Excerpt from Daniel Weinberg’s How to Use the System (for Dummies):
“The relationship between Base stats and System stats is a complex one, and one that is often overlooked. Base stats only have a range of 1 to 20, so many tend to neglect them, focusing their efforts instead on the much larger System stat numbers. However, in reality, despite their numeric inferiority, Base stats are just as important, if not more so than System stats.
It has been established on multiple occasions that Base stats have a very strong correlation to actual ability, and a difference of one or two in a base stat can easily make up for a hundred or more System stat points. Take, for example, the infamous strength competition between the American Bull, Isaac Smith and Britain’s Royal Knight Samantha Norman. While the Royal Knight had a System strength stat of over 2000, her base Strength was only 14, and so she lost to Isaac’s System Strength of 1700 and Base Strength of 18.
Unlike System stats, there are no skills that can increase Base stats, and there are no classes that grant Base stat points. However, they can still be increased in other ways. Strength is the easiest to improve, simply by doing mundane strength training. Dexterity and Agility can be similarly improved by doing physical activities. Similarly, Vitality can be increased by eating healthily and staying active, and is decreased by illness and injury. Base Charisma is the most volatile, as it can be affected by makeup or illusion, and other superficial physical attributes.
Perception, Intelligence and Willpower are notoriously difficult to improve, but mental exercises have been shown to help with these as well.
Here are some exercises that have been found to be highly effective in increasing each stat:
…”
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When I “woke up” I was in a void. I could not sense anything. There was nothing in front of my eyes, no sound entering my ears, no breath filling my lungs; I could not feel my body, and I could not even sense the passage of time.
After an eternity or an instant, the endless void was interrupted by a blazing red screen. It was so bright that it felt like it was burning holes in my retina, but I could not avert my eyes, or even blink.
You died
(For convenience sake, I will be including all screens in this book)
For a while-- I’m not sure how long)-- I just sat there, staring at the screen contemplating my life and death. I didn’t have that many regrets, but I definitely wasn’t ready to go just yet. I hadn’t finished disappointing Valerie yet, and I hadn’t gotten to visit Dad that summer. I resolved that if this so called ‘Pride’ was telling the truth and that I would be revived, the next time I saw her, the first thing I would do would be to slap her. Then after that, I’d probably stab her. Not that it would work, but I would at least try.
My vengeful musing was soon interrupted when the screen changed to an equally harsh blue.
A divinity has interfered to alter your fate. You have been granted a second chance at life!
Please choose a new race:
[Dullahan]
[Ghoul (Human)]
[Lich]
[Vampire]
If I had been able to speak at the time, I would have cursed Pride again. Not only had she forced me into a death game, she had literally killed me, and was bringing me back as a monster. It didn’t turn out as terrible as I feared, but at the time, I was about as far from happy as I could be.
I almost immediately vetoed both Ghoul and Lich. I wasn’t interested in being an emaciated cannibal, and I was even less interested in being a disembodied soul puppeting my own rotting corpse around. That left me with Dullahan and Vampire, which I still wasn’t too happy about. Ultimately, I settled on Vampire, because, as interesting as it would be to have a severed head, it sounded like more of a hassle than anything else, and vampires in folklore usually had a multitude of useful abilities.
Without hands, I couldn’t click the option, but as soon as I focused my attention on it, the screen changed once again.
Race: Vampire
The Vampires are the rulers of the night. Once the sun has set, they reign supreme, with drastically increased stats, but in daylight, they are weaker than infants. They have excellent senses, regenerative powers, hemokinesis, and the ability to mentally enslave those weaker than them. Unable to eat ordinary food, Vampires must consume blood to survive.
Racial skills:
[Undead]
[Vampiric Superiority]
[Vampiric Weakness (curse)]
[Enhanced Senses]
[Rapid Regeneration]
[Hemokinesis]
[Enthrall]
[Darkvision]
Select [Vampire] as your new race?
[Yes]
[No]
[Back to options]
Now knowing that I could learn more about my options before selecting, I went back and checked the details of the other two races as well.
Race: Dullahan
The Dullahan are dead who have been revived by a demonic being. Their heads are severed, and must be held tightly, for if the head and body are separated by too great a distance, the Dullahan will perish.
Racial skills:
[Undead]
[Phantom Steed]
Select [Dullahan] as your new race?
[Yes]
[No]
[Back to options]
Race: Ghoul (Human)
Ghouls are abominations created when creatures that have committed many acts of cannibalism pass away. Any living creature can become a ghoul upon death, as long as they have eaten enough of their own kind. Ghouls have drastically increased physical abilities, but their minds are irreparably damaged, and they are forever barred from using magic.
Racial skills:
[Undead]
[Ghoulish Physique]
[Cannibal (curse)]
[Manastarved (curse)]
Select [Ghoul (Human)] as your new race?
[Yes]
[No]
[Back to options]
Race: Lich
Liches are undead created by powerful necromancers, most often using their own bodies and souls. They have a phylactery in which their soul can be stored in the case that their body is endangered or destroyed. Liches have a natural inclination toward magic, but since they lack a body that is alive in any capacity, they are incapable of using aura
Racial skills:
[Undead]
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[Manablessed]
[Aurastarved (curse)]
Select [Lich] as your new race?
