In searching for the dwarves who once occupied this place, I can only say this: there is a hidden wasteland inside this tower. Spaces of failure dating back generations. Humanity is not the first Kind to believe themselves capable of mastering the godsforged tower. --68.3 Seconds Post-Integration.
Going home that evening, Clark received a notification of his league training once he was about to get into his Opportunity loot crates.
[Attention! Report to the Designated Location at your Allotted Time for Anti-Monster League Operational Training]
Clark was lucky his time slot was so soon -- just a couple of days.
Those days were slow in going by but when he arrived at the location the slow wait was worth it.
"Wow... I haven't seen so many people in one place since that big sale..." Clark muttered to himself and to SIMP. Indeed, there must've been thousands of people in the large chamber.
It took Clark nearly an hour to travel to the League's orientation location. Like most massive spaces, it was held in a sub-basement. Just how 'sub' and where it was in relation to the other basements he had seen, he had no clue. Though it was in the basement, huge television screens dotted the ceiling, showing blue, bright skies, giving the whole retail arena a surreal feel as he walked through mock lanes filled with mock goods.
He found the check-in line for new recruits. Twenty-minutes later, he toggled his System Link, and a clerk told him to move to the next line.
Two more hours elapsed. In that time, Clark wound his way up and down a dozen more lines for all manner of paperwork. 'Health Record,' 'Waivers,' 'Health Insurance Policies,' and others. He finished but he wasn't too happy about spending nearly three hours standing in line, then another hour filling out forms.
"Attention All League Applicants!" a megaphone voice called. "Please make your way into the stadium for General Polka's speech."
"General Polka? Who is that?" Clark thought it odd the store's defense force should be a general. That seemed an awfully high rank for what amounted to a glorified militia.
Clark filtered into the stadium chamber with the rest. There, thousands of seats lined cube-shaped rafters climbing high into the air; with the artificial sky panels on the ceiling, he almost forgot he was deep underground. He found one of the many free seats and waited.
"Clark? Is that you?" a familiar voice called to him.
He turned to see who had spoken. "Hera? What are you doing here?"
"Joining the Anti-Monster Defense League, of course!" she sat next to him and pushed off her coat. "I thought I saw you earlier, but I didn't want to be one of those foolish folks who shouted and screamed at the first person they thought they knew." Hera paused and took a drink from her canteen. "I wonder if we will receive an experience bonus for being part of the same Work Detail. I imagine we will."
Clark didn't know if they would but before deeper pontification could be had, a well-dressed man in military regalia stepped onto the stage.
The well-dressed man tapped the microphone set up on stage, whispering "Test, test," a couple of times. Satisfied with its settings, he straightened himself and started talking: "Welcome, everyone. I am glad to see so many fresh-faced new recruits. Our humble company is in crisis. There is no mistaking this truth; plague rot runs rampant while monsters do the same, threatening not only our dedicated employees, but our favorite shoppers. Furthermore, our resources, we discovered, had not been enough to tackle the scale of the problem. Hence where the League comes into the picture. Where you, valiant recruits, comes into the picture."
General Polka's speech was as Clark expected -- long winded.
Yet the man knew orality. As the general's speech continued, filled with personal antecedes, frankness, and emotion, Clark found himself inspired. After spending mind-numbing hours waiting in lines and filling out forms, anything would have seemed better, especially a man who knew his way with words. "And with those remarks, I bide you all farewell. I hope to see you all very soon on the front, where we will retake the executive lounge!"
Thunderous applause ripped through the audience. The general walked off stage talking to some aides and vanished into one of the many passages.
Another man took the general's place. This new man was not as well dressed as the general. They had a more 'paper pusher' feel to them.
"What a speech, eh?" the newcomer said into the microphone. "Let's give the general another round of applause, shall we?"
In response, another wave of claps blasted through the stadium. Clark thought it unnecessary, as the general already left, but who was he to comment? He clapped along with the rest.
Once the clapping died down, the newcomer continued: "My name is Ballroom. I am a corporate minister with the company. I want to speak to everyone here on the next steps demanded by your careers. Now that our rousing speech is had, it is time to settle our minds into the pragmatic."
Ballroom's speech was less a 'speech' and more a lecture. They outlined expectations of conduct, compensation, how shift work is handled, as well as progression within the organization. Although Ballroom's lecture was much less exciting than the general's talk, it was, as they said, far more pragmatic. By its end Clark knew his compensation for being in the league, which was an additional five credits per hour -- an amazing sum for a single raise! He also learned that advancement within the organization depended on the learning of certain martial and magical skills which would benefit the organization. The higher the rank one was, the more challenging monsters you could be called upon to fight during a shift or a volunteer mission. The bigger the monster, the better the reward.
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"Let's break for lunch. After, report to one of the stadium corridor rooms for additional onboarding sessions," Ballroom said, straining to be heard above the dun of several thousand people hurrying to stretch their legs and to grab some food. "This is important! If you don't complete all of the sessions, you will be booted from the League!"
"Wanna grab a bite?" Hera asked.
"Sure." They found a seat at one of the many tables in the stadium's bustling food court. Clark ordered a slurry of fried foods whereas Hera ordered a meat-heavy salad filled with vegetables he had never seen before. Considering the fact he had worked in produce, how he didn't recognize even half of her salad, was odd.
