Fract reached into a side pocket of his pack, rifling around for a bit before retrieving his ID.
Name: Fract
Gender: Male
Age: 19
[How'd they know my age? Or my name? Did I even tell the clerk?]
Well, of course, now it was skill test time.
After exiting the town (and getting another peek at the magic demo) he went a ways towards the forest he had appeared in. After speed-reading the scroll in 24 seconds, the entire thing crumbled to dust, just like the receptionist said it would. Immediately his mind was flooded with information, as if he'd studied the spell for a decade. He held up his hands, took a deep breath, and concentrated on his palms. A blue-ish ball of mana gathered in front of him, becoming the size of a marble.
After some experimentation, the mana ball could:
1. Detonate
2. Expel bits of itself
3. Merge with other balls
4. Be tossed a fair ways away, despite its lack of mass whatsoever.
A shame it couldn't be finely controlled to float around, but he'd probably learn it on his journey towards...
Actually, now that he thought about it, he never set a big goal for himself. Sure, the new world was cool and all, but he'd acclimate pretty quickly, and then he wouldn't have anything to do. The only things he really wanted to do was relax, and maybe exploit the world itself. Way back when, before he got himself ran over, he read books, wrote some short stories, went to parties, but most importantly, play games. And nothing felt better than taking advantage of broken game mechanics to absolutely dominate others.
Fract absentmindedly picked up the other two scrolls, using both. After testing out both of those spells, he built himself a shoddy dirt golem the size of a child. After ordering the golem to cast a single mana ball spell the size of a fist, it collapsed, running out of mana.
[I can see why these are so obsolete now. It can barely do anything on its own, even though I used all my mana just to make a marble sized crystal.]
He dug into the collapsed golem, pulling out the crystal. It no longer shone with the mana it once had. He tossed it into his pack. Mana crystals were easier to charge than make, and one would save 50% mana when recharging instead of creating, so he figured it might sell for a bit of money. He munched on some crackers and cheese as he made his way back to the town. Fract needed money, primarily, and a basic grasp of whatever ranking system this universe had if he wanted to get rich enough to not care about finances anymore.
Nearby, on a poster inside the Guild Office, was a poster, detailing the level system. Stone, Copper, Bronze, Iron, Steel, Blacksteel, Adamantite, and Manatite. Also, everybody in each level were ranked from 1 to whatever the lowest was. Simple enough. He strolled over to the front desk like yesterday, noticing the adventurers sitting at various tables nearby.
"Hello again, Fract. Ready to sign up?"
[Did the Orb™ tell her my name or something? I definitely didn't mention it before...]
"Yes. I've gotten to grips with the scrolls you gave me so I should be able to complete quests as an adventurer."
"Freelancer."
"That's what I said."
"Well, 'll register you at Stone Level. Meanwhile, you can take a look at any contracts up on the board."
Upon the board was a jumbled mess of random quests posted on top of each other, overlapping. Most were subjugation jobs, involving the elimination of goblins, slimes, and wolves, scattered around forests, caves, or plains. He picked a random goblin contract and got it approved by the front desk.
...
Sherry stood at the front desk as always. Being the receptionist of the Guild Office, she had encountered many strange people over the years, but Fract topped her list. He wore strange clothing, even for a traveller, and he picked 2 non-offense scrolls and an inefficient offensive scroll. Then he immediately went to fight goblins without so much as preparation.
The Orb™ was way brighter than it normally should be, bathing the whole room in light when Fract touched it. Normally it would merely cover the desk when a competent mage made contact with the magic-detecter. And innate attributes usually were easy to figure out: the most difficulty anyone had ever experienced deciphering it was the Efficient attribute a couple years ago, held by the Kingdom's leading beauty, or something along those lines. The ability, 80% mana-use reduction for all spells, propelled that girl into the big leagues. And even then, it was discovered in a day.
Well, maybe Fract took second. Crystal, bless her name, definitely took first. A freelancer with more power than the emperor was not something that should exist in the first place.
She shrugged. Another freelancer was making their way up to the front desk. Back to work.
...
The cave the goblins resided in had torches all along the walls, a crude totem set up outside to warn people to stay away.
Goblins were known for their feisty nature and tendency to gang up on intruders, so Fract figured he'd fill up the mana crystal he created earlier and implant it in a new dirt golem. Small mana balls should be enough to eliminate goblins.
When he retrieved it, however, the crystal shone brightly, as if it had never been used. He could feel the energy filling its insides. When he tried to deposit more mana, the crystal absorbed it, growing in size. When he withdrew a little, the light from the crystal dimmed, only to return in full force a couple minutes later.
[I thought crystals were only supposed to work like conventional batteries. What I have is more like a Mana Generator.]
The rate at which mana replenished within the crystal was faster than that of Fract, even. So it couldn't be drawing mana from its surroundings. This could only mean one thing:
[It's free mana. I'm getting something from nothing.]