The sound of thunder tore Jasper out of his fitful sleep causing him to smack his head on the underside of the bunk on top of his own. A head poked down to look at him with unhidden annoyance and told him to shut up and let the other boy sleep. With a whispered apology Jasper swung his legs out of bed and gingerly set them on the floor so as not to make enough noise to wake any of the other five boys he shared a room with. Creeping quietly to the door he opened it hoping that the tell-tale creak of the hinges wouldn’t give him away, and it seemed this time he would be lucky as the door opened and shut without another boy waking up. Once he was out the door he slid on his shoes and made his way out of the small home for boys.
“With any luck, I’ll be able to catch a comfortable job today.” Jasper thought to himself as he took off down the street towards the job market. If he was quick enough, he might even be able to get a job with the local baker for the day instead of the back-breaking work he usually had to do in the crystal fields. Jasper hated working in the fields, carrying around the heavy drilling equipment, and wearing all of the protective gear that all of the unclassed people had to wear to prevent sickness outside the floating city. Not to mention the monster attacks that were usually thwarted by the classed guards that helped protect the workers. Still every now and then one of the monsters would slip through and grab one of the field hands and make off with them.
The thought made a shiver run up Jasper’s spine as his feet padded the ground on the way to his destination. Rounding a bend, his destination finally came into sight. Although it was still dark out the crystal lamplights illuminated a bustling square with several noticeboards looking for people to help with specific jobs. Interspersed were a few food vendors selling breakfast to the early morning crowd. Reaching into his pocket Jasper felt the two copper coins that he had left over from yesterday’s work in the fields. His stomach grumbled, but he decided to forgo breakfast for the day in hopes of a better job assignment.
Turning on his heel, he started in the direction of the board that had all the non-classed grunt work posted. It was the only work he’d be able to do, at least until the end of the week. It would be his eighteenth birthday on Friday and Jasper was hopeful that the gods would grant him with a system class. It was his only chance of getting out of a life of fieldwork and scraping by on the little amount of money that these types of jobs provided.
As Jasper stood in front of the board his hopes quickly sank like a rock dropped off the side of the city. Even though he’d gotten up early and rushed to the job market it looked like those comfortable inside jobs had all been taken already. Jasper sighed in disappointment, but quickly squared his shoulders. Nothing was going to get him down this week, this was the week he would finally become the great warrior he knew he was destined to be. “Maybe I’ll even get an elemental mage class!” he thought excitedly as he perused the crystal field jobs that were still scattered all over the noticeboard.
Scanning up and down he finally found the notice that he was looking for. The field jobs were all bad, but some were better than others depending on who the guard detail was and what company was hiring. The one that he got was run by an old, grizzled hunter named Pirka. She was always low-level grumpy, but she had a soft spot for the younger people, and always made sure the workers had undamaged protective gear. On occasion, she’d even tell stories about her days as a hunter while on lunch breaks. All in all, it would be the best crew if Jasper was going to be mining crystals all day.
After pulling one of the tags from the notice he headed in the direction of the job clerk’s office so that he could get his paperwork settled and headed to the job site. It was only a ten-minute walk to the clerk’s office and while he walked Jasper dreamed of possible classes, he might receive tonight. He made it to his destination shortly and opened the metallic sliding door. The clerk’s office was just as busy as the job market on the inside and Jasper had a little trouble pushing through the crowd as people jostled their way toward and away from the proper clerks. Several service windows lined the walls and each of them had a logo or name of a business projected above them so that people would know who to bring their ticket to.
Jasper knew where to look for Pirka’s company’s logo and as quickly as he could made his way towards that window. The logo was a red drill bit on a white shield and the company's name underneath read as “Titan.” A pretty woman with dark skin and red lips smiled at me as I finally arrived at the window.
“Hey Jasper! Back again huh?” She said in her usual cheerful voice. She held her hand out and Jasper handed her his ticket.
“Hey, what can I say I just love the mining life.” He said sarcastically gaining an eye roll and a small smile from the woman. Her name was Sina and she’d been working for Titan as a clerk for as long as I could remember. Sina shuffled a few papers and stamped them to ensure they were official before handing them to me.
