A long groan escaped from parched lips as muscles twitched in an uncontrolled manner, searing pain jolted the young man awake while simultaneously clouding his thought processes due to the intensity. He felt as if someone had beat him with baseball bats all over, followed by tire irons, and then ran him over with a bus or two for good measure... All while his head was filled with cotton made of pure pain that made it hard to connect two coherent thoughts together.
He kept his eyes closed tightly, sure that if he were to open them in his current state the pain would only intensify further. He did not know what physical state he was in exactly, as the pain made it difficult to think straight, much less evaluate his state. He hoped it was not nearly as bad as it felt.
The pain began to slowly subside, leaving him feeling more like a sore, throbbing bruise than ground meat now. He let out a small sigh of relief, grateful that the pain from before would not be a constant companion, though the sigh led him into a coughing fit due to how parched he was. After the painful coughing subsided, he began to slowly move his extremities to check what he had available to him. Two arms, two hands, four fingers and a thumb on each hand... so far so good. He thought to himself. Two legs... well, three really, but who s counting... two feet... seems to be five toes on each. Good, things seem at least relatively normal... His perception then shifter toward his body proportions, Seems similar to what I was familiar with from Earth, so adjusting my hand eye coordination should not be too difficult. He confirmed to himself mentally as the pain in his body had almost entirely faded, freeing up more of his mental faculties. This allowed him to focus on where he was and what state his major senses were in.
As he focused on listening to his surroundings first, he found that it was quiet... almost too quiet. If not for the cool breeze he felt tickling his sensitive skin, which also seemed to be rustling the leaves in his surroundings, he would have thought his sense of hearing was impaired or missing entirely. The breeze had also allowed him to verify that his sense of touch was not only working, but also extremely sensitive. As he focused on one of his arms, he found that he could actually tell the position of each individual hair that moved from the breeze. This sensation and attention to detail was both amazing and slightly worrisome. If it is this sensitive to a breeze, what would it feel like if I got attacked? Would the pain be similar to earlier? He asked himself mentally before chasing the thought away to focus on his next sense. The scent on the breeze was loamy and damp, so he guessed he was in a forest. So far, so good. Three senses seemed to be working within acceptable parameters so far at least. He then braced himself mentally and slowly opened his eyes. It was blinding at first, the light was overwhelming and caused his head to throb due to light sensitivity, but he squinted and pushed through the pain until his sight finally settled and the throbbing subsided. That was the fourth sense that was working now, he would have to evaluate whether his sense of taste worked properly sometime later.
He was indeed surrounded by a forest as previously guessed. He could see tall trees looming overhead as he looked up from his prone position on the forest floor. The light filtering through the slightly swaying treetops was mesmerizingly beautiful, and a sight he would not have been able to see if it were Earth. It seemed that he was no longer on his ruined home world, but he could live with that. He did not have any family left on Earth, no significant other, and the only people he called 'friends' had betrayed him, using him as bait for a Dire Wolf Alpha. If he had been sent back to Earth by that strange entity, he was sure he would have lived for revenge. Comparatively though, he liked what he saw here better... At least, so far...
The air was clean, the scenery he could see above him was vivid and full of life. He took a deep breath of the fresh air, which caused him to feel invigorated. It was so different here from his home. Earth had become a stagnant wasteland waiting for its end, only those who were extremely persistent or too stubborn to die held onto hope that it would turn around. He had grown up with such bleak scenery for as long as he could remember, since he had been born after WWIII, so the sight that filled his view currently had an impact that was greater than expected. Was the Earth like this at some point in the past? Was it able to go back to being this way? He had heard stories of course, but he never believed them to be anything other than the ramblings of the old and infirm. He could partially understand now why some people would fight so hard if this is what they remembered their home being like He would have wanted to restore his ruined world to be like this once again if he had known. The only reason he had lasted as long as he had on Earth was simply the fear of death and the unknown, which begged the question: was that really living?
He struggled to sit up, clearing his mind of such philosophical sophistry for now, his body protesting as he did so. He was stiff, as if his body had not moved in ages, despite him moving slightly to check his appendages moments ago. He held out his hands in front of him as he looked down at them. It was at this time that he realized he was completely naked. "Really?" He complained aloud in a strained voice, startling himself with what he heard. His voice was a bit gritty, likely from being so parched, and seemed to be in the middle of the baritone register. He could tell his voice would be rather pleasant and soothing to most people if he were hydrated.
"So much... information..." he muttered to himself as he gathered his wits, placing one of his large hands on his head due to the information overload on his senses. The shifting of his vision had caused him to be a bit dizzy as well since everything seemed to be moving a bit faster than he expected. This was likely due to the difference in this body compared to the one he had on Earth.
