Welcome Subject 1095341C47-9 to the Character Creation/Editor Space! You are dead. Your soul has been chosen as a participant of the Aeon Trials. You may decline this offer and be resigned to oblivion if you wish. Do you wish to proceed? Yes/No
He blinked at the strange wall of text that was suddenly in front of him. This was very strange and he had no idea what was going on. He looked around to try and get some idea of where he was but other than the wall of words hovering in front of him there was nothing but white everywhere. A brief moment of panic came and went as he tried to stay calm and think through his memories in hopes of getting some clue as to what was going on.
He remembered driving...somewhere. To visit someone, maybe? He was driving in the mountains and then...cow. That's right! There was a cow that fell on his car from somewhere up the cliff he was driving past! Then there was a lot of blood and guts everywhere and he couldn't keep the wheel steady. Then he managed to hit the brakes and stop from going off the road and falling into the chasm on the other side. Unfortunately he stopped on the wrong side of the road and right at a bend, so when a truck came around the bend at full speed there wasn't enough time for it to stop.
Okay, so he really was dead. Now that he had that settled it was time to figure out what to do about this random question still floating in front of him. Oblivion, surprisingly, didn't sound terrible. After all, he was already dead so it would just be like agreeing to stay dead, right? He wasn't sure what these "Aeon Trials" were, but if they offered him a new lease on life and a chance to try again then maybe that was worth it, too. Before he could sink himself into a sea of thoughts and indecision he decided he would just choose yes. There was no need to say or reach out and touch anything, as apparently him deciding to do it mentally was enough.
The text disappeared and a new set of text appeared.
Congratulations! You are now a participant of the Aeon Trials. Please stand by for the initial system integration and the first tutorial.
Tutorial? Character Creation? This was starting to feel like a video game or something. To be fair, he was willing to admit that he was one of those weirdos that enjoyed character creation almost as much as whatever game he played those characters with. He would even roleplay a bit on occasion, even in single player games, just to have fun with it. Maybe these Aeon Trials were going to be equally as fun. He could only hope.
There was a bit of a headache all of a sudden and a new line of text appeared.
Integration complete. Please view your status screen to begin the first tutorial.
His...status? It seems all he had to do was think about it because the line was suddenly replaced by a full status screen.
Name: - Sex: Male Species: Soul (Human) Level: 0 Experience: 0/0 Stamina: 0/0 Stamina Regeneration: 0/hour Mana: 0/0 Mana Regeneration: 0/hour Vigor Vitality: 0 Constitution: 0 Strength: 0 Dexterity Finesse: 0 Agility: 0 Speed: 0 Mind Intelligence: 0 Wisdom: 0 Will: 0 Magic Force: 0 Power: 0 Spirit: 0 Role: N/A Class: N/A Class Level: 0 Class Experience: 0/0 Class Skills: Traits: Blank Slats Racial Skills: General Skills: Ultimate Skills: Titles: Skill Points:
Well, that seemed like quite a lot of things with a lot of empty space in it. All the words in his status screen began blinking and a line of text appeared off to the side.
Please select a point in your status to learn more.
He thought for a moment and decided to start at the top and work his way down. It was kind of unsettling how calm and accepting of all of this he was being but something was telling him that he should try to get through this as quickly as possible. He was also feeling a little excited to start with the actual character creation part.
Name: Names are power. They give one an identity which can be both a benefit and a weakness but are often considered more beneficial than not. Merely having a name provides a +5 to Mind and Magic stats.
Sex: Most species and races can be classified into either Male or Female, although there are exceptions. Due to this particular individual's species, race, and past they have been identified as Male.
Species: The form of life of an individual. Can often be further divided into race which is indicated in parenthesis. This individual is of the species Soul and the race Human.
Soul: Incorporeal and barely an existence, souls as a species are the lingering thoughts, personalities, and experiences of those that have died. Due to their lack of existence they have no stats and bear the race of their previous species and the trait: Blank Slate.
Level: This is the level of the individual themselves. It can also be called the racial level, species level, or character level. Each level adds one stat point which must be used before further levels can be gained.
Experience: The amount of experience currently gained and needed to reach the next character level. Experience is gained by absorbing some of the life force or soul of a defeated foe or by merely surviving. Most species gain 1-2 experience per day by staying alive.
