For the first time in his life Simon was pretty sure he knew how clothes felt when they went through a wash cycle. Nausea wouldn’t even begin to do it justice. As the blinding light faded from his vision, he attempted to collect himself between fits of retching. Crawling up to his hands and knees he began to take in his surroundings.
Dense underbrush blocked his vision on all sides with very little tree cover to speak of. The foliage on the bushes was dense enough to block his view at his sight line, but in one direction he could vaguely make out a mountain range in the distance.
The sudden realization of his nudity was a bit of shock, but at least the weather didn’t seem to be an issue. Glad to have been brought during a warmer season, he tried to bring himself to stand only to trip and receive a facefull of mud. Damn...still feel like someone ran me through a blender. Coughing and spitting to get the mud out of his mouth he found that the ringing in his ears was finally dissipating.
“Why the hell can’t I stand up yet…?” he mumbled to to himself. Stopping to think about it, it occurred to him that he was actually on a new planet, which meant that aside what whatever side effects that spell had caused, it was quite likely that the gravitational pull. Wait...hadn’t his benefactor said something about a system that’s integra…
As soon as he had thought the word a semi translucent screen popped up in front of his face.
It took everything he had not to get excited when he saw it. Custos hadn’t been kidding, this looks like the character screen straight out of an rpg.
“So it seems like I can mentally control this thing, but for now I really have no idea how to use it to its full potential. I wonder if there is some sort of map?”
As if on command, the screen changed to a full sized map of his immediate surroundings. “Well, as useful as that is...it’s all greyed out. Must be some kind of fog of war or something since the area around me is exposed at least. It’ll probably fill in as I learn the information or go those areas myself. At least I can tell that mountain range is to the east.”
After failing to find information about the planet itself, he mentally tabbed back to the character screen. He noticed that there appeared to be some sort of layout for his gear as well as a simplified version of his stats.
Simon Treadwell
Age: 38
Sex: Male
Classes: Classless Lvl. 1
HP 110/110 (22hp/min)
MP 340/340 (68mp/min)
Str: 13
Agi: 11
Con: 12
For: 17
Int: 22
Wis: 25
Active Skills: None
Passive Skills: None
Spells: N/A
Talents: None
“Seems like all that time with my face buried in those books did for me,” he laughed to himself. Curiosity had always been one of his stronger character traits, and it was rearing its head again. Not being the least bit satisfied with that basic amount of information he quickly found himself looking at more detailed description of the different stat types.
Strength
A measure of physical capacity to perform certain actions. Affects the ability to lift of move heavy objects. Each point of strength over the base of 10 is measured as an increase of 2.5% over the previous number. Thresholds beginning at 25, 50, 100, and so on, reward a static bonus equivalent to double the previous threshold.
Agility
A measure of physical speed and rate of movement. Affects the ability to quickly redirect one’s own body in quick, concise ways. Also affects linear speed. Each of point of agility over the base of 10 is measured as an increase of 1% over the previous number. Thresholds beginning at 50, 100, 200, and so on, reward a static bonus equivalent to double the previous threshold.
Constitution
A measure of physical toughness and durability. Affects the thickness of skin, muscle fiber and tissues, and bones. Also affects rate of physical recovery from injury. Each point of constitution over the base of 10 is measured as an increase of 5 hitpoints and 1 hp/min. Thresholds beginning at 25, 50, 100, and so on, reward a static increase of double the current hitpoints, applied after permanent bonuses.
Fortitude
A measure of mental toughness and resistance to mental attacks. Affects the ability to resist mind controlling or damaging spells/skills. Fortitude is measured as a static number and will succeed in blocking an attack based on the following formula: Fortitude > Attackers Int/4.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Intelligence
A measure of mental capacity to understand information. Affects learning speed, intuition, and spell/skill strength. Each point of Intelligence over the base of 10 is measured as an increase of 2.5% increase in spell/skill strength. Thresholds beginning at 25, 50, 100 and so on, reward a static bonus equivalent to double the previous threshold. Abstract gains to learning speed and intuition are unquantifiable.
Wisdom
A measure of ability to process and use information. Affects decision making as well as mana capacity and recovery. Each point of wisdom after the base of 10 is measured as an increase of 5 mana points and 1 mp/min. Thresholds beginning at 25, 50, 100 and so on, reward a static bonus equal to double the current mana points, applied after permanent bonuses. Abstract gains to decision making are unquantifiable.
+1 Int
+1 Wis
Considering that next question he answer he wanted to discern an answer to was how to gain skill points, he was happy to have had at least a portion of his question answered.
It seems like stats are gained by application of the stat in question. So i suppose doing physical exercise would help with my agility and strength. Also….I guess the uses for my intelligence are cut in half since I can’t use spells.
