Chương 13

Alex wanted to squeeze as much training as he could into the final hour and a half—ideally he'd spar again, maybe twice, and achieve his second Class Level. It was quickly obvious, upon his return to his station, this was wishful thinking. He tried willing his mana into existence, and it felt like he had to wrench to bring out a few strands of Pure mana. His mind felt wrecked; he felt utterly drained mentally in a way that felt new. He couldn't recall the last time he'd felt like this.

I'll sleep it off, he said to himself. Still he couldn't quite bring himself to leave—there were still plenty of affinities he'd yet to so much as try. Space and Time have to be incredibly powerful, right? It was a pity his Time affinity was only slight, but Space was a little more promising, at slight/fair—as were Fire and Ice. Think I got a little sucked into Force and Pure there. They were his highest affinities by a margin, so— it is justified.

His final hour and a half was actually spent willing in a few new mana types. Trying, anyway—first he had to familiarize himself with the manas. He started with Space and Fire, glancing around the Hall, but they didn't seem to stick in his mind like Force did. The difference felt especially clear when he tried to actually create these manas. A bit of Fire, a gorgeous bright spark, a strand of Ice, which was like more intricate Pure Mana—simply manifesting them with Mana Manipulation was an hour's work.

His mental exhaustion definitely played a factor, but it was like he could feel the difference in his affinity levels. As for Space and Time, he made zero progress. He couldn't even find an example of a Time Mana user in the quickly emptying Hall; he'd seen maybe two all day, and he couldn't confirm that what he'd seen was even Time mana. He walked away a few minutes before closing time, 11: 00. By then all but three stations were empty.

There was a station in the back corner of the hall, the same side he was; it had those translucent privacy screens up, walling off its sides in a 50% opacity cube. It seemed, by the blurry images, it was currently locked in a v-Duel— he's been Dueling four hours straight. I definitely have to get my stamina up. Privacy screens were a decided minority in the Hall. Which he liked since, as he'd experienced, sharing an environment with other magic-users could be incredibly beneficial for your own progress.

Also seems like they're usually a 'nobles' thing.

'Nobles,' from what he gleaned, was a nickname for rich kids, often kids with influential Awakened families. Like that Clarissa St. Clair, he recalled. Screens like this one weren't station implements, but treasures you had to bring in from outside, and not inexpensive ones either. I do like the idea of a little privacy, he supposed. Might have to look into that at some point.

This particular noble kid had been the subject of some speculation in the hours he'd been here; he seemed to be fighting at at least the level of that Ivy girl, which was to say he was likely a higher-end talent. Then— wait, he realized. That's a girl, isn't it? The Hall had cleared enough that he could hear sounds of exertion against sounds of water and steel. Which is also my cue to leave, he decided.

It wasn't that the sounds were weird—it was what you'd hear in any sports match, he'd imagine—but after realizing he felt like a bit of a weirdo standing there, observing the station. He exited v-space, was back in reality. What a day. He checked his phone— Stella's replied. His aunt—also his godmother—had texted a few quick sentences.

'Sure thing''will be in the area next week for business actually''maybe we'll drop by?' He felt his pulse quicken a bit, but he replied, Sure, let me know a time. He still didn't quite know how to approach the conversation. Thinking about it, he was pretty sure they'd be fine with his Outworlder situation. They'd always been pretty laissez-faire and understanding with him and Bella, even when they were kids. Miss you guys, he texted.

Part of the journey back he took by bus, the rest by rideshare, to save a little money. He was deeply asleep within an hour.

The next morning, he woke up still mentally feeling it. His body was fine, thankfully—it seemed virtual soreness didn't transfer, but— A full day, willing nonstop, might've been... a bit much, in retrospect? Might take it a bit easier today and just try a little extra Mana Manipulation? See if I can get it to Uncommon? He was actually excited about Mana Manipulation in a few ways; he was curious to see if his other affinities would feel any better.

He also wanted to see if he could replicate any simple, real Skills with pure Mana Manipulation—it was maybe a bit ambitious, but he could at least tinker with the idea. I could also look into getting a new Skill, actually. You can get up to 4 Skills with my current F-rank Card, and with Mana Manipulation, Swords Proficiency, and Mana Shield, there's still an open slot... Could also just leave it open until I get to Level 10 and get access to higher-ranked Skills.

