Here is chapter 4. I open to ideas and opinions , so let a review if possible, maybe I miss something.
Also If you want me to let descriptions type glossary, of the skills shown tell me, and I start adding, because it may turn confusing if I don't so let me know, descriptions or not.
I don't own Arifureta.
The next morning Hajime woke up under an unfamiliar ceiling in an unknown bed. Before a panic attack, the memories of the previous day came to him. He was in another world, he had to fight in a war, his fate was in the hands of a god. Depression started to invade his mind again when suddenly some knocked on the door.
Warily Hajime opened the door.
"Good morning Nagumo-kun!"
Hajime, still don't fully awake mind got dumbstruck by the unexpected sight of Shirasaki Kaori in his door, greeting him, but he quickly composed himself.
"Mo, morning Shirasaki-san, what are you doing here?" He awkwardly asked.
"The breakfast is being served and some of our classmates were still in their rooms so those awake decided to go for them and I offered to come for you" Her reply somewhat cheerful.
Hajime already could tell this day was going to be awful, it wasn't Kaori coming for him what bothered him but the jealous and envious guys that can't stand his good relationship with Kaori.
"Fine, just give me a minute."
Back to reality Hajime closed the door and put in the clothes that were in the room closet. It wasn't perfect, but he would have to use them until their hosts take their measurements and give them new clothes.
Leaving his room Kaori guided him to the dining hall where most students were already filling their stomachs. Aiko was there too, trying to act like a responsible adult by giving a lecture about table manners.
The food here wasn't so different from western cuisine, but still gave that feeling of 'foreign' some enjoy while others only were hungry and anxious.
Hajime sat at the end of the table as ever. A maid came and served him something that looked liked fried chicken with salad, bread and apple juice, the last one a choice of him.
Fortunately, nobody seemed to pay attention to him (except for Kaori), so he relaxed and ate his breakfast.
After breakfast, the class was guided toward a big open hall of the castle where their training was to start.
In the hall were the knight captain Meld and some of his soldiers.
Once the entire group was there, the soldiers gave all of them a really thin and rectangular piece of metal the size of a hand and a needle. The students were curious but supposed Meld was going to explain so stayed quiet.
"Before train, we must first know our strengths and weaknesses, to make the best of our talents and choose what areas to focus. In your hands right now, you each have a Status Plate, is an artifact that shows a person information, parameters and quantify them, also is used as a mean of identification so don't lose it. First, you must use the needles to prick your finger and drip some blood onto the plate, that will attune the artifact to you and nobody else will be able to use it." Meld casual tone and speech eased the students and they did as told.
"Now apply a little of magic power (mana) in them to them... Right, you don't know how, in that case just think in the energy inside you and in the plate." Meld hastily tried to fix his mistake by explaining to the best of his ability about mana.
Hajime focused, it was only him and the artifact, nothing else. After what felt like hours but were only five seconds Hajime felt something leaving his body and getting into the object in his hands. Suddenly the plate started to shine, the blood, slowly began to change from red to sky blue and dye the whole plate in its color.
"The color of the plate is the color of your magic and some says the soul too. Now you are registered as Heilig citizens, and have access to different facilities and places in the castle and the city with the obvious exceptions, just show your plate to the guards or whoever is in charge that moment and they will help you."
Hajime paid half his attention to Meld and the other half to his now blue status plate.
'So my mana is sky blue? Well, I suppose is a little pretty.'
Glad that his mana wasn't pitch black or anything along those lines, Hajime looked around and saw that everyone else was also busy staring at their own colors. Kouki's was predictably pure white. Ryutaro's was dark green, Shizuku's the deep blue of lapis lazuli and Kaori's a very light purple.
"I realize you're all impressed, but don't forget to check your stats, okay?" Captain Meld smiled wryly as he reminded the students to confirm their stats. His voice brought them all back to their sense and they gave Meld a brief look before hurriedly checking their stats.
Hajime returned his own gaze back down to his status plate.
Hajime Nagumo
Race: Human
Age: 17
Class: Synergist
Level: 2
'Neat, it is just like a game, wait that didn't sound good, are our lives now a game?'
Hajime stopped his train of thought and kept reading.
