Aurelian awoke to the smell of burnt wood, his eyes blinking away bleary unawareness and focusing on his surroundings. He was lying in a ruined chamber of some kind, immediately recognisable as being built out of some sort of stone. His eyes shifted to look around, and he noted whorls and inscriptions upon the walls, though he couldn’t make heads or tails of what he was seeing.
Grimacing at the fact he was in what appeared to be a closed off store room, Aurelian pushed himself to his feet and dusted himself off, brushing away the dirt from his clothes — thankful he’d been given some — and plucking at the material. It felt like a rough cotton or polyester, and consisted of neutral greys. A half-sleeve shirt, leggings, and a pair of simple shoes that he doubted would survive any major level of punishment.
They were comfortable, though. For the moment.
The room around him, after a moment of deeper analysis, appeared to be roughly the size of a large apartment. Maybe thirty square metres, with worn wooden shelving mounted on the stone walls. The floor was a dusty, sand-and-dirt covered marble, and there were red stains in places that he… did not want to focus on. The light in the room came from several shafts of beaming sunlight, blazing down from a sizable hole in the ceiling and roof above. That would be… inconvenient to his ability to deal with the weather, he supposed.
“First things first,” he muttered as he looked around, “figure out where I am.”
As if it had been waiting for the prompt, a System message chimed.
Welcome to the Realms, Aurelian Lucis Imperius!
You have taken your first steps upon the Prime Material, and your journey awaits.
As a courtesy offered to all Nephilim, you have been given access to a CODEX which can be opened through mental command.
This CODEX will record and retain all information you gather about flora, fauna, societies, lore, and other such data within an easily accessible location. Refer to it at your leisure for help in time within the Realms.
Please also be aware that death is, for the most part, permanent! While you can heal from most wounds given enough time or Vitality, you will not be able to come back from death… at least, not without very specific advantages.
Finally please remember that all choices are yours alone, and that all actions have consequences.
Good luck, Reclaimer.
Aurelian watched the text scroll across his vision with ever-raising eyebrows, blinking at it and then reading it over again with a mental command to scroll back. “Well that’s… not comforting.” He muttered, before dismissing the message with a swipe of his mind. “Now I can focus on figuring out—”
No sooner were the words out of his mouth, than another System chime sounded.
Narrowing his eyes reflexively, he read the next message. This time, he smiled.
Congratulations, Aurelian Lucis Imperius!
As a result of your completion of the Achievement: Cast Your Own Shadow, you have been awarded a Bronze Chest and a Unique Trait!
Do you wish to claim one of these rewards now?
Y / N
Aurelian didn’t even hesitate before mentally screaming Yes and rubbing his hands together in glee. When the prompt asking which reward he wanted came up, he immediately selected the chest. He would wait, first, before selecting the trait… Or having the System generate it. He had a feeling doing it straight away might be a mistake. The moment he accepted the chest, however, another chime sounded and a flash of light tore through the room. He cursed at the brightness of it, blinking away spots in his eyes at the same moment as a hearty thud impacted the ground. Still blinking away the light, it took him a moment before he was able to properly see what was waiting for him.
A large chest made entirely of bronze sat on the dusty, sunlight-lit marble floor in front of him. It sparkled in the sun, looking as if it had been cast and polished only seconds earlier. Aurelian raised his eyebrows, glanced up at the hole in the ceiling and roof, and then back down to the chest. “Either you were airdropped, or you just got teleported in, and if the second is true that is fucking awesome.”
Momentarily ignoring the fact he was talking to a lifeless and inanimate object, he reached out to place his hands on the chest and examine it curiously; interested by the apparently solid metallic bronze construct. The moment he laid his palms on it, however, the chest unlocked with a click and yawned open to reveal its contents.
Aurelian froze for a second, then shrugged and peered into the chest.
Inside he found a trio of interesting items: A bedroll, a bag, and a sword.
