"Ahem! Let's do this!"
Ashu took one of the needles from Kalor's
outstretched hand. He was having second thoughts, but
decided to do it anyway.
"Owww..." muttering painfully, he pressed his bleeding finger
on the badge.
The moment he did that, the badge started glowing brightly.
As
it faded, Ashu saw that the badge
was wreathed in whitish blue wisps...
"Oooh, why did it become whitish blue?"
"That's the colour of mana...this badge is advanced stuff... we
humans can't hope to decipher its functioning. It shows your
status to you, which can't be seen by others. The matter of
using appraisal is different though."
"I see..." Ashu nodded with a look of understanding on his face.
Everyone of them had finished and were sitting with impatient
looks.
Kalor smiled at them, his brown hair fluttering ever so
slightly, and asked,
"Who wanna go first? Just imagine light
coming out from the badge, no need to even say anything. Or
just say status, if you need to focus."
Ashu said, "Ok, here goes nothing."
He tried concentrating and visualised light coming out from the
badge, much like the holograms he had seen in Sci-fi movies
with Mino.
Very soon, the badge started glowing, which earned a
compliment from Kalor.
"Oh! You didn't even need to say anything!"
Ashu Gupta
Age: 19
Race: Human
Class: Wall
Class bonus: Gives a 150% boost in defensive stats and a 50%
boost in vitality and boosts the gains in those stats too.
Lv: 20
Exp: 0/3750
PSRT: 78
SSTR: 20
VIT: 180
PDEF: 250
SDEF: 75
AGI: 90
MATK: 68
MDEF: 250
Affinities:
Fire: FF, Electricity: E, Water: A, Plant: B, Earth: SS, Wind: B
Mana: S, Netheron: FF, Astra: B, Light: C , Dark: E
Skills/Techniques:
Invincible Stand Lv1
Auto triggers. The user becomes capable of withstanding a
single killing blow. Cooldown: 7 days
Kalor's eyes had turned into saucers after hearing them.
"So, how is it?" Ashu felt somewhat strange, because to him,
something like a status screen was surreal and unimaginable.
He didn't know the standards here, so he doesn't really know
whether he is above or below average.
"Ok let me sort a few things out. You have a special class."
"WH---" All of them gasped at once.
"Then, even without the boosts from the class, you have pretty
high stats, so I'm sure you have trained hard."
"Yeah... I did train hard... but how does training affect us?"
"Training makes you stronger and increases your stats. You
gain exp from training. You grow stronger. If you train in early years of your life, you get more stats. So you have a better start than someone who didn't exercise from a young age."
Ashu made a bitter face as it reminded him of Mino.
"But how do I know whether I am strong not?" Ashu asked, his
face laden with curiosity.
"Yes, let me tell you that. Considering your level, you are way
above the commoners and on par with the top prodigies and...
Ahem! We need to continue!"
It seemed like Kalor was going to
launch himself into a dull, dry speech, but managed to keep
himself in check.
"Umm, I will be the next one!" Maina shouted, full of spirit.
She too had seen her fair share of movies to summon the
status screen silently by imagination only.
Maina Nameno
Age: 19
Race: Human
Class: Photon mancer
Class Bonus: 15% reduced cost to use light spells.
Lv: 19
Exp: 122/3500
PSTR: 77
SSTR: 28
PDEF: 79
SDEF: 30
VIT: 110
AGI: 103
MATK: 119
MDEF: 135
Affinities:
Fire: D, Water: F, Wind: A, Earth: C, Electricity: E, Plant: B
Mana: B, Netheron: FFF, Astra: SS, Light: SS, Dark: FFF
Skills/Techniques:
Critical Boost Lv1
Increases damage dealt by Critical hits by 3%
Titles:
The Otherworlder (No added effect)
"SS Astra affinity... and also an ordinary class by default..."
Kalor widened his eyes in shock.
But the next moment as if he was struck with a late realisation,
his face changes shades.
"T-the otherworlder...?! What's this!"
"W-wh-wh-what? I-I d-don't know anything!"
Maina exclaimed
fearfully, hugging herself.
"Explain what's the meaning of this, right now!" Kalor shouted
with a voice enough to shake the whole village!
"Fucking shit..." Ashu facepalmed.
"Whahappen?" Amene looked at Ashu from the corner of her
eye, not taking her gaze off Kalor as she whispered that.
"Ugh... the thing is that... there are titles too. I saw my titles
section showing 'The Otherworlder' and so decided not to read
it out to avoid suspicion. But this gal had to ruin it all. I guess
she didn't check the status screen herself before reading it out."
"Damn...the cat's outta the bag... now a whole world of
explanations await..."
A tired look replaced Amene's prior
curious look. She felt like punching Maina, but reined in her
desires.
[This damned girl!]
On the flip side, she was genuinely
impressed by Ashu's levels of caution. She felt tempted to ask,
"Is Mino as cautious as you?"
"Sometimes he is more cautious and sometimes he is half not
as cautious as me..." Ashu replied, his sentence ended with his
empty voice.
[Ah shit... how the fuck I could act in such a insensitive
manner...]
Amene immediately chided herself.
"Okay... let's finish taking a look at the stats. Then I have
something thing to give to you people. After that, please come
off clean. Or you will be the ones to get into a boatload of shit..."
Kalor was clearly exasperated.
"So, Mr. Kalor, what's the name of this world?"
"Huh? Oh, I can tell you that. It's called Delome."
"Delome... ok..." Ashu held the tip of his chin with his hand, lost
in deep thought.
Royo came forward and just muttered, "Status" then he began
reading them out.
