“Wake up, heroes.” Announced a haughty, imperious voice.
“Wha?” Darryl mumbled, opening his eyes blearily. His blurry eyes locked into the impassive gaze of a man that exuded an aura of calm arrogance. He had a neatly trimmed beard that framed a gaunt, patrician face, and short-cropped hair. As Darryl broke eye contact, he saw the man was dressed in a flowing purple robe, woven with tastefully gaudy strands of gold.
The stranger looked at something to Darryl’s left, and Darryl followed his gaze. Next to Darryl was his brother Meryl, still unconscious. Meryl had short brown hair, ice blue eyes that were currently hidden by his eyelids, and a clean-shaven face. Darryl considered for a moment that he needed to do more to differentiate himself, since the only real difference between the two was that Darryl had green eyes, and a poorly maintained beard.
“Excuse me, where are we?” Darryl asked, refocusing on the matter at hand.
“Silence. Everything will be explained shortly.” The man commanded.
“But…” Darryl began before being rendered mute by a glare.
Darryl turned to shake Meryl awake, but as Meryl groaned in outrage, Darryl heard a door opening behind him. He swiveled to see what was happening. A woman in a white robe with a soft expression on her face entered; flanked by two men in a kind of medium armor formed from a mix of strategically located metal plates, and patches of thick leather.
“Perform the examination.” The haughty man commanded.
“Yes, my king.” The woman replied, bowing deeply before striding over to Darryl and his brother.
“Excuse me, can you tell me what’s going on?” Darryl asked her.
“The king, in his infinite wisdom, has summoned you here to defeat the lord of night.” The woman replied, poking and prodding at various parts of his body.
“What does that mean? Who is the lord of night?” Darryl asked pleadingly.
The woman frowned, and held a hand over Darryl’s forehead. To his surprise, it emitted a soft glow, and a translucent window like a pane of glass covered in words and numbers formed in front of his vision.
______________________________
Name: Darryl Austin
Class: N/A
XP: 0
+Stats
+Skills
+Titles
+Store
______________________________
The woman’s eyes went wide. “He is unloved.”
The king growled. “Guards! Remove this filth!”
Darryl blinked in fear. “Wait, what did I do?”
The kind look faded from the woman’s eyes, replaced by contempt. “You betrayed our god, and thus he has not seen fit to grant you a class. While I don’t know your crime, you will be punished for it.”
“Wait no, I don’t understand. Meryl!” Darryl screamed, as the two armored soldiers grabbed him by the arms, and began hauling him away.
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“Darryl!” Meryl cried as Darryl’s screams woke him from his slumber. He shot up, only to be pushed back down by the robed woman’s hand. He struggled against her, but her grip was like iron, and his blows felt like he had punched a stone. Groaning as he cradled his bruised hand, Meryl ceased struggling, and that was the last Darryl saw of him.
The guards carried him in silence, refusing to answer any of his questions, or pleas. Finally, after what felt like hours of forced marching, he was tossed into a foul-smelling cell with metal bars. He gagged at the overpowering reek of mildew, but acclimated to it over the course of several minutes. Suddenly, a bright light ignited in front of his vision.
______________________________
You have earned the title: “Condemned”
The relevant store entries have become available for purchase.
______________________________
Frowning, Darryl waved his hand at the glassy panel. It passed through ineffectually. It took him several minutes to discover that it responded to verbal commands. “Exit.” finally closed the panel, sinking him into the relative darkness of the flickering torchlight placed on the wall next to his cell. Glancing around at the completely barren stone of his new accommodations, Darryl hunted for the correct phrase to open his status window. “Open status” proved to be the magic words. He then opened all of the tabs it offered, once he confirmed that he could click on the entries with his finger.
______________________________
Name: Darryl Austin
Class: N/A
XP: 0
-Stats
HP: 10/10
MP: 10/10
Strength: 1
Dexterity: 1
Constitution: 1
Magic: 1
Soul: 1
-Skills
-Titles
Condemned
Otherworlder
-Store
+Stats
+Skills
+Knowledge
+UI Functions
______________________________
The store pages proved to have far too many entries, so he left them minimized as he studied the individual pages. Once he had thoroughly investigated, he internally summarized his findings. Rather than levels, this world worked on a point buy system. Increasing a stat, including HP and MP, cost one hundred XP; which he assumed would get more expensive as his stats grew. The numbers seemed to only be a measure of how much he had enhanced them, rather than saying anything about his inherent abilities. Meanwhile, skills seemed to only be unlocked in the store by having the appropriate titles. He still needed to purchase them, but level one skills universally cost ten XP. Knowledge essentially provided information like “Basic Magic Theory” but he was unsure how that would manifest. The prices varied wildly, but low-level knowledge seemed to cost ten to twenty XP. Finally, UI functions would essentially add apps to his interface. In particular “Earth Internet Browser” was screaming his name, though it would cost a whopping one hundred XP.
Unfortunately, that left him with the arduous task of figuring out what to do with his near-infinite time. Before he could dwell too much on this, a guard passed by, and slid a plate of food through his cell bars. Vertically. The guard snorted as the chunky oatmeal splattered against the floor, then walked off. Darryl stared at the mess, glanced at the mildewy floor, then resolved himself to not eating it. Hours passed, or at least seemed to pass as he perused his store page; desperate to stave off boredom, and growing hunger. Finally the silence was broken by a squeak. As Darryl looked up, he saw a rat munching on his oatmeal. He was about to write it off as unimportant, but froze when a thought occurred to him. His store page required XP. XP in games usually came from killing things. The rat was something killable.
Edging forward as quietly as possible, Darryl grabbed the plate where it had rolled close to him after being dropped by the guard. With all the frisbee football skills he could muster, he tossed the plate at the rat, and miraculously hit it center mass. It squeaked in pain, momentarily stunned, and Darryl used the opportunity to grab it and squeeze. After a final crunch, followed by a low squeak, a window appeared in his vision.
______________________________
Defeated Entity: Small Rat (unnamed)
XP: +10
Titles Gained: Novice Hunter
______________________________
Excited, Darryl tossed the crushed rat corpse into the corner of the room, and retrieved the plate that had skidded onto the floor of the hallway; just within reach of his cell. Examining his store, Darryl knew there was only one choice. It was a wild card, but he didn’t see anything else that might offer him an avenue toward escape. For ten XP, Darryl bought “Basic Magic Theory” from the knowledge section. Instead of the flood of knowledge he had expected, it simply opened a new “Knowledge” entry on his stat page. When he clicked on his acquisition, his interface turned into the fantasy equivalent of an ebook; both exciting and disappointing him. With a contented sigh and a grumbling stomach, Darryl settled in to begin studying the most important textbook of his life.