CHAPTER 3: WELCOME GAMER!

"ENOUGH!"

Veynar barked, voice booming through the hall.

It was quite a bit more dramatic than he had expected, but that was "fun" in its own way.

Xenos watched as his father’s gaze pinned his older brother back into his seat.

Such a sight made him feel way more satisfaction than he expected.

Though that didn’t last long, as he soon met those green eyes himself.

"Boy... I’ve decided. You’re a lost cause."

"Honey—"

His mother started.

"No."

He snapped, joining the trend.

"Are you guys crabs pretending to be hu—"

"He needs to learn consequences."

Xenos tried to joke, and his father cut him off.

Lyssandra went quiet as well, wringing her hands.

"If we discover your talent to be worthless, you will be severely punished."

"...Hm."

Xenos nodded once, twice, and then a third time, just because he could.

After that, he finished his food slowly, savoring each bite while staring into his mother’s worried but also speechless eyes, who was clearly expecting and waiting for a proper reaction out of him.

A reaction that he wasn’t about to give.

He looked like he was enjoying this, and he certainly was.

Again, these people weren’t family, not really.

His mother only pitied him and tried to cover it up with fake kindness.

His father saw him as a liability, some tool to be bartered away.

His brother needed someone to kick down to feel important.

And his sister... she wanted to help, maybe.

But not if it meant ruining her pretty little perfect image.

It was a farce, a bad one.

Swallowing his last bite of sausage, he looked at his father calmly.

"Are any of you coming with me to the Hall of Ascension?"

Everyone kept their stares trained on him for a few moments and then looked away.

That was answer enough; it also revealed how they believed that he had gone insane with stress, something quite common in children before their Ascension into Runebearers.

Veynar didn’t do as they did, however, caring not for his current state.

"No, you’ll go alone. We won’t have you ruin our reputation amongst our people."

Xenos chuckled a second time.

"I understand... It should be starting in a little while, right?"

Veynar nodded slowly, surprised by how calmly his son was taking this.

"Alright. I’ll go let you down proudly~."

Xenos stood up, wiped his mouth with a napkin, and left the hall without another word, not bothering to look back.

This was a big deal. Usually, families, and especially Noble Houses like theirs, celebrated their child’s Bestowal Day, but his family didn’t seem to give less of a shit about his, labeling him with the most lovely word, ’TRASH.’

So, unlike many who came with entire cohorts of people, Xenos went alone, exiting their manor, after nearly getting lost a few times, still not used to his new memories, and walking down the hill, nearing the massive city below.

On the way, he saw carriages rumbling along old stone streets, people walking about in cloaks and tunics; some of them weren’t even people, at least not in any way that he knew them.

There were cat-eared girls selling bread, a lizard-headed dude arguing with a midget-sized blacksmith, and even what looked like a walking ball of fur with legs, something he’d kill to pet.

His eyes were pretty good to see from that distance, but he didn’t bother to think about why that was, rather focusing on what stole his attention next.

The Divine Stairs.

Not far from the manor was a gargantuan tree-like structure that pierced their very sky.

This structure, as the name made obvious, held stairs that allowed one to climb up its height.

And yes, ’climb up,’ for this world had layers, each accessible only by such Divine Stairs.

The fact that one was so close to their home spoke of just how important their House was.

At least in this Stratum, because, well, the Second and First Strata above them were leagues ’above them’ both in strength and influence.

That was only natural, after all, when the Runes fell from the Elysium far above, the home of the Gods, the First Stratum met them, then the Second, and only then did the Runes trickle down to the Third, the bottommost Stratum their House existed for many a century in.

So the Runes at the bottom were the weakest of the bunch, as anything remotely noteworthy was picked up long before then. Of course, some outliers made it through, but that was rare and often extremely fought over, making it so that if any House or Runebearer wanted to be of more importance or simply become stronger, they had to climb the stairs and reach the top; those at the bottom would forever fight for scraps.

Consequently, that made the Runebearers’ Day of Ascension even more important.

If the Rune they were bestowed wasn’t suitable with their Stratum, what Xenos’s father called ’talent,’ they’d be thrown aside; after all, Runes required synergy, and if one had a rare Root Rune, a "bad" Element, it’d be hard or just impossible to continue ascending, requiring them to walk an entirely new path.

