"I don't make the rules, miss. So, are you going to buy that energy gun?" asked a green humanoid creature with eyes similar to those of a fly, wearing a red pointed hat. It was an alien.
"Hey... Are you sure you want to buy that? It's pretty expensive..." said Andrew.
"I don't care about the price," she replied. "As long as I don't have to reload..."
"I don't think that's a good reason," said Mónica, who was also there.
"And it has no recoil! That's why I want it."
"I see..." Andrew said.
"But miss, are you sure?" the alien asked. "That gun scales with A in Strength and C in Focus.”
"Why the hell does a gun scale with Strength!?" Erin exclaimed.
In the end, she bought it. She spent $3,000, almost all of her savings. Incredible. And yes, she bought it even though it scaled more with Strength than Focus.
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"I thought it would cost more..." said Eliah. "And what do you mean by 'scales with Strength and Focus'?"
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Since a certain event in 1969, YGGDRASYL and the Catholic Church discovered they could create weapons that increased their base power based on a person's main "attributes."
The attributes, as I mentioned before, were: Vigor, Resilience, Mind, Strength, Dexterity, Focus, Arcane, Willpower, and Spirit. Scaling ranged from E, D, C, B, A to S, with E being the lowest and S the highest.
Here are the attributes of each one, measured with an AuraSphere—a spherical machine where you place your hand. It works using aura, allowing for a more precise measurement of these attributes. However, it is also possible to measure them with less accuracy by creating a Makt ability specifically for this purpose. This method also helps determine whether someone is "normal," superhuman, or a prodigy:
With a limit of 40 (except for Andrew, whose limit was 80), each attribute was important for something:
- Vigor: Determines your "maximum vitality," meaning how much damage you can take before being knocked out or dying.
- Endurance: Defines how much damage you can withstand without being severely affected and how long you last before getting fatigued in combat or prolonged activity.
- Mind: Determines how much you can use abilities like Makt, or others. Reduces damage taken if it’s elemental.
- Strength: Determines whether you can use heavy weapons, how much you can carry, and increases the power of equipment that scales with it.
- Dexterity: Determines your skill in using small weapons, how agile you are, and increases the power of equipment that scales with it.
- Focus: Determines if you can use ranged weapons, accuracy, and increases the power of equipment that scales with it.
And remember, the normal range for a human is between 2 and 9 points in each.
These attributes are basically the same as "in real life" or normally. But YGGDRASYL considers these their main functions, at least during work. And now, the more spiritual attributes:
- Arcane: Determines one’s affinity with the supernatural and magic. It affects the effectiveness of spells and mystical abilities, as well as resistance to them. Sometimes, it also affects Makt.
- Willpower: Determines one's ability to resist mental effects like fear, mind control, and spiritual or "holy" damage. Makt can be influenced by this, but mostly only the Church knights use it.
- Spirit: Determines someone’s connection to spiritual energies or their ability to use powers beyond the physical plane, like Makt. Also determines resistance to such abilities.
All these can be improved through training (or in other ways, like on a certain night).
A week had passed since the events previously mentioned, and now the group was at rank C. They used to be rank D. Oh, right. Misaki was rank B, and Mónica was rank D but had now reached rank C.
Back to the story, at this moment, they were inside one of the bases, resting.
As for why they joined YGGDRASYL... Well, they thought they might be able to help Mat in some way and learn more about what he was planning, plus they supposedly had potential with Makt. Erin resisted memory erasure despite being an ordinary person, Andrew had a Summoning ability, and James remembered everything the next day while some agents were still in town.
After passing the physical and written exams and learning Makt, they discovered that Andrew was a "Prodigy," while Erin and James were just normal people without natural powers.
Despite having no natural powers, Erin had an affinity for Electricity, James for Water, and Andrew supposedly for Earth, but in reality, he was aligned with Darkness, as I mentioned before.
Now, let’s explain how their Makt abilities worked:
- James: Could control water, similar to natural Hydrokinesis, but weaker. The requirements were that he needed to be near a water source within about 10 meters. He had to stay calm, and using it tired him physically. He could shape water into almost any form and could cut with it, but not very effectively.
- Andrew: Had the ability to form connections with remnants of aura, better known as ghosts. He could have a maximum of two, as more would cause him mental and physical fatigue. These spirits retained their original power but could be enhanced using Andrew’s aura. They were weaker during the day and could only be summoned for about ten minutes, with thirty-minute breaks between summons. However, consuming aura to enhance them wasn’t an issue since Andrew was a "Prodigy," and his natural ability allowed him to absorb energy from his surroundings in small amounts.
