It had been hours of treading through the sewers checking out each possible way…or at least it felt that way. During the entire time he was walking through the sewers, Eric was getting more accustomed to the interface that he could mentally command to visibility. Moments at a time he got distracted and thought another large creature would be finding him. After trial and error, Eric was able to determine that the interface did nothing more than relay information to him. He had no map, no quest system like video games, just a way to bring up information he learned since acquiring the ability and view his 'character sheet'.
Eric had been wondering for just over an hour when he saw rays of sunlight streaming through a grate above him. Looking around for a way up, he was unable to find any ladders or items to help him get up with the ceiling of the sewer being nearly 20 feet above his head, but he was able to take a longer look at a possible way out. The grate above him showed a bluish-purple sky with bright light shining through illuminating the sewer section he was in. Easily identify several discarded or damaged items such as glass bottles, sticks, and even a discarded board or two.
With a curious thought, Eric picked up an empty bottle and attempted to do an inventory screen. Instead, he felt an emptiness before being greeted with a popup in his vision.
Dimensional Storage is empty.
What a help, a message telling him what he already knew. Instead of attempting to will an inventory screen up, he looked at the glass bottle and wondered.
Empty Glass Bottle added to Dimensional Storage.
YES! The experiment worked, willing the bottle to be stored in his 'inventory', Eric was able to send it there. Not sure if he could pull it out as easily but instead concentrated on the thought of his dimensional storage's contents and felt the connection to his space, as if it was rooted inside him. Holding his hand out naturally as if he was grabbing the bottle out of the air, the bottle appeared in his hand as he plucked it from nothingness.
Unfortunately, nothing else about his inventory space would immediately help him in his search for a way out so he kept going forward. Slowly realizing he was walking at an incline, Eric kept going until he noticed a break in the walls in the distance. As he approached he noticed an intersection of connecting sewer segments. A four-way intersection of sewer mains converged at this one area, and not even 30 or 40 feet to his left was a ladder going up, and to Eric's hope, out of the sewers. The other directions continued for as far as he could tell, so with an easy choice, he turned left and chose the path that looked to bring him out of the smell and grime he had been walking through.
Normally when he played video games, Eric would explore every part of the sewer in the hope of finding secret locations, treasure chests, and more loot goodies. But today, in this place, he regretted not exploring, but he didn't want to find another one of those crocodiles. He was lucky the first time, even though it was a stab to the heart, he didn't feel like he would get lucky a second time.
Turning back to the ladder, Eric reached out and started climbing. Easily climbing the ladder, Eric was able to reach the top which abruptly ended at a round stone cover. Giving a test push, the stone moved but slowly. This stone cover looked like a manhole cover he would see if he visited New York City or other places that had larger sewer or underground areas that needed access. So hoping the process was going to be the same, all he had to do would push up and over to provide himself a way out.
Applying more leverage and using his legs, Eric shoved hard and was able to move the lid up. Before losing momentum he changed up his grip, pushing the lid off of the hole, hearing a large crack as it slammed itself against the ground as it dropped off the hole. Climbing the last few rungs higher Eric stopped and listened before popping his head up to look around.
Surrounding him was a city street, cobbled and decaying with stone and wooden buildings collapsed and falling to shambles on both sides of the street. Green and blue-hued plants were growing through the gaps of the cobbled stone road. Thick vines and trees with blue and purple leaves were pushing through the destroyed buildings showing long abandonment of the city, or at least to the section he could see.
In the distance, he heard the sounds of odd chirps that he hoped were just friendly small birds. The last thing he needed was to find a new large carnivorous bird to run from.
Pulling himself up and over into the street, Eric rolled his back, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. Why was he here? Where is this Sicionia, and can he find himself back home eventually?
After a few moments of dread passing through him, Eric rolled over, standing up, then went to work to pull the cover back over the sewer opening and let it fall back into place. Standing and stretching his back out, Eric took another look at where he was. This isn’t home and he did not recognize the architecture. Nothing he looked at was even remotely familiar. While the stone was older and crumbling, many buildings looked ages old like the older Greek and Roman architecture that he learned about in history classes.
Marble or what looked to be marble was present in a building nearly half a block away, and not finding anything else that caught his attention he looked up into the sky. A blue sky with purple and green hues with bright white clouds moving as if the sky were a picture. Eric got the impression the clouds were miles higher than they would be back on Earth yet they still moved at a good speed.
