At some corner of the mountain near the top, four kids around seventeen were waiting, two sitting on a sofa, one on a chair, or one under a tree.
Three of those four were Erina, her friend Luna, and Daniel.
The fourth was a silent young man with short spikey brown hair wearing loose black punky clothes. His ears were pierced, and his skin was slightly dark, but his eyes were bright amber.
They'd been here for over an hour, waiting for the party's last member to arrive. The other three parties had already left, but they were still waiting for their 5th party member.
Aside from the four young ones, an additional person sat in a small open diagonal crystal canopy in the middle of a pond.
That person was Jing Rainfall, famously known by her title, Silent Death Jing.
She looked in her early thirties wearing a multilayered Eastern traditional dress. She had a bun on her head with a hairpin and ornaments, and the rest of her long hair rested behind her. Her faint blue eyes were not visible since her eyes were closed, and she was playing Guqin.
'Why is she so patient? She could at least call someone to know about the 5th party member's status,' thought Daniel, bored and frustrated. He glanced at the pond and saw her side face since only her head was visible from the crystal canopy's open sides.
But he was suddenly startled to see Senior Jing opening her eyes.
Jing stopped playing the Guqin and unhurriedly stood up while the Guqin vanished.
Everyone soon heard footsteps in this tranquil atmosphere and turned to the entry path to see Arankar and Renia coming.
"You?!" Daniel was startled, and so were Erina and Luna as they raised their eyebrows in surprise.
But Erica was pleasantly surprised. 'This is the 5th member, which means I won't have to deal with Lector!'
'How did that baldy Victor lose his son's qualification to enter this Special Rookie Branch? Hehe, whatever. It's to my benefit unless this new guy also starts behaving like Daniel and turns into a buzzing fly.'
"You may leave now," Senior Jing said to Renia with a nod.
Renia left, and Senior Jing walked into the open hall. "Come inside and sit in front of me."
Jing put five small soft mattresses out of her storage box and a bigger mattress with two cushions in front of them, on which she sat down comfortably. She leaned slightly onto a cushion and took out a long smoking pipe before puffing as some green powder burned in it.
Meanwhile, everyone had sat down on the small square mattresses and looked at her.
'Is she smoking some high-quality magic weed or what?' Ekin thought as he gulped.
Strangely, none of the smoke came towards them and magically vanished.
"Introduce yourselves," Senior Jing unhurriedly said after taking a puff. "Start with yourself, latecomer."
"Arankar Raven, nice to meet you all," Arankar said with a smile that soon turned apologetic, "And I apologize for being late."
"Erina Starwoods, It's my pleasure to meet you, senior Jing," Erina said with a graceful smile.
"Luna Raigale, I'll be in your care."
"Daniel Macrov. I am your fan, senior Jing," Daniel said admiringly. He tried his best not to look at places where he was not supposed to look, that slightly open tempting belly of senior Jing.
"Ekin Zarkin Leomostus. You can call me Ekin," Ekin said with a plain expression.
"Address me as Senior Jing. I will be your supervisor for two months," Jing said before she waved her hand and took out five pills, each flying in front of the rookies.
Arankar also saw the pill and saw its status like others.
[Level up Essence Pill]
-Effect: Increase a person's level to 10.
"Eat the essence pill, I am sure you know about the effect."
Everyone nodded as they grabbed the pill and ate it.
These pills were created to instantly reach level 10 after awakening and start their class-acquiring process. After level 10, everyone could only level up if they earned the experience by killing and completing quests. However, the most challenging part was increasing one's stats, not leveling up.
Arankar saw liquid flowing through his throat before it vanished deep into a mysterious space of his body known as the Origin Zone.
[You have reached level 10 and gained 10 status points.]
[You can start class Awakening anytime, good luck.]
"Save those ten status points and initiate the class awakening," Senior Jing instructed. "Once the list of basic class options is out, choose a class."
Everyone nodded and closed their eyes before focusing on the [ Class initiation ] tab at the top of their status panel.
[Class generating according to your aptitude…]
[Class generation completed.]
[Please choose a class from the list below.]
-> Warrior, Mage, Ranger.
There were only three basic classes, but hundreds of other classes branched out of those three classes. People became significantly powerful with each class advancement as they acquired new powers.
