Chapter 5: Awakening

Name: Unknown

Race: Unknown

Title: Unknown

Classes: Unknown

INSTANT DEATH DO NOT ENGAGE

What!?

"Hello? Focus kid!" She taps on my face. "Anything different?" I snap back to reality and try to look at her through the screen. The screen instantly went away and I look incredulously at her.

"I saw... blue?"

"Ocular huh? That's good. Anything else?"

I try to sniff for new scents and listen for new things. I do feel some kind of heavy pressure like I'm underwater but I can still move normally.

"I feel like the air is heavier too, it's like it's pushing me down but I don't actually feel heavier. I can move like normal." I wave my arm up and down in front of me. "This feels weird..."

"Intuition too huh. You got lucky kid! Not everyone gets more that one." She presents a tablet-like thing in her hand. "Tap your plate here."

"My what?"

"That plate you're holding onto so tightly." She smiles. I look at the plate I forgot I had and tapped it on the tablet. It flashes blue for a moment before showing information about me. It's mostly what's written on the form they gave me and some other stuff like Title and Class. It kinda looks like a generic game status screen combined with a birth certificate.

"What is that?"

"It's a plate reader. When you awakened using the Obelysk it connected with you using the excess magic pumping out of you. It's the most used way to verify identities, think of it as an identification card so don't ever lose it." She looks at her tablet again before looking at me. "Your status looks like it's on the higher end. Your parents must be amazing."

"Status?" I see her smirk before another blue screen appears in front of me.

Name: Castiel Newton

Race: D'varf / Efir’esh

Titles: None(Shown)

Otherworlder

Bearer of Blessings

Classes: None(Shown)

Status: Healthy

Physical: 51F

Endurance: 34F

Mind: 2E

Magic: 7F

Traits

Semi-earthen Physiology Lv 5

Aetherial Manipulation Lv 12

Sensory Enhancement(Ocular, Intuition) Lv 1

[Ocular - Status | Intuition - Magic]

Skills(Active)

Accelerate Lv 3

Minor Telepathy Lv 7

"WOAH! What the [email protected]#k?!" I exclaim as the blue window pops up in front of me.

"Oh? You have quite a mouth on you eh kid?" She giggles and explains. "What you're seeing is the status screen. Don't worry, it only pops up involuntarily the first time. Helps in letting newbies like you know how it looks like so you can call on it again any time. Think about it going away now."

I do as she told and the window disappears. I think about it appearing again and it does. "That's so cool!"

"It is, now you hurry along towards that room for debriefing, I think they've been waiting for you for a while now."

"Debriefing?" She doesn't answer but just smiles and points to a cordoned-off area near the crystal. I go inside and there are 4 other kids there and a horned woman. The woman's skin is yellowish and has two ornate horns sticking out of the side of her head. There're a lot of races in this world I keep forgetting what they're called...

"And there's the last kid. Hurry on in and we'll start." I sit at the leftmost seat then the woman points at me. "Starting from the last kid, what type of enhancement did you guys get?"

"Uhhh ocular?"

"Intuition!"

"Ocular."

"tactile..."

"Nasal?"

"Oh? We have an Intuition here? That's good. Does anyone here know anything about the awakening? How about the status screen?" She asks a question while taking notes on a tablet similar to the woman earlier had.

We all look at each other, shaking our head saying no. Wait really? Does no one know? Was everyone as sheltered as me? That's... a bit f$#ked up.

"No one? Good, that's intentional." We stare with surprise as she continues. " You see when kids know about it before awakening they have preconceived expectations about what they think they want to get. Having these thoughts would interfere and make the process slower, essentially making the crystal pump more mana into you. Everyone has an enhancement most compatible with their nature, their affinity. The Obelysk merely jump-starts them. If it awakens the wrong enhancement then that person will have a bleaker future than the rest."

I raise my hand and she nods towards me. "Why don't they do it earlier? I don't think babies can remember stuff?"

"Yes, but a baby won't be able to take that much mana and will die. Five-year-olds have a chance to survive, but six is the safest and earliest." she smiles then continues. "That's also the reason why most of you haven't gone out much in the past six years, it's hard to keep information like this a secret if you're always exposed to other people."

