'Mr. Elori!'
A loud voice pierced out from the small crowd wandering around a giant building. The natural light of the sun pierced through the glass walls, illuminating every nook and cranny of the room. Littered around the large room were many giant ships like objects. Each surrounded by a glass box with a small metal description card on the bottom, indicating its uses and history.
'Mr. Elori! Mr. Elori' The young voice repeated, as a boy around the age of 8 came tugging at the teacher's jumper.
'What is that?' The boy questioned, dragged his teacher over to a particular display, jabbing repetitively at the glass.
Elori took a quick glance over at the metal description and smiled,
'That, Jacob, is the first Industrial Airship ever created.' He explained, picking up the kid and letting him ride on his shoulder so he can take a better look.
'The first one ever?' Jacob repeated in awe.
'Mhm, 200 years ago. A man named Kiran Sornati invented the first-ever airship.' Elori explained.
'Sornati? Like the one who created that ship as well?' Jacob gasped, pointing at another ship across the room.
'Yep, the very same,' He slowly knelt down and let Jacob climb off his shoulders.
'Wow! He must be really smart!'
Elori chuckled, 'The smartest man that was ever born. You would've known this if you weren't sleeping in class all the time.' He jokingly hit the boy's head.
'It wasn't my fault class is boring,' Jacob sulked, looking away, 'If only we get more school trips like this.'
'Hahaha, I know buddy. Come on now, your friends are all waiting for you over there,'
He gently pushes Jacob towards the direction of his friends and glances over to give a quick roll count.
'Marc.' A gentle voice sounded behind him causing him to turn around swiftly.
'Why don't you go enjoy yourself a bit too, I can handle things here. It's not often our school can afford to go to these high-end museums. We might never be able to come here again. I'll keep watch of the kids. Go have fun. You deserve it.' A young blonde hair woman smiled, the light reflecting off her large round glasses
'Valina,'
'Go on now,' She begins shoving him away from the kids.
'Guys! Mr. Elori and Miss Soreath are being all lovey-dovey again!' A distant voice called out, causing all the heads to turn their direction and lingering whispers of cheeky snickers arose.
'Oh, come on, cut it out, guys! For the last time, there's nothing going on between Miss Soreath and I,' Marc grumbled, facing the kids while putting his hands on his hips.
'Mr. Elori! Mr. Elori!' A voice called out from the crowd, and a hand rose up.
'Yes, what is it Loran?' He looked towards the direction of the voice.
'Does that mean you have cooties now?'
A small echo of gasps resonated out, causing many to look back at the teacher with eyes of worry and sorrow before running in all directions laughing their heads off.
'That little…' Marc grumbled, rubbing his forehead in frustration.
A small chuckle sounded behind him as he turned around,
'Go on Mr. Elori, you deserve a break.' Valina whispered, urging him to go.
'Fine.' Marc sighed, 'Take this and this,' He handed her a clipboard and a bag.
'Do a roll count in 5 mins, and the first-aid bag in case something happens. I'll count on you now, Miss Soreath.'
'Will do,' She received the items and gave a small salute.
Suddenly, as Marc took his first step away from the group, the lights of the giant building began flickering and trembling with the floor beneath them shaking violently causing many of the students to lose their balance and go crashing on the ground.
'Earthquake! Get down!' Marc exclaimed, instantly dropping down to his stomach whilst gesturing to others to do the same.
All the children got on their knees in panic, their arms and knees trembling. Eyes darted around the room, everyone silent and alert.
'To the ground now!' Marc shouted, looking over at his class, finding a few still standing still, holding onto display racks and the building support pillars for safety. Their knees were definitely trembling as the bottom half of their bodies were dangling just above the ground while the top half of their bodies were supported up by the racks and pillars.
'Oh goddamn,' He muttered, slowly getting up.
He took a deep breath and bolted over to the remaining kids.
'Come on, take a deep breath.' He patted their back and picked them up while slowly made them lay down. 'Good job, now just stay like this for a bit. Remember to take deep breaths.' He said gently, while also laying alongside them.
All of a sudden, the floor began trembling even more as the lights above them were shaking more so than ever, it flew around its single bolt on the roof like a pendulum. The floor started cracking open as the kids laid on the floor with their eyes closed, many calling out for the mothers while others were simply crying their eyes out.
'Everyone, we're going to be okay! The earthquake will be over soon, then we'll be going home! Just hang in there for a bit longer!' Marc shouted out, attempting to reassure the children even though he himself wasn't too sure the words coming out of his mouth were the truth.
