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Tera
Ch 1: It's a... rock?

Ch 1: It's a... rock?

um, hello?

I was floating in what seemed like nothingness. It felt like I was nothing. There was only darkness around me and the last thing I remembered was... a vague memory that was quickly fleeing from my thoughts of being somewhere else with bright red, blue and white lights flashing around me; accompanied by pain and an atrocious, annoying and high pitched repetitive noise. Then the memory was gone. Grasping at my memories was like trying to catch the fragments of a good dream as one awakens. The harder I tried to remember the quicker the memories fled. The last thing I remember is... nothing.

As more self awareness filled me, I finally sensed something out in the darkness. Tiny but bright lights winked into existence above me. A soft white noise gently whispered around me with a crisp and cool sensation. With it, was carried a soft scent of... rain? I detected sound? Was that faint noise the sound of a... song bird? As I listened to the twittering bird song; the pitter patter sound of gentle rain joined it, along with the gushing noise of what might be a nearby river. A thin streak of color and light appeared in the distance and slowly grew in height. As more light filled the horizon I attempted to move towards the river like noise. Wood creaked, groaned and moaned around me as I encountered some sort of barrier. I froze and the noise stopped.

*PING! Class unlocked! Terrakinetic Mage: level 1 obtained!*

Would you like to accept?

Text floods my vision as I wailed to myself; what is going on?

I can't move my body! Where are my legs? Where is my body!!!?

Okay, hold up, just wait a sec... I mentally coached myself.

Don't panic! yet... I ruefully added to my self coaching. Can I even locate the source of whatever is me? YES! I can sense something nearby…

*Class assigned! Congratulations!*

I wave away some annoying text as I focused in on myself, finding... nothing but darkness again! There's a musty and damp scent around me but light starts filtering in from somewhere and I use it to expand my awareness to more immediate surroundings. The light is coming in down a short tunnel showing the earthen walls around me. A brief glint of the light flashes off the surface of something stuck in a wall and I focus towards it. My awareness seems to be drawn inwards as I focus on the object the light flashed off of. It seems to be a gem of some sort.

*DING! Intelligence: Level 1*

*DING! Wisdom: Level 1*

'You have unlocked Intelligence! You have unlocked Wisdom!

Through awareness, consciousness and observation, you have gained knowledge and improve your ambient mana absorption and regeneration rates.

Mana: +10'

Wait... WHAT!? I'm a ROCK!? or am I a ghost bound to the rock?

Fraggindoodles! Does that mean I'm a GHOST!?

oh no... I'm DEAD!

I start to wail and bemoan the loss of my life.

Hold on... what did I lose?

My wailing stops and my train of thought escapes me as I'm distracted by a new noise coming from above. I push my ghostly self forward and up the short tunnel into a shack of some sort and peer out beyond it. The shack must have been the wood I heard creaking earlier. A person is approaching it. He is a bit challenged in the height department. In one hand he is holding a pickaxe and shovel over his right shoulder. As he gets closer I see a metal pail in his other hand with the handle of a hammer sticking out along with a strainer of some sort stuffed inside. He has dark and scruffy hair, a full beard and a mustache on which he seems to be chewing a part of. He clumps his way up the ramp in front of the door from which I am peering and enters the shack all without even noticing me. He and his clothes could really use a bath to wash off all the dirt sticking to them. He reminds me of a dwarf from... I don't know where. My thoughts of any memories flee out of my grasp yet again.

The dwarf tosses the equipment over his shoulder into a wheelbarrow that had been stuffed off to the right side of the shack and drops the pail with it's contents to the ground beside it. The left side of the shack had a small cast iron cook stove, a chair, and a table with a few dishes left on it. He casually lifts and rolls the wheelbarrow down into the relatively short tunnel towards what might be the rock to which I am bound. Once he reaches my rock, or rather… my gem as I now prefer to call it, he dumps out the wheelbarrow of his equipment and picks up his pickaxe. The dwarf then drives the pickaxe into one of the walls.

OW! DOODLENOGGINS! That is NOT a pleasant sensation!!!

The vibration from the overpowered strike reverberates through my gem and I feel as if my brains have been scrambled. A large chunk of earth breaks from the wall and the tunnel deepens. The dwarf scoops the dirt and rubble into his wheelbarrow with his shovel and tops it with his equipment. He rolled the wheelbarrow back up the tunnel and out the door, picking up his pail as he went.

*DING! Endurance: Level 1*

*DING! Durability: Level 1*

'You have unlocked Endurance! You have unlocked Durability!

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Through maintaining physical and mental soundness under duress, you have gained endurance and improve your stamina regeneration rate! You have gained durability and improve your health regeneration rate!

Stamina: +5, Health: +5'

What is that!? Why does it seem familiar?

The text that had super imposed itself into my field of vision fades away as I recover from the shock caused by that noodles for brains dwarf! I peer out the door and see that the dwarf has made his way down to the river flowing by. He seems to be using its waters to strain the earth as he sifts through it looking for something. I hope he falls into the river himself! The vibrations he sent through me were not fun! He could use a bath anyways! I watch as he takes something out of his strainer, light reflects off of it as it sparkles with a red sheen. The dwarf sets it down on a stone near him and smashes it with his hammer into smaller chunks. Thin wisps of something drift up from the smashed gem into a smaller and brighter crystal the dwarf has extended towards the wisps. Thinking about gems...

I refocus on my own. I refuse to be just a rock! My gem appears to be a deep and dark purple that has to catch the light just so in order to reflect any sparkle. Maybe more like the color of wine. I have to keep that dwarf from getting his hands on my gem!

