Once he exited the room, tanner could see some of the tension in the room ease away. It was more than that though, he could feel it. It was like when you could just instinctually tell when someone was looking at you, but more specific to the stress of the people around him. The feeling wasn’t completely gone from the air, but it had definitely lessened with his return. Thinking back on one of the first things to happen in the initializing room, he remembered the stat increases to spirit attribute. “Is this the Aura effect that ability referred to?” Tanner wondered internally. He decided it must be connected to his spirit attribute somehow which had obviously raised significantly due to his achievements. Tanner had always been good at reading people, but this almost felt like cheating.
“Alright everyone, kind of a lot happened. I’m not sure everyone will experience it the same way I did, but this is generally what to expect. You’ll be given the opportunity to select a profession from an astoundingly massive list of options, then select some profession skills. Once you’ve selected those, you’ll pick a strand which will bind to one of your main attributes. The list of Strands is also massive so you’ll just have to pick something you think might fit you or something that just piques your interest. Then you’ll be offered some skills based off what you pick. I tried to get extra information out of the intercom or MAP or whatever, but I didn’t get anything. Unfortunately, that’s really all I know. I think the briefing that happens once everyone is done will give us more information.”
“How did you get all that done in only a few minutes?” Sarah asked.
This question caught tanner off guard, he had spent at least an hour in there. Initially he had felt bad about how long he took, only feeling better when he remembered he was information gathering for all the others, but if they had only experienced a few minutes to his hour then he obviously had a lot more things to figure out.
“Exactly how long was I gone?”
“Maybe 5 minutes?”
“Okay, well that’s a little unnerving. It appears that the other room experiences time differently somehow. I was in there for at least an hour from my perspective. I’m not sure how that works or what the implications of it are, but I guess we should be thankful. If it didn’t work that way, we would be waiting her for a long time.”
After some questions from the room, Tanner finally convinced the group to send someone else in. Sarah Volunteered to go and didn’t waste any time. He noticed the look of what he assumed to be admiration from her, noting that despite not knowing each other she seemed to already trust his word. Which made him feel bad knowing he had kept some of the stranger things to happen to him in the Initializing room to himself. The MAP having had that very short interaction with him, the errors he got around his profession, that he hadn’t even gotten a chance to pick his profession, or for that matter what he had unlocked at all. He did disclose that he had gotten a leadership profession and that he had chosen gravity as his Strand but kept the rest to himself so the others wouldn’t panic. He was hoping that it was a unique experience, and others wouldn’t catch on to the access the MAP so clearly had to their minds. It was already disconcerting to him, and tanner felt like he was a pretty levelheaded guy.
Only a few minutes passed, and Sarah returned. She disclosed to the group that roughly what Tanner had experienced she had to. She Chose the Shield strand as well as the Cartographer Profession, netting her some useful abilities as far as tanner was concerned. Her profession had given her a mini map that she could label, and her Shield strand had bound to her body attribute giving her some defensive abilities that she didn’t disclose to the group. Once She had relayed her story, she approached Tanner to compare the specifics. Tanner suggested Austin should go next while he talked to Sarah, which he readily agreed to so he wouldn’t have to see her crawling all over tanner like he had seen so many times in the past.
“What profession did you unlock? I noticed you didn’t tell everyone what you chose.”
“I’d rather talk about it when so many people aren’t around, mine is a little unconventional.”
“If your embarrassed about it, why would you have picked it? That doesn’t make much sense.”
“Well, I didn’t… exactly… pick it?” tanner said in a hushed tone.
“But... that isn’t what you said would happen when I went in? why would you lie to us like that?”
Tanner could feel in what he assumed to be her aura the confusion and minor sense of betrayal. He quickly pulled her away into a corner of the room.
“I just didn’t want you all to worry, we clearly don’t have a choice in any of this. When I went to select my profession, the intercom told me there was an error and it selected one for me. One that I don’t think you’re normally supposed to be able to get.”
“That seems a little egotistical. What could I possibly be to make you so confident that your special like that?”
“Minor Lord of Earth.”
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Oh…um… yea we will definitely need to talk about that some more.”
“Sure, but can we focus on the practical things for now. No one knows what any of this means and I don’t want people to attack me because they think I made them my subjects or something stupid.”
“Alright, I guess that is fine for now. But only for now, you are definitely giving me all the details later.”
“Sure, we can make some time.”
_ _ _ _
Again, only few minutes later, Austin emerged. Not really one for small talk, he just approached tanner and gave him the basics of what he unlocked. When he walked out, Derrick hesitantly stepped into the void of the adjacent room.
