Elena led Sam out of her office, through the corridor, to the main hall of the underground church cell. They were greeted by the three already familiar faces of Adrian, and the two girls, whose names the teenager already heard, unfortunately, was unable to match with the faces. Judging from Adrian's words, he suspected the silver-haired beauty's name was Bella, while the smaller, more friendly girl seemed to be called Rose, but he was not entirely sure. Except for them, two more individuals appeared.
One was a middle-aged man, probably in his late forties. He had dark hair, heavily adorned with grey. His face was obscured by a beard. Tall and thin, he stood a few steps away from the sofas holding a paper clipper board, with some documents on it. He wore a long lab coat, over rather plain clothes. Sam also noticed a pen in the pocket on his chest.
The other individual was more imposing. A true giant of easily over seven feet tall. He looked as if chiseled from obsidian due to his dark skin. His face was expressionless, and he stood leaning against one of the walls in his entirely black suit.
„Everybody," the director called out, although she didn't have to, as she already had everyone's attention. „This is the new member of this cell of our church. Please introduce yourself," she glanced at him.
„I-i'm Sam. S-Samuel Shepherd," he corrected himself, stuttering under the pressure of all the mixed gazes. The one belonging to the tall man was the heaviest.
„Sam, this is Adrian, whom you already met. And then we have Rose and Isabella. They, alongside you, will be the members of our first unit within this cell," Elena informed.
As she spoke, the girls reacted to their names, confirming Samuel's previous suspicions. Rose shyly raised a hand, while the silver-haired beauty only gave him a curious glance, with a slight tilt of her head.
„Then we have our medic, doctor Victor Kessler," the Director pointed at the man in the labcoat, who smiled back. „And the protector of our unit, Ezekiel Kane," she pointed at the tall individual.
He nodded slowly, looking Sam straight in the eyes, which made a shiver run down the teenager's spine. The man was exuding immense pressure, just by standing. For some reason, he seemed so mighty, that Samuel had no doubt he was the most powerful person around, by a mile.
„Now… Since everybody was introduced, let me tell you more about the church. After we are done, doctor Kessler will check your health, and hopefully, I can give you your first mission," she continued.
As the word 'mission' was spoken, all the other three members of the unit got very much interested. Their gazes drifted from Samuel to Elena.
„I've been sitting on one for a few days, but I couldn't give it to you, as the unit was too small. That would be against the rules. I was about to handle it over to the church tomorrow, so a different cell could take care of it, but since we should have four tonight, I think you can still deal with this. Now… Mister Shepherd, please come with me back to my office," she pivoted on her heel, quickly emerging back to where they came from.
Sam gave others an awkward smile, before following her. Back in the office, they sat on the chairs in the same configuration as previously.
„The church operates in units," she started. „Each unit has usually from four to seven members. Together they fulfill missions given by the church. You might be scared about this, as you probably don't have any experience in combat, but rest assured. You are equipped to do this. You see," she sighed heavily, „the whole world is aware that certain individuals are blessed with strange, supernatural powers. Super strength, durability, telekinesis, pyrokinesis, and more, but they have no idea how it works. We call them tags. Each blessing has its name, and it alters you, giving you abilities. Those who are not in any of the churches only rely on the power of tags, or spells, if they were lucky to learn any, but we have something else. Something that allows us to direct our powers toward certain areas, help us control them, and grow them. We call them titles."
Sam fixed his position in the chair, listening more carefully to her words, but she paused, to open one of the drawers in her desk. She rummaged in it, soon pulling a deck of cards. They were bigger than normal cards, and had their backs decorated with intricate, mysterious patterns, bringing to his mind the tarot.
„After today's mission, you will choose three of those cards. From those three, you will pick one, which, after consumption, will become your title. It has to be after the mission, as the cards can only pick up on which titles offer you after you gain some experience out in the field. The titles will depend on the tags you have, and your actions during the first mission," she said, before putting the cards away, back to the drawer. Only to pull out something else. Three boxes.
One was small, while the other two were slightly bigger. Each didn't look that intriguing, as they were made of thick white paper.
„Chose one," she instructed. „It's a trinket you will have to carry as a member of our church. It has the symbol of Mutatio, which will allow other members to recognize you. It has also two other functions. The first one is that it allows you to access the church shop."
She was about to say more, but Sam, couldn't help himself. „Church shop?" he asked, almost getting up from his chair.
„Yes. It's a special service only for the members of the church. It operates on a currency called faith. You can receive faith if Mutatio is pleased with your actions. Usually after successfully clearing missions, but not always. Sometimes you will receive faith after other actions, but rarely. For now, we are aware of only one certain way to receive faith. It's a prayer. If you say it, you will receive a small amount of faith, but only once a day."
Sam nodded, showing his understanding. „What is the other function you spoke about?"
„It's localization. We track our members to ensure their safety. We don't usually keep tabs on their locations, but the moment you take off your trinket, a team will be dispatched to your position to check on you. It's for the safety of our members. So, if you're attacked, kidnapped, or find yourself in any other kind of dangerous situation, don't hesitate to take off your trinket. It serves as a call for help."
