‘Err….what did you say you were again? Guideline?’
Zenith mutters in his mind, trying to recall the strange name, or perhaps, ID, that the Guideline mentioned.
((Priority Guideline#1z12|9ë3§5 at your service, User.))
‘Right.’
He looks again at his status, or more precisely, at his stats.
((User Parameter Display(Status)))
User ID:[Zenith Zero]
User Priority:[Grade-6]
Race:[Human] Age:[16 years] Sex:[Male]
Primary Class:[Apprentice Spell Caster:Lv-1/10]
HP:17/17(10 + .5*VIT) HP Recovery:0.051(.001 + .001*VIT + .002*N.REC)/second
MP:32/32(0 + .5*CAP + .25*AFF) MP Recovery:0.058(.001 + .001*M.REC + .001*AFF)/second
SP:21/22(10 + .5*END + .25*VIT) SP Recovery:0.036(.001 + .001*END + .001*N.REC)/second
((Stats))
Strength:15(10) Intelligence:102(10) Mana Density:17(0)
Endurance:17(10) Wisdom:109(10) Mana Recovery:21(0)
Vitality:14(10) Willpower:118(10) Mana Capacity:46(0)
Agility:16(10) Dexterity:18(10) Mana Perception:21(0)
Control:19(10) Focus:103(10) Mana Manipulation:49(0)
Charm:16(10) Luck:8(10) Mana Affinity:36(0)
Life:???(10) Natural Recovery:18(10)
‘Well now….I have lots of questions for you….but for starters, where can I get some clothes?’, he asks, glancing down at his completely bare and rather well built body.
Now don’t get him wrong, Zenith is in no way a person who would care in the least about his own appearance. Granted, he wouldn’t mind even his face gets burnt or even corroded during an experiment, but that is in the past, or perhaps, in the future. For his current sixteen year old self, however, his sense of shame had not yet fallen far enough to disregard his lack of clothing, especially since he had no idea when other humans would suddenly arrive, assuming there are humans in this world.
((User is currently in Floor:#52/217 of Koarleina Dungeon of Sofia City. Considering that the Union of Adventurers and Guards of Sofia along with Elites of Visigoth’s Army had barely, barely, made it past the 51st floor not too many months ago, User could assume that no one, in their right minds at least, would attempt to come to this floor.))
‘Huh. So I’m basically stuck here. Also, by the way you mentioned it, isn’t this, like, a really dangerous floor?’
One must give credit where it is due, Zenith is, in the end, a living fossil that had bared through several millennia of life. Despite him being a sixteen year old both in body and personality, his mind is far too advanced and experienced to be confused, despite it being his very first time not only in a completely different world, but also in one that to him seemed exceptionally similar to those Virtual Reality ones that were first introduced on Earth in the early 23rd Century. A feat of technology that even his own mastery over Illusions would find hard to compete against, Zenith has to agree.
Yet here he is, stranded in a place where he could very well travel to his third world, this one meant for those seeking the afterlife, within but a moment’s notice. Zenith wouldn’t sell himself short, mind you, and he himself is aware that, give him but a month or two of solitude, and he would be on his way to try out the newly released Buffet that Le Bernardin boasted of not too long before his mishap. Yet that was precisely the problem. Sure, at his peak, the so-called ‘Union of Sofia’s Adventurers and Guards and Visigoth’s Elite Army’ might be worth not more than a single spell, yet now, he is but a sixteen year old with at best an above average physical body, a pretty well developed mind, and barely passable magical capabilities. Long story short? His situation wasn’t exactly looking up.
And indeed, the Guideline conforms Zenith’s worries.
((The Monsters in this untrodden Floor of Dungeon Koarleina have an average level of 178 to 188. Considering that Koarleina herself isn’t too attracted towards long distance fighting with bows and magic as much as she is to, she says and I quote, ‘Beating The Living Crap Out Of People!’, User may expect monsters with an average physical stat of around 150. Of course, that is assuming monsters have the intellect to distribute their 5 stat points per level up equally among the six physical stats, which, as User may have already guessed, is infinitesimally improbable, if not impossible. User may hence, by calculation, expect monsters with either Strength, Endurance, Vitality, or Natural Recovery in the upper 300s, with relatively low Agility and Control, somewhere in the mid 50s, though that is still much more than what User could possibly handle.))
‘Fantastic. So one wrong step and I’m dead. Just fucking fantastic.’
Zenith sighed, his 118 willpower barely making him from breaking down over the absurdity of the situation, as he looks around, still naked, to try and find a place to sit. Luckily, he quite quickly finds a small, dimly glowing door that seemed completely out of place with respect to the rest of the dark and damp cave. As he walked close to it, the Guideline explained the existence of the Door, and the room which it connects to.
((User seems to be quite lucky. That is the door to the 52nd floor’s Safe Room. As long as User stays within the Safe Room, User will remain, well, safe. The disadvantage of safe rooms is that inside them, User’s experience and skill proficiency rise will dramatically decrease, although there is a pool of liquid which, of bathed in, will instantly refill User’s HP, MP, and SP, though User’s experience and skill proficiency rise will further decrease to only match 10% of the original amount for the next 1 hour.))
Indeed, Zenith was quite lucky, for if he hadn’t found this Safe Room, he would have most undoubtedly ended up dead. But this lucky encounter changed his fate, causing him to survive his first day in this strange new world.
Entering the Safe Room, What reaches his eyes was a small room with pure white walls and a ceiling that shone a dim, white light. On the floor was a layer of soil, probably more than a few feet thick, and at the centre of the square, 20 feet x 20 feet Room was a small, 5 feet x 5 feet pool of a strange liquid that seemed to be similar to water, yet different. The pool itself was six feet deep, so Zenith would find himself submerged all the way to his eyes, with his height of 1.87m.
((User has entered a Safe Room. Experience and Skill Proficiency rise restricted to 50%.))
‘Huh. Don’t feel much different….by the way, Guideline, care to mention the floor number again?’
((….User is currently in Floor:#52/217 of Dungeon Koarleina. Forgive me for asking, but should User not have an exceptional memory bordering eidetic with 102 in Intelligence?))
‘I sure do. And that’s what tells me that the number was 52 out of 216 back when I first heard you. So two questions. One, tell me everything you can about Dungeons. Two, how much time has passed since I came here? Cause I sure as hell am hungry.’
((User has a Priority level of 6. User is eligible to 83.71% of information The System has on Dungeons. Answering question two first, it has been 41 hours, 16 minutes, and 38 seconds since User has come to this world with what User calls, Shift.))
‘No wonder I feel like starving.’
((Friendly remainder to User, drinking the liquid from the pool will satiate User’s hunger and quench User’s thirst completely, and is completely free of any and all side affects.))
‘Good to know, thanks.’, he says, as Zenith walks to the pool of strange, lightly glowing liquid, and scoops it up with both his hands, before drinking it. In an instant, his hunger and thirst, that his willpower had barely been controlling, disappeared, as another message reached his ears.
((User has ingested [Ether Essence]. Experience and skill proficiency rise have been restricted to 10% for the next 1 hour.))
((User is currently in Dungeon Koarleina, Floor:#51/217.))
((Dungeons are formed when a mass accumulation of mana meets a mass accumulation of thoughts and emotions. In most, if not all cases, such incidents would cause the creation of monsters, and in large cases, either cause the emergence of a hoard of monsters, or the birth of a single, apex predator. In certain unique cases, however, whose conditions User does not have the clearance to know, a Dungeon Core, a Sentient core of mana, is formed. This Dungeon Core has the capability of utilising Mana to a degree perceived impossible to most, if not all other living beings, excluding, of course, Dragons, Demi-Gods, and other mana affiliated species. Dungeon Cores are also capable of using their own thoughts, and fuse them with the immense amounts of mana they are inherently capable of producing, hence creating monsters. And since these monsters are made with only the Core’s thoughts as the base, they obey the Core unconditionally. As time passes, unlike for other living beings, Dungeon Cores, which do not have something like a life span, tend to grow stronger, indefinitely at that, and their ‘strength’ is based in the amount of mana and thoughts they can generate, which is directly related to the number of monsters that can create. As the population of monsters increases, the need for space also increases. Dungeon Cores, which inherently have a high affinity to all elements, utilise spatial magic to create extraordinarily large spaces, called commonly Floors, quite regularly. And merely 21 hours, 57 minutes, and 53 seconds ago, Koarleina has created its 217th Floor.))
‘….wow….that’s a….lot of information….and quite interesting, honestly. So monsters are a mangled mess of mana and thoughts and emotions huh?....wait, mana is basically everywhere in the world. Heck, mana basically multiplies like amoeba, splitting from one to over a hundred times its initial size in mere nanoseconds. And as long as life exists, thoughts and emotions will also exist. So….monsters will also exist?’
((The phenomenon through which monsters appear, is termed re spawning, because as long as a monster dies, another would be near instantly be born, only at a distance. And indeed, the monster population of a world with extensive amounts of mana will only ever increase, and never decrease. Not to mention, the Abyss has a near infinite number of dormant monsters, with billions of trillions being born every moment.))
‘The Abyss?’
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
((User does not have the clearance to obtain information on the Abyss, except it’s name.))
Taking a long, deep breath, Zenith calms his mind. Truth be told, he actually hadn’t even seen a monster before, so he had absolutely no idea what an infinite number of them meant. What he did understand, however, is that as a human, as a part of the Sentient Races, monsters that haven’t been tamed by tamers or aren’t the result of other Sentient beings reincarnating into them, are a threat to him, and an infinite number of enemies, some of which would most probably be capable of wiping out entire galaxies in but moments, didn’t really sound reassuring to him.
‘Nothing that can be done now….’, he thinks to himself, shaking out his thoughts. Calming himself, Zenith regains his spirit and asks the Guideline some of his other, more relevant, and more necessary questions.
‘You keep mentioning Priority and clearance. What is that?’
((User has a Priority level of 6. Priority level is, by User’s world’s terminology, VIP Status. User is considered a level:6 VIP, with level:10 being the highest. As a note, there are no Level:10 Priorities at the moment, not have there ever been.))
‘Ok, So, how did I end up with a level 6 priority? And how do I increase it?’
((User has come from another world. User has a Class unheard of. User has many Spells and access to multiple Grimoires. User’s life expectancy is undetermined. User has extensive experience in nearly all aspects of life, having lived for almost seventeen millennia. User has, though some strange means, managed to stay out of reach of The System for as long as User has remained in World Earth. User has managed to reach a state of existence close to entities classified by The System as Gods, despite degrading from that state, without The System’s assistance. All of the above mentioned reasons have caused User to come to possess a level 6 priority.))
((User may increase User’s priority by accomplishing deeds perceived impossible, improbable, or unique, by The System. The System will personally increase User’s priority should User achieve level:100 in User’s Primary Class.))
‘You keep mentioning the system….or rather, what’s the difference between The System and The System?’
Most would ignore such minor differences in terms, calling them nothing more than individual preferences, or perhaps even purposeful differences made to confuse those that listen, but Zenith knew better.
Zenith has few friends, even fewer who could be said to have know him from childhood. One of them, is an egoistic man who calls himself Sage Joseph Of The Path Of Sorcery. A name that fit him to a tee, in terms of arrogance, at least. He was a good sorcerer, a prideful one, but good nonetheless. And Zenith himself would agree, albeit begrudgingly, that he was one of those few people who had a capability, in the field of the human body, to triumph him. And there is a good reason for that. For Joseph, unlike other Sorcerers and Spell Casters, had a mortal family, a family that weren’t capable of casting the Recollection Spell. And as the mortals they were, they died, with Joseph crying tears of helplessness and despair. So he took it upon himself to experiment on humanity’s life force, though failure compelled him to let go of his life.
Although Zenith wouldn’t agree to it, his own experiments of converting mana into life force after injecting it into a mortal body, were in fact in memory of his old friend, one of his only friends. And failure had not discouraged, for the day he had seen his friend, Joseph, as he lied on his bed, weak, his age having caught up with him, his skin wrinkled beyond what one might expect, his arms and legs charred from chemicals, his face sporting a sad, regretful smile, devoid of his usual prideful smirk, Zenith had, for the first time in his life, felt a pain in his heart, the pain of loss.
But that is a story for another time. Fact stands, Joseph was one of Zenith’s few friends, and just like his other friends, Joseph too had a pretty defining quirk. And he, for all that is good and evil, was obsessed with puzzles. In fact, Zenith wouldn’t hesitate to agree that, while his own magical capabilities were far superior to Joseph’s, Joseph’s Mind was in more ways than one simply incomparable to his own, despite his attempts, both successful and vain, in developing it far further than any mortal man had managed to.
And Joseph, like himself, had a small circle of people he could call friends. And for better or for worse, Zenith could only let himself be tortured by Joseph’s continual pestering and trickery, mainly focused on wordplay and, to Zenith’s utter disgust, puns that in no way sound anywhere close to funny.
((The System is an impartial interface that manages the effort and rewards of the multiverse. The System is the cumulative of Balance, and it’s only purpose is to access the effort put in by living beings, including monsters, and reward them with suitable benefits, be it Skills, Stats, levels, experience, or even priority. The System, on the other hand, is the Sentient part of The System, the non-impartial part with actual emotions that could relate to those of the Sentient Races. The System is in charge of managing all Sentient Beings in the multiverse, and is a firm helper of those beings who wish to put in an effort in order to live. Please note, User, that this information is privy to those with priority level:5, and while User is not restricted from spreading it, doing so is ill advised so as to not cause chaos and panic within society.))
‘Wow….the difference is even greater than I thought….’
Zenith wondered to himself, what would really happen if the Sentient Race, or just the humanity he was familiar with, come to know of the existence of such a being, of two such beings, that seem to even evaluate the so-called Gods based simply on the amount of effort they put in? Thinking so, he couldn’t help but laugh. Indeed, that would be the start of a pandemonium, he concluded.
‘Well, I still got questions for you, lots of questions actually.’, he says, as Zenith sits down on the soft soil beside the pool of what the Guideline called Ether Essence. Taking a moment to sort through his thoughts, he asks the Guideline a list of questions, preparing himself for a large increase in his information.
‘What is a class?’
((The Primary Class is what Reality perceives User as. Reality, at the moment, perceives User as an Apprentice Spell Caster. Note, however, that the Class of Spell Caster is something neither The System nor The System have ever come across, hence one more reason for User’s high priority. Also, reaching the maximum level in one’s Class allows one to advance their Class to a higher version. As Apprentice Spell Caster is an unknown Class, Guideline is unable to ascertain the further ranges of the Class.))
‘You keep saying primary, so there is a secondary and tertiary class?’
((User may unlock the Secondary Class upon reaching level:50 of User’s Primary Class. The Tertiary Class is unlocked upon reaching level:100 in the Primary Class and level:50 in the Secondary Class. And the list goes on. Please note, however, that the most number of classes a Sentient being has even managed to unlock is 6.))
‘6….so someone managed to get a total level of 750….or even higher for that matter….’
Imagining the stats of such a being, Zenith couldn’t help but shiver, realising that even in his peak, he wouldn’t have been able to take on such an opponent. Granted, at his peak, Zenith had nearly given up on advancing his body, mind, and even his magic, focusing only on his Spells and his experiments. One must not underestimate his destructive capabilities, however, for if Zenith so wished in his peak, his most destructive spell, one that his friends considered a mistake, if furled with every last drop of his mana, is capable of wiping out a planet from the stellar map, albeit only small ones. While he cannot wipe out the entirety of Earth, Mercury and Venus, not so lucky. Why, the disappearance of Pluto was the result of an insane Sorcerer trying to test his limits, and unfortunately, this insane Sorcerer is someone Zenith is more than just familiar with, a fact that had more often than not embarrassed him, especially when he jumps around not unlike an idiot in public whenever an idea of a spell comes to mind.
‘Ok….so, what are HP, MP, and SP? Not the literal definitions.’
The Guideline answers Zenith’s question, though the answer itself was something he had guessed.
