That was a bit excessive Zane thought. If they didn’t want to talk to us, they could have walked out or simply ignored us. How do we leave? Zane turned his head and only saw three bare wooden walls.
“Is that it?”
“Are they going to ignore us?”
“They left without telling us anything.”
The moment he smelled something delicious, Zane focused his gaze on the table in front of him. The barren table was now filled with delicious looking food. Zane had a plate and eating utensils placed in front of him. I guess this is the meal that guy was talking about. I hope it tastes as good as it looks.
“Zane what do you think?” Jason asked while wiping away drool from his mouth. “Should we dig in?”
Zane quickly checked his mouth and was happy to find zero drool. “Of course. Don’t worry about it being poisoned. Just enjoy the meal.” Zane started pilling different fruits and meat onto his plate. He was eager to taste them.
“Shouldn’t we talk about what that guy said?” Sophie asked while everyone piled food onto their plate. She focused on the magical dome with a gaze full of worry. “He made it sound like most of us would die.”
“We knew we would encounter danger before we came here. We made all the preparations we could. The only thing left to do is eat.” Zane didn’t want to discuss their preparations in front of other people. Zane ignored Sophies frown and continued eating.
“It sounds like all of you are natives.” Zane stopped eating and looked up at the old man who spoke. The man eyes were dark and half of his dark hair was grey. His olive-skinned face had a few lines but glowed with energy. “I hope you would be willing to share some information with us. Although we come from different worlds, all of us are human.
The old man sat on the other end of the table with one person on his left and right. Zane turned his head left and looked at Sophie and the others. Sophie was seated at middle of the end of the table and Jason was to her left. The others were seated on the left side of the table with the rest of the foreign humans. The right side of the table facing the missing wall was left empty.
After sharing concerned and hesitant expressions Sophie decided to answer the old man. “We can answer a few questions for you.”
“1,000 village points,” Zane said. He saw some of the foreign humans start to frown and quickly explained himself. “Not for each question but for all of them. Each of you will pay 1,000 village points and we will answer any questions we can. Once we finish eating, we won’t stick around. I suggest you ask the important questions first.”
After Zane finished speaking most of the foreign humans relaxed. Zane could see that they would most likely accept his conditions. He wasn’t sure how much each village point was worth but he figured that 1,000 should be a decent amount.
“That’s a lot of points for a few answers.” A young man with brown hair and fair skinned grumbled in his seat. “I think you guys are ripping us off.”
Zane recognized the young man as the person that lost 7,000 points to the Messenger. “We may not be experts but we know more than you do. Would you like to spend 1,000 points now to ask us questions about basic things you don’t know, or would you like to waste thousands of points later by asking an expert the same questions?”
The young man’s face was starting to turn red but Zane ignored him. He focused on the other humans sitting at the table.
“If there are no other questions then you can send me your 1,000 points. You can ask the system to send the points to me or visualize the points being sent to me in your mind.”
After he finished speaking Zane looked at the others in his group. He received a few nods and all of them looked excited. Zane was happy to receive zero complaints about all the points going to him. I’ll make sure I return this trust in the future.
“What would you all like to ask first?” Zane asked this question after receiving thirteen system messages.
“How about we start with introductions? My name is Adam Peddler.” Adam had a fair complexion, blond hair and a muscular physique.
Zane recognized the man and noticed the magic glasses were gone from his blue eyes. A few people didn’t share their names but Zane easily memorized those that did.
“My name is Zane.”
“Sophie”
“Jason”
“Shane”
“Lana”
“Luna”
“Shawn”
“I’ll start by asking a question I’m sure everyone wants to know. What is the system?” Adam asked.
“The system is the will of mana,” Jason said.
“The system is the will of the world,” Shawn said.
“The system is the will of a powerful god.” Shane said”
“Nobody knows what the system is,” Zane said. “Trying to figure out what the system is won’t help you in the immediate future.”
“I find it hard to believe that there is no information about the system.” Adam said. “Can you tell us when your world first started interacting with the system?”
What skills are good for my class? What titles can I obtain? Instead of asking important questions they want useless knowledge. Zane picked up his utensils and started eating his food. He wasn’t an expert when it came to history or the system so he would let the others answer these questions.
“We don’t have an exact date but we were taught that the system appeared after the Calamity,” Sophie said.
“What is the Calamity? When did it happen?”
