Vera for her part, eyed her soon-to-be disciples with excited eyes. She rubbed her hands together and gave a small chuckle.
Arden felt scared. He was reminded of that morning.
“As I said,” Vera began, “this won’t get physical. Well, not that physical. Everything that I talk about today will be about Starborn and their quirks. I’ll teach you what a Starborn actually is, what they can do, and how you can prepare to be one.”
She looked at Sya, focusing on her silver veins and black eyes.
“Even if you can’t become one, this knowledge will still be useful. Learn enough, and improve your health as best you can, and it wouldn’t be surprising to be hired as a guild staffer.”
Sya took the words to heart. She had no chance of awakening like her brother, but she could at least not be a burden on him. If she could manage that, then she would be happy. She knew from a while back that he didn’t think of her as a burden, but she still felt that she was.
“We’ll get back to guilds in a bit. For now, let’s go over the basics. The very foundation of Starborn society after the StarFall hinges on one thing. You both know what it is, even if only Arden can access it.”
The brother-sister pair nodded their heads and answered in unison.
“The Status.”
“Right. No one knows where it came from, why it came to us, or even what it is. Despite it being 80ish years since the StarFall and the Status’ emergence, we still know next to nothing about it. There are a few things we know though.”
She looked at Arden.
“Arden. Give me an example of something that the Status can do.”
He didn't have to think about it at all.
“It gives us an inventory.”
Vera nodded, then asked Sya the same question. Her answer was even more obvious than Arden’s.
“It gives people the chance to become Starborn.”
“Correct, both of you. Both of those are incredibly important, but there is another perk to having the Status: improved recovery. If you get hurt, your body will heal almost twice as fast. Mundane diseases and infection are a thing of the past for those with a Status. But as you both know very well, not everyone has a Status. And why is that?”
Sya took the initiative for this answer.
“The Blight.”
Vera nodded.
“That’s right. Like a lot of things after the StarFall, we don’t understand it. It's a strange disease that has a few notable quirks that everyone knows. It changes the appearance of those suffering from it, and it cuts them off from the Status, rendering them weak. They don’t heal faster, they don’t have an inventory, and they can’t evolve into Starborn. The Blighted can be broken up into two sub-categories: Blighted, and Blight Walkers.”
She asked Sya another question.
“Sya, what do you know about normal Blighted? How do you compare to one, as a Blight Walker?”
Sya chewed on the question for a little bit. She was a Blight Walker, but she didn’t really know what the differences were between her and the normal Blighted, aside from the big one. Not having anything else to say, she said her answer.
“The Blight spreads from Blight Walkers like me. Normal Blighted are just victims who happened to get infected. I remember the doctor who treated me when I first became one said something to that effect.”
“Did they tell you why it happens that way?”
Sya thought about it, but found nothing. There was a faint memory, but she couldn’t fully recall it.
“I think they did, but it's foggy. I can’t remember.”
“That’s fine. It’s because you have a Blight Core creating Blight Essence. It was created due to trauma, and now it is a source of pure Blight. Your body is used to the exposure of constant pure Blight at this point, so the only symptom of sickness that you manifest is just exhaustion. Honestly, you would be just fine if you decided to train with me and Arden. The same can't be said about basic Blighted. They are actually sick. Terminal.”
Sya looked down at the floor with a demure expression on her face. The guilt of being a Blight Walker was hard to get over.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“For what?” Arden asked. “You didn’t ask to be a Blight Walker. You don’t choose who gets infected. Hell, we don’t even know if you’ve infected anyone. You have nothing to be sorry about.”
“He’s right,” Vera said. “Feeling pity for the unfortunate is a human thing to do. But you don’t need to feel guilty.”
Vera took a swig of water and continued.
“Let's move on from the Blight. Do either of you know how to become a Starborn?”
“Luck,” Sya answered.
“Good breeding,” Arden said, earning an odd look from his sister. “What? Aren't Starborn genetics hereditary?”
“He's kind of correct,” Vera said, coming to his aid. “The child of a Starborn parent is more likely to awaken than not. And the child of two Starborn parents is guaranteed to evolve. That's why a lot of the best Starborn guilds are closer to clans or families than guilds. Interestingly, although the children of two Starborn are guaranteed to be a Starborn as well, powers aren’t passed down. But that wasn't what I was asking. What is the process of becoming a Starborn?”
Neither of Vera's students had an answer. It made sense. If they knew how to awaken, then they wouldn't be having the lesson right now. Instead, they'd be out attempting to evolve and/or living it up with their new powers.
“You're right that both luck and genetics play a role in who gets a chance, but that's it. It's a chance. They are given the opportunity to become a Starborn, and if they fail then they die. Inside of the trial that determines your future, everyone is made equal by the Status.”
“Trial?” Arden asked.
“I think I know this,” Sya said. “I read a story a while back about a Starborn. It was a good read. It had good pacing and memorable characters. The world building was also really good. The action scenes were only so-so, though. Honestly, the only thing I didn't like were the abrupt fourth wall breaks.”