“You just be careful out there today, OK? Oh, and happy early birthday!” Jasper thanked her before making his way briskly back to the exit. Another five minutes of shoving through the crowd he was back on the street where he could read the information on his paperwork. Today it read that the Titan crew would be meeting up at gate 32 to make their way to the surface and that they’d be leaving by 0630. Jasper looked in the upper right corner of his eyesight where a digital display of the 24-hour time clock was displayed. It was the only proof most people had that they even had the system except for the lucky few that were lucky to receive a class. The time read 0603 and Jasper knew that he’d have to hurry if he wanted to make it in time to catch the shuttle to the surface.
He took off at a sprint towards gate 32, not paying attention to any of the food stalls along the way even though the smells tempted him to stop and spend his last two copper coins. By the time he reached the gate, it was 0620. As he walked up to the site manager to turn in his paperwork, he attempted to catch his ragged breath. The manager barely looked up from the magi pad he was scrolling through instead reaching out one hand and snatching the paperwork from Jasper’s hands. Once the bureaucracy was done the manager lazily motioned over to a truck where other people were gathered to receive their protective equipment.
Jasper knew a few of the farmhands from his previous times working with this company, but he didn’t bother saying hello to them. No one was there because they wanted to be, and that was reflected in the attitudes of each of the workers. Hardly anyone spoke except to complain about not getting the job they’d wanted today. The line moved slowly as each person received their equipment and stepped off to the side where Pirka and the rest of the security crew confirmed that each piece of protective equipment was functional.
Finally, Jasper received his gear and joined the others scrambling to get into his gear. The gear included a leather hazmat suit, a full-face gas mask, and a small vial of grey-green liquid meant to help in the case of exposure to the fumes on the surface. The gross-looking liquid was only meant to hold off the effects of the fumes long enough to get someone back into the city and hopefully to a hospital. Often though the person exposed would expire before making it all the way. Still, it was better to have it than not.
As Jasper pulled the mask over his face Pirka herself finally made it to him and began checking him over. Pirka was an older woman with grey hair cut into a military high and tight. Despite her elderly face she had the body of a high-level bodybuilder and towered over Jasper’s own five-foot-ten frame. She wore leather armor typical of a barbarian type fighter and two sets of Blutmetall knuckles hung at her waist: her preferred weapon of choice. She gave Jasper a nod before beginning to check every inch of his suit for tears or other types of damage, she then made sure his mask was sealed correctly before giving him a grunt of approval and nodding one last time, which Jasper believed might have been the woman’s form of a smile.
A few minutes later all the field hands had been checked over and directed towards the gate. Once the security team loaded themselves onto the platform that would lower us to the surface, we were allowed to climb on as well gathering in a group so that the security team could create a protective circle around us. Finally, the gate master outside made sure we were all ready before pulling a key the size of a sword out of his spatial pouch. Jasper stared in awe and avarice at the pouch wondering how such a marvel could have been created. Unfortunately, a lot of magitech like that had been lost to time since before the great traveling cities had been erected.
It was like that for many relics that were used in the cities including the cities themselves. As far as Jasper knew there were 10 travelling cities in the entire world. They were domed biodomes that stretched far into the sky on a set of metallic legs so large they could step over mountains and even traverse the seas. Some of the information about how the cities worked was retained of course. Such as the gates, and the platforms to the surface that allowed hunters and miners to collect important materials to the surface. Then of course there were the stop and go functions that stopped the cities from moving when a new mining site was discovered.
This was the only time that hunters could go out to level their abilities and become stronger because once the mines had been stripped clean it would be time to move on. If the city started moving and you weren’t on it there was no way for someone to let you back on until it had stopped moving again. Keeping up with a traveling city for any length of time, while also fighting off the monsters that lived on the surface was impossible. To do so basically meant to sign your death sentence.
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The gate master placed the sword key into a slot on the ground outside the platform and turned it. Once the key was locked into place a dome made of blue magical energy enveloped the group of people and the platform began to lower. It moved slowly at first but gradually picked up speed until they were hurtling through the earthen tunnels that broke through to the bottom of the city towards the surface. Jasper wondered why even at these speeds he couldn’t feel the pressure against him like he did when he ran. He wondered how the tunnels didn’t collapse after the millennia humanity had been using them.
Jasper had always been like this, curious about how things worked, why things worked the way they did, and how people thousands of years ago had managed such miracles of magitech while also going through what must have felt like an apocalypse to them. While he was in school, he’d learned the history that had been saved from before the time of the great traveling cities. The system had not always been a part of the world, monsters had not roamed the surface, and radiation and fumes did not rage against humanity back then.