[Yes]
[No]
[Back to options]
I’m sure those of you reading this will find these useful, as very few of these races have made their appearance on Earth so far, and information on them is rare.
Reading the description windows for each race cemented my choice on race. Ghoul was even worse than I imagined it would be, Dullahan had almost nothing going for it, and I really didn’t want to be a disembodied soul. Vampires struggled in daylight, but they had so many boons at night that I was willing to work around the time limit.
I will point out that while making this decision, I had completely forgotten about [Pride] (the skill I had gotten from the bitchy goddess), which would have made Ghoul a much more viable choice. I still would not have chosen it, but I would have been less averse.
After confirming my selection, the screen vanished, and for a few moments, I was alone in the void again, until a new screen appeared.
Welcome to Astraeus
The System has detected that you are a new user. Just a few last things before we finish setting up your interface. Please choose one of the following options
Automatic Calibration (recommended)
Fresh Start
The System will take your life and experiences into account and give you the appropriate skills, stats, class and levels. Having lived so long without the System, this option will surely help you adjust to your new way of life and gain immediate strength.
Start from Level 1 with only your racial skills
I didn’t know it at the time, but as I’m sure many readers have noticed, these are the same two options that were given to everyone on Earth shortly after I was kidnapped. Most people on Earth rightly opted for Fresh Start, but for me it was a somewhat tougher decision. I was being thrust into another world, after all.
If it were a world similar to Earth, my skills and experience would be very useful. As mentioned above, I didn’t have that many regrets about my life. I had used my time well, and built up my skills and knowledge to a level that I was absolutely confident in them. If those translated over to the new world (with added bonuses due to the System), my starting point would be much further ahead than otherwise.
On the other hand, regardless of whether the new world was societally or technologically on par with Earth or not, it was a world in which Vampires and Liches and magic and aura existed, and I had no experience with that. Even if I started out a bit further, would it really make a difference against the my opponents, who grew up in the other world and had their whole lives to master the supernatural?
Ultimately I decided to go with the Fresh Start, but I wasn’t particularly happy with it. I didn’t like the idea of being completely helpless upon arrival, but in the long run, being able to build myself up from the beginning would be better than starting with what would probably be a musician class and trying to make myself more combat-focused from there.
As soon as I made my choice, the blue screen winked out of existence, giving my eyes a break from the near-blinding lights. I waited around for something to happen for a few seconds before a cool breeze startled me and I realized I could feel my body again and that my eyes were actually closed. When I opened them, I was staring up at a canopy of tree branches that looked like cracks in the starry sky above.
The trees were some type of spruce, and small icicles hung from some of the branches. The ground around me was covered in a thin layer of snow from which broken branches and fallen spruce cones jutted out with irregularity.
I sat up slowly and started the inspection of my body’s condition. Surprisingly, I actually felt quite alright for someone who had just died and been brought back to life. My body, and even my clothes (A short, sleeveless black dress and matching flats) were completely unharmed, which never really made complete sense to me. Even if my body healed, if the journey had been so violent it killed me, why were my clothes fine? Not that I was complaining. The only thing worse than being stranded in another world would be being stranded in another world in the nude.
In some ways, I felt worse than before. My movements felt a little sluggish, but nothing debilitating, and I later learned that the sluggish feeling was caused by being reduced to level 1. Also, there was no sign of the tan that I had built up through years of daily runs and regular outdoor exercise. My skin had become so pale it was almost translucent. It wasn’t that important to my situation, but it did add to my annoyance.
In other ways, however, I felt better. My eyes were sharper, my ears more sensitive, and even my nose was regularly feeding me new information that I would not have noticed before, like the presence of a somewhat fresh pile of dung twenty feet to my right. Additionally, although I was wearing a summer dress in the middle of the night in a snowy forest, the cold wasn’t bothering me at all.
I ran my tongue over my teeth, feeling for what I thought would be a new pair of hollow fangs, but, to my surprise, they still felt almost normal. The canines were a little sharper than I remembered, but they did not protrude any more than they had. I was confused for a moment, until all of a sudden, there was a sensation in the roof of my mouth– and forgive the vulgar expression, because there is no better way to describe it– that felt like my gums were passing a turd, and my upper canines lengthened by half an inch. A few seconds later, after flexing a few muscles in my mouth I’m certain I didn’t have before, I was able to retract them once again.
I couldn’t hear or see anything moving in my immediate vicinity, though the occasional swaying of branches in the wind made my head snap to the side like someone had tried to break my neck.
Once it was clear that I was not in any immediate danger, I took a few minutes to inspect my surroundings more thoroughly. The sky looked very similar to Earth’s, but I didn’t recognize any of the constellations, and the moon was much larger and greener than ours, and had far fewer craters. The trees looked like ordinary spruce, and the nests hidden in the branches and the squirrel tracks in the snow looked like they were made by ordinary birds and squirrels. I didn’t bother to get a closer look at the dung, but from afar, nothing seemed amiss with it either.
