"Status,"

[Information]

Name: Lane Davenrish

Summoned: N/A

Age: 21 y/o

Height: 1.84 m

Weight: 70 kg

Gender: Male

Class: N/A

Affiliation: Barrage (Temporary)

Birthplace: Haeryn

Location: Testing area of the Gods

Titles: None

------------------------------------

[Stats]

[Strength: 2.04]

[Stamina: 2.01]

[Speed: 2.06]

[Endurance: 1.97]

[Perception: 1.93]

[Mana: 1.34]

[Luck: 2.00]

------------------------------------

[Abilities]

[None]

Lane stared into the air with a befuddled expression. He couldn't understand why this was happening. This...This was the interface?

Had he done it? Had he successfully gained the same power that set the Summoned apart from the Natives? Excitement built up in his body. He'd accepted the fact that he wouldn't get access to the interface, but he'd decided to continue with the ceremony anyway. Despite that, he had secretly hoped to still find a way — and somehow he had.

But what did he do? The day before when Clyde had shown his status window to the newly Summoned, nothing had shown up for him. It must be due to something that happened after that. Was it because he survived the first test? Or perhaps because he passed through the gate into the—as the status window called it—Testing area of the Gods? Was it that simple?

It wasn't.

He knew it wasn't. It couldn't possibly be that simple. He knew that, out of all the things that happened during the last two days, there was only one incident that could be the cause. Something that he couldn't remember, that he shouldn't remember, but was so utterly important. If he could only—

—llo. Earth to Lane. Lane, you there?"

A bright voice pulled Lane out of his thoughts. He turned away from his status window and looked at Rachel, who stared at him with an amused look.

"Welcome back," she said with a smile. "What were you thinking about? You looked like you'd seen a ghost."

He glanced at his status window, and then back at her, remaining silent for a few seconds. "Nothing. I was only looking at my status window."

"Really? Anything special there? Can I see?"

Lane furrowed his brows at her request. "...No, you can't." If he were to show her his status window she would know something was wrong. He might be able to explain away the birthplace, but he couldn't explain the lack of a summoning date. He couldn't trust them not to spread the information, and gods know what might happen then.

"What, why not? I showed you mine. Here," She gestured towards him with her hand. "I'll even show you my extended information."

Another window appeared in front of Lane. His view was starting to be clogged up by them.

[Information]

Name: Rachel Sheppard

Summoned: 1194, 3rd-month, fifth day, Rodian Calendar

Age: 18 y/o

Height: 1.68 m

Weight: 55 kg

Gender: Female

Class: N/A

Affiliation: Barrage (Temporary)

Birthplace: Detroit

Location: Testing area of the Gods

Titles: None

------------------------------------

[Stats]

[Strength: 1.78]

[Stamina: 2.14]

[Speed: 2.04]

[Endurance: 1.84]

[Perception: 2.04]

[Mana: 2.87]

[Luck: 1.96]

------------------------------------

[Abilities]

[Linguist]

Lane waved his hand in an attempt to make the windows disappear, but his hand only passed through the translucent text. After a few tries, he succeeded in removing the windows by focusing on them while imagining them disappearing. Glaring at Rachel, he said. "I'm not showing you. Please don't do that again."

"Rachel, don't be rude to him. If he doesn't want to show you, he doesn't need to." Rachel's brother, Chris, cut in from the side.

She looked at Lake and seemed to realize that she had annoyed him. "I'm sorry. You don't have to show me if you don't want to." She looked slightly regretful. "But can you at least tell me your last name? I did show you mine."

Lane hesitated for a moment, but there was no harm in telling her just his last name. "Davenrish. My name is Lane Davenrish."

"Davenrish?" She looked thoughtful. "I guess that could sound german. Ah, but I don't know if the pronunciation changes with the translation." She sighed. "See, things like this are what annoys me about having a translator forced on me."

His name sounded german? He didn't know where this 'Germany' was, but he'd been lucky that he picked it.

Rachel continued talking. "So, how old are you? I guess you saw, but Chris and I are eighteen."

"I'm twenty-one."

"You're only three years older?!" She said. "You look older..."

A scowl covered Lane's face. Is that supposed to be an insult or a compliment? It didn't make him happy, so...

Rachel shook her hand. "No-no-no, I didn't mean that old. Like, twenty-five, maybe?" Chris hit his sister at the back of the head and she gave out an awkward laugh. "Ahem, anyway...Are you alone?" She asked.

"Yes, I am." Lane ignored their odd behavior and looked at the other pair that sat in the back of the wagon. The twins had climbed on board the wagon together with them. The pair consisted of a man and a woman, slightly older than Lane, who was currently chatting with each other. The other passenger, the middle-aged man, sat in a corner and observed the rest with an expressionless face. The young man at the front was focusing on his job as a coachman. Lane looked at the twins and gestured towards the other pair with his head. "Are you...?"

Rachel turned towards the others in the wagon. "Oh, no-no. It's only me and my brother. We met the others after we passed through the gate and had to find a wagon."

"I see." Lane gave a short reply.

Rachel seemed to hesitate a little as she looked at him. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to...But I'm curious. How did you become an invitee? Do you know someone here in Agartha, or did you maybe buy your ticket?"

