Chapter 05: A Sudden Job Change

The man before me, despite his looks, had an overwhelming presence. Not only was his presence strong, but it was also dignified.

I couldn't help but pay respect and be careful of my manners. It was as if I was standing before royalty.

Celestia, the world I come from, is full of strong individuals, and we never bow before anyone other than the guardians of our world. The person before me exuded pressure equivalent to those of the guardians of Celestia.

"I thank you for the letter, Elian Hartley," the man said in a gentle baritone. Before I could respond, he continued, "I believe this is for you."

He tossed the purple crystal to me. I unconsciously leapt forward to catch the stone. Upon a closer look it was a mana stone of the highest grade with a lot of dark mana stored in it. The dark mana was perfect for a Shadowmancy user like me.

I wanted to humbly refuse, but I immediately accepted the rare gain out of greed, "Thank you very much!"

Right as I finished expressing my gratitude, a system message window popped up before me.

For those who are familiar with the system, I don't need to explain much, but those who are not aware of it, the system is like a holographic interface that appears before certain individuals and it relays messages, displays stats, characteristics, and even quests to us.

The system has been a part of our world, Celestia, for a long time. Our ancestors called it by another name though, "The Voice of the World."

The system message read, [Task Completed. Assigning role…]

I was them bombarded with a flurry of system messages.

[Job Change in process...]

[Inspecting user history.]

[Inspecting user stats.]

[Inspecting user's desires.]

[Job shortlisted.]

[Changing job...]

[Please wait..]

[Successful!]

[Result of Job Change: Messenger > Guide]

[Congratulations! You are now a Guide of the Harvest Festival!]

[Job Type: Event]

[Description: As a resident of Celestia, you have been tasked with overseeing the upcoming Harvest Festival as a Guide and leading candidates through the Harvest Festival. This is an event related job and would only be valid during the exclusive period of Harvest Festival.]

[Note: To activate job related skill please return to Celestia to update the system.]

[Alert!]

[Urgent job quest created.]

[You have been issued an urgent job related quest that may help your growth.]

[Quest: My First Recruit!
Please select your first candidate you wish to guide. Remember, your first is always special! Please select from the following list of candidates who you wish to guide.]

[Points rewarded: 10. Available points: 25]

[Please choose Candidates from the following categories:
1 star (2 points),
2 star (3 points),
3 star (5 points),
4 star (7 points),
5 star (9 points)]

[Candidates Interacted with: …] There was a long list of candidates with stars beside it. They were all people i had met during my deliveries as a messenger.

All of us knew that the Harvest Festival was going to begin soon and were working hard to be assigned to some lucrative position. But I got assigned as a guide. Although safe, it is not a very high-profile job.

Sigh, all I could do is blame my luck. The only thing I could do was pick a 4-star candidate and earn some more points to pick more candidates to guide. The number of candidates always outnumber the guides.

We, guides and all involved in the world of Celestia, are awarded points which we can use for various things (that will all be revealed later, it is not important right now).

The system messages continued.

[Shadow Stone Detected! Hidden condition unlocked!]

[System notice: New Candidate Added.]

[Name: Unknown. (Unawakened)

Affiliation: Unknown.

Sponsor: (Information Restricted)

Selection Requirements: 100 Points]

[Hint: Use of shadow stone awards points. Amount depends on the percentage of mana from stone absorbed]

[Time remaining: 3 minutes]

Yup. No matter how I looked at it, the system was talking about the man before me. It wanted me to make the one before me a candidate. The time limit and the generous points were just to get me to choose him.

Moreover, he was 10 times more expensive than the highest ranking candidates. Maybe the high price was because its from another world, or maybe he held that much power.

But, the system of Celestia is fair. That has been an unchanging rule throughout time. So that would mean that he would lose all his powers and skills as a balancing compensation. So what worth would be in spending all my time to recruit this one uncertain candidate?

As I was thinking, the timer counted down [Time remaining: 2 minutes 30 seconds].

The man before me patiently waited for me even though I had not spoken for the past 30 seconds.

"Are you alright," he inquired?

"Y-yes," I responded. I could use the system commands by thinking but that was not the case for absorbing the stone. I mustered some courage and requestioned, "It may be rude of me but do you mind if I absorb this shadow stone here?"

After two seconds of silent thinking, he nonchalantly responded, "Sure, go ahead."