But the gods had looked down upon humanity and found them lacking. We were supposedly weak and coddled. The gods decided that it was time for humanity to take the next step in its evolutionary cycle and were gifted the system. Magic was introduced into the world and great warriors rose to protect it from the monsters. It wasn’t enough though, not everyone awakened to new and great powers. The monsters became too much to handle and began terraforming great swaths of the world to fit them better. The air in those places became poisonous to breathe, water would melt you from the inside out if you attempted to drink it, and the monsters continued to breed.
Only the classed were able to resist the effects of all of these changes and even use them to become stronger. The history ended after that and the next point that the children of the city were taught about was times where they were already traveling. Jasper’s musings ended as the platform exited the tunnel and the yellow fog displaced itself over the descending domed platform as it continued its path toward the surface.
This wasn’t the first time Jasper had made this journey, so he knew that he needed to get focused before they touched down. If you weren’t paying attention during a job like this, it would be likely that you wouldn’t make it long on the surface. Pulling all of the mental acuity he could together he focused on his task for the day. Through the bottom of the platform, he could see the night shift gathering their things up in order to head back to the city for the day. The platform began slowing down once more and then touched down gently on the dusty ground causing a fresh cloud of dirt to join the toxic fumes billowing through the air.
We unloaded from our transportation to allow the night shift to load up, and the site manager a portly gentleman named Gruneder who traveled down with Jaspers group conspired with his night shift counterpart before giving the work crew their assignments for the day. As Jasper received his assignment, he sighed heavily causing a hiss of air to escape the filters in his mask. He would be busting up rocks today and loading them into the sifter in the northeast section of the crystal fields. “Looks like I got unlucky again.” He thought to himself.
He’d been hopeful about getting one of the jobs that required operating heavy machinery so that he could at least sit down while working, but no such luck. Jasper went to grab his tools which were a heavy hammer, a pickaxe, and a bucket before heading toward the location he’d been directed toward. The sun rose higher in the sky, but it still couldn’t be seen properly through the dense yellow fog. Even so, with the intense physical effort he was putting in, Jasper got hot quickly. He wished that he could just take the hood and the mask off for a moment to catch some air, but he knew that would be a death sentence. “This time tomorrow, I’ll never have to do this again. I’ll be a hunter.” Jasper smiled to himself underneath his mask and his hopeful thoughts drove him to continue working.
Pirka came to check up on him around lunch time telling him it was time for a break. All of the field hands made their way toward the portable bunker that had been transported down here when the stopping season began two years ago. It was becoming harder to find the crystals that had once been plentiful in this field, and Jasper knew that the city would be moving on again soon. Even so, once he had gotten his class he would level up as much as he could before the city began moving again. Crawling inside the small metallic door that led into what was basically just a large box imbedded with some purification enchantments; the field hands and security team each found a place to sit and waited for the door to close.
There was a brief moment of darkness before the fairy bulbs kicked on and they could all see again. Another moment later the purification enchantments began glowing. Once they stopped glowing everyone knew that it would be safe to take off their masks as it would be a sterile environment. Pirka came over and told the guy next to Jasper to move.
“Hey, kid.” She said in her gruff voice and nudged him with her elbow. “How’s it going out there?”
“You know how it is. Same stuff different day am I right?” She grunted her agreement before reaching into a small pouch at her hip.
“I got you something. You know for tomorrow. Wasn’t sure if I’d be seeing you again before then but I figured it was likely.” Pirka pulled out something and motioned for Jasper to hold out his hand. He did as was asked and a small flat stone was pressed into his palm. The stone had a circle of strange symbols delicately carved into it. Every now and then you could find something like this on the surface, but no one knew what they were. Most people believed that they were just random junk from a bygone era though as they didn’t do anything. Still others believed that they were good luck charms and could bring fortune to whoever had one.
“Thanks, Pirka, I really appreciate it! How did you know it was my birthday?” Jasper asked curiously gaining a shrug from the older woman. She then stood up and walked over to the site manager. Not long after that, it was time to get back to work. Jasper placed his gift in his pocket and pulled his protective gear back on. After one more check from the security team; to make sure none of the gear had been damaged during the break the door was reopened and the field hands continued the work for the day.
Hours later the sky began getting dark, and everyone knew that it would be time for the night shift to take over again. Just like clockwork around 1800 the platform could be seen descending from the city. Jasper and the rest of the field hands packed up their work and prepared to leave. Once back inside the dome of the city Jasper returned his gear and picked up his pay from the site manager. Twenty-five copper coins wasn’t much for the work that he’d completed, but it’d be enough to pay for a meal or two and to continue to sleep in the boy’s home for another night.