He remembered the message that plagued his vision earlier, which I named the location he found himself to be in, Sicionia. The name was unfamiliar to him and it held no weight in his mind. Was it the city, Country, or world name? Taking a slow and steady walk towards the marbled building, the most secure and tallest one in the area, Eric was thinking back to the messages he had and confusion became worse as he couldn’t understand some of the messages. Almost as if a history of messages was waiting for him he was able to recall some of the messages to his vision again.
You have slain a creature over 20 levels higher than you, your granted title has evolved and so has your bonus.
You have survived your first deadly experience in the world, you have been granted access to the system interface.
You have reached level 1, congratulations, you are expected to do great things. Failure is death, and death is not always the end!
Thinking back he remembered there being more messages but he didn’t look through them, reaching the edge of his vision he thought about those still waiting for him to acknowledge.
Because you were Level 0 upon slaying an Elder Crocodile you have acquired access to core mana.
You have received more core mana than it takes to reach Level 1, any excess core mana will be converted to a bonus instead of granting additional levels. This does not happen in future instances of gaining core mana, only on reaching Level 1 and for every 10 levels reached in the future.
Excess core mana will be converted to an uncommon bonus due to killing a creature 10 levels higher than you.
Excess core mana will be converted to a lesser bonus due to killing a creature 20 levels higher than you.
Reading the messages helped bring clarity to the confusion that was plaguing Eric.
It looks like reaching level 10 will grant a bonus for any excess core mana, and the same for levels 20, 30, and higher. Who knows how high I can go?! Also, what is core mana?
In video games, a player can gain levels by acquiring experience, killing monsters, doing quests, exploring new locations, crafting, and more. But here the messages were saying core mana was responsible for him accessing the 'interface' that provided him with the message boxes. Was core mana the same as experience? Would he acquire more just like video games? The more he thought about it the more confused he got.
Selecting the pinging sensation that the interface wanted to present a message box to him, Eric allowed the message to flood his vision.
Core Mana, is responsible for changes to the body, mind, and soul.
Allows for one to 'level up' when exposed to sufficient quantities of core mana.
No additional information for core mana is available at this time. Expand your knowledge level to improve upon retained information by the system.
If he was able to understand the message correctly, he couldn't just use any 'help' function but instead had to learn about something to recall about it using the interface. Not helpful at all. Eric thought to himself as he continued walking down the street.
No sooner did he finish acknowledging the rest of the historical messages did he reached the building made of marble. Still partially standing compared to the others he was able to see half crumbled stone doors collapsed onto the ground. With enough light and holes in the building, Eric was able to see inside as it looked like a place you would visit in Washington DC, or a religious place of worship.
Taking a step forward he passed the doorway and was immediately bombarded with the feeling of intense pressure and a new message arrived in his vision.
You have entered an access station for the current world. Access to The System will be stronger and provide more options than throughout the rest of the world.
Utilize the central terminal for additional access to The System.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
Eric remembered a few things now that he hadn't had a chance to look through. Checking for any additional notifications, and finding none, Eric looked down at himself.
Still without pants... at least there are no others around to see me embarrass myself by walking around without pants.
Walking forward to the marble pillar in the center of the building, Eric looked at the rest of the building before stopping in front of the pillar. He was right to think of this place as a tourist attraction at first, but now that he was here there were old and decayed scrolls in stone alcoves on both sides of the building. There were a couple of damaged sections of the wall in front of him, but no hints of the building being used for anything other than administrative.
Ahead of him was a pillar of stone roughly 3 feet wide and standing only 3 feet high. Ending with an angled edge as if perfect for placing a book or a scroll upon.
Eric reached a hand out to the stone pillar, and as he did he saw a console the interface appeared on the stone with six columns of information
Roma.Tefkon.Sicionia
Progress to Completion: 86.245% complete
Status: Unfinished / Abandoned
No Staff Present
Query
Command
Eric was about to touch the section labeled as 'Query' but before he did the interface suddenly changed spitting out new information in a quick read out.
----------------------------------------
Abnormal energy pattern detected!!
Energy reading identified as dimensional rift
Dimensional rift authorization not found
Tracing Dimensional rift
Endpoint located.. Roma.Tefkon.Sicionia
Status: Unfinished / Abandoned
Current progress: 86.245% complete..
