Ability Studies

The class continued for another couple of hours before it ended in time for lunch.

Jacob spent the lunch summarising the more important points of the lecture.

After the first half hour, the professor spent the lesson giving a little more depth to the details he had already explained.

But the core points he had taken home from the lesson were quite simple.

He could go back to the dream realm to get stronger, not only that but the dream realm was the source of his abilities. He was intrinsically linked to it and it was likely that his future abilities would build from his analysis ability.

The second had to do with clans, It appeared he might have drawn the short straw. Since clans were decided by sharing a dream realm and his own dream realm seemed to be unique, it was more than likely he was one of the clanless.

This meant unless he could somehow find other people with the same mana affinity as him, he would be alone on every one of his quests.

The most important point was sadly another negative, the uniqueness of his dream realm and mana affinity. If what the professor said was accurate then not only was he not a part of any of the 5 great clans, but it would also be very difficult for him to find those with the same mana affinity as him.

Simply telling others the characteristics of his realm could have dire consequences, and if he couldn't talk about what made his realm unique, then how was he meant to find others he shared it with?

Soon enough the gentlemanly Professor announced his return to the lecture hall.

Jacob was about to begin his first abilities studies class, a subject that he felt both nervousness and excitement towards.

The excitement was bred from the fact that he could hopefully better understand his ability while the nervousness stemmed from how he viewed his own ability. He wasn't particularly disappointed in it, but compared to being able to teleport like Vincent could or control water like Sully, it was a little... plain.

"Now as I mentioned before, all of you are new dreamers. While many dreamers are born into society and learn its ins and outs as they grow up, none of you have the privilege. For one reason or another, each of you either lack knowledge of the dreamer society or have other circumstances that led you to undertake this course."

"While many of you belong to one of the 5 great clans, some are certain to be from new and unknown realms, with unknown abilities." He continued, his eyes scanning the dozen students in the hall."

"Now the next part of this lesson will be done after you've been divided into groups based on your mana affinity."

"Now sort based on your affinity, if you're not part of 5 clans then group with anyone else from an unknown realm and wait for my next instruction." The professor continued.

Seconds later one student, a girl, stood up and declared herself an Azan clan dreamer and was quickly joined by 2 boys.

Shortly after that, other students began forming groups with their clanmates. Eventually, a total of four groups were made.

The clans were such a massive part of dreamer life that general information about them was readily available. 

The most obvious information was their names.

Azan, Dempster, Jin, Roozlen, Vass.

Each clan held their names in high prestige, their descendants often used it as a surname as a method of showcasing their origins.

Jacob had noticed this in the fact that both the nurse who had treated him and his current professor had their clan names as their own surnames.

An oddity Jaocb had noticed was that each clan tended to have members from certain geographical areas.

The Azan clan had members primarily from island nations, the Caribbean, Hawaii and even Australia largely contributed to their numbers.

The Dempster clan on the other hand was almost exclusively stationed in England, a little of their population came from nearby countries but it was still much more highly concentrated than the others.

The Jin clan was housed in Asia. Jacob could have guessed that due to the name. They appeared to have the largest dreamer population of all the clans.

The Roozlen clan however was the opposite. It was the most recently formed great clan and seemed to be focused on America. 

Finally, the Vass clan seemed to be housed in locations like Sweden, Norway and Scotland.

He had also learnt a little about the abilities of the great clans.

Each dream realm had a variety of abilities to be gained within.

This might lead one to believe that people would simply progress down a path of increased strength, almost like a skill tree. But the truth was that the differences in quest rewards as well as how people chose to use their abilities brought about a wide variety of skill sets.

However, each realm tended to follow certain themes within the abilities given.

Despite this none of the 5 clans were vastly weaker or stronger than the others, just more specialised in certain areas.

The Azan clan that the girl was from tended to have abilities focused on spirits, using them as a medium to cause supernatural phenomena or sometimes summoning them to do battle directly. Jacob didn't know much about them but from what he could tell their strength came from the semi-autonomy of the spirits. A gaming comparison would be to think of them as druids, or from a darker perspective they could become necromancers.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, the Dempster Clan the professor was a part of took an almost scientific approach with their abilities. They were based on a confusing mess of magical theorems and the like. They were also the primary inventors of M.A.Ts (magically augmented technology). Categorising them in a gaming class would have them best fit towards a scholar-type mage.

If Jacob were to guess his clan from his ability alone, he would have assumed himself to be a part of this one. Unfortunately, his trial was so vastly different to what was expected that he ruled it out.

