Is there really something strange about the color I picked Randidly asked curious
The old man smiled It certainly wasn’t a smart choice Has Shal not told you Randidly shook his head and the old man chuckled
Ha obviously not That young one has his head stuck so far up the ass of his spear he cannot see Then come let me explain
It all goes back to the Spearman who had four disciples and was the one who slew the great Calamity that came in the wake of the system Afterwards the Spearman proceeded to ascend to the 4th Cohort looking in his righteous fury for the source of the system that brought such death and strife to his world But to protect the world he left his four disciples the founders of the four schools and ordered them to train our youth well for no matter what he found he had no doubt we would need more strength than simply his for what was to come
The old man flicked his hand and a gourd appeared within it from which he took a long swig looking around Then he sighed and continued to talk The strife between the four disciples is another tale Suffice to say that we followed the disciple who believed the path to power lay through training oneself until you lived up to the the potential inherent in a spear We train Spearman
The founder of our school used a tassle of a color that was named after him Byzantium A dark dark purple He became the master of 1000s of disciples but Styles slowly formed under him A Tassle is the representation of your Style and a Tassle needs color Byzantium also created the ranking system we still use At the top are Masters then Pontiffs the Adepts then Artisans Each is associated with certain shades
Of Byzantium’s disciples not all were talented These ranks helped organize them and tassle colors were slowly selected to distinguish which area you do or will belong to From those disciples and Styles 3 rose to the top Two men and a woman The two men competed fiercely but the woman preferred to train quietly Eventually Byzantium decreed the order of their strength First his own son who triumphed over the other man was given Violet Then the other man who was stubborn enough to rise up from a common background Indigo To the woman who did not compete he awarded Lilac
Time flowed onward and to our horror another Calamity descended but no longer did the Spearman remain to slay it instead all 4 schools held a tournament to select their best and brightest to meet the Calamity They held a tournament
At the end of it two heroes remained One from the Death School with a bone white tassle And a masked individual who claimed to be from the Spearman’s school whose tassle was emerald In the final battle the Spearman school was victorious But in the collision the mask of the man was destroyed And it was revealed that the contestant was that woman who had been given the lilac tassle It was the young woman who was the daughter of the Spearman
Solemnly she looked up at Byzantium and famously said I apologize but I will not fly your colors ’ Shaking his head Byzantium replied Slay this Calamity and you will have earned your own ’
Randidly was scratching his head slightly confused If this color was so important to their school then why But the old man’s next words stilled Randidly
Unfortunately she failed The woman disappeared but the Calamity rampaged for years and our world paid a dear price to slay it
For several long moments there was silence Then the old man continued to speak She was strong true But in the end she wasn’t strong enough Although he couldn’t discredit her completely Byzantium famously included Emerald in the list of colors available to Pontiffs the second highest tier of Spear users even though she was strongest in the world Only Violet Indigo and Lilac were chosen as colors available only to Masters That would be her eternal shame
Moving to the present you may choose your color in two ways One is based on your teacher Shal is an interesting case but he is approaching the Adept tier that is no doubt That should give you access to pale blues and below the yellows oranges and reds etc Or you can go based on your own potential The old man paused Possessing a Runic rarity Skill set before Lvl 25 qualifies as having the potential to become a Pontiff in your lifetime But the color emerald is not deemed honorable It is a source of shame for our entire School The color that failed the world For that you will be targeted
To make matters worse there is another reason to target you The old man said with a smile There is such a thing in our world as rainbow hunters’ They challenge and kill other spear users taking their tassle for their collection aiming for unique and vibrant colors to create a beautiful rainbow collection of tassles Although the Heart School has green tassles commonly they are across the world and difficult to encounter Due to that fact
my tassle is a hotly desired commodity by men who kill other men in order to decorate their mantle Randidly said slowly
The old man nodded
Once more silence descended on the boat For several seconds Randidly considered what the man had told him But again his thoughts were interrupted by the old man speaking
But it is a good thing I think To have pride and to choose your color boldly It is only the young who can make such foolish decisions because only they have the audacity to survive such idiocy
Randidly decided to take that comment as a compliment rather than an insult based on the absent smile on the man’s face and asked What’s your name
Divvit And as he said his name Divvit’s smile was wide and full
So Mr Divvit do I need to worry about people coming to challenge me
Divvit chuckled Well no because technically what will happen is they will challenge the location where your banner stands As it is my boat and as Shal is your master either of us can defend your honor and fight for you Since we are invincible you have nothing to fear
Randidly frowned Couldn’t they attack me while I was off the boat Then come take my tassle later
Luckily not Byzantium made it law that only a duel held under a hanging tassle will enable the winner to collect their spoils from the loser So if they want it they will come here Then Divvit frowned and added But if particularly conservative individuals are offended by the emerald choice they might just attack you whenever and dump your body into the sea But this is likely a small minority And it will take time for them to hear and have their hearts filled with fury over such a small thing as color Better focus on the qualifier for now
Randidly was silent for a moment Can I win this How strong will these opponents be
With a long penetrating glance Divvit looked Randidly up and down before finally saying based on what Shal has told me and what I’ve seen you are about as powerful as someone at Lvl 15 Although you seem to have gained some strength since the two of you sparred
Although there was an acknowledgement at the end Divvit’s word’s still chilled Randidly Lvl 15 A world that was a part of the system for a long time certainly had different standards when it came to strength They likely determined the best path of training the limits before Aether Starvation hit which Patrons to use and raised their warriors to surpass those limits
Most enemies there should be around your level or a little below Most of the disciples with any sort of talent have skipped this step anyway and already received an invitation to the tournament You should likely make it
Divvit’s sentence was a grim one but Randidly didn’t believe that it was really that worrisome Are spells allowed in the melee Are potions allowed
Divvit nodded slowly saying Well yes but most people choose to focus their stats and skills in the single area of the spear but there are those who choose to be both a spear user and a mage and Randidly grinned True he had been judged on his ability to use the spear and been found to only have the strength of someone at Lvl 15 But the Ghosthound was not simply a spear user When compared to his library of versatile spells honestly his spear moves were somewhat lacking