Robert was climbing up the stairs towards the guild hall. The tall stone building was located at the centre of the large city and was usually the busiest part of town, but on this particular morning it happened to be completely empty. The guard at the door lifted a brow in surprise, but he thought to himself that some people just don't like big commotions, so he just yawned and continued enjoying the calm while it lasted. Meanwhile Robert entered the main hall of the building and made his way towards the reception. A girl in her 20s with long blond hair and green eyes was sitting there alone at the long desk. She was wearing the typical guild receptionist uniform which included a white shirt, a dark brown vest with a name tag and red ribbon around her collar. Despite the guild strictly denying any kind of screening other than a skill based one her curvy self still looked stunning in the rather tight outfit. She was busily arranging some documents when the sound of heavy steps on hard stone made her eyes twitch in annoyance for a second.
"I'm sorry but you know that official guild business is closed on graduation day. We've been informing our members for two weeks now so please come back tomorrow."
She said that without even looking up or stopping her work to further proof her point. She tried to sound at least a little bit polite, but she was already busy with today's tasks and having to deal with some tardy adventurer was just not something she had time for.
"No, it is me who should be apologizing for disturbing you in these early hours on such an eventful day miss Vale, but it is precisely graduation that brings me here."
Laura Vale looked up and to her surprise a young man wearing a black hoody and jeans was smiling at her. Luckily for the young man she noticed a school badge on his hoody before she could start chewing him out. Making her most professional smile she apologized to him:
"I'm sorry, it's unusual for Students to show up this early, though it's not unprecedented. Please follow me to the Occupation room and please feel free to call me Laura."
She went around the desk to bring him to the occupation room. While doing so the Student said:
"Thank you for the offer miss Vale, but I'm afraid I'm about to be engaged and talking so casually with a beautiful young women like yourself would create some nasty rumours I'd very much liked to avoid."
She just smiled politely after hearing that statement and silently lead him to the occupation room or job change room, like the adventurers liked to call it.
While doing so she thought to herself:
-Yeah right, and shamelessly flirting like that won't create anything smartass. Who is already engaged when he's only 16? Is he some kind of prince or what? And jeez, what kind of kid has such heavy footsteps?! He isn't even wearing any kind of gear. I thought I was getting out of touch there for a second. I can only hope he isn't an imposter…-
Laura was curious who this early bird was and she also was kind of suspicious of him. Why did he want to hide his allegedly first job? But soon she would find out anyway. She opened a door and told the young man to go in. She then closed the door and went a little further to a second door where she had to use her key card to enter. This room had a big computer in it and on its monitor the room with the young man could be seen from a hidden camera that was placed in a corner of the job change room. The Job change room was small and only had a machine with a big lens positioned at a wall in it. Laura sat down, put on a headset with a microphone and said:
"Okay, you should know the procedure. Please put your ID card into the machine and look into the camera of the machine."
The young man followed the instructions. When his eyes were positioned in front of the camera lens Laura opened a second tab and activated an eye scanner program. She looked at his eyes for a second longer, because other than being light blue they had a tinge of yellow at their centre, that reminded her of a sunrise.
"Now please answer me the following questions. What is your full family name, how old are you and what is your height and eye colour?"
While asking these questions Laura opened a third tab with the personal information shown on the ID card.
"Robert Piast of the house of Piast. 16 years and 7 months old. 188 cm tall and my eye colour is blue."
While waiting for the confirmation of the program Laura was holding her temples and sighed. She was really glad that she kept the minimum of politeness because she didn't want to imagine what would have happened if she offended fucking royalty. The lie detector gave her back a negative feedback, so she continued instructing Robert. Obviously, she was more polite now.
"I'm sorry Mr. Piast, but you know the protocols. I must ask these questions. Did you ever try to, are you trying to or will you ever try to harm the great machine empire?"
Robert swore that he wouldn't terrorize the good people of this noble empire. Laura chuckled at his antics and then she started the job change or in this case the job acquiring process. In the Job change room a door opened in the floor and a small pillar with a cosmic shimmering crystal revealed itself. This was Laura's favourite part. Young and innocent teenagers squirming and nervously putting their hands on the job crystal and waiting for their dreams to be crushed or to see their destinies fulfilled. To her dismay Robert skipped the squirming and immediately put his hands on the crystal.
-I guess that's what you call the confidence of the rich and powerful, huh?-
At first it looked like nothing happened and then suddenly a black cloud formed above Robert and started to pour greenish black rain on him. His skin absorbed the rain like a sponge and after a few seconds the cloud disappeared and the pillar retracted into the floor.
"Mr. Piast please tell me your occupation and show me a small demonstration so I can confirm it and enter it into your ID card."
This time Robert needed a minute to obey the orders. He looked shocked for a second, but soon he composed himself and he stretched his hand out with his palm open and pointing down. A greenish black drop fell on the floor and became a puddle and from this puddle a pearl white skeleton emerged and stood eerily still in the room.
It is funny how the greatest movements in time often start with something so insignificant it could be considered equal to a rolling pebble that was set in motion by a passing animal. Stopping on a road and helping a stranger or hearing that a certain treasure map appeared in town. Even just seeing the success and joys of others can start a change in the flow of fate that cannot be stopped any longer. Well, that being said, even beings who consider themselves knowledgeable in such matters would have had a hard time discerning this moment as such an event of pebble motion. For this little piece of rock stood eerily still in the flow of fate. Unmoving and uncaring about its surroundings for now.
Unaware of all this happening Robert said towards the lens:
"I believe I'm a Grave Caller, miss Vale."