'Of course it does,' he thought sarcastically. 'It's not at all that you want to track my whereabouts to find me if I ever do anything you won't like.' „I see," he said, reaching for the box in the middle.
He opened it, and inside, on a piece of soft, dark-blue fabric, laid a delicate silver chain with a medallion. There was a bird inlaid on one of its sides.
'Adrian had a similar one,' he thought while examining the bracelet. „I-is this phoenix?" he asked aloud, raising the piece of jewelry.
„Yes," Elena replied with a smile. „People rarely recognize it. It's the symbol of our god."
'I already knew that,' Sam thought, while attempting to put on the trinket.
„Wait," she stopped him. „First go to Doctor Kessler, to check your vitals. After you are done with formalities, you can put it on and play around. You should have enough time to have a good look at the shop on your way to the first mission. I don't want to delay others too much. It's already late, and both Isabela and Rose are still students. You look like one too..."
„Y-yes. I'm in high school. A freshman," he smiled, before pocketing the bracelet.
„I see…," she sighed. „Go to the doctor. He should be waiting outside. If not, I'm sure Adrian will show you where to go if you ask him."
„Thank you," he uttered as he got up, only to march out of her office.
He followed her, but she disappeared in the main hall, behind one of the doors. The doctor was indeed waiting for him. Smiling, the man gestured toward one of the other passages linked to the center space, before moving first.
Sam went after him. They entered a short corridor, similar to the one that was ending with the director's office. Here, it ended with an examination room. It didn't seem different from clinic infirmaries at all.
„Please sit on the bed. I'm going to check your vitals and give your body a light examination. Nothing out of the ordinary, or complex. This is just routine, to make sure you are ready to work in the field. We have to make sure you are healthy before we let you go on a mission," he explained. „Oh… I should have started by introducing myself," he chuckled awkwardly, before scratching the back of his head. „I'm Doctor Victor Kessler. I'm a real doctor of medicine, not some kind of fraud, so you might rest assured."
Sam returned the awkward smile. He watched the man put away the paper clipper board before he came pulling a stethoscope out of the pocket of his coat. The checkup began, with the medic listening to his lungs and heart, then checking the blood pressure, reflexes, and other routine examinations.
As he finished, he gave Sam a long look. His eyebrows frowned before he quickly realized that his expression changed involuntarily, and smiled widely.
„That would be all. You are in perfect condition, and ready to work. I just need to fill in your documentation, but you can leave now. Your new friends are waiting for you," he said.
Although it was slightly strange behavior, the man was not your average guy, so Sam didn't think about it that much. Instead, he pulled the bracelet from his pocket and put it on. Playing with the medallion, projected a semitranslucent screen in the air in front of him.
He was so surprised, that he stopped in the middle of the corridor.
The screen was named 'Overview' and had his basic information, such as name, height, weight, and blood type, but at the bottom, he spotted something more interesting. There was a separate spot called 'Tags,' and it had three entries. The first one was 'Virtus Fortium,' the second one was 'Timoris Repellentia,' and the last one was labeled as '[Unknown]'.
They sounded familiar, but he needed a moment for the piece of information to fall in the right place before he was able to solve this puzzle. He heard once those names, back during the strange dream. Those were rewards he received during the trial.
'Was it not a dream after all? Was I really there? No... It must have been a vision, but it did affect me and the real world. What do those even do? From what Elena said, they are supposed to give me some kind of superpowers, but I don't have any superpowers. She said something about super strength or telekinesis...'
As he thought, he also stared at the tags, which caused a pop-up to appear. He red it as he resumed his walk.
[Virtus Fortium – Tag known to give the owner increased physical strength.]
„Or I'm mistaken," he muttered. At the same moment, memories flooded his mind. Back during the trial, everybody showed increased strength after they received the second reward. He didn't realize it before, as he still thought the whole incident wasn't real, but now it was clear that parts of it influenced the reality.
His focus switched to the second entry, and the first pop-up vanished, replaced with a different one.
[Timoris Repellentia – Increases mental fortitude against the supernatural], he read as he resumed his walk.
He immediately moved to the third entry, and the pop-up changed.
[Error #420. This tag is not in the database.]
As he read it he also smashed right into the door, bouncing off of it with a loud bang, almost falling on his ass. „Damn it," he muttered, before opening the path to the main hall. He was greeted by curious glances from the only three people inside – his unit. His face flushed with red, as he recognized they had to hear the noise, but he didn't explain what happened.
„You checking the panel?" Adrian asked, arming himself with a smile. „Take your time. I know it's a lot to take in. Just make sure to stand still. We don't want you smashing into all of our doors. When you are done, we can get to know each other."
„Y-yes," Sam retorted, briefly glancing at smiling Rose, and completely serious Isabella.
He dived back into the panel and checked what was below the tags. 'Title: None'
Since he didn't find anything beyond that, he moved to the other tab. The first one in line was called 'spells,' but unfortunately, it was empty. The third one was labelled 'The shop,' and was filled to the brim with all sorts of things possible to buy. The examination would take him a while, but he didn't have that much time, as the door to the corridor linked to the office of the director opened, and Elena stepped out.
She was holding a stone tablet in her hands.
„I see the examination is finished. Let's now talk about the mission," she urged as she looked at everybody, one by one.