The class had been taken out of town in wagons as horses pulled them along the dirt road. The two-hour journey felt like a step back in time, with the rhythmic clip-clop of hooves setting the pace for the group as they gaped like idiots at the countryside unfolding around them. Passing fields of golden wheat swayed in the breeze and small farms nestled in the rolling hills, the students chattered away. Occasionally, they caught glimpses of wildlife stalking through the brush. Despite the bumps and jostles along the uneven road, there was a sense of camaraderie and excitement as they drew closer to their destination.
Then, they arrived. The building was a clean, crisp marble white, and shimmering crystals were lined along the outside. Depending on the angle you looked at, the color of the crystals ranged from green to purple. The entire thing stretched into the sky, reaching for what seemed to be miles.
Ezra blinked. Then he blinked again, rubbed his eyes, and blinked one more time. The building was still there.
Synica was seated opposite of him. He wasn’t sure how that happened, but it had happened. She smirked at his expression.
“Impressed?” she said. “This is the Central Starforge, the greatest of its type. Hundreds of rooms, thousands of machines, all dedicated to fighting the war against the Demon Lord.”
“Of course. And that’s all they do, right? They’re only used against the Demon Lord.”
Synica’s hand drifted to on top of her sword hilt.
Ezra’s breath caught in his throat and he clamped his mouth shut.
Thankfully, he received a reprieve when she stepped out of the wagon and led them to the inside of the building.
Rather than stairwells, floating black platforms adorned with brilliant green gems carried people from place to place. The walls reminded Ezra of a circuit board, with lines across the stone that pulsed with light the same color as the gems. Ezra pulled his hands out of his pockets and they fell to his side. It was an impressive place, no doubt. Synica strode forward and walked onto one of the platforms embedded into the ground. Moments later, the rest of the class followed.
“The Spiritsmith room, please,” Synica said.
The platform rose with a groan and the metal of the platform rubbed against the metal of the surrounding floor. Once it was free, the platform soared upward, slowly increasing in speed. More than a few students backed away from the edge. Idiots. There was no way Synica would let them die. The only thing they had to fear was the woman herself. And luckily for them, there was no reason for her to kill them. Yet.
Ezra was still kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Demon Lord, he thought. If you’re in my head and dicking around with my System could you just come out and say it so I can get my death over with?
Nothing happened.
Before long, the platform began to slow down. It rumbled to a stop, revealing a wide-open room. Synica stepped off the platform and approached the end of the space, where a massive furnace sat, made of the same black substance that the building was. Blocks of dark-red ore were placed off to the side. A man stood next to the forge, his hands glowing silver as he kept them an inch from the hot metal encasing.
“What’s he doing?” Ezra said.
“Forge master Steele is adjusting the furnace, keeping it at just the right conditions for spirit forging,” Synica said.
They got closer and closer until Synica signaled for them to stop.
“Line up. I don’t care how you do it, just get lined up. You’ll have to go sequentially to attract a compatible spirit to your weapon and have it be bonded to you.”
Whispers broke out.
“I think that we should just go from oldest to youngest, right?” Lackey 2 said.
Pete—oh, Ezra had forgotten about him—stuttered out a response. “Wait, that leaves all of us freshmen in the dust!”
Lackey 2 snorted. “I don’t want to hear that from snores-a-lot over there—“
Charles stepped in. “We’ll pick randomly. Think of a number.”
The rest of the students agreed. Ezra would’ve just ignored them, but even he could see that saving half an hour probably wouldn’t be worth the long-term hatred they’d have for him.
Two girls won and they decided to draw straws.
“I win!”
Dorian Pierce. She had short, brown hair that she kept in a tiny ponytail and equally brown eyes framed by a thin set of spectacles. She smiled, freckles poking out across her pallid complexion.
Of course, she’d cheated at the game.
Dorian passed by Ezra and smirked at him before speaking with Steele.
Prick.
