The priestess motioned at Tyler, who walked forward and extended a hand to the warrior, or rather, the paladin. The man grinned wider and clasped his hand around Tyler’s wrist who did the same. The latter winced as the pressure of the man’s strength was noticeable.
“Name’s Tyler, nice to meet you guys.”The paladin grunted as he let go and spoke in turn.
"Nice to meet you, new kid. Name’s Daren. The healer is Emilia, the shady guy with the bow is Alex, and the idiot playing with fire is Eugene. Are you up for this?”
The mountain of a man raised an eyebrow at Tyler, who paused and looked at Renara. The priestess, realizing attention was on her, coughed slightly.
"Ah yes, apologies. I got caught up in the moment and forgot. Give me a second…”
Turning to a bookshelf, the woman looked through what appeared to be a card catalog before pulling out four cards and handing them to Tyler.
"Those are a class card and three ability cards, they should get you started. Simply infuse your mana into them to add them to and activate your Catalog. Once you finish the team here, we can discuss your...situation.” She replied, giving a smile that Tyler was sure didn’t reach her eyes.
Sighing mentally, he did as instructed. Though he wondered why they used a card-like system. That seemed pretty weird to him, but hey if he was to fit in here…
It took a minute for him to figure out what she meant by 'infuse mana' but by focusing hard and scrunching his nose a bit, he got it. He let his mana flow from out of his body in invisible channels into his hand as he activated the cards. As soon as he did so, several prompts appeared and he looked at them. He furrowed his brow as they cluttered his vision and he wished they could be consolidated. To his shock, the System appeared to listen. The boxes glitched a bit before showing a bigger box instead of several small ones. A voice, something between a man’s and a woman’s, but monotone and almost robotic, spoke the text inside the boxes in his head.
Congratulations, you have activated the following:
[Apostate Mesmer]
Type: Class Card
Rarity: Uncommon
Description: A Mesmer is a class that debilitates enemies and provides crowd control, commonly abbreviated as CC, for their allies.
As an Apostate Mesmer, your abilities are of a holy nature and scale with both INT and CHA while this card is active.
[Slow]
Level 1
Type: Spell Card
Rarity: Common
Description: Cast an instant debuff on a target enemy, slowing their attack and movement speed slightly for 10 seconds.
Effect of this spell scales slightly with INT and CHA.
Cost: 25 Mana
[Lethargy]
Level 1
Type: Spell Card
Rarity: Uncommon
Description: Places a rune six feet in diameter on the ground.
When triggered, all enemies within range of the rune become dazed, making casting take longer.
Duration of the dazed effect and severity scales slightly with CHA.
Cost: 10 Mana
Cast Time: 1 Second
[Holy Shock]
Level 1
Type: Spell Card
Rarity: Common
Description: Unleash a gout of flame under a target, dealing holy-attuned damage instantly and reducing incoming healing by 30%.
Amount of damage scales slightly with INT.
Cost: 15 Mana
Cast Time: 0.5 Second
Congratulations, you have used your first Card and as a result have unlocked the Catalog system. In Aurelia, cards are the basic way for the mundane to access supernatural spells and abilities until they reach a sufficient TIer. See your Status page for more info.
Honestly, it was a lot of information to go over. A bit funny really, like some sort of indie game, but he wasn’t going to complain. He had actually freaking magic, how cool was that? Hell, he would be hooting and hollering for now if he was by himself and alone. Closing the notifications with a mental shove, he looked over at Renara and then to his new party with a slight grin on his face.
"Alright, so what are we doing?”
Daren looked at Renara, giving her a small nod. This was apparently the go ahead she needed as she began to speak once more.
"There is a portal to a dungeon we have nearby, it’s relatively low-level but there’s a secret door we need to open. Unfortunately, it’s not able to be opened by anyone here except you thanks to your...unique circumstances. Your task is to go with the team here, open the door and see what lies beyond that. Claim any riches or knowledge that is past the door, and return here. Simple and quick, is it not?” She replied with a big smile on her face.
You have been given a Quest:
[The Vault of Lambda’s Pride]
Rarity: Rare
Renara has tasked you with aiding the Church of Yavera in clearing the secret area of Lambda’s Pride, a Level 10 Dungeon.
Reward: Unknown
Penalty for Failure: ???
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Accept?
Y/N
Tyler looked at the prompt before him before shrugging and accepting. Not like he had anything better to do at the moment. And quests always had decent rewards, right? Seeing that he had accepted, the priestess gave a small bow.
"Good, good. Now if you would follow me to the portal chamber. We’ll grab you some basic gear on the way.”
With that, she dipped her head and the five of us followed her out of her office. Tyler hadn’t looked at the area much before now, but it was massive. Like one of those tall churches that seemed to go up forever. Various hallways led into other rooms where he could spot various scholars perusing books and other tomes littered the majority of the entrances. But he could see a few rooms where they appeared to be having sparring practice that was overseen by a senior officer. Eventually we were led upstairs and too a room that Renara quickly stepped into before bringing out a basic white robe and a staff, which she handed to him. They continued down a long winding hallway that seemed to climb even higher as Tyler inspected the gear he was given by imbuing his mana into the item on instinct. Small tooltips appeared in front of him, and he nodded in satisfaction.
