I slowly start regaining my senses. First it’s touch, I feel the stiff feeling bed beneath me and the warm temperature. Next is smell, it smells slightly musty, like old wood or something. Finally I open my eyes.
I’m lying down on what feels like an old bed. I look around as I sit up but it’s hard to make out my surroundings due to the darkness. I hear sounds of what I assume to be talking coming from somewhere else in the room.
“Hello? Anyone there?” I ask tentatively
“Yah, we’re right over here.” someone replies
They sound to be around my age.
Thinking of voices isn’t mine higher then it was before? I mean it still sounds like a guy just a bit higher. Hm, wonder what that’s about.
“So, do you know what’s going on or where we are?”
“Not really, only that we just woke up here after we died.”
This room must be larger than i originally thought if it had at least two other people in it. I wish there were some lights in here.
I decide to try and go over to where their voices are coming from. I stand up and take small steps in the dark with my hands in front of me to keep myself from walking into anything. However right before I arrive I hear lights click on with a loud whirring sound blinding me temporarily
When my eyes recover I take in my surroundings. The room seems fairly large, about the size of a normal high school classroom. There are around twenty beds most with their occupants still on them.
The occupants though… don’t exactly look normal. Some look completely normal and human while others have pointy ears like an elf and others have even weirder features like light blue skin.
Wait.. I don’t have anything like that do i?
I quickly look over my body discovering some new things about it. First it seems like I’m shorter, I’m around 5’7 now, by my estimate at least. Second I’m quite a bit paler than i was before. Third I seem to have longish black hair with a red tint at the end rather than my previous short black hair. It's almost long enough to reach my back. Last and most importantly, my ears are pointed, like an elf’s or something.
What the hell is this…. I mean seriously, This is weird… very weird. At least thought I could keep my humanity coming to another world. I mean at least the changes aren’t that bad. This is manageable.
I ignore the obvious changes to my body and decide to find out what’s going on. Before I can go and question every last person in this room a booming voice catches everyone's attention, mine included. A large man wearing a fancy outfit is the source of the noise.
“Everyone! I’m sure you’re all confused but unless you wish to meet a quick end I suggest you listen to me. You all died in your previous lives, and now you have to live this one. Everyone grab a weapon from the pile and leave, unles, of course, you wish to die by my hand. I suggest you group up for this, it won’t be easy. By the way I'm your groups proctor”
“Haah?! You think so lowly of us do you? What makes you able to so easily ki-”
The questioning man is cut off by a sword impaling him through the chest. They were all the way across the room from each other but the Proctor somehow appeared right in front of him, swiftly silencing him. The opposing man falls to the ground, dead. I look away disturbed by the lack of empathy for life. A few of the observers reacted with terror and tried to flee but they were quickly caught and thrown back by the proctor.
“Don’t make me kill too many of you, I might get less… Anyways get your weapons and get out”
He points to a large pile of weapons of all varieties. Although nothing modern seems to be there. I tentatively walked forward and grabbed a simple sword, even though I didn’t know how to wield it well. It seemed like one of the easier weapons to use and wasn’t big enough to slow me down. At least that was my thought process. The rest of the people also grabbed weapons before heading for the door.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
I arrive at the door which leads into another room, this one smaller than the last. The multitude of people cram inside of the small room, attempting not to injure each other with their newly acquired weapons. It was a mildly comical sight.
I follow inside after glancing at the poor soul who was just killed. A twinge of pity greets me along with this sight but I decide that I should just move along.
Why is the only door in this room the one we came in from? I mean that doesn’t exactly seem very normal…
As soon as everyone arrives inside, the door slams shut behind us, sending us into darkness once more. I can hear some people starting to panic and scream for someone to let us out. After a short amount of time a strange series of symbols glow on the roof and we hear an emotionless, androgynous voice talk. The voice seems to originate from the glowing symbols.
“Hello, and welcome to the new world. I’m here to teach you the very basics of this world. First off say “Status” to view your stats and classes.”
The voice waits patiently for everyone to say status. A few people tentatively said it before looking either confused or amazed. I decided to give it a try.
“Status”
Before a table appeared detailing my current “Status”.
Name: Lykos Nyx Race: Shadow Elf Class: N/A STATS: Strength: 10 Intelligence: 10 Mana Control: 10 Dexterity: 12 Wisdom: 10 Constitution: 8 Agility: 12 Charisma: 14 Vitality: 10
The voice continued when it was satisfied that everyone had followed its directions.
"Now that you see all of your stats, I'll explain what each one does. First strength affects your physical strength and ability to strike. Dexterity affects your precision and accuracy of movements. Agility affects the speed of your movements. Intelligence is your knowledge capacity and what you've learned, it also affects spell strength. Wisdom is your processing time and ability to put things together, it also affects mana regeneration. Charisma is your physical attractiveness and way with words. Mana control is your level of control over mana. Constitution is your durability and vitality is your stamina."
I absorbed the knowledge as it would likely be important for my potential of living.
Wait, what about classes then? That seems at least as important if not more so then the stats.
Someone else in the crowd voiced my thoughts.
"What about our class then? I don't have one yet?"
"Say "Class select" to choose a class based of your current self. It's based on your achievements, your current capabilities and your race. You can also choose a random class if you wish."
Following his statement everyone in the room started saying "class select" and discussing all their "class options" with others. Following their example I decided to try it out as well.
"Class select."
Before me appeared another window.
Possible Classes: Description: Beginner Thief Learn basic thieving skills and stealth. Beginner Courier Run letters back and forth Beginner Fighter Learn basic fighting styles and basic swordplay. Beginner Inn Keeper Run an inn. Beginner Bard Play music and sing tales of journeys. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~RANDOM~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Completely random class not from your list.
Hmmm... some of these might help me survive but I doubt there's an inn to run waiting for me... Also that random option looks really tempting right now... I really wanna press random..... I mean it's not like I have bad luck or anything right? I mean I used up all my bad luck by falling 13 floors from a building....
I decide to press random even if it could completely screw me over. I was too curious about it. Also didn't that weird voice say I was promising or something?
As soon as I think of selecting random, a roulette style spinner game appears before me in a blue window. When I think "spin" it starts spinning extremely fast through a large list of classes. It slows down over time before finally landing on a class called "Beginner Shadow Wielder".
Doesn't that seem kind of edgy? I mean.. I guess It's fine... Alright I'll do my best to not die using this class!
After I complete my internal monologue I turn my attention back to the glowing symbols. The voice starts again.
"Classes affect your skills and abilities. You level up your class by doing what your class is meant to do. If you're a combat class you gain strength through combat and so on... Anyways good luck and try not to die."
An even larger set of glowing symbols appear beneath our feet. I assume it's some kind of magic formation or something akin to it. The light grows brighter before completely blinding me. I feel as if I'm falling through space and my consciousness fades once more.
Seriously how many times is this reincarnation thing gonna make me go to sleep? Is my last thought before losing consciousness.