Stepping out of the room I found myself in another larger room, this one had a bench along the right hand side that was empty currently, but had a large number of draws making up the space under it. To the left was a small couch with its back facing the bench, with a coffee table that had a green cube gently glowing on it. Against the wall on this side was nothing but bookshelves from floor to ceiling, but currently they were empty.
Walking in a bit further I found another door next to what was apparently the bedroom I had just exited, and stepping in I found a toilet, sink, and shower with everything except the fittings also made of a sandstone looking material. As nice as it looked, particularly with the open shower that was easily double the size of my old shower, I did have to wonder how cold the toilet could get and how unpleasant it might be.
Stepping back into the main room I went to walk over to the door opposite the bedroom door to see if it led outside or to another room as someone else walked through. Closer to my height, with brown hair and blue eyes, a man came in wearing the same kind of robe I had seen Eterna wear except this person's skin was obsidian black and covered in lines of bright red and yellows that looked almost like cracks in a sheet of volcanic rock covering a lava flow.
“Hello Fenris. I am Ignut, if you have accessed your status you will have seen myself listed as your trainer. This simply means I am a demigod, or below C tier god, that has contracted with Eterna. So I will train you, and assist your development to face gambit challenges and in return I get a cut of the divinity you will win. This is just so you're aware I am dedicated to only making sure you succeed, this includes your physical and mental health.” Giving a deep sigh Ingut looked like a small weight just came off his shoulder as his posture relaxed.
“Now the required little intro is out of the way, I promise I am not that formal ever if I don’t have to. Its just one of those things, formalities and processes to be followed. So how about a quick tour, introduction on how to use some of the tools you will have access to, then we can have some food and get a schedule planned?”
Nodding along I was glad to hear that the initial formal speech was just a formality, I don’t think I could have dealt with some super formal proper trainer for very long, “Sounds good to me, I am not that hungry, despite literally having not eaten since I got here, but it would be good to know where we are and the plans. So this place is my apartment while I work for Eterna or?” Leaving the question hanging in the air I was hoping if I kept questions slightly vague I would get information I didn’t know to ask for, because my ability to take this all in has been tested many times already and I didn’t want to miss the trees for the forest when thinking to ask questions.
“Definitely this space is yours, I looked at your soul requirements for things like sustenance and rest, but otherwise trainers don’t get any cultural information about lesser souls. So I have no idea if this is a really large excessive space, or an insultingly small one for you. But either way, if you win enough challenges you will have the option to expand or improve this space with time. So to start with, follow me and we can go over where you will be spending most of your time.” As soon as he had finished speaking Ignut turned and went back through the door he entered from, and following behind I was a bit confused on what the space would be for.
A large room, easily thirty metres to a side and in height, with a blue cube about ten centimetres to a side floating close to chest height in the middle of the room. The light seemed to be coming from the walls and floor, and thinking back I realised that there were no external light sources in the other rooms so they must have also been lighting it which is why the spaces felt off, there weren’t really any shadows in any of the rooms.
The only other thing in the room was a small raised metal platform off to the left of the door I had entered via. It was around a metre in width and had a small pink cube around two centimetres on each side floating at the middle on the circular platform.
“So firstly the platform on the side, you won’t have any impressions to use yet yourself but when it's time for a challenge or after you are given some impressions to visit other people you will be able to use this to travel there. If someone else who isn’t your sponsor or trainer tries to visit here first they have to have not been black listed by myself or Eterna, then you will get a prompt and need to approve them.” Making his way over with me following we went to the blue cube in the centre of the room.
“And this is your training cube, it will produce most things you need for training. With it you can store and purchase training weapons, training events, virtual trainers, and a whole range of other options. For you right now, and until your Tier E you likely won’t need anything else from it, you will want to produce training weapons and equipment, trainers, and training scenarios. To access this currently you will need to touch it and focus on what you want, say weapons or a trainer. Then if the more information you provide the more useful options the cube will provide. These all cost mana, which is the term commonly used for the lesser version of divinity. You produce it based on a rate of your intelligence per hour, with your max limit usually at your wisdom times ten. Certain skills and even items can impact this, but first I am going to purchase what is commonly called the combat interface, as it gives you combat specific status information compared to the usual menu which has things nested and won’t display things like your mana total.” While talking Ignut had placed a hand against the cube, and touched my shoulder with another, then suddenly a new prompt showed up.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
Trainer Ingut wishes to gift you “Interface modification - Lesser soul combat focus”, do you wish to accept this gift?