Royo Miles
Age: 19
Race: Human
Class: Warrior
Class Bonus: STR doubles if no weapon/CQC blunt weapon
equipped
Lv: 19
Exp 1892/3500
PSTR: 252 (126)(x2)
SSTR: 48 (24) (x2)
PDEF: 97
SDEF: 32
VIT: 130
AGI: 97
MATK: 50
MDEF: 48
Affinities:
Fire: A, Water: C, Wind: A, Earth: B, Electricity: A, Plant: B,
Mana: S, Netheron: B, Astra: B, Light: B , Dark: FF
Skills/Techniques:
Warrior's Call Lv1
Boosts damage output increased by 2%, boosts AGI by 3%
"Ahahahaha... your team is turning out to be very well
balanced!" A delightful grin spread across Kalor's face.
"...Status..."
Amene summoned the interface without any delay or a single
word.
Amene Stadfer
Age: 18
Race: Human
Class: Hunter
Class Bonus: Deals monsters 200% damage. Trapping/Binding
moves have 1.5x the effect with 10% less cost.
Lv 19
Exp: 999/3500
PSTR: 80
SSTR: 27
PDEF: 69
SDEF: 29
VIT: 105
AGI: 133
MATK: 91
MDEF: 100
Affinities:
Fire: C, Water: D, Wind: B, Earth: B, Electricity: F, Plant: A,
Mana: SS, Netheron: C, Astra: D, Light: F , Dark: A
Skills/Techniques:
Sense Presence Lv1
Senses presence of creatures in a small radius. Whether
enemy will be able to conceal presence with it's hide presence
skill of same level depends on various factors such as natural
territory, understanding of the functioning of the skill etc.
"A hunter? Insanely useful class, no gainsaying. Also... a 'A'
affinity of Dark..."
At this point, Kalor had already
stopped being surprised at every single thing.
But the greatest surprise still awaited him.
"Alright Warret, your turn." Royo nudged him.
Taking in a deep breath, Warret summoned his status screen.
Warret Lawkin
Age: 18
Race: Human
Class: Paladin
Class Bonus: Light based spells, defensive and protective, have
15% more effect on you if cast by others and when cast by you on others.
Lv 21
Exp: 311/5000
PSTR: 110
SSTR: 35
PDEF: 121
SDEF: 31
VIT: 136
AGI: 115
MATK: 110
MDEF: 121
Affinities:
Fire: A, Water: D, Wind: B, Earth: B, Electricity: A, Plant: E,
Mana: A, Netheron: FFF, Astra: ? , Light: SSS , Dark: FFF
Skills/Techniques:
Regeneration Lv1
Regenerates 0.00009% health per second
Can't regenerate severed parts.
"A question mark in Astra affinity" Amene raised her eyebrows.
"Ah, this boy here is full of mysteries." Kalor remarked.
"Come off clean." Ashu narrowed his eyes as he said this.
"Oh my, are you threatening me? Well, I'm not scared. And of
course, I'll explain it to you. Paladin is a normal class, but very
few people have it because of the requirements. Also, SSS
affinity in light is extremely rare."
Kalor voiced this out loudly and then,
"And a question mark in Astra can only mean one
thing..." muttered under his breath.
"Sorry, as for question marks in affinity, I dunno... you have to
go to the capital city to seek answers."
Kalor lied through his
teeth, shaking his head as if ignorant.
"So, what are we gonna do now?" Maina elbowed Amene,
trying to earn some answers from her.
"Now that you know that we are from another world, what do
you think is the best course of action for us to get familiar with everything?" Amene
looked at Kalor warily.
"Here's something I want to give to you." Kalor ignored Amene
as if she hadn't said anything, and pointed to a bunch of brown
coloured scrolls on the table.
"They are?" Naturally, everyone was curious and Warret asked
what everyone wanted to.
"A skill scroll. Very few skills can be learnt with the help of
scrolls. This one is language comprehension. Go ahead, open
the scroll and touch it."
"For free? Unexpected, isn't it?" Ashu asked.
"Ashu! Why are you being suspicious of Kalor when he's
helping us!" Warret glared at Ashu with an indignant expression.
"Hehe... mind of a businessman, well said. Pay me back 250
lize."
Kalor chuckled, looking somewhere far away.
"Lize?"
"Our currency. By the way, what do you want to do here? Get
familiar, is it? Well then, you should go to Salred town and
reunite with your friends. Maybe ask the chief in that town, he's more knowledgable than me..."
finishing his words with a soft
smile, Kalor closed his eyes, as if remembering some good
memories.
Then he shifted his gaze towards the scrolls and
pointed to the scrolls.
"Umm yeah." Amene gingerly walked up to the table and
opened the scroll. Skimming her eyes through the contents she
couldn't understand at all, she thought,
[This old man is shrewd.
Thank god I am not the only quick witted one here, Ashu will
have my back too.]
The text in the scroll started glowing, and Amene paled. She
was having flashbacks of the activation of the teleportation
scroll event.
"Ah, no need to get nervous young lady!" Kalor was grinning
widely. Maina was staring at Amene intensely, waiting for
something to happen.
The text turned into white light and started swirling around.
Soon, it entered Amene's hand.
She instantly received a prompt.
[ understand the speech in all languages.>] "Wow..." Amene was genuinely impressed. Hoisting her hand upwards, she gave the others a thumbs up. One by one, the entire party learnt the skill. Once they had finished, Kalor told them, "Now, I will arrange a carriage to the next city for you guys. You guys have gotten a headstart, but no need to thank me since you will be repaying me for those scrolls. Learning the script is entirely up to you." Warret walked up to Kalor and bowed respectfully, "Thank you a lot for the help. We will remember this favour." "Ahaha... Please remember my name, I'll appreciate that. Now, let's go." Kalor walked out of the room. By the time he had left the room, the ones inside came back to their senses and started following him.