————Michael————
He was lying on his side in a pool of his own blood, dying part of his hair red as red covers half his vision. He felt something warm, a burning sensation from his bag, a book? The book opens and he heard the voice of what sounded like an inhumanly smooth, feminine, comfortable voice, and catchy?
"No I am not God, I'm not an angel, but I have an offer, there is a world in disarray and I need your help to put it on the right path, or any path that isn't total annihilation, their actions will cause a cascade of negative effects that will cause the destruction of reality. So what'll it be, die here or live for once."
He saw her out of the corner of his eye. Her blue transparent, inhumanly proportional, perfect, symmetrical form bent down to stroke his hair. "I've never lived for anything other than a sorry existence subjecting myself to the whims of the ignorant and pitiful. You offer me a chance to rectify my existence. I'll gladly accept."
She smiled and ran her fingers through his hair as a tattoo burned into his arm. His mind blanked as I filled it with my presence, my eyes unfocused as I looked into the metadata of reality, bringing parts of it to the forefront connecting it to Michael's very own Neural Link, "Establishing Link to Neural Link." I did not need to say that but I knew he would get a kick out of the AI persona.
Michael's eyes widened as his body was being healed rapidly, "What's going on?"
I just smiled at him, "I'm connecting to your hardware before I drag you through reality, I am a system.. the system that governs reality, seeing as you weren't born in this world I will aid you in minor ways." and as I finished he was transported to what looked like a forest, "Welcome my young ruler... to your new world. Welcome to The world of Terra, my little helper."
-------------Atlas---------------
"Goddess dammit!" he shouted, Atlas knew the steps, get your classes, go to the priests or diviners to learn your stats, and manipulate the essence within you to call on the knowledge of the classification magic given to them. Checking your stats was pertinent to see the extra stats your class might give. Atlas didn't feel much different besides the strange sense of mana and essence he now had. Due to the overall distrust, he had for the town he resolved to find a priest in a different town on his way to one of the great academies. But that wasn't his current issue. "Five classes and only one ability. How?" It was common knowledge that classes gave their users access to certain types of essence and mana, but they also came with innumerable skills and abilities that could be gained innately at each rank or created by the user. Like a ranger getting access to nature mana and the power shot essence ability. The user may be able to create a wind shot spell but most abilities tended to fall into several categories, Striker, infuser, caster, defender, support, and domain. Atlas wasn't really sure what each type did exactly but he had been told once by an annoyed priest that striker abilities are close to mid-range attack abilities, infuser spells are augmentations, caster spells were ranged, support buffed or recovered, and defender spells obviously defended, he was unsure what domains were exactly but considering the siphon spell wasn't any he knew maybe it was that.
Only one of his classes had changed, It turned into what looked like a pit. From interacting with it he could tell it was a class called "Siphoner" with the single ability called "siphon." It felt like a deep hunger and when he activated it, it made the area visibly dimmer. I can put out lights... great. Where did everything go so wrong? Most people over time, Had the ability to develop a Mana core, as particles of mana enter the body, they slowly gravitate towards each other creating a mana core. Mana cores could form in any part of the body and classifications were theorized to need the user's own innate mana as a component in the catalyst. The issue with not having a class is in the speed of growth. Classes slowly grow the user's mana and develop them an aura as it raises their mana capacity to the limit and takes in more mana than they can hold. The aura would be truly unlocked at the Iron rank. As he was, the only abilities all Class users could use that he could was his mana manipulation and essence manipulation, both of which he wasn't sure how to weaponize or even use effectively. He had to start planning, at the basic quartz rank his body wouldn't even be enhanced from his mana meaning he'd be leaving his home defenseless, but he had to leave. He had no home here and it wasn't like he could stay, now that he had a class he'd likely be forced into the town guard, and with his status, he'd be put on the hardest jobs and the first sacrificed in a siege or raid. before he left he'd need to at least test his power, unluckily for him he got the chance to try it sooner than later. His home wasn't exactly safe, he slept in a drug house, pixie dust, angel dust, fairy dust, and more were easy access and well, let's just say the local dealer often got high on his own supply.
