Chapter 5
Climbing into my bunk I sigh to myself. Making boards by hand is killer on the back and shoulders. Bending over and running the planner over the boards again and again is no easy task. Just before falling asleep I see a quick message on my display before passing out. First sleep detected, initiating system tutorial…
I’m standing in a space with no walls. Just endless grasslands around me. Looking around it’s just nothing but ankle high flowing grass. My interface pops up and displays a message.
“Welcome new user to the System. As a first time user of a new race all beings are given a basic tutorial on how the System works, as well as basic commands. To start things off you will notice options at the top of your vision, Status, Inventory, Skills. These options and more are here to help you interact with your new system. Status, will give you your basic statistics along with any modifier currently applied to your person. Inventory is your ability to store items for later use. Skills are a list of your current ability to perform actions.”
“To help you further understand this please pickup the dagger and store it into your inventory, by holding the item and thinking, Store.” Looking around I notice a dagger just popping into existence at my feet. Picking it up I swing it around for a second just to make sure it’s real. Feeling the heft to it, I hold it still and think, “Store”. The dagger instantly disappears. Staring at my hand for a second I finally notice a blinking light on my Inventory option. Mentally clicking it a three by three grid appears in my view with a small dagger icon in the first square.
“Congratulations, you have stored your first item.” The message scrolls across my vision. “To retrieve an item from your inventory just look at the stored item and think about withdrawing it into your hand.” Doing so the dagger just pops into existence in the palm of my hand. “Congratulations, you have removed your first inventory item.” The message scrolling across my views makes me wonder if the system is being condescending or if it is just being very basic in its explanation.
“Now to help you understand your Status menu better we will show you how to remove an active debuff.” Staring at this message for a second I start to wonder what the system is talking about. Right as I think that an arrow comes out of nowhere and strikes me in the lower leg.
“Mother Fucker” I yell out loud, as I fall on my ass, dropping the dagger, and staring at the arrow. My Status option starts blinking at the top of my vision. Before I can look around to see where the arrow came from the system sends a new message.
“You have been hobbled, you are bleeding.”
“Yeah no shit system” I say out loud.
“To view active debuffs, think, Status Debuffs.”
Holding the arrow in place in my leg I quickly look around and see no one around me. Not seeing anyone or anything I do as the System says before the pain gets any worse.
Status Debuffs
Hobbled, you move 20% slower until this condition is removed.
Bleeding, you lose 1 Health Point per minute until this condition is removed.
HP 99/100
“To remove active debuffs, you must tend the wound. In order to do this the wound must be bandaged or magically healed. To help with this condition your first cantrip has been unlocked and bandages have been added to your inventory.”
“ New Cantrip Unlocked: First Aid. To use this cantrip the person must be out of combat, and have the wounded tended to. After the wound is tended Think about the condition you want to treat and say out loud First Aid.”
Staring dumb struck at the message my leg lets out a sharper throb of pain followed by a “Minus 1 HP” off to the side of my vision. Quickly pulling up my inventory I think remove bandage and a thick roll of gauzy linen appears in my hand. Setting the gauze down I pickup my fallen dagger and carefully cut open the bottom of my pants to get better access to the arrow. Pulling the sliced pants up around the wound I look and notice that the arrow is sticking all the way through the meat of my calf and only has a broad head on it.
Remembering my lessons in first aid, and the time I saw this in a movie, I carefully break off the feathered end while grunting in pain. I pull the rest of the arrow through the wound, and bunch up some gauze on both sides of the wound before using the rest to wrap it around my leg and tie it tightly in place. Immediately a message flashed to the side of my vision. “Bleeding debuff removed.” The pain in my leg lessens and I can breathe a little easier.
Taking a second to settle myself I try to use First Aid. Staring at the wound I think of it healing and mutter out loud “First Aid,” and nothing happens. I keep staring at my wrapped wound and internally mother fucking the System when it hits me what happened. I think about my Hobbled Debuff and say “First Aid,” finally receiving the welcomed message. I feel a slight draining from myself as my leg starts itching, and a message scrolls across my vision. “Congratulations, you have cast your first cantrip, and healed your first wound.”
“Hobbled debuff removed” flashes at the side of my vision. I sigh in relief as the itching in my leg slowly fades and with it so does the pain. I quickly look around again to see where the arrow might have come from. Not seeing anything I slowly stand back up after picking up my dagger again. Testing my leg I don’t feel any discomfort from it and try hopping on it. No pain at all.
“Congratulations, you have successfully removed your first debuff. Debuffs are conditions that actively affect your person, in a negative way. More cantrips and spells are available to be discovered and unlocked through skill books, or even through proper study. After analyzing your first day in the system new cantrips are available to help you with your current skills. Split board, and plane board are now available.”
I’m slightly dumbstruck after reading this system prompt. “Is the system trying to make us more reliant on it, or is it really trying to help us survive I think.” Deciding it doesn’t really matter, I am just glad I won't have to put in so much effort anymore while waiting for the colony to get a sawmill up and running.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Going back to reading my notification I get slightly worried about the system's next message. “ Going forward there will be randomly generated monsters, as excess mana is stopped from building up. These monsters will depend on your terrain, and planetary system. As you are currently in a simulation, the monsters will be solely determined by your terrain. To give an example, here is a goblin commonly found in the grasslands.”
