Chapter 2: Chapter 1: “Path of Interest”

Ai stared at the box in his hands. It was a medium sized box that fit in his two hands. On top of the box was painted a fine illustration of an elegant female elf casting magic and in front of the female elf was a fully armored knight kneeling, the magic of the elf gently showering him. On top of that was the cursive writing that said [World Symphony]. The game disc packaging stared back at Ai silently. 

A few days ago, his classmate gave him a copy of the popular game [World Symphony] as a casual gift. Ai didn’t know him too well, but regardless he was thankful.

“My brother gave me this for my birthday but I already have one, so I’m giving this one to you Ai.” was what his classmate said as he handed him the game before taking off. 

It wasn’t an overly grand gesture, just that the classmate had seen Ai first that morning and spontaneously decided that he would be the one to have the extra game.

Carefully, Ai put the game on his desk and opened his phone browser. He was interested in playing the game, in fact, he was going to buy it himself whenever it was on a discount, but then here it was for free. In his heart, he gratefully prayed for his classmate’s fortune in the future.

Many thanks, Ai prayed in his heart. 

On his phone browser, he quickly typed [World Symphony] forum. Ai was the type who liked to research the games he was interested in playing. He didn’t like going into something blind and would rather go into at least the hottest forum discussion to know what he should look out for in-game. Better safe than sorry. He didn’t want to play the game and miss out on an important beginner quest or take a quest that would not give a worthless reward. Spoiler as it was, he didn’t want to go in unprepared. 

Going into the forum, the first thing he saw was a thread titled “Beginners, DON’T pick this class!”, started by a user called Maestro. Ai laughed silently at the name before clicking on the thread.

Beginners, welcome to [World Symphony]!

I don’t want you to get trapped so it’s good that you’re reading this forum.

Once you enter the game, there will be many class options that I won’t spoil and you can find out when you play. BUT! There is one class that you absolutely CANNOT choose. The Mediator class. DO NOT CHOOSE this class. It's absolute trash and has no pros at all! It gives you extra rewards and options when talking to NPCs but a minus on combat abilities.

You might not see it as a bad thing, but the extra NPC rewards are absolute GARBAGE! I tried this class and was getting no progress at all for two weeks. I leveled up to 20 but even the lower level mobs were still posing problems. This class is so stupidly weak that it's not even worth leveling and the NPC rewards were absolutely not worth it, it didn’t help at all.

Don’t know why they still have this class available when it’s a complete waste of assets.

Under that post there were little comments, but the comments echoed the exact same sentiment that the original post had.

[FlameDegenerate] Thought I’d messed around with this class for a bit to see what all the mess was about. Got stuck for 2 days on a rank S quest that only gave me minor HP potions as the extra reward. Yeah. Trash.

[Max_Overload] What the hell, they never buffed this shit?

[Maestro] Doesn’t seem like it. Found this link to a forum from when around the game first launched, and people had the same complaint that went unheard.

Curious, Ai opened the link and found that someone had indeed complained about the same thing Maestro had. The reduced combat skills, the useless special skills, and the overall uselessness of the class. It seemed like the game developers never even made a statement to say that they were going to fix the class, instead they seemed to just have left it as is. 

Ai found that concerning. Didn’t something like this would usually blow up in the company’s face and cause many problems?

The more he thought about it the more confused he got, so he put it in the back of his mind for the time being.

After scrolling through a little bit more forum topics, Ai found that besides the Mediator Class issue, there weren’t really many problems. Though it had some minor issues here and there, people seemed to genuinely love the game and shared with other players what they knew freely in the forums. Well as far as Ai could see anyway.

Comfortable with how much information he earned, Ai decided that it was time to plug in the game and take it for a spin. 

He inserted the disc into the VR console then laid down on his bed with his eyes closed. The console wasn’t the complex machinery looking thing that exists in traditional TV shows and the like. Instead it was a simple head circlet that was connected to an exterior console. Ai simply needed to plop the disc inside the console and put on the head gear. 

After a few seconds he could feel his entire consciousness fading away, as if he was falling asleep, as he entered [World Symphony] for the very first time.

At first he couldn’t see anything. It was an expanse of blackness. He could feel his limbs but they felt very heavy, as if he just woke up from a deep slumber. He tried opening his eyes but they too were heavy as well. Suddenly, a soft voice could be heard in his ears.

“Welcome, traveler.”

At that moment, the world was suddenly covered in white. Its bright flash made his eyes itch, as if he was looking at the sun directly but it didn’t hurt. After the flash subsided, Ai found himself staring at a beautiful…woman? He actually couldn’t tell. The stranger had long flowing golden hair, shining luminescent blue eyes and was adorned in a simple loose white garment that resembled a Greek chiton. Their face was neither masculine nor feminine, which made it all the more harder for Ai to tell. 

Seemingly unaware, or ignoring, Ai’s troubled look. The golden haired stranger continued to speak. 

“I am Aethera, the god of this world.” he announced.

God, not goddess, Ai noted in his mind. 

Aethera the god gave Ai a gentle smile and took a step closer. “Hello my child.”

Ai, who rarely interacted with people, was suddenly overtaken with shyness. He never really interacted with the people in his class and he was distant with his family, so this beautiful shining god suddenly coming closer made him extremely nervous, even though he knew that it wasn’t real and it was just code and commands.

Ai bowed deeply as if to show respect then stuttered nervously. “H-hello…”

Aethera took no notice of Ai’s nerves and continued explaining. 

“It appears that your soul wandered into the wrong afterlife due to a mistake.” Aethera explained, his voice tinged with guilt.

Is the transmigration the plot they were going with? Ai thought. He never read much of transmigration stories in real life but he knew the basic plot and he was in one right now. Ai made a mental note to actually read some of these stories when he was done for the day.

