Nodding, Alan walked over to Kitana, who had finished her conversation with the grey-skinned giant. To Alan's surprise, Kitana had risen to level 120 and was wearing a new outfit. He thought his leap to level 79 had been fast, but Kitana had only been level 80 when he last saw her aboard the Titan. She now had on black robes over a black vest and grey undershirt. Alan could tell her clothing was not made of ordinary material, as the light around it seemed to be absorbed by the cloth, creating a sort of dark aura. She still wielded the same katana.
“Hey, Kitana. How are you?”
“I’m doing quite well, Alan. This is quite the guild you’ve found.”
“Well, I’m glad you’ve found it to be interesting. Just wondering, but how did you level up so fast?”
“Well, Mason,” she gestured to the man she had been talking to earlier, “is one of the Arms Masters of the guild, and he wanted to get an estimate of my ability. Thus, he suggested I visit a local underground fighting ring. The battles were quite exhilarating, and I managed to kill a number of opponents, impressing many and leveling up quite a few times in the process.”
“Kill?”
“Hmm? Yes, the fights were mostly to the death. Otherwise it would be mostly pointless, wouldn’t it?” Kitana grinned, gazing into the distance, smiling almost bloodthirstily, causing Alan to shiver slightly. It was strange, to think of all the people around him going about killing things, but he supposed he should get used to it. It was all part of the Game, after all.
“Um, yeah, I guess so… Glad you’re having fun.”
At that moment the grey-skinned giant clapped his hands together, creating a miniature sonic wave, immediately grabbing the attention of everyone in the hangar, some 30-odd people, mostly younger looking kids, around Alan and Kitana’s age, 16 at the youngest, 25 at the oldest.
“All right, recruits. My name is Mason, and I am an Arms Master of the Black Rose Guild. Any who wish to join the guild should now follow me into the shuttle, to take the initial assessment slash trials slash whatever you want to call them. Any wishing to leave now may do so, but know that once you step foot in the shuttle you must complete the test to completion. Any questions? No? Good, let’s go.”
Alan raised his hand when Mason had asked for questions, as he wanted to know more about the initial assessment, but quickly put it down after he realized Mason had no desire to answer any. He followed Kitana onto a large shuttle with around fifty seats, and a new quest popped up.
Guild Trials:
Pass the initial assessment of the Black Rose Guild!
Bonus Objective: Complete the assessment with flying colors, allowing you to join the guild with a special rank or job.
Rewards: Membership to the Black Rose Guild, 10,000 Guild Point sign-on bonus
Sitting back in the seat, Alan sighed contentedly, scoping out the competition, wondering what trials might await and who he might meet.
Chapter 17
The shuttle flew over a bright blue ocean at supersonic speeds. They were now in the private quadrant of Khersath, full of islands and small continents, none larger than Australia, at least according to the maps Eve showed Alan. They’d been flying for about three hours now, allowing Alan to get to know a bit more about the other Black Rose recruits aboard the shuttle.
To his surprise, most of them had recently graduated from their own home world versions of high school in real life, and had recently started playing the Game as well. Apparently the age limit of 18 on the Game was a sort of universal law, where most players of any species could only begin playing when they reached a minimum threshold of adulthood, the age varying planet to planet, species to species. That did make Alan wonder about the kids he’d seen in the Undercity though… he supposed it would just have to remain a mystery, at least for now.
All the other recruits came from exotic sounding places, planets light-years away from Earth, even in entirely different galaxies. They were all sorts and sizes, wearing varying types of clothing Alan couldn’t begin to describe. But their reasons for being here seemed rather… mundane. They talked as if this was a job application, or a college interview, rather than a chance to join a deadly fighting force. They discussed local sports teams, exchanged news about their sectors and gossiped about celebrity players. Still, even Alan could sense there was an underlying tension in everyone’s voices, as they were about to compete with each other for a limited number of spots in the guild. Alan answered a few questions directed at him, but once the other recruits learned he was from Earth, a new planet, a backwater, they seemed to leave him alone. Alan could tell that they didn’t see him as a threat. That was good.
He’d briefly tried to keep up a conversation with Kitana, but she answered nearly every question with a single syllable and it had turned into one-sided rambling. His interests in anime, fantasy fiction and video games weren’t shared at all by her, and the more he thought and talked about them, the sillier they seemed in his head. After all, he was now living in one of these stories, rather than simply watching one. That was his goal though, right? To become the hero. To protect the earth, at least as best he could. Still, he had no idea how to go about doing that or what his best options were… he should just try his best to get into the guild and complete his quests for now. Maybe some idea from a game he played or book he read would turn out useful. And so Alan stared out the window in the shuttle, watching the scenery breeze past.
A few minutes later, the shuttle began to slow down. A bright blue spherical bubble appeared, an energy shield with a radius of about 100 km by Eve’s estimates. After a brief pause, the shuttle entered this shield. Once they entered the radius of the energy field all signs of it disappeared. The blue seas and skies were all that remained, as if there had never been any shield at all.
Eve immediately highlighted a number of artificial islands and ships, all surrounding a larger hexagon-shaped island, each side around 50 km long according to Eve, a bit smaller than the Hawaiian island Oahu. Each smaller island and ship had clear defensive turrets, although they were too high up for Eve to evaluate the defenses any further. She just knew they were there. Alan thought this was a bit excessive. They were still in a safe zone, after all. Most of the island was green, left in its natural state, with a smattering of structures that Alan could barely make out.
The shuttle began to descend, silently approaching a massive stone fortress in the center of the island. It reminded Alan of a medieval castle, except with its battlements and towers covered by futuristic gun turrets. It was a majestic structure, with four main towers at each of the outer wall’s four corners and a massive keep the size of a small skyscraper at the center. A number of other buildings were held within the walls, a few rectangular administrative type buildings, a hangar and a large, dome-shaped coliseum. At the tip of each of the main towers was a massive colored sphere, containing some undulating energy unknown to Alan. The keep had an even larger pyramid of energy at its tip. Each orb was constantly shifting in color, from a deep blue, to a plasma green, to a fiery red to a clear sort of cloud, and then back again. Alan wondered what the purpose of these spheres was.
A psionic defense system, capable of absorbing many psionic and energy attacks. The energy absorbed can then be used as a potential source of energy for psionic attacks launched from within the castle, Eve explained.
By this time, the shuttle had landed in a small designated area next to the castle, similar to a helipad, and Mason, the arms master, had begun giving out instructions.
“… always be prepared. Anyone caught in an area out of bounds with no good reason will immediately be failed and questioned. This is your only warning. Anyways, after the welcome ceremony is over, further introductions and instructions will be given. Dismissed.”