"First, touch this scroll." Vax pulled out a scroll from his pocket and took Tropher's.
Skyla took Vax's, and Troth took Tropher's.
"Once you activate them, you should see magical lettering appear in front of you. This is called the system. It keeps track of your HP, MP, abilities, items, and quests. It may take time to get used to."
Skyla and Troth looked dumbfounded at the scrolls.
"And how do we activate them?" Troth asked.
"Clench it hard and say Akthorvael."
"Akthor Vael." Troth cautiously spoke aloud.
The moment he did, the scroll disintegrated to ash. A cluster of soft white sparks rose from the ash, slowly floated towards him, and were absorbed into his body. Magical wind swept across his body, turning his eyes yellow-green for a moment, before reverting to brown.
"Is that it?" Troth asked after a moment of silence.
"No, once Skyla does hers, you should get the system," Tropher said, pushing her scroll toward her. "Come on, don't be shy."
Skyla nervously took the scroll and clenched it tight.
"Akthor vael." She whispered.
Like Troth's, Skyla's scroll turned to ash, but this time, deep purple sparks floated out. She felt nauseous when they entered her body, and the mystical purple energy flowing around her did not help. She assumed her eyes temporarily changed color, just as Troth's did.
Vax looked at an imaginary watch on his arm. "Any second now... and there!"
Once he finished his sentence, a purple box flashed across Skyla's vision.
[System is installing... Choosing Class...]
[Ding! Class found: Ather Summoner]
[Displaying hosts Data...]
[Adept Skyla - Human - Ather Summoner - Level 1]
[Stats: STR - 1; AGI - 2; CON - 1; STA - 1; INT - 1; WIS - 3; CHA - 4;]
[HP: 100/100; MP: 100/100]
[Abilities:
Summons - Adept: {You can use Creature Scrolls or Figurines of Memory to summon the creature depicted. Once summoned, the creature will remain in your Void Space. To get a creature out of the Scroll of Figurine requires MP. The more powerful the creature, the more MP is used to free it. It takes a fraction of that MP to pull it out of the Void Space, and you replenish MP equal to that cost when you de-summon it. If a summon is killed, it will return to the Void Space. It can be revived at the next dawn or if you consume more MP to summon it again.}
Void Space- Adept: {You can hold four creatures in an indimensional pocket dimension.}
Shooting Star - Adept: {Using this ability costs 5 MP. You can launch an item no heavier than 3lbs that fits in the palm of your hand towards any target. The object will fly 100ft and then stop, or it will stop if it hits something in its trajectory.}
[Magical Artifacts:
Figure of Golden Knight - Adept: {This Figure appears to be a knight in shining armor.}]
Skyla leapt in surprise, and so did Troth, but since her hands were tied down, she couldn't fully stand up. She noticed that Troth had slipped from his rope bonds.
Tropher and Vax both smiled in amusement from their shock. Seeing a floating box of text in front of you was not easy to get used to; they both had similar reactions when they first got their system.
"Well, don't keep us in the dark! Tell us what class you got! And feel free to ask any questions you may have on your mind." Vax cheerfully asked.
Tropher leaned forward and cut Skyla's hand bonds, as well as Troth's, unaware that he had escaped from them.
Skyla started to prod at the glowing screens in front of her; many questions were racing through her mind. She tried to move the screens out of her field of vision with her hands, but to no avail; they went right through them.
"You can navigate with your mind. Just think of an action or a particular screen, and it should automatically move for you." Vax chimed, noticing Skyla and Troth's confused expressions and useless probing.
'Move these screens away from my vision." Skyla thought.
The screens immediately shrank and moved to the right side of her vision, allowing her to see normally again.
"What do HP and MP mean?" She asked.
"HP means Hit Points; it's how much damage you can sustain until you perish. MP is how many Magic Points you have to spend on magical abilities. What class are you?" Tropher responded.
"It says Summoner."
"Mine says Monk."
Tropher and Vax nodded.
"Skyla, congratulations, you're the first Ather Summoner ever to exist. I'm sure you'll be the hot topic among Slayers for a while."
'Hot... Topic!?! I don't want everyone to be talking about me!'
Skyla looked as if she could crawl into a hole.
"Relax, it's fine, you'll get used to the popularity."
"Ok, what's next?" Troth asked impatiently.
Vax held out his hands, "Yeesh, I'm getting there. We still have a three-day ride to the capital, Shoren. Give me a second to get my notes."
