Level - 1 Experience - 0/100
HP - 90/90
MP - 65/65
CT - 100/100
Name - Crispin Zodiac - Leo
Job - Squire
Brave - 61 Faith - 55
Move - 3 Weapon Power
Jump - 1 R - 0/0
Speed - 11 L - 0/0
AT - Crit - Hit Chance - SPE Chance
P - 3 - 0.5% - 79% - 0%
M - 1 - 0.5% - 50% - 0%
Equipment
Right Hand - None
Left Hand - None
Head - None
Chest - Cloth
Leggings - Cloth
Accessory - None
Accessory - None
Ability
Primary Job Skill - Fundamentals (Expand)
Secondary Job Skill - None
Production - None
Passive 1 - Gained JP Up +10
Passive 2 - None
Passive 3 - None
Movement - None
I see...Ok, so this was a bit confusing and seemed not entirely the same as I remembered. I mean, yeah, it was a very long time ago all things considered but I see some pretty key differences at the moment. HP and MP were fairly self-explanatory. They represented my current health and magical points. CT means Charge Time and I think depicts how long it takes to use some skills.
It had my name, my Job, and a Zodiac depiction. I had no clue at all what that was going to be used for but hey, who doesn’t want to be a Leo at least once or twice. The Movement thing was confusing, when I tried to focus on it the text changed and showed me that it was how far I could move before stamina needed to be recharged. It actually made me terrified that I’d be relegated to some form of turn-based system.
I ended up moving a bit to test that theory, not really seeing where I was yet. Turns out that it just meant I had a Stamina bar and the three was what an average adult man could run before having to take a break. That made me more thankful than I could ever possibly say. The idea of being in something Turn Based was frightening.
Jump just meant how high I could jump, pretty simple and went very far to tell me that white men could not jump, at all. I sighed a little at my lame joke before checking Speed. That affecting a multitude of things. How fast I could attack, react, and move. Each depleted my Stamina really wanted a bar instead of movement for that but I would make do. Just means I’d have to figure out how much I could do before getting tired.
Weapon Power must be the bonus to attack anything I have equipped gave me, having no weapons means I have no bonus. Pretty interesting. Then it went into some mathematical crap that honestly went way over my head. What I gathered is it measured my natural attack capability, magical capability...both to dish out damage I think, critical chance for each that made no sense to me. I mean, I hit someone in the eye that is an instant crit while the foot was less so. I wasn’t going to take that without a grain of salt. Hit chance seems just as confusing and I think it honestly dealt more with ranged things than melee. If I was going to punch someone I highly doubted I’d simply miss. They could dodge, yes, but simply missing I doubted.
SPE was apparently Special Effect Chance and applied to any on-hit effects either some skills or weapons applied. Bravery was a funky stats, it depicted how often an automated response to block, parry, counter, whatever the fuck was equipped as a skill would proc. Another thing I wouldn’t pay a lot of attention too, honestly. If I’m gonna block something I won’t rely on some funky chance. Faith seemed to add a bonus to the amount of magical damage I could dish out, that part was kinda neat if I was being entirely honest.
Following that was my equipment. I had two weapon slots, a head slot, a chest slot, leggings and two accessory slots. I wondered if the Tactics System would actually limit what I could do or if it was just a feature involved with the box thingie I had. The Skills was something I remembered though, and I knew damn well there were not three passive abilities you could use like that. Not that I was really complaining, but I wondered what the point was about having them equipped. I chose to expand the Fundamental tab and it showed I only had one actual Squire skill, Throw Stone. I frowned, trying to figure this out was going to be a bit of a pain. More so when it seemed the damn thing had several useless features.
Who are you calling useless, MEAN!!!
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
I blinked a bit, confused and whipped my head around me, looking for the little girl voice that had just screamed at me. It let me see that I was on a big grassy hill somewhere in what I assumed was the countryside, if the fields were anything to go by, and something that looked like a road a good hundred yards away from me to my right.
MEAN, MEAN, MEAN! Daddy said I’d have a nice person!
What in the actual fuck was going on right now? “Um...hello?” I called out as a test. A soft girlish hmph met my greeting/question.
I’m your System A.I. Daddy put me in this System saying a nice man would be its holder. You’re not nice though! You called me useless!
Okie Dokie then...I’m insane and apparently the A.I for the System I got could talk and was a little girl. What the hell had Frank gotten me into exactly? Right, ok...moving on. “Um, I’m sorry I called you useless I was just thinking about how some functions seemed a bit off and not really needed in a realistic setting.”
You promise you didn’t mean it?
I could actually hear the hesitant hope in the little voice and...oh sweet baby Jesus, did the box in front of me just turn into a little pouting face? I felt my eyes widen and I tried very hard not to be freaked out before I reassured her. “Yes, I promise. I’m...I’m Crispin, what’s your name?”
That’s right, treat her like a good girl and avoid any questions relating to your sanity, that’s the best way to go. I mean, I’d seen some freaky stuff, what with all the lives I’ve lived, but this really took the cake.
Well...If you promise! Oh! Oh! Daddy said my name was Tactitia, it’s cute, isn’t it?!
And the box just turned into a miniature little girl in a pink frilly dress, pink hair with a deeper shade of pink for ribbons and pink eyes. ‘Gah! My eyes! They burn!’ Her voice turned toward righteous fury expression which was at odds with her teary eyes.
