The week before the orientation passed quickly for Marcus. He got into a routine. Every morning, he woke up at 6 o’clock and then went for a run around the facility for an hour. Then he would get ready and have his breakfast. After breakfast, he would explore his utility belt as much as he could. Then he would have lunch, do some research, dinner and then sleep. He could have done more but the exploration of the utility belt did not take long and it was boring.

His status screen had changed. It now read,

Name: Marcus Blank

Race: Human

Designation: Adventurer - Rank 1

Age: 25

Current Location: Solaris

Adventurer Statistics:

Adventurer Level: 1

Experience: 0/100

Strength: 5

Dexterity: 10

Intelligence: 10

Vitality: 5

Agility: 10

Wisdom: 3

Luck: ???

Health: 110

Mana: 106

Active Effects:

None

Passive Effects:

Stamina Regeneration - Level 1

Well Rested - Level 1

Description: The anomaly is now not just an anomaly and is taking his baby steps on being an adventurer. Best of luck to him!

The description of his status was the weirdest according to him. He had also asked Krona regarding his Luck Stat and she had said that no one knows their luck. The adventurers can go on a special quest to unveil the luck stat but it was a difficult and long quest, not only for completion, but also to discover. Mostly the adventurers did not mind not knowing their luck stat.

There was also another page in the status interface and Marcus had to swipe it to see. The second page of status showed the following,

Spells known:

None

Spells Equipped:

None

Spell Slots: 0

Physical Attack: 10

Magical Attack: 15

Physical Resistance: 3.75

Magical Resistance: 4

Critical Attack Chance: 5% (max 25%)

Critical Attack Damage: 7.5% (max 47.5%)

Status:

None

The critical attack chance and damage was confusing for Marcus and he had asked Krona about that. The percentage shown was the normal critical attack chance and extra damage that would be done. The max percentage showed up to how much it could go and it depended on the luck stat.

Krona had said, “Such a high percentage rate without any weapon normally means that you have high luck. However, considering the max rating, the luck must be really high.”

“How high?” Marcus had asked.

“Really high. If you want to know, you can do the quest after all.”

Krona had not elaborated further after that. Marcus also discovered that you could understand in depth what each parameter of his status meant. He just needed to touch the parameter for explanation.

He had read the details of his passive abilities. [Stamina Regeneration] meant that he did not tire easily and could perform more actions than a normal person. He wondered how that worked but realized something. His morning run around the facility. It did not tire him as much as it should have. It had to be the effect of [Stamina Regeneration].

The second passive ability was [Well Rested] and it was not always present as [Stamina Regeneration]. It only came into effect if Marcus had had eight hours of good sleep during the night. It increased the rate at which he received experience points by 20%. This was good. It just meant he would need to have healthy sleeping habits.

There was also a third page in his status interface. It was a page about reputation. Currently he had no reputation. The page showed,

Social: 0/1000 (Neutral)

NAIF: 0/1000 (Neutral)

Solaris: 0/1000 (Neutral)

It looked like a lot of hassle to build a reputation. He had selected the explanation for it and had found the reputation levels included Neutral, Good, Excellent and Legendary in the Positive side and Poor, Horrible and Villainous in the Negative side.

He did not know how he would receive reputation and how much reputation it would take to reach Legendary reputation.

This was all about his status screen. He had also studied his inventory screen which now contained categories like Weapons, Armors, Clothes, Currency, Other Items and Quest Items. Almost all were empty. The exceptions were Currency and now Clothes. Currency category still held the card while Clothes now contained four pants, four t-shirts, two shirts and two night suits. He also had two training pants and t-shirts which he alternated for his run. He had bought them all at a shop in the NAIF facility which Krona had shown. They were monocolor, either black, blue or white. He had also bought some socks and two pairs of shoes, one formal and one sports.

He shuddered at his debt now. It was at thirty thousand units. He wondered how he had accrued so much but Krona had told that it was the combination of the shopping that he had done, the food he was eating and his rent for staying at the NAIF facility. It was cumulative for the week and would not increase unless he needed to stay at the facility for a longer period. Marcus still felt that he was ripped off. However, he could not be certain as he had no idea about the regular rates of commodities and services on Una.

