After John had demonstrated part of his ability with the greatsword, Serah stared at him with an unusual look. It seemed the greatness of the beautiful sword had taken hold of her. But John understood her well.

Karin also looked surprised, brushing her hair from her face. “... Where was that intensity when we were outside the gate?”

John replied with a hint of derision, “I didn’t really mesh with that sword. Too thin and light.”

Karin chuckled. “Hah, gotcha. If you’re both finished, we should go to the auditorium. The briefing about our mission will be starting soon.”

“You’ll be going to the portal as well?” Serah asked her. John felt that she seemed a bit displeased about it, but he doubted the possible explanation that came to him.

‘Surely she’s not that jealous, right? Would I be?’

He tried imagining how he would feel if the roles were reversed. If Serah had met a guy and seemed to get along with him, and they had fought together in life-and-death combat.

‘Oh, wow. Yeah, I definitely would be…’

The realization surprised him, but it also made him strangely happy. Perhaps they were more similar than he thought.

Karin nodded to Serah’s question, not noticing her mood. “Yeah, I only got out of our world a few months ago. I come from the western part of the Holy Empire, so I doubt we ever met.”

“Oh, right! You come from the same world as us,” John replied, not having given it much thought earlier. “Does it get less weird after a while?”

“Well… It does get easier. But it's still tough because I have a husband waiting for me back home,” Karin replied, looking lost in thought. “I… Yeah, it’s tough...”

Serah seemed moved by Karin’s story and moved over to hug her. Karin looked surprised, but she didn’t avoid it.

“I’m so sorry you have to go through that, Karin! I can’t even imagine being in that situation,” Serah told her, wrapping her arms around her neck. She seemed to get over her jealousy as soon as she heard about the husband.

John also empathized, recognizing himself in her story. He thought it had to be worse for her since she was already married, but it was similar to his dilemma from yesterday.

“Your husband isn’t a candidate, then?” he asked, guessing the answer.

“... Not everyone can be so lucky,” she replied, looking at John with a slight smile. She had clearly heard some things about their situation. “But let’s get going, we’re probably holding up the briefing.”

“Right,” John replied, not minding the change of subject. “Please lead the way.”

----------------------------------------

They all traveled down a floor and entered a room filled with seats facing a wall. Several people were already inside, including a professional-looking older man standing in front. His graying hair and short stature made it clear he was an authority figure instead of a fellow combatant.

“Welcome!” he said, watching them enter. “These are our newest breakers, John and Serah, and Karin as well, which I’m sure you all know by now.”

John looked around the room, finding four other people in the same uniform as he was wearing. Three men and one woman, all looking back at him with acknowledging nods.

‘So these are our fellow breakers? And likely fellow otherworlders. Is that a word?’

John simply nodded back before finding a seat together with Serah. Karin sat down next to the other woman in the room, and they seemed like close friends.

When they found their seats, the man in front started speaking, mostly directed at John and Serah, “I am the director of this facility, but you can all call me Lee. This will be a briefing about your upcoming training inside the Paris portal. Since the two of you are very new, I hope you’ll ask questions if anything is unclear.”

John nodded, turning his attention to the white frame behind Lee. It was filled with bullet points that they would be going through. Beasts to watch out for, schedule, expedition coordination, and preparations.

“Before anything else, though; I’ve heard you’re more than capable in combat situations, John. And now that you’ve trained with Serah, how would you rate her abilities?”

Thinking back to his days in the military, John chose to stand up while replying. “She is still quite inexperienced in actual combat, but if I had to rate her value in a team-based situation I’d say she’s close to my own. Her strategic thinking and ranged combat abilities are already beyond my own.”

Lee looked at Serah with wonder. “Hah, truly a talented individual! In that case, I will allow you both to join the training expedition. Do you have any questions you’d like answered right away?”

John glanced at Serah as he sat back down, but seeing her shrug her shoulders, he decided to ask a question instead. “I’ve been wondering about the different categories of monsters and breakers since I arrived, specifically the tiers. Could you explain those?”

“Very good! Breakers, like yourself, are of the lowest tier of ECs, or essence combatants. You’re all newly ‘awakened’ and can only use the essence you absorb from the space around you to fight.

Above you are the aspecters. They all get special abilities, called aspects, once they evolve. They can manifest as nearly anything. Some can grow scales at will, some can shoot bolts of metal at high speeds, and some can warp the space around them.”

John immediately thought back to his meeting with Captain Dirk, who had grown scales to block his surprise attack. They had been extremely tough, blocking him with ease. ‘That would be very useful, but I’d rather have something offensive. Something to increase speed or attack power.’

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Lee continued his explanation, “Then above those are the invokers, able to use chains of words that can temporarily alter reality around them. They are extremely powerful against people without them. For example, they can reduce gravity, block light, suppress essence, and have a bunch of other interesting uses.

It’s important to remember that each tier represents a complete transformation in terms of powers. Your essence gets more concentrated and efficient, and your equipment becomes able to hold an additional enchantment. One aspecter can usually take on an entire team of breakers on their own.”

John could hardly wait for his own powers to grow. He was itching to get out there and fight more monsters so he could grow his strength, both with enchantments and essence.

“The next tier is called weaver, and that’s the highest we have seen so far. Humanity only has seven of them, and they all represent the pinnacle of our powers. The only thing I know about them is that they get a second aspect and that they become rulers of some sort.”

