At first, they were hesitant. They didn’t know how this world’s culture work. Considering how Cloud worded his question, revealing one’s status is considered extremely personal.
But after another moment, Zeke and Mikella realized that there was no point in hiding anything anymore. They already revealed their origins–what’s learning about their levels and stats mean anything after that point?
So, Zeke and Mikella offered their status windows to their gracious hosts who peered at the information displaying in front of them with great glee.
Their eyes widened at the words, their faces gaunt with shock and surprise mixed together.
“This is… not normal,” Valorie said, her fingers pressed to her chin in thought. She was staring at Mikella’s status since she was a fighter like her. At least that’s how Zeke saw it. “You’re level 9, yet you already got Pain Resistance and Sword Mastery, of all things.”
“Meditation is one thing,” Cloud said, rubbing his chin with a careful stare at Zeke’s status. “But to have Mana Perception before attaining a class is… I can see now that your trials aren’t to be underestimated.”
“Mana Perception?” Val looked at her husband in disbelief. “So early?”
“Strangely enough, they're both level 9. If they level up at the exact same time despite one clearly doing more battle than the other, then that means that they share experience points… fascinating.”
“I-Is that not normal?” Zeke asked, getting Mikella to listen in intently at the answer. “We figured since we’re always together, our experience points are always shared.”
“Not to this extent,” Cloud shook his head. “Most likely something is connecting between the two of you. Otherwise, it’s just impossible that you two would level up at the same time every time.”
“Oh…” Zeke frowned. Then after another thought, he added. “Is that the reason why we’re leveling slowly? Because we keep sharing all the experience points?”
“Most likely,” Val nodded, answering this time. “Getting to level 10 is normally done quickly, but after two whole weeks, it made sense. Some folks take longer to level up than others, normally due to their differences between each other. It’s not uncommon to take a while, but to do this much is a little strange.”
“And their titles…” Cloud’s striking eyes widened, more in shock than in curiosity. “Death Swindler?”
The two hosts continued to give their detailed responses to their status, making the two otherworlders shift and fidget. It was no wonder that this was considered personal–it was as though they were studying their entire life in just one simple status screen.
It was weird. It was different from letting someone see his online game character’s profile. This was his own private information.
Eventually, the two stopped gawking and examining their status much to the otherworlder’s relief. Valorie even apologized to the two as Cloud continued pondering.
“Your acquired skills… you said you got the skill books as drops from defeating the knights in the dungeon, right?”
Valorie asked, getting the two to nod in affirmation. She continued as Cloud continue his deep thought.
“To be honest, I don’t know much about your magic spells, Zeke,” Val turned to Zeke, then glanced over to Mikella with a serious stare. “But your skills are considered extremely valuable. Valuable and hard to learn, according to their attribute requirements . I have both Hawk Eyes and Acrobatics, which was difficult to gain for me after reaching level 30.”
Mikella nodded. “I figured. It’s the skill that helped me survive for this long. That, and the barrier Zeke put up.”
“That Barrier Craft…” Cloud suddenly spoke up. “That’s the one that defended you against the magic spells by our soldiers. I never heard of such a skill, much less a barrier that can be used in such a way. And you said this particular skill needed 1000 Spirit to learn?”
“Right,” Zeke nodded. “Before our otherworldly status ignored it and let me learn it.”
“I see,” Cloud nodded. “Then that means that you two have the capabilities to learn any Acquired Skill regardless of their requirements.”
Even though she knew this by now, Val had that look in her eyes as if Cloud said that the world would explode tomorrow. She shook her head, bewildered and baffled at the mention of it.
“That is already impossible to believe, but the proof is right here. You don’t even have a class, yet you already learned these precious skills. Plus, all the attribute fruits you could have, and even learning these hard to acquire general skills so early… I don’t want to think about it, but clearly you three have been through a lot.”
Zeke felt justified to hear all this. He was worried, for a little while, that all of their troubles and horrible events were nothing compared to the world of Tarial.
Apparently it was too much even for these veterans, at least for low level folks like the otherworlders. The fact that they survived through all that, even with a child in their midst, made Zeke stand up straighter, his chest pumped out in pride.
Apparently Mikella did the same, even smiling to herself when he glanced over at her.
“Whatever it is that you’re doing here, it’s clear that the dungeon is meant to train you for whatever it was that is coming,” Cloud stated, standing up to his feet. “Whatever it might be, it’s clear that you’re not our enemies. If anything, you’re victims.”
All of a sudden Zeke’s pride and accomplishment felt limp after hearing the last word. The otherworlders frowned which clearly Valorie saw as she stood up and jabbed an elbow to her husband’s stomach–very hard–and making him wince.
“They’re survivors, Cloud,” Valorie worded it better. That had a much better ring to it. “And I agree. Now… it’s obvious that you three need a place to stay. However, it’s going to be hard to give you a home in our current stage. Let’s talk first about how to settle in.
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“For now, you’ll be staying with us. Right now my daughter is outside being taught by Vivian, so I’ll be getting her and telling her of the news. Don’t worry–I don’t plan on revealing everything we learned to anyone, not even to my own little girl.”
Hearing the news, a sense of relief washed over the two as Mikella grabbed Clara to go along with Valorie, hoping to get themselves introduced at the very least. Meanwhile, Zeke had plenty of questions for Cloud, and it looked like he had the same amount for him.
For once, they can rest easy and actually enjoy being in civilization once again.
…..
More than half a week passed since they arrived in the town known as Eve Glade. After everything that had happened, Zeke and Mikella knew more about their society, their culture, and how the system worked within their everyday lives.