Other than the inventory, he had also found a screen about spells. However, it was not useful to him as he did not have any magic as of now. There was also the internet equivalent of an interface on the utility belt and Marcus spent quite some time researching Una and Game World.

After breakfast, he mostly spent the day either exploring the interface or during research and in the evenings, he did some socializing with NAIF employees. He could not find other Adventurers in the facility. He found out that adventurers living in the facility was a rare occurrence as most of them had sponsors. Even those who did not have sponsors had some living arrangements made outside of the facility.

The week passed and it was time for orientation. Marcus finished his run early, had an early breakfast and reached the conference hall where the orientation was supposed to take place.

There were four other people present. There was a dwarf, Marcus could tell from his height and his stock. Maybe, he should not be profiling. Felt racist, speciesist. Was that even a word? There were two figures shrouded in black cloaks and Marcus could not tell who they were. The fourth person present was of a species Marcus was not aware of. The person looked like a lioness but humanoid. She had two hands and two paws instead of all four paws. All of them looked clawed and Marcus could see clearly for she was not wearing any boots and had her feet up on the table.

The two cloaked figures were sitting close to each other, almost touching each other but far away from the others. The dwarf was looking bored and sleepy. And he kept nodding off. He was sitting closest to the central podium of the conference room.

As Marcus entered, all eyes turned to him briefly and then they all went on doing what they were doing before. Marcus hesitated. He did not know where to sit and so he started towards the dwarf. When he reached near he could hear the snores. Marcus sighed. It seemed that he would not be able to socialize with him.

He turned to look at the cloaked figures. He could definitely sense a feeling of hostility from them. So he marched up to the lioness like humanoid.

“Hi”, he said as he approached her. The lioness looked at him lazily, as if she was trying to analyze him.

She said, “Hello.” She was definitely a female as Marcus had guessed.

“I am Marcus Blank. A new adventurer. Pleased to meet you.”

The lioness looked at Marcus for some time. She did not speak for some time. Then she said, “You are not afraid of me.”

“Honestly”, said Marcus, “I am more afraid of this orientation. I don’t know what to expect.”

The lioness stared at him for some moments and then said, “You are the anomaly!”

“I am famous; and I still do not know your name.”

“I am sorry. Where are my manners? I am Nadia Shortclaw. It is an honor to meet you, Marcus Blank.”

And she gave Marcus a short bow. Marcus felt a bit awkward as she did that.

Marcus said, “There is no need to bow. It is just… Just don’t bow to me. Also, how did you know I was the anomaly?”

Nadia replied, “The news of an anomaly in Game World discovered in Solaris has spread across the internet. Everyone is talking about it these days. They just have your name though. No other information. Silas has been keeping quiet about a lot, keeping you out of the reporters’ grasp. I must say you should consider yourself lucky considering how many media houses want to interview you.”

“They would be disappointed. I am a font of knowledge with no ink.”

“What?”

“I… wait, that did not make sense. In short, I won’t be much of interest to the media houses. I am a blank slate.”

“What?”

“Never mind. Tell me about you. I have not met someone of your own kind. Could you tell me what species you are, if that is not rude.”

Nadia stared at Marcus for quite some time before she answered, “I am a Feliur. We are what you humans call a feline humanoid.”

“Ah!”, said Marcus, “So we have already labelled you. We humans are great at labelling are we not? I remember. We invented a label maker for this purpose, you know.”

Nadia frowned and said, “Do you talk like this normally?”

“Like what?”

Nadia gestured and then let go. Then she said, “Let’s just wait for the instructor.”

But I have so many questions, thought Marcus but did not say out loud. He could tell Nadia would not be forthcoming now. Her body language had closed off. Wait! He knew how to read body language. What the fuck was wrong with him. How could he know such things when he could not remember his own name. This was just frustrating on a different level.

Marcus sat in silence beside Nadia. No one was saying anything. This was going to get boring very quickly.

About five minutes later the door beside the podium opened and Marcus saw Silas come in with another person. It was an Umaru. The dwarf woke up as soon as Silas entered and looked alert as if he was not sleeping at all. The cloaked figures shivered a bit, Marcus did not know why but they did not say anything. Nadia simply shifted a bit. She looked bored.

