System Initialization… complete
Node Identification. #error
Attempting to isolate contamination… failure
Attempting to merge node contaminants… complete
Node Stabilization… 3… 2… 1… complete
Scanning Node… complete
Downloading patches………………… complete
Installing………… complete
User Interface Initialization… complete
Welcome New User!
View Tutorial? y/n
“Umm, yes?” Wynter was confused. She seemed to be hanging in a glowing mist. No up or down. Then without warning or transition she was standing in a school classroom. A featureless Mannequin in front of her.
“Welcome to the System tutorial! All options and choices may be spoken, thought, or gestured to. In the corner of your vision you will see a paper doll outline, this is personal link to your status screens. These screens may also be accessed with a clear thought or a spoken [Status]. Please call up the status screen now.”
“[Status]” Wynter spoke in a strangely detached tone.
A transparent window appeared,
Titles: na
Name: Wynter
Race: Beastkin – Felidae (Shadowcat)
Age: 18 (March 22nd, 2032)
Traits: Racial – Affinity to Shadows, Racial – Darkvision, Racial – Obligate Carnivore, Racial – Sensitivity to Light, Racial – Natural Weapons, Racial – Natural Armor.
Class: Novice Dancer
HP: 45
MP: na
PP: 60
SP: 63
AC: 0
Evasion: 6%
Dodge: 15%
STR: 9
VIT: 9
AGI: 14
INT: 12
MIND: 12
PER: 11
CHR: 6 (18 base)
Luck*: 2
Skills
Short Blades: 2
Hand-to-Hand: 2
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
::Martial Kick: 2
::Martial Punch: 2
::Martial Throw: 1
Dance: 16
::Exotic: 16
::Folk: 12
Acrobatics: 12
Jump: 11
Climb: 4
Dodge: 7
Accuracy: 9
Sex: 9
::Foreplay: 7
::Oral: 6
::Anal: 1
::Lesbian: 3
Psionic Arts: 1
::Reinforcements: 1
Shadow: 1
Inspection: 3
Lore (General): 1
::Lore (Beastkin): 1
Professions (0/4)
>none
Spells (0/0/3/0)
>Physical Reinforcement 1 (STR)
>Vision Reinforcement 1 (PER)
>Health Reinforcement 1 (HP)
Equipment
>none
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Well, shit, so much for what happens in Vegas, staying in Vegas. The anal, was a strap-on, and it was once! Once!
“So, you can see that the Status tells you all about yourself. Your Titles are effects applied externally and can be lost or changed if you travel to new regions. Traits are things that permanently affect your body and mind internally. Racial, are as they sound, effects imposed by your Race. Being a Shadowcat makes you a creature of the shadows, abhorring light. Light based attacks will do increased damage. While eating vegetables and fruit won’t harm you, they will do you little good, it is meat you crave and must have. Your hands and feet now have claws and with training would be all the weapons you might ever need. With training your fur could become the perfect armor for you.
Wynter raised her arm and saw a cat’s paw and the smoky grey fur,
“Sebastien? Why do I look like Sebastien?” Wynter asked.
“Sebastien? Ah, yes, the feline contaminant. When you were caught in the transition shockwave and your body destroyed, we rebuilt you. There was a cat intermixed with your patterns and the two couldn’t be separated. So, your current appearance is an admixture of you both.”
“Was… was everyone destroyed?”
“Just those within an approximate 300Km radius of the System Crystal. This map zone is now considered off-limits to natives of Earth and you will be relocated once the tutorial is complete.”
“So, is everyone getting the System?”
“No. Over the past several years, nearly 90% of the original Terran population has proven incapable or incompatible with the System or has died due to environmental causes. and became surplus biomass for creature creation. Each year fewer and fewer fail to adapt and the population has begun to stabilize. Estimates are that 140 to 150 million Terrans will remain when their population stabilizes.”
“What! You guys wiped the fucking planet out? Why the…”
There was a click and all the anger flowed out of Wynter. She could no longer remember why those numbers had made her angry.
“To continue; your class, such as it is, depicts your highest active skill. In this case your highest skill is Dancer at L16, so you are known as a Novice Dancer. Skills can progress up to L1000, with your current level in the Novice range. This will give you an estimate of what another user or creature is capable of. Just beware, a person might have one Novice ranked skill, or a hundred of them, and still be shown as a Novice. Skills increase as you use them or receive training.”
A section of the Status screen lit up,
“These four pools are critical. HP, Health Pool, is your bodies integrity. Should it reach zero you will die. MP, Mana Pool, this is the energy used to fuel your spells, should you ever learn any. When it reaches zero you will be unable to cast and suffer from Mana Exhaustion. PP, Psionic Pool, Beastkin tend to use this rather than Mana. This pool fuels your psionic abilities, currently your only skill is beginner Reinforcement. At your current skill you will need 10PP to add +1 to your Strength or Perception. SP, Stamina Pool, all physical actions take effort, every swing of a sword, every spell, all have a Stamina cost. In general, 1SP per Kilogram of mass for each action. So, swing a dagger or throw a punch? One Stamina. Swing a massive halberd? That would be four or five stamina per swing. Special skills might use a lot more. All of these will recover by potion, meditation, or simple time. Skills, training, and experience can reduce stamina costs and hasten recovery.”
A new section lit,
“These are your Statistics, a method of quantifying your abilities. Strength, or STR, is a measure of raw physical force. Vitality, or VIT, is your endurance and how sturdy you are. Agility, or AGI, is your ability to move and react. Intelligence, or INT, is not a measure of what you know, but your ability to use what you know. To see the connectedness of the universe and bend them to your will. Mind, or MND, is your force of will to look inside and draw out the hidden power there. Perception, or PER, is how aware you are of your surroundings, the ability to see the smallest things. Charisma, or CHR, is how other perceive you and how you present yourself to them. Currently, as a non-Human in human lands your effective score is reduced. Luck, sometimes the Fates turn against you and turn the simplest task into a complete disaster. Spend a point of luck and you might well turn the foulest happenings into your favor. Luck may even spend itself. All of these, except Luck, can be raised freely to a score of 200, but after 200 they become increasingly difficult to raise and the returns are smaller.”
“This last section is your Professions, these are like the skills, but these are the skills of building or creating. For example, an Artist skilled at Painting might create a new famous painting, a Gardener might produce the best flowers, a Smith might do incredible things with metal, whether the iron of a Blacksmith, or the delicate works of a Goldsmith and Silversmith. You can have four, and eventually two more if you become skilled enough. Now enough of this. It is time for you to be gone. Fair warning though, those outside the exclusion radius were rebuilt nearly immediately, only losing a day or two. The closer to the Core, the more your body was scattered, you were almost at the center and had contaminants to handle. To those outside, almost a decade has passed. You will need to be careful and catch up.”
With a flash of light, Wynter was standing in a forest clearing, summer birds singing. The light was so bright, and that cute rabbit was leaping at her throat.
=-=-=-=-