The man is falling, fast. He looks down and sees the smallest pinprick of colour. It rapidly expands, becoming a circle of greens and blues. He soon realises the object is a planet that he is quickly approaching. His surroundings switch from brilliant white to void black and the planet stretches to fill his entire vision. Just as the ground rushes up to meet him he jolts awake. His heart racing rapidly, he sighs in relief. Thank god it was just a dream. He thinks. At that exact moment a box appears in his vision:
Welcome Message
Welcome to the universe.
You have been reborn on the planet Altia.
Convergence points remaining 0
To get started think Status.
No further help will be provided.
Good Luck!
A cool breeze of fresh mountain air accompanies the message and as he registers the message. With his sanity in question he thinks over the last couple of moments that, apparently, constituted his rebirth. A harsh sibilant growl sounds to his right and his eyes fly open as a message flows past his vision.
Language modifier activated. Compatible language detected. Overwriting host language…
Success!
The man is lying on his back in a small, dark, forest clearing. Anything else nearby isn’t noticed on account of a small, red scaled, reptilian creature holding a spear towards his neck threateningly.
“Ryx’us, just get it over with, he obviously can’t understand. The woods are active and we need to make our way back.” Another creature, this one with green scales, standing off to the left, encourages the spear wielder.
“No! I can understand. Please don’t hurt me.” The man calls out. It may not be heroic or even manly but begging for his life is all he can manage.
“Who are you and how did you get here?” Ryx’us, the spear wielder, asks.
“I don’t know. My name is…” The man wracked his brain. He can’t seem to remember his own name. “I don’t know.” He feels a connection to these creatures that he can’t seem to explain. Almost like stumbling into an old acquaintance that you are sure you knew but can’t place them. He only hopes they feel the same. Ryx’us cocks his head to the side considering the man. The man looks back at him trying to display as much sincerity as possible. A movement in the corner of the man’s eye catches his attention and he glances up into the treeline. A small, green skinned humanoid is perched in the tree arm cocked back with a loaded sling. It is aiming at Ryx’us’ back.
The man reacts, instinct, honed through previous conflicts, takes over and he grabs the spear pointed at him. He twists, maneuvering the reptilian out of the line of fire. A stone whistles into the ground besides him. He finishes his maneuver on his knees and he points in the direction of the incoming fire. More stones fly past and he rolls into cover behind a tree. A stone bouncing off the ground just besides him.The slingers must be running out of ammo because they start to arm clubs and drop from the trees.
They are met by the four spears of the reptilians that, only moments ago, were threatening the man. The man watches as two of the green skinned humanoids, which actually look like goblins from some of the films he watched with the grandkids, are pierced through. It looks to be going in the reptilians favour until two goblins drop from the trees straight onto one of the reptilians. A bloody bludgeoning ensues and only three reptilians continue to fight. The melee continues as he watches with either side trading blows. With all the goblins down from the trees and only three reptilians, they are at a standstill. The man observes as neither side can penetrate the other's defence. The man commits, for some reason he feels the need to help the reptilians. He grabs a rock from the ground, holds it firmly and waits for his moment. As the battle shifts he leaps from behind his tree and drives it as hard as he can into the head of the closest enemy. It collides with a dull thump. The man bounces off the green skinned humanoid and lands on his ass in the dirt. The goblin whips around raising its club to strike barely showing any damage from the firm bludgeoning attack.
A spearhead erupts through the green chest of the goblin bearing down on him and the fight turns. In moments the other goblins are finished off and a small prompt fills the man’s vision:
Battle Report
You have assisted Ryx’us (Kobold) in defeating:
1x Goblin Skirmisher (+5 experience)
So these reptiles are Kobolds. The man thinks to himself. He was also wondering why he couldn’t even harm a goblin with a fist sized rock. Still the goblins are dead and the question can wait for later as Ryx’us was approaching. He stands over the man and offers out a clawed hand. The man grasps it and is easily pulled to his feet.
