Soon in the morning of the next day, Thomas dressed in casual clothes as he headed to the association.
Since he woke up, a member of the association came himself to see him in the hospital ask him some questions. The unfortunate accident right in the beginning of the year caused a lot of problem to the association so he knew they would investigate anything they could.
Later that same day he also received Clarisse's visit just a little after he got home and his mother returned to work.
Just as he entered the building, a middle-aged attendant immediately guided him to a room at the highest floor of the building.
The wooden door before him was tall. God knows how much such door goes by in the present time.
The male attendant bowed once before leaving Thomas staring at the door. Thomas remembered having heard the registrations happens in the third floor left wing, so whose room's is this? It can't be the head of the branch, right?
'I guess he wants me to enter?' After wondering why he was brought here, Thomas knocked on the door and almost immediately a hoarse voice sounded from within the door.
"Come in."
Opening the door, Thomas immediately recognized the person inside. It the red-haired uncle he saw yesterday landing his flying car.
Nervously Thomas brought his hand to the forehead and asked. "Er... Why did you call me here mister?"
"Hehe." The middle-aged man stoic face remained the same. "Don't bother pretending you don't know. That tigress told me of you a while ago, and as the vice-head of the Adept Association's Dexia city branch I'm giving the opportunity to have me help with your registration. Did you bring your documents?"
Thomas was frozen for a instant. For a vice head of branch to help in the registration of a newbie Adept, has this ever happen?
"Ohh.. Right. Wait a second." Thomas took out his cell phone and transferred all the required documents directly to the vice-head's terminal.
"Let me see... Sixteen years old, father and older sibling were lost during London's sky breach incident 13 years ago..."
"Raised by his mother.. Former student at Dexia City's 1st Adept Institute, 1-star adept." When he finished reading through all the data, the man turned to Thomas. "Hey, do you want to redo the body examination? You won't be able to update your level as an Adept without it."
Thomas understood what he was saying. Since he's the vice-head, he must know what he did at the adept selection yesterday. So he must be thinking Thomas was already a 3-star adept the moment he first started the selection."You can leave as it is. I prefer if I'm not seen as a sixteen-year old 3-star. In fact I have only won due to certain circumstances. If the demon beast was a little more intelligent like mid-rank demon, I wouldn't have the chance."
"Fine. I like the you think boy. I already put your name on the system, go find your instructor on the seventh floor, she has prepared something for you."
"Right..." Thomas turned around and was about to leave the room when he recalled something he wanted to ask. "Wait, there has been any news about Luccas Kyle of the Kyle family. When I found the remaining survivors he wasn't with them, but I never found his body."
The moment he mentioned "Luccas" the middle-aged man in the elegant crimson suit seemed to have aged instantly, gray threads of hair appeared on his head. "Right, I forgot you two knew each other. No, there is nothing about him like he simply vanished. The association sent two teams to investigate. Do you wish to be notified if there are news about him?"
"Not, It's fine." Not matter how badly Luccas treated him they did once been friends, a sour feeling permeated his heart. Leaving the vice-head's office, Thomas took the elevator and went to the seventh floor. Just like the vice-head told him, he spotted Katherine's tall figure waiting for him.
The moment she laid her eyes on him, her eyes lit up. Yesterday when he was brought from the forest with blood all over his body, she didn't have the time to carefully inspect him. Now giving a second look, Thomas was much taller than before, his body was also more defined and toned. If she didn't know him already she would think he was at least 20 years old.
"Instructor." As soon he arrived before her, Thomas paid his respects just like how a student would greet his teacher. It was important to know how to distinguish good from bad, and with know how to respect those that were good to him no matter the circumstances.
"Come here in room, I have prepared a little gift as your reward for being the first place in the selection." Pulling him by the arm, they entered what looked like an armory.
All around him were countless weapons of many different categories, some were not even tested yet.
However, among all the amazing technological weaponry, the one that caught his greatest attention was the black box container.
His eyes then turned to Katherine who in response told him to open the box.
When opened, he could see it clearly. A jet-black 3-star battle suit, even more this one seemed to be one of the Paragos Front's specialized suits. The whole armor was infused with anima energy and special techniques that made these suits resistant to poison, fire, ice, thunder, knives and even some laser guns.
He knew for a fact these were a lot better than what he wore in the selection. The suit in itself was way lighter despite offering higher defense.
The weapon in the body seemed to be a long knife or a short sword, the blade was incredibly sharp as he felt it just from staring.
"Simple yet letal, I like it." After taking both the armor and knife, there still seemed to have something in the box. A dark red wrist computer, a Crimson Devil x92 Ultra was laying on the bottom of the box.
"This is your wrist computer, everybody in the association must have one. In case a spatial rift opens it will notify you immediately. My number is already there, so you can contact me anywhere."
"Right." Thomas nodded as he readily accepted gifs.
"Thomas, have you decided if you want to enter a team?"
Oh yes. Thomas remembered what Katherine once told him. Most adepts no matter in the military or in the association, they would always divide into teams.
If memory serves him right, there are twenty teams here in Dexia City to a total of one hundred and fifty-one teams. Not all teams belonged to the battle-type Adept category, per example all Crimson Devil wrist computers were made by the Crimson Cloud Division, a team made with creation-type Adepts.
Katherine also belonged to a team, but he didn't seem to know its name. It wasn't divulged anywhere, in fact many were curious to knew which team she belonged to.
With his increased Intelligence stat, Thomas didn't have to think much before giving an answer. "I don't know. Didn't instructor wanted me in her team?
Katherine nodded, but her face seemed a little flushed as she played with her hair. "Yes, of course I would. But I don't know how to say this... It is much harder than I thought. Well, I belong to the Azure Garden Society..."
"Before she even finished, Thomas interrupted her. "What!? Azure Garden? Wasn't that that the lowest in rank among all the mars colony's teams?"
"Er..." Katherine for the first time seemed flustered about something.
'Well, I guess she is not that much older than me.' Thomas thought.
"Well, we didn't used to be so low in the rank. There was a certain incident that happened even before I joined them, but yes, They are currently the lowest in rank among the Adept Teams."
Thomas seemed like he wanted to say something, yet shrugged his shoulders. "I may be just a teenager, by my words are worth something. I will join the Azure Garden Society, I'm long since used to such things."
"Really? I was planning on introducing the other members to you today, but they are mostly busy."
"Its fine, I can meet them later."
After that he still continued chatting with Katherine for a little while before he left. He didn't seem to waste time as his feet took him to the cake shop on the city center.
While he walked alone on the streets, Thomas recalled the words he exchanged with Ares yesterday night just after getting back home.
[Boy, I must go now. But there is something you must know first, I'm getting really bad vibes from that huge spatial rift near Vallar Gate. The creator of that spatial rift must be certainly not weaker than me.]
Thomas didn't spoke at that time, but he kept feeling something was wrong. In his memories,. not even Zeus could create a breach between dimensions or planes. For a being create something like the sky hole on London, they are not something humans can face.