Staring at the small tornado of lights twenty feet in front of me I am shocked when a two and a half foot creature forms in the lights, before they disperse. The creature has greenish skin almost the color of the surrounding grass. It has floppy ears and spindly arms. Almost reminding me of house elves from those famous movies about witches and wizards. That thought changes when it starts to look around before noticing me and starts to snarl. It has pointy teeth, and I finally notice the two inch claws.
I take a few stumbling steps back as the goblin starts to charge at me. Text appears in a box above the goblin as it is running at me. “Level 1 Field Goblin.” I brace myself and grip my dagger tightly as the goblin approaches. It swipes at my legs as it gets in range and I quickly step back to avoid it. Stepping back a few more times as it swipes at me I finally get annoyed and swipe back with the dagger as it over extends its arm. Getting a clean slice on its arm I am slightly surprised at the green blood that flows out.
The goblin looks pissed at this point and starts to swipe faster at me, before finally rushing forward to try to bite me. I quickly side step the dodge and slice at the goblin again giving it another cut on the arm as it goes by. The goblin is fast for being so scrawny, it spins around again and leaps at me. Shoving it to the side and towards the ground I quickly drop down to kneel on it and hold it in place. It is not happy at this point and start to go berserk struggling with both arms and legs trying to get out from below me. Not knowing what else to do I stab down into the goblins' back. Aiming for the right side hoping that it's anatomy is similar to mine, and that I will hit its heart. As the dagger slides in the goblin gives one more shriek and twitch before going still under me.
Staying still for a few more moments I pull the dagger out and wipe it off on the grass before standing up and looking around for whatever else the system is going to throw at me. Finally the next message shows up. “ Congratulations, you have slain your first monster. Level up.”
My status option starts to flash so I quickly select it and see what has changed.
Name: Declan Kincaid
Age: 24 years old
Race: Human
Class: N/A
Level: 1
Health: 100/100
Mana: 80/80
Statistics: Free stat points 3
Strength: 7+
Dexterity: 6+
Constitution : 5+
Intelligence: 4+
Wisdom: 5+
Charisma: 5+
Skills: Cooking, Carpentry, Masonry, Intermediate Construction… See full Skill list? Y/N
Ignoring my skills list I notice that my level has increased to one, and also that I have three free stat points. I also see the pluses next to all of my stat levels. The system chimes in at this point. “Congratulations on reaching level one. You have been allocated three free stat points to do with as you wish. As you continue to level and unlock a class you will gain more stat points to help you with your journey.”
“Would you like to see an explanation of the stats to help you better decide. Yes/No”
Quickly selecting yes to see an explanation of the stats, I am not surprised when they are almost exactly what I assumed them to be from my old table top days.
Strength: Representation of your physical strength. Determines amount of damage attacks inflict, also determines carrying weight.
Dexterity: Representation of your movement speed and hand eye coordination. Determines speed of attacks and chance to dodge incoming attacks. Also allows for fine detail work when crafting
Constitution: Representation of your physical resilience, stamina and good health. Also determines your health.
Intelligence: Represents a person's mental capacity. Determines power of spells and ability to resist magic attacks. Also affects memory and mana pool.
Wisdom: Represents a character's practical intelligence, their cleverness, their perceptiveness, and how in tune they are with the world around them. Also determines mana pool regeneration.
Charisma: Represents a character's force of personality, persuasiveness, personal magnetism, ability to lead, and physical attractiveness.
“As a race the human normal is five in each characteristic. Adding to each stat is as easy as selecting the plus icon next to each number in your stats menu. Bewarned however, crossing thresholds in your stats will be painful, and will temporarily knock you unconscious as your body moves beyond standard human means. The first human threshold is twenty in any stat. Following this it will be at fifty. After fifty every fifty points in a stat will be a new threshold that your body will have to adjust to.”
Reading through this I can’t help but wonder if my intelligence of four is the cause of me being slightly forgetful. I also smirk to myself and am thankful for the five in charisma. Deciding to try this out, I select the plus next to intelligence stat and bump it up to five to make sure I am using the system correctly. I feel a slight pain race through my head that quickly disappears and assume it is working correctly.
Now knowing that it works, I quickly add one to my constitution and one to my dexterity, thinking that a little extra health and quicker reaction time will be helpful if fighting monsters is going to become the new norm. Feeling my body give a quick twitch after selecting dexterity, I am slightly surprised at how I feel nothing from selecting constitution. Looking over my stats one more time I close them out to see what else the system is going to throw at me.
Name: Declan Kincaid
Age: 24 years old
Race: Human
Class: N/A
Level: 1
Health: 120/120
Mana: 100/100
Statistics:
Strength: 7
Dexterity: 7
Constitution : 6
Intelligence: 5
Wisdom: 5
Charisma: 5
“Congratulations on leveling up to one and applying your first free stat points. This concludes the basic introduction to the system. As a first time user of a new race it is your responsibility to teach future generations this information. Or to allow them to stumble through it in ignorance. You will receive one more introduction at level five and your class system becomes available.”
After reading this message the field around me starts to shrink as I feel myself start to wake up. Jolting in my bunk I am slightly surprised when I realize it is because my links alarm is going off at five AM, and it is time to get up and start a new day. I can’t help but wonder what else will change as more people wake up from the controlled sleep, and see the changes that have befallen us.