The moon inched across the sky until it finally covered the entirety of the sun. The moon was a familiar sight, a pale gray sphere with a jagged hole ripped into the center, exposing a mass of purple crystal. Dyani’s eyes were locked onto the exposed crystal in the moon’s heart, barely visible as the side of the moon facing them was cast in shadow. waiting for the moment it finally aligned.

A column of blazing purple light swept over the temple, all the sun’s rays filtered and concentrated into a narrow beam.

Dyani blinked spots from her eyes as the intolerable light left as quickly as it came, continuing its circuit around the planet to awaken any dormant talents.

“Praise the Heart Crystal,” the head priestess shouted. Her attendants, a priest in white robes with a wooden box and a paladin in steel plate with gold filigree gave the ritual reply.

“Bask in her light.”

Next came the gathered 16 year olds. Their chanting was less coordinated than usual, all their eyes glued to their left forearms.

“Praise be her blessings”

“For all in her sight,” finished the head priestess. She held her arms high, worshipful eyes tracking the moon as it continued its path across the sky.

Dyani ignored the woman’s rich, purple robes, her amethyst geode hanging from a golden chain, and her softly muttered prayers. All she saw were the three runes on her upraised forearm, the runes that described her magical talent, the very same runes that Dyani would gain today.

Her eyes flicked back to her own arm, a dark knot of tension growing as seconds passed without any change.

“Why didn’t it..didn’t it work?” cried a girl to Dyani’s right. Every eye turned to her, which was enough to break her fraying composure. She burst into tears and buried her face in her hands.

Dyani scoffed and rolled her eyes, but more than a few of the kids around her also looked close to tears.

The white-robed priest went to comfort the girl, but stopped when a loud, whirring sound broke the relative silence.

“I’ve got one, I’ve got one.”

Dyani recognized her friend, Nodin. He jumped up and down, face split in a grin as purple symbols flickered over his arm too quickly to read. Dyani rolled her eyes again, but this time with a smile.

People gasped in turn as more and more and more of their talents started awakening in turn and the courtyard was filled with light and noise. Dyani looked back to her arm, excitement fully replacing tension as she imagined what amazing powers she would soon receive.

“Any moment now.” Dyani was starting to get a little anxious. Her lip tried to tremble but she bit it down. Liquid pooled in her eyes, but she forced them wide so no one would get the wrong idea and think she was upset. As all around her, symbols finished spinning as talents were decided and friends chatted among themselves, doing their best to decipher what each meant.

It wasn’t until every other teenager finished their awakening when pale purple light shimmered under her skin. Dyani sighed in satisfaction, not relief as the same purple symbols started spinning around her arm.

The priestess decided to step on her moment.

“Congratulations to you all. Priest Trillo can assist those of you who have finished awakening with your talent analysis.” Nearly every other kid started queuing up behind the priest with the wooden box.

The ones who remained were Dyani’s friends and future slayer party, the excitable Nodin, who was still vibrating with excitement, the steady Veraine, who had the smallest smile, her version of jumping up and down in delight and the definitely not very good looking Daggan.

“Looks like the goddess saved the best for last,” Dyani said, waving her arm.

“I don’t know,” Nodin said, lifting his own arm to reveal the runes, “Look at this.” The first one was roundish with a kind of squiggly swirl inside, the others…were runes, arrangements of some straight lines and some curved lines that all glowed.

“Yep, that’s a talent, alright.”

Daggan laughed and Dyani’s heart did not flutter, while Veraine’s smile deepened.

“And here I was thinking rune lore was a mandatory class,” Veraine said.

“Mandatory just means too boring for anyone to bother going without being jabbed with a pointy stick.”

“I like runes,” Nodin said, tracing a finger over the runes on his arm.

“So what does it say?” Dyani asked distractedly. The first set of spinning runes on her arm were slowing down, nearly settling.

“Ummmm, the first one means life.”

“And?”

Nodin shrugged. The group laughed.

“I thought you liked runes?” Daggan said, looking at the runes on his own arm with pursed brows, trying to unlock their secrets with pure force of will.

