Tutorial clear!
Clear description:
Your path through the tutorial is unique in its own way. You started off frightened and new, running away from fights you couldn't win. A chance was made by abandoning the fruits of society and striking out with a weapon. Your path of carnage from that point is fierce and calculated for you [killed every monster type in the tutorial]. You even climbed a tree just to [drop a rock on something]. Well done traveler.
May your journey be fruitful. Your path ever upwards.
Nomenclature for Rarity:
[Unique]. The only person to have done something. x5 free stats.
[Rare] 99.7%+ of people haven't done. 1 in 334 x2 free stats.
[Uncommon] 95%+ of people haven't done. 1 in 20 x1 free stats.
[Common]. 68%+ of people haven't done. Close to 1 in 3. No additional rewards.[Trash]. 68%< of people haven't done. No additional rewards.
Rarity linked to global stats for [Earthlings] across all zones.
Rarity linked to both total [Earthlings] and total achivement percentage gained.
Clear stats:
Clear time 15hrs, 10min, 28s
Steps taken 9700
Monsters killed 49.
Times revived 1.
Highest stat, Body Power (Strength)
Second highest stat, Brain Power (Wisdom).
Achievements earned 12.
Total stats earned 75
Clear state. Rank 0, Tier 2.
Next: Rank 1, Tier 0. 81 total stats.
Clear Rewards:
Tutorial clear in first 20%.
+1 free stat point.
Refused a weapon and killed using only your body and the environment.
+1 free stat point.
Unique titles 2
+10 free stat point.
Rare titles x3
+6 stat points.
Uncommon Titles x2
+2 stat points
A choice!
Body reward and foundation. Mind reward and foundation.
…body or mind. Uhhh…
James stared at the options.
“Both? What’s a foundation mean.”
“…Body I guess”, James spoke and selected the option.
Staring at the two results he tried backing out and found he could swap over to mind which made a part of him recoil.
Mind -> A choice!
Description: Focused or spread, This choice is non revertible and may drastically effect your future. Choosing both or neither is equivalent to your current state.
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Collection of minds. [Choose?]
A mind of multitasking, mental stats will spread out in a parallel direction over time creating a mind better at focusing on many tasks at once. Larger lumps of mental capacity may form into discrete subprocesses that operate cut off from your main consciousness and all subconcious actions will gain stronger reasoning and purpose.
Increases capabilities more drastically with mental power stats than speed.
Warning: Increased chance of schizophrenic disorders.
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Focused Juggernaut of a mind. [Choose?]
Often times focusing on one thing at a time, is better than attempting to multitask.
Becoming faster and faster at thinking about one thing at a time, will allow you to finish multiple tasks faster than one working on a several simultaneously.
Increases capabilities more drastically with mental speed stats then power.
Warning: Increased chance of Attention and Compulsion related mental disorders.
“I don’t like the idea of the system messing about in my head. I don’t like the idea that the system can mess about in my head wtf…and those warnings.” James grimaced.
“I already have enough stupid mental hangups, I don’t need an increased chance of more. –Back to body,” he quickly backed out.
Swapping to the body options James stared and carefully considered the two.
“Second option seems like it give me more control. It also seems more…normal. More realistic. Why would I want to die due to a stubbed toe?”
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
Decisively picking the option James found himself shifting.
Balance:
20 free points.
Please distribute your clear rewards.
Due to previous choices, if directed towards your body, all places with already aligned stats are no longer allowed multiple alignments.
Due to foundation choice, many existing conflicts have been found. Highlighting clashes.
James found himself staring at his body from above. Or maybe he was standing in front of his body…there didn’t seem to be any gravity affecting him in this state.
All across his ‘body’, three colours were highlighted. Red for power, Yellow for speed, and Blue for defense. Each point where multiple stats combined was highlighted helpfully – the combination of coloured stats creating orange, green and purple shifts.
This wasn’t fully a ‘respec’ option – instead, James could concentrate out overlaps into side-by-side blobs that infused different parts of his body. Drain conflicting stats in one area and shove them in another.
Anywhere defense clashed, James pushed it out – defense in his hands pulled into the palm of his hand and made his skin tougher. He tried focusing defense into his joints – pulling it from his legs and arms into his elbows and knees.
Speed was more important in his leg muscles and power more important in his arms and core. At some point James’s free stats became available and he found himself with even more options to plan out his body.
Speed in my nervous system. Power in my bloodstream. Defense makes the most sense in my bones. Free defense is the most important around my head and chest…while I’m here I’ll throw a defense into mind, I really don’t want anything mucking about in there…one point is not a lot but at least it will show I’m committed.
When James was done there was a pause as everything settled and then a popup appeared,
Assign critical area(s).
James paused…would picking his ankle turn him into Achilles?
He didn’t want to have a weakness but it still felt like the best choice. Multiple weaknesses would be better but harder to defend…leaving it as brain and heart would make it easier for anyone that knew where it was located…but they were also already naturally defended areas? The skull and rib cage were better than nothing.
Can I pick something random?
The sense really did seem to want him to pick an organ, group of organs or body part – it wouldn’t let him pick a section of something or a random spot in the middle of flesh.