Moreover, those classes were truly unique because of their versatile combinations as one progressed further.
Arankar chose warrior without hesitating because he wanted to use a sword weapon as a starter, and warrior class would likely give him starting skills suitable for melee.
[Congratulations. You have gained five status points and a mystery box.]
[Congratulations. You have acquired a common-grade active skill, Boosted Strike.]
[Congratulations. You have acquired a passive skill, Level 1 Recovery.]
"If you selected your class, you should have fifteen status points and a mystery box. Open the mystery box first and tell me what you get."
Everyone opened their storage box and focused on the mystery box.
The box vanished as it opened according to Arankar's will, and he heard notifications.
[Congratulations, you have acquired a Tier-1 Epic-grade weapon, Sanguine Katana]
[Congratulations, you have acquired an Epic-grade skill, Art of Flame Blade.]
"If you are done, activate the skills you have acquired first. You will experience pain as the details of all skill's activation methods will enter your head."
Arankar saw his status and three skills blinking with a + sign beside them. He focused on the signs as all three of these skills were activated.
A slight pain arrived, but it was not enough to make him flinch. The others were also fine as they opened their eyes after learning the skills.
"I chose the ranger class. As basic skills of this class, I got Rapid Fire and Feather Fleet. From the mystery box, I got tier-1 rare-grade Dual Tiger Guns and a rare-grade skill, Roaring Thunder Cannon."
Senior Jing took a puff before saying, "Keep it short, rest of you."
"Ranger class. Tier-1 legendary-grade Dagger, common-grade Camouflage, common-grade Boosted Strike, rare-grade Shadow Swipe."
'Shadow Swipe?'
Everyone was surprised. Getting that skill meant that he had an advanced affinity, shadow!
Erina ended her brief surprise and calmly said, "Mage class. Tier-1 common-grade staff, common-grade Empowered Strike, common-grade Air-Dash, rare-grade Nature's Dome."
'Not much luck in here,' Erina internally sighed.
Luna went next as she said, "Mage class. Tier-1 rare-grade Wand, common-grade Magic Pebble, common-grade Heal, rare-grade Summon Brair Crystal Spirit."
'A summon?' Arankar was curious about summoning skills since he had seen many exotic creatures and beings summoned from them when used by people.
But not distracted by the summon skill more than necessary, Arankar spoke as it was his turn, "Warrior Class. Tier-1 epic-grade Katana, common-grade Boosted Strike, common-grade Recovery, epic-grade Art of Flame Blade."
'An epic-grade skill already?!'
Everyone was a bit jealous. After all, it was easy to get a better weapon but hard to learn and evolve your skills.
"We have two people here with the same named skill, Boosted Strike. Arankar, and Ekin. You two focus on evolving this skill to the next grade. This will be your first big goal," Jing said, taking another puff.
"Why?" Arankar said with a frown. "I would like to focus on the Art of Flame Blade. It will roughly waste fifteen to twenty days if I focus on Boosted Strike rather than this fire-attributed skill I wish to learn and master."
Jing glanced at Arankar while others were slightly taken aback.
'Looks like he got some backbone as well. So, there's only one donkey in this party. Good,' Jing thought.
'What the… Does he have a death wish?' Daniel looked at Arankar like he was an idiot. 'Wait, this is a perfect chance.'
"Arankar, didn't you learn in the academy about the same skills evolving differently on different people based on their experience of using it? Senior Jing just wants to show us and give us experience about that; It will also be a helpful experience for you," Daniel said sternly.
"I learned," Arankar said as he gave Daniel a side glance. "I learned, so I know. I am not wasting my time to entertain your knowledge. I will eventually evolve Boosted Strike, but it won't be my top priority."
"I feel the same," Ekin said with a bored expression as he raised his hand.
"Fine, do as you wish," Jing said in her usual calm and cool voice before she continued, "Now, we'll hold a small competition. You are a party but also rivals. This competition will determine your rank and the leader of the party. And if you wish to raise your rank, you simply need to have more Symphony Points."
Saying that, Senior Jing took out a palm-sized magical crystal slate. "Symphony Points, short SP, is my personal evaluation system. Your strength, actions, decisions, performance, and everything when you go on quests or dungeons as a party will be recorded in this, and that will determine the ranks."
"But for now, the one who wins this small competition will be the leader."