Stats
HP: 56
MP: 30
Speed: 9
Physical Strength: 6
Physical Resistance: 8
Magical Strength: 5
Magical Resistance: 5
'More game-like elements, this is getting more interesting'
Skills
Body Skills
Class Skills
-Mineral Shaping
Soul Skills
-Language Comprehension
When Hajime was finishing reading the information displayed, captain Meld began to talk again.
"Everyone got a good look to their stats? Alright, let me explain them from the top. First, aside from race and age, we have class. Put simply, that refers to your natural aptitude. The more you use your class abilities, it grows, granting you more skills and other bonuses. Classes are split into combat, support and production. Soldiers, magicians, and adventurers have most of them combat classes, healers, priests, and buffers are of the support class, while civilians, like farmers, blacksmiths and cooks have production classes. Some classes are rarer than others and there exist a lot of classes, some yet unknown. If you want to learn more you can always ask some scholars, they would be more than happy of discussing history with you"
The last bit sounded like Meld had a bad experience with them.
Hajime checked again the plate. His class was Synergist, and he had Mineral Shaping. That didn't sound like a combat ability so Hajime deduced he wasn't a front liner.
Meld lecture was still going.
"Then we have the level, it is an indicator of growth potential. In other words, one's current level shows how much of their full potential they've realized. Reaching 100 generally means unlocking all of your latent potential, your stats won't increase anymore but you can keep learning skills, a cap normal humans cannot exceed. Very few people manage to make it to level 100, though."
So it wasn't exactly like a game, since raising your stats increased your level and not the other way around.
"Lastly in the first section we have title and condition, title is the role assigned to us by god or the world, we are not sure of how it works, or why, just a minority get titles. My title is 'Heilig Kingdom strongest knight' and that means what it says. Titles are gained through life experiences and reputation, so work hard and maybe you'll get a title."
Meld was presuming a little, it was understandable, after all he was the strongest knight of the kingdom.
"Condition allows you and others to know if there's something wrong with you, like being poisoned, possessed, sick, etc. It is really important, so always check your condition."
"Next… well, your stats are simply what they say they are. HP or health points is your life turned numbers, non fatal damage reduce it, and when it reach 0 you die. Fatal attacks like let say being beheaded turn your HP into 0 automatically, so avoid that kind of attacks, we can't bring back the dead." There were necromancers, but it wasn't the same, Meld wasn't fond of them, most of them were crazy, later on they turn themselves in undead and more often than not cause problems from their tombs.
The students gulped, just now they remembered the risk of fighting in a war. If they lose they die, end. Fear tried to creep in their hearts, but they remained somewhat calm.
"MP is short for magical power, mana into your body, is a energy that exist inside us and in the air itself. You can use to fuel spells, to active magic artifacts or weapons, to strengthen your body, but be careful with it, specially the mages, is your line of life, if totally spent you get mana exhaustion, a condition that reduces the amount of mana you recover over time, you feel tired and can't use spells for a time. Hmm, they are those who manageto surpass this problem but I won't explain it, a magician is more apt for this kind of thing." Meld knew how to use magic, but he wasn't a magician, he just knew the basic, better let an expert explain about magic.
The attention of the students was completely in Meld, after all who didn't dream about being a wizard and use magic, real magic no parlor tricks. Meld short explanation increased the mood of the students, now they were once again excited with the concept of wield magic.
"In short, the other stats are speed, how quick and fast you and your reflexes are. Physical Strength, how strong you are. Physical Resistance, how much sturdy your body is. Magical Strength, the force behind any magic you use. Magical Defense, like a wall that reduces the power behind magical attacks against you."
Again, like children in Christmas, the students were very excited and wanted to start training while reading again the plates in their hands. Hajime wasn't an exception, he too was ready for action, magic, adventures and more.
Hajime, having read a lot of Light Novels knew that was normal for the summoned characters to be more powerful than the average warrior of such world and only a few special antagonists like the final boss and his generals could give them problems so Hajime, was happy because for the first time in his life he was special, his mood suddenly improved.
However, at Captain Meld's next words, Hajime's smile vanished and was replaced by a cold sweat.