Level 10 was the peak of F-rank, which— at this rate I might hit in a few weeks, at most? Assuming I keep progressing like I did yesterday, and every Level's a little harder. He'd made himself instant noodles with an egg for breakfast and chewed on it as he considered his options. I'll have to get a new Class Card when I rank up as well, he reflected. I actually have to get a ton of stuff. He was currently naked in terms of gear. The basic sword he'd wielded was purely a virtual device; it wasn't actually his.

I'm also out of freebies from the Association, that 'Swords Proficiency' was the last starter kit item, the hand-holding's pretty much ended. I mean I'll benefit from that 'free Facility access' thing for the next few months, but still. He was an Awakened in the real world. He went back upstairs and pulled up a website.' The Exchange.' He wanted to see what a few of his options were when it came to Class Cards—his potential upgrades from his F-rank Base Mage.

The website had a list of filters which you could narrow down very specifically, by base class, affinity, price, rarity grade, name,'enchantments' —the list went on. By default it displayed what seemed the most recently listed items. At the moment, they were ' Truesteel Shortsword,' ' Stormseye Jeweled Scepter,'and' Interspatial Ring (Sapphire),' with asking prices ranging from 116 'Credits' to 1, 241 'Credits.'

Credits seemed to be the Awakened currency; a Credit represented a single F-rank essence stone, very much like the one he was almost done taking in. And a Credit is— he typed in,'Credit to USD' exchange rate. I'll have to stock up on a few Credits—I think a floor of Association HQ offered currency exchanges? 1 Credit equals... The screen flickered. He paused. 1 'F-ranked' Credit, he clarified. Equals— The result didn't change.

'1 Awakened Credit = 1388 USD.' He went back to the website, scrolled down, and clicked 'next page' twice— seem like typical prices? 1, 241 Credits is definitely on the high end, but— Wait. He checked E-ranked 'Class Cards.' This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. E-ranked Class Cards seem to be—about 180-ish Credits, which is— A quarter of a million dollars. And the higher-rarity ones— he kept scrolling— well over a million. Maybe several.

He sat back in his office chair. The number floated through his mind. He pulled out his phone, checked his bank's app. I seem to have—$3, 162 USD, exactly the same as my previous-world self. It... seems I'm a little short. This... Hm. In retrospect, with the kinds of figures floating around the Awakened world, he maybe should've seen this coming. I—how didn't I? I feel like I assumed it was only that expensive for very high-leveled or rare stuff? I mean—those items cost hundreds of millions. I...

suppose it makes sense that an 'average' item is like this. This is E-rank—maybe F-rank items are a little less—? He filtered by just F-rank, saw a few simple spears, helms and shields—all priced similarly—and mentally did the conversions. Six thousand-ish? For a single piece of what's considered starter gear. And a full set will likely run fifty thousand. He let out a tight breath. Okay, but if gear prices are like this then earning opportunities have to be pretty high as well, surely.

Like, you'd get treasures from rifts, which you'd then sell. And you'd be in business? Where can I—ah. There was a section of the Association website dedicated to the purchasing of rifts; it had several sections, including'Open Rifts,' 'Association-led Rifts,' 'Open Offers,' and 'Special/XL Rifts.' Open Rifts seemed to have the purchasable rifts, and when he filtered by the '1-star, F-rank rifts'— Eleven Credits. Which is—like fifteen thousand. And that's a single rift, a chance to get my foot in the door.

It's probably priced that high because of the treasure-earning chances you'd get? Clearly it wasn't an option, at least right now. If startup costs are this insane, how do people even— He paused, opened a new tab.

'What benefits does a Guild offer?' The benefits, from a quick scan of a few Guilds' shiny official websites as well as a few forums, seemed to be— financial support, especially early in careers, free sponsored gear, access to in-house alchemists, smiths, and miscellaneous Professionals, mentorships by top-class fighters, exclusive build guides & build expertise, exclusive access to certain training facilities & camps, and—finally— —free rift access. He leaned back, hands behind his head. Yeah, figures.

Seems like the standard offer is they'll support you for the first 3 years, and the next 3 they get a 50% cut of all 'revenue'—all the treasure you get, prize purses from Dueling, and so on. And it seemed like you'd be required to do certain rifts every week, be required to participate in certain training camps, maybe even be required to be in a certain team— which is just working life, he supposed. It likely wouldn't be that bad. I kind of do want to do my own thing, though.

At least for a little while, as long as I can get away with it? It felt like a bit of a shame, transmigrating to this new world, just to have to answer to someone and get handed assignments— I'll do it if I have to, but— I like how it is now. He liked the idea of having the freedom to do whatever he wanted. He was curious about what these exclusive facilities might look like, but it was an idle curiosity. Surely not everyone accepts this?