The Jin clan on the other hand focused on direct combat and martial arts along with enhancing their body through stuff like aura or Qi. Their 'class' would be more like the melee fighters ranging from direct warriors to assassins. Shin was actually one of the members of this clan although Jacob had no idea what his ability actually was.

The Roozlen clan specialised in spatial-type abilities like teleportation or creating dimensional pockets. It was a smaller clan but managed to stay competitive with the other clans due to their uncanny knack for producing 'dual affinity dreamers'. One such example was the prick that Jacob had run into earlier that week, Vincent. As the name suggested dual affinity dreamers had the abilities and mana from two realms making them incredibly valuable and generally powerful.

On that train of thought the other mana affinity Vincent possessed was from the Vass clan, the one Sully also happened to hail from. Their clan focused on a more elemental type of magic, the ability to control an element like earth in the case of Vincent or water in Sully's.

The only good news was that dual affinity dreamers had to complete quests for each affinity individually which made them slower to progress in rank than others.

Snapping himself out of his musing he found that everyone had already found their groups prompting Jacob to look at the remaining two other people that remained seated like himself.

Jacob, a small timid-looking boy who wore glasses, and Erwin, the one Jacob had met in general knowledge.

"Interesting, we have three this time…" The professor mumbled.

"Actually sir, I'm in the Roozlen, But I heard that were really rare" The timid boy admitted.

"A Roozlen clan dreamer is nothing to scoff at either in terms of rarity, not to mention utility, be prouder of your clan young man." The professor reprimanded lightly before turning to the rest of the class.

"In case any of you didn't know, the Roozlen clan doesn't have the physical prowess like the marital masters of the Jin clan, nor the pure elemental destructive capability that the Vass clan is known for. It lacks the benefits of the healing abilities or spirit summoning like those of the Azan clan and it falls behind in utility compared to the methodical magic of the Dempster clan, and yet it is still counted among the 5 great clans. Does anyone know why?" the professor inquired of the class, hoping that some of them had paid attention in the class before this one.

'Analysis, answer!' Jacob thought.

[The Roozlen clan's strength lies in its valuable ability of spatial manipulation and its high percentage of dual affinity dreamers]

"The Roozlen clan can stand alongside its competitors for two reasons. First is its unique ability to teleport people and objects and store an effectively unlimited amount of goods. Although the Dempster clan has been able to replicate this to some extent, the ease of use that the Roozlen clan provides has outweighed the benefits of privatised teleportation."

"Second, is the fact that only the Roozlen clan has any level of consistency in producing dual affinity dreamers compared to the other clans." That was what Jacob would have liked to say if a blond-haired girl standing in the Jin clan area hadn't chimed in first.

Jacob wasn't too surprised by this, after the professor showed an appreciation for his attitude in the previous lecture the girl had quickly taken a similar stance and asked questions consistently.

She was a small and curious creature, with unorthodox long golden blond hair. It was like she had tried to compensate for her petite stature by letting it grow as much as possible, like when an animal makes itself look bigger to intimidate predators.

The problem was that the contrast actually had the opposite effect, like seeing a lion wearing a tutu.

She also had an American accent despite being a Jin clan dreamer, who seemed to be predominantly Asian from what Jacob had seen.

Although he hadn't exchanged words with her, he could tell a little from her body language and tone that she was used to getting her way.

Jacob didn't care much about the girl playing teacher's pet because from his perspective the answer was more important compared to who asked the question.

He had to fill up his ability's limitless data storage as best he could after all.

"Very good Victoria. Now that we have everyone sorted into clans let's make our way outside so we can test out some abilities and see what I'll be working with over the next 6 months." The man spoke as he made his way out of the hall.

***

They were now situated in one of the training rooms that Sully had shown Jacob the day before. It was a simple wide-spaced room with a variety of equipment and training weapons to the side.

Each person in the class chatted idly with their groupmates while they waited for Professor Duncan to speak.

"Now everyone, keep the same groups I put you in and tell your clanmates about your ability and the nightmare trial you did to get it. No demonstrations yet, we don't need another kid burning someone's eyebrows off by accident." The lecturer instructed as he began to wander around the newly formed groups.

This got a small chuckle from Jacob as he assumed the professor was joking. A second look at his face told him he wasn't.

Turning back to his 'group' he further examined whom he was partnered with.

The first was the guy he had chatted to in his general knowledge class, Erwin.

A better look revealed exactly what Jacob had guessed from the short interaction he had with him earlier. He was a thin and short guy, maybe a year younger than himself, making him roughly 18. He had thin but messy black hair, modern glasses were placed on the bridge of his nose. He was English Judging by his accent, and he had an uncertain and out-of-place vibe to him like he wasn't sure he was meant to be there. It was all wrapped up in an air of politeness and proper manners that Jacob couldn't quite get used to.

