"Come on! Move your ass! Even slugs are faster than you! Next time when I say be ready in two minutes it is in two minutes and not in two minutes and twenty seconds!"
Since this morning, we are doing tasks one after another at an unbridled pace. After we hurried through our breakfast, we showered, made our bed, and cleaned the barracks in record time, we can finally start the true training or so I thought... As soon as we get out on the field behind the barracks, our instructor, who answered to the gentle name of Skatep, has lectured us about the importance of the discipline.
One of my colleagues had the great idea to point his strictness toward us out to him considering we are not in the army. It goes without saying he has exploded with rage. Currently, I am missing my jail. After twenty minutes of sermon, Stohin arrives to deliver us from his fury. With his usual cheerful tone, he starts our training:
"Hello everyone! Glad to see you survived the lesson of Skatep. I know he is clumsy with his words but don't judge him too fast, he will be your maneuver instructor. If you remember his course you can at least expect to come back alive. Personally, I am in charge of the general course and the personal course where you will learn respectively the path of the adventurer and how to fight as an individual. Today, you can consider yourself lucky because you will have me the whole day!"
The crowd of students produces some hurrays to manifest this good news. Stohin ignores them:
"Now, you will become true adventurers by using this gem: the novice stone. It will allow you to receive your profession of novice. Make a line in front of me and touch it for three seconds. After that, take a scroll on the stack near me and put your hand that you used with the gem, on it. When everybody is done, I will explain its meaning."
Without any volunteer to begin, I sacrifice myself to become the first to touch the gem. Unfortunately for it, the huge hand of Stohin belittles its impressive size. Its yellow color makes a gradation from the palest on its side to the deepest on its center. Its tetrahedral shape reminds me of a 4-faced die. I breathe and put my hand on it. Nothing impressive happens. The only difference is a black stain appearing on my backhand. Pressed by Stohin, I move aside and take a scroll.
I sit down in a calm spot. The black stain has become a tattoo representing a somewhat stylistic figure. I ignore it, for now, concentrating on the scroll. I press my hand on it and after a short wait, a text appears on it. I can only recognize the numbers which I learned back in jail thanks to the numbering of cells. For the other part, I cannot read the text rendering irrelevant the whole scroll.
After a wait of thirty minutes and a useless contest about numbers, everybody had the same ones, Stohin gives us an explanation:
"On the first line of your sheet, you have your profession, novice in your case. On the next lines, you will have always two numbers: the first one is your current value and the next one is the maximal value that you can't exceed in your present status. Is everyone for this explanation until now?"
"Yes!" we shout in unison.
"Great! Then, on the second line, you have your level. When you will fill your experience located on the third line, you will level up, giving you various advantages. The next lines are respectively your strength, your resistance, your will, and your affinity. Strength is your physical power, resistance your ability to reduce damage. For the last, affinity, it is equivalent to strength but for magic. As a novice, you can't use it. I will return on the assimilation after the last fields which are barrier and ether. Barrier corresponds to the damage you can take before your ethereal aspect is deactivated. When you use skill, you consume Ether which, when it reaches zero, produces the same effect as for barrier. Be careful with your management of both values. Will indicates your regeneration for both characteristics. If you have an issue with understanding everything, do not worry we will come back to it on numerous occasions. Any questions?"
"Yes Sir, what is the last line you do not mention?"
"Well spotted! It is the skill line that is empty for you. We will work on it this afternoon. For now, you can have a break to boast about your scroll with your comrades and to digest all this information. See you in thirty minutes."
I enjoy this interruption to overlook again my profile with my new knowledge.
Profession: Novice
Level: 1/5
Experience: 0/10
Strength: 10/15
Resistance: 8/12
Assimilation: 5/10
Affinity: 0/0
Barrier: 10/10
Ether: 5/5
Skill(s): -
I don't even know what that means exactly... Is ten a lot? I guess not because we are beginners without training or experience. The only hint from this statistic festival is the battle orientation of the novice which trades physical damage mainly. Come on! I am in a fantasy world, I want to master magic, not sword-fighting as I can in my world... It is time to plan an evasion soon. The prank last long enough...
"Hey, what are you thinking?"
"Nothing! I was planning my training and..."
"I am pretty sure you are happy to be there now! That the risk was worth it!" answers Emilie to herself.
Her question made me panic, I did not detect her, and the squad joining me. The broad smile on their face indicates their joy about the small course of this morning. After all the gamelike system of adventurers is offering them more motivation and encouragement than high school on Earth. Plus the perpetual daily novelty, they obtain a thrilling life. Until when? I really hope for them that this life will fulfill them. As for me, I will reconsider it when I will have found my parents.
"Glad to hear that! But this system is not very clear..." I say.
"We are still novices, the formation is supposed to last six months so they need to keep things to teach us until the end." intervenes Arthur.
"True, I am always in a rush to learn."
"Haha, so in a rush that you aged faster!" laughs Emilie.
I do not raise her unkind remark... We continue our chit-chat until the end of the break. Stohin back, we regroup in front of the barracks. There, he guides us to an auditorium for the lecture. The situation passing from video game-like to grim reality hits some of us pretty hard. Sorry lads...
Everybody take a place, I install myself with my roommates. Stohin begins to contextualize our role as adventurers in the city. Historically, the city of Ivujni reigned on the whole island where it is located. At this time, the surface of the city was thrice its current size. The island provided them all the necessary resources. Food came from agriculture, iron from mine in the mountain, wood from forests... However, invasions of other factions ended this apogee. Since then, their perpetual plundering discouraged the city to exploit the island and force its inhabitant to stay behind its fortifications.
Their rivals caused the decadence of the city which lost century after century, its population, and its territory. To compensate for the loss of these resources, both divinities of the city offered them a means to access other worlds. The first divinity, the demon, opened a portal toward a world where the passion of its inhabitants could help them. The god, as for him, gave them an artifact to create gates toward abundant worlds: the Scattered Worlds.
Our mission as adventurers is to explore these worlds, report their resources, and destroy their threats for exploitation. In fact, these worlds are immersed in a mystical substance called Ether creating and governing them. Unfortunately, Ether reacts to a foreign presence by triggering a kind of 'immune reaction' which produces creatures and magical phenomenons. We, adventurers, must protect purveyors, who gather the resources on Scattered Worlds, or if possible, stopping it by neutralizing the core in the center of the reaction.
By fighting these threats we will increase our level and later our profession which will allow us to go on higher worlds. There is a complex classification of these worlds according to their resources, their hostility, their biotope, and their size. The general law is harsher is the world more satisfying is the reward.
After this whole presentation, Stohin concludes:
"This means of supply became the only reliable one for Ivujni. Our mission is primordial for the city that will provide us what we need to accomplish it. Don't fail Ivujni and Ivujni shall never fail you. Thank you for your listening, bon appétit, and see you this afternoon!"
