Cael

General Information

Attributes

Gender

Male

Vitality

1

Perception

1

Species

Changeling

Strength

1

Intelligence

1

Age

0

Endurance

1

Focus

1

Health

10/10

Dexterity

1

Luck

0

Mana

10/10

Agility

1

Stamina

10/10

Free Attribute Points

10

“Woah, I’m seeing a lot of ones and zeroes.” Cael looked closer, “Wait, I’m a changeling? What does that even mean?”

“You didn’t know?” Roca sounded genuinely confused.

Cael shrugged, “Why would I? You said it yourself, I was born just now.”

“You’re meant to be born with an understanding of your situation. Additionally, The System offers you information that it deems important to know.”

“Oh, right." That was awkward, "I got distracted before I could read them all.”

Roca stared at Cael like he was crazy.

“Uh,” Cael stared back innocently, “Should I…?”

Roca facepalmed. It was odd. Because Roca had no eyes, he couldn’t close them during this expression. It made the whole look feel wrong in some way. “Please do.”

“System?” he began, it was a bit embarrassing to have somebody watching him do it. Well, watching as well as he could. “Please show me everything I ignored earlier.”

Roca sighed loudly in the background. At least he wasn’t threatening to kill Cael anymore. A step in the right direction for sure.

[System Message]

In order to fulfill your responsibilities as an [Extraplanar Reincarnator], you are offered a Class by The System.

It is recommended that you accept this generous offer.

Do you accept the Class [Fairy Tale]?

Yes

No

Well, Cael wouldn’t say no to free stuff. Especially if the universe-spanning probably-computer thought it was good for him. He accepted the class and promptly keeled over.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Oh, holy-” He threw up or tried to, at least. He hadn’t eaten anything in this universe yet.

“I knew you were missing something,” Roca remarked unhelpfully as the changeling gagged violently on the floor.

The System patiently waited for him to recover before throwing anything else at him.

He shook himself off and read the next entry. Still sitting on the ground so that he wouldn't have to make his way back down if this decision left him similarly nauseous.

Congratulations! You have gained the Class, [Fairy Tale].

Please select your first skill. You have one option.

[Read]

Hmm. No other information followed. Only the name of the Class’ Skill was supplied, and when he asked, The System was silent.

Whatever. Free things and all that. He literally had no alternative.

Thankfully, no additional dry heaving accompanied this choice.

“System, what did I just agree to?”

[Fairy Tale] Skill List

Class Skills

Progress

[Read]

1

0.4%

He looked back at the other sheet, the one that listed his attributes and labeled him as a changeling. This one had a couple of blank spaces. Bad UI, probably. Whoever had made The System seemed to have a bad mind for spacing and planning. Either that or they just didn’t care. Neither option was good for him.

He clicked his tongue disapprovingly at the bad design regardless of its reason.

“Okay,” Cael turned at long last to Roca, “I think I got everything.”

The man nodded. “Collar?”

“You still haven’t given me a good reason to, but I suppose you did threaten to kill me if I said no again.” And Cael supposed that was as good a reason as any. He looked around one last time, in search of anything that could help him out of this sticky situation. Anything he might have been able to see, however, was blocked by the still-burning wall of fire. With a sigh, Cael accepted the stupid collar. Then he stopped again.

“How does this even go on?” Not only was the collar lacking any sort of locking mechanism, it didn’t even seem to have a hinge. As far as he could see, it remained just a solid band of metal.

“Come here.” Roca sounded exhausted at this point, but in Cael’s defense, it wasn’t like he’d been handed an instruction manual.

Roca took the collar back from Cael. He proceeded to push the opposite ends toward one another. After a second, there was a crunching sound, and the collar flexed inward.

Cael watched in absolute bewilderment as Roca shook the collar and it began to glow like- well, like a glowstick. Even more jarringly, Roca finished by pulling Cael closer and shoving the supposedly solid piece straight through his neck. Cael yelped and jerked away with wide eyes, but when his hands reached for the collar, they met only his bare skin.