“Nobody knows how long ago the Calamity happened. The Calamity refers to a time when the world was destroyed by war and magic.” Sophie continued to speak in a solemn tone. “The world lost its mana; nothing grew from the earth and order collapsed. The main reason for this destruction was creatures summoned from other worlds. The world was kept in a state of chaos until the system spoke to everyone.”
“Did people stop preserving history until the system spoke?
“Yes and no.” Sophie shrugged her shoulders after eating a few bites of food. “There are stories about the time before the Calamity and the time of chaos that happened after it. A few books and items that make those stories seem true. However, there are very few sources that provide reliable information. Even after the system appeared people did not immediately start recording historical events. The earliest reliable recording happened five thousand years before the creation of the Divine Spirits.”
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“The system shows a time and date on my window. Couldn’t the system keep track of history.”
“It could but it doesn’t. There is a class for people who research and record history. The system judges whether they are correct and rewards them with experience.”
“Interesting.” Adam said while rubbing his chin. “I never thought the system would create a class like this.”
Sophie smiled proudly. “The system will always provide a way for people to develop. What your capable of achieving will be decided by your will and effort.”
“The system sounds extraordinary. You mentioned the creation of the Divine Spirits. Are they considered the gods of your world?”
“No. The system created the Divine Spirits to help it. Similar to how the Messengers help the Divine Spirits. Oh, the Messengers are people who preform duties assigned by the Divine Spirits. The women who led us here is a Messenger.
“How do the Divine Spirits help the system.”
“Nobody knows.”
“Really? I would think-”
“Sorry to interrupt.” Adam was interrupted by the old man called Old Saber. “Learning about your world is interesting but I would like to focus on information that will be useful to us now. For example, can we talk about how we can obtain skills?”
“Finally, someone who ask a sensible question,” Zane muttered under his breath. Everyone looked at Zane but he wasn’t embarrassed. He felt that they should be embarrassed for taking so long to ask a proper question.
There were a few upset faces at the table but Old Saber smiled in amusement. “Would you like explain how we could obtain skills young man?”
“No problem,” Zane said. “Let’s see. Skills can be obtained through a skill book, randomly given by the system every five levels, through class points, by creating a new skill and by showing understanding of an unlocked skill for your class. These are the most well-known ways to obtain skills but there could be more that I don’t know about.”
“Thank you. You gave us a lot of options. Next, I would like to ask you about unlocked skills. Are these skills we get through class points?”
“Class points are used to learn or purchase new skills from the system. In order to learn or purchase skills you must first unlock them. The most common way to unlock skills is by preforming them. Another way is to teach or be taught the skill.”
“Wait that doesn’t make sense.” The person who spoke was the young man who lost 7,000 village points. His name was Brad. “Why do we have to pay to learn skills? We already proved we could do the skill.”
“He has a point,” Sam said. She was a young woman with short brown hair. “This seems like an obvious mistake.
Zane shrugged his shoulders. “Teacher said the system is helpful but stingy.”
“What does that mean?” Brad and Sam said simultaneously.
“I know it didn’t make much sense to me either. I suggest you accept it or ask the system to change it. I’m confident that you’ll fail but there is no harm in trying.”
Brad frowned at Zane’s word. “We’re paying you a lot of points. I thought you could answer all of our questions.”
“I agree,” said a dark-skinned woman that refused to give her name. “We give you points and you answer our questions, that was the deal.
Zane shook his head before speaking. “I never said I could answer all your questions. Even the Messengers can’t answer all of your questions. Eventually you would ask them something they didn’t know. If I could then I would be charging you a lot more than 1,000 points.”
Zane’s answer did not satisfy Brad. Before he could continue speaking Old Saber asked another question.
“Would you explain understanding unlocked skills?” Old Saber turned his head and spoke to Brad. “I think we should focus on important questions. They did say they would stop answering our questions when they finished eating.”
Zane nodded at Old Saber and spoke. “Just because you can perform a skill doesn’t mean you understand it. A good example would be the basic sword mastery skill. If you swing your sword enough times you can unlock the sword mastery skill. To show understanding of the skill you would need to control your body and the sword with purposeful and precise movements. Next the system will open the skill for you and allow you to receive the benefits of it.”
“I think I understand,” Old Saber spoke while nodding his head. “I think I would like to give it a try.”
