Harry 'Quick question before we go, how do we communicate when there's people around? As funny as it would be, you can't exactly go around talking to yourself.'
Felix "Well, according to the System you were born within my soul. So just look within yourself you might find a way to read my surface thoughts."
Harry 'I'm not from this universe remember? Got no clue what you're on about.'
Felix "Right, I forgot. It is very simple just think about moving your senses to within yourself. You will appear in… my soulspace? I should probably do the same now I think about it. It will give me a chance to see what our situation is and to see my new Skill Emblem." Felix kneeled on the floor.
Harry 'That sounds like some hocus pocus bullshit but alright.'
Harry tried to close his eyes despite knowing he doesn't have a body anymore. But he still succeeded in closing off his shared vision with Felix. Almost instantly after shutting off his vision, he found himself in his old body floating in front of a large transparent blue sphere. Inside the large blue sphere there was four strange looking objects; a small ancient tome with weathered letters on the front reading 'Harry's Memories'; a glowing golden ring with a four leaf clover sprouting from within; a silver serpents tongue and most disturbing of all was a mask made of skin displaying Harry's screaming face. On the outer edge of the blue sphere was a small lion face.
Harry "I really hope that's normal."
Felix appeared from behind without making a sound and quickly grabbed the floating figure of Harry. "It is very normal, do not worry about it."
"Holy Shit!" Harry shouted. "Don't do that, you're gonna give me a heart attack. Why did you grab me like that anyways?"
Felix replied giggling. "It felt like the right thing to do. Hehe"
Harry sighed. "So what exactly am I looking at?"
Felix "This is my soulspace and you're looking at my Soul. The strange objects in the center are my Talents and Flaws and the small lion face emblem is my Skill Adventurers Instinct."
Harry asked, a little unsure. "Okay but how does this soulspace help me communicate with you when there's other people around?"
Felix "It should be quite easy, just think about reading my thoughts and if it does not work then we will just have one sided conversations. If you hear me thinking about a random number you will know it's working."
Harry "That's it? Okay I'll give it a shot."
Harry looked at the floating elf thinking deeply about what was going on inside his head. He suddenly heard a voice chanting in his head, repeating the same word over and over again. '132' '132' '132'.
Harry "A 132 right? Does it have some sort of special meaning?"
Felix "That was how old my father was before he died."
Harry "Oh I'm uhh sorry for your loss."
Felix "Do not worry about it. Let us hurry before we get kicked out of the awakening room. I still need to register as an adventurer."
Felix vanished from Harry's vision leaving the soulspace. Harry panicked for a moment before releasing he could just 'open his eyes' and follow him. Both Felix and Harry woke up back in the empty awakening room.
Felix got up off his knees and stretched his body. Felix had spent more time than he expected in the awakening room, but after answering all of Harry's endless questions he finally felt ready to head out of the bland awakening room and into the Adventurers Guild. With determined steps he opened the door and was greeted by the plain wooden corridor with a set of stairs leading upwards at its end.
Harry 'It smells amazing in here. Where are we anyways?'
Felix sighed only now coming to terms with the fact he will never have his beloved silence back. 'We are in the basement of the Adventurers Guild. It is where most folk come to awaken, it helps prevent any accidents in case someone awakens a Talent or Flaw that might harm others.'
Harry 'Neat.'
Felix made his way upstairs and into the reception room reserved for elves that have not yet registered as adventurers. There were a few other people in the room, most of which were young elves like Felix who might have awakened earlier that morning, but the only one Felix cared about was the young receptionist lady at the front desk. Felix got in the short line and waited.
"Hello, how can I help you today? Do you want to register as an adventurer or set up a quest?"
Felix replied to the sweet sounding lady "I want to register as an adventurer"
"Okay in that case i'm going to need you to fill out some paperwork, please note that the information you right down will be available to other adventurers and the Adventurers Guild staff. You can leave out some information or intentionally be vague but we do need your name and rank. The information you write down will be verified using an artifact. Is there anything you don't understand or need me to repeat?
"No, thank you."
"In that case, here." The receptionist handed Felix a simple and easy to understand blank document that asked for his name, rank, Talents, Flaws, Skills, Concepts and his preferred role in combat. "Please sit down and fill in this document and return back to me when your finished"
Felix got himself seated on one of the many simple wooden chairs.
'So how much info do you plan on giving them?' Harry asked.
Felix 'I can not hide too much, you should not enter a dungeon alone until you have at least 3 Skills and now one would let an untested newbie like myself join them if I hide all my Skills. I plan to show everything but my Flaws and B-Rank talent.'
Harry replied, worried. 'You're gonna make your Lucky Talent public information? Will that not trigger your Envy Flaw?'
Felix 'No it should not trigger my Flaw. Envy should only trigger through anything I personally write. The Adventures Guild will scan the document I give them and put it on a database or at least something similar to that, there is no internet here.'
Felix proceeded to fill in the document with his personal details. His name, age, rank and even his address. After filling out his personal details, he made his way back to the front desk and handed his document to the receptionist lady.
