Jasper stared at the notice on the screen feeling a pounding in his chest that had already started to make its way into his head. He’d expected that if he’d gotten a class, it would have been some kind of warrior or mage. Something that could make him into a great hunter. “What am I supposed to do with a crafting class?” Jasper thought. It wasn’t as if crafters weren’t useful to the city so he most likely wouldn’t have to work out in the crystal fields anymore, but it was a far cry from the adventures that he’d dreamed about going on.
Then there was also that fact that he’d never even heard of a Runic Crafter before. Anyone who received a class had to report it to the city so that they could be directed to the proper trainers for them, but crafters were generally given over to apprentice under a higher-level crafter of the same type. Jasper didn’t even know if there were any other Runic Crafters in the city. He wondered if after all the waiting and dreaming he’d done he’d wound up with a dud for a class.
A breeze tickled the back of his neck pulling him out of his panic. As Jasper lifted his head, he saw the hopeful looks on his friends’ faces and felt a pang of guilt. Those two had waited for him to get a class before they’d become hunters for his sake. What would he say to them knowing that he’d probably never be a hunter now? Hot tears threatened to pour down his eyes, but he tilted his head back down towards his screen not wanting the others to see him in such a state.
Jasper ground his feet into the ground as if doing so would take his feelings and bury them. Pulling himself together he instead scrolled to the next page in his notifications using a thought.
CLASS SKILLS
SUMMON TOOLBELT: A craftsman is nothing without the tools of their trade. Summon a tool belt to your waist tool belt may level up over time giving you more options. Summon Toolbelt: 0.0%
SUMMON JOURNAL: As a Runic Crafter you will of course need to know runes. This journal will keep all the runes and notes you make about your journey and crafting. While this journal is unsummoned, you can recall any of the information within it as if you were reading it. Journal Can level up over time to provide you with more pages. Summon Journal: 0.0%
IMBUE RUNES: Just the carving of runes will give no power to your creations, you must be able to imbue them with mana. This ability will teach you how to best imbue mana into your creations for maximum effect. This skill can level up over time to give you greater proficiency. Imbue Runes: 0.0%
The class skills were a little disappointing too. The toolbelt seemed kind of interesting to Jasper, but only because he thought that a knife might be considered a tool, and he could still become a hunter if he leveled up his strength and dexterity. That thought reminded him to check the last page that would show him what his stats were.
JASPER CARTWRIGHT STATS
STRENGTH: 10
VITALITY: 8
DEXTERITY:11
CREATIVITY: 10
MAGIC: 15
CONTROL: 15
Jasper sighed once more in disappointment; those were definitely the stats of a crafter. Warriors would have stats like rage or aura instead of creativity. Mages would have a stat-like power or elemental affinity. Still one of the stats did give Jasper a little hope, and a twinge of excitement. “I have magic!” He must have been excited enough that he didn’t realize he’d whispered it under his breath. His friends clapped him on the back congratulatorily.
“That’s great bud! You’re a mage like your favorite best friend!” Toby spoke and stuck his tongue out at his sister who had received a melee class when she’d turned 18. The two started bickering again, but Jasper didn’t interrupt them this time. Although having magic was exciting it didn’t quite make up for the fact that he wouldn’t be able to learn any combat skills. At least not through the system. If he wanted to learn how to wield a sword with any degree of success, he’d have to take classes alongside warriors. If he wanted to learn offensive magic he’d have to study diligently until he’d gotten the most basic of basic spells down.
The system would just allow combat classes to become good at those types of things because of their class skills, while it would take him forever and it wouldn’t even show up in his skill list along with other crafting skills he’d learn. Jasper did his best not to sigh again and looked up toward the sky. He could see the glass-like dome above, but beyond that were the stars. Being above the clouds that covered the surface meant that you could have the most amazing view of the stars.
Jasper’s mind turned back towards the questions he’d always had. The questions about how the cities worked. How he could still feel the breeze, why all of the magitech that they used needed crystals, but the city itself didn’t seem to. These thoughts calmed Jasper, because now that he had a class, maybe he could find out for himself. Even crafters could resist the sickness caused by the radiation and fumes on the surface after all. If he was careful maybe he could discover some answers to the questions that had been with him since he was a child.
Jasper took a deep breath taking in the scent of the tree he sat underneath and the honeysuckle that grew close by. He’d decided; that no matter if he was a crafter, a warrior, or a mage he wouldn’t let anything stop him from exploring the world and becoming a hunter. Standing suddenly enough to startle the two bickering siblings he put on the most confident smile he could muster.