Evaluating the origin point of dimensional refit..
The origin point of the dimensional rift identified..
Acuren.Milky_Way.Sol.Terra
Access file: Sol.Terra
Sol.Terra
Planet
Status: Complete, seeded
Current location: Acuren.Milky_Way.Sol
Dimension Stability: Stable
Mana Level: Null..
Error, Sol.Terra has been exposed to RAW MANA since population seeding..
Identifying....
Unknown Error <>@)??
Tracing..
Input requested....
....
Input not received..
Tracing..
Tracing...
Tracing....
Trace complete, mana source identified
Forge component identified on Sol.Terra
Error!! A forge component has exposed Sol.Terra to dangerous levels of RAW MANA!!
Diagnostics started..
Error..Cradle.Forge in a damaged state..
Requesting input..
Input not received..
Protocol Cradle.Forge.Repair initiated..
Forge component retrieval required to begin repair
Warning, Sol.Terra was found in possession of Cradle.Forge.core.A321859E61
Core state: stable, ACTIVE
Sol.Terra will be impacted by repair.. Requesting Input..
Input received..
Repair Protocol has begun.
Sol.Terra will have Cradle.Forge.core.A321859E61 removed and dimensional rifts will be sealed.
Error. Core removal failed..
Allocating additional mana in removal attempt..
Core removal Failed, manual removal is required!!
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Eric was not sure what any of that meant, but if it had anything to do with accessing the system would it involve the pain he felt when he showed up at this weird place, and in the sewers no less?
Interface parameters have been copied to your Interface from Terminal.Interface.
Additional mana induction is required for the use of settings.
Human:Eric.Liam.Kelly has already completed mana induction, no additional action is required.
Eric wasn’t sure what the last message was, or what any of them meant, but as he dismissed it more and more questions flooded his mind.
Unsure of what to do next, but reading over the interface Eric couldn’t understand what Roma.Tefkon was but he recognized the word Sicionia. That was the world he was in, but not sure what the other two words meant. The planet wasn’t complete AND abandoned? Does that mean these cities never had life in them or it did and they died out?
Curious about what any of it meant, a notification became visible on the interface
Roma.Tefkon.Sicionia
Universe designation: Roma
Galaxy designation: Tefkon
Planet designation: Sicionia
Status: Not complete, current progress deemed as abandoned due to damage to Cradle.Forge.System infrastructure
He was on a planet called Sicionia, meant to be created and deposited in the Universe of Roma within the Tefkon galaxy. Suddenly he thought to Earth and more information flooded onto the pillar's interface as if reading his mind.
Earth wasn’t called Earth but instead was referenced as Acuren.Milky_Way.Sol.Terra and he was deposited here by an unauthorized dimensional rift? More questions poured through his mind but he refrained from focusing on the interface as his head was pounding with the information flooding the screen.
Before he could turn away a new message appeared on the interface.
Resume creation of planet designated as Roma.Tefkon.Sicionia?
Yes / No
Eric paused at this question. Would resuming the building of this planet, or creation of the planet cause harm to him or where he was at? Would it help him get home?
He understood, somehow, that the resources were still available to complete the planet, and if he chose to resume it what would happen to him, or the city he was located in?
Eric selected yes and turned around to leave the building before feeling the world shake and everything went black as he felt an immense drain to his energy, feeling suddenly tired mentally. Eric was unable to take a few steps as he finally cleared the building, feeling weak he passed out onto the street.
While unconscious, Eric was unaware of the Terminal interface readout as it continued to display new information.
INSUFFICIENT MANA FOR COMMAND.. PUNITIVE ACTION WILL BE TAKEN..
Punitive action suspended..
Mana supplied for command remotely..
Resuming completion of Roma.Tefkon.Sicionia..
==============================================
Warning..Sol.Terra has been exposed to sufficient RAW MANA for astral manifestations!!
Sol.Terra primary population is not seeded for astral manifestations.
Sol.Terra is at risk of damage..
Searching protocols..
No Protocol was found, requesting input...
Command: Forced Mana Induction
Authorizing Sol.Terra for mana induction
Human subspecies are not seeded for mana induction, population loss is possible..
The forced Evolution of Human Subspecies allows for mana management has been approved..
Mana Induction of Sol.Terra: Pending authorization..
Authorization Granted!