Black on White

Eric looked at the shorter-than-average, stronger-than-normal, black-haired, green-eyed person whose initiation was his responsibility.

And sighed heavily.

Said person was also looking at him, waiting for further instruction.

Eric made eye contact.

"You're really strong." He remarked, looking to the side to see the damage caused by the one in front of him, by accidentally swinging a spear through some equipment that had happened to be too close to him.

He sighed again, and looked at the rest of their group.

The other initiates had expressions of fear, wonder, or admiration, and his colleague was on the telecommunicator, talking with someone to get new equipment as soon as possible.

"Come on." He waved his hand as he turned to the door, making a 'follow me' gesture. "That's all for today. Now it's time to get you to sleeping quarters and then I'll show you around the city."

Eric paused when a hand touched his shoulder.

He turned.

"Something wrong?" He asked and a hand was raised and opened to reveal a key he knew quite well.

He raised his hand to pick it up, but paused.

"May I?" He asked in a polite tone, not wanting to offend this man who may very well become his superior in the future.

In response, the hand moved slightly, doing a 'if you want to' gesture.

Eric picked it up and examined it gingerly, letting out a whistle as he confirmed what it was.

"Did Mr.Numoral give you this?" He asked.

A nod was the response that he received.

"Than please." He said and handed it back with care. "Follow me to your room."

Eric led him through the streets till they reached a rather large gate, with a similarly sized wall that was obstructed from view by buildings.

He asked him to wait and walked up to a booth on the side of the gate and talked to the person inside it, before gesturing for him to come over.

As he did, a part of the gate opened to reveal a smaller gate built into the bigger one.

Eric stepped to the side and gestured for him to go through.

"Please." 

His request was followed.

Once through, he stopped and looked at the city on the other side of the gate.

'So this is the outside.'

"What do you think?" Eric's voice questioned.

"Too much color." was the reply.

There was an abundance of color, and not just on the buildings.

The people themselves had different colors of skin. Red, blue, green, white, black, purple, etc. And for some reason, there were a lot of animal traits visible as well.

"Hm." A hum brought his attention back to Eric. "This is due to the discovery that led to shell change. Once we figured out how to alter shells, a lot of people wanted to make changes to themselves, and since it really is quite easy, a lot of people did it, leading to all this that you can see."

"It brings a lot of variation to the place."

"This way please."

Two minutes into their journey, something whizzed above them and flew over the buildings and the street, it moved quickly, appearing and disappearing from their vision within a second.

Eric didn't slow down as both of them looked at it, so his companion didn't ask any questions and kept pace.

After another eight minutes, they reached their destination. Eric led him to a tall building that looked like a hand emerging from the ground, with all of its fingers pointing in the same direction.

"This hotel is called 'The Undead.'. It costs quite a bit to get a room here, and the rooms in the tips of its digits are the most luxurious, and provide the best view from this part of the city, matched only by the view from the top of the Spell Tower."

"The key you have is to a room in here."

As Eric introduced the hotel, his companion looked at the giant building, visibly impressed by it.

"How tall is it?"

"If I remember correctly, it was about 720 meters...?

730 perhaps? Something around that range, but not more than 750, that much I'm certain of."

"It has about 1000-something rooms, all of them come with free food for the stay, so you don't need to worry about that."

A thought flashed through Eric's mind.

"Uhh?" he wanted to call out, but wasn't sure how to refer to the man he was guiding.

"Yes?" However, the sound he made alerted him that Eric wanted something.

"I'm sorry, but could you make your way in and stay inside the lobby for a few minutes? You know, get yourself checked in and all that, I need to go get something."

He received a nod.

"Alright, I'll be back as soon as I can!"

With that said, he disappeared into thin air.

The man he had left in front of the hotel turned to the door and stood in silence for a moment.

Then he stepped forward and opened the door, entering the hotel.

The inside was well-lit by 4 giant chandeliers hanging on the ceiling, emanating a golden glow that complemented the red carpet laid out across the floor.

In the center of the lobby was a circular desk with a woman with sky-blue hair manning it. There were four others present in the lobby.

There were elevators on either side of the room, with couches and chairs placed alongside them.

On the other side of the room, directly across from the entrance, was another door with a sign above it that read 'Restaurant'.

He made his way over to the circular desk.

"How may I help you?"

The woman asked him with a polite tone.

He silently produced the key.

"May I?" She held out her hand, and the key was placed in it without question.

She examined it for a moment before placing it into a small box with a hole on top.

A light lit up somewhere, and after a few moments, she came back to him with a few other items.

The first was a stamp of some kind, the second was a sheet of paper, and the third was a card.

"Would you like me to tell you about our services?"

He nodded, and the woman started her explanation.

She held up the stamp.

"This will mark you as a resident of the hotel, and you will be allowed to roam the premises freely as long as you do not disturb other guests."

She picked up the paper.

"This is your documentation for your room and other services, as you can see it has already been filled, but you can choose to change it if you so wish."

He shook his head and looked at the card.

"This card is a part of our transportation service, simply swipe it like this to bring up your options. It allows you to call a teleporter to your location, and they will take you wherever you want to go."

He pointed to the key.

"The key is used to access your room, of course, but you can also reserve a room and give it to anyone else as a gift."

"Is there something you would like to ask about sir?"

With a 'no' gesture received, she slid the paper forward.

"One last thing sir, please fill in your identity."

He looked at the empty lines that he was supposed to fill in.

Name, Profession, and address.

He didn't have an address.

"I don't have an address."

"Then please write 'Not available'."

He did that, and when he was going to ask if 'Soul Soldier Initiate' was counted as a profession, Eric returned.