Announcement

Three days from now everyone will be transported to a starting village or an established territory during the mana surge.

Those that do not have a class and are at or over the age of 16, will have the opportunity to be transported to a starting village. Everyone else will be transported to a territory if they are not already in one.

Begin making your preparations.

Time until transportation: 02:23:59:59

After hearing and reading the message Zane was stunned. All messages Zane had ever received from the system were messages that could be read. He did receive a few that could be interpreted through feelings, but this happened before he learned to read.

The system voice was gentle but stern. Zane was stunned by this voice because it reminded him of his Teacher Isabelle. Calm down, that wasn’t Teacher talking to me. Before his emotions could go out of control logic and reason took over.

Zane knew that the system would manifest its voice in different ways. This was a fact that had been discovered a long time ago. Every child was taught this knowledge in school. At least it was taught in the schools of Green Valley.

Zane lived in a town called Green Valley his entire life. Green Valley is one of the many towns that exist in the Verdant Kingdom. The king and other nobles of Verdant Kingdom had created schools to give everyone basic knowledge about the system regardless of their background.

The schools were mainly filled with orphans and children of poor households. The schools offered basic training for future classes in addition to the knowledge about the system. The attendance of these schools is not mandatory, and the knowledge given only covers the basic. The better knowledge and training could be obtained through hard work or a connection with a powerful family.

As Zane was recovering from his stunned state a door across from his room opened. A man a few inches taller than Zane walked out. He had olive skin, short black hair and wore a serious expression on his face. Zane eyes lit up and before he could say a word the man standing across from him held up his hand.

“I got the same message you did” the man said. “Before you start asking me questions head down to the gathering room first. Everyone can get together and discuss things over breakfast.”

“I was actually going to tell you good morning, Uncle James” Zane responded with a smile on his face. “After all, only someone without any manners would immediately start talking to someone without saying good morning. Don’t agree you Uncle James?”

“I said good morning to you. You must not have heard me because you haven’t woken up yet.” James replied while keeping a serious expression on his face.

“That’s strange I never said you forgot to say good morning to me. Could be feeling guilty about something?” Zane said while wearing a victorious grin

After a few seconds James serious expression broke and turned into a grin. “Alright brat you got me. Now hurry up and head to the gathering room and tell everyone you see what I said.”

With smiles on their faces, they both headed in opposite directions. James went to gather more people and Zane turned left to head downstairs.

After taking a few steps Zane arrived at an intersection. To his left, stairs that lead to the ground floor and to his right, a hallway that lead to another row of rooms. Zane took the stairs and met with Sophie at the bottom.

“Zane did you see the message?” Sophie asked while wearing a worried expression.

“I think everyone saw it” Zane answered “I already talked to Uncle James. He said that everyone can discuss the message together in the gathering room during breakfast.”

After taking a deep breath Sophie gave Zane a nod. She turned around and entered the kitchen doors that were across from the stairs preparing to relay the message to other people.

Zane immediately turned right after Sophie left and walked down the hallway. He arrived at two doors, a door in front of him and a door to his left. After entering the left door Zane began the morning ritual of relieving himself of his body fluid. Finished and feeling refreshed Zane backtracked and walked through the door to the left of the kitchen.

The gathering room was a large room where everyone it the orphanage would sit down to eat or relax. After Zane walked into the gathering, he saw three rectangular tables placed close together. These tables were personally made by Uncle James and were parallel from each other. The aunties in the orphanage worked together to make it look beautiful by adding colorful cloth and flowers. After the tables was a fireplace on the wall opposite the door.

Zane sat down by the fireplace and started meditating as he waited for everyone to gather. After the increase in his stats Zane knew he had to adjust himself to his new strength. The first step Zane took in training was visualization.

A task becomes much easier after you visualized yourself accomplishing it several times.

This was one of the many things that Teacher Isabelle taught him. During the time she was training him he would practice visualizing his actions before and after he did them. Zane would start each morning with training before breakfast. With the sudden world message, he would have to adjust to his normal training. He knew he would have to postpone the physical aspect of his training until he reached the Stadium. That is if the Stadium would still be opening today.

After ten minutes of meditation Zane opened his eyes and found the seats at the tables mostly filled. All the children in the orphanage both young and adolescent were fidgeting in their seats. Zane knew that they were eager to discuss the message, but Uncle James strict gaze most likely kept them from saying anything.

Zane said good morning to everyone as he walked to his seat at the center table. The chair to his left was kept empty for Sophie and the chair to his right was already filled. The person who filed it was a scrawny fair skinned human with shoulder length blond hair and brown eyes. His name is Jason and he exploded as soon as Zane sat down.

“Zane, you saw the message, right? What do you think? Were both sixteen so do you think we will be transported at the same time?” Jason questioned. “I think we- “

*Bang*

Uncle James slammed his hand against the table bringing an end to the endless questions that Jason had unleashed. Although Jason stopped asking questions, he did not calm down at all. He seemed even more excited after giving voice to some of the curiosity that was burning within him. Luckily for him breakfast arrived shortly after.

“Breakfast is served” Sophie announced as she opens the door.

There was enough food to feed forty-eight people being pushed through the door on several wooden carts. Breakfast was a simple wooden bowl of stew with meat and bread. Although everyone was seated and received their bowl nobody ate. Everyone stared at Janes as he slowly stood up and spoke to the room.

“I know everyone is curious about the message but what we know is verry little.” Uncle James calmly stated. “Zane and I will be heading to the Stadium after breakfast. We’ll try to gather more information there. From the little I know; this can be seen as a once in a lifetime event. For the eight of you participating, nine if we include Sophie this event will have great risk and great opportunities. Think carefully before you go.”

As Uncle James finished talking many of the children calmed down. His words and tone helped many of them realize the seriousness of the situation. After a few seconds passed Sophie raised her hand to ask a question and spoke after receiving a nod from Uncle James.

“Will the uncles and aunties outside return to Green Village or will they be placed in another territory?” Sophie asked.

“I don’t know” Uncle James replied. Uncle James looked around the room and took in the worried faces. “I know many of you are worried about your parents or husbands. I don’t have an answer to resolve your worries, but I do have a suggestion. Have faith in them. When they left us, they did so with the confidence that they would be able to survive most dangers that they encountered. They have also proven that their confidence is backed by real abilities when they safely returned home multiple time.”

Zane smiled as he saw the tension and fear leave everyone’s body. Its rare moments like this that he understood why the aunties and uncles respected Uncle James so much. Although Uncle James did not have a combat class, they all listened when he spoke and called him big brother.

“Asking more questions at this time will only cause us to worry” Uncle James said. “For now, everyone should hold on to their questions until I come back from outside with more information. Now let’s eat!”