I’m in the shower, soaking under the stream of hot water after a long evening of bar hopping with Mike, my younger brother. One moment I’m washing away the sweat of a long day, singing along to some pop song on the radio, and the next thing I know, I’m jarred by the blaring of an emergency klaxon. I jump back and open my eyes, getting shampoo foam in them.
“Ow, fuck.”
The klaxon comes again, and I wonder briefly what it could be. Nothing in our small town should make that sound. I push under the shower head and hastily rinse my hair, then I take a step back as I rub the water out of my face.
As soon as I open my eyes, I’m greeted by a wall of text floating in front of me. A soft feminine voice reads it, but she sounds flat, almost robotic. The words come from nowhere and everywhere at the same time, and I realize they’re being spoken in my mind.
Attention, inhabitants of Terra!
Effective immediately, your planet has entered the Mana Integration Phase. As part of this process, significant changes will take place world wide. This is not a drill. For your own safety and understanding, please read the following message carefully.
Due to high ambient Mana levels, the System has designated your planet as a Bastion World. Terra will experience the emergence of various phenomena, including but not limited to the mutation and spawning of monsters, the creation of dungeons, and the manifestation of mystical artifacts.
In order to facilitate this transition, all native sapient lifeforms will be granted access to Mana, as well as System classes, skills, and other features.
You may find additional information in the official guide “Basics of Bastion World Survival”, purchasable through any System endorsed shop.
Good luck!
Action required!
Please select a class to initiate your Mana adaptation process. A list of recommended classes can be found in your user interface.
Warning!
First Siege Imminent!
The local fauna is mutating in and around your Bastion as part of a Monster Siege. Expect up to three monster waves as part of the first Siege. Defend your Bastion from the attack. Collaboration with your family, friends, and neighbors is highly recommended.
Quest Added: Survive the Siege.
Check your “quests” tab for additional details.
Global event added: Mana Integration Phase.
Check your “events” tab for additional details.
Local event added: Monster Siege #1.
Check your “events” tab for additional details.
I stare at the wall of text for a long moment, at a loss for words. It looks so much like a game notification that it’s downright uncanny. The text is a blocky font, with white letters set against a semi-transparent cyan background that glows ever so faintly.
“Hello?” I call out, pushing the shower curtain aside to get a better look at the bathroom. “Is anyone there? Mike? Is this a prank or something?”
Nothing. The house is quiet, and since I live alone, I’m pretty sure I’d have heard someone entering to set something like this up. I gulp nervously and reach out to touch the notification. It’s smooth, like the screen of a new phone, but it doesn’t offer anything else. It’s not hot or cold, just a flat surface in space that poses the slightest resistance to my fingertips.
“Uhhh…”
This can’t be real. Maybe I had one too many drinks, passed out on the way home, and I’m now dreaming this up. I pinch myself quite hard to test it, and nope, it’s not an alcohol induced coma dream. It’s real, alright.
I have to call Mike and check up on him.
With that goal in mind, I quickly rinse the rest of my body and step out of the shower. The window follows me around, passing through the curtain and walls like a ghost. I grab a towel and head to the bedroom, drying myself as I go. On the way, I spare glances at the mysterious notification, reading and re-reading it a few times.
Mana integration, classes, skills. All of it seems so absurd, but somehow, I know deep down that it’s true. And if it is, I need to do a few things. Pick a class for myself, find Mike, then find Pops and Mom and see that we all survive this Monster Siege.
Caught up in the urgency of the moment, I don't notice at first how my heart races. This is a lot to take in at once, and although I understand the deeper meaning, the danger we’re sure to face, I can’t help but feel excited. It’s a selfish thing, I know, but come on. Show me a single kid that hasn’t dreamed of video games becoming real.
“How do I do this?” I ask the notification as I throw the closet open and dig through it for clean clothes. “Where’s the menu? How do I pick my class?”
