Chapter 6: Appraisal Ceremony (2)
FREELANCER
I was shocked when I saw the word appear in front of me, and I was not the only one who was shocked by this revelation
The staff members were even much more shocked compared to me
They immediately asked me to seat down in the appraisal area, since they wanted to call for the teacher in order to lead me to the principal and also to confirm whether or not the crystal had any sore of problem
They had to make sure that the crystal was not faulty since FREELANCER is a rare class that hasn’t appeared in the Empire for ages despite it being the representative class of this country
In addition, they also had to make sure it was the FREELANCER class since they had to do an additional appraisal for the Classes I possess in my Job Deck
While they were scrambling around, I was thinking about my appraisal as a freelancer, and I remembered the words that Nozomu told me while we were waiting to be appraised
“I don’t know what you are worried about, but all I can say is that, no matter what class is chosen for you, it does not define what you are and doesn’t diminish your strength.”
She is right about not letting the class that I got to define my power so I should not be down in the dumps for too long, but I guess I will now have to work much harder in order to keep up with the rest of the students
And I probably won’t be able to inherit the position of the household since I am not a Paladin anymore, I guess I will have to apologize to my parents about this, I am not looking forward to the phone call at all...
Luckily, they are still on a mission somewhere so I can put it off for awhile
I was pondering with my thoughts when the staff member returned with the teachers and asked me to repeat the action I just did
I complied and spoke out
“STATUS”
The crystal shone for a bit and then my class was reflected once again and showed
FREELANCER
The staff and the teacher watching the ceremony also audibly gasped, while the students and the people outside were discussing about the long time and the number of staff that my ceremony is requiring
They were also curious about the number of audible gasps that is heard from the area I was in
They were then discussing with each other for a bit, talking about how this is a miracle that hasn’t happened in age due to so many strong appraisals happening today such as seeing a <Double>, a <Mutation> and now even a <Freelancer> that hasn’t appeared in ages
They were then talking about how it has been 3 decades since the last <Freelancer> has appeared and were talking about how lucky they were to see one in their lifetime
While hearing them talk, I felt like I was an exhibit or a guinea pig that is about to be experimented on by the people. And I wondered if that’s how Aika and Yuuna felt as well
But then they saw my anxious face and stopped talking among themselves and spoke
“Sorry for making you wait for us so long, don’t worry we were just surprised by the crazy events that happened today, we won’t do anything that will affect you or your school life. Now let’s get on to the main business before we take you to the principal.”
The main business they are referring to might be the appraisal of the Job Deck that is exclusive to the Freelancer Class
“So put your hand on the crystal again and a say Job Deck, it should show you the number of jobs that you can switch through using your job deck, throughout the history of the freelancer class, majority of them only had about 1 to 2 jobs, with our founder having 3 jobs in his disposal. I wonder how many will you have in your disposal?”
Please don’t give me too many jobs please please please... Please don’t make it much crazier please please please
Is what I was thinking as I put my hand on the crystal and said out loud
“Job Deck”
I closed my eyes as I said those words, so I could not immediately see the results of the appraisal but the gasp I heard immediately allowed me to figure out I did something crazy yet again and I slowly opened my eyes
And what I saw also shocked me
I had a total of four Classes in my job deck
And I remembered what they said earlier about the average Freelancer only having about one to two jobs in their deck and me at this moment had double the average amount
Man, I did it again... I did something crazy again, this is going to be quite the eventful school life
But I did kind of anticipate this result from my job deck appraisal after finding out that I was a freelancer, due to the four armaments I carry and also the four memories of my predecessors
If I am not wrong my jobs should also reflect the jobs they had when they were alive
After musing with myself for a bit I properly looked at the jobs reflected by the crystal and I was correct
The jobs reflected on the crystal said
Swordsman
Paladin
Assassin
Lancer
Which is completely similar to the classes I associated with the four silvers that appeared in my dreams
Although I was glad to see all these classes appear in my <Job Deck>
The main class that excited me the most was the <Paladin> class that I was so familiar with and trained my whole life to get better at
Having this <Class> in my <Deck> means that I will still have a chance to use the skills I learned from my parents and can make them proud using this as well
Although I will still not be a true <Paladin>, I will still be able to live with this option
I even smiled a little thinking about how I lost the right to use this job at first but then gained it back in such a roundabout way
And then I got worried about how I will shock them again later when the appraisal of Armaments happens but I guess it will also be a fun surprise to see them shocked yet again by the amount of Armaments I own
Sigh
This is going to be a noisy school life
The staff in the area was still discussing amongst themselves while I was also thinking to myself
When they heard me sigh, they snapped out of their discussion and instead talked to me
“No need to be worried, we will ensure that nothing bad happens to you since you are one of the important resources of this country like all the students here. Now let’s get back to business and I will lead you to the principal office.”
