Nathan was sitting at the table, this time accepting the strong drink from Peter. They all three needed it after the past twenty four hours.
“What do you mean I leveled up? I thought you had to be Awakened for that to happen? I never touched an Essence Orb before!”
“It could be connected to how or why you are here. Maybe everyone on your world is already Awakened.” Peter suggested.
Nathan shook his head. “Then why can’t we do what you said, the skills and magic. How come I’ve never seen this before till this morning?”
“Because, you killed wolves and helped kill the Alpha.” El said with a steady voice. “Nathan, you have no idea how great of an opportunity you have. You are Guildless, but are Awaken. By the Gods…” El started staring at her husband's glass of ale intently.
“Oh boy, if you are swearing then he is in a real pickle.” Peter commented.
Nathan was starting to worry if he did something wrong somehow. “How much trouble am I going to be in?”
El shook her head. “The opposite, so long as nobody finds out. Remember how we talked about joining a guild and that it costs a lot of money.” Nathan nodded following along.
“That’s because most of it is the fee to use the Essence Orb. Along with contract signing and tutors. The last bit can be paid later if you don’t have the money, and be forced to choose your own path with no help.”
“Because you have no Contract, you are not bound to any Guild. This means, you are free to do as you wish with your Numbers. Increase any stat, learn any skill, do whatever it is you want to do. If you truly want to be a healer, you can do it with not being forced to join the Church. You are at a disadvantage by not having any tutors or people telling you what skills to acquire and work on to unlock hidden skills, but who cares?”
El looked Nathan in the eyes, having a serious tone in her voice. “If you want my honest and professional suggestion, you should join the Adventurers Guild. There you can earn money, and nobody will question you. You can practice and improve your skills to their upper limits, and discover things for yourself.”
Nathan was in shock listening to what this means. “If that’s what you suggest, I will do it. I have to work on paying back that Amber to Ragnork.”
El and Peter were about to interrupt Nathan but he held up a hand. “I am paying for it. I forced him to use it, and if I could, I would have done it myself. You two have more than enough on your plates, and it’s time I put food on the plate don’t you agree?”
Peter and Elderade shared a look and Peter turned back to Nathan. “We talked about you joining a Guild to earn money. If anything, this is a sign from the Gods I think.”
Nathan shook his head. “They have a shitty way of giving signs. A simple letter would do.” He finished with a laugh.
“It would make things easier to understand wouldn’t it?” Elderade said with a smirk.
They all sat there for a moment before Peter slapped Nathan’s arm. “Well? What are you waiting for! Open your menu and take a look at what you got to start with.”
Nathan raised an eyebrow. “Uhhh, and how do I do that?”
“Oh boy, we will have a lot to cover won’t we.” Elderade said. She moved and sat next to Nathan. “Typically you have to use an Essence Orb to look at your Numbers. However, experience or strong willed people can do it at will. I am going to help you do that. It’s not a strong secret, and this will help avoid people learning your secrets as an Essence Orb puts it in the air for all to see.”
“First close your eyes and empty your mind.”
Nathan followed her instructions.
“Now, imagine yourself. Not your physical body, but what makes ‘Nathan Shultz’. Your emotions, your personality, your voice, your thoughts, everything. Then simply imagine all of that in a medium of your choice. A book, a stone slate, even the clouds are perfect. It must be something that has meaning to you, anything that you are familiar with that can show information. Imagine all those things that is ‘Nathan Shultz’ on display. When you do that, simply push it out for you to see here physically and open your eyes.”
Nathan nodded and started to think about his life as a Doctor. The long hours spent waiting for a result on a patient so he could tell him the results himself. The number of smiles he shared with people passing on the streets. The horrible food he tried cooking in his own kitchen. He thought back to his childhood when he was told he had months to live, and remembered the determination he had when he was offered a chance to live.
His recent days spent jogging in gyms with patients going through physical therapy. The number of dinner parties for his nursing staff. He even took the emotions of his parents. The happy ones, the sad ones of their death, and the moment of trust they gave him to decide his own life.
He took all of these things that made him and put them on display on monitors that he was familiar with at hospitals. Each monitor showed a different factor about himself. Slowly he lined them all up in neat rows and columns. Each screen slowly turned into a number or word that represented him. He then pushed this image outward of himself and opened his eyes.
