I didn’t sleep. Instead I was blasted immediately with a bright blue light and I found myself floating in a endless sea of blue. I looked around trying to get my bearings of where I was, but it confused me even further when I did. I also noticed instead of seeing my own body I was looking more at an faint blue outline of myself and in the center of my chest inside my ribcage sat a small white flame that flickered and burned. I tried to touch it with my weird outlined hand, but my chest was still solid.
“Pft… Humans. Always so curious.” I heard a voice remark. It seemed to emanate from all around me, but I could hear it clearly in my head as if it was my own voice.
“Who said that?” I asked into the void.
“I did, little Magi.” The voice said back. “Just call me The Guide.”
“Okay, Guide. And where are we?”
“We’re in your soul ocean. Not bad for a human actually.” The Guide said.
“My what ocean?” I asked.
“Soul Ocean. It’s what dictates your magical potential. Yours is quite vast for your species, but not uncommonly so. The colour however, that is rare.”
“Blue? Most oceans are blue aren’t they?”
“Yes, if made with water. This is made of your mana, young magi. It can be various colours. Blue isn’t rare. Most magi who come to me haven’t developed a shade yet. They mostly show up in a white or black room devoid of any shade. It’s rare that you’ve already developed one without any awareness. Curious. Hold on a second.” The Guide said. I felt the air around me begin to thrum. It felt like waves of bass from a speaker hitting me over and over. Then I saw a figure begin to form ahead of me. Another outline of a completely bald human. It mirrored my proportions and while I couldn’t see any specific eyes I could see the figure had a mouth. It also lacked certain ‘equipment’ much like a mannequin does.
“That’s better.” The Guide said, it’s voice now coming from the figure in front of me. “I find you humans prefer the one on one interaction over the omniscient godlike voice. So, shall we get started.” The Guide swiped it’s hand up in the air in front of me and a semi opaque window appeared. It looked similar to an old school character window from a video game. In the corner was a picture of me from the shoulders up, followed by my name, age, height and weight. I began to read it, but a lot of the other sections were covered in a small lock symbol and blurred out so I couldn’t see past to the information listed there.
“This is your information page. Think of it like your ID here in the magical world. I’ve adapted it to something your people might understand better. Now, if you could pull out your card please?” The Guide said holding out their palm expectantly. “Just think about pulling the card out of a pocket in your mind into your hand. Go on.” I thought about the card and sure enough suddenly it popped into my hand with an audible ping.
“Whoa. How?” I exclaimed nearly dropping the card out of surprise.
“It’s magic. I’ve taken control of your ocean for a moment to simulate the systems you’ll be using out there in the quote unquote real world.” The Guide said using his outline fingers to make air quotes. “I’m here to run you through the basics, so pay attention. Just to let you know, right now we’re not actually using the real objects, just manifestations of them using mana, but they are still connected to the real thing. So, let me just simplify it for you and say if something happens here in the ocean, it can also have an effect on magical objects. You included. That’s really important to remember.”
“Okay…” I responded still a little awestruck.
“So, what you just accessed was what’s called the inventory system. It’s a sub-system of the whole system that runs things called “The Quartermaster system™”. Don’t piss them off or you’ll regret it.”
“The System is alive?” I asked looking around the room.
“Yes. Magic is funny like that. It takes its own path most of the time. The Quartermaster was our way of applying rules and regulations to it, but over time it started to develop in unexpected ways.”
“Hold on, are you real? Are you part of the system?” I asked cautiously.
“I’m not part of the system, but I am real. Or I was real at some point. That’s not really important right now. Let’s move on.” The Guide’s face didn’t have much in the way of an expression, but it was clear by it’s tone this wasn’t a subject it wanted to get into. It moved forward and swiped the ID window down and it disappeared into the black card I held. I felt a slight vibration on the card as it did.
“Now, I’ll teach you how to navigate the system. Most of it involves using intention to focus on what you want. It’s intuitive that way. Try bringing up the stat window yourself. Just swipe up while thinking of the window you’d like to open and swipe down to close it.” The Guide said. I did as it said and the window appeared originating from the card in my hand. It hovered in place above the card and even moved in parallel with it in space as moved the card side to side.
“So, is the card where the system is? like installed on there? Like a computer’s operating system?” I asked The Guide.
