After the other team got their food, A halo appeared on their table along with Erin's. Their table read Smith & Co while Erin's read Team Gladiator. The Smith team only became more annoyed as they saw the sign.
It was only after a little while that Smith looked up at the other table and saw Minnie eating peacefully. He looked a little annoyed as he saw the brat.
"So... You made it. I see you also lost a few members." He remarked slowly. Minnie looked at him and scoffed.
"Sorry to burst your bubbles but we did not lose anybody. Our team only had 8 people to begin with." Minnie answered.
Smith's party darkened as he heard this.
"Are you trying to say that...With only 8 people you were able to defeat the boss....without anyone dying..."
"Yep." Minnie answered likely as she sipped her juice.
"How..." This time, Drew was the one to ask.
"Its called diversity and teamwork. Skills are quite a thing you know. Imagine this who would win in a rpg fight? A team with a balanced healer, defense, offence and support or a team full of offenses?" Minnie asked. Sean's Face turned red as he heard Minnie talk in gamer lingo.
Drew fell silent as he heard this. It was so obvious to the whole party who would win in the end. They knew from experience. They had all felt the imbalance of the team early on which were only field with captains and no supports. The closest they had to support was the economics teacher who would increase their accuracy and speed with her skill but, once she realized how big of an asset she was, she started demanding first pick at items and being guarded by at least two people at a time.
She was stingy with her skill which ended up being the cost of her death. Drew had asked her for help. She was still trying to swindle some parts from him which caused the snake that he was fighting, to slip away from him and kill her.
Without her aid, they had trouble defeating the king cobra and it took 3 sacrifices for smith to finally do the final blow. Even as they had exited the dungeon, they was not happy. Even when they acquired the cobra equipment, it did not make him feel better. There were 10 items yet only 6 men.
As the team fell into silence, Minnie could see that there was a story to the loses and decided to leave them alone. After a few minutes other teams started to arrive. The football team, the soccer team, parties you would expect. Later on, more unusual teams started to appear. The chess club, the volunteer club people others did not expect to survive. It became clear to many that their original statuses did not matter anymore. Anyone could become strong with effort. A weak nerd like Sean would now be able to beat Drew in a hand wrestle match since he but all his stats into strength.
Most people came back with only 4 or 5 members. What surprised most people was the 3 teams that were randomly made. Each of these teams had 8 or 9 people left. It was a serious slap to the face to the people who had dumped them for being the weak link. Many of the teams did not make it back. 82 parties left the auditorium but only 53 parties came back and only a whopping 30 % of these parties had 6 or more people left.
After the 53rd parties arrived, the system messaged everyone again.
~Ding~
~ Area Message~
~Congratulations survivors. You have all done well and will be awarded as such.
~ You will be getting your main class. This has been decided through your role in the team.
~You will also gain a start up kit which will help you get accustomed to the world outside the tutorial.
~ You are also provided with Mana and Elemental books that will help you learn how to use mana. They will help you but the way you use it is your choice.
~Along with learning your elemental, you will gain an affinity with your element
~ You will also be awarded experience for beating the dungeon.
~ 1st place party gains 10 000 exp each, 2nd place 8 000 exp each, 3rd place 7 000 exp each, 4 - 10 5 000 exp, 11- 25 place 2 000 exp and the rest gets 1 000 exp.
~ You will have free reign of the area until further notice.
As everyone read the notice, murmurs of wonder started to occur again. Erin felt a familiar sound of thousand of notifications entering his ears.
~Ding~
~ You have gained 10 000 exp
~ you have obtained a spatial ring
~ Your affinity for [Light] and [Wind] have been unlocked
~You have been given the [Ranger] class
~ You have received 3 skills relating to [Ranger]
~ You have received the [Mana for Dummies], [Light casting for Dummies] and [Wind casting for dummies] books which can be found in your spatial ring
~To observe items in ring, say [Observe]
Erin quickly examine his ring.
Erin's Ring Level E +
A spatial ring with enough space to fit a closet worth of things. Non living things only.
Erin looked at the description with almost the same enthusiasm as Sean but instead of being excited at the connection to light novels, he was more interested about the science behind the ring. The calculations, research and resources needed to do such a feet is unimaginable. Before Erin distracted himself more, he looked inside the ring to observe its materials. Inside there was three 3 books, a few gold, silver and copper coins, some armor and a bow and arrow. Erin smiled as he saw these items. After examining all of them, he brought up his status since he had not viewed it in a while.
Erin Silvers Species: Human Age: 16 Level: 11 ( 11 460 more exp to level up)
Title: GoblinSlayer (Strength increases by 30% when fighting against goblins)
Class: Ranger Job: None
Att: Wind, Light Cons: 19 Mana: 1532
Ag: 32 Str: 17 Int: 19 Rec: 18 Def: 17 Wis: 32 Lck: 17
Points: 50
Light affinity 35% Wind affinity 50%
Skills:
Stealth lvl 12
Examine lvl 11
Wind casting: lvl 1
Eagle eye lvl 1
When using this skill, your accuracy increases by a certain amount.
