P-System Log [Skill Discovered]
That message was as much a shock to me as it was to Jerome, it seems. Looks like both of us saw the pop-up at the same time, because he recoiled ever so slightly and I'm pretty sure he was staring off into the space right in front of him.
Oh, conversation. This might be important.
Axel: Is something the matter?
Jerome: Uh, no, nothing at all.
Axel:
Okay, he's not saying anything, but picture him squinting all suspicious-like.
Jerome: I think my System might be working.
Axel: May I examine your status sheet?
Jerome: Sure, I guess.
P-System Log
Uh-oh. He's going to use that same spell again, right?
I guess I can just let it pass this time. [Assess] isn't harmful, right?
[Assess] cast!
Jerome Smith
Class Race Level Godkiller Human 1
Stat Current Maximum Mana 990 1000 Health 472 500
Skills [Magic Missile lv. 1], [Assess lv. 1] Titles [Reincarnator]
Stat Modifier Total Strength +10 25 Magic +12 27 Insight -5 10 Constitution +8 23
P-System Log [Jerome talks to Axel about me]
I'm not going to bother tagging these with numbers anymore. I'm totally going to forget what each one refers to.
Anyway.
Axel: Your status sheet seems to be in good shape, at least. And your class! It's [Legendary] level! Your mana is criminally high! Reincarnators, I swear...
Jerome: Yep. I just gained a skill. [Assess], the System said.
Axel: Interesting. Were you, perhaps, perceiving something particularly hard? Many reincarnators begin without the most basic skills like that and the resistances, but they tend to take quite quickly.
Jerome: I suppose I was looking at the town a lot...
Axel: That might've done it.
Hey, that was all me!
Then again, I'm not sure how much of that really was me. I've been kind of playing it by ear, but from what I've heard, the Systems that handle each person's stats and magic and stuff should probably be displaying the message.
That message... it wasn't my choice to display it. Was that a gift from the Origin System, making sure I wasn't completely alone? Something to help guide the way as I figure out what I'm supposed to be doing?
Then again, it could just be an odd quirk of how this world works. I really don't know enough.
Damn it all, couldn't I have gotten a tutorial?
Oh, something just came to mind. Jerome spent 10 mana. Was that me spending his mana on the [Assess] just now? Or was it the expended mana from the [Magic Missile] that I failed to cast earlier?
Questions, questions, questions, and none of them ones that I can actually answer.
Speaking of which, is what I'm doing mana manipulation? It's like, not not mana manipulation, as far as I can tell, but I don't know what mana is in this world. Have I been perceiving it this whole time? I think the surest bet for it is the rip-in-reality sensation I've got. Maybe messing with that counts as screwing with mana.
And what the hell is W Inertia?
[Assess] activating!
System Prompt Activate [Assess]. Mana invested: 10
Object identified: Wooden Door
P-System Log That's interesting. I could actually feel him initiate the spell, now that I know what he's trying to do, and I could feel where he was aiming it. There's a lot more data about that wooden door stored in my head (well, not quite a head, but you get the point) that didn't get to that screen, though. I can feel them, hiding just beneath the surface, like they're just waiting for me to dig just a little deeper. Weird, useless stats, but they're still there. I'm going to reach just a little deeper...
Wooden Door
Attribute Current Type Oak Height 213 cm Width 112 cm
Stat Current Maximum Mana - - Health 53 60 W Inertia 2 2
Stat Total ATK +2 DEF -1
P-System Log
Hoooooly shit. Okay, okay, that was totally unnecessary. It's literally just a door, I don't need to know its entire historical bloodline!
Okay, I'm definitely being aided by the Origin System, right? Unless you're telling me that seeing these huge blue windows in my mind's eye--ones that have the audacity to tell me that even more facts about this goddamn door are being
I mean, I guess it is, but that's because of us Systems. As far as I know, I shouldn't have a System of my own, so the only proper conclusion is that Origin did something to me to help me comprehend all this raw data. I would be mad, normally, but I have to shift my goalposts a little. I'm not the person I was on Earth. Matter of fact, I'm not a person anymore. I'm going to have to get comfortable with a world with god-like entities like whatever's behind the Origin System.
Jerome doesn't seem to have reacted to the notification, and I feel like he would've if he'd seen whatever that mess was, so that probably means that was for me only.
That [Assess] did manage to bring up a few new questions, though. First off, the W Inertia stat. I thought that it was unique to me, since the two human stat sheets I'd seen hadn't mentioned W Inertia, but just glancing at this door particularly hard had revealed that it, too, had this stat. Something tells me that if I try to dig deeper into the stat sheets that Axel and Jerome have, I might find something similar. Why is that? Is it dangerous for people to know what it is? Is it a backend kind of deal where only Systems can know and use it?
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Too many questions and not enough answers. Basically the only thing I can conclude from this is a) the world is confusing and b) when Jerome casts a spell, it says [Spell] activating while the window says [Spell] was cast if someone else does.
Oh, new person!
Hopefully this lady that just entered my perception dome can help us. She's outside a building. Focusing on that building gives me the sense that it's an Adventurer's Guild, by which I mean that it probably is since I get that same impression of potential deeper [Assess] being available there.