'Let's play a game. We'll go in a circle. We've going to start counting one by one!' He continued, hoping an activity would at least divert their attention to something else. 'I'll start. 1'
He looks over to his left, making eye contact with Jacob who was lying beside him.
'2.'
'3.'
'4.'
The panic slowly washed away as the group pushed the daunting thought to the back of their heads and focused. While the earthquake was slowly easing up as the swaying of the ground lessened.
…
'143.'
'144.'
'Is it over?' Marc wondered, looking out the window to see the ground not moving as much as before.
Suddenly without warning, a loud ringing in his ear caused him to jerk his head down in pain. It had felt like someone had just pierced his eardrum. Looking around, everyone around him were also covering their ear in pain as well, some even writhing on the floor as if having a seizure.
And just like how the ringing came, it disappeared within seconds.
Marc slowly opened his eyes and sat up in a panic.
'What just happened?'
The intense ringing that he felt and heard had just simply vanished. He looked down and instantly noticed a blue transparent screen appear in his vision. Slowly looked away, he found the screen following the direction he was looking.
Status
Name: Marcus Elori
Age: 25
Sex: Male
Occupation: Elementary School Teacher
Title: The Gatekeeper (Unranked)
Class: Interchangeable
Level: 1
HP: 10/10
MP: 50/50
STR: 13
INT: 26
VIT: 10
AGI: 12
STA: 10
RES: 9
LUK: 11
Skills:-
Status Check:
Cost: 0 MP
Close Gate:
Cost: 1 MP
Morph: (Lvl 1)
Cost: Varies
Open Gate: (Lvl 1)
Cost: Varies
Sacrifice:
Cost: Varies
Call of the King:
MP Cost: Varies
'What the?'
'S-Sir…?' A small whimper of a voice called out.
He looked up to see a small girl with panic in her eyes staring at something in front of her/
'There's this blue thing everywhere I look.' She muttered, spinning her head around in confusion.
'Y-Yeah… I see it too!' Another voice called out, followed by another and another.
Marc looked over at Valina who also nodded.
'Everyone, please wait a bit. Miss Va-Soreath and I have to talk about a few things first.' He got up from the ground and slowly walked over.
The ground was now void of any cracks, seemingly like that whole ordeal was simply a dream. Even the swinging of the light above them has completely still.
'Do you see the screen too?' Marc whispered,
'Yeah, It has my name and age and everything…' She glanced at the information with concern, 'It says my title is Hunter and my class is Cleric or something… what does that mean?'
'I don't know…' Marc stares at his own status.
'Hey, Dem.' He calls one of the students closest to him, 'What does your blue screen say?'
'Uh, Status… Name… Demion Siarn… Age 8… S-S-Se-ex… Male… O-ooccuu…uh… occupantaton… student.. Uh, Title. Hunter…Oh hunter so cool!' He suddenly stops reading in awe.
'You can go back now,' Marc chuckled, ruffling the kid's hair.
'Siena, what's your title?' He turned to another student,
'Also Hunter, Sir.'
'So seems like everyone has Hunter as title?' Valine interrupted.
'Seems like it.' Marc lied, still staring at his status.
'Skills?' He pondered, checking every line of the screen with great interest. 'What does…'
He taps on the first skill listed as a new screen pops up with the words:
Status Check:
Cost: 0 MP
Description: Check other's statuses
'Oh?' He rubs his chin, 'How do I use it?'
'[Status Check]' He chanted in his mind, instantly enabling him to look around and see the blue screen of others floating next to them.
'Marc? You okay?' Valina's voice bought him back to reality as he looked back at her.
'Uh yeah,' He muttered, using the skill on her,
Status
Name: Valina Soreath
Age: 23
Sex: Female
Occupation: Elementary School Teacher
Title: Hunter (Ranked: E)
Class: Cleric
Level: 1
HP: 10/10
MP: 25/25
STR: 6
INT: 10
VIT: 7
AGI: 8
STA: 10
RES: 12
LUK: 12
Skills:-
Small Heal: (Lvl1)
MP Cost: 5 MP
Mass Small Heal: (Lvl 1)
MP Cost: 10 MP
Remove Ailment: (Lvl 1)
MP Cost: 5 MP
Mass remove Ailment lv1: (Lvl 1)
MP Cost: 10 MP
'Let's head back to school,' He closed his skilled and looked around.
Quickly gathering up all the students and leaving the building of the museum in two straight lines, the class of 22 students and 2 teachers entered the School Supplied Hover-Bus in preparation for the journey back.
