The loss of the tower core had been a hit to the enchanter. It had converted this absolute victory into a sour one.
“Wait, it shouldn’t be possible.” The man scratched his chin in ponderation. “The core is soulbound to me. Even if the gate to the void has been completely and utterly closed, our spiritual tethers should work just fine.”
As if in response to his questions, a voice talked to him.
Welcome! You have been integrated into the Arcane Records!
The voice wasn’t physical. Nor mental, for that matter. It was akin to the ‘divine revelations’ that the gods did from time to time. But it wasn’t a fully spiritual communication for that matter. Weird.
ERROR. Only one soulbound item is allowed at a time.
Rerouting procedures… Considering for the most suited soulbind at the current moment.
Cancelling soulbound [Tower’s Core]…
Cancelation succeeded.
“It was you!” The enchanter shouted with a primordial rage. “I don’t know who you are, but how dare you toy with my soul! Come right here, right now!” Whilst the man’s voice was authoritative and worthy of a war god, the entity paid no attention to him whatsoever.
ERROR. No class assigned prior to soulbinding.
Subroutine failed. Rerouting… Rerouting…
0 out of 4 classes chosen. Scanning for the individual for the most suited class.
What is this entity talking about? The enchanter pondered. It uses common programming wording, so it may be a dungeon core? It introduced itself as the Arcane Records, but nothing about the ether’s motions tells me it’s actually composed by an arcane being. Honestly, it feels more like a Time construct. It’s called Records, and records need time to build, but that feels like a stretch. What the hell is going on? The enchanter walked in circles trying to make sense out of this bizarre situation.
Rerouting successful. Assigning appropriate classes.
Combat Class: Mage [Common]
“I wouldn’t call myself mage, I’m more of an…”
Profession Class: Enchanter [Rare]
“Yeah…” The entity responded him. This was weird. How was a dungeon core capable of manipulating foreign souls and analyzing him in a way that it could tell his line of work? “Though I wouldn’t defy enchanters as a rare profession. Pretty common job, to be honest.”
Racial Class: Voidborn [Unique]
“Wait a fucking minute? What are you talking about? I’m a human!” In this moment of interrogation, the enchanter finally looked at himself. His body was no longer wrinkled, but it had a smooth juvenile skin. He felt more energetic, more alive.
What the… With this instant of tranquility, he noticed his current state. He was butt naked. Every trinket and piece of clothing he wore had disappeared. The only thing that remained on his body was the Tenet of Immortality. It made sense, considering it was soulbound to him. Not even the eldritch entity of the null plane could take it away from him.
Yet he was still human. Surely, a younger version of himself. But still human. It was his body, albeit of another time. Was this caused by the time anomaly I felt before entering the portal? At this point, everything was pure speculation. Not even his centuries of knowledge helped him here.
Prestige Class: ERROR
Cannot assign default fame. ERROR. Searching for previous achievements… ERROR. Searching for designated lore… One out of one entry found.
Do you wish to accept the [Divine Enchanter] title?
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
“No! What the hell are you talking about? I want answers!” He was fuming. The entity ignored him, and then insulted him by scrubbing that title on his face.
Tittle discarded. Assigning default class.
Prestige Class: None
Thought he didn’t know any of the meaning of classes and the Arcane Record as a whole, it somehow felt insulting being referred as a no one. Or so he interpreted.
To complete the incorporation to the Arcane Record, please open your [Status].
The enchanter sighed as he failed to understand everything. “How do I do it?” He asked in defeat, playing the entity’s game. “Hello?” The now young man asked again as he got no response. “Open [Status] please?”
A purple-colored window appeared in front of him. It looked like a hologram created by illusion magic.