About halfway through their meal, Clark asked, "What did Ballroom mean when he said, 'gig work?' He didn't elaborate..."
"He means it is work you perform between your regular shifts. For Lifers, it is Climbing. We train, learn how to do the job, then do the job either before, after, or during our core work. There is a hierarchy at play concerning what kind of labor takes precedent over other labor. We will have to do a mandatory half-shift per week where we patrol. Otherwise, we only have to respond to League tasks when we want to, assuming it's not a crisis." Hera explained and continued to munch on her salad.
"You know a lot," Clark replied, impressed.
"It's only because I have friends in Specialty departments. Apparently, most Specialty departments operate the same way. And most are stingy with pay increases."
Stingy with pay bumps? "Does that mean they never give increases?"
"No. They will give raises. Just not nearly as often as the other departments. Not without putting in an immense amount of work."
Clark knew the Specialty department's raise was too good to be true. Though even he knew that it was unrealistic of him to expect raises of that magnitude too often. It would've been nice, though. Getting ahead, just once.
"That five-credit bump for joining will need to last us a while, I guess."
"Right. We have our core pay to think about as well. And since we can have up to three specialty departments, I wouldn't worry too much over stagnant wages, Clark."
He had forgotten about that; then there was his Qoon activities, for which he had not yet received a pay increase regarding. Which meant that Adam likely still had not finished processing his paperwork. Which was saying something as three whole months had gone by and despite the near constant stream of gifts, he received from Qoon / Adam. Hera was right, he decided, pay wasn't going anywhere, merely his fanciful imaginings.
"True." With nothing else to say about their rate of compensation, Clark moved on a different topic: "I didn't peg you as the monster fighting type. I can't get over the fact you joined!"
Hera smiled. "I try and live a peaceful life, sure, but self-defense skills are a premium, especially during a monster plague. Because of my age, I won't advance as far as you young bucks, but I will learn enough to be useful. Besides, even an old lady like me can beat a slime to mush!"
"Well, I'm happy to see a friendly face. Because we're in the same work detail, we will end up working together a lot. I can't wait!" More quietly, he spoke, "You, I, and doing something which won't get us fired if we're discovered doing it. Lucky us!"
Her smile widened. "I agree. What a world indeed!"
Lunch ended and the mass of new recruits marshaled themselves into the stadium's corridors to fill the rooms.
He and Hera took all of their sessions together. Although each session's duration wasn't long, there were many sessions to complete before the day's end. If they did not complete every session, they would be penalized in some way, at the minimum, if not terminated from the department. Clark made it his priority to get every session done.
At the end of it, he and Hera reviewed the material.
"What stood out to me," Clark said. "Was the emphasis on Rank. Pay increases come with rank increases; privileges within the group comes with rank increases; even shift assignment. We should pay attention to rank."
"Agreed. Increasing our Rank will be the first priority. How do you think you will do with this? I noticed just now as I was browsing the Set One Rank Sheet that many of the skills require magical components. I know out all the three of us," by which she included Theo. "That you are the least proficient with magic. You don't consider this insurmountable, then?"
His turn to laugh, he made a polite gesture with his hand, waving away Hera's concerns. "Nah! You can't expect a dungeon champion to balk at his responsibilities, can you? I have to learn magic stuff eventually. I recently bought a number of dandies and plan on using them more often, just for the exposure, that passive aura or experience boost. However, that works."
Hera's eyes rolled. "How many times do we have to tell you, Clark? Using Dandies allows you to build a tolerance; building a tolerance helps generate Aura; the higher your Aura, the more powerful the monsters you will be able to fight. To oversimplify a bit."
"Oh, okay... I get turned around with all this stuff. I wasn't raised with magic from birth, Hera. Please try to remember that."
"I do remember that, Clark. Which is why you need to commit to this stuff and learn it. You're not in your non-magical backwater anymore. You're at what's arguably the Center of Magic in the world... I do like your plan about using more Dandies than you have been. That's on top of your usage over the last three months. Yeah, I noticed you were using them more. You, I, and Theo should all use more Dandies in general. They might taste terrible or have iffy side-effects, but they are useful as feck."
"You don't have to tell me thrice... I was there in the dungeon interior with you, Hera." A quick giggle. "So, Rank, then?"
"Yup. Rank... our mandatory shift we should decide together. A privilege, evidently, even of new recruits is being able to select the time when we're on patrol."
He and Hera figured when their mandatory shift would be. They decided on a time when each of them would normally just be chilling in their dorms. They would find the personal time later, when they didn't have money earning things to do.
"It almost seems simple, doesn't it?" he asked as they stood from their table and prepared to leave.
"Simple?" Hera didn't know what he was talking about.
"The league. The Ranks. The focus on fighting monsters, my duties as the Champion. I find it all fits together."
"That's only because we live in violent times. If we had the fortune to be born in a peaceful time, you would find that the peaceful mechanisms of that society would be rather conveniently fitted as well."
He paused to consider the notion. "I guess you're right. Man -- that sucks!"
Both he and her laughed.
Then they received a notification.
[Schedule Confirmed: Report to Training Stadium Tomorrow Morning for the first Preparatory Session]
Did Your Company Have an Athletic 'League' / Team?