After a few minutes, there was a flash of light. A glint of steel flew out of the furnace and into her waiting hand.
A rapier. It was adorned with gems and had a pale-white gleaming blade.
She gave a few experimental swings, then nodded.
“Yes, you’ll do nicely.”
There was a gleam in her eye—a brightness hidden behind the facade of calm.
She could try to hide it all she liked, but she was just as excited as any of them.
Pete was next. He pitter-pattered up to Steele and shrunk into himself the further he went. Noticeably, he still had the shirt with the ‘BABE MAGNET’ graphic on it. He stood in front of the furnace for a few minutes when out of nowhere, a bow made of white metal flew into his hand.
He looked radiant, all the nervousness gone. He walked away from the furnace.
And so they went one by one. A sword. A spear. A whip. Charles ended up with a straight razor nearly identical to the one he brought to this world.
A tugging sensation appeared on his sleeve and he turned to face the offender with a languid movement of the head.
“Yuki?” he said.
She was shaking, shivering.
“Ezra, I think I’m gonna throw up,” she said.
“Yeah, can you do that somewhere else?”
“Ezra, I’m serious!”
Ezra jerked his sleeve away.
“Yuki,” he said. “I don’t know what you expect me to do. I don’t have stomach medicine if that’s what you’re asking for.”
“No! I just wanted you to—oh, never mind!”
She marched off, her feet slamming against the ground.
What a weird encounter.
Finally, it was time for Ezra’s turn. He marched up to the furnace. Steele, the forge master, gave him a nod.
“Just stand in the circle. Don’t make any sudden movements. The spell will activate and begin the shaping and binding process.”
Ezra glanced at Steele, gave a tight nod, then turned his attention back to the furnace.
He took a few deep breaths. One. Two. Three. Stay calm. Not [Calm], just calm.
Adrenaline flooded Ezra’s veins. He hadn’t picked up on any lies when Lysandra was speaking about their potential powers.
She might have concealed the truth, but Ezra didn’t think so. It was just too obvious of a lie.
Even if she had lied, it was clear that the System alone was unbelievably powerful. Look at what Synica was able to do, and she wasn’t an Otherworlder.
Wait, was she?
That was a topic for another time.
A pulse of light caught his attention. The illumination shimmered, and the ore inside was changing, molding into something else.
[Bonding process started. Bonding…]
Bonding? According to his System, he was already bonded to someone. Would the System glitch out again?
Ezra felt a sensation in his chest.
For a brief moment, he thought he could see a yellow, translucent thread connecting him to something inside the furnace.
Then it was gone. The flames flickered and quieted for a moment.
A brilliant burst of light overwhelmed him. He held out his hand and shielded his eyes. A small, thin object impacted against his open palm. Instinctively, his hands wrapped around the object. What could it be? Why was it so light?
He opened his eyes.
[Bonding process complete! You are now the partner and wielder of Filamenta, Spirit of Binding!]
[You have gained the title “Spirit Weapon Wielder”!]
[Your skill of “Bind” has been assimilated into your Spirit Weapon.]
Ezra looked down. He was holding a sewing needle.
“Shit.”
----------------------------------------
Ezra stumbled his way backward toward the start of the entrance. Around him, more than a few students laughed and snickered under their breaths. Ezra didn’t care. He was more concerned with figuring out what on earth had gone wrong.
Look, size didn’t matter, sure, but this was ridiculous! It wasn’t a knitting needle. He could’ve used that as, like, a dagger. It was literally just a sewing needle.
“System.”