Because yes, there were preestablished paths called Rune Paths, where Runebearers would chase after the same Runes as the Gods they followed, since it saved them from the risk of death with each Ascension, something which Xenos didn’t care for.

’I’ve got ideas, but I need to see my options first.’

With that thought, he finally reached the Hall of Ascension, something of a temple.

Squeezing through the gathering crowd, he made it in, passing mural after mural of their Gods.

His arrival brought a few stares, but mostly everyone kept their eyes on the dais up front.

There, a new adult could be seen kneeling before a white-robed man, Divinity thumping around them.

"...The Fire Element!"

Just as those words left his lips, most of the crowd began cheering.

"Another Primary Element?!"

"This might be the best Ascension Day we’ve had in years!"

"Glory to the Gods!"

Though they went wild, Xenos kept still, staring at this Runebearer before him.

His gray eyes were peering into her, scanning her from top to bottom.

He could feel her... Aura, change.

Or rather, the presence of her body’s Will imposed onto the world.

It made Xenos feel excited for what was to come.

"The Sound Element!"

Immediately after, the scene flipped, as the others turned into murmurs and silence while his grey eyes burned with interest, finding Sound to be quite good, at least better than the once rare but now not so rare Elements of Space, Time, and Shadow.

"...Damn, an Ethereal Element?"

"Poor guy, he has no future."

"I don’t think we’ve discovered a single Sound Rune in the last ten years."

If it wasn’t obvious enough by now, a Runebearer would begin his journey on his Rune Path with only one Rune, a Root Rune, and again, most were looked over if the first Rune was barely able to synergize with anything early on.

Yes, those who had ’late-game’ Runes were ostracized, as most preferred the Primary Elements, like Fire, Water, Earth, or Wind. And though that made the competition for those Runes tougher, they were the only Runes they could get anyway, so it wasn’t like they had a choice.

Of course, and again, Xenos didn’t care for that.

’I’ll build my own path just like in the game~.’

And speaking of...

"Xenos of House Kharon, son of Veynar!"

With his name being called, he stepped through the crowd, up the stairs, and kneeled before the old man.

"I, a Shepard of House Kharon, deem you to be a child no longer; may the Gods bestow upon you a Rune."

Xenos lowered his head as his body was flooded with Divinity.

Thump!

Before he could even realize what happened, his world turned black.

No longer kneeling, he felt as if he were in some sort of endless void, floating in its embrace.

Yet he wasn’t alone; three Runes sat before him, somehow lighting up the void.

They were large, colorful things, all glowing a bright white.

[ᛈᛚᛑᛃᛪᚾ]

He read the first.

It was green with solid lines.

The same Root Rune his House had.

’Plant.’

[ᚦᚬᛃᚾᚻ]

He read the second.

It was black with bleeding edges.

A Root Rune he expected to see.

’Death.’

His arrival here had to have influenced it.

Unfortunately, the Rune didn’t interest him.

[ᛑᚴᛈᛊ]

The third made him pause.

It held the image of a weighing scale.

Surrounding it in a circle was Arcane.

Letters that spoke of one Element.

’Luck.’

Not even a Derived Element, it was a damned Ethereal one.

If he picked this, he’d be considered the trashiest of trash, like that Sound Runebearer from earlier.

And yet...

’I choose you.’

He reached out to it...

’Don’t let me down.’

And the black world broke apart.

Thump!

Xenos stood up under the disappointed gaze of the Shepherd.

"The Luck Element!"

Almost instantly, everyone in the hall began to murmur.

"I knew it!"

"Hah! You owe me five drachma!"

"Luck? What in Tartaros is that going to do?"

They seemed to think themselves validated.

Yes, they thought right; Xenos was useless.

At least for now, he accepted that.

So he said nothing.

Ding!

Instead, his smile widened the furthest since waking up...

{Ethereal Element ’Luck’ Found!}

Calling it unnatural was the least of it.

{Prerequisite Condition Met!}

But he didn’t seem to care...

{Game System Activated!}

For his system had arrived.

{Welcome, Gamer!}

’They’ hadn’t lied.