The other boy hadn't introduced himself, he guessed he was American by his accent and his looks were fairly regular with short brown hair and blue eyes, a smaller-than-average nose, and a slim build.

What did strike Jacob about him was his age, he hadn't paid too much attention before but now that he was standing next to him it was obvious.

The boy looked like he was about 13 years old.

This was a firm reminder that there was no real entry date for becoming a dreamer, just a general consensus that it usually didn't happen until puberty.

It also hadn't escaped his notice that while it was passed off causally, the professor, and whomever the professor decided to tell, would gain information about everyone's foundational ability with this exercise.

A fact that could lead to problematic consequences depending on the person.

Before he could think further the boy he wasn't acquainted with spoke up.

"It's nice to meet you both, my name is Fredrick. I hope we can get along despite the age difference between us" The boy spoke politely, surprising Jacob slightly as he expected a less mature introduction, not to mention the youngest of them taking the initiative.

A short round of introductions later and it was time to share their abilities.

"My ability is awesome, I can swap the location of an object I touch with another one as long as I can see it" Fredrick explained excitedly.

Jacob smiled a little, the boy had started off so polite, but it was clearly rehearsed. Now that he had gotten his introduction out of the way he was clearly being more honest about his excitement. 

Hell, Jacob was excited and he was supposed to be the oldest of the three of them.

Seeing the boy revert back to a more childlike countenance put him at ease, the mansion had given him enough feigned politeness to last a lifetime.

"My trial was sooo hard, I had to climb a massive floating and broken-up mountain and reach the very top. The worst part was the perchers that swooped me all the time." Fredrick further explained.

"Perchers?" Jacob asked.

"They're these evil bird things that move in packs, they're super weak but annoying because there's always loads of them," Fredrick answered him.

"You're being modest, I've read about the climbing trial of the Roozlen clan." Erwin complimented the boy before turning to Jacob.

"He's downplaying it, but most people say this is one of the harder trials since so many people are caught by surprise when climbing and fall by accident. The fact that he accomplished it at his age is no small achievement" Erwin said.

"I personally just had to solve some puzzles in a peculiar dungeon before an incredibly slow hourglass ran out, the puzzles were slightly disturbing but after completing them I was granted my ability and woke up." Erwin shared.

"What kind of ability did you get from a trial like that?" Jacob asked, eager to know if they had similar abilities.

It wasn't too farfetched, they both had puzzle-solving trials, creepy atmospheres, and were not a part of any of the 5 clans.

"It's hard to explain, I have the ability to do some odd rituals based on the puzzles I completed in my trial. If done properly they summon creatures to help me. Although I have to be contracted to them first for them to answer, at the moment I only have two."

"The first one is easy to summon, all I have to do is offer up a small tribute. It doesn't really matter what, I found that I can use a penny if I really need to. The creature has minimal use since it's just a floating eyeball. All it can do is let me see through its eye, not really very inconspicuous either considering the size of it."

"The other one is marginally more helpful. It seems to be formless, making it effectively invulnerable. THe problem is that it has no offensive capability, its only skill is summoning fog thick enough to befuddle a cartographer in a locked room. But that summon requires a tribute of meat and metal to summon, I've found that some bacon and around 5 pennies tend to do the trick" Erwin further explained.

"What about you Jacob?" Asked Erwin as he ran out of breath.

"Uhhh, my ability?" Jacob stuttered somewhat as his two groupmates turned to him.

Jacob had a conundrum on his hands, his ability was evidently unique like Erwin's. Possibly even more unique, but what did that mean for him?

He had no doubt that abilities like his and Erwin's would have a decent bit of value in the dreamer world, anything rare had value simply by virtue of its scarcity.

Jacob couldn't be sure, but he was willing to bet that one of the primary aims of this catch-up course was to identify and understand the abilities of new dreamers so that the great clans and The Order could deal with them more easily.

But that wasn't the problem.

The problem was that he didn't know how valuable he was.

Ideally, it was enough to make him desirable, without making people willing to go to extreme lengths to get to him.

But he had nowhere near enough information to determine that accurately.

He had been part of the dreamer world for less than a week and knew nothing about the world outside the university.

For all he knew the moment he left the university he would be kidnapped and forced to sire an heir for one of the clans so that they could gain access to another dream realm.

He seriously doubted that would happen due to the multitude of problems with the theory, but the problem still stood.

He didn't know enough.

So, he had to make a call.

Just what exactly should he tell them?