“I do, they glow and look awesome. Doesn’t mean I can read them.” Everyone looked at the only one of them that paid more than cursory attention in their academic classes.

“Goddess, give me patience,” Veraine said, rolling up her sleeves. She traced her fingers over her own runes as she read them.

“Mine says…, Life, with the target of others, maybe allies, and some variant of filling or satisfying.”

“You don’t sound very confident,” Daggan said. Veraine huffed and straightened herself to her full height, half a head taller than Daggan, the next tallest of them.

“Runes are a complex language, with a thousand ways to modify their meaning with little changes. And that’s just the stuff we can see. The real power is the invisible mana construct attached to each one. So I’d say I’m doing pretty well.”

“No one’s saying you’re not clever, Veraine,” Dyani said, trailing off when her first rune settled into place. It looked something like a breath written down.

“Daggan kind of did,” Nodin whispered. Daggan lightly jabbed him with an elbow. “Ouch!” The cry was louder than the gentle attack warranted.

“I did not,” Daggan said, “In fact, I think she’s very clever. Clever enough to help me out?” He looked pleadingly at Veraine who graciously took his arm and started tracing the runes. Dyani’s stomach tightened as her friend’s fingers stroked those muscled arms.

“Oh, this one’s simple,” Veraine said, causing Daggan to flinch.

“Why? Is it bad? Simple sounds bad.”

Veraine patted his arm reassuringly.

“Simple doesn’t mean bad. In fact, this type of combination might be simple and common, but it’s considered one of the most useful.” She pointed to each rune in turn. “Element of Metal, Blades, Command.”

Daggan’s body slowly relaxed as he smiled, eyes getting a far away look.

“You’re saying I’m going to be a blade master?”

“Master? You’re going to be a tornado,” Dyani said, “Decapitating enemies with every cut, staining the earth red with blood.” She clenched her fist in front of her eyes, imagining wringing the neck of a monster.

Daggan’s smile widened and Nodin laughed and spun around, miming cutting down invisible enemies. Even Veraine smiled.

“We’ll need to use the analyzer to get the details, something like that wouldn’t surprise me,” Veraine said, moving to Nodin next. “Arm please.”

He stuck out his arm eagerly, but didn’t stop bouncing and slicing at the air with his other hand.

“Let me guess,” Dyani said, “His talent gives him endless energy. He’ll be racing down mountain trolls and killing them before we even get there.”

Nodin grinned and switched his miming to running in place.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Are you sure you can’t read runes?” Veraine asked, “That sounds pretty close to what I’m seeing.”

“Did I really guess it?” Dyani laughed. “If I did, you owe me a note.”

“Does this dress look like it has pockets? I didn’t exactly bring my coin pouch with me.”

“You can pay me later,” Dyani acquiesced. The second rune on her arm settled into an image like a crudely drawn man. It was very similar to the second rune on Nodins arm. “Hurry up and read Nodin’s talent.”

“Well it’s the physical force, himself, and some variant of speed, so something like, increase force to make him go fast.”

Nodin whooped in joy and as soon as Veraine released his arm, he started running in circles, arms straight and pointed behind him for some reason.

“Well done, Dyani,” Daggan said, patting her on the shoulder. She did not blush. “Your turn next, looks like your talent’s almost finished.” It was true, the last rune was finally settling on an image of a circle with five half circles surrounding it with their open sides facing away from it. It reminded Dyani of a child’s drawing of the sun.

“Oh, I’m ready. I bet it’s fire powers or super strength, or massive blasts of sunfire.” Her imagination was getting away from her a bit. Since she shared her second rune with Nodin, the rune of self, it was unlikely her talent would let her blast out anything, but it could mean her body would be filled with the power of the sun. Maybe she could burn monsters to ash with a touch.

“I guess we’ll see,” Veraine said as she started examining Dyani’s runes. Behind her, Dyani saw the line at the priest with the analyzer was nearly gone. Veraine’s interpretations were good, but that device would give much more detailed answers.

