'It's a little brighter than I'd expect for the lowest tier?' I muse to myself, my confusion growing as the light continues shining brighter and brighter.
Eventually, the intensifying light comes to a halt.
"Not bad, Buford. C-Tier." the tester says, shocking me to my core.
I quickly pull up my status.
[Class: Gamer (F-Tier)] [-] [+]
It hasn't been upgraded. It still says "F-Tier" right there. So why? Is it because of it's potential that it shows as a higher tier? Or maybe the "???" ranked ability?
The tester looked at me and chuckled.
"You look like you've seen a ghost, were you expecting better? You did seem quite confident."
"No, no, it's not that. Honestly, I was expecting F-Tier. If you wouldn't mind sating my curiosity, what are the evaluation standards that the crystal uses?
It was the tester's turn to be shocked.
"Huh, you walked in with an expression like you knew exactly what tier you'd be, and confidence, but you were expecting F-Tier? You're an interesting chap!"
I chuckle nervously, maybe I let my assuredness show a little too much.
"Well, I suppose I was just accepting my fate, but C-Tier is a lot better than I was expecting." I reply.
"It certainly is! At F-Tier you'd struggle to make a living as a hunter, but at C-Tier you're pretty much guaranteed a comfortable life outside the gates. As for the evaluation standards, it measures your class' innate mana quality, as well as the strength of it's abilities, and we've created a system to assign the combined output into tiers." He explains, taking a sip of water before continuing.
"So technically speaking, if someone's class' mana quality itself was F-Tier, but they had 2 S-Tier abilities, it could land them in E-Tier or even D-Tier. There's been no recorded cases of a low-tier class having abilities that are more than 1 or 2 tiers higher than it though, so that's more theoretical than anything."
I show a look of slight confusion, but eventual comprehension, hiding that his words made me realize that I knew myself to have confirmed that theory.
"That actually makes a lot of sense!" I say, finishing our talk and my test amicably.
I'm guided out of the testing room and given an Awakened I.D. that shows "C-Tier" in shining letters.
Passing by the lines of people again, I notice both jealous glances as well as glances of nervousness shifting into calm as people see my confident demeanor after walking out of the testing room, many of these peoples' thoughts probably being along the lines of 'Well if the kid can confidently walk in and get a C-Tier, certainly I can too.'
I chuckle to myself a little and head out to the parking lot, finding Miss Grace patiently waiting for me while on her phone.
I knock gently on the window of the vehicle before opening the door so as not to startle the woman, and I settle myself into the car comfortably.
"You seem quite content. Good results?" She asks.
"Not bad." I say, showing off my C-Tier Awakened I.D.
She smiles and chuckles a little.
"Well I have good news to add. The government gives a higher stipend to awakened based on their class and potential, so your monthly paycheck should be a good bit higher now, have fun with the extra spending money, but don't forget to save money for important things and spend wisely. I'd recommend living a normal life until you're an adult and then deciding if you want to risk your life in gates or not, so save some money for gear and important supplies while you think things over, and in the case that you decide not to head into gates you can always spend that saved money on other things." She advises.
"And also, guilds will likely approach you and try to get you to sign training contracts or other kind of recruitment contracts, turn them down for now. They can be very exploitative of the young. If you really want to join a guild make sure to read the fine print thoroughly and think things through, don't get overexcited by the promised benefits and rush into anything." She says, frustration and anger flaring in her tone as she mentions the exploitative nature of some guilds.
"Thank you, I'll take your words to heart." I say, conveying my genuine gratitude.
An uneventful car ride follows, and Miss Grace drops me off at home before quickly heading out. She seemed a little rushed as she was leaving, but given her nature she probably had been putting off whatever she needed to do until she had gotten me home safely.
I head up the stairs to my apartment and unlock the door with practiced ease, setting down my coat and taking off my shoes before leaving the doorway. With my Awakened I.D. secured, I open up my Awakened Platform and decide to finally create my username on the platform.
"Hmm. 'TheGamer'? Surprisingly not taken, I'll go with it. It'll fit my brand when I go into content creation as well." I muse out loud as I find my way to the fridge and reheat some takeout I had leftover from the other day.
As I eat, I think back to what I've learned about Gates since arriving in this world.
When a Gate appears, the government sends a team for assessment, before placing a tier-based difficulty level on the gate based on the mana output and gate environment. After which, rights to the guild can be sold off by the one who discovered or first reported the gate, sometimes the Awakened Association will buy them and have it's own agents clear it, and sometimes guilds will purchase them.
If a gate is left unpurchased for too long, the government will assign a guild the responsibility of clearing the Gate before a Dungeon Break occurs. Such Dungeon Breaks have been the cause of mass destruction in the past, one such case with an A-Tier gate early on in the Mana Apocalypse being the reason "Ohio" became "New Ohio." The whole state was destroyed in the aftermath, and it took a lot of government funding and hours of labor for it to be rebuilt to what it is today.
Typically, a Gate closes when the boss monster is defeated, or in special cases when the clear conditions are met, but sometimes the government will clear a dungeon up to the boss monster, but not kill it, that way they can vet the dungeon for dangers and assign teams to regularly cull the population, making it safe for newly Awakened to train, level up, and even earn a bit of starting capital for better gear.
Sometimes bigger guilds will also send in scouts to look for promising individuals to recruit. After recruiting them, the guild typically takes them to their own privately owned dungeons to train them more rigorously, teach them cooperation with a specific team, and teach them the rules and duties of the guild.
Currently, I'm thinking of buying a weapon, forgoing armor for now because of [Gamer's Constitution], and buying another spell or two, before entering a Public Gate and grinding out some XP.
*Ding!*
Suddenly, a bell noise rang out in my mind
[System Quest Initiated]