"With the exceptions of HP and MP, the average stats for most civilians are around 20. But you're all heroes, so you surely have far higher stats than that! Man, I'm so jealous of you guys!" Captain Meld talk
The average normal guys here had 20 for stats, Hajime looked again, yes, not even half of average. Did this mean he was less than normal?
'No, there has to be a perfect explanation for this, like is how all we start, yes that must be it, we start normal but our growth is terrific and in no time we'll surpass our instructors expectations and save all' Hajime managed to delude himself in order to protect his newly gained confidence from break.
"Your stats will naturally increase as you train, and you can also use magic or magic imbued items to raise your stats. And has been confirmed that mana passively increases stats, but it depends on the person though. Later on, you'll all get to choose equipment that corresponds to your individual stats. The items in our treasury will be yours for the taking! You're the heroes who are going to save our kingdom after all!"
Hajime furtively glanced around at the other students, noticing how everyone's eyes were sparkling as they looked at their stats. Not a single one of them was breaking out in a cold sweat like him. Suddenly he wanted to make a hole and hid in there.
"Oh yes, don't forget to report your stats to me. I'll need to know them to decide how to best train you guys."
Kouki was the first to step up and show his stats to Captain Meld.
Kouki Amanogawa
Race: Human
Age: 17
Class: Light Champion
Level : 3
Title: Hero
Stats
HP: 3000
MP: 2000
Speed: 85
Physical Strength: 100
Physical Resistance: 100
Magical Strength: 70
Magical Resistance: 70
Skills
Body Skills
-Herculean Strength
-Elemental Resistance (Mid)
-Warrior Constitution
-Regeneration (Low)
-Mana Recovery (Mid)
-Ehit's Mark
Class Skills
-Light Affinity I
Soul Skills
-Perception
-Foresight
-Limit Break
-Language Comprehension
The very definition of cheater.
"Whoa, you really are a hero. Whe haven't started yet and you already have stats in the triple digits!" Meld praise was legit, Kouki with no training and level 3 was in raw power like a level 30 knight, no doubt about the powerful Kouki is going to be in the future. Kouki blushed after hearing Meld praising him, he honestly thought it wasn't worth that much.
Captain Meld proceeded to show Kouki's status to all the others.
"Well, you all, pay attention. Following the stats we have the skills, these are divided into two categories, body and soul. The body category takes in most of the pasive skills and are obtained through training or alter your body. The soul category then takes most of the magic related skills and are gained generally by grow as person or making deals with spiritual entities."
While Meld explained about skills, Hajime observed Kouki's status plate with such intensity it looked as if Hajime wanted to melt it with his glare. He hoped Kouki was a special case, you know, being the main character and that, but the truth was that the others, though their stats weren't as good as Kouki, were still at least the triple of average Tortus humans and had skills normally take some years of hard work to obtain.
Also, most of them had combat-class, and the few who didn't, like Kaori, were of support class. He was the only one with less than average stats and only two skills, one of them the default Language Comprehension and the other one was his Class Skill, which was another can of worms because he didn't know if he was support or production class, because sure as hell he wasn't of the combat class.
During Hajime mental rambling, captain Meld appeared before him and asked for his status plate. Resigned, Hajime give it to him and waited the verdict. Meld suddenly had a strained look in his face, he muttered "Did I just misread it?" and began rapping the plate with his knuckles, then shone some light on it. After staring at it for a long time, he finally returned the plate to Hajime with a complicated expression.
"Umm, well, you see… A Synergist is basically a blacksmith of sorts. They can shape and mold minerals, so they are blacksmiths and architects but not fighters." Meld gave a poor explanation about Hajime's class. Then seeing tge dejected look in Hajime face he tried to make him feel better.
"But err, well you see, hmm, combat isn't all, those of production class are the basis of any society, this kingdom included. You can't fight, but can support others and..." Captain Meld was fishing for words to say.
True, what he said was certain, but in the middle of a war, what was needed were fighters, warriors, heroes. Those of production class were important too, in a background kind of way. The warriors need, weapons, call the synergists, the warriors need food, call the farmers, the warriors need potions, call alchemists. Yes, they were important but most didn't see it.
Hajime was certain the boys in his class who all hated him would jump at this new chance to belittle him. A blacksmith or architect was clearly not a combat-based class and he highly doubted his particular skill would be of much use in battle.
