Chapter Five- The First Day In A New World Part 1
Everything hurts. Must’ve slept funny last night, he thought sluggishly. What a wild dream! Without opening his eyes, he rolled over to be closer to the cozy, fuzzy pillow next to him. So soft, he thought. Then he noticed that his pillow was well, breathing. Oh shit. Not a dream, Man! Wake the hell up! Mark's eyes flew open and he sat up like a rocket, carefully removing his arm from around the feline woman’s waist, so as not to wake her. Then, Mark cautiously began to examine his situation. It seemed that they had been deposited in the middle of a forest somewhere. They were lying in a small meadow full of tall green grass, which was surrounded on all sides by various unfamiliar trees. They each had on some basic clothing- nothing too fancy, it seemed, that he assumed must have been created by the system based on some arbitrary criteria. He had on a well fitted t-shirt and pair of sweatpants, and she was garbed in a similar fashion. Next to them lay the equivalent of a backpack, which he grabbed with one arm and hauled over to him.
Mark spent the next 20 minutes cautiously inventorying the contents of the leather bag. Within, there were mainly things that he found remarkably evocative of his hiking gear back on earth. A small circular device that appeared to function as some sort of magical compass lay on top. A bundle of what looked and smelled much like beef jerky, and one large filled waterskin. One extra set of clothes for both of them took up the bottom half of the bag, along with two belts with sheathed daggers. The bag itself seemed to be considerably larger on the inside than it appeared outwards, but it did nothing to lessen the weight of what was in it. “A few basic necessities,” he quoted, a little irritated. “Emphasis on the word few.” This jerky is hardly going to last us the day, he thought glumly. Now there was only one thing left to inventory. Here goes nothing. Open status.
He recoiled back in surprise when the semi-translucent menu popped into existence in his vision. Much to his surprise, he found that he could still keep track of his surroundings with little issue, and he relaxed a bit as he took a closer look. Within the status menu, he was given a prompt.
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Select which status you wish to view:
Mark Vanderbilt, Human male, Class level 1
Oceli female, Class level 1
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Mark assumed that the ‘Oceli female’ was the woman laying on the ground next to him. We have some sort of mental bond, right? He questioned. Maybe the system is picking up on that somehow. Moving forward, he quickly selected his own status. As curious as he was to find out more about his new ‘partner’, he didn’t think it was right to access her status before she had even had a chance. As the new window opened, he was greeted with a list of options for what he wanted to view, which he got right down to reading.
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Select which part of your status to view:
Class
Base Statistics
Bestiary
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Mark decided to go with what was listed first. He opened the class section of his status page.
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Class Status page:
Name: Mark Vanderbilt
Species: Human
Class title: Beastmaster Of The Northern Lakes [lvl 1][Unique Class]
Class Affinity: Water [lvl 1]
Class description: Utilize your immense knowledge of aquatic creatures and powerful grip over water to facilitate a mental bond with creatures of the depths. While powerful on your own, on the water you can become a formidable threat not even the likes of wyverns would choose to face lightly.
Class skills: [3]
Bestiary [lvl 1]:
This passive skill collects all of your observations and findings about any creature, be they animal or monster, and catalogs them for you. Findings can be accessed in the ‘Bestiary’ tab of your status page. The more you know about a creature, the easier it is for you to establish a bond.
Aquatic Analysis [lvl 1]:
Using this active skill on a target causes you to enter an elevated state of focus, allowing you to gain a better understanding of the target’s strengths, abilities, and weaknesses. This skill works at a higher level of efficiency on aquatic beings, allowing your awareness of your surroundings not to falter. [Mana cost 3]
Initiate Bond [lvl 1]:
Initiate a mental invitation for a creature to bond with you. Great knowledge of the creature you are attempting to bond with and a shared affinity are required for success. If you should succeed, you will be left with a staunchly loyal ally. Upon failure, the creature will remember you, and be less likely to accept a bond later on. Effectiveness scales with skill level. [Mana cost 45]
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Affinity Skills: [2]
Weak Water Generation [lvl 1]:
Spend mana to generate pure water. Volume of water per point of mana scales with skill level.
Weak Water Manipulation [lvl 1]:
Spend mana to manipulate water. Pure water costs less mana to manipulate. Mana usage scales to the volume of water manipulated. Mana cost effectiveness scales with skill level.
Passive General Skills: [6]
Tevician (Language) [Max lvl]:
You have a complete understanding of the Tevician language.
English (Language) [Max lvl]:
You have a complete understanding of the English language.
