When Alicar truly focused on an individual, he could sense a faint essence emanating from them, which he assumed was their soul.
Panels appeared before his eyes, displaying information that had been hidden from him moments before.
---
[Name: Kris Nightfell]
[Race: Human]
[Level: 1]
[Vessel Potential: Meh...]
---
He checked another person.
---
[Name: Olivia Blues]
[Race: Human]
[Level: 1]
[Vessel Potential: Decent]
---
Alicar observed the souls of dozens of people, moving through the crowded base with focused intensity.
The high majority had "Bad," "Decent," or "Meh..." potential, their essences flickering weakly as they went about their business. No one truly stood out to him.
Since he only had one contract slot, Alicar really needed to make a good choice, so he didn’t try to speedrun this process.
He took his time, studying each person carefully, weighing their potential against what he hoped to achieve.
Fortunately, he could still investigate other information about the panel in his head, and with that, he turned his attention to the next most intriguing aspect: his talent.
Classes and talents operated on different scales, as talents were considered to be innate abilities that a person was linked to at birth, and they were extremely rare.
Not every awakener got them, in fact many assumed only 1 out of 1,000 awakeners did, and those that did gained a massive advantage over others.
The fact Alicar managed to not only awaken at the last second, but also that he had a talent, was genuinely shocking.
[Talent: Infinite Evolution]
[Evolution Points: 0]
Beside these two panels, there was no description on his talent at all, no explanation of what it did or how it could be activated.
Alicar had no idea how it worked, and the lack of information frustrated him more than he wanted to admit.
He’d need to gain an evolution point to test it out, but as he had no information, even gaining one seemed complicated.
Regardless, he pushed those thoughts aside and spent an entire hour looking around the base for anyone that was promising.
His eyes twitched as he saw someone with "Good" potential, a burly man who seemed to radiate confidence and strength, but he still decided not to go for it.
More time passed, and Alicar almost started to despair at the thought that there might not be anything better than what he had already seen.
The base was filled with "ordinary" people, none of whom seemed to possess the kind of potential that would make them worthy of his contract.
But then he stepped into the guild area, the place where guilds attempted to recruit promising newbies and help them grow, and he felt something shift in the air.
Ding!
[A strong vessel is nearby!]
"Holy shit," Alicar’s eyes widened as he quickly looked around, his heart pounding with sudden excitement.
There was a visible commotion in the middle of the place, with dozens of level 10 recruiters shouting at each other and even ready to fight over the prize that stood before them.
And in the middle of that commotion was Iris, her golden hair catching the light as she stood there with an expression of barely concealed annoyance.
As expected, her Genesis Farmer class was so sought after that many guilds were trying to get her already, eager to claim such a valuable asset for their own purposes.
But Alicar didn’t care about any of that. Instead, he felt the connection, the pull of her soul calling out to him.
[Name: Iris Crowford]
[Race: Human]
[Level: 1]
[Potential: Supreme]
He had found the first person he wanted to make a contract with, and as fate had it, it was the one person that wanted another class more than anyone else in this entire base.
"Miss Iris," one of the recruiters said, slightly panicked as he approached her with desperate urgency. "We can help you level up and reach the First Layer if needed, and in a few years perhaps even the Second Layer!"
Since Iris’ class didn’t relate to fighting, it would be extremely hard for her to level up on her own.
She would need other people’s help to make any meaningful progress.
The girl seemed mostly annoyed by all of it, her eyes rolling as yet another recruiter tried to sell her on their guild’s benefits.
But then she turned to look around, scanning the crowd with disinterest until her gaze landed on Alicar.
At first, she seemed to gloss over him, dismissing him as just another face in the crowd.
But then she looked back, her expression shifting from boredom to confusion.
’What the...’ she thought.
She ignored all of the recruiters and people trying to talk to her and walked toward Alicar, stopping right in front of him with an intensity that made him feel exposed.
"How are you here?" Iris simply asked, her voice carrying a note of curiosity. "You... didn’t awaken..."
"Anomaly," Alicar shrugged, "I guess I can’t leave until level 10 though."
"Then let’s team up together and get out of here," Iris didn’t even bother asking any more questions, a flicker of relief crossing her features as she saw a familiar face, "I didn’t plan to join any of these guilds. Father warned me about them exploiting people."
Even though Theodore Crowford had shouted at her and said she was a failure, Iris still seemed to cling to the hope of meeting his expectations, of proving herself worthy in his eyes.
To Alicar, this seemed utterly stupid, a waste of energy on someone who clearly didn’t appreciate her.
’Wouldn’t the Crowford family benefit from someone having such a useful class? Or perhaps Theodore simply saw the word "Farmer" in it and decided that she was a lost cause.’
But who knows, he didn’t know much about her, and he wasn’t in a position to judge.
Alicar could still feel the powerful aura surrounding Iris’ soul, its intensity making him even more eager to try his class on her.
But he didn’t, not in front of so many people. He didn’t want to reveal his class yet, not until he understood its full capabilities and limitations.
"Alright, let’s go outside then," Iris mumbled, visibly shaking at the thought but still determined to do it.
Her hands trembled slightly, but her eyes held a fire that refused to be extinguished.
Alicar nodded, and the two moved toward the main gate, the real entrance of the Initial Stage beyond the safety of the human base.
"Before all of you go," Rick, the base’s commander, shouted at the new awakeners, his voice carrying an authority that demanded attention. "If you see a strange temple, no matter what you do, do not approach it. You WILL die, report any strange activity, though nothing has happened the past few years, so don’t expect much!"
Hearing that, many people simply gulped, feeling the ferocious aura emanating from the man. His words carried weight, and no one dared to question him.
Alicar and Iris also sensed it, but since they were probably some of the weakest ones here, no one would care about them.
Nobody would even try to team up with them, as they would be holding others back more than anything else.
Creating a "party" was absolutely essential in the Initial Stage and even more so in the First Layer, which is why Alicar, Levi, Daan, and Alex had prepared for two years.
Alas, Alicar had been abandoned by them, but it didn’t matter anymore. He had Iris now, and that was enough.