- Extra – Mónica: She only improved her physical capabilities, which required consuming aura. Her ability as a Navigator was her natural power. Essentially, she was superhuman.
Changing topics, YGGDRASYL worked by having you select missions, but the ones available were based on your rank. Depending on how well you completed them, you could move up or down in rank, though you still received rewards regardless. It was a functional system, so to speak. Ranks went from F to S—F, E, D, C, B, A, and S. Those in ranks A and S, unlike the rest who were just stronger humans, were truly powerful due to their mastery of Makt. Some could even survive direct explosions. That’s already impressive with Makt since it’s not that strong. Oh, and sometimes missions were assigned based on performance.
Regarding the ranks, some people preferred to stay in lower ones since high-rank missions tended to be dangerous, and... for some, it wasn’t worth it, either because they didn’t feel strong enough or for other reasons.
Additionally, YGGDRASYL was organized as follows:
- Council of Elders: Experts in the supernatural and extraterrestrial (mostly the latter, as the Church focused more on the supernatural). They made the organization's key decisions.
- Veiled Arbiters: Those who judged YGGDRASYL members or beings from other worlds who committed crimes.
- Public Affairs Division: Managed relationships with governments and worked to keep everything under control.
- Instructors: They were responsible for teaching Makt to new members with potential, though they also trained those who couldn’t use it.
- Special Operations Division: The ones dressed in black, the agents. They carried out all kinds of missions—except for containment.
- Tactical Operatives: They were the soldiers. People who couldn’t use Makt. They were trained in combat and served as support for Makt users. Oh, and several of them came from the armies of the countries where missions took place.
- Investigation Team/Group: As the name suggests, they investigated cases or developed new technology.
- Containment Team/Group: They were the ones who handled the containment of entities discovered by the Operations team.
- DS Members: These were individuals sentenced to death from allied planets, sent in as cannon fodder. Disposable members used to study the behavior of certain anomalies or monsters. No pay. Just food.
There was supposed to be a director overseeing everything, but not much was known about them.
Additionally, Earth/Gaia housed the main base of YGGDRASYL. I say "main" because they had branches on other planets as well. Those branches mostly conducted missions on their own worlds, though sometimes members from different planets would come to assist.
Now, back to the story.
James wasn’t with the others. He was on the rooftop of the base, which had a ceiling and a glass window encircling the entire building. The base itself was in the desert. No, I won’t give an exact location.
There were several chairs there, along with some people. Some were having lunch.
"Hey, aren’t you going with the others?" Misaki asked as she approached James.
"No, not yet," he replied.
"I see," Misaki said as she sat down next to him. "Are they… really your friends?"
"Yeah, why do you ask?"
"I just don’t see you that close to them."
"Really? …Maybe," James admitted. "To be honest, I was a bit closer to Mathias, though I didn’t know him that well either."
Misaki knew about Mathias and what had happened. The whole situation had caused a stir among the YGGDRASYL members for a few days.
"Then why did you decide to come with them?"
"Ah… I don’t know," he admitted. "I think… I wanted to see more supernatural things or something like that…"
"You wanted to feel important, didn’t you?" Misaki said.
"I…" James was caught off guard by her words. He had never really thought about why he joined, but… maybe it was for that reason. And that made him feel a little bad.
"Come on, don’t be like that," Misaki said. "It’s not a bad thing. Everyone wants to feel like their lives truly matter."
"You’re right… But tell me, when you found out about all this—the things hidden from normal people—what did you think?"
"Ah, well… To be honest, it was extremely traumatic," Misaki admitted. "But I kind of understand why they do it. But…" She stopped for a moment.
"But…?"
"If normal people found out about this… it would be chaos. If they knew, they would live in fear," she said. "Even though I think hiding all of this is wrong, in some ways, it’s also a good thing."
"I get it. It was shocking for me too, and I agree with what you’re saying."
"Most people think the same, you know? Ha ha. Our ideas aren’t exactly unique," Misaki said as she stood up. "Well, I’m heading back to the others. You coming?"
"Yeah, I’m coming," James said.
And so they went. Oh, and as you can see, Misaki isn’t as serious when they’re not on missions