The city was awake and moving by the time Marcus made his way to the guild building. He had finally finished up his appearance the night before. Being a little under six foot with a lean muscles his dark brown hair cropped short. He looked like the average adventurer. This had been a tough decision go with world ending hansom or not. He had decided to stay normal relatively, just so he didn't attract attention to soon.
Marcus had ended up not trying too hard to stay true to his original appearance since this was a new life and all the only thing he decided to keep was his first name. His new last name he decided was going to be Silvanus, that had taken forever to pick during which he had come to the conclusion he was terrible at naming things. Silvanus had been by far the best idea and he thought it sounded cool, now standing in the guild lobby he started to rethink his decision.
"Next!" came the shout from the sexy cat girl working behind the counter. Marcus flush as he realized the line had disappeared and he had been standing there staring at the beautiful woman for a uncomfortable amount of time.
Rushing forward he gave an awkward "Hello"
"What can I help you with?" she skipped over her greeting and asked when he was in front of the counter.
"I would like to register as an adventurer and also take a look at what gods are recruiting right now."
The woman gave a quick node then turned to the wolf beast kin next to her and asked for him to cover her for a minute as she got Marcus signed up.
Standing up from her seat she waved for him to follow as she took him to the back of the booths and through a couple doors before arriving in a conference room.
Marbella looked out of the corner of her eye as they walked to the conference room, taking in the new adventurer
He was handsome but he seemed a bit jittery and nervous. She gestured for him to take a seat then went over to the filing cabinet in the corner to grab the required forms and the familia binder. Sitting down across from the man she again took in his appearance he was tall dark haired and handsome in a roguish sort of way, but she could clear tell he was nervous.
"Theres no need to worry sir, we just have to fill out this form and you'll be registered and ready to go through the book of familia to look for a new god or goddess." she assured the man before her as she spread out the forms between them.
"To begin my name is Marbella Thyne." she said after writing her name down under the advisor line on the form.
"Nice to meet you miss Marbella my name is Marcus Silvanus." He replied his voice coming out a bit smother as he calmed down a little.
"Nice to meet you to Mr. Silvanus, and you may call me Marbel or Marbella, we will be working together in the future, with me as your advisor unless you decide to join your Familia's advisor group." the woman said with a gentle smile on her face.
Her tail which was tucked through the back of the chair she sat in flicked up and around drawing Marcus's eyes as he responded to her. "No problem Marbel and please call me Marcus."
"Very well Marcus, here are the forms you need to fill out. The section on abilities and magics are not required but they are very much encourage to facilitate the sharing of knowledge. We would of course not be sharing anything personal or even identifiable to you as a person." she explained as they filled out the forms.
After signing his name and putting down a fabricated background about living with his hermit father in the mountains, he decided to list once of his magics. He sat a pondered which one to put down for a minute as Marbel was finishing up her side of the paperwork. Making a decision he decided to put down his earth magic just to help him get a God or Goddess to accept him into their Familia easier. Writing down Teramancy he tidied up the forms and handed them back over to Marbella.
Marbella quickly reviewed his forms but paused on the magic information. He actually had magic, she was surprised that was rare in and of itself especially for someone yet to join a Familia.
"Hmm Teramancy? I have never heard of this type of magic. From the name its sounds like a branch of earth magic or something?" she asked looking up from the paper in front of her.
"Yes it's the manipulation and molding of Earth." Marcus replied
"Interesting" was all she said going back to the forms. After a few minutes of silence she looked back and gave him a nod and slid the binder next to her over the table towards him.
"This is a list of Familia that are currently open to taking on new members. Even after recent events there are not many Familia's willing to take on new members even if they lost people during the conflict." Marbella informed him as he browsed through the binder.
"Hephaestus, and Loki are here along with Demeter and Ishtar" he thought going through the pages and recognizing a few of the Devine beings, but what surprised him was all the ones that he had absolutely no memory of. Each page had a sort of introduction to the God or Goddess and what they are focused on in a Familia. After reaching the end of the binder he flipped back through to one that had caught his eye.
Morrigan Familia, Goddess Morrigan is a goddess of war and death but also change and crafting. She seemed like one who would have been part of Evilus.
"What can you tell me about the Morrigan Familia?" he asked Marbella
"Ahh the Morrigan Familia is a small Familia that has been in the city for the past ten or so years. They have not caused any issues and if you are worrying about that Goddess of war and death addendum then don't be there are plenty of ware and death domains in other Familia's that have absolutely no ties to the group that attacked the city and they even fought back against them." she explained to him with a reassuring nod.
"Well makes sense I guess. Death is not Evil or really dark it's a part of the cycle." he thought before making his decision.
Marcus remembered his grandmother who was part Irish had talked about the Morrigan from his old world that's why her name had caught his eye.
Looking up at Marbella Marcus asked. "Marbel I've decided to reach out to the Morrigan Familia what are the next steps?"
Very well I will prepare a message to send out today. If you come back tomorrow I will let you know if they accepted or declined the invitation to meet. We have recently changed how we go about these meetings since the Gods and Goddesses are still a little on edge and giving out Familia home locations was deemed to be a risk hence we offer to facilitate all meetings here at the guild free of charge for now." She said as she rose from her chair to put away the folders.
Marcus finished up his introduction to the guild with Marbella going over what the guild does and offers. The guild handled the exchange of dungeon loot, everything from plants and fruits to magic stones. The guild also handled quests and other managing duties. While no guild employee was allowed in the dungeon they had almost complete control of Orario. With a few familia's joining the Loki and Freya Familia's in policing for the time being. The guild also managed the retail and economy side of the city allowing those looking to buy a home or find out the average cost of goods and or service that could be had in Orario.
After leaving the guild he headed out to grab a snack to eat using the last bit of his purloined funds to buy a sort burrito on a stick. Everything in Orario was overpriced and expensive hell after reviewing the quick price guide Marbella had gave him he found that if he traveled to the outskirts of the city the prices would drop by almost a quarter of the cost for the same thing in the center. Of course this didn't branch into potions or armor and weapons since depending on a lot of factors the quality was different.
Sitting on a bench in a park a little away from the guild building Marcus perused his to-do list. The first few tasks he completed while hiding away in the little shop he had found, these included figuring out his magic and changing his appearance so no one who had known his previous bodies owner would be able to recognize him. The magic side he was getting better and better at not that he needed to really try all that hard. It seems he underestimated the level of ability and affinity he would acquire by tying those magics to his soul like he did.
His next few tasks after joining a familia all boiled down to comfort. He had years until the plot happened and he would need to make sure to change as little as possible. So comfort was his main goal which would require money. He had been able to figure out the whole element separation thing he cooked up prior to entering this world, and man was it energy hungry for the amount he received. While he was correct in assuming that there where trace elements of all sorts of minerals all over the ground the key word would be trace, meaning he would have to sift through an absolute massive amount of earth and rock to get anything. He had decided to put that off until later in favor of a far easier plan of using his earth sense to find larger deposits and then using his earth molding dig down to get them. His sense had been able to travel quite a ways outside the wall that his hidey hole was located near and he had indeed found a couple of mineral deposits, one of each iron, silver and copper. While the silver was worth something in its rarity value it was also used as a crafting regent. Said regent would go for thousands of Valis per ounce making it by far the most profitable of the bunch. The iron and copper would be used in weapons but its value honestly almost was not worth the effort but maybe he could convince his new familia to open up a mine and hire civilians to mine the ore and such.
Marcus finished off his stick burrito thing ,which was actually pretty good, and headed back toward his temporary home which he came to find out was just on the edge of the slums. All things considered he felt kind of thankful for the area not really having anything of worth to attack it had kept him out of all the fighting or suffering any collateral damage.
The next morning Marcus headed out back toward the guild threading thought he growing crowd of people. The city itself seemed to be recovering from the damage caused by those dark Familia rather fast. Every road hosted groups of people cleaning and repairing damage, while adventure parties patrolled the streets in force. He passed by several familia's whose emblems looked familiar but didn't stop to confirm with them. As he reached the guild he noticed that even here there were many more people than even yesterday almost as if everyone decided together when to get back to work. Although a large majority of the upper tier adventures had died during crisis most of the level ones and level twos had made it out relatively unscathed. Evilus had apparently targeted higher class adventures and Familia's during their attacks.
Walking up to the counters which all had long lines, he looked around for his new advisor. Seeing Marbella at the far end booth he wandered over and got in line behind a group of dwarves. Idly listening in on conversations happening around him a realized that the guild had indeed started pushing for people to get back to exploring which accounted for the increase of activity this morning. Marcus perked up a bit after hearing that the group in front of him was part of the Hephestus Familia's diving group and they were planning a dive this morning. Thinking about the dungeon he again confirmed his plan to stay away until he was more settled.
Marbella finished speaking to the captain of the Hephestus Familia team and looked up to see Marcus was next. Giving him a smile she greeted him.
"Good morning Marcus here to see if the Familia you chose yesterday responded back?"
"Yes and good morning to you to Marbella." Marcus greeted in return
"Well you're in luck I spoke with their familia captain this morning about an hour ago and they agree to meet with you this afternoon." Marbella explained
"That would be excellent thank you. What time did they schedule for the meeting and where do I need to be?" Marcus asked.
"it would be just after noon and if you come back to me I will lead you to the conference room we will be using." she said with a smile.
Marcus finished speaking with Marbella after seeing the disgruntled looks of the adventures in the line behind him after he took long. Saying his farewell as well as apologizing to those behind him he left the guild headed out toward the crafting district which was almost exactly on the opposite side of the city of his temporary abode. While walking he went over who he should approach first to sell his few ounces of gold silver and other precious metals he had gathered during his mad testing of his earth magics. Although the amounts were small he was still hoping to get a couple thousand Valis for the lot of them. Arriving in a square he noticed that most of the shops sported the Hephestus emblems. Going toward the closet shop that looked promising, the sign above reading Gurens Arms he headed inside.
A few people browsed the racks holding the most impressive collection of swords and other weapons he had ever seen. He stood in the doorway and stared around in awe before snapping out of his daze and made his way to the counter to his right. A stout dwarven lad maned the counter with a bored look as he watched the browsing crowd.
"Hello there is there someone I can talk to about selling some precious metals I have here?" he asked the clerk.
The dwarf looked over and inspected the man before answering. "Sure I can do that what have you got and how much?"
Marcus spent the next half hour haggling with the despicable short stack who seemed determined to rip him off after a lot of effort they agreed on three thousand valis for what he had and Marcus left the shop his mood totally ruined by the now smug little cretin still manning the counter.
After stopping and grabbing a bite to eat at the same stick burrito stand he had stopped at before he looked up at the sun and decided that it was close enough to noon that he better head back to the guild. Better be early than late he thought as he made his way back thought the congested streets.
Arriving at the guild he made eye contact with Marbella who was still manning her booth and she motioned to the couches that made a small sitting area off to the side. Taking his seat he waited for her to finish, Marbella stood from her booth and motioned to another employee who rushed over and sat down in the recently vacated chair. She walked back through the door that they had gone through yesterday and was gone only a moment before coming back out at waving him over.
Marcus was surprised to learn that the Goddess Morrigan and two other Familia members had also arrived early and had been waiting in the conference room for the last twenty minutes. Straightening his clothing which he had updated via the grumpy old bitty's shop near his base, he followed Marbella into the room.
