Chapter 17: Chapter 7: Mella’s Vocation

Chapter 7: Mella Vocation

“You ready Mella?”

We stood outside the Access Terminal, the only one within the city.

“Hm Hm!” She viciously nodded her head.

I watched as her eyes excitedly glance at the entrance of the building.

“Are you sure you’re not going to tell me beforehand?”

“C—-oooo—rect!”

This hurt.

I waited a few moments as the time neared when Mella had to enter for her appointment.

The Access Terminal was a very busy place, every day someone turned sixteen and wanted to get their Vocations as soon as possible. And Mella was by no means an exception to that, but before she went in there was something I needed to tell her.

“Just make sure you pick one you want.” I crouched slightly to be eye level, “not for some sort of job or obligation but cause you like it.”

Mella froze for a second before returning a warm smile, “Okay! Sis.” 

Tyell ended up choosing [Package Runner]. One of the weirder vocations like [Frequent Shopper] and [Trickstar].

A Carrier Vocation with small storage space, enhanced movement and low mana growth. It sounded alright to some and so a few people chose it as a sort of middle ground between work-related and self enjoyment. Even though the low mana development was a negative factor for both fields.

“See you later Elly!”

“Nah!” poking my tongue out, then I laughed “Rather see you sooner!”

Mella pouted before chuckling and jogging into the building. 

Now I had time to spare I went into the lounge area, found a chair and picked up a pair of interactive glasses to do some snooping.

Technology varied from planet to planet, as some places had preferences. Averon and Earth both heavily used interactive contacts and glasses (Inter-CGs). While Esteless the 4th went the way of implants. Metous was quite old fashion in that sense but we still used full dive VR and were more advance in our portable devices technology.

None of the technology was banned, some people on Metous did use implants and Inter-CGs but only one in about every hundred. Inter-CGs were more commonly used as guides or magazines on Metous, which one could pick up when exploring a location.

I quickly scrolled through the massive list of Vocations available while Mella was picking hers.

Stargazer, Stargazer, found it…

Even since I chose [Stargazer] I was always curious if it was originally available. Sadly yes. Reading the description I didn’t find any mention of Starlight, even in similar Vocations [Star Painter] and [Star Traveller]. All three just mentioned being able to manipulate Light energy to a lesser extent than [Light Mage].

So I’m currently one of a kind, neat! 

Knowing the creation method of Starlight and how finicky it was as an energy I could understand why it hadn’t been found yet–I doubted it was the only one. I had no plans to spread this information–unless for maybe a good price–but overall I’d rather keep it secret, I wasn’t planning to stay in this peaceful forever.

Besides Starlight, other details on the Vocation were lacking. Its description stated it was minor light manipulator vocations with navigational skills.

The method of how they created the Access Terminal was a ‘secret’, but everyone ‘knew’ the basics. 

Over five hundred years, they were able to add starting Vocations–the ones an individual can choose without any prior experience levelling. It required having people who could choose those Vocations–one of the reasons why the process was known–involved.

Certain upgraded Vocations were also added but I had assumed–along with the majority of people–that most couldn’t be due to some issue. [Furious Breaker] was the Advance Vocation of a famous Hero during the conquering of Metous. Vocations that were gained from an upgrade were known as Advance Vocations–another human-given term.

So somehow [Furious Breaker] was accessible in the Access Terminal but [Blitz Combat Medic] the Advance Vocation of Mile Hoover–an ally of the user of [Furious Breaker]–wasn’t available even though it wasn’t dangerous.

Speaking of dangerous. Many Vocations were known to be within the Access Terminal database but were inaccessible due to being ‘Problematic’.

These involved mental manipulation, extreme self-harming or promoting hostile activities. It was possible to get around these restrictions with permission, but getting your hands on that pass was nigh impossible for anyone below thirty-nine.

[Frequent Shopper] was a comical famous example of a banned mental manipulator Vocation. A Carrier Vocation that had storage capabilities but also gained one interesting skill. [Returning Discount] was a skill that convinces people to give a discount if the user had visited the same store–any place that sold goods–a certain number of times within a set period of time.

Self Harming only consisted of a small group of Vocations. A few where one manipulated their blood and some Enhancer possessed a little bit too much recoil.

Hostile activities sounded broad but in reality, only covered a few known Vocations. 

Vocations containing skills that involved killing or disabling humans, rewarding indiscriminate killing, or unchecked destructive rampages. I checked and [Fated Vengeance] was a part of this banned grouping.

Quite a few of these Vocations that were banned for such reasons had their information hidden from the public. The idea was if people didn’t know the requirements–some Vocations required individuals to experience certain things–they wouldn’t try going for it if they got the opportunity to pick their Vocation outside a suitable facility.

