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Chapter 187- Fringe Walker
🕑 Added 2025-01-07 20:06:39 +0000 UTCEdward Agroth looked around at the people gathered in Noteworth Park. There were well over three hundred potential recruits, though half of them already had a mark of failure on their auras. He couldn't begrudge them for trying again; he would have done the same if he were in their position. His personal feelings wouldn't affect the results today, though. Re-takers had a less than five percent success rate.
There were quite a few extraordinary individuals in this batch, enough for him to be surprised. At least he would have been if he hadn't been told to expect certain things beforehand. Was there something exceptional about this village? He did recall that this was where the potential captain candidate Thomas Wells had said he'd originated from when he was recruited in Manchester. Statistics suggested that places with powerful protectors tended to produce weaker people on average. However, looking at the people gathered here today, he'd be the first to say the statistics were wrong.
Most notable was the young man and woman immersed in conversation. The older gentleman with them, Johnny, his database told him, had failed to make the cut before, but by a very small margin. The others though, were a different story. The girl, Sammy, the daughter of the village baker was known as a local troublemaker. She used fire magic, though people had noticed that her flames were abnormally powerful, either the beginnings of a concept or a rarer affinity. She was someone to keep an eye on.
The young man on the other hand was a blank slate, or at least he was to everyone else. Little was known about him beyond his name, Aaron white, someone who'd popped up in the village only ten days ago and moved into the cosy cottage formerly owned by an old widow. Edward frowned when he pulled up information on the man. There was nothing known about him, only speculations about his shadow affinity from when he'd entertained a bunch of children with some magic, and even that account was dubious at best, more hearsay than anything else.
They need to hire better informants. If this was the quality of information they were getting. Edward conveniently ignored how his personal information base might be colouring his expectations a little. Arthur meanwhile, had finally gotten Sammy to shut up, pointing out that the recruiters had arrived. He was curious about how the tests would be carried out. Of course, he'd read about it online, but it was one thing to hear about something and another to experience it yourself.
Everyone was told to queue up in lines and Arthur thanked his lucky stars that they'd been segregated into male and female groups. Sammy reminded him of Elizabeth, except they didn't have a long history together which made Liz's blabbering endearing instead of annoying. He was glad to be finally rid of the excitable woman.
The existence of magic made mundane chores far more efficient, but Arthur marvelled at how fast four massive tents were set up. They were perfectly cylindrical, made from a dull orange tarp, each thirty feet wide and fifteen tall.
Arthur knew they were cheap magic items that cost next to nothing but he was impressed nonetheless. There were two tents for the men, one for supports and the other for fighters and the same set-up was reflected on the women's side. Arthur idly noted that Sammy was torn between the two tents before she steeled herself and lined up in the queue for fighters. So she has multiple affinities too. Or just a really versatile one. Arthur chose the fighter line without any hesitation.
It was annoying that he always ended up in situations where he had to hide one of his affinities but right now, Arthur Ward, the number one most wanted man on the planet had been outed as an incredibly gifted healer. He wasn't sure if his mask would be able to disguise that particular affinity as one of his more battle-oriented ones. With soul, he could camouflage it with his shadow affinity, but he'd never heard of any kind of shadow healing skill. He'd decided to let his healing skills rest for a bit, using it only in a limited capacity as an extension of his water magic.
Arthur knew that he was more than qualified for the position he was pursuing as an earthen defender- he doubted there was anyone with better qualifications than him on the planet- but he couldn't help but feel a little nervous. The fact that the first three men who walked into the tent returned almost immediately with frowns on their faces didn't help things. And I was sure that redhead was going to pass too.
There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for the tests. Some would pass in less than a minute whilst others would spend ten times as long in the tents only to return as failures. No one could tell them anything either, every potential recruit had to sign an NDA; nothing serious, it would only last till the end of the recruitment rally and then they could scream to the high heavens.
Arthur was near the middle of the queue, so it took thirty-five minutes before his turn came around. There was only one person in front of him, an elderly man who looked like he already had one foot in the grave despite the miracles vitality did for the body. Arthur was surprised when the man came out only a minute after entering the tent with a gap-toothed smile on his face. He made the cut. As a fighter? How? He looks like one stiff breeze will knock him over.
The man walked past him to join the group of lucky recruits. So far, twenty-seven people had been selected, a significant amount for such a small village. Considering that 80% of the chosen came from Mossley, even Arthur could tell there was something special about the villagers. Was that why Iris set up a safe house here? Just how far did she see?
"Can the next candidate please enter"
A piercing voice came from within the tent and cut through Arthur's speculations. Now wasn't the time to lose himself in his thoughts. For the umpteenth time, Arthur reminded himself that he had no reason to be nervous. There was literally no way he could fail. Taking a deep steadying breath, Arthur walked into the tent. The first thing he noticed was that it was far larger on the inside- at least five times as much- and he immediately remedied his misconception that the tents were cheap magic items.