Name: Ezra Hawthorne
Age: 16
Race: Human
C̴l̷a̸s̵s̵: S̸t̵u̸d̵e̸n̵t̸
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Sub-class: N/A
Bonded Spirit: Filamenta, Spirit of Binding
Health Points: 80/80
Mana Points: 210/210
Stamina: 120/120
Level: 4
Strength: 5
Dexterity: 6
Constitution: 3
Intelligence: 7
Wisdom: 3
Personal Skills:
[Calm] - Lv. 2
[Inspect] - Lv. MAX
[Canefighting] - Lv. 1
Abilities:
[Bind] - Lv. 1
[Spirit Weapon Storage] - Lv. MAX
[Spirit Weapon Recall] - Lv. MAX
Skill points: 6
Stat points: 12
Ability points: 6
Titles:
[Otherworlder] - Special
[Perfect Resonance]
[Monster Slayer I]
[Spirit Weapon Wielder]
The allure of the titles and the new skill he’d gotten called to him. He wanted to see what the titles did and what they represented—but he figured there was time to check that out later. For now, he wanted to figure out more about his Spirit Weapon. He looked at the Bonded Spirit text. It was different than before. What would happen if he clicked it? Would it refuse to do anything?
[Filamenta, Spirit of Binding]
Filamenta is the Spirit of Binding. An ancient spirit, Filamenta was born a thousand years ago during the first sealing war—
The box abruptly closed. Ezra’s fingers twitched and after a moment, he reached out and clicked it again. A box popped up.
[Respect the privacy of others.]
The box closed on its own again.
Ezra furrowed his eyebrows together. Was that the System? The System did seem to have a degree of sentience, after all. He’d noticed that when he was hit with an apology right before he fainted. Could it have been the Demon Lord? If the guy was hitching a ride in Ezra’s System, that might’ve been possible. But why would he do that? The text had mentioned the sealing war. Perhaps the text held a weakness of the Demon Lord’s? Or maybe the text would’ve confirmed that the Demon Lord was the one messing with Ezra. Then there was the third option: Filamenta herself. Filamenta was a spirit. Filamenta was born. Filamenta might’ve been conscious and aware even as he was thinking these very thoughts.
“Filamenta,” he whispered. “If you’re sapient—if you can talk, then talk.”
Quiet.
Ezra clicked his tongue. He wasn’t getting any answers here. There was nothing to do. Perhaps he’d find out more by learning more about his abilities in general. His menu wasn’t revealing anything of interest. There still wasn’t a guidebook or tutorial of any sort.
“Abilities,” a voice said.
Ezra turned in the direction of the voice to see Dorian. She swung her sword around, then made it disappear in mid-air, and a moment later it reappeared. Her neck curved in Ezra’s direction.
“You’re looking for abilities,” she said.
Ezra’s mind flashed back to that night in the forest. It had said something about a Spirit Weapon being required to open it, right?
“Abilities.”
Instantly, a brand new box popped in front of him. It was completely different than the usual System box. Instead of a blue background, it had a black background and there were various white, star-like points arranged at random across the screen. It was like looking at the night sky. The points themselves had different symbols engraved into them. One had three needles on it. One had an engraving of a small needle, then an arrow pointing from the smaller needle to a larger needle. Surrounding a large section of stars was the thin and wispy outline of a constellation resembling a long section of string.
Hm. So the stars were individual skills. The constellation was what he would get when he completed all the skills. That was Ezra’s guess, at least. He swiped to the left, rotating his view on a swivel and revealing a new set of skills. The constellations took multiple forms. One was a picture of a robin. It had a few things on it.
[Needle Mastery: A skill governing all physical combat with a needle.]
[Use 1 skill point and learn?]
[Yes] [No]
Needle Mastery. Like, as an actual weapon? That seemed kind of useless unless the next one in the list was something that somehow made the needle useful. But that would be a bit of a gamble. Besides, maybe he’d pick up Needle Mastery naturally? He moved to the next constellation. One was a picture of what seemed to be a tree. All the first skill said was something about emergency healing. Ah, life-related skills! Might be something to look into…
Ability points, too. Right. He’d seen that back in his system menu. He had six. He flipped back to the star, the constellation of a string, and it had a handful of skills. Maybe five, at most. This would be a good one to experiment with. He clicked on the first skill, the one shining brightest.
[Restrain: Allows you to restrain creatures and individuals using thread.]