Name:
Nathan Shutlz
Level:
4
Stat Points:
40
Skill Points:
10
Strength:
10
Agility:
10
Endurance:
10
Constitution:
10
Intelligence:
10
Wisdom:
10
Base
Current
Total
Stamina:
100
100
100
Health
100
100
100
Mana
100
100
100
Base
Total Per Day
Stamina Regeneration:
50
50
Health Regeneration:
50
50
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Mana Regeneration:
50
50
Daily Report:
2x Alpha Pack Wolf Killed + 1 Alpha Wolf Killed.
Participation: 31%
Experience Earned: 1,772
Levels Gained!
Nathan was amazed at all the information in front of him. Firstly with how bland and even everything was. “Everything is at 10? That makes no sense.”
“I take it he did it, what do you think El?” Peter asked.
“Huh? Oh yeah, I think I did it?” Nathan said remembering where he was. “I have two different monitors. One is I think are my stats? That’s what we called him back on our world in the video games we talked about before. The other says Daily Report?”
“What was your Participation percentage?” El asked him.
“It says 31%. I helped out that little?” Nathan looked to her feeling worried he didn’t do enough to help.
El smiled. “No, I was worried about something else actually. My Daily Report said I did 69%, so you are why I was not at full Participation.”
“But Marcilio and Nadiel helped as well! Why didn’t they get Experience?” Nathan questioned.
“That’s because they are not Awakened. You can’t earn any Experience until you are. I was afraid that somebody else was fighting the wolves or leading them to our farm maliciously. Again, you have helped ease my mind. At this rate, I might have to start paying you.”
“So, what now?” Nathan looked back to his menu.
“Oh where to start. I honestly didn’t expect to handle this today.” Peter said.
“I don’t think any of us did Pete.” El said flatly. “Anyways, just imagine you closing or walking away from your source of information and they should all close. We can talk about everything you need to know in great detail.”
They spent the rest of the evening going over the entire menu. What each of his six core stats represented, how leveling works, and everything else that Marcilio and even Nadiel knows at this point.
Your six core stats each are broken into three groups: Output of physical prowess, defense both magical and physical, and magical prowess. Strength And Agility make up your Stamina. Strength is related to how strong you are. How much you can lift as well as control of heavy objects if you are swinging them like a sword.
Agility is your speed, dexterity, and reaction time. El commented that this was her highest stat herself. Both those two stats make up his Stamina and use of either of them will drain it. From something simple like picking up something to running to combat. Certain conditions could drain his stamina faster, such as wearing heavy armor. Agility helps with recovery while higher strength means you have more stamina, but both play a fact in both recovery and total stamina.
Next was Endurance and Constitution. In El’s opinion, the two most important stats if you want to stay alive. Endurance represents your pain tolerance along with total health. She compared it to how much of a beating in a fist fight you could take. Higher Endurance means more punches before you get knocked out.
Constitution meanwhile relates to your heartiness. She commented that the reason why Peter is such a lightweight was he has yet to put any points into it. It helps with your recovery time, and stated some warriors have such a high Constitution she was able to see wounds become fully healed in just a day after receiving them.
The last two interested Nathan the most. Intelligence and Wisdom. Elderade made sure Nathan understood a higher Intelligence did not make someone smarter. It simply helped them understand information quicker and easier. You could learn a new language faster or remember small details as far back as possible with an extremely high Intelligence. This was an important stat for any user of magic as it helps them understand the spells they are casting. A spell that is performed wrong could spell disaster.
Lastly was Wisdom. This state was responsible for spatial awareness. Increased senses, including pain to some degree. She also said that it helped people detect patterns in things such as the movement of crowds. A few guards are known for high wisdom to spot thieves much easier. A higher Wisdom was related to an increase in mana recovery.
“Also remember Nathan, when you are low of stamina you will feel exhausted, something you have felt I am more than sure. When you are almost dead, meaning your health is extremely low, you will have an emotional strain. You will panic easier, along with any common sense gets clouded as you do everything you can to stay alive. When you are out of mana, it’s the same but to your mind. You get an extreme headache, you will spit out gibberish instead of coherent thought. So be sure to keep all three of these things as full as you can feasibly accomplish.”
