Chapter 7: Chapter 6: The system

Jack rubbed his red pair of hands after being grabbed by Julia out of the class for negligence and disrespectfulness. Conveniently, he would like to have some private space to look into the recently appeared system, which had always been on the top of the priority list from his experience in the previous world. Without necessary assistance, with his current body, he wouldn’t even be able to leave Ominvell, let alone Dessotor or the Beiland continent.

Ignoring the reminder to only stand outside of the door, Jack snuck away to find an unoccupied corner somewhere on the campus. Wandering around, he eventually found the library.

It seemed smaller than he had expected. Most of the space was filled with long parallel tables in the middle and reading booths by the wall, mostly reserved for researching staff. The ceiling was hung with lighting crystals, though most of them were unused at the moment, for nobody was occupying the shared long table, save for in some personal booths. At the end of the library was a high desk with the librarian on top, sitting and scribing something, paying Jack no attention. By her side was a board, the size of a pair of hands, floating in the air. Strangely enough, this library had no bookshelf.

Jack walked toward the librarian desk and found it to be as high as a judge’s seat, making it seem like a wooden wall stretching the length of the room. He had to take a step back and clear his throat to catch the librarian's attention.

She leaned her head and looked at Jack. Her dark raven hair was made into a bun and the wrinkles of a middle-aged woman under her eyes seemed double every time she frowned.

“What do you need?” She asked.

“I would like to borrow some books,” Jack answered.

“And?”

Jack couldn’t tell why she was so grumpy with him.

“I don’t know how to do it?”

The librarian rolled her eyes, giving out a long sigh.

“You have never been to the library?”

Jack nodded.

“And you can move up the class without borrowing a book before?”

Jack nodded again.

The librarian stared at Jack mischievously, smirking.

“Use the board next to you to find the book you want to read. But I reckon a backdoor class-skipper like you will find reading unnecessary.” 

Jack ignored her mocking and went straight to the board. It was made of stone, yellow in color, with a handshape outline above. He instinctively put his hand there and what seemed like a digital table appeared before him.

A hologram, nice!

On the left of the table were his name, class, and books accessibility, which was level one. This seemed to be what the principal had mentioned earlier; books were hard for him to get his hand on without an intermediate authority.

Jack saw the list on the right. Using his smartphone interaction experience, he wiped his finger on it and everything worked like a charm. He went through all the names, then reversed and took the very first title, Artificers - The artists of creation.

He stared at the board, waiting for the book to pop up so he could just grab it. But instead, he heard a creaking sound from the wooden wall in front of him. Pricking up his ears, he realized something was moving inside.

He was gliding by the wall when a rectangular piece of wood protruded from it, dropping down and creating a tray. The book he had chosen was on it. 

Jack curiously looked into the hole, eagerly wanting to see the inside mechanism of the storage when a low-pitched cough sounded above.

“Take your book somewhere and read it.”, The librarian said. “And don’t get too handsy. I can see everything.”

So that’s why this table was so damn high.

Jack nodded and grabbed the book. The tray flipped and blended in with the wall like before, leaving behind no gap.

He found a table, sat down, flipped the first few pages, and pretended like he was reading.

Jack gave out a silent command in his mind and the system table immediately appeared before him. It looked the same, decorated by simple golden outlines on a blue background. He had always wondered if its appearance was based on his video game experience on Earth or not because it made him feel nostalgic.

On the left side was his image, a nine-year-old. Below was some general information.

Name: Jack Corvus

Race: Human (Enhanced)

Age: 9

Faction: Unknown

Level: 0

Strength: 0

Agility: 0

Spirit: 0

“Enhanced? What’s this?” Jack mumbled.

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Looking closely, Jack noticed his other stats like attack, armor, and resistance were all a big 0. Something wasn’t right.

Jack looked to the right. A node in the center, some sort of starting point, branched into nine different nodes. The starting node had a description: “System of Knowledge.” The other ones were empty and darkish, save for three of them glowing. Jack squinted his eyes to read the letters.