He picked up all three and stared at them in confusion, before almost dropping them all when the chest slammed shut, wobbled, and vanished with a pop. “Fucking System…” He muttered, fully aware he was likely quoting no end of isekai protagonists in the same breath. In fact while using that train of thought, he realised that he had no actual way of knowing what any of what he was holding was good for. There was, however, a traditional solution to such an issue.
Aurelian stared at the bedroll carefully, and said “Inspect!” with as much intent as he could muster.
A solid five seconds passed, and he sighed. “Of course that was too easy. Let’s try… Analyse!”
Another five seconds passed, and once more nothing happened.
“Okay that’s bullshit. What else could I do? Inspect, Analyse… Assess?” He looked at the bedroll. “Assess!”
Once more he was disappointed, and his expression slowly morphed into a look of consternation. Not being able to analyse or inspect things was going to make his life, especially in a System-controlled world, infinitely more difficult. He had to get a grasp on it, and that meant trying every conceivable alternative.
Aurelian took a moment, however, to first ensure that he was ‘secure’ within his arrival point. Other than the hole above him, of course. He placed his new items on the ground and quickly took a lap of the room, checking for any points of entry or access he might have missed.
When the only thing he found was the door that, presumably, led into the store-room — and after ensuring it was firmly shut — and nothing else, he moved back to his items and shifted them so he could look at them all with his back to the wall, and maintain clear vision of both the hole in the roof and the door. He had no desire to be surprised by whatever sort of creatures or people might be lurking in what he assumed was a starting area.
“Even a basic rat can wipe a Dungeons and Dragons party. I doubt this place is less harsh than that.” He said to himself as he eyed the door and ceiling hole again, before focusing down on his items. “Now, let’s try… Identify!”
And so it went from there, with Aurelian trying several variations of the same skill, and then eventually different types of the same category. He tried picking the items up, holding them close, smelling them, even tasting them. At one point he even considered cutting himself to see if blood contact was the key, until he realised that he was likely being a little… extreme in his attempts.
Eventually when almost every possibility had been exhausted, Aurelian slumped against the wall at his back in frustration, staring at the three items he’d attempted each varied form of identification on. All of his efforts had been in vain, and he’d even gone so far as to begin vacillating between pleading, cajoling, and shouting angry phrases in iambic pentameter in an attempt to trigger the skill.
“This sucks.” He said dejectedly while reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose and massaging it lightly. “How the hell am I supposed to get anything done if I don’t fucking know anything?” His gaze lowered back to his items, and he felt his dejection and mental exhaustion shifting into frustration, which quickly bubbled to rage. “God damn it! Reveal your secrets, you fucks! ANALYSE!”
Nothing happened.
“ANALYSE! ANALYSE! ANALYSE! ANALYSE! ANAL—!”
The sharp trill of a chime cut him off, and Aurelian fell silent.
Congratulations, Aurelian Lucis Imperius!
You have met the requirements to unlock the skill Analysis (C)!
Analysis is the ability to identify and understand the world around you, allowing you to discern the nature of things at a glance. This skill is an integral part of your life in the Realms, and will be a marked improvement on your ability to not only survive, but to thrive!
Continuous use of this skill will grr̶̢̐̈r̸͈̔0̸̗͇̿͌͝#̷̺̮̂$̸̪̦͆̽̏!̴̜͓͇̚ͅ!̴̧̨̝͉͝
ERROR
BLOODLINE DETECTED: ELYSEAN
OVERRIDING SKILL TO COMPLY WITH EXISTING RACIAL STANDARDS
. . .
SKILL OVERRIDE COMPLETE
Congratulations, Aurelian Lucis Imperius!
You have met the requirements to unlock the skill Revelate (E)!
Revelate is a profoundly more powerful form of Analysis, which allows you as an Elysean to more fully discern the truth of something’s nature. Few are the objects or individuals that can hide from your penetrating assessment, and even fewer are those that can fool your identification!