‘Seven of them? The strongest people in existence? They are the ones fighting at the frontlines of humanity, keeping us all safe?’

John couldn’t imagine the power of someone so far above him. But that was all the more reason to get there and see the horizon from the top.

After winning the royal tournament, he had felt a certain emptiness, sitting at what he had thought was the peak. Hearing how far away the new peak was made him more excited than he could have expected.

Lee continued, “Beasts have the same system, but we have different names for them. It starts with monster, then demon, then horror, and lastly, tyrant. These are some of the beasts you might encounter, starting with horrors.”

Images started appearing on the wall behind him, showing examples of horrors they might encounter. They all looked like giant monsters, easily dwarfing the wargs they had fought earlier. Some looked larger than the room they sat in, bursting with muscle and power.

“... Wouldn’t those kill us immediately?” Serah asked with a hint of panic in her voice.

“Most likely. If you meet one, you should hide or flee immediately. They will be very rare, though, so you usually won’t have to think about them. The second rank will be more of a problem; the Demon rank.”

New images appeared, showing creatures smaller than the horror rank, but still a fair bit larger than the wargs John had fought. Some had scales, some had six legs, some had long fur and thick horns, and some had wings.

“They will attack you on occasion and will require the cooperation of an advanced breaker group to overcome. They will also possess aspects, so take extreme care in fighting them.”

‘We’ll have to steer clear of those early on then, I guess…’

“Is the only way to identify them their size?” John asked.

Lee shook his head. “No, they usually use their aspects constantly, so any floating objects or blackened body parts might be indicators as well. I've heard that you usually get an understanding of it after seeing your first one.”

He turned back to the screen, which now started showing a bunch of crudely drawn people neatly organized in groups. “In total, there are a hundred breakers going on this expedition. You’ll be joined by one invoker and four aspecters who will be responsible for your safety.

After arriving at the base inside the portal world, you’ll be put in a 5-man squad, which will most likely be your squad for your entire stay. Squads usually live or die together, so you all need to take care of each other. The squads are constructed based on balance, with one half focusing on close combat and the other half on ranged combat. The rest will be explained once you all arrive at the outpost there.”

John and Serah both looked at each other. He felt that they were both thinking the same thing; hoping they would stay together.

One of the men in the room rather nervously raised his hand and asked, “We still have some free time before leaving, right?”

Lee nodded. “You’ll have free time for about 50 hours from now before the train leaves, so you can do whatever you’d like. I would also advise you all to return to your families to get your affairs in order, so you can go right ahead.”

Serah sounded nervous as she quietly asked, “Get our affairs in order?” It sounded more like a shocked response than an actual question.

Lee seemed to have heard the question and sighed before responding. “Yes. I have a lot of faith in all of you, but history has shown that most of you likely won’t return. So making peace with your family is strongly suggested, if only to give them some comfort.”

Serah looked at John for help, but he could only give her a supportive nod in return. She turned back to Lee. “... Can we tell them about what happened? Why we’re sleeping?”

Lee looked deep in thought for a moment before he started nodding slowly. “You can tell them that you’re going somewhere else in your dreams to fight for the sake of another world, but not the specifics of their world being a creation. That much should be fine.”

John felt many questions gnawing at his curiosity, but he feared the answer he might get.

‘Are the people we know in our world even real? Can they be considered real? How long can our world have existed if these portals only started appearing a few decades ago? Did Mom not actually have a childhood? Were her memories also created? Were mine?’

Those were the questions he feared to ask, as the wrong answers might change him too much. So he kept ignoring them.

He looked over at Serah, who seemed to be deep in thought. She looked back at him, still with the same melancholic expression. “I guess we should take our time then. I’ll have to explain quite a bit to my parents…” she whispered, trying not to disrupt the others.

John nodded and whispered back. “Yeah, I know Mom won’t be convinced easily. Maybe we could cooperate a bit?”

Serah seemed to agree. “That might be for the best. But I’ll try it on my own first... It feels like there’s such a large barrier forming between us and them.”

John understood what she meant; he could feel the same thing. ‘At least you’re on this side of that barrier,’ he thought silently. But it seemed Serah had caught his thoughts again, smiling gently at him.

Lee looked out at the breakers sitting in front of him with a heavy expression. “Then this meeting is over. You can take your leave, and if I don’t see you again, I wish you all a safe return!” He held his hand to his chest and bowed, before moving to leave the room.

Serah sighed heavily as she leaned over the desk in front of them, resting her head on her arms. “I’m gonna hate seeing their faces as I tell them I’ll be gone… I don’t know if I can say I might not return.”

John put an arm on her shoulder, understanding how she felt. “You won’t have to. I’ll keep you safe, I promise.”

“... Don’t make promises you can’t keep, John. You have no idea what’s waiting for us in that portal.”

He didn’t expect her to dismiss him so quickly. “... Maybe not, but I know that I’ve kept all my promises so far. I’ll make sure we are on the same squad, at the very least. And… I won’t let you die as long as I live.”

A whistle could be heard from the two other women in the room, Karin and her friend. Karin seemed to be trying to restrain her friend, while she was looking at John with a teasing expression.

‘Maybe we should talk more in private from now on…’

With a sigh, he patted Serah on her shoulder and stood up. “Let’s get going. We might as well get it over with.”