Mana Cost: 15
Effect Length: 10 seconds
Cooldown: 10 seconds
[Use 2 ability points and learn?]
[Yes] [No]
Ezra mashed the yes button. The star pulsed before increasing in luminescence.
“[Restrain].”
In front of him, two threads shot out of the ground and would’ve wrapped around something if there was anything there. Since there wasn’t, the threads drifted to the ground.
In his hand, his weapon was glowing the same yellow as that of the threads.
He hopped back over to the abilities screen and clicked the next skill in the constellation.
[Web Trap: Creates a web made out of sticky thread to trap an enemy.]
Mana Cost: 30
Effect Length: 5 seconds
Cooldown: 10 seconds
[Use 2 ability points and learn?]
[Yes] [No]
“Wow, how original,” Ezra said. “Great game design.”
He clicked yes and moved to the next skill.
[Entangle: A supercharged Restrain. Lasts for only a second, but provides triple the amount of power as Restrain.]
[Use 2 ability points and learn?]
[Yes] [No]
“Hmm, not bad,” he said.
He clicked the yes button once more. His hands hovered over the next skill.
“If this is another additional thread, I’m gonna lose my mind.”
[Select 1]
[Speedy Restraints: Increases the speed of all restraining abilities by 5%]
[Long Restraints: Increases range of all restraining abilities by 5%]
[Reactive Restraints: Restraints activate when you are attacked.]
[Use 2 ability points and learn?]
[Yes] [No]
The [Yes] and [No] buttons were greyed out, and for a moment Ezra was very confused. Then he realized what had happened and smacked his head.
“Oh, I’m out of ability points,” he said.
“Really?”
Ezra jumped. He slowly turned to Dorian and glared at her.
She was the picture of innocence, a neutral expression on her face.
“I thought you had more than us because of that monster kill,” Dorian said.
“Not enough, it seems.”
Dorian smiled, folded her hands behind her back, and leaned in toward Ezra.
“This is pretty exciting, isn’t it?” she said. “On earth, we would’ve just grown up to be normal. We’d get a job, work in an office till we’re sixty, then retire and wile away the time until we died.”
She leaned away and held out her hand. Her rapier appeared with a burst of light.
“But now, nothing will ever be the same. It’s…”
Ezra scoffed and glowered at her from the corner of his eye.
“This, coming from the prodigy?” he said. “We both know you wouldn’t have gone into an office job.”
“Compared to you idiots, of course, I would seem like a prodigy, but I wasn’t. I was above average. Here? This is the chance of a lifetime.”
Ezra crossed his arms and turned toward her.
“How’d you make your weapon appear like that?” he said.
“Read your ability descriptions, Ezra.”
Ezra’s lips curled downward, but he did as she said and opened his System menu.
Abilities:
[Bind] - Lv. 1
[Spirit Weapon Storage] - Lv. MAX
[Spirit Weapon Recall] - Lv. MAX
[Restrain] - Lv. 1
[Web Trap] - Lv. 1
[Entangle] - Lv. 1
Huh. Why had [Bind] and [Restrain] separated in the first place? They seemed to do the same thing. Was it some sort of glitch? He clicked on [Bind].
[Bind] - Lv. 1
[Binds things together. Levels increase how effective the binding is and decrease the resistance of certain objects.]
[Uses 50 MP/s]
Well, that’s not helpful at all. It seemed to do the same thing as [Restrain]. Besides that, it used up a ridiculous amount of mana. He clicked on the most promising one: [Spirit Weapon Storage].
[Spirit Weapon Storage] - Lv. MAX
[Due to the close bond between wielder and weapon, Spirit Weapons may be stored inside your soul. Simply will it to happen, and it will.]
“I’m getting real fed up with the loose activation requirements,” Ezra said. “Why can’t you just say it and have it activate?”
Dorian shrugged. “That’s what I’m doing. I just whisper the words ’store’ and ‘withdraw’.”
