Magnus was still lost in memories, walking down one of Thawsore's many muddy lanes.
It was then,
A familiar sight appeared before him… but interestingly enough, there was not one, but twelve scrolls, floating before his eyes.
Curious, Magnus reached out to grab the three nearest to him. He noticed a sign and seal on the scrolls, and he was unable to pry them open. He intuitively felt that he needed to make a decision before he could open one.
He went on to grab the other nine and checked them all. Same thing. Different handwriting styles and signatures, all written in the mysterious language Magnus could now understand.
It wasn't written in his mother tongue any longer.
"Far Eye, Sleeper, Magister, Klaus…" Magnus muttered the names signed on these scrolls as he ducked into an empty alleyway.
The people around him also had scrolls appearing before their faces. Although for them, it was only a single scroll. Surprise and confusion appeared on their faces.
Magnus searched Klaris' memories and discovered what the Otherworld Trials meant to the natives of Thare:
It meant an opportunity for boundless growth, as well as death and dangers present with every step they take.
In fact, that bioweapon that wrought havoc onto Thawsore eight years ago was the collateral damage caused by another world activating the Otherworld Trials as well.
Magnus also gained a clear idea of what being a Scribe entailed. One of Klaris' friends was, in fact, a Scribe chosen when her world was struck by the Otherworld Trials. It was over half a century ago when it happened, all her clients had perished, and she had successfully acclimated into Thare. The stories she told of her adventures were compelling.
Scribes were informants first and foremost. Being a Scribe was a profession that beseeched one to have good intuition and foresight. They were the people who wrote on the Scrolls that were always delivered to their 'clients' instantaneously no matter where they were.
And since they were the ones responsible for writing on a Scroll, they were the ones who gave information to the masses of the Trial that they would face. A Scribe's interpretation of the Trial was key to having a good headstart or a bad one.
Unworthy Scribes could lead millions to their deaths, while skilled ones could carry their clients straight out of hell.
Of course, this wasn't only a one-way benefit thing. Scribes usually benefitted by having people believe and follow their Scrolls. Their rewards were mystical in nature, ranging from momentary invincibility, longevity, and other special consumable powers.
Basically, the more, the merrier.
Thus,
"An incompetent Scribe will confuse me..." Magnus muttered, "It will increase the chances of death... but I have no idea which Scribe from Earth is reliable."
Magnus had no choice but to leave things to chance for now.
He looked at a scroll with a maroon seal and glowing red ink.
"I'll open this one," Magnus announced in a whisper, and indeed, his intuition proved true.
The scroll he chose lost its wax seal and unfurled by itself.
[[ Hey, fellow Earthling. ]]
[[ Thanks for choosing my scroll. I promise you that my information will be as accurate as it can be. Now, our first Trial isn't actually so hard. It's finding a place to say for the night. Shelter, whether it is a tent, a cave, or a house, is what you need. As long as you have some kind of place to stay that isn't an open area or in the middle of nowhere, then you will pass. ]]
[[ Also, this is just a guess, but, it should be in your best interests to avoid letting the locals know of your foreign or new status in this world. I have a feeling that their Trials will be based around us. Good luck and please stay alive. For Earth! ]]
[[ -The Jester ]]
"A place to stay, huh," Magnus smacked his lips as he hid the Scroll in his pocket, "And hiding from non-Earthlings?"
He shook his head in exasperation, "That's basically an easier version of my situation. I had to hide Klaris' face from the police, and I am currently jobless, homeless, and penniless."
Magnus' plans weren't affected by such a trial. He already had an eye on a doable job, as well as a place to stay.
In fact, after a few more minutes of walking, he arrived at an area of Thawsore where the smell of mud was no longer the most prominent scent.
"Urgh... That's disgusting," Magnus' gut lurched as he inhaled the death-filled air. "But it's what I have 'experience' in, after all. Other jobs would require me to learn new skills first before I can actually work for them. Life as a concept maker is harder than I thought in a world like this..."
And so, he walked into the establishment, hoping that the team that Klaris was familiar with was there.
.
.
.
Knock, knock.
Magnus hit the wooden door in a polite manner after straightening himself up. There wasn't much he could do about the mud except scrape off as much as he could, but at least now, it was hard to discover his unusual clothes.
"What is it?" A voice asked, seemingly from deep within the shabby, four-story building.
"I heard I could come here for a job."
Footsteps walking at a relaxed pace drummed onto boards of wood. Just from the sounds made, Magnus could feel that the person he was going to meet had a bulky frame.
Squeeak!
The door opened slowly as a bearded, middle-aged man appeared before Magnus' eyes.
"...You're quite young, aren't you?" The middle-aged man raised an eyebrow, "But that's not my problem. Come in. We're short on hands."
