Foundation, Advanced, and Stacking Trait(s)

The Rogue stammered, half paralyzed by fear and half stimulated by curiosity. 1st year students knew nothing about the rarity of a trait, much less specific traits at specific rarities. This… cat looking girl didn't wear a uniform either. Was she the recruit's friend?

"Hey! I'm his… really close friend!!!" 

Cat noticed the look in the Rogue's eye and was unhappy. This girl was making the wrong assumptions. They were in fact nearly best friends. 

Really close friend?

The two Rogues were really aware of each other's thoughts and feelings so they stayed silent during their war of staring. 

Cat had mentioned trait rarity a lot during their conversations. Foundation, Advanced, and Stacking. Foundation traits defined the identity of a WMR. They might be seen as basic stats of classes in an RPG game. Strength, Toughness, and Resistance for Warriors. Intelligence, Clarity, and Essence Manipulation for Magicians. Speed, Precision, and Criticality for Rogues. 

Strength was how much force a Warrior could exert. The more force and the heavier the object, the more damage overall. Toughness was how damage a Warrior could take before retreating. There was an extension of this called Stamina. When a Warrior took a critical hit and was seriously injured, they had something known as a second chance. In this state, stamina would rapidly deplete until they fainted. They could break stamina to gain full Toughness by fatally injuring their opponent and converting their blood to rage. Resistance was how much damage was reduced by. It usually manifested as really thick skin, through odd mutations, or it could be worn using technology such as armor. 

Intelligence was a Magician's capacity to cast spells. Each spell was very taxing and an overburdened mind meant a weaker effect. Clarity was associated with the efficacy of a spell. Essence Manipulation was like a skill tree. The more a Magician cast efficient spells, the greater insight they would have into stronger spells.

Speed was how fast a Rogue could attack. Precision let a Rogue see areas of opportunity on the opponent. It was commonly used for devastating and lethal attacks. Criticality was how a Rogue applied various status effects on an opponent. If one thought of the body was a well oiled fortress, then Criticality was applying the right counter to every defense in said fortress.

Following this, you had the Advanced traits. It was important to note that one could not learn new traits. If you weren't born with an Advanced trait, that was it. For regular people, their fate was set in stone. For rich or dangerous fools, maybe you could 'evolve' yourself. Advanced traits did not rely on Foundation traits but they strong benefited from them.

Leo Skyfang acquired the Advanced trait 'Fearlessness' by having a complete understanding of his opponent. In his state of Fearlessness, other traits came naturally to him. Some of those traits were Durability and Anti-force. Most importantly, he could see the physical versions of these traits and have a small understanding of them. Durability was a Warrior's tenacity to endure both physical and mental forces that came externally . Strength and resistance contributed to Durability by helping to block out negative sensation. Anti-force neutralized momentum. Strength contributed by halting inertia while Stamina was how long your Strength could hold on for. Each of the three Advanced traits effect were amplified through the addition of the Foundation traits, but did not rely on them.

Stacked Traits, otherwise known as Stacking, were a group of Foundation and Advanced traits that formed a common trait theme. Illusion was a Stacked trait that required Speed, Criticality, and Perception. Golden Text filled in the blanks that he clueless on. It was not possible to have a Stacked trait without the corresponding Foundation and/or Advanced trait(s).

Every cell in his body turned into a fortress as a blood killing aura locked onto him. The pressure moved through him but he was unaffected, almost like he wasn't there.

"How interesting. You're definitely a unique agent. Every moment that you walk, you magically manifest a new trait"

After taking a deep breath, he looked around for the source of the voice. 

"If I wanted to dissect you, you wouldn't still be alive right now"

His nerves started to calm down but he was still a little vigilant.

"I'm a friend of the ex-general that co-founded this academy. I was invited over by him to offer an opinion. Your traits are invisible for me unless you use them. My combat techniques are second to none. I'd like to train you on a daily basis if you don't mind"

The offer was too casual and he was skeptical.