A little more searching revealed that there was, in fact, a certain population that didn't accept this. Rich kids. A sliver of the population seemed to self-fund their first two years. Seems like it's not even uncommon to sign a free agent contract with a Guild afterward, but you'd sign the standard free agent contract, skipping the '50% cut' phase entirely. Or you'd just continue as an independent. He wasn't rich, to state the obvious. Is it arrogant to think I can do this? he wondered.

To at least give staying independent a try? I feel like it's not arrogant to acknowledge it seems like I've been given certain talents. I should be able to break a few rules here.... Right? What are my options, even?

'Ways to make money as Awakened.' Standard answers seem to be—via rifts, v-Dueling, sponsorships, and via a Profession—there's more, but these seem to be the main few ways. His eyes flickered down the screen— you don't actually have to purchase a rift? Wait. There were two ways for him to participate in rifts today, if he wanted to. With zero payments. And they were right there on the D. A. rifts website, staring at him that whole time.' Association-led rifts.'

The Association would put together a team of independents who'd tackle an Association-owned rift with an overseer. It was free entry, but the price was you didn't get to keep any of the treasure. The Association would award a flat figure—$1, 250 per rift, at least at F-rank, where he was. It's not bad, he supposed. A few weeks' grinding, assuming I do a few rifts a week, and I'd be able to afford my first full rift.

It says it's a fee regardless of performance—if the overseer judges the rift too risky, you'd bail and still get paid. Risk aversion, if he was honest, wasn't very high up on his list of priorities. Also, I really don't like that I won't get to keep any of the treasure. He certainly liked the idea of treasure, even if he hadn't actually done any looting just yet. The other choice was the 'Open offers' section, and this seemed a little more flexible.

'Open Offers' were requests private parties, independents or Guilds put up. Usually it was because a team needed an extra healer to make a full five-man party or similar; the rewards were also up to the private party. When he filtered it by adding 'within a week' and also ' 1-star and 2-star, F-rank'—which was around his Level range—there were 73 results in the Stark City area. He quickly skimmed the descriptions.

About thirty of the offers seemed standard; a request for an extra member with a specific skillset, and the rewards were pretty similar to the Association-led rifts—flat fees, typically. At times the rewards were less than the Association's. A few he found a little promising, requesting a secondary DPS with rewards up to $1, 500—but they also required ' v-Dueling elo 600' and a video interview to apply. Elo, as in like—chess rating, but for Dueling? The rest of the offers, about 40, were decidedly different.

First—36 of the 40 of this second kind of offer were already filled. And they were easy to notice since they were posted in giant batches, with titles like—' Evaluation rift filler, final round — O2 Guild' and'Evaluation rift filler, final round—Fairfax & Co'. There were twelve posted in the past hour, he noticed—they seemed to have auto-posted at 11: 59 am—and they all had the same title. Eight were already filled; seems like they're filling up fast.

Evaluation rift filler, final round — Aegis Guild (1/2) He clicked, lips pursed. This 'Aegis Guild,' alongside the ArchKnights Guild, were supposedly two of the premier Guilds in Stark City. All he knew about it was like ArchKnights, it also had a relationship with a world-class Guild. As part of Aegis's Summer Selections, Aegis is running a live 'Evaluation Rift' for fast-track candidates who have made it to the final round of its evaluation process.

An Aegis evaluator, no less than E-rank, will be evaluating two candidates in live combat scenarios within a live rift. These evaluations will take place on the west half of this rift. In accordance with Delver's Association regulations, and in order to meet the 5-person required delving party, Aegis opens the final two slots to the public. Kindly refrain from entering the west half of this rift while evaluations are underway. He was amused.

So they're running a live evaluation for potential talents, and they want me there to fill a rift slot so they can run it? Why are they even required to do this? The answer seemed to be, first—standard rifts always required five-person teams. And second, every six months the Guilds would purchase 75%+ of Stark's available F- and early E-rank rifts as part of their Selections processes, squeezing out independents for weeks.

In 2021 the Delver's Association capped how much they could purchase, and also forced the Guilds to open these 'filler' slots to the public. What the offer description didn't say—and what he'd had to search a bit to realize—was besides the requirement not to interfere in the evaluation, these slots were entirely unconditional. Which meant he'd get to keep any treasure he picked up. And it was free entry, since giant Guilds charging starter newbies for this would be awful optics.