Zane watched as Old Saber stood up and walked towards the other side of the room. He closed his eyes for a few second and used two hands to hold a sword with one edge in front of him. He suddenly opened his eyes and started to deliver furious slashes to the air. Zane could see his skill. Each slash had power, control and emitted a domineering will. Soon Old Saber began to move as if he was fighting an invisible enemy. This continued for a few minutes before he abruptly stopped.
“Oh, it seems like I leveled up.”
“What?!" Brad shouted.
Seeing everyone’s dumbfounded expression Zane decided to enlighten them. “Old Saber most likely unlocked the Basic Sword Mastery skill in the first few seconds of swinging his sword. When he began using his entire body the system opened or allowed him to learn the skill. He then spent the next few minutes leveling up the skill until he gained enough experience to level up.”
“Wow! I never thought getting skills would be this easy!” Sam shouted excitedly.
“Don’t get too excited.” Zane decided to speak up when he noticed some of the people at the table were getting too excited. “Each Old Saber’s swings were backed by skill. A normal person would have to spend a lot more time to achieve the same result.”
“Your right and wrong,” Old Saber said. “I have a lot of skill due to my experiences that I had before I came to this world. I was what the system would refer to as a tier two existence.”
Zane eyes widen it shock. He couldn’t believe what he just heard. He quickly stood up and bowed to the old man. His actions were mimicked by Sophie and the others.
“Apologies for not greeting you appropriately,” Zane said with a solemn tone.
“Relax, before I came to this world I was near death. The system made me revoke my powers and helped restore some of my lifespan. As I am now, I’m probably weaker than all of you.”
“Your strength may be gone but your skills aren’t.” Zane stood up and continued to be respectful. “May you tell me what I was wrong about.”
“The skill I unlocked wasn’t basic sword mastery it was basic saber mastery. The system said that I was the first to use this skill and it rewarded me with two titles.”
Zane was shocked the old man before him was able to create a new skill so easily. He learned from school and Teacher Isabelle that creating a skill was almost impossible for people below tier four and he shouldn’t waste time trying.
“That’s impressive. Can you explain what the basic saber mastery skill is?”
“In my world there are swords and sabers. A saber is a sword with one edge or one blade. The people who master wielding this type of weapon are saber masters or a master bladesman.”
“Thank you for explaining,” Zane said. It seems like the people from other world are capable of bringing unique skills to our world. Many of them will most likely be able to obtain the skill creator title. They’ll probably accumulate a lot of titles by displaying a few skills we don’t have here. Zane felt pressured but lucky. It’s a good thing we decided to answer their questions or it may have been a long time before we found out about this. Zane did not know if the others shared the same thoughts that he did but he would make sure to inform them later.
“There’s no need to thank me.” Old Saber waved away Zane’s thanks while putting his saber on his back. “In addition to two titles I also received a class quest. Does every skill give a class quest?”
“Only skills connected to your class. If you chose the warrior class you wouldn’t receive a class quest for skills like mana bolt or mana shield.”
“Can you tell us what your titles are?” Brad asked the old man.
“It’s impolite to ask strangers about their personal information.” Zane spoke with a frown. “Do humans not have similar manners where you’re from.”
“We do but we choose not to use them most of the time. If the old man doesn’t want to answer then I’ll stop asking.”
“I don’t mind answering,” Old Saber said. “One title is Skill Creator and the other is First Saber Master. Skill Creator gives me ten percent increase to earned class points and ten percent decrease in the cost to purchase skills. It doesn’t specify a tier so it should apply to all of them.” Zane nodded his head when he saw Old Saber look at him. “First Saber Master gives me twenty percent increase to all saber skills.”
“Damn you’re really lucky,” Brad said.
Zane expected the first title and wasn’t surprised by the second. While the humans in the room were talking Zane tapped Sophie and indicated that they should leave.
“We have done our best to answer your questions and gave all of you a lot of information.” Sophie stood up and addressed the room. “We finished eating and were preparing to leave. We hope you stay safe and wish you luck.”
“Thank you for the information,” Old Saber said. He gave Sophie a small bow and she gave him a bow in return.
“Why are you in a rush to leave?” Brad said. “How are you going to leave? Remember this room doesn’t have a door.”
Zane pointed at the rooms middle wall. He watched as everyone turned their heads and looked at the door that had magically appeared in the middle. Zane and the others stood up and walked towards it.