“Now, I, Holy Lord ruria, call upon the crystals of our destiny! Co forth! Allow these souls to take shape, becoming power to deliver death in the hearts of our enemies!” At her command, a series of lights enveloped our bodies. It grew and morphed, twisting and turning like it was trying to escape with sothing in tow.
After a few seconds, we all stared at our respective colorless basketball-sized crystals. Each one was the exact sa in terms of appearance. Damon was hasty in trying to touch his, but ruria glared at him, coldly stating that he had to wait his turn. Her intense tone was enough for him to freeze in place, and a mont later, his arms were down by his side.
Did she do sothing else? Or is he just afraid of her?
“When you open it, you will be given skills that most accordingly match your soul’s reflection. That may be foreign, but I will explain it all in due ti. Please give an introduction before you open your crystal so that I may get to know my warriors a little bit more.
Tokko was up first. After explaining that he was a champion in boxing and fencing, two sports that existed in this world, he touched his crystal and watched as rainbow energy filled the room. Then it all condensed into stars...but there were six of them. They collected above Tokko, slamd into each other, and sprinkled dust upon his body.
“Tokko!! Do you know what this ans? You… A 6-Star Soul hasn’t been seen in hundreds—no, thousands of years!!! I... I thought they were a myth… I… I cannot even begin to describe my happiness!!!” ruria looked like a fan girl who had t her favorite singer. She felt way more relaxed and approachable in this casual state.
Mia whispered sweet words ant to induce jealousy within the Holy Lord, but it didn’t seem to work. Damon and Shiku walked over, slapping their king on the shoulder. “You’re the man, man! Hey, Mia, if I have a 6-Star Soul, let hug your tits.” Mia scowled and flipped the perverted Damon the bird. His harem gave him the stink eye and frowned.
“Good work, Tokko. You’re always the best, aren’t you?” Shiku wasn’t alone in complinting Tokko. Since he had apparently broken yet another limit, it made sense for everyone to clamor around him. Well, all except Quella, Ms. Mary, and myself. Will, Greggie, and Keeth were torn, I think. The way Tokko waved off Damon’s violent assault against probably soured any excitent they might have had. Maybe they thought making any sort of exclamation of support was like cheering for the enemy? But they didn’t have that wariness when they listened to his speech.
Whatever... I guess if it makes them feel better, then they should go ahead and praise Tokko. Sticking with him might be the best way of getting back to our world... I wouldn’t bla them...
After a quick cough from ruria, the rowdy students quickly lined back up.
“You, the girl with her body on full display like so sort of tramp of the night. Get on with it.”
Mia scowled at the unflattering description and introduced herself. Her accomplishnts included having an offer of employnt at NASA and a letter inviting her to train with our country’s Olympic squad because she was a master archer. ruria found much excitent after realizing that NASA’s goal was space exploration. She couldn’t believe human technology had advanced so far in the world we ca from.
When she touched her crystal, six stars ca out.
“Mia, do you know what this ans?!?!! This… This is a joyous day!!! I take back my previous words of calling you a tramp! You’re amazing! You’re incredible!!!!” ruria threw her hands up and hopped around like an excited puppy, her breasts bouncing all over the place.
That got thinking… Just what kind of person was ruria? She claid to be a Holy Lord, yet she didn’t seem to care that we saw half of her chest. I didn’t think she was an exhibitionist. I also couldn’t tell if she was friendly or not because she tended to drastically change the tone of her voice at the drop of a hat. She wasn’t a fan of Mia’s outfit, yet she apologized after realizing she was a 6-Star. Would ruria have similar things to say about Lori’s and Elly’s risqué outfits?
But didn’t that make her a hypocrite? Judging from her own words, ruria was dressed like a streetwalker with the amount of skin on display. It was like her dress was made with the sole intention of enhancing her body’s natural beauty. The white veil supported her curves rather than hiding them behind a wall. What reason would she do that if not to persuade ogling pairs of eyes to stare at her 'rich' body? She couldn’t have been trying to steal Tokko from Mia, right? Would a Holy Lord feel jealously towards her summoned subjects?
Natural beauty? Rich body? Stop... Stop putting thoughts inside my head!
After calming herself, ruria told Shiku to go ahead. He was a 4-Star. After explaining that he knew karate and aikido, ruria wanted him to spar with a guard, and the armored man found himself being flipped over upside down in the first few seconds.
Damon was next. He practiced wrestling, and he was also a 4-Star. After him, it was a steady stream of 3-Stars and 2-Stars until it ca to Lori and Ann. Those two went at the sa ti to reveal a pair of 5-Stars. ruria was all smiles when she learned that Lori and Ann were unmatched in the spear and katana. She was so happy she summoned a spear and sword and promptly handed them to the twins. Both were wooden, but that didn’t matter.
