Space twists rapidly, and and the brightness of the portal goes up a notch, as silhouettes of the figure start taking shape.
Not before long, the person stepped out and revealed herself
A shiny fountain of pale blond hair that fluttered in the cool breeze of grassland, an unforgettable face with facial features where delicacy and sharpness seemingly blend. A lean athletic figure with curves at the right size. Maybe a bit oversized considering how tightly the clothes made from leather are wrapped around.
A long silver spear hung behind her back attached by some clothing that wrapped around the waist.
But even with all these eye-catching features, David was captivated by something else, something most beautiful this person has to offer.
Jewel-like eyes, predominantly red but at the center tapestry of pink, amber, yellow, and peaches color similar blend itself. Pupils that should have been circular in shape were tapering oval-like cats.
Looking into those eyes, David found himself lost. He only wakes up after the owner of those jewels breaks eye contact and looks around the surroundings.
Leaving flustered like this, David had a hard time taking his composure back. But once he did, he looked at the new arrival more clearly.
"Huh!"
He raised his eyebrow the next second. His reaction was attributed to the new arrival's ear.
They were…
"An elf?"
A beautiful female elf right at his first summon.
She checked the surroundings first before she struck her first question at her summoner.
"What's your ..name?"
There was a slight pause in her speech but heard loud and clear by the receiving person.
"David Taylor. But you can just call me Taylor."
He doesn't know why, but David preferred to be called by his surname over his first name.
She nodded at his reply and introduced herself as well.
"Keira Aicantar. Sun elf, from the Atla Kingdom. I suppose this is your first time entering Cosmic Confluence."
At her word, I simply nodded.
"So, I must be your Fortune summon from the first summoning. Can you tell me how many stars there were on the summoning gate as I was called out?"
"Four"
'So it's called summoning gate.'
"I see"
Even though the expression of the elf doesn't change much, David is somehow able to feel her disappointment at the mention of the star number. Like the air around her suddenly dampened all of sudden.
'What's that? Am I hallucinating?'
Shaking his head to disperse the thought, he directly asked her about the main thing that was going on in his mind right now.
"So Keira, do you know what kind of place this is? And why did you appear through that gate? What's this summoning and stuff?"
Keire's expression changed to those words, seemingly not knowing how to answer his questions.
But her look of confusion changed as if she seemingly reached an answer on her own.
"Is your civilization just connected to 'Cosmic Confluence'?" she asked.
After getting a positive response from David, Keira started explaining the whole ordeal to him.
Apparently, the place David found himself in is called Cosmic Confluence. A place that connects different places in the universe, filled with magical beings and energy that's known as 'Mana', through which magic and various wonders can be performed.
It is as vast as the universe if not more or some speculate as a different universe itself.
People who arrived here from different civilizations were given a summoning gate and the title of lord and the powers that came along with it.
Summons are being that were earlier lords themselves and died. The summons also includes the Natives, people who are born themselves in Cosmic Confluence whether they are a product of summons or between lord and summons, and died.
A chance was given to them to live again with their memories intact but at the expense of being treated as subordinates.
Summons are the subject of the lord, but the lord doesn't have total control of them. They are free of their own will but they have certain sorts of restrictions.
They cannot harm their lord unless they are much higher level than the lord themselves to be able to cope with the mental burden that comes from separating their connection from the lord themselves.
Hearing about getting killed by their subordinate, David's heart raced and his mind got itself cleared from the excitement of the new world and its wonder, and came back to reality.
He now looked with caution at the teaching elf.
The elf also noticed it but didn't say anything about it. As she already knows in this world, it is quite normal to be wary of others, death is nearer than the next day's meal.
Keira just continued her explanation.
Cosmic Confluence is a game-like world, where one can get strong and be able to gain superhuman power through 'experience' gain that comes from killing any lifeform that is found in Cosmic Confluence.
Through exp, one can increase his/her level and stats with each level advancement.
While stats can also be gained through traditional methods of training their body and mana control, it pales in comparison to the fast gains in strength through the level system, at least in earlier journeys of levels.
"Then what about tiers? I more or less get the level system, but then what is this tier thing all about?"
As if expecting this question, she shifted the conversation to tiers.
"Tier is the actual stages of power level. Tier advancement not only increases quantitative aspects like stats but also qualitative aspects like reforging of mana pathways, sometimes ability star rating increment, body structure improvement, and the rare- genetic material altering to better suit these changes."
She took a pause after the nonstop information dumping as her throat started feeling dry.
Seeing through this and also sensing the change in the air around her, David took out a water bottle from his bag and handed it over.
'This air changing again. Is it just an elven thing or… related to my ability.'
Keira took the bottle in hand and examined it for a few seconds before placing her nose near the open mouth of the bottle.
Sniffing it and finding it clear, she drank and started further explanation.
"Tier change is also not limited to quantitative and qualitative increment, the biggest gain comes from class gains."
"Let me guess the classes' names- warrior, mage, alchemist, berserker, etc," David asked.
At his statement, Keira narrowed her eyes and asked, "I thought your civilization hadn't come in contact with Cosmic Confluence."
"Haha, we have some people called programmers that include these things in their games." David hurriedly replied.
"Are they some sort of Oracle?"
"Maybe…"
David didn't try to explain things about games to her and he also didn't have the answer to her second question after considering the things he had seen till now. But it was highly unlikely so I didn't give a perfect answer to it.