+1 Int
Just as he was beginning to think that this was way too easy he heard a muffled scream and immediately hit the deck. After determining the direction it had come from he slowly crawled into the underbrush in that direction. As he reached the edge of his little clearing he began hearing more odd sounds. Banging of metal and what sounded like water sloshing around. He was also forced to acknowledge that the closer he got the more he noticed a sickly, sweet smell on the air.
With the utmost caution he reached out and pull apart a few of the lowest hanging branches of the outermost shrub in his encirclement. He saw what appeared to be a dozen or so men and women, some of whom were heavily wounded, attempting to flee…”What the hell is that thing?” Realizing he’d just said that out loud he quickly covered his mouth and checked to make sure he hadn’t been seen.
In response to his question a tag with a bunch of question marks appeared over the creature’s head. Understanding that he simply didn’t have enough information he resigned himself to observing as the soldiers had their escape path cut off by another of the foul beasts. Soon there were a few dozen of they bipedal hyena looking creatures surrounding the group.
They were roughly the same height as him, although they were slouched at the shoulders so that was a bit deceiving. Most wielded crude one handed axes and wore nothing but patchwork cloth around their waist. Dotted throughout were a few who stood a bit taller and wore light leathers, clearly some type of leader unit for them. They also had quite a few using rough shortbows that looked to have have had better days. Despite that, they seemed to be accomplishing the objective of keeping the soldiers corralled.
While watching the group it was clear that they had an overwhelming individual advantage over the monsters. They could easily cut down two or three a piece before the creatures were forced to regroup. The outcome was clear though. The beasts were smarter than they looked apparently, because they were adapting to the point where they were simply trying to inflict as much damage as they could without taking any mortal wounds. A battle of attrition...and one they would win eventually.
Whispering to himself, Simon wondered, “How is it that a bunch of professional soldiers lack any semblance of coordination? They’d clearly be able to get themselves out of this situation, but I haven’t seen a single one of them even attempt to take command. Too proud maybe?” As he was pondering, an idea suddenly came to him. If played correctly, this could be opportunity for him. Soldiers meant authority, and they were also a potential source of information for him. If he wanted to save them though, he’d have to act quickly.
Observing which direction they had come he noticed that they had been funnelled through a series of shallow valleys that led from the north. Their lack of coordination had caused them to be oblivious this fact, but it was something that Simon could take advantage of. Circling to the opposite side of the enclosed area he was in, he made his way into the open and quickly made for the nearest hill to the north.
Avoiding the few trailing monsters that were making their way to the bloodbath he eventually found what he’d been looking for, the body of one the dead soldiers. Costus hadn’t been kidding when he’d said that they were massive. This one was easily eight feet tall and probably weighed well over three hundred pounds. Realizing that there was no way he’d ever be able to use any of the armor, he starting stripping it off to get to the pants underneath.
+1 Str
Sighing at what was obviously the system mocking him, he proceeded to strip the corpse of its pants and undershirt. Tying them off to account for them being far too large for his six foot frame, he quickly moved to the backside of one of the hills near where the soldiers were being whittled down.
Peeking his head over the top of the hill he could see that in the middle of their encirclement there appeared to be two robed figures. From what he could tell, one of them was maintaining some kind of spell that was deflecting any projectiles coming their way. Not that that was deterring the bow wielding creatures who continued to pepper their formation to no avail. “I suppose his mana will run out eventually,” he mumbled out loud.
What had become apparent to him at this point was that the other one was the only reason they were even still in the fight. A healer, I suppose it makes sense why they’re so reckless then. Although from her appearance it was quite clear that she didn’t have much left in her either. Once those two go down they’ll be done for, I have to do something before then.
His mind was unusually calm considering that he was about to watch a dozen people die. Doing a quick count of the remaining monsters, there seemed to be about fifty or so left in fighting form. Ok, there i zero chance that I’ll be able to kill any of those things, but if I could get in there and get them to listen to me then we might just stand a chance.
So, taking advantage of a soft spot in the encirclement, Simon took off at a sprint. Weaving his way through the creatures they barely had a chance to realize what was happening before he’d be out of reach and to the next line. Just when he thought he was going to make it without any problems he heard one of them bark something and the line closest to the soldiers turned in his direction.
No more than fifteen feet from the encirclement, Simon made the least sane decision he’d made all day. He ran straight at one of the beasts. Hoping to take it off guard and slip past it, he was dismayed when he saw it grin from ear to ear, showing off its grotesque mouth full of razor sharp teeth, and raise it’s curved sword over its head. Just as he was about to be sliced in half, a spear appeared through its chest. Thanking whichever god had just saved him, he dove through a gap in the line and turned around in time to see the large soldier in silver plate armor throw it to the ground.
“Think you can turn your back on me you fucking dog?!” He spit on its corpse before looking over his shoulder, “I don’t know who you are, but you’re either the stupidest man I’ve ever seen, or you’ve got a plan to get us out of here. So, which is it?”
Simon responded with a grin, “how about both?”