((HP is the health points of User, and if it reaches 0, User can be considered to have perished. Although with a high enough Luck stat, User will be chosen to be reincarnated, the required Luck is quite high, not to mention, User’s Luck will also be decreased. While HP might not seem like it, it is also the representation of User’s life force. Any loss of body parts will result in a permanent loss of HP, at least until said limbs are restored. Also, loss of User’s brain, heart, etc… will result in HP to plummet to 0.))
‘Fair enough.’
((MP is the numerical representation of the quantity of User’s mana. I believe not much else is needed to be said, considering User’s familiarity with mana. Please note, however, that while MP can decrease to the negatives, the resulting pain caused will be overwhelming, regardless of how high User’s Willpower may be. MP reaching 0 will cause User to, as User may be aware, feel a slight ache overall, along with a natural tendency of lethargy. High Willpower will negate this effect, however.))
‘Negative MP….that’s new.’
((SP is User’s stamina. SP refers to the number of minutes that User can utilise User’s physical Stats to maximum capability. Do note, however, that SP does not recover until User is considered resting, so the recovery of SP, which is currently at 2.16 per minute, does not imply that User may work endlessly. Also, SP reaching 0 will cause User to faint. SP cannot go into the negatives, and no amount of Willpower will prevent this loss of consciousness.))
‘Well….that’s too bad, but anyway, next question….let’s see….most of the Stats are self explanatory….what is dexterity? How is it different from agility? And Luck? And Mana Affinity? And Life?’
((Dexterity is the coordination of User’s mind with User’s body, User’s reaction speed, and User’s senses. Agility is simply all speed related attributes of User, except the reaction speed. Luck is User’s compatibility with the Multiverse. Fate and Destiny are among the few things that even The System is not capable of tampering with, the others being Time, Reality, Void, and Creation. Mana Affinity is User’s general affinity to the elements. Some elements need high affinity to utilise. Life is User’s life expectancy. However, due to the nature of the skill Recollection, User’s lifespan is undetermined.))
Slowly, Zenith begins to get a better grasp of the System and his own capabilities. Looking at his Life stat, however, he couldn’t help but want to laugh. Was this not the purpose of his experiments? And quite clearly, based on the fact that those linked to the System are capable of freely distributing the stat points the System gives them, the System has managed to do what Zenith had been trying to accomplish, what his friend Joseph had died after failing to accomplish, increasing mortal humans’ lifespan.
Shaking irrelevant thoughts out of his mind, Zenith focuses back to questions that he needs to know the answers to.
‘Last question, what are Grimoires, and why do I have so many? And why are Recollection and Shift considered skills when the rest of the Spells I know aren’t displayed?’
((A Grimoire represents User’s mastery over a certain element. There are nine Elemental Grimoires, consisting of Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Ice, Metal, Poison, Nature, and Lightening, all of which User has a level:8 mastery in. There are seven Arcane Grimoires, Light, Darkness, Mind, Body, Illusion, Blessing, and Curse, though User does not possess all of them. Then there are the five Ancient Grimoires of Space, Time, Holy, Necromancy, and Soul. Recollection is a spell from the Ancient Grimoire of Time, while Shift is a spell from the Ancient Grimoire of Space. User does not have complete mastery over these spells, and can only utilise them for their specified purposes, hence these spells are considered skills that The System will assist User in using. Also, User does not have mastery over any other spells of the Ancient Grimoires of Space and Time, hence causing User to be unable to construct other spells of said elements.))
‘Huh….wait, then why are my levels in the skill so high?’
((User’s high level in the skills represent the knowledge of User on the Spells, not User’s mastery over them. If calculated, User only has three levels in manipulation of the spell itself, and five levels in theoretical and experimental knowledge pertaining to the spell. Do note, however, that most Sorcerers and Mages in the multiverse only have skills and not spells.))
‘Huh….so basically, I’m not as good as I though I was….good to know.’
Zenith had, at that time, not yet understood the implication of the Guideline’s last sentence. Had he understood it, however, he would have perhaps realised sooner the state of the multiverse and that of what he perceives as the society of magic. For indeed, there is a reason why Zenith’s Primary Class is Spell Caster and not Magician or Mage or Sorcerer of Wizard. The reason being, what Zenith uses is not simply magic, but spells that command this magic, spells which are the laws that his mana obey.
Zenith, however, will take a long, long while to realise this.