Mentally accepting the gift I suddenly found a new mental switch present, and focusing on it brought up a new display, and once it had appeared it was like I was suddenly aware of a pool of some kind of gas in around where my diaphragm was.
Name Fenris Class None Mana 140 Regen 8 per hour
“So with luck on our side that should have given you some awareness of your mana, let me know your total and regen so I can work out what you can purchase reasonably. This interface is less a gift and more a requirement since it's become standard, we can’t have you not up to the baseline equipment wise. At that same note, if you can get to rank two for any weapon skill Eterna will fund a decent quality weapon as well. Ignore the class field as well, it's a classification for the type of soul you become, like a specific combat style, it will pop up when you qualify for it.”
Looking over my status I started providing my regen and cap, along with the related stats, which I assumed Ignut could work out as I didn’t have any skills but figured better to tell him everything then miss something.
“Alright, off that you can get a test weapon training session a few times a day with no stress. Those only cost around forty mana depending on the weapon type, and they are just a mana construct that will review what your compatibility is likely to be with their weapon group. The main three I would suggest is one handed, two handed, and mana based as the three to review today once the tour is done. Now next step, your private quarters” on those last words he spun on his heel and marched back through into the room we met in.
“So in here are workbenches, if you pick up any crafting skills at any point from a reward we will go into detail on what that entails then. Bookshelves, you can purchase books from the blue cube that are about challenges, puzzle types, combat, and a few other subjects plus sometimes you will get a collection or rare book as a reward. Couch and table you should be able to work out how to use I hope. This little cube is usually referred to as a sustenance cube, though it has a few options that that name doesn’t really cover well. Through this you can purchase food, drinks, and things like hygienic products. However if you get a crafting skill you will also get options around ordering materials for your crafting goods, and paying for them to be accredited by a crafting demigod. This then allows you to resell that finished product to someone else, who funnily will buy it via the blue cube. Don’t worry about that just yet, I just wanted to mention its an option in case you get a choice of rewards early and don’t properly consider anything crafting related. Now go ahead and touch this cube, and think of two portions of a meal you enjoy.”
Doing as instructed I touched the cube on the top and felt a connection appear mentally. Focusing on one of my favourite dishes, Beef and black bean with noodles from my local chinese restaurant from when I was a kid, I suddenly found a prompt asking if I wanted this specific dish or a list of related options. Selecting the specific dish, suddenly the connection went quiet again and looking down I snatched my hand off the cube as it started to rise up and expand.
Before it could get far Ignut put his hand on it, stopping the expansion immediately “Just putting an order for drinks in, I met a lesser soul from this planet called Yosir a while ago and they had this great beer that goes well with any meal.” Once his hand came off the cube reached about ten centimetres off the top of the table before it finished expanding to fully cover the length and width of the table it lowered back down so that the entire table was covered before slowly starting to shrink again.
About five minutes later it was back to the small little cube and there were two bowls of beef and black bean noodles, plus two large steins of a deep purple coloured drink, with the head of the beer somehow in the bottom of the glass instead of on the top.
“Your cube won’t be able to order anything that can harm you, and your body now should process almost anything anyone orders, but there aren’t only carbon based lifeforms present here as lesser souls so it's always worth checking before ordering for anyone else or having them order for you. Now let's eat and then you can ask any questions”
Almost like a button had been pressed to release it, my stomach immediately started growling, and I realised just how long it must have been since I had actually eaten. Grabbing the chopsticks and starting to eat, I realised just how perfectly it had matched the mental image I had provided. There was no way the actual dish was this good, instead of making what I had asked for it had made what I remembered, nostalgic flavour enhanced for sure. Trying the beer I found it to be most described as melon Ramune, a Japanese lemonade, mixed with Guinness but somehow tasted much better than that sounded. Like a strong stout but fake fruit flavoured.