I briefly considered putting a sigil on my bag with my new paint, but I dismissed it as a bad idea. Most of my sigils would be of little use to me most of the time. The only one I particularly wanted, the sigil of concealment, was not a terribly good idea to use while in motion.
While the sigil didn’t have a particularly strong effect on the painter, it was still enough to lead to some pretty serious mistakes. I had fond memories of the time Hyon tried to render himself invisible by covering himself in sigils. By the time anyone could see him again, he had been covered in bumps and bruises from walking into walls and tripping all day. Everyone had a good laugh at his expense.
As a bit of water ran down the side of my face, I looked up at the cloudy sky. Despite the lack of rain, I blamed the sky rather than thoughts of my teacher in the realm of shades for the moisture.
I dearly hoped that everyone was at peace over there. Considering that I was their last touchstone to the living world, I rather doubted that.
I let out a bitter laugh at the thought. Shades were said to only be able to view the world through the eyes of the living. As the last living person, my people would be forced to acknowledge my existence again or forever turn their eyes from the world.
Before my thoughts could stray to who would likely choose oblivion out of spite, I packed my jar of paint away.
I pulled up my interface to distract myself from such dark thoughts.
Name: Kyo —-----
Class: System Initiate
(9/10, 98%)
Mana Pool: 43/100
Codex: 99.98%
Boons: 9
Environmental Conditions: Unchanged
MR:242
TPEL:10
I was getting close to my next, and possibly final, boon. It was tempting to stay up until my boon finished integrating, but I wasn’t sure how long that would be. Just as I was about to close my interface, I noticed that my mana resistance had gone up. What happened?
Mana resistance level:
User’s Maximum safe mana threshold prior to system integration: 182
Mana resistance from System Integration: 45
Mana resistance from mana pool boon: 5
Mana resistance from system codex boon: 5
Mana resistance from codex link boon: 5
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Total: 242
Total Physical Enhancement Level: 10
Emergency Physical Augmentation (Improved Regeneration): 10
Total: 10
It looked like that boon hadn’t been useless after all. I wasn’t sure how much of an effect five points of mana resistance would have, but didn’t feel inclined to test. Experiments that could result in mana poisoning were not of particular interest to me.
Settling in for the evening, I wondered what the next day would bring.
At some point I drifted off. For once, my dream started out on a happy note. I was back in Sanctuary Valley. To my delight, everyone was talking and laughing with me as though nothing unfortunate had ever happened. As I turned to talk to someone, they slowly faded away. One by one, all of the joyous villagers surrounding me vanished. Before long, only one remained.
The hunter gave me a malevolent grin as he stepped forwards. I tried to run, but bands of silver mana wrapped around my head, locking me in place. The dream faded as a bloody knife appeared in my hands.
Gasping for breath, I struggled to sit up. It took me a few moments to calm my racing heart after my most recent nightmare.
I really wished I could just keep the dream study active all the time.
As I chewed on some of the plants from my bag, I called up my available boons.
Class Selection
Allows the user to select a new class.
Intrigued, I tried focusing on my current class.
Class: System initiate 100%
Initilitizes core system functionality for new users.
Main focus: System Interaction, All
Boons: 9/10
New boon available
System interface
System codex
Mana Pool
Interface Status
Codex Recording
Interface Customization
Codex Map
Codex Identification
Codex Link
So, I had only had the introductory class this whole time. If all of the boons I had selected up to this point had been considered core system functionality, that explained why I wasn’t offered the class change until now. The system needed to set everything up first.
Wondering what sort of things other classes would do, I selected my final boon as a system initiate.
Part of me had hoped that there would immediately be a way to look at what other classes there were, but after a quick look at my interface, I was disappointed.
Name: Kyo —-----
Class: System Initiate
(10/10, 0%)
Mana Pool: 99/100
Codex: 99.98%
Boons: 10
Environmental Conditions: Unchanged
MR:242
TPEL:10
Just like before, I was going to have to be patient and wait for my boon to finish integrating.
I impatiently eyed my interface as I picked up my bag. After a few moments of watching the progress indicator, I forced myself to close the interface. Staring at my interface wasn't going to make my new class become available any sooner. I had other things to occupy my thoughts until then.
There was a plateau to explore after all.