With a quick number and safety check complete, the auto-pilot system of the bus, sped towards the congested highway.
Marc sat in the front row of the bus, crossing his arm as he went over his status. He had found out that tapping the screen was unnecessary as simply thinking the commands could suffice.
'[Expand Title Description].' He tested out, wanting to take a closer look at this 'Gatekeeper' Title.
A small screen opened up.
Title: Gatekeeper (Unranked)
Description: The ultimate protector/ruler of the gates and the residents who reside within them.
Ability: Impossible to gain animosity from gate residents.
'Gate?' Marc muttered aloud in confusion before snakingly looked over at Valina and checked her status,
'[Hunter Title Description]'
Title: Hunter (Rank E)
Description: Exterminators of monsters.
Ability: Soul Collector. Collect the souls of monsters and increase own stats from it.
'Monsters?'
The more Marc read into it, the more questions arose in his mind.
What monsters? What residents? What gate?
'..rc. Marc. Marcus,' Valina's voice shook him awake.
'Where?' He rubbed his eyes and yawned,
'We've nearly arrived,' She whispered, nodding out the window at the familiar scenery of the neighborhood a few blocks away from school.
'Oh,' He yawned, stretching his arms.
Within a few minutes, the bus, docked outside the front gate of the school, swarmed around by worried parents and guardians.
'Everybody listen up. When you leave the bus, head into our classroom so we can mark you off before leaving with your parents. Is that understood?' Marc explained, standing at the front of the bus.
'Yes!' The choir of voices replied in unison.
'Ok, left side off first.' He gestured to the left side of the bus and made his way out of the bus.
Explaining the situation to the parents outside, they all quickly headed into the small classroom.
'Are you all okay?' A sudden deep voice called out from the corridor.
'Principal, Mr. Ashton, Mr. Edagen.'
The three staff members jogged over to the group inspecting the children one by one as they walked past,
'Nothing serious happened, right?' The principal breathed out a sigh of relief after seeing no major injuries.
'Everything's alright now,' Marc confirmed, nodding his head as he let the students into the classroom.
'We'll have a staff meeting after all the children are sent home,' The Principal patted Marc on the shoulder while smiling at the children before heading back through the corridor, towards the staff room.
After all the formalities and the students were free to head home, Marc and Valina quickly cleaned up the mess left behind in the classroom and hurried their way into the staff room.
'Marcus. Valina. Glad you could make it so quickly,' The principal smiled gesturing them to the two empty spots left in the room.
Quickly sitting down at the seats, the principal began to speak.
'As you all know, the earthquake which occurred today was unique compared to any we've had before. It has seemed, according to the news, every single country has been hit with the exact same earthquake causing many people to see a blue-like panel in front of their eyes.' He began, 'My question is, how will this new 'ability' as you may call it, affect the future education of our students?'
He looks around at the 13 teachers sat in front of him, letting the thought sink in.
'Hence, we as teachers must explore the possibilities and capabilities of this 'ability', in order to judge if it is something we must be wary of in the future or something we can possibly adapt into our daily lives.'
Suddenly, a small creak sounded from outside the door, as it slowly slid open, revealing the figure of a small child, nervously clenching at the door frame.
'Jacob?' Marc looked in surprise, 'Why are you still here? Where are your parents?'
'Mr. Elori,' He points behind him, towards the playground. 'Mommy disappeared into a weird hole.'
'A hole?' Confusion could be seen on every teacher's face. The school playground doesn't have a hole capable of fitting an adult, it was against school safety and regulation.
'Jacob, what do you mean a hole?' He knelt down to face the child,
'A big circle that wiggles appeared and mommy went poof.' Jacob described, tears falling down his face.
'Come, show me.' Marc stood up and held out his hand.
'Ok,' Jacob nodded, leading the way towards the playground.
To their surprise, a giant grey-looking portal loomed over the playground, casting a shadow over the west side of the school building.
'What in the world?' The teachers gasped in shock,
'Your mother went in there?' Marc looked over at the boy who nods in reply.
'Are we going in?' Valina asked,
'We'll need to. His mother's in there.' Marc replied with a grim look on his face.
'I'll go with you,' Valina offered, her hands clearly shaking.
'Wait. Can't we just wait for authorities to arrive? I'll call them now.' One of the teachers suggested, taking out her phone.
'No. It'll take over 3 hours for the closest police station to even arrive. It might be too late by then.' Marc silently calculated.
He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and quickly walked through the portal alongside Valina.
*Ding*
[Eliminate all hunters within the gate.
Completion: 1/2
Reward: Exit]