward as people came up behind him. Looking up, Norbert saw that he was no longer in the village but in some massive facility looking more like a warehouse. Looking around the structure's walls, he saw it was made of stone. The same metal frames that Norbert stepped out of were dotted around, people streaming into the room.
Slowly stepping forward, Norbert looked around. Up in front of them was another of the uniformed people, standing and looking out of the crowd standing on a wooden stage, unable to get a good look at anyone there. As he was pushed further to the front of the frames behind him, slowly, one by one, people stopped streaming from out from them, the light within dying out one by one.
"Now that everyone is here, I would like to introduce you to The Frontier formally. From this day forward, all of you will do your time here for the required amount invested in every one of you. I hope all of you do your best and meet next time." She stopped talking, her voice being easily projected throughout the audience. She bowed to the crowd, who in return bowed to her. Norbert quickly followed suit.
"Now, I would like all of you to head to the side rooms to be interviewed and placed in the designated groups. That is all."
And with that, she turned and stepped off the stage. She disappeared into the crowd instantly, shouting surrounding Norbert. Voices asking questions to their neighbours, looking around, people began talking over the crowd, wearing similar uniforms.
"Please make your way to the side to conduct the interviews. Everyone will have time and no need to rush."
They pointed to the closest one near them and repeated it constantly for everyone to hear. Slowly turning, Norbert made his with the crowd. He was slowly making his way to the desired rooms. Norbert looked around the crowd of faces, trying to spot anyone he recognised. Slowly shuffling through the crowd, Norbert constantly checked to ensure that Obsius was still on his shoulder. As Norbert made his way through, he noticed a face from town.
Up ahead was the woman who ran the candy store. Pushing and wiggling his way through the crowd, Norbert could catch up to her. Grabbing her shoulder, she turned around and looked at him. As he smiled at her, what was once an annoyance, soon turned to recognition as she smiled back at him. Walking together, they walked in silence. Norbert, did not even know if she could understand him, and her not initiating the conversation, they walked silently.
Through the room, they bustled, able to constantly move. He did not know what was in front of the doors. Before he knew it, he was there, the stone walls towering over him. With a wave, the candy shop girl walked forward and entered an open door before it closed, and Norbert only had Obsius for company.
Nearly instantly, another door opened off to the side; Norbert walked up, as nobody else seemed to go towards it. With that, he entered. As he walked through the door, it closed behind him.
Looking into the grey room, Norbert only saw a desk and two chairs opposite each other. One has already been taken up by a person in the uniform sitting down but with no helmet on. Looking around, there was nothing else in the room, completely spotless and looking like it was cleaned just before he came. On the opposite side of the room was a door, the same kind. Looking around once more, Norbert realised he was in a mirror room. Still looking around, trying to grasp what was happening, the person opposite him said, "Sit", cutting through the air like a knife.
Norbert immediately went for the chair and sat in it, arms crossed. Obsius pecked at his head for the sudden movement. Patting the bird, Norbert looked once more at the person opposite him. The man opposite him looked tired, almost knowing that this interaction would be longer and more tedious than usual.
He stared at him, eyes unflinching, the skin tanned and cracked from the sun, looking like parched dirt. As Norbert looked further down, he followed to his sharp chin, looking sharp enough to cut paper. As he looked further down, Norbert could look closely at the uniform. Underneath was a simple-looking red shirt with a leather jumper over the top. Throughout the leather, he saw markings and runes along the seams.
Finally, Norbert looked down at his arms sitting on the table, tapping away at the table. Quickly Norbert looked up, staring into his eyes. Waiting for a response, Norbert looked back at the man, waiting. The two of them sat looking into each other's eyes.
With a flutter of papers the man took from the side of the table, he looked at Norbert. Breathing deeply, the man said, "Hello, my name is Oscar. Thank you for joining The Frontier. I am here to assist you with your on boarding process. May I please have your name?"
Looking at him, Norbert replied with his name. Scratching on the paper continued, no pen appearing in his hand but some words appearing on the paper.
"Ok, Norbert, what area are you from?"
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Stumped, Norbert thought back; he knew he couldn't say from Earth or any of the countries there. Thinking about what Helga said before, being sure she had said it once. Remembering it was related to the trees found on the plateau. It came back to him when he was accidentally moving the cart by himself.
"Flare-dew", Norbert replied
"Well, you're a long way from home", the pen continued to scratch. "Is it yours?" Oscar asked, pointing to Obsius on Norbert's shoulder.
Petting him once, Norbert replied, "Yes, its name is Obsius."
"Do you have anything to declare of your own?"
Norbert looked around. He took off his belt with the money pouch and knife and untucked the medallion that the cloaked man gave him from beneath his shirt. Feeling around in his pockets Norbert removed his phone, still stuck on the time and the stone with the rune he had removed from the temple. With a flourish and a wave of his hands, Norbert showed all he had.
