Chapitre 5: Mystic Guild

Silence…

Staring at the transparent screen that suddenly appeared, Eric furrowed his brows confusedly, then his eyes widened in surprise and shock.

At the same time, glancing towards the first rows of words that appeared, his surprise vanished…

[Devouring Talent] According to the screen, his talent had just been devoured by it.

'Thought I had none' he paused with a thoughtful look, before then glossing over the screen as it eyes settled on another provoking word…

[Affinity: Thunder Fire]

"Fork!" cursing as he tried to grab the screen, his hand phased through it…

"Talent: none"

"Elemental affinity: none". These were the words that shattered his dream the previous day. But now, according to the screen before him, his talent was devoured a moment ago. And he had an affinity to two aggressive elements, Thunder and Fire.

"This is insane," Eric muttered, staring at the screen with lit eyes while redirecting his thoughts to another important crux of his current predicament.

" Did I just unlock a system from webtoon comics?" Despite the fact he wasn't a fan of comics, or had time to read one. It was a popular trend in Skywalk Highschool, so he had happen to bump into a few pages along the way. And the case of Awakening golden fingers was plenty of such…

Then there was the word… [ Strongest Dragon Bloodline], alphabetically written in capitals on the screen.

Bringing his thoughts to the fact that he hadn't just awakened a talent, but bloodline. An unknown term that happened to belong to a Monster, a Dragon, the strongest of its kind.

"Surely, I'll have to keep this a secret"

"But what brought all this?" Just as Eric was about to ponder about what he had been in contact with that could be the reason for his said Bloodline Awakening. Starting from the grayish crystal embedded within the Array as the prime suspect.

His thoughts came to a sudden halt, and his eyes turned incredulous upon noticing a certain thing in his reflection.

Embedded between his chest, there was a seemingly obsidian crystal that shone with black luster, with hardened skin around its exterior.

Moving his hand to feel his chest…

"Am I becoming a monster?" Eric couldn't help but have this thought upon feeling how hardened his skin was.

"This?" But then, there was a sense of contradiction to this thought,and his eyes glinted with determination.

He would find a way to deal with his mutation in the future, but now…

" First, I have to figure out the other purpose that this thing can offer."

"Is it proper to call you a System?" questioning, Eric got no reply.

"System, show me quests!" adding command to his way of speech, Eric waited again but got no reply.

"Are you even a system?"

There was no voice or change on the stats screen.

'If it's not a system, then on all these exists just to monitor my growth and reveal my stats."... glancing at the stats screen, Eric then added with a thoughtful look in his eyes.

"It exists just to monitor my growth and reveal my stats." and to prove this thought, Eric willed in his mind that the screen should disappear, and it did. Willing again, without voicing out a command, he made the transparent screen reappear.

Strength : 60

Agility : 40

Vitality : 50

There was also the stats on the screen, clenching his fist with force, for the first time, he felt his own tremendous might.

"With this I can try lift a boulder," Eric thought, scanning through his room for anything he could crush, Only to find out they were too valuable to.

"The Mystic Guild is then," he commented sharply before picking up a set of clothes to set out.

15 minutes later…

Upon getting to the bus stop, Eric furrowed his brows before mentally face palming.

"I got so excited that I forgot I'm broke"

Bursting into a Sprint, he left the waiting Bus and jogged towards East part of the city, which was the most popular considering that Skywalk City, Mystic Guild Branch was administered there.

He had read so much about the place, that he now knew how their trade system worked. Adhering to its name as a free organization that accepted all solo Mystics. Though he was doubtful that they would allow him to take the test due to his young age, it was his only chance anyway.

Also, there was the word about the teacher telling everyone to train for the coming exam. According to videos in the recent years, the exam was going to be a brutal one. Surely they weren't expecting them to train with dummies before then.

Whilst, what Eric had failed to remember as he had these thoughts was that strength reigned supreme, age was only a second factor to judge that.

The more he jogged he realized how much of a stamina his Vitality stats gave him. While also profoundly amazed by the transformation granted by his mysterious awakened bloodline despite how quick it was to get in term with it.

Excluding his strength, Eric summed up that he had the speed to rival most Bronze Mystics on the mid level.

It was then he realized that his rank was never referred to by the stats screen.

"Does it mean I'm yet to Awaken?"

"Wow," halting, Eric took a deep breath of amazement. Regardless of the fact he had seen it several times.

The Grand ambitious skyscraper with 5 floors, each built like a hall, never ceased to amaze him. Not only was it architectural style cool, the bustling scene of burly looking men with large weapon, and some with sword strapped to their waist, paring it up with an incomplete armor set… made his drive to hunt Monsters aroused to high extent.