“Yes. You’re half right. For an initiate magi like you, the card does the bulk of the work. It keeps track of things and filters it into this friendly user interface. It does all the calculations, keeps track of your stats and inventory without the need to do it yourself. Once you graduate, you should be able to design your own system that suits your needs. If you elect to do it, in your final year a large bulk of your class load is dedicated to designing a system. If it’s good enough you can even license it out to a company. Most graduates either keep the using the Quartermaster system™ with some minor tweaks here and there or they purchase a license to use another that suits whatever job they choose. Don’t worry about that, it’s years away for you. Here, let me show you your main tabs.” The Guide said. I nodded. It was beginning to make sense. The next 20 minutes The Guide went through explaining the basics of opening and closing different window tabs. After that crash course I was able to open and view my inventory, stats, and map windows.
“More features will unlock as you progress, but you’ll have classes that teach you how to use those as they pop up. So, any questions about those before we move on?” The Guide asked.
“Just one. Does the inventory have any limitations?” I asked. The Guide smiled with it’s transparent mouth.
“In terms of what can be put into the inventory? Yes and no. You can’t put any liquids in there, but if they’re in a sealed container it’s possible. Food will still decay so don’t leave an apple in your inventory and expect it to taste great a month later. You can earn or craft upgrades for that sort of thing, but they require discovery and I can’t tell you the recipe. You’re also limited by your carry capacity. You can overload yourself, but you’ll become encumbered and move at much slower speed and won’t be able to use a waypoint spell. That leads us nicely onto our next topic, Stats, Spells and Job Classes. Buckle up, there’s a lot to cover.”
“Okay, I’m ready.” I said.
“First of all, pull back up your main stat window. Focus on the locked section right below your basic personal information. We’ll unlock that first.” The Guide said. I did as I was ordered and as I focused the lock giggled like I was trying to force it open. A second window popped up covering the first.
- Feature locked.
Prerequisite: Complete Basic User Interface lesson #1
“It says it’s locked until I complete another lesson.” I asked.
“One moment.” The Guide seemed to be using their hand to navigate some windows that I couldn’t see. Suddenly the notification window disappeared and the lock clicked open unblurring the rest of the section which merged with the rest of the window. I quickly started reading the information.
NAME: August Adams
AGE: 19
HEIGHT: 173cm
WEIGHT: 70kg
These pieces of information remained the same, but it added the following info underneath.
LVL: 01
JOB: Initiate Magi
CURRENT STATS -
HP - 125
MP - 10
Strength - 5
Intellect - 3
Awareness - 3
Endurance - 3
Dexterity - 7 (+2)
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
“Huh, why is my Dexterity sat so much higher? And what does that plus two come from?” I asked. I knew I was quick, but I didn’t think it merited being my highest stat.
“Usually humans average at about 3 to 5 on each stat with a spike in one or two. The stats are based on a broad range of things. Dexterity for example covers your your actual dexterity in general. I can see a couple skills you have that you don’t have access to that contribute to that. The number there is your total current stat. So that’s the base plus any bonuses from skills or items. The current plus two in the brackets seems to be coming from a skill called, ‘Sleight of Hand’. It’s already at level 2. That’s impressive.”
“Skills?” I asked.
“Don’t worry. We’ll get there.” The Guide said waving me off the subject for now. “Focus on the new information for now. I’ll explain each stat. First your HP and MP. They stand for ‘Heath Points’ and ‘Magic Points’ respectively. Your Endurance will increase your HP along with another stat you can’t currently see called SP, or Stamina Points. Most skills you’ll pick up initially will consume your MP, however certain jobs you can pick up later will use skills that consume SP verses MP. These are usually more martial based job classes. So if you want to specialize into one of those you would focus on increasing your Endurance. Your MP is increased with your intellect stat. The stat also increases your reading and comprehension speed. Next is Strength, that one is pretty straight forward. The bigger the number the harder you hit. Like I mentioned before it also has an effect on your equipment and carry load. Dexterity is all about how well your body moves. The higher this stat is the faster you’ll react and move. It also affects your body’s flexibility.”
“My Flexibility?” I said suddenly intrigued.
“Yes, but don’t expect you to suddenly become double jointed just because your DEX is high. It just means your joints would be less prone to injury. And you could probably do the splits without pulling a muscle.”
“Good to know. And what about awareness?” I asked.
“Awareness is largely what you might call a ‘dump stat’.” The Guide said.
“A dump stat?”
“Yes. Basically it’s almost useless functionally for humans. Your senses are not able to take full advantage of it. The most you’ll notice is that you can hear higher frequencies, differentiate different hues of a colour, levels of salt, acidity or sweetness in food and your sense of smell will be finer tuned. Trust me. That last one is not a blessing, but a curse.”
