"Hold strong, this pain is just your bodies becoming used to the mana from killing the bugs. You are alright, just try to guide it through your body." The young dwarf was stressing, the older man had immediately fallen, but the young man just stood there gritting his teeth.
James, his dad, was on the floor struggling. His body was shaking and he was sweating a lot. Mark on the other hand was still in a lot of pain, but he was standing his ground, literally. He hadn't fallen over yet, which has surprised the young dwarf. He was expecting them both to fall to the ground in agony, but they were doing surprisingly well.
The boy's reaction, mark, was most surprising. He had yet to hear of a person who was able to not fall over after having their mana veins forcibly opened. It was an important moment in their story as a hero because most people wouldn't squish a bug if they knew they would have to go through all of this pain. Coming from a mana-less planet, the humans were not born with any sort of mana nerves, so they had to create new ones. Death was very uncommon, in fact, the only deaths that came from humans so far were from the teleportation. Some of the older folk were unable to make it.
"Holy shit. You could have told us that it would be painful!" James yelled. He wasn't angry, just flustered.
"Would you guys still have squished the bug if I told you that you would be in immense pain afterward? Actually, you look like you handled it quite well boy, I wonder why that is. Either way congrats on officially becoming part of the system. Your mana will help you change your class later, but for now, let's just get you guys set up with the basics. What type of weapon would you guys like to try out?"
"Ugh, what? Jesus give me a minute, I'm not that young anymore." His father slowly began to stand up. Clearly exhausted from the agony that he had just went through on the ground. There was nothing relatable to that on earth, maybe the metal going through his body during the car crash but that was it.
"You ok, dad?"
"Yeah, yeah just give me a minute. How about you? Feeling ok?"
The boy looked himself over. His shirt was full of sweat, his pants felt like they were too big for his body, probably because they were, and he just went through the worst pain in his life. On any average day he might think this was horrible, but considering everything that they have gone through it wasn't too bad.
"Meh, I've been better."
"Good, oh my god that hurts. Ugh, what weapon are you thinking about? Maybe a sword or something?"
The dwarf suddenly stood up, "If you would like I can take you to the blacksmiths forge, it's just a walk down the road and your first weapon will be covered by us."
"Yeah that would be nice, give us a couple options. Are you ok to walk, dad?"
"Haha, It was 30 minutes ago that I was asking you the same question. Yeah I can make it down the road. Lets go,"
The three walked outside of the church, right in front of them they saw that same dwarf who tried to swindle their money away. He was in the middle of talking to another human.
"HEY, get out of here now! This is your last chance, if I see you again here I'll send the cops after you!" The man scurried away halfway in between the scolding and disappeared into the dark alleyway. The cover of night protected his escape.
"I am so sorry about that, if you would head inside one of our real representatives can help you awaken your class. I assume your coming from the hospital.-"
"Mr. Gecci? Is that you? It must have been one crazy amount of luck to put us together."
Mr. Gecci was one of the only teachers who Mark liked. His father had hated him, but he couldn't deny his love for science.
"James? Mark? It's so good to see you both. I have been wandering about like a lost fool for the past hour, just exploring around town. I have already gone through the process and squished the bug, I would be eternally grateful however if you could guide me to the weapons shop. I was being a fool earlier and made a fuss, but the more time that I spend around these people, the more I come to understand that they are just experiencing life too."
"Ah, of course, you can come with us then. I am just showing these two the weapons that we have available for you travelers."
"Perfect, I will follow you then. Apologies, what is your name young dwarf?"
"Marlon, thank you for asking. Now, if you would follow me please."
The dwarf began walking away down one of the streets, they were all made of cobblestone and dirt, very few signs of vegetation existed around here.
The four walked in silence, but they were focused on the things around them more than each other. The buildings, the carriages, even the air felt like it was made from fire and stone. It was like they could finally see the world.
"Do you see this too, Mr. Gecci?"
"Please, call me Bart. We are past the formal stage at this point. And yes I see them, magical energy floating through the air."
"Correct, what you see now is the natural mana in the air, it is commonly stone and fire type mana around here. The area is blessed by one of the dwarven gods of forging, we are actually one of the strongest forging communities in the dwarven kingdom."
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Mark reached out to grab one, it was a light green one like the bug that he had squished. 'Well if the bugs can absorb mana, I probably can too.' and with that he popped it into his mouth. It tasted like nothing, but his spirit felt a bit lighter, and his feet a bit quicker. Overall he felt better, so he popped a couple more into his mouth.
They continued down the street and Mark continued to consume the bits of light green mana from the air. Out of curiosity, mark thought of opening the system, just to check it for fun.
----
System Inventory
Mark Davis
Species: Human
Height: 5'9"
Affinity: Nature
Alignment: Neutral Good
Strength: 8
Perception: 6
Agility: 7
Magic: 14.5
Luck: 4
Intelligence: 5
Mortal basic
----
He popped another pinch of that green mana in his mouth and his mana went up another .5 points. That was pretty cool, and probably important. His mana stat was almost double his next highest stat, which was strength. Sure he occasionally worked out but he couldn't lift a car, let alone a large dog or something like that. But eight seemed incredibly high for that.
"Excuse me, I'm looking at my stats screen and my strength says eight. What does that mean?"
