Late morning light poured in through the uncovered window and directly into her eyes. She groaned and rolled toward the back of the settee, making attempts to stretch out and find a more comfortable position to continue sleeping. She had Pudge clutched tightly in her arms, but even the comfort of the stuffed totem couldn’t override the discomfort of the small loveseat and her lack of pillows and blankets. From what she remembered of her previous life, she had always been a bit of a fussy sleeper. The fact that she’d even been able to sleep on such a cramped surface was a testament to how exhausted she must have been after going through all of her supplies and integrating into her new life.
At least the clothes were comfortable, she mused as she rolled toward the long burnt out fireplace and grumbled at being awake. Her entire body was mildly sore, likely from having stood frozen as she had for so long while trying to gain control of her body, or perhaps from using all the magic she had, or from sleeping on the small and awkward settee.
Still, she felt refreshed and whole in a way she hadn’t the day before. The flow of memories seem to have stopped at some point in the night, and while details of who she’d actually been before were still vague, she could remember her favored interests, hobbies, and fandoms in crystal clear detail. She couldn’t remember her old name, but she remembered the name of the character she played in her tabletop campaign for years. She spent her time coming into full wakefulness lounging on the couch, going through what memories she had retained and attempting to analyze her feelings on the matter.
There was likely a reason Void had left so many of her old memories behind. She assumed that having such a strong sense of self from another world would make adapting to the new one harder. Or perhaps that her old sense of morals would cause her distress? She wasn’t sure, nor did she find it particularly important. She knew enough, remembered enough to function well, and the small echoes she could remember didn’t leave her excited for more. From what she could discern, the woman from before had been sad and broken, more bitter than she would admit, and thoroughly disinterested in the world around her.
She reached for the satchel she’d left in front of the settee and blindly scrambled for her waterskin. It wasn’t the coffee she desperately wanted, but the cool water did help ease her further into the waking world. After a long and deep drink, she noted that she’d need to find a source for more water as soon as possible, lest she end up in a bad spot. Already she’d drunk more than half of her supply, the rest wouldn’t last her much longer. Thoughts of slowly dying of thirst were enough to get her up and stretching and trying to work out the aches with what fragmented bits of yoga she could remember from the before.
Once finished, she eyed the only other outfit she now owned. Currently she was dressed in the wool night dress and underclothes she’d found in her bag, and found it surprising how much more comfortable they’d been than she expected. The clothes she had spawned into this realm wearing had also been comfortable, though a bit tighter and thicker than clothing she was used to. The pants, boots, and corset-thing were all made of leather while the poofy medieval style shirt was made of a thin linen. She grumbled while getting herself dressed, irritated by the excess amount of buckles and straps and determined to use her memories of making cosplay clothing to get herself something less heavy for daily wear. She could see how her current outfit could have its benefits, the boots and pants were long and thick enough to be considered armor by some. The shirt was light enough to let her skin breathe even when strapped tightly into the corset overtop it.
Keeping these things clean was going to be an issue, especially with only the two sets of clothes to get by. She hadn’t had much opportunity to sweat yesterday, but she was quite sure that today that wouldn’t be the case, especially as she ran through her mental to-do list and considered the physical exertion required to finish all the tasks. With a nod, she packed Pudge and her underclothes back into her satchel and pulled out her journal to sit and make a proper list of what she would need done today.
First, she would explore her new house, get a feel for the supplies she had. Once she had a better idea of what she was working with she’d venture out into the valley to gather whatever she could find. She’d need more wood for her fire, more kindling, a water source, and hopefully something edible to supplement her rations supply. As she worked on her small list, she pulled out a single bar of the travel rations and ate it slowly. It wasn’t as disgusting as the snowpiercer food blobs it reminded her of, thank goodness, but even after finishing she didn’t feel satisfied in the least. Reflecting on the description, she supposed she shouldn’t be surprised. It had said that they would keep her alive and nothing else.
Once finished, she slung the satchel over her shoulder to start her investigation of the house. She kept her journal in hand to keep a running inventory of any interesting items she might find, starting with the bookshelves in the room. There were only a small handful of tomes left behind, and flipping through them only two were in a state they could actually be read. The first was a small guide for keeping a home garden for what it referred to as essential herbs for food and basic potions, the second was of a similar vein but for growing specialized foodstuffs. For now she left them unread and on the shelves, determined to come back to them later.