“Sister, this weapon is wonderful,” Lori said when thrusting her spear. She pulled it back in and flourished it around her body before performing a vertical slice.
“Agreed, sister.” Ann examined the blade and cut the air three tis in rapid succession. The sharpness of her swordplay amazed ruria, whose smile had grown even larger. Her eyes beca wide, filled with affection at her third and fourth strongest warriors. “Sister, I think I love this weapon. Am I correct in my thinking?” Ann asked.
“Yes, sister. I feel the sa,” Lori replied. She returned the spear to her side, allowing its butt to rest on the floor. Ann did sothing similar, except she just held her katana by her side since she didn’t have a sheath.
Elly, a 3-Star, was next. After explaining she was an idol, she sang a little upbeat song that originated from a cartoon. ruria listened to the rapid lyrics intertwined with a soft voice, but she didn’t smile.
When it ca to Elly’s cousin, Ami was still perpetually smiling as three stars birthed from her crystal. She was a luchadora in xico before leaving to et with Elly. She smiled so brightly at ruria that even her icy heart had to feel it. She just stared at the bronzed-skinned girl, never allowing whatever she felt to show up on her face.
Quella was next. She listed her notable academic accomplishnts, like managing to edge out Tokko to take the top spot in the national exams, before being rained down with five rainbow stars. Interestingly enough, ruria explained that Quella had the innate capabilities to be a strikingly powerful mage.
Ms. Mary followed. ruria didn’t have any words for her, and after seeing the three stars, just went on to Will. He was a researcher of mathematics and explained how physics and math were closely related in sending rocket ships to space. He was well known in his field since his discoveries had advanced the world of math by at least a decade. ruria found that acceptable, I suppose, even overlooking the two stars that ca out from his Soul Crystal.
Greggie spoke with a proud tone when he exclaid that he loved to cook. ruria gave her approval when he said he was good enough to prepare als for the presidents that presided over countries in our old world. Four stars popped out of his crystal, and ruria curled her palm and rubbed Greggie’s cheek. “When the ti is right, I shall see if you can back up your claims. Do not disappoint , my warrior.”
Keeth was next. His effort to remove himself from existence didn’t work. ruria’s yellow eyes pierced through his very soul until the discomfort was too much. “Keeth...is my na,” he whispered in a scratchy voice. It took him a while to explain the idea of using models to formulate a visual representation of what you wanted to build. ruria didn’t buy it at all, and she scoffed at his 3-Star Soul.
And then, I guess, it was my turn. Without even knowing it, a small smile ford on my face. These hazel eyes of mine were awaiting ruria’s order to touch the crystal. She stopped and stared at my face, then offered her apologies for how long I had to wait. To my surprise, however, she didn’t even ask my na.
“I command you to open your crystal and grasp the power within!” ruria spoke with a powerful tone, one that was full of force and determination. The entire class fell victim to it, causing all of them to stare at her and the person she stood in front of. It was uncomfortable to be the center of attention for a second ti that day, but I shrugged it off.
Is it fine…if I’m looking forward to it?
I placed my right palm on the floating crystal in front of ...and it simply fizzled like a balloon after very vaguely altering itself into a gun-shaped object. There were no stars. There was no smoke. There was no pomp and circumstance.
In every other crystal, there had been at least one star.
Nope. Not for .
New Skill: [Soul Armatization]
New Title: [Soul Warrior]
So mysterious words detailing a new skill and title, whatever that ant, appeared in the bottom left of my vision. I saw my na, level, and a green and blue bar on the top left.
ruria clapped her hands to gather everyone’s attention and said we had to discuss what happened to . In essence, I had a 0-Star Soul. The consequences of that? I would never grow even the tiniest fraction stronger, and I would always remain as I was. According to her, I was unable to acquire SP from leveling up, and I couldn’t learn any skill, technique, spell, or ability.
For a fraction of a second, there was an object shaped like a gun in my crystal. Soul Warriors were given a skill called [Soul Armatization]. Leveling this would eventually grant you a Soul Weapon, a weapon that best reflected your inner desires. This weapon would grow with you, changing forms and forever evolving. The weapon was foreshadowed in your crystal, but it was often hidden because of the smoke and stars.
I supposed it was sowhat ironic that I was being shown sothing I could never obtain...
Then again, even if the opposite was true, ruria claid that firearms were rarely used since bows were quieter, had easier-to-craft ammo, and did not require as many working parts. And bows didn’t require firesalts to make bullets, which, while not exactly rare, often had a strong sll, which was sothing you wanted to avoid.
