Everything was black and silent. Gray felt oddly sober and aware, but he couldn’t see a thing. Strangely, his skin felt tighter than it had mere moments ago.

After a couple of moments, a blinding light suddenly hit his eyes, and his ears were filled with a familiar sound: applause. As Gray slowly dragged his hands away from his face, his eyes adjusted and could see a small crowd clapping. He was once again on a stage. For some reason though, he recognized this scene.

“What in the…”

His words were drowned out by the applause, but it died down after a moment. He turned his head forward to see that he was sitting before a large harpsichord. He instinctively placed his hands on the keys, but immediately retracted them with a jolt. They were much smaller than usual. He shakily perused their front and backsides for a moment.

“What in the fuck?”

Gray needed a long time to think in peace. But before he could do so, a number of floating words once again appeared in his sight.

Congratulations! Your Spirit has Regressed in Time!

You have been gifted control over the Illustrious Interface

The words disappeared, and Gray sat in silent confusion. A number of sniffles and coughs resounded in the audience as they awaited his performance. Gray needed a long time to think, but wasn't exactly in a place to do so. He wanted to just get up and leave, but he sighed and placed his hands on the harpsichord.

................

You have earned 100 SP

Once Gray had concluded a set of pieces, he stood up, bowed, and left the stage. Soon, he had stepped outside, not bothering to collect his payment.

.................

"I'm actually back in Faerun..."

As Gray walked through the city, no destination in mind, his heart was flooded with nostalgia. He recognized every building and many faces, though none belonged to anybody he cared much about. It was later into the evening, and a number of stars were fading into sight. The bustling atmosphere of the entertainment district was dying down, and most people were regressing to their homes. Gray passed a number of heckling merchants, but politely refused their potions and relics.

"The final summer of the era of prosperity... what a brutal fall followed it."

Once Gray had grown weary of reminiscing, his mind turned to his regression. Ever confused, he rubbed his face for a moment. As he dragged his hand sideways over his temple, glowing words appeared in his sight. He halted his stroll.

Illustrious Interface

Abilities Inventory

Skill Trees

? ? ? ?

Enchanting Brewing Crafting ?

? ? ?

?

?

?

?

?

Shop

Statistics

Map

Gray twisted back and forth, but the interface wouldn't leave his vision. After a moment though, he came to a realization and touched his temple again. The words reappeared. He toggled the interface rapidly for a couple of moments and laughed to himself. He attempted to interact with it by poking the air in front of himself, but nothing happened. A passerby smirked at his silly display.

...

After a number of minutes, Gray had figured out that by thinking hard enough, he could move between the interface's different pages. Though most of the pages were filled with many question marks, he soon navigated to his skill tree.

<- [Skill Trees]

Elemental Conducting Performance Magic

He selected "Elemental Conducting"

<- [Skill Trees] - [Elemental Conducting]

Conduct the Six Elements

[Earth Conducting] [Water Conducting] [Fire Conducting] [Air Conducting] [Light Conducting] [Darkness Conducting] LOCKED LOCKED LOCKED LOCKED LOCKED LOCKED Unlock for 500 SP Unlock for 500 SP Unlock for 500 SP Unlock for 500 SP Unlock for 500 SP Unlock for 500 SP

Balance: 100 Skill Points

Gray squinted for a moment, trying not to laugh. He was aware that he had no affinity for any variety of mana, nor the ability to manipulate any elements. He was tempted to believe this whole thing was too good to be true... But he resolved to do more testing before making such judgements. He began navigating to his statistics, but before he could do so, somebody shouted at him.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

"GRAY!"

As Gray turned his head, he saw a familiar woman running toward him. Soon, she had arrived just in front of him.

"By Meloria, Gray!" She leaned forward, rested her hands on her knees, and panted loudly for a moment. "What's wrong with you? This is the second time you've ditched me!"

