She was falling. It felt like weeks and yet at the same time as if just a couple of minutes had passed. She didn’t understand how her feelings could be so contradictory. But even more weird than her perception of time was her surroundings.
There was nothing. Absolute blackness. She didn’t even see the dots she always saw in the dark. And yet there was something. Weird shapes. She couldn’t truly see them. Not with her eyes. It was more like she suddenly gained a new sense that her human brain wasn’t built to properly process. The longer it tried, the more her head hurt.
Am I crazy? Or dead? Seriously, what the hell is this?
She knew those shapes represented freely floating feelings and intentions in abstract space because of that new sense. They always transformed, dissolved like colors in water and then concentrated in another place. The bizarre phenomena were all connected and change in one caused change in all of them. In other words, it was absolute chaos. Tho her fall had seemingly no effect on it. She wouldn’t even know she was falling if not for the feeling of gravity pulling her down.
Her headache grew in intensity. She clutched her head, but there was no way to stop the pain. As if reacting to her feelings, the weird surroundings shift even faster.
Fuck! Just stop! Fucking bullshit!
Her brain soon felt like an overheated computer processor that was on the brink of melting. Like it was just a simple piece of metal with no self-preservation that would work itself to death. She screamed.
Suddenly, her back hit the hard ground. Darkness was replaced with soft blue light and there was no sign of the strange shapes. She felt like she had just woken up from a dream. The pain faded into a faraway memory, and so did everything else. She couldn’t even recall what she perceived only a moment ago. It was all gone.
She blinked away her confusion and instead looked around. There was no reason to remember something awful. Her new surrounding looked peaceful and incredibly familiar. She was lying in an enormous bird cage illuminated by a few crystals, as if growing from the top where all bars met. Its gentle light made her sleepy. If it wasn’t for that nightmare, she might even doze off for a few hours.
She wasn’t the only one imprisoned. Around her were dozens of identical cages, each with its own occupant. Surprisingly, not all were humans. Some looked like humanoid goats or satyrs, as she would call them. They were all just waking up.
Did I really…
She thought with bated breath. Her heart was just standing at the starting line, preparing for race. Corners of her mouth were slowly rising.
It will come. Any moment.
Soon, a blue screen popped up before her. The color mirrored the one on her computer, tho this time there wasn’t any medium.
Please confirm your access to the System by opening your Status sheet.
You can access your Status sheet by speaking the word Status or sending your intent for opening your Status sheet via thought addressed to the System.
Her smile soon turned into jiggling that shortly grew into a full-blown laughter. She just couldn’t contain her happiness and excitement. For the first time in her whole twenty years of life, something truly great happened. First time! But it was worth it. Every second of that misery was worth if it meant fulfilling the dream of all writers. There was no doubt now. She actually traveled into her story.
She laughed like crazy. Her belly hurt, but she couldn’t stop even if she wanted. Somewhere in between two breaths, tears started to fall from her eyes. She was wiping them with the sleeves of her new clothing, but it wasn’t enough. Salty water continued to stream like a never-ending flood, soaking half of the sleeves in moments.
“Great Mother have mercy on my soul, if you don’t shut up, I will do it for you!”
Her laugher immediately ceased. She realized with deep embarrassment that there were 34 other people in cages around her. She must look like she had lost it, what was kind of true. But still.
Why did I do that? She whined internally while hiding her face behind her palms.
I’m such an idiot. I just came here and now all my characters will think I’m mental. Fuck! I should probably apologize?
“Ee… S-sorry about…” she called, but was interrupted.
“You crazy deatheater. Do you want to wake up that thing?” The same neighbor cried out again in a choked voice.
She looked at him with a question in her eyes and he pointed somewhere. When she tilted her head back, she finally understood. Behind all the cages near the wall of the cave stood a single enormous bed. And there, under a blanket crudely sewn from many animal hides, was sleeping a giant. His single large eye was closed, but the occasional shuffling of his body indicated that that won’t be true for long.
Right. She totally forgot about the cyclops. Albeit in her defense, he won’t wake until time runs out or someone attacks him. Regardless of how much noise anyone does. Unfortunately, no one except her knew that and she didn’t have any plausible explanation for that kind of knowledge to share it.
The young satyr that threatened her was just opening his cage. He was in a hurry, almost dropping the key. Many others that were still fighting had the same desperate movements, often resulting in injury. Everyone looked to be expecting cyclops to wake up any minute.
She sighed. Maybe she overdid it with this small bonus stage for fighters. But she wanted to start her story with action. Nothing serious, just a warm up supplemented by a little pressure from a nearby giant.
Whatever.
She smiled, putting her hands behind her head and crossing her legs. She didn’t need to rush anything. Her own warm up fight won’t start until she stands up. But before that, there was Status she had to go thorough.