“So… why is it even there? Why not a stat more useful?”
“The system wasn’t created with humans in mind and it doesn’t display all the stats that make you who you are. These are just the stats you can put your upgrades into when you level up. You’ll get 3 points each level that you can allocate, except every 5th level when you’ll receive 5 bonus stat points in a random stat or stats that’s allocated for you. That’s usually dictated by your job class at the time of that level up. When you take that job it will tell you so don’t worry about it.”
“So, what does my current job do with my stats at level 5? Initiate Magi?” I probed.
“That’s a starter Job. Most of your classmates will also start as that same class. For your first 5 levels you can’t allocate your points. That’s to avoid you making some silly mistakes and putting it all in Strength or Intellect. For those first 5 levels the Quartermaster will analyze you and usually at the fifth level your bonus stats will give you a hint to what the system thinks are the best stats for you. Your professors will cover jobs and how they work in one of your very first classes, so try not to worry about those just yet.”
“You said that most of my classmates will start as the same class? So some of them will be a different class?”
“Ah. You’re observant aren’t you? Yes. Some of your classmates will have an asterisk next to their Job title. That means they already have a Job that’s be assigned based on pre-existing conditions, like being a different species, being under the effect of a curse or a family bloodline. There’s a lot of factors that would cause that. Anytime there’s an asterisk next to a word in the system pay attention. That means there’s something additional you can discover. You may not always get the full picture when reading an item or skill description, but it’ll give you a hint or rough idea of where to look for that secret. In recent years the Quartermaster has been… creative with its descriptions on things. It used to just display everything about an item, but now these asterisks are popping up more and more. Here let me give you an example.” The Guide said as they waved their hand making the windows disappear. Suddenly two identical looking swords hovered in mid air about a meter away from me.
“Go ahead and focus on the sword on your right and think about wanting to examine it further.” The Guide said. I did as asked and a new window popped up hovering in space in front of the sword.
- ITEM -
Soldier’s Standard Short Sword:
+5 to Strength
+2 to Endurance
-1 to Intellect
~This sword once belonged to a soldier.
“Great. Now the other sword. But this time once the info window pops up, I want you to focus on the asterisk” The Guide said. I examined the other sword. It read exactly the same except for the asterisk. As I focused on it the view of the item changed slightly and further info displayed.
- ITEM -
Soldier’s Standard Short Sword*:
+5 to Strength
+2 to Endurance
-1 to Intellect
~This sword once belonged to an exemplary soldier who maintained it with absolute dedication.
“Do you see the difference?” The Guide said.
“Yeah, the description is slightly different.” I said. I moved closer to look at the weapons.
“Use that difference. It’s a clue.” The Guide said.
“Can I touch them?” I asked.
“Of course, but be careful.” The Guide cautioned.
“Yeah, what happens in here can affect my real body right?”
“Exactly. You’re a quick learner.” The Guide said and I thought I saw him moving his hands in a weird motion out of the corner of my eye as I examined the two swords.
Was he typing?
I picked up both swords holding one up in each of my outlined hands. While they had seemed identical at a glance now that I had them in my hand I noticed the one with the asterisk felt much better to hold. It’s weight was slightly better and it’s edge was far more honed. In fact the standard sword felt like it was in dire need of maintenance in comparison. I felt the item vibrate slightly and heard a audible ping sound in my head. A new window popped into my vision.
- BONUS UNLOCKED -
Soldier’s Standard Short Sword:
+5 to Strength
+2 to Endurance
-1 to Intellect
~This sword once belonged to an exemplary soldier who maintained it with absolute dedication. It’s edge is honed to perfection and it feels more natural in the hand.
+25% damage with all slashing based skills with this weapon.
“Wow! Even the item description changed.” I asked. “Why doesn’t the system just change the item name instead of putting that asterisk?”
“Your guess is as good as mine. But now that you’ve revealed that bonus it’ll stay active each and every time you look at the item. We call that ‘Investigating’. This one is a pretty simple investigation. Everything with 1 asterisk is usually pretty simple to unlock the bonus or reveal the hidden information. But eventually you might find items with 2 or 3 asterisks. Each one points to a different reveal and each asterisk will disappear once it’s corresponding bonus is revealed. Anything with the scope of the Quartermaster’s power to control can be assigned an asterisk and at the later levels you really want to prioritize options or items with an asterisk, even if their base stats or rewards aren’t as good. The bonus is usually better overall.”
“So does that bonus display for