With a firm shake, we'd sealed the deal but now I had to register and for which they took me to a different room.
A room with one blue melon sized orb and a bunch of books. Rather small.
Fantastical! Great stuff! But there was a problem: I was getting hungry. And no, not hungry for food in general. Something more, something savory, something… raw.
My eyesight was getting a little red, a little uncomfortable. Nothing I couldn't deal with but, but I really wanted something to eat.
"Now if you please put your hand on this orb," the staff said.
I did, automatically. I couldn't think. No, I didn't let myself think. The more I thought, the more I craved it. The more I-
The orb glowed and then faded, actually it took almost all the light out of the room, glowing dark.
"You can remove your hand now." I did. "Let's see, nice stats." She mumbled. "Very nice in fact…. But you really did only revive, huh?" She wondered. WHAM! For some odd reason she kicked a box on the floor like she had some previous beef with it. "Work damn it!" And work it did. The box dished out one small card. Metallic in nature. And the lady handed it to me. "Congratulations: you are our new C rank adventurer courtesy of the guild of course." A solid wink.
***
> Sean Jackson
Type: Undead (Skeleton)
Class: URF
Evo: 00
Level: 01
HP: 170/177
MP: 9/101
Strength: C
Stamina: B
Defense: D
Speed: C+
Affinity: Darkness, Void, Thunder.
Skill: Nec (incomplete), Sum (incomplete)
Weakness: Fire, Holy, Absolute Zero
***
Well. Ah, to be honest, I was kind of speechless.
What the hell were all this? HP? MP? Weakness? Strength? What were these things? Stats? What was this, a game? 'And I can read the darn text somehow?'
No, I kind of saw this coming but never in hell did I imagine they'd have actual stats and stuff like a video game. I was expecting something more based on reality? Like physics and stuff?
'Then again, I 'am' a walking talking skeleton… or rather, groaning skeleton but yeah….'
Moving on, I showed the card to Escalor and he kind of shut up for a good few seconds. Meanwhile, his partner took a look. "Very impressive starting stats. You have the potential to be really famous if you choose an adventurer career. But are you sure? You could very well demand the governor here to hand over the city to you and-" Escalor covered her mouth- almost forcing her to stop.
"Forgive us my lord. Please disregard what she said."
Hmm… but she already said it.
'So, I have enough authority to take the city if I wanted to.' But why would I? And where's the fun it that? Besides, what would I do with a city like this? How will I run it?
Hardly anyone knew me, and I hardly knew the world. I needed to know more, I needed to learn more and I needed to explore more. Both to sate my curiosity but also to actually find a way to live a better life. To amend the past…. And to find something to fucking eat!
"Say, what about your stats?"
I needed to find out what was normal before starting to think highly of my own stats.
Escalor gave me his card-
***
Escalor Deflowne
Type: Undead (Half-dead)
Evo: 02
Class: UA
Level: 78
HP: 2022/2028
MP: 97/98
Strength: B
Stamina: B+
Defense: B
Speed: D+
Affinity: Darkness.
Skill: Sword Play (S), Knife wielding (B), Brew (Incomplete), Grow (incomplete), Cook (incomplete), Submerge (Incomplete), Forage (incomplete)
Weakness: Fire, Holy, Ice, Earth, sea.
***
He had better stats than me but he was also kind of high leveled.
"How can I read these stats?"
Apparently, normal people had most of their stats in E, F categories and only one or two in B or C if they were terribly lucky and trained for years.
So, I guess I was strong?
"These are written in runes so anyone the owner deems worthy, can read them. Meaning if you didn't allow me, I wouldn't be able to read yours." Escalor snorted. "They do improve slightly but not by a lot. HP Improves a lot though." He shrugged and offered the extra information free of charge.
"What about the skills and weaknesses? Can you learn something new? And can you not be weak?" I was talking about somehow out of it.
It was like I was there, but at the same time, not. Like when the times you had to be in a group gathering but also needed to pee really bad but the conversation was a bit too engaging to leave….
There was only one thing I learned from that experience though: never fucking hold your pee. Go find a darn washroom!
"With proper gear, you can mitigate weakness. For example, these armors save us from frost. And that red dress will reduce fire damage to you. As for skills… well, if you try hard enough, you might be able to learn something even if you're not good at it. but it'll be marked as incomplete and you'll never be as good as someone more talented," he chuckled.
He seemed a little sad while saying so; was it personal? And wait, wasn't that just life? If you're talented you could work hard and be really good but you could still do something even if you weren't talented in that. You wouldn't be as good though.
Anyway, "I am hungry," I said.
All this while, the guild staff was looking weirdly at us. because all I ever did was Groan and the two with me just nodded and stuff.
She couldn't understand us one bit. But she did look kinda delicious-
Oh…
"Then let us take you to the finest restaurant and-"
I stared at them.
And although Escalor stared just as intensely, he sighed, giving up almost. "Follow me."
Ah, it was always so nice, when someone actually understood you. My mouth watered just from the thought of some… flesh.