It had been two weeks since I arrived at Orrientera Imperium. But I hadn't been anywhere apart from this house. I couldn't move much. My body was too weak for a walk. As I mentioned before, it was due to my body's unusual reaction toward this World's natural mana. Once I got used to it, I would move again like usual.
I spent most of my time lying down and sitting to enjoy the backyard view. When I did sit there, it was Aria who I watched the most. The huge vacant field at the back of the wooden house was perfect for sword training. Today, like any other day, Aria was honing her skills.
Despite her small and innocent stature, Aria was an amazing swordsman. Girls her age were obsessed with keeping themselves under shades to protect their fragile and tight skin. Aria was different. She paid no attention to her appearance. She cut her hair short, wore only comfortable-for-jumping-around clothes, and let her skin burn under the sun.
There was so much I wanted to know about this place. Just a few days ago, Aria mentioned that she was going to register herself officially as a night feeder. When I asked further, what she said to me was no less than a video game story. I was stunned, couldn't even move my eyelid.
Even now, as I observed Aria's thrusts, I was left speechless. With both hands on what looked like a German-style great sword, she slashed the air, her whole hands gleaming with tender yellow light. The trees, looming 20 meters from her, forced down backward, almost touching the 45-degree angle before they stood straight again. I didn't have to mention how destructive that was. The twigs and leaves were blown far away, leaving only the strong. Seeing that, I was ashamed to feel great about my fight with Pauli the other day. It must be only 5% of his power. What I assumed to be a gust of wind was something she had explained before, the ‘Strength Slashed’. If it was only the excess of the attack, I didn't want to imagine when it hit a body straight on the flesh.
"Wow!" I muttered in awe, keeping my voice low not to bothered Aria's focus.
As my eyes widen, I noticed Aria's expression was rather depressed. She jotted her broad sword to the ground. Despite the thick size, it slid easily into the dry land, almost half of it. Just how strong was this child? I used to bench press 300 pounds in my daily routine training. Heck, I wasn't even sure I could wield that lavish sword.
"Ah." She growled while ruffling her light brown hair in frustration.
"That was impressive." I stood up.
"That? It was nothing. I couldn't even pass the registration with that." She walked towards me to retreat from the heat.
"Is it that bad?"
"Very bad." She reached for her cup and drank its content dry. Then, as if a light bulb was on in her head, her eyes sparked. "Wait here! You should see father's sword skill."
Every time she talked about Pauli, she got excited. Before I could react, she run off inside, leaving me alone.
Some meters from where I stood, I could still see the buttery color smoke emitting from the sword. Although my back was killing me, I couldn't hold my curiosity. For the first time, I landed my feet on this new land, planning to get closer to the sword. At that exact second, I felt my skin tingled.
'There you are.' A slightly robotic female voice echoed in my ears.
Huh? Sounded like the Google Assistant but definitely a different color of voice.
'I had been trying to reach you.'
"What?" I shone my view to all directions, even up and down, trying to find the source of the voice but I found none.
'Please enter your name.'
"Who are you!?"
'Please enter your name.' The voice said again with the same tone, unbothered by my anxious scream.
"Is this magic? Don't play around."
'My lady, please enter your name.'
"My lady my ass. Show yourself!"
'Enter your name, please.'
Name? What do you need my name for?
"Sheena."
'Welcome to the Great Ordo, Lady Sheena. I am your assistant.'
I recalled Great Ordo was the name of this planet.
"What the heck is this?"
Soon, what looked like a loading symbol appeared in my view literally at the bottom of it, just like the loading status on video games screen.
A notification bar popped up.
‘Please wait. Your profile is generating.’
Eh? Profile? What is this thing? Is this a part of this world? Numerous questions crossed my head. I didn't expect any answer. But the voice noticed my confusion.
‘This is a survival system, DSF. Every power holder is obligated to join the system. Lady Sheena is a power holder. Thus, appropriate measure is to be taken.’
‘Me? A power holder?’ Realizing the voice could only be heard by me, I started to spoke to her with my thought.
Aria mentioned this a couple of days ago. Not every being born into this world possessed magic or extraordinary strength. Many of them were simply fragile beings. Beings with power were labelled as Holders. Aria and Pauli were some of them. I was dumbfounded and laughed as I couldn't comprehend what she meant by then.
Apparently, holders fall into different categories. They were priests, warriors, mages, and hybrids. These categories had smaller categories. For example, Aria and Pauli were both warriors. Yet Aria was a warrior: tanker. Meanwhile, Pauli was a warrior: assassin. They told me a bunch of stuff about the whole holders' thing but I let it slipped my mind, or rather my mind couldn't keep up.
The voice told me that I was a power holder. But Pauli testified, he didn't feel any wave from me that indicated that I had something inside. Don't even ask what he meant by a wave.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
‘Generating success. Your profile is completed.’