Going back to my original train of thought. At some point, someone else possessed the [Stargazer] Vocation.

Then that person or someone else later down the line should’ve tried developing the skillset of the Vocation. Which was how they created this description. Still, it seemed the previous users of [Stargazer] and similar Vocations–[Star Painter] and [Star Walker]–didn’t experience the Vocation purpose and utilise its affinities anywhere near enough. 

Haaaa, I got to thank Espr for giving me this information for ‘free’.

I tried doing some research if the information I learnt on the Dungeon Planet was correct–from my testing, it seemed to be–but humanity was a little further behind in its understanding of Vocations than they probably ever expected. 

They had correct ideas but we’ve stumbled when dealing with their growth and development. 

While I continued my stroll through the database of information. Comparing my own knowledge with whatever I could find. Mella returned after only ten minutes.

Due to noticing me being ‘distracted’, she tried sneaking along the wall. Stealthy moving like a proper ninja.

“Is this soon enough?” Mella flicked the glasses off my head from behind. Extremely smug she truly thought she had gotten away with it. Hehehe, poor girl.

“I guess so,” I shrugged. Floating the glasses up and throwing them right back into the stand.

“...How did you do that?”

“Maybe I’ll teach you one little child.”

Mella walked around the chair and was now facing me, “I’m sixteen.”

“You’re also eleven years younger than me, so your point is invalid.”

“That’s not how age works,” Mella stamped her foot.

“And?” I questioned.

“Haaaaaaaaa…” Mella sighed before pouting in realisation, “When are you going to ask me about my Vocation.”

“Oh, what was that.” Yes, I was bullying her because of the failed act earlier, “I couldn’t hear you.”

“My… Vocations.”

I smiled, “So… what did you pick?” My grin widened in anticipation, “Or are you just going to leave your big sister waiting.”

Her mood jumped right back up to positive 100%. Proudly declaring, “hehehe, I picked [Warm Wind Mage]!”

[Wind Mage] was a very standard choice, by no means a bad one, but I wasn’t sure exactly what a [Warm Wind Mage] did. My guesses were a [Fire]-[Wind] mix mage, or a [Wind] mage with a focus on nature.

I chuckled, “Sounds cool, but you are going to need to give me a little bit more than that.”

“Sure…If you teach how to throw.” She dared to bargain with me?!

“Finneeee, you got yourself a deal. But I am also teaching you [Quick Step], it is family tradition after all.”

Her eyes widen in order excitement, fondness then fear. “A–agreed.”

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Coughing first to clear her throat, “[Warm Wind Mage] provides me [Wind] and [Fire] energies. Hehe, we match!” Over emphasising the ‘[Fire]’ caused a warm smile to try forming on my face, so I let it. 

Cute. 

Seeing how I wasn’t going to reply for time being she continued “It also can provide comfort skills and.. minor healing”–Mella's eyes unconsciously darted to the gap between my gloves and sleeves–“So cool isn’t it!”

Doing a quick spin she waited for me to provide her praise.

I’m glad she chose one she felt passion for. The excitement clearly visible in her eyes made butterflies sing in my stomach.

I gave a quick positive review of the Vocation in my head. A wide range of abilities huh? Healing, Fire, Wind. Three different pathways give a lot of freedom. Just need to make sure she keeps the effort up, her base soul is much bigger than mine so she should have gotten a few skills to start with.

A wider range of abilities meant individuals had to spend more effort to get certain types of skills. Compared to a Vocation focusing on one thing meant that it was easier to gain skills related to the Vocation.

For me when I had [Fire Mage] getting any fire-related skills were easily gained, but I had to train a lot more to gain subskills after I chose [Stargazer]. 

Vocations similar to [Warm Wind Mage] usually meant each person had more diverse skill sets. Besides a select few skills–considered the core skills–nothing was set in stone with what skills one would receive.

The fire skills I gained when levelling through [Fire Mage] varied from a couple of people I knew. One had a couple of utility fire magic skills while another actually had a defensive. 

“Oh amazing, I’m really happy for you!” I stood up and hugged her, then messed up her hair and sat back down, “Though I thought you picked a [Thief] or [Shadow Dancer].”

Not understanding what I second for exactly 1.5 seconds. Mella’s face flushed rose red embarrassment.

“W-w-w-a-i–t-t-t you-sa–w that!”

“Are you upset?”

Mella loudly whispers while pouting, “Why’d you let me get away with it if you were watching!”

“I don’t see the problem here?”