At Level 1, all things of Rare, Uncommon, or Common value are able to be fully identified by you. All individuals below their Expert Tier (Third Temper) are also able to be fully catalogued. In order to use this skill on items of Epic or better quality, or denizens of Expert Tier or higher; please raise the skill to a level equal to or above that which you wish to analyse!
Harness that all-seeing eye, Reclaimer!
Aurelian had a few moments to blink in surprise at what he was reading, before a sudden surge of agony caused him to arch his back. His eyes felt like they were being burned from the inside, and he gripped at his head with a scream of pain as lightning bolts of agony struck his optic nerve rapidly. The room seemed to flash and darken around him, and he faintly thought he heard the sound of singing voices in the distance.
Then as fast and abruptly as it had happened, it stopped.
Aurelian released his head amid panting breaths, staring wildly around the room for a moment as his vision came back into focus. The pain in his eyes had faded to a dull ache within seconds, and several moments after that had dissipated entirely. The only way he could express it was that it felt as if someone had taken a blowtorch to his cornea and hooked up his optic nerves to a car battery at the same time.
“That… sucked.” He breathed out hoarsely, staring in a general sort of manner at the sunlight streaming through the hole in the ceiling. “God damn System…”
Aurelian reached up and rubbed his palms against his eyes while muttering under his breath, massaging them gently and sighing at the fait relief he felt from the phantom remnants of the pain. He had thought breaking his arm during the car crash had been painful, but nothing could compare to what he’d just experienced.
At that moment, another chime sounded in his head and he froze.
Congratulations, Aurelian Lucis Imperius!
You have met the requirements to unlock the skill Pain Tolerance (UC)!
Pain Tolerance is cultivated by painstaking hours of being subjected to enough sensory overload to make even the strongest of denizens quail. Only those truly determined to be more than mere bystanders in the violence of the Realms succeed in properly mastering this skill. Pain Tolerance allows you to better withstand the many ways in which your mortal body might be damaged or harmed during your journey throughout the Realms.
Happy adventures, Reclaimer!
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Aurelian’s eye twitched as he read the message, and a low curse echoed from his mouth. The system had to be messing with him. It had to be. Almost on reflex he braced for another surge of pain, but instead all he experienced was a sense of coolness in his nerves, as if they had ever-so-slightly been made less sensitive to what was coming. He had a sneaking suspicion that levelling the skill would require, well, pain and that… that was not something he was looking forward to.
“Okay, now that I’ve got this skill, I might as well use it…” He said as he turned his eyes toward the items he’d received. “Here goes nothing…” He sucked in a breath in preparation, and cued the skill non-verbally to see if it worked.
Revelate!
Astoundingly, it did.
Information abruptly appeared above each of the three items, anchored in the air on his HUD. Despite the small size and lightness of the text, he found that he could still read it perfectly. An effect of the System, most likely.
Name: Enchanted Bedroll of Improved Restoration
Type: Item
Rarity: Uncommon
Description: Bedrolls are the bread and butter of any would-be adventurer, providing a nice and accessible means to take your rest no matter where you are. Enchanted bedrolls are especially treasured for their useful properties on long travels.
Effects: Using this bedroll to sleep for 5 or more hours will result in a full rest, allowing you to triple your healing during whatever time you spend sleeping after the first 5 hours. This buff will persist for an hour after waking up so long as you remain in a location deemed Safe, or remain in the bedroll and do not leave it.
“Okay,” he said with a nod. “Not bad actually. That will probably come in handy. What about the bag?” He turned to it, and started to read the text that leapt out for his consumption.
Name: Enchanted Vrelken Hide Satchel
Type: Container
Rarity: Uncommon
Description: This Satchel is made from skinned and tanned Vrelken Hide, allowing it to weather a considerable amount of punishment and stay insulated from environment infiltration. Satchels like these are integral for any would-be Adventurer.
