The forum was a spacious ground filled with line after line of booths. They had to cut through noisy, restless crowds of people to even reach the booths and when they reached it they saw the queue.

The old man was still in a bad mood, he said “Let’s go someplace else, they must have screen booths in other places where there aren’t this many people.”

“It’s our first time in the city, good luck finding them,” answered Line his voice barely audible over the crowd.

The line was long but it moved fairly quickly and soon it was their turn. Corn entered the booth and drew the curtains close. When he turned over he was stunned. A screen. A screen was planted into the wall of the booth. There were keyboards and other orifices below the screen, but he ignored these and went straight to the screen. He released the bug on his bracelet and placed the bracelet on the screen.

Welcome to Metsys. Id recognized. To become a citizen of Iridicrodium you must create a profile. Would you like to create a profile?

He selected yes and within seconds his profile appeared.

Name

CornWall

ID

#################

Species

Human

Age

18

Races

Not Assigned

Lives

Not Assigned

Ranking

2: Indentured Servant

Unknown

Not Assigned

City

Approval Pending….

Level

0

Stats

None

View main menu?

He felt the “approval pending” sounded ominous so he selected yes again.

Profile

Quests

Communications

Search

Credit

He selected Quests.

Quests

Citizen of Iridicrodium Part 1 of 2

All citizens of our great city do their part to make it great. Earn 20 pts in any Stat to prove that you are worthy.

Citizen of Iridicrodium Part 2 of 2

All citizens of our great city do their part to make it great.

Forge a Fish Badge to prove that you are worthy.

(Failure to complete the quests in a period of 3 months will revoke your identity as citizen of Iridicrodium)

Ranker

To ascend to a higher ranking you are required to pay of your debt to the city.

Debt Payable : 100,000,000 credits

Debt Paid this month : - 1000 credits

(Failure to pay off monthly debt will accrue monthly interest)

“What the hell!” he swore out loud.

The last quest flew right over his head but the first one he understood. If he didn’t finish it, he was out of the city and back to the slave camp. After what he’d done… no best not to think of that. He first decided to check out the other menus. First Credit.

Account Balance: 0 credits

Then Communications.

To use communications you need to pay a monthly charge of 500 credits. You do not have sufficient credit.

And finally search.

Input search enquiry.

At last, something he could use. He used the keyboard to ask about the Fish Badge.

To view the results of this search you need 50 credits. You do not have sufficient credit.

Oh great. Again. He peeked out of his booth to see what the others were doing. All of them had huddled in the old man’s booth so he went to join them.

“At my age it’s impossible, all the shit I had to do to jump ranks and now this. Argh,” sighed the old man.

“Nevertheless let’s go to a Stat Temple and check, maybe there’s another option,” said Line. He looked at the rest of them. “You guys need to get your Stats anyway and the sooner the better, so why don’t we head there now?”

This was met grunts and nods of approval. So they pooled their money (and loaned Corn some) and got a bus to the nearest Stat Temple.

The Stat Temple was a pagoda like building. It had short golden eaves, glowing white walls and ended with a golden spire on the top. Each level had multiple arched windows and even though the Temple wasn’t tall compared to its modern temples it was much wider than it appeared from far. Corn could tell that it was an ancient building and just like all the others he had seen it had armoured sentries.

They stopped them at the entrance and demanded they swipe their bracelets at small screen near the entrance. Then they let them in.

The first thing he saw was a lush red carpet in the midst of golden floor leading to a large arched door. The doorway was flanked by life like metal statues of a male and female mermaid both spurted out metal streams of water at each other. Six resplendent attendants stood smiling at him, beckoning him to enter. They all bowed at him and motioned at the door. Stunned and exuberant he walked towards them.

When he reached the first attendant she hissed and pushed him out of the way.

A man and a woman followed by a retinue of guards stood right behind Corn. The attendants welcomed these two with smiles and laughs. Corn stood there aghast.

“Why are you standing at the Players entrance? This way,” shouted Line from a smaller doorway.

When Corn arrived at the inner court it was pandemonium. The room was held up by a line of white marble columns. In the midst of these columns snaked multiple lines of people all heading towards various desks. The sheer size of the court along with the number of people in it seemed to squeeze the breath out of him. The forum did not compare.

“All of you find a short queue and go stand there.”

“How can you tell which one is the shortest?” asked Corn.

“It doesn’t matter anyway, it’s all to choose your Stat,” replied Line.

So Corn stood in a queue right next to the old man and Line. He looked around. Displayed across the walls were long silk banners. Each of them said the same thing.