This was top-of-the-range stuff that cost hundreds of thousands of credits, especially considering the ether density within the tent was so much higher than outside. Arthur had heard of them, focusing arrays or concentration zones depending on who you were asking. They were usually static, tied to a specific place. Attaching it to an item like a tent probably cost half as much as the price he'd paid for his mask, exorbitant to the extreme, and Arthur realised that in the wider universe, his 2,000,000 credits didn't count for much.
There were also far more people inside the tent than had initially teleported into the park, seven that he could see and another dozen he could sense in the tent's many rooms behind stone walls. It's like someone got a building, shrunk it down and stuffed it into a plastic wrapper.
"With me please, Mr white," a deep masculine voice said.
It took Arthur a second to realise it was coming from the tabby cat on the floor, who he'd initially assumed was just an ordinary animal. In hindsight, the presence of an animal that had the aura of a level 5 mundane pet so long after the System's descent should have told him the cat was anything but ordinary, It was quite literally impossible for animals at that level to to exist anymore, the ambient ether and improved food quality would have pushed them to double digits by now.
Arthur tried not to let the surprise show on his face, he knew there were countless different species out there but this was the first he'd heard of a talking cat. No science could explain how a cat's mouth and voice box were capable of human speech but it hardly mattered when ether existed. If the cat noticed how surprised Arthur was, he didn't show it and began walking through the walkway set at the centre of the tent. The cat didn't say anything and so neither did Arthur. Eventually, they reached a large wooden door that looked more like something you'd see in a small castle than a recruitment building.
"Please go through the door. Mr Agroth is waiting for you," the tabby cat said before sauntering away. Arthur stood there awkwardly for a moment. He'd been in the tent for forty seconds already, which meant that the recruitment process differed from person to person. There was no way he'd be leaving in less than a minute like so many others. There was no point wasting time. Arthur walked into the room. He was pleasantly surprised when it didn't turn out to be a dreary office. For starters, there was a roaring fireplace taking up the left side of the room, and instead of an intimidating desk setup, there were two couches arranged at the centre of the room with a beautiful oak table in the middle.
Seated on one of the couches was Edward Agroth. He looked far more relaxed here than he had outside delivering his speech.
"Take a seat, Mr White," the man ordered.
Arthur sat down opposite him. The noble poured a cup of tea for him and passed it over.
"You've passed the recruitment process already, so we can get that out of the way. We'd have to be blind to reject you. I just wanted to talk to you personally first."
"That's perfectly fine," Arthur replied.
Edward looked down at a tablet he pulled from his storage item.
"We have very little information on you, hardly anything at all, which is surprising considering the obvious strength I can sense from you. Honestly, I'm pretty sure you could best me in battle despite our massive level difference, which is nothing short of insane."
Arthur didn't know how to reply to that so he remained silent. He'd used his mask to adjust his apparent power but not by so much that someone would get suspicious the second they saw him in action. Hiding his strength would just be shooting himself in the foot, there was no point going to invasion points if he half-assed things. He'd gain nothing but wasted time.
No, Arthur would distinguish himself as one of the greatest fighters on Earth. The fact that the name Aaron White didn't appear on the leader boards wasn't much of an issue. There were many reasons why people were relegated from the rankings, primarily because their origins were not entirely native to Earth. His past was shrouded in secrecy; he'd literally appeared out of nowhere and so he perfectly fit the description of an outworlder.
"That being said, even if we are going to accept you, we can't skip the tests altogether, hence this interview," Edward said, pulling him from his musings. "Procedure exists for a reason. Just one question, nothing too invasive. What's your primary affinity?"
Arthur paused for a moment before replying.
"I use shadow magic the most, followed by water. I've started to touch on the concept of perpetuity, which makes my shadows more tangible and the damage done with them lasts a little longer than it should."
It wasn't a perfect answer, but it would help explain away a few of the oddities when he used soul magic disguised as shadow. He'd just have to make sure anyone he used it on died before figuring out they were taking permanent damage.
Edward looked at him approvingly. If anything, the surprise in his eyes was slightly lessened compared to before which Arthur would have noticed if he was paying closer attention.
"A concept. So early on. I wasn't sure before but now I'm certain."
He paused dramatically.
"Mr White, you have what it takes to become a Fringe Walker."
Book twos launch has gone far better than I ever hoped for. Honestly, the support from my readers has blown me away. Thank you everyone for all the help. It means the world to me.
Standardised AN ahead.
Etherious: Powers Price has gone live. As a self published author doing everything myself, my novels success lies entirely on my shoulders. As such, the first day of a books launch is by far the most important time that determines how well my book will do.
The first book did incredibly well, far better than I could have expected or even hoped for. I only hope that the same happens for my second release. The better my novel does, the higher the likelihood that I can get an audiobook released.
A rating or review goes a long way, especially on Goodreads, on my first book or the second. Thank you everyone for your continued support. It means the world to me.
Link for 1st book: Here
Link for 2nd book: Here