Nathan then learned how skills and stat points worked. For every level he would obtain 10 points to apply to his stats. He was warned about putting too many in one stat at once, as it does to a certain extent change his body.
Skill points were something unique to each person. After some math, Nathan figured out he gets 2 each level.
“That’s above extremely good. I only get three every two levels. And that is still seen as above average. You should definitely spend points on life skills if you can.” El commented. Apparently Peter was below average, only getting one point every other level.
When it came time to go over all the skills, this almost broke Nathan mentally. He has memorized Medical terms, situations, and a slew of chemistry formulas. All of that pales in comparison to the long list that was shown to him when he looked at his available skills.
....
They went long into the night going over all the different skill trees Nathan could learn into. Some overlapping with others but only minorly or at the early tiers. They had drawn out different ideas, and even invited Marcilio and Nadiel to help, in hopes that it could help distract them.
Several times Marcilio tried to use his left arm, but when he glanced he just withdrew into himself. Nathan felt bad for the kid, here he was doing something related to himself. When he should be trying to help his friend Marcy.
“Marcilio, hey buddy.” Nathan said closing his menu. “Why don’t we go for a walk, get some fresh air. All this math is hurting my brain.” Nathan stood up and was followed by Marcy.
They walked along the path winding through the crop fields. The only reason they felt safe going outside was the fact El scoured the nearby area for any hint of anything dangerous. Before the wolf attack, he would doubt her ability to do that. After? It was no question.
Nathan let the silence hang in the air, seeing if Marcilio wanted to talk first. When five minutes went by, he spoke first. “So, how are you feeling? And I mean how are you really feeling. I don’t doubt you feel fine physically, maybe some ghost pain?”
“Ghost pain? What’s that?” Marcy asked, looking toward his stub.
“It’s when someone still feels their missing limb. Something as small as an itch, or such pain it feels like someone is stabbing a burning knife into them.”
When Nathan got back a wince in response, he knew he was right. “It’s a perfectly normal reaction. Even the people from my world had the same reactions. There is no shame in saying something is wrong with your body. Embarrassing? Only for a moment. I am a Doctor, I've seen and heard so many things, I doubt I could feel embarrassed anymore. It just takes time to get used to.”
“Will it ever feel normal?” Marcilio asked.
“Sadly not. You will for the rest of your life never feel complete. You might forget that you had an arm, or look back at this time in your life and feel sadness. But I can promise you that your life can and will go on normally. It is going to suck, and people will judge you, but if you can get past all of that, you will have a successful life. I’ve seen it dozens of times.”
“I was supposed to join the Merchant Guild. I doubt they will take one armed merchant. How will I carry anything?”
Nathan’s mind wandered to the slew of skills he went over today. “I recall a handful of skills and spells that involve telekinesis. Which is the act of moving stuff with your mind. I am sure you will gain more skills each level than I can and become the most skillful merchant out there. You have your mom’s blood in you. She is an amazing woman, and the fact you are half of her, means you are still better than other people out there.”
That seemed to put a smile on Marcy’s face. “Thanks Nathan. It’s nice talking to someone else about this. Someone not family. It’s hard to explain, but I feel like you won’t judge me for anything. You haven't yet anyways.”
“I do judge people, but I keep it to myself. Especially if my opinion on the matter dosn’t matter. My job was to give facts and explain situations to people. I still gave my personal opinion on choices, but that was after a patient twisted me into doing it.”
“What’s it like? Watching people die.” Marcilo asked.
The question threw Nathan for a loop, not expecting such a question. He looked out at the sky admiring the clean air. “It’s a horrible experience. It’s like a light in their eyes goes out. Their face and body goes limp, like a puppet whose strings were cut. I have yet to forget a single face of a person who died in my presence.”
“Would you forget about me? If I died last night? If you didn’t convince that Priest to save me?”
Nathan looked at Marcilio and pulled him into a hug. “Marcilio my friend. I could never forget you, alive or dead. We have known each other for a week, yet I feel like you are my best friend. Not even the Gods could make me forget you.”
Marcilio hugged back at Nathan and started to cry. He let out the fear of last night, the worry for his future, and the joy of Nathan’s words.