A clear blue sky.
As the light from that goddess’ forced transition faded; I found myself staring up at a wide expanse of blue sky accompanied the gentle hush of ocean waves, the grit of sand on which I’m lying and the warmth of the sun on my skin.
“Stupid goddess.” These were my first words upon my arrival to this new world.
With a sigh I sit up and look around. I’ve appeared on the shores of beach, the ocean glitters with the refracted light of the sun, pale yellow sand stretches out to both my left and right. Twisting around to look behind, the beach quickly slopes upward towards a dense forest mostly fir trees. The depth of the shade between the trees is intense in comparison to the open sunlit stretch of the shore.
Standing up, I brush the clinging sand from my trousers. I’m dressed (thankfully) in pants made from a thick black cloth similar to denim, additionally I’m wearing a simple shirt of unbleached linen. The shirt has a mandarin style collar and cuffed long sleeves, both are fastened with silver buttons. On my feet are a pair of study and comfortable, laced black boots; I don’t know if they’re a mix of earth's technology or also from this world, but the soles are formed from a rubber-like substance. While looking down at my new boots I notice a folded black cloth which must have been acting as a pillow when I awoke. When I unfold it, it becomes a splendid black leather coat which looks to fall to mid-thigh. I don’t want to say it… but I’m impressed. I half suspected that goddess would leave me naked somewhere, but these clothes aren’t half bad.
Still. I’m not going to say it.
*ping*
With an artificial tone, a semi-transparent window pops into existence before me. It looks a lot like the type settings window you’d see in various video games. While the window has tab-like options labeled “Status,” “Inventory,” and “Map,” my eyes are immediately drawn to the “mail” tab; next to which a small cartoon image of Aurora dances while holding up an envelope as big as her head complete with bursting love hearts.
I don’t want to press it.
I ignore the obvious prompt and go to press the status button instead. Or at least that what I want to do but the annoying chibi goddess runs around the screen obstructing any other options.
With a sigh, (I feel like I’ve been sighing a lot recently) I press the mail tab.
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Yolla! I’s me, Aurora!
Just a few things I forgot to mention. (☉∀☉)!
You can open your Menu just by thinking that you want it to open. Easy huh? Menu is a special privilege of Otherworlders and is a combined interface of Status, Mail, Map and a few select special skills! Normally, when people want to check their status they need to use a special magic tool kept at various guilds or government facilities but with Menu you can see your own status any time you want.
Isn’t that AMAZING? (∩╹□╹∩)
Anyway, other than the clothes you’ve been given there are also some sweet tools and stuff already placed in your inventory. Aren’t I just the best? (*^^*)
BTW you’re on an uninhabited island! The island is called “The Forbidden Isle of the Mad Dragon!” or “Dragon Isle” for short, don’t worry there’s no dragons on the island (anymore) and no one ever goes there because they think it’s cursed…
Additionally, I’ve already added the whole island to the map because if I didn’t you’d most likely walk around in circles for days. Hahaha （＞ｙ＜）
Good Luck and try not to die! ∠(^ー^)
LOVE AURORA
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I feel like if she told me she was dumping me on a cursed, uninhabited island in person, then I would have shouted at her. Maybe that’s why she did it by mail. Oh, and let’s just ignore the use of emoticons yep, yep.
OK then! Let’s look at the other functions of the menu. I close the mail and open the status tab.
“So, this is me?”
Name: Arden Bell
Level: 1
Age: 16
Gender: Male
Race: ███████
Titles:
Otherworlder | One who ███ his ███ asunder | The ██ ███ | Unfortunate
HP:
200 / 200
MP:
78 000 / 78 000
STR:
120
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
AGI:
180
DEX:
180
END:
100
INT:
500
AUR:
300
Skills
Unique:
Menu | Inventory | Force Magic | Alchemy
Major:
Engraving
Minor:
Life Magic
Who is this? Why is there so much redacted information?! Arrghh. No, no, let’s calm down and analyses this.
First off: my name is the same as my last life, that’s a bonus, I don’t know how I’d feel if I was suddenly named something weird like “Chuck” or something.
My level is one. I don’t know what that means in this world. Pressing the term “level” on the menu does bring up the following:
Level: A numerical representation of an organism’s growth both physically and spiritually. Can be increased through the accumulation of experience points (XP).
Huh, seeing as I was just born(?) that’s to be expected, but I was kinda hoping that I would have some carry over from my precious life. Next, I can see that my age has dropped down to sixteen, but I can only accept it and relish the extra years. My race is currently unknown… I thought it was human though. Touching my head and ears, as well as checking underneath my clothes, I can’t find any physical differences from a human. Though, between you and me, I did find some *ahem* large differences between my prior body and this one. Also, I have abs! this body is thin but surprisingly muscular, this is something I can only be happy about. Oh! And I’m slightly taller than I was before, about 185cm (That’s 6ft and almost an inch for all you Yanks). I checked but pressing on the blacked-out word doesn’t bring up any explanation either.