The woman seems more important than the building, though. She's nearly as tall as Jerome is, and she's wearing long dark blue robes with a ponytail dyed the same color . If Axel was a confirmation that this world's fashion customs were different from ours, she she seals the deal. This new woman looks like she could be commissioned art for somebody's D&D OC.
[Assess] activating!
Integrated identified: Human [Mage lv. 26] Aster K'lon
P-System Log
Oh, that's interesting. When Jerome activated the spell, I felt something from him, like he had half of a whole. I completed that half with around the same power, manipulating the not-air I can perceive to do so, and it looks like it came out to be a lower power than what I can do on my own. I did it fast enough that the System Prompt didn't show up, but we didn't get a full status sheet from that. I guess it need [Assess] to be a higher level before it can do that. Which, y'know, I don't actually know how to increase, but we'll burn that bridge when we get to it.
Well, it's less cluttered at least. Fun!
Looks like Aster is the "Master K'lon" that Axel was referring to. Let's see if Jerome can weasel any information out of her.
P-System Log [Introduction to Aster]
Axel: Master K'lon! I thought you were resting!
Aster: I felt the reincarnation occur. I could not remain resting while that happened.
Jerome: This guy here--
Aster: Axel.
Jerome: Yeah, Axel says you can help me. My System's broken or malfunctioning or something.
Aster: May I chance a look at it?
Jerome: Sure. I'm watching you, though. Don't try anything tricky.
Aster: Wouldn't dream of it.
[Greater Assess] cast!
P-System Log
...I'm just going to let this one hit me. No point in making this any harder than it should be.
Oh, she's saying something.
Aster: ...incredible. Your System is deviant.
Jerome: Deviant?
Aster: I haven't seen it much, but it has occurred. In two other reincarnators, I saw them with a System that was more. Like it was a living, breathing being.
Shit. I'm not the first? Are there more of me?
Jerome: Is it a bad thing?
Aster: Far from it. One of them became one of the greatest heroes known to the Edge Cities, and his System only had a little bit of that feeling to it. Your System contains it in spades.
Wait, so are the other living Systems not human? Or, well, not originally human? Less than human? I dunno.
Jerome: Sure doesn't feel like it.
Aster: Patience. I am yet unexperienced with deviants, but both of them who passed through Maplecrest saw difficulty engaging with their Systems. Your time will come.
Jerome: How do you know it's a good thing? Can you prove that my System is different in a way that isn't just breaking it apart?
Aster: Come around to the back. I have something to show you.
P-System Log
Starting a new log, I'll tag the last one with something relevant later.
Something is happening. Aster is taking us--well, Jerome, I'm just here for the ride--to the back of the Adventuring Guild. Still doing my best to not focus too hard on the building. Don't want to overwhelm myself with useless info again.
The building is big. Like, large enough to be a town hall big. For a village of this size, it's almost comical in how large it is, and even then it seems pretty populated.
I suppose adventuring is a popular profession around these parts. That... it says a lot about the world, at least. The Continent, if Origin is to be believed. Does this mean that adventuring can produce food and materials? If the incredible number of people entering my perception dome are anything to go by, the supermajority of the villagers are adventurers. There's no way that's sustainable if adventuring can't provide something other than money.
Oh, we're at the back now. Aster's unlocking a thick steel door that really looks like it's supposed to stay closed...
Aster: Try and use [Assess] on what's chained inside our laboratory.
That's a lab? From what I can perceive of it, it's no better than a dungeon, complete with steel bars, a rough dirt floor, and chains attached to each corner of it that are holding down...
Holding down...
There's a hole in my perception where the prisoner (lab experiment? unfortunate adventurer?) should be. It's the size of a human, I think, but it's painful to perceive and it feels wrong and I hate it IT SHOULD BE KILLED AND BURNT IN THE FLAMES OF
Owwwwww, fuck. Didn't realize that I can still somehow feel pain despite not having nerve endings to feel it with. I'm gonna try to not perceive that, I think. I don't know what effect is causing that, but I can assume it's magical, and...
[Assess] activating!
P-System Log
Ah, shit.
I wonder if I just use the spell instead of trying to perceive it myself...? If I do the magic, will it come out to be any less bad?
Integrated identified:
P-System Log
...that's not good. As much as I hate to do it, I kind of want to see what's inside there. It feels wrong to even perceive, and every part of me is screaming that I need to DESTROY DESTROY KILL BURN END it as soon as possible, but what could possibly cause an error?
The instinct to kill it isn't alone. I need to understand it need to know it need to evaluate need to eviscerate need need need--
I'm going to focus more attention onto it.
P-System Log OW! PIECE OF SHIT!
Class Race Level
Stat Current Maximum Mana
Skills
THIS IS NOT ONE OF OURS
P-System Log
Not one of ours? Then what the hell is it? Also, what kind of error message is that?
I hurt. I hurt everywhere and nowhere. This is not something I should be doing, I know that, but at the same time I can feel the urges of myself and something that definitely isn't myself pushing me along and I need to see what this is.
I'm going to look again, and I'm going to look harder.
System Prompt
Recalibrating...
Recalibrating...
Recalibrated!
Name: Bill Stonebreaker
Class: Thief Race: Goblin
Level: 2 XP: 12/110
Health: 32/60 Mana: 20/20
Fortitude 10 Perception 5 Magic Power 12 Agility 5 Magic Regeneration 7 Strength 15
Skills