“What’s left with the orientation?”

I already felt comfortable with the menu structure and dealing with loot boxes. I had learned that I didn’t need to open loot boxes immediately, but could mentally dump them into a folder on my menu to open later when I felt safer.

“Now that you have the basics down, you can unlock the remainder of your starting menu. That will advance you to a fully fledged and trained participant in the game.”

“Can you tell me more about the game now?”

“You’ll all receive a group message soon, but think of this first stage of the game kind of like a Survivor death island show. You were separated for the initial orientation to ensure everyone started on an even playing field.”

That made sense if the goal was to get a lot of people killed. If we’d been left in larger groups, we probably wouldn’t have lost 50 people already. Then again, I hated to admit it, but a certain percentage of people would have huddled behind the rest of us, using us as human shields and trying their best not to take any risks.

“You have each been assigned to a 5-person team. Your teammates can be located within a 1-mile square area.”

Eva announced, “New quest! Find the remaining members of your team. 0 of 4. Reward: 1 full set of adventurer’s clothing, common. Unlock the team interface.”

My team were so close. That boosted my mood a ton. “Who’s on my team? Is it my brother?”

“You want me to ruin the surprise? Lucas, we’ve talked about that.”

“Can you at least tell me if Tomas is still alive?”

“You will learn everything you need to as you complete your quests. Trust me, Lucas. You will want to focus.”

That sounded ominous.

Cyrus continued with even more enthusiasm than usual. “You’ve unlocked your second utility spell.”

The menu opened and I reviewed the list again. I was super tempted by Base Camp, but after weighing the pros and cons, I chose Linguasight.

“A bold choice,” Cyrus congratulated me. “I like to see contestants planning ahead.”

Eva added to the initial description. “Linguasight: This invaluable compound utility spell will help you communicate, while identifying key information of any being or item you inspect, based on a perception check. Upgradable.”

Then she added, “Synergy found between your title Inquisitive Mind and Linguasight. Linguasight upgraded to level 2 and unlocks advanced reality filter capabilities. You not only identify objects and beings, but perceive the reality of them. This ability scales with Perception. As you progress, you will gain the rights to see deeper truths. Anything from a lower tier can no longer conceal its identity from you.”

“That sounds good.”

“It’s better than that,” Cyrus exclaimed. “You’ll see a lot more information. You now have the chance to pierce illusion and similar types of camouflage as you see the true reality concealed underneath.”

“So what does it mean by things from a lower tier? Is anything lower tier than me?”

“Don’t get distracted, Lucas.”

That sounded like a dodge, but for now I’d take it on face value. It sounded better than I’d hoped. I had picked it mostly for the Identify option. I’d never imagined I might win an upgraded version of the ability. Any additional information I could get about monsters trying to kill me would increase my chances of surviving, and now I could see more. Definitely the right choice.

Cyrus interrupted my thoughts. “You’ve also unlocked your abilities and limited use spell menus. Most new contestants see these menus as really hitting the Jill pot.”

I cringed. “You mean the jackpot?”

“With so much hype on your planet about gender equality, I figured you would appreciate my variation on the idiom.”

“Nice try, but it doesn’t work.”

“Houston, we have a problem,” Cyrus muttered.

“That one was good.”

“That’s not an idiom, but a movie quote.”

“I know,” I chuckled. “I love quoting movies.”

“Me too!” Cyrus exclaimed, his voice more eager than usual. “I did not have much time to study your world, but I discovered your entertainment business and I’m very impressed.”

“I’m sure they have better movies and shows elsewhere in the multiverse.”

“Not really. Some of the higher-tiered systems have technology beyond your sci-fi imaginations, but few worlds have very well developed entertainment industries.”

That seemed weird. I would think they'd have the best movies ever with all the magic and technology they had available.

All I said was, “Sounds like we might have a huge new market to explore.”

“As long as you don’t all die and leave your world to be destroyed,” Cyrus agreed happily. “Now, let’s take a look at your starter pack of spells and abilities. You’ll find limited-use spells inside of the Temporary Spells menu.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Starter Pack?” I spotted the new menu options immediately and clicked on Temporary Spells.

“Consider it your welcome goodie bag. You didn’t think I’d drop you onto an alien planet in the most important game of your life with nothing but the boxers on your backside, did you?”

“That’s exactly what you did!”

“You’ll get depressed looking at the world with that attitude,” Cyrus chided. “Now that you’ve completed your first quests, you are ready to really dive into the game. To help you get started, I have provided a small number of permanent abilities and limited-use spells based on my scan of you and your history.”

I’d take any extra help I could get and eagerly scanned the list of spells. The thought of actually using magic thrilled me more than I wanted to admit.

“You’re a wizard, Lucas,” Cyrus declared.

I chuckled. “Do I get a wand?”

Cyrus laughed, as if that was the funniest thing he’d heard all day. I hoped he could self-adjust his enthusiasm setting a bit. Then again, I much preferred an overly enthusiastic AI to a depressed or brooding one. Yikes, that was a scary thought.

Eva read aloud as I scanned the menu text.

Starting spells:

1. Harvest.

Mana cost: 10

Unique. Steal a spell from a defeated enemy. Chance of success increases with disparity of levels between you and your defeated enemy. Base chance 50%. Upgradable.

Note: Chances increase along with potential spells when Harvest is combined with an achievement.

Warning. This is a limited-use spell. Remaining uses: 2 successful harvests.