The dwarf continues his work outside as I focus inwards towards my gem. It appears I’m not a ghost but somehow have a sense of awareness of the terrain, landscape and other things surrounding me. Terrain… I muse it over. Didn’t I see something about terra something or the other? I try to recall the text that I had mentally brushed aside not so long ago…

*Status command learned!*

Status Page:

Name: ????

Race: ????

Primary Stats:

Health: 80/105

Mana: 110/110

Stamina: 105/105

Secondary Stats:

Durability: 1 (+10 health restoration) per level

Intelligence: 1 (+10 mana restoration) per level

Endurance: 1 (+10 stamina restoration) per level

Wisdom: 1 (+10 ambient mana absorbtion) per level

Primary Class: Terrakinetic Mage Level: 1

Class Skills:

Secondary Class:

Class Skills:

General Skills:

Okay, I apparently have no race and not even a name. I’m not even full health! The noodleheaded dwarf! How do I not have a name? What am I called or am I just supposed to name myself? Oh… that might be nice! What should I choose, can I even choose? I cast about for inspiration of a possible name for myself if that is even an option. All I know about myself thus far is that I am a dark purple gem of some sort and that I’m a Terrakinetic mage. What am I supposed to call myself, Tera...? I roll my non-existent eyes…

*PING! Name obtained! Congratulations, Tera!*

My jaw, if I had one, drops… Annoyance builds inside me at the audacity and nerve of the text box that popped up in my face! I growl and mentally kick all the imaginary rocks around my imaginary body! I take a deep breath and release it while muttering; ‘Fineeeeeee, be that way; you stupid text box!’

Okay, so my name is Tera and I am a Terrakinetic mage… whatever that is…

*Terrakinetic mage: A mage that specializes in terrakinesis or geokinesis to sense, create, control, and manipulate any form of earth or other geological materials from minerals, rocks, gems, dirt, metals, magma, lava, and plant materials.* The oh so helpful and annoying text pops up it’s answer to my inner thought process.

[How can I be a mage if I’m just a rock?] I think spitefully at the text box. It doesn’t respond. Sighing, I turn back to my gem for further investigation. I attempt to sense how big my gem is as it is still mostly buried in a wall of earth. You’d think with me being a Terrakinetic mage that should be possible right?

I hear clumping footsteps in the shack, up the tunnel. Oh no… The dwarf is coming back. The wheelbarrow comes towards me and stops again and this time the dwarf aims his pickaxe at the wall currently encasing my gem. Noooooo! I wail to myself. *SMASH* The dwarf takes a step back and the earth in my wall crumbles down in front of him, my ears ringing as the vibration of the hit rolls through me and my gem rolls out; stopping at his feet.

*DING! Endurance: Level 2*

*DING! Durability: Level 2*

‘Stamina: +5, Health: +5’

I shake my head to regain my senses and peer at my gem now that it is unearthed. Wow, it’s quite large… and oval shaped, also very pretty. I’m a bit struck at how large and beautiful I am; for a rock that is. I look at the dwarf who seems to be frozen and staring in shock and possibly horror. Finally, he seems to regain his faculties and gives himself a shake. Then he bolts his way up and out of the tunnel! I watch as he scrambles down the path; away from my shack as fast as his short legs seem to be capable of. His wheelbarrow and tools left behind and forgotten.

Um… okay, then... Well, I guess that particular issue of possibly being rattled to death is taken care of for now. Looking at my apparently large gem, I wonder what to do now. Maybe I should hide my gem somehow before anything or anyone else comes along that could rattle it and cause more headaches. I focus my mind towards hopefully rolling my gem to the end of the tunnel, which isn’t but a couple feet away to be honest. My mana drops by a point, the dirt cradling my gem smooths out and the gem rolls to bump against the end wall. Channeling another point of mana I forcefully will my gem to push into the earth at the end of the tunnel and bury itself in the wall.

With my gem hidden, I turn back to my surroundings. Now what to do… I remembered the wood creaking in the shack above when I tried to expand my awareness beyond it before. I return to the spot and attempt to push my awareness past the barrier around the shack. Sure, I could see past the shack as part of my line of sight but what was currently beyond the shack was not sensed or felt in my sense of awareness.

*PING! Terravision: level 1 obtained!*

’Terravision increases control range and awareness of surrounding terrain’

I “fell” forward as the barrier I had been straining against vanishes. As my awareness or rather my Terravision expanded; I could now explore the larger range it now allowed. I circle the shack from which the tunnel currently holding my gem, extends. The shack is a simple thing, not much more than 4 small walls and a roof with a porch and ramp leading up to the door.

With nothing better to do, other than examine my surroundings. I figure there is no harm to see exactly what I can accomplish with my Terrakinetic abilities. I pull at the loose earth in the tunnel, willing it up and out. As the earth flowed out of the door of the shack I could feel my mana slowly expending points. Deciding to mimic a hobbit house I started to pile the dirt against the shack… um, what’s a hobbit? Again, my memories remained just out of reach. Continuing with my instinct; I continued piling the earth around the exterior of the shack until it was high enough to form a small hill up, over and around the entirety of the wooden structure. I left the ramp, porch and door exposed. Channeling more mana, I willed the earthen hill to compress and firm up so it was no longer just a loosely piled hill of dirt but sturdy enough to support itself and bear some additional weight and not wash away during the first rain it is exposed to. The Terrakinetic description also mentioned plant life so I also began to will a lush green cover of grass to grow atop the newly formed hill.

As the grass started growing, my mana sputtered. Uh, oh… That doesn’t feel too good.

*PING! Terrakinesis: level 1 obtained!*

’Terrakinesis increases control and manipulation of surrounding the terrain’

My Terravision faded until I am surrounded by darkness again. I hope that is is simply the dirt encompassing my gem in its hidey hole as I succumb to the exhaustion that was quickly overwhelming me.

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