“Arghhh! You owe me ice cream!” I didn’t understand her logic…. But I went along with it, her birthday after all. Don’t worry Mella, we are going to have a lot of fun at the gym later, hehe.

 

---

The day after Mella Stella’s birthday. Tyell was up early and had long left for work. 

It was weird for him to say goodbye as he left. Usually, everyone was asleep but now Ceella had returned, she spent most of her night laying on the front or back veranda.

Does she even sleep anymore?

He knew more mana made people need to sleep less but Ceella’s wide-open stares into the night sky creeped him out. Not only that sometimes his skill reacted negatively when she was around.

He did worry for his sister's sanity but he took it as she just needed time to get comfortable with modern life again. Tyell tried to glean some information from where she had been, but the only conclusion was that it was somewhere dangerous.

His main job was severing drinks but in addition, he needed to help with the opening setup of the store when on the opening shift.

Tyell had already been setting up the counter for a while when the other worker entered the store.

“*Yawn* morning Tyell, always here early ain’t ya.” Miraculous shorter than Tyell, the blood lady three years his senior wore a purple hood and black jeans.

“Morning Elly, it would’ve been great if you showed up on time.”

Elly was a friend of Tyell. They met six years ago during Tyell’s party phase. She had never met the rest of Tyell’s family as the two only interact before and after work, after becoming friends. Tyell wasn’t talkative about his social life at home either.

“Nah!” She began helping, her orange eyes checking out Tyell “Looking tired again, what’s got you hooked this time?”

“Nothing major, sister got her Vocation recently so just been dealing with that.”

“You sure? Need me to predicate your fate again? It probably won’t be anything good, but at least you will know that” she poked his arm repeatedly.

Elly Vocation was [Diviner], one that in most people's eyes was useless. 

[Diviner]’s whole gimmick was that it tried to predicate the future. However, the future wasn’t set in stone and [Diviner]s couldn’t choose exactly what they wanted to try and predicate. But she had an uncanny gift, her divinations had a 40% correct rate

Tyell found Elly to be a good friend, his only two gripes were she could be an arse and her name was too similar to his sister's nickname.

“Nope… I don’t need them anymore.”

“Whatever.”

Tyell only ever asked for a prediction a few times. The major occurrences were after Ceella’s disappearance and his father’s death. Which the former predicated, which led to him choosing his current occupation.

“You rats, everything prepared we’re opening in thirty minutes,” a loud voice echoed through the shop as a large man wearing a black top and shorts walked in. 

“Course.” 

“Yes, yes.”

Tyell and Elly responded. 

Mikey was the owner of the bar. Tyell got on well enough with him. He needed to otherwise life would’ve been much harder.

As the two were finishing up the prep, Mikey joined in the conversation by starting one of his own, “Did you hear, a PLS return to Metous? Crazy right?”

“I mean it happens.” Tyell was certain they were referring to Ceella. He hadn’t told anyone about his sister's return and had no plans to.

“Yeah it ‘happens’, once every average ten years but none have come back in over thirty-four,” said Elly.

“Well, fewer people go missing in space so it balances out.”

“Fewer people get recorded missing little brat.”

“Then those get automatically reported missing.” The government across all major planets were always concerned about the goings on in space and did their best to ensure if something did go wrong, people knew about it.

“Trust me kid, I’ve known it to happen to people.”

“Well you are right, just those people are already criminals with fake identities.” 

“He’s got you there,” Elly yelled out.

The chatter didn’t last much longer as there was less than an hour before opening time. However then twenty minutes before the morning shift started, “Tyell.” Mikey called his name out from the backroom. 

Tyell stopped what he was doing and went to visit, “Yes sir?”

“I got a job for you, needs to be done in five.”

“Now? Isn’t this pushing it?”

“Yeah, but stuff’s getting busy of late across the board. So the unexpected happens, but that’s not important. What is do you accept?”

“Yes,” Tyell replied.

“Good, the money will be in the safe when you get back. Be quick and largely unnoticed.”

“Right,” Tyell walked into a nearby cupboard and changed clothes. Wearing different shoes, and a long dark hooded jumper and tracksuit paints.

Name: Tyell Stella | Race: [Human]
Level 62 | Awakened
Mana: 100%
Vocation: [Package Runner]
Skills:
- [Pockettory]
- [Quick Step]
- [Alert]
- [Retain Stamina]
- [Quiet Step]
- [Quick Hide]
- [I Belong Here]
- [Pain Reduction]
- [Hit & Run]

Tyell walked to the back exit. Before he left Elly called out, “Hey Tyell, be careful of fire.”

“Course,” he replied without looking back.