A woman had arrived out of nowhere. She was in her late 20's, attractive, and had sharp eyes. She wore a floral skirt, white-pink blouse, and her hair was tied into a ponytail that hung to the side. Pink hair, heavy lip gloss, and lightning yellow nails. 

"I'm Madelin. Black Ops! The military was the first to produce Specialists and everyone just wants to copy us"

He had never heard of that term.

"I see what's on your mind. You're familiar with Specialists and Elites. Specialists get further divided. Covert Ops Specialist, Black Ops Specialist, and Shadow Ops Specialist. Operator is purely a civilian title. Specialist is the military title. I want to recruit you on-demand" 

A terrifying thunder roared in his ears. Academy graduates were given the possibility of testing for the military as an end of year test, but the rate of acceptance overall was less then .01%!

She had given him a direct invitation. 

"We want to spread you across as many different sectors as possible. On demand for the military, the Golden 100, the Top Echelon of Society, and many other organizations"

We? She seemed to be scouting him on behalf of powerful and influential leaders?

"Think about it. Double-Archetype Warrior-Magician Operator sounds impressive but it won't get you noticed. Covert Ops Specialist, where your traits are less important than your skills, sounds much more capable and gets you opportunities you could only see in your dreams"

"Any cons?"

The woman looked at him weirdly.

"I'm not sure why you think there would be any? I just said you're basically a freelancer with guaranteed projects whenever you wish"

"Will it conflict with my academy tutelage?"

"I'll take care of it. You can still attend but there's nothing they can teach you from what I saw"

"And Cat?"

"Hmm? That girl? I guess I could make an exception, but she needs to prove herself"

"I can!!!"

Cat did the only thing she knew and attacked the woman without hesitation. Madelin seemed unfazed and unbothered as she quickly dodged a flurry of attacks.

A Double Archetype Magician-Rogue Operator like himself! How could he tell Covert Ops, Black Ops, and Shadow Ops Specialists apart though?

Madelin threw out a bunch of short swords and daggers but they didn't fly in a straight line. The weapons looked like they were being held by invisible soldiers with their own thought processes. Cat was caught off guard and repeatedly scratched. Whenever she learned the movements enough to counter, the attack pattern would change again.

Suddenly, Madelin's eyes glowed blue as a thunder snake emerged from her fingertips and wrapped itself around Cat's body. A moment later, the girl was electrified, leaving her wide open to the flying weapons.

Instead, they returned to Madelin's belt. 

"Tell me. Can a normal WMR do that?"

There were two parts to the attack. One was the independent flying weapons. If he had to come up with a way to describe it, the way it should have worked was the addition of two traits. What he saw was more like the multiplication of two traits. Then there was the snake that moved independent of the weapons.

"Operators command their traits. They don't think about how the traits could work together. Specialists think about how their traits could benefit from one another. The weakest Specialist is a Covert Ops Specialist. They have enough experience to add modifications to their weapons instead of just dual wielding them"

His breathing rapidly quickened as he understood the implications of her words. The difference between Covert Ops, Black Ops, and Shadow Ops Specialists was the intricacy of the mods they put on their weapons. For him, mods were basically additional properties that allowed for effect synergy. 

Could he be a Covert Ops Specialist? But that wasn't possible. He had added two traits earlier but it didn't feel like multiplying them. 

"You'll know when you're a Covert Ops Specialist when you can freely mix and match traits without thinking about what Archetype they belong to"

Cat was shocked by how tough Madelin was but he was looking at her with anticipation in his eyes. He wanted to test his capabilities against a seriously strong opponent.

"I don't mind entertaining you. How you fare will give me more reassurance in recommending you to the best contracts"

A milky white but stale barrier appeared out of nowhere. 

"Show me every secret on your body. I promise you I come with no ill intent"

Madelin muttered a series of phrases as arcanic runes appeared all over her body. It was as though she invoked a secret ritual with the universe as her witness.