“I’m going to go report my class to the city magistrate’s office. You guys should go get some rest tomorrow we can finally make our Hunters team.” The brother and sister tried to push him to tell them the details of his class, but Jasper just smiled at them and told them it would be a surprise. The group said their goodbyes at the entrance to the park and went in separate directions. Jasper took in the night air as he walked at a leisurely pace in the direction of the magistrate’s office.
He enjoyed the flickering blue light of the crystal lamps that lined each side of the road he walked. There was a certain peace to the silence on the street at this late hour, when only a rare few would be awake heading home from a long shift, or maybe a date at a tavern. Jasper continued to enjoy his walk where only the sound of his feet hitting the ground where he walked disrupted the stillness of the night.
Jasper didn’t often find himself in this part of town where all of the buildings stood tall, and the houses showed opulence that was reserved for only those of a higher class of people. Famous hunters, their families, bureaucrats, leaders of the city, and the owners of large companies, all of these people lived in this area of the city. It was far from the half-broken buildings of his neighborhood where it was likely to find large groups of people all sleeping in a single room. No, these people would never know the difficulty of waking up early in the morning just for the chance to get a job that wasn’t dangerous for a single day. They wouldn’t know the feeling of hunger when they had only made enough for either food or housing and you had to choose housing because vagrancy was illegal in the city.
Part of him wanted to spit at those people, and another very real part of him wanted to be them. The magistrate’s office came into sight as he was thinking. It was a building in the central area of this portion of the city, so it was even more fancy than the surrounding buildings and houses. The building was surrounded by a large intricately built iron fence with a ton of crystals embedded in it. Jasper could only assume that they were part of the security for the building. There was a large yard before the building with topiaries in the shape of important people who ran the government of the city.
The building itself was made of pure white stone, beautiful pillars adorned the entrance, and a carving depicting great battles stretched the entire length of the front wall. It was enough to make Jasper feel a bit apprehensive about going inside, but he had a goal, and he planned on following through with it. Shoving down his nervousness he walked through the gates following the cobblestone path that led up to the office.
The inside of the office didn’t seem to match the grand scene displayed on the outside instead it leaned toward a more practical approach a long-carpeted hallway housed many office doors belonging to heads of different departments that helped the city run smoothly. “Crooked politicians is more like it.” Jasper thought to himself. Most of the offices were closed for the day, but there was a department that stayed open 24 hours. Through a pair of double doors at the end of the hallway was the Department of Hunters and various classed personnel.
Pushing open one side of the door Jasper found himself in a large circular room with a circular clerk’s desk in the center and benches on the outside. It was a fairly no-nonsense room except for the humongous crystal that hung above the clerk’s desk. There were a few people still taking care of business in the department. Some of them had nice armor or robes, which made Jasper assume that they were most likely hunters probably turning in job requests that they’d finished or requesting different types of hunting licenses. The ones in plain clothes were probably like him; either having just received a class or crafters. Once one of the clerks was available Jasper stepped up to the desk and was greeted by a friendly-looking slim gentleman in a nice grey three-piece suit.
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“Welcome to the Magistrate’s office Department of Hunters and various classed personnel. My name is Mitchel Coelwell. If you would like to report a crime perpetrated by a classed person, please remember to bring an associated police report. How may I help you today?” You’d think that a person who worked in an office like this would sound bored and done with it all, but Mitchel had not only spoken with the confidence of someone who’d most likely said those words thousands of times, but also with a smile that said that he genuinely wanted to be there.
“Hey, my name is Jasper Cartwright and I’m here to report receiving a new class,” Jasper responded, trying but failing to match the energy of the clerk. Mitchel’s eyes widened in excitement as if he’d never done this before, but his movements didn’t match that sentiment as he quickly reached under the desk and pulled out a perfectly smooth crystal ball, a pen, and a form.
“Please fill out the form provided, and then we can confirm your class using this device here!” Jasper gave a small smile back to the clerk and began filling out the necessary information including class, skills, and stats. Once he was finished Jasper placed the pen on the counter and handed the form back over to Mitchell. As soon as the clerk’s eyes fell on the piece of paper, the clerk’s smile fell almost imperceptibly before it replaced itself on the man’s face.
“Would you mind confirming this information with this device? Just a drop of blood should do it!” He said, the smile was still there, but to Jasper, it felt as if the friendliness that had permeated the man’s tone had dropped someone. Even so, he held out his hand and the man opened a sterile needle to prick Jasper’s finger. Once the blood dropped onto the sphere and the clerk confirmed his information the man told him to go sit on one of the benches and someone would be with him shortly. That was odd to Jasper because he knew the process for a newly classed person since his two best friends had gone through the process recently.