Silas said, “Ah! Good. Everyone is present. Sorry for the delay. Let me introduce myself. I am Silas Cornerstone, director of this lovely NAIF facility at Solaris. With me is instructor Sawar Sawknee who will be taking your orientation. I will be leaving you in his capable hands. Good luck new adventurers.”

Sawar was dressed in a three piece suit. He had his arms around his back and was looking at each of his students with a slight smile on his face. He had an air of authority and Marcus felt as if Sawar was more of an on-field guy rather than a teacher. However, appearances could be deceiving as he had learnt from experience.

Wait, what experience? he thought.

He shook his head as Sawar cleared his throat, “Good morning adventurers. As director Cornerstone stated, I am Sawar Sawknee. I am in charge of training certain adventurers.”

There was a short start as they heard the word training. Marcus understood why he would require training but the others. He looked at each of them closely. They looked well trained to Marcus but as he had mused earlier, appearances can be deceiving.

The dwarf spoke up, “Excuse me Mr. Sawknee but why do we need training? I am already extensively trained in the battle arts by my family. What do I need to learn?”

“Excellent question Mr.?”

“Gurnhold. Orin Gurnhold.”

“As Mr. Gurnhold stated, I believe you are all well versed in the battle arts except for Mr. Blank here I believe.”

All turned to look at him. Sawar continued, “I am not here to train you how to fight. You already know that. I am here to teach you how to fight as an adventurer. There is a difference before you ask. With the exception of Mr. Blank, you will all be undergoing training which will help you become a proper adventurer on Una. Mr. Blank here will be undergoing training not just to become an adventurer, but he will also be learning how to fight. Now, on to the orientation. Any questions are to be asked at the end of the presentation.”

Sawar pressed a button on the remote he was holding and a white screen unfurled behind him. An overhead projector turned on and a presentation started. Marcus felt this was all too corporate and shifted a bit uncomfortably.

The presentation was about Una, the Game World. The initial slides had information that Marcus already knew. Then there were slides on how to get a quest, how to complete a quest, types of quest, about the storylines and various other world information. There were also slides about the utility belt and functions of various screens.

There was also a slide on the time system of Una. As they were all from different planets, it was important to understand it. The basic unit of measurement was second. One second of Una was equivalent to one second of Earth according to Marcus’ understanding. Sixty seconds made a minute and sixty minutes made an hour. Each day was thirty hours long. Approximately fifteen hours of day and night. The number of hours varied with seasons.

There were ten days to a week named Henaday, Diday, Triday, Quadraday, Pentaday, Hexaday, Heptaday, Octaday, Nonaday and Decaday. The last three days of the week were considered to be the weekend. There were sixty days in a month and there were ten months to a year. The months were named Unusar, Duosar, Tressar, Quattresar, Quinqesar, Sessar, Septesar, Octasar, Novesar, Decesar. It seemed that Una took about six hundred days to revolve around the sun and their system was based in that manner.

The orientation continued on till lunch and Sawar told them to meet him back in the conference hall after lunch. The two cloaked figures were the first to shuffle out of the room. They were the only ones whose name Marcus did not know.

Orin and Nadia exited together and Marcus was the last to leave. They went to the cafeteria. Marcus could not see the cloaked figures in the cafeteria. Even though the cafeteria was usually crowded during lunch, Marcus could clearly see who was where and those two definitely stood out.

He took his meal and joined Nadia and Orin at a table. They looked at him but did not say anything. They ate their food in awkward silence for some time.

Finally, Marcus could not take anymore and introduced himself to Orin. Orin raised an eyebrow and said, “You are the anomaly.”

“And I am famous, apparently.”

“I apologize. I did not want to make you uncomfortable. It is just that, you are the most interesting news on Una right now. Don’t worry, it will all pass after some time.”

“True. But now I am thinking I should have named myself Marcus Anomaly rather than Blank. People are expecting it, it seems.”

Both Nadia and Orin stared at him uncomprehendingly to which Marcus said, “I have amnesia.”

Nadia said, “That makes sense regarding what Mr. Sawknee said. About your training.”

“That is indeed rough”, said Orin.

Marcus nodded and they continued to eat in silence for some time. They made some small talk and then went back to the conference hall. The cloaked figures were back. Even Sawar was back.

As Marcus, Nadia and Orin entered, Sawar said, “Excellent. Everyone is here. Follow me.”

