Chapter 5 Instead of Becoming an Adventurer I Chose to Fish

With a brisk walk, I headed towards the orientation lecture stage. I still didn’t know what to call these buildings, as they didn’t have any roofs. They had a semicircle of seating with a raised platform where the lecturer would be at and a wall all around to give some privacy.

As I stepped in, I saw that there were twelve others here, with five more people on stage. Four of them were wearing leather armour, one of them having the Adventurers Guild symbol in front of the heart. The one in more normal clothing should be the lecturer, Maria.

Everyone looked at me and then towards my right hand. A lot of people openly displayed their tattoo, but there were uniforms with long sleeves, and I was wearing one of those because I wanted to blend in.

There was a group of six people here that looked more haggard and who were sticking close to each other, while all the rest were basically sitting by themselves. I looked towards their right wrists and saw a similar symbol to mine.

When I went to get more bread from the apartment manager, as I learned his job title was, he also mentioned that more people were showing up from my world.

I guessed that those six were from Earth as well. For a moment, I thought of sitting with them, but I didn’t want to. It’s better to be alone, so like the rest who were here, I chose to sit alone.

The five people on stage were either standing stock still or quietly talking to each other. A bell rang, notifying that a new hour had started.

Interestingly enough, one of the pamphlets explained that they still had the normal 60-minute hours, although the hours did adjusted from world to world. This world has 26 hours in a day.

“Welcome everyone to the town of Pristine Beginnings. We are here to give you the best start to your journey as we can. Normally, on average, we take in about five to ten beginners a day.”

While this speech had a bit of a bureaucratic feel to it, the way she spoke really made you feel that she actually cared.

“A lot of you already know many of the basics, but there is no shame in brushing up on something that you might have forgotten. A lot of our lectures are open form so when they’re happening, you can visit them or not. Some of the more obscure lectures do require sign-up, but that’s to get the minimum number of participants needed.”

“We also take in Adventurers Guild sponsored beginners.” She looked towards the group of six, “Do you all we highly recommend that you go through all the lectures to understand the basics of how everything works.

“Let me go through a quick introduction. Mana is extremely dangerous if not properly managed. The system helps you to manage that. It was created by the first six species many aeons ago, allowing us to collectively fight back against the mana corrupted.”

That sounded ominous. So the system that gave me the class slot was actually made by people in order to help us all survive. That seemed important, so I pulled out the couple of folded-up pieces of paper I had and started to use a pencil to write down the important information.

“You will all come up one by one and place your hand upon this device that looks like a tiny system obelisk. This will allow you to see your status screen. You will see your open class slot, some basic information about yourself, and the twenty professions everyone has that will allow you to interact with the whole world.”

What followed was more flowery talk, but what I was getting at was that those professions would somehow allow us to do things like we could back on Earth, but here. Honestly, it was still a bit confusing, but I guess this wasn’t a lecture on how mana actually interacted with everything, but just an orientations.

“Before you all come up here, it’s time to talk about how everything functions here.”

What followed was nearly 30 minutes of explanations with flowery talk mixed in-between the important information. She really liked talking about how good all their facilities and lecturers were. Then she started to call us up one by one. I looked down at my notes:

1. Mana is dangerous, but also super important for getting stronger.

2. There are 20 professions, all of them necessary to progress in.

3. They only teach the basics here, for more specialized studying there are academies.

4. Combat training is extremely important. The world outside is super dangerous.

5. I get a stipend of 800 dollars a month. Need to figure out the true value of money. Wonder why it’s called dollars??

6. The supply building is where you can take clothing to get washed and to get resupplies of other necessities.

7.We have to be respectful to everyone inside the town. Basically, everyone here is employed by the beginner town itself.

8.Any additional information about how things work and the picking out of towns can be asked at the main hall building. (Also where you can register for lectures.)

That was a decent amount of information. Then I heard my name being called.

“Ray Wilson, you’re next,” the Adventurer Guild representative said. I was pretty sure that he and the extra security were here just in case they found something weird with this reading. Hopefully, nothing bad would actually happen if something was found.

I stepped up and placed my hand on the small black crystal.

“Would you like to display your status?”

A screen appeared in front of me. So no one could force you to show your status screen, that was good to know for the future.

I simply had to acknowledge the idea, and now a new system screen appeared that anyone could see. But I angled my body so that only the people on stage would be able to see.

