Ethenia replays the sentence in her mind, and can’t help but wonder why he wants her on his team. Sure, she noticed his gaze on her body, but she’s used to it. They haven’t spoken before, outside of simple greetings here and there.
Her mind flickers back to her status, and her talent. ‘Maybe he has one, but what? Something that lets him see my abilities? No that doesn’t make sense, I’m not sure how common Electro is as an affinity, but outside of that the only thing I can think of is my talent.’
She analyzes Michael’s posture. He seems fit, and he probably does have a training regimen due to his father, possibly more experience when it comes to military operations just from growing up in that environment.
Ethenia thinks for another few seconds, before mentally shrugging. As previously stated, they have no idea what to expect when the tutorial begins.
“Sure.” She responds evenly, catching a flicker of disappointment. Almost snorting. Boys and men truly do not understand the concept of ‘time and place’ when in front of a good looking woman.
“Great. As you know I’m Michael Korwinski, our [Conjurer] is Chris Tyler, and our [Gladiator] is Marcus Phillips.” He introduces the others standing a few meters away, pointing them out.
Nodding at Michael, Ethenia mulls over the class names, as they don’t really give a lot of information.
Michael leads her over to the remaining two, and she gives all three a once over. She’s the shortest of the four. Michael seems to be around 180, Chris around the same height, while Marcus looks to be around 190 or taller. She has to slightly crane her neck to look at his face.
They're all somewhat fit, visible muscles under their t-shirts, but that applies to almost everyone in class. As the elite they’re usually in the media spotlight, interviews, paparazzis and journalists clamoring for information.
“This is Ethenia Vermillion, our Elementalist.” Michael introduces her to the others. Chris waves and smiles, while Marcus gives her a nod.
Turning towards Michael, she asks the question she’s been wondering for a while. “Michael. If we enter into a combat scenario, will you be acting as a commander, or will you focus on this group?”
Michael brings a hand to his cheek, giving it a few scratches as he seems to be thinking.
“Ideally everyone would be able to handle themselves, but we don’t know what we’re up against, if it even is anything related to combat. We don’t know the danger, if there's a life threatening situation or not, and we have no supplies. We have almost no information to act upon. Most likely I will be taking the lead, at least until the groups are experienced enough to think on their own. I’ll have to see how they handle themselves, but this is pretty similar to the education I’ve had under my father.”
She nods at him, understanding his point of view.
Looking over at Marcus, she spots the shield in one hand, and the spear in the other. Reminding her of a Spartan Hoplite.
Debating whether to ask or not, as if she asks them for their class information, she’ll be socially obligated to give her own, and she doesn’t want to create a bad atmosphere before she has any connection to any of them, seeing as the three others know each other from before. ‘That reminds me, weren’t they four?’ Ethenia looks around, and spots the last of Michael’s friend group, surrounded by three other girls, one of them being Astrid.
Not wanting to delve deeper into that subject, she brings her attention to Marcus. “Do you have any Body Arts associated with that shield, or is it just a personal preference?” She asks, immediately noticing he’s looking over her shoulder, where Michael should be standing.
Eyes flickering back to Ethenia, his posture relaxes a tiny bit. “How familiar are you with game terms?” Understanding what he means, Ethenia quickly responds. “Pretty familiar.”
Marcus nods. “I have an aggro art, and a passive shield art.” ‘Passive? Could it be a talent? Or is it more like my Overload, a 0 Tier art?’
“I see. Would you be able to cover the both of us if Michael has to focus on leading?” Turning towards Chris, she continues. “Actually I’m not too sure what kind of [Conjurer] class you are.”
Chris smiles at her, and there’s something in his expression that makes Ethenia’s gaydar go off. Relaxing her posture, Chris' smile widens and she returns with a tiny smile of her own. “I can conjure a flame spear, and a flame bird. If we come across a monster or animal within our level range, I also have a taming skill.”
Ethenia tilts her head. ‘Elemental conjuring, does he have an affinity too? That taming skill also seems to not fit a [Conjuring] class, unless after taming he’s able to de- and re-summon it?’
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Knowing what they’re expecting, she takes a slight step back to include Michael in the circle, as he’s done talking to the professor. “I see. I’m an [Elementalist] with an Electro affinity. I can discharge a stream of sparks as long as my focus, or mana lasts, and I can discharge a spark anywhere within a radius of ten meters.”
Not telling them about her Talent, or Overload ability, that’s information she wants to keep to herself, as she doesn’t know yet what they can expect. For all Ethenia knows, they’ll go from allies to enemies. At least the cynical part of her tells her.
Michael scratches his cheek once again, seeming to be a habit when thinking. “I see, we should have some diversity for different scenarios. My class is [Soldier], giving me proficiency with any handheld weapon. I have a piercing and lunging Body Art.”
Ethenia nods at him, before Michael lets them know he’s going to organize the stragglers.
