Ander awoke in complete darkness. He hurt from head to toe and could barely move. He breathed in and out for a little while, before trying to move anything else. When he felt up to the task, he moved his fingers, then his hands then his whole arms, working out the soreness as he went. They didn’t stop hurting, but he could manage. He then poked and prodded at his body, searching for broken bones. He finally figured that while several joints were sprained and swollen, nothing was actually broken. Heh, a rhyme.
Ander finally sat himself up, searching around carefully with his hands. A quick inspection revealed that all his weapons were accounted for, and that his big pack and two bags of food were too. On that note, he grabbed one of the smaller packs and started to wolf down its contents. Slowly, it started to fill the hole in his stomach, and his wounds started to feel better too. After he was done eating, Ander started to tap around, trying to use the tip of his unstrung bow as a makeshift cane to figure out if there was another hole that he could fall into.
Fortunately there wasn’t, and there was, seemingly a way out. At least a way to go. Ander moved through the dark until he heard the drip drip of water hitting a pool.
Suddenly remembering he had no water bottle, Ander hurried toward the sound, gasping in delight as he found the edge of a wide, cold pool. He got down on his hands and knees and drank with a cupped hand until he had his fill. He then saw his second surprise. The tiniest sliver of light shone out of a crack in the wall to his right, and on closer inspection, he realized that it was far more than a crack. Moving eagerly, Ander made his way down a jagged, uneven tunnel until finally, he came out into dusky light at the bottom of a chasm.
The chasm was wide and covered in plant life. It looked more like a terrarium than an actual piece of nature. This little slice of jungle was humid and damp, but cold like it was in the forest above. Odd little ferns sprouted from between moss covered rocks, and thin ivy vines snaked around over and between everything. Ander’s heart fell a little. There was no way he was climbing that. Everything was damp, and if he had his guess, the moss and ivy that covered the rocks would foul any handholds he managed to find. Not that he was a good climber anyway.
Ander stopped, and sat on a moss covered boulder that rested by the tunnel. He sighed, taking a moment to come to terms with all that had happened. He was exhausted. His bout of unconsciousness was insufficient to rejuvenate him, and he was still covered in overlapping layers of bruises. He was so tired, but he needed to check some things. He pushed his will out like he had in the void, willing the UI to appear, and it did, easy as pie. It came up to a status screen.
Ander
Race: Exodari
Subrace: Oritol
HP: 100
MP: 100
SP: 100
Strength 10
Dexterity 10
Agility 10
Toughness 10
Constitution 10
Intelligence 10
Memory 10
Conductivity 10
Wisdom 10
Regeneration 10
Beauty 11
Presence 12
It seemed rather bare bones, but Ander could see a flashing icon in the top right corner of the screen. He selected it with his will and a whole slew of messages populated the screen.
Congratulations, Ander, on your reincarnation!
You have been reincarnated as an Oritol!
Oritols are a subspecies of the Exodari who specialize in Magic!
Trait Gained: Attuned to the Flows
Conductivity has twice the effect on the size of your mana pool
Regeneration has twice the effect on the recovery speed of mana
Mana costs are reduced by 10%
(This is applied after all other bonuses and negatives.)
Stats gained
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
+2 Conductivity
+2 Wisdom
+2 Regeneration
+20 free stats.
Please return to the status page to assign your stats.
(Messages collated for convenience)
You have trained!
+10 to Strength
+15 to Agility
+8 to Constitution
You have gained a skill!
Skill: Running
Running requires less stamina. You benefit more from agility when running.
Effect increases slightly with each level.
Congratulations, your Skill:Running has reached level 6.
Ander let out a sigh looking at these notifications. What kind of weird game world was this? He still didn’t know what was going on. VR was a primitive thing, nothing like what books talk about with their full immersion rigs. And there was no good reason for him to have been placed in a state of the art research rig, if such a thing existed. If this world wasn’t a VR game, what was it? Hmm, maybe the people who believe life is an alien simulation were right. It would be more plausible than him being in an entirely different world. Right? Either way, even if he were part of an alien simulation, it would amount to the same. Him hatching out of an egg and being conscripted.
