After several failed attempts, Carn finally managed to complete the obstacle course without getting knocked over or soaked, hitting all the targets along the way. A pleasant ding echoed in his ear as he approached Kiera.
- You have completed Ranger Training Part 1 -
Strength, Resilience, Agility, and Will have increased by 1 point
"Congratulations, kid! You made it through on fewer attempts than most. Most people take two days for this course," Kiera said, clearly impressed. "Tomorrow, we'll focus on some mana training."
"Thank you, teacher," Carn bowed respectfully. "I do have a question, though."
"Ask away," Kiera replied.
"I heard a voice in my head saying that my Strength, Agility, and some other skills increased by one point. What does that mean?" Carn asked, looking confused.
Kiera burst out laughing. "Wait, you don't know? Have you never invested any skill points before?"
Carn looked even more puzzled. "What are skill points?"
Kiera was taken aback. "That’s a good joke. Go get some rest, kid. I'll see you tomorrow." She was about to walk away when she noticed the genuine confusion on Carn's face. "Oh my god, you're not joking. This is unacceptable. Those damn priests should have told you about the menu."
"I think the priest mentioned it, but I got questioned by other players when I left, and I forgot," Carn admitted, blushing slightly.
"Okay at least the priests are doing their job, when you say 'menu,' a screen will appear in front of you with all sorts of information about yourself. Everyone in the world has access to the menu, whether they're natives or otherworlders like you," Kiera explained.
Carn said "Menu," and a screen materialized in front of him, displaying a wealth of information.
Kiera was amazed by the look of wonder on Carn's face. Most people who came to ranger training had already invested their stat points before arriving. The fact that Carn had completed the training without doing so was incredible. Kiera thought he was a true diamond in the rough.
"If you plan on being more physically focused, I suggest investing in Agility, Strength, and Will. If you want to focus more on magic, put points into Agility, Intelligence, and Wisdom. For a mixed build, any of these combinations will work, but make sure Agility gets some points, as it's essential for a ranger," Kiera instructed, sounding like a school teacher. "Anyway, there are some temporary rooms in the headquarters. Find yours and deal with your menu in there."
----------------------------------------
Carn nodded and hurried inside the building, eventually finding a room on the second floor with his name on it.
“Menu,” Carn said sitting on the bed a glowing white menu appeared in front of him displaying the following information:
[https://i.imgur.io/oDWjVvU_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium]
Carn opened the menu screen and saw tabs for passive skills, active skills, inventory, equipment, and titles. Before he could explore further, a robotic voice spoke inside his head. "If you have any questions about the information on this page, please ask now."
Carn's gaze landed on the stats at the bottom of the screen. "What do all the different numbers mean?" he asked.
"The first number represents your body's stats before joining God's Paradise and excluding any bonuses gained from species or latent talent," the voice replied.
Carn examined his stats and found them to be reasonable. He had always been fast and had a strong will, having lived on the streets his entire life.
"The second number includes any passive abilities gained from your species traits and latent talents, as well as any other increases gained while playing God's Paradise," the voice explained.
Carn noticed that his numbers were significantly higher than his base stats, but he wasn't sure whether they were considered high or average. He decided to let the voice continue.
"The third number represents the effect of any titles you have earned. The numbers in parentheses represent the total of all three categories. Below are the increases gained by increasing each stat point by one."
Carn nodded in understanding and asked another question. "What are unspent points?"
"Unspent points are points that can be added to any of the stats below, excluding Charisma and Luck. You gain five points at every level," the voice responded.
Carn was slightly concerned and asked, "What happens if I want to change it later?"
"For a price, a creationist church can perform a ritual that will give you all your unspent points back. The process takes three days," the voice answered.
Carn noted that the menu said that he was half-human and half-elemental, which would have surprised him if Dr. Stevenson hadn't told him about it the other day.