The notification doesn’t answer me, at least not directly. Instead, it melts into cyan mist that shoots towards me. With a pair of jeans around my ankles, I fail to dodge. I trip up and fall onto the nearby bed, with the mist following me, clinging to my skin. It sinks into me, into my flesh, in the blink of an eye. The sensation is like an electric shock that tickles every last nerve in my body, but it’s not painful.
The world goes dark for a heartbeat before my vision reboots.
But it’s not the same. I look around and I notice a few…HUD elements for the lack of a better description. I have a red health bar in the upper left corner of my vision, with a smaller, light blue bar below it. I instinctively know that one is my mana. In the lower left I have two elements, one that looks like a filing folder and one that looks like a backpack. I focus on them, and I’m given more of that instinctual knowledge on what they are: the notification history folder and the inventory.
“Is this thought operated?” I wonder for all of a second.
As soon as I put a bit of intent behind my focus, the folder opens up. The notification, the wall of text from earlier, blooms before me again. This time, however, it’s not physical. I play around with it and realize it’s being overlaid on top of my vision. With another thought, a short exertion of intent, I send the wall of text back into the folder to clear up my line of sight.
It’s all very intuitive, and I can’t help but feel a tiny bit impressed.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
I scramble off the bed and to my feet, getting back to dressing up. My mind is torn in ten different directions as I try to do too many things at once. Get my pants up. Keep exploring the interface. Find that damned class selection.
“Fuck, I have to call Mike,” I remember.
I leave the closet with my jeans on but not buttoned properly, carrying a shirt and a belt on one arm. The phone is on the nightstand where I left it charging when I got home. I grab it, unlocking it with the other hand. I quickly scroll through it to my agenda and find Mike’s number, but the call doesn’t go through. All I get is a generic automated message telling me that I don’t have a connection to the network.
When I look more closely, I see that I indeed have no signal. I try to connect to the home wifi, to use that to make the call, but it’s down as well.
A moment later, the lights in the house flicker.
“What the hell?” I complain loudly to no one in particular. “How’s everything going down so damn fast?”
No way around it, I’ll have to go out to find Mike. I finish getting dressed and close the closet door, catching my own reflection in the tall mirror. The lean, six foot tall man with black hair stares back at me, sporting an expression of worry mixed with excitement. I have to check my own face to make sure it’s really me I’m seeing in the reflective glass.
Moments later, as I leave the bedroom, the lights flicker around me again. Except this time, they don’t come back on. Suppressing another useless complaint, I refocus on the interface. I still have a few more elements to check out. They look like tabs in the upper right corner, all bunched together. There are six of them in total, and from left to right, they read: Attributes, Class Skills, General Skills, Quests, Events, and Collectibles.
I open up the first one, and it’s a character sheet of sorts.
Jack Harrington - Level 1
Race: Human, Male.
Titles: none.
Class: none.
Action required: please select a class.
Health: 90/90.
Mana: 20/20.
Stamina: 75/75.
Attributes
Constitution: 7.
Strength: 5.
Agility: 4.
Perception: 4.
Charisma: 3.
Essence: 2.
Spirit: 2.
The next tab over is the one for class skills, but opening it, I find it empty. I only get a brief notification.
No class skills to display.
You don’t have a class, would you like to select one?
“Yes.”
I’m going down the stairs to the ground floor when my vision blooms with notifications. The assault of information trips me up, both figuratively and literally. I miss the next step, my stomach rises up in my throat, and I fall. A short tumble to the bottom of the stairs later, I’m left with bruises and a sprained ankle that pulses with pain.
“God fucking damn it!”
A debilitating injury like this is the last thing I need. But then again, shouldn’t I have faster healing if the world functions like a video game now? It’s a possibility, but not a guarantee, and I have no way of knowing.
“Unless—”
I look at my health bar and see a measly two points missing. Which feels fair, this is far from a life threatening injury, but I still expected more. I focus on the bar to see if it’ll tell me my natural regeneration rate, and it does. Sort of. I get yet another window out of it, this one a tad more complex than the others. It shows a static outline of my body, with the injuries highlighted on it. There’s a pie chart next to it, along with a metric fuckton of information.
