25 - Special Pretentiousness Requirements (Patreon)

Phoenix was grateful for Traveler’s upgrade as she continued to reference the map of Tulimeir in her book. She had quickly realized from the aerial overview it offered that the entire city had been meticulously planned out from its inception, with the only possible room for growth being vertically.

The upside of this for her was that it was fairly straightforward to navigate through once she understood the layout. Heading from her dorm back to the AOA building had been a matter of following the main street outside her building north to the first gate from the inner city, going through that into the western storage and logistics district, then south through the next gate leading into the martial district, then continued southeast on the same road till she arrived at the towering skyscraper.

People all around her seemed busy with various tasks and steadily moved in and out of the slightly intimidating building. Inside was a wide hall that reminded her of reception areas in fancy offices that she saw on tv but with multiple desks lining the area and thought perhaps it was more like a bank.

Above each receiving area were various signs indicating the general purpose. There were two “Mission Receiving” areas, one for Crystal and the other for Sapphire Casters and the two “Mission Delivery” desks were also divided by Caste. There was one labeled “Mission Requests” and another marked as “Licensing”. Then there was “Inquiries” and the last one labeled “Disbursement”.

She made her way over to the line for Inquiries and patiently waited, ignoring some of the curious glances sent her way and trying her best not to fidget under their gazes. The Wayfarer knew she’d probably be curious too if someone looked as different as she did here. When it was her turn, she walked up and prompted, “I’m here to pick up my trial pass?”

“Third floor. Take a right for two halls then left for another two halls then right and third door on the right,” the young clerk said in a bored tone, gesturing to a lift area in the back right corner, before calling out, “Next!”

“Ah, that was right, left, um-”

“Next!” they called out again and Phoenix got the hint and moved out of the way to head to the platform that the clerk had pointed out.

The platform systems here weren’t the quietest mechanisms as she pressed a rune she translated as “Third”. Phoenix had gotten a bit of a steampunk vibe from the city as she had traveled through it with the addition of a heavy fondness for color tinted glass and this elevator was no exception. The floor itself was a round slab of metal but the gears against the wall turned and she could hear the tiny hiss of valves releasing steam to send the platform upwards as the curved sapphire tinted glass doors secured her within.

It was fairly fast, though, and the lift let her out quickly as she immediately turned right to walk down the hall. There weren't nearly as many people on this floor and it was almost an eerie dissonance between here and the reception area. The literal floor was the same dark gray marble that she assumed must be on every floor.

She passed two hallways then turned left. Doors were spread in intervals but she had no idea what the rooms here were used for. Another two hallways later she couldn’t remember what the clerk had said. It was two hallways, right? Or was it three? No three doors down then right. Or was it left?

Phoenix turned left then passed another two identical hallways with the same paneled walls of bleached wood. The wood stood out to her as she hadn’t actually seen much of it in the city which she assumed was due to its scarcity on the frozen tundra. She brushed the errant thought away to refocus on directions.

It was the second tinted glass door? Wait, it was right, left, right not another left! The Astromancer started to panic slightly and tried to retrace her steps only to turn a corner and crash into a dark figure that was solid enough that she repelled slightly and tripped trying to reorient herself. Luckily, she was saved from falling as the figure’s hand had reached out to grab her own, quickly halting her momentum and righting her.

“I am so sorry!” Phoenix apologized profusely, “I-I’m lost and I just-” she glanced up to see a cinderen man looking down at her with a frown, “I wasn’t looking where I was going… I’m sorry,” she finished, attempting to tuck some of her hair behind her ear.

The stranger was handsome, with strong features, and probably about a foot taller than her. He had ashy umber skin and the fiery irises and matching markings typical of a cinderen. Most of his jet black hair was pulled back into a short messy ponytail with some loose locks framing his face.

The only other thing that stood out on him was the many golden piercings trailing the outside edges of both his pointed ears and a golden metal choker around his neck, engraved with elegant runes, with matching cuffs around his wrists.

The frown never left his lips as he looked her over and she asked nervously into the silence, “I, um… I didn’t hurt you or anything did I?”

The cinderen’s brow furrowed and he shook his head in the negative before asking in a low voice, “Where are you trying to go?”

“I’m trying to get my pass for the upcoming trials,” she explained, still taking in his simple black tunic and pants that bunched into even darker black fur lined boots. The dark garb made his glowing markings and eyes stand out even more and it felt like they were the last embers among ashes.

He tilted his head forward and said in that deep bass, “Me too.”

Then he moved past her and, after a moment of processing his statement, she quickly spun on her heels and followed after him. She wouldn’t deny that her relief was immediate as he guided her through the maze of identical looking doors until stopping at one that she wouldn’t have been able to distinguish from another.

Once they were inside the room, a runeforged clerk glanced over, taking in their appearance, and sneered at her temporary guide as he said, “Mission requests are on the first floor.”

