Restrictions

"We should leave now," the wisp said once the registration was complete, but Jax didn't hear it. He was focused on his Ascendant Status, confused for the most part, as he hadn't expected to come across this many things right from the start.

"What's a Navi Stage?" Jax asked.

"I'll explain on the way. We can't stay here for too long," the wisp said and made Jax leave the hall.

The hall gates were wide open, revealing a bright blue sky outside. Jax stepped out and was immediately met with the view of a large seaside city.

The hall he was in was at the top of a hill, allowing him to look down over the city and the sea beyond. A salty breeze gently caressed his face, causing his nose to twitch slightly.

"Where are we?" Jax couldn't help but ask at the sight of it all.

Tiny houses littered the entire hill, each one different from the next, with brick walls and slanted roofs. People walked along the road, while some rode on Carriages drawn by bulls. Children's laughter filled the street nearby, coming from an open field where dozens of them played with a each other.

"Let me find out where we are," the wisp said and zipped out of existence for a second. A moment later, it reappeared. "You're in Seacrest City. It's a port city within the Kingdom of Telaris. You should find out more on your own."

"Okay… but why is there a city inside a train?" he asked. "And look at that sea. Just how big is this place?"

"While we call it a Carriage, it would be more accurate to call each of these places their own world. They span hundreds of thousands of miles across, only ending at a large ice wall that stretches just as far. You will see hundreds of different towns and cities in this place."

Jax was shocked. There was so much in just Carriage 10?

"What about the other Carriages? Are they the same?" he asked.

"No, the next Carriages are smaller," the wisp answered. "Not by design, though. Each Carriage dynamically adjusts in size based on the number of people living there. The higher Carriages are more difficult to reach, so they end up having a smaller population and, as a result, a smaller size. They're still massive, though."

Jax was speechless. The idea that there were entire worlds within these Carriages was difficult for him to fathom.

"Anyway, let's leave this place," the wisp suggested.

Jax nodded with little focus. He looked around and saw a flight of stairs leading down to a road below. "Any idea where I should go first?" he asked.

"The training center," the wisp quickly answered. "Each city should have multiple training centers. They're a great place for newbies like you to stay and learn how to fight."

"Do I need to know how to fight?" Jax asked.

"Ascending through the Carriages isn't easy. You have to defeat many others who have the same desire as you," she said. "So fighting is necessary."

Jax didn't question her. He simply accepted it for what it was.

He walked down the stairs and reached the road. He passed a couple holding hands, a man carrying a cloth bag, and a store where a woman argued about the price of something with the shopkeeper.

Each one of these people was real, and each one lived here. "Did they all find a ticket to get here?" Jax asked. "Most of them are Settlers, right?"

"Not all of them," the wisp answered. "Most are actually descendants of Settlers."

That made sense to Jax. He looked around the street until he found someone sitting idly outside a small tea shop, drinking. He asked the man for directions to the closest training center and was told where to go.

The directions contained a lot of turns and landmarks—too many for Jax to remember all at once. Thankfully, his helper knew exactly where the man was referring to, so they began their journey there.

From where they were, it would take at least another fifteen minutes.

"Oh, right. Can we go over what I saw back there?" Jax asked. "There were a bunch of things I needed to check."

"About your Ascendant Stutus," the wisp said. "What did it say?"

"I can't remember most of it now. I do remember something about a Navi Stage. What's that?" he asked.

"Will it to appear," the wisp said.

"What are you talking about?"

"The Ascendant Status. Will it to appear, and it will show up again," she said.

"Oh! Okay."

Jax tried, and the list of texts appeared again in his vision and in his mind.

[Ascendant Status:]

Name: Jax

Path: Mind

Navi Stage: N/A

Highest Carriage: 10

Helper: T-1388C

Time Remaining: 42 Days

[SPELLS]

[SKILLS]

[INVENTORY]

[MAP]

[TICKETS]

[REQUIREMENTS]

[RESTRICTIONS]

"Right, Navi Stage. It says N/A. What does that mean?" he asked.

"Navi is the source of everything within the Celestial Express. It's a type of energy created specifically by the Navigator, similar to Mana, Qi, Essence, Aether, or any other type of energy you may find in the universe."

"Once you start learning how to gather and use Navi, you'll progress through various Navi Stages as you improve. Since you haven't started yet, your Navi Stage isn't available."

"Oh!" Jax said. He was interested in learning more about Navi, but there were other things that made him even more curious.

"What about Time Remaining? And why does it say 42 days?" Jax asked.

"Don't worry about it. It's just time you need to find a ticket to go to the next Carriage. When the 42 days end, it will return to 60 days again. It's a 2 month cycle in the 10th Carriage.

"I see," Jax said. He didn't understand it all that well right now, but he was bound to learn it on his own later on. "Right, I have a bunch of things here, like Spells and Skills. How do I check them?" 

"Just think of opening them, and it'll happen on its own," the wisp said.

Jax nodded and thought about opening the Spells category. He was excited to see what was inside. The wisp had said Spells were magic, and he couldn't wait to use them.

The Spells category opened, but it was completely empty.

"Huh? It's empty. Why?" Jax asked in surprise.

"Of course it's empty," the wisp said. "You just started. It would be more surprising if it wasn't. For now, everything except Restrictions should be empty."

"Restrictions?" Jax asked. "What's that?"

"Remember how I said that each Ascendant has to progress while at a disadvantage?" the wisp asked. "The Restrictions category shows exactly what that disadvantage is. Check what you got."

Jax frowned. He hated the idea of having any restriction at all, but he hoped it wasn't something that would make his journey to the Navigator too difficult.

He opened the Restrictions category and found a single entry inside.

[Restrictions]

Single Spell Sorcerer: You can only learn One(1) spell your entire life. In exchange, the spell you learn will be significantly improved.

Jax froze in place, staring at the restriction for a long time. Wasn't this a terrible restriction? Especially for him, who had been looking forward to using a variety of magic.

"What does it say?" the wisp asked. "Is your sea of Navi small? Do your spells have increased cooldowns? Are you restricted to a category of spells?"

"No," Jax said in a dejected tone. "I can only ever learn a single spell and never be able to change it or learn another one."

The wisp paused. "The Single Spell Sorcerer restriction?"

Jax nodded.

The wisp audibly sighed. "That's one of the worst ones."