Tanner and Austin’s mental conversation was interrupted by the MAP voice beginning the briefing. Austin gave Tanner a quick glance, clearly indicating their conversation wasn’t over.
“Welcome newly enhanced Initiates! We shall cover a large variety of information, so please pay close attention as we brief. We will cover Echelons, Levels, Attributes, Aspects, Professions, Strands, Powers, and the Integration. Once the briefing is completed you will be issued starter equipment.”
“Echelons are the tiers of powers. Once you achieve level thresholds, your powers greatly enhance. The Echelons have tiers of their own too, but that’s not a concern for today.”
“Levels are acquired through experience gain. The ways to gain experience are boundless, so there is no single path to power. Train, fight, build, destroy, enhance, or erode. All actions are valuable, though the effects of every action determine the experience you achieve.”
“Attributes are the foundation of your power, and effect everything you do on a Macro scale. Aspects are the parts on your Attributes broken down, combined, and categorized. Aspects are what effect everything on a Micro scale. All those statistics combined are the most accurate display of your physical, mental, and spiritual capabilities. Unfortunately, nothing is ever truly all encompassing.”
“Professions are the great unifier. Not everyone in the multiverse is fated for combat, and therefore, are granted access to power through creation. Again, the possibilities are boundless. So do not underestimate the capabilities of the creators, for to be able to create you must also know how to destroy.”
“Strands are the focus of your powers. Not so much a rule, as they are a guideline for the progression and capability of your powers. Before your first ascension, you will unlock all your Strands and bind them to your Attributes. This process will not be as easy as the first, and you must acquire them for yourselves. Once you have completed your Strand set and achieved the level requirement you will Ascend to the next Echelon, for your powers are yours to learn and develop.”
“The Powers your Strands and Professions unlock are not simple constructs, but expressions of your soul. Do not doubt their potency, but do not overestimate your power. Balance is what will guide your soul to strength.”
“Finally, the integration. Your universe has been… consumed… by the Magic Administration Program, us. Both a blessing and a curse, for better or worse. We have granted your universe, and many others, power. This power effects everything, it can be a… destructive change. These Pocket Dimensions are created to guide the intelligent life forms of your universe through the changes to themselves and everything they have known. We have transported the earliest transformed creatures to this dimension for your exposure and progression. They constitute of the 5 most common of each type of creature on your planet and the same for any other intelligent species you may find here.”
“This concludes the Briefing. Please select your starter equipment. You may select one primary weapon, two major armor pieces, and an enchanted ring. You have 5 minutes to select before initiation begins”
“Fuck! Okay everyone, try and select the most pragmatic thing you can. If you don’t have good shoes, boots are probably a good option and so will be something to protect your body. Just choose whatever weapon feels right!”
Now that tanner was a little more focused on his stats and circumstances, he noticed that his insanely high charisma was influencing everyone in the room. At first, they had just listened and let him act out of fear of the unknown and he was the only one to speak up. It was like the first day of school, everyone was there for the same reason but was willing to just follow the pace of anyone brave enough to speak up, but that wasn’t the case anymore. They just intuitively trusted him, which was fine for right now, but he wasn’t sure he was happy with basically magically manipulating everyone around him. Unfortunately, he didn’t really have the time to dwell on the thought too much.
“Congratulations on your first equipment! Please select from the following options”
Weapons:
* Basic Short Sword
* Basic Long Sword
* Basic Spear
* Basic Axe
* Basic Mace
* Basic Bow
* Basic Crossbow
* Basic Slingshot
Armor:
* Leather Shirt
* Leather Pants
* Leather Boots
* Leather Helm
* Leather Bracers
* Wooden Shield
Enchanted Rings:
* Ring of Strength (+5 Strength)
* Ring of Willpower (+5 Willpower)
* Ring of Aura (+5 Aura)
* Ring of Perception (+5 Perception)
* Ring of Agility (+5 Agility)
* Ring of Resilience (+5 Resilience)
* Ring of Dexterity (+5 Dexterity)
* Ring of Wisdom (+5 Wisdom)
* Ring of Intelligence (+5 Intelligence)
* Ring of Charisma (+5 Charisma)
“What Ring do we pick! What does any of this mean?!” someone in the crowd shouted.
“I don’t know. if you haven’t looked at your stats or don’t know what your powers scale with, id go with Resilience. That sure sounds like not dying.”
Tanner heard a lot of panicked murmuring from the group as the time ticked away, mostly due to the implication that this dangerous world would open to them after the timer ended.
“You have selected Basic Short Sword, Leather Shirt, Leather Boots, and Ring of Strength. May your journey to power be fruitful.”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
He had picked the most basic things he thought would help his survival. A short sword to use with his new power, the leather shirt to protect his vital organs, boots to replace his heeled dress shoes, and the ring of strength to hopefully enhance his Glancing Blow. All the new items appeared on his body like they had always been there. His old dirty shirt and boots disappeared into a new inventory tab that appeared on his NAGS and he wondered if anything else was in there.
The NAGS appeared again as an overlay on his vision, obviously responding to his thoughts, and automatically pulled up the inventory tab. Unfortunately, nothing extra was present in his inventory.
“Your preparation time has expired, fight hard and grow strong.”
As soon as the voice finished speaking to everyone, the entire building started to dissolve around them. Though it wasn’t so much a normal disillusion of the structure as it was basically fading away, like it never was actually there. It slowly got harder to see, until it was completely insubstantial. The moment it was gone, everyone fell about an inch to the actual ground.