Having no further questions in regards to this menu he clicked on the passive skills tab and this was displayed:
[https://i.imgur.io/MxZG1ov_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium]
He clicked on each of the passive skills and their description was displayed.
Nature’s Child: The more time you spend outside the stronger you become, Mana is passively regenerated when outside. To level up this talent stay in clean outside environments. bonuses: +16 Charisma and Luck, +8 other stats
Human Versatility: Humans can survive anywhere and their versatility knows no bounds. (+6 charisma, luck, fortitude, and resilience. leveling skills is 10% faster)
Elemental Blood: The blood of an elemental reinforces the body and further strengthens with time or individual power. The blood has a chance to react with mana making no attribute attacks have a chance to have random elemental effects (Resist elemental damage by 10%, gain a +4 in all stats, 5% chance for non-element based magic to gain a element adding additional strength to the attack)
Carn knew about what a latent talent was but he had no idea what species skills were so he took the chance to ask, “What are species type passive skills?”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Based on the species of the player, God's Paradise invigorates the blood and causes their species' inner traits to reveal themselves. God’s Paradise can only bring out the two most prominent species traits of a specific player and in the case of being a pure-blood it instead greatly enhances one trait of their species.” The voice responded.
Carn, now better understanding how it worked, clicked on the active skills tab. The two skills he used in the tutorial were there and nothing else.
The equipment page was also quite uninteresting, just detailing that the small pouch on his side could carry a lot more than one would guess.
His inventory only had 5 loaves of bread and a water skin. Finally, he clicked on the titles tab and the following menu appeared:
[https://i.imgur.io/Hi9sm7J_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium]
Carn clicked on the skill giving its description:
Top 5 tutorial clearer: Fully cleared the tutorial in the top 5 fastest times (+2 to all stats and 5% increased experience drops)
“What does ‘buff when not equipped’ mean?” Carn asked.
“You can only have one title equipped at a time so when a title is not equipped the benefits it gives under that column.” The voice responded.
After exploring all the features of the menu Carn looked at the unspent points, Carn decided he wanted to be more of a mixed ranger and ended up putting 7 points in agility and 4 points in both strength and intelligence making his stat bar look like this:
[https://i.imgur.io/aw26Ir9_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium]
His health increased to 1020, his mana increased to 242, and his stamina increased to 114. After doing all of that Carn was exhausted and he collapsed in his bed.
----------------------------------------
Upon awakening, he found himself back in his hospital room, and glanced at the clock on the wall which read 9:00 am. He watched a dull television program for a couple of hours before Alicia made her appearance. As she entered the room, he noticed she was carrying a metal canister resembling a water bottle and an IV bag.
"Good morning, Carn. How are you feeling today?" she inquired while setting the canister on the side table and changing the IV bag.
"I'm feeling a bit better, but I've been extremely bored," he chuckled.
"You know you can call me anytime during the day if you want to chat," she said sincerely. "If I'm not attending to you, I'm just doing paperwork that I despise for my duties in God's Paradise."
"Why would you have paperwork?" Carn inquired.
"I'm the commander of a pretty big guild in God's Paradise, and Mr. Cho is a friend of my family, so he asked me to take care of you since you saved his mom," she explained. "I went to nursing school before I became successful in God's Paradise, so that's why I agreed."
"That's impressive, especially considering your youth. What guild are you in? I might have heard of them," Carn inquired.
"It's a secret," she responded with a wink.
"Anyway, this is the Compulsory Education Solution that you requested from Mr. Cho," she said, pointing to the metal canister. "You must drink the entire solution in one go. It might be slightly painful, so feel free to call me if you need anything after drinking it."
"Alright, can I take it now?" Carn requested.
"Of course. Do you want me to stay here?" Alicia asked.
"I'd appreciate that," Carn replied, slightly nervous.
Carn took the metal canister from the side table and looked at it apprehensively. He knew he needed to drink it to gain the education he missed out on, but he wasn't prepared for the pain that Alicia warned him about.
