Chapter 6
As I tried to fill in the sheet I realized a few things. First off, the papers were all almost identical, meaning this world most likely had printing presses. The imprint wasn't perfect, and I didn't quite recognize the type font as I was reading it. In fact I had to stop and focus to realize I didn't recognize the language. I could read it, but I had no idea how I recognized the words, which caused a sense of disorientation as I began looking around the desk at other stacks of paper in different writing styles, fonts, and languages...all of which I could easily read.
CommunicationA deity can understand, speak, and read any language, including nonverbal languages. A deity can speak directly to any being within one mile of itself per divine rank.
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Remote CommunicationA deity can send a communication to a remote location. The deity can speak to any of its worshipers, and to anyone within one mile per rank away from a site dedicated to the deity (shrines, sacred groves, temples), within one mile per rank away from a statue or other likeness of the deity.
Limits: Messages received by contacted being are telepathic, and can only be heard by the intended target. Material Plane only.
A group of windows popped up in front of me, distracting me while I was trying to figure out what 'class' to put on the sheet. Communication explained why I could read the assorted languages, though I wasn't sure about 'remote communication'. I wasn't sure what a material plane was, though I assume it was opposed to an immaterial one? As yet I had no worshipers that I was aware of, nor any shrines, sacred groves, temples, or likely any engraven images of myself...unless my mother...faith's mother kept a picture or something; I somehow doubted it though.
I looked around at the assorted statuses of people around the room trying to get a feel for my options, and noticed a few oddities. For one there was the occasional moon elf or sun elf, but no 'noble' sun or 'noble' moon elves. There were plenty of humans, but only a small scattering of 'high humans', and most of those looked to be nobility of some sort. While trying to focus on race, another window popped up.
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High HumanHigh Humans are a variant race of humanity that originated during the Dusk Wars. Akin to the Gold Dwarves, Noble Elves, or Greater Beastmen types, these variant races were forged by their race's Gods to serve as the nobility. Gifted with greater stats, longevity, and blessings than their mundane or lower kin, they received bonuses to tasks involving leadership and ruling. They were unfortunately less fruitful than their lower kin, making breeding between lower and higher variants extremely difficult. Breeding between high, noble, or greater variants of these races enjoy a similar probability of success to breeding within those same races.
I supposed that explained a bit about the 'racial variants', though I found the idea of racial leaders...creepy. I didn't see any 'high' or noble half elves though, so I wasn't sure how the interbreeding worked. The other thing that struck me as odd were the stat differences. I knew mine were a bit abnormal, but while many of the 'high humans' had one or two stats over a hundred, the large majority of people's abilities were below. In fact across the board the difference more than half. Where as a 30th level warrior who was a high human might have a strength and endurance or 120 or 130, a normal human had perhaps a forty to sixty in the same stats. They were also less likely to have multiple attributes over 30, where as the high humans had base stats that tended to start in the 40s or 50s. The lower races tended to have a broader range of skills though, with survival being fairly high among humans and usually over a hundred. I was also more likely to see multiple classes on the high-humans, and multiple professions on the low humans...maybe a trade off?
Dismissing the windows and focusing my attention on the sheet of paper in front of me, I thought about choosing Warrior, as it was one of the most common classes. I really had no idea what the class ranges were, but most of the younger looking people seemed to have levels between three and fifteen. When the young woman with the violet eyes came back, she had a stuffy looking man following her with a small stack of rolled coins. I raised an eyebrow, as he wrote a receipt, and had me 'sign' it counting out the stacks in groups of five, ten, and twenty silver, and multiple stacks of copper rolls. “If you would like, you can arrange to have large sums deposited with one of the local banks.” the stuffy looking man said, staring down meaningfully at me through thin rimmed glasses. “Uh...” I responded a bit confused as he took the piece of paper I signed away with him, likely to file it.
The young woman behind the counter smiled uneasily as she looked down at the paper, noticing the missing information. “Um...do you not have a class yet?” she asks carefully, causing me to shake my head. “Oh...Not yet...” I said hesitantly, frowning.
She smiled and pulled a few folded pieces of paper out. “Well, a lot of new adventurers tend to train as warriors, since it provides better bonuses to physical health and armor. It's also the cheapest and quickest to learn initially from a trainer. If you have aptitude you could learn a magic using class, though those tend to be more expensive. We a few qualified trainers for hire in the guild, though they can't really provide the same quality of education as one of the magic academies. Quite a few young people do learn magic at the adventuring guild first, getting experience before attending an academy. Would you like to take an aptitude test? It's only twenty copper cintas.” she said warmly.
