A pulse went through the temple. Flames flickering as a wave to the stele sitting raised above the altar. The room shook as the embedded gems started to glow slowly. Each gem glowed for just a second before going dark. As the last lights reached the top, each went dark until the only one left was the Obsidian. It pulled in the light as if hungry for more, but nothing was left for it to consume.
The sounds of footsteps rang out as the Hall of Champions thrummed with power. The head Priest arrived just before another pulse of power flooded the room. Once again lighting the gems as the flames grew in strength this time. A blinding light as a Ruby was lit this time a small flame ignited. With each step he took forward a new pulse came to empower the Stele. The Diamond shining light the morning glow, Bloodstone emitting a red mist, Melanite shrouded in shadows, and the last gem to come to life, Topaz crackling with lightning.
“A new War is beginning, how will the world survive the rise of so many dark stars. The gods are truly cruel to send us a new era so soon after the last one ended. I only hope that they are not as cruel as the last.” His hand reached up and caressed the smooth stone. His eyes closing as he prayed to the divine beings that used his world as a battleground.
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Lyra awoke slowly as the chirping of insects around her grew louder. The cold breeze of the autumn air brushed against her face as she sat up.
"Did I fall asleep playing the game?" she wondered. The thought vanished quickly as she felt the grass beneath her. She actually felt the grass. Confusion played across her face as she realized this was either in the most advanced DiveVr game ever made or she was actually touching grass. A shock to any gamer.
She quickly bolted up, finding herself in a small clearing surrounded by trees and the sounds of insects. Her eyes traveled around the clearing, searching for any signs that this might be fake. The growing pit of despair in her gut roiled, and she nearly vomited.
"Shit! This cannot be happening," she thought frantically. Falling to the ground, she dry heaved, spitting onto the grass at her feet. Panic finally settled in before a new window popped up.
[Welcome to Alerias, Champion of the Void.]
[Congratulations Champion, you have obtained a new Trait, Void Aspect.]
[Warning: Void Aspect will consume all of your affinities.]
[Void Affinity is now set to 650%]
[Warning: You have entered a state of Mana Saturation. -10 Health per second]
“What?” Lyra gasped as she felt the pit in her stomach pull at her body. Her vision grew dark, and everything took on a faded, monochrome color. It was as if she was suddenly seeing the entire world in black and white. She could feel it inside her—a mass of energy so powerful it threatened to tear her apart. Frantically, she tried to channel something, anything, to release the pressure.
[Mana Manipulation has leveled up! 1 → 2]
The pressure lightened, and Lyra felt a slight sense of control. Reaching out to the forest in front of her, she tried to recall anything from the game that she could use. As if a beacon of hope, she focused on the spell pattern and spoke, “Void Shot.”
Nothing happened. The pressure built up more. “No, no, no, no.” Thoughts racing, she clung desperately to whatever control she had. Looking inward, as she had done before, she felt the origin of her mana expanding. An epiphany struck her.
“Status,” she wheezed out.
Name: Lyra Nightshade
Race: Kitsune (Void)
Titles: Champion of the Void, Voidborn
Karma: Mistrusted
Positive - 0
Negative - 250
Class: N/A
Level: 1
Health Points (HP): 120/240
Mana Points (MP): 720/720
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Attributes:
Strength: 12
Dexterity: 30
Vitality: 12
Perception: 36
Willpower: 24
Spirit: 72
Luck: 48
Available Stat Points: 10
Mana Affinities:
Light: 0%
Dark: 0%
Fire: 0%
Water: 0%
Earth: 0%
Air: 0%
Void: 650%
Upon seeing the completely lopsided stats, she threw every available point into Vitality. As if a weight was lifted off her chest, air flowed through her lungs in ragged breaths. The blacks and whites of her vision pulled back and color returned to the vibrant world around her. Compared to the dull pain of the game, this was the most physical pain she had ever endured. Not wanting to experience it again, she focused on her mana. She moved it around her body, getting herself familiar with the new sense.
“Why are my stats so wrong for a level 1?” she muttered, sitting on the grass. She moved her hands in front of her face, noting how her body responded to her commands. Everything, from the way her body moved to the way she had felt the pain rolling in, told her something was really wrong.
“What was up with the pain levels? Did my settings reset? No, they wouldn’t—those are linked to the pod,” Lyra’s thoughts raced as she finally decided to try to log off.
Lyra willed the settings menu to open. Nothing happened. She said “settings,” and nothing happened again. She made the hand gesture to open the settings menu, and still, nothing happened.
Lyra began to sweat again, fearing that she was not in Kansas anymore. A deep sense of vertigo took over as she fell to her knees. She did what she always did in stressful situations and let the fear run through her for a second, then breathed it all out. Deciding that dwelling on her situation won’t help her in the short term she locks the welling up fear away, and focuses.
“Now is not the time, If this is a real place and not a game I’m not going to die here. The fact I can’t log out tells me something is wrong in either that I got transported into a new world or I am in an extremely realistic, buggy game. I still have the systems from the game which means if this is a new world I should have an advantage if no one else has it, but if it’s common place I will need to find information on how it works fully. First let’s test all my menus. Let’s check out that new trait.”
Traits:
Void Aspect - All is consumed by the void, All Affinities are converted to Void affinity +10 spirit
Tails of Power - The Kitsune are known for their tails that can increase their magical power. Each tail grants effective +10% Spirit - 1/9 Tails
“This would explain the extremely high Void affinity, but not why my mana pool is so large. Titles next then.”
Title List:
Champion of the Void - Chosen of the Void +20 Spirit +10 Perception +10 Luck +20% all stats -200 Karma
Voidborn - Born from the Void you were given life from nothing +100% Void Affinity +10 spirit +10 willpower +10 luck -50 Karma
“There it is, although the negative karma worries me that just being the Champion of the Void and Voidborn is enough to mark me as mistrusted. I hope that I can make up that karma otherwise just being around a city will be hard. I need to see what skills I am working with at level 1 so I know what I can actually do.”
Skill List:
Mana Manipulation - 2
Mana Sense - 1
Karma Sense - 1
Spirit Flame - 1
Minor Illusion - 1
“That explains why I wasn’t able to cast the spell I have no spell script skills. Actually wait.” Lyra pales as she closed her eyes and looked inward again. It was gone… The mana circuits that she had painstakingly taken months of her life to create was gone. Reduced to a blob of energy with only one connection out toward her tail. “Must have not noticed when I was more focused on not blowing up…”
She opened her eyes looking into the bright blue sky and sighed. “Nothing to do about it right now. I don’t have any notes that I made for it, and it was based on all the mana affinities I had in game so I can’t use it anyway. I’ll just have to make a new one based solely on the void.”
while watching her mana flow to get a feel for it she saw her mana pulse to one direction. opening her eyes to look over she saw it, The intricate dagger she had earned from defeating the boss, or maybe better said that she was cursed with. This was what she got for not reading the terms and conditions of her new ‘Challenge’. As she pondered if she could get a cosmic lawyer to get her out of this a new window appeared.
[Quest acquired - Claim the Void Blade]
[0/1 Bind the Blade]