“I picked Omniscient for my strand; it gave me a few ability options, but I went with two perception-based abilities. One makes my vision a lot better and the other lets me see though objects. I’m not really sure how strong the ability is to see through stuff as I can’t get it to work on the building, but be vision is certainly better. I can see a little bit farther around me and I feel like everything is a bit crisper.”
“Well, I’m not sure that leaves many questions to ask about that stuff. What about your profession?”
“I went with Bowyer. It gave me some abilities to summon some tools for bow making and I can enhance them a little… I didn’t really know what to pick, so I just kinda went with what felt useful to me. Hopefully it wasn’t a mistake.”
“Don’t worry about it man, I think everything we do here is a mistake. Or nothing is, its hard to know. We are making the best choices we can with the information at hand, it’s the best anyone can do.”
_ _ _ _
Even with the time dilation of the initializing room, it still took about three hours real time for everyone to make their way through the process of selecting their profession, strand, and abilities. The last person to go through it was the drunkard that had fallen asleep in one corner of the room. Tanner had forgot he was even there, when he returned, he looked refreshed and new. His clothes were still stained and tattered like everyone else’s, but the transformation he had gone through was stark compared to everyone else.
“CONGRATULATIONS! You have all completed the initializing process. The training briefing shall commence in 5 minutes.”
“Achievement Unlocked: Initialization”
“CONGRATULATIONS! You have completed the first step in your new journey, may your power continue to grow.”
+1 All Aspects
“Neural Adaptive Genetic System Activated”
Everyone in the room responded roughly the same to the sudden change. Some people momentarily shrieked in surprise, others just jumped, but tanner just stood there interested in the new information. A slightly transparent overlay of his vision appeared with information he could instantly tell was based on him. He could, intuitively, shift between sets of information and a general summery overview. He started with the summery screen.
“Current status:”
* Name: Tanner Moore
* Age: 24
* Race: Human
* Echelon: Initiate
* Level: 1
* Profession: Minor Lord of Earth
* Power Strand: Gravity
* Body Strand: Unawakened
* Mind Strand: Unawakened
* Spirit Strand: Unawakened
* Acuity Strand: Unawakened
* Health Points: 25
* Mana Points: 50
* Attributes:
* Power: 6
* Body: 3
* Mind: 5
* Spirit: 14
* Acuity: 10
* Equipment:
* None
Tanner noticed that the stats reflected the bonuses from his early achievements when unlocking his profession. It also obviously effected his health and mana somehow. The last achievement he and apparently everyone else had received was a +1 to all aspects. Not knowing what that mean, he went diving for information. He opened the stats menu with a though.
“Stats:”
* Attributes:
* Power: 6
* Body: 3
* Mind: 5
* Spirit: 14
* Acuity: 10
* Aspects:
* Strength: 10
* Willpower: 16
* Aura: 43
* Perception: 31
* Agility: 7
* Resilience: 22
* Dexterity: 16
* Wisdom: 36
* Intelligence: 26
* Charisma: 71
“Ugh, Austin, have you looked at your stat menu?”
“I’m in it now, why?”
“What’s your highest Aspect?”
“My perception and Dexterity are tied at 16, which seems pretty good I think.”
“Okay, I need to figure out how this stat system works. This seems outrageous.”
“Sure, talk cryptically and keep me wondering. Being left in the dark is honestly my favorite.”
“Oh, sorry. My highest stat is…”
Tanner stopped himself as he thought, remembering one of his profession abilities he had gotten exactly for this reason.
Keeper (Inferior): Assign a person to be your keeper. Keeper has a very short-range telepathic communication with you.
“Dude, are you gonna fucking tell me or just pretend like I’m just going to forget we were talking.”
“Sorry, let me try something.”
A text prompt appeared on Austins NAGS.
Tanner Moore, Minor Lord of Earth, as requested you become his keeper. If you accept, you will be able to telepathically communicate with Tanner when in close proximity. Warning: Undoing this binding can have a detrimental effect on Tanner’s and your progression.
“You want me to be your keeper? That sounds a little sexual… alright.”
You have accepted role “Keeper” of Tanner Moore, Minor Lord of Earth. Your fates, now intertwined, grow brighter.
“Alright, what the fuck did I just agree to?”
“I’m not really sure the full extent of the ability but so far all I can see is that it allows us to communicate like this.”
“No explanation on our fates being intertwined or the negative effects undoing this can have.”
“I didn’t now that was going to happen, what exactly did the message say?”
“Literally exactly what I said to you, dumbass.”
“Is that any way to talk to a Lord?”