Caleb stood at the gate with Valikra and Thomas, who they ran in too when they arrived at Haven, waiting to register with the guard. Seeing they all had similar levels they decided to join as a single militia team. Lisa was currently in her totem mark as at her young age she could be killed very easily do to low natural defenses. She could perform the merge ability from within the sanctuary if Caleb needed a boost.
Thomas had decided to become a high elf gunslinger/swordsman. Caleb had been surprised seeing his gun which resembled a Colt Peacemaker. Caleb already knew that guns existed in this new world do to hus generals tab but this was the first time he saw one. Apparently guns had to use mana bullets now mad of an entirely new material as the materials for gunpowder had become completely inert do to mana infusion. Also guns needed to be rune inscribed to properly fire a bullet so it was impossible for people to mass produce guns as runes had to be inscribed by something with an awakened soul.
And while Caleb wasn't particularly interested in guns he was however extremely interested in their runes and how and why they worked. It was during their study that he found another interesting tidbit. There were numerous magical languages both written and spoken. The surprising thing was that the written version gave similar effects as runes but worked differently.
The reason he found this out was by seeing a man add Sanskrit to his sword giving it a fire enchantment. It was then that Caleb found that a written language that had magic in its nature would gain power based off of the willpower of the writer and the ink that he used. 80% of the power came from the writers willpower while the other 20% came from the ink, if the ink was too weak the item would shatter though. Conversely if the ink was to strong a lot of its effects would be wasted and if it went to an extreme level it could cause the writer's mind to be injured if he used items to far beyond him.
So far out of all the languages Caleb knew he had only found three with magical properties: Latin, Sanskrit(though not it's spoken counterpart strangely enough), and the Welsh spoken language yet not their written one. The reason behind why only parts of some languages carried magic eluded Caleb further raising his curiosity. He both hoped and dreaded that Tyr would have an answer for him when he next was able to talk. The reason he dreaded it was that a large part of him wanted to be able to study and discover the answer himself no matter how unlikely that may seem. It was after this discovery that he received a new and surprising system notification.
**DING** BLOODLINE EVOLVED, Abyssal Sovereign: Above the multiverse are myriad planes. The most feared planes are the Planes of the Abyss. For even the Devil Kings and Demon Emperors of Hell fear to tread into the Abyssal Planes as the abyss always hungers for new prey. As a Sovereign you shall never bow your head to another's might as your WILL reigns supreme. All creatures of the abyss excel at martial combat yet as a Sovereign you are even more skilled in the arcane and ritualist arts. +10% to will +5% to all other stats. +10% power to written/spoken magical languages and rituals. Be wary Sovereign as creatures of the abyss only follow the strong. +10 all stats
**DING** ARCANIST UPGRADED, Arcanist: A true arcansist is not bound solely to using runes as to be a true arcanist one must strive to more fully understand all magical languages and what makes them magical, congratulations for finally stepping on the true path.
**DING** Arcane Weapons Master has leveled: +2 VIT, +2 TOUGH, +4 STR, +6 AGI, +4 free points +3 Class Points
Caleb was surprised by the number of notifications and it took him a while to understand why he had gained a class level. Finally he realized he probably received some experience for starting on the true path of an arcanist which was a fundamental part of his class, either way he could ask Tyr the next time that they met or at least talked.
Before he could continue his musing Caleb was interrupted by Valikra, " Caleb, what are your plans for us as far as leveling goes? Are we waiting until the beast wave comes? Or will we go out and try to thin their numbers before the full on attack?"
"I am planning on having us go and thin the attack so we can get more used to fighting as a team. I also want to perform a ritual called Life Bank on all of us. It's a simple ritual that I bought from the chaos crystal in the vampire city. It takes 100 HP from you and stores it to be released whenever your health dips below 100. After we each go through the ritual we will wait for are health to fully regen before we go find a few beasts to grind levels on. " Caleb said. He had worked out this plan before coming to Haven, the only unexpected thing was running into Thomas. Due to that they had to by another set of reagents for the ritual, once more frustrating caleb because of their cost as the ingredients all added together was barely 5% of the cost. He wished that he had had time to practice the alchemical side of his profession but lacked the time and his bloodline wouldn't help him there.