Status
Name: none
Race: Human
Level: 1
Class: Mystic Fighter
Talent: none
Core stage: none
Attributes
Strength: 3
Agility: 4
Mind: 11
Vitality: 3
Endurance: 3
Mystic: 1
Charm: 3
Perception: 5
Charisma: 2
Free attribute points: 2
Armor: 3
Abilities
Basic weapon (one use)
Manashot lvl 1
Meditation lvl 1
Titles
Main Administrator
She didn’t have a name. That came as a surprise, but when she thought about it, it made sense. How could System know her name? Before, it was just an important element of her story. There was not even a possibility for communication. Whatever she wrote just was. And now that she literally fell inside, this was their first ever interaction. It couldn’t read her memories, only thoughts she directed at it. So, she should introduce herself.
“My name is…” but then she stopped.
Do I really want to use that name? That stupid trash name from fucking Earth? Heh. No way. This is my new start in my beloved Aurunia! How could maim it with Earth name? No. Absolutely not. I need to pick something new. Something that fits in.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
The letters rolled on her tongue like candy. She tasted each before trying it with a few test names and then moved on. She went through half of the alphabet before stopping on L.
Lesthria, Lumyra, Lyrisa, Levanel
The names just kept coming. The sound of that letter was somehow magical. It spoke to something deep inside her. It resonated with her soul. She closed her eyes and let her creativity take over. The names kept coming faster and with each she felt closer. Her mind was soaring the sky of her imagination. Her head was full of that magical feeling until finally she stopped on one.
“My name is Luriel.”
It sounded a little strange. Different compared to the inside of her mind, but not unpleasant. With this name, she could happily live her entire life. Column in her status aws swiftly filled and Luriel smiled.
New start.
There were two more empty columns, but that was currently normal. Talent and Core stage will be filled after she reaches her potential, what is usually around level 100. She had more than enough time for that. Luriel moved to the next part.
Quick look confirmed her worries. Most of her attributes were below average. Especially mystic. The single point Luriel had only thanks to her level one class. She was lucky she didn’t make everyone start at level 0. That would be true hardcore.
Either way, the beginning will be rough. Mystic represented her mana reserves and its regeneration speed. It was the most important attribute for starting magic class. She used all her remaining points, pushing the number to 3. It was still far too little for any leeway. She will have to be as accurate as possible with her attacks.
Even though her mana reserves tripled, Luriel didn’t feel any difference. One needed at least a few years long training to be able to sense it, not to mention freely working with it. Of course System offered ability for that, but few people would want to take it. First abilities had a particularly large impact on first class upgrade. A lot bigger than all later ones. It was mostly because it took such a short time to get those first levels.
Luriel scrutinized her other attributes. Average for human, especially the one going into the Tutorial, are at least three 10 or above. Usually in strength, agility and endurance, because those are the easiest to improve by training. The lowest should be 6. Luriel never really cared about her appearance, but having only 3 in charm kind of hurt her.
Am I ugly?
Unfortunately, she didn’t have access to any mirror. But her look should be significantly improved thanks to System. It will heal all inflictions whether physical or magical, missing teeth or limbs or even being on the verge of death, so that person trying Tutorial is in optimal condition. She even got nice and clean blue robe based on her class.
Whatever.
Last were her abilities. The most important of them all was Identification. Normally, everyone starts with Basic Identification, that can be upgraded through certain means. It allowed people to get some information on everything, whether people, monsters or items. Like that cyclops. With Basic identification she could get his level and race. That will work on everyone as long as they aren’t over 30 levels above or have some artificial means to protect their informations. So Luriel was curious why she didn’t have this ability. She had her class abilities and one use ticket for weapon. Was there something wrong with her? Or was it perhaps related to her Title?
Main Administrator
As the creator of System you were granted full control over System and its functions.
Well, I am technically a creator of System. Or more like a designer. Aurunia did all the heavy lifting. But if it knows that, then why did it not know my name? Wait. No. I won’t complain about that.
Back to the title. With this, I should have a lot of authority. Even over Tutorial. Not that I would want to change anything, but might be useful against that problem that entity talked about. Those creatures? Could at least name them.
Luriel yawned and lazily looked around. Surprisingly, all the cages she could see from her low position were already empty. She was last. Instantly, her mouth shut, and she focused. Luriel thought she had a lot more time. But it seemed she truly underestimated her own ability to be stuck up in her own head. Now, if she wanted to see her protagonist, she really needed to move.
So let’s get this over with.