Felix "Here my adventurers form."
"Thank you, before I can get you registered I'm going to need you to hold this artifact that can confirm that everything you have written down in the document is true." The receptionist handed Felix what appeared to be a plain wooden sphere about the size of a tennis ball. "This artifact will glow red if whoever is holding it lies and green if the holder tells the truth. I just need you to tell me in clear words that everything you have written down in the document is true."
Felix replied "That seems simple enough." The wooden ball glowed green for a moment. "Everything I have written down in the document provided by you is true." Felix handed the artifact back to the receptionist.
"Thank you, now if you will give me a moment I'll put your information into our library and get you registered." The receptionist left but didn't make Felix wait too long. As she came back a few minutes later holding what looked to be a palm sized silver shield with a large F on the front. She handed the tiny shield to Felix.
"This here is your adventurers badge, on the front it has your name and rank and the back has the details you wrote down in the document. If you imbue your soul flux into the back it will hide the details written on the badge and if you imbue the front with soul flux it will let you interact with guild artifacts. The finer details are explained in this adventurers book we give to all new adventures."
The receptionist handed Felix a small book. "This book is both a guide and a rule book, I strongly suggest reading it before going next-door and taking your first quest. Is there anything else I can help with today?"
Felix "no that will be all, thank you." Felix put the badge and the hand book inside a simple pouch tied to his waist and made his way across the wooden floor to the room next door.
Harry asked. 'Your not going to read the hand book? What if you break some obscure rule and get banned for life? Hehe.'
Felix replied 'I have read the book several times before at the orphanage, it has been my goal for a long time to become an adventurer.'
Harry 'What does being an adventurer actually entail? I can make an educated guess with my knowledge from my past life but I thought I should double check with you.'
Felix 'An adventurer's primary function is to ensure dungeons do not overflow with monsters. They are also tasked with defending whatever settlement they are residing in from dungeon outbreaks and occasionally they will act similar to mercenaries acting as soldiers or guards for hire.'
Harry 'Cool, is the pay good?'
Felixed sighed 'Yes the adventures guild pays very well.'
Felix entered the main reception room. He instantly noticed that it was a little chaotic. Quite a few young elven adventures were gathered around a large screen at the end of the room, that he correctly assumed to be the quest board where adventurers can initiate a quest. Felix approached one of the receptionists to his right and inquired about what was going on to make so many newbie adventurers excited.
"Hi, I'm David. How can I help you?" David asked
"Hello David. I wanted to ask why there seemed to be so many excited people near the quest board?"
"Oh you must have only recently joined, right? Here in Entwood,On the tenth day of the week some E-Rank town guards take some newbie adventures to the first floor of the Entwood Dungeon. The best part is they don't charge anybody either, it's free."
Felix raised his eyebrows"That very generous of them"
"Yeah, it has been a tradition for hundreds of years and if you want to join them, I wouldn't waste time over here there are only three spots per guard."
Felix bowed slightly and thanked the kind receptionist before turning around and walking towards the quest board. He pushed his way through the small crowd and looked up at the quest board screen and found ten quests that correlated with the town guard escort that the receptionist spoke of. He panicked a little when he noticed that many of the quests were already full. But to his relief there was one spot left so he quickly raised his adventurer's badge up to the quest and let his soul-flux flow through it, taking up the last spot on the escort quest. Several adventurers after noticing that all the slots were filled, mumbled angrily and searched for other quests to take on.
Felix didn't even get to sit down and wait before a blond man garnished in armour made of leather and entwood walked through the front door of the guild. The man quickly made his presence known as they approached the left edge of the quest board and loudly exclaimed. "Can the newbie adventurers who signed up for the Entwood Dungeon escort follow me outside please!"
Felix and twenty-nine other adventurers followed the blonde man to the training courtyard outside and to the left of the guild. It was a spacious brown field with several training dummies along the edges of the field, some of the dummies were occupied by some more experienced adventurers practicing with their weapons and Skills.
The blonde guard led the newbies to the edge of the field, near the side of the adventurers guild building. There they found nine other town guards dressed in the same armour as the blonde man. Their guide stopped in front of the other guards and turned to address the newbies in a loud booming voice.
"Greeting everybody! Im Eskal, myself and the other guards behind me will be your escorts today as you explore the first floor of the Entwood dungeon that our beautiful town is named after. But before that I will lay down a few ground rules for you all to follow. Firstly, I want it to be known that we are not here to babysit you, if you go running off on your own we will not come running after you. Secondly you will form a party with your fellow adventures and split any soul essence you earn equally with them and last of all listen to your escort, although the first floor of the Entwood dungeon is not particularly dangerous it is still a dungeon inhabited by monsters, if your escort tells you to run you run. Now with the necessities out the way the good folk behind me will call out your names, you are to approach whoever calls out your name."
A guard only a few steps behind Eskal started to call out names.
"Jeremy Ironwood…"
Harry 'It just occurred to me, do you even have a weapon on you Felix?'