Initiation

He took me to a large room that was completely closed off, with no windows on the inside, and two exits on either side of the room.

There was no one inside. Eric made a clicking sound with his tongue, before walking over to some buttons on the wall.

"Looks like they're already past the start, better hurry."

He pressed one of the buttons, and a cylindrical object emerged from the ground.

"Attack it as hard as you can."

Not knowing much about technique, I swung my spear the best I could.

The blade hit it and cut into it slightly.

Eric nodded.

"Good strength."

He motioned for me to pull it out.

I did.

"Normally, leaving a scratch is considered a pass."

He started to walk to the other gate, and I followed him.

"It's time to test your durability."

He took me to a much smaller room, with a weird device in the middle.

"Put your hand inside, it will prick you."

He pointed to an opening in the machine.

"It does that to see how durable you are."

It did prick me, but it didn't hurt much, just felt like a mosquito bite, weird, because I hadn't been bitten by a mosquito before.

It worked with a soft hum, and I could feel my hand grow cold for a second, before feeling a sticky liquid flow over it.

A few lights lit up on the top part of the machine, and the pricking sensation, and the stickiness disappeared.

"You can pull your hand out now."

He told me as he looked at the lights, narrowing his eyes.

"That's strange." He murmured, inciting my curiosity.

"What is?" I asked.

He remained silent for a moment.

"Your durability, it's... low, too low if we took your strength into account."

"What does that mean for me?"

He looked away from the lights and towards me, making eye contact.

"It means that you are... how do they call it? A glass cannon. Yes, that's the term. By all accounts, if this is really how sturdy you are, your arms should have come off when you hit the strength tester."

He looked at me with interest.

"Though you were sent here by Mr. Numoral, so we can't take these readings as fact."

A flash of curiosity went through his eyes.

"I wonder what's different about you. But I can find that out later, we are already late, let's keep going."

We left the building, and walked through the bustling streets towards our next destination.

I looked around curiously, recognizing many objects, even though I had never seen them before.

Eric noticed my looking around, and one of his eyebrows went up.

"Never seen the city?" He asked, and when I nodded, his eyes widened in realization. "Oooh... You're one of his experiments!" He announced.

I nodded again.

"I didn't know he could make people!" Eric exclaimed, now gazing at me with excitement.

"He didn't make me." I closed his train of thought. "I was found."

"Found?"

Once more, I nodded.

Eric didn't ask any more questions, and the rest of the journey was quiet on our part, the roads were busy with people everywhere.

I noticed, that the roads were wide and paved, but there were no vehicles, neither were there power lines, but there were light posts everywhere.

I wondered how they were powered, but didn't question Eric about it.

He led me to a building on top of a hill, overlooking a large part of the city.

It looked like an important place, guards were placed around the place, and the main entrance was enormous.

A few of the guards looked at us as we walked by, but none of them stopped us, they just looked at Eric and ignored us.

From that, I gathered that Eric was well-known, or came here regularly.

There was a big opening inside the building, with a giant octagonal platform in the middle with a pillar at every edge, and each pillar had a triangular head with something inscribed on it. 

There were people on the platform, one dressed similarly to Eric, in a black robe with a coat over it.

The others were dressed in drab grey clothes.

"It seems like we made it in time." Eric said and raised his hand to signal to the people on the platform.

The man with the coat noticed and raised his hand.

A few seconds later, a wave of blue rippled between the pillars.

"Let's go."

When we entered, another wave rippled.

"Who's this?" The man asked.

"Mr.Numoral sent him to get initiated."

The name sent confusion to his eyes.

"Mr.Numoral you say? That's new."

Eric waved his hand, and the man nodded.

"Have you explained?" He asked Eric, who shook his head.

"No, that's your responsibility." He said to the man, who sighed and turned to me.

"Here, we give spirit bodies their shells, so that they don't die by scattering, as well as a defensive cover, which are the clothes you see on our bodies." He gestured to the garments that he and Eric were wearing.

"The process can be uncomfortable as your spirit will be restricted and compressed to form the shell. It will take anywhere from a minute to an hour to form your shell completely, during that time, you will have to endure any discomfort and try to remain in one place."

"Finally, your shell will vary from your current form, since it will take direct influence from your spirit, and not your soul, so don't panic if you sprout animal ears, bird wings, lizard tails, or any other things, keep calm and explore your changes. You will find that they will suit you well."

"That's all done. Are you ready?" He asked, looking over all the people in grey clothing.

"If you're not, raise your hand."

No hands were raised.

"Alright, space yourselves out as much as possible, spread out across the entire platform, and sit down."

A minute went by as everyone took their position, Eric and the other man making people change their positions slightly.

"Alright then, let's get started."