The start

I stood in the doorway, looking at the city from my elevated point of view.

"What do you think?" The man asked my opinion on the city.

I gazed upon the infrastructure, and a thought appeared in my mind.

"It's... colorful."

It was.

A bit too colorful for the land of the dead.

I had expected everything to be white and dreary, suiting the theme of dead souls.

"It is, isn't it? We change the paint every few years or whenever we think it's been long enough, or just when we feel like it." 

I turned to face him.

"It was very drab and bland before we figured out how to mass-produce paint a few hundred years ago. After that, everyone wanted color all over the place."

It had been three months since I woke up, and this was the first time I was allowed to walk free, having been tied to a bed for almost the entirety of that time for this man to experiment on me.

His name was Numoral, a name he had assumed recently, having grown bored with his old one. Though how recent it was, I had no idea, if what he told me was true, then he had been alive for over 3000 years, meaning that recent for him may have been a long time ago.

All I knew about him other than his age and name, was that he was the current boss of the Research and Development division.

"Here you are."

A blond man dressed in a white coat had walked up to us while I was thinking.

"You called sir?"

"Take this man to get initiated, and answer any questions he has, afterwards, go to queen and get me her report."

Numoral gave him a badge of some sort, then turned to me.

"Go with him, he will answer all your questions about anything you want to know. Come back when your initiation is complete, take this."

He gave me a key.

"This is for your residence, just show it to anyone and ask for directions, and they will lead you there, and this,"

He raised my right hand, showing me a mark on the back of my palm that I hadn't seen before.

"Will allow you to get back to me, just show it to anyone who stops you."

Numoral turned back to the blonde man.

"I leave him in your hands."

Then he turned and left, leaving me with him.

"Please follow me." He turned around and started walking.

I followed him down some stairs and through some doors until we reached the exit of the building.

The man at the entrance looked at me before turning to my guide, who shrugged. He pressed a button, opening the door for us.

The road to the building was empty, but I saw a bustling street a little distance away. Coincidentally, we were headed in that direction as well.

I looked around as we walked, taking in the scenery and the people.

'Not much variation.'

The people were dressed almost the same for some reason.

I did not get much time to look around as my guide kept a brisk pace.

It took a few minutes for us to arrive at the location.

"Here we are."

For the first time since our journey began, my guide spoke.

"This is the place where all beginners get initiated."

He gestured to the giant building in front of me.

"The training room."

It was large, and looked like it was meant for giants.

"Why is the door so big?" I asked.

It looked like someone 20 times my size would fit through that doorway.

"Because sometimes, we need to bring bigger opponents inside, and don't want to destroy the walls."

He sounded annoyed, so I didn't ask any more questions. He led me to a room that looked like an office on the second floor of the building.

He kicked the door open, startling the man inside, who was peering over some paperwork.

"It's you." He said after looking at my guide, a hint of annoyance slipping into his voice. "What do you want?"

My guide threw the badge that Numoral had given him.

"Get this guy initiated, order from Mr.Numoral."

The man caught the badge and examined it, then looked up at me.

"I see, you can go now." He said, the hostility in his voice audible.

My guide snorted and left, leaving me with the man behind the desk, who I looked at with curiosity.

"Sorry about that, me and that guy have a bad history."

The man apologized.

then he stood up and walked over to me.

"My name is Eric Stall. Can you tell me what your relationship with Mr.Numoral is? Weird of him to push a newcomer through initiation without learning the basics."

I looked at him for a moment, I didn't know whether I should tell him or not, but I opted not to do so.

"I don't think I should tell you about that matter."

He did not seem surprised at my refusal to answer his question, he returned to his desk and opened a drawer, pulling out a few keys.

Then he picked up a sheet of paper from underneath the pile on his desk.

"Let's get going then. Today's initiation has already begun, we might be able to squeeze you in there if we leave now."

He paused and looked at me.

"Unless of course, you would rather do it tomorrow? You could rest up if you need, and a day's difference isn't anything during initiation, some of them take up to a month to succeed."

He looked at me, awaiting my decision.

I thought about it, and there was no reason to delay this 'initiation'. I could explore the rest of this world at a later date, and I was quite interested in this 'initiation' as well.

"Let's go." I gestured to him to lead the way.

"You're the boss." We left the room and descended some stairs, bringing us into the underground section of the building.

He led me to a room filled with weapons lining the walls.

"Pick a weapon please, you will need it to get initiated, so choose the one that is the most compatible with yourself."

I looked around the room, there were not many choices.

Mostly, there were swords and spears of varying lengths and designs. Other than that, a few daggers, axes, maces, and gauntlets.

I chose to go with a simple but effective weapon, a spear.

Eric nodded as he saw me pick one up.

"If you made your choice, let's proceed."

"Can I take more than one?" I asked, having a backup weapon could be useful.

"Give me a moment." he disappeared after saying that, and returned after a minute carrying a belt with straps on it.

"Here, put this on." He handed me the belt and stepped back.

I put it on, it looked out of place, but it didn't impede my movement. I picked up a smaller sword and slid it into my belt.

I nodded at him, and we left the room.