Orville Grossman woke up suddenly. He was slumped in his gaming chair with his headphones sitting askew on his head. He sat up confused, absently wiping a string of drool from his fleshy face. His room was dark, and he could hear the staccato sound of rain on his roof. “What the fuck?” He looked around and it took a minute for his eyes to adjust to the dark. There was a small sliver of light coming in through the crack under his bedroom door. He turned to his desk and tapped on his keyboard, but his monitor stayed dark. He checked his computer, but it too was unable to power up. With a huff and a slight groan, he stood up and with a pause, he settled his large bulk and made his way to his door. His pudgy hand flicked the light switch on and off, but the room stayed shrouded in darkness.
“Ma!” He yelled. There was no response. He stood at his door and yelled again, this time much louder, “MA! Power’s out!” And again, he was greeted with only the sound of rain. Frustrated, he opened his door to yell once more, but his voice died on his lips.
Where once there was a short hallway that led to the bathroom and kitchen and then on to the rest of the house, there was now a massive scar of wreckage and debris. It was as if someone had taken a gigantic rake and dragged it through the house, destroying everything in its path. Looking left and right, all Orville could see was destruction. His neighbors’ homes were destroyed in a straight line down the block. It looked like there had been small fires here and there, but the rain had already put them out. Scanning the area, he saw what looked like part of a jet engine embedded in the Henderson’s house across the street.
Orville stood shocked. How had he slept through such a catastrophe? Why was his room not destroyed or at least things knocked over? Where was his mom!? The last thing he knew; she had been in the kitchen making him a snack. But now, the entire rest of the house was simply gone. In a small voice he asked, “Ma?” He couldn’t bring himself to step out the door even as he heard the voices of his neighbors. People began calling out. There were cries and shouts and within a few minutes the area was full of the sounds of people discovering the horrible damage done to their community.
As he stood unable to move, rain pattering off his front and slowly drenching his shirt and pants, a screen of energy with writing on it appeared directly in front of him.
Aether Stabilized
Average Aether quality within normal parameters
Sapient survival rate: 86.89952%
Welcome Sapients and congratulations! You have been initiated into the Great System. As stated in the prior communication, the primary initialization has been completed. Your world and all encompassed upon it have been converted by the RPG [Reality Processing Generator] to be compatible with the Great System and the benefits and controls it confers.
All sapient beings now have access to the Classes, Skills and Abilities guaranteed under the auspices of the Great System, as well as the standard control interface screens. Now that the first initialization has been completed, the second Initialization has begun. The first initialization installed the world’s Aether Source. The second initialization will begin spawning dungeons, lairs, raid zones, wandering monsters and natural refuges. Please be aware that certain areas of the world will be more likely to spawn higher levels of monsters at random. While the spawning is initiated, you may choose your Class.
Your Class will determine the types of Statistics, Skills, and Spells available to you. All sapients have access to the basic classes regardless of their previous life experiences. Additionally, each sapient will be offered a secondary set of Class options to choose from based upon their previous life experiences. Please be advised that each sapient has thirty minutes to choose from the secondary list before the options are lost and only the basic Class options will remain.
The time to completion of the second initialization is thirty days. Once complete, the third and final initialization will commence. The third initialization will connect your Realm to the greater reach of the Great System and allow travel between Realms. This will allow this Realm’s sapients to travel the Bleed to other Realms and conversely allow those from other Realms to travel to this one. The time to completion of the third initialization is six months.
For further information, please consult the Help Guide.
Again, congratulations and welcome to the Great System!
Orville blinked. The screen hung there, defying physics. He closed his eyes tightly then opened them only to see the screen still there. He read the notice once more. Huh. He thought. He took a step back away from his door and the screen followed him. He turned around and the screen continued in his direct field of view. No motion blur. No lag. He made his way over to his bedroom window and with a grunt of effort, he pulled down his blackout curtain then peeked through his blinds. His backyard was still intact and so were the houses butting up against the property. The screen continued in his view, but it was translucent enough for him to partially see through it.
He moved away from the window and sat down on the edge of his bed. His mind had trouble processing the fact that his mother was not here. He somehow knew, deep down, that she was most likely dead. If a plane had really crashed and wiped out half the block and most of his house, then it stood to reason that his mom was gone. He felt numb, but he pushed it away in favor of confronting the enigma in front of him. Later. I can figure out Mom, later.
He read the message one more time and then made the decision to believe it. Like a switch had been flipped, he immediately began trying to manipulate the apparition. It was far easier than he expected. His years of gaming and understanding the fundamental mechanics in most games came in handy. Orville was not a popular kid. He was grossly overweight, his doctor called him obese. He had diabetes and high blood pressure, and he was only seventeen. He was a constant source of entertainment for the school bullies, so he became somewhat of a recluse. He began to play video games and dove into their programming and functions. He eventually became very well-known online as someone that could pull game data from “unhackable” games.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
In real life he may have been the “Fat Kid” named Orville, but online, he was hailed as a computer genius called HakkerGod_69. If he could break the code of the “unbreakable” game, Call of War, he could certainly figure out this real-life system. He briefly wished that his best friend Malcolm were here. He knew that together they could probably figure out the best classes to take. But Malcolm was in Sacramento with his sister and her boyfriend and the Debray’s at a comic con. Man, that Brynn is hot. He shook himself out of his daydream of the young blonde and went back to the task at hand.