Sawar led them out of the conference room to a training hall. Marcus had seen it but had not visited it during his hiatus week.

The hall was huge. Marcus could not guess how far it was spread. They went inside and Marcus saw white. He literally saw white. The theme that the NAIF facility went for for the training hall was white. There was a reception which was small compared to the hall but it was still quite large. The desk was right in front of the entrance, about fifty feet away from it. There were ten receptionists present behind the desk. There was a waiting area to the left of the reception desk and a small café to the right.

There were doors on each side of the reception desk. Marcus assumed that they took them to the training hall proper. five out of the ten receptionists present were free. The rest were engaged with someone. It seemed that the training hall was a popular place for the adventurers of Solaris to train.

Sawar led them to one of the receptionists. Marcus observed that all of the receptionists were Umaru. It seemed that a majority of the Umaru were non-adventurers. He had not seen or heard of an adventurer Umaru yet.

After finishing the formality, Sawar led them through the door to the left. It was a crisscrossing passageway with doors on which numbers were written. Each of this would be a training hall but what was inside it, Marcus could not see.

Sawar led them to door no 99. How huge was this place? They entered. The lights turned on automatically as they entered. The training hall was a large open area with a gym and acrobatic equipment in one corner. Weapons, wooden, were lined up in one of the corners. It was on the opposite side of where they had entered.

Sawar led them to the centre of the training hall. There he said, “We shall be training here for the next month.”

There were collective groans and Sawar raised a hand, “If your performance is satisfactory by the end of the month, then you will be allowed to start your life officially as an adventurer. Otherwise, you will need to stay some more time training under me.”

Marcus raised a hand and at a raised eyebrow from Sawar said, “Will I be spending a month at NAIF facility? And will I be paid for the training? I mean, I do not know about the others but I am already in a lot of debt.”

Orin and Nadia looked strangely at Marcus. Marcus did not know what was wrong with what he had asked.

Sawar gave a sigh and said, “Do not worry about your debt Marcus. Adventurers earn a lot from their quests. Moreover, NAIF does not loot the adventurers. The debt is interest free and can be paid in fifty years. Whatever debt you accrue in the next month, you can easily pay off in a few years. Do not worry. Any other questions before I proceed?”

There were no other questions. Sawar then proceeded to tell them their schedule for the day. It included coming to training hall 99 after breakfast every morning at 8 am. There would be warm up exercises according to the species followed by a short break. Then they would be practicing with weapons preferred by them up to lunch time. After lunch, it was theoretical study to enhance their adventurer capabilities and then they would be free by 5 pm in the evening. It was still a long time according to Marcus. 8 am to 5 pm including an hour for lunch. That was a total of 12 hours they would be spending training.

That still gave Marcus 10 hours of free time if he considered 8 hour of sleeping. He frowned as he thought about this. Why the fuck he was planning is day so methodically? He then focused on what Sawar was saying.

Sawar said, “Well, today we shall not be doing much. So, I think we need to have an ice breaking session. I am sorry I should have done this earlier but I am new at this. Let us start by telling our name, our species, a little bit about ourselves, our hobbies and what we think we are good at. It would help, especially if we are to spend at least a month together.”

He looked at others expectantly. When no one spoke up he said, “Oh! I should start. Shouldn’t I?”

He gave a short cough and said, “My name is Sawar Sawknee as you know and I shall be your trainer for the next month. I am an Umaru, part of the king’s army until quite recently. I do not have any hobbies and I am open to discovering something which I would like. I am good with weapons.”

“[Weapon Master] passive?” asked Orin.

Sawar gave a short start. Then he grinned at Orin and said, “Of course you would know. Yes. [Weapon Master] passive.”

Marcus made a mental note to research that particular passive. Sawar now gestured to Orin to introduce himself.

Orin said, “My name is Orin Gurnhold and I am a dwarf. I am the youngest of the quadruplets born. My hobbies include making masterpieces through needlework and I am good at it.”

Marcus had some questions but he restrained himself. Nadia was next. She said, “My name is Nadia Shortclaw and I am a Feliur. I am the sister of the legendary adventurer you all know as Nalka Shortclaw. My hobbies include the sport Clawfluke which I believe is a native to my world and I am good with agility based abilities.”