She activated her one use ability and the blue screen opened before her. This one contained a long list of weapons split into several hundred pages. They weren’t just weapons suitable for mystic fighter but any fighting class. This impressive collection contained all the cold weapons from Earth enriched by local magical ones. Luriel didn’t even know most of them existed and was fascinated by different, some even bizarre shapes. Unfortunately, she didn’t have time. She went to the search bar and switched to an advanced search. There she set a few conditions, like it being a range weapon, using mana and damage oriented. Wouldn’t want some wand that improves healing.
Her list became a lot shorter, comfortably occupying only a single page. Lastly, she organized them by affinity.
Basic Staff of Amplification (Common)
Type: Weapon
Description: A poorly crafted staff enriched by small magical crystal.
Properties:
Slightly increasing strength of all mana requiring abilities casted through this weapon
Requirements: level 1
Basic Swiftcast wand (Common)
Type: Weapon
Description: A poorly crafted slender wand helping caster focusing mana.
Properties:
Slightly decreasing casting time of all mana requiring abilities casted through this weapon
Requirements: level 1
Basic Mudflow Rod (Common)
Type: Weapon
Description: A poorly crafted rod emitting soft scent of earth.
Properties:
Changes all wielder's mana requiring abilities casted through this weapon into earth affinity
Requirements: level 1
Basic Earthshot Scepter (Common)
Type: Weapon
Description: A poorly crafted scepter emitting soft scent of earth.
Properties:
Allows user to cast Earthshot
Requirements: level 1
Basic Flamecaster Rod (Common)
Type: Weapon
Description: A poorly crafted rod emitting slight warm.
Properties:
Changes all wielder's mana requiring abilities casted through this weapon into fire affinity
Requirements: level 1
Basic Fireshot Scepter (Common)
Type: Weapon
Description: A poorly crafted scepter emitting slight warm.
Properties:
Allows user to cast Fireshot
Requirements: level 1
Basic Rod of Frostbite (Common)
Type: Weapon
Description: A poorly crafted rod emitting slight cold.
Properties:
Changes all wielder's mana requiring abilities casted through this weapon into ice affinity
Requirements: level 1
Basic Iceshot Scepter (Common)
Type: Weapon
Description: A poorly crafted scepter emitting slight cold.
Properties:
Allows user to cast Iceshot
Requirements: level 1
Basic Rod of Thunder (Common)
Type: Weapon
Description: A poorly crafted rod always charged with static electricity.
Properties:
Changes all wielder's mana requiring abilities casted through this weapon into lightning affinity
Requirements: level 1
Basic Lightningshot Scepter (Common)
Type: Weapon
Description: A poorly crafted scepter always charged with static electricity.
Properties:
Allows user to cast Lightningshot
Requirements: level 1
Basic Aquaflow Rod (Common)
Type: Weapon
Description: A poorly crafted and always moist rod.
Properties:
Changes all wielder's mana requiring abilities casted through this weapon into water affinity
Requirements: level 1
Basic Watershot Scepter (Common)
Type: Weapon
Description: A poorly crafted and always moist scepter. Always wet poorly crafted that allows user to cast.
Properties:
Allows user to cast Watershot
Requirements: level 1
Basic Gustcaller Rod (Common)
Type: Weapon
Description: A poorly crafted rod occasionally emitting gentle breeze.
Properties:
Changes all wielder's mana requiring abilities casted through this weapon into wind affinity
Requirements: level 1
Basic Windshot Scepter (Common)
Type: Weapon
Description: A poorly crafted scepter occasionally emitting gentle breeze.
Properties:
Allows user to cast Windshot
Requirements: level 1
After Luriel saw the list, she also filtered all scepters. They were for other classes that didn’t have Manashot. It could help people orient themselves more toward utilization of mana, maybe even get a hybrid class later.
Now, the main question was whether she wanted to focus on some element. The advantages except specialties of each one came in getting offered more abilities of a sad element as she leveled up and specific class evolutions later. However, that was also a drawback. If she wasn’t determined to use that element or at least part of it, or maybe she found something better, her upgrades would still include it. It would limit her choices. It was a sort of commitment. And now, after thinking about it, Luriel didn’t feel like committing to anything. She barely started and didn’t even have a concrete idea about her fighting style. Something to work on in the coming weeks.
That only left two options. Basic Staff of Amplification or Basic Swiftcast wand. Her choice was obvious. The biggest disadvantage of early casters was always casting speed. Damage was, on the other hand, pointlessly big. Another reason few took Mystic Fighter class. At least regarding the First Layer.
Luriel made her choice and instantly a wand like from Harry Potter appeared before her. Its length reached half of her hand, including the grip. It looked shabby and old. Compared to ordinary weapons, those magical had a special property, something only uncommon and higher should have. To keep things fair, she considerably decreased their durability to degrade them to common quality.
Luriel took the wand and waved it around. The weight slightly surpassed her expectations, but it fit perfectly in her hand.
Now she got everything ready. It was time to face her first opponent.