“Hey! What was that?!”

Cael could have sworn he felt Roca rolling his eyes somehow as the man turned around, the flame sputtering and dying now that they were deemed unnecessary.

“Where are you going?” Roca just made Cael really annoyed.

“I still have plans for tonight. Follow me.” Roca had miraculously become even less responsive after getting the collar onto Cael.

Cael followed. Left with no alternative, he began to ask questions, without receiving any answers.

Cael marched stubbornly after the man who seemed fully intent on bringing Cael into this world and not helping at all. He knew the man had fire magic, somehow, that was able to burn without actually damaging anything, yet Cael was still stumbling through the forest in the dark, forced to track Roca by the sound of his footsteps alone.

At one point, he had tripped over a branch and fallen into a bush, but Roca hadn't stopped. He certainly didn't act like he had uses for Cael.

Maybe he shouldn't even be following, but he had no clue where he was and didn't want to be stuck wandering the forest until he died.

Cael yelled after him half annoyed, but ended up just picking himself up out of the bush and limping after the man’s rapidly quieting steps.

He pressed on out of mostly spite for a while longer before he stepped on something thorny.

“Ouch! Roca, you ass! I told you to warn me if there was anything sharp.” He hopped around on his other foot, careful to stay clear of the patch of thorns nearby.

“You will refer to me as Rocaren.”

The jerk had totally been ignoring him on purpose. “Sure, Roca.” A sharp line of agony erupted in a burning circle around his neck. He fell to the ground with a shout of pain and clutched his throat. He'd had a mild smile fixed on his face since he'd been reborn, out of excitement for his new life and the place he found himself, but that dropped off in an instant.

Rocaren continued to walk, but Cael made no move to follow. The very slight humor he'd been finding with the situation had been successfully dispersed by his realization that he was wearing a magical slave collar. The novelty of magic had died in an instant, now that it was being used against him like this.

The footsteps had stopped reaching his ears. In its absence, Cael finally noticed the eerie silence of the forest. In the winter, even bugs did not stir the night. That made it so much more obvious when Rocaren’s steps began to grow closer again.

“I told you to follow.” He had. Had that been an order? The collar didn't seem to think so, Cael noted grimly.

“You said it stopped me from lying or harming you.”

Rocaren sighed as if Cael was the one in the wrong. “And it does. I never claimed that was all it did.” He spoke very slowly as if explaining a simple concept to a child. “Demon contracts revolve around half-truths and misleading statements. You should understand this.”

Cael did now. That fact was feeling a bit too real to him at the moment.

“How could I have known that?” Cael felt betrayed. He scoffed humorlessly. Betrayed? He didn’t even know Rocaren. “You said it yourself. I was just born. I don’t know anything. Take off the collar. Please.”

“Do you hate me?” Rocaren asked coldly.

Cael hesitated, “I don’t know.” The collar flashed. With Rocaren standing so close, he could see white light illuminate his face. Cael groaned with the pain that accompanied it.

“Yes. God, of course, I do! I put on your damn slave collar because you gave me no choice! You’ve threatened my life multiple times, and seem reluctant to do the bare minimum! I’ve been limping through the pitch-black woods for half an hour, stepping on anything and everything a pair of shoes could have dealt with, and you refuse to give me so much as a light to see, or a hint as to where we’re even going! Of course I hate you. What reason have you given me to feel anything else?”

The pair stared at each other in tense silence as Rocaren made up his mind.

“In that case, you should know that I cannot remove the collar.” Rocaren’s hand shot out and latched onto Cael’s wrist with an iron grip. “[Heal].”

“What did you just say? I’m not your dog.” Cael snarled.

Thankfully, that had not been a command. Soothing warmth flooded through his body, removing the pain in his feet.

“Come, we’re almost there anyway.”

Cael followed, if only because he had no choice. He asked no more questions as they walked, but he wouldn't be forgetting this.