Before he even had the time to register his consciousness, he was already aware of it. It was as part of him as either hand. Intrinsic. Inseparable. When his eyes did open, they beheld a room he already knew, despite it being the first time his eyes had seen anything.
It was his Nexus.
“Who am I?” He asked, his voice a new whisper.
The question was one he already knew the answer to. He was nameless, a being born of miracles. Nexus Born. He only had the vaguest impression of what that meant. But it was a grand impression, no matter how blurred.
He felt curiosity take hold and he began walking around his Nexus. It was… plain. He already knew that, but to see it, to walk it, was so entirely different. He was young, barely a minute old, and yet he had impressions of memory and perspective. Young, but not clueless, not naive, and not inexperienced, somehow. Just… blank as his Nexus.
What did that make him?
“Nexus Born, I suppose.” He said to himself.
He opened his eyes. He opened them beyond their physical capability and beheld his Nexus as it was. An entire reality that existed solely for himself, that was himself. A blank room and nothing more.
He furrowed his brow. His mind explored new senses, waking sleeping pieces of himself. Familiar yet foreign. He tilted his mental head and regarded them, feeling something click into place.
Welcome Nexus Born!
You are one of the miraculous few whose existence coincides with the birth of a Nexus. You are inexplicably tied to your Nexus. You may now access the Nexus Interface, Nexus Shop, and your Status.
He blinked, not expecting the flood of information, too smooth and sudden for him to track it beyond simply knowing something new. He paused, feeling for that new capability.
First, he accessed the Nexus Interface, something he felt he already could sense.
Nexus: None (Scaling)
Type: Personal
Nodes: None
He perused the scarce info. He felt there were some parts hidden to him, dormant. Should they become relevant, he assumed they would appear. It was barebones right now, but then again, so was his Nexus.
He disregarded it for now and shifted his attention to his own Status.
Name: None
Level: 1
Traits: [Nexus Born] (Ancient)
STR: 7
CON: 6
DEX: 8
AGI: 8
PER: 10
INT: 12
WIS: 10
WIL: 9
CHA: 6
LUK: 7
Stat Points: 0
Nex: 0
He immediately noted the skew towards mental stats. He had a sense for what each did, but not the reasoning behind his own distributions. He was, for all intents and purposes, a newborn. His stats shouldn’t be shifted any one way.
Attributes. They were the quantification of oneself. At Level 1, it was understood that most attributes would be single-digit, while anything beyond 10 was exceptional. He regarded his values and shrugged, despite the inherent knowledge he had, there were no other references which he could draw from.
Like the Nexus Interface, he felt parts of his Status were missing, hidden from view until such a time they became relevant. He was, however, curious about his Trait. What exactly did it mean to be Nexus Born? To be [Nexus Born]?
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Trait: [Nexus Born] (Ancient)
You are a being of miracles. One whose existence coincides with the birth of a Nexus, a new reality, no matter how small. You are a master of your Nexus and enjoy the freedom to explore the Nexus Worlds at your leisure.
* Access to a Personal Nexus
* You act as a Node to and from your Personal Nexus
A Personal Nexus, it seemed, was not something everyone had. It was an odd thing to grasp, considering how he could feel it as a part of him even now.
All this knowledge was like a primal understanding of himself and his reality. He wasn’t exactly sure why he knew it, only that it was a necessary context for survival. Perhaps, given the nature of his existence, he shouldn’t have been surprised.
And less so when an instinct pushed him forward. The next step, he knew, was to visit the Nexus Shop. To spend his Nex and expand his Nexus, or more specifically, connect to another.
Welcome to the Nexus Shop!
Here you may buy all manner of Articles! The Nexus Shop offers everything in abundance, drawing directly from the Sea of Chaos, that which all realities float upon.
He spent minutes staring at all these ‘Articles’. He quickly realized it was a catch-all term for anything that was significant, like his Trait. He found all manner of useful things, wondering if any were worth it.
Every product required Nex. The currency of the Nexus Worlds. He had 100 to his name, a small fortune, he knew. An ingrained part of him refused to look at anything before he opened a Node and so there was only one purchase to make.