I started walking through the forest, keeping my eyes and ears peeled for any signs of life while considering my next move. Ordinary wilderness survival sense was to first find shelter, then water, then food. However, the cold didn’t seem to be an issue, and as a vampire, I didn’t think I needed to drink water anymore, so my main concern (aside from safety) was food.
Recalling that I was now a vampire made me stop in my tracks as I realized that I hadn’t inspected the System or any of my new skills.
“S-System?” I said tentatively.
Nothing happened.
“Menu?”
“...Status?”
At that, the annoyingly bright screen finally appeared, making me step back in surprise.
Name Lucille Montague Age 22 Sex F Race Vampire Class - Level 1 Max HP 1500 Max MP 2030 Max AP 1850 Skills Passive [Darkvision] lvl MAX [Enhanced Senses] lvl MAX [Pride] lvl MAX [Vampiric Superiority] lvl MAX [Vampiric Weakness (curse)] lvl MAX [Hemokinesis] lvl 1 [Rapid Regeneration] lvl 1 Active [Enthrall] lvl 1 Stats Available Free Points 0 Base System Base System Bonus System Total Agility 17 10 10 20 Dexterity 15 10 10 20 Strength 10 10 10 20 Vitality 13 10 10 20 Charisma 17 10 10 20 Intelligence 19 10 10 20 Perception 32 10 20 30 Willpower 20 10 10 20
You readers are probably wondering whether I will continue sharing my status windows like this as my story progresses. It’s a valid question, as most powerful people are quite secretive about their skills and stats, but I honestly don’t care. This is a tell-all, there’s no point in hiding anything. And it’s not like you’ll gain any advantages over me by knowing what skills I have. So yes, I will continue sharing them.
That tangent aside, most of you are also probably wondering how my Base Perception is so high. That is because as a vampire, I get [Enhanced Senses], which doubles my base Perception, and multiplies my System Perception by 1.5. The rest of the bonus System stats come from [Vampiric Superiority] which doubles all of my stats.
Here is a brief overview of my remaining skills:
[Vampiric Weakness (curse)] is supposed to cancel all stat bonuses and reduce all my stats (Base and System) to 1 when in direct sunlight. [Pride] nullifies this completely.
[Darkvision] is self-explanatory.
So is [Rapid Regeneration]
[Hemokinesis], just like all the other -kinesis skills, is just a passive that lets me manipulate blood.
[Enthrall] lets me mentally dominate anyone whose blood I consume. Their ability to resist my control is dependent on the discrepancy between our effective Willpower.
Once I had finished checking out my skills, I decided to focus my efforts on finding food. The description on [Vampire] confirmed that I would not be able to consume anything but blood, but it never specified that it needed to be human blood, so I decided to make it a goal to find some kind of animal to test whether any blood would work, or if any kind would do.
I wandered for a couple hours searching for small critters I would be able to kill, and skirting around areas where I heard larger creatures moving about, and my search ended up fruitless. As a level 1, everything in the forest was faster than me, and the only thing I had gotten for my efforts were a half dozen or so holes in my dress. By that time, I had more pressing concerns than food.
I was freezing. Literally. My body no longer produced heat, so my blood was literally freezing in my veins, making my already sluggish movements even slower and clumsier. I needed to build a fire, so I set out to find suitable branches, moving quickly so that I could get it set up before I couldn’t move anymore.
As I looked for wood, out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glint of light too red to be from a star. I squinted at the source between the trees for a few seconds, until the flickering, inconsistent brightness confirmed in my mind that it was a fire. I contemplated ignoring it, since I was in a new world, and whoever made the fire could be dangerous, but in the end, my curiosity won out and I started to carefully approach.
Before I got close enough to see them, I started to hear voices. They were high and nasally, and they were too far to tell the language, but the fact that they spoke at all was a good sign. I quickened my pace to reach them sooner, but as I drew near and started being able to see them, I slowed again.
The ones around the fire were humanoid, but most definitely not human, and the language they spoke was just a bunch of grunts and shouts combined with directional pointing that didn’t seem much like a language at all. They wore nothing but crude loincloths over their pale green skin, and the only possessions they had were thick sticks that they waved around like clubs.
The goblins didn’t notice me, so I turned around. Clearly, these were not civilized creatures, and involving myself with them was more likely to end up with me dead than us as friends. I snuck back, much more quietly than I had approached, and when I believed I had gotten completely out of earshot, I increased my pace to get away faster. I needed to make a fire, but I didn’t want to do it anywhere near the little green people.
I found my way back to the small clearing where I had been gathering sticks, and started collecting some of the better ones in preparation for my new campsite, but before I finished gathering them, a loud noise from behind scared me so much I almost fell over. The source of the noise was another goblin, identical to the small group I had seen before and blowing on a ram’s horn that made a horrible, dissonant sound that rang throughout the woods.
After he was finished, we stared at each other for a few seconds in silence. Then, he charged me, brandishing a stick, and I turned and ran.