Circling in the pitch black room, Solus’ mind was still. Having been alone for as long as he had memory, how rewarding it had been to communicate with another being... And now? The sphere was gone and once again Solus was alone…
Almost tripping in the dark, Solus decided the first thing he should do was get to a safer place. Somewhere he would be able to keep walking in a straight line, to check out this status thing the sphere had talked about. He still had no idea why he was incapable of standing still, yet with the new knowledge he possessed, he knew this was definitely not a normal thing. Looking to the place he knew the now extinguished sphere should be, he couldn't even see its outline. Turning to the opening through which he had entered the room, it was obvious night had fallen again. He would never be able to find the sphere until it became day again, and even if he could, it would be hard to pick it up and carry it around. Slowing down, even more, Solus stumbled to the almost invisible exit.
Passing through the doorway, Solus got his first view of the town he was in. He had seen it before of course, but now he knew so much more. Buildings, that was what the blocks were, many of them no more than broken down ruins of their former selves lining an oval-shaped plaza. The building he exited from, was the only thing that didn’t look like it had crumbled in a major earthquake. Looking up, Solus saw an almost pitch black sky. None of the constellations he found in his newly acquired memory were visible. The only thing that could be seen were a few fuzzy red stars, shining dimly against an otherwise lightless sky. According to the information he got from the sphere, an incredibly long time had passed since the original inhabitants had left. If the sky had changed due to the passing of time or because of the cataclysm he wasn't sure.
Turning his head away from the sky, Solus decided to find a place where he would be able to safely move and try out the status thing. Heading towards the main road of the familiar yet unfamiliar town, he shuffled across broken roads and past uncovered manholes. Now knowing what it was he was looking at, he understood he was crossing what used to be a shopping district.
Getting an understanding of how slow he actually moved, it took almost the entire night to reach the long road, passing only a few crossroads. As soon as he passed a broken down corner, he angled up a slope towards the wide road that was his goal. Looking further ahead he could see two skeletons walking up the same slope. Making sure he took the left side and not the right, as the other two skeletons were doing he struggled upwards. He remembered that the right side had ended a lot of the other skeletons. Holes and steep drops did not agree with beings that were as breakable as they were.
“It's time to see what this status thing is” he thought after which he chanted the word “>STATUS<” as forcefully as possible. A weird sensation crawled through Solus’ mind when in front of him a shimmering form took shape. Keeping a steady distance from him, a black screen with white edges and green writings appeared.
> Screen loaded inside manafield
> ... … Running magical program labeled “STATUS”..
> Determining mana field… … >ERROR<
> Mana field highly unstable. Finding suitable alternatives. >SEARCHING<
> Alternative found, undead energy found with suitable field
> Changing configuration to work with the new energy field
> Renaming energy field to mana field for optimal help usage
> Reading mana field
> No prior information recorded inside mana field
> Initializing first time usage of STATUS
> .... …. ….. ….
An enormous amount of information rattled across the screen. Only a few seconds after the first line appeared, the last one created a new screen effectively hiding the black one.
> Default color based on mana field energy
> Determining statistical mutator values based on life form
> Determining class based on interlinking skills and attribute values
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Race
skeleton
Name
Os Solus
Type
unstable
Class
-
Age
unknown
Sex
male -ERROR
Strength
1/8
Constitution
1/6
Dexterity
1/6
Endurance
*
Intelligence
1/- ERROR
Wisdom
0/1
Charisma
ERROR
Manafield
1
> !Warning! Physical status extremely unstable
> Highly recommended increasing the capacity of mana field
> No skills detected
> Multiple ERRORS detected while running scan, please contact your nearest service point
> Would you like to use the help system?
YES / NO
Solus tried to make sense of all the information while walking in a slow and, for him, steady pace. But no matter how he tried, he wasn't able to understand the majority of what he saw. Reaching the question, he wondered how he was supposed to choose the answer he wanted. After a while, he decided he would try chanting again. “ YES ” echoed loudly in his mind.
The screens blinked out of existence and a new line appeared in the blackness of the night. White letters that seemed to glow hovered in front of him. “Hello, I am your temporary help function. Please state the nature of your problem..”
Looking past the question that was hovering in front of him, Solus saw he had plenty of roads left. He wondered what he should ask first?
“Can you understand me?” He tried. “Yes. Please state the nature of your problem..” the line hovering in front of him replied.
Solus decided there was only one thing important right now.
“Can you explain why I am unable to stop moving without being destroyed?”
“You are a highly unstable undead lifeform. The only energy you can currently gain is converted from motion. If you stop your forward motion, no more energy will be generated. The current energy capacity of your manafield is one. If you reach zero you will be destroyed.”
Had Solus been alive he might have sighed or blinked at this. However, as he was not alive he just asked the first question that came to him. “Then how do I generate energy?”
“Energy is automatically generated by all lifeforms. Any type of life will have a small amount of energy, that it generates all the time. Depending on the density of the lifeforms physical structure, more energy will be generated. It is possible to take energy from lifeforms. Currently, there are no life forms in the detected radius. Alternatively, energy can be converted from mana, generated by manafields. Manafields need a size of ten to start generating one mana.”
Even without emotions, Solus was starting to get interested. He would need to increase the size of his manafield to start generating mana that could supply him with energy. This should become his first priority. So he asked the most obvious question he could think of.
“How do I increase the size of my manafield?”
“The only known ways to increase a manafield is either, by its own growth or by taking another manafield and merging it into the first manafield. To have a manafield grow on its own, it requires a size of ten or greater.”
Thinking for a second Solus asked another question.
“How do I take another manafield and combine it with my own?”
“The easiest way is by destroying the vessel that holds the manafield while having a distance no greater than two meters of the vessel. This way you can take the other manafield before it dissipates. However, this will only work with identical manafields, furthermore, this will only work with weak vessel’s. Stronger vessels will either detonate their manafield upon their demise, or the merging will have a high likelihood to result in catastrophic failure”
“How do I merge a manafield when I am close enough?” Solus asked, thinking about the other skeletons walking around town.
“No active action is needed. Being within two meters of a vessel when it is destroyed will overlap both manafields. If the vessel is not many times stronger or manages to self-detonate as said before, the overlapping manafields will merge.”
Before Solus could digest what he had read, another sentence popped up in front of him.
“Please be advised. You are reaching the end of your free help trial. If you are pleased with the current level of assistance make your way to one of our many retail outlets to purchase a full support package. You have one more question remaining until only the basic status functionality remains.”
Unsure what to make of the last message, and having no more immediate questions, Solus paid full attention to the road he was walking on. He had reached the end of the road and made a U-turn to prevent falling off the broken end of what used to be a bridge. Heading back the way he came he noticed the other skeletons never made it as far as he had. During his question filled walk, daytime had arrived, and the sun was shining a bright yellow light across the town in front of him. Having understood most of the information gained from the questions, he decided it was time to try out another thing he had learned from the sphere.
An exciting thought, for a skeleton that is, crossed his mind.
“It's time to go hunting.”