Jacky and Marc walked through the imposing front doors of the Admin Building. Most people who became adventurers joined through one of its constituent organizations. Jacky and Helen as Slayers, Nico as an Alchemist, and Barry through the House of Quills.
The entrance of the Admin Building was surprisingly a lot less impressive than the face of the building. It was more or less a 12-foot cube, with the four walls containing doors or the front desk, similar to a bank teller’s desk. It was tended by an elf with one eye. There were a solid 6 people in line before him, and it seemed to be moving very slowly. Eventually, after nearly 30 minutes and a lot of sorting through by the singular languid elf, Marc and Jacky got to the front of the line. All of the people before, except one, was sent into the door to the left, and the line behind them had filled in.
“Appointment, dispute, or payout?” he asked, not looking up from the book he was reading.
Jacky said, “Signup”
The elf then looked up, studying the two. He pointed to the door to Marc’s right, “Through there”
Marc and Jacky thanked him, finding a nearly identical looking room through the door.The human at the desk was writing something, and didn’t even look up at them entering. The person before them was sent in here. Upon seeing them enter, the human asked “Are both of you signing up?”
Marc replied, “No, just me.”
The receptionist opened a drawer, and pulled a scroll out. It was oddly reminiscent of the DMV, though the shorter lines certainly made it better, at least a bit.
“Just fill these forms out, and hand them back. Some answers might cause more questions to pop up, so double check before you give it back to me or I’m gonna have to chase you.”
Definitely like the DMV.
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Fray sat in the Hall of Glory. She wanted to clear her head, and the focus of single combat was the best way she knew how. For now, she flicked her wrist, and her two enchanted rings changed their form. One into a small, but thick, iron card, and one into the dagger her brother gave her.
—---—-----
BLOOD KNIGHT
Level 2
Echelon 3
The class stared back at her. Her new class. One that would last her most of her career. She smiled. As with everything that magically displayed her name, she gouged that part out.
The Master of Ceremonies, a massive Dryad, turned to her, “It's time.” Fray and Arwa, the Green Knight, rose. Fray took the dagger and poked it into her thumb. Her most recent Historia was a Shaman's, giving her magic. While normally she might become a Green Knight like the Icess she was about to fight, it seemed fate had different plans for her. The boon she got from it was not primal magic, but blood magic. The two walked down different hallways, to come out opposing sides of the small arena.
She incanted, summoning her armor and axes onto her. Each time she cast a spell, there had to be some amount of blood used as material, but with practice she’d been able to reduce the amount needed. She walked onto the solid wooden floor, a number of bloodstains surrounding the two of them.
The Glorykeeper, Master of the Hall, announced to the gathered crowd, but by now Fray's attention was only on Arwa, separated by a thin veil.
She focused on his armor, his tower shield, his razor sharp spear. Visualizing the one handed axes moving into her hands, they responded. She grabbed them, feeling their not-yet familiar handles. The smell of blood filled her nostrils. The sound of the outside world faded away. She could taste the salt of the air.
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The veil dropped, and the two knights charged.
Arwa's shield was out in front, ready to block anything Fray threw at it. Fray, knowing this, barely tapped it with her right axe, before smashing it with her left axe. The result was the shield twisted in Arwa's grip. He stabbed his spear out, forcing Fray to step, but she had the momentum.
Moving her grip up the right axe, she punched at Arwa's body, but only managed to scratch a plane of armor. His shield, now recovered, smashed against her wrist, and she almost dropped the axe.
Instead, she used her magic to reform her armor, losing a leg's protection but creating a massive spike that did score first blood.
Arwa took a step back, as did Fray. They assessed their wounds, and she noticed her right hand was weakened from the shield bash.
“Must be a boon of his” she thought. She'd never fought Arwa before, and discovering these things was part of being a challenger. But that cut both ways, with Arwa now injured by her shifting armor. The Icess didn’t know what she could do to open wounds.
Deciding to leave it a secret for just a bit longer, she flung the right-hand axe towards his head. The magic of the arena was currently preventing any lethal damage, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t aim for lethal hits. He moved his head to the side, but like with many Icess, his neck was a large target as well. Another shallow wound opened up. She willed the two-handed axe to her grasp, preparing for the next clash.
As she charged, shoulder first, she once more manipulated her armor, reducing the entire back half of the armor to thin chains, while the front thickened. Arwa was going to try to skewer her with his spear, so her only goal was to make that as useless as possible.
It succeeded, as he was instead forced to try and counter her charge with his shield. As a Green Knight, and a higher level one at that, his Might was bound to be higher, as was his resilience. She had momentum and aggression on her side, and was hoping it would be enough to match forces.
As her shoulder slammed into the shield, she felt it shift slightly. Bringing her axe around it, she delivered a quick slash at his leg. Just barely, she scored her third cut against the Icess before he used his own boon to launch her away with the shield. She felt the same lasting weakness cover her entirely. The two were as far apart as the arena would let them be.
He raised his shield, slamming it down to the ground with a single word of incantation. From the floor, the walls, even the discarded veil, grew thick thorny vines that moved with the intent to entangle and shred through her armor. As a Green Knight, Arwa could manipulate nature through his primal magic. It was an incredibly common class in the Sage Lands, where Shaman’s Historia were plentiful for any Warrior to take up.
Fray had observed him before. She knew that Arwa used this to force aggressive opponents to take heavy wounds in an attempt to defeat him before he could heal, while more defensive opponents would be overwhelmed by the briars. She, however, had the perfect counter.
She reached out to the open wounds she had inflicted on Arwa. “Blood of My Enemy, Approach” she said. She’d known that incantations had meaning before, but actually recognizing them was still new. The spell’s effect was simple, pulling a person who was either covered with blood, or a person who was actively bleeding, towards Fray. Unfortunately for Arwa, there were a lot of very sharp thorns between the two of them. The Icess was dragged through the trap that he himself had set.
A moment and a seriously injured Arwa later, the arena’s magical suppression activated. All magic within was dispelled, and all wounds were paused from bleeding. As the adrenaline faded, she once more registered the noise of the crowd.
“VICTOR! FRRRRAAAAAY!!!!!” The glory was hers.
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The entire process was interminable. Over two hours had passed, and there was always another line to wait in (though thankfully there was almost nobody to wait behind), and more paperwork. When he finally got what he was told would be the last pile, he got to work. Amazingly, Jacky kept him company, though was clearly not the most excited to be waiting so long. She kept making comments about how it was so much easier with the Slayers, where you just signed up, were sent on a first hunt, and if you survived you were in. During the time, he’d also made an acquaintance in Lloyd, a human rogue with no interest in joining the Root.
Eventually, both of them walked up and turned their papers in. The person at the counter took Marc’s papers first, checked them over, then Lloyd’s.
“Alright, Lloyd, through that door to get your sigil. Marc, we need to get you ritualed and then we can get you yours.”
Marc moved towards the door with Lloyd, but Jacky stopped him. The concern on her face was clear, despite the differences between (former) human and dryad.
“Huh? What's up?”
“Your name. I thought it was Guy.”
Marc replied in the most articulate manner he could achieve.
“Whuh?”