Arcanist: 5%

Maester: 5%

Warrior: 1%

His eyebrows knitted even closer in confusion.

The system was familiar to him but somehow felt like a downgrade from before. In the previous version, the information was not this vague. Jack believed the nodes were some kind of skill tree. But, it didn’t branch into different skills and abilities with stats requirements like he used to know. This time, there were no detailed descriptions, no tutorials, no nothing.

Jack took a deep breath to calm himself. Only now did he notice a progression bar under the skill table.

Initializing: 0.5%

Time Expected: 99 Days 12 Hours 50 Minutes and 37 Seconds

Jack puffed his cheeks, holding back a swear that almost got out.

“What the?”

The system wasn’t yet functional. This must be why all of his stats were 0 and grayed out. At the very least, the spirit stat should have been 1. It was a disastrous downgrade from so many levels.

Jack rubbed his head, leaning toward the librarian. The cantankerous lady was also watching him closely. When she saw him looking back, the tips of her lips smirked up to go along with a head shake.

Jack’s eyes were twitching, his teeth clunking in his attempt to suppress his irritation.

Recalling Emily’s advice, he took a deep breath every time he felt like losing it, something that used to be very common every time he had been thrown into a strange world. He found himself in that condition again. Lost, feeling little, and without guidance.

Jack looked down at the opened book in front of him. He scanned through the introduction to clear his mind of this whole system situation.

“Artificer is one of the more low floor, high ceiling professions. Each individual only needs to attach a stone head to a stick to make a spear, add some basic magic and can be basically considered an Artificer. The tool that has been created by the individual serves a specific purpose, hunting in this case. It was constructed from the experience and intellect of a person about the material and its usage: the hardness of the stone, the flexibility of the wood, and the interaction between a sharp object and a soft one. An Artificer is a creator, a herald, an artist in all of creation.”

Description of Artificers gave Jack the impression of Earth’s inventors, people who explored and created the convenience of life.

After calming himself, he looked back at the floating info table.

His eyes opened wide as he saw the new brightening orb.

Artificer: 1%

Jack contemplated and understood that these nodes would be filled if he studied and researched about them. Based on what just happened, a short description for one percent, Artificer could be completed with relative ease. Compared that to the Maester, whose information he had read plenty, though not in-depth, but only managed to acquire a 5% progress. The difference in difficulty was obvious.

Jack’s smile almost reached his ears. He immediately commanded the table to disappear and started reading.

The book was quite heavy, but with his reading and learning rate, an elementary book shouldn’t be too time-consuming.

As Jack finished the book, it was already noon. The light wasn’t shining ray by ray into the library anymore. Some students had entered and found their own reading corner. Nine was the usual age for the senior class, but graduation depended on an individual's capability. As such, there were students much older than Jack, around fourteen or fifteen years old, still trying to finish their studies here. More and more were coming into the library. Therefore, additional stone slabs were added in front of the wooden wall for students to access their books.

Jack closed the book and commanded the system table to appear. To his surprise, the Artificer progress bar had actually been completed.

Artificer: 100%

“That quickly?” Jack said out loud, his eyes wide open.

The sound of table-knocking from the librarian caught his attention.

He picked up the book and walked toward the stone slabs.

“What quickly? Giving up that quickly?” The librarian asked, watching Jack return the book instead of continuing reading.

Jack really wanted to talk back, but the excitement of opening up a branch in the skill tree was even better than seeing the system initiated, and he didn’t want to ruin the moment. He only gave her a glance and put his hand on the control board.

The wooden plate popped out. He put the book back on it and searched for a new one. Jack chose an introductory book about the Maester and walked out of the library, leaving behind a red-faced librarian.

“Hey, you…”

The rustling sound of synchronizing heads turning in their robes echoed through the library as all eyes were looking in the same direction. Some other teachers were visibly annoyed.

The librarian retracted her head as she realized how loud was her uncontrolled yell, gritting her teeth as Jack turned back and looked at her, holding the book, waving goodbye, and leaving her sight.

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