First was the reason of Frank's trouble. In Durkan, every person who was a resident had to have a job and to every job corresponded a place to stay and services like food and healthcare. If one lost his job, he had also lost the corresponding benefits, meaning that losing a job equaled being homeless, unless one found another.

It should be said that every person with a decent level of ablility was able to find a job, or the jobs were simply created, leaving only those who were ignorant or unwilling to be left in Frank's situation.

Those that were without a job for longer periods of time had to leave the city or could try their luck with free boost, which was also the only option for those who refused to leave. The officer did not say much about the free boost, only that it was a dangerous way to increase one's abilities. telling him that it would not be his case, if he had some skills.

Toby's gratefulness all but evaporated when they arrived at The Registry of Residents, he felt like some drug dealer. Followed by a group of soldiers, half the eyes in the room were on him when he came to a desk and talked to an official.

There was not much to talk about, as the man in a formal wear that resembled an old-fashioned suit simply showed him a list of all available jobs in the city sorted in a logical way, but only the ones that required no prior experience.

manual labour - Fitness 12+

manual labour - Fitness 8+

manual labour - Fitness 7+ Chronomastery 7+

government official - Chronomastery 10+

cleaning - cleaning of large surfaces wtihout using water

blacksmith - basic knowledge of forging armor

enchanter - sharpening or hardening techniques

material reinforcement - increasing structural strength of stone or steel

trainee bodyguard for boost dives - means of protecting targets or killing low grade monsters

healer - basic or advanced ability to heal wounds or cure diseases and poisons

furnace worker - ability to produce intense heat

. .. ..

. ..

There were tons of jobs, Toby noticed that there were none that someone of level one could do. Hard to say if that was on purpose or not. An ideal job would be a healer, but the healing he had performed on himself was on intuitive level and he was unsure if he could do it for others . Well, he should be able to do it, but only after some period of experimentation and that was probably unacceptable, to experiment on patients.

He would rather pick something else for a time and would find a way to learn some healing later.

"That boost dives, what is it about? I can fight with magic." He remembered the officer had just glossed over it, as it was not his concern and Toby was still curious about it.

"It is about protecting customers using boost." How nice the clerk was here to explain it to him . .

"Eh, ok, but what is boost?" Toby asked again and the government offical looked at him in a way, like he was a frog swimming in the ocean.

"Killing monsters can usually increase one's magic, fitness or speed depending on luck, or on the particular area the person is training in. There is a government program to facilitate teleports to regions with monsters of suitable level of power and people can walk in and try their luck to get stronger by killing them. The free boost program is free, but no security or guarantees are provided, many people not returning back from the portals." Toby finally got the explanation. It seemed many people relied on luck, because they could not see or choose the stats of their status, getting roles and attributes by chance. Well, maybe there was some way to influence the attributes according to what the clerk had said.

"There are also boost programs that are paid, or given as a reward to people. These are more secure, providing bodyguards to increase the person's security. The job you are asking about involves protection of these VIPs." He finished his explanation.

"Great, how strong are the monsters?" He surely did not have a death wish, even though the job sounded good, it involved saving people and he could not train his combat ability without actual combat anyway.

"Not too much, you can see it is a trainee position." The man said, looking nervous. He had been speaking to him for quite a while.

"Alright, I will take it." Toby decided, a smile on his face.

"Before I give you an ID, do you understand that you will not be able to get another job for one week?" He looked glad to be soon rid of Toby with more people queueing, waiting for their turn.

"Yes."

The rest was quick, he received an ID card that described his place of residence and his job. The clerk also told him where to go to sign in into the whole boost machination. The ID also served as his credit card, but he was quite unsure what role money played in this society as most of the things were just arbitrarily set based on a job. He did not need money to pay rent, to eat, to buy what he needed for his job . .it was a strange feeling, not a bad one, since he had never had too much money to buy stuff.

Although it was evening, he was told to go to work immediately. Maybe it was a precaution to prevent freeloaders to get free lodgings for one night?

He said his goodbyes to the officer and headed to his place of work. It took him a while as it was behind the second wall. Walking through the residential area, there was not much to look at, as the buildings were quite uniform with infrequent shops and restaurants.

His destination was a structure that looked like a stadium. There were some offices, but in the center there was a huge clearing with two big purple circles in the middle, which were apparently the portals he had been informed about. The clearing might be a security measure in case something got through from the other side. This way, there was a ton of security that had a clear line of sight and could maybe shoot at the threats?

Toby walked to a gatehouse and the employee there directed him to one of the portals, after checking his ID card.

"Hello, Toby Alton, I have been registered to work as trainee bodyguard here." He smiled at the person that looked like having some management position here. The man had short black hair with dark eyes with forgettable face and was walking back and forth between the portals.

"Fine. Gary, you have a trainee here!" The man turned and shouted a name and let Gary take over. He had not even introduced himself, so Toby did not know who he was. Not that he needed to know as the man quickly walked away without paying him furhter attention, replaced by another man, who looked similar to him, like they were relatives.

"Hi, I am Gary. I will take you with me a few times to show you how it is done." A well-build man in leather armor greeted him, his equipment being a shield and a sword and Toby responded with some pleasantries. It was strange, given the feeling of the place he was still expecting to see guns and grenades.

"But first, I need to know what you are made off. Follow me." He stepped through the big purple portal fearlessly and Toby had no choice but to follow with some reluctance. There was no nausea or anything like it, he just appeared at Gary's side in a flash with the purple circle behind them. In front of them was an undergrowth of weird colors, mixing green and pink into an otherworldly combination with no trees. There was a small hill not far from them.

"Small Nether Rat, no biggie. Just go kill some of them, I will follow you." He said and Toby began heading towards the hill.

It was not that good of a target, he wished for something slow and easy to hit. Rats were not slow or very big.

Luckily plants were still plants and with his expertise in life and arcane magic, he could sense them. He was sure he would be able to sense the rats as well and soon after, he really did sense one running towards him. He decided to use just arcane magic that he had already practiced earlier. His will alone was enough to form a blade of azure energy out of thin air which flew through the air, slashing the rat in two. It was far from the speed of light, but fast enough that the rat had no chance to dodge it. There was not even a squeal and the creature was dead, covered by a spray of soil that followed after the blade dug deep into the earth.

"Huh." He heard Gary gasp and turned at him, but he just signaled him to continue.

He used a spear shape on the next one, a wide blade to cut the following two with a single hit and for the final swarm of four, he created a cone of exploding shards, similar to shards of azure glass, but definitely much more deadly and minced them all at once. This was definitely a low-level area, he was overpowered here as long as he watched his back, paying attention to his weak fitness attribute.

"Hell man, what are you even doing here? That is some strong magic you have there!" Gary could not hold back after he had one-shot the group of four."I should rather worry about you killing someone by accident than not being able to kill the monsters."

Gary shook his head in disbelief and they went back.

"Listen, do not stand out for a few first missions. Our first two clients are just pebbles, we will be taking them here through the first gate, but the third client is some princess from the upper city, we will be taking her through the second gate where the monsters are stronger."

"Isn't it better to farm it here? Why the risk?"

"Why else? She had been boosted at this level already, these little rats will no longer help her." Based on what Gary said, it seemed that experience could not be gained if the level of the targets was too low, which was probably the reason for the second portal. Gary reassured him that he would still be good there and they stepped through the portal again.

The first two assignments were really boring, as a rookie he was expected to simply look around and survive, that was it. After the second job, he was waiting in front of the second portal, watching a group of people nearing them. This client was apparently some bigger fish, not that he needed the thrills.

"Hmph, she is young and there is no elderly among their companions. No good luck this time. . " He mumbled while watching the VIP that looked like an ordinary rich girl around eighteen, elaborate blond hairstyle, tons of make up, blue eyes, long legs .. . meh, not his type at all, but he had to say she was pretty. He remembered Miriam, who was his type, but quickly forced these kind of thoughts out of his head, that was the very reason he had died.

Several other bodyguards swarmed around the group and when he added the armed people that came with the VIP, there was over fourteen people here to protect her. He would probably really just watch.

Gary directed him to the back of their fomation and they set off through the portal. This time, the scenery was a rocky mountain range with little vegetation. Mountains as far as he could see, every one of them looked the same with a rocky slope and only a little vegetation. This should be a hot region as there was no snow on the mountain tops, despite their considerable height.

He suppressed his chuckle when he saw one of the VIP's private goons hand the lady something that looked very much like a sniper rifle.

"Oh my, magic tech really?" He mumbled, but it should not be ordinary equipment, as the goons had no guns, only swords and bows. Soon, some sort of a winged monster appeared in the sky, by the looks of it, this kind of monster would be their target.

Although Toby did not know its exact name, it looked like an overgrown bat and the VIP lady was able to shoot it down with one shot. He deduced that the plan was to be sitting here and sniping the monsters without walking anywhere. The main goal was the boost part, no one cared for the carcases.

He felt nice and cozy, like in a theater, watching the lady shooting down the monsters. She was quite skilled, he had to give her that, but then happened something that was certainly not a good sign.

The purple portal vanished.