“Thank you for the timely distraction.” Ryx’us bows his head slightly in thanks.
“No problem, I couldn’t leave you all there. Besides I’ve no idea where I am and you guys are the first people I’ve met.”
“Well, in return for your assistance, I guess we can return the favour. Would you like to return with us to the tribe? I can put a good word in with the chief. He should let you stay with us, for a short time at least.” The man nods and gestures to lead on. The other two kobolds hadn’t been idle. They had searched the bodies, collected the dead kobold’s belongings and begun scouting the perimeter for follow up attacks. The kobolds set off at a brisk pace that leaves the man panting to keep up. His mind is spinning at the sudden change in his circumstances. The monotony of the journey allows him to catch up.
The man truly felt young again. Twenty one if he was to put a number on it although definitely not as fit as he was then. In fact he felt sickly and frail. He was amazed that one minute he was an elderly man looking for a fiftieth anniversary gift in an antiques store for his wife, the next moment he was suddenly in the middle of a forest at the ripe age of twenty one. His emotions are saddened when he remembers his wife, probably still expecting him home any minute with dinner slowly going cold. He wishes she could have joined him on this adventure, it had been so long since he had gone a single day without her. He vows to find a way back to her if he can. Maybe he can bring her back here with him. He continues panting along behind the kobolds as they progress through the forest and his mind moves on to other aspects of this new world. These pop up boxes that keep flashing in his vision are concerning to him. His generation was always affected with a strong stigma against mental health and while his grandkids tried their best to re-educate him it was only partially successful. Hallucinations are definitely considered a bad thing and yet the information provided by the boxes have been helping him slightly. He finds he can review a log of previous prompts since arriving in this forest with only a simple thought. In fact all the prompts seem to respond to thought.
He quickly goes over the two prompts he has received since arriving. The first prompt mentions something about a status and as he thinks it a new box pops up:
Name
Unknown
Age
21
Race
Human
Level
0
Bloodline
Unknown
Mana
0
Attributes
60
Experience
5
Strength
0(+)
Vitality
0(+)
Dexterity
0(+)
Agility
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
0(+)
Intelligence
0(+)
Wisdom
0(+)
Abilities
Skills
Mana Sense
None
N/A
The man pours over the information provided and realises it is a summary of his body. He is fascinated by the attributes. He mentally pressed the plus symbol on vitality figuring it to be responsible for his recovery and hoping it will help him keep up with the kobolds. A prompt pops up, interrupting him:
Please allocate a name.
He swipes it away with a mental shove and tries to increase the attribute again receiving the prompt again.
Please allocate a name.
The man grunts and starts to input his old name into the name box before hitting the same mental block as before. He can’t remember it. He shrugs and starts to think of a new name. His entire world has changed in the blink of an eye, so why shouldn’t he start anew. Again a twinge of guilt stabs his heart as he thinks of his wife. Perhaps not completely anew. He tries to think of a new name but kept coming up blank. There was always a memory that stopped him. Glen was discarded as he remembered his wife disliking a person of the same name. Bill went out as well as his horrible troop sergeant had the name. He looked to his transparent status for inspiration and noticed the word mana repeated twice on it. If he remembered his grandchildren’s lectures on modern life and technology then it had a reference to magic within games. His mind made the leap to another memory of his grandchildren watching a film, and with a smile he input the name Mike.
Name accepted.
Mike then realised that a happy memory with the family did not translate to the subject of his new name. He was throughrily disheartened by the film, it didn’t even have any relation to magic! Although some ladies would argue otherwise, Mike wasn’t impressed. He only hoped that this world had no experience of his old world.