He quickly organized his thoughts and found a few major points as he analyzed his options. He was in the middle of a forest, his senses were slowly coming under his full control, and he was not sure what kind of animals, monsters, or people for that matter, would come to find him if he stayed there. He had no equipment, no tools, no... wait... "Inventory..." he muttered as a thought struck him. Sure enough, just as the strange entity in that in-between space had assured him previously, an inventory window appeared just like it had for him when he was on Earth. There were some minor differences on the translucent screen, but as long as it worked in the same general way, he was happy. He was even more ecstatic when he saw that the items that were in his inventory at the time of his death on Earth were still available to him, he had half expected it to all disappear in the transfer. He was not sure about the exact principles that the system ran on, so he had no way to tell if the inventory was tied to his soul, or if the entity had a direct hand in its transfer, or if it was something else entirely. He was sure of one thing though, the more he tried to ponder it, the more time he was wasting, since he had no way of finding the answer at this time.
Within the inventory, he had a couple changes of clothing that he could use for now. He did not have any food or water due to an oversight in preparing for his last mission on Earth, it was supposed to only be a simple hour or two patrol after all. He had no weapons left in his inventory other than a rusty old knife he had pillaged from a dilapidated hardware store some years back. He had never used a knife to fight with before, but it would be better than not having anything to defend himself if he needed it.
He pulled out an old T-shirt that had some tears and holes in it from his previous close encounters on Earth. As he pulled it over his head, he found that it was extremely tight on his muscular frame. The briefs he pulled on after standing up shakily were thankfully stretchy enough to fit, though they were also a bit constricting. "Wait..." he mumbled before he checked his body over visually again and found that he was much bulkier than in his previous life, the muscles were tight and well-toned, his body looked to be in perfect health too. He then frowned as he looked at the pants he had pulled from his inventory. "I doubt these... will fit..." he struggled to speak aloud his thoughts. Despite his best efforts to get the pants on after that, they were simply too small, causing him to place them back into the inventory with a small sigh of defeat.
"I suppose the... briefs will... have to do... for now..." he struggled to speak aloud still, but refused to stay silent, finding the act of speaking aloud comforting in an unfamiliar setting. Speaking aloud also helped him to gather his thoughts more efficiently instead of letting his mind race away on every tangent that came to mind.
"If the inventory is available... the other menus... He pondered aloud before checking his surroundings visually. He would have to stay alert, but he needed to confirm several things before he started acting, so he prepared himself mentally. Status." He called out the command for one of the other menus he had become familiar with early in his previous life. Instantly after calling out the command, a translucent screen appeared before him. It was not the screen he expected to see, but it meant that the commands he was familiar with should work at least.
The screen that was currently displayed had only one line of text and a user input field. The line of text simply read: Please choose a name
"Intriguing..." he said to himself as he pondered this message. When The Invasion happened and the system was first introduced on Earth, the system pulled information like one s name, age, race, etc. and auto populated them somehow. Those who were born after The Invasion had their names filled in as what their parents named them. The system's inner workings were beyond what humans could definitively figure out, but the popular theory from the scholars was that the system had access to all documentation on the world and was able to use that for its own purposes.
Yet here he was, seeing an unfamiliar screen that reminded him of stories from the older generation about making a character in a video game. The young man thought about the name he would use here, eventually deciding to use one of the nicknames he had been given on Earth several years ago: Loctorn.
After Loctorn entered the name, he was able to see his actual status screen, which was like the one he used to see on Earth, with some minor differences in the organization. Included on the display was one window with several lines of statistical data, and another window showing a 3D representation of himself. He focused on the 3D representation first since he didn't have a mirror and found himself curious.
Tall, well-toned musculature, well-proportioned extremities... as for his facial features, they were strongly pronounced, which would make it difficult not to stand out. A jawline that was crisp and well defined, cracked and parched lips that were in desperate need of hydration, a relatively small and narrow nose that seemed somewhat out of place, high cheekbones with almond shaped eyes just above them. The eyes drew his attention, as they did not seem human at all. Instead of seeing a sclera, iris, and pupil, there was a swirling orb of what appeared to be metallic grey liquid mixed with a purplish mist. There was no indicator to show where such eyes were focusing. He shook his head as a shiver ran up the back of his neck, looking away from the eyes that easily unnerved him. He then focused on the rest of his face to see how he looked other than the strange eyes. Bushy eyebrows rode atop the odd eyes, tapering off nicely towards the outside of his face. Above that he seemed to have a large forehead, which caused him to frown and reach up to feel at it to see if it was anywhere near as bad as it looked. It was. "Darn it... I just got here... and it seems like I have... a receding hairline..." he struggled to mutter under his breath. He currently had no facial hair to speak of, but atop his head was long smooth hair that was the color of ash with no luster whatsoever. This caused him to quirk an eyebrow as he took another look at the odd features he found himself with. "Just what... did I get... myself into?" He asked himself aloud.