Since there was no physical interface, he began by willing the current screen to close, which it promptly did. So far, so good. He then began thinking of different options to try and open more screens. He quickly familiarized himself with his status page then focused on the classes available to him. He bypassed the basic classes. In his mind if you were offered a premium class, you could pretty much guarantee anything on offer was going to be way better than any basic class.
Eldritch Spellblade
Elemental Knight
Arcane Guardian
Shadow Plunderer
Blood Ritualist
Shadow Knight
Orville took some time to read each class description while mentally trying to keep track of how long he had before his thirty minutes was up. The Eldritch Spellblade looked cool, but he had the feeling that if Malcolm was offered the same or similar, that he’d take it right away and Orville did not want to duplicate someone else’s class. The two shadow classes were interesting, but they both relied on stealth and agility as a main component and looking at himself, he just could not see a three hundred plus pound kid sneaking through the darkness. No, those were right out. Blood Ritualist? Gross. Nope. That left Elemental Knight and Arcane Guardian. Both had merit, but the Elemental Knight seemed like there would be a lot of the same abilities, just flavored with different elements. Lightning Bolt, Ice Bolt, Earth Bolt, etc… Honestly, while it seemed powerful, it was kind of boring. So, he looked closer at Arcane Guardian.
Arcane Guardian (R)
Anyone can pick up a weapon and say they are a warrior; however, it takes a special person to do so in the defense of others. An Arcane Guardian is a sentinel of defense that uses their martial prowess and mastery of the arcane arts to claim their enemy’s attention and keep their allies safe. Whether it be creating an impenetrable shield or a vortex of enchanted blades around their allies, the Arcane Guardian stands fast in the face of adversity and commands their foes to submit.
The Arcane Guardian’s Primary Stat is Endurance, and the secondary is Willpower. Every level you will gain a plus two in your Endurance and Willpower stats as well as +2 to HP, SP and MP. Additionally, you will gain three stat points to assign to any stat or stats you like.
At Level One, you will receive the Skill [1-Handed Weapon]. You will also gain two Skill points to assign as you’d like from the list of Skills available to you. You will gain one free Skill every time you level up as well as two skill points to allocate where you like.
At Level One, you will learn the spell, [Arcane Shield]. At every subsequent level, you will be allowed to choose a new spell from the list of spells available to you.
Class Talent: The Arcane Guardian gains the Class Talent, [Relentless Defender]. When defending an ally if you run out of Stamina, you may use Mana to fuel any Stamina based defensive abilities or spells. If you also run out of Mana, you may then use your own Health points as fuel.
Orville checked the skill descriptions as well.
Skill: 1-Handed weapon
You have the knowledge to wield a weapon in one hand. When wielding a 1-Handed weapon, you receive a +1 to Physical Damage. You gain a +1 to for every level you have in the skill.
Spell: Arcane Shield
At the cost of 5 MP, you can summon a shield of arcane power. The shield has a defense rating of +1 per level. This bonus stacks with the Shield skill. The initial spell casting lasts for two minutes and can be prolonged by 1 minute per 5 MP spent. This spell has a cool down of 10 minutes. This cool down duration drops by 1 minute per level to a minimum of 30 seconds.
Wonder why it gives a one-handed weapon skill, but no weapon. Seems kinda dumb. Oh well, beggars and all that. Besides, Orville had plenty of swords to choose from. He looked over at the wall above his bed and the swords he had on display. He had several katanas as well as a few swords from the Lord of the Rings movies. Unfortunately, all of those were replicas and were probably fragile in a real fight. If this whole system thing was to be believed, then he was certain he’d be facing monsters and other people with weapons. No, his best choice would have to be the sword he got at the renaissance fair a few years back. It was made by a real blacksmith and had a very sharp edge. Orville thought the sword looked badass with its batwing shaped cross guard, and the thing was solid. Definitely that one. Probably gonna have to give it a name.
Fearing that his time was running out, he decided to take the Arcane Guardian class. He got a prompt asking if he wanted to choose it and he went ahead and said yes. He felt a weird tingle all over and then he decided to check his status again.
Orville Grossman
Class: Arcane Guardian (R)
Level: 1
BODY
Strength 11
Endurance 8
Agility 8
MIND
Intellect 13
Wisdom 9
Perception 11
SPIRIT
Willpower 10
Vitality 10
Personality 8
HP: 32
SP: 32
MP: 32
PD: +1
MD: +1
Defense: 1
Class Talent: Relentless Defender
Skills: 1-Handed Weapon
Spells: Arcane Shield
As he was going over his stats, he lamented that it seemed like the System deemed his physical abilities lacking. At least he had gotten a good Intellect score. He also had three points to place in any stat or stats that he wanted. Gotta be smart about this. He knew that he would gain an extra point in Endurance and Willpower every level, so he could afford to place his free points into other stats to keep him balanced. Giving it some thought, he decided to bump his three Body stats up one each. This would place an extra point in Endurance, but he figured that was going to be a key stat for him if he had to run at any point.