Chapter 5: Chapter 5: Standby

Chapter 5: Standby

 

A blazing inferno surrounded him in every direction. He didn’t even recall how he got there. All he knew was that he was standing within a circle of fire.

All he was wearing were his gauntlets. It was no time to think about the impropriety of the situation though. He felt an urgent need to rush. To where, he didn’t know. Yet, the urgency pressed onto him like a hydraulic press.

He couldn’t even see beyond the wall of flames, but he knew that he needed to get past it. In a daze, he walked up to the ring of fire and raised his arm. The moment his armored arm came near the wall of flames, the fire parted into two. It was a narrow passage, but it would suffice.

Heeding the feeling of urgency, he ran. He couldn’t tell for how long he had been running. There was no buildup of fatigue, so he kept running. The path seemed endless and it seemed as if he was fated to keep running, surrounded by flames on both sides.

After an eternity of running in that direction, he finally spotted something in his way. In the distance, something was standing in the path, blocking his way.

As he got closer and closer, he could see that it was a person. They were facing away from him, so, he couldn’t really identify who it was. One glaring fact was that they too were void of any clothes, just like him. Although, he could observe that whoever it was, they were not human.

Their skin was green, with black flame-like markings running throughout their body. Their build itself was similar to Parth. Their height was almost the same, and their musculature was somewhat similar as well. 

The moment he reached the person, he reached out to them automatically.

Swift as a snake, a green-skinned hand clasped around his armored wrist and stopped his gesture. The person had already turned towards Parth, and he saw a face that he would recognize anywhere.

The man was a dead ringer for Parth. It was like looking into a warped mirror. The only difference between the two of them was the skin. Otherwise, everything was just the same. The hair, the eyes, the nose, the ears, everything. He just stood there, staring at his twisted doppelganger in shock.

Before he could do anything though, the doppelganger's body began smoking and the flames around them closed up, sealing up the path.

Once more, he was standing inside a ring of fire. This time, he was not alone.  

Without warning, the doppelganger’s body began cracking. Instead of blood, what poured out of the cracks were more flames.

He tried to free himself from the stranger’s grip, but it was an effort in futility. For some reason, he still felt calm. There was no fear in him, and no sense of retaliation. The thought of punching the interloper and freeing himself didn’t even cross his mind. The next moment, the green clone exploded into a mass of fire. Before he could even blink, he was consumed by the flames.

 

---

 

Parth woke up abruptly, sweating all over. He remembered the weird dream in vivid detail. Like most dreams, it made no sense. He grumbled and raised his arm to tap the button on the bedside table. Midway through the motion, he stopped himself as he noticed that he was wearing his gauntlets.

He hoped that this would not happen every night. With conscious effort, he followed the instructions given to him after his turn in the proving ground. At once, the gauntlets melted back into the tattoos on his forearms.

It was a convenient feature that all the artifacts had. They could seemingly be stored in small dimensional pockets. These pockets were linked to marks that differed from person to person based on the artifact. Parth’s tattoos were designed like bands of fire, with each band running around a forearm.

Feeling uncharacteristically childish for a second, he quickly pulsed a little bit of mana through the tattoo and watched the gauntlets materialize and coat his hands once more. It was such a small thing, but it still felt surreal. Performing magic was a novelty that he would never get tired of. No matter how limited in scope his magic was, he was sure that he’d always enjoy it. Only after he had defeated the golem did he truly understand the implications of what he had done.

Equipping and banishing the gauntlet was something that took him close to an hour to learn. When he had gone to sleep after that, a part of him was worried whether all this was just a sick dream. He feared that he would wake up back on the cruise ship, back to his boring old life where he had lost everything. Yet, he had woken up here. He had done something of note here, and he would keep doing so. Life in Viz was far more enticing to him than life in plain old Earth. Getting a move on, he dispelled the gauntlets once again and tapped the button on the nightstand.

The holographic screen sprang into life at once and displayed the current time. It was barely five in the morning, and he didn’t feel like going back to sleep.

He felt fresh as if he had slept for an entire day. His mana was also filled up, brimming with fervor. It felt nice, waking up without fatigue despite all the physical exertion he underwent just yesterday. Eager to start his day, he walked away from the bed.

 

---

 

Twenty minutes later, he walked back into his room, done with his morning ablutions. He opened the wardrobe and picked out the most comfortable clothes he could find and headed toward the cafeteria.

Before he could exit the lodging area, he was flagged down by the chief caretaker of the building.

“Voyager Parth, a very good morning to you,” greeted the elderly D’Raac as he hurriedly walked towards Parth. 