Effects: This bag has a maximum carrying capacity of 10kg, and is fastened by a spelled lock. Items within the bag are rendered immune to damage until removed, or until the bag is severely damaged or destroyed. Only the registered owner of the bag, or persons they authorise, may open or close this bag.
He noticed immediately the benefits of the bag, but more than that he noticed its design. It was built like a laptop carry case, with a single strap designed to loop over the head and shoulder so the bag could sit on the opposite hip. It was one of his favourite designs, ironically enough, and Aurelian felt immediate satisfaction after reading its information. A good container would likely make a lot of his future problems much easier to manage.
Finally his eyes moved to the sword, and this he reached out to pick up as he examined it. It was the thing he was, with no surprise, the most interested in.
Name: Elysean Squire’s Blade
Type: Elysean Longsword
Rarity: Rare
Tier: Novitiate Tier
Description: A weapon whose origins and forging process are lost to memory. Its edge will never dull, its blade will never rust, and it can withstand tremendous punishment.
Special Effects: This blade can be bonded to a single wielder by blood, making it extremely difficult to steal and allowing the owner to summon it to hand for 30 mana in the event it is lost.
Aurelian raised his eyebrows and gripped the wrapped hilt of the weapon, pulling it from the dark leather of its sheath and staring at it in interest. It was shaped much akin to the traditional bastard sword, with a cruciform crossguard and a wide, solid hilt able to be held in one or two hands. Where it deviated, however, was the design of the blade. As opposed to the usual style of conservative design, the Elysean blade was easily 6 centimetres wide, with a fuller down its length inlaid with several runic designs that Aurelian had no hope of identifying.
Most interesting of all was the fact that the blade didn’t even seem to be made wholly of metal, or at least not any metal he was used to. The edges of the blade seemed to glimmer faintly as he examined it, catching and reflecting the light in such a way as to almost appear crystalline. Even the main body of the blade appeared slightly off to him, as if the metal was not quite settled on what colour it wanted to be. That in itself was… perplexing, but he chalked it up to ‘ancient dead race shenanigans’.
Unable to help himself, Aurelian stood up and with careful motions took a few experimental swings with the sword. As if waiting for the cue, a System chime erupted in his head and he immediately overbalanced, dropping the weapon in the process and dancing away from it where it clanged loudly into the marble flooring. By reflex he looked around to see if anyone in the empty room had seen him, and then followed that by groaning at his own anxious stupidity.
He was very, very much alone.
Irritated but not entirely surprised, Aurelian took a moment to review the prompt.
Congratulations, Aurelian Lucis Imperius!
You have met the requirements to unlock the skill Longsword Mastery (C)!
This skill allows you to wield weapons of this type with greater and greater levels of competency and lethality, and is also crucial to gaining access to more powerful weapons within this discipline.
Practice yields improvement, Reclaimer!
Aurelian dismissed the prompt after reading it over twice, and as he did so felt the beginnings of an idea percolating within his mind. The System had inferred quite directly that raising his new skill would make him more effective with his weapon. In most scenarios, learning to use a sword required active trial and error in combat, but… He was in a world controlled by a — hopefully at least — logical System matrix. By that standard… Well, the last line stuck with him; ‘Practice yields improvement’. Did that mean that flailing around wildly would eventually lead to greater competency? There was only one way to find out.
The sword was retrieved carefully a moment later, and Aurelian considered it in silence. “Bonding it, huh?” He mused quietly, before looking down at one of his bare hands, and then to the sword. “Hard to practise with a cut hand, and I have no idea how much blood you’d need… Maybe just before I sleep. I can take advantage of the bedroll that way, huh?”
All he needed now was a way to train. He stared at the sword as he thought about it, pondering the metal absently while also running over possibilities in his mind. Attacking his bedroll or satchel was out of the question, and even though the weapon could theoretically stand up to being hit against the stone wall, all it took was one bad ricochet or flawed grip and he could take out his own eye or worse. What he needed was something like a rote, repetitive— “A Kata!” He said while snapping the fingers on his left hand.