Daisuke Hiyama grinned wickedly as he hollered out to Hajime,
"Hey Nagumo. Don't tell me you seriously got a production class? How's a blacksmith gonna fight monsters? Hey Meld, is this Synergist class rare?"
"Not particularly, is one of the most known production classes together with farmer, fisherman, or alchemist."
"Gimme a break, Nagumo. You're gonna fight with something like that?" Hiyama folded his arms provocatively as he said those words. As Hajime looked around, he could see that most of his classmates, the boys especially, were all laughing at him.
"Who knows. You never know until you try." Hajime tried to keep a strong front.
"Show us your stats then, if you're so confident. They better be way high to make up for your shitty job."
Hiyama had most likely already guessed Hajime's stats from Captain Meld's expression, but he simply wanted an excuse to bully Hajime some more. He possessed quite a nasty personality. His three flunkies all jeered at Hajime as well. They were the kind of stereotypical thugs that bullied the weak and groveled before the mighty.
Their actions were so clearly malicious that Kaori and Shizuku both glared at them, eyes full of disdain. Despite how smitten they were with her, none of them seemed to realize she disliked such bullying.
Hajime lazily handed his plate over to Hiyama. When he saw the stats engraved on it, Hiyama burst out laughing. He passed the plate down to his other underlings and they all sneered or laughed at Hajime as well.
"Bwahahaha… What the hell, man! You're like totally average! Actually, 20 is average, so I bet there are even kids out there stronger than you!"
"Hyahahaha, you've gotta be kidding me! This guy's not even gonna last ten minutes!"
"He'd die so fast that you couldn't even use him as a meat shield!"
The rest of the class was snickering, with Hiyama's gang laughing openly at Hajime and making fun of him for his lack of fighting potential.
Unable to stand it any longer, Kaori opened her mouth to give them a piece of her mind. But before she could get out a single word, someone else began yelling at them. That someone was Aiko-sensei.
"Hey! Stop laughing at him! I won't allow anyone to laugh at their classmates on my watch! As a teacher, I absolutely will not condone it! Now return Nagumo-kun's plate this instant!"
The boys were all taken aback by how much anger was visible in Aiko-sensei's small frame. They hurriedly returned Hajime's plate in order to avoid her wrath. Aiko-sensei turned to Hajime and gave him an encouraging pat on the shoulder.
"Nagumo-kun, don't worry about your job! Look, I got a production class too! And aside from my class, most of my stats are pretty average too! You're not alone!"
Aiko-sensei then showed her green colored plate to Hajime with a "Here, look!"
Aiko Hatayama
Race: Human
Age: 25
Class: Farmer
Level: 5
Stats
HP: 50
MP: 1500
Speed: 6
Physical Strength: 4
Physical Resistance: 5
Magical Strength: 85
Magical Resistance: 50
Skills
Body Skills
Class Skills
-Soil Management
-Plant Appraisal
-Accelerated Growth
-Enhanced Growth
-Selective Breeding
Soul Skills
-Nature's Hand
-Weather Control
-Mage Wisdom
-Language Comprehension
Hajime's eyes resembled a dead fish's once he finished reading Aiko's plate.
"Huh? What's wrong, Nagumo-kun!?" Aiko asked as she shook Hajime back and forth.
It was true that her overall stats were low, and that she did not possess a combat class, but her exceptional magic stat and large number of skills meant that she would reach the level of other heroes with just a little training. And lest everyone forget, an army marches on its stomach. Aiko-sensei's job was nothing like Hajime's. His was so common that there were myriad others who were more proficient in it. In other words, even Aiko-sensei was plenty overpowered.
Hajime felt doubly betrayed for getting his hopes up even a little.
"Oh my, Ai-chan, that was the final nail in the coffin…"
"N-Nagumo-kun! Are you alright!?"
Shizuku smiled sadly as she watched Hajime shut down, while Kaori worriedly ran over to him. Aiko-sensei tilted her head in confusion. As always, she tried her best, but ended up being completely unhelpful. The students smiled at her unchanging ditziness. Aiko-sensei had managed to achieve her initial goal of preventing Hajime's bullying, but he still smiled emptily as he thought of the difficulties that lay ahead, and the treatment he would definitely receive.