"You want me to help you become a Wanderer yourself?" Alita shouted in surprise.
"Is there something wrong with that?" Emma asked, confused on why people got mad over these things.
"It's just that, when you reach that stage, Agony becomes difficult to deal with. Many just choose to live a smooth life, or at least one where their own Agony isn't too big of a problem." Alita responded, and her face instantly calmed down. "The only reason why I became a wanderer myself, is because Ms. Olga would be proud of me If I used my strength to protect people."
"I just want to be stronger than I already am." Emma replied. technically it wasn't a lie at all, the only way she could get her wish was by getting stronger.
"Follow me." Alita said, heading towards a direction behind Emma.
Emma quickly followed behind her, she was excited that Alita was going to teach her how to become a wanderer.
After what felt like 10 minutes of walking, they finally stopped at one of the uniformed blue buildings.
By now the sun had looked like it was going to descend in an hour or two.
Alita opened the door, having a plain expression. The two were greeted by dozens of tables in a large area, with dozens of people in them. It had a pungent smell; it was intoxicating to Emma.
They all had a mug in hand, as they talked to one another. Emma was curious, this scene had looked like a bar to her, could this planet have beer too?
Alita continued to walk onwards, ignoring the large crowd of people and headed to a plain wooden door, and Emma quickly followed behind after glaring for a moment.
Alita opened another door, this room had seemed far smaller, it could only probably have 5 tables stuffed inside it. But only having a desk, and two chairs.
The desk itself was like one of those outside market stands, but somehow far fancier.
Alita had walked towards the desk and got some papers from inside it, telling Emma to sit at one of the chairs.
"I can help you become a Wanderer. Actually, there's an entire organization dedicated to helping citizens fend for themselves, or to be the one to fend for them. They're called Avid, basically the police for this country."
"I'm sure you already know all about them, so I'll just say they are willing to provide you with the materials you might need to ascend and advance. All you have to do is join them." Alita handed over a paper, filled with words that looked like hieroglyphics to Emma.
Emma thought this was a contract.
"Actually, I don't know about them. Would you mind telling me?" Emma asked politely, she was staring at the words like she could read them.
"Kushtaka's memories had nothing on this!" Emma thought to herself, visibly displaying an upset face.
"You don't? Are you from a different country?" Alita asked, with frowned brows.
"Yeah, I'm from a country far from here." Emma replied somewhat honestly.
"I guess you'll have to be taught about this country too, along with how to read." Alita calmly spoke.
"What? How did you know I couldn't read this! Is it your Gift?" Emma asked in pure shock. She thought she looked like she was genuinely reading this scribbly nonsense, she didn't want to lose face in front of Alita so fast.
"It's not, I could read it to you if you like." Alita said, letting out a small smile.
Alita read the entire contract, basically saying that she has to be willing to advance her agony and be useful to Avid's E-team, she must actually try her best in both. Plus, she had to complete a set of missions weekly, and that her pay would depend on her performance during missions, and her overall work performance.
An advancement of Agony counted like levels, each type of ascension of being could handle a certain amount of Agony. People in this world had decided to name these agony differences levels 1-7, with seven being the highest.
1 and 2 were the limit of a Lesser spirit.
1 and 3 were the Spirits realm of Agony.
Level 4 - 5 belonged to Wanderers. And finally, 6-7 belonged to Great spirits. Seven was just a hypothetical at the moment, Great Spirits didn't really bother to confirm it to the people.
The higher the level went, the more difficult it was to live with Agony.
How would someone advance through the levels then? Emma wasn't completely sure, but one part she knew for sure is that you simply had to repeatedly use your spirituality to the near limit and suffer.
Spirituality was the energy inside of everyone, some say that if their spirituality had been depleted to zero you would cease to exist. Everyone emits a wave of spirituality, the denser it is, the higher the chance you're actually someone who ascended.
The reason why you have to use it repeatedly, was to expand the limit on the amount of Spirituality you wield. The best way to do this was using a Gift, those things expanded a tremendous amount of spirituality.
And to advance Agony you simply had to have a big amount of spirituality and suffer using whatever your Agony did, naturally people didn't want to do this which was why Alita was shocked Emma had.
But advancing and ascending were two different things. They require each other so they could move forward, but their conditions were different. Emma didn't know how one ascended, all she knew was how to advance.
Emma thought about the contract for a bit and immediately signed her name in English. It looked weird compared to the hieroglyphic writing on the paper.
She had to get her wish; no amount of suffering was going to stop her. So, what if this world is against her ascendance, she would defy the world then!
Emma would simply have to live through the pain, she will defeat the notion of this world! Agony was merely a force that has always existed with her, why would she stop just because it could become more of a problem?
"Now that you joined, here's a key to your room, nightfall is near, and there's no need for you to experience unnecessary pain." Alita placed a key on her hand, while leading her out of this office.
Emma also wanted to avoid the Night to, it causes Agony to go crazy for some reason, temporally advancing to other levels, without ascending, that much pain could kill you.
Emma continued to follow Alita to a different room. This one looked like a living room from earth, with a blue couch and a table in the center.
which of course surprised her once more. "Are all intelligent species the same?!"
Alita had gone up some stairs near the door they had come from, and Emma followed. They reached a hallway that looked like it was made of wood, and with a few doors.
Alita stopped at one of the doors near the hallway with the number 2 on it.
"Here's your room. You'll be working hard tomorrow, rest well while you can E-team recruit." Alita announced with a smile.