Allen dreamed, a lucid dream with borderline awareness. Instead of waking he chose to see the dream to the end. Might as well. He was in an unknown place , with unknown power flowing, in the unknown place.
So much not known that it didn't feel bad anymore.
The energy was everywhere, from the sky to under the observable ground. When it reached him, the energy circled around and kept moving. Wherever he moved, a vacuum was created.
In this place where the energy touched everything from still mountains to flowing water, he was an oddity, empty of all that energy. Even when he wanted, he couldn't touch it, even when he wished he couldn't take it for himself.
But he wasn't frustrated, because this was just a dream and he knew it. He stood there staring at the energy falling as rain, flowing in the water, mixing in the soil and he was never bored. Suddenly, a small lump of energy moved towards him, it slowly glowed brighter struggling to reach him, this struggle was like that of a fish struggling against the current. He wanted to touch it, feel it, and make it… his. But before his hand could come in contact he woke up.
A strange dream indeed, bet I could use it as a story material in my previous world. Which would go like...like...like? Like what? ...Dreams are short lived anyway.
Allen slipped out of the bed, put on a new change of clothes from the cabinet. From head to foot the things he wore were what the hotel gave everyone.
Other than the object on his finger of course. Wait a moment,an object on my finger! He wasn't into wearing rings. And he was supposed to be empty. Anyways, other then this slight unknown, he could be labeled as the property of the Hotel, or the manager or the Government.
Even his shoes were a spare change he found near the bed, his previous pair of boots were in an irreparable state, a sacrificed companion. I thought they would wake us up early in the morning, but the situation seemed different.
Allen used the lift to went down. This time he had to pick himself where he wanted to go. He was excited and got in the lift but saw that another person was already present. This damped his excitement by a lot.
The lift door closed and Allen was waiting for the voice of the person who was always watching them to ask him of his destination. The person behind said "Go to the ground floor". Allen for the first time since arriving here felt the need to educate someone.
"Let me give you some important information so you won't embarrass yourself again, you have to wait for the person keeping surveillance to prepare first before saying anything" Allen said.
The person asked with quaint interest" And what might that be". Allen replied" To tell the truth, I found this yesterday that someone is always..." Allen heard the sound of the door opening.
He looked behind and saw they had arrived at the place where he had wanted to go. The person who had greeted them before was sitting behind a long desk. There were only a few people around and most of them seemed to have business with the receptionist.
By the time Allen rotated his head, the person behind had already exited the lift. Allen also left the lift, pretending nothing had happened.
After the crowd thinned, he talked to the receptionist. Hello why were those people here this early. "Hmm, why do you ask?". "Umm, I was thinking what should I do from now on, if I know what people do usually then I could get help from that"
"Ha Ha, you don't really need to have a reason, the people before also worried about that, really you people have the same thinking. Quite different... Ahem, sorry I strayed from the topic. They were asking for something to do around here, something that wouldn't have strict requirements would not bind them and would be considered good among the people. Really demanding don't you think?"
"I completely agree. By the way is there any duty like that"
"And here I thought someone would sympathize with me, but good for you there is something like that and that is being a... adventurer". The person replied with a smile?
Hearing the first half of the speech he thought" So there isn't, that makes this tricky. I should go outside to observe what is the interest of people myself. The planning would come after." After hearing the full answer" Huh there is. And adventuring, Seriously? but he managed to keep the emotions bottled up
The receptionist said" This may be a developed city but it still needs something to keep its glamour intact, don't you think? The glamour can be maintained precisely because of this. So high rewards, high fame an amazing job. This is the location of the place you need to go to. Any other question?"
Allen" Huh? No, none right now. " so the others had the same fear as me, that says a lot. He took the bracelet like thing which the receptionist was giving him and tried to put it on his wrist so that it would not drop when he doesn't notice.
The bracelet automatically contracted so that it would fit more better. He was amazed to see this and wondered what was the trick behind this. He wanted to do that too.
He left the building and into the streets he went. There were many ends from which he had to turn so it might would have been almost impossible to reach the said location for the first time without a device like this. He did expect the location to be far but not so far that he would have to walk for tens of minutes.
In the illusion they saw, the city had seemed small enough to be travelled across in about some tens of minutes if a straight path without obstacles was provided. But here he was taking tens of minutes to just travel from one place to other.
After another turn at a street he saw a huge building in front of him that seemed to shadow the other buildings that had height of about ten some meter.
He checked on the bracelet and its mark were pointed on this building. No doubt this colossal building was the one. But it was not located in the center of the city for some reason.
He wanted to enter the building, wanted to enter, wanted, should he just go back? Allen shook his head and smacked himself to get rid of these thoughts. He looked at the building again with a strange look.
He neared the gate and the gate opened for him. He entered the building and saw people suddenly quieten down. Allen gulped and went to stand at a side.
After a few moments the whispering continued.
The heck, don't scare me for nothing. They didn't need to quieten down after seeing a new face, did they.
Wait a second, they really didn't need to quieten down. I am sure people like me would have arrived in droves today, so they didn't need to be that interested anymore, what could interest them at this point.
At this someone came forward and said" Hey you, yes you. You didn't come here to just stand at the side right?"
Allen thought he should reply politely and the words that escaped his mouth were" And did you yourself come to remind others of this." Ah I did it, I don't need to remind to everyone this... politely they will misunderstand my meaning.
The person was amused at his politeness and said" What you say does make sense. So, are you going to do something or not?"
Damn persistent. Don't reply. Allen made up his mind, went forward amidst others peeking eyes, they couldn't contain their curiosity it seemed.
He stopped at the long table and was going to talk to the person behind the long table when the person suddenly replied" Sorry but you can't become an adventurer."
"Damn it, at least give me a chance. I may have a weak body but this is just...arousing my instincts. I finally have to remove my pretense and show my wrath. You will get your retribution next week. After l have chosen a route to escape after throwing fire at your house. Till then ."
He was about to leave but the person continued" Oh please don't leave. You need to go to the library for now. Please follow me I will take you there."
"So that means my plan of revenge is ruined?"
"Sorry, could you repeat that, I misheard it"
"OH, don't mind it then," Very close, I accidentally talked loudly. But if he doesn't know then no problem. What should i do with the plan?