Oscar's eyes pinned down on the medallion that was around his neck. With a nod, he leafed through the papers, pulling something out of his pocket and placing it on the desk. Now facing Norbert was a milky crystal ball, somehow sitting on a little pedestal.
"Please place your hand on the device for an aptitude test," Oscar said.
Norbert is already moving his hands over it; holding his breath, he touched the device, waiting for something to happen. It looked like some dark purple smoke entered it for a brief instant, only for it to be blown away by an invisible wind within.
More scratching continued as Oscar flipped through the pages. "Do you have any other abilities The Frontier should know of?"
Norbert shook his head, knowing he did not impress Oscar at all. With more pages flicked through, Oscar looked up, raising an eyebrow and asking, "Do you know how to read, write or magic circles?"
Norbert shook his head again, "Negative, don't know any of that."
With a nod, almost expecting the answer, Oscar continued to fill in the paperwork, more scratching filling the room.
"Now, Norbert, do you know what The Frontier does?"
"No clue what they could do," Norbert replied.
With another nod, Oscar continued, starting his rehearsed speech, "The Frontier serves as Morena's way of resisting what nature will throw at us. We keep off the hordes of beasts that come and try to threaten little towns constantly like yours. We allow you, those citizens, to come here. Before The Frontier existed, it was up to individuals to join, but after certain events, the rules changed to what you see today. Now the usual time someone is in the organisation is four years. After that, any individual can either return to the area they came from or continue to work in the organisation. Going through your results, you will be placed in the scouting group."
Stopping, Oscar reached to the side and placed two bottles on the table.
"These are your designated elixirs, one for perception and the other for endurance. After leaving here, you will exit through the door behind me, where you will take both of them. Any gear given to you by The Frontier will need to be replaced by yourself if you lose it. Do you have any questions?"
Norbert licked his lips, thoughts flying through his head, but first of all, "Does that include the pendant, and what does the pendant do?"
Slowly closing his eyes, Oscar replied, "That does include the pendant, as you call it. It acts as a translation device and was given to you when you were collected to allow you to easily integrate within the organisation and be able to deliver tasks. Your specific one can hold a charge itself and be used for those who … is below what is needed in their magical prowess. You will need to have it charged up at your discretion and payment. By looking at the crystal in the centre, the less light it has, the less magic is within, and you will need to recharge it. The more it is used, or the more complex it is, the quicker it will go through said charge. Now do you have any other questions?"
Norbert rattled off his following questions, asking about pay, what other equipment he would be getting, what the fancy armours were if he would get one and what a scout would do. Carefully Oscar answered all the questions one by one. The pay is typically three copper a day, so fifteen in a week would be getting standard equipment deemed suitable for the job. The fancy armour was the standard equipment for the usual battle forces within it, and the scout went ahead of the major parties and looked for safe paths, monsters to avoid or battle or relayed messages when needed.
With more questions asked and all of them exhausted, when was asked the question, Norbert replied he had none. Smiling, Oscar reached under his desk, pulling out a card with the same runes as before, the door behind him slowly opening.
Placing the card next to the elixirs, Oscar pushed them across the table. With a smile, Norbert picked it up, placing the card in a pocket and carrying the two elixir bottles. Norbert looked down as he walked around the table, not seeing where the items could have come from.
With a shake of his head and chalking it up to magic, Norbert continued through the doors and entered the next room. Surrounded by white with rows and rows of curtains, Norbert watched, hearing screams and gurgling around him.
In front of him, a lady came, holding a clipboard. Holding out her hand, she asked for his card. Norbert, taking it out of his belt, gave it to her. Smiling, she walked off, asking for Norbert to follow. As he walked past more and more, screams and liquid escaping bodies continued. The smell was getting worse and worse the longer he was there. Suddenly she stopped and opened a curtain. On the other side was an empty white bed; looking at it, Norbert stepped inside as instructed.
"Here is your card; taking the perception and then the stamina elixir in that order is recommended immediately. It is also recommended to place your clothes in this bag before taking any of them." The lady said, reaching around from behind the curtain. She brought out a metal bucket. And a second one was placing it on the ground.
"Please try and get as much in here as possible; we will check on you occasionally."
Quickly turning away, she closed the curtain behind herself. Looking weirded out, Norbert did as instructed, placing his clothes in the bag and leaving his pendant around his neck in case he needed to talk to someone during whatever was to happen.
As he sat down, breathing to psyche himself up, Norbert made sure the buckets were close by and opened the first bottle. Uncorking it, the smell instantly hit him, reminding him of peaches and orange zest. Swallowing it, he felt it go through his body as he tried to gulp it down. It went down his throat in a zesty swirl. After finishing it, he looked to the next one, also uncorking it. The smell hit him again, smelling like green apples, limes, and mint leaves. Swallowing it down, Norbert felt it once more penetrate his body. As he sat there thinking it seemed familiar, he was reminded of all those weeks ago when he had the purple liquid from that cave.
Quickly grabbing the bucket, the process began.