Upon entering, Eric felt like a sheep waiting to be slaughtered by the bloody veteran aura excluded by the crowd of men, only to strangely vanish after that, and Eric relaxing his shoulders. Choosing not to gloss over it as he was yet occupied with another thought, he eyes searched and soon found the reception, allocated in the most quiet part of the bustling floor.

Not wasting time Eric walked forward to the receptionist who was wearing alluring corporate wear that brought out her shape, especially her bosom that would make any man dream to nestle between them.

*Cough*

Eric was brought back to reality from his imagination by the low cough of the lady receptionist, apparently having just seen the most attractive pairs ever.

Recovering, he revealed a light smile to cover his embarrassment.

Though what brought Eric's attention to her peaks in the first place, was the welge shaped crest on her chest which had a sword stabbed straight in the center of a skull that shouldn't be human. Looking closer, the word Mystic was stylishly written at the lowest part of the skull which looked quite cool.

"What may I help you with mister?" the alluring receptionist asked, as if unconcerned about his young age.

"I want to register as a Mystic" Eric answered, stating his need with a bit of composure.

The receptionist hen pointed to the right…

"The registration office is over there "

" Anita bring this mister over to the registration office".

After the alluring receptionist spoke, a white coloured robot about 1 meter tall walked over as it then spoke in a robotic tone.

"Mister, please come with me. I will bring you to the registration auditorium for new Awakened" it then turned and walked away with Eric quickly quickly realizing that he should follow it.

Meanwhile, when the gathered Mystics crowding the floor saw the robot, they all made way for it. Stunning Eric a bit as he raised his brows slightly in defense.

Not long later , they arrived at an officer on the right part of the plaza. The office was spacious, roughly about 50 square meters. There were chairs aligned in the center of the office and a row of windows on the opposite side facing the entrance, there some staff could be seen currently doing registration.

Eric swiftly swept his gaze through the room, over 16 people seated in the office were all matured and looked around 19 to 20 years.

Eric guessed they were also here to be registered, and also felt slightly disappointed that he had to wait.

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Chapitre 6: Shopping

Chapter 6

Four hours later, it was finally Eric's turn to take the test. As for why he needed to take the test?

It was to prevent cases of over-confident fools from going to sacrifice themselves to the claws of wild monsters, wasting their lives.

Standing up, Eric walked through the door, fascinated and dumb struck by what he saw.

It was a large gym room, resembling a field , well-equipped with sophisticated and complicated gym machines to use. Nothing here could be lifted by an ordinary human as they were all for awakened Mystics.

Eric, meanwhile, felt his view of life being forcefully expanded by how much humans could spend on gym equipment. A piece of equipment here probably costs a fortune. Putting these facts together, Eric knew they weren't ordinary equipment either .

"Eric Maxwell?"

Eric was brought out of his daze by the loud call of his name, the instructor walked towards him, holding an A4 paper-sized note with a paper clip holding them together.

"Awakened type?" "Age ?" the instructor asked, cutting straight to the point with an uninterested , his gaze cold, staring straight at Eric.

"Strength type"

"18"

Without blinking an eye, Eric also replied in a straightforward manner, composing himself to look more serious than his young appearance could give off.

"Follow me," the instructor ordered, walking towards the left part of the gym where there was a huge tortoise-shaped strength testing machine embedded into the wall.

"Punch out with your full strength at that machine to get your strength measured" the instructor said with a stern voice.

Eric, even as ignorant as he was about the world of Mystics, knew that with the strange modification made by his bloodline to his body, he was far stronger than newly awakened Mystics.

"All out?" he questioned thoughtfully, staring at his hand clenched into a fist, but then decided to hold back.

Standing before the machine , he took a deep breath, and punched outward… And a loud bang was heard after, followed by the sound of cracks forming on the tortoise like testing machine.

After throwing this punch, Eric, included, was surprised, not expecting such an insane amount of damage just from a half-powered punch.

Meanwhile, the instructor's eyes widened as they glinted, the way which he looked at Eric changing to an approved one.

Then, glancing at the number displayed on the machine , his pupils shook.

--"1500kg"

"Good, very good," the instructor commented as he looked at Eric with a kind smile. Anyone who wasn't there to witness his cold, indifferent expression a moment ago would think he was Eric's father, an act deserving of an Oscar.

Eric wasn't surprised though, neither did he feel proud. Having experienced the simple nature of humans, he knew what was going on. People respect the strong, and try to please promising talent while they ignore the weak with no potential. That's if the weak in person wasn't subjugated under suppression.

As for the instructor, he had already guessed Eric had awakened a great talent , and made up his mind to get close to him.

Sadly, Eric wasn't interested in building such a fragile friendship.