Looking towards the countdown, she can see it’s just an hour until the tutorial starts. Already having given information of her class, she wants to spend the remaining hour to test out her two Tier 1 spells.
Walking a bit aways from the group. She finds an empty area and brings out her hand. ‘Spark Stream.’ She waits a few seconds, but nothing happens. As she thought, it doesn’t simply work by thinking of the name of the spell, as that could cause interesting situations where you accidentally cast a spell.
Closing her eyes, not wanting to miss anything. She fills the words with intent, wanting to cast Spark Stream. A sensation fills her, as if something is moving inside of her body, but it doesn’t feel uncomfortable. ‘Mana? She guesses. Her consciousness follows the path of the mana, as it flows from her brain, her stomach, her feet, her left arm, and moving towards her right hand.
Opening her eyes she sees an arc of disjointed lightning. It’s not fluid, whole, or connected. It looks just like a stream of tiny sparks.
The stream connects with the floor, dissipating into thin air. Her brain is instinctively letting her know that the sparks she’s emitting could be crippling, or fatal for a normal human if exposed to it for more than a few seconds. ‘Is this why the system doesn’t give a lot of information? It’s like the tail of the girl earlier, it seems almost instinctive, like another part of me that has been here since birth.’ Her eyebrows furrow, and she mulls over her thoughts. ‘Although, maybe it’s best to think of it as an untrained muscle. This doesn’t feel as efficient as it could be. Is that due to lack of practice, or does it have to do with my level and tier? Maybe both.’
She looks at her right hand, and even though she’s been thinking of everything but the stream, it is still continuing. ‘Focus seems more like not being interrupted. As long as I still want, or intend for the stream to continue, and there isn’t an external force interrupting me, it will continue as long as I want, or until I run out of mana, speaking of.’
The stream has been going for about 15 seconds, she brings up her status and looks at her mana bar.
MP: 84/100%
She quickly does the math, and realizes her stream is around 1% mana per second. Stopping the stream, she wants to test out her other ability.
Intending to cast. ‘Spark’. A spark discharges two meters away from her, around eye level. It feels weaker than the stream, but still enough to momentarily paralyze, or even heavily injure a normal human.
Her mana is still at 84%. ‘Seems it doesn’t cost too much? Let’s test.’
Ethenia throws sparks every five seconds, for half a minute.
MP: 81/100%
‘Seems like 1 spark is about .5% mana, what about the regen?’
[System Notice]: Tutorial will begin in 0 hours 58 minutes and 1 second. Good luck..
Mentally making a note of her current mana, she keeps the status page open, but unfocused as she looks at the group of students. Seemingly busy with their own grouping, chatting, experimenting and showing off. She sits down on the ground and closes her eyes, while simply listening to the sounds around her.
Focusing on the sensation she previously felt. Ethenia searches for the mana inside of her. Wondering if it’s generated inside of her, drawn from the outside and stored, or if it’s possible to spend less of her internal mana on spells, aided by the external mana in the atmosphere. She knows it’s too early to figure out a conclusion, or even implement such a method, she still is curious.
Being so focused on her internal musings, Ethenia has yet to notice that her apathetic outlook is slowly changing the more invested she becomes in magic, the system and the changes she has experienced since the portal incident.
As she delves deeper and deeper into herself, the sense of time as a concept is outside of her reach. Her meditative trance is broken by the sound of a horn, or a trumpet, and Ethenia opens her eyes.
[System Notice]: Tutorial has begun, teleportation in 10 seconds. Good luck, [System Holders]!.
The mana flow inside her recedes, and she stands up and heads over to the rest of her group, Michael, Chris and Marcus, while keeping an eye on the 10 second counter.
As she takes her place with her group, they all give her a nod, before a feeling of weightlessness encompasses her, and they’re teleported.
✧ ⋄ ⋆ ⋅ ⋆ ⋄ ✧ ⋄ ⋆ ⋅ ⋆ ⋄ ✧
Opening his eyes, Michael is greeted by a vast meadow. Grass and flowers spread around, giving it an inviting and comforting feeling as the rays of the sun hit his skin.
Quickly looking around, he spots the rest of his classmates, and his three team members just a meter away from him. Casting a glance at Ethenia, he notices she’s already scanning for threats. A serious expression on her face as her eyes shift from left to right, and then back again.
His focus shifts to Marcus, taking a few steps ahead to get in front of Chris and Ethenia.
Michael gaze locks onto Professor Heimer, and they give each other a nod, before Michael turns around to address the group.
“Don’t relax just yet. We still don’t know what awaits us. It could simply be interaction with others, or it could be an ambush. Elementalists stay behind your Body Arts teammates. Supports keep an eye on the flanks and behind your group, and shout out if you spot something moving, even if it doesn’t seem threatening.
Michael turns back towards the front, and slightly flinches then the sound of a horn blares again.
[System Notice]: Prepare for combat! Wave 1 / 5: Goblins.