He should have just received an identification card and been sent on his way. When he questioned the clerk about it though the man just continued to smile and told him that the process was slightly different for crafters. Jasper didn’t know there was a different process for crafters, but he assumed that it was so he could be placed with someone to apprentice under. So, Jasper sat on the bench and waited for someone to come get him. Before long he noticed that people were leaving, but they weren’t all heading out at the same time or anything, so Jasper just thought they’d finished their business and left.
He'd been sitting on the bench for a good thirty minutes when the last person left. The clerks continued to stay at their positions behind the desk though, so Jasper got up to ask if there was a delay. The clerk assured him that someone would be with him shortly, so he went to sit back down on the bench. Something in his mind was telling him that something was wrong, though he couldn’t tell what. The various clerks seemed fidgety and every now and then he noticed that they would stop going through their paperwork and look at him nervously.
Less than a minute later the Magistrate of all people and multiple guards came streaming through the door. Jasper stood up quickly not knowing what was going on as he was surrounded by guards.
“What’s going on? What’s wrong!” Jasper saw that the guards had their weapons pointed at him, but that couldn’t be right. He’d done nothing wrong as far as he knew. So why were the guards looking at him like he was a criminal? The guards made space for the Magistrate to step through the encirclement and as he did, he pulled out a pad and began reading.
“Jasper Cartwright, you have been accused and found guilty of possession of the restricted class Runic Crafter. As per the highest law of the ten cities, you are to be banished to the surface. Your identity will be shared within the network of the ten cities and your sentence will carry.” Once the Magistrate had finished reading the information, he looked at Jasper and frowned, the creases on his brow knitting together, but his eyes looked at him with only pity. “I recognize that this is not your fault and that you had no choice in receiving this class. But as the Magistrate I have to look after the safety and security of all of the people in my care. If you were allowed to grow in strength while in the city there’s no telling the damage that you could do. I’m sorry.”
Jasper looked back at the Magistrate, his mind going a mile a minute. How could he have a restricted class? Why were there restrictions on classes to begin with? How was a crafting class dangerous to begin with? None of this made any sense to Jasper, but it didn’t look like there was anything that he could do. There were too many guards, and even if he escaped out of this building there were only so many places he could run to within the confines of the city, and they’d be looking for him. After all his plans to become a Hunter and live a decent life was this all it amounted to? A restricted class, that he couldn’t even use to help him survive monster attacks and banishment to the surface.
“Why is this happening?” Jasper asked barely audibly. The Magistrate sighed and shook his head.
“I don’t know why the gods chose to give you this class, but I can tell you some of what I know. A restricted class is any class that has had a hand in the destruction of one of the Wandering cities.”
“What do you mean? The ten cities have never been destroyed!” He cried out in confusion and anger. The Magistrate lifted his hand stopping Jasper from talking and continued his story.
“There used to be twelve wandering cities not ten. Generations ago a group of dangerous terrorists who were unsatisfied with the leadership of the cities developed a plan and enacted it. A plan that destroyed two of humanity’s last bastions against the terror of the surface. Millions died due to the short-sightedness of these people. If it hadn’t been for the sacrifice of brave heroes sending the information about those people and their abilities the terrorist cells in our cities would have succeeded as well. Now when we find people with those abilities, we immediately banish them before they can grow in power and another tragedy can occur. Do you understand now?” Jasper stared at him dumbfounded.
“But I’m not a terrorist, all I’ve ever done is work so that I can have a better life! I’m going to be a hunter! How can you just cast me out like this when I haven’t done anything wrong?”
“We can’t know that you won’t in the future! The bottom line is that your powers are too dangerous to be around other humans!” The Magistrate said back in a cutting tone before lowering his voice again. “I know that this may seem unfair to you, but this is how it is. Guards seize him and prepare for the end of the stopping season.” Without another word, the guards surged forward and grabbed him. Jasper attempted to fight back just on instinct, but the men holding him down were too strong. A couple of seconds later he felt something prick his neck and suddenly his vision began to swim.
Jasper’s flailing began to calm, and the next thing he knew sleep took him. Now and then he would wake up slightly he’d see a flash of light, or a shadow falling across his face, but nothing seemed focused. The next time he woke up the world was in shades of a familiar yellow and blue. Finally, he felt himself on solid ground again, but the drug that he’d been injected with must have been very powerful because even that wasn’t enough to fully wake him up.
Jasper’s eyes were fully open now, but he was still unable to move like he was in a fugue state. He could see the things around him, but not make sense of it. People rising into the sky, the large thing that held the sun at bay moving out of the way of the yellow fog. He could see all of it, but none of it made sense. Eventually, Jasper closed his eyes again, it was easier to sleep than to continue looking at his surroundings. An indeterminate amount of time later Jaspers's eyes flickered open again, and he stared at his surroundings.