Stamina: How much stamina one has. Strenuous activity, continuous activity over long periods, extreme lack of sustenance, and some skills will deplete stamina. If stamina reaches 0 it will cause the body to seize up and often become inactive. Stamina reaching a negative state often results in death. Stamina equals half the sum of vigor stats.
Stamina Regeneration: How quickly stamina is returned during inactivity such as rest, sleep, or meditation. Stamina regeneration equals on fifth the sum of dexterity stats.
Mana: How much mana one has. Magic, supernatural abilities, extended time without rest, and some skills will deplete mana. If mana reaches 0 it will cause headaches, difficulty in thinking, temporary lapses in memory, and often results in a forced unconscious state. Mana reaching a negative state often results in death. Mana equals half the sum of magic stats.
Mana Regeneration: How quickly mana is returned during inactivity such as rest, sleep, or meditation. Mana regeneration equals one tenth the sum of mind stats.
Vigor: Known as the physical stats, vigor describes the body.
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Vitality: Sometimes called life, vitality shows how much punishment a body can take and how quickly physical wounds heal.
Constitution: Sometimes called health, constitution shows how resistant a body is to influence such as poison or disease as well as how quickly metabolism occurs.
Strength: How much physical force one can bring to bear.
Dexterity: Known as the movement stats, dexterity describes physical movement.
Finesse: The precision of movement.
Agility: Also called flexibility, this shows the range of movements available. Note: can affect joints, skin, bones, malleability, etc.
Speed: How quickly one can move.
Mind: Known as the mental stats, mind describes how strong the mind is.
Intelligence: The ability to memorize, recall, and link knowledge.
Wisdom: Sometimes considered a natural intuition, wisdom shows how well the mind can deduce or discover based on provided information. Also called perception.
Will: Shows the ability one has to defend against mental effects as well as self-control.
Magic: The stats that explain the strength of supernatural and magical abilities.
Force: One's magical defense, force shows how resistant one is to mana influences from outside.
Power: The strength of ones magical abilities and how much mana can be controlled at once.
Spirit: Known as one's natural ability to manipulate mana, spirit shows how much base control one has over their own mana pool.
Role: A basic conceptualization of how an individual operates in most situations. Roles provide simple yet strong multiplicative bonuses when applicable. Changing a role is possible but the individual will lose their role for a month while the change occurs.
Class: A framework consisting of skills and abilities that allows an individual to achieve certain feats that would otherwise be more difficult or impossible.
Class Level: The level a class is at.
Class Experience: The amount of experience currently gained and needed to reach the next class level. Experience can be gained by using class skills and abilities or doing activities related to the class.
Class Skills: The skills that pertain to the class. Some skills are interchangeable between class and general. The priority will always be to taking class skill slots. If a class is gained and a general skill has already been gained that can be considered a class skill then the individual will be given one chance to move it to the class skill slot. If class skill slots are full and another class skill becomes available, the individual may move a skill that classifies as a general skill into a general skill slot. Classes have one skill slot with one more slot being gained every 25 class levels.
Traits: The defining characteristics of an individual. Traits are immutable unless something about the individual themselves change, such as a racial change. Note: Exceptions exist under specific circumstances such as an individual with traits based on eyesight losing their eyes. Blank Slate: A trait of souls after death that allows them to be molded and adjusted.
Racial Skills: These are skills based specifically on species and race. Examples being a race with wings having a flight skill or a draconic race having a breath skill. Some skills are interchangeable between race and general, similarly to class skills. There are 5 racial skill slots.
General Skills: These are skills that most individuals are able to acquire through training, learning, or purchase. An individual has a base of 5 general skill slots with 1 more gained for every 50 character levels.
Ultimate Skills: Powerful skills and abilities that are at the apex of skills. Ultimate skills are considered rare due to the difficulty in attaining them. There are no limits to how many ultimate skills one may have.
Titles: This section is where all the titles an individual has access to but not equipped. An equipped title will appear in the name slot. Equipping a title will provide some kind of bonus to an individual, but most titles also have a minor passive effect that will be applied even if not equipped. If an individual does not have a title equipped then an available title may be equipped at will. Changing or unequipping a title takes 24 hours to take effect. Titles can be gained by through accomplishments.
Skill points: These are points that can be used to purchase or upgrade skills. 1 skill point is gained with every character level.