Katas he was familiar with, thanks a relatively over achieving amount of martial arts in his formative and teenage years. He was rusty as all hell, and had no weapons training to speak of, but he’d read about and watched enough movies about sword katas that he could probably create something relatively acceptable with what he had to hand. Yeah, Kata sounds good. It’ll give me something to do, as well.
Satisfied with his decision, Aurelian turned and — while maintaining a careful hold on the weapon — dragged over his new bedroll to a more open point in the large room. Eyeing it for a moment, he moved it again a little bit further out and then nodded to himself in satisfaction. Next he walked over and grabbed the satchel, carrying it in and depositing it roughly two metres below the bedroll, closer to the shafts of light coming in from the ruined ceiling. Finally he retrieved the forgotten sword sheath and moved over to an area two metres above his bedroll, as reckoned by the shape of the room. This he deposited closer to the closed door, with its side facing the door and its length facing the wall.
“If nothing else, it’s a good foundation…” Aurelian said as he moved toward the satchel, and then regarded his impromptu training course.
The idea behind it was simple: He’d weave through the training course between the different items like a figure eight with an extra end, and practice slashes, stabs, and parries as he remembered them from Earth’s popular culture. The hope was to, hopefully, gain levels in his Longsword Mastery skill and perhaps even some of his Attributes, though he wasn’t entirely sure which ones would benefit outside of Strength and Endurance. Those two alone, however, would be worth it.
Aurelian drew in a deep breath to relax himself as he took position, placing both hands on his new sword and glancing down to make sure he had a solid stance. He pushed out his feet until they were a little over a shoulder-width apart, and then shifted until he felt stable and comfortable. “This is going to be weird with a taller body, too…” He muttered to himself, already feeling the ominous thread of anxiety rising up within him. “You got this… you got this…” He muttered quietly, and then started the course before he could overthink it further.
Almost immediately he had to stop himself from fumbling the blade, his grip too loose with his left hand and far too tight with his right. Only dumb luck saved him from dropping the blade again, and perhaps a little bit of healthy caution. The moment he reoriented himself, however, he froze.
A chime had sounded.
Longsword Mastery is Level 2!
Aurelian abruptly burst into a massive grin, his eyes reading the message with glee. “Now that’s what I’m talking about.” He trumpeted while reaffirming his grip on the sword, his spirit already soaring. “Thirty seconds in and already a level up? Awesome.” The gamer in him was absolutely giddy at the development, and he was mentally launching himself into the air when he thought about it. Outwardly however he maintained focus on what he was doing, double checked his stance, and started to move once more.
As he walked through the practice alternating his movements between strikes, slashes, stabs, and parries; it took a full rotation before the chime sounded again, informing him he’d hit level 3 in Longsword Mastery. Aurelian took it in stride the second time though, and after pausing to double check himself again following the notification’s distraction; he resumed his careful and rote movement.
Aurelian quickly lost himself in the practice. Minutes raced by as he grew more and more comfortable with the weapon in his hands. His level ups were certainly not quick, and even at what he estimated to be close to the one hour mark, he’d only barely hit level 5. He could feel the requirements for each advancement increasing drastically, like losing water weight when first working out: The initial gains were easy, but it was the true progress that was daunting.
Over and over he repeated the course, alternating his footwork at times to match sudden changes in his pattern of motion. He avoided taking breaks where possible, tracking his depleting stamina and slowing down only enough so it could refill when he truly began to feel tired, after which he’d start into it again. His Longsword Mastery wasn’t the only beneficiary however, as his Strength, Endurance, and Dexterity all enjoyed minor increases as he moved.
