Rainer stood in a cave, staring at a dead goblin. The cave was lit by a torch the goblin dropped, and the torch flickered, casting shadows about rough rock walls. He was confused, and afraid, and exhilarated. Less than one minute before, Rainer had been in his apartment, excited to test the spell he had spent months creating, the first spell that was his own. He meant it to let him walk through walls. For his first attempt, he'd tried to pass his hand through a sheet of cardboard. Now he stood in a cave, presumably in another world, staring at a dead goblin he had killed when it attacked him, seconds after he arrived... wherever he was. The ugly green thing was about five feet tall, thick with muscle, and had been faster than seemed plausible until it died and was still. Not until it died - rather, until he killed it.
None of this made sense. Rainer did not know where he was or how he got here. He did not know why the three arcane bolts he had cast on instinct had killed the charging goblin. Arcane Bolt was one of two spells his grandfather, the only other Arcanist that Rainer knew of, had taught him. It had been barely more powerful than a laser pointer. Now, three bolts killed a creature Rainer was fairly confident was physically tougher than an average human. He did not know why when he killed the goblin, the message [5% experience gained] appeared on the bottom right of his vision before slowly fading. There were too many things he didn't know, and it seemed likely his ignorance could kill him in a variety of ways. There were a few things Rainer was sure of. He did not want to die. He had to calm down and think this through. All of it.
Were any more goblins coming to kill him? It was very quiet. The brief, fatal duel he had won was not loud, but neither had it been silent. If any nearby goblins were coming to investigate, he should have heard them by now.
So, Rainer had at least a moment to think. Weirdest thing first: What was with that HUD message? Rainer was an Arcanist, and as such, quickly accepted his new reality. He was in a world where he gained experience as if he were a fantasy RPG, and had just killed a goblin. He disposed of the thought that this was impossible. Denying strange truths would cost time he could not afford to lose. He started to chant, softly.
“Show Level.”
“Show Skills.”
“Show Character.”
“Show Stats.”
“Show Status.”
His words were answered only by a faint echo and his own embarrassment and frustration.
I demand you show my status! At once! … please ...
This time, his plea was within his mind, directed at no one and nothing in particular. It occurred to him that he may be hallucinating, either the HUD message or the entire situation. This course of thought was interrupted by a peculiar message screen.
[Name: Rainer Nvos]
[Age: 19]
[Titles: None]
[Primary Classes: Arcanist Lvl 1]
[Sub-Classes: None]
[Exp: 5%]
[Race: Human]
[Skills: Sleep Learning Lvl 9/10]
[Skill Points: 0]
[Talents: Excellent Arcane Affinity, Human Growth]
[Stamina: 11/12]
[Stamina Regen: .1% per second]
[Mana: 7/13]
[Mana Regen: .001 per second]
[Constitution: 11]
[Affinity: 13]
[Vitality: 10]
[Endurance: 12]
[Strength: 11]
[Dexterity: 13]
[Intelligence: 14]
[Willpower: 10]
[Attribute points: 0]
His first thought: This is a status screen, and that is bizarre. Second thought: It takes two minutes to go from completely exhausted to 100% Stamina, which seems fast. Third thought: It takes 1,000 seconds to regenerate a point of mana, or 13,000 seconds to go from 0% to 100%. That's... about 216 minutes. A little more than 3.5 hours. Each of my arcane bolts cost 2 mana, and it took all 3 of them to kill the goblin, so I can kill a goblin every 1.5 hours, or 2 goblins at once every 3 hours - assuming I never miss and they never dodge. That's… not good. This place could be full of goblins. Fifth thought: I just thought an in-game command and got a Status Screen! That's awesome!
It was all too much to take in at once, but it was also unspeakably fascinating. Rainer tried another mental command, and to his delight, anything in his Status screen that he thought about resulted in a sort of tool-tip pop up within his vision.
[Excellent Arcane Affinity: 200% general improvement and growth to Arcane Spells and Arcane related skills. 50% Improvement and growth to all magic spells and magic-related skills.]
[Human Growth: Lacking any innate abilities or attribute bonuses, humans instead garner an increased growth rate of 10% in all subjects and general leveling.]
[Arcanist Lvl 1/25: As a seeker of the Arcane, the true origin of magic, all secrets of the universe await thee. 100% general improvement and growth to Arcane spells and Arcane related skills. 25% Improvement and growth to all magic spells and magic-related skills. Allows the initial learning of any skill far easier than normal. +2 Intelligence, +2 Affinity, +.5 Willpower, +.10 All Attributes per Level past Level 1]
Well, those bonuses to Arcane Spells go a long way toward explaining why his arcane bolt now hit much harder than a laser pointer. But those bolts were still far more than 4 times as powerful as before, so a combined 300% bonus wasn't the only thing that had changed. Allows initial learning of any skill far easier than normal? That seemed awesome, right?
Rainer suddenly thought to thank whoever created this system for not letting him die to dumb goblin. A fast, strong, coordinated, dagger wielding goblin. He actually had no clue how intelligent it had been. He amended his mental thanks to not letting him die to a goblin yet.
[Human: Denotes one as a member of the human race giving them the Talent: Human Growth and the base attributes of a human of their age and ability.]
Human seems to be the baseline race. Perhaps we are the most common sentient life form?
