All of a sudden I felt like I was floating in a shallow pool of water, the sensation of my body floating on its back but impossible for me to see anything but pure darkness.

I kind of got the sense I was maybe asleep, just on the edge of wakefulness and having a peaceful dream. A new sensation entered my mind, and I realized I could finally spend the three perk points I should have ready to go.

Damn! Looks like I was right, I'll need to sleep to "meditate on what I've learned" to level up, very classic. Doesn't make this any more difficult than it was before so nothing to complain about.

Examining my choices, I immediately spot a difference between what I expected of a Requiem/Oordinator balance, and what The Forgotten Codex did.

It seems I won't be able to even access any level of ability for something without a perk point invested.

Conjuration Unlocks the ability to use Conjuration Magic.

I don't feel any kind of skill level requirement listed, but I don't feel like I have access to any kind of character sheet to judge against either. I do get a general sense that my skill level is high enough to invest in this, so I guess it's all in the background and I'll just have to check manually every time I'm looking to invest my points, and practice my skills until I get a sense it's high enough - though it's a little annoying not to see it just spelled out for me or have a metric to measure by.

The fact that I wouldn't even be able to use Conjuration magic at all without investing in it is a bad sign though, and checking the other skill trees I find them similarly locked behind the starting perk point. That means no easy access to the lower-level abilities unique to each tree which makes life a lot more complicated in general.

Unless levels are uncapped (and I have no knowledge of whether it is or not) then I might need to focus and specialize to unlock everything I'm gonna need in the future. Unless they're unlocked, in which case progress is just going to be slower as I won't even be able to level the skills I don't have unlocked at all.

I put a point into that and feel the next level of Conjuration perks unlock, but can feel I don't have the skill necessary to invest in them.

Conjuration Apprentice Mystic Weapons Reduces the cost of conjuration spells by a fixed amount. Allows learning and discovery of Apprentice level spells. Bound Weapon spells now summon Mystic Weapons, which deal more damage. Summoner's Insight Bone Collector All conjuration spells that summon or raise are stronger and last longer. You can collect 11 different bones from humanoid bodies and assemble them at a Bone Altar to grant unlife to a Skeletal Warrior, which can only be defeated but not killed. Skeletal Warriors do not contribute towards the max amount of beings you can have summoned, and the amount of Skeletal Warriors you can control is determined by your skill level at Conjuration.

There it is, Bone Collector! The perk that will carry us through the rest of our existence!

At least, eventually. There's a lot to unpack here, honestly.

First, in the general sense I noticed the locking of learning higher level spells (Do I even have starting ones? Guess I'll find out soon) behind Copnjuration Apprentice. I understand that restriction kinda, but it does mean I need to balance my practical skill alongside my learning instead of binging learning spells until I have Master level spells I can't even cast. Secondly, spell discovery was listed there too - meaning there's some variant of spell discovery that means I need to do actual, legitimate research to unlock spells most likely. Always an interesting and immersive feature to mod in but yet another annoying restriction when it comes to living it.

Thirdly, Bone Collector doesn't mark Bone Altars for me - which I guess makes sense, I don't have a character sheet why would I have an automap for it to mark them on? Probably don't have an inventory either if I'm guessing, but that makes using Bone Collector much harder. Maybe I could find a way to build a Bone Altar?

I'm starting to feel annoyed at myself to be honest. I could have picked an easier pack if I knew I'd end up yanked inside of it somehow.

Anyways - we won't be investing any more into Conjuration just yet because we need to at least unlock Illusion too, but it's nice to know what's next. Even though I can tell I could put a point into Bone Collector, that would be making large assumptions regarding my ability to get bones and find or make a Bone Altar to utilize them - which I doubt I'd be able to do so quickly.

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Illusion Unlocks the ability to use Illusion Magic.

So here's my second point gone. Though this one is probably even more important than conjuration right now... I can sense the next level of perks but I'm not even going to look right now, without the ability to know whether or not I'll even have any spells in the school I could be wasting my time entirely.

