91 C90 Making an Entrance

Jack stood in the entrance: three others guard around him as he shouted for the next one to come up for inspection. Jack had spent most of his time working as a guard for the church in this area, scraping together any cash or product he managed to find to save up enough money to buy his freedom from the Vortex.

So far today he had collected nearly five hundred in gold coins, half would become his bosses due to the nature of the business while he kept the rest. Since the guard position was not paid and merely a voluntary post to help one get into the army, it left many of the guards to find alternative ways to get a coin.

This lack of funds meant that every guard had to take any cash they could find to pay for every expense from food, lodging and other items that were deemed necessary to survive. In retrospect two hundred and fifty gold coins were enough to escape hunger for a few days if the food stayed rationed out carefully.

His family required him to get enough coin and also to save up to buy freedom; he cared little for anyone else as he knew that he needed to get the coins to purchase his freedom. It was better him and his family then the random scum that sat outside being lazy.

"Oi! Stop blanking out into space and get up here!"

He yelled as he noticed the next guy in line, his blank-like expression and somewhat slim body giving him a slightly distressed look, the clothing also a rather massive oddity as Jack did not understand which part of the world he came from.

He stood face to face with the man, his expression blank as he said nothing, Jack feeling his anger flaring up again as he pulled up his parchment. His questions noted down as he let out a sigh as he knew this man was going to provide no gold.

"I need to take a few details. I need a full name from you."

Jack let out the question as he held the quill, staring at the man with a pained expression.

"I'm Nathan Blackrose."

The voice felt rather flat against his ears, emotionless and dead inside. This person already had the correct mindset for the dull slave-like work that was required to make coin.

"Nathan, That is a similar name to mine. Are you from Cinma Islands?" Jack responded as he had initially come from the Cinma islands before moving to the empire lands, eventually getting tossed into the vortex as a foreigner without a visa when he found that his documents were pawned to the black market by thieves

He looked back up after finishing to see a small smile creep onto the man's face. Jack's mouth was curling down with displeasure as he Nathan answered his question.

"Those are some beautiful Islands. I assume you are from the islands then. Some incredible beaches right?"

It took a few moments for Jack to write down Cinma Islands onto the form as he really could not be bothered to try and extract information from this man, he wanted the money, and nothing else and this process had gone on far too long.

"Right..."

Jack lightly responded as he checked a few more boxes, adding random details into the fields as he looked to the race part, almost naturally putting down 'human' as he decided to ask the man before doing anything so rash.

"What is your race?"

It was best he asked as he could press a higher tariff if he were a mystical race due to magical restriction laws in the vortex.

"I'm an Arch-God."

Jack stopped as his quill stopped writing, eyes looking up at the man as he felt like choking him out over the weak joke.

"I'm a Death God Incarnate."

He said in a similarly poor joke as he wrote down human before sighing a few other parts.

"We will need an admin fee of roughly six hundred gold. This is because you have a background from Cinma, due to many spy's entering I will need to pay for background checks, visa applications and many other items."

Of course, this was all a lie as he never intended to pay a single coin to investigate the waste of space in front of him. The shame also came from the fact the man had mental health issues to be claiming he was a god so shamelessly.

Jack watched at the confusion as the man seemed to think for a few moments, checking his pockets as he brought out a small sack with a few coins clinking around inside.

"Are you kidding me. You do not have the fee, and you come here to waste my time!"

Jack was furious at this point; he had money to collect and debts to pay yet this waste of space kept slowing him down from doing his primary job of getting payments.

"I'm not wasting your time. I want inside, and I've not lied to you once!"

As Nathan responded, Jack felt like stabbing the man right here, if he was allowed to which was not the case since it drove others away and lessened the payments for everyone.

"You claimed yourself to be a God right?"

Jack responded as he gripped the parchment, almost wanting to tear it up as he felt the urge to ram it down the man's throat.

"If you are such a powerful force of nature, go along the side of the wall and punch a hole through it. Since you are an all mighty and powerful god."

Jack tore the papers in half as he tossed them behind himself, shouting towards his boss.

"We are done now Nathan. Boss!"

He shouted for his boss as he looked over to him, needing some time off as he was going to have a pipe break.

"Going on a pipe break!"

Jack wandered out the front, along the wall a few meters as he pulled out his pipe, taking a smoke after lighting it with some disposable lighting paper. His eyes staring at the crazy God-man walked along the wall, almost like he was checking it out.

Jack muttering under his breath.

"What are you doing you crazy fucker."