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[Arcanist Sub-Class Bonus: 25% general improvement and growth to Arcane spells and skills]
What exactly is a Sub-Class? How do you get them? Can you switch them back to Primary? How can I find answers to any of this?
Next, Rainer looked at his attributes.
Is 10 average? If so, my attributes seem unusually good. My bench press is 225 pounds, and I'm pretty sure I'm more than 10% stronger than an average human overall. I don't have enough context for what these attributes mean.
He looked at the description for each attribute.
[Constitution: Improves the durability and defense of one’s body.]
[Affinity: Improves one’s casting and learning ability while increasing total mana.]
[Vitality: Improves the healing ability and disease resistances of one’s body.]
[Endurance: Increases stamina and reduces its consumption.]
[Strength: Improves the power of one’s body.]
[Dexterity: Improves the control and speed of one’s body.]
[Intelligence: Improves the power of magic and the processing speed of the brain.]
[Willpower: Improves the resistance against magical/mental ailments and the regeneration of mana.]
[Attributes may contain other hidden effects.]
That mostly makes sense. Intelligence apparently doesn't have to do with how smart you are, rather with how fast you can think. On the other hand, affinity improves learning ability? Huh. My Willpower is 10, and my mana regeneration is .001 per second. Maybe it's linear? One point of Willpower increases mana regeneration by .0001 per second? I've gotten decent at fencing… maybe that's reflected partially in my intelligence score and partially in dexterity? It does come down to both thinking and moving quickly and accurately. I wish my Vitality were higher - something tells me I'll be getting hurt way more often here than I did back home. Will I ever get back to home?
Last, Rainer looked at his one spell.
[Spellbook: Arcane]
[Tier One: Arcane Bolt Lvl 2/10]
[Arcane Bolt Lvl 2/10: Fires a bolt of concentrated Arcane energy.]
That was not particularly helpful. It didn't explain how his bolts had gotten so much stronger. And that was something he really needed to know, because if they went back to laser pointer strength, the next goblin he ran into would kill him - and the dead goblin probably had friends that would look for him sooner or later.
Leaving aside [Sleep Learning], which had been the other spell his grandfather had taught him, and was now apparently a skill instead, Rainer finally took a good look at his surroundings.
He was in a rather large room in a cave, and the room looked naturally formed. It was shaped like an egg with a rather flat bottom, and had a door sized entrance to what appeared to be a mine shaft, judging by the wooden support beams. The goblin had seen him while walking past the entrance to the room.
Did goblins make this mine? Are they intelligent? Is the mine still active? What is being mined?
Rainer looked down at the dead goblin. There was very little visible damage to its body, only a slight darkening on the skin where the bolts had hit it. Arcane bolts must deal some type of internal or magical damage. His inspection was interrupted by another HUD pop-up.
[Skill Gained: Appraisal Lvl 1/10]
Huh… must be I learned that because of my class bonus?
He tried to Appraise the dead goblin, and was immediately rewarded with a not particularly useful message.
[Goblin, Male, Deceased]
Err… thanks for that.
A few more trials, each resulting in the same message, showed that he just had to will the Appraisal skill to use it, and that it was nearly instant.
Next, he picked up the goblin's dagger. It was surprisingly well crafted. He appraised it. [Iron Dagger: A dagger with an iron blade.] I wonder how often Appraisal will tell me something I don't already know. Though I suppose I was only mostly sure the dagger was iron. The blade was sharp and well maintained, as running a finger across it revealed that it had been recently been oiled. The balance was good. This was a weapon, not just a tool. Rainer knew that knife fights rarely had a true winner. But given his sadly small mana pool, it was best to be prepared to defend himself with the dagger as a last resort. With a rueful smile, he decided that he was quite glad his grandfather, who had initially insisted he take dance lessons, agreed to let him switch to fencing. A dagger was not a saber, but it was still a bladed weapon with a cutting edge and a sharp point. He began going through a series of thrusts and combination attacks, one he had practiced countless times in the white void of his grandfather's sleep learning spell. The motions were familiar, and he basked in the feeling of control and personal competence that contrasted so painfully with everything else in this new world. His thoughts thus occupied, he was surprised by a short series of HUD messages.
[Skill Gained: Dagger Mastery, 2/10]
[Skill Gained: General Blade Mastery, 5/10]
Rainer blinked. It must be that I need to use a skill here before the system will credit me with having it. That 5/10 seems high. I've only had four years of fencing lessons. On the other hand, I've probably spent half my sleep learning time on fencing for the last three years. What does that add up to? I'll round it down a bit, and call it 3,000 hours of practice sleep learning, 1,000 hours of practice while awake, and about 400 hours of lessons? Maybe 5/10 is right. Sleep learning - good for more than just cramming for tests! Interesting that my skill there is at 9/10.
With a sudden flash of insight, Rainer knew how best to use the next few hours, or until someone or something else dangerous found him, whichever came first. First, he dragged the goblin out of the line of sight of the cave's entrance into the mine tunnel. Then, he put out the torch, broke it into pieces, and used the pieces to assemble a crude sound trap. Last, Rainer Nvos, college sophomore and newly powerful Arcanist, laid down to take a nap. He was more excited than he had ever been before, even though the mental and emotional whiplash of the last several minutes had tired him more than he'd have believed possible. His last thought before sleep took him was that his wall walking spell had, in the end, done what he'd wanted it to do - he was now a true [Arcanist], with power beyond what he'd ever dreamed within reach.