Basic Archery lvl 1
(P) Agility increases by 50% when using a ranged weapon (Yes, Spears are ranged weapons.)
Equipment
Enhanced Chitin Spear (Equipped)
Black iron armor level E-
Black iron boots level E-
Dull Bow level E-
standard arrow x (30)
While looking at his status, he began to wonder if he should allocate his points some where. Before he could really think about it, he heard the ding coming from his group chat.
SnowLoversFairyPrince: WHY!!!
MarvinCarvinYourMom2Night: Damn it.
ItsJess: Really....?
ErinBerry: What's up?
WillAgainstCorruption: Must be their classes. Think about it, Sean was hyping up white knights as if they were gods and he was preparing to get this godly class but what are the chances that he would become one? and Everyone else probably also wanted to become knights too because their 'cool' but what are the chances that is going to happen either. Probability: unlikely
ItsJess: When I heard that we were going to get a class that fits our role I thought I would get cheerleader or top beauty not Bard! What even is a Bard?!
JaredIsAwesome: Um they have a description of your class if you want to read about it.....its called google search.
ErinBerry: Are those even considered classes?
MaryEvans16: Well I like my class. I am a Cleric!
ErinBerry: Congrats Mary! I am a Ranger.
WillAgainstCorruption: If I am not wrong, our classes are pretty similar. I am a Rogue.
JaredIsAwesome: I am a Fighter haha.
MFerns36: I hope Sean does not cry about this. I am a Paladin.
SnowLoversFairyPrince: Minnie! You stole my probability. System! You accidentally gave me the wrong class. I said White Knight not Mage!
MarvinCarvinYourMom2Night: At least you are not a meat shield. I searched up Guardians thinking it was some kind of cool thing but its just a guy with a shield. That's it.
ErinBerry: But you can be our guy with a shield.
MarvinCarvinYourMom2Night: You jinxed me Erin
ErinBerry: :P
JaredIsAwesome: I don't understand why you guys are complaining. From what I can tell these classes fit you all pretty well.
SnowLoversFairyPrince: Then why did I put all my stats into strength?! I should have just put them in intelligence.
ErinBerry: Well its not too late to started now.
SnowLoversFairyPrince: Haha Your a riot.
ItsJess: Hey whats William doing?
Suddenly everyone turned to William who was reading the mana for dummies book.
"I think he is reading" Sean answered.
"He has got the right idea. Before we are pulled into another dungeon or another dungeon comes to us, we should learn how to use mana. Especially you Sean the White Mage" Erin said with a mischievous smile as he pulled out his own book.
"Hmm White Mage, that doesn't sound half bad."
For the next few hours the 8 read and read and read and their eyes were enlightened on somethings. Mana was always on earth. It was slowly forming in the atmosphere until it was strong enough to create a warp in the universe. This warp caused new creature to appear and previous creatures to mutate. These creatures were drawn to mana sinks known as dungeons where they would inhabit and grow until they dry the dungeon out and cause havoc.
Like animals, humans also change but their change is watched carefully by the system. They can harness the pure forms of theses energies found in elements found on earth. To harness these energies, one must have an affinity with them.
Within the elemental castings for dummies, there was a meditation ritual seen. One must practice it in order to open a gate between the elemental spirits and their own.
Erin had already gained a connection with the elementals but once he started to meditate, the connection grew and soon, his body began to glow again but this time, it was a mix of grey and white with the white being mostly hidden.
Other parties were trying out the items and trading gear when suddenly they saw Erin. It did not take them long to connect book meditation and mana glow. They rushed to get their books and harness the powers the system had given them what seems like ages ago.
Everyone was worried that the system would arrive too soon but the system took its time. They would not hear again from it in 2 days.
After Erin easily released his mana, It took William 4 hours to release his. Unlike Erin, William's aura was a blackish color which matched his attribute. When he opened his eyes and saw this, he smiled coolly.
"Now this is much more interesting." William said with a smile as he continued to meditate.
After William, Minnie released her red aura about a few minutes later.
Jared released his yellow aura an hour later followed by Sean, Mary with a blue aura, Marvin and Jessica.
It took others another day or so before many of them were able to release even a bit of an aura. Mr Smith looked at the large auras coming from team Gladiator with envy. His black aura started to leak as he fell out of concentration.
The anger and disappointment he felt was growing by the day. In just two days he went from being able to hold down the entire school body to not being respected by his own teammates. Anybody can be somebody in this new world and he hated it.
Instead of putting the blame on his own incompetence and bias, he set his anger on something else.