Ferdinand hands me a small bundle of papers and asks me to imprint my mark on the front page. Confused, I tell him that I haven't decided if I am going to join his clan yet. His excitement wanes considerably and quickly I say, "That doesn't mean I will not join, it just means that I have not made up my mind."

Nodding, his mood is lifted again.

"I need to know if I will be able to leave the clan before the ten year mark," I ask in hopefulness. I do not want to be tied down to one clan for that amount of time, the only reason I considered joining is that the clan could provide a foothold for me, it could help me learn more about this world and would be very helpful for a newbie like me.

"We don't usually let people out of their contracts, but for our first contestant we could make an exception..." his voice trailing off, he appears to be thinking. The two men by his side seem surprised that he is considering this.

"If you ever grow stronger than me then I shall null the contract, agreed?" he continues.

Thinking over the proposal, I decide to agree. If what he said earlier was true then I don't have a limit to my power whereas he can only grow strong to a certain point, which means that at some point in the future I should be stronger than him.

"I agree," I say resolutely.

"Splendid," the man says, overjoyed. The two men by his side seem to be laughing about something.

He changes a few lines to the contract and gives it to me.

"Now, just imprint your mark on it," he says.

"Imprint my mark?" I ask, my eyebrows raised.

"Sorry, I forgot that you were new. Hmm, how about you go meet Alex, he is responsible for the newbies, he will help you out on the first leg of your journey."

"Sure, where can I find him?"

"Visit the clan building, ask for Alex. When he says you are done, come back here and imprint your mark."

"Isn't this the clan building?" I ask

"No, this is the HQ, only the top executives stay here," he replies

I nod in agreement and turn back to walk out of the room.

"Wait," Ferdinand says.

"Catch," he says as he throws me a gleaming something.

Snatching it out of the air I find a shining metal badge with the insignia of the clan on it. I thank him and walk out the door.

In Ferdinand's room,

"The boy seems a little too green, you sure he would be a fit for our clan?" says a man beside Ferdinand.

Ferdinand snorts but says nothing.

The second man says,"I agree, I don't think you should have granted him an exception. Like every other clan member, he should stay for 10 years at least.

"I know," says Ferdinand, "but we must make an exception once so that other contestants know that our clan does not tie them down, we give them freedom."

"I understand your reasoning, but this boy seems like the worst choice for us to accept into our clan."

The talking slowly fades into silence...

***

I arrive at a much bigger building, the same purple banner hung over its wide, overarching doors. A stream of people move in and out of the building, the whole spectacle seems busy and lively. The inside of the building is huge but the numerous people inside make it feel much smaller. I look around and find that the people working in the building sit in counters behind a screen of glass like material, not unlike bank tellers in banks.

I walk up to the closest person and stand in the short queue, soon enough I reach the front and look at the man behind the counter.

"Yes?" he asks curtly.

"I would like to meet Alex," I say.

"Ah, a newbie he responds, Alex's next 'tour' is beginning shortly," he says as he pulls up a crystal and speaks a few terse words into it.

The man instructs me on where to go and before I could thank him, he waves me on with a brusque "next".

***

I reach the field where Alex starts his tour, it is a huge patch of ground with a variety of people training their fighting skills. I see flashes of light as people spar and huge balls of fire shooting from peoples hands. Wait... fireballs??? Abruptly, I realize, magic exists in this world! A huge grin plasters itself onto my face as I look around the field.

I look around the dusty field bustling with sweaty fighters and spot a bright purple flag waving in the air. Found it, must be someone from the Grayps Clan else they wouldn't be holding that banner. I walk through the throng of people, occasionally pushing some out of my way, making people stare at me with vengeance. Finally, I make it to the banner finding a tall, lanky man stare at me, his eyebrows scrunched in thought. I pull out the badge that Ferdinand gave me and show it to the man, he nods but his eyebrows still stay scrunched up as if in deep thought.

There seemed to be other newcomers too and they all looked to the man in expectation. A few of the people seemed to be frowning in annoyance, how long has be been standing this way for people to get annoyed? One of the bigger men coughs out loud in the hopes of getting his attention. Finally, tired of waiting, the man walks up to Alex and shakes his arm.

"Whoosh" the man flew back a few metres, flying through the air from the kick.

"Patience" Alex says as he places his leg back on the ground, "is a virtue."

"Don't come back again, you are hereby expelled from the clan," Alex says to the fallen man.

"Now, the rest of you, " he says while walking, "follow me."

He walks to a relatively empty part of the field, people clear out of his way as he walks, avoiding him.

I was impressed, maybe the clan was well respected or maybe Alex was pretty strong.

He stopped and motioned for us to stop, I looked around at the dozen people staring expectantly at Alex.

"So how many of you know about Energy and its relationship with magic?" Alex enquires.

Every hand goes up in tandem, every hand except mine that is. The group looks at me with disapproving eyes. Alex sighs and says, "So you must be the contestant huh?"

"Yes," I say.

The faces around me widen in shock, every time The Games happen, mass genocide takes place, races are pit against each other. All this because of the contestants. Their shock is not without reason.

"Think of it like the stuff that powers magic, it is a formless and intangible thing," he says.

I nod as what he says doesn't differ from my views about energy.

"Now I am sure each of you has already opened at least one Bio Point," his statement sounds more like a question as his gaze was directed at me.

I nodded in acquiescence.

He sighed in relief and continued, "All living creatures contain something known as a Point Cloud, think of it like a 3D image made up of infinitesimal dots. The number of Bio Points in a Point Cloud differ from each person, but a contestant in The Games will have a limitless supply of Bio Points."

The newbies around me looked at me in envy, some of them even with a tinge of hate in their eyes.

"Don't be jealous, although they might have an infinite supply, it only gets harder to open Bio Points as they get stronger. Getting stronger is inexorably linked with opening more Bio Points. Therefore as you open more, it gets harder to open the next one," he says to soothe their feelings.

"For the sake of simplicity, most people refer to Bio Points as BioPs," he continues.

"How about we continue the lecture in a different place?" he says.