Just thinking about all the cash being thrown into the greedy hands of different merchants was enough to make his head spin, especially when he spotted a kid kneeling down and opening up a fancy designer backpack.
However, while he had that thought, the Lad's eyes shot wide open for a moment before returning to normal because, from a distance, he caught sight of a shiny green stone resting at the top of the backpack.
'A Quad-Full-Star (★★★★) Emerald Flume must be nice; it seems mommy and daddy really splurged, tsk.' Mentally clicking his tongue, the Ash-Blond Lad wistfully turned away and tried to erase the image of the item he could only dream of getting his hands on.
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Let us clear the Air here: no, The Ash-Blond Lad is not an orphan; no, he doesn't have abusive parents, and no, he doesn't live in some shack in the ghetto. But as the 6th child in a family of 9, yeah, you heard me, a family of nine: mom, Dad, two brothers, and four sisters.
Anyway, as the sixth child in a large family, money wasn't exactly flowing in his direction, especially since only three of his older siblings had awakened.
The Ash-Blond Lad's Mom and Dad did their best, and he doesn't feel wronged in any way; they honestly try their best to love all their children equally; it's just…you know his Dad should have been snipped a long time ago because their finances were already strained three kids before the Ash-Blond Lad was even born.
Financially speaking, they would have been fine so long as they only had two children, at which point the Lad's family would have been considered Upper Middle class.
Still, with each new mouth to feed, their social standing slowly lowered, and when the Lad's youngest sister was born five years ago, that's when hard times set in.
You see, his Dad, like some of his siblings and himself, is a traveler, but unfortunately, his Dad got dealt a rough hand.
Starting out with a C+ Potential and a Tri-Star Attribute would take some effort, but having a good life for himself and his family wasn't out of the cards, so long as he maintained his Territory well.
Unfortunately, like many new Travelers here with the Ash-Blond Lad today would soon find out, the world of Genovia is a place wrought with chaos, monsters, and danger.
The teachers at his Academy taught them all about the dangers of entering Genovia and how being a Traveler didn't necessarily equate to invincibility.
They had been told OVER AND OVER AGAIN that approximately 30% of all new travelers die within the first three months after touching down in Genovia; according to school statistics, It simply was that dangerous over there, but with how Meritus, the Traveler lifestyle was, along with the benefits it carried, not one of the newbies were dissuaded.
Anyway, back to the Ash-Blond Lad's Dad's situation, in his whole life, the Lad had never heard him talk about it, but from what he was told by his eldest brother Anthony, around four years after becoming a traveler, their Dad's Territory was utterly decimated, his summons all slaughtered, and his status as a Lord was revoked, leaving him with the only option being, to become a mercenary under another Lord.
Ah… Forgot to mention those. Summons! What is a Lord without subjects but a landowner without tenants? As such, the second function of the Flume comes into play.
For the first two weeks after becoming a Lord in Genovia, once a day, all new Travelers can "Summon" subjects from …well, again, no one really knows, but that isn't really the point; the fact of the matter is for 14 days new Travelers can summon new subjects daily using their Flume. After that, it's a once-a-month kinda thing.
Mind you, there are plenty of other ways to get new "Tenants," but when it comes to summons, that's how it goes: 1 day for the first two weeks, then once a month from then on.
Summons can be anything really, from a puppy or small lizard to another humanoid being or even a Dragon. And here comes the conversation about whether or not summons are rigged or truly random.
Statistically speaking, over the thousands of years that Terrians have had access to Flumes and, by extension, Genovia, there's one thing that's always true about summons: they're going to come out adapted to the terrain of the Traveler's Territory.
If the Traveler spawns in, let's say, a hundred feet underwater, all of their summons will be aquatic. In the same vein of thought, if the Traveler was, say, spawned in a desert, it looks like they're getting desert beings.
This is where Ratings come into play.
Rating is the standard term used when referencing the Star Count and Rank of a being, object, or Attribute.
Star counts are fairly easy to understand, as the more stars something has, the better or stronger it is; regardless of count, there are four sub-categories for stars,
They are as follows.
★ = Full Star
✫ = OF (Outer Filled)Star
✬ = CF (Center Filled) Star
☆ = Null Star
From the weakest, we have Null Stars, followed by CF-Star, OF-Star, and finally Full-Star.
For starters, when it comes to stars, they all start out as Null, but that changes depending on what they are in reference to; for example, let's use the Ash-Blond Lad's older brother Anthony as an example, more specifically, his Attribute or Special Innate Skill, which is called Pyro.
The more he trains and uses it, the higher his Grade or Star progression increases.
A null star will slowly begin filling its core, or center until it is a perfect circle that touches each of the inner angles of the five points. From there, it starts filling in each point until the center is left empty, becoming an OF-Star, which is labeled as an Outer-Filled Star.
Once the OF-Star stage is complete, the points begin filling in the core until it finally reaches the Full-Star Stage.
Then, if the Traveler's potential allows, a new star will be constructed, and the process begins anew.
Accompanying each stage and Star is strength, knowledge, and growth.
In the case of Summons, who don't have Rank like Travelers, their stars are EVERYTHING!
It determines not only their upper limit but also how strong they are.
Stars aside, the second half of Ratings is Rank, and this is a Letter Based on the Lowest of the Low being G-, and the upper known limit being SSS+.
So G- leads to G, then G+, and so forth until you get to A Rank, at which point it moves into S, then SS, and lastly, the pinnacle of known power, SSS.
Just like how Stars determine the strength of Summons, Ranks determine a Traveler's power, mainly by giving a statistical value to the Traveler's four Stats: Attack, Defence, Speed, and Energia.