What about my stomach? Similar to heart but less obvious?
…that might make me more prone to poisoning…
But that’s what I’m doing isn’t it? I’m picking a dump organ to make everything else stronger.
I could pick my appendix? No one cares about that right?
Where’s something easy to defend? That’s kind of visible in the side.
Looking around James finally made his decision.
He picked both his kidneys. They were located right below his lungs but still within his rib cage. They didn’t have an obvious path of weakness – heck James didn’t even remember what they did in the body – and were less obvious than his heart or head.
Pulling away from his character creation James found himself fading – his sense of everything disappearing completely.
Choice being mined.
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James was back in highschool doing concentration curls. He had taken weightlifting as his required physical class instead of gym and the sports it represented.
Weightlifting…was actually really fun despite how hard it was to find the motivation to do it. Having it as a class 4 times a week forced him to go for the hour and he loved it.
Finishing his set of 12 he immediately dropped his dumbell from 30lb to 25lb and began again the set of 10 – running a reverse pyramid till burnout.
Closing his eyes James dug inwards again and again, his biceps rapidly losing strength as he continued without break.
“Ten” He gritted out placing down the dumbbell and swapping for a 20lb one placed slightly behind him.
Eight’s next.
Pumping, James’s younger self started managing three before his arm refused to raise.
Rather then rest, he dropped the weight to 15lb and tried again.
Muscles screaming James pushed himself pulling the 6th rep up before swapping to a strangely shaped 7.5lb bar. The 10lb bar was being used and James was already hogging three other dumbells at once.
His arm struggled to raise the lower weight again and again. Dropping it after 4 he sat clenching and unclenching, his arm completely spent.
Guess I’ll go return these.
Picking up two bars and heading over to the rack James was stopped by a classmate. A guy he hadn’t spoken to before stood in front of him staring down at his arms for a moment then nodding in…comradery? Appreciation? It hadn’t been clear at the time and reliving it James still didn’t know exactly what had gone through the kid's mind.
“Damn you're big. Props!” the kid finally spoke after an awkward second of staring – giving him a thumbs up – then moving around James and heading for a separate machine.
That…was weird.
Sitting in class James kept thinking back to the interaction, it slowly shifting from something awkward to something that felt good.
Looking down at his arms he smirked to himself, laughing at how good it felt to be complimented by a stranger.
The memory began to slip forward, exam season starting and his weightlifting class ending.
Weeks passed of studying math and physics and chemistry – the exams blending together as he went through the motions.
A full month of mostly inactivity. That’s how little time it took to wipe close to 7 months of progress.
James took a summer job at a clothing store while his family went on vacation. He was going to university in the following fall and needed the money – however small – to help pay for his first year.
The summer progressed, his previous gains finished melting away. It was hard to find a gym – let alone get motivation to drive himself to one enough times to warrant one.
Living alone was getting harder than he thought it would be. Customers chewed him out over every little thing, he worked, came home, ate and slept, then worked again.
His steady meals began fluctuating between effort and nothing as existing began to grind him down. The monotony of that summer compressed into several minutes while retaining every bit he had hated of it.
Just over halfway through the summer, the speed run of his memories paused.
James was lying on the couch in the living room staring at his flabby arm in self hatred. His dinner was a smoothie created from half a bag of raspberries, half a 750ml bottle of Smirnoff, and a drizzle of some old lemonade.
Something snapped and James leapt up running towards the stairs before jogging up and down them repeatedly.
“You like working out don’t you, It's good for you. Working out will make you happier with your body. If you just worked out again you would be happy wouldn’t you? ” he drunkenly chanted to himself feeling winded after just two laps up and down the stairs.
A nice burn started warring with the wheezing burn in his lungs – the pain slowly shifting from good to excruciating.
“You deserve this pain, you know that don’t you?” James continued – gasping – somewhere along the line tears had begun to leak out down his cheeks. His noodle legs screamed as he continued to climb for no reason other than to punish himself.
He felt dizzy from lack of air…the alcohol…not having eaten that day. He pushed through. He kept running up and down without pausing.
James was gulping for air and had black fuzziness pulling in at the edges of his vision.
A faint buzzing ring grew stronger in the back of his head – it was ignored.
Who knows how much time had passed – it was probably only a minute or two he couldn’t wimp out now.
Up and down, he continued to push himself – half crawling at this point, his legs not steady enough to hold his whole weight.
He slipped.
James fell as he turned near the top of the stairs tripping over his own legs.
The stairs seemed to rush towards him – faster than possible, his side ramming into the lips of the stairs the hardest as he tumbled down.
James lay in the entranceway to his parent's house bruised – having briefly blacked out – and sore beyond belief.
Somewhere along the lines his pants had fallen off – or he had taken them off and he didn't remember – and he lay there in his boxers staring at the wood panelling of the ceiling.
His consciousness faded once more as he slowly went to sleep. James didn’t bother to move to a more comfortable spot – choosing to slowly drift off on the hard floor.
A popup appeared and faded as the memory ended.
Achievement get: Specialized body of key organs.