They continued their slow walk, not in a rush but instead taking in the scenery around them. The forest, which was awfully quiet to Alex, seemed as if it was watching their every move. Suddenly, a loud screeching-like noise came from their right, and looking in that direction, they saw a bird. The bird looked nothing like Alex remembered from his past life, this one was like a mix between a colorful parrot and a seagull. Both Alex and Elara stopped for a moment, admiring the bird before continuing when the bird flew away.
"That was a cool bird." Alex said, kicking the leaves on the ground.
"Yeah. Just make sure you don't scare it or it'll hurt. Bad." Elara responded, making Alex chuckle a bit.
"What? You think that I'm that scared of getting scratched or something?" Alex asked, looking around the forest to spot another bird.
"Nope, you'll get strong acid squirted into your eyes and ears." Elara said casually, as if she didn't say something serious.
"What did you say?" Alex asked, trying to make sure his clone's ears were functioning properly.
"I said that you'll get acid squirted into your eyes and ears if you scare or disturb that bird we saw." Elara repeated herself.
"Oh... So, when it made that noise, did we scare it or something? You think that it'll come flying at us in some time?" Alex asked in a whisper. Elara shook her head and responded calmly,
"No, it's not going to fly at us. It's really sensitive to noise, but it doesn't consider us threats until it thinks that we're attacking. Just know that you shouldn't annoy them in the future. Unless you want your eyes and eardrums to be melted with acid in seconds." Elara took in the nature around them, smelling the air and feeling the wind blow past her. She was happy that she could finally experience the real world and not spend time in the 'Incomplete Complex World'. Even though she only came to exist about one and a half hours ago, she was already getting bored in that dimension.
"Yeah, I won't go near it, actually. I'm not risking having my eyes melted off." Alex said, now looking around to make sure this bird was not in his path. Elara nodded and they continued on their way.
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After walking for over half an hour, they finally crossed the entire forest.
The wall stood over 10 meters tall and glowed a very faint green color. The gate itself was guarded by 6 knights, 3 on each side. There weren't any people going in through this gate, as it wasn't the main one.
As Alex and Elara slowly approached, the knights stood in front of the closed gate.
"What's gonna happen now, Elara?" Alex whispered, looking the knights up and down.
"They're probably going to ask for some form of identification." Elara answered, also in a whisper.
"Like an ID or what?" Alex asked.
"They're gonna scan us to register the Xen layer and the 'Identification Crest' on our bodies. The 'Identification Crest' and the Xen layer have the same vibrational frequencies that change from person to person, so they have to match." Elara explained, making Alex look at his right palm, but the crest wasn't there.
"Why is my crest not here?" Alex asked.
"Sorry, forgot about it." Elara apologized and created an 'Identification Crest' on Alex's left shoulder and her right shoulder blade underneath the skin. She also covered their bodies in a thin layer of Xen that matched the vibrational frequencies of their crests.
"Here, now quiet." Elara said and Alex nodded at her words.
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They got to the gate and one of the knights spoke up,
"Name and profession." Alex and Elara looked at each other before Elara transported their Souls into the 'Incomplete Complex World'.
"Now what?" Alex asked.
"Simple, your name is Eward and mine doesn't change." Elara replied and Alex nodded in agreement.
"And profession?" Alex asked.
"Adventurers." Elara responded and Alex nodded again before Elara transported their Souls back into the clone bodies.
"I'm Eward and this is my friend Elara, we're adventurers." Alex told the knight. The knights then moved apart, revealing a deep violet circle with patterns inside it on the ground.
"Stand on it. One at a time." The knight said and Alex slowly made his way towards it. When he stood on it, the circle started glowing before quickly going up and down, scanning him. After a moment it fell down to the ground and stopped glowing.
"Next one." The knight said as Alex stepped forward through the gate, waiting for Elara on the other side. Elara quickly stepped on the scanning circle. The scanner started glowing and quickly flying up and down again, scanning her. And again, after a moment it fell down to the ground and stopped glowing.
"Enjoy your stay." One of the knights said, but his smile looked forced. Elara smiled back and stepped through the gate, joining up with Alex on the other side.
"You can smile?" Alex asked sarcastically as they started going through the capital's streets.
"Quiet or I'll remove your kneecaps." Elara responded, her smile gone.
"Sorry. You should smile more though." Alex said, looking around and seeing curious children stare at them, or more specifically, at Elara.
"No. Not for you anyway." Elara responded coldly and smacked the back of Alex's head when she noticed him put on an obviously fake sad face.
"Ow!" Alex said before laughing quietly and rubbing the back of his head with his hand.
"That was disgusting, never show me that face again." Elara replied.
"Yes ma'am." Alex replied in a serious voice, saluting, as if he was a soldier talking to his superior. In response to Alex's words and actions Elara smacked him again, this time between his shoulder blades.
"Shut. Up." Elara said, making Alex chuckle.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Alex responded.
"As an adventurer, you need a weapon. What do you want?" Elara suddenly asked as the guild building came into view.
"A gun maybe?" Alex responded, making finger guns and pretending to shoot at random objects or buildings.
"I'm regretting being here actually. As for the gun, choose something that they're familiar with or they'll probably search you." Elara said, making Alex think for a second.
"A standard sword then." Alex said and in response Elara created a sheath with a longsword inside. She created a spear for herself.
"We can use a gun for when we're not being watched by anyone." Elara said. Alex nodded as they finally reached the guild building.
Upon opening the door, they saw a reception desk straight ahead and a small bar to the right. On the left wall was a board, and several demihumans took turns throwing short spears at it, similar to a game of darts. Most humans were on the right side, drinking whatever alcohol the bar had. Alex and Elara slowly walked up to the reception desk, almost nobody paying attention to them.
"Welcome, how can I help?" Asked the receptionist, not particularly interested as he eyed the bar. Elara came up to the desk, Alex right behind her.
"Yeah, well, could we register as adventurers?" She asked, glancing at Alex and then back at the receptionist.
"Go down the hallway to your left and talk to the guy there first." The receptionist replied, pointing to the hallway. His eyes, however, never left the bar and the numerous alcohol bottles that were on the shelves. Elara nodded and the duo followed his instructions, turning left, passing the demihumans playing games or arm wrestling. The receptionist seemed slightly intrigued and glanced at them as they disappeared behind a corner.
Eventually, they crossed the hallway, finding themselves outside the building inside some sort of arena-like structure with an open roof. They looked around and spotted a man to their right sitting on a log of wood and sharpening a sword. What they also noticed was that he had animal ears on top of his head and a tail. They approached him and he looked up at them.
"You two want to register as adventurers, right?" The man asked, placing the sword away. Elara nodded and the man stood up.
"Name's Baelor, I'm going to test your strength to assign you the appropriate rank." Bealor said and looked between the two.
"The appropriate rank?" Alex telepathically asked Elara.
"The stronger we are, the higher the rank we'll get basically." Elara answered.
"And how many are there?" Alex asked.
"6, F through A. Each has 3 subclasses, for example, F- is the lowest, then F and the strongest in that category is F+. E- is stronger than F+ and so on until A+ being the strongest." Elara answered.
"Alright, we'll start with the lady first. Go to the middle of the Testing Arena and wait." Baelor said while looking at Elara, who nodded and walked to the marked middle of the arena, now barely visible due to how far she was. Alex looked at Baelor, who snapped his fingers, which caused the walls of the arena to glow with a bright green for a moment before stopping as if nothing happened. The hallway closed off with a stone wall. The test was about to begin.