One day Abri Cath woke up with a strange feeling. Like something deep within her had been woken up, or something had been added. It was a peculiar sensation.
Abri decided to ignore it. Anri continued on with her day, making lunch, reading, and heading off to school. As Abri was sitting in class, having finished her test early, she decided to meditate.
She looked deep within herself and felt something weird. The sensation from this morning, she found it. As she tried to understand it, it seemed to wiggle. And wiggle. And wiggle until… it burst forth. Abri's eyes burst open in shock, and she flinched. The momentary disturbance got a couple of eyes on her, but they quickly looked away upon noticing nothing was really happening. Abri however was noticing something.
A strange, translucent panel or box was in front of her eyes, with tab-like rectangles on the top saying “Status” and “Skills”. It seemed like nobody else could see it besides her.
Status:
Body: 15
Mind: 20
Skill: 15
Luck: 20
Level: 1
Exp: 0/100
Stat points: None
“A transparent window… like a LitRPG?” Abri thought, trying to understand what was in front of her.
“Body… probably physical ability. Mind, mental. Skill… hrmm. I’ll learn later. Luck… how often chance goes my way? Let’s check out skills.”
As she intended to open skills, the tab rapidly swapped over to a setup menu, saying:
Pick setting:
Skill list
Skill tree
Custom
“Custom,” Abri thought, seeing the screen swap to being almost entirely blank, with a collapsible menu in the corner. Opening the menu, it read:
Requirements:
Skill Point Counter
Visual/Textual representation of unlocked skills
Visual/Textual representation of locked skills
Optional:
Prerequisite skills display
Skill experience Overview
Skill level Overview
Stat bonus Overview
Abilities Overview
Abri mentally dragged the display elements and set up a couple of screens. A visual skill tree with lines representing prerequisite skills, a textual list of all current skills with their level and experience beside the name, and an overview menu with current abilities, and stat bonuses. Upon feeling satisfied with her work, the menu was suddenly filled with information. With a rare tinge of excitement, Abri swapped to the text list to find… nothing. Abri finally escaped her trance and began to ask questions.
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“Why don’t I have any skills? Why isn’t there a help menu? What do stats mean? What are normal stats?”
Unfortunately, the bell rang just then, and it was time for Abri to get back to school, no more free time for thinking.
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When Abri arrived home, she summoned the Menu and noticed two new tabs, labelled help and settings.
Opening help, she saw several questions with answers underneath. Deciding to read through those later, she went to the settings menu.
All that was on it was the words, “Request Change”. Irritated, Abri asked for a basic settings menu, with stuff like notification and visibility settings.
In moments, the request was granted, and Abri browsed the new options.
Heading back to help, she asked why the Menu was there, what it referred to itself as, if supernatural skills exist, how to improve stats, and if quests exist.
The answers she got were as follows: “This is referred to as the System. The System is a manifested Talent born from the following supernatural Talents: Divine Growth, Soul Sight, and Interface Manipulation. Only due to the high desire for power, Divine Growths promotion of the other Talents, and the low cost of awakening the other Talent, did the Talent “System” appear. This leads to a very high chance of there being no other living beings with awakened Talents. Supernatural Skills, such as psychic, magic, or super powers exist. Stats are improved by training, increasing “Knowledge” skills levels, increasing levels, or using “Stat Points”. Quests currently do not exist, but because the Talent “System” exists, they can be created.”
“In summary, I’m the only person with superpowers, with the power of growth?”
“Partly correct, regarding being the only person with “Super Powers”. Divine Growth means the ability to learn anything faster with a deeper understanding than normal. Soul Sight allows for understanding and visual seeing of souls; this allows for the seeing of talent, seeing of spirits, seeing of ghosts, and understanding of current ability. Interface manipulation allows for the creation, alteration, and deletion of any interface within range. The System is a combination of all three but is separate. The System allows for an understanding of personal ability through the menus and allows for improved personal growth. The System is a separate Talent from the other three due to alternative abilities, such as Quests. It was not an ability you were born with, instead, it’s an ability made from “learning” the necessary elements to craft the ability. That is the reason behind the incompleteness, with half-finished UI elements and missing skills. As this ability stabilises and gets time to fill out all missing details, everything will begin to function according to your desires.”
“You are way too long, shorten what you’re saying.”
“You’re the only human with superpowers, but your powers are much greater than unrestricted growth. The System will soon function properly.”
“Alright, much better. Now, what do you mean ‘function according to my desires’?”
“Your core wish, also known as the reason for being, is to improve yourself. In order to do so, your Divine Growth created the System to help. It should be mentioned, your Talents have no sentience, it is simply easiest to understand with personification.”
“So, I made the System?”
“Correct, although it was unconscious.”
“Anything else you think you should mention?”
“Quests will generate rewards based on world mana. Due to the low level of world mana, being approximately zero, no rewards can currently be made. This can be resolved permanently by increasing the world mana. For the rewards in the short term, you can choose between “the real reward was the journey,” or using your own mana to fund the rewards.”
“First, add a mp bar to the status menu, Second, how much mana do I need to use for a reward?”
“As your current mana level is 100, you would be capable of creating 1 stat point for Body, Mind, or Skill. If you plan to do this, it is recommended that you add your point to Mind for the increased mana.”
“How do I increase the world's mana?”
“Currently, the lack of mana is because nothing in the world produces and releases mana. To solve this, you could gather people to become mana users, as this would make their spells increase World Mana, and ‘Overfilling’, or their recovery of mana over their cap would also leak out mana.”
“Can’t I just get plants to do this?”
“It is possible, but that would possibly result in the birth of what is colloquially known as ‘Monsters’. While they would provide an excellent experience, they would also lead to widespread harm. This is resolvable, however, with a mass revival array. This locks the deceased into soul stasis, then revives them with the world’s mana when enough is available.”
“How much mana do I need to make this array?”
“Around 1 million. To pay this, you can store your current mana into items until you gather 1 million mana. You can make this your first quest, and train your Mind stat in the process.”
“Great idea, do that.”
“The quest has begun. A recommendation for the storage item is a large block of pure metal, as without magic ingredients or metals, pure metal has the best conductivity for mana.”
“Those magic ingredients, they pop up how?”
“Alongside monsters and magic beings, plants could evolve into magic ingredients. This evolution would happen when exposed to sufficient mana. In the case of you using the plants as mana producers, it would be necessary to evolve one of them, and as they’re close to others, it would evolve the others. This could lead to monsters forming.”
“So, does mana usage require an evolution?”
“Yes, although it should be noted, in species like humans, this evolution is minor, changing no physical or psychological aspects. Later, personal refinement can occur, but that is intentional. Basic intelligence, like animals, can gain traits as they desire, such as haste or fight capacity. Non-intelligent life, such as plants, would either gain intelligence (Monster/Magic beasts) or gain other effects (Magic ingredients).”
“Alright. Goodbye.”
“…Goodbye.”
Abri jumped up, and with a spring in her step hurried downtown to buy her supplies.