"Why do we have to have the most compatible enhancements? Isn't it just about sensing stuff?" The Intuition girl raises her hand after asking a question. The woman looks at the silliness before answering, "Well, let's say your affinity is towards magic and you don't know that yet. But because of your prejudgement, you expected to get an ocular one that can see auras instead. What do you think will happen?"

"Uhhhhh... I won't be able to learn magic?"

"Not necessarily, but you will learn it at a snail's pace compared to if you had gotten a proper enhancement. Remember, no skill is bad if used correctly. So even if you think your enhancement is bad, you can make the most use of it compared to others."

"No more questions? Then let's move on." She then points at me and asks, "Can you share what you see when you focus on me?"

I focus on her, thinking about the window I saw earlier.

Name: Unknown

Race: Unknown

Title: Unknown

Classes: Unknown

INSTANT DEATH DO NOT ENGAGE

"I see a window like the status screen but it's only filled with the word "unknown" and it also says 'Instant death do not engage'"

She flinches and looks at me incredulously. "That's surprisingly an amazing enhancement! My name is Vidia, can you close the window and try it out again?"

I try it out and...

Name: Vidia

Race: Unknown

Title: Unknown

Classes: Unknown

INSTANT DEATH DO NOT ENGAGE

"I can see your name now! It says name Vidia!" This would be so helpful with remembering names!

"Interesting, it only says Vidia right?" I nod. "My whole name is Vidia Canderspach. Try it again now." She then whispers something to Intuition girl who shouted in surprise "You're a Sprigg?!"

A Sprigg? Spriggs have plant parts, that's bs...

"Try it again now"

Name: Vidia Canderspach

Race: Unknown

Title: Unknown

Classes: Unknown

INSTANT DEATH DO NOT ENGAGE

"I can see your full name but your race is still unknown"

"You're a very lucky young man, make sure to keep using that it might see through lies one day." She winks at me.

So her name was a lie? The window still said it though. But her race stayed the same... maybe because it's an obvious lie? I mean I can clearly see she can't be a Sprigg.

"Now on to you young lady, you said yours was intuition so..."

She went and figured out how each of our enhancements worked. The intuition one could feel presences around her. The other ocular one has thermal vision and night vision. The tactile could tell a person's strength through touch. And the nasal one was interesting because she said she could smell magic. Miss Vidia summoned a fireball and she could smell it before it even appeared.

I wonder how magic smells?

"Now that that's done it's time to move on to the information in your status screens." She fiddles with a TV behind her and it extends then shows an example of a status screen.

"The name shown there is your birth name, but it can change in various circumstances. If you have more than one name, let's say a fake one, then the one you truly see yourself as will be the one that is displayed. " So I don't think of myself as Cassidy anymore huh? I wonder when that happened...

"The race is obvious. Titles are bonuses gained based on your achievements. There are no known ways to purposefully get a title so don't worry about it. We'll talk about classes later."

She points to the attributes on the right side of the screen. "These your attributes, they're a general estimation of the particular aspect of yourself. For example, two people with 5D in their Physical attribute do not necessarily have the same speed. One might have focused on strength, the other might have been more focused on speed.

Speaking of the values, average non-combat oriented people at their prime, without extra training or bonuses, will amount to having around 20D in everything. They can be increased with training or with titles, however, the higher you go, the harder it is to increase them."

"Next we have traits and skills. Both are self-explanatory but for formality's sake, a trait is something that's connected to you biologically and naturally. Take for example me, I'm a Hihant so I have a trait that lets me control me an overwhelmingly large amount of strength with little to no backlash.

Skills, on the other hand, can be learned through study and practice, or they can be gained through blessings and achievements. Sometimes there are those born with skills, but those are rare. Skills can also be learned through levelling up your classes, which brings me to the last topic." She pauses for a bit, seemingly waiting for a question to pop up but none of us raises our hands. I think the info overload about their perception of reality and society is short-circuiting their six-year-old brains.

She coughs then continues, "Classes are most commonly gained by apprenticing under someone. If you want to be a mage, become a mage apprentice. Of course, there are other ways of getting classes like blessings or through training and self-learning, but I advise you all to apprentice instead. Getting a class on your own will be slower than most and is also a gamble."