From what he was reading— it's the kind of deal you'd only find twice a year, precisely during Selections season, and that's because of this strange quirk in regulation— —Shit. He tabbed back and saw the title had changed, and grayed out. Evaluation rift filler — Aegis Guild (2/2) There were three Evaluation rifts left, and all were on (1/2). Thereafter followed the most frenzied username and password creation process he'd ever done.

It also required ID, which he had to hold up to the camera to verify—he somehow managed to finish within five minutes.

'Reserve slot'! He refreshed. I'm in. He sagged back in relief. Can't believe my sense of urgency didn't get triggered faster for that, Jesus Christ. He wasn't sure a rift like this, as a first rift, was such a good idea—purely from a developmental point of view. This was an unsupervised rift, firstly—no Association overseer. And three members of the five-person rift would be off on one side, doing their own thing; you'd usually tackle rifts as a five-person unit.

If you screw up as a beginner, you have four other people that have your back. And this is real life, it's not like v-Dueling, there's actual consequences. He'd be with one other person, who for all he knew could also be a newbie. And a gear-less newbie at that... And this is in three days, so—not all that much time to get prepped. Then again, you don't have to complete the rift if you decide it's too much. I f I think better of it I can always just pull out, he decided.

I absolutely can't have another 'Tier 1 training bot' moment in real life. He got up from his chair— let me get some water. His heart was pumping from that, absurdly. He sat back down, listening to the birds chirp nicely outside—there was this tree in his front yard, and the branches lined up a few feet below his window; the sunlight slashing through it was always a sight. One potential chance—check. Let's see... what else can I sign myself up for?

There was also v-Dueling, but basic v-Dueling, the kind he'd seen in the Training Hall, was purely Skills and Levels practice; he didn't need to search to realize that. You'd potentially make money in prize fund events, which... After a quick search— there's actually a few prize events in Stark City. Seems like they're mostly for E-rankers. The divisions were labeled ' E3, E2, E1'—they seemed to be level ranges within E-rank.'

Lake District Brawl-off,' 'Glass City Swiss,' 'Knights of the Hexagonal Table 17'—God that's a terrible name— There were actually several websites that cataloged local prize fighting events. He went to a website called GlassTrack and narrowed the list. There were only three F-rank events in the next calendar month, all placed on weekends, and two had sub-$1000 total prize funds, and they were several weeks away. There is an event in a week.

'Rising Stars' Cup, Stark City' 1st place—25 Credits, which is about $35, 000? 2nd place, 15 Credits, and 3rd place, 10 Credits—that's really quite good. Requirements seem to be, you were Awakened in the past 6 weeks and under Level 10. No divisions in F-rank, anyone from Level 1 to 10 can enter. And placing on the podium at this event qualifies you for the 'Stark City Duelist's Cup,' which is in three months. And it's open registrations, he realized.

He clicked and saw a list of names which he didn't recognize—what he did notice was, several had Guild insignias next to their names.

'Rising Stars,' he recalled. If I sign up for this... am I just—signing myself up to fight all the top newly recruited F-rank Guild talents in Stark City? And this is with a week of time as an Awakened. Against people who have Guild support, which means items and Skills and such. I feel like there's a pretty high chance I just get wiped here. Registration's a quarter of a credit, like $350.

Which he never would've considered spending pre-Awakening, but maybe he'd been desensitized; compared to all the figures he'd seen thrown around this morning it felt like nothing. He didn't really see a downside to signing up. It was a v-Duel, which meant at worst he'd just get crushed and be down $350. There was also a part of him that was quite curious where he was, and how talented he actually was—what he was made of, almost. These past few days, he'd kind of been in his own little world, tinkering away.

Besides, the one thing that made him grow the most, in levels, and Skills, and mentally, was that Tier 1 Training bot; weird as it seemed, in retrospect he was incredibly grateful for the entire arc of his training against it. He was kind of convinced he'd accidentally faintly linked the feeling of getting wrecked with the feeling of Skill evolutions and level-ups in his mind, which... maybe wasn't such a positive thing. A few minutes later, he'd signed up. Feel like I'm in way over my head, but ah well.

I'm registered. While technically he could deregister from both events, he didn't have any intention of doing so—it didn't even feel like an option in his mind. He was kind of excited, actually. He wanted to see what he would do with this. Maybe it's just arrogance—I mean, it's definitely just arrogance; I barely have any prep time. But... I feel like I won't do too badly, you know.