Still, she didn’t want to wait to get at least some idea of what talent she’d gotten.

“That’s a pure spirit rune, then another rune of self, and finally-,” Veraine’s eyes grew distant and flicked as if she was reading an invisible textbook, “I think that’s a reversed rune of dependence.”

Dyani was immediately disappointed that the last rune wouldn’t give her sun powers. Her father, Rotomin Farlight, had been a combat champion with his fire powers, and she could’ve been similar.

But as long as her talent was a powerful combat one, she’d be happy with it.

“You’re saying she has an independent spirit,” Daggan said, “I’m pretty sure we already knew that.”

Dyani smiled at the compliment.

“So what does that mean?” she asked Veraine.

“I’m not sure,” Veraine said, eyes still flicking around as she pulled up memories of rune lore, “Spirit is one of the more obscure branches of magic. It could mean you resist spiritual attacks or your mana resists being drained. It could even mean you can advance without needing to absorb experience.”

Daggan whistled and Dyani’s imagination swirled with the idea. Killing monsters to absorb their experience was the gold standard for advancing. You could absorb ambient mana, exercise your skills, and meditate, but all of that was slow, time-consuming, and boring.

“I can see you getting your hopes up, but don’t,” Veraine said, pulling her back to earth, “There’s a hundred ways these runes could be interpreted, so you should use the analyzer before you start making plans to rule the world.”

Dyani scoffed, “I wouldn’t rule the world, I’d save it from demon kings and old tentacle things from outer space.”

“I thought the whole tentacle thing from space was just a story,” Nodin said as he skittered to a stop beside them.

“It is,” Veraine and Daggan said in unison.

“But it would be awesome if it wasn’t,” Dyani said excitedly, “I could tie its tentacles in knots and bash it to death against the moon.”

“I’m fairly sure that would be blasphemy,” Veraine pointed out.

“Since when is it blasphemy to kill a space monster with good old assist from the goddess?”

Daggan started laughing, Nodin looked confused, and Veraine was trying to keep her stern expression from cracking.

“Now, I’m sure that it’s blasphemy, and if you’ll excuse me, it looks like Priest Trillo is almost free.” Veraine started towards the priest, but was immediately passed by the other three as they raced to the priest.

Veraine’s stern expression broke and she let herself laugh as she followed.

Nodin was first to reach the priest and it only took a moment for the girl in front of him to finish being analyzed by the device in the box. She pulled her hand free of the mana conductive gel. It came away clean, but she still looked disgusted as Priest Trillo placed a paper over the box’s surface for the analyzer to print her results on.

She took the paper with shaking hands and left with it an inch from her nose. Dyani hoped she would bump into a wall.

“Who’s next?” Priest Trillo asked.

“I am,” Nodin said. He slapped his hand down into the analyzer’s man conductive gel hard enough to splatter the priest’s robes. “Oh, sorry.”

“Quite alright, son,” the priest said, “It is, after all, a good day to be excited.” He flicked his hand and the gel on his robes beaded up and floated back into the box. “Now, hold still, this should only take a minute or two.”

Then the device beeped, the gel briefly flashing green.

“Or maybe just a few seconds,” the priest said with surprise, “That’s the fastest I’ve seen today. Go ahead and take your hand out.”

“I was totally right about the super speed thing,” Dyani whispered to Veraine.

The priest conjured another sheet of paper for the analyzer to print its result on and handed it to Nodin, who bounced aside to study it as frantically as an antivenom recipe after a snake bite.

The priest looked at the three remaining teenagers and Daggan waved for Veraine to come first.

“Alright, miss. Just put your hand in the box.”

Veraine got her results, then Daggan, and before she knew it, Dyani had her hand resting in the cool gel, waiting as tingles of electric mana crawled over and through her. It wasn’t a painful sensation, but it was strange. The closest thing she could compare it to were the magical instruments healer’s used from the few times she had been ill enough for her mother to muster the money to afford taking her.

