Chapter 2: Lucas Martin
He found the bag which apparently belonged to Lucas Martin canvas satchel, worn at the straps and searched it. Some coins. A second set of clothes, simple, but of good quality.
A letter of introduction to the registrar of the academy. Knife in leather sheath, small, clearly decorative, almost useless. And a notebook, almost empty, with only a few pages utilized for what seemed to be accounting sums.
Lucus took out the notebook and a pencil stub from the bottom of the bag and sat down cross-legged on the bed.
He began to write. Not a story. A list.
What I know about the plot of Blue Star Chronicles, Arc One:
Opening ceremony 16th of Solent. Ethan Von Sliverstel arrives at Nevus City. First impression of the academy. His awakening assessment result will cause much attention - dual affinity, lightnings and space, neither of which has been recorded in an Aura Core user before.
Class placement: Ethan goes to Class A. 20 students with the most assessed potential. Selena Starborn: Class A. Rosilia Braveheart: Class A. Aiden Stromfang: Class A. Lucas Martin: Class C.
First semester events: Assessment of combat ranking (week 2). The exercise Crystal Labyrinth (month 2). The Phantom Forest training event (month 4). Various relationship-building arcs between the main cast.
The Year One Dungeon Trial End of 1st semester. All first year students enter the academy's training dungeon the Void Gate in groups. A dungeon break happens during the exercise - a rift opens within the training zone, and an entity of the Demon Warrior class enters. Seven students die before faculty intervene. One of the seven is Lucas Martin.
He underlined the last line. Then he wrote underneath it, in letters a little larger than the rest:
What I am saying is that I am not going to die in someone else's story.
He put the pencil down. Looked at the list for a while.
Then he added one more point:
Unknown: My unique skill. Unknown: What the ??? on my status screen really means.
Unknown: What the author doesn't know about his world.
That last point was the one that made his stomach drop.
He had built this world. He knew its history, its power system, its major players. But he had also written sixty-three chapters and planned seven arcs and he had never finished the story.
There were things that he had planned only in outline. Characters that were names and rough concepts. Mysteries he had established without the work of solving
He had been one of the writers who sowed without always knowing what would grow.
And here he was standing inside the garden.
Now need to see his stats and for that he need the status window to appear.
The status window came when he focused.
He'd written the process: slow breath, attention turned inward, the Origin Seed visualized as a point of warmth below the sternum.
He'd described Ethan doing this in the third chapter. He tried it himself, half expecting nothing to happen.
The air shimmered. Blue-white light congealed at chest height, translucent and softly luminous. The panel was suspended in the air, like something between a projection and a materialization.
He read it. Read it again.
========[STATUS]============
[NAME -- LUCAS MARTIN]
[AGE -- 17]
[TITLE -- NONE]
[CORE RANK -- UNFORMED]
[POTENTIAL -- D]
[UNIQUE SKILL -- ???]
[AFFINITY -- WIND (MINOR)]
======[STATS]=========
STR -- G
AGI -- G+
INT -- E+
VIT -- G-
END -- G
MANA -- 340/340
===============
D potential.
In his power system, Potential was the system's assessment of an individual's ceiling not current strength, but the theoretical maximum they could reach by training and cultivation. S potential was the threshold for the truly elite practitioners.
A potential was the floor to most Class A students. B and C potentials were widespread among the academy population.
D potential meant the system looked at Lucas Martin and saw a man that would plateau around the C rank somewhere in the middle, give or take. Not weak, exactly. Just... not remarkable.
The mana pool of 340 was a pittance, so to speak. Even a low-tier mage apprentice required 600-800 to be able to cast reliably. An Aura Core user at this point had to build from near zero.
Wind affinity--minor. Wind mana was versatile and demanding. Minor aptitude meant he had access to it, but the mana cost per use would be punishing until he either grew stronger or specialized.
And the unique skill is listed as ???.
In his novel, he had never bestowed upon Lucas Martin a singular ability. The character never was intended to have one. He was a prop. A name. A casualty statistic to give the dungeon trial scene weight.
But the status window indicated ???, not NONE.
Which meant that there was something there. A unique skill that existed in this world for this body - a skill that Lucus himself had never written, never planned, never imagined.
His own creation had depths he didn't know of.
The thought was equal parts fascinating and deep discomfiture.
He closed the status window with an effort of will -- that part worked the way he'd written it -- and sat for a long moment in the morning quiet of the inn room.
Then he picked up the notebook again, went to a fresh page and wrote:
Day One. Objectives:
Survive next six months without dying in dungeon
Change my class placement. Class C is where I die. I need to be somewhere else.
Train. Whatever D potential means, it's not a ceiling I'm willing to accept.
Figure out what ??? is.
Figure out what the author doesn't know - and how much of it can hurt me.
He looked at the list.
Then added, because he was nothing if not honest with himself:
Try not to catastrophically derail the actual plot. Ethan needs to succeed. The world needs him to succeed. I'm an extra in his story. My job is to not break what needs to happen in order for me to survive.
He closed the notebook. Got dressed (Lucas Martin's clothes, which fit the body if not his sense of self) and went to find breakfast.
____
Outside the window of the inn, Nevus City was alive with the morning.
Somewhere across the city, in a story Lucus had built from nothing, wheels were turning.
Characters were moving toward their fated positions like pieces on a board he had designed.
He was the one piece that wasn't supposed to still be standing at the end of the first act.
He intended to remain standing regardless.
To be Continued....