“Hey, Kitana. How are you?”

“I’m doing quite well, Alan. This is quite the guild you’ve found.”

“Well, I’m glad you’ve found it to be interesting. Just wondering, but how did you level up so fast?”

“Well, Mason,” she gestured to the man she had been talking to earlier, “is one of the Arms Masters of the guild, and he wanted to get an estimate of my ability. Thus, he suggested I visit a local underground fighting ring. The battles were quite exhilarating, and I managed to kill a number of opponents, impressing many and leveling up quite a few times in the process.”

“Kill?”

“Hmm? Yes, the fights were mostly to the death. Otherwise it would be mostly pointless, wouldn’t it?” Kitana grinned, gazing into the distance, smiling almost bloodthirstily, causing Alan to shiver slightly. It was strange, to think of all the people around him going about killing things, but he supposed he should get used to it. It was all part of the Game, after all.

“Um, yeah, I guess so… Glad you’re having fun.”

At that moment the grey-skinned giant clapped his hands together, creating a miniature sonic wave, immediately grabbing the attention of everyone in the hangar, some 30-odd people, mostly younger looking kids, around Alan and Kitana’s age, 16 at the youngest, 25 at the oldest.

“Alright, recruits. My name is Mason, and I am an Arms Master of the Black Rose Guild. Any who wish to join the guild should now follow me into the shuttle, to take the initial assessment slash trials slash whatever you want to call them. Any wishing to leave now may do so, but know that once you step foot in the shuttle you must complete the test to completion. Any questions? No? Good, let’s go.”

Alan raised his hand when Mason had asked for questions, as he wanted to know more about the initial assessment, but quickly put it down after he realized Mason had no desire to answer any. He followed Kitana onto a large shuttle with around fifty seats, and a new quest popped up.

Sitting back in the seat, Alan sighed contentedly, scoping out the competition, wondering what trials might await and who he might meet.

Chapter 17

The shuttle flew over a bright blue ocean at supersonic speeds. They were now in the private quadrant of Khersath, full of islands and small continents, none larger than Australia, at least according to the maps Eve showed Alan. They’d been flying for about three hours now, allowing Alan to get to know a bit more about the other Black Rose recruits aboard the shuttle.

To his surprise, most of them had recently graduated from their own home world versions of high school in real life, and had recently started playing the Game as well. Apparently the age limit of 18 on the Game was a sort of universal law, where most players of any species could only began playing when they reached a minimum threshold of adulthood, the age varying planet to planet, species to species. That did make Alan wonder about the kids he’d seen in the Undercity though… he supposed it would just have to remain a mystery, at least for now.