Was it that easy?
“Store.”
The needle shattered into light and Ezra felt something warm beside his heart. Was that his weapon? A tad bit unsettling, but he’d deal with it.
“Withdraw.”
The needle appeared in his hand.
Okay, that was pretty neat.
What about that other skill?
[Spirit Weapon Recall] - Lv. MAX
[Due to the close bond between wielder and weapon, Spirit Weapons can never be permanently parted from their wielders. Simply will your weapon to return to you, and it will.]
Ezra chucked his weapon through the air. The needle spun, nothing more than a shimmer of light.
He held out his hand.
“Recall.”
There was a flash and Ezra’s needle appeared in his hand with the sound of cracking glass.
Depending on what skills he obtains, this has the potential to be broken. If you had a skill that activated at range, for instance… the potential was insane.
He took a look back at his stats.
Level: 4
Strength: 5
Dexterity: 6
Constitution: 3
Intelligence: 7
Wisdom: 3
Now then, time to divvy up his points. Ezra ruled out strength and constitution early on. If he was fighting in such a way to rely on those stats, he felt like he’d be using his weapon wrong anyway. Filamenta skills seemed to imply a spellcaster role and to do ninja stuff too, but that would be a Dexterity stat anyway. Probably. Ezra wasn’t sure, but he’d bet good money that he was on the right track.
So that left Dexterity, Intelligence, and Wisdom.
Dexterity was good. It would probably let him dodge hits, which he’d need to make up for his awful Constitution.
That just left…
“Hm, which is better, Intelligence or Wisdom?” he said.
If his hair was blond and his last name was Arc, this would be a very different story.
“What the hell are you mumbling about?” Dorian said.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said, waving her off.
Dorian rolled her eyes and went back to experimenting with her weapon.
Well… it would be risky to focus on Wisdom, given how loose it seemed to be. Intelligence—who didn’t want more intelligence, right? It was valued no matter where you went in the world.
But if reading tons of fanfiction had taught him anything, it’s that you shouldn’t simply go with the flow. Want to stand apart from the crowd? Be different, right?
Ezra pounded the stat plus buttons, putting his points into Dexterity and Wisdom.
Level: 4
Strength: 5
Dexterity: 10
Constitution: 3
Intelligence: 7
Wisdom: 10
Ezra took a step backward. It was hard to notice, but he could feel an increase in his balance. One point was nothing, but four made a very real difference, it seemed.
As for Wisdom, he didn’t feel any distinction in perception. But that was a harder thing to quantify anyway. He’d have to test it out in combat.
And his regen rate had probably been boosted, so it all leveled out in the end.
Wait, where could he find that info?
He clicked around in his menu, and after clicking on his Mana, it popped up a box.
[Regen Rate: 20/s]
Okay, that wasn’t half bad. He’d be back up to full mana in a mere 10 seconds or so. That was good. He’d be able to cast his spells carte-blanch, right now.
Seemed a little broken, but if the devs were this incompetent, then he’d just roll with it.
“By the way, what did you name your weapon?” Dorian said.
Ezra turned his head toward Dorian.
“Name?” he said.
Dorian tilted her head. “Well, yeah. The text prompt, remember? You had to name your weapon?”
Ezra’s mind shot back to a few minutes prior. Did that happen? Did he ever get a text prompt?
No, it was nothing more than a simple notification. The needle or the spirit residing in it—perhaps both—was named Filamenta, and that was the end of it.
Ezra opened his mouth to reply when a loud, booming voice interrupted them.
“Alright!” Synica said. “Now that everyone has their Spirit Weapons, you will be taken back to rest, recover, and solidify your relationship with your weapon. As soon as dawn breaks, we will begin training. Is everyone prepared?”
More than a few people had wide eyes in response to the dawn comment. It seemed that a handful of people had signed up without knowing what they were in for.
Ezra grinned.
He’d had enough of being weak. This was the start of his ascendancy.