POV - [TOTALLY AWESOME DUDE]

I opened the door.

A fuzzy ethereal wispy ball of light or energy floated in.

I felt a sense of déjà vu. I had seen this before, I knew it.

<…Awesome Dude!> it shimmered.

I looked at it blankly as it twirled and spun on the spot. This was Nige?

“You’re the Wisp from my dream!”

Abruptly the temperature dropped. Oops, looks like I've inadvertently offended it with the very first thing I said.

All the twinkle had vanished from its tone.

“Uhh, sorry man.” I wondered at it’s bizarre descriptor of me. Maybe a um-an was slang for a rude person or something. It twirled a couple of times, brightening up.

The brightness deepened. Excitement was quickening the wi- the zorb’s spinning. I would need to retrain my brain to stop thinking of it as a wisp. In fact, I shouldn’t be calling it an it either. He was Nige. Proud bearer of a strong male proper noun.

he continued.

“Ahh…” I hesitated. “Who are you? And why should I be showing you my rewards? I mean we’ve only just, this very minute, met each other.”

He bobbled back in surprise.

He trailed off. he muttered.

I looked at him in fresh surprise. I was just bemoaning the lack of an introductory arc and here it turns out that there was one after all. And I had somehow missed it.

And I've missed character creation too! Oh no, my heart sank. This was bad, this was very bad. I knew how important character creation was. I had missed out on that absolutely unique opportunity to set up my new self. I took a deep breath. It’s not like I could just reroll another one either. Or could I?

“Okay. That's not so good.” I paused, taking another deep breath, “Perhaps we could start over?”

Ding. A new notification interrupted me. I let it manifest as my brain scrambled to recompile itself.

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I looked at Nige.

“What do you think of that?”

He wobbled uncertainly,

“No I meant… well, yes good, but I was actually referring to the Skill the System just offered.”

Duh, well obviously he couldn’t see my notifications. That's weird if he was my mentor and all. Perhaps I had to explicitly make them visible for others? I concentrated and he focused on the notice.

He settled into a somewhat teachery tone. I looked at him, waiting for some more information. This had the feeling that he was reading off his prompt sheet.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

This was good info. But I had so many questions. If breathing was a Skill could anything be a Skill? That sounded totally bizarre. And if 60% of skills were grey what were the other gradings? Where did white skills fit in there? Did Skills tier up? And, I remembered my award; “Which are more important? - Skills or Stats?” and “How do I find out what Skills I have?”

He spun in amusement.

Hooray. There was a character sheet. I knew it. There had to be one. I just couldn’t work out how to make it appear. Somewhat sheepishly I asked. Straightway Nige responded.

<>

He paused and flicked something away, flick,

Arrggghhh! I had so tried that already. I knew it. Multiple times in fact. Maybe I was glitched?

Anticipation and trepidation warred…

“SYSTEM REQUEST: Please display character sheet”

>NAME:

Totally Awesome Dude

[Blank]

>SPECIES:

>TIER:

Human

G

>XP:

>EXP:

1300

130/130

>LVL:

1

>CON:

60HP

[Expand]

>WIS:

15MP

[Expand]

>KAR:

30E

[Expand]

>LUC:

0.1

>SKILLS:

(Unlocked) (Hide]

Introspection

Breathing

(Active) [Hide]

None

[Hide all]

>PATHS:

Nasal Prospector Class (Pending acceptance)

>PERKS:

Gallifreudian Slip (Pending acceptance)

>TITLES:

Pertinacious (Pending acceptance)

>AWARDS:

Atelophobia Award (Pending acceptance)

And my name was ‘Totally Awesome Dude’?

???

What on earth?

I turned to my ‘mentor,’ so-called. “Why is my name ‘Totally Awesome Dude’?”

He twitched somewhat erratically.

“No, I most definitely did not!”

“My name is Nigel. Nigel Tait.”

‘Nige’ froze for half a second.

“I named you Nige? Why on earth would I do that? That’s my name. You… You… you name thief!”

I was spluttering with rage. I was vaguely aware that this was somewhat stupid and that previously I had thought it quite cool that we had the same name. I mean what were the odds? But now, he didn’t just have the same name as me. He had ‘my’ name and I had this stupid juvenile phrase of a name. After all I had experienced over the last hour or so, the dramatic upheaval, the rewriting of all I thought was immutable with the universe. The system uplifting me, gifting me my new healthy body. It was suddenly all too much. I wanted my name. It was all I had left of my old me. And my family. Even my last name was gone. I felt severed from my family in a way I hadn’t up until now. I was furious. I could feel myself turning incandescent as my emotions boiled over. This smarmy fizzle-pop… [Ding] of a…

<> <>

I mashed down on [Yes] with a vengeance.