Suddenly completely off balance, tanner raised his head to look around. Not much appeared to have changed in their surroundings, but something felt different. He looked around the circular field for any signs of movement or changes. Tanner wasn’t trained in tracking or hunting though. Ultimately, he knew he wouldn’t be able to spot any small changes, even if he had been closely observing the area for a bit only a few hours prior. Still, something nagged at his mind that the area had changed. He started looking around more closely, trying to focus on each of his senses in turn. He couldn’t hear, see, smell, or taste anything weird. Everything seemed just as bland as before.
“Does something seem different to you?” Tanner thought in Austins direction.
“Kind of? I thought I was just on edge though. Now that you mention it, the area does feel different. Its just a feeling though, I don’t see any actual changes.”
Austins comment sparked a thought. Tanner thought about his stats, which suddenly appeared in front of him. ‘Jesus this thing is really aptly named’ Tanner thought, quickly waving away the overlay. Tanner had been so focused on how high his Charisma stat was that he hadn’t paid much attention to how high the others had been. He remembered his Aura stat being his second highest, and tried focusing on what he felt.
It didn’t take long for tanner to figure out what had happened, the surrounding air and plants all contained what he assumed to be mana now. If this world was anything like books, movies, and games from the old world that is. It felt like the air had electricity in it. He imagined old videos he had seen on the internet of women standing outside before lighting struck, hair frizzed and standing up. That’s what it felt like all around him. Like lightning could strike at any moment from the raw power. He had to acknowledge that it didn’t seem like a lot of energy, just way too much for a sunny day with likely no source of electricity in the area.
“Well…” tanner stammered. “We should probably explore the area and work on finding a way to get food, water, and shelter.”
“We should probably organize some small groups to go explore together and leave one or two behind to start foraging and putting together some stuff for fires. It would probably be best if we organize those groups based on what everyone took for equipment. Anyone have any skills with these weapons?” Austin said, stepping forward next to tanner.
The group ended up being comprised of an assortment of people with some experience in fighting. Though none of them had any practical experience with weapons like what they were given. Some of the group were police, former or active military, a few were avid martial arts fighters, and one of the smaller women was a women’s self-defense instructor. The only person there without any active experience in fighting was Tanner. Even Austin had a few years boxing and wrestling experience.
They ended up splitting up into 8 groups of 4 and one group of 5. Fortunately, they had 11 people pick a ranged weapon, mostly crossbows with the occasion bow, Austin falling into the latter category. Tanner really wanted to make a joke about how bows just aren’t as good as propellent weapons but figured it wasn’t the time. They decided as a group to send 6 scouting groups down the paths they had originally came with instructions to not roam too far away from the forest. Tanner decided to stay back with the scavenger groups to help organize and protect the people that would be roaming the forests. Tanner suggested each scouting group take one ranged fighter and leave the extra 5 to defend the camp they were creating and help scavenge the area.
Every person that picked a ranged weapon was also given two quivers with either 25 arrows or 20 bolts in each. Most of the rangers deposited their extra quivers in their storage spaces that were new to the NAGS. Tanner noticed that Austin had taken most of the extra arrows out of his remaining quiver and stored those also, only leaving about ten behind. He decided to ask him about it before he got out of range.
“Why’d you put so many of your arrows away?”
“They are shoved in there pretty tight, if I need to try and shoot quickly then ill be slowed down by them being tucked in there so densely.” Austin replied without much thought.
“How did that even occur to you? Do you have bow experience that I wasn’t not aware of?”
“No, it just made sense to me. Now is probably the best time for me to just trust my natural instincts.”
“Fair enough man, be safe out there”
Tanner gathered up with the group that was staying behind to gather supplies and scout the forest. Derrick was speaking to the group about what to look for and prioritize, he put a lot of emphasis on staying safe and avoiding fighting for now. Which Tanner new was probably the safest option, but he also really wanted to try his new abilities. He had decided to go with Push and glancing blow because they were they seemed the most versatile. While he thought about it, he remembered he hadn’t looked at the Ability tab.
“Abilities:”
* Attributes:
* Power: Gravity
* Glancing Blow:
* Aspect: Strength
* Effect: All of your attacks have an extremely small gravitational pull. If a strike would have been a near miss, the target is now hit.
* Bonus Effect: all strikes landed due to this ability deal an addition 5% damage
* Rarity: Inferior
* Mana Cost: 1 mana per second active
* Cooldown: N/A
* Incantation: N/A
* Push:
* Aspect: Aura
* Effect: Send out a wave of energy, slightly bending space and minorly altering the location and course of small objects and projectiles.
* Bonus Effect: N/A
* Rarity: Inferior
* Mana Cost: 5 Mana
* Cooldown: 5 Seconds
* Incantation: N/A
* Body: Unawakened
* Mind: Unawakened
* Spirit: Unawakened
* Acuity: Unawakened
He quickly skimmed all the extra information that was provided, taking specific note of the cool downs and mana costs. After only a few moments, he realized he hadn’t been paying attention to Derricks briefing.
“Does anyone have any practical combat experience?” Derrick asked the group.
A few people raised their hands, some people had been in the army or police. Tanner thought it was note worth when said also raised her hand and said she was a pararescuemen in the Air Force.
“Alright, those of you that have experience, spread out into the groups so we can try and make sure everyone is safe. Again, please avoid fights for now. We don’t know what is out there and what it might be capable of.”