You are mean! I’m adorable and you said your eyes burn! I’m never helping you!
She turned in a huff and I was still trying to scrub all the pink out of my mind before I realized what she said and I panicked a little. The fact that a little girl was making me panic did not escape me, but it wasn’t like I had much choice. “I’m sorry! I was just surprised! Pink is a very pretty color I just wasn’t ready for so much of it, I swear!”
She looked over her tiny little mini shoulder, pink...pink tears falling from her face before she wiped one away and asked me if I was being honest. Yea, think pleasant thoughts about pink Crispin, it is your only hope. “I promise, you’re utterly adorable Tactitia, and such a pretty name. Who’s your Daddy?”
She beamed at me and started jumping around in place, a disturbing image if you thought about the fact she was some form of A.I, a pink one, and was about the size of my hand...then the fact there was no surface for her to jump on. Just don’t think about it, don’t think about it.
My Daddy is Franklin! He helped give me life and said that he felt a man he called George would treat me right as I grew up! Are you George? Your name says Crispin though…
Oh shit, she looked like she was about to run away. Whether possible or not I wasn’t really prepared to test the theory so I rushed to calm her. “I am! Rather I was George, I’m Crispin now though. I changed my name. So Frank is your Daddy? He and I are friends and I will do my best to help you grow.” I smiled with that but I was secretly planning to find a way to get even with a God for subjecting me to all of this...pink. I resisted the urge to shudder and tried to pat her head, surprisingly I could feel hair but I knew damn well that she wasn’t physical. I wanted to know how this all worked but not bad enough to trigger something bad.
“So, can you tell me why a lot of those things in my status screen don't seem applicable to my current situation?” Please answer me without taking offense little girl, please!
Um...The Tactics System was designed for the Final Fantasy Esq world, but...we aren’t on that world so most really won’t be usable. I...I can’t change anything with the display though, I don’t have the ability.
She started to tear up, apparently, she didn’t like the idea of not being useful...I had to admit she really was adorable just, so much pink. “That’s ok sweetie. Do you know how we can fix that?”
She nodded her little head and wiped those big tears away...I was beginning to think she was using those tears as a weapon to get reassured. My own daughter, my last one anyway, had done the same as a four-year-old.
Yes! I can open the System Shop and you can purchase those rights...but it costs experience and if you spend experience it might lower your level, or cause other problems if done too often or you spend too much.
I smiled at her while I thought a bit. So, I could still purchase upgrades for Tactics System, rather Tactitia but it would cost my experience used to level, or my life experience if I went by the old method. Something to check out later, no doubt it’d be a while before I could even afford the stuff. I still asked her to show me the list right now, I did NOT think about my burning eyes when the screen took the place of the pink little girl and was just as bright and vibrant a pink as she had been. The little giggle I heard made me think it had been intentional.
System Shop!
Tactical System Version 2! - 500,000 Experience
System Rights - 300,000 Experience
Item Shop - 100,000 Experience
…
…
…
…
...
It went on a great deal further but those three took my attention at for the most part. The experience cost alone was frightening. I’d figure out just how much it’d hurt me later on, I think, but for now I’d have to live with the current display and try to ignore the useless information. The box turned back into Tactitia when Is aid I was done and she lowered her head and looked up at me with big, pink, eyes while twirling her hands. Oh god, if not for the pink she’d be the cutest little thing in the world.
Did I do good, Crispin?
“Yes you did kiddo, I’m proud of you!” It was an automatic response that just kinda popped out of my mouth when she asked that. I meant it, but it was disturbing that she appeared to be actively using that cuteness to manipulate me. Oh well, better cuteness than...other things, that would probably make me off myself and smack Frank, damned be the consequences.
She did a little jump in the air and said ‘Yippee!’ adorable! Ok, I grinned a little. Maybe it wouldn’t be all that bad to have a pink kiddo following me around. “Can anyone else see you?” I asked in passing.
Nope! Only you and anyone you purchase from the Mercenary Shop can see me. The Mercenary Shop people can only see me if I want them too though.
That was a minor load off of my mind, the fact I could think/talk to her made it easier. I wouldn’t seem like a complete lunatic that way. Well, I guess I really should finally take a look around me, a more detailed one anyway.
I turned in a circle slowly, ignoring Tactitia’s question about what I was doing. The resulting pout was another thing I ignored. I needed to focus. My surroundings were the same, farmland seemed to surround me and that road. I scratched my head a bit. I’d hoped someone would be around, at the same time I’m glad they weren’t. I didn’t need to be known by the locals as a lunatic after all, and I had been acting like one. Talking to what would be the air in their eyes.
I was distracted a moment later by Tactitia saying something, she seemed really excited about it, probably because she remembered what she forgot. That made me worry for her, was she a ditzy kid?
Crispin! I remembered something! You get a care package from Life, Death, and Beyond for purchasing a System and changing your world! It is a one time reward but it is tailor made for any System you chose, so me! Here, here, her! Open it quickly, I wanna see what we got!
I smiled at her, a weird little blue box simply appeared in my hands. Tactitia stuck her tongue out at it and went brrrt, a very unladylike thing to do but utterly adorable in a little girl.
Blue is icky!
I chuckled before patting her head and then opening the box. I wondered what I’d get.