It takes a bit of digging to find what I need, but I do find it. My natural regeneration is 10% of my total health per minute, so one health point every seven seconds or so. That isn’t too bad, it barely takes any time for the tendons and muscles in my leg to mend. The joint doesn’t even get to swell up.
I climb to my feet and test the ankle, finding the results satisfactory. Besides a bit of lingering pain, it’s as good as new.
I take a deep breath and sit on the bottom rung of the stairs to check out the classes. The system is recommending three of them, and they couldn't be more different from each other.
System Recommended Classes
Carpenter
Description: Carpenters are skilled crafters and builders, able to construct and repair a wide range of wooden structures and items. Their talents are crucial in fortifying defenses, crafting sturdy shelters, and providing quality of life items, such as furniture or tools, to their community.
Class difficulty: novice.
Swordsman
Description: Swordsmen are masters of the blade, excelling in close to mid-range battles. Their ability to balance offensive and defensive maneuvers makes them reliable fighters in both small scale skirmishes as well as large scale conflicts.
Class difficulty: novice.
Enforcer
Description: Specializing in ranged combat, enforcers are adept in the use of firearms of all types. Their impeccable aim, combined with their ability to effortlessly reposition on the battlefield, makes them deadly opponents capable of taking down enemies from a safe distance with precisely placed shots.
Class difficulty: adept.
“Class difficulty?” I wonder aloud.
The system answers with yet another lengthy notification explaining the concept. My vision is already swarmed with them, to the point that I can't see the world around me at all.
I push the other notifications aside so I can focus on the new one.
Class difficulty: novice.
Growth speed: fast.
Flexibility: low.
Leveling rewards: 1 free attribute point; 1 free skill point.
Class difficulty: adept.
Growth speed: medium.
Flexibility: medium.
Leveling rewards: 1-2 free attribute points (dependent on class); 1-2 set attribute points (dependent on class); 1 free skill point.
Class difficulty: master.
Growth speed: slow.
Flexibility: high.
Leveling rewards: 4-6 free attribute points (dependent on class); 4-6 set attribute points (dependent on class); 1 free skill point.
Class difficulty: expert.
Growth speed: very slow.
Flexibility: very high.
Leveling rewards: 6-8 free attribute points (dependent on class); 6-8 set attribute points (dependent on class); 1 free skill point.
You may find additional information in the official guide “Classes and You, an Advanced Guide to System Classes”, purchasable through any System endorsed shop.
If I'm reading all of this right, the type of class seems to affect the leveling speed but gives rewards that increase with the difficulty. The choice is hard, but I can't help feeling like picking a novice class would be a huge waste. With that in mind, eliminating the first two recommendations is easy. As much as I love carpentry as a job, I don’t want it as my class. This is my chance at adventure, at an exciting life, and I won’t get that working on wood in a workshop.
Swordsman is a little better, but still awfully basic. Plus I don’t have a sword. Enforcer sounds more like my speed, I know my way around guns thanks to Pops. And even though I don’t own any guns either, acquiring one shouldn’t be all that hard. Certainly easier than getting a sword, anyway.
I focus on the enforcer class to see if I can get any more details, and the system provides. It's only an adept class, giving two free attribute points and two set points that go one into agility and one into perception. I can also see the three starter skills of the class, and they're called Bullseye, Bullet Time, and Quick Reload.
In order, that's a 3 second aim hack, a 5 second increase in perception speed, and the ability to automatically reload guns or their magazines in the inventory.
I'm…less than impressed.
“Show me recommended master classes,” I give the system a command, wanting to see how those look.
It answers right away with a surprising prompt.
Warning! Master classes are not recommended.
I raise an eyebrow. How come? Why even have them if they're not recommended?
“Show me recommended expert classes?” I try.
Warning! Expert classes are not recommended.
I'm about to tell it to show me some of each anyway, but I'm interrupted by a scream from outside.