Ander returned to the status screen.
Ander
Race: Exodari
Subrace: Oritol
HP: 260
MP: 140
SP: 140
Strength 20
Dexterity 10
Agility 25
Toughness 10
Constitution 18
Intelligence 10
Memory 10
Conductivity 12
Wisdom 12
Regeneration 12
Beauty 11
Presence 12
You have twenty free stat points, would you like to distribute them now?
Yes/No
Ander ignored the prompt, searching for anything that would allow him to find… At the top of the screen were three tabs. One said status, and he could clearly tell that was the one selected. The next said skills, but the third had what he really wanted. Magic. He selected the third tab, getting excited about the possibility of doing real magic.
When the tab opened,two sub tabs appeared, a page labeled psionics, and the other labeled spells. Ander chose spells, and was severely disappointed.
ERR 36214: a local patch has caused adverse effects. Please contact a local System administrator to rectify this problem.
Your use of magic has been denied by order of The Creator until His return.
Ander stared at the message, bitterness rising in his chest. He came to a world with magic, and was not allowed to use magic? What the heck! Despite all that had happened, he hadn’t been brought to regret being reincarnated as an Exodari, but now he was having second thoughts. But there was another chance. Ander quickly selected the Psionics tab.
Searching for psionic aptitude..
Searching…
Searching…
No psionic aptitude found.
Ander stared at this message, his hopes dying a second time. He was a commoner, no Psionics for him. Bitterly, he went to the skills tab, half expecting some message to tell him that he couldn’t use his skills. But the screen came up without an issue.
Skills
Walker of Memories:
Epic
While meditating you can reach out to your ancestors and experience what they experienced first hand. This skill retains the abilities granted by Ancestral memory and personal memory, namely knowledge of culture, language, etiquette, money and other things necessary to navigating life as an Exodari. However, by experiencing memories first hand you can both gain and train skills.
Running
Common
Running requires less stamina. You benefit more from agility when running.
Effect increases slightly with each level.
Only two skills were listed, with one being rather anticlimactic. The Walker of memories skill though, that one might be cool. Ander switched back to the status page, to see a line at the bottom he hadn’t noticed before.
Status Effects
Quickened Growth.
This status effect was applied by the Reincarnation Totem.
While this status effect is applied, you grow at a greatly increased rate. This will increase your hunger substantially, using food to fuel the process. Beneficial nutrients will be used to build the body while other matter is converted directly to energy to fuel the process. Hair growth will cease, nail growth will cease, bodily excretions will cease except where necessary for normal function. This effect will end when you reach full growth.
Well that explained the feast right after he hatched.
Ander looked around him. The ravine was wide, and he was rather exposed where he was. He didn’t know if there were wild animals in the ravine, on second thought there definitely were, but he figured that he should find a hiding spot either way. Hopefully somewhere near the pond so he had good drinking water.
Ander set down his stuff and started searching. To his great relief, he found a small hole in the side of the ravine very near the crack that led to the pond, and was able to take a piece of old wood to block the entrance. A pile of rubble at the mouth of the cave allowed light to filter through once he pulled off the moss, making for a relatively cozy little room for Ander to meditate in. Ander brought his stuff inside, and had himself a meal.
“So I have food, water, and shelter. Looks like I passed survival 101.” Ander grinned at his handiwork, though it was barely the work of an hour. Suddenly something pressed gently on his mind, and with a thought Ander opened up his notifications.
Congratulations! You have gained Skill: Survival.
Skill: Survival is level 1.
Skill: Survival
Uncommon
You gain an increased ability to determine edible vs non edible plants and animals. You gain increased ability to set camp, and to do menial tasks with inferior tools. People who sleep in a camp you set have an increased bonus to their rest. Camps you set up are less likely to be noticed by hostile creatures.
Effects grow with skill level.