"Short on hands?" Magnus asked as he followed the man into a surprisingly clean interior. The furnishing was worn, but he could tell it was cleaned out regularly.
"Yeah. One of our veterans turned out to be some wanted criminal and... Never mind that, here." The middle-aged man handed Magnus a folder. "Call me Feng. I'm a second-generation Tharean. Since you're coming here of all places at your age, I assume that you're desperate. But no. The pay in this place isn't as good as rumoured, although it is pretty decent. That, and reanimated skeletons are a constant problem when we are in the middle of corpse cleansing. Don't be an idiot."
"...Yes sir." Magnus nodded solemnly as he took out a pen from his clothes and began writing.
"Good. And go clean yourself in the shower upstairs. Where the hell did you put your coat? Were you robbed or something?"
Magnus blinked and saw an opportunity to hone his acting skills. He sighed.
"I actually was. Some black haired guy who was being chased by the police took everything I had and even used me as a jump pad. Look!" Magnus showed Feng a bruise on his body as if he was trying to say, 'This is what was done to me! Pity me!'
"I... I see... Sorry for your loss," Feng awkwardly said, seemingly not expecting the young man before him to rant. "Anyways, when you're done with your shower, come down to the basement. You can start today since we're paid by the body."
Magnus nodded, inwardly realising how he had overdone his acting a bit. He decided to just continue filling up the form and when he was over—
"There it is—!"
A tremor of nausea assaulted him at that very moment. His body felt much weaker than it did just a few moments ago. At least half of his strength left him.
A burning feeling erupted from his left wrist.
His Vow of the Lonely was acting up.
"So even getting hired is a no go despite the fake information?" Magnus heaved deep breaths as he sluggishly dragged his body up to the second floor for a shower, following Klaris' memories. "I can only stay here for a day. I'll leave tomorrow. I can't stay in this state for long."
.
.
.
Rote work was what was awaiting Magnus, and with his current weakness, he truly struggled like hell. He did his best not to reveal his weakness though. He was afraid of being captured for his Curse and Blessing to be read.
On that note, now that Magnus was in his original body, he couldn't feel the presence of Mirror World Thief and the Vow of the Unnamed.
It was likely that the bodies he assimilated into the Hivemind couldn't share Curses and Blessings.
'I still have one more slot available,' Magnus remembered such a fact as he worked. 'But at the rate of my Spirit Energy regeneration, it seems like it'll take a while before I can invoke Master of the Hivemind again...'
Shaking his head, Magnus continued to suppress his disgust as he work on the bodies he was assigned to. He placed them onto metal carts and transported them to different parts of the building. Two hours into the job, he was surprised to see a pile of bones being brought in from outside.
"Those are from reanimated skeletons, right?" Magnus muttered as he cross-referenced the sight with Klaris' memories.
A few corpses came with the reanimated skeletons.
"Another batch from god knows where," A man beside Magnus sighed, "Though we are being paid more, this workload is just going to increase in the future with the Otherworld Trials at hand."
"Should we quit before it gets hectic?" Another man asked.
It prompted the first man to exclaim, "Quit? When we're going to be earning a lot? Madness! The Otherworld Trials are an opportunity for everyone. Have you all forgotten the events that happened on the Continent of Arvich? If we play our cards right, we can escape this muddy hell!"
Before the talks could get any more heated, however, Feng, who seemed to be the manager of the establishment waved at them as he gestured at a scroll in hand.
"Alright, enough gawking at dead people. Do your jobs. It's going to be a long night tonight, especially with the first Trial ongoing."
A long night it really was. Magnus guessed that staying inside the corpse disposal building counted as having shelter despite his lack of sleep. At the end of it all, he received a small wad of cash in denominations of one.
"Despite the fact that you're quitting so early, here's your pay. 53 dollars. Great work today, kid. You did a lot better than we thought, and that's why I'm paying you. Just know you'll be missing out if you quit, but it can't be helped if your Curse doesn't like it. It seems like this batch of otherworlders are idiots." Feng gave Magnus a pat on the back as he laughed.
Despite Magnus hiding his weakness, the others still noticed it.
"It's a bad idea to keep your Curse shackling you like that," They had advised, thinking that Magnus had just turned sixteen and received his Curse.
"Thank you," Magnus nodded at Feng, as well as the few others who all received their earnings for the day. He was thankful for their hospitality in this unfamiliar world. At the same time, he suppressed his lips from twitching at Feng's earlier comment.
'I'm one of those latest otherworlders that you are shit-talking!' He just silently said in his heart.
And with that, he turned around to leave. It was already morning, and Magnus was barely able to get any sleep. He wanted to find a place to stay with his 53 dollars. From Klaris' memories, it was more than enough to get an empty room to sleep in.
He had also traded in a mud coat for a portion of his earnings before he left, so now, he also looked the part of a normal citizen.