I woke up with a start. Right in front of me was the sky, a vibrant orange sky. With two moons.
“Status.”
I whispered that almost immediately and following my prompt a rectangular, semi -transparent blue screen appeared. It’s empty but that’s not the point. I did it. I did it! After almost a month I finally did it! I’m lucid dreaming! You know, it’s when you’re aware that you’re dreaming so you can shape your surroundings. The status thing is just a reality test. A way to know whether I’m dreaming or not. If I’m not then nothing should have appeared. The two moons kind of gave it away but as long as you haven’t become fully aware you’re dreaming it doesn’t work.
By the way, the reason I’m monologuing is to prevent myself from waking up due to the adrenaline rush I’m currently subject to. Anyway, with a thought I dismiss the empty screen … not. Furrowing my brows, I look at the moon and imagine it collapsing on itself and suddenly … nothing.
That’s not what is supposed to happen. Is lucid dreaming just a myth? As the rush of adrenaline slowly fades away, I notice several things. First, it doesn’t feel like a dream. The grass under my hands is a bit wet and cold. The grass? Tilting my head, I finally take notice of my immediate surroundings.
I’m in a clearing surrounded by a forest. The trees of the forest have emerald green leaves but the trunk is ashen grey. The limit between the forest and the clearing also looks really unnatural. I see several flowers that I don’t recognize at the edge of the forest but I’m not a specialist so I could be wrong.
Anyways, apart from the funky looking flora and the second moon in the sky, the other noticeable thing is the people surrounding me. Sitting up straight, I take a better look at the assortment of men and women present in the clearing. They all seem to be around 18 years old although some of them may look older or younger but who knows nowadays. It looks like there’s people from all around the world too.
Now that I look at it, there is quite a lot of people here. I would say around a hundred people. That makes me realize that the clearing is also quite big. I would say around 40 meters in diameters. We’re pretty much evenly distributed all over the clearing except on the edges. There is no one closer than 5 meters from the forest.
I don’t think it means anything good. By the way more and more people are waking up. I looks like I was one of the first. Slowly but surely panic starts to take over. Well I guess that any normal people waking up to two moons and strange wildlife would panic at first. I personally don’t care and use this time efficiently.
Looking back at the screen it is still frozen and empty. Well I don’t really “look back” at it. It’s more like it is running in the background and I just focused on it again. When I stop focusing on it, it returns to running in the background. It is a really strange feeling, I can’t dismiss it, it is just there.
I take a better look at the people around me and mainly their clothes. It gives a lot of information and also raises a few questions. First, you can see that most people are in groups from 3 to 5/6 people.
Some wore clothes that you would wear at a party, there’s several groups of people wearing school uniforms and there’s even three people in military outfit. A realistic looking one not just clothes with camouflage pattern. Two out of the three have a big backpack. Which makes me realize that I have my shoulder bag with me.
Before looking what’s inside of it, I look around a bit more while the groups are clearly forming. Out of the ones left alone I notice that several are wearing the same clothes. Like not the same outfit, the exact same pieces of clothing. There’s pants, shirts, or jackets. It doesn’t look like these people know each other and what’s more is that the clothes look brand new. And they all have the same appearance, a dull-white with a black outline.
If I had to guess I would say that we were transported to this world as we were at the time it happened and that people without enough clothing have received these clothes. Although looking by the embarrassed look of a … gifted girl and the way her eyes are looking around and back to herself, underwear isn’t included.
Now that I think about it, when was I transported? I can’t remember it happening. If I try to remember the last thing I can, some kind of mind fog keeps diverting my attention and it doesn’t seem like I can circumvent it. The number of unexplained things keeps raising.
Although panic has subsided, it’s now fear and tension that is taking place. It’s clear that everyone wants a response and it’s putting them on edge. They want to know where we are, why we are here and all that stuff. A good-looking guy starts to speak but his words are drowned by a tickling at the back of my mind. Focusing on it, the empty window reappears except it is not empty anymore.
Magical Game Interface started.
User registred.
Relaying pending notification.
By accessing the system before its initialisation, you have been granted the title "The hurried one"
You learn and master skills with less difficulty than the average.
It takes you less time to bring a skill to its next mastery.
As the first one to access the system, you are granted the ability to design your own skill.
Please define the rules and boundaries of your skill.
Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
If not defined or if too light, rules and boundaries will be defined by the system.
Kukuku … kuhahahaha! KUHAHAHAHA!!! Hum, let’s just act like this three-steps laugh never happened. Not even in my head. Anyway, a skill huh? Well if I can always make my own, I want something that is op as fuck … I know!
‘I want a skill that allow me to turn elements from my imagination into reality!’
You have been granted the title "The Creator".
Using the adequate tools, actions and resources, you are able to create anything you want.
Wait! It’s a scam! It’s like the most basic ability of mankind. That’s not what I wanted. And there is almost no information. How can I become op if my main ability is something as shitty as this?