She noticed her strange helper’s face twist slightly in what she read as annoyance and she spoke up for the both of them, “We’re here to get our trial passes?”

The clerk looked her over with uncertainty and asked, “Name?”

“I’m Phoenix Fraser and my friend here…”

She gestured for the cinderen to speak and he stated, “Uriel Karislian.”

The clerk shot Uriel another disgusted look before ordering, “Wait here.”

As the runeforged vanished through a door behind him, Phoenix turned to her newest pretend friend and said, “Well… Nice to meet you, Uriel. Are all clerks in Tulimeir jerks or does the AOA just have their own special pretentiousness requirements for the position?”

He gave her a side eye and the frown he had been wearing earlier returned as he replied, “I think it’s just my presence. Sorry you have to deal with it.”

“Nah,” she said with a shake of her head, “The guy downstairs was kinda a prick too. So, um, you’re going to be doing the trials with me?”

He nodded but when he didn’t add to the conversation she continued a bit more awkwardly, wondering if her attempts at friendliness were coming off as annoying to him, “Um, I… Thank you,” she murmured. At his raised eyebrow she elaborated, “For helping me. I really didn’t want to have to go back downstairs and get directions again.”

The clerk returned then and carefully set two folders down on the desk between them. His entire demeanor seemed to have shifted as he bowed politely towards Phoenix and said, “Miss Fraser, my apologies for any slight towards you and your friend. Not many people were left to retrieve their passes and I made the poor assumption that you were both lost.”

Uriel gave a short scoff and she agreed, wondering what had caused the man to so quickly become the supplicant professional, but the next words he spoke clued her in, “Your Mentor was able to file most forms for you, which qualified for the deadlines, but we still need your signature on some of them and there is an additional form that was initially missed we will need as well if it’s not too much of an inconvenience at this time.”

Paul. He was the reason for the polite shift, she realized. She gave a tense fake smile as she replied, “That’s fine. Can I fill them out here?”

The clerk nodded, “Of course, Miss. I will take you and your friend to one of the private rooms.”

She glanced over at Uriel who only shook his head at the lie he would have to play along with as she answered nervously, “That would be great, thank you.”

When they were left alone in the small room that only held a small round table with a handful of chairs in it she sat and said, “Sorry about dragging you along.”

She began looking through the papers and lifted one, asking rhetorically, “Role designation? What is- oh,” her roaming eyes found the folder that had Uriel’s name on it and checked inside to find his pass and handed it all out towards him, “Here’s your pass. I don’t want to steal more of your time.”

The cinderen carefully plucked the folder from her grasp and turned only to hesitate at the door before looking back at her with those emberlit eyes, “Role designation is what you plan to do as an Adventurer.”

“What?” she asked in obvious confusion, “I thought Adventurers just kill monsters?”

His expression seemed to soften slightly as he shook his head and walked back to sit down in another chair next to her, “Yes, but how do you plan to do that?” he asked.

“Um… with magic powers?” the Wayfarer said, completely lost on what he was trying to get at.

She saw the corner of his mouth twitch and she was reminded of Paul and his aversion to smiling. Uriel shook his head again and expounded, “Yes, but do you get up close with a weapon? Do you shoot spells from a distance? Do you heal others that do the killing instead? What is your role within a group of Adventurers?”

“Oh!” the redhead exclaimed, the misunderstanding finally clicking into place, “What Roles are there?”

“Well, normally you indicate your range placement first, so Forward, Midshift, or Backline. Then you fall into one of five broad categories,” Uriel explained, then seemed to recite from memory, “Defender, Mage, Healer, Striker, or Supporter. After that, some will add another specialization, like Banes or shielding. So what do you do?”

“I um, yes?” she said, thinking of how she moved all over and could shield and heal and fight, “I have a dagger. I mostly use that to kill monsters.”

“So, a Forward Striker. Do you have more bursty attacks or more Bane-based ones?” he asked, pulling the form she had been holding over to help fill it out with her.

“Um, well, my dagger adds a mana drain that was listed as a Bane.”

“If that’s the only Bane you have, that's not likely worth adding as a specialization. Are your Special Attacks more about unloading high damage at once with longer cooldowns or more steady over-time damage?”

“I, uh, I don’t have any Special Attacks?”

He paused and stared at her for a long moment and she rushed to finish explaining, “I have a dagger, a heal, a portal, a movement ability, a magic shield, a stealth ability, a tiny defending fairy, and can make Illusion models.”

Uriel blinked slowly, processing her words, then circled two of the words listed on the form and slid it back towards her silently.

Phoenix stared at the two words and nodded in agreement with a sigh, “Midshift Supporter is probably best.”

“I wish you luck in the trials,” he added softly and with much sobriety.

She grimaced and muttered, “Thanks.”

PREV          NEXT