I glanced at her thoughtfully before nodding, trying to separate copper from the roll. “I've got that...” she said taking one of the rolls and placing it behind the desk, handing me back a few loose coins. “I'm Naomi, by the way.” she said as she wrote something down, and motioned to a side room. As I glanced toward Charles's direction, I noticed that he had disappeared into the crowd. I also noticed that a large portion of the crowd was eying me closely as I headed into the side room. I wasn't entirely sure why, as I wasn't the only 'well dressed' person in the hall...maybe it was the veil?
We entered a large room with stone floors and several glowing balls of light hovering inside of glass sconces on the walls. The room had a few training dummies, some odd copper and glass tools on a desk, and stacks of weights and weapons. “We can use your mana print to generate your guild card, since I'm assuming you don't have a military or government issued one. However, that only gives us a listing of stats, skills, and traits. And it will take a few hours to generate the card. These tests help establish different tendencies, relative ranking, and aptitudes, which helps trainers assess suitability for different classes. A few of the trainers have certain minimum requirements. So, why don't you tell me what you'd like to test first.” she said with a warm smile.
I was probably most familiar with weapons, and as I looked at her I considered the types of tests presented. “Um...so it doesn't list blessings?” I asked picking up one of the swords, a dull looking longsword. I wasn't entirely familiar with long swords specifically, since the few martial arts I had practices either had their own swords, or more or less used a wooden stick. I gave it a few swings, noticing that it felt extremely light.
“Oh...Um, I suppose...” Naomi said as she brought out a small glass orb, with a brass band around its center. “That's not something we see a lot though...” she said looking up at me. I cleared my throat and nodded. “Ok...I guess the magic stuff? Then something with swords?” I asks kind of uncertain what kind of tests were possible. My statement must have been amusing, because Naomi giggled and nodded. “all right, come here and place your hand on this.” she said as she turned the band around the glass globe, causing a ticking sound as it suddenly changed color.
I took the glass sphere with both hands and looked at her with a frown. “Just focus on channeling your mana into the ball.” Naomi said while I just looked at her confused.
“Um...how do I do that?” I asked, turning the ball around in my hand, looking at the strange symbols engraved on the metal. The brass's color changed with my touch, and I began to see strange images and symbols in the depths of the orb, flowing mists shifting as cracks of electricity rippled within like storm clouds.
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“Just...imagine there's a light that fills your body. It moves with the beating of your heart, spreading through your flesh and bones. Feel it rippling as you breath, and wrapped around you like a mist. Then imagine a small void at your center.” Naomi said while I looked into the depths of the sphere, finding a small crack in the clouds, bleeding light into the clouds...I could hear static, and whispers. I nodded as I felt the energy in my body, like an electric current just beneath the surface of my skin.
“All right, now imagine the light around you was falling inward, filing in the void, being pulled in until it's filled up.” Naomi said, though my mind was elsewhere, listening to the whispers, seeing silhouettes moving in the void. I felt the shifting of energy spreading out from me, and it began to fall towards the void, like a light being dragged into the pit of a black hole.
“When the light begins to fill up, imagine it being pushed into the glass, through your hands...” Naomi said with a strange echo in her voice. I couldn't quite tell what she was saying at this point, as I stood upon the edge of the void. There was a dark abyss below me, and above me the light reflected upon the void, a dim and endless twilight stretching into eternity. I could feel the pulse of light at my center, and a spark in the depths. As I breathed, the spark touched the endless twilight, catching the ether alight. In a brilliant moment the fires of creation spread across the horizon, creating a torrent of energy. I could feel the power of a universe being born in a single moment of endless possibility. And then the void began to pull.
The light fell into the void, but it didn't disappear. The torrent swirled, forming a single point of breathtaking illumination, a star in the void. The light was pulling me as into it, as I struggled to stand against the tide. When I thought I was about to fall, washed away by the sea of fire, the star in the void flickered and exploded.
Power surged forth from within, pouring into the small globe in my hands. The storm clouds within the glass ignited, and the light burned like the heart of a thousand suns. I could hear screaming distantly, but I couldn't turn away from the light...and there at its heart was the crack...the static bleeding out. “I RISE!” the voices whispered, flickering images of a the empyrean chaos striding the heavens. At its heart the figure of a woman carrying a fiery sword stood beckoning.
The vision ended and I was left holding thin air, the glass sphere evaporated within the fire. The entire room was tempest tossed, tables smashed into walls, while Naomi was huddled in a corner shivering in a corner. She looked up at me as the light faded, looking startled and confused. As for me, my hat and veil were sitting in a corner of the room. As Naomi looked over at me, she stared for a second in awe, before her eyes rolled up into her head and she fainted. “...Shit.” I said with a sigh.
