Chapter 3

I started off by just walking straight toward the tower of Babel. From there, I would try and orient myself and find where I could try out for any familias. I would start off with the big names like Hephaestus and Loki since I had heard that they were holding trials for adventurers hoping to join them, but I wouldn't have high hopes for getting in easily. However, if I did get into either of those familias then I would join them right away, no questions asked. In the case that I can't get into them, then I will focus on smaller familias like Miach's. I wouldn't particularly mind being a part of a small familia, but the resources that would be provided by joining a big one would certainly be nice.

For now, I jut those thoughts out of my mind and walked, taking in the sights of the city. The more I walked, the more it felt that I was walking in a medieval rendition of a modern city. It was the size of a modern city but with the infrastructure and buildings of an antique town. It was an odd dichotomy that didn't get old, no matter how much I inspected my surroundings. I looked up into the sky and found that the sun was starting to dip lower in the sky. I estimated that it was around 4 pm / 16:00, so I started to get a move on. I didn't want to have to pay for a hotel when I would get free housing by joining a familia. 

Plus, I wasn't sure when the application period would end, so I moved at a light jog through the city streets, always making sure to head toward the tower of Babel, which almost certainly wasn't where I needed to go, but I was sure that the adventurers there would be able to point me in the right direction. I moved through the streets at a good place and arrived into the central platza around Babel. Once there, I looked around for anyone wearing armor or carrying weapons, which was easy since that was about half of the people present. With that, I approached the closest adventurer.

"Excuse me," I called, getting the large man's attention, "Do you know where I would be able to find where the Hephaestus familia's recruitment is going on? I heard that they were recruiting today." I asked politely.

His eyebrow rose as I asked, "Just go in that direction, down the main street. It will be impossible to miss the crowd and banners." he said while giving me a once over.

"How about the Loki familia?" I asked next.

That caused his eyebrow to rise even higher, but then he pointed directly in front of us to the other side of Babel, "Walk along that road until you are about to hit the city wall, then look right. You are looking for the largest building in that sector of the city. Gain, there will be a crowd and banners."

"Thank you," I said genuinely, pleased that everything had gone smoothly so far.

"A last word of advice," the man said, placing a hand on my shoulder as I turned away, "Today is the last day of recruitment for the Loki familia, so I would recommend heading there first. It is also the longer walk," he said before turning and walking away.

I thanked the man again before walking around the base of Babel and heading down one of the main thoroughfares of the city. As promised, I saw the large building well before arriving there, but I would have had to be blind and deaf not to find the right spot. A large crowd thronged around the gates of the large estate, and banners bearing the symbol of the Loki familia flapped proudly in the wind. I could see a few members of the familia watching from windows high up on the building. I brought my gaze back down to the ground as I arrived at the gate. An elf around the same height as me stood at the end of the crowd, holding a clipboard. He wore the symbol of the familia and beckoned me over as I approached.

"I just have a few questions to right down before you take your test," The elf said in a tone that indicated that this was most likely the thousandth time he had repeated this phrase today.

"That's fine with me," I replied, anticipation building in my chest now that I was so close to gaining real power.

The elf seemed to see my expression, causing him to grin slightly as well, "First, let's start with your name."

"Augustus Ahriman," I replied after a split second of thought. I had almost replied with my old name out of habit, but I reminded myself that this was a new beginning with a new me.

"Unique name," the elf noted before continuing, "Age?"

"18," I said, knowing instinctually that it was the correct answer.

"Have you been in any familia previously?"

"No,"

"Any special skills or items you want to declare before the test?"

"No," I said, knowing that I couldn't say something that would only appear after I got my falna.

"Any special talents you want to be assessed during the test, like leadership, something that could aid the goddess and the rest of the family?"

I paused at this question, but still responded in the negative, "Nothing that comes to mind," I said with a light chuckle that wasn't reciprocated.

"Alright then," the elf said while stamping my paper, "Wait in this line and hand it to the person at the desk when you get to the front. They will give you a number, and at the end of this test cycle, which is in two hours, we will announce the participant numbers of those who passed. Don't forget your number or try to lie about it, we know who is who."

I nodded as the elf walked off to continue the process with any new people approaching the line. The nervous tension in the air was palpable as everyone in the line ahead of me sized me up when I approached. I looked at each of them in turn and found a few people who wore no armor and had no weapons. I assumed you wouldn't be penalized for that, but they were certainly well within the minority. Some people tried to chat with the people beside them in line, but I made no attempt at conversation, and nobody tried to talk to me. In front of me was a dwarf with a battle ax and dressed in plate armor. Behind me was a nervous-looking pallum with two knives and light armor. 

I didn't have to wait long as they took groups of ten at once about every ten minutes. The line was full of people, so I had to wait around 30 minutes until I approached the desk at the front of the line and handed my paper to a woman. She checked the stamp and handed me a slip with the number 433 written on it. I slipped it into my bag, left my bag at the desk, and followed a tall Demi-human with rabbit ears as he led our group of ten behind the large mansion to a training yard. There were a total of ten armored people waiting there, clearly from the familia, so I expected that we would be fighting level 1s. However, that seemed too ridiculous since the difference between someone with a falna and one without was like comparing an Olympic runner to your everyday accountant in terms of athletic ability.

The rabbit demi-human came to a stop and turned to address our group, who fanned out into a semi-circle around him, "Everyone pair up into groups of two. Together you will be taking on one of our familia's level 1s. This test is about teamwork and strategy, it doesn't matter how good of a fighter you are if you are not a team player. Those who don't have weapons and armor can find it on racks over there. Those who brought your own weapons, I would ask that you trade them out for our wooden training weapons. Once you pair up, you have three minutes to strategize. Then we begin." 

We immediately moved off to the racks of wooden weapons and placed our weapons off to the side before picking up wooden replacement weapons. As I picked up a wooden sword, I looked at my fellow test takers and tried to decide who to partner up with. I thought about weapon combinations and other important details, but I was pulled out of my thoughts by the dwarf who had been in front of me in line turning to me. 

"Want to partner up for this?" he asked directly.

I would have preferred someone with a longer-range weapon like a spear as a partner, but I shrugged and accepted the offer, "Sure, got any specific strategy in mind?" I asked.

"Aye," he replied as we drifted away from the rest of the group to strategize. 

It wasn't long before our three minutes were up, and we were all called back to the center of the training area.