Merchant Of Yliaster

In a dark room with the constant whirring sound of engines, a boy of 15 years of age was lying on the ground. His complexion was pale as if he were dying, but a careful observer would realize that the process was backwards, as color slowly returned to the young face.

People occasionally passed through the room, but none seemed to care about the boy. It was just another death among the others. To this world of immense kindness, Maxwell opened his eyes and took a deep breath.

The air was pungent, and the smell reminded him of his childhood when he was working in a gas station. He just stayed lying on the ground for a couple of minutes, digesting everything. It was weird being here immediately after speaking to the system.

All he had known, his world, his empire, was gone. But he made peace with that fact a long time ago when he was planning The Project Resurrection. His people would live, and he too might as well, it seemed. The whole concept of transmigration seemed ridiculous, but he would use the hand he was dealt. He would first need to figure out what was in his hand, though.

He threw himself up as his body protested the unfair treatment it received. He took a glance at himself in the wall, the wall of this place had a shiny metallic surface, enabling him to do this. He knew he was transmigrated, so that meant he should have, or rather, the owner of this body should have died before his soul rudely intruded into it. It was rather ironic that the former host died in a room clean enough to see your reflection on the walls. The ground was clean of blood, making Maxwell curious about how the kid died.

His looks were ordinary with black hair and eyes. The clothes, if they could be called clothes, left much to be desired, as they were just rags.. He was clearly malnourished, but his body seemed complete and without any big problems. At least my body is whole, he thought as he checked his body by doing some stretching. He tried to summon the status window from before, and the system eagerly answered his call.

Status:

Name:6789(Maxwell Aurelius)

Age:15(54)

Class: Pending

Nobility: None

Traits: ???, Merchant of Yliaster

Stats:

Strength:6

Agility:9

Dexterity: 10

Vitality:8

Soul:17

HP:80

MP:255

He wasn't sure why his soul was so high compared to his other stats, but he figured it was something caused by etherium. His malnourishment was probably the cause of his very low strength. Despite his malnourished body, he felt more alert since waking up, and he suspected that was a boon coming from his high soul stat. As he was staring dumbly at his status, he heard a sound.

"So you woke up after all, eh? You looked broken bad just now." A gruff voice echoed in the room. Maxwell turned to see a man in clothes fitting for a beggar. He had a dirty beard reaching his chest, but his dark eyes looked oddly energetic.

"Seems that way," he answered.

"A smart-ass you are, huh? Come." He said as he turned around and started walking. Maxwell shrugged and started following the man. He could detect no bad intent from the beggar's attitude, and it was not like he knew where to go himself.

"What's your number?" Asked the man. After staring at him uncomprehendingly for a second, Maxwell managed to say his name, remembering it from his status screen.

"Hmm, then you are on the right wing, huh. No shock that you were almost dead then." The beggar said with a small laugh.

"Why do you say so?"

"So you became dumb after that, eh?" The man said with the same irritating tone, and they walked in silence after that.

Eventually, they reached the right wing that the beggar was talking about. Maxwell could see that the surroundings were getting progressively more unkempt as they went. They stopped in front of a sign that said "6500-7000" and it was apparent that someone had designed or at least tried to design this place a long time ago as a dormitory.

There were many children wearing similar attire to Maxwell's. Maxwell noted that one of them froze when he saw Maxwell but he seemed to be keeping his distance because of the beggar. He noted that a group of kids were also staring at him with no good feelings. Maybe these are the reason this kid is dead? Maxwell theorized. It was his right to be bit paranoid now, as what could kill the boy now could kill him too.

"Nothing like home, eh, kid? I'll be off then." The beggar turned back and started walking the way he came. Maxwell looked at the man's back thoughtfully. There was something really wrong about that guy. The child from before, seeing that the beggar was gone, approached Maxwell.

"Hey, 78 the fuck were you doing with the cleaner?" He asked hysterically. He seemed to fear the man for some reason.

"He found me passed out and brought me here. I feel a bit unwell still. Who were you again?" Maxwell asked. He knew he might be making an ass of himself but he might as well come as suspicious to a kid rather than an adult.

"Enough with the jokes, man, have you done the job or not?" The kid asked, whispering. He was panicking visibly. At this point it was obvious that Maxwell was fucked as much as using this identity is concerned. For a second, he tried to use telepathy to get a better feeling of the situation as an old reflex.

He suddenly felt very strange as he felt a sudden mental surge coming from the kid. Memories, fragmented and hard to decipher, came and disappeared in a flash as he felt like he had smashed something mentally. He watched dazedly as the kid's eyes rolled back and he tumbled to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

6790 – Warrior (Level 3) defeated. Experience pending until class selection.

Maxwell thought two things at the same time. Firstly, and most importantly, the kid was defeated but not killed, and that was good.

Secondly, he now actually knew what the kid was talking about, albeit it was fragmented because of the ridiculous telepathic exchange. He was meant to unscrew one of the ventilator covers so they could run away at night. This also explained why he was dead in the middle of a clean room, as something must have happened while he was busy doing that. The cover was on the roof of the room he woke up in, after all.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

The kid's name suggested that this was his roommate, which also explained why he was so familiar with Maxwell. A system notification interrupted his thoughts.