His eyes then shifted to look at the data in the other window to look at the status shown by the system.
Name:
Loctorn
Primary Class:
TBD
Age:
Unknown
Level:
TBD
Race:
Human?
Growth Type:
TBD
Stat Points:
0
Skill Points:
0
Stats:
TOTAL
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BASE
SUPPLEMENTAL
MULTIPLIER
STR
23
23
0
1.0
DEX
18
18
0
1.0
VIT
138
138
0
1.0
INT
42
42
0
1.0
WIS
89
89
0
1.0
LUK
777
777
0
1.0
Resources:
Regen:
HP
790
HP
66.4
MP
432
MP
22.0
VOI
35,423
VOI
1,192.0
He frowned upon seeing the data points that were provided. There were some anomalies that he just could not fathom at this time. He had input the name, his age was probably thrown off by the fact that he just arrived, even though he was in a fully grown body and could remember everything from before he died on Earth. The fact that his race was listed as human with a question mark bothered him, but after seeing what his eyes looked like in the 3D representation, he was also questioning if he was human. The fact that he did not have a Primary Class, Level, or Growth Type was expected. He would have to get a class change quest from the system before any of those would be populated. He also would not be able to earn the Stat and Skill Points until he had his class either, so their values being at 0 made sense to him assuming these things followed the same rules as the system on Earth did. Some of the organization was different in the window, so that may not be entirely accurate, but for now he could only reference the information he knew from before arriving here.
His stats were odd though. On Earth, scholars had come to some conclusions about how some of the Stats worked after collecting and crunching numbers for over a decade. From their research, it seemed that the stats were based off the race as a whole, so on Earth it was based off of the humans as a collective. If you were to take every adult human on Earth and average their strength, before any system applied modifications such as level or class bonuses, that would be represented as '10' in STR. They were able to confirm that this also applied to dexterity and vitality. So, if someone was the epitome of being physically average, their STR, DEX, and VIT stats would be 10. For INT and WIS, which were considered the Esoteric Stats when he was on Earth, the scholars had no way to directly confirm how they were calculated, though there were several hypotheses.
The scaling on stats was a fixed percentage per point as well from what they learned. Someone that had a 20 in STR would only be 10% stronger than someone with a 10, while someone with a 15 would be 5% stronger than someone with a 10. Every increase of 1 point was an extra 1%, compared to the average 10 for the three physical stats. This meant that body builders could start with STR stats in the 200s. From what Loctorn had heard, the early days of the system implementation during The Invasion were rather chaotic before these observations were made, as people believed a 20 in STR would result in double the strength than someone with a 10. That mindset had led to many deaths.
For having such a well-toned body, his strength and dexterity stats seemed far too low, unless the average here was just that much higher than Earth. If he were on Earth with this body, he would have expected a STR stat of around 80 and DEX of 85 with how this body was built. Perhaps there were more races here than on Earth and it averages all of them together instead? He had questions and no way to answer them currently. This was a different world after all, so the theorycrafting he knew of from Earth may not apply the same way, or at all, here. His vitality was abnormally high for a beginning number though. Vitality was a statistic that took human scholars of Earth a long time to truly figure out, as it was not nearly as straight forward as STR and DEX. VIT handles resistance against illness, how much HP you have, and even how much passive defense you have. If VIT is raised high enough, bare skin can be stronger than steel.
As for the more esoteric stats, his INT and WIS were higher than expected. INT had been found to directly affect the amount of MP one has, as well as the ease of learning magic. It did not mean you were academically smarter than the person next to you if your INT was higher, but more so that you had more talent for magic, at least as far as Loctorn was aware. Many people wondered why it was listed in such a way to be understood as intelligence, but no answer was ever found that he knew of. WIS was found to highly influence MP regen, however it did not mean someone was actually wise. Some of the most foolish people could have the highest WIS stat. That led to plenty of questions on the sanity of the system s creator, but no answers to such questions were forthcoming.
LUK... it was an odd statistic that no one really understood fully on Earth, but it seemed to have a little bit of an influence on everything. It was one of several hidden stats that could be unlocked through strange circumstances or achievements. That said, Loctorn had never seen or heard of a LUK stat being over 30, so his being 777 from the beginning was absurd. It was not a stat that would rise with leveling, but it could be raised or lowered by specific items or special foods of a magical type like the legendary Golden Apples. There were also some buffs, debuffs, blessings, and curse effects that could influence the LUK stat of someone who had it unlocked, if the stat was not unlocked, the LUK specific effects had absolutely no effect.