"Lilia... Sorry." Gray wasn't so schmaltzy as to burst out in tears, but he did smile. "I was a bit preoccupied and it totally passed my mind."

Lilia slowly regained her breath and stood up, glaring. He smiled embarrassingly.

"Preoccupied with what?! Sigh. Whatever man..."

Lilia shook her head and rubbed her eyes, but then came to a realization and suddenly stopped. She slowly began to blush.

"Anyway... I'll look past it for now... it's your birthday, after all. Let's just go and get drunk already."

Lilia turned around and began walking away. Gray sighed, but soon followed after her.

................

"So I says to the guy, why all the sweet talk? You don't have a..."

"Ah, I see. That's very interesting. Wow. Mhm."

Gray was sitting in a tavern across from Lilia, who was drunkenly bothering an adventurer. The man was nodding his head with an uncomfortable, forced smile. Soon the adventurer was looking around and scratching his head. He stood up.

"Hey, uh, thanks for the chat blondie. But I have an umm... raid! A raid in an hour I have to get ready for. Cheers!"

Gray was suppressing a great amount of laughter as the man stood up and nervously dashed away. Lilia loudly called out after him.

"Who the heck goes on a raid this late? Wait! Are you even... Sigh. Whatever man."

She looked back to Gray and hiccuped.

"Why haven't you had anything to drink yet? You're eighteen now. Don't be shy."

Gray finally couldn't restrain himself any longer and burst out laughing. Lilian groaned as he did so, but after a moment he calmed.

"I think I'll abstain for the night. I should be heading out soon, regardless."

Gray still needed more time alone to process everything. He really wanted to genuinely talk with Lilia, but first needed to figure out what was going on. He couldn't seriously hold a conversation with everything passing through his mind. Maybe in a couple days he could, though.

"When did you get so lame? Whatever man..."

Lilia had another sip and then yawned. "Hey Gray... I need to tell you something."

Lilia was Gray's closest friend throughout his childhood. Though they had dissimilar interests, they had similar temperaments. As children, they were both careless and easygoing, running around Faerun and wasting time. Gray recalled such times, as well as a similar moment in his past. He knew what she was going to say.

"You're moving to the Royal City in a week, right?"

Hearing his response, Lilia winced.

"Aww man, did I already tell you when I was drunk? And I was gonna be so nonchalant too. Then you would have been like, No Lilia, don't go! Then I was gonna be like, But I'm a mage, Gray! I have to! Don't worry, I won't forget about you! Then you were going to be like No Lilia, you can't! You're too beautiful and pretty! Then you were going to be so sad and it was going to be so dramatic and everything and I was gonna be so cool!"

Lilia laid her head on the table and dramatically pretended to sob.

Gray smiled for a moment before responding. "I might go there as well, Lilia... I need a few days to think it over though."

Lilia lifted her head.

"That's great! Then we... Ooh... Ooh... Yup I'm starting to spin... Nighty night."

Lilia laid her head back down on the table. Gray rolled his eyes before standing up and walking over next to her.

"Up you go!"

Gray pulled her arm around his shoulder, and began helping her out of the tavern.

"There's a lot of death worth preventing."

................

"Thanks again Gray... I don't know what she'd do without you. You've grown up to be such a fine young man. Meloria's blessings."

Lilia's arm was now hanging around the shoulder of her father, who smiled before slowly closing their front door. Once again, Gray could think in peace. As he began walking, he pulled up the interface again, this time navigating to his statistics.

<- [Statistics]

Gray Shadestone

Title: ? Job: ? Class: Bard Species: Human

Level 1 ? ? ? LXP: 0/10 ? ? ?

?

Gray shook his head and continued checking the different parts of the interface, but every page was covered in question marks.

"You can track your level experience? And if I have control over the interface, why can't I see anything?"

He was a bit frustrated, but had absolutely nothing to be angry about. He was just given a second chance at life. He continued his directionless walk for the remainder of the hour, but something soon caught his sight.