Ethan sauntered back to the group, slipping seamlessly into the midst of his companions. Despite his brief absence, it seemed that no one had noticed he had left them for a while.
Meanwhile, Aurelia continued to explain the rules with his trademark calm demeanor, his voice carrying a playful yet sly undertone. "...Once it's your turn, I'll send you to a pocket dimension where you'll be choosing your skills." he explained, his words sparking anticipation among the gathered souls.
As the excitement in the room grew palpable, Aurelia's gaze swept over the eager faces before him. "Any skill that gets picked by someone won't be available to others." he added, his tone tinged with a hint of mischief, knowing full well the competitive nature that would soon unfold among the chosen warriors.
"Excuse me." Ethan interjected, raising his hand to request permission to ask a question.
"Yes, Ethan, is there a problem?" Aurelia responded, his smile masking a hint of annoyance at the interruption.
"Well, I want to confirm something. You have no reason to lie, right?" Ethan queried, his smile carrying a hint of innocence, though there was a mischievous glint in his eyes. 'Sly Bastard', he thought to himself with a smirk.
"Why would I?" Aurelia replied uneasily, avoiding Ethan's gaze. 'This kid, I have a bad feeling about him.' he thought to himself, his smile faltering slightly.
"Alright then, isn't it possible to learn that said skill as we progress with our lives if we meet the appropriate conditions?" Ethan asked Aurelia casually, his demeanor nonchalant.
"Umm, that's true. But the chances of that happening depend solely on the skill's rank." Aurelia replied, attempting to save face, though Ethan wasn't about to let him off the hook.
"But it's possible, right?" Ethan persisted, folding his hands and fixing Aurelia with a challenging stare.
"I didn't think there was any need for that since the majority of the skills that would probably be chosen would be high-ranked." Aurelia countered, bouncing back as though he felt threatened or sensed competition of some sort. The revelation caused a flicker of excitement to spread among the gathered souls.
"Oh really?" Ethan's response betrayed a hint of irritation, though he had been expecting Aurelia's evasive tactics. 'Tch... As expected of this sly fox. Not taking full responsibility by giving us false hope.' he mused silently, his frustration simmering beneath the surface. 'But atleast he'll stop giving us the half truth. It would be more if a hassle if I started explaining more than what the others probably know. Although no one has actively admitted to it yet.'
Both Ethan and Aurelia had almost forgotten that they were not alone. Everyone watched with rapt attention as the two engaged in a subtle battle of wits.
"W-What else aren't you telling us though? Um - I'm pretty sure that information was worth telling us from the start too." a voice piped up, its owner clearly nervous as evidenced by the stammering.
"And you are?" Aurelia inquired, turning his attention towards the newcomer.
"D-Dmitry Sokolov, sir," the voice replied, still stammering with apprehension.
"I knew we shouldn't have trusted him," Jean added, her tone dripping with sarcasm as if she had been waiting for an opportunity like this to arise.
"Why don't we just listen? We can talk about that later." Ryoto interjected, attempting to mediate the tension in the room, though his true motivation was to move things along and pick a skill.
"Thank you, hmph..." Aurelia replied, his tone somewhat dismissive as he cleared his throat to regain everyone's attention. "As I was saying, once a skill is chosen, it won't appear on the list anymore." He shot a pointed glance at Ethan, his smile holding a hint of challenge.
"You'll all be given points which you can use to purchase your skills. The amount of skills you can pick depends on how many points you get. And the amount of points you have depends on your luck." Aurelia continued, his grin widening with each word.
"Depends on luck? So we'll be leaving this to fate? How exciting." Ryoto exclaimed, his excitement palpable.
'As always, the Main Character gets excited easily.' Ethan mumbled with a smirk.
"This won't end well." Charlotte sighed, her expression reflecting a mixture of resignation and concern.
'It actually will, since all our luck stats are higher than average. I can only imagine what kind of skill I'll get with my maxed out luck.' Ethan mused, lost in daydreams with a gleam of anticipation in his eyes.
"Now, now, settle down. Once you say 'Status Open,' you'll be able to see your information. It'll be limited here but will keep updating itself as time goes on." Aurelia explained calmly, his voice cutting through the murmurs of the group.
Following his instructions, everyone uttered the words, and immediately, translucent screens appeared before each of them.
"I can only see mine. I can't see someone else's?" a voice sighed, its frustration evident.
"Well, privacy is key. But you can always give someone permission to see your stats." Aurelia replied, a playful glint in his eyes.
"What the heck? I have zero digits for everything. Even HP! How are we to survive?" another voice shouted, its owner clearly shocked by the revelation.
"That's true."
"Me too."
"What's going on?" several others chimed in, their confusion echoing throughout the hall.
Aurelia snapped his fingers and instructed everyone to check again.
[Undistributed points: 20]
[Would you like to distribute?: Y/N] appeared on their screens.
"Hell yeah. Time to distribute." came a hoarse voice from the crowd.
"Alright."
"Nice."
Simultaneously, everyone selected YES, and the points distributed themselves.
"Hey, Micheal... Areline or whatever your name is, why can't I distribute them myself?" a voice challenged Aurelia.
"Micheal?"Aurelia's patience reached its limit. With veins bulging on his face, he approached the person and demanded their name.
"What's it to you?" the person retorted, standing their ground defiantly.
"Don't ever mistake me for that pompous bastard." Aurelia snapped his fingers, and suddenly, lightning struck the room at random, sending everyone scrambling for shelter. The lightning also struck the place where Ethan had been resting before, causing it to crumble.
"Oh crap." Aurelia muttered, his anger quickly turning to fear. "I went too far again. I need to fix this before he gets here."
He turned to the guy and repeated, "Your name."
"A-Antoine Martin," the person stammered, visibly shaken by the sudden display of power.
A new translucent screen appeared before Ethan, bearing an ominous message.
[Error]
"Huh? Error." Ethan muttered, his confusion mounting.
[Throne has been destroyed]
[Penalty: Zero Luck Stats]
[Duration: 24 hours]
"Huh? What happened to my luck stat?" Ethan exclaimed, his confusion deepening into dismay. "I don't have anything."
Ethan started to whine, but then he turned back and realized that what he had been sitting on the whole time was a throne, and it got destroyed when Aurelia decided to flex his power.
"You have got to be kidding me." He couldn't believe his eyes. He had literally zero luck for 24 hours and he was yet to pick a skill.