Ding!
[NOTIFICATION]
[You have entered a Flux Zone]
[Environmental Verge pressure: increased]
[Hermit's Eye sensitivity: Increased]
The screen invaded Dean's vision even as he made a decision to be watchful going forward.
The phantom steeds slowed down immediately Dean dispelled the screens and turned off Hermit's eyes.
After a few seconds, the carriage jerked and came to an halt.
From the window, Dean was able to tell that they had reached their destination and he could already feel the the building intensity within and outside the carriage.
The air had grown thicker and was slowly becoming suffocating.
The carriage doors were quickly opened by the same man who had directed him into the carriage at the beginning of the journey.
One after the other, the occupants slowly came down. There was no gram of haste in their steps. Rather their shoulders sagged as they made their way down.
Even though all of them were potentially strangers, they all acted the same way all through the trip even till this moment.
This was something that Dean couldn't just gloss over. It made him wonder what exactly was this place that had this people worked up.
Dean was the last to come down from the carriage and when his feet touched the dirt. He could feel the hostility hanging in the air like unseen daggers.
It was like the flux zone didn't appreciate their presence.
He looked around and found nothing in particular, just a growing mass of people gathered around.
Some were still getting down from the other parked carriages.
They were several wooden shacks around as if they were in a boot camp.
Dean couldn't help his curiosity, as his eyes darted while he turned slowly to get a complete look and impression of his new surroundings.
There was absolutely nothing familiar about this place from memory. It was safe to say he'd never been here before. But what exactly was Here?
The immediate air was warm to a fault with the unwavering stench of dried leaves. While mist shifted across the trees that bordered the open space where the camp like structures were made.
At the distance he could see massive sky-blue colored mountains that reached into the skies with icy spears as peaks.
They looked so far and yet so close in a way that felt like he was staring into water and reality was consistently shifting his perception of distance.
But this wasn't the cream of the crop. It was the pressure that had been slowly building in his core since their arrival.
[Sage Circuit Activated]
After the notification, the heaviness he felt began to recede. The pressure that was crushing him from within suddenly mellowed down.
This was exactly the hostility he felt earlier and could still see even in the other passengers that had just arrived down from the carriage.
The boy who had clenched his jaw since earlier was now trembling silently while he made his way alongside the carriage chauffeur.
Dean still had no real impression of this place other than that it was something that shouldn't exist, but so was the ability to summon familiars. This world shouldn't exist by logic.
The world he was now experiencing was something he had spent most of his original life believing existed only on paper and video games. But right now as Dean Gray, he had memories that showed he had actually grown here. In this fantasy.
He gulped. Reaching into the inner pockets of his short-sleeved gray shirt. He retrieved the letter from the W.S.A and was making his way behind the chauffeur.
"Everyone goes to the registration booth to receive your core-gaugers," a particularly charming voice announced at a pitch that was loud and yet soothing, like feathers in his ears.
Dean followed the voice that directed them, he didn't know any better after all.
While he was walking, he finally noticed something of a disparity. This was the final nail in the coffin of his doubts.
He saw a group of individuals. They all wore black, with some having umbrellas opened over their heads.
The sun wasn't exactly harsh, but he could see the discomfort that the others who didn't have umbrellas were feeling.
They walked a lot slower and followed those with umbrellas like pets more than actual people.
The group didn't exactly look that intimidating, if he failed to consider their red blood eyes that glared at him momentarily.
The slow and deliberate motion of the leading girl with the umbrella carried the gentle silence of a predator choosing to walk amidst prey.
Vampires.
He recalled meeting a few in middle school, but seeing them in person truly amazed him now.
This world was a mixture of humans, vampires, and werewolves. The latter he hadn't met personally yet because they could look human until they didn't. Which to Dean was the coolest thing after flying Manta-rays.
'It is a crazy world out here,'.he thought
To think that all three species were co-existing, sharing the same spaces, while all of them had access to familiars
Dean couldn't help but ask a question that he believed anyone who was in his shoes would.
How was humans still in one piece and not slaves or something? It was natural for the strong to suppress the weak, but in this world so far. There was a weird and inexplicable balance that pricked his core understanding of life.
"So much to discover," he whispered to himself. While dodging the red gaze of a pale-skinned vampire girl who had most of her face hidden by the umbrella.
Dean was making his way to the line where the others gathered when the old chauffeur from earlier softly grabbed his arm.
The older man's hold was tight, fingers feeling like they had seen so much more than his eyes.
Dean immediately turned to him as the man smiled softly, almost like he was conscious that his hold, even though controlled, was still intimidating.
"This way," he directed Dean towards another booth. Dean found someone at the seemingly unoccupied booth, which surprised him.
The man inside was slender with brown hair and sharp, yellow, animalistic eyes.
He was entertaining himself by drumming on the desk with his claws.
The man squinted immediately he saw Dean and the chauffeur approach. He sniffed the air making his already bridging brows furrow.
"Dean Gray, huh?" he asked with a grin that showed above average long canines.
"That's me," Dean answered quickly. His fingers now tapping on his black saggy pants.
"Alright!" The man said with a lighter tone as he stood and gave Dean a black box that looked like a hand-held coffin with a pin strap and an insignia etched on the surface. "Seal"
As soon as he handed Dean the item, he waved for Dean to give him the letter.
Dean handed it over to the man, who tore it to pieces immediately.
He looked at Dean, keeping his jovial grin.
"Good luck out there."
Dean looked at the man and then the chauffeur, who simply bowed slightly to the man and Dean before leaving.
Dean held the item, and he was totally confused. The box weighed more than its size would insinuate.
'Good luck? What am I supposed to do with this?'
He turned, still looking at the black box, and only when he raised his head did he realize that almost everyone on the line at the other booth had been staring at him.
A voice muttered, barely audible, but Dean caught it.
"How did he get a private issue?! That's reserved for ranked candidates!"
Dean didn't flinch at that information as his eyes went back to inspecting the box as if all the attention he was getting didn't matter compared to what this item was.
"You thieving scum,"
A voice raged, and just then a hand reached for Dean's head from behind.
A/N: C'mon don't be a ghost reader, if you're enjoying the story, add to Library and support with Powerstones.
P.S: I need the P.Stones to gain more traction. Help a Author. Thank you...