Everything was a bit dustier than she’d assumed the night before, the entire room needed a good cleaning, which only distracted and brought her back to her concerns about only having two sets of clothes. She’d need to find a way to perform cleaning spells of some kind, there had been plenty of references to these kinds of magic in her previous life. Surely, as with the fire, she’d be able to merge those ideas into something coherent. Sure, she could focus on finding non-magical ways to perform these tasks, but if she was ever going to get a handle on the magic of this world she’d need to get into the habit of actually trying to use it. She lamented not having some kind of interface like in video games to asses her stats–
Soul
Name:
-
Class:
-
Level:
0
Core Rank:
Mythic
Core Affinity:
Void
Patronage:
Void
Karmic Debt:
-100000
Self
Desirability:
14
Solidity:
3
Judgment:
7
Spirituality:
16
Core
Level Zero:
Tonal Affinity
Level Twenty:
-Locked-
Level Forty:
-Locked-
Level Sixty:
-Locked-
Level Eighty:
-Locked-
Level One Hundred:
-Locked-
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
She stared blankly at the box that appeared at the thought. Had it really been that easy all along? With a groan she slumped back onto the settee, determined to figure out the implications of this before further exploring the house. The box was broken down into three categories; Soul, Self, and Core. In the soul category, both her name and class were blank. Focusing on the blank space next to her name caused a small chime, one she hadn’t yet heard, to sound out. She just knew that this chime meant she was able to edit the field. She’d need to pick a name.
What had been her name in the before? Did she even care to keep it? She remembered the name of the character she’d played, Entix Alderi, she also remembered the character names of the others in the campaign. Ezley the paladin and their leader, Orion their drunken wizard, Jameson the mad barbarian, Rylan the murderous cleric. What had been their real names? They’d spent the better part of a decade together, inside the campaign and out. Still, she couldn’t remember any details about who they’d been outside of their games.
It was jarring, and while part of her wanted to be upset about what she’d lost, she could understand the reasoning. If she could remember, she would likely miss them. It would hinder her ability to move on, to start a new life. She wasn’t meant to remember. This was a new start, which required a new name. Did she want to be Entix? The character had been as much a part of her as her true self had been. Perhaps more idealized, a more interesting version of herself.
A Bardlock Charlatan raised on the streets by the head of a shady criminal enterprise. Entix had been clever and bold in a way she never had been, a morally dark gray girl with a decent heart and the drive to do anything for those she chose to care about. She remembered describing the girl as a Hufflepuff Dark Lord on more than one occasion. It had been funny at first, trying to play the opposing traits in a way that had been believable, until something had shifted and the character had just clicked.
She’d liked Entix. Possibly more than she ever liked herself. There had been other characters that she’d created over the years, when playing games and writing fanfic, but Entix had been special to her in a way that none of the others had been. The same as how her status as a bard and warlock had become part of her whilst playing Entix. They were connections to her old life without overshadowing her potential in this new one. With that thought she decided, and as quickly as she had she heard the chime once more and the field in her vision filled with her new-old name.
She moved on next to the empty space next to her class. Immediately after the chime sounded out for her to edit, it chimed once more and the field was filled with her class. Bardlock. Perhaps she would have been able to pick something else if the idea of what she was hadn’t been so firm in her mind. The system hadn’t even allowed her a moment to make a choice. It was simply what she was. Luckily, this was no imposition and she was quite pleased with her class. She couldn’t have ever conceived herself as something else.
She moved on quickly, noting that she had no levels but her core was ranked as ‘mythic.’ She had to assume this meant her magical core. She’d read a few books in her last life that mentioned magical cores. The lore was different for each, but it was enough context for her to make some assumptions. In most stories that had magical cores, they were something that a person was born with. It couldn’t level up like other stats and skills, whatever core you had was just that. Unchangeable.
Typically the ability to do big magic was dependent on the size of the person's core. Those with better cores had the potential to perform bigger magicks or put more power into smaller spells. A mythic sized core sounded good, like she had the potential to be quite powerful, but it wouldn’t help her much if she didn’t learn how to properly wield it. She figured it would be best to run with those assumptions until she found more information about the way cores and magic worked in this world, and moved on.
Both her core affinity and her patron were Void. It was interesting that people of this world could have magical affinities, but she wasn’t sure how her being of the Void was going to affect the nature of her magic or her ability to learn spells of this world. She was determined to learn as much as she could over time, though it didn’t feel very important to her as she’d already proven to herself that she could use magic through her own will and intent.