Item: [Lesser Node Crystal] (Rare)
Type: Consumable
A crystal that opens a Node to another reality. The crystal can be consumed for one-way transportation, or stabilized in a Nexus Node. The resultant Node will connect to an arbitrary Nexus possessing an unknown Type and lesser Rarity. There is a small chance for a connection to a better Nexus.
Price: 100 Nex
He purchased the [Lesser Node Crystal] immediately, the expenditure satisfying some primal instinct. The Article appeared in his hand, a glowing crystal the size of his palm. It was so strangely familiar as if it fit too perfectly in his palm. It radiated light, flashing the colors of infinity. There was a deep hum, a subtle vibration of power in his hand.
Following that increasingly familiar instinct, he approached a part of his Nexus. Then, he held the crystal up, offering it to the Nexus Worlds, reaching beyond for a connection with anything from the infinity that would hold.
The crystal imploded, its particles shooting inward, opening a rift in the air. A portal, one that shimmered like oil, and shifted like water. It was every color and more, blinking through countless connections, failing some, succeeding in others, stabilizing with every iteration. Cycling through.
He watched as a raised dais formed under the portal. Two white pillars, as blank as the rest of his Nexus rose and framed the rift.
The portal pulsed, a near physical wave of power, and the image stilled.
Congratulations!
You have stabilized a nodal connection to another Nexus! As your first connection to the Nexus Worlds, the Rarity of your destination Nexus has been proactively upgraded.
He read the notification and hummed.
It had ensured he had connected to something greater than he should have, he realized. He blinked at the new Nexus, staring through the rift in space. It was no taller than he was, perfectly oval. Before his Nexus had responded and stabilized the Node it had been fluctuating in its shape, but now it was steady.
An entirely new world. A Nexus, framed in the rift. He stared through at another world.
New Nexus: [Grren Plains] (Uncommon)
Type: Nature, Endless
A flat expanse of green-gold grass dotted with pockets of enormous trees sheltering mini forests. The plains are ranged by herd animals, finding safety in the cover of numbers. The forests house anything else without the luxury.
He stepped through, his foot crossing from safety to the unknown, from one reality to another. The transition was seamless as if he was stepping through any other door. The movement, more natural than breathing, like he was made to traverse such portals. He looked around his immediate surroundings and found himself housed by wood and bark.
There was an opening though and he placed a hand on the edge as he peered outward.
The description of the Nexus did little justice to reality. A golden sunrise framed an endless sea of gold grass in radiant colors of orange and yellow. He stood on gnarled bark, high enough to see over the forest he’d found himself in.
A strong breeze forced him to shield his eyes and lean upon the tree for support. He stared out and watched the grass wave at him, like some great wind elemental running fingers through the land. The branches above creaked, rustling with the same wind as if responding to the plains.
He was in the hollow of an enormous tree. One of those mentioned in the description of [Grren Plains]. Staring upward, he found a canopy that stretched miles in diameter. Branches as wide as he was tall three times over, extending horizontally, far in the air above. And beneath, a forest as emerald green as the plains were gold. Trees that paled only in comparison to the presiding tree above, each magnificent. The forest was bursting with life.
The altitude was staggering once he put it into perspective. Endless was a fitting Type for this Nexus. Even up here, he could not see the end to it, if there even was one. It was a stark difference from his own Nexus.
He was high above the forest floor, enough to see over the neighboring trees and to take in the plains. The tree he was in was so large that the handful of its roots he could see sectioned off the entire forest below. In the distance, he spotted another forest and a tree that towered above the horizon.
Something about the scenery made him smile. It was a wild sensation. This place was untouched, he realized. A frontier of sorts. He was wondering exactly what the feeling was when his mind alighted upon this new desire of his. A natural wanderlust.
He couldn’t help but want to explore it all.
It was, perhaps, his very first desire. The first conscious decision of what he wanted to do that stemmed from nothing but himself. This Nexus was beautiful and he wanted to see it.
He sat the edge of the hollow, hanging his feet over the edge.
From his perch, he had the novel pleasure of watching the [Grren Plains] wake up. The sun had come out from hiding, rising in earnest, and dispelling the beautiful drowsy colors of the morning. Something about that roused him to move, as if he himself rose with the sun, waking with the dawn for the first time in his life.
He looked down from his perch. But before he could make the decision to descend, he paused, and then looked upward.
“I wonder what’s up there.” He said idly, eyes tracing the grooves of the tree.