Name: Nido Risea
[Levels]
Total Level: 3
Combat Class: Mage [Common] – Level 1
Profession Class: Enchanter [Rare] – Level 1
Racial Class: Voidborn [Unique] – Level 1
Prestige Class: None
[Attributes]
Constitution: 5
Strength: 3
Endurance: 2
Dexterity: 5
Attunement: 6
Intelligence: 11
[Resources]
Health: 65/65
Stamina: 45/45
Mana: 105/105
Health Regeneration: 250/M
Stamina Regeneration: 10/M
Mana Regeneration: 30/M
“Woah!” The enchanter exclaimed in surprise. “Calm down, records. This is too much information to throw suddenly.” Whilst he may act surprised, the man carefully inspected the information before him. Under the scrutiny that nothing made sense, of course.
“How curious…” He commented in a calmer state. “The Arcane Records think my pseudonym as the Divine Enchanter is my real name.” He had never given his true name to anyone. Names were dangerous, and xenoglossia was a pain in the ass, as he would put.
Everything was new and alien to him. Whatever the Arcane Records were, it wasn’t from this world. Yet it had identified him as the Divine Enchanter and recognized the complex constitution of his body under the section called [Attributes]. Divination magic was exactly uncommon, but being able to register someone’s information this perfectly… Only a powerful mage or a divinity could do so.
“I more or less understand what every attribute does.” Nido commented as he laid his back on a tree. He was still naked, but he didn’t care as his mind was onto this [Status] thing. Either way, it was impossible for a cold to kill him. “It looks like there are three types of attributes. Two related to health, two related to stamina, and two to mana.”
The naked youngster examined the relation between the attributes and the resources. It was rather obvious the two of them were closely linked.
“If my math is correct, which would be pathetic otherwise,” he said the last part with a whisper, “The first attribute of every pair gives ten points to the total amount of the resource, while the second attribute gives only five.”
“But there’s a problem once we reach the regeneration of the resources. Why the hell I regenerate my whole health pool almost four times per minute while it takes more than three to fill my mana pool? I’m an enchanter, not a warrior!” The man wondered and then facepalmed loudly. “Of course, Nido, you are a fucking idiot.”
He looked at the intertwined ring on his right hand.
Tenet of Immortality (Soulbound)
Rank: [Artifact]
Price: Priceless
Description: The failed masterwork of the Divine Enchanter. A trinket so powerful that became the sole face of the Enchanter’s Guild. It has the power to defy death itself.
Effects:
-Increase health regeneration by 800%
-Immunity to all physical debuffs
Perks:
-Stairway to Heaven (Blocked)
-Highway to Hell (Blocked)
-Death Defied
-Paragon of Life
“Yep, that’s the cause.” The enchanter nonchalantly commented, ignoring the absurd abilities of the ring. “The abilities of Light and Chaos are blocked, but I already knew that. If not, I could have gotten out of the Void a lot sooner and safer. Though why do they have those names? I certainly call them that way.”
He read the four perks the coiled ring possessed. Whilst the Death and Life ones were relatively modest, the Light and Chaos ones felt overly extravagant.
“So, the Arcane Records allow me to open more of these windows related to objects, huh.” He interacted with the purple window and saw that he could expand on the description on the perks, but he didn’t bother reading them as he was the one who made the item on the first place. “And the Arcane Records also have taken some creative freedom naming my own enchantments.”
Nido got away from the tree and dusted off his back. He stretched his muscles, doing some basic exercises. He wasn’t used to a young body, especially after a millennium of being a decrepit hunchback.
“Well, I should do something about this situation.” The enchanter said as he looked over his naked body.
He took a deep breath and proceeded to scan the ether net. A common mage would have used some basic divination spells in order to search for the nearest node of civilization. But that’s something a moron would do. Or so the enchanter would do.
It made no sense to him to waste mana casting spells and leaving a mana print, went he could just read the tethers of creation and find were the closest ‘yarn ball’ was at. It was free and faster than waiting for a spell to find results.
“Hmm, there’s a faint touch of Death close by.” Nido said with his eyes closed, his manhood au naturel. “I think it’s worth looking.”