The Adventurers' Union branch in Teras City was as busy as ever. Thousands of Spirituals trooped in and out, in groups or alone, and the place was absolutely packed with activity.
As expected of a place built to serve the ever-increasing population of Spirituals in the city, it was a massive and absolutely gigantic building.
In fact, it was so huge, the thousands of Spirituals walking to and from it resembled tiny specks of dust beside it.
It was at least a kilometre wide and had over 500 floors!
Located at the heart of the city, this edifice was a symbol of the Union's power on all fronts, and it was designed and furnished to match.
With glass walls of a dazzling blue colour and cream-coloured pillars that glowed under the sunlight, it was truly beautiful.
Neo stood outside in silence, admiring the building for a few minutes. He was awed by the lavishness of the Union, even for just a branch office in a Tier 3 city.
How would the head office look, then?
Amazing, that's for sure!
After snapping out of his daze, Neo smoothed out his simple, faded black shirt and fastened his black trousers. He wanted to make sure he looked neat and sharp for his meeting, no matter how simple or low-quality his clothes were.
After he was done, he waded through the crowd and finally reached the humongous blue doors of the building.
The doors were currently wide open, and Neo walked in just like the other hundreds beside him.
'Wow.'
If the outside of this building was beautiful, the inside was even better. Neo was reminded once again how wealthy the number one organisation for Spirituals truly was.
The lobby was simple and elegant, with blue and cream-coloured furnishings.
Neo couldn't help but sigh.
He didn't dare to imagine the cost of all this decoration.
With a quick glance, Neo located a booth with a short queue and made his way there. After patiently waiting for a few minutes, it was his turn, and he hurriedly presented his group invite link to the tired receptionist.
It took just a minute for the receptionist to finish verifying his link, give him the teleportation card to the fifth floor, and even send him off with a charming smile.
As Neo made his way to the teleportation circle, his heart couldn't help but beat faster.
He had applied for multiple 'butler' jobs on the Empire Enterprise freelance website and had managed to get one application approved.
Butlers were weak Spirituals or even mortals who followed an adventurer party on farming missions and helped collect spirits, set up tents, cook, and handle all the random miscellaneous tasks in between.
In short, he was their contracted slave for the duration of the mission.
To be honest, this was a job Neo found quite difficult to do, as his pride was too strong for him to work as someone else's slave. But he had run out of options and had to make the difficult choice before he ran out of time as well.
Besides, it paid well.
Neo was going to earn a thousand credits for this job alone, and it would last for only a Spirit Week, which translated into just about two days in the real world.
It was extremely high-paying!
And a bit risky, but Neo was hoping his team would be strong enough to protect him.
It was all or nothing at this point...
The teleportation circle was a blue elevated platform that transported people to the other circles located within this building instantly.
Neo gently stood atop the platform and scanned the card at the single rectangular tablet in the middle.
Triinnn!
He saw a flash of blue light and felt woozy for a split second before feeling solid ground beneath his feet once again.
Following simple etiquette, he hurriedly stepped off the platform to allow others to use it and looked around, searching for his supposed party.
He was still looking around when a tall, dark, good-looking man with a perfectly trimmed moustache approached him.
"Neo, right?"
His voice was deep and rich. He was indeed a very handsome specimen.
Neo nodded sceptically and checked the holographic image on his personal system once again.
He was meant to meet a tall, dark guy with a nice moustache, but the man in the picture he was staring at was nowhere near as handsome as the one before him...
"You should fire your photographer!"
Neo felt like someone needed to give the man this piece of advice, but he was too sensible to open his mouth and say something like that.
Seeing the sceptical look Neo gave him, the man rubbed his neck in slight embarrassment and hurriedly changed the subject. It appeared he knew what Neo was thinking.
"Let's go, our turn is in a few minutes."
They made their way to a group of four weirdly dressed adventurers sitting relaxedly on soft blue couches.
Wanting to make a good impression, Neo stepped forward and introduced himself.
"Hi, I'm Neo, it's nice to... meet... you."
Neo's vibrant voice trailed off at the end of his introduction when he noticed the four adventurers were completely ignoring him, as though he didn't exist.
They didn't even spare him a glance or give him a reply. They couldn't be bothered to waste their breath on mere mortals, after all.
Neo calmly stepped aside. He was completely used to this type of behaviour from Spirituals. They thought too highly of themselves and too lowly of weaker beings. It was how the world worked...
The dark man who was the leader of the party gave him an apologetic smile and patted his shoulder gently.
"Hi, I'm Brandon. Welcome to my Bone Flash party. Forgive them, they're still quite pissed at our sixth member for bailing out today."
Neo was shocked that the man actually bothered to greet him and even apologise. He felt his respect for him grow. He was a respectable man with good principles, and Neo thought he would make a good leader.
"The name of the zone we're farming in is called FK69. It's an unregistered White level zone with common grade monkeys. That's all we know. Your job is to extract the bloodline spirits from the monkeys after we are done. You can do that, right?"
Neo nodded seriously as the group made their way towards the gate.
Gates were the terms given to the pathways connecting Earth and the Spirit Realm and served as a means to go from one to the other.
They reached the massive wormhole-like structure and completed the final registration processes before being cleared for entry.
After all was done, Neo watched with excitement as the members of the party stepped in one after the other and disappeared into the gate.
His heart was pounding with excitement and nervousness.
This was it! He was about to step into the Spirit Realm for the first time in his life.
He took a deep breath and jumped inside.
Neo's first adventure was about to begin, one full of pain, growth, and an immense amount of self-discovery.
What would happen in the Spirit Realm?
Only time would tell...