The Goddess was impossible to miss since she exuded power. He could tell right away that she was a leader and commanded respect. She was also one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen it was actually veering close to uncanny valley in how perfect she was. With black hair that he would swear absorbed the light. She sat straight with a stiff back and a neutral expression on her pretty face. The other women in the room Marbella included would have classified as solid tens in his old world but standing next to the Goddess of death and war they didn't stand out like they should have. The other two women one human and the other an elf stood as he entered. The human woman was even more curvy than Marbella and had the same blond hair. They could almost be sisters if they were the same race. Marbella moved over to introduce the two parties to each other giving him a second to look over at the elf woman. She was of similar Hight to the human woman and himself but was noticeable less curvy not in a stick thin kind of way but in a more proportioned naturally skinny kind of way she had shoulder length dark red hair and carried a black bow on her back. Both the elf and human woman wore armer but while the elf had on leather armer with a bit of metal here and there the human woman wore some sort of battle robe. Some kind of mage he thought before being pulled into the conversation to introduce himself.
"Hello my name is Clarice and this is Liliana and of course our Goddess Morrigan are you Marcus who asked to meet with us about joining our Familia?" the human woman now identified as Clarice asked.
"Yes, Hello nice to meet you I am indeed Marcus and yes I have reached out to ask if I can join up with your Familia." Marcus greeted back.
"I am a mage that already has magic and while I will be diving in the dungeon, I was also looking for a familia where I can craft items and such, my magic works for both combat and crafting and honestly until I get some more training and Falna I would prefer to focus my efforts toward the creation side of things." Marcus responded deciding to be truthful of his goals since gods could detect falsehoods and also making sure to highlight he was mage.
"Well then take a seat and we can begin the interview," the melodic voice of the Goddess Morrigan rang out.
"Thank you Marbella." Marcus nodded his head to the woman who was leaving through the door before taking his seat across from the trio.
The next half hour went by quickly with the three women asking questions of him and he asking his own, the elf Liliana only asking a few questions all centered around his culinary abilities, while he thought it was strange and didn't miss the exasperated look the Goddess sent to her child during the rare few times the elf asked her questions, he answered as truthfully as he could. Yes he could cook but no he had no formal training and no he had no clue what that strange elven dish she mentioned even was.
Clarice was much more straight forward and blunt asking about his life up until now going over his fabricated story which made it a bit complicated since he couldn't tell any lies in front of Morrigan. But his vague answers of far away and not being able to go home seemed to be acceptable to the blond woman.
Morrigan asked only a few questions mostly centered upon his chosen path. She seemed pretty excited when he mentioned his earth magic ability and what he could do so far. He wondered what she would say when she saw his other magics in his Falna. This thought froze him for a moment.
"Shit she is going to be able see everything, even my past life most likely ." Marcus thought starting to sweat. He and just got done dodging Clarice's questions about his past and only now realized that he was caught, if they agreed and the Goddess branded his back they would know he had been less than upfront with his tales. Deciding to bite the bullet and start this off right he sighed and turned to the Morrigan.
"Goddess Morrigan I have not been completely honest with you and your Familia." He said earning him a raised eyebrow from the goddess and a scowl from Clarice. Lilliana's expression stayed completely blank that girl was impossible to read.
"I have secretes that you will come to know if you agree to me joining your Familia, so I ask of could we speak in private for a minute so I can explain some things before a decision is made?" he asked hopefully not jumping the gun on what he felt was a done deal on joining up with this group. Their discussion had been going rather well so far.
Morrigan stared at him for a moment before nodding and then turning to the other two girls.
"Please give us a moment to speak in private." she asked of them.
Clarice still scowling looked as if she was going to argue before Liliana abruptly stood nodded to her goddess and left the room without a word. Clarice followed her fellow Familia member with her eyes before sighing and standing as well.
"Yes Goddess Morrigan" she said as she walked toward the door.
The Goddess stared and Marcus as the two women left and after the door closed she leaned forward and rested her chin on her cupped hands while regarding the young man before her.
"Ok so I know this will sound absolutely insane but uhm… I'm not from this world." Marcus got out in a nervous sort of laugh.
Morrigan again deployed the old eyebrow raise saying nothing just watching him.