Her Karmic Debt was alarming, in that she was in what seemed like massive amounts of it. Debt wasn’t a foreign concept to her, considering the capitalist hellscape she came from, but this specific kind of debt was something she didn’t understand at all. Staring at the entry did not cause any further information to appear in a notification nor cause her another instinctual understanding, so she was forced to move on and push her theories to the side.
In the self category was what could only be her starting stats. Desirability seemed like charisma, and her having quite a bit of it made sense as both a warlock and a bard used charisma heavily. She’d also been a fairly charismatic person in her old life, from what she could remember. It didn’t stop people from thinking that she was strange, but neither did they think she was insane. With a personality like hers, it honestly could have gone either way.
Solidity seemed like a stand in for constitution, which also made sense that she was lacking. This new body was small with little muscle and a daintiness she only ever saw on television and movies. Her new self was short, sleight, and likely quite physically weak. Even with hard physical training she was unlikely to ever be as strong and solid as she’d been in her last life. This was fine with her, she was unlikely to ever be the type to want to run directly into danger anyway, best to leave that to foolish hero types. She was a support class, after all.
Judgment was probably a mix of intelligence and wisdom, or perhaps her mental acuity in some undefined way. Whatever it was she had less of it than she’d like, but considering how she’d been an almost completely blank slate this time yesterday, even getting to seven felt like an accomplishment. She hoped that training that number higher would help with recall of her old memories and learning about this new world, but that was something that would take time and experimentation to figure out properly.
That left spirituality, which was her highest stat. She wasn’t sure what, specifically, this stat translated to, but she was sure it had something to do with her Void. Perhaps even her magic? Only time would tell for sure. She made a mental note to write down all of her theories and ideas in her journal before putting it away in her satchel, and moved on.
Her core menu was interesting but had no useful information. From what she could gather, every twenty levels she gained would allow her to unlock a new facet to her core. What those things would be were unknown for now, but having tonal magics unlocked from the start was enough to make her smile. It explained why she could feel her magic react so strongly when she spoke or hummed, and would only make her a more effective bard in the long term.
As soon as she finished examining the menu it disappeared as if it had known. It probably had. Whatever system governed this world was clearly intent based or semi-sentient. In the achievement she’d received it had spoken to her directly, as if it had a sense of self and personality of some kind. Was this unique to her or did everyone notice the personality of it? Just another thing to put on her list of information to find and investigate about this world.
She straightened a bit from her slumped position and she pondered over the information she just found. If the system had a stats page that she could look at, it likely meant there were more things to be found in this mental interface. She tried a couple of random thoughts, things like an internet browser and maps, but nothing popped up before trying the obvious. Skills.
Skill
Unarmed:
0
Martial Weapons:
0
Marksmanship:
3
Thaumaturgy:
7
Handicraft:
3
Runecraft:
0
Naturecraft:
0
Evasion:
2
Declamation:
6
Sleight:
6
Viability:
2
Divinity:
9
Uniquities
[Mage Sight]
[Harbinger]
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
She sighed as she looked over the listed skills. It wasn’t surprising that there wasn’t much but she’d still hoped for more. Most of the categories could be understood from context. It seemed like the entire top section was for combat, thaumaturgy being magic and the others being martial skills. The middle section was for crafting, first by hand, second by runes, and third by something involving nature that she had no context for. The third category was the most interesting as it was similar to but clearly different from her stats in the self menu. Evasion was likely agility, declamation was speech, sleight implied dexterity, and viability was probably some extension of constitution. The only one she wasn’t sure of was divinity. It being so high meant it was probably linked to her spirituality stat, but she wasn’t sure what either meant in more practical terms and would require further research.
The uniquities menu was the most interesting. The blank spaces implied that she could earn or learn more over time, and the two she had already left her grinning. It was good to know she’d interpreted the message received from the Void correctly, that she was picked to be his Harbinger in this world. Staring at the entry gave her no further context, but she’d come to expect that by this point. Information provided by the system had been sparse, and figuring things out on her own would likely be more beneficial to her in the long run anyway.
Mage sight, however, was enlightening. All this time in this world and she’d assumed that seeing the magic in the air was simply normal for this new world. That everyone could see it, feel it in the way she’d been. Clearly this was not the case, and the ability was a unique quirk. She doubted that she would be the only person in this world with the ability, but it probably wasn’t common. If it was, it was unlikely to be listed in a section of her interface called uniquities. Things that made her unique. With an affirming nod she closed out the menu and moved on to the next obvious thought. Quests.