Ray Wilson — Human, male, age 27, origins: Earth 85C

Class: Open

Trait: None

Professions:

Farmer — level 0

Gatherer — level 0

Harvester — level 0

Miner — level 0

Fisher — level 0

Trapper — level 0

Cook — level 0

Brewer — level 0

Butcher — level 0

Mason — level 0

Carpenter — level 0

Smith — level 0

Tailor — level 0

Weaver — level 0

Potter — level 0

Scribe — level 0

Engineer — level 0

Mapper — level 0

Performer — level 0

Keeper — level 0

That was truly a long list. Twenty professions, and I needed to level up all of them. Strange? Also, “gatherer” and “harvester” sounded super similar. Weird to include both. And also, what’s a “keeper”?

I also noticed why they were making us do this. I would bet my life it was because of that “trait” line. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be as bad as tales where they just kill you right away if that trait is super powerful or bad.

It’s good that I don’t have to find out, and I really don’t have the willpower or strength to start fighting organizations of such size for my fellow humans who have escaped from our home world.

I was given a nod to head back. Everyone up here felt dangerous. I wonder how strong they are.

“Now that you have all seen your status screens, we will soon get all those zeros in your professions up to ten, which will qualify you to graduate from this beginner town. Not to worry, getting the first ten levels is quite fast. If you push yourself, you can easily be done in two weeks. On average, the graduation time is almost two months, so please don’t feel that you’re in a hurry.”

“When can we go back to Earth?” one of the six who was also from my world asked.

For the first time, our lecturer hesitated. The Adventurer Guild representative took a step forward and started to speak.

“I am sorry to inform you that your Earth has been classified as an S-ranked world. That means that if you wish to go there and survive, you would need to reach S rank, which is a lifetime of hard work that only a few ever reach.”

“That’s bullshit, you just want to steal our world!” someone else said, who seemed to be the leader of the group of six.

The Adventurer Guild representative let out a tired sigh.

“Just take a few more lectures and test it out yourself in the workshops. You will soon figure it out, but I truly encourage you to do all you can to get as strong as you can, and then go back to your Earth and see yourself.”

It seemed that he still wanted to argue further. Perhaps they knew each other, because there seemed to be some tension between the two that wouldn’t be explained by the current exchange.

“This orientation has come to an end. We recommend you head towards the library to get a few levels in your Scribe or Keeper profession. Remember, you can easily feel when you level up, but when you reach milestones you will need the System Obelisk to make a choice. Before that, we highly recommend you go through the Skills lectures. Thank you all.”

Some of the others stood up immediately and started to leave, and I did the same. Most of them were also giving unpleasant looks towards the group of six from my world. It was a good thing that I didn’t sit with them; they were too antagonistic for my liking.

The library was one of the biggest buildings here. It was truly massive. Should I go in there and get a few levels? Honestly, I still didn’t truly understand what that meant, and I was more curious about how things worked.

As I continued to walk, for a brief moment I looked upwards and saw something incredible. There were two moons going in opposite directions over the sky, moving quite fast.

“Damn, that’s beautiful,” I whispered. I don’t remember a time when I’ve seen a moon during the day let alone two.

Those must be the other moons circling this gas giant we’re around, as I hadn’t noticed a moon before this.

The main hall should have the information I wanted. It was packed with people, but that made sense. There were supposed to be around a thousand people here going through this beginner town. It didn’t feel like it most of the time, but here it was truly crowded.

This huge room was filled with tables where people were sitting around talking, but more importantly, there were multiple receptionists constantly giving information, and walls filled with sign-up sheets.

It was strange how they did things, but there were stacks of papers underneath a lecture’s name. Some of the stacks were quite thick, while others were quite thin.

It seemed that every time they reached the required number of sign-ups, that paper was ripped away, revealing a fresh one underneath. Like this, it was easy to see which lectures were popular and which were not.

I did not need to focus on that right now. The information I was after was in the lectures that ran constantly. There was a huge blackboard filled with times showing when a certain those types of lectures started.

Fortunately, there was a large clock at the centre of the room hanging from the ceiling, where you could see the time from any angle, as each side of the cube had its own clock face.

Some might have trouble with that clock because it wasn’t digital. I wonder if they also gave such basic lectures, because compared to the technology here, Earth was quite advanced.

I found the relevant lectures quite easily, as they were quite prominent. One was named Skills 101, the other The Basics of Mana Theory. In the end, I chose to go with the second one, as that felt more fundamental and would probably help with understanding the skill lecture better.

I had already memorized the map, so I knew which lecture hall I needed to go to. The lecture itself would start in 30 minutes, so I took my time looking over some of the lectures to know what was available. When there were only 10 minutes left, I headed out so I would reach the correct building with only a few minutes to spare.