I'm slightly banking on investing in these spell schools to give me a starting spell, once I wake up.

Finally, I needed to decide where my last point is going to go. I'd want to stick this into Alteration or Heavy Armor, but Alteration isn't going to give us any utility to start with and neither is Heavy Armor, and that's not even thinking of the cost to buy any kind of Heavy Armor either. Enchanting isn't even worth mentioning here yet either.

I think I'm going to invest this into something entirely different. It doesn't fit into anything I've currently invested in but honestly, it might have the biggest effect on if I succeed or fail in the beginning, and it helps keep my race hidden.

Speech Unlocks speech-based abilities and makes you slightly more charismatic towards others, resulting in slightly better results while haggling with others or persuading them via intimidation, diplomacy, or deceit.

Necessary for early survival. Hopefully, I'll be able to grind out the first few levels quickly to invest in Heavy Armor, Alteration, and Enchanting.

As soon as I placed my final perk into Speech, I felt a shock and pins and needles all over - as if my entire body was completely covered by a static shock.

And all of a sudden I could feel connected to a body again as if I never left - though I could feel (even laying there as I expect I am) that it was different from my last. Different proportions and size of limbs... but for some reason, it didn't feel odd, almost as if I'd always had this body.

And my eyes shot open.

At first, I could just see a wooden roof above me, with exposed framing - almost like a barn, maybe? As I turned my head and looked around I could see I was laying inside a barn on a pile of straw, inside an open horse stall.

I slowly sat up, put my legs underneath me, and pushed myself up to my feet almost stumbling but catching myself at the last second.

Indeed, this was the body I had sculpted in that strange prison cell. A lean athletic build, and currently I was wearing what seemed to be some pretty typical medieval clothing - a linen shirt, with some kind of rough... canvas maybe? pants with basic solid leather boots underneath. I had a kind of jacket on over the shirt too, with a nice long hood raised currently helping hide my face in conjunction with my hair.

Here's hoping I can fit in until I have some kind of helpful Illusion spell.

Speaking of, I can feel knowledge of two basic spells in my head - so I was lucky and correct in my assumptions they would be gifted to me.

In the case of Illusion, it was Mage Light - a floating ball of light that would follow me around or stick where I put it. In the case of Conjuration, it was Bound Dagger - a dagger summoned and made out of magic for me to wield if necessary. Probably a good thing, because I don't feel like I have access to any kind of inventory and I don't seem to have any other kind of combat equipment either.

Once I have time and materials I can use these two spells to research the other novice spells that exist and expand my repertoire accordingly.

I stepped out of the horse stall I awoke in, finding the open area of the barn to be empty but containing several other horse stalls lined up against the walls - though I don't see any horses in them currently.

Walking towards the slightly open big door on the front of the barn, I slid through the opening and stepped outside for the first time.

I can't tell you how long I stood there outside that barn, staring and lost in my thoughts.

I can't tell you the range of emotions that washed over me at seeing the sights I saw.

Whether for good or for ill, I was right - I've been yanked somewhere. Furthermore, it wasn't a locale I recognized. Sitting a few hundred meters outside of what seemed to be a large city wall, the barn seemed to be sitting on a horse farm or stable, with horses standing around grazing in a pen right next to me. Around the farm sat a few other squat buildings, running up to next to the city gates. Most of it appeared kind of slum-like, outside of this horse farm which was a cut above them in terms of construction and expense.

People were walking back and forth too, conducting business and otherwise living their lives and it was people of all stripes - mostly humans, but I saw an elf and a lizardfolk and a few catfolk even, the catfolk sitting around a firepit near what looked like a temporary shelter on the edge of the inhabited area bordering what looks like hilly, open plains beyond. The elf and the lizardfolk were walking together, ironically enough - seemingly entering the city side by side.

I stood there watching these strangers in this strange world, half in shock and half in curiosity - until a voice rang out right next to me.

"Hey you, what are you doing there?"