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"Sounds good to me. I can use the time to craft more bullets. It is frustrating that I can't buy ammunition or higher functioning guns. I found out that the only way to buy a weapon is to have a chit which is some kind of special reward and there is no way to buy ammunition. I was also warned that buying ammunition once I could go to another world would be prohibitively expensive which is why pretty much everyone either makes their own ammunition or they receive them as part of the military of some force. This also seems to apply to arrows." Thomas said. Learning how to craft bullets in this magical world was a pain in the ass, but he had desperately wanted some form of ranged combat capability and he sucked with a bow. Also with his new stats using a sword and revolver at the same time was perfectly doable.
"Ok people next in line. How many in your group and do any of you have a beast companion or familiar?" the guard called out to Caleb's group before the could continue their conversation.
"There are 3 of us. I have a soul familiar who is a beast. She is only a cub so I am having her sleep in the Sanctuary inside me."Caleb informed the guard.
"Ok that will be three badges then. And place this token over the Sanctuary totem tattoo. The badges will record the beasts you kill as well as their levels giving you points, Levels 1-10 give 1 point per, levels 11-25 give 5 points per, levels 26-50 give 10 points per. Those above level 50 will be handled by the City Lord and council members. The token will seep into you familiar marking her to others as a friendly combatant. This is in case she needs to come out so she will not receive friendly fire. Now what do you want your team to be called. This is because there is a team and an individual leaderboard, The badges will automatically register your name once you equip them but i need to register the team name." The guard said trying to sound upbeat but it was obvious he was bored out of his mind.
"How about we call ourselves the Phantom" Thomas suggested. This was a name that he and his division had earned during their time serving in WW2 and was the name he had given his mercenary outfit as well.
"I suggest we call ourselves the Bloody Fangs" Valikra said. This was the name of the squad for her personal guards, a name that had been feared throughout the battlefields on her original world.
" Well I vote for the name Abyssal Guards as I am the leader and this name ties into my bloodline. " Caleb said. It had nothing to do with him thinking that the name sounded cool as shit. Weeeeelll maybe just a little to do with that.
"Let's play hammer knife and magic then?" Valikra said after a few minutes of everyone trying to argue for their own ideas. Both Caleb and Thomas were intrigued by the idea so agreed. The game was very similar to rock paper scissors that most people of earth would recognize. the fist became hammer, a flat hand was a knife, magic was the biggest difference as you would push mana out to form a blue ball in your palm. It took a few minutes to get used to the new rules but then they played seriously agreeing to a best out of 5. Caleb won 2 and tied on a third, Valikra won once and tied with Thomas, Thomas lost 3 times and tied with both Caleb and Valikra on the last 2 attempts.
"Okay, our team name will be the Abyssal Guards." Caleb told the guard. After doing so they went to the chaos crystal to buy the reagents they needed.
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Caleb finished drawing the final rune before going to the formation set up for him. Going into the formation and kneeled down, Glancing around he saw both Valikra and Thomas ready, "Okay remember to repeat after me and don't worry if you mess up slightly as i am the main controller of the ritual. Let us begin then. Sanguis noster alat vitam nostram in egenis!Virtus vitium ducit ut mater filium suum!" Caleb repeated the chant in latin three times before the ritual took effect. a glowing red mist which Caleb instinctively new was their mana infused blood, left their body making them all appeared somewhat drained. The mist began to slowly congregate at their heads before becoming a small crystalized blood red nightshade on their forehead. After a few seconds the crystalized blood merge with their skin becoming invisible but they could each still feel it there quite easily.
"Ok so everyone practice or work on whatever you need to and we will head out to kill some beasts in a few hours." Caleb said. He immediately went to his room to try and sleep as doing rituals was extremely taxing on his mind and he wanted to be fully aware during the coming fights. one mistake and he and his team could die. And while that wont be a true death it will still cost them a lot and he knew that they were going to need every edge and advantage they could get to survive in the new magical world that earth had become. Here was just a Tutorial that helped thing become easier, it was not a valid representation of the difficulties they would face upon leaving. Before laying down he pulled up the Tutorial page for the first time since coming here.
TUTORIAL
TIME: 2 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS, 1 DAY 17:03 remaining
SURVIVORS: 211,749/1,500,000
Less than a quarter of those sent to this Tutorial were still alive. How many had died before gaining a class or how many chose to just leave after receiving a class was unknown. Either way things would only become harder after leaving the Tutorial. Outside the Tutorial every death was permanent with zero second chances, ergo that was how Caleb would chose to live inside the Tutorial.