The first hour bled into three, at which point he began introducing spins and twists within the movement. Carefully at first so as to avoid any injury, but steadily increasing with speed and potency as he practised. The System rewarded him for the variance, and he also found his confidence and comfort increasing alongside his capability. As three hours bled into five, the sword began to feel less like a blunt — so to speak — instrument and more like the precision tool it truly was.
When he estimated he’d bled over into the six hour mark, Aurelian allowed himself to rest.
He moved over to where the bedroll lay upon the stone and sat down on top of its coiled up body, his sword on his knees and a sheen of clean sweat on his arms, face, and along his body under the clothes. Without even thinking about it he brought up and reviewed his progress.
Longsword Mastery is now Level 3!
…
Longsword Mastery is now Level 9!
Pain Tolerance is now Level 2!
…
Pain Tolerance is now Level 5!
Strength has risen to 15!
…
Strength has risen to 17!
Dexterity has risen to 9!
…
Dexterity has risen to 11!
Endurance has risen to 7!
…
Endurance has risen to 12!
His body felt subtly stronger as well. More physically capable. He also found himself able to move for longer, and handle more and more exertion. His ability to withstand the stamina requirements of the training had risen, just as he’d assumed, in balance with his exertions over time. What at the first hour would have beggared him of energy and resources, by the end he could do almost three times in succession before he truly felt the hit to his stamina.
The biggest change had been his ability to withstand the soreness of his hands and the calluses forming on them as a result of his training. It had levelled his Pain Tolerance four times in the six hours, and while that seemed relatively small, he could already feel the results in the ease with which he held the blade despite his growing calluses.
“Progression is so fast here…” He said in quiet wonder, looking down at hands that already seemed firmer, arms that already seemed ever-so-slightly more defined. “I can feel the changes to my body… Man that’s crazy.”
His levels in Longsword Mastery had continued to rise relatively steadily, in fact, until hitting level 9. Something about it felt… gated. It was hard to put his finger on, but in many games he’d played it was often the first ten levels that were the hardest, or the most basic; at which point a player — or in his case, a person — was able to advance to the next ‘tier’ of proficiency.
“Let’s see how I’m looking now, eh?” He said before calling up his character sheet and analysing it intently.
Name: Aurelian Lucis Imperius
Temper: Untempered (Beginner)
Level: 2 | Race: Elysean (L) | Origin: Nephilim (L) | Gender: Male | Zodiac: Dragon (L)
Health: 140 | Mana: 57 | Stamina: 50
STR: 17 | AGI: 8 | DEX: 11 | VIT: 14 | END: 12 | INT: 14 | PER: 11 | WIL: 15 | CHA: 8
Mind Skills: Revelate (E) 1
Body Skills: Pain Tolerance (UC) 5 | Longsword Mastery (C) 9
No Spirit Skills
Titles: Elysean Reclaimer (U)
0% to Level 3
You have 1 Skill Point Available!
“Interesting… I have a Temper level, and… Mind, Body, and Spirit huh? Sounds like some sort of daoist—” He blinked. “Wait… Tempering? TEMPERING?” His jaw dropped. “Oh fuck, am I a cultivator?” His eyes widened and he let out a shout of glee. “Holy shit I’m a cultivator! YES!” A moment of rapturous excitement gripped him, and he imagined himself standing in excessively ostentatious robes, tattooed with twining dragons, and lecturing some evil little young masters on why they would amount to nothing, while subsequently crushing all their cruel mentors into the dirt for the fun of it.
Then the moment passed, and he shook his head. “This just keeps getting better…” he said with a grin before refocusing on the actual reason he’d pulled up his character sheet: his skill progression.
“I wonder if I can even hit level 10 doing this…” He mused quietly, eyeing his available skill point. He was tempted to use it, but it felt like it might be a waste unless he truly needed to. First he had to figure out if he could break the level 10 threshold with repetition, practice, and grit.
A quick glance at his stamina bar told him there was only one way to find out.
Aurelian grinned, stood up, and went to work.