Students crowded around a glowing platform. A line had formed. As students went up, a light would flash, and the student in the platform would either have a look of joy or despair. Either way, they would have to give way to the next student and the cycle would continue.
At this moment, a boy with messy black hair and a thin figure gained clarity in his eyes. His name was Dean, and this body was not originally his, though both shared the same name. To be specific, he had transmigrated from Earth to this strange world.
According to this body's memories, this world was a battleground of dimensions. Every day, countless rifts would descend. Similar to instance dungeons in video games, which contain treasures and monsters within.
To clear the rifts, people blessed with a class system, called players, would need to defeat the boss in the depths of the rift. If not cleared within a set time limit, the rift would collapse and grant the beings inside a massive buff before unleashing them to the world outside.
In short, it would be a disaster.
Not everyone in the world is a player, ordinary people would still be vulnerable.
While being a player is dangerous, it is a lucrative profession. Material benefits, while indeed attractive, are not the main benefit. The main benefit is that it offers a path of survival through power.
Naturally, Dean also hoped to become a player. He wouldn't want to replicate his boring days on Earth in this new world.
With eyes shining with excitement, Dean made his way to the platform. The platform lit up, and the light drowned his consciousness. In his mind, he saw countless scenes. Meteors falling from the outer void, setting the sky ablaze, a giant wave the size of a mountain swallowing an entire continent before freezing, endless dark clouds shrouding the entire world in total darkness, and many more of the same nature.
Until a soft voice, seeming to whisper right behind his ears, awakened him,
"Mastery of the laws...seek truth, wield truth, become truth."
The words condensed into visible runes with unknown meaning, and before he could see it clearly, it was branded into his retina.
"Dean Gray, congratulations. You have been granted the Mage class."
Dean returned to reality and heard the voice of his instructor.
In his memories, the visions he saw were the same as what other players reported when entering the mage class.
He walked to the group of new players, all excited and with renewed hope in their eyes. At this moment, they all shared their joy, and whatever enmity they have to each other was temporarily forgotten. The original Dean didn't have anyone he was close to.
After exchanging encouraging words to his peers, he focused on his player panel.
Name: Dean Lvl : 1 Class: Mage
Talent: Formation Master [Unique] [Enlightenment stacks 1] -
All active skills are converted into [Formation Diagrams].
Trait 1: This talent grants the user [Enlightenment]. After mastering an array, this skill grants the user 1 stack of [Enlightenment].
Trait 2: Monsters will only drop mana cores. The number of Enlightenment stack affects the amount. Max count: 5 . Exceeding the bonus ceiling will increase the quality of dropped mana core. Monsters have a 2% of dropping skills books. Chance increase by 1% for each stack of Enlightenment. Max bonus 30%.
Trait 3: You have been granted Formation Design Workspace.
Enlightenment - your mind becomes clear. 10% increase in experience gained in spell mastery.
Looking at his talent, Dean felt both excitement and a strange foreboding of the difficult path ahead.
The descriptions were brief and humble. It could be determined that this would be a class relegated to support or even logistics.
Given that this talent was unique, Dean expects a lot from it. Unlike talents ranked by levels from E to A then S, talents ranked as Unique could not be judged by combat powers, some weak and some just straight up weird.
There was one such Cat Specialist[Unique] that increases their affinity growth and damage to feline creatures by 10x. Other effects are known only to the owner.
Another one was a popular streamer who had the Carefree Traveller[Unique] talent.
With this talent, that player was unable to learn any offensive skills. In exchange, he would not attract monster aggro unless he attacked first, not even from a dungeon boss.
Moreover, this player could teleport great distances, reportedly seen crossing continents in an instant while live streaming. As for what troubles he face from possessing such an enviable and extremely useful ability, everyone could only guess in their hearts.
Though right now it is certain that no one has captured him yet.
Now Dean was one such Unique talent holder, and his way related to Formation. Based on observations, it could be said that Unique rank classes usually don't have much focus on combat; they excel in a niche area.
After examining their talents, Dean just like other players, has begun to plan their future path.
