Chapter 3: System Call
Alrude Fortress, Eldria Kingdom.
The Alrude Fortress was one of the four fortresses that protected the borders of Eldria. It was situated in the East where many of Eldria's village was, including the Rurid Village.
Inside of the mighty fortress was a small gathering of knights and mages. Each seated facing a rectangular table where were documents scattered all over.
"Any news from the scouts?" a fierce-looking knight asked one of the seated robed men.
One of the robed men, a mage, stood up with a scroll in his hand. He unscrolled it and read aloud, "Wild beasts seemed to be gathering once again and started getting more and more aggressive. It seems that a mental-type magic beast has been sighted near the villages. Although this isn't a problem for us, it will be for the villages."
After reading the contents of the scroll, the mage sat down and looked at the person sitting on the edge of the table, the Head of the Alrude Fortress, Lionel Alrude.
Lionel was a skilled knight that fought in the war against the barbarians years ago. Due to his merit, he was appointed as one of the Guardian Knights, a group of four skilled knights that protected each border of the Kingdom.
"Send a letter to every village under our vicinity, prepare a squad of knights to deal with the wild beasts and another squad of mages to deal with the magic beast."
...
"This is the first time she's been late."
Raziel was still lying down in the same spot hours ago when he was training earlier. There was not much to do after finishing his training besides waiting for Alice. He had to entertain himself with what was around him, but he had his sense of time and knew that Alice was late.
He stood up and stretched his arms, slowly getting impatient as he started walking around the lone giant oak tree.
"What's taking her so long..." he complained as his stomach grumbled.
Alice was the person who would always bring him lunch every after her daily class and was something he always expected every day. As reliant as he was on her, it was something that became a daily routine to both him and Alice.
"Raziel!" a melodious voice came from a distance.
Raziel didn't need to take a closer look to see who it was. He immediately waved his hand towards the latter. "Heeey! Alice!"
"I'm sorry for being late." Alice reached out both her hands, showing the picnic basket that she carried. "Let's eat?"
The two of them sat down under the shade of the giant oak tree. Alice brought out a large cloth from the basket and placed it on the grass as she started bringing out the food she made.
The two started eating as they chatted the afternoon away. Raziel talked about his training while Alice listened. The two of them happily talked about their day, it seemed nothing could disturb the two.
"Can you use System Call like your dad now?" Raziel was still curious about the power of the rune orbs. He knew that the System Call could see the attributes of almost everything in the world.
"I haven't really tried yet." Alice tilted her head. "Let's try it now."
"System Call: Scan!"
A radiant yellow light suddenly appeared as a golden sigil appeared at her palms. Alice pointed towards the giant oak tree as it was enveloped in brightness for a few seconds.
<Level: 24>
<Vitality: 7,425/10,000>
<Source: Giant Oak, Nature>
"Amazing!" Raziel looked at the floating transparent window in front of Alice.
Although he had seen Gasupht, Alice's father use a System Call before, it was still pretty amazing to see his friend use it.
He knew that the System Call measured someone's level, vitality, and source.
Levels were a complicated thing, some say it measured strength, some said magic, and some said that it measured skill. But there was one thing that was certain, which was that levels were the representation of power and ability, it measured hidden attributes of the body and split its potential gained every level into different attributes.
Vitality spoke for itself, it was the representation of life and death, durability, and hardness. Whenever someone's vitality went down to 0, it only leads to death. The same thing applies to an inanimate object or a weapon, for example, once it's vitality reaches 0, it would immediately be destroyed.
As for source, just like vitality, the name said it all. It stated where you came from, or what you were. It would state your race and if you had fused with a rune orb, it would show that rune orb's source as well. Unfortunately, only if the person cast <System Call> on themselves could they see their rune orb's source while others could only see their basic race source. This prevented others from knowing whether someone had a rune orb or not, as well as to prevent finding out what their rune orb actually was.
"Test it on me!" Raziel pounded his chest in excitement.
Alice raised her hand towards Raziel as another golden sigil appeared within her palms. "System Call: Scan!"
<Level: 15>
<Vitality: 184/184>
<Source: Human>
"Raziel you're amazing!" Alice praised. "Even dad was only level 20!"
Raziel felt his ego boost up when he heard her words.
"Quick, try it on yourself as well."
Raziel urged the young girl, excited to see more.
"System Call: Scan!"
<Level: 7>
<Vitality: 65/65>
<Source: Human, Fragrant Olive Tree>
Seeing how low her level and vitality as compared to Raziel, she pouted, "Compared to yours, mine is a lot lower!"
Raziel answered with an 'oh' before he laughed, "It's fine, it must be that my intense training is paying off, don't worry I'll always protect you!"
"You better!" Alice gave a beautiful smile that made Raziel's chest pound for a while before disappearing.
The young girl was currently in bliss when she remembered the cruel reality that was about to affect their relationship in the long-term.
"Raziel, actually, I wanted to tell you something," the young girl's voice became gloomier which didn't escape Raziel's hearing.
"What's wrong?"
The young boy became a little worried about his friend. It wasn't very often that the young girl would be troubled by something. He was used to the kind and cheerful Alice that was always sticking by his side since they were little.
"I haven't told you anything about yet... you see, after I turn 12, I would be attending the academy in the capital city to become a mage apprentice and I might not see you again until I finish my studies which would take four years..."
The more and more she talked, the quieter her voice slowly became until Raziel couldn't hear what she was saying under her breath. However, Raziel understood the situation and pondered.
Seeing him not say anything, Alice was getting worried as negative thoughts started drilling into her head.
In the end, Raziel only laughed which confused the young girl.
"Alice, did you forget about my dream?" he flicked his hair and grabbed it with his left hand, making a cool pose of his own.
"Someday, I'll become a Crest Knight, which means that I will have to leave the village someday and follow my own path. No matter how far you are, we'll still see each other!"
Watching him do such a silly pose, Alice couldn't hold back her laughter. Raziel smiled and was glad that she had her cheerful attitude back.
"Oh, right," he suddenly pulled out a white cloth hairband with unique designs from his pocket and handed it to Alice.
"I originally wanted to give this to you on your birthday, but since you have other plans, I'll give it to you now."
Alice could feel her face burning up and immediately brought her head down. "Thank you, I'll always cherish it."
She immediately removed her current hairband and wore the one Raziel gave her.
He looked at her with smiling eyes, making her more and more flustered.
Raziel looked at the fading sun and gestured towards the girl, "Let's get back to the village now, shall we?"
She gave a sound of approval as they treaded their way back to the village.
Unfortunately for the two, trouble had just found them.
"Roar!"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone