The Beginning...
"Kyle Zehern, right? My name is Leren Asher. You may be wondering why we are here, right?" The girl sitting in the centre said while maintaining a professional smile on her face.
Kyle had a rough idea about the reason behind the visit of the three people sitting before him but he still nodded expressionlessly while maintaining eye contact with the girl.
"As you can already tell by looking at our uniforms that we are the students from the Ascender's Division of our high school and you may already know many of the details about the Ascender's Division, so I will not go into details about it. I am the secretary of the Storm Ascender's club and I am here to officially recruit you into our club."
"You must know that it is very helpful for any student to join a club because the first assignment that you receive in the second week of the new term will be a group assignment. And the majority of your assignments and examinations in the school will also be group based. As such, the clubs provide excellent opportunities to find teammates and form a stable team. Apart from that, we think that you will be a great addition to our club, so I would like to invite you to join our club."
"Storm is officially acknowledged as the strongest club of our school, while we also lead the Storm Reign which is one of the top five cross-academy clubs in the state. You should know that it will be the best decision for any first-year student to join Storm. If you agree to join us right now, you don't need to go through all the recruitment procedure and all the hassle in your first week of school."
"So, you can fill your details in this form right now and I will take care of all the procedures for you and you can officially join our club by tomorrow." Leren said while passing the paper in her hand to Kyle.
Upon being handed the paper, Kyle had only one thought in his mind 'She has such a talent for being a salesperson….'
Kyle took a look at the paper that was passed to him. The form was no different from all the forms that he had received from the clubs during his middle-school. When Kyle put back the form on the table, the second person began talking.
He was a tall man with well defined muscles and a perfect posture. He was dressed in the school uniform and carried the batch of the Soulence Castle youth division on his blazer which highlighted his toned muscles while also not looking excessively burly at the same time.
"Hello! My name is Rel Ster. I am representing the Thunder Falcon Ascender club to invite you to join us throughout your school years. Our club is affiliated to the Soulence Castle Guild and Thunderbolts, which is the official youth division of Soulence Castle and also the strongest school level association in our state.
"Any of our members are eligible to get an official position ranging from third commissioned officer to fifth comissioned officer in the Soulence Castle after graduation if you take part in the two months long training camp which is held once a year for two years. This training camp is organised exclusively for the members of Thunderbolts."
"We will also provide you with other benefits, but you will know about them once you join the club." Saying this, he also handed a form to Kyle.
After the two of them finished, the third person also expressed his willingness to invite Kyle to join their club while mentioning the background and benefits of joining the club before handing him the form. After that, the three of them left Kyle's house.
Kyle, who was left alone at his home, looked at the three forms left at his table while thinking something.
Ever since the three-decades long chaos after the appearance of the Ascension Temple, the world had changed in more ways than one could imagine.
This new era revolved around the ascenders. During the chaos, nearly all the educational institutions had stopped functioning. And when they restarted, the things being taught to the students had completely changed. Just like the modern world, the education also revolved around the ascenders and the Ascension Temple.
Combat based training became the major focus of education along with the basic mechanics of missions in Ascension Temple and ways to complete them.
Leaving all these thoughts aside, Kyle walked to a miniature gym in the basement of his house and began training his usage of the skills that consumed mana. The mana density on the first floor of the Ascension Temple was almost negligible which made it impossible to use the skills that consumed mana more than a fixed number of times.
Once the MeP (Mana equivalent point) was exhausted, there was no way to replenish it on the first floor, while the mana density on Earth had been increasing ever since the appearance of the Ascension Temple. This was also the reason why Kyle decided to return back once he ran out of mana.
Kyle's mana had already been replenished once since he returned. Kyle repeatedly exhausted and replenished his mana in continuous cycles while he was training and continued doing so till he was completely exhausted. After finishing his training, Kyle took a bath and directly went to sleep.
Next morning, Kyle directly teleported inside the Ascension Temple as soon as he finished his breakfast. The display of the wrist band that Kyle wore on his hand immediately turned blue once he entered the Ascension Temple.
In this era when anyone could enter or leave the Ascension Temple with just a thought, this wrist band issued by the school was one of the measures to keep an update on the situation of the students.
The display of this wrist band was colourless when on Earth, blue when inside the Ascension Temple and turned red once the vitals of the students reached a dangerously low level while also keeping the count of the number of lives that they had remaining. As such, the school and the government could provide timely help to the students whenever it was possible while also preventing any unnecessary wastage of efforts. This was also the reason why the three seniors could find out about him returning on the previous day.
Getting out of the inn room, Kyle was on his way towards the mayor's office to choose a new mission when someone suddenly bumped into him. Kyle was able to maintain his balance but the person who bumped into him couldn't and fell down to the ground.
"Ouch! I am sorry!" A delicate feminine voice sounded in Kyle's ears as he turned back to see a young girl of about twelve years or so lying on the ground. She was well dressed by the standards of this world and had a very likeable face with delicate features, but what drew Kyle's attention to her was a red coloured illusionary crystal hovering on the top of her head.
'A mission.' Kyle said to himself.
"Are you alright? Here, take my hand and get up." Kyle said while extending his hand towards the girl.
"Thank you!" The girl said as she reached out to hold Kyle's hand and stood up. It was only after standing up that the girl looked at the person who helped her up.
"A-an as-ascender!" Reiler said with a shivering voice as she quickly distanced herself from Kyle.
Once Kyle heard her tone, he was sure that this girl had some trauma against the ascenders.
Kyle's face darkened a bit thinking about a certain group of people. When everyone was given an extra life and a chance to get stronger, many of the people abandoned their morality in the pursuit of strength. These people would treat the inhabitants of the different worlds of the Ascension Temple as expendable commodities while reasoning that they were merely NPCs like those from the online games of the past and the entire existence of these NPCs was for their convenience. This mentality also led to a very high rate of crime against the inhabitants by the ascenders while robbing them and selling them as slaves were very common.
This also resulted in many of the inhabitants fearing and being repulsed towards the ascenders. The girl before Kyle or someone close to her seemed to have encountered one such scum.
Kyle inhaled deeply and concealed the disgusted look on his face and looked back at the girl with a calm expression. Sensing Kyle's gaze, the girl took two more steps back while her face showed a troubled expression.
Seeing that the girl was scared by him, Kyle let out a sigh and turned back towards the direction he was walking in. Trying to coax the girl or call himself righteous in front of her right now would only have counterproductive effects. He could only give up on this mission or have a try at it later if he had a chance to do so.
"Wa-wait…You are an as-ascender, aren't you? You will do anything for money, ri-right? I…I have a mission for you." Kyle heard the girl's voice as soon as he began walking away.
Kyle turned back and gave a strange look to the girl which seemed to be saying 'Are you an idiot?' Who would accept the mission if she gave the mission in such a manner? Well, there was a group of people who lusted after such young girls and there were also some people who got pleasure out of being abused, maybe this mission was meant for someone belonging to at least one of the two groups.
If that was so, then he had no intention to take this mission. But when Kyle turned and saw the girl's expression which was a mixture of struggle and despair paired with the two streams of tears rolling down from her eyes, he held himself back from rejecting her.
"I won't do everything for money, but I can hear what you want me to do. I will decide if I am interested in doing it or not after I have heard the details of the mission." Kyle said while maintaining the distance from the girl, lest she be scared.
The girl took a deep breath and looked at Kyle while holding back her urge to run away. When Kyle saw the efforts made by the girl just to look at him, his lips twitched a bit, but he maintained his calm.
"My father went to the kingdom of Yeselvia after he received a letter from the capital two weeks ago. He was supposed to return yesterday, but we lost contact with him two days ago and there are rumours that something terrible happened in one of the cities that he should have been passing from when we lost contact." The girl said while trying to hold back her tears, but failing miserably at it.
"I… I have heard that…..that yo-you ascenders have a network to find information about many things. Could... Can you he-help me find out what happened?" The girl said in between her sobs.
[Generating new mission…]
[...]
[...]
[Mission generated]
[New chain mission: The tragedy of Yeselvia.]