Thinking back, he had roughly used seventy percent of his strength in that punch.

The instructor wanted to say something, but he kept quiet upon noticing Eric's lack of interest, he was just here to fill in a form anyway.

Walking out of the gym, the instructor handed Eric's test result to a young lady at the counter. Who then looked shocked as she gave Eric multiple glances while staring at the result. With his strength alone, his talent was probably too astonishing for him to become a early Bronze Mystic this quickly. As a teen, doubting, he was 19.

A few minutes later, Eric was called to another room filled with technological equipment, where he met the same young lady as earlier by the counter as she smiled at him.

"We will now commence on the last step of the registration. First, we need to scan your fingerprints and your pupils. This is to prevent another person from using your identification, why logging into the Visual World". Eric nodded and followed her instructions.

A screen lit up as it processed his identification card.

|Mystic Guild|

|Eric Maxwell|

|Mystic Rank: Awakened|

Following a series of identification codes and a passport. A very simple ID formed and was given to him.

"Oh, also there'll be a sum of ten thousand dollars deposited into your account as your monthly allowance by the Guild", referring to the Mystic Guild itself, which housed every Mystics in the federation, she gave a curtsied smile.

Meanwhile…

"Ten thousand?!" Eric screamed in his heart at the large sum, but managed to keep his composure until he left the building.

"Ah, I'll be cooked" he exhaled as he took in the settling sky… Only to be overwhelmed with a sudden sense of melancholy…

"Mom" " Dad"

"I finally became a Mystic," saying this, tears drifted off his eyes as he walked into the distance, ignoring the weird out-glances of the passersby.

Upon getting home Eric realized that he hadn't eaten all day, having spent all his time waiting to be registered.

"Today I shall treat myself to a feast!" Eric said jestingly, like someone who had a sudden jackpot.

Picking up his phone, he ordered all the kinds of foods he hadn't eaten or had seen in a magazine, but due to not having enough money to feed himself, talkless of living a lavish lifestyle, couldn't afford.

"Fried Chicken

"Hot Wings"

"Beef Dish"

"Roasted Pork Meat"

"Barbeque Ribs"... and many more he hadn't tasted yet , and like the ancient sayings, a dish wasn't complete without wine to express the joy of a man.

All this from the granted ten thousand dollars allowance…

…

Eric woke up, still in a groggy state and not being able to process all the information of what had transpired last night.

The whole apartment was littered with takeaways and rigged of wine .

Still not believing he had consumed such amount of food without combusting,

Standing up, the stat screen suddenly popped up on its own, as if eager to reveal his improvement.

Eric Maxwell

Strength: 60

Agility: 35

Vitality: 50

'Ehn? Can eating increase my strength?' Eric thought as his imagination started running wild.

"Won't I be invisible then?"

"Eating and lazing about can improve my strength?"

"That would be impossible, right?"

Eric asked a series of rhetorical questions before pushing those thoughts aside, knowing that it wasn't possible. The reason for the slight increase in his stats was probably because his body was still in a state of improvement after the bloodline awakening, so it needed nutrients to saturate.

And that was it, a new day had already begun, and he was yet to commence on his plans.

First he was going to buy some armament and gear , before going into the Wild to discover more of his Bloodline abilities and skills, which was currently invalid, while being secretive.

After going through the Mystic Web, Eric got up and went straight to the Mystic Guild , this time, taking a bus.

. . .

Holding his card which now contained about 9,500 federation dollars thanks to his shopping spree last night, Eric, with a slight hint of arrogance, walked straight into the shopping district.

You could say the purchasing power of the federation dollar maybe or may not equal to Earth's USD.

But then Eric discovered that 9,500 federation dollars, which he considered as a huge sum, wasn't quite much. After buying some daily necessities, including compressed biscuits that were used by the military, energy bars, filling breads, and bottled water , cost him about 800. He also purchased strong insect repellent that was necessary for unexpected situations; deodorant, ropes etc.

However, just all these miscellaneous items already cost 1,000 dollars. He only had 8,500 dollars left.

Eric then took the money to the alloy weapons shop in the shopping district.

Ten minutes after that…

Standing outside the alloy weapon shop , Eric looked dazed at the 1-meter-long, big, black blade in his hand. This was an unranked weapon, the obsidian common Blade, which cost 5000 dollars. He also bought a few sets of clothes and military boots which were best and comfortable to wear in the wild.

Now Eric was left standing alone in despair. He was instantly enlightened on why not all Mystics were rich, since an un-ranked blade alone already cost him his entire fortune.

"Indeed, poverty is a bastard", Eric lamented after leaving the shopping district, then headed towards the east side of the city.

As for why?

He was starting the second phase of his plan.

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