[Apostate Robes]
Type: Chest Armor
Rarity: Common
Description: Little more than slightly enchanted linen, these are the most basic of robes given to the Church’s casters.
Effects: -10% Cost of all Mana-using Abilities.
[Iron Chanter’s Rod]
Type: Staff
Rarity: Uncommon
Description: A simple staff crafted using a Goldenwood base and a Skyroc Feather core.
Effects: +1 to CHA and INT while equipped.
Tyler slipped on the robes and held the staff in his hand. There didn’t seem to be a kind of Inventory system like in games, which was a bit of a disappointment, but he supposed he had to take what he was given. They party plus one eventually made it to a large room with a portal up against the back wall. To the left and right there were stained glass murals depicting some ancient goddess fighting against what looked like a horde of demons in Hell. The other was a group of angels around a portal or altar of some kind. Honestly it was hard to tell and he was no glassmaker. His attention returned to the portal, and man was it a sight to see. Two golden prongs, arched out at an angle from a similarly golden base that seemed to be fused to the marble floor beneath it. Two guards, similar to the ones that had drawn their weapon on him when he had arrived, stood on either side. In the center was the portal itself. It was a semi-transparent plane of blue-ish energy that almost made him feel like static electricity was running up his spine. It was amazing to look at. Actual, living magic. Well maybe living wasn’t the right word in his head, but Tyler didn't care.
"First time seeing a portal, huh? You get used to it, kid.” Alex said, a small smirk on his lips as the archer rolled his shoulders and checked his quiver idly.
"Well, where I’m from we don’t even have magic.” Tyler stated in response.
That caused the mage, Eugene to laugh and turn to him. "Really, none at all? Fuck, even the Dwarves and Gnomes have magic and they are focused on gadgets, gizmos and smiting more than anything else.”
Tyler just shrugged in response. It was true, Earth was a magicless planet. "Closest thing we had was parlor tricks, but those were all sleight of hand and misdirection.”
That made Eugene snort. Apparently he did not like magic being equated to simple peasant tricks. Daren looked around at everyone and nodded, seeing that they were all ready. He went towards the portal and got a blank look in his eyes for a second, making Tyler wonder if he was looking at a screen or something. Then he motioned them forward and they all entered the portal. Reality seemed to shift as Tyler entered the static-like energy before he felt himself move elsewhere. It was time to see what the dungeon was all about.
The world shifted around Tyler and his newly obtained party. It was like reality itself shivered and for instant there was nothing but darkness. As quick as it came, his vision came back into focus as if rubber-banding. Around him was a large stone structure about as tall as two-story building, and as long and wide as a football field. Small golem like creatures slowly trotted forward. They looked like what a child’s idea of a person was, knobbly limbs and faceless heads like they were made of clay. Getting an idea from the back of his head, he squinted at one of the creatures and tried pushing mana towards it. It worked for looking at items, so why wouldn’t it work for living things at well? He stood there like an idiot for almost a minute before something in his subconscious clicked and information flooded on how to actually do what he intended.
Name: Lesser Stone Golem
Level: 15
Rather than a tooltip like with items however, this was more of an automated message in his head in the same androgynous voice as he heard previously. He briefly wondered why the creature didn’t pop up with a tooltip, maybe something to do with distance? He didn’t know. He did get a prompt though, and he looked at it.
As a result of your actions, a new skill has been discovered.
[Analyze]
Common
Level 1
A basic manipulation of one’s mana to sense the attributes of an item or entity.
Information obtained and ability to pierce through obfuscations increases per skill level.
“Heh, looks like the newbie here just unlocked Analyze.”
Tyler blinked as he turned to look at the Alex and the others, most of whom looked to be hiding a snicker. That made him frown.
“Was it that obvious?”
Daren just shook his head with a smug grin. “Analyze is usually the first skill people obtain unless they’re raised in a village or a temple and stuff like that. The former usually gets a skill like Farming, while the latter obtains Prayer and various other holy things. Depends really.”
Tyler hummed in thought. That made sense. If someone focused on growing crops they’d obtain a skill related to it. He had a question though.
“What’s the difference between Skills and Abilities?”
This time, Emilia spoke, and her voice was like a honeyed melody.
“Skills are generally passive, or things you can do with little to no mana. They don’t offer much in the way of pure power. Think of things like blacksmithing, tailoring, running, and so forth. Abilities meanwhile are granted by the cards in your Catalog, and can shape reality using your mana, stamina, or health. Of course once you reach Bronze Tier you-”
Eugene waved a hand to cut her off. “Now now, no need to fill the kid’s head with too much info. Let’s just clear these golems and move onto the next room.”
She simply nodded and Tyler scrunched his brow. What the hell was Bronze Tier? He’d have to ask later.
Daren hefted his hammer in both his hands and looked at him.
“Just sit back and toss some spells when you see an opening. We can clear these guys with ease.”
Leaping into the air far higher than should be possible, the man seemed to home in on the closest golem and shouted.
“Divine Charge!”