“Good morning, mister Gyn,” he responded.

“Congratulations on your selection,” Gyn held nodded solemnly.

“Thank you. Does everyone know already?” asked Parth.

“No. I am appraised of the situation since I need to be aware of everyone’s schedules. May I ask which artifact you bonded to?"

In response, Parth lifted his left sleeve and prepared to materialize the gauntlet. To his surprise, Gyn exclaimed in happiness as soon as he spotted the tattoo.

“Oh, the Pygilist. I've always liked the elemental artifacts. There is great beauty in the straightforwardness of commanding an element. I'll be watching your performance with great interest," said Gyn.

“Yeah, simple is good. Makes life easier for me,” he said and lowered his sleeve, covering his forearm once more.

“Before you leave, I have a package for you,” the old man said and handed Parth a small box.

“Thanks,” said Parth as he took the box and examined it. Its size was somewhat similar to the boxes that AirPods came in. It was just a plain cardboard box with nothing remarkable about it. His name was printed on the top in D’Raakan. Apart from that, there were no other identifiers.

"Who's it from?" he asked after examining the box.

“Who indeed? Technically, it’s from the Crown. So, we’ll go with that, yes,” said Gyn as he scratched his chin.

“Huh… now you’ve piqued my curiosity. Anyways, thanks once again. I’ll see you later,” he said as he began to walk away. He was never good at small talk.

Parth reached the cafeteria after a couple of minutes and procured a cup of coffee. Sifting through the options available, he stopped across a fruit native to Viz. It looked similar to an apple, but the color was more on the pinkish side and the rind was thicker than an apple’s. The shape was a little elongated as well, and the size was way larger than the average apple.

The display next to the tray said that the thing was called seras. He shrugged and picked up a single fruit, then placed it on the machine at the end of the serving table. The thing sucked in the fruit and spat out precisely cut pieces into a plate within a second. The efficiency was impressive. He moved the pieces of the fruit to the side and placed his cup of coffee on the plate. This much was enough for him. He would come back and eat more after his run.

This early in the morning, barely anyone was up and about in the cafeteria except for the staff. So he just plopped on the closest table and popped a piece of the seras into his mouth. He hummed in satisfaction as he slowly chewed through the fruit. It tasted similar to an apple but had a bit of a tangy flavor to it. He could see himself munching on one regularly.

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Within a couple of minutes, he finished the fruit and drank his first dose of coffee for the day. The coffee on the other hand was something that he was not completely satisfied with. He knew that he was picky about it and was nitpicking. He should be glad that the dungeon hadn't forced them to fight off the cuff and starved them on top of it. The hospitality was something he was highly grateful for. It was just a bad habit of his though. He was addicted to the beverage and couldn’t function without it. He made a mental note to check out any local shops if he had the time.

After he was done with his food, he pushed the plate to the side and focused on the box in front of him. He quickly opened it, to find a ring and two tiny metal disks placed inside precisely cut packaging foam. The ring was quite familiar to him. He had seen the natives wearing similar rings. There was a small blue crystal on the head of the ring. The silvery band of the ring itself was thin. At the base of the ring was a minuscule button that could be pressed easily by his thumb.

Without wasting time, he picked it up and wore it on his right ring finger. The next moment, a holographic screen burst into life from the crystal housed in the ring. He quickly read the instructions on the screen and followed them to register his biometrics. He then gingerly picked the tiny metal disks. They were barely half the size of the rings, and it looked like it’d be very easy to lose them.

He placed the devices on the back of his ears and waited as they latched onto that area. The ring had a tiny inbuilt speaker, but these nifty things were more appealing.

The moment the devices paired up, he swiped the holographic screen and waited for the ring to show him some sort of tutorial on how to use it. Instead, Roul’s face materialized on the screen.

“Ugh, why are you awake so early?” Roul asked as he rubbed his sleepy eyes. The devices behind his ear were transmitting the audio crisply, and he wondered how they worked. The sound quality was phenomenal. He couldn’t wait to play some music on it.

 “Felt like going for a run. What’s all this anyway?”

“Gimme a min,” said Roul as he yawned and walked out of view. He returned soon while scrubbing his face with a towel. “Alright, first of all, good job yesterday. You impressed many people with your performance.”

“Thanks. How does that affect things going forward then?”

“Well, first and foremost, I’ll answer your previous question. This ring is your wallet, identification, device, and everything in between. It’s like your phone, but several times better. There's a tutorial that you can use to learn all about it. Do it after this call. The main thing is that, consider this as your passport. Every person in Tava has it.”

“So what if I leave the continent?”

