The bus pulled away from the school gates at exactly 08:00.
Marie Williams sat in the second-to-last row, her bag on her lap and her eyes fixed on the frost-laced window. The ride was silent, save for the low electric hum of the engine and the occasional cough from one of the thirty students aboard. No one spoke. The gravity of the day hung in the air like static.
They drove south through Fortress City Wiesbaden, passing increasingly fortified checkpoints. The streets near the Assoziation Evaluation Center were more heavily monitored—Civil Protection vehicles rolled alongside automated turrets, their targeting arrays sweeping slowly.
And then the Center came into view.
It looked more like a bastion than a campus—tiered black stone and modern steel fused together, with high walls topped in glowing mana wire. Six rings of reinforced perimeter fencing marked the approach, each rotating faintly around a central core: the entry gate itself.
A stylized arch, adorned with the insignia of the Assoziation.
The same six concentric rings shimmered there in mana-ink.
Marie swallowed hard.
This was real.
Inside the lobby, the students were processed one by one. ID scan. Biometric confirmation. System compatibility reconfirmation. Each step conducted with clinical efficiency.
Marie watched as classmates were pulled aside into side rooms. Some emerged looking dazed, others smiling like they'd just discovered magic—because they had.
She kept her head down, waiting for her name.
Finally:
"Williams, Marie."
She stepped forward.
The technician was a stern woman in her forties, dressed in a deep gray uniform with the Assoziation crest on her left shoulder. She gestured toward the scanner.
"Palm up."
Marie obeyed. The scanner pulsed blue.
A nearby attendant retrieved a mana-sealed case and opened it with a biometric key. Inside rested a large, multifaceted crystal—the size of a human heart—pulsing faintly with inner light.
An S-Rank Mana Stone.
The room dimmed as its ambient energy saturated the air. The technician met her eyes.
"Place your hand on the crystal. Let it read you."
Marie hesitated only for a second.
Then her palm met the surface of the stone.
The reaction was instant.
Light flared outward in a spiraling column. The platform hummed. Energy surged—not outward, but inward.
And then the System spoke.
"Confirmed. Proceed to Gate Room Twelve."
Gate Room Twelve was smaller than expected.
A circular chamber, sterile and clean. At its center stood a curved platform, raised slightly above the floor, surrounded by six rune-inscribed pylons. A transparent barrier shimmered faintly around it—mana containment field.
A second technician, younger this time, smiled at her.
"Just step onto the platform. Try to stay calm. The System will handle the rest."
Marie nodded.
She climbed the two steps and took her place in the center.
The barrier hissed closed.
Then everything changed.
A low pulse filled the room. Not a sound, but a vibration in her bones.
A ring of light appeared beneath her feet. Symbols spun slowly around the edges of the platform, shifting and aligning like gears locking into place.
Marie's vision blurred.
And then a voice—not heard, but felt—spoke within her.
[SYSTEM ONLINE]
[USER: WILLIAMS, MARIE — STATUS: VALID]
[AWAKENING INITIATED]
The light intensified.
A stream of images flooded her mind. Concepts. Instincts. Data.
Then pain.
Not sharp, not unbearable—just overwhelming. Like every nerve in her body had suddenly remembered something ancient and was trying to tell her all at once.
Her knees buckled.
The platform held her.
[ATTRIBUTES CALCULATING...]
A new interface appeared in her vision. Not on a screen—inside her mind. She saw lines of text forming, as though etched into her thoughts.
📈 STATUS WINDOW – MARIE WILLIAMS
🏷️ NAME: Marie Williams
🎂 AGE: 15
📍 RANK: F (835 Points)
💰 CREDITS: 8,600c
ATTRIBUTES:
• STR: 110
• DEX: 120
• CON: 105
• END: 100
• INT: 130
• WIS: 0
• PER: 110
• CHA: 60
• PSI: 0
• VIT: 100
PASSIVE SKILLS:
• Glück des Echos [F]
ACTIVE SKILLS:
• None
BUFFS / DEBUFFS:
• None
[SYSTEM POTENTIAL: ACTIVE]
[UNIQUE SIGNATURE DETECTED – TAGGING AS "UNKNOWN CONFIGURATION"]
[NEW SKILL ACQUIRED – 'Glück des Echos' [F]]
A final pulse passed through her.
Then silence.
The containment field powered down.
Marie stood trembling on the platform. Sweat clung to her back. Her throat was dry.
The technician's voice came through a speaker.
"Step down, please."
She obeyed, legs unsteady.
He handed her a datapad. It showed a static version of the screen she had seen. Her System status.
She stared at the line:
[ACTIVE SKILL DETECTED: 'Glück des Echos']
Her heart dropped.
Outside the chamber, a handler escorted her to a debriefing room.
It was small, quiet. A woman in a slate-blue suit sat across from her, reading from a datasheet.
"No class, no affinity. But high base values across the board."
Marie said nothing.
"That's not a failure," the woman added. "The System sometimes delays specialization. It's rare, but not unheard of."
Marie kept still.
"You'll be issued a provisional license. You'll be placed on observation for adaptive classification. When your configuration matures, the System will notify you."
Marie nodded.
The woman paused.
"For now, I suggest low-risk assignments. Scouting. Recovery. Maybe logistics."
Marie nodded again.
"You're free to go."
The exit hallway was long and sterile.
She passed students—some with glowing eyes, others laughing in disbelief, a few crying quietly. Each had something. A label. A starting point.
Marie had a question mark.
She stepped into the daylight.
It didn't feel different.
But she was.
Even if the world couldn't see it yet.
On the return bus, no one spoke to her.
She sat alone.
The datapad on her lap blinked softly.
She opened her System window again. This time, it rendered with more detail than before.
📈 STATUS WINDOW – MARIE WILLIAMS
🏷️ NAME: Marie Williams
🎂 AGE: 15
📍 RANK: F (835 Points)
💰 CREDITS: 8,600c
ATTRIBUTES:
• STR: 110
• DEX: 120
• CON: 105
• END: 100
• INT: 130
• WIS: 0
• PER: 110
• CHA: 60
• PSI: 0
• VIT: 100
PASSIVE SKILLS:
• Glück des Echos [F]
ACTIVE SKILLS:
• None
BUFFS / DEBUFFS:
• None
She opened the System menu again, trying to will something to change.
But the screen remained the same:
[ACTIVE SKILL DETECTED: 'Glück des Echos']
She sighed.
But she didn't cry.
Instead, she thought:
"Then I'll find out myself."
She closed her eyes.
And somewhere, in the farthest edge of her System, a spark flickered to life.