Pyrosa Standard (Language) [Max lvl]:
You have a complete understanding of the standard language of the pyrosan continent.
Woodland Rhetoric (Power tongue) [Max lvl]:
You have a complete understanding of the language of sentient woodland creatures large and small. Be careful with your words, because you cannot lie.
Slentithi (Power Tongue) [Max lvl]:
You have a complete understanding of the language of the wyverns, drakes, and dragons, as well as their followers. Utilize caution speaking this tongue, lest you attract unwanted attention.
Energy Sense [lvl 5]
You can detect the energy flow of the world around you. Ability scales with skill level.
Active General Skills:[1]
Identify[lvl 1]
Grants very basic information about any item you touch. [Mana Cost 1]
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Mark read the whole thing. Then he read it again two more times. Well, he decided, the lack of supplies bothers me a little less now. Then he closed the window. In all honesty, he was in awe of the incredible powers that had been bestowed upon him. The ability to create allies of massive sea creatures by bonding himself to them was totally awesome, and the Bestiary and Aquatic Analysis skills sounded like they would be useful for a multitude of things. His affinity skills had eliminated the need to find a water source as well, and now the only immediate problem they faced was food. It seems like that with Identify, we might be able to find edible plants, he thought. Maybe. He grabbed a piece of jerky from the bag, and tried using Identify. He felt a small tingle in the palm of his hand, and another menu popped up.
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Wild boar jerky
Nutritious and energizing.
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OK, maybe not, he thought. He tried Identify again with the compass item.
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Enchanted Mana Compass
Directs the user towards true north.
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Yeah, no. We’ll have to figure something else out for food, he decided. Maybe my identify will level up eventually and get better, but for now it leaves too much to be desired. Mark put the compass and the rest of the jerky back in the bag, right as the sleeping woman next to him began to stir.
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Lili woke up slowly. Her head felt like one of her father’s smithy’s anvils had fallen on it. Slowly, she sat up and yawned, stretching her arms out over her head. It was beautiful today. The sky was blue, the grass was green, and the birds whistled as trees blew softly in the wind- Wait a second. I died, she remembered. Wait, the God! I was going to get reincarnated and then- oh. She cringed as she remembered the immense pain, and then she snapped to attention as she fully realized the reality of the situation. Lili felt an odd sensation then. A presence- concerned, a little questioning, but not hostile glazed through her mind. She turned to look behind her, and there he was. The man from before. He had a lean build, and he was tall, but not exceptionally so. His warm brown eyes watched her as she inspected him, and she flushed a little. Then he spoke.
“Hello,” he said. “I’m Mark.” “Lilliana,” she replied after a second. “It’s nice to meet you, Mark.” They were both silent for a moment, too nervous to really say anything more. What do you say, she wondered, to the person that a God just bonded you to forever? As if sensing that she had no idea what to say next, he spoke again. “I’m from the planet Earth,” He chuckled and paused for a moment. “I’m a human, and right now I’m speaking English. Where are you from, Lilliana?” Mark asked. She smiled. “I’m from the planet Amuvita. I’m an Oceli and I speak Tevician,” she said, and having regained a bit of confidence, she asked, “How long have you been awake?” At this question, for whatever reason, it was his turn to blush. “A little less than an hour, I’d say, the sun hasn’t moved too far in the sky. ”I took inventory of what we were given. We don’t have a lot of food, but water shouldn’t be an issue. In my status page, one of my class skills allows me to generate water at the cost of something called mana.” he explained. Lilliana knew all about mana.
“There was mana on my world too,” she said, pleased that that much, at least, hadn’t changed. “Our mages could use it to channel spells, and our healers to aid the sick and injured. I’ve never heard of using it to generate an element before, though, only move it.” she said excitedly. The possibilities for this kind of magic are endless, she thought. “There was no mana on Earth,” he told her, “At least not for thousands of years. Stories that go back to the dawn of human civilization tell of fantastical creatures and insanely powerful people who could go so far as to stop time, but they’re generally regarded as fictional tales used to frighten children.” The logistics of managing a world without mana confused Lili, but she decided it was probably a topic for another time. “Have you explored our surroundings at all?” she asked him. “No,” he replied. I spent my time reviewing my Class status. I wanted to make sure I knew about every available tool I had at my disposal before I even attempted exploration." “It’s like what Novi said." she agreed. ‘Nowhere is entirely safe’.”
With that ominous warning now in mind, Lili decided that it would be best if she too knew what tools she had at her disposal. “I’d like to view my status too. Do you think it’d be safer if we stayed here, or looked for somewhere else?”