“Bwhahahah!!!!” Damon laughed. ruria joined in, covering her hand with her mouth while glaring at like I was trash... What could I have done? Fought back? Shout at them? Doing any of those things would just make it worse...but I still wasn’t angry. Unhappy? Sure, anyone would have, but the desire to retaliate was simply foreign to .
I’ll be alright. I know I can take it. I’ve been doing that all my life, but with Keeth, Will, and Greggie... I could make sothing worthwhile of my ti here, right? Even soone like has had thoughts about doing it all over again, correcting mistakes as I lived my life a second ti. I have the chance now, right? To be a better ...
After a few seconds, ruria started explaining the user interface. I saw my na and other stuff in the top left of my vision. The green bar was for my health. When it beca empty, I’d die. The blue represented my mana pool, so using spells would subtract from it. Running out wouldn’t kill you, but you’d feel sluggish. If I had any party mbers or slaves, their info would be below mine. Then we were all ordered to focus on our na, which opened the Status nu.
Shuuta Fenton
Human
Lv. 1
SP: 0
Title: Soul Warrior
Sub-Title: N/A
Skill nu [ ]
ruria explained that this world had sothing called a leveling system. The cap was 99, but upon breaking through your limits, it increased to 199. SP was used to purchase or upgrade skills, which included weapon skills like [One-Handed Sword] or a general crafting skill like [Blacksmith]. But it was possible to manually obtain a skill through hard work and determination, which allowed people to grow after reaching either of the level caps. Skill Orbs existed as rare items. Using one would grant the user the skill contained at no cost.
“But wait... Where are the stats?” asked Shiku.
“Stats?” ruria questionably replied.
“Yeah, if we have levels, we gotta have stats. Stuff like our strength, endurance, intelligence? You know, stats.”
“Hmm... Around 150 years ago, a group of warriors I summoned introduced to sothing called ‘tabletop RPGs.’ If I recall, there were these... ‘attributes’ you could give your player character. It was fun watching the number grow until you were powerful enough to defeat the evil dragons. But that only applies to the imagination. In this world, you just have your level, SP, title, sub-title, and skills.”
‘Then how do we get stronger?” asked Tokko.
“Skills are distinctively divided into three categories. Physical, magical, and dexterous. [Leap Smash] is a physical skill. Learning and leveling it will allow you to hit harder and take more damage while increasing your health. [Fire Magic] is magical. Increasing that will cause your spells to strike harder, you'll take less damage from spells, and your mana pool will increase. [Deadeye] is a dexterous skill that makes it easier to aim ranged weaponry, so this will increase your damage with those while also helping you run just a bit faster and jump a bit farther.” But growing stronger didn’t involve just learning and leveling skills. Killing monsters with magic would improve your magical abilities, and leveling up didn’t just give you SP. Basically, everything you did made you stronger. It was just that so things helped more than others.
As an aside to that, the amount of SP given with each level up varies, but Soul Warriors worked around that because their souls added a certain amount. A 6-Star Soul, for example, would guarantee at least 7 SP per level up as a minimum, and a max of 16, since you gained anywhere from 1 to 10 SP with a level up.
My 0-Star curse ant I was at the very bottom, and I wouldn’t improve in any way. Fighting would do nothing, I couldn’t get SP to even learn skills, and while it was possible to learn and level skills without SP through hard work to manually acquire them, that was also impossible for .
As for the skills? I only had [Soul Armatization], while everyone else had more. I remained alone and stared at proof of my failure until ruria ntioned she would speak about the title system later, only briefly ntioning that we unlocked the sub-title system by default.
“Now, I need you to listen to ! I thank you for being patient as I explained everything, but now it is ti to start your training! I want you to all follow as we go to our next location!” ruria clapped her hands three tis and walked towards a pair of silver doors that I had failed to notice. It was on the wall opposite of the mural. As always, I waited a few seconds to take my rightful place at the back of the pack so I could be alone with my thoughts. Tokko and Mia, though, were standing right beside ruria.
“Shuuta?” A caring voice broke my concentration, and I looked up to see Quella staring at with a pitying smile. I wanted to say sothing, but ruria suddenly appeared in front of even though she was supposed to be at the front of the group. She did not hold back her words as she berated for ‘disturbing the peace.’ As quickly as ruria appeared, she vanished in another flash of white light. The only thing I could think of was that she teleported from the front just to talk down to . Quella was the one who spoke, but I was punished for it. She seed sad and tried to convey sothing with a facial expression, but I just shook my head and sighed.
I’ve endured such treatnt all my life, so why should it be any different now?
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