Conditions met…

The Trait "Etherium Soul" has awakened.

Skill "Telepathy" unlocked.

Etherium Soul(Unique Trait):

A soul tainted and forever changed by the extraordinary substance Etherium.

May your brethren endure through you.

Increases Telepathy Efficiency

Mind and Spirituality are fused prematurely into the attribute Soul

Your soul is hidden.

???

Well, the last phrase of the description was weird, but this trait at least explained what his soul attribute was. Telepathy was a welcome old friend. He was quite surprised that he could use the skill on people not augmented by Etherium, though. Question marks were another source of worry but right now the unconscious kid in front of him beat this by a large margin when it came to being a problem.

He quickly carried the boy to their room under the searching gazes of the other children. They seem not to care about the boy whom Maxwell, from now on, decided to call Bob for the sake of his sanity.

He placed the boy over one of the beds. He could only guess which was Bob's bed, but the boy seemed not to mind it very much as he was. He sat on the other bed, took a breath to calm himself, and summoned his status to see if he could select a class.

Considering the hostile gazes of the other children, it would do some good to have a way of fighting back in this world quickly. He was not sure what to make of the situation but he would think about that later. This life presented infinite possibilities he lost once already. He would first make sure that he wouldn't lose them this time.

Status:

Name:6789(Maxwell Aurelius)

Age:15(54)

Class: Pending

Nobility :None

Traits: Etherium soul, Merchant of Yliaster

Stats:

Strength:6

Agility:9

Dexterity: 10

Vitality:8

Soul:17

HP:80

MP:255

He discovered that he could use his hands to manipulate the system interface, but that seemed really inefficient. He didn't have his hands back in the white space, but he could still use the interface, so he tried something different. He tried to focus on the class with his mind, and that did the job.

Class selection(Initiate):

Welcome to the system, Merchant.

Please choose one of the following classes:

Citizen

Warrior

Gunslinger

…

…

…

The size of the list went on almost endlessly, and Maxwell was lost for a second. But he realized that, albeit being almost endless, the list only contained basic classes. No insane legendary class or something could be seen. He also saw something that made all the options quite pointless after scrolling through for a while.

Mage:

Manipulators of mana who can control the elements and much more according to their affinities. Bend mana and consequently the world to your whims.

The summary felt a bit exaggerated, he could admit. But it didn't change the fact that this was the class of magic. One would better know that magic was not something completely new for Maxwell. In Zephyr, they fought against otherworldly beasts for years, and their name came from a simple fact. These beasts could do things beyond science. They could throw fire, bend space, or even cause people to die with a simple glance. At first they were reluctant in calling it magic, but all arguments failed after years of desperate war.

They always dreamed of wielding it, as they theorized that it was the key to harming the beasts, but they were never successful. Now it was on his fingertips. He mentally selected the class without any further consideration. He wasn't going to choose some mundane class after seeing this anyway.

Mage class selected.

Mage: You are now able to manipulate and sense mana and craft spells through the usage of magic theory. Let your enemies know the might of your arcane powers.

Increased Mana Manipulation efficiency.

Increased Mana Sense sensitivity.

+2 to mind and spirituality at every level.

+1 to all remaining stats every level.

+2 free stat points every level.

Acquired skill "Mana Manipulation"

Acquired skill "Mana Sense"

Fused soul detected…

Mana Sense readjusted to Soul Sense

Acquired Skill "Magic Theory"

Acquired Skill "Mana Bolt"

Maxwell felt information flowing into his head about the new skills. They were simple enough, considering this was a starter class, but his soul once again tripped something up. He didn't know what the difference was between soul sense and mana sense, but he guessed he would learn soon enough.

His class seemed basic enough, but he was confused about how mind and spirituality would work with his stats. Would he even be able to spend the free points on Soul? Testing would be needed when he leveled up. Now, though, he was quite excited to test the new skills.

He tried to use Soul Sense, and it was a weird experience. Everything around him felt oddly cold. He could feel a bit of warmth coming from Bob's direction. Apart from the coldness, he could also sense spots of "something" around him. It was hard to describe them with shapes, but he felt like he could control them if he wanted to.

He took a deep breath and remembered the meditation techniques he learned in his past life. His life has never been without stress, and he had a lot of practice meditating. He focused and felt his breathing and body. Slowly, he widened his awareness towards the spots he was feeling.

Skill "Meditation" acquired.

Skill Meditation Leveled Up Lvl-1→3

The notification broke his concentration for a second. He figured it was leveling this fast because of his experience from his past life. He quickly focused back on the spots and started his experiment.

He tried to gather them in his palm and watched them as they lazily moved. When two of them touched each other, they merged to make a bigger whole. More continued to gather, and a couple of minutes passed in a blink. In the end, Maxwell could feel a ball of mana in his palm. He could also feel a strain in his mind, but he was too interested to stop.

He was entranced by the whole process. It was honestly beautiful. Then it exploded on his face.