Robert was looking at his skeletons. They stood in a circle around him. Not even four. His fourth summon was a bone beast that couldn't be equipped. They had unnaturally white bones, or so Robert thought. He had never seen actual bones, but pictures always showed them greyer and not in such a blinding white. On top of that they really creeped him out. They didn't move one bit since he summoned them and when he looked into their eyeholes a shiver ran down his spine. There were more than just shadows behind them, it was like light refused to go any further into them. Robert looked away and sighed while remembering his misery. Years of physical training. Years of perfecting his techniques. The blood he shed on the sparring fields the tears he wept in his bed trying to sleep as a little boy, while the pain and the bruises kept him awake. Everything he endured, everything he suffered through. Everything undone in that single moment in that small room. He tried his best not to panic and said to himself:
"Keep calm, Robert, keep calm."
That's what his teacher always said to him. Only a calm mind can make a rational decision, panic and your stupid animal instincts take over and even a little kid can kill a panicking animal. Charming woman, really. He tried his best to stay cool and collected. He took out his phone and started to look up more information about grave callers. He received general education about all classes up till now, but only how the spear of Piast technique would fare against them. He had no idea about the specifics of each and every job out there. So, he did the only sensible thing and went online to look it up. Robert went on info-dump.com, the most popular information site, and quickly went to the job section. On this section he found a tree with different branches and under each branch a certain name could be read.
[Rallying, Whispers, Chanting, Reverence and Calling.]
The branches were sorted by the probability of someone getting it and Calling was on the very end. He clicked on Calling and then a short video started playing. A scientist on a white screen could be seen. It was a popular adventurer that was paid by the site to act as a scientist. After all, not many scientist had the looks of models and muscles that could be seen through a laboratory coat.
[Congratulations young Caller, you are now part of a small but very prestigious cycle of beings that can summon or call a monster to their aid. Callers are a special case among the different branches of the mana tree as they never change from their base form. This would normally be the end of any aspiring adventurer as they would be stuck in the IRON tier and their skills could never go beyond F rank. But don't panic! Luckily for you any calling skill is at least B rank going as high as S rank! (DISCLAIMER: there is only one documented case of a S rank calling skill).]
On the bottom of the video a quick disclaimer popped up, but the video continued.
[This means if you gain enough experience and acquire the qualifications for a promotion you can go as high as PLATINUM rank in your lifetime without much gruesome training needed on your part. Your tree can still grow normally, but it solely strengthens your summons and, depending on your specific job, your mana. Speaking of your job which one did you get?]
Then a branch showed up with many different twigs and again every twig had a different name.
[Wilderness, Realm, Grave, Elemental, Soul and others]
This time Robert's job was only in the middle of the rarity. He would have loved to explore the whole branch of calling but time was of the essence, so he quickly clicked on Grave.
[Hello young Grave Caller, you came here with all kinds of questions, but I can guess which one will be your first one, so let's get over it, shall we? The skill rank of 'call to the grave' is
…
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heavily disputed, I'm afraid. Well, at least for academic purposes. It's hard to tell whether the skill is of the C or B rank. Now, don't get discouraged right away, most Caller jobs have to deal with this problem, but it still stands true that they are all above average in strength and excel in the field. There is a great many discussions and scientific papers that argue about this topic but fortunately for us we don't have to deal with them. For all practical uses the skill is considered to be B rank. Then why is there such a fierce discussion going on, you may ask yourself? We will come to that in a moment. First let me give you a quick introduction to your summoned creatures, the skeletons. Every Grave Caller can summon three to five Skeletons. These Skeletons don't evolve, don't get stronger and their base strength is located around the high end of IRON. Still skeletons are considered some of the strongest summons out there because they can equip their own gear and even use skills that are attached to oversaturated gear. On top of that their stamina is nigh endless and only bound by the fact how long their Caller can stay concentrated enough to keep them in our realm. Now using this understanding of your summons you might have already guessed why the strength of the skill is so disputed. Depending on the individual they might have only three skeletons, equipped with IRON gear, or they might have five, all equipped with oversaturated GOLD gear. The conflict erupts around the fact that the base value of it is C, but it often and clearly reaches B. This leaves the Grave Caller to be considered a staple in the GOLD tier and most reach PLATINUM or even DIAMOND(DISCLAIMER: there are only three documented instances of this happening). I hope this gave you a general idea what the Grave Caller Job is about. You can look down below for further information.]
Then Robert scrolled down and saw many different categories he could deepen his knowledge on. But before he could even think about which one he would need the most right now his screen changed.
[Incoming call from Grandfather]
-Guess I ran out of time-
He steeled his resolve and accepted the call.
"Grandfather, I-"
"Stop acting like a scared little puppy and come home, we have matters to discuss."
Then his grandfather hung up.
-that went better than expected-
But Robert guessed that he would get chewed out in person soon enough. He looked one last time at the city and saw the first families making their way towards the guildhall. He turned around and looked at the big gate that was in front of him. The entrance to Piast manor.