The transparent screen blurring the background changed into something with letters on them.
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Name: Sheena
Age: 17
Status: Holder
Origin: Human
House: Unregistered
Category: unidentified
Specification: unidentified
Title: none
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Below were some more words. They looked like buttons that would lead to other screens. As I laid my attention on the 'stats' button, another screen appeared.
‘This screen is synchronized to your mind with no time lag.’ As if reading my mind, the voice said answering my 'how?' expression.
What I saw were things I have long forgotten. In the past, I buried myself in my room, playing video games. I almost never mention any of the word-related video games anymore. I had never imagined I would get involved with them again.
----------------------------------------
Class: F
Exp: 1 (Cumulative)
HP: 550
MP: 560
Physical Strength: 200
Magic Strength: 0
Physical resistance: 9
Magic resistance: 0
Skills: unidentified
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What the heck? This is 'real'? A scene when nobody winked her eyes flashed. That thing said she got my back. I was too foolish to think she would give me any special power. I was so wrong.
At least spare me a little cheat, you fool.
‘All information will be available in the system. You could open and close them as you wish.’
‘How?’
‘The action can be obtain by wish.’
When I heard that, I wished. I had seen stupidly advanced technology in my previous life, but none of them was as smooth as this. The transparent screen just disappears.
"Wow!" I was mesmerized. As I stood there processing this reality, the voice echoed again.
‘Master, I need a name for you to call me.’
‘A name?’ Well, maybe it was necessary. I wouldn’t want to have a hard time calling her.
‘Please give me a name.’
Hmmm? I scanned my uncountable memories trying to find a name that suit a game system.
‘How about Lian?’
That name just blurted out of my mouth. Strangely, I didn't remember ever meeting someone with that name. It just came out like that.
‘Affirmative. Lian is now your DSF assistant.’
Was this how I be living my life now? This was the very definition of ‘hearing voices in my head.’ In Earth, if you ever said you heard voices in your head, say hello to an asylum.
‘As your assistant, I suggest you to first choose your screen’s perspective. This current screen’s setting is in first person.’
‘Ah! Yes. Yes. This is annoying to look at literally right on my view. Can you make it like the screen is flying instead?’
‘Understood. Setting succeeded.’
A hologram screen appeared in front me.
‘Eh, I can move it as well? Amazing.’ I couldn’t hide my excitement. Feeling somewhat dreamy, I re-lived my childhood again.
Despite the overflow of excitement, I had come into a conclusion. This occurred to me right after the voice introduced itself. This must be ‘the system’ ‘nobody’ had told me.
‘Now. What does DSF stand for?’
‘Warning: you are not eligible for that information.’
Red hues framed my view, similar to when your game character was in your last hit state. The red frame flickered along with some sirens. 'Danger' was all it shouted.
‘Wow! Okay, okay.’
Soon after the red frame disappeared, "Sheena?"
I spun to meet Pauli's eyes. They were wide open.
"Why suddenly?" Aria followed behind.
"I thought you are pure human."
"Cool. You just unlock it. Wow, father! Look at these stats."
Both of them stood for a moment. Aria's expression was curious and excited while Pauli's was dread and confused. Why the contrast?
"Eh? Age 17? You're waaaaay younger than me. No. Wait. Is a 17 years old could get this huge?"
"WHAT?" I shouted. There was no way this small girl was older. What sort of bullshit was this?
"Yeah. Come to think of it, I never asked how old you are. You're 17?" Pauli asked, still with that clueless expression of his.
"No... Well yeah. Maybe?"
This unthoughtful man. We should be avoiding this conversation when Aria was around. No Sakka-driven conversation was allowed.
"17 years old with 1 exp?"
"Ah, that's not important. How old are you, Aria?"
"Eh? Well, I am 77 years old."
"Bullshit!" I snapped.
"Young lady, behave yourself."
"No way you're 77 years old!" Oh. I shouldn’t say that.
Aria tilted her head all confused. Sensing more tricky questions coming, I gave a look to Pauli, screaming 'Help me' with my eyes.
"I heard Pascal’s party is back from their hunting. Your magic shield is probably ready."
"No way! What would a tank do without a shield, right? Uooooh, finally!"
Pauli only gave a nod. Aria tumbled away. she grinned as she did so. It was a given that this girl was so easy to distract. She didn't have any awareness whatsoever, suspiciously showing ADHD symptoms. If it was me, I wouldn't retreat from this conversation.
“You’re lying to a kid?”
"I am not. Someone is coming with a shield for her. Anyway, you should know. Here, average humans live for 500 years. Some can reach 700 years. Aria is young. But you, you're basically an infant. Did you see her expression? She was confused that you didn't know it."
“How many months in a year you guys have?” My mind went directly to estimate how long a year in this world was.
“18 months a years.”
“HUH???” I almost fainted.
***