“You won’t find much. Tava is the largest continent in Viz and is perhaps the only one inhabited by sapient life. Conspirational nutjobs will tell you otherwise, but that’s irrelevant anyway. This continent is more than twice the size of the largest continent in your old world. You won’t ever need to step out of it for anything,” ranted Roul.

“I get it,” he responded as he motioned for Roul to continue. He knew that he would go traveling if he made it out of the dungeon in one piece. He’d learn about the intricacies of this world before he embarked anyway.

“Where were we again?” asked Roul before yawning once more.

Parth sighed as he realized that Roul was still discombobulated due to just waking up.      

“You said that the ring acts as my passport.”

“Oh, yes. The standard protocol set in it was to contact the advisor upon activation. It has locked onto your biometrics and nobody else can use it. If you lose it, we can easily trace it back. Anyway, the ring signifies that you are now a citizen of Tava. Welcome to our wonderful empire.”

“Glad to be here. Is the immigration process really that easy?” Parth asked in confusion.

“What other option do you have? And it is in no way easy. The dungeon has marked you after all. You have to overcome it if you want to live beyond the next few months,” said Roul seriously.

He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes before he continued.

“Okay Parth, now onto how this ties up with your performance. The rings are only handed out to those who have been locked into a team.”

"Wait. You told me that the teams will be picked after everyone else was done with their artifact selection."

“Under normal circumstances, yes. But each patron has a single entitlement that can be used for a couple of things. My patron used the entitlement to lock you before your records even go out.”

“So I’m in your team?” asked Parth.

“Not really. My patron is allied with someone interested in you. He had used his entitlement for another voyager. Both of them felt like a trade would suit them better. You're on my allied team. So you're not completely rid of me, but you don't have to deal with me daily," said Roul with a smirk.

“Okay. What now then?” he asked.

He could understand what was going on. It was akin to sports teams, just that they were geared more toward combat and expedition. He still wondered why things were set up this way. He also wanted to know what exactly the entitlement could do. It’d help him gauge how much they had given up for locking him in preemptively. Knowing Roul, he wouldn’t get a proper answer. He’d ask his new advisor.

“Anything you want. You were only the third person to finish all this. There are ninety-seven more voyagers left. Some of them are mentally not in a state ready to bond yet. But the dungeon would not wait for them, so we will be trying to get them sorted soon enough.”

“Alright then. You said that this acted as my wallet…” he trailed off, waiting for Roul to elaborate.

“Yes. Your patron is responsible for your upkeep once you get locked into their team. Your budget is borne by him. He was pretty generous as well. Right now, your patron has loaded up your account with fifty-thousand credits. It’s a lot of money, use it wisely.”

Parth didn’t respond for a minute and thought hard about the implications.

“And do I have to repay it?”

“More than you already have? No, man. Being a patron in the Centurial Challenge is a huge honor for them. Not everyone gets to do it. They are compensated in other ways just by sponsoring voyagers, so don't worry about it. I’m sure that your advisor will explain more, but this means a lot to us. You’ll learn. Nonetheless, you don’t have to repay him in any way. Just don’t blow away all this money and wait before you have a proper talk with him about your overall budget.”

“Okay… When will I meet him? I need to thank him for all this," said Parth.

“Once your team is finalized. Which can only be done after all the voyagers have bonded with an artifact. You’ll have an appointment with your advisor then. So chill out. Go out and explore. For now, stay within the single-digit sectors though. Your ring has navigation and all that, so use it.”

“Got it. Anything else?”

"Oh, I almost forgot about the most important thing. Don't use your gauntlets outside of designated power testing areas. We don't want to deal with random fires just yet. Other than that, I’ve made sure that all your data from your phone has been copied over to your account. The ring is connected to our public network where you’ll find all sorts of interesting things. So there’s not a lack of options for now. Just enjoy before things get hectic.”

“I’ll check it out. Thanks for everything, Roul,” said Parth. Even though Roul liked to mess around and pull his leg at times, the D’Raac had helped him a lot and he was grateful despite the eccentricities.

“Don’t mention it. My contact is already there in your phonebook along with the emergency numbers. Call me if you need anything. Not early in the morning though. Heck, I think I will go back to sleep now,” he grumbled and cut the call abruptly.

Parth chucked in response and shook his head.

He got up and closed the empty box. This was a good outcome. Sitting still and waiting for the team results would drive him up the walls. Being selected early gave him a few advantages and he decided to utilize them to the fullest. He quickly dropped his utensils off at the cleaning bay and made his way out of the cafeteria.

He had a new place to explore.

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