It was strange how normal it was starting to feel to be here. All of this reminded me of college way too much, and if you combined it with a ren fair, it downright felt ordinary. I had a feeling, though, that these lectures were going to change my mind.

Only three other people were sitting and waiting for the lecturer. Soon, a skinny man with his robe billowing behind him entered, quickly walking up to the stage.

“Welcome, everyone. My name is too long for you to remember, so just call me Roise. Only three of you? I swear, less and less people are interested in how things actually work.”

Once again, I took out my notes, flipped the page around so I could start a new list.

“I believe all of you have heard mana referred to as corruptive. That’s not entirely correct. It’s only corrupt if you absorb too much of it too fast. Otherwise, absolutely everything—and I mean everything—from rocks to your very bodies will absorb and process mana.

Does anyone know what that process is called?”

“I believe it’s called membrane assembling?” one of the other students answered.

“Good, someone who at least knows the basics and is here to brush up on her knowledge. Both of you should take note of how you should study,” the lecturer said, looking at me and the other one there. That other one actually wasn’t human but had scaly skin and was quite short in stature.

“What is a membrane? It’s what we call the influence of mana and how it changes something. At its very core, this membrane enhances the characteristics already present. Let’s take a rock. Without a membrane, it’s still a rock. With it, it’s still a rock, but more.”

The professor pulled out three rocks from one of his pockets. “Each one of you, test these three rocks and then pass them along.”

I was the first. Each rock looked exactly the same except for the weight, they all weighed differently, distinctly so. It was like back on Earth, holding a small gold bar versus a similar-sized iron bar. But these rocks otherwise looked identical. After everyone had their turn, the professor collected them and then picked the lightest.

“This rock is completely normal, no membrane, no additional mana inside here. Believe me, it’s hard to keep it like this. This kind of rock you would find in an uninitiated world, or rank 0, as it’s more popularly called.”

“The next one’s membrane is as strong as it would be in an F-ranked world. All of you are also F-rank, because you have a class slot, you can’t have one if you’re not at this rank. This next rock, its membrane is equal to a rock you would find in an E-ranked world. Other than the membrane, all of these are identical. Yes, even their mass.”

As soon as he finished saying that, everything clicked. That’s why we couldn’t go back to my earth, not just because of the dangerous monsters, but because we would not be able to survive the environment.

“Do you all understand what this means?” We all nodded our heads.

“Good, I’ll say it anyway just in case. It means if you were to go to an S-rank world right now, you would simply be crushed and ripped apart by the gravity and air. And if you were an S-rank and came to this world, it would be incredibly hard for you to keep your very steps from destroying everything around you.”

“Lecturer Roise, then why could I survive in a C-rank world where I was born?” the small scaly person asked.

“A good question, even if basic. It’s because your parents are connected to you and give you their protection up to a point. Also, the system helps a bit. But if you had stayed there after reaching maturity, you would have quickly died.”

“This process of a world ranking up takes a while. Anything that’s not living is incredibly hard to truly corrupt, so it takes the world quite a long time to properly develop a membrane.”

That explained why we could still survive on Earth while being rescued. The living things were probably soaking up as much mana as was coming in. Didn’t the people from the refugee camp personnel say something about five to ten years being perfect for farming Earth?

Roise continued his lecture, and soon I was able to confirm that yes, that was the case. It would take about five to ten years for Earth to become truly S-ranked.

“Now we reach the next important thing about membranes. As you all understand, it’s quite time-consuming to assemble your own membrane. That’s where membrane transference comes in.”

All of us refocused. He did have a tendency to rattle on and on about the same point, but fortunately, it seemed that he was now moving to the next topic.

“If something already has a membrane and you disturb it, you could take a portion of the already assembled membrane. The key is a change of state. From alive to dead, from a living tree standing upright to a cut-down, cleaned-up log, from a clump of raw ore to a shining sword. That is the most effective way of strengthening your own membrane.”

“The more complex the being, the more complex the membrane. Take us for example, our membranes have many aspects. The system helps organize that and the incoming assembled membranes we collect. This is how you level up, you will learn more about that in the skills lectures.”

He continued to explain with different examples of how this worked and to his utter disgust, this complex and absolutely fascinating phenomenon was, by everyone, simply called gaining experience. He literally shuddered when he had to say that word.

When I finally walked out of there, my mind was exhausted. That was a lot to take in. My notes were quite full. It seemed best to go back to my apartment, go over everything again, and just relax after that.

It did feel good to finally start understanding how things functioned. All of this seemed quite game-like, which was actually exciting.