It smelled like roasted pork. That’s what Cael noticed first. Roasted pork that somehow managed to smell evil, and something metallic. As if someone was grilling nearby.

The next thing he noticed was how itchy he was. Like, really itchy. And cold. Again. If this was Arx’s doing, he was about to be so mad.

Cael opened his eyes.

[System Message]

The universe grows more powerful.

As the fourth [Extraplanar Reincarnator] of the era, you have untold opportunities presented to you.

[Extraplanar Reincarnator] must choose a permanent debuff before being permitted to benefit from System influence.

It is recommended that other System users are not informed of the [Extraplanar Reincarnator] title.

[Sickly]

Effective value of the [Vitality] stat is halved.

[Weak]

Effective value of the [Strength] stat is halved.

[Frail]

Effective value of the [Endurance] stat is halved.

[Clumsy]

Effective value of the [Dexterity] stat is halved.

[Slow]

Effective value of the [Agility] stat is halved.

[Unobservant]

Effective value of the [Perception] stat is halved.

[Forgetful]

Effective value of the [Intelligence] stat is halved.

[Distracted]

Effective value of the [Focus] stat is halved.

[Luckless]

[Luck] stat is set to a value of 0

[Unskilled]

All experience gained is halved.

Cael was beginning to realize that Arx had left out a lot of important details. For instance, what exactly was he looking at right now? He was being asked to pick some kind of debuff that he would carry for the rest of his life, obviously. But why did it feel suspiciously like a video game? Albeit a game where he was nerfed preemptively.

Was it honestly too much to ask to be born and not be immediately slapped with restrictions?

He wasn’t even all that sure what all these ‘stats’ did. Hmm.

“System?” he inquired quietly.

Vitality

Represents resistance to damage of all kinds.

Strength

Represents the power of physical abilities and the body.

Endurance

Represents resistance to physical damage and exhaustion.

Dexterity

Represents fine motor control.

Agility

Represents movement speed and reaction time.

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Perception

Represents the depth, distance, and processing speed of the senses.

Intelligence

Represents the power of non-physical abilities and memory.

Focus

Represents the ease with which you can manipulate energies.

[Additional Note]

Vitality, Endurance, and Intelligence determine the size of your health, stamina, and mana pools.

Vitality, Agility, and Focus determine the rate at which your health, stamina, and mana replenish.

This one vanished once he had thoroughly read its contents, leaving the persisting original one to blind him instead. He waved his hands in front of his face but couldn’t see them despite the fact that he should have been staring straight at them.

He closed his eyes. Still there. Great, so Cael was effectively blind until he made his choice.

After a long moment to think, he picked [Luckless] because the box showing all of the stats didn’t seem to consider it important enough to include in its explanation. Moreover, he didn't know the concrete effects of any of these stats. For instance, would halving his strength stat render him unable to move? [Luck] at least, shouldn't affect his body, only what happened around him. He could probably deal with that.

His vision began to clear for a moment before a new box appeared. He glared, and as if understanding that it was a bad time, it too disappeared. He needed to see where he was before he could make any more decisions.

Cael sighed in relief, finally able to see… something. It was similar to a snowflake but with only four branching arms instead of the usual six. It was also cyan and hurt to look at, so he stood up. He’d been lying on his back and was already sick of that. He was starting to grow irritated.

At least when he stood up, he stopped being itchy for the most part. Only his feet still felt it at all, and when he looked down to see why, he noted a suspicious-looking fire carpeting the ground. He also noted that he wasn’t wearing any clothes.

Because this situation wasn’t weird enough yet.

“Another failure.” croaked a voice nearby.

Cael whirled around to find a tall creature with pale skin and a toothpaste advertisement for teeth. He’d have to ask it how it got its teeth so white. Also, it had no eyes and wore a creepy black cloak. Honestly, it made Cael feel more comfortable that it was impossible for it to be judging his state of nudity at the moment.

“Oh, yeah. It’s great to meet you, too.” he rolled his eyes, showing off his ability to do so to the unfortunately eyeless individual across from him. “So, what is this, exactly?”

“I created you.” The seemingly male creature remarked proudly.

“Could you have done it somewhere warmer?” Cael complained, “Also, Don't sound so proud of yourself. You already said I was a failure.”

Maybe Cael shouldn’t have been so rude to his creator/possible father, but the man had started it. Also, the cold was making him irritable. He had just stopped being cold, couldn’t Arx have dropped him off somewhere more tropical? In any amount of clothing?

“You may be a failure, but I still have a few uses for you.”

“Ominous. And what if I say no?”

“I could just kill you. Not all of my uses for you require you to be alive.”

Cael stared at the monster for a second. Maybe he could sneak away since it was incapable of seeing.

On cue, a wall of white flame sprung up around the pair. He could feel from a distance that these flames would not be itchy.

“Fine. Get me something to wear and we can talk.”

“Put this on.” He held out a heavy-looking ring of white metal.

Cael eyed the collar. “This is not what I had in mind when I said something to wear.”

“I don’t have anything for you to wear.”

“Clearly.” Cael shot back, gesturing pointedly toward the collar. “Get me something to wear before I decide the fire looks more comfortable.”

The monster frowned, and with a flick of his hand, a set of clothes appeared on the ground at Cael’s feet.

“Seriously?” Cael smothered his curiosity with his growing annoyance with the man's lie. He was way too stubborn to ask about magic from the jerk. Refused to be impressed by the man who’d withheld clothing that he had already had in his back pocket or something.

He picked up the clothes. A pair of woolen pants and what looked strangely similar to a hoodie. No underwear, but whatever. He hadn’t even expected this much out of the guy.

He tied the drawstring and turned back to the man. Cael was interested to know how the clothes were his size when the man was almost half again his height. That just made it all the more insulting that he'd pretended not to have them.

The fire flared, which was probably meant to be intimidating, but mostly it was just keeping Cael contentedly warm while he got dressed

“So, who are you?” he asked the irritating man, slipping the hoodie over his head.

“Rocaren.” he answered after a long moment, “Tell me your name.” Not a question.

“I am Cael.”

Rocaren nodded, offering the collar once more. When Cael frowned, the circle of fire flared again.

“Put it on Cael. I will not ask again.”

“Why?” he huffed in annoyance.

“Because I will have to kill you if you refuse.”

Cael rolled his eyes again. “You already said that, but that’s not the reason you want me to wear it. That’s the reason you think I would want to wear it. So, why do you want me to wear a collar?”

Rocaren— or ‘Roca’, as Cael had decided to call the man because he felt like it would annoy him— actually seemed to think about this for a second.

“I want you to wear the collar because it restricts your ability to lie and prevents you from hurting me.” To Roca’s credit, those were pretty reasonable things to want. The security part, not the whole collar thing. Couldn't he have made, like, a bracelet instead? It would be pretty embarrassing if he had to walk around in public wearing a collar. No shame to the people who did, but that just wasn't his thing.

“What makes me so much more likely to lie and kill than you? You’ve literally threatened my life at least twice in the past five minutes. You've got magic too. I'm sure you could take me if it came to a fight.”

Roca had the courtesy to avert his gaze awkwardly. A mean feat for a guy without eyes.

“Well,” he hesitated, “Your kind-”

“My kind?”

“You see-”

“Yes, I see that you're racist.” Cael didn't actually think he was racist, but it was funny that Roca was acting all flustered from the accusation.

“It’s just… you’re…” The cultist was unable to finish his sentence.

“I’m what?” Cael antagonized the man who could kill him with a thought. “What am I?”

It was The System that answered him first.