Of the titles the only ones I can understand are “Otherworlder” and “Unfortunate.”
Otherworlder: A title given to those who have crossed the void between worlds. Enables use of the Menu feature.
Unfortunate: A title given to one who has experienced constant misfortune through either self-infliction or outside influence.
Unfortunately, the redacted titles don’t bring up any explanation and thus if they have effects they are unknown.
Next up are the actual stats of my status! I think that HP and MP are “Health Points” and “Magic Points” respectively.
HP (Health Points): A numerical representation of an organisms’ health and vitality. HP value is influenced by the END stat. Damage to an organism will cause the HP value to decrease. When HP is decreased to a value less than 10% of the maximum HP value: the organism has an increased chance of falling unconscious. A decrease of the HP value to 0 will result in the death of the organism. Rate of HP recovery is influenced by the END and AUR stats.
MP (Mana Points): A numerical representation of an organisms’ aura’s mana saturation. MP value is influenced by the INT stat. MP is expended through the use of magic skills, weapon arts and mana release and causes a mental strain on the organism the degree of which is determined inversely by the INT and AUR stats. When MP is reduced to a value less than 10% of the maximum MP value: the organism will experience an increase in the level of mental strain which occurs when expending MP. A decrease of the MP value to 0 will result in unconsciousness. Rate of MP recovery is influenced by the INT and AUR stats.
I was wrong. MP stands for mana points not magic points. I guess that means there’s something called mana in this world? Also, I’m not sure if my HP value is normal or not but my MP value of 78 000 cannot be normal for an individual at level one. I guess this is where all the potential that left over from the skill selection must have gone. Anyways I’m thankful for the large MP pool. Let’s see what’s next: STR, AGI, DEX, END and INT are all pretty much understandable from the video games I’ve played. Checking each individually confirms my thought. They are each Strength, Agility, Dexterity, Endurance and Intelligence respectively. STR influences my physical strength regardless of fitness, AGI affects my base speed and reaction times, DEX influences accuracy and hand eye coordination, END determines the ability to endure physical effects, such as attacks, as well as my level of stamina and INT influences thought processing and magic strength. Those I understand but I have no idea what AUR is. So let’s press it and find out!
AUR (Aura): A numerical representation of an organisms Aura density and capacity. AUR influences an organisms’ aura manipulation range and mana absorption rate as well as an organisms’ degree of protection from magical effects.
… I still don’t understand. The description assumes I know what an “aura” is. From what I can tell, one’s aura has an effect on magic and the AUR stat is affects how you use magic? Maybe…? I think I’ll need to come back to this one after I understand magic a bit better to be honest.
Lastly it’s my precious skills! But why are they separated? Unique, Major and Minor? Let’s read the trusty descriptions!
Unique skills: Rare skills that cannot be obtained through ordinary means. Unique skills are sometimes gained at birth or through intervention by entities of a higher order. Unique skills have a large corrective influence.
Major skills: Skills that require a large amount of potential and talent. Major skills can be gifted at birth to individuals with a suitable potential or attained through a combination of talent and intense training. Major skills have a corrective influence.
Minor skills: Common skills that can be obtained by most individuals through training, individuals with talent may achieve skills more easily. Minor skills have a small corrective influence.
Ok. So Unique skills are rare and powerful, Major skills are strong but not uncommon and minor skill are things that most people have. Does that me that I, who has four Unique skills, am amazing? I’m amazing, right? Yeah, I totally am.
Also, Force Magic is a Unique Skill! That must mean it’s really powerful, right? Heheh, I’m looking forward to trying it out now, but first I should read the skill descriptions.
Force Magic: Magic which manipulates “Force” to produce barriers and influence the laws of physics by either increasing or decreasing the effect of a force in action.
Inventory: An Space/Time Magic variant. Creates an infinite storage space in which the passage of time is suspended. Due to the effect of Menu, items within the space can be manipulated though an interface.
Menu: Accesses the SYSTEM through a unique interface which combines functionalities of self-status, equipment, map, and mail. Additional functionality may be added through inter-skill processing or manipulation by a being of a higher order.
Alchemy: Unique skill which allows for molecular manipulation. Substance assembly, substance disassembly, substance mana reinforcement, substance mana synergy.
Engraving: The creation of magic circuits on or within suitable materials to create a magic tool which can produce a desired effect via the injection of mana.
Life Magic: Minor magics which increase quality of life. Effects are small. Spell manipulation results in a heavy increase of MP consumption.
I was expecting a better explanation than that… but I guess I’ll have to figure these out properly through actual trial and error. What does concern me through is that Force Magic may not be entirely what I was hoping for… yeah, let’s leave my eventual disappointment for later. Huh? I feel like I said something really depressing there. Let’s not mind it.
I’ve wasted enough time reading all this instruction manual like explanations! No, Really, the sun is starting to set. I need check my inventory and the map and find somewhere to sleep.