That was exactly what he did, first stopping by the boy’s home to pay his rent to the head of the house. Mr. Bouroutine then headed into the food district of the city so that he could buy a celebratory meal. After tonight he knew that he was going to get an awesome class and finally become the hunter he knew that he was destined to become. Stopping at his favorite food stand he pulled out a stool and ordered a fizzy drink and a bowl of pork dumplings.
This stand was Jasper’s favorite for two reasons. The first being of course that the food was very good, and the second was because his two favorite people in the world worked there. His best friends Brienne and Toby were siblings who had known him since before his parents had died and left him having to work odd and dangerous jobs in order to survive. The two siblings had begged their parents to take him in when it had happened, but the food stand was barely making enough money to support their family as it was.
Jasper never begrudged his friend's parents for that of course. It was hard for everyone in the cities, there weren’t enough resources to go around for everyone. There was even a large tax inflicted upon those families that had more than one child. Jasper had instead put his head down and did everything that he could to survive until he could become a hunter like his parents. The two siblings had already received classes, and had plans to become hunters as well, but only after Jasper had gotten his class as well so that they could form a party together. It was just one of the reasons that he felt so lucky to have the two in his life.
“Hey, Jas!” Brienne said as she came out of the kitchen drying her hands with a dish towel. “Toby get your scrawny butt out here Jasper’s here!” A clang could be heard in the kitchen as Toby knocked over an empty pan in his scramble to come see his best friend. He rushed through the swinging doors of the kitchen and gave Jasper a big grin.
“Has it happened? Did you get your class?” He asked excitedly almost bouncing. Brienne gently slapped him upside the head.
“You idiot his birthday isn’t even for a few hours. You know dang well that we won’t know if he’ll even get a class until then.” Jasper smiled warm-heartedly at him, but a pang of nervousness hit him as she said those words. All day he’d been thinking about what kind of class he’d be, and all the adventures he’d have as a hunter that he hadn’t let that thought hit him. “What if I don’t even get a class?” No; he decided he wasn’t going to even think about that. There was no way that he wouldn’t get a class. Both his parents had had one and they were brilliant hunters.
If it hadn’t been for them getting stuck in a battle trying to hold off a horde of monsters from killing the field hands, they never would have been trapped outside when the stopping season ended. Jasper felt a familiar bubble of anger well up inside him at that thought. Even after years on his own, he was still angry at the leaders of the city for leaving his parents and other hunters outside when they could have waited just a few more minutes and they would have been fine. He’d have grown up the child of heroes, and not the orphan working in the crystal fields.
Jasper pulled himself out of his emotional spiral and continued to eat. He watched the two siblings bicker and chuckled to himself. It didn’t matter what happened in the past, to him it only mattered about how he was going to move forward from now on.
Jasper finished his last couple of bites and drained the rest of his drink. No one else came into the food stand until closing time so Jasper and his friends chatted until closing time. He helped them finish washing the dishes and putting things away before they all left the small, tented area and decided to take a walk in the park close by. Walking under the caste iron archway that led into the park the trio of friends made their way towards a large tree with benches underneath it. It was under this tree that the three friends had met all those years ago and they all thought that it seemed fitting to begin the next chapter of their lives underneath it.
“Are you ready?” Toby asked looking at Jasper with equal parts excitement and uneasiness. Jasper smiled at his friends and after a slight pause responded.
“I’ve never been more ready for anything in my life.” Brienne put a hand on his shoulder and smiled at Jasper encouragingly, then the three of them sat down and waited out the time until midnight when they would all find out whether he would get a class or not. Time ticked by until the display in the corner of Jaspers's vision read 2359. The seconds passed by, and Jasper subconsciously held his breath. He reached his hand into his pocket and rubbed his fingers over the delicately carved gift Pirka had given him earlier in the day. Midnight hit and when nothing happened for a few seconds Jasper thought that he might have a panic attack.
But then right when his anxiety was about to reach its peak, a screen appeared in his vision.
CONGRATULATIONS!
The gods have seen fit to gift Jasper Cartwright with the Class of Runic Crafter! Other crafters may learn to place pieces of wood, or metal together in exciting ways, but a Runic Crafter can use the language of the old gods to imbue true power and ability on their creation! Grow in power as you learn more about runes! Learn of ancient civilizations and create marvels as you unearth the mysteries of your world.