Taking a deep breath, he opened the canister and drank the entire solution in one go, feeling the pain surge through his body. He winced and grimaced, trying to stay calm as he felt the knowledge and information enter his mind, causing a searing sensation in his brain. It felt like a terrible headache and a brain freeze at the same time. He could feel every sensation on his skin and his body started locking up.
“It’s. So. Painful.” Carn exclaimed.
Alicia knew that it would be bad but she wasn’t aware of how bad. She grabbed Carn’s hand and felt him squeeze her hand strongly.
After a few minutes, the pain subsided, and Carn felt a sudden rush of knowledge flooding into his mind. He felt as if he had been transported back to preschool, re-learning the basics of language, mathematics, and science. The knowledge continued to pour in, taking him through middle school and high school topics.
He was astonished by the vast amount of knowledge he was receiving, and yet, at the same time, he felt as if his brain was about to explode. He tried to steady his breathing, grasping Alicia’s hand and the side of the bed tightly to prevent himself from collapsing.
Alicia watched him closely, making sure he was alright, and when the pain subsided, she asked him how he was feeling. Carn took a few moments to compose himself before replying, "I feel like my brain is on fire, but I also feel like I know everything."
"That's the point," Alicia said with a smile. "You've just gained the knowledge of everything you missed out on. How do you feel about that?"
"I feel overwhelmed," Carn replied, trying to process the amount of information that had just been imparted on him. "But I also feel grateful. Thank you for staying with me, Alicia. I really appreciate it."
"Of course, Carn. That's what I'm here for," Alicia said, patting his hand gently. "Now, if you need anything else, just let me know. I'll be here for you."
Carn felt his heart race as he realized he had been holding Alicia's hand. He quickly let go, “I’m sorry I hope I didn’t hurt you.”
Alicia laughed and reassured him, "You did no such thing, Carn."
Feeling embarrassed, Carn asked, "Would you mind sitting and talking with me for a bit? I would really appreciate it."
"Of course," Alicia replied with a smile, her dark skin glowing from the sunlight pouring in from the window. She pulled up a chair next to his bed and settled in for a chat.
They talked about everything and nothing at the same time, Carn telling her about his life before the accident while Alicia shared stories of her time in nursing school and the players in her guild.
As they talked, Carn found himself feeling more and more comfortable with Alicia. He enjoyed her company and found her to be easy to talk to. He found out that she was 21 years old in this conversation.
After a while, Alicia stood up and said, "I should probably get back to work, but it was great talking to you, Carn."
"Thank you for talking with me," Carn replied, feeling a sense of loss as Alicia left the room. He planned on inviting her to talk more often during the day as he really enjoyed speaking with her.
The compulsory education solution had been outstanding, and Carn felt like a whole new world had been opened up to him. He now had the knowledge and confidence to solve complex calculus problems, understand biology and chemistry, and speak a wide range of languages.
But the most fascinating thing he had learned was about the post-mana history of the world. He discovered that when mana entered the world, it caused about 70% of people in different regions to transform into different humanoid species. For example, citizens of Germany and Eastern Europe became dwarves, while citizens of Central America and surrounding areas had their hair turn shades of silver or white and they became dark elves. Southeast Asians grew horns and tails and became tieflings.
Carn's mind was flooded with information about the changes to the world's geography and population. He learned that even humans had changed, becoming stronger and smarter. Over time, the populations of different species mixed, and the strict territories where humans changed species no longer existed.
As he processed this new information, a detailed map of the changes to species 1000 years ago appeared in Carn's mind.
[https://i.imgur.io/H3V6Ff7_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium]
He saw how every place on Earth was affected in some way, and how the geography of several regions had changed drastically. Giant mountains grew from the ground, forests expanded and overtook cities, and a city-sized tree grew in the Amazon rainforest.
Carn was overwhelmed by all that he had learned, but he was also filled with a sense of wonder and curiosity about this new world he now understood. The information was all too much and Carn passed out.