His unique talent's main feature lies in the permanent buff [Enlightenment]. From the looks of it, the play style would be to study formations to increase [Enlightenment], then hunt monsters for Mana cores and diagrams, then repeat the cycle.
It was asking him not to concern himself with anything else, just up [Enlightenment] as high as possible.
"This is actually good for me. "
The second effect of the talent was for harvesting Mana cores. Mana cores are like the oil of magic civilization. Technology derived from magic all require Mana cores to act as energy source. That includes formations.
Only specific monsters will drop it, and the rate will not exceed 10%. Many guilds have players who learned certain skills to make grinding Mana cores more efficient. They have an entire department of players grinding 24/7, switching shifts, and spawn-killing these poor monsters.
That's why Dean swore not to let anyone know of this trait. Otherwise, they would have many methods to exploit him for profit.
Next, Dean checked his inventory. There, as expected, was a fireball diagram. It was supposed to be his Mage starting skill, but turned into an array of cryptic symbols engraved into a scroll.
The quantity was 1x. It turned into a consumable. It can only be used once, and the power is equivalent to a regular fireball.
He did not plan on using it now.
If he used it just to kill a slime or two, he'd be screwed. It was obvious that this talent was forcing him to study. This diagram was his lifeline in the early stage.
"Who wants to challenge the Practice dungeon this weekend?"
"Me, I'll go!"
"Sounds good, include me too"
The new players started planning for their weekend dungeon raid.
"I have to take care of some other matters back at home so..."
Dean decided to lay low and stack up his [Enlightenment] buff. If possible, he would want to party up too; he was afraid his second trait would be exposed.
"No problem, bro, just message us if you're free."
" I will, thanks"
Dean did not plan to skip the Practice Dungeon at school, but he would do it alone. Time passed, and the awakening ceremony concluded.
The atmosphere was a combination of both joy and sadness. Some students cried after failing to awaken a class, and some went up to the new player group and extended their congratulations.
Regardless, all of them here were educated, not becoming a player didn't mean their life had come to an end.
With the emergence of rifts, jobs and opportunities were never lacking, even for ordinary people.
The instructor went up to the podium and delivered encouragement for those who weren't lucky, and a word of caution to those who were, reminding them of the dangers of the rifts.
Dean finally got out of the school and arrived home. His parents, his younger brother, and sister were waiting for him. The atmosphere was jubilant.
Having learned of his success from the school in advance, they have prepared a sumptuous meal and awaited for his return.
"Dean, I heard you've become a Mage, congrats."
"Thanks dad. Just luck."
"Bro, come show me fireball!"
The young boy approached him and said.
"Fireball, fireball!" The small girl beside him bobbed up and down in excitement.
Facing the original's family, Dean felt complicated, and even a trace of guilt appeared. He swallowed down his negative thoughts and smiled at the two kids, rubbing their heads.
Regardless of whether he transmigrated or regained his past life memories, he decided he would treat them like his real family.
As for their demand of a fireball, that had to wait.
"Let's go eat, Mom has prepared dinner."
That day, the dinner table was a mess due to the two young imps demanding that he show them magic.
Though they concealed well, his mom and dad also seemed interested but held back. Especially his dad, who appeared to be calming the two, but himself looked eager.
Feeling helpless, he decided to confess to his family.
"What? A Unique talent? You really are lucky."
His dad exclaimed. His mother, on the other hand,d pondered and then spoke.
"Having a talent related to magic formations isn't bad at all. If I'm not wrong, only top consortia have access to such technology, and there were never enough of them."
"It does seem to be more comfortable than battling monsters." HIs dad said.
The two kids did not understand, but they felt down because their big brother couldn't cast fireball.
After dinner, Dean went to his room, sat on his study desk, and pulled out the fireball diagram to study.
The scroll unfurled; it was the size of an A2 paper. The materials didn't feel like paper, but more like leather. Drawn on it were elegant and chaotic patterns, nearly filling the entire paper with dark blue ink.
As his eyes lay on those drawings, his talent's 3rd trait activated. [Formation diagram detected, would you like to import this to the Formation Design Workspace?]