A year ago, inside the delver registration office...
- Stamp
The wet sound of ink came from behind the glass barrier, from beneath which a stack of fresh documents was pushed out by the admission officer.
His weary eyes briefly settled on the boy in front of him before, with a low sigh, he turned slightly and pointed to the far-off door, repeating his practiced dialogue in a tired tone.
"You can proceed with the exam in the room down the hall. Good luck."
As these words fell on the boy, he snatched the stack of documents back and eyed the officer with a glare. The man seemed accustomed to such reactions, only sighing and looking away. With a few shakes of his hands, the documents were sorted neatly into a more cubical shape that immediately broke when he turned around and put them under his arm.
'Good luck?'
The boy cursed him quietly inside his mind, brushing off the stray strands of hazel hair from his slightly pale face. The man at the counter, as tired as ever, pulled out another stack of documents before speaking to the next person in line.
"Next!"
After sending another sharp look towards the officer, he let out a low snort and followed the given directions.
People sat on the side, waiting on their benches with desperate faces. It was understandable, after all, this was the place that would determine whether or not they could actually live under a roof or not.
Passing them and going through the corridor of grey cement and black tiles, he ended up standing in front of a large, burly man whose gaze was hidden beneath a pair of pitch-black glasses that rested on his bald head.
Without hesitation, he took the documents from the boy's hands, skimming through the contents while eyeing the boy's behaviour.
A second later, he put them down on a stool next to him. Then looked back at the boy who stared at him with hesitant eyes. Without a word, the man side-stepped and pushed the door open, revealing the bright white room.
"You're good to go."
"Wait."
The boy suddenly raised his hand, prompting the tall guard's brows to furrow.
He watched as the boy started to check his pants. The cheap set of clothes, which he bought a year or so ago, was coincidentally the most comfortable thing for him to move around in, even if it didn't look as good as his daily wardrobe; he always wore it to keep his performance at its best.
But no matter where you were or what you were doing, it was always important to care about your looks and the condition of your clothes.
A few seconds of him tugging at the corners of his clothes started to turn into a dozen, maybe even a minute, if the guard actually cared to count how much someone waited to enter the room.
And when he was already impatient enough to open his lips and hurry the boy up, he hopped up, his head snapping forward like he was some sort of doll.
"All done."
With a sigh of relief, or maybe nervousness, the boy shifted through the little opening of the door while pulling a small capsule from one of his pockets.
- Click
The man disappeared from his sight, probably for the best, as he didn't want to be seen in his current state. His hair, disheveled from the breeze, looked as if he had been hit by a pan in the face, strands of it landing next to the door. His dark hoodie and dark blue cargo pants were almost torn off his body due to the sudden burst of wild wind, powerful enough that he had to hold them in place with all of his strength.
He stood inside the cube-shaped room, so big that it could fit a whole hut inside. Both walls and floors were made of pristine, white marble, which he started to get sick of not long ago.
'Why can't I ever learn...'
He spoke to himself before opening his eyes and looking to his right, where a large black window was mounted inside a wall, probably the size of three cubic meters.
Watching something stir beneath the sturdy glass made him remember what was going to happen next as he covered his ears. A short buzz overtook the silent room, accompanied by the hoarse voice of the instructor that most likely sat behind the very glass, his outline barely visible.
"Delver licensing exam for Vlad Mircea, four out of five attempts. The monsters you will face may pose a threat to your life, in which case we will immediately intervene and eliminate them. Do you wish to proceed?"
Just as he finished speaking, a small square materialised in front of Vlad's eyes, three boxes flickering in and out of existence like lightning trying to keep its shape.
One of them was a set of rules that a Delver had to accept before becoming one. Thankfully, Vlad had already become quite familiar with it since his second attempt at the exam. It was honestly surprising that the rules he had to follow were so absurd. Another two boxes presented two options: 'Accept' and 'Decline'.
He smirked, thinking that the people behind the glass were nothing but a bunch of old relics that forgot why he came here. They were most likely the very people who watched him come here three times already, overlooking all of his previous failed attempts.
Then, without any hesitation, his finger passed through one of the boxes.
- Buzz
They disappeared into a flurry of blue sparks, followed by three humanoid figures starting to take shape at the other side of the room.
Vlad looked at his hand, the small capsule that he pulled out from his pocket when the guard wasn't looking, it was crushed in an instant, a cloud of thick smoke exploding from within his palm.
His frustration, which he had been holding up for the past few weeks, had been focused solely on gripping the sword with so much strength that he could feel the handle cracking.
With a grin, he stared at the three pairs of red pupils that peered through the smoke.
"Come at me."
***
A long time ago, the Earth started to gain tiny cracks all over the world. No one paid them any mind due to how small everything seemed, but cracks can accumulate.
The few tiny openings turned into a dozen, with some time into hundreds, followed by thousands. Everyone thought that the planet would explode, killing every human on its surface along with it.
But alas, to everyone's relief or maybe nightmare, the earth remained in its broken state that slowly transformed into something no one could have expected. The cracks that littered every corner of the world had started to shift themself into one place, creating an endless rift that started from somewhere in America and ended in the middle of Asia.
The event was called the Great Separation, which was soon followed by the unnatural properties that came from within the earth.
Even scientists themself couldn't figure out how it happened, all their devices were rendered useless after a strange element called Flux emerged from within the rift, seeping into each and every human.
It granted them strength, vigor, immunity to diseases, and it made them perfect human beings that were only found in the story books millenia ago.
But it wasn't without a price.
When exploring the depths of the rift, beasts emerged from within their depths like a plague, wiping out two-thirds of the entire human population. Mundane weapons never worked on the monsters, how could they when their carcasses were harder than diamonds themself.
However, a new era had sparked among humanity thanks to the power of the soul that Flux had brought with it, giving a fair chance to both sides, be it human or human-like.
At least... That's the version everyone was familiar with.
***
- Clang
A muffled sound of metal came from behind the one-way window; the instructors who were in charge of overseeing the Delver exam sat behind the countless panels of switches and buttons that could summon any terrain or monster encountered in the Rift.
The door to the room burst open all of a sudden, making the heads of the staff snap towards the sudden noise for a second. No matter who it was, there were some rules which even high-ranking delvers would need to follow to not get demoted, so walking into the room in such a way was nothing short of suicidal... unless one had enough power to walk away without any consequences.
People who were ready to curse the intruder suddenly looked away, their eyes darting back to the panels of information. It was as if the entire room was under immense weight; the ones who were weaker started to shake already, while the stronger ones let out some fake coughs.
A man stood at the entrance, not minding anyone. What stood out most, however, was that the man wore a thick set of armor through which you could only spot his two hazel eyes, something one wouldn't usually see when walking around on the surface.
He leisurely strolled over to the person overseeing Vlad's current progress, his hands, which were resting carefully on the control panel, immediately shot back to his sides as he readied himself to salute.
The armored man, however, held him by the shoulder. Stopping his actions with a shake of his hand and turning to the window.
"How is it?"
Instructor's eyes shook, dropping down to his feet and revealing the entire course of events which the tall man expected from the start. An unreadable expression formed on his hidden face before the door closed loudly. The man was gone just like that, like the space itself had carried him away from here.
The clanging of the sword that had been coming from the room was already over, while the blaring red light spilled through the black window.
The instructor quickly gathered himself up, trying to shake off the lingering traces of fear he had felt towards the man. He pressed one of the buttons on his control panel before leaning forward to the small microphone mounted at its side.
"Delver licensing exam for Vlad Mircea, attempt fourth, failed."