The feeling of being yanked by the heart through a dark and empty tunnel with no sense of up or down lasted for close to five seconds. When it was over, Ethan’s lunch hit the ground at the same time as his knees.

Welcome to the tutorial’s first floor, participant #68.

Congratulations, due to you being part of the first 100 participants of group #12, you’re hereby granted 1 tier-1 spell token.

Main Quest: Gain access to the second floor within 6 days, 23 hours, and 59 minutes.

Reward: 1 tier-0 wand.

Ethan quickly examined his surroundings. He was in an empty stone room, the sort he’d expect to see in a castle. The floor was bare, with large, uneven and cracked gray flagstones. Moss grew through the cracks, and light streamed in from the corner, where the wall and a good portion of the roof was just… gone.

Participant #68. Damn.

Ethan grinned. He didn’t know what was happening. His heart was hammering in his chest, but he couldn’t help the sense of excitement coursing through his veins.

“Okay, first things first. I have a wand, right? Not sure why the reward’s just another wand for finishing a floor, but alright. Now, how do I see the one I already have? Is that even possible? Also, is there a place where can see all of these details? Like an interface? Maybe if–ah, there we go. Awesome.”

Ethan expected needing some password or keyword to view the details, if that was even a thing, but he was glad to find out that the interface did exist, and he just needed to think about it to bring it up.

“This is… interesting.”

Name: Ethan Voss

Traits: None

Level 1

Might: 3

Toughness: 2

Spirit: 3

Mana: 1

Tokens: 1 Tier-1 spell

Wand #1: [Form: Claws][Sequential: None]

Class: Enhancer

Tier: 0

Unique Trait: None

Cast Setting: Sequential

Capacity: 1/2

Cast refresh: 5s

Mana regeneration: 0.01s (1%)

Stat Bonus: +2 Might +2 Spirit

Fragments: 0

Available spells:

General: None

Modifiers: None

Armament: None

Enhancer: [Claws - In use]

“This is crazy.”

Quests? Levels? Traits?

Every small part was vying for his attention, but when he tried to focus on one element or another, hoping for a tool-tip or an explanation, he got nothing. But that didn’t put a damper on his mood at all.

Ethan was electrified. Worried. Excited. This all smelled like a challenge, and he was all for it.

His eyes lingered over the wand section for a second, and he recalled the selections he’d gone through barely moments ago.

“I do have a wand now… How do I see it?”

Looking for a trigger or some sort of button he could click, Ethan quickly found it. Like a new mental muscle he instinctively knew was connected to his hand.

So he flexed it.

Something both cold and warm rushed out of his stomach toward his shoulders, then down his arms. As it reached his hands, his skin toughened. His joints and fingers swelled, growing taut. Finally, two-inch-long black claws stretched down off his fingers.

Ethan raised both hands and examined them, curling his fingers and watching the sharp black claws move, reflecting the light coming through the destroyed wall. He tightened his hands into fists, feeling the claws gently dig into his palms, but it didn’t break skin.

Even though his cheeks were sore from smiling this wide, Ethan laughed.

“This is fucking sick!”

Throwing a couple of punches confirmed the claws were too awkward for that, but the claws were tough. Plus, whatever the magic did to his hands and joints, it made it so Ethan could claw at the wall with most of his strength without much pain.

Enough strength to leave grooves in the damn stone.

“Damn. Now what’s this about tokens…”

Looking at the option he’d seen on his profile, he clicked it. A new prompt appeared.

Do you wish to exchange your token for a tier-1 spell?

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Ethan confirmed, then another menu appeared.

General-class spells: The largest class of spells. All sorts of spells can be categorized as general. They can be offensive, defensive, supportive, utility, or any mix of all four. Scaling and potency depend on the nature of the spell.

Modifier-class spells: Spells which combine with others to empower, improve, and modify. They cannot be cast on their own. Scaling and potency depend on the nature of the spell.

Armament-class spells: When set as default, this transforms the wand into the armament form of the spell. Thus, the spell will allow the wand to empower the user by boosting their stats. Scaling and potency depend on the nature of the spell.

Enhancement-class spells: When set as default, this transforms the wand into the physical form of the spell. Thus, the spell will allow the wand to empower the user by boosting their stats. Scaling and potency depend on the nature of the spell.

Ethan examined the definitions. General spells seemed vague. Most certainly useful, and potentially a good choice. Armament spells were out. If he recalled the selection process and the interface he’d just checked, there was a single form slot, and both armament spells and enhancer spells needed it to work. So picking an armament spell was objectively the worst choice he could make here. Same thing for another enhancer spell, which left him with a general spell, or a modifier. Considering the description, he leaned toward the latter. Modifiers seemed like literal power multipliers.

After a moment of consideration, he went with a modifier. A general spell could be great, but he wasn’t sure if he’d get a good option. On the other hand, boosting the spell he already had was a guaranteed increase in power.

Select a Modifier-class tier-1 spell from the list below:

Toxic enhancement: Coat your enhancement in a toxic substance

Fast projectile: Your wand projectiles are faster

Impactful enhancement: Impacts from your enhancement are empowered

Flaming enhancement: Ignite your enhancement with burning flames

Freezing armament: Coat your armament with freezing ice

Ethan whistled and decided to sit down. Five options, but not all were good for what he already had. Clearly, only those meant for enhancement were useful for him at this point, so he eyed them carefully. Impactful, flaming, or toxic.

The latter was interesting, but imagining his hands covered in poison or toxic slime grossed him out. He didn’t know if he’d be immune to it or not, but the image in his clawed hands dripping a toxic substance wasn’t super attractive to him.

Impactful was good. Ethan assumed that meant the claws would have more weight behind them.

Which left flaming. He might not be immune to it… But it was so damn cool he was willing to risk it.

He wanted the flaming claws. He had to see it. But he shouldn’t rush.

Well. Impactful is about strength. Which… sort of makes me think of the Might stat in my interface. Is there a way to raise that instead? I think it’s possible, and that would allow me to recreate [Impactful Enhancement]’s effect, in a way. On the other hand, there’s no stat for creating fire. Plus, I might be stuck here for a few days, so fire might be useful.

Hmm. Yeah. That’s a good enough reason.

Ethan grinned as he selected his option. Light collected in front of him for a second, and then sunk into his chest. A moment later, the new modifier showed up in his spell list.

“Amazing. Okay, how do I use that…”

Wand configuration cannot be changed while in use.

Ethan frowned. Alright.

He dismissed the claws, and the magic dissipated, revealing his regular ol’ hands. He grinned.

Focusing on his wand, a menu popped up to allow him to put the modifier into the second of the two slots. When he tried, a message popped up.

Tier-1 spells cannot be used in a tier-0 wand. Please upgrade your wand.

“Dammit.” Ethan felt scammed. “Alright. Fine. How do I do that?”

Ethan looked around as he wondered about the response to his question. He hoped the system—or the universe—would give him an answer. Instead, the universe decided that it was time to shake things up.

Screechy voices began sounding down the corridor, beyond the room’s exit. Whatever was making them, they were getting louder.

Ethan got up and glanced behind him at the torn wall, then hurried toward it only to discover a sheer drop, of hundreds of feet down, leading straight into tumultuous waves.

“Ah shit. A cliff. Great.”

Looking back toward the exit, Ethan approached the wall and pressed himself against it, then activated his claws again.

More mana–he guessed–rushed out of his chest and down to his arm, and Ethan felt dizzy for a second. He cursed himself for wasting the resource as he waited with bated breath for whatever was making the ruckus.

A couple of seconds later, two bipedal, lizard-looking things came sniffing around, looking here and there while warbling at each other in their odd tongue. They were approximately four feet high. Pretty thin, with muted brown scales. At some point, one of them backhanded the other. Above each of them, a line of text popped up in Ethan’s vision.

[Lizardling - Level 2]

[Lizardling - Level 3]

What the hell is this?

One of them was carrying a stone dagger in its hand as it sniffed, while the second had a short, rudimentary spear. They sniffed closer and closer, and Ethan was forced to take a step backward.

Were they intelligent? Peaceful? Or was this about to become a fight to the death?

Ethan exhaled and rolled his shoulders. The two lizardlings stepped into the room, and their slitted yellow eyes landed on him.

They hissed and raised their weapons, then slowly began approaching him. A drip of saliva escaped from the toothy maw of the dagger-holding lizardling.

Well, that’s my answer.

The spear lizardling screeched and rushed him, stabbing upward, while the second stealthily stepped around, trying to attack from the side.

Cute. But Focus.

Ethan didn’t waste any time. He couldn’t let them gain momentum.

He dashed to the right, comfortably dodging the clumsy spear thrust, and swiped his claws down, hoping to knock the spear out of the lizardling’s hand.

Instead, his claws cut through the wood as if it were a mere twig.

Ethan kept moving around the spear-wielder, keeping its frame between him and the dagger-wielder. From the corner of his eye, he saw a spear stab toward his foot.

Ethan jumped back, eyes wide.

The broken spear was gone, and the spear wielder had an identical, pristine–though still primitive-looking–spear in hand.

Oh. Armament wands.

The duo rushed forward again, and Ethan decided he had to end things quickly. He didn’t know why these two were after him, but he couldn’t go for disarming maneuvers any more. Not when he could be left bleeding in this random place.

Ethan dodged another spear thrust, stepped in, and drove his clawed hand into the spear-wielder’s gut. The claws punched through effortlessly, and warmth spilled onto his palm as the lizardling doubled over with a soft screech.

The dying lizardling looked up with eyes narrowed, its two clawed hands gripping his arm. From his right, the dagger-wielder stepped in and stabbed.

Ethan tried angling away from the oncoming blade, but it was a lot faster than he expected. With that half-second it took him to free his right hand from the dying lizardling, the second enemy had enough time to land his hit.

The dagger sunk into his arm, right above his elbow. The dagger-wielder had aimed for his side, but Ethan managed to cover his vitals in the nick of time. He groaned with pain, going for the lizardling’s neck with his left claws, and punched a deep groove into its flesh. Blood spurted as the dagger-wielder stumbled backward. It stared at him for a second, blood flowing from its neck, then fell on its side.

You have defeated [Lizardling - Level 2]

You have defeated [Lizardling - Level 3]

You have reached Level 2. 1 stat point awarded.

Side quest unlocked.

Ethan panted as he looked down at his bleeding arm. The dagger was still in it. He knew he shouldn’t be messing with it, but he couldn’t walk with it like this, either. Thankfully, it didn’t seem like it sunk in too deep. With his left hand, he reached over to take it out.

As his clawed hand touched the dagger, the weapon turned to golden smoke and sunk into his claw. A new notification popped up.

Wand #1: 1 fragment collected.

The surprises just kept on coming. Ethan chuckled, then groaned from the pain shooting up his right arm. He looked down at it, turning his hand gently to assess the damage. It wasn’t too bad, but it was most certainly painful. Thankfully, it wasn’t bleeding much, so no artery got nicked.

Now, what should he do about it? Wrapping it with something would be great, but he didn’t have much aside from the clothes on his back and he really didn’t want to start tearing his clothes this early into this quest. Recalling what he’d done before he stepped into the portal, Ethan clicked his tongue. He should have kept that store vest instead of throwing it away.

For once in his life, it could have actually been useful.