Marcus looked at the others nodding. He was going to be so lost in this world. Everyone seemed to have more information than him. Even with the time he had spent researching, he had not learnt as much as he had hoped. He needed to do more research.

Then Sawar turned to the cloaked figures. One of them sighed and went, “My name is Noron Bladeluster. This is my brother Tymon Bladeluster. We are vampires. Tymon does not speak much. My hobbies include reading books while Tymon includes chasing women.” That earned Noron a smack on the head from Tymon but Noron continued, “Sorry. The great Tymon’s hobby includes chasing naked women.” That earned him another smack. The others were grinning now.

Tymon signed something but no one could understand. It seemed that the spell [Common Speak] was not applicable for sign language. Noron continued, “I am good at daydreaming while my brother is good with the ladies.” Tymon threw his hands up in the air and shook his head. It seemed that he had given up. If Marcus could see under the cloak, he would see a grinning Noron, he was sure.

Sawar said, “All right. Enough of this childish behaviour. You are next”. Sawar pointed at Marcus.

Marcus simply turned to Noron and asked the first question that had popped into his mind, “Bram Stoker or Twilight?”

Then he frowned. “What?” both Marcus and Noron asked at the same time.

“Why are you asking the same question as me?” asked Noron.

Marcus replied, “Well I should introduce myself. It will clear a few things. My name is Marcus Blank and I have been informed that I have become famous as an anomaly. I do not know my hobbies or what I like as I have amnesia and am simply taking one day at a time.” He turned to Noron, “As to your question, I was simply surprised at my question. I do not know who or what Bram Stoker and Twilight is but it just popped in my head.”

There was a short silence after Marcus introduced himself and then Sawar clapped his hands, “Well then. Now we are all introduced. How about we do some fun team building activities? Or if you like, we could just go about our business.”

All of them chose the later alternative and the group broke up. They all went their own ways. Marcus went back to his room to read up on Clawfluke, Feliurs, Dwarves and Vampires. He did not want to look like a fool and somehow he found reading up on things relaxing. Maybe that was his calling. He could have been a researcher. He certainly enjoyed the task and the internet through the utility belt was very fast and very informative.

The group somehow met at dinner. Marcus entered the cafeteria to find out that he was soon followed by Nadia and Orin. The Bladeluster brothers were already present. They had the hoods of their cloaks down and Marcus could see their faces. They were pale and looked almost human to Marcus. They had sharp pointy ears, sharper than the elves and longer. The ears were definitely the prominent features of the vampires’ faces, along with the fangs which protruded at least two to three inches out of the upper side of the mouth.

Marcus realized that he was staring and Nadia and Orin had already got their food. They sat down on the table with Bladeluster brothers. Marcus took his dinner and joined them.

Marcus said, “You know. You are neither Bram Stoker or Twilight. You are something different.”

Noron said, “Thank you Marcus. It seems that you have read up on what you said. We did too. I cannot believe how humans view vampires.”

“Well, there are no vampires on Earth as far as I know. It is all some people’s imagination put on paper.”

“It was still horrifying and funny at the same time.”

The group talked about many things and Marcus found that he could talk with them more than he had expected. It seemed that not everyone knew everything about Game World and other species' culture, just basic things and especially etiquettes to not insult the other species.

Marcus gave himself a mental high five. Go research. The dinner went well and the group talked much into the night. The vampires were not nocturnal but sunlight did affect their powers, weakening them by about 20% according to Noron. Their cloaks negated the negative effect of the sun and so they wore them all the time, even while sleeping. They soon said their goodbyes. As Marcus went to sleep that night, he had a genuine smile on his face.

***

Sawar was looking in detail at the files of all his trainees again. He had already gone through them five times but one more time did not hurt. He was especially interested in Marcus Blank. He was literally for the lack of a better word, a blank slate. Yet he intrigued Sawar.

Marcus had the look and the body language of a fighter, but he had amnesia. So, Sawar did not know what to make of him. There was no prominent information in Marcus’ file except the fact that he was an anomaly. Yet, Sawar could not shake the feeling that Marcus was dangerous.

Sawar stopped reading after his seventh time and got up. His eyes were tired. His wife and kids would already be asleep. He was happy to be back home, back with his family. He liked the peace and quiet. Then why did he have the feeling that Marcus was here to shake things up? He went to sleep that night with a troubled mind.