Unlike Nodin, it took at least three minutes of awkwardly waiting for the gel to glow and box to beep, but all she cared about was the paper with her talent analysis.

She raced over to her friends before peeking at the results.

* Name: Dyani Farlight

* Level: 1.0

* Experience: 0%

* Attributes:

* Mana Capacity: 0

* Mana Regeneration: 0

* Magic Power: 0

* Strength: 0

* Speed: 0

* Endurance: 0

* Vitality: 0

* Mind: 0

* Toughness: 0

* Perception: 0

* Talents:

1. You gain two skill slots per level, instead of one. You cannot absorb skills.

* Talent Skills:

* None

* Skill Slots:

* Empty

* Empty

At first, her heart soared. Twice the skills meant twice the power, or at the very least, twice the options for how to use her power.

Her mind failed to understand the second sentence, like she was trying to mix oil and water. She had twice the skill slots, which meant twice the skills. Not being able to absorb skills made no sense. She had to be reading this wrong.

She tried saying it out loud.

“You cannot absorb skills.”

Her friend’s conversation went quiet.

Dyani looked up to see all their eyes on her.

“What was that?” Veraine asked, “What did you get?”

“I don’t think I understand it,” Dyani said, “The first part sounds great, but the second is…strange.”

“Don’t leave us in suspense,” Daggan said, “Spit it out.” He sheathed the knife he’d been staring at, trying to activate his new talent.

“It says, ‘You gain two skill slots per level, instead of one’,” Daggan whistled. Nodin tried to, but no sound came out. Only Veraine looked apprehensive. “And the next part is, ‘You may not absorb skills’.”

No one said anything for a long moment, until Nodin broke the silence.

“No skills? Then what’s the point of having more skill slots? Are you sure that’s what it says?”

“You read it,” Dyani said, shoving the paper at him. He read it with the paper nearly touching his nose.

“Huh.”

“Let me,” Daggan said, but Veraine snatched it away first. Her eyes moved over the words several times before she finally let Daggan take the page.

“Dyani, I’m so sorry. I can’t see any way to read it that doesn’t mean what it seems at first glance.”

Dyani could hear the blood in her ears and her breaths were short and ragged.

“That’s okay though, my level two talent will fix it, right?” It was her only hope. Everybody gained new talents at the same levels, the thresholds of which doubled each time, meaning she would get a new talent at levels 2, 4, 8, 16 and so on, if she was lucky enough to reach such an illustrious level.

“I’m sure it will work out,” Veraine said, giving Dyani a hug.

That was a bad sign. Veraine didn’t usually like hugs. If she felt the need to give Dyani a hug she either looked extremely distressed or her talent was truly terrible.

Dyani had faith that her heroic facade was impenetrable, so that meant…her dreams, her hopes, her father’s legacy, it was all crumbling.

“Yeah, Dyani, your level two talent will probably be ‘just kidding’, you can absorb all the skill cores you want.”

“No, it won’t.” Daggan sounded somber, and his brows were pinched in worry and pain. “Talents don’t just contradict themselves. You remember our talent lore teacher. Your talents are like building a tower, each level builds on the one before it. That’s especially true for the first one. That’s like the foundation. Her talent removing the part about not absorbing skills would be like laying a foundation only to dig half of it up.”

Dyani didn’t see the look Veraine gave Daggan, but it was enough to silence him. Dyani was grateful for that, but she was also grateful for Daggan, in a way. It wouldn’t be productive to build her hopes up, only to see them crashing down when she reached level 2, if she did.

Leaving the city and killing monsters was the easiest and fastest way to level, but Dyani doubted she could get the necessary slayers license to get through the gates once the Slayer’s Guild saw her talent. Even if she convinced them to let her take their proficiency and written tests, could she compete with those who had useful talents and combat skills?

Of course she could. She had the drive, a champion’s blood in her veins, and all her personal training with the sword, even if it had been a wooden, training one. There was no obstacle she couldn’t overcome, especially not with her friends by her side.

“You’re right Veraine, I am going to be fine.”