She was about to lead me out when another researcher called her our
“Don’t forget to bring the Aika girl to the office as well, the one with the Mutation Class if you don’t remember. I think she had pink hair.”
“Alright I will bring her as well, sorry for the delay and let’s go to the office.”
“If you don’t mind, I can tell you who is Aika if you don’t remember her, because she is a one of my acquaintances and it would save you time in searching for her.”
“Ahhh, thanks for the help and I would appreciate it as well, frankly speaking I am not good at finding people or remembering faces. So, please tell me if you spot her.”
I looked around in the ground and saw a bunch of coloured hair in the distance talking with each other
I then saw Aika’s pink hair among that group and lead the researcher in that direction
“Are you Miss Aika, sorry for taking up your time but could you also come along with me to the principal’s office since you are a special case that happened today. Sorry for the trouble and the late call, but you don’t have to be worried about anything, you will be out before the next sections of the appraisals happen”
Aika and I said goodbye to the group and we followed the researcher up a flight of stairs into the principal’s office. When we reached the first floor, we reached a room with a large door and had a plaque on the top saying “Office of the Principal” with two guards standing outside the office. The guards raised their hands and stopped us from moving forwards, and the researcher talked with the guards for a bit, then one of the guards went into the office and came out after a bit to allow us inside.
Once we enter the office, we saw how grand it was and I could not stop myself from saying wow in awe of the artifacts inside the office, there were many artifacts that I could recognize in the office, but the ones that stood out to me the most was the collection of staves and rods behind the principal. I was able to find the rod that was floating behind him during the ceremony being put in that collection, as I got closer to his table, I was able to make out the words written on the plaque of collection the and it spelt out.
SOLOMON COLLECTION
And I was shocked when I saw those words, from what I remember the Solomon collection is a group of 72 staves and rods that have demon fragments sealed within in them, they are one of the best pieces of equipment a Magic user could ask for
The story behind them was the Wizard King Solomon contracted with 72 demons in order to raise his magic capabilities.
But even after using that power to rise to the top and becoming the wizard king, he still could not find the secrets to immortality, and in order to not get his soul torn apart by the 72 demon contracts after his death, he spent 13 years fighting with the 72 demons and sealed them all in different staves and rods in order to persevere their powers for the next generation and also to prevent them from fulfilling the contract and taking apart his soul
Currently, only half of the pillars have been discovered, with most of them being owned by the Aotsuki Alliance under the pretext of sealing and researching, although there is no one who can be sure that they won’t be used for war
Thus, it is very surreal to see three of the staves behind the principal in his collection since even the richest of people would find it hard to own one
In addition, even though it might be one of the best equipment a magic user can own, its true value would only appeal to the strongest of magicians who have a large mana pool and magic ability since the effects of the staves is to double the mana pool and magic ability of its users when it is in use meaning that the better the user is the more benefits it will bring about
And the effects of the staves actually stack without limitation, the only limiting factor being the number of staves that are in existence
For example, if user A has 3,000 mana and 450 magic ability, using three staves will double the numbers three times, causing user A to have 24,000 mana and 3,600 magic ability in the end
This doubling effect is simple but also one of the best abilities/passives that a magic user could ask for, but not everyone has a large amount of mana pool to make owning one worth it. The principal is probably one of the best candidates for mana and magic doubling
The principal saw me looking at the staves behind him and gave me a smile
“It seems you recognize the weapons behind me, Itsuki, As expected a studious student, although even the most studious student won’t recognize this name since it not in the common language, it seems you really did you research.”
After he said that, I looked at the words written above his collection, and indeed it was not written in the common tongue instead, it was written in the Ancient Brewical Pasture
“After you are done being in awe, I want you two to both take a seat next to Yuuna so that we can continue the discussion”
I went forward and greeted Yuuna while taking a seat next to her, with Aika also taking the third seat next to me
“So wanted I bought you three here to discuss is that I want you all to participate in a mock battle Infront of the whole school after a month when you are more used to your class and abilities.”
We three looked at each other and said
“What?”