"Hmmm..." he pondered over his status for a bit longer before dismissing the window and calling up a new one. "Skills." As he said the word, a new window appeared before him, and what he saw there caused his eyes to widen. Now he understood that strange entity's curiosity, as well as some of the oddities in his status window.
-----
Skills/Traits:
Void Tempered(P) - a body tempered by the void. Increases resistance to nearly all types of damage and attacks and unlocks VOI resource. Introduces a weakness to Creation and Holy Elements.
Perk 1 - Void Eyes(P/A) - eyes that have been tempered by the void, enables one to see through the existence of all things. Uses VOI resource when active, amount varies.
Perk 2 - Luck of the Void(P) - for a body to have survived the process of Void Tempering, LUK must be maxed out. Unlocks and permanently sets LUK to max value.
Perk 3 - Enter the Void(A) - once per day, you can enter the void for up to 10 minutes. Exiting returns you to the exact place you entered from. Uses 2,000 VOI for every minute within the void.
Perk 4 - Void Resonance(P) - any being that has unlocked VOI resource will resonate with you when they are close. This will cause them to want to always be near you.
Perk 5 - Void Element(A) - all attacks will be infused with void energy when active, costs 100 VOI per attack. Void element is known for invalidating resistances and defenses. Manually using more VOI per attack to increase base damage is also possible.
Perk 6 - Void Magic Attunement(P) - after having lived in the void for centuries, you have become attuned to Void Magic. Allows the use of Void Magic. VOI can be infused into Void Magic spells alongside the initial MP cost to increase their effects.
Perk 7 - Void Descent(A) - effect uncertain. Uses 250,000 VOI.
Sanction 1 - Catastrophic Creation(P) - Major events and achievements caused by you will cause immense backlash in the world as the laws of the world try to achieve balance.
Sanction 2 - Elemental Lockout(P) - Due to an extreme affinity to the Void, most other elements cannot be attuned.
Sanction 3 - Principle Resistance(P) - The Principles of this world reject you. Costs of active skills and traits are doubled and unlock conditions of skills and traits have become more complex.
Void Magic(A) - utilizing the unique properties of the Void, different effects may be realized. Self-enlightenment is required to learn and use Void Spells. Void Spells will use MP to cast.
Universal Language Interpretation(P) - A gift from @#>!) *. Will allow for communication in any language.
-----
Each Skill and Trait can be categorized as either Passive or Active, denoted by the letter beside each Skill or Trait Name. Some Skills did have the option of both, as they would provide certain bonuses when used passively with added benefits during active use.
Loctorn read the Void Tempered trait multiple times, pondering about it in relation to his current state. His status and trait pointed towards a paladin style build, a mix of tanking hits with a high defense and mediocre physical attacks while also using magical prowess to buff, recover, and attack. Paladins typically used holy magic to accomplish their feats, having a religious background to them as well. He did not have holy magic, but void magic. Void magic seemed like it would be more like the opposite of holy magic if he had to guess, a guess that was supported by the weakness to both Creation and Holy Elements. Would he be able to become a Void Paladin then? Was that a thing?
He had heard of skills and traits with Sanctions before, like Last Stand or Berserker s Call. Last Stand was an active trait he had heard about back on Earth that had 4 Perks and 1 Sanction effect. The trait was able to be used when the user s HP fell below 5%. The perks lasted for 1 minute, making the user immortal for that short time. After that one minute, the Sanction took effect for 5 minutes. The Sanction for Last Stand would leave the user immobilized as all forms of defense were broken, including armor, spells, buffs and other such effects. Such a Sanction could lead to death if the battle was not finished within the first minute of the trait s usage, but there were plenty of ways to offset the risks, especially if you had a decent healer on hand or someone that could evacuate the user during the Sanction.
Perhaps it was due to Void Tempered being a passive trait that there were so many Sanctions, not to mention that all the Sanctions were powerful and passive as well. Did this speak to just how powerful the Perks were? Even Loctorn could see that some of the Perks seemed balance breaking, but then again, they seemed either too vague to really tell, or very situational. He didn t even know what the seventh Perk could do, and he was not even close to having enough resources to find out.
Loctorn had more questions than answers right now, but at least he had a passive skill that made language barriers moot. As such, he decided he should first try to find a village or town and see what this world was like. Maybe he could get something to drink there too... He had a lot to learn if he wanted to live properly in this world, especially since he had no currency, his wilderness survival skills were not all that great, and he had no idea what was in store for him due to the ominous Sanctions on his Void Tempered trait.
"So it begins..." he said as he chose a random direction and began walking, a bit unsteady on his bare feet.