He pulled out a black journal with white lettering displaying SLAYERS HANDBOOK 101, newly updated due to the 14th Amendment of Slayer Legal Actions, which was printed on the front. He opened it and started to flip through it.
"Seriously? A handbook?"
"The guide on recruits was updated recently. New training procedures and stuff." Tropher stated with a sigh. "They gotta change everything the second I memorize the old stuff."
"Ok-ay! I found the stuff I need. Uh huh... Hmmmmm... Ok... Yeesh, that's harsh... ONLY 6 MONTHS?!?!"
Skyla and Troth both jumped when he yelled. Vax began to scrutinize the handbook very carefully, eyes widening every few lines. He put down the book and gulped.
"What is it?" Topher whispered to him.
"They cut the intro class for training, we have to tell them EVERYTHING."
Tropher sighed. "I call helping Conduit Ami with navigation, see you later."
Tropher quickly opened a panel behind him and squeezed through it. "Hi Ami, I'm here to help with navigation. I am going to sit here..."
Vax groaned and looked at the kids.
"Alright, epic monologue time. Let's start with the basics. Once we get to the capital, you will be assigned a cohort of five to seven Adepts and one Vanguard. You guys should be Adepts. This cohort will be your squad for the rest of your days. You will eat with them, train with them, go on missions with them, and hopefully rank up with them. You get about six months of training, we got a year back then, before you will be sent on missions."
"Wait, we are going to go on missions at age 15?" Skyla asked nervously.
"I know, you shouldn't go on any dangerous missions until you are 16. It's just that the magical creatures are increasing in number, and we need more recruits to handle them. High command's decisions. Mythic Jasper, the commander of the 47th Recruit Battalion, pushed back the idea as much as he could, but the other commanders of the recruits didn't back him up."
"Will we be in his Battalion?" Troth asked.
"Yes, his Battalion took heavy losses at Carbon Ridge last week, so they will need to fill the ranks."
Skyla looked at Troth nervously, but he stared at Vax confidently, foolish bravery indeed.
"Ok, where was I... Ah yes. You will need to understand the rankings of the BDFA. Recruits like you start as Adepts. It says in your system that your abilities should be leveled at Adept, too. As you get stronger, the next rank is Vanguard. It applies to your abilities and your rank. After Vanguard is Ascendant, then Prime, Awakened, Conduit, Supreme, Mythic, Divine, Godly, and then Cosmic. Again, it still applies to your rank and your abilities. Though your abilities rank up on their own. Your actual rank is decided by people of higher ranks, mostly the council of the BDFA, but field commanders can make promotions in the middle of battle, and it measures your power most of all. You most likely will never have an ability ranked higher than your rank."
"So, since your rank is Prime, all of your abilities are Ascendant?" Troth asked.
"I'm glad you're asking questions. This gets confusing fast. And no. I have five abilities at Asendant, two at Prime, and one at Vanguard."
Troth nooded. Skyla had a dumbfounded look on her face, but somehow she was able to absorb all of this information.
A pop-up on Skyla's vision appeared: [If you ever need a reference about ranks, you can find it in the virtual compendium of ranks, just ask.]
"Ok, now for how we classify creatures. There is their type, and their rank. Their type is what they are. Species-wise, classifying them based on their language capacity, magic capacity, and civilization potential. Those go as follows, from least intelligent to most intelligent: Elemental, Gelatinous, Beast, Monster, Undead, Giant, Drake, Humaniod, Human, Demon, and Celestial. We are classified as Humans, obviously. Then there are ranks. These are like our ranks, the power level of a creature. They are: Basic, Lesser, Primal, Elite, Superior, Greater, Ascended, Mythic, Primordial, Godlike, and Eternal."
"Sooo... is a Basic Beast just as powerful as a Basic Celestial or..." Skyla asked, still processing the information.
"Yes! A basic beast is like a Wolf, while a Basic Celestial would be a Holy Rat or something. But we have never seen a Basic Celestial before. This also applies to an Eternal Beast vs an Eternal Celestial; they have an even playing field. But Celestials are much smarter than Beasts, so it will most likely win."
Troth and Skyla nodded; they were able to grasp his lecture. Troth went back to staring out the window while Skyla dozed off. Vax went up front to help Tropher and Ami. Skyla did not know how long she had slept, but she awoke to a large boom echoing off the canyon walls. As she and Troth hurried outside to see what had happened, a sword was suddenly put to their necks.
"Don't move." A gruff voice commanded.