Hello all sentient and newly-sentient species of earth
I am a bored god who decided to run an experiment
You will all be getting a system like in many of your world's web novels. however unlike in those novels there will be no apocalypse other than that created by your own hand. there will be dungeons instead, places where monsters dwell
The benefit, simple: power
And for those unfamiliar I have added a help function
So long and farewell
This was the message that supposedly floated in front of every human on the planet three days ago. And since then the world's governments have almost unanimously decided to issue laws that banned the use of, or interaction with, the 'system'. Even the United States has stated, and I quote: "we have decided as a union that this 'system' as it calls itself is not protected by any of the amendments to the constitution. We have also decided that, as people whom use the system pose a danger to themselves and others, use of the system is prohibited and will be met with extreme and immediate action."
Then why am I looking at this message you may ask. Why because there are no discernible signs of simply looking at the system, and to review a few things as well, such as the wording of the opening line "Hello all sentient and newly-sentient species of earth", which would indicate that humans are not the only sentient organisms anymore. And while most people would probably say that this means that the chimps or another great ape have become sentient, I would beg to differ. After all, why would it say species instead of primates if that were the case.
As for me myself, I am pretty much your average joe, my name is Walter and the only unique things about me are that I adopted my daughter, Rosa, and that I am a bit better at using my intellect than most.
"Status"
Name: Walter
Lvl: 2
Exp: 0/200
Class: archmage
Skills:
Sense mana [lvl.2]
Mana manipulation [lvl.1]
Health: 90/90
Stamina: 92/92
Mana: 120/120
Attributes:
Vig: 9
Str: 8
Dex: 10
End: 10
Wis: 12
Wil: 12
Inte: 12
Intu: 12
Free attribute points: 8
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
I can't seem to not use sense mana, so a passive skill. As for mana manipulation, seeing as the mana around me isn't reacting to me unless I want it to, probably active. And as for my free attribute points, better not to allocate them as that would give visible signs of system use.
How do I know all this, well I'm a gamer and played a lot of MMORPGs. Now on to stats... hm let's try something.
"Help attributes"
Attributes:
Vigor: the ability to take hits and not die; affects how much damage it takes to kill or harm you
Strength: affects physical power
Dexterity: the ability to move your body as you want; affects armor penetration chance
Endurance: the resistance to ailments of the body; affects the ability to power through wounds and stamina recovery
Wisdom: the ability to use the knowledge you have; affects mana capacity
Will: the resistance to ailments of the mind; affects mana regeneration rate and mental resistance
Intelligence: the ability to think things through; affects spell intensity/efficiency
Intuition: the ability to discern things quickly without thinking; affects spell-casting speed
"Yes."
Well now I know better what those do. Also seeing as that worked:
"Help archmage"
archmage: +5% to all magic related skills and start with mana manipulation and sense mana
Well as someone who always played the mage class I can't say that I'm disappointed
I think its high time that I go for a hike to test mana manipulation
I make my way up the mountain trail with trees on both sides and stop in a clearing I know about 5 minutes away from the trail.
I have discovered a few things, for one there are six types of ‘primary’ mana: light, fire, earth, air, darkness, water and air. Also opposing mana types attract each other. And another is that when they meet they each create corresponding objects. also earth, water and light repel each other, the same is true of darkness, fire and air. I also found a mass of mana inside of myself with vein-like extensions that cover my entire body, which I am assuming is my mana pool. Why? Because the mana within this circulatory system is mutable and can be made into any type of primary mana. But ultimately it's useless without being able to cause any reasonable effect.
At this point I've been trying to cause any meaningful effect to no avail for about an hour, but everything just cancels when I bring them together. Fire and water produce lukewarm steam, light and darkness a dancing, diffuse light that can only brighten a one foot radius, and earth and air produce some sand. Right now I'm trying to mix darkness and light in a different manner.
"God damn it, if only there was a way to keep one type of mana from creating something when opposites meet!."
And suddenly the darkness disappears, as for the light it seems different, almost as if it's not there. Inspired, I create some darkness mana from my personal mana and have it meet with the light mana. And am finally met with success in the form of an area that passively absorbs light, and I notice it is moving at the same speed as the darkness mana. Then it fizzles out.
“Now time to move onto something a bit more practical.”
And with that I spend another hour trying to make an earth wall and a basic attack spell… but what to make it, well let's start with my darkness spell, I recast, and when I go to touch it I feel an inexplicable weakening effect.
“Status”
Name: Walter
Exp: 100/300
Lvl: 3
Class: archmage
Skills:
Sense mana [lvl.4]
Mana manipulation [lvl.3]
Health: 84/90
Stamina: 90/92
Mana: 110/120
Attributes:
Vig: 9
Str: 8
Dex: 10
End: 10
Wis: 12
Wil: 12
Inte: 12
Intu: 12
Free attribute points: 16
So darkness causes damage over time. Note to self, do not interact with your spells using anything other than mana skills. also taking a closer look at my stats it appears that health and mana are equal to ten times your vigor and wisdom respectively. But back to an offensive spell. Let's go with a classic with a twist, the first step, compressing darkness mana… whelp I guess I try to compress it with each other type of mana until I succeed. If I fail, well then I guess I have to scrap this project.
Also as an aside, I am using fist sized balls of mana that apparently count as five mana each.
I eventually succeed with water.
Now all I have to do is fire a ball of condensed darkness-altered light after it, I'll name this dark blast
“Wraatcha doin.”