His stomach churned and in the next moment, he was hurling up everything he’d had in his stomach. He felt awful and only barely held himself together enough to check his notifications.
WARNING: You have been affected by the status effect radioactive x4
WARNING: You have been affected by the status effect poison x2
WARNING: You have been affected by status effect sleep.
NOTICE: You have recovered from status effect sleep +1 Vitality.
WARNING: Your health is low recover health or risk death.
“Shit!” Jasper spat as he tried to get the taste of vomit out of his mouth. This situation didn’t look good at all. He was without a protective suit, radioactive, poisoned, and recovering from whatever the guards had used to put him to sleep. It felt as if he’d fallen out of a tree and hit every branch on the way down. Jasper looked around for something that he could use to help get out of this and it was only then that he noticed something that made his heart fall into his stomach. The place that he’d lived his entire life, the only home he’d ever known with the only people he’d ever known was gone. The city had ended the stopping season early, and now he was alone.
Just like his parents before him, he’d been left, abandoned on the surface of the world that was known to kill even high-level Hunters given enough time and strong enough enemies. Jasper wanted to give up crawling into a hole to fall asleep, and hope that the poisonous air would make quick work of him. If this were a day prior it would have, if he’d stepped into the open without his protective suit, he’d have died within 15 minutes if he couldn’t make it to a hospital within that time. But that wasn’t the case anymore.
Now that he had a class he had access to his vitality, which meant that just these status effects wouldn’t kill him for hours. It would just become more painful before he died, and it would be stretched out. Even so, this betrayal made him want to just end things quickly. That was when he remembered his promise to himself from last night. He wouldn’t give up he’d do whatever it took to accomplish his dreams. “But what are those dreams now?” He no longer had any desire to be a hunter for the city, his friends might as well be a world away, and he was on the verge of death.
“I guess I’ll have to figure that out later. No dreams if you’re dead.” Jasper said quietly as he pushed himself to his feet to look around a bit more. He needed to find some shelter from the fumes if he was going to figure out what to do next. It smelled like sulfur and rotten meat which almost made him empty his guts again. He just managed to keep himself from dry heaving and tore a piece of cloth off of his shirt. He then wrapped it around his nose and mouth hoping that it would slow down the poisonous air, or at least help some with the smell.
The surroundings included cracked and dry ground as well as sharp-looking rock formations. There were no signs of plant life, but that wasn’t surprising. Right now, he was only relieved that there didn’t seem to be any monsters in the area. Right now, he had to make a plan and the first step to that was shelter. Jasper searched his pockets for anything that might be useful to him but found only the money he had left over from yesterday’s workday and the small, good-luck charm Pirka had given him for his birthday.
Jasper pulled the charm out of his pocket and wanted to laugh as he stared at it. “Good luck charm my ass.” He said ruefully as he went to place it back in his pocket. But before he was able to, he noticed he’d received a new notification.
NOTICE: You have discovered a runic device. Would you like to imbue runic device? Y/N
He was surprised to see the notification, but nonetheless, he began to get excited. Jasper didn’t know what the device did, but it could be useful to him. He selected yes and suddenly he was in a white space with nothing in it except for the same symbols that had been carved onto the stone. Except they weren’t on the stone anymore. Instead, they were floating in front of him, and they’d grown so that each symbol was the size of his head.
Between each symbol was a connecting line. At first, Jasper wasn’t sure what to do, but as he continued to stare at them more information came into his brain. He began putting mana into the circle moving it in such a way that the connections would flow from one run into another. Before long the symbols began to glow dimly until each of them was lit up. The movement of mana was difficult, but for now, he was able to get each of them to just barely work. When the connection of the circle was completed, he was suddenly thrust out of the white world.
The symbols that Jasper now knew were runes dimly glowed, just like they had in the white room, and the stone itself was getting hotter. When it was too hot to hold onto Jasper dropped it onto the ground. While on the ground the stone itself began to grow. It stopped once it was big enough for two people to stand on, but the runes didn’t stop glowing until a magical dome covered what he finally recognized as a floating platform. Very similar to the ones that had carried him up and down from the city to the crystal fields most of his life.
This one didn’t seem to float very far off the ground though. Maybe two inches in total, but the floating wasn’t what made him excited, it was the dome. If it was the same kind as the one from the city, then it should stop the radiation and fumes from reaching him. Of course, it could also be some ancient weapon that destroyed someone as soon as they stepped inside it, but at this point, Jasper was willing to take that chance. He gathered his courage and stepped onto the platform.