"Welcome Host to the Affinity System, you can simply call me System", a voice that neither sounded male nor female rang in August's head.
August knew that this was a fantasy world with elements, magic, and monsters and was already feeling the pressure of surviving in such a chaotic world but he did not expect that he was going to be given a system like what happened to some protagonists in some web novels he read during his time on Earth!
I don't know what I have done in my previous life to be blessed with such a Goldfinger but this 'System' might be able to push me on my path to power in this world" August thought.
"Can I ask a question?"
" Of course Host" the system replied.
" Can your name be changed? "
"Yes, Host"
"Then for starters let us call you Rhea and also don't call me host, just August, okay?"
Although August knew that the system was not a human being, He still wanted to establish some relationship with it and not just a master-servant relationship. perhaps sensing his intention, the system also adjusted its voice from a neutral tone into a more feminine voice and was a bit friendly this time, almost like a human.
"Hi Master August, I'm a Goldfinger that is here to assist you on your path to the peak of Sorcery and you can call me Rhea".
August had experienced so many new things today and because of that nothing seemed impossible to him now so he replied " I'll be counting on you, Rhea. Let's embark on this journey together."
"It will be my pleasure, Master August."
Rhea replied with some slight excitement in her tone.
August sighed helplessly when he heard her say 'Master' but did not say anything. He was a normal, office worker in a school. He was not used to the term 'Master' being used to refer to him.
'I guess I'd have to get used to it,' he thought.
August shifted his focus to a more pressing issue- he did not know anything about Rhea's capabilities.
"Rhea, can you explain a bit about what some of your functions are?" he asked.
"With pleasure, Master August."
Rhea explained the basic functions of the System to August which was that it was capable of storing information and data analysis, and checking his body's status but was also able to grant August the ability to extract four permanent elemental affinities from any creature or person.
In this world, every normal human being possesses some basic body attributes at birth. After years of trial and error, which had been done by generations upon generations of Sorcerers, they had finally categorized these into four different attributes: Strength, Physique, Agility, and Spirit.
Strength was primarily used to quantify a person's musculature and body strength. This attribute was very important for close combat Sorcerers. The strength attribute would affect one's base damage when using close combat weapons, and it also affected one's melee accuracy.
For an ordinary man, having 3 to 4 Strength was quite normal. An adult with 5 Strength would be considered to be quite strong.
Agility was used to quantify body synchronization, flexibility, reflexes, and balance.
Physique represents a person's health and endurance.
The minimum physique for any human is 1. If a human's physique dropped below 1, they would die.
Spirit determines a person's learning and comprehension. This attribute was especially important for Sorcerers because it decided the number of spells a Sorcerer could cast. It also made it easier for them to cast spells, as well as increased the power of their spells.
Most animals had a Spirit of 1 or 2, while creatures similar to humans would have at least a 3. If an ordinary human wanted to become a Sorcerer, they would need to have a Spirit of 21, at minimum.
After analyzing the effects of these attributes on a Sorcerer, August decided with Rhea that the most important attribute for himself currently was Spirit. Once his Spirit reached 21, he would have leapt up to the heavens, officially becoming a first-rank Sorcerer.
From the memory fragments of the body's previous owner, Ryncol, rank 0 is the preparatory stage to becoming an official first-rank sorcerer. There are 3 subdivisions; apprentice, intermediate, and elite rank 0 Sorcerer. There are millions of humans in this world and only 10% of the world's population are Sorcerers.
The only path for him to increase his Spirit was constant meditation, reading spell books and notebooks, and hearing of the experiences of other veteran Sorcerers.
However, all of this was simply within his sight but beyond his reach!
Because, in this gloomy and cruel world of Sorcerers, knowledge equalled power, and thus was hard to come by.
In this Sorcerer World, all extraordinary spellcasting skills and precious spell knowledge were monopolized by Sorcerers It was completely impossible for ordinary mortals to get access to them! Therefore, knowledge and resources were the wings for any Sorcerer to fly after their dream. Only by having both could a Sorcerer have a bright future.
Luckily for August, After confirming that he had sufficient Spirit to learn Sorcery, Ryncol managed to learn basic Sorcery from a wandering Sorcerer in exchange for granting him shelter and saving his life when he was injured in battle.
After Rhea briefed him on the basic attributes, August turned his attention to the skills and personal ability fields.
August only had two skills: Scroll Copying and Spell Reading. These two were basic skills for all Apprentice Sorcerers apprentices to copy the magic knowledge they needed for learning, the other one allowed the user to read spell books.
If an ordinary man touched a magic book without having the skill of Spell Reading, then his mind would become confused by the words, due to the supernatural force of the letters, and they would lose control of their body for a period of time. Only those, like Apprentice Sorcerers, who went through strict mind training could overcome this psychic effect, accessing the real magic knowledge hidden within the book.
First, without a doubt, his Spirit had to reach the minimum level for a Sorcerer.
For example, August's Spirit Attribute was at 7. That meant he was a wise man, being much more intelligent than ordinary people, but, in order to advance and become a first-rank sorcerer, he needed his Spirit attribute to reach 21. This simply couldn't be hastened. He would have to read a mountain of spell books to reach that level.
This meant that, after August had increased his Spirit attribute to 21, he still needed to somehow be able to construct a first-rank spell model to complete his ascension!