Looking at the mess around me, I decided that I needed to act quick. I didn't see anyone rushing into the room yet, but I didn't feel like explaining the mess...or whatever the fuck just happened with the globe. Bringing up the fabrication system, I gathered the damaged and strewn material in the room, quickly repairing and restoring the materials to the best of my ability. Most of the training dummies were close enough to each other in dimensions that I simply copied one that wasn't damaged, and converted the broken ones into that. The table that the devices were on was oddly undamaged, and more or less required repositioning. Peering through the material of the assorted objects that were on the floor, I fixed cracks and fractures, but not knowing enough about their function I simply put them back. Lastly was the glass sphere I had been handling. Really not knowing how that worked, and not having something specifically to copy, I created a broken glass ball with melted brass fittings, more or less a piece of useless wreckage meant to look somewhat like had vaporized in my hands.
I grabbed my blue cavalier's hat from the corner and reset the veil before walking over to check on Naomi. I shook her shoulder a few times before she came to again. “Naomi...are you all right?” I asked looking at the young woman with concern. As her eyes opened, she looked around confused, before fixing her gaze on me. “I...I think I might have screwed something up...” I said holding the broken piece of glass and metal in my hand. “Um...I'm sorry, I'll pay for it.” I said weakly, as I helped her to her feet.
“What..What happened?” Naomi asked looking around the room, and then down at the ball. “Ahh!!” Naomi yelled, grabbing the hunk of scrap from my hands. She stared at it confused, then at the room, then at me, and then shook her head. “Ahh...It...looks like it broke...are you all right?” She asked me suddenly focused on me. I cleared my throat “Oh...It knocked me on my ass, but that isn't really that hard.” I said reaching into one of my pockets. “I don't know how much that costs, but I'm sure I can pay for it...” is aid fishing out a handful of gold coins. Naomi cleared her throat, and smiled. “It's all right. It might have just gotten damaged before hand. I'm just glad neither of us got hurt.” she said sighing. “In any case, I can't perform the rest of the magical aptitude tests without it. I'll go get a replacement later this afternoon when Karis, our Enchanter, returns from his errands. Why don't you come back later. I can process your card in the meantime, and we'll get one of our combat trainers gauge you.” she said, visible shaken. I nodded weakly, “Very well, I suppose I should go grab lunch anyway. So did you need anything from me for the guild card?” I asked as I followed her toward the door.
“Oh, yes, just a few drops of blood to attune a blank to you. The pattern then has to set.” Naomi explained as she went back to a corner desk, pulling a small black metallic card from a pack. The card looked about the size of smartphone, though it was just a thick piece metal with odd runes etched on it. I could see wisps of light inside of it, and went ahead and made a 'copy' to my files using the fabrication system. I wasn't sure it'd actually recreate something like that, but at the very least I got the physical dimensions.
“Just put your finger here.” Naomi said pulling out a small, thin needle and putting the plate on the desk next to me. She pushed the needle into my finger...and nothing happened. Frowning, she tried again, bending the needle. Clearing her throat, she smiled confused, “Um...hold on.” she said reaching into a desk for another needle. As she pulled back the bent needles, I looked at it with a frown, remembering a scene from a superman movie.
Divine AegisDeities have increasing damage reduction to physical trauma based on their Divine Rank. This stacks with other damage reduction effects.
Divine ResistanceA deity is resistant to energy and hostile magic. Resistance increases with divine rank. These resistances stack with other similar effects.
“Um, why don't you let me try...My skin can be a bit tough I guess.” I said. Thinking for a second, I reached into my coat, grabbing onto one of the orichalcum plates. I was past my allowances for today for creating new material, so Instead I decided to form a piece of the orichalcum into a sharp blade using the fabrication system. Creating a thin curved, and single bladed dagger honed to a razor's edge, I smiled weakly, holding the blade up to my finger. Taking a deep breath, I gently slid the blade across my finger drawing an immediate stream of blood. “Shit!” I said wanting to kick myself for not trying something smaller, dropping the dagger onto the desk as I squeezed my finger to stop the bleeding. The knife fell down, sliding through the oak top to the hilt, like a hot knife through butter. My blood splattered onto the black plate, causing light to swirl across its surface “Oh...wow...that's...um, new.” Naomi said confused.
Pulling my hand away from my finger to check the damage, I found the cut completely healed, with only drying blood visible. “Ahh...It wasn't that bad.” I said, making an excuse as I pulled the dagger out of the table with a tug. Naomi just kept staring at the black metal card, while I slipped the dagger back into my coat, converting it back into a plate, and sliding it into its pocket. “Hello...” I said, causing Naomi to shake her head, and stare at me for a moment. “Sorry...I'll go ahead and put that in for processing...come back in say three hours?” she suggested.