“Oh I would love for you to be reborn in this world as an apology for your untimely death.” Aethera grinned. “You can pick whoever you want to be.”

Then in front of them appeared six statues all pulling their own poses and dressed in their own unique garbs. Ai scanned all the statues and realized that these must be the classes available in [World Symphony]. 

You are reading story World Symphony Mediator at novel35.com

There was the paladin with their giant shield, heavy armor and a single lightweight one handed sword, the mage with their wooden staff and robes, the warrior with their lightweight armor and giant two handed weapon, the archer with their majestic bow and arrow, the bard with their instruments that doubled as magical weapons and traveling garbs, the healer with their book and priestly garb and finally, the mediator.

The mediator was exactly like how the forum said. There stood a statue of a human with no weapons. He wore traveling garbs similar to the bard yet it seemed less protective. On the mediator’s belt hung a single oil lantern and a small book. This was probably the Book of Languages, a bound accessory special to the mediator that cannot be equipped. The forums had said that this book had no apparent bonuses and was absolute trash because not only could it not be unequipped and give no bonuses, it made the players waste an accessory slot. Yet another reason why the mediator class was so hated in the community. 

“Does this path interest you, lost one?”

Ai looked at Aethera and realized that he had been staring at the mediator class longer than comfortable. Ai rubbed his eyes and turned away from the mediator statue, intending to take interest in the priest or mage class, something that would allow him to keep a distance from the enemies. Just as he turned away, a small glint from the mediator statue got caught at his peripheral. 

Once again turning to the mediator statue, Ai realized that there was a small gem hidden under the mediator statue’s collar. It wasn’t big in the slightest, only the size of a fingernail. It was a crystal gem pendant that looked almost invisible, but it was there.

Without realizing, Ai had drifted closer to the Mediator statue. He was curious about the pendant, no one in the forum had said anything about it or even so much as reference it. It could just be another part of the Mediator garb, but it sparkled so brightly and stood out so glaringly. If it was just another part of the garb, then why was it barely visible. 

“What is this gem?” Ai asked.

After a moment of no answer, Ai realized that the question was probably not in Aethera’s database, hence why he had no answer. So, did that mean that the gem meant nothing at all?

Turning away from the statue, Ai prepared himself to pick the mage character. It was a long distance character that still dealt good damage, so it was the perfect class for Ai who didn’t like close combat. Before he could do so, Aethera slowly walked past him and stood in front of the Mediator statue himself. His slender fingers touched the Mediator’s face.

Ai’s eyes widened as he saw the AI’s behavior. It was a programmed code but it showed a gentle, almost painful, expression as it gazed at the statue. 

“Aethera’s gem.” He said, his voice quiet and soft. “Blessings unto you, who walk the path unknown and mediate the troubles that brew.”

Another gentle look then Aethera slowly returned to where he was before. The long gaze tinged with pain was no more on his face. Instead, he was smiling as he did before, completely blank staring at Ai.

“Does this path interest you, lost one?”

Ai blinked a few more and stared back at the Mediator statue. It’s face was frozen in a blank expression as it looked back. 

What he saw was clearly a hidden cutscene. Did asking about the gem trigger it? Why did no one in the forum ever mention this? From what he read, the class picking part of the game was pretty straightforward. The player approaches the statue of the class they want, then when they confirm their choice, Aethera would say a few words of farewell and luck then send the player to the starting point of the game. 

No one in the forum ever explained about a cutscene like the one Ai just saw. Some people had said that there was no branching in the class picking menu, it was just a system in the game, the classes players chose had no real impact on the story. 

Looking at smiling Aethera, Ai decided to test this. 

“What is Aethera’s gem?”

…

“Tell me about the mediator class.”

“It’s a path that one chooses when they wish to solve troubles. They are blessed with a skill in languages and mediation but are highly fragile in battle. It is a scholar type path.” Just the standard description found in the website of the game.

“Do you know Aethera’s gem?”

…

Ai sighed. His test wasn’t working out very well. He thought that by unlocking the cutscene, there would be more dialogue options for Aethera. Apparently not. Ai closed his eyes and thought back to the cutscene he witnessed.

“Does this statue make you sad?” was the question Ai found himself asking. 

…

“Yes.” A small voice.

Ai gulped and continued. “Why?”

“My children are getting fewer in numbers.” Aethera said, staring sadly at the statue. “My blessings are not enough to keep them safe, they continue to be slaughtered in battle against even the weakest enemies. T’is a necessary sacrifice for them to keep their knowledge, but one can’t survive against monsters with only the power of words.”

This must be the story behind the Mediator class and the reason for their lack of combat skills. They were...children of Aethera? 

“I wish for my children to reach Heaven's Gardens.” Aethera said, closing his eyes.

Heaven’s Gardens...that was the highest leveled dungeon in [World Symphony]. It was an airborne sky dungeon that could only be found as part of a hidden quest somewhere in [World Symphony]. Though players have found it, only one player could take the quest at a time and if they failed, the quest would move and the players would have to search it all over again. 

Though players who undergo the quest could take party members and they too would get the reward for completing the dungeon, so far no one has ever completed the dungeon due to its high difficulty and limited party members. Normal dungeons in [World Symphony] could be undertaken with a limit of around four to six party members. Some world class dungeons could even be undertaken by massive guilds. Heaven’s Garden however had a limit of two party members, so players had to either solo it or duo it with a partner, which wasn’t easy. Two party members just couldn’t cover all the needs in a party.

Ai wanted to ask more questions, but Aethera was already back in his game tutorial mode and was smiling at him as he did. 

“Does this path interest you, lost one?” He asked for the third time. 

…

“Yes.”

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