System Unlock - Leigh’s Point of View
As the countdown of the cheering crowd reached its ultimate climax, Leigh took one final glance around the gathered people. She smiled softly when she saw Vincent jogging in at the edge of the square. ‘Good, he made it’ she thought to herself, a formless weight lifted off her shoulders. She turned her attention to Mr. and Mrs. Stesk standing in the front row near her little stage, beaming up at her with all the support she could ever want. A pang of guilt followed as she thought about her own parents being there today, but it faded quickly.
She can’t change the past, only prepare for the future.
The chanting reached zero, and all at once the world faded from view. Leigh felt as if she was falling in slow motion, descending through liquid honey slowly and gradually. Sinking into an all-encompassing warmth. Her vision was gone, her ears deaf; she couldn’t even feel the platform beneath her feet anymore. Only the gentle embrace of that endless expanse remained a gentle yet constant pressure.
Just as suddenly as it started, the feeling of momentum ground to a halt. Leigh floated there in the darkness, alone, for several moments before anything happened. She tried to stir, to move, and panic started to set in when she couldn’t. A voice called out from the void, ethereal and distant.
“Hush child, all is well” and with each syllable spoken, the speaker seemed to draw closer. The voice was gruff, like a file being drug across a blade. It was coarse and echoey, but with a warmth like a forge. The void rippled like the surface of a pond, and Leigh went from floating in nothing to standing in the midst of a workshop.
She was standing in the shadow of a massive humanoid man, holding a hammer. He was often depicted differently around the world, but in her chest, Leigh knew who this was. Oses, god of craftsmen. He took a single step forward and shrunk to the size of an adult man, barely standing a foot taller than Leigh.
“You’ve drawn a lot of attention Lass” The craftsman god spoke, his wide smile inviting Leigh to actually relax. He stowed the hammer in his hand through a loop in his leather apron and took a seat. A chair materializing behind him. “No offense, but I’m just here to make the connection, got someone else who wants to talk to you.” The maker lord gestured over his shoulder to a nearby shadow.
Stepping out from the darkness of the god, was a faceless dwarven man with a forging hammer in either hand. Ethar, the forge lord. Subordinate god of Oses and Blacksmith King. His form was consistent with the small shrine Leigh’s father used to keep in their home before the attack all those years ago. He’d stopped maintaining it after her mother died.
Leigh immediately dropped to one knee. As a smith herself, she venerated lord Ethar more so than almost any other god. His voice nearly shook the bones in her body when her god spoke. “Get up kid, none of that genuflecting shite in my presence.” He then laughed a booming laugh as Leigh scrambled to her feet. “Y-Yes sir, sorry my lord” she stammered, the forge lord waving off her respect with a gesture.
“You’ve done a lot of good work in these past few months, and you’ve gone far and above what anyone expected” The forge lord began to explain, motioning for Leigh to stay quiet when she tried to speak up. “You’ve struggled through the tragedy of your family, found yourself a good apprentice, picked up some skills from him, and vice versa. You upheld everything I stand for as a god, and I’m here to reward you”
He concluded his speech, smacked his two hammers together, and let them ring out loud. The sound reverberated through Leigh’s body and soul, changing and crafting her as if she were an ingot of steel. A blessing was passed into her form, and she fell backward, once again to be greeted by the endless expanse of the unconscious mind.
She didn’t know exactly how long she floated, but when she came back to her senses, Leigh was once again standing on the central platform in the town square. Her ears were filled with the cheers of her community, nearly drowning out the subtle ding! That accompanied her first official system message.
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System access granted.
Primary linkage established.
Initiating bootup protocol.
…
Operator override detected, subroutines established.
Initiating subroutine protocol.
Leigh blinked her bleary eyes, the cheers of the crowd already starting to die down. She couldn’t shake the endless cascade of system boxes in the foreground of her vision however. Her confusion was only compounded by the unfamiliar language presented.
Experience point algorithm… nominal.
Health abstraction… nominal.
Mana abstraction… nominal.
All primary systems green, initiating class module.
In the second box, she actually recognized most of the language used, realizing through context that her system was checking itself for errors.
Experience buffer found. Accumulated XP to be granted now.
Congratulations!
[Dwarf-Kin Child] has leveled up to 2
…
[Dwarf-Kin Child] has leveled up to 5
Class threshold reached, initiating class upgrade protocol.
Operator override accepted.
Congratulations!
[Daughter of the forge] has leveled up to 1
[Daughter of the forge] has leveled up to 2
…
[Daughter of the forge] has leveled up to 10
Class threshold reached, initiating class upgrade protocol.
With the error check now completed, all the experience Leigh had ever gathered in the past sixteen years was granted to her all at once. Instantly, her first two classes leveled to the maximum, and a swelling of stat points rippled through her very soul.
The process of leveling up and having your stats increased can be addicting, euphoric even, as muscle and bone, blood and brain, heart and soul all grow stronger in a rush of feeling. The system unlock day for many becomes an unmatched high they spend the rest of their life chasing, urging them to level up more and more.
Leigh’s body shuddered, and only the rigid force of a freshly unlocked system kept her standing as her stat total more than tripled. Then, like a fading breeze, the feeling ended. Leigh felt the locks remove, she finally had control of her own system. Her own life. Hovering in her peripherals were several windows prompting her for choices.
She ignored them all. With five new class skills to pick for her forced [Daughter of the forge] class, a window asking for her third class and its skills, as well as the remaining general skill slots she had, Leigh felt spoiled for choice. She needed time to think and consider what it was she wanted to do for the foreseeable future before making any heavy decisions like that.
One decision though, didn’t require much thinking at all. She immediately took the [Mana Crafting] general skill without any delay. The words of the Forge Lord echoing in her mind, she glanced at the Stesks, at Vincent. Smiling, Leigh bounded down the platform, wincing internally when she splintered the boards behind her.
Mr. and Mrs. Stesk had wonderfully thoughtful presents for her, and Leigh cherished them truly. However, when Vincent produced a crudely carved amulet brimming with mana, she couldn’t take her eyes off him. That anxious smile, the way he kept blushing like an idiot. His gift was impressive, sure, everything Vincent did was impressive, but like him it had heart. The lines weren’t always even, the shape a little bumpy, it was a first project and it showed. Leigh swore she’d never take it off.