Chapter 8 – Status and Records

Everyone turned to look at the boy named Aaron Smith that began to walk to the stage. It was the white boy from the orientation that Yuki attended, the dual affinity.

The boy, Aaron, walked up to the stage confidently and stopped in front of Robert. Robert told him to reach out a hand and placed a translucent tablet the size of a business card. Aaron then took the card and pricked his right thumb, the flattened crystal absorbing the blood.

Yuki watched with great interest while Akira was explaining and clarifying certain points of the process.

[They cut the status crystal into a thin plate and polished it, making it into a card shape. According to my ancestors, blood is used because the blood contains mana which the crystal absorbs to record the information and create a link.]

She paused a little, thinking.

[I think you can just push mana into it but these humans shouldn’t be able to circulate mana yet. Hence the blood.]

Yuki nodded and continued to watch the stage. He was very curious as to what the status of other people would look like and how different it would be from his own. He also needed to see the information of others in order to know what the average person looked like so that Akira could create the perfect fake status.

While Yuki was thinking, the card in Aaron’s hand began to emit a glow and everyone waited with anticipation for what would come. When the shining had stopped, Aaron looked at the crystal with an amazed expression.

Robert instructed Aaron to hold out his hand again, and Robert then tapped the card lightly and the status crystal began to glow again before projecting the status of the boy in the air, shining for everyone to see.

{Aaron Smith (Male) Lv.1}

{Title: None}

{Job: None}

{Stats: STR - 20  DEF - 10  SPD - 15   STA - 15 }

INT - 12   MP - 05    HP - 20

{Skills: Accelerate - Lv. 2   Willpower - Lv. 3 }

Strengthen - Lv. 3   Focus - Lv. 2

Sprint - Lv. 4

{Techniques: Magic - Elemental Magic (Wind Lv. 1)  (Lightning Lv. 1) }

Physical - Close Combat Lv. 3

There were whistles and shouts when the status of Aaron was revealed. Many shook their heads with amazement, others with disbelief.

“Damn, a newbie has stats like those already?” said one boy near Yuki.

“He’s a dual attribute as well,” added another boy. “And he has more skills than I did when I came here.”

“Wind attribute too! There’s only like one other one here,” someone else pointed out.

“Not that bad looking either,” a guy said. The other boys laughed while some of the girls nodded their heads, agreeing.

‘What is this?’ Yuki thought to himself. ‘Why does it look so different from mine?’

The status that was being displayed for everyone in the main hall to see was completely different, even the brackets that they were in. There were personal levels and numbered stats and the number of skills far outnumbered Yuki’s. The levels as well were higher even though Akira had said that Yuki’s were amazing. 

Or maybe this Aaron Smith was exceptional?

‘Hey Akira,’ Yuki said, touching the mental bond between them. ‘Can you explain what happened?’

[Uhhh, I'm just as confused as you are,] Akira said. [Let me check with my ancestors really quick. Mmhmm. Eh?  Oops, I think I overlooked this. According to this, you're using a different system.]

‘A different system?’ Yuki asked.

[Yup. There are two systems, the Universal Records and the Human Records. The latter is a status system only used by humans.]

‘What are the differences? Do they even have differences?’

[Differences? Oh boy, are there differences,] Akira laughed. [I’ll just start it off by saying that they calculate how strong a person is very differently. A strong human in terms of the Human Records is a baby compared to a strong being using the Universal Records. So if we were to look at your stats using the HR you would be way stronger than that boy.]

[The way skills, levels, and such are done also differ strongly. It’s way easier to gain skills and level them in the human system. The amount of experience needed to qualify something as a skill is considerable less along with the amount needed to level them up. The Human Records also don't have tiers for their techniques. What the systems consider skills are different as well. The HR recognizes many more things as skills than the UR.]

‘So I’m really weak according to the UR but would be considered strong in the HR?’

[Mhm, but everyone starts off weak in the UR. Normally humans won’t even have any skills or techniques in the Universal Records. That’s why even though you’re weak, you have a great start compared to others.]

‘How are we going to hide my stats then?’

[Don’t worry, just keep looking at other people’s statuses and then we could just average out the statistics. Or go slightly weaker. If your worried about the way it looks the crystal will display whatever information I give it the same way as it displayed that human's stats.]

‘I’m counting on you. Tell your ancestors thank you for me.’

[I can’t do that, they’re dead.]

While Yuki and Akira were having their secret mental meeting, two more people went up to receive their status plates. The black boy whose name was Leo Campbell had stats that averaged less than ten and the white girl named Tracy Fletcher was similar.

After them, Sayuri was called up and she had her information recorded. Her data surprised the people in the main hall much like how Aaron’s did. They were similar to the first boy’s in that they averaged over ten and she was a water user, a rarity. There were only three water users out of all of the trainees including Sayuri.

At last Yuki’s name was called out and he walked up while ignoring the whispers around him. Like the others, he received a small plate and before he pricked his finger he offered a little prayer to the voice in his head.

‘I hope you know what you’re doing,’ he thought.

[Shhh, I’m concentrating. Don’t worry,] Akira assured him.

Yuki inhaled, lightly stuck the pointed corner of the plate into his thumb, and held his breath.

The crystal flashed and projected the stats in the air considerably quicker than the last ones had.

{Yuki Mayumi (Male) Lv. 1}

{Title: None}

{Job: None}

{Stats: STR - 07   DEF - 06 SPD - 08   STA - 05 }

INT - 09   MP - 06 HP - 15

{Skills: Willpower Lv. 1  Sprint Lv. 2 }

Mental Fortitude Lv. 1

{Techniques: Magic - Elemental Magic (Fire Lv. 1) }

Physical - Close Combat Lv. 1

He released his breathe slowly when he saw the perfectly normal numbers and text show. But he didn’t relax. He knew what was coming once people see the word next to his name, “Male”. Though it did look weird but that was probably due to Akira’s tampering.

“He’s a guy?!” the voice of someone whispered loudly.

And this is where it always starts.

For fun, this is what Yuki's actual status would look like if he was using the Human Records.

{Mayumi Yuki (Male) Lv. 1}

{Title: None}

{Job: None}

{Stats: STR - 21  DEF - 19  SPD - 23   STA - 21 }

INT - 20   MP - 26   HP - 23

{Skills: Willpower - Lv. 6  Mental Fortitude - Lv. 10  Sprint - Lv. 5 }

Analysis - Lv. 7      Unshakable - Lv. 6          Cooking - Lv. 5

{Techniques: Magic - Elemental Magic (Earth Lv. 1) (Fire Lv. 1) }

Mana Manipulation Lv. 4

Physical - Close Combat Lv. 6

Swordsman Lv. 10

Dagger Arts Lv. 12

FriendlyDragon