"Where is the portal?! What is going on?" Immediately many turned to Gary who looked at them with serious face. Toby heroically made a few little staps away from the group of bodyguards, his rear position being ideal for such a maneouver.

After some heated exchanges, it appeared nobody had any clue about what was happening and one of the goons took a small diary out of his pocket and began fratically write something.

Was he taking a note of the situation? Toby doubted it.

From the following discussion he understood that it was their means to contact the other side, it was common to use paired diaries to communicate on very long distances, the only drawback being that it has to be paired, one could not dial someone else. After the VIP contacted her patron in this way, they could only wait and so they did.

It did not take long, before Toby saw a flash and the gate reestablished itself again, the whole incident ending before it had even begun. Shaking their heads, the people began streaming back through the portal immediately, without completing their assignment.

Leaving the sour face of the VIP, Gary told him it was enough for the day and said his next shift was starting in two days. Toby just nodded, feeling very sleepy. He had been here all night, despite the portals' destinations had been lit brightly with sunlight. He understood the places were far away, nobody really wanting to hunt at night.

"It must be hard to get here when even VIPs are willing to go here at night when it is probably less packed." Toby headed to his place of residence, but he could not get Gary's last sentence out of his head.

"How it was? Enjoy the coffins?" He did not like the sound of it at all. Durkan was well-lit at night and Toby had no trouble finding the place, most of the lights originated from long shinings stripes positioned on buildings. He got the meaning, when he arrived at the door of his apartment that was roughly one meter wide and high.

He slowly opened the door, using his ID as the key and saw his "room". It was one meter high and one meter wide, copying the dimensions of the door, and amazingly even three meters long. Basically a big bed and that was it.

"Crap, this is like a submarine, even the windows!" He glared at the small circular window that were suspicious even from the outside, but he had hoped the rooms were a little bit bigger. How naive he had been!

He went to sleep, ignoring the early hour, he was very tired.

Many hours later, he woke up abruptly when giant fangs slammed shut in front of his face, producing a dreadful sound.

"Stupid wolf!" He felt sweat at the back of his neck and sat up swiftly, banging his head against the roof of his room, which threw him back at the pillow.

"AGH! Stupid coffin!" He cursed again as this was one of his worst mornings. Especially when he remembered that only the fangs were a dream.

"Ascend to the periscope depth!" He could not help himself but shout when he saw the lights of the led stripes through the circular, submarinish window. It seemed he had slept through the day and it was evening again.

"Shut it, imbecile!" Toby got a response and woke up to the reality of the paper-thin walls between the rooms.

There was not much to do in his personal submarine and he had slept too much already, thus he decided to go out for a walk.

"Fire the torpedo!" He whispered and kicked open the door, ejecting himself from his apartment. It was a bit of work to climb out as there were multiple entrances for just a single corridor, but he did not mind, suddenly being in a good mood. There was a lot of free time ahead of him before the next shift and he was finally a full-fledged resident.

"Where to go?" Toby exited the building and looked in the direction of the citadel in the middle. There were five rings divided by walls between him and the citadel, the ground level of the city being the largest. The number of rings decreased with height, but he could clearly see just the second layer, which was directly above.

He had thought that the higher levels of the city were floating in the air, but he could see tall pillars supporting them. He had seen them before, but his brain had been refusing the fact that the pillars were actually the main support for the structure, it looked ridiculous.

"The city is really wealthy to be using such materials." He decided to get some food, finding a small fastfood near his apartment. He walked inside and stared at their menu, he could not recognize almost anything, except the fact that some of the items contained meat and some not.

"Speaking about food, where do they get their food from? This city has to consume incredible quantities of food." Toby had to question the apparent nonexistence of any farms in or outside the parts of the city he had seen. He ended up ordering something called Khali, it looked like a melon and tasted similar to beef. He was actually unable to indentify if it was fruit or meat. He continued his degustation with another meal, but soon felt like throwing up because of mixing too many foreign tastes and decided to not order anything else.

"Well, with full stomach, I should inspect their entertainment industry!" Toby exited the fastfood and looked for something similar to a bar or a night club, but was not able to find any. He doubted the residents just drank milk before sleep like good children and that was it.

"Huh, this is a bit entertaining!" Toby had managed to find stairs leading to the top of one of the buildings and was sitting on its roof, looking at the horizon. The view was framed by two lines, one being the roofs of buildings and the other the bottom of the upper layer, leaving only a stripe of the night sky visible.

"Is this really happening?" He felt like dreaming, but no amount of effort could wake him up. Toby quickly took a deep breath, having a feeling a panic attack was just around the corner.

"I guess tomorrow won't be a school either, eh?" He asked himself and left the question hanging in the air, deciding to quickly stop thinking and just move forward.