Arden shouldered his sister in the side, getting her back on track. With books being her only refuge for so long, it made sense for her to go off on tangents like that.
“Sorry,” she said with an embarrassed cough. “The story was about a person who became a Starborn. It showed him entering a Golden Stargate and completing a trial. Basically, he had to act as a random person in an alternate world, and when he survived, he was given his powers.”
“Perfect answer,” Vera said. “When you are given the chance to evolve into a Starborn, you go through a Golden Stargate like the one you just talked about. You will take the role of someone in a dangerous scenario. If you survive, you become a Starborn. That is why survival should be your first priority.”
“Naturally,” Arden added.
“Just surviving grants you your powers, alongside a Stellar Core that provides you with stellar essence to fuel your powers and Satellites,” Vera continued. “But it will be difficult to survive. You will be cut off from your Status as if you were Blighted. It will still be there and it will occasionally give you a message, but for the most part you'll be a normal mortal human. No enhanced recovery, no inventory. That is why survival is priority one, and completion of the scenario is priority two. Nothing else matters in there. So long as you survive the scenario, you will get your powers.”
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Not for the first time, Arden wondered where Vera’s wealth of information came from. With her beauty and immense knowledge of Starborn and training, he wouldn't be surprised if she had lied about being a Starborn.
Arden raised his hand to ask a question.
“Does it matter how we complete the trial?” he asked.
“Definitely. Especially for the first trial. The Status will give you an appraisal of your actions. Your first appraisal determines the rank of your Constellation, or your class. The better the appraisal, the more unique power you'll be given. Note that I said ‘unique,’ not better. No Constellation is better than another. It's all a matter of how your powers are used. While we're on the topic of rank, open your Status and show it to your sister. We'll come back to trials soon.”
Arden did as he was instructed. When he opened it, he dismissed the paradox message, knowing that it would be back next time he opened the Status.
Name: Arden
Starborn Tier: Mundane
Starborn Rank: Mundane
Constellation: Mundane
Legacy Ability: Beyond (Sealed)
- Rank: ?
- Description: Hidden
“Ignore the bottom part and look at the two labels beneath your name,” Vera said. “Tier and rank. They are both measures of a Starborn’s power, but they are different. It's best to think of them as quality and quantity. Higher tiers refine your stellar essence, making you substantially stronger. The tiers for Starborn are based on the color of your essence, and your tier is elevated to the next level after completing a Golden Stargate. After surviving your first trial, you are given red-tier stellar essence, then orange after the second, then yellow, then white, then blue. In theory, anyway. Despite it being 80 years since the StarFall, we only have up to yellow-tier Starborn.”
Satisfied with the enraptured expressions of her two students, Vera continued.
“Ranks come from consuming star cores dropped from Celestials. Consume enough of them that are equal or greater than your current tier, and you will rank up. When you do rank up, another stellar core will be created inside of you, like your original. It will grant much deeper essence reserves and a new power for each core you have, up to five. From protostar to main-sequence, to giant, to planetary nebula, to dwarf. Satellites are the same. Higher tiers are stronger, but higher ranks give more aspects.”
Arden asked another question.
“You said that the difference between tier and rank is similar to quality and quantity. Is either of them better than the other?”
“It’s hard to say that one is better than the other, as they offer different things. Ranks offer flexibility and longevity, while tiers offer raw power. Really though, it's a moot point to compare which is better, because no Starborn only levels one of them. If a red-tier Starborn wanted to ascend into an orange-tier, they would undoubtedly kill Celestials along the way.”
“So tiers are stronger.”
“As a whole, I’d say yes. You really start to see it in orange-tier and later. It is incredibly difficult to kill a Celestial of a higher tier than you. You have to remember that there is a qualitative increase of strength in between tiers. The gulf between red-tier and orange-tier is incredibly hard to overcome, but that is nothing compared to the difference between orange-tier and yellow-tier.”
Sya spoke up.
“How strong are the strongest Celestials?”
Vera thought about it for a moment, trying to think of the best way to explain it in a way the pair of them would understand.
“Did you ever learn about Australia?” she asked.
Both Arden and Sya went quiet. They both had heard tragic tale from their parents before their passing.
“Yeah,” Sya said. “A stargate cascade occurred. Thousands of stargates opened. As a result, Australia sank.”
“The main culprit,” Vera said. “Was a yellow-tier supernova. The Mantle Beast. The appearance of that Celestial alone spelled doom for the continent.”
“Wait, the Mantle Beast was only yellow-tier?” Arden asked.
“It was the single greatest loss of life in a single event since the StarFall. Of the 60 million people who lived in Australia, 25 million died there.”
A horrible question pulled at Arden’s mind. With dread building, he asked the question.
“That was only a yellow-tier. What would a blue-tier do?”
There was a brief moment of hesitation before Vera responded with a soft voice.