Lane gave her a confused look. He didn't know exactly what she meant by any of those terms, but he assumed the invitees were their name for the newly Summoned. He'd heard Clyde say the name Agartha earlier, and guessed it was what the Summoned called this world. Then, was the ticket what they used to travel here? He didn't know for sure, so it was best simply not to answer.

A bump on the road caused the wagon to jump abruptly, forcing everyone to hold on to the railing.

"Sorry!" The coachman shouted from the front of the wagon.

After stabilizing himself and making sure there weren't any more major bumps ahead of them, Lane turned back to Rachel. "Why does it matter?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "It doesn't. I'm just curious by nature. My brother and I got our tickets from our grandpa. He was here during the last expansion, so he's got a few contacts. I was just wondering if it was the same for you."

"Last...expansion?" he hesitated. It was best to show as little as possible of his ignorance, but he wanted to know what she meant about their grandfather being here before.

"Sorry, my sister is a nerd that plays too many games and uses her gaming terms too much." Chris bent forward as he cut in. "She just meant that our grandpa was here the last time people were summoned to this world."

Rachel glared at her brother. "I meant what I said. Last time they fought that undead guy, and this time it's a dragon or something, right? There's even a status window, stats, and freaking magic! That's about as game-like as it gets." She elbowed her brother once again, forcing him to catch his breath. "And don't call me a nerd. I'm your elder sister, so show me some respect...Geek."

Lane couldn't avoid staring at the twins with wide-open eyes as he thought about what they said. According to them their grandpa had been part of the group of Summoned that were summoned before. Excluding now, there had been one previous occasion in history when the gods summoned people from another world to help save this world. But...

"That was over 200 years ago!"

Both the twins gave Lane odd looks and looked at each other.

"Yeah, maybe in this world," Chris said. "But, with the time difference between our worlds, that's only around thirty years back on earth."

"That was like, back in the eighties. You didn't know about that?" Rachel asked. "It's sort of an open secret, although I guess that's only in the right circles? But if you don't even know about that, does that mean you seriously bought your ticket without knowing anything beforehand?"

Lane swore at himself inwardly. He shouldn't have looked so shocked. Luckily for him, Rachel came up with her own explanation.

"Yes, that's right." He nodded his head. He'd had no clue there was a difference in the passage of time between the two worlds — or that some of the Summoned that fought in the crisis almost 240 years ago were still alive back in their own world. There wasn't much that he knew about that time. All he knew were the general facts. Celosia—the kingdom that used to border the Duchy of Coldoan to the west—had somehow fallen and what remained of it had attacked the rest of the world in a war that caused chaos throughout the whole empire. Even though the Old Empire won in the end with the help of the summoned heroes — the damage caused by the war was massive. He'd heard the aftereffects of that crisis sowed the seeds of the Old Empire's fall, ending with its destruction when the old capital was razed a century ago.

Rachel smiled brightly at Lane. "Well, then you're in luck. Grandpa told us so much about this world that we're basically experts already. I might even share some information with you. So, letting me see your status window sounds like a reasonable deal. Don't you th—Agh!"

Rachel glared at her brother who'd placed his elbow in her side. "I was just joking, geez!"

"You've barely spoken with him, and you think he wants to listen to your jokes?! You're just being annoying." Chris said.

Rachel scoffed. "As if you'd know anything about humor."

"What?"

Lane turned away from the twins that started bickering and summoned his status window once more. He hadn't had a good chance to look it through before.

[Information]

Name: Lane Davenrish

Summoned: N/A

Age: 21 y/o

Height: 1.74 m

Weight: 70 kg

Gender: Male

Class: N/A

Affiliation: Barrage (Temporary)

Birthplace: Haeryn

Location: Testing area of the Gods

Titles: None

------------------------------------

[Stats]

[Strength: 2.04]

[Stamina: 2.01]

[Speed: 2.06]

[Endurance: 1.97]

[Perception: 1.93]

[Mana: 1.34]

[Luck: 2.00]

------------------------------------

[Abilities]

[None]

Everything under the first window, 'Information', felt pretty straightforward. He was unsure of what it meant to be affiliated with this 'Barrage', but Rachel was also affiliated with them so it was likely that it had to do with the ceremony.

He felt curious exactly as to what 'Class' entailed. He'd heard the term be used by Summoned before and knew that it had to do what powers they could use. For example, a Summoned could be a mage or a wizard and rely on their mana to cast spells. He didn't know how they got their classes, however. But Clyde mentioned that they would be rewarded with their classes after they complete the second test, so he had that to look forward to.

Then there were his stats. From the looks of it, they were a representation of his physical abilities. If he compared his stats with those of Rachel's, he had a clear advantage when it came to strength and endurance, but other than that it didn't look that much better. He was also at a huge disadvantage when it came to mana. The large difference surprised him. Was he the one with a low amount of mana, or did she have a lot of it?

He had no way of knowing at the moment. Going around to others and asking to see their status windows wasn't the brightest of ideas if he wanted to stay inconspicuous.

The 'Abilities' section on his status window was empty, but he had a feeling that would start to change after he got a class. It was exciting thinking about where all this might lead in the future.

As the wagon rolled on, he summoned and dismissed his status window over and over again to get a feel for it.