Leaning against large barrels of alcohol in the middle of a stone room filled with random refuse and the dead bodies of creepy bat-like monsters, Kenshiro ran his fingers through his hair as he reread the notification screen before him. It was a soft green screen with white lettering. The screen glowed lightly and was semi-transparent.
Welcome to Nowhere!
You have been chosen by Venerated Spirit, Tara
Begin tutorial?
Y/N
Kenshiro read the message over and over again. He even rubbed his eyes once to make sure they weren’t betraying him.
“Huh?” was all he could manage to say before turning slightly away from the screen, only to have it stay locked in the center of his vision as he turned. Kenshiro blanched, “What is going on?” He whispered.
This strange interface confused him. “What was this? Some sort of odd VR game? Am I having a seizure? What exactly is going on, and why is my wife’s name floating in front of me like some bad isekai anime message? Why is she being called a Venerated Spirit?!” Questions flew through his mind like he was riding by them on a bullet train.
Kenshiro felt like his heart was stuck in his throat as he tried to touch the floating screen. His hand went right through it. Confused, Ken tried to hover over the ‘Y’ but nothing happened. “Yes!’ He thought. Just let me hit the ‘Y’ so I can find my…” Kenshiro paused as the notification disappeared, only to be replaced with another one.
Quest: Tutorial
Description: Complete the following task and learn how to save your wife.
* Accept Title: Conduit of Souls.
* Accept Class: Skill Eater.
* Consume a Beast Core and assign it to an attribute.
* Find out where the Defuse Infernal Mana is coming from.
Success: +1 Attribute PointFailure: Game Over
Kenshiro stared at the screen for a long moment, “...learn how to save your wife…” a shiver ran down his spine. “Save… Tara,” he muttered under his breath in a mix of confusion, fear, and unbridled aggression.
Kenshiro wasn’t an aggressive guy. He knew that about himself. His father had spent his whole childhood pushing him to be a man’s man. To fight, drink beer, and do man stuff. Yet he never really had it in him. However, the idea of having to save his wife, that she was in danger, caused his blood to boil. Not an uncontrolled fury—he wasn’t about to start banging on walls and breaking things, but “If something or someone is trying to play a silly game with my wife…”
Kenshiro knew he would do whatever it took to help Tara. He had decided that a long time ago.
While he was lost in thought, another screen appeared before the previous screen vanished.
*Unique* Class Available: Skill Eater
Requirements: Title - Conduit of Souls
Description: Adapt to any situation. Consume the abilities of defeated and willing creatures. Abilities are limited to available aspect slots, Vital, Grace, Insight, and Karma.
Warning: Requirements not met.
Accept Class?
Y/N
As soon as he finished reading, another notification, of the same color and shape, appeared beside the first. It hovered next to it in the center of his vision.
New Title Available: Conduit of Souls
Description: Convert Skills, Abilities, and defeated enemies into EXP. Gain access to Character Sheet, Game System, Quest System, and guidance from Tara.
Cost: 10% EXP offered as tribute to Tara.
Warning: Accepting this Title will Untether you.
Accept Title?
Y/N
Kenshiro slowly read each of the descriptions aloud, muttering to himself. He found that reading some things aloud helped him process the information better.
“Alright, so to use Skill Eater, I must first accept the Conduit of Souls,” he started, not rushing, even though everything in his mind made him want to mash the button and search for Tara.
“It seems that I can somehow… consume… abilities. Interesting word choice... It also seems like there is a limit to what I can consume that corresponds with ‘aspects.’ Not sure what that means, but it seems simple enough.”
“Conduit of Souls on the other hand.... In order to gain that ‘Class’ as well as a bunch of different systems, I pay a 10% tax on EXP gains to… Tara,” Ken’s heart sank. 10% was not a small amount. Not to mention he didn’t know what it meant to tribute EXP. He ran his hand through his hair.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
The next part was just as confusing. “What does it mean to become Untethered?” he said aloud, before scuffing the ground with his feet, fidgeting. “Untethered doesn’t exactly sound good… Some kind of debuff?”
Kenshiro weighed the pros and cons. He had two options. “If I accept these powers and systems, I get a 10% EXP tax that supposedly goes to Tara. I also become ‘Untethered,’ which I do not understand. Also, this is a Unique class…”
Kenshiro got the distinct impression, if video games had taught him anything, that something unique would not be easily available down the road.
“There’s just too much I don’t know. Then again, adaptability does sound ideal. I don’t know what’s going on. Which means, if I turn this tool down, I just don’t have it.” Kenshiro hesitated, concerned with his lack of options and the ramifications of accepting… whatever this was.
He had to make a choice.
If this was indeed real, if Tara was in danger and this provided a way for him to help, he would. That or he would have access to something that claimed to have knowledge of her, which also meant knowledge of him. He could start pulling threads as long as he was careful.