MAGIC

VITALITY

WISDOM

INTELLIGENCE

CHARISMA

ENDURANCE

SPEED

STRENGTH

The eight Stats. He didn’t care for any of them except for Magic. Subconsciously he stared right at Magic.

“Which one are you gonna to choose? Me, I’m choosing Endurance and joining the Guard. The Guard pays pretty well they say,” interrupted a freckled, grey haired nymph.

“Magic.”

“Haha. That’s a good one. You’re one of those funny guys…” and he went on and on quite content to speak to anyone he got. But Corn tuned out of him. He was thinking about a dream.

He was surrounded by an infinite void. A void of elements. They surrounded him swirling and constantly transforming. A chunk of earth would become a sea of water, bands of lightning would turn to metal swords. They circled him silently, sensing his alien presence. But on he flew towards the crystal fortress. It glowed orange; close enough for him to see but far enough to never reach.

Magic, indeed. It sustained him all these years. He might not know what the dream meant but he knew he was going to be a mage.

It took an hour and half for the old man to reach the desk. Line, the old man and the officer behind the desk stood there talking for a while. He couldn’t hear what they were saying until finally they shook hands and left.

“The Stat of your choice?” asked the man on the desk in front of him.

“Magic.”

“Kid, I don’t have time for your pranks just tell me what you really want and I can finish off.”

“But I do want Magic.”

“Do you have any idea how ridiculously difficult Magic is? Just pick something manageable. Maybe one of the lower three? How about it? Endurance, Speed or Strength which one do you want?”

“Why can’t I have all eight of them?”

The man immediately brought out a smaller screen and asked Corn to scan his bracelet. After which he issued a rainbow colored badge to Corn. “The top most floor. Next!”

By the time he found the exit to the court he had lost track of all his new friends. A door man with a top hat and a suit right next to the staircase. He took the badge from Corn and grimaced as he saw both Corn and the badge. “The top most floor,” he said.

So Corn trudged up eight floors. One floor was assigned for each of the Stats. Each of the floor entrances were guarded by doormen. After the first three floors he barely found any people.

The last floor didn’t have any guards. It was a small room and the only occupant was a woman sipping tea.

“CornWall?” she asked.

He nodded. She sighed. “Didn’t your parents teach you any better?”

“I don’t have any parents.”

“Fine. Elders then or community members. Whoever raised you.”

“I am an orphan.”

She dropt the tea cup.

She picked up the tablet sitting on the desk and began to check something. She looked back at Corn with sympathy in her eyes.

“How did you escape?”

“I have a hidden patron,” he replied proudly.

“What did this hidden patron of yours tell you about Metsys; the rules and customs of our worlds or what they wanted from you?”

Crap. Now he was stuck.

“Um… nothing.”

“Did you even see them?”

Now he had to start making up lies. “All I know is the person hide under a cloak and handed me freedom counters.”

The woman was now pensive. “That’s it. No message. No orders. Nothing else.”

He shook his head.

“Then why Magic? You do understand that it’s the hardest to practice. Unless you are a Player or extremely rich and have a high ranking, you don’t take Magic. Let alone take it as your first Stat.”

She sat on the desk. “Technically you were born as a slave: a base slave, the lowest of lows so there might be many things you do not understand. Everything in Metsys is decided by the Four Counters and Eight Stats. The four different kinds of counters and how many of each counter you have decides your life, your appearance, your ranking, your potential and everything in between.

The Eight Stats are simply eight different abilities. Without them you are just an ordinary being: completely powerless and useless. You must have seen the list on the walls of the entrance. They are arranged in order of difficulty which makes Magic the hardest to master and Strength the easiest. I am a Stat Priestess and it is my solemn duty to bestow Stats upon all those who need it.

But….” She paused there.

“Nothing is done for free. The first Stat of every person we bestow for free. It is the easiest to bestow because there are no interference with any other. Every Stat after that gets harder to bestow. And therefore every Stat after the first costs credits. Lots and lots of credits.

It is very likely that the first Stat you choose will be the only one you choose. In addition to bestow each Stat one must pass a test. Only then are you deemed worthy to practice the Stat. But with Magic most nobles choose simply to bypass the test and bribe their way through.

So choose wisely. After mentioning all of that, are you still sure that you want your first Stat to be Magic?”

Corn stood there silent for a minute. He wanted to explain to her his dreams. He promised himself multiple times that he would fulfill them if he ever escaped.

If this was his only chance at Magic, then he would rather die trying than give up.

He turned to her and said, “Yes I am sure I want Magic.”

She nodded sombrely at him.

“Then here’s your test.”