"I um somehow ended up in what I call the sea of Chaos and well one thing lead to another and I found that I could travel to another world. One that was only a fantasy in my old world. I also was able to select my three magics during the process of entering this world and… Yeah." Marcus finished lamely he was sweating now and entirely to nervous he had wanted to keep some of that to himself in case the Goddess actually was not able to read that from his Falna but like a little kid before his mother he just started spilling his guts. Now feeling entirely exposed he sat there sweating and looking for anything that could tell him what the woman sitting in front of him; her eyebrow raised, her mouth in a thin line as she regarded him, wash thinking.
Morrigan was reeling inside all truth he had spoken nothing but the truth this was the most outlandish thing she had ever heard even being a goddess that has existed for millennia uncounted she has never heard of someone traveling to this world from another. Hell she would have been adamant that this world and Tenkai were all there was just a couple of minutes ago. Her expression had frozen when she realized he was speaking no lies and now she was thinking furiously on what to do. The young world traveler Marcus was noticeably stressed and his sweating and fidgeting was actually kind of cute if she was being honest like a child caught being naughty and waiting for his punishment.
Morrigan decided then what her role would be for this child and gave a sigh as she concluded that yes she would be adding him to her familia. She could already feel the headache's he would be the cause of. Turning back to the door she spoke up.
"Clarice! Liliana! Please come back in." she called
Marcus stiffened when the two woman came back into the room both looking between the two with obvious questions in their minds.
"I have decided to accept young Marcus here into the Familia we will be waiting until getting back to the house before I give him his Falna. Clarice could you go speak with Marbella and get the paperwork done and Liliana could you please head home and gather things for dinner tonight we have quite a few things to discuss after he joins." the Goddess directed still staring at Marcus but now with a motherly smile on her face.
Marcus relaxed a little but was still nervous the entire trip to their Familia home, which was located not too far from where the future Hostess of Fertility would be located.
As they entered the quant little three bedroom house he looked around taking in the tasteful decoration and the weirdly large kitchen that was visible over a bar counter from the dining room. Seeing Liliana busy cooking something on one of the three stoves that lined the wall he turned back to the Goddess.
"Goddess Morrigan…" He started only to be interrupted by the beautiful woman.
"Call me Goddess or Morrigan both together get a little dull don't you think." she asked with a small smile
Returning her smile Marcus started again. "I just wanted to thank you for allowing me to join I uhm know my situation is exactly normal and uhm…" he trailed off as she shook her head.
"No need we will have plenty of time to go over things after I have given you my divine mark." she said
Waving for him to follow she walked up the stairs to the last bedroom down the hall. After following her inside he noticed a cozy little room with a bed situated against the left hand wall and Infront of the bed was a couple of couches surrounding a small table that held fruits and a pitcher. The room had a balcony door way that was currently closed.
Morrigan motioned to the couches as she walked over to a dressing table with a mirror and grabbed a small golden knife and a sheave of paper. Marcus understanding that they were doing the bestowal right now walked over to the couch and removed his shirt turning his back to the knife wielding Goddess.
He felt as Morrigan sat down behind him and then shivered as an intense tingly sensation ran over his entire body when placed her blood coved finger against his back.
Marcus waited in silence as the strange feeling fell way wondering what his status even said or how gods saw what they saw when reading them.
Morrigan sat in shock as she process what she was reading. She knew he had not been lying to her divinity told her that much back at the guild but to actually witness and read the truth had struck even harder. She looked over his other magics he said he had and a confused look crossed her face. She had never heard of these before their brief descriptions gave some hint as to what they would be used for but she wasn't sure and would be making it a priority to ask Marcus after they were done especially about this Corpomancy that sounded dark and not at all what she would be ok with if it had something to with raising the dead. Her domain of death would rebel at the violation.
Putting the sheet to his back to transfer the stats over she sighed again thinking of his old world and all the knowledge it entailed she was unsure what their next steps should be knowing that her world was a story and simply fiction in another was very disquieting. Deciding she would think upon their next actions for the future she rose and started walking toward the door calling out to Marcus as she went.
"Come now dear it's time for dinner and we have much to discuss with the rest of the Familia."