Status Name Allen Race Human Level 0 - 0% ID 0 Health 33 Health regeneration /s 0,0015 Stamina 65 Stamina regeneration /s 0,056 Mana 15 Mana regeneration /s 0,0026 Vitality 15 Endurance 14 Strength 16 Agility 14 Dexterity 12 Perception 13 Intelligence 15 Wisdom 13 Condition Well rested Inventory 0/10 Wealth 0 - (22.56 €)
At least my stats look good, I think. I mean, in most cases, they are around 10. I practiced climbing and martial art regularly after all so around 1.5 the strength of a normal human shouldn’t be wrong but I don’t understand how health, stamina, mana and the associated regens are works.
After a bit of searching, I found out that there is a multiplier for it. I’m at exactly 1 for mana, 2.2 for health and 4.7 for stamina and you multiply it by the associated stat. Vitality for health, endurance for stamina and intelligence for mana. Regens seems to depend on my condition and a value calculated from the associated stat and another multiplier. Health and stamina are the same but mana regeneration is linked to wisdom although it doesn’t look like I can regen mana for now.
Another good thing I discovered is that you can edit your screen and create your own. The information behind it will stay the same but you can have 10000 HP if that makes you feel better. After tweaking with the interface a little bit, I now have Two bar in the corner of my vision, like in a game which displays my health, mana, and stamina. I mean it’s better that keeping the entire tab open, isn’t it?
It doesn’t change the amount of questions I have though! Like how do you take damage? Is it like games or like real life? What happens if you lose your last due to a minor damage on your hand? Is losing your hp the consequence of dying or the cause? The questions keep popping in my head and it doesn’t look like I’m going to get any answers.
I continue to explore the possibility and find several other screens, namely, the inventory that displays ten slots in 2 lines that are empty. I guess it works like a classic inventory but I won’t try it right now, there is also a Title screen where my Creator title is displayed with a brief description and my skill screen which is strangely empty. Didn't I get a free skill?
I close my eyes and take a big breath. Okay, I’ll try to get answers to these questions later, now is not the time. During the time I took to explore the system, most people have woken up. A low buzzing sound is starting to form as they talk to their friends although more quietly than I though. Maybe the incongruity of the situation is keeping them from panicking.
The good-looking guy is still trying to gather attention but only a few people look at him. He is around 180 centimeters and has light brown hair, his eyes are also brown and he has a slender build although he doesn’t seem very muscular. He definitely counts as handsome though. I mean objectively.
“Everyone please, can I have your attention?”
No, you can’t. Of course, even after trying to gather the attention, people waking up in the middle of nowhere can’t possibly calm quickly enough to listen even if it’s the right thing to do. Everyone was talking with and asking question to their friends without bothering to listen to him.
“SHUT THE FUCK UP!”
Well … I guess that if you don’t have natural authority, a gorilla can do the trick. By the way, gorilla is one of his friend, black hair, brown eyes, around 190/195 centimeters. Perfect build to intimidate. The soon to be leader place a hand on the back of his gorilla and take a step forward.
“Okay, I think that most of you noticed but we are not on earth anymore, I think we-“
Are you sure? I thought that the two moons were clearly telling us we were in the rainforests of Australia. Even if he has this leader aura he is incapable of leading. He’s only the leader of his group of friends. Ever since he said those words ten second ago everyone has been talking even more fervently between themselves. Oh, gorilla is acting again.
“SILENCE!”
Even though it works, I doubt that this type of conversation would be very productive.
“Thanks. Everyone, I’m Tom, Tom Finn and they are my friends.”
His four friends are in order, Gorilla whose name is Al Stones. You already know what he looks like but man, he could be a professional bodyguard except for the clothes.
Then there is Martin Palis, the other guy. He looks more like the mental type. He’s around 175 centimeters with blond hair and brown eyes. Nothing special.
And finally, there is the two girls. They were quite beautiful. The first one may not stand against professional model but that’s beside the point. Eleanore was a tall blond girl with deep blue eyes and that’s pretty much all I remember because I was too focused on the second girl, her name was Maël, she literally had fire-like hair, and her eyes were like two round emerald. She had a body with perfect curves and she looked like even if she came here alone she would have been ready to survive for years.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a pervert nor am I naïve to the point of believing in love at first sight. I just appreciate a beauty when presented before my eye. Anyway, once the presentation ended, Tom finally got to the main topic.
“Back to the topic, I know most of you don’t believe it and may think there is a trick but here is something that will convince you this is not a tv show or some kind of experience. Well it could be some very advanced experience or somethi-”
“Tom…” That was Go- Al.
“Yeah, sorry I got sidetracked, anyway say or think Status”
So that was why he so confidently tried to take the lead. Before I can continue to think about his motivations, even before the first people who tried to say ‘Status’ could gasp at the floating semitransparent magical game interface, a string of notification popped in front of me.