Zeke took the time to learn more about the world as a whole by entering into Cloud’s study, which was a giant room filled to the brim with shelves of books on every subject he could think of. At first, Zeke wondered if he could even get through even one book throughout the time they’ve been living here, considering how thick these books are.
Apparently the real problem was whether or not he had enough books to satiate his thirst for knowledge. It was revealed that his Intelligence stat did more work as he devoured every word, every sentence, and every page he could get his fingers on.
His Dexterity did wonders to help flip through about a dozen or so pages every second, and his Intelligence actually remembered every page that flipped by. It was jarring, even more so than learning about the system as a whole, so he learned just a bit more than he thought he could.
Such as learning the entire history of the system and everything that had occured throughout it all. It was a heavy subject to get into in Tarial’s history, but he managed to get a better grasp of it all by then.
In the meanwhile, Cloud asked many questions whenever Zeke took a break about his own world. He worried whether he would lose interest in such a boring world without magic, but according to Cloud, it was an interesting subject scholars like him wanted to learn for a long time now–such as what a world was like without the system’s guidance.
It was enough to make him pale at the thought, as the more Zeke explained what they had to do to survive in their world, the more Cloud was resolute that the people in Tarial would never survive.
One such famous examples is that making contracts is defined not by the parties involved, but by the system itself. If you were to break the contract, you would be punished by either death, or in other cases, losing levels and skills.
Even for contracts such as cheating on your spouse is considered going against the system’s rules, which surprised Zeke. There were also issues that without the system, anyone would have no clue on what they specialize in by how their stats worked, so one could train as an athlete all their life, only to realize that their physical attributes were crap compared to their mental attributes. It was a horrid realization for Zeke, especially since some people can’t even decide for themselves on what to do without a class to guide them.
“Don’t mention this to Val. She’ll just cry if she hears this.”
Cloud chuckled as he said this, but Zeke could tell that even he felt a bit off after hearing about how his world works.
Still, it was interesting to hear about all this. He even mentioned in his world, they had computers that did exactly as the system said, which gave Cloud pause.
“So you can actually make the system by hand, which is why you were able to understand how this works so easily,” Cloud nodded, his eyes glittering at the new information. “Fascinating.”
“Do you know exactly how this worked?” Zeke eventually asked. It was one of the days they were resting when the two got together in the study, talking about their own findings. “How we managed to get here in this world?”
“I can’t say for sure,” Cloud shook his head. He looked disappointed as well for not knowing. “One thing is that there is now way anyone in this world can pull off something like that. So it’s either the system that did this, or perhaps the gods themselves…”
“Gods?” Zeke asked incredulously.
“The twelve gods that govern the world. Unlike apparently how your god works, the twelve gods govern the world, it’s laws and nature, including the system itself..”
“Great, so we got gods now,” Zeke muttered. He had to agree that it wouldn’t make sense otherwise that the system can understand their beings in such precise information.
Cloud just chuckled along with his sentiment.
Eventually they got to the point where Zeke desperately wanted to know–how to attain their class.
“Reach level 10.”
“...That’s it?” Zeke asked incredulously.
“Pretty much,” Cloud just shrugged.
“Okay…” Zeke let out a heavy breath, and then frowned at Cloud when he noticed he was trying to stifle a chortle. Snorting, he asked again. “In my world, when we play games–”
“The ones where you play a simulation that’s similar to this world, right?” Cloud asked, his interest peaked after recalling. Zeke nodded.
“Right. In our games, we normally have a choice between whatever class we want. But how does it work here?”
Cloud nodded, lifting a leg over the other on his chair as he lifted his chin in thought.
“Classes are something everyone who reach level 10 should get. They define us, and more importantly, give us something like blue prints on how to proceed with the system’s blessing. Once we attain our class, we gain skills based on that class and, like you said, alter our stat growth from here on out. We also get the ability to Identify, allowing us to see a very basic info on any target we choose. We can even see the effects, which Val mentioned the last time, on different types of equipment and items.”
“So that’s where the real game starts…” Zeke muttered, but Cloud nodded in agreement. “So, what kind of classes would I get?”
“Well, that’s a good question. Normally after reaching level 10, you get a system notice that you have several classes available to choose from.”
So exactly like a video game, except in real life, Zeke mentioned in his head.
“Depending on how many achievements you made through your life and before reaching level 10, you can get a variety of classes to choose. But I suggest picking a class that fits your current build. In your case, any class that relates to magic.”
“I see,” Zeke nodded. “So, what kind of class you think I should take?”
That made Cloud pause for a moment, getting Zeke to tilt his head. For a while now, he had this blank look on his face.
That made Zeke feel like wanting to take a step back for some reason as Cloud looked at him with a somewhat manic look in his eyes.
“Zeke… what sort of mage do you want to be?”
“Uhh…” Zeke paused for a moment. Considering his situation, he decided to just be truthful. “I want to help support everyone as much as I can, especially Mikella and Clara. Since I got a barrier spell for defense and a healing skill, I figure I should get a mage class that helps with that…?”
He trailed at the end there, not really knowing what to say. However, Cloud crossed his arms, his stare becoming intense as he looked at the ground. Then, he looked up at him, his striking eyes becoming more prominent.
“I have a suggestion then… but it’ll require a lot of effort on your part. But if it works… then you might just be what this town desperately needs. And more importantly–it’ll give you a future where you can definitely support your family.”
Hearing those words, it was decided–Zeke would follow his suggestion to the letter to get him the desired class he needed.