*creak* The door opens a little and an eye peeks inside. "Please wait outside I'm about to finish this batch." The door closes and she then turns to us. Feels like high school all over again.

"Anyway... what was I talking about? Ah, right classes. When apprenticing under someone, they will give you tasks towards getting that particular class and will guide you to the most efficient way towards that goal."

"This is the difference between self-learning and apprenticing under a master." She adds before continuing. "Basic classes then opens up to specializations which will advance your class to one most suited to your affinities. For example, a mage can class up and become a wizard, which is a general spell caster, or specialize with fire spells to become a fire mage."

She puts her hand to her chin thinking. "I think that's about it. Any questions?"

The ocular kid raises his hand. "Is there any difference between learned skills and class skills?"

"Ah yes about that, class skills will most of the time trump over learned skills. A fire mage's fire will burn hotter, longer, and brighter than a normal mage's fire. Unless there's an extreme discrepancy between the skill levels and stats, class skills will always win. Any other questions?"

No one else raises their hand.

"All right, you can ask your parents about the stuff here anyway if you forget. But remember, don't mention any of this to the kids outside it would be bad for them. You're now bound to the same rule as all adults, you must keep this a secret to other kids."

We nod and go outside the room, I head directly towards where my parents were. That was so much information... how did the adults even keep this much from us for 6 years? Well... I guess 2 or 3 years for others. Babies don't understand anything. Still, my parents never mentioned this even when I was a baby?

I see mom waving at me and dad smiling with a box in his hand. I go over there and as I got closer I focused on them, trying to bring up that window again.

Name: Julius Newton

Race: D'Varf

Title: Unknown

Classes: Unknown

INSTANT DEATH DO NOT ENGAGE

Name: Phenea Newton

Race: Efir'esh

Title: Unknown

Classes: Unknown

INSTANT DEATH DO NOT ENGAGE

Wow, it's either I'm really weak or that everyone trains to the point of killing a kid instantly. Or maybe both?

Mom hands me a small cardboard box, kissing my forehead and hugging me from behind while doing so. I raise my eyebrow and look towards dad "What's this dad?"

"It's your birthday present son. Open it." "Yes! Cas open it!"

Oh! I forgot it was my birthday! So much stuff happened I actually forgot? I open the box and it's the latest model of a touch screen phone. "Woah!!!!" I hug both of them before fiddling with the phone. I tried to open it for a couple of minutes before looking at them for help.

"Remember that wooden plate you got? Put it in the slot at the back. It should open up"

Ohhhh it's like a sim card. Or a battery? Neat!

I mess with my phone till we got home. It's almost identical to what a basic touchscreen phone would have back on earth, with additional stuff like plate reading and mana reading. It's quite magical.

I hang my coat telekinetically before going upstairs. Yeah, I have telekinesis, or apparently is what it's called so there might be more to it. Mom and dad sit me down on the sofa and I tell them all about what happened inside. I also talk about my status window and what's written on it, not mentioning the titles of course. They looked surprised when mentioned the skill.

Mom asks, "What does that do Cas? Where did you learn it?"

"Uhhhh... I don't know? I don't think I ever used it..."

"Well, what does the skill say?"

"What?"

"Didn't they teach you about skill descriptions?"

I shake my head and she sighs in disappointment. "I can't believe the briefers didn't tell you. Just try to think about asking for the skill description of "

"Uhhh okay?" skill description?

Accelerate Lv 3 Increases velocity in exchange for fuel. Reduction of fuel consumption as skill increases.

"Oh!" I tell them what it says and they look amazed. "Congratulations Cas! You have an innate skill! Plus it will be a helpful one no matter what class you choo-" She freezes all of a sudden.

The atmosphere turned serious and they stay silent for a bit. Mom looks at dad then turns to me and asks, "Cas, do you want to go get a class from a school or do you want to get it from us?"

"What's the difference mom? And I don't know your classes yet."

"Mom can teach you how to be a mage or a ranger, and I can teach you how to be a warrior or a smith," Dad answers instead.

Mage, ranger, warrior, smith, or something else from a school... I lower my head in contemplation. This decision will affect my future quite massively I need to choose correctly.

"So... what do you want to be, son?"

Hesitantly, I answer. "I want..."