"You have an eight in your strength stat? That's quite high for just awakening. Well in any case, each point is just a general guess of your strength. You can increase it by advancing your class and grade. You can also absorb the ambient mana to get stronger. Don't absorb too much mana though or else you will be locked out of certain classes."
They finally arrived at the blacksmiths' workshop. It was incredibly similar to the church, made of stone and glowing with fire. One of the small differences from the church was the echoing of metal on metal. The church held some peaceful aura, unlike this forge. The forge held more of a rough and heavy feel to it.
The four walked inside and gagged from the smell. It was absolutely horrendous.
"Damn it Fafri, I told you not to eat those stinking bugs. They smell disgusting."
"Don't tell me what I can and can't eat. I'll eat whatever I want in my shop."
"Oh torga forgive me" Marlon picked up a hammer and dropped it on the older dwarf's food.
"Aggh, damn kid! Get out of my shop!"
The two dwarves started arguing, the old man was throwing hands and Marlon was dodging. It was almost like a dance, the young dwarf had clearly done this many times. Eventually, the old dwarf lost his breath, slowing down and panting.
"And who are these tall fuckers? More friends of your's here to steal from me?"
"Damn it, they are the new travelers that are here to save the world, and they aren't stealing from you we are paying for them." The two eventually devolve into yelling at each other, a couple more minutes and this would have been going on for half an hour already.
"Fine, whatever. Pick whatever you want with a white or yellow label, they won't cover anything that costs more." The old dwarf huffed, he had lost the yelling match.
The three finally started looking around. His father had walked off to the tools section, he worked as a landscaper a lifetime ago so maybe he was thinking an axe or something. His teacher, Mr.Gecci, or Bart, whatever he wanted to be called, went looking at the shining staff pile over in the corner. It was labeled 'magic' so they probably had magic imbued into them. That left Mark to look on his own. He didn't want to copy either of them, if they were fighting monsters then they wanted something reliable, different from each other, and something that worked as a team.
If his father was close range with a melee weapon and Bart was picking magic or something that meant long/medium range, he should probably pick something that can support both of them.
'A sword? No, that would put me too close for comfort, but a bow doesn't work either. Maybe I should go with a spear?'
"Hey kid, what the hell are you doing?" The old dwarf said, waking Mark up.
"I just don't know what would be a good fit if we need to work to protect each other. My fathers probably picking a close-range weapon and Bart is picking a long-range weapon, I have no idea what I should get."
"Well, what do you want your class to become?"
He actually hadn't thought about it at all. Mark had become so overwhelmed by everything else that had gone on today that he totally forgot about the whole class-choosing thing. What did he want to do with the rest of his life?
"I have no idea. My stats are pretty even with my magic being a bit high, I was absorbing mana on the way here. Magic sounds cool and all, but I don't want that to by my main focus. I'm afraid of fighting up close, hell, I've never even been punched before."
The old dwarf walked up to the boy, looking a bit confused, and slammed his fist into the boy's stomach. Mark fell to the ground, clutching his stomach, the stone floor did his knees no justice.
"Ugh,"
"What the hell, Fafri! You can't just go and hit people like that!" The young dwarf screamed, running over to the boy. "Are you ok? Do you need help? A healing spell?"
"There, now you've been punched before. Anything else I can help with?" The old dwarf asked.
Mark laid on the ground for a couple seconds before answering. 'Damn, that hurt.' That's what getting punched felt like, it sucked.
"Yeah, actually. There is something else you can help with." Mark said, struggling to get up. He could see his dad frowning at this whole situation, ready to jump the store owner if need be. His old teacher, Bart, just looked confused if he should help or just watch how this plays out.
Mark finally stood up, his whole body hurt, but that didn't matter. He walked over slowly to the old dwarf and swung his best left hook at his stomach. Unfortunately for Mark, his form was completely wrong and he didn't angle his arm right. He instead punched the dwarf's arm and almost fell over.
"HAHA, now that was hilarious. Damn kid, I don't like you at all. The only thing that worked from that was the retaliation, don't let people push you around. Everything else failed though, know when to run and when to fight. You suck at melee and probably suck more at aiming, try being a manipulator or a summoner."
The confused face of the trio caused the old man to get upset again.
"Damn it, did you not even explain the classes to them you brat?!" The old man was clearly tired of this happening all day. Some freeloaders come in and take his weapons. Sure he gets paid but most of those weapons will be lost when the 'heroes' die out there.
"I may have overlooked that topic... again."
"Damn it. Ok, you three listen up, the classes only represent what you want to do with your strength, some of you guys misunderstand that the 'class' doesn't do shit, its just a title. In order to earn a title you need to do actions. You don't just become a warrior just because you want to be one, you need to be strong, good with a sword, and most importantly not afraid of getting hit. Same shit with magic."
A pair of dwarves opened the store door. Seeing the old man going on a rant, they quietly shut the door and backed away slowly.
"The system will give you access to magic and info and other stuff, but don't expect it to do all of the work while you become strong doing nothing. Work and live god damn it. If you want to use a sword, practice! If you want to cast a giant meteor down on your enemies, study! I don't care what you buy, but don't make me look bad because you can't use my weapons. Think of what you want to do now, don't worry about the future until it matters."