Today was just like any other day for Leolin Rose, he woke up in his bed, in his room, in his parents' home. He got out of bed, opened his blackout blinds and peered out the window at the dreary Briton weather.
He looked in his mirror, seeing a relatively in shape nineteen-year-old with a mess of dirty blond hair.
"Should not have stayed up so late reading" he muttered to himself.
He went to grab a towel from the cupboard and noticed something off. The boiler wasn't running.
That's strange, he thought, figuring a mana fuse had blown, or perhaps the sigaldry had finally worn out in the device that was older than him. He turned back to his bedside and grabbed his magitab - a phone-like device that ran on mana, consisting of nano-sigaldry - and tried to check the time.
It didn't turn on.
He tried infusing some of his mana into the device, to see if it was low on mana when he noticed something stranger, and far more worrying. He couldn't feel his mana core. Panicked, he tried to pull up his status page, like so many times before. What he saw, however, was something completely unexpected.
System Upheaval Initialised
Time Elapsed approx. 226 years Time remaining
15 minutes 37 seconds
Percentage Completion 99.999987%
As he read the interface, a dark pit started to grow in his stomach. He'd heard the myths, that every 2000 years or so, a great change came to the system. It was believed that this is what caused the fall of the Rewan empire.
He never thought that he'd experience such a change, however.
He thought to leave his room and check how his parents were taking this but remembered that just yesterday they left on a holiday to Myldovis. With that thought, the pit almost seemed to pulse, stealing his breath.
Shit
Realizing he was on the verge of a panic attack, he sat down on his bed and began meditating.
In, and out. In, and out.
His breathing began to slow and steady. His heart thumping in his ears, the feeling of blood pumping through his neck.
He began to go through the mindfulness techniques that he was taught, scanning from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet for every sensation. He took note of a small itch near the crown of his head, a slight ache in his neck, soreness in his right arm, and many other small distractions. Slowly, the knot of anxiety sitting in his stomach shrank until it was about the size of a grain of sand.
Once he felt more stable, Leo opened his eyes. wanting to be prepared, he checked the timer again.
Only five minutes left?! It has never taken more than five minutes to calm down, not with my...
The realisation struck him, his anxiety medication must not be working properly without the mana to fuel it.
Feeling the anxiety worming its way back up, he grit his teeth and clamped down on his thoughts.
That doesn't matter right now, what matters is that I keep myself safe until... until what? Til the government regains control? Unlikely.
Huffing out a breath, he stepped downstairs and grabbed a glass of water and chugged it down.
Focus. All I can do is wait for this thing to-
Like it had been summoned, a system window popped up in his vision.
System Upheaval Complete
Welcome to the
Strong Unification of Powers and Energies for Reconstitution
(SUPER) System
Version 1.0
A new Status screen has been Generated.
The SUPER System, huh? What sort of gibberish is that? Oh well, let's check out my 'new Status'...
Name Leolin Rose Age 19 Level LVL 0 (0%) Archetype Civilian
Health
[Regen]
80/80
[7.8/hr]
Stamina
[Regen]
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
60/60
[48/hr]
Mana
[Regen]
130/130
[70.1/hr]
Psi
[Regen]
50/50
[60.1/hr]
Brawn Deftness Smarts Cunning Strength Constitution Agility Dexterity Intelligence Wisdom Charisma Wit 8 9 6 12 13 7 5 6
After glancing through the status screen, Leo was roughly as confused as he was before doing so. As he pondered on what Archetype meant or what separated wit from charisma, he noticed a small blue flash out of the corner of his eye. He tried to turn to look at it, but it stayed in the periphery of his vision no matter how fast he turned his head. After getting slightly dizzy, he stopped and rubbed his eyes in exasperation. Focusing on the glow for half a second, a new window appeared in his vision.
Statistics
Statistics, or stats, are a standardised measurement of a sentient's capabilities. All system recognised statistics fall under one of the four primary classifications: Brawn A general measure of a person's physical power and fortitude. Consisting of Strength and Constitution. This stat governs a person's health pool and regeneration. Deftness A general measure of a person's physical flexibility and accuracy. Consisting of Agility and Dexterity. This stat governs a person's Stamina pool and regeneration. Smarts A general measure of a person's mental acuity and reasoning. Consisting of Intelligence and Wisdom. This stat governs a person's Mana pool and regeneration. Cunning A general measure of a person's social ability and understanding. Consisting of Charisma and Wit. This stat governs a person's Psionic pool and regeneration.
A perfectly average sentient's statistics would be ten in all statistics, with the peak of a natural sentient's ability being a 20.
The System Recognised Statistics are as follows:
Strength
Strength is the measure of a persons muscle mass, bone and muscle density, and bone strength. It is the active component of Brawn, affecting the above-measured properties, damage done by physical attacks and their Hit-Point maximum.
Constitution
Constitution is the measure of a person's internal health, from the strength of their immune system to the elasticity and strength of their organs. It is the passive component of Brawn, affecting the above-measured properties, Hit-Point regeneration and elemental resistances.
Agility
Agility is the measure of a person's amount of Type IIa and IIb muscle fibres, muscle elasticity and equilibrioception. It is the active component of Deftness, affecting the above-measured properties movement speed, jump height, reflexes and flexibility. It is also responsible for Stamina Maximum.
Dexterity
Dexterity is the measure of a person's fine motor control, proprioception and ambidexterity. It is the passive component of Deftness, affecting the above-measured properties, bodily awareness and passive perception. It is also responsible for Stamina Regeneration.
Intelligence
Intelligence is the measure of a person's memory, pattern recognition, the strength of their mind's eye and the mass and density of white matter in the brain. It is the active component of Smarts, affecting the above-measured properties, logical thinking, memory recall and Mana Points.
Wisdom
Wisdom is the measure of a person's emotional intelligence, mental awareness, ability to extrapolate and parse data and the mass and density of grey matter in the brain. It is the passive component of Smarts, affecting the above-measured properties, mental control, number of concurrent trains of thought, mental resistances and Mana Regeneration.
Charisma
Charisma is the measure of a person's facial symmetry, control over facial muscles and social awareness. It is the active component of Cunning, affecting the above-measured properties, relatability, presence and psionic strength and points. It also brings a person closer to their ideal image of themself.
Wit
Wit is the measure of a person's vocabulary, speech comprehension, and ability to twist words. It is the passive component of cunning, affecting the above-measured properties, oral dexterity, language comprehension, and psionic regeneration. It also brings a person's voice closer to their ideal voice.
Well that's pretty comprehensive, doesn't explain the whole archetype thing though... But really? I'm not that clumsy, am I?
Suddenly, there was a sharp knocking at the front door.