With the issue of his name, begrudgingly, sorted. Mike started to allocate his free attributes. He returned to attempting to increase his vitality and this time was successful. He placed the point and felt no different. Then he noticed a small submit prompt had appeared. He pressed that and what felt like a small electrical jolt ran through his body. His breathing eased slightly and he felt more comfortable, if barely. He proceeded to add single points into vitality until he could keep up with the kobolds relatively easily. He found six points to be the sweet spot. With his body now coping with the demands upon it he took a more considerate approach. His body was definitely nowhere near that of an average human of age twenty one. In fact the only reason he was able to keep up with the kobolds was his longer legs. Based on how he felt he realised that around ten would likely be the average for a human. That thought also let him realise that the sixty available points he had would give him a ten in every attribute. While that was appealing to Mike in simplicity he didn’t want to be just average across the board.
He began by adding one point into each attribute, one at a time. His first point in strength caused his muscles to tense slightly before relaxing. Immediately he noticed an increased definition in his muscles. A more subtle thing he noticed was that he was no longer able to sustain his pace as easily and he caught his breath increasing again. Clearly using more muscles took more energy which increased the demands on his vitality. He then went on to dexterity and added a point. The difference was barely noticeable but he could feel the ground beneath his feet more clearly and realised he was less likely to twist an ankle. His knuckles released a little tension and his coordination increased. Again the change was small but he imagined the effect of cumulative changes to each attribute. Agility increased the ease of moving his arms and legs. His running speed increased and he eased off again. Strangely this countered the effect adding strength did on the demands of his vitality for running long distances at least. He could keep pace with the kobolds at perhaps 90% effort instead of going all out.
The final two attributes Mike had yet to experiment with were intelligence and wisdom. He adds his first point to intelligence and hits submit. The whole world changes in the space of a millisecond. To Mike it feels as if his brain ‘opens up’ and expands. An energy rushes into the opening and he feels sparks of energy settle within the core of his body. As he experiences these sparks he starts to feel similar energy very faintly permeating the world around him. The entire experience is otherworldly to Mike. Completely alien. He struggles to comprehend the information his mind is taking in. He shakes the feeling off and adds the final test point to his wisdom. The information coming in sharpens and becomes easier to sort. He can feel the energy within him now and with a mental nudge it moves infinitesimally in the direction he wills it. The information on the energy around him starts to make more sense too. He can judge direction, distance and also get a slight feeling of… colour? These two stats, intelligence and wisdom, which Mike thought should help him think more clearly and figure things out, have only made him more confused.
Mike considers his options and, while it’s confusing now, being able to gather more information about the world around him can only help him. He wants above average intelligence and wisdom. The only thing to decide now is to choose where to be below average. He selects Strength as one attribute to sacrifice as it increases the demands on his body. He also selects to average the second deficit between agility and dexterity. Vitality seems to be his energy generator, it seems too good to sacrifice. He begins by bringing all attributes up to six. He feels that he needs to keep up with the kobolds around him and, judging by his experiments with vitality, they seem to average around six. Immediately the increased strength and agility boost his speed and he dials it back down to keep pace. The space within his centre storing energy expands sixfold and the trickle of energy filling it turns into a shallow stream. Additionally his awareness of the energy around him expands to identify even smaller specks. He realises the kobolds running beside him have specks of energy within them but, unlike himself, they don’t seem to have a pool of energy in their centre. No, It’s mana, his understanding clicks into place.
Next he brings intelligence and wisdom up to ten and feels his mind settle back into a normal feeling for him. He didn’t realise until now that his thoughts were really quite sluggish. With that done he brings vitality up to join them and feels almost healthy again. The sluggishness fades away and he smiles as he is easily able to keep pace with the kobolds besides them. Finally he finishes off putting one more point into strength, two into dexterity and agility and the final seven split between intelligence and wisdom, with wisdom getting four of the points. He smiles as he hits confirm and his body settles into normality. He feels much better than he did barely thirty minutes ago in the antiques shop and he feels very close to the body he had last time he was twenty one. He checks over his status once again:
Name
Mike
Age
21
Race
Human
Level
0
Bloodline
Unknown
Mana
15
130
Attributes
0
Experience
5
Strength
7
Vitality
10
Dexterity
8
Agility
8
Intelligence
13
Wisdom
14
Abilities
Skills
Mana Sense
Much better, Mike thinks to himself. If he is crazy he may as well go along with it. Afterall he is struggling to argue with the very physical results of adjusting his attributes. He still has no clue as to his bloodline and unsure how experience and levels tie into it. He figures the 15/130 mana relates to how empty the pool inside his centre is. As he looks at it, it ticks upwards as the mana flows into him. He ties the mana sense ability to being able to feel the mana around him. With that all organised he finally turns his attention outwards again to observe the kobolds he travels with.
