Chapter 55: Status Check
A teal glow glimmered in the skies of the Black Rose grounds as the students used their mana on the Tablet.
After the tablet reached a saturation point with their mana, they all used a small knife or weapon to prick their fingers and leave a drop of blood on the tablet.
The blood smudged on the tablet and the link between the students and the tablet began.
The glow of the tablets disappeared as if someone had flipped a switch and black engravings formed on the tablets.
“Woah…”
“It worked…”
A few gasps of admiration left the students as they observed the Teal Tablet. It was the moment of reckoning when they would finally find where they stood. Even amongst the soldiers, a status check was always full of excitement.
“O-oh…”
“Level…?”
“This…”
I couldn’t hold in my excitement either! I mean, was someone supposed to just sit around twiddling their thumbs when something this cool was going on?
But! Peeking would be rude, wouldn’t it? Ah damn it, if I am not caught, it shouldn’t matter.
I put my hands behind my back and hopped in between the students. Like a rabbit trying to hide from a carnivore, I made my way to the sight of the familiar twitching black cat ears and leaned ahead, looking over Iaso’s shoulder.
There, in the common language of the continent, her status was etched on the Tablet.
───── ⋆⋅☆·⋆ ─────
Name: Iaso Ragdoll Aegean
Level: 2
Stats–
Strength: Low
Endurance: Low (Low)
Agility: Intermediate (Low)
Mana: Low (High)
Traits-
Ragdoll Stealth
───── ⋆⋅☆·⋆ ─────
“Woah what?”
Iaso’s tail straightened up and she jumped at my words. She hid the tablet and glared at me. “When the hell did you crawl there?”
“I was just passing by! I didn’t see your status at all, promise!”
Iaso glared at me. After a few seconds, she finally sighed and turned away.
“How are you level two?” I asked. The level was the only thing that said anything about one’s current abilities. Her stats were not bad at all for level two.
In fact, any stat at Intermediate before Level 4 was phenomenal.
“So you know my level! You saw it!” Iaso hissed at me again. She almost seemed ready to scratch my face.
I raised my hands.
“I just saw the level, only a glimpse! It wasn’t on purpose.”
The same standoff like last time happened again and the girl returned to the tablet once more.
Stats were divided into three tiers. Low, Intermediate, and High. Usually, levels 1 to 3 had all their stats in Low; 4 to 6 in Intermediate; and 7 to 9 in High.
As I had mentioned before, training did not only increase the stats you could use but also increased the limits of the stat, albeit minorly. For Iaso to have any stat in the Intermediate degree was proof of her improvement.
“Professor…”
A hand grabbed the hem of my shirt. I turned back and found Student Ken—the tall human boy who had fought the Blue Ogre with Zacka the dwarf—calling out to me.
“What is it, student Ken?”
“These stats… is it broken?”
I looked at Ken’s tablet. He pointed at the mark next to his stats.
[Strength: Low (High)]
“Ah, this,” I spoke loud enough to let the other kids hear too. “The stats are classified into Low, Intermediate, and High, as you’d guess.”
Ken nodded.
“Even in those stats, you have three more divisions. Again as Low, Intermediate, and High, though the Intermediate just gets omitted for the word itself.”
“So I am on the higher end of Low?” Ken asked, he was a shy kid compared to the others in the class, but was also capable.
“That’s right.”
I let Ken observe his stats and walked around again. This time, I reached Elara. I didn’t get to peek at her stats, she willingly moved her tablet to let me see them.
And it was a work of art.
───── ⋆⋅☆·⋆ ─────
Name: Elara Danube
Level: 4
Stats–
Strength: Intermediate (Low)
Endurance: Intermediate (Low)
Agility: Intermediate (Low)
Mana: Intermediate (Low)
Traits-
Commander’s Aura
───── ⋆⋅☆·⋆ ─────
Elara turned to me and raised a brow. Her proud smirk fit her age.
Well, did she think she had the highest stats of everyone? She was wrong. With a bigger smirk, I pointed at the Saintess Candidate Yuliana and both of us inched over to her, sneakily.
Privacy invasion? It was like checking test scores! If your friend ever hid their test scores, it was natural to do anything you could and see those scores. This was the same.
We looked over both of Yuliana’s shoulders and at her teal stone tablet.
For the Saintess and people who had completely immersed themselves in the church, their ‘mana’ stat usually changed into a ‘divine power’ stat, and that held truer for the saintess candidate than anyone else.
───── ⋆⋅☆·⋆ ─────
Name: Yuliana Soleil
Level: 3
Stats–
Strength: Low (Low)
Endurance: Low (Low)
Agility: Low (Low)
Divine Power: High (Low)
Traits-
Miracle Bringer
───── ⋆⋅☆·⋆ ─────
That’s right. There’s always a bigger fish in the pond. Yuliana’s innate ability was likely even higher. With enough practice, that ‘High (Low)’ would probably change to ‘High (High)’
While Elara was mulling over getting her stats thrashed, I had my attention snapped out by another student.
“Prof, prof!” Seren screamed from the side while raising her hand high.
I snapped my fingers and pointed at her. Then I stopped and stared at my hands. It had become a routine. This girl was going to Pavlov me into snapping my fingers every time she went ‘Prof.’
“What is this trait thing?” she asked.
It seemed more people had one than I thought.
“Your trait is… somewhat similar to an innate ability. It is about a power that you possess aside from these stats.”
Traits were only defined in the tablet. They were usually seen as something people naturally possessed. Elara’s ability to command was something she had developed, and that turned into a trait. On the other hand, Iaso’s Stealth was a technique passed down in her family, she learned it and it was counted as her trait by the tablet.
“Traits are pretty rare,” I said. They were the prime ability to sacrifice as well. “Those who have it, congratulations. Those who don’t, know that the Hero didn’t have a trait either.”
The Hero did not require a trait as well. That crazy guy was always fluent enough with his skills that everything he used could be considered a trait.
“W-what kind of trait is this then…?”
A very unexpected person spoke up. Everyone in the classroom looked at the back to find Atlas trembling.
I whistled. He had a trait too?
“You’ll know best,” I said, and the other students flocked over to Atlas.
Seeing all of them together was always endearing for me. Even though the status was rather pointless in my eyes, it would bring them together and let them gauge their strengths.
I swept my gaze over the students. That was when I noticed, away from the rest of the students, that one person looked at the Teal Tablet with disappointment and nervousness.
Like a student who was expecting an A grade on a test and was returned a C, Prince Ier clutched the Teal Tablet and bit his lips.
A sigh left me.
I knew this would happen.