Valuable information

It is 4:30 am in the Avian city. There were posters of the president announcing a public speech on 15th of April, 2054 which was 3 days away.

It was early in the morning but the city was already bustling with life. However, a group of about a hundred children stood out like a sore thumb. They were currently heading to Stellar High School, a school where their teacher is at.

"Miss Silver! We finished charging the Monolith!"

A bunch of children suddenly burst into an office, surprising the people inside. There were 3 familiar people inside the room. Alabaster choked on his coffee

"Finished? You finished charging the monolith already? How?"

"Hard work" a young man with black hair and icy blue eyes replied nonchalantly.

"Miss we finished!"

"Ok, so?"

"What the hell? Show some emotion!" a young middle school girl replied. "We have been fueling that thing for 2 months now and we finished! And before the deadline too! We deserve a reward"

"Amanda is right, We deserve a reward!" Jacob demanded.

"Is this it? You woke up everyone withing a kilometer radius with your shouting just to get a reward for doing something that you would have finished anyways?" Said Silver as she stared scoldingly at Aster, who was the oldest among the group of children as if seemingly saying 'Did you incite those kids against me'

Her guess was right, Aster did do that. For the last three days, Aster worked his hardest to fuel the damn thing. It might seem childish to complain after working for only 3 days but that's the word of someone who has never experienced mana exhaustion or their mana decreasing. It would be an understatement to say it was unpleasant but more than that, he pitied those kids.

Unlike him who has been caged in that apartment for the last few days, these kids almost had a 9 to 5 job. They came here before school and after school for 1 to 2 hours each so it wasn't really serious stuff like exploitation but it was bad alright. Aster understood why Silver awakened bunch of children. It's because the older they got, the more desire they have. Once a kid hits puberty, they would want all sorts of things.

Stuff like money, fame, good looks, reproduction etc. Combine that with their raging hormones and unstable emotions, it isn't a good idea to give them powers like a system. Aster was an exception since he was a loser with no ambitions and desires.

It did cross his mind that grown ups were not selected to be awakened but he was sure there had to be a reason. And with that children were the only candidates as they were pure and innocent, they did not have over the top ambition such as world domination, they could be entertained with simple stuff and they were literally the next generation.

"We just want a reward, miss." he replied to Silver's killer gaze.

"Those children put their all into completing the mission you gave them. You can say that they were already promised rewards when they get there but stop for a sec and put yourself in their shoes. You are an innocent kid and you have been offered a reward from a place that you didn't know even existed until now in exchange for your labor. That's borderline exploitation miss. Have some dignity"

He says as he stares back at Silver, completely unaware that the children were orphans adopted by her and even paid generously.

The stare off lasted for a whole minute while Amanda was lamenting the fact that she forgot to tell him their origins.

With a sign, Silver said "What do you want?"

"The thing we want is simple" he smiles a bit and looks at Amanda, Jacob and Sunny. They nod as they had discussed this last night and he continues "We just want information about your world."

***

In one of the empty classroom in Stellar High;

"Our home doesn't have a name like Earth do but you can call it Gaia as it's the name of the guardian spirit" Silver slowly started her explanation

"As you may know, the necklaces you wear are made from pieces of her heart. How the necklace functions is that it basically registers you as an inhabitant of Gaia otherwise you will be deemed as an intruder and will become the target of countless magic beasts and monsters when you get there so it's a necessity. It also enhances your mana control and mana sense to a certain extent to help you. You will be required have that necklace for rest of your lives so don't lose it or take it off."

A brown skinned kid raised his hand "Miss Silver, will everyone have those necklace?"

"Yes, yes they will"

"Is there a classification for monsters to measure their strength?" Aster asked. As an avid novel reader, he felt like this was an important topic.

"Yes, there are. In fact there are actually three. One is for to measure the quantity of energy a monster has, one is for the quality of the energy and the last one is for measuring the combat power."

The measurements are follows:

---Measurement of quantity of energy.

Unranked, basic, Intermediate, Advanced, Rank 1, Rank 2, Rank 3, Rank 4 and Rank 5. Beyond that is the special rank, a rank that is separate from this classifications. The special ranks are Disaster which is capable of dealing big damage to the entire population of Gaia, the landscape and the planet as a whole, requires the cooperation of multiple races to exterminate or higher special rankers.

Calamity, capable of dealing huge damage to the population. Some particularly strong ones can wipe the whole population. Requires the entire world to unite and fight to beat or another calamity or above.

Catastrophe, no fighting chance, the entire world should prioritize preserving bits of their population by any means, and finally Armageddon which is just utter annihilation with no chance or way to escape.

---Measurement of quality

Standard, the energy present in the body does nothing except enhance the physical capabilities of the body. When referring to a standard monster, people do not say it's a standard monster, they just say it's a monster. For example instead of saying 'Basic standard goblin', people just say Basic goblin.

Awakened, Creatures at this stage can use bits of magic and skills, Ascended, creatures at this stage have the capability to hold their own unique skills aside from their racial abilities, Grand, creatures of this stage have broken through the limits of their species and obtained unimaginable power as a result and the special ranks previously mentioned.

Everyone was shaken by the classifications and Aster was no exception. 'Calamity? Catastrophe? What the actual fuck, nobody told me there would be something monstrous like those would exist.'

Silver seemed to have caught the somber mood of the crowd and continued explaining

"As you can see, terrifying creatures exist on Gaia but don't worry. Anything above Disaster does not exist currently and the strongest disaster, Storm Dragon, is at least 100 years away from becoming a Calamity and the current disasters are not hostile.

The intelligence of monsters increase as their ranks increase so they are quite wise and smart. They are all bunch of old men and women who have fought for all of their lives and are tired of it. Some of them prefer eternal sleep and some choose to give up their power and bestow it upon their descendants and they have a lot of descendants so you will not meet a special rank anytime soon.

Instead of worrying about those myths, how about worry about basic monsters? Even one basic is enough to kill all of you" she says, trying to comfort the children.

"Miss Silver, what's the difference between a monster and a magic beast?" Amanda asked

"Magic beasts are born naturally while monsters spawn from dense miasma or mana but they are the same thing really."

"What is the 3rd classification?"

"The 3rd classification is a monster's grade. The grade range from F to S. It measures what level do you have to approximately beat certain ranks of monsters. For example, you can beat standard unranked monsters at level 1 so they are grade F but you have to be around level 10 to 15 to fight basic monsters so they are grade E.

The system only classifies monsters using the first two classifications, the grades are something humans came up with. Also keep in mind that you shouldn't tackle a monster just because you have reached the level to challenge it, increase your skill level and learn how to properly fight."

And so, for the rest of the week, Aster learnt as much about Gaia as he could and there were some really handy information as well.

For example, you become eligible to choose a class once you reach level 10. The class will allow you to reap plenty of rewards as you become proficient in it's skill set. There are some class that even grants a new attribute! Assassin class will unlock the stealth attribute, tempter will unlock charm, berserker will unlock wrath which acts like a bar similar to hp, mp and energy etc.

He learned that the amount of attribute and skill points acquired when leveling up is said to be tied to the potential of the person. An average person will get 3 attribute and skill points per level up while the big shots of Gaia get 6 to 9 per level up.

He also learned about different types of skills. One is the common type where you achieve it through repetition, the other is unique and the 3rd one is racial skills. The skills follow this progression; normal tier, [EX] tier, [Master] tier, [Evo] tier and finally [Ultimate] tier. Unique and racial skills can be either one of those but it's dependent on the skill and the requirements to upgrade those vary.

Aster learned plenty and it was time.

It was the time for the Convergence.