Ryx’us, the only kobold Mike knows the name of, runs just off to the side of him. He seems to be keeping a close eye on Mike in between scans of the surrounding forest. The other two kobolds flit in and out of the treeline. They seem to be scouting the flanks and making sure nothing surprises the group. Ryx’us notices that Mike is paying attention once again and speaks up.
“You seem to have finished with your status, there can’t have been such a huge change from that small skirmish surly?” The kobold works hard to keep his voice muted as much as possible while running.
“Err, well, I’ll be honest with you Ryx’us, I’ve never had a status before. That was my first time seeing it. How does experience work, what are…” Questions start to fall from Mike’s mouth but Ryx’us cuts him off.
“Easy now, Let’s get back to the tribe safely and then I can try to answer your questions.”
“How far is the tribe?” Mike asks.
“Not far now, we’ve already covered at least three quarters of the distance.” Mike does a quick calculation, they’ve been running for about ten minutes already.
Sure enough, within five minutes they break through a treeline into the clearing around a small mound. Not even big enough to call a hill. The sunken holes around the base of the mound cause Mike to conclude that the whole thing is essentially a giant rabbit warren. Ryx’us leads Mike into the largest entrance, still low enough to force him into an uncomfortable stoop. The other two kobolds fall in behind him and escort him down the gentle decline.
Immediately inside the mound are a couple of guardrooms. Armed kobolds sit around the room relaxing, clearly awaiting their next guard rotation. Ryx’us continues to lead him deeper and the light from outside quickly dies out. It is replaced by a faint light emitted from a glowing moss that lines the ceiling of the tunnel. Fascinated by the strange flora, Mike tries to get a closer look at the moss. As he focuses on the moss trying to work out how the moss manages to get the energy to produce the light a small prompt pops up:
Examine
Glow Moss - A rare moss that is very difficult to cultivate. It withers in sunlight and can only grow underground.
Novice: This moss lives symbiotically with a spore fungus.
Intermediate: Will provide potable water when squeezed
Advanced: Has mild antimicrobial properties
Skill Acquired
Through hard work and study you have gained the skill Examine. Your significant education has increased this skill to Advanced (54)
This skill provides a short summary of the target object. Information provided increases with skill level.
Mike stops dead at the notification. He just got his first skill, and it seems to have been boosted to a high level because of his education. Mike Didn’t think he did that well in school. It’s one of the reasons he joined the army. Still, best not to argue with free skills.
“Come on, no time to hang around yet, we need to speak with the chief.” one of the kobolds behind Mike nudges him onwards. Mike files the event into the things to ask Ryx’us when he gets the chance. The walk continues downwards before ending in an opening guarded by two highly alert kobolds. Their spears come down to point at Ryx’us and Mike.
“I vouch for the human. We are here to see the chief regarding important matters.” Ryx’us quickly provides explanation and the kobolds look between them.
“On your head be it Ryx.” The kobolds lift their spears and gesture for the group to proceed.
Ryx’us bows his head to the guard that spoke to him and continues through the opening into a large hollowed out room. Mike follows behind him and is surprised by what he finds. After following a dirt tunnel down to get here he was expecting more dirt walls, maybe a nest? Instead he steps onto a collection of skins lay upon a polished wood panel floor. He absentmindedly wipes his feet as he takes in the wooden walls and ceiling. Several armed kobolds stand along the edge of the room and A high backed chair sits squarely at the back of the room. Seated upon the wooden throne is a large red scaled kobold, well larger than the others he had seen.
“Welcome back, my son! Come, tell me what has transpired.”