2. Energy Ward (Defensive aura).

Mana cost: Activation: 5 plus additional mana drain depending on usage.

Generate an invisible aura that extends around you in every direction up to 1 yard. Duration: 30 seconds. Will deflect some incoming physical damage. Additional mana drain from 1 to 10 per attack deflected, depending on the strength of the attack. Upgradable.

Warning. This is a limited-use spell. Remaining uses: 3

As soon as I finished reading each spell description, a flood of information poured into my mind, teaching me how to use them. I couldn’t help grinning like a little boy on Christmas morning.

I still needed to survive, but for a moment, I allowed myself to simply feel wonder. Both starter spells looked amazing. I couldn’t wait to try them. I would have triggered Energy Ward immediately if I didn’t only have 3 uses.

“How are these upgradable if I only get limited uses?”

“Back to excellent questions. Great job. You will not unlock your first permanent spell slot until you reach level 10. At that time, you choose to make permanent any temporary spell available in this menu, or from any magical items you may acquire.”

That was encouraging. If I was careful, I might still have 1 of the starter spells active. Neither spell added directly to my offensive capabilities, though. A fireball spell like that crazy duck had used would have been amazing. Still, with Harvest, I could have stolen that fireball. What a cool idea!

“Let’s test a spell so you understand how to use your magic and see how it affects your mana levels. Go ahead and trigger Energy Ward. Don’t worry, it will not consume 1 of your remaining uses.”

I only hesitated for a moment. Cyrus had no reason to lie to me, and I really wanted to test it out. So I focused on Energy Ward and activated it.

Power flooded out of me and actually felt my mana pool drop, but only by a small amount. I suspected I had an unusually huge mana pool. Too bad I didn’t have more spells to capitalize on that.

A faint golden glow surrounded me, extending about 3 feet in every direction. I moved my hand through it, but felt no resistance.

“You are the only one who will see anything, unless someone has a specialized sight ability or upgraded mana sensitivity. Let’s test its effectiveness.”

A rock the size of my fist shot off the ground to my left and hurtled toward me with the speed of an arrow. Shifting slightly to one side so the rock would slip past instead of giving me a massive bruise if the spell didn’t work seemed easy. Even a little extra agility seemed to help a ton.

When the rock impacted my glowing aura, I expected a spray of energy sparks, or something flashy. Nothing like that happened. In fact, my spell did nothing at all as the rock whizzed just past my shoulder.

“What happened?” That was totally anti-climactic.

Cyrus chuckled. “Why would your spell waste your mana deflecting an incoming attack that you had already dodged?”

“Good point.”

Duh. In martial arts, we trained to deflect incoming strikes all the time. The trick was to use an enemy’s own energy against them, using just enough force to deflect their blow just far enough to miss.

A second rock shot at my stomach. This time I resisted the urge to dodge and held my ground. I still tightened my stomach against the impact. When the rock hit my aura, again I saw no sparks or outward sign, but this time my aura condensed around the rock and nudged it slightly.

The effort drained another 5 mana from my pool, and the rock deflected just enough to shoot past my left arm.

I grinned. “Fantastic! I love it.”

Suddenly my aura triggered again and I felt another 5 mana drain. Another rock shot past my head. This time the attack had come from behind and Cyrus had never warned me. If not for my Energy Ward, that rock might have cracked my skull.

“Hey, what was that for?”

“To prove a point. Danger can come from any direction, Lucas, and your defensive aura protects you in every direction. It does not require control or direction from you, only activation. Then it will do its best to protect you from all sides.”

“That is very cool.” I suddenly hated that I only had 3 uses. I could imagine walking around with that aura active all the time.

“It is a rare and very effective starter spell. Just remember that for now it only deflects incoming physical or kinetic strikes. Magical or elemental attacks will not be affected until you upgrade it.”

I really needed to permanent that spell and upgrade it to the max. Solid defense could be even more important than a good offense.

“Now, let’s check your abilities before your training time runs out.”

My menu switched by itself to the new Abilities option and Cyrus explained, “Abilities are innate skills you have, or acquire. They are not spells and do not require mana to activate. Think of abilities like your ability to jump, or run, or throw a baseball.”

“Each of you will have different primary abilities. We won’t get into the full abilities menu yet, but highlight some specialty abilities you’ve been awarded as part of your starter pack.”

Eva again read along as I scanned the text on the page.

Abilities:

1. Hand-to-hand Martial Arts. Fighting ability. Common. Improves bare-handed combat. Level 4. Each level of this ability decreases reaction time by 5% and increases damage by 10%.

2. Stick and Knife Martial Arts. Level 3. Fighting ability. Common. Improves stick and bladed weapons combat. Each level of this ability improves blunt damage by 15% and slashing damage by 20%.

Those were pretty good, although for some reason I had hoped to get something more surprising. I already knew basic fighting skills. I wasn’t sure why the system had to show them to me.

“Abilities can be upgraded. As you use your abilities, they level up, increasing your power and proficiency beyond what you arrived with,” Cyrus explained.

Okay, that was good. I had assumed I wouldn’t get to train, but it made sense they provided a way to advance. That must be why they were listed as abilities, or I probably wouldn’t be able to progress.

As I scanned the list again, I muttered, “I know kung fu.”

“The Matrix! Brilliant movie, and perfect time for the reference. The boots are coming off now, Lucas!”

“Gloves,” I said with a shake of my head. “The gloves are coming off.”

“You have no idea.”

This time his voice sounded far more ominous than usual.