That was a lot to go through. He made sure to reread some of the descriptions he was unsure of but there was no way to fully understand everything just from the information he had so far. Some of the descriptions seemed a little too vague as well and he hoped that he would be able to figure things out before it became an issue.
He soon noticed a line of text floating under his status screen.
The countdown timer for tutorials and character creation has begun. Would you like to conclude the first tutorial and begin character creation? Yes/No
Wait, there was a countdown timer? He looked around for a bit and finally noticed something in the corner of his vision. He tried to focus on it and soon the numbers grew larger and more visible.
6:22:48:37
The last number was ticking down steadily so he could easily determine that the number indicated seconds. That had to mean that next to it was minutes and the second number had to be hours. He wasn't entirely sure but his reasoning said that the first number then had to be days. So he had about seven days to get through everything. He wasn't entirely sure if that was a lot or not since he had no idea how much he had to go through but if this was going to be decisions that would define his new life then it was safe to say that seven days to make those kinds of choices and learn everything might very well be too little.
He focused on the text prompt again, letting the timer sink back to the corner of his vision, and decided to start trying to get through as much as he could as quickly as he could without actually rushing. He might be on a timer but he didn't want to make some kind of mistake that could cause severe problems in the future. He chose the 'yes' option and started reading the next text as soon as it appeared.
Character creation is beginning and 50 points have been provided. Based on the original race of Human some species and race choices are ineligible and have been removed from the selection list. Review of memories and history of Subject 1095341C47-9 has been completed and the three prime ages for base status have been decided. Age category has been added to status, please choose which prime age the body will be using as a base. Note: Subject 1095341C47-9 comes from a location without access to magic. Magic stats have been added and appropriately adjusted to match prime ages.
He looked back at his status and saw that an age stat had indeed been added right after sex. There were also a bunch of plus signs across the stat sections. He chose to see what the one next to his blank name did and received a prompt in something that looked like a drop-down menu.
Would you like to use 5 points to choose a name? Yes
There wasn't a no option? He did kind of want a name but he wasn't sure if it was worth 5 points to do it right now. He started to panic a little about having to now use 5 points on something he considered trivial for the moment until he realized he could just close the drop-down menu again. He sighed in relief and looked at his status again. There was a plus sign next to sex, which he promptly ignored as he had no desire to change that.
Upon opening the drop-down for age he found three large numbers. He didn't remember ever being thousands of years old so either there had been a mistake somewhere or the numbers indicated something else. He really wished it would show something that was easier to understand such as years. With that though a prompt showed up asking if he wanted to change all age stats to years, which he agreed to immediately. There were still decimals so he asked the system in his head to round everything down as he began to wonder if he could customize the whole status at some point to make it more compact and easier to look through.
For now he returned his focus to his age choices and saw the numbers 17, 23, and 34. He chose the 23 and saw that there were actual numbers in his stats now. He chose 17 next and saw the numbers shift. After looking through all three sets of age stats and comparing them, he finally decided on the age of 17. Surprisingly, it was the one that had the most balance out of the choices. He wasn't sure exactly how things would be after he left this space so he figured that starting out with the most balance possible would afford him better choices than trying to specialize this early.
Happy with the choice he closed the drop-down and started to move on to species when he noticed a blinking spot near the timer at the corner of his vision. He tried to focus on it to find out more and a new window popped up in front of his status window. A wall of text appeared in front of the new window before he could figure out what it was so he read through that first.
Welcome to the Character Creation/Editor Shop. Here you can buy skills, traits, items and more or sell memories, body parts, and so forth all for points. Continue?
That was...interesting. He chose to continue and with just a brief look at what the shop had to offer he was starting to understand why he had been given a full seven days to go through all of this. If the choices he still he had to make for his character creation were going to be even half this amount then it would take a lot more than seven days to even read through it all. He let out a sigh and looked through the sell list since he was curious about how selling memories would work. Selling the memories of his name was worth 5 points and kind of made sense since it meant he could basically replace his old name with a new one at no cost.
He finally closed the shop and decided to go back to it after he had finished with as much of his character creation as possible first. He was pretty sure that the whole idea of selling of some unwanted or unneeded memories was something he was going to do but it would be better to know how much he would need first. Even bad memories had a place and he didn't want to start making huge mistakes in a new world as soon as he got there.