“I don’t know. No one does. Speculations are wild, and those who research Starborn for a living believe that it would be the end of the world. But you shouldn't have to worry about that. Starborn have come a long way since then. After the incident, a lot of funding has gone into learning how to predict when a Stargate will appear along with its tier. We actually have yellow-tier Starborn now as well.”
Arden and Sya sat in silence for a minute, digesting everything they had just heard. It was a lot heavier than they expected. It wasn’t all just having fun and fighting monsters.
‘That’s history,’ Sya thought. ‘Everything, both dark and light are part of it.’
“So,” Vera awkwardly coughed. “Is there anything else?
“Let’s go back to the trials for a sec,” Arden said. “About completing them. What I meant to ask about them earlier was the completion conditions. How do you complete them?”
“Do what you can to survive. That’s it.”
“That’s it?”
“Yup. So long as a conclusion is reached with you still alive, you will have survived. Wait for the scenario to resolve itself. Use the identity of who you are in the scenario to influence the events within. Anything works, so long as you survive. And the more outlandish your methods are, the greater your rewards.”
“That’s pretty cold,” Sya observed.
“It is,” Vera admitted. “But you gotta do what you gotta do to survive. Even if you do something insane in the trial, no one will hold anything against you. The first trial is a solo test. It's personal, tailor made for each individual. Whatever happens, no one will ever know. The other trials that follow when you aim to ascend again are made with a party focus. They aren’t made with anyone in mind, but instead try to tell a story. Some normal stargates are like that as well, and they are typically harder than the basic dungeon stargates where you just go in and kill the Celestials. Is there anything else?”
“How do we find Golden Stargates?” Arden asked.
“The first one is personal, as I said.” Vera explained. “It will appear to a mundane randomly. The others also appear randomly, but they can be entered by anyone of the correct tier. They are incredibly hard to find, and even more expensive, so most guilds monopolize them to use for their members.”
“Can we go over guilds?” Sya asked, then looked at Arden. “One of them is antagonistic towards Arden. I feel like we should know about them, just in case.”
Vera nodded.
“Guilds are pretty simple. You probably already have a good understanding of them. They are pretty much just companies of Starborn, independent from both the government and the Starborn Association. They go in and clear out Celestials and stargates to keep people safe.”
“I really felt safe when Yaan stuck his hand down my throat and started burning me alive,” Arden said dryly.
“Most guilds aren't like that, naturally. The Starborn Association takes mundane abuse very seriously. If they were to ever find out about that, it's possible Miasma would be dissolved.”
“Mundane abuse is taken that seriously? I mean, I don’t mind, but the entire guild getting dissolved because of a single member seems a bit over the top.”
“It’s because of the identity of that single member. That Yaan guy isn’t some random member. From what I've learned over past little bit, he’s the nephew of Chorzo, the leader of Miasma. That makes any of his actions carry far greater weight. It's the burden of leadership.”
Arden and Sya shared a glance, and Arden spoke up.
“I think that’s all we need to know about Starborn for now.”
He wanted to ask about Vera’s past, but he didn’t want to be rude. He knew that the topic of her family was a bit of a touchy subject. It was true that she had quickly become friends with both him and Sya, but she was still reluctant to talk about it. Arden didn’t mind. Everyone had secrets, after all. If she wanted to tell them about it, she would. Until then, it was out of their hands.
“Then let's do some training,” Vera said. “I want you to focus on what I'm about to do. I'll quiz you on what you saw. This will train your perception, one of the most important things in a fight, right behind keeping a cool head.”
Vera pulled several balls out of her inventory and began to juggle them. The colors of them matched the colors of stellar essence. She juggled them for close to a minute before one of them fell from her grasp and knocked over her bottle of water, spilling the water all over the ground.
“Alright. What did you see?” Vera asked, ignoring the water.
“You juggled five balls, then dropped one of them into your water,” Arden replied.
Vera gave a small nod and asked a question.
“What was the order I juggled them in?”
Arden thought for a moment, trying to remember the innocuous detail.
“Blue, white, yellow, orange, red. Reverse tier order.”
“Good,” Vera beamed. “When did I wink at the two of you?”
“Uh…” Arden trailed off.
He hadn't seen her wink. He hadn't even been looking at her face, just the balls. He recognized the point of this exercise, and knew that the questions would only get harder. They were supposed to see everything, not just what was in front of them.
“15 push-ups,” Vera said to Arden, who reluctantly started them.
‘We’re doing this again, huh.’
He was pleasantly surprised that his arms weren’t aching like they were a couple hours ago. He even felt like he could go for at least 30 pushups instead.
‘Increased recovery rate,’ he realized.
As Arden continued with his punishment, Sya spoke.
“32 seconds in. After you took a step forward. You winked then.”
Vera stared at the Blight Walker, slightly stunned, and Arden momentarily stopped the exercise to look at his sister with an expression mirroring Vera's.
“Holy crap,” he muttered to himself before resuming the push-ups.