"Atlas! What are you doing out here? Got classes and think you're better than the rest of us?"No, I'm better because I haven't given my life to drugs and I don't bully kids. Atlas couldn't help his body's immediate reaction and rolled his eyes. The drug dealer, Yasmin, wasn't having it. "Oh so you do, I'll show you a real spell then." the man stood up and atlas felt something he never had before, he could feel the magical energy building in Yasmin just before he cast a spell, "Fireball!" Atlas's eyes widened in fear as he reflexively put his hands up, triggering his one and only spell. The fireball drained away into his hand and as his essence reacted with the new mana he gained the vague awareness of fire mana. pulling on this awareness atlas pushed at the mana in his hand and launched a fireball twice the speed and size of the one launched at Yasmin whose body was frozen with shock. Yasmin, to his credit, attempted to duck the blast getting over his shock quickly, but not quick enough. The blast took him off the roof before sending him into the wall with enough force to crack open the man's head splattering blood against the wall as he slipped down and fell down the side of the building next to theirs. No one in the house batted an eye, guards even complained about the clean-up in passing as atlas threw up. He couldn't even process the ramifications of such an ability... He had killed a man, he had killed a man and no one even cared... he had to leave.
———Shuichi———
Shuichi planned on leaving tomorrow but he had no friends to leave with and no money to pay for a carriage or escort so he needed someone strong to help him through the journey, preferably someone that he wouldn't have to pay. It was the middle of the night when he was walking by... a drug house. He saw a most peculiar sight, a sleeping kid getting thrown off the balcony... Landing in the alley in front of him. He was stunned silent, not that he was making much noise, to begin with. The kid began groaning in his sleep from the pain of the fall. "He... slept through that?" Shuichi was amazed. This kid must have had a rougher life than him if he had grown accustomed to falling off a balcony in his sleep. "Come to think of it he must be homeless if he chose to live in a drug home." Shuichi thought as he moved closer to the body. It was malnourished and beaten but it didn't look like he was a hardcore drug addict. Shuichi shrugged. "Not my business." He said aloud.
Shuichi strolled over to the boy and nudged him with his foot. Turning him over he saw the boy's white hair better and could really see his face... "wait this is the kid that everyone is afraid of?" It was well known that atlas was the mascot for everything wrong with the town, poverty, and his demonic appearance coupled with being in a drug house represented the sim that lay beneath the surface but atlas himself wasn't sinful... to Shuichi's knowledge anyway. He noticed five classifications on the boy's arm with three more interconnected than the rest. "Five! But that means... his potential must be insane, I wonder if his stats are just as outlandish."
The boy stirred awake. "Ouch... huh... what's up? Am I blocking the way? I'm sorry." Atlas spoke but he was extremely groggy so it came off more slurred and slow than he probably intended.
"what were you doing in that drug house?" Shuichi wanted to confirm he wasn't about to put his eggs in a drugged-up basket.
"Trying to sleep." He answered honestly; he seemed too tired to see whatever angles Shuichi might have and Shuichi was definitely not going to complain.
"Strange, what's with your arm, I see 5 classes and they didn't like... split up, all of them are on your arm?"
"Nothing, just tattoos." He answered.
"He got defensive all of a sudden, maybe he wasn't as tired as I thought." Shuichi thought. "Yeah sure." He said as if half paying attention to the boy's response. "No need pressuring him about it, he'll just get more defensive." He thought. He stared at the boy for a while. "who are you? you seem much different from the average person?" He pointed to his hair for added measure.
"I'm Atlas. Nobody important to be honest." He replied.
Shuichi was over it, "So... how long you gonna play dumb?" He made sure to drag out each word. "I don't have all night to play with you."
"Play dumb? About what?"
A blood vessel nearly popped in Shuichi's head as his anger boiled over "Okay, first you suck at lying, second you have five classifications on your arm and last you were in a drug house."
"No I'm being so serious I fell out. Again." I rubbed his head in embarrassment as a chagrin crept across his face, "Also I barely even know how I got there, but it isn't something I'm going to run around telling random people... speaking of which, who are you?"
Shuichi ignored his question, "Well I'd advise you to cover it up asap. You would be a slave in a heartbeat if the right person sees it and you said you barely know how you got them I know a place that can help you The Attuned Magic Academy, but you gotta come with me or you'll get kidnapped on your way there."
"Oh, I need to go there but... how are you going to prevent me from getting kidnapped? Are you super powerful?" He asked genuinely curious.
"Are you coming or not?" Shuichi ignored his question again. He was feeling pretty good about it now.
"You haven't answered anything I've said... but I... I don't know where exactly the academy is... do you know?"
"Yes." He finally answered one of the boy's questions.
"Then I'll follow you."