Kenshiro mentally accepted the title and the class in quick succession. As he accepted, he was filled with a warm rush that grew from his chest to his head before flowing through his whole body, wrapping him in its warmth. It covered him, comforted him, and caressed him. An amber glow trickled through his being until it lit up his vision. The room grew bright as he embraced the feeling before it released him.
“What was that?” Kenshiro said, feeling amazing. He still had the little cuts on his arm and side, but he felt wonderful. Like waking from a full night’s sleep after the best workout of his life on top of a mountain with a beer in hand, despite being in a cold stone room that smelled like alcohol and sulfur.
“Wow. Let’s do that again,” Kenshiro said aloud as the room’s ambiance sunk back into his skin, reminding him of the situation he found himself in.
Quest: Tutorial
Description: Complete the following task and learn how to save your wife.
* Accept Title: Conduit of Souls. (Complete!)
* Accept Class: Skill Eater. (Complete!)
* Consume a Beast Core and assign it to an attribute.
* Find out where the Defuse Infernal Mana is coming from.
Success: +1 Attribute PointFailure: Game Over
“Alright. Two down. Now, if only I knew how to use the things I just accepted, where I was, how to find a Beast Core, and where I could find my wife, I’d be in great shape,” Kenshiro said, his voice slowly escalating as he went on. The notification automatically closed itself at the thought.
Yet, having a list, a simple order of operations, Kenshiro somehow felt much less disconnected and scared. Sure, when he had first woken up here he had felt worried, but the introduction of a list, a simple sequence of actions that he could pursue grounded him. It grounded him in the same way work grounded him back home, or working out grounded him when he wasn’t working. Something to do beat having to sit in worry and frustration.
“One thing at a time,” he reassured himself. “The next item on the list is to find a Beast Core.” Kenshiro’s mind immediately went to the nasty bat-like creatures with horns.
Walking over, Ken poked the closest one to him, the one he had bashed into the cabinet, with his foot. As he did, another two icons popped up. These icons were more discrete. So discrete he almost missed them.
The first was a list of four basic numbers:
HP: 16/20
MP: 17/17SP: 13/17
EXP: 0/1000
The four numbers were fairly straightforward, reminiscent of video games and any classic tabletop rpg. Health, Mana, and Stamina were a safe assumption.
The notifications were small, sitting in his peripheral vision until Kenshiro focused on them. The second was a simple question mark symbol that read ‘Identify’ in the same font as the previous notification screens. Kenshiro glanced over this icon and then simply allowed it to activate. His intuition made the process seem oddly natural. He knew the icon had popped up to help him Identify the small creature in front of him.
Creature: Lesser Infernal ImpRank: 0Description: Diminutive beasts of the Hells. Scavengers by nature, these demons occupy the lowest ranks of the Infernal Lowerarchy.
Loot: Tiny Infernal Core: Imp
Use Skill Eater?
Y/N
The information floated above the creature, a static bubble above its corpse. As Ken turned, the other two imp bodies also popped up with the same information. Each detailing the Creature, Rank, and a basic Description, while only two of the three imps had loot.
“Imp huh? Like a little devil?” Kenshiro had never been particularly religious, but he had an impulse to cross himself, curious what it meant for the situation he had found himself in.
“Am I in hell?“ Ken pushed away the useless thought. He didn’t have time to be upset and wonder if Satan had indeed taken his soul.
Shaking his head, Ken refocused. Putting all his attention on the task in front of him. He reread the magical floating windows above the heads of the ‘imp’ creatures.
“Interesting. Seems like I can only loot the ones that have Skill Eater, or maybe it’s the other way around.” Kenshiro pushed the creature around with his foot for a moment trying to see if he could indeed find the listed core. He didn’t find anything.
Frowning, He stooped down to pick up the creature. He didn’t like the idea of handling the dead, ugly creature. Yet, if this thing had loot he was going to find it. Then he would get out of this room and find his wife.
The imp was light, similar to the weight of a heavy bird, with a distended little paunch. Small horns on its head, clawed hands that reminded him of a cross between a raccoon and a small child. If that child was red, had vascular arms, and bat-like wings. What Kenshiro did not see however, was whatever a ‘core’ was.
“Tsk. Okay. Well… The fact that this is a video game just dropped by quite a bit. I’ve either lost my mind or I’m in a coma, hallucinating in a dream after a train crash.” Kenshiro’s concerns surfaced again as he rolled the small dead creature over in his hands. The dead imp’s body was warm to the touch
“Wow. Am I really hoping that I’m in a coma right now?” Kenshiro said as he shook his head and put the creature down. Something had happened. He didn’t know what and he didn’t know exactly how. He did know that he had access to all of his senses and his mind. He had indeed seen these imps, smelled them, and touched them to find whatever a core was.
Kenshiro looked at the small notification window and acknowledged Skill Eater, mentally accepting it. “Is the system reading my mind?” He thought, as the notification vanished and the imp on the ground burst into a small orb of light that popped like a bubble.
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