Outside the Walls

"For our first mission, we'll be taking on a D+ mission outside of Im City—we'll travel by foot, it's a rather simple mission of clearing some zombies in an infested mine," Ella consequently asked with a fearful voice, "z— zombies?!"

Didn't expect the first mission to involve actual monsters—thought we'd need to find a lost cat or something… I don't even have a System yet. "How will we fight them though? I don't have a System yet, and furthermore, neither Ella nor I have been in actual combat yet." She excitedly sent me her support by moving her head up and down. "Yeah, exactly!" Xter on the other hand, was still silent.

Arial, with confidence and a voice targeted to kill our worry, claimed, "that's why I'm here, kids—not only will I protect you, but I'll also teach you how to fight and defend yourself," after a slight pause, he added, "moreover, zombies are Level 3 monsters—civilians with guns could take them out without a problem." I fought his point, "then why don't they?" Arial smiled. "It's simple—gun laws fall under the responsibility of recognized cities, therefore areas outside of cities are prohibited from the possession of them." Interesting—information like this really has been gate-kept—schools didn't teach much about the outside; perhaps my curiosity about it can be attributed to the sense of mystery.

All four of us, together, took a magic train to the walls bordering the Im City—next to them, was an adventurer shop. "Before setting out, we'll be getting some equipment for all three of you—all of it will be my treat, so don't worry about money." Once we got in it, Arial held up his badge to which a purple orb reacted; afterward, he put away his badge and simply held up his hand above the orb—subsequently, out of thin air, a purple shard appeared. "Take out your badges and hold them straight."

I asked, "what exactly are you doing? Can you explain?" Arial had nothing to hide, "the purple orb is a mana reactor—they can be molded for a variety of purposes, and this one happens to be to recognize your MANA style." I see, so he's figuring out what kind of equipment suits us then. "Interesting—curious to see what I'll get." "I'll probably get the healer class…" Meanwhile Xter just glared with excitement, without saying a word.

Ella was correct. "You, little Miss, seem to be, in fact, a Healer class—I'll get you a Magic Wand and a mana-focused knife; its potency will depend on the quantity of MANA you provide it, so it'll complement your abilities." She was vaguely disappointed, but didn't give up regardless. "Okay! I'll do my best!"

Next was Xter, and expectedly, his results were impressive—his class was Assassin and he got a mini hand-scythe—it oozed off shadow smoke and particles—felt envy over a weapon that cool.

Once it was my turn, however, "you got nothing, Dantes—hate to say it, but you'll need to settle for a regular mana-infused blade for now," I replied with slight frustration, "what do you mean I got nothing?! How can that even be?" To cut the wound deeper, Xter butted in, "probably has something to do with being 2 ELO, what can I say." I had no defense here, yet Ella decided to take on the role for no reason at all, "that's mean!—we're teammates, please be nice to each other, you two." Arial agreed with her.

Took a deep breath, and then out of stress and frustration, asked, "are our classes dependent on our Systems? Or what?" Arial swiftly replied, "I'd love to answer you, but in fact, I have no idea how it works—it's probably System-dependent, but at the moment we operate under the tools we have and not under the answers we do." I looked down and then answered, "I… see," was left without any space to say anything else.

"Well, regardless, guys! Whether you're happy or sad with your equipment, please store it in your System storage!—oh, and I guess we need to get Dantes a blade sheath for now," it cut a wound in me yet again; not for long, however, as Ella decided to put a bandage on it: "Dantes, don't worry! You'll get your System soon… I'm sure of it!" I smiled and re-affirmed her, "yeah, you're right! Thank you for being supportive like that, Ella!" "Of course! We're a team, we need to support each other."

Soon after our short dialogue, Xter opened his mouth for the first time in a while, "what about food and camping? This will be a pretty long journey, won't it?" Arial replied, "I already have it all ready—it's all in my System storage!" "I see, that's good." I guess even Xter thinks about things—thought the guy was dozing off thinking about what to eat for breakfast tomorrow rather than what's happening in the present; what a weird guy, honestly.

It was time to set out—and as usual, the process involved teleportation. Arial talked to a bunch of guards upon having his badge react to a purple orb, and then we went inside the massive wall while being accompanied by a guard; after walking for a while, we reached a room with a magic circle—we had to get teleported inside it, and afterwards we popped outside of the wall as if we were never inside it to begin with. "Alright, so finally, it's time to go…" Arial calmly stated.

My first time outside the Im City!!

Hundreds of tree stumps all over the place, with trees only being visible far in the distance…

The wall was also looking very different than on the inside… It was coated in shadows and a strong aura was coming from it; on the inside, it was a normal, albeit very big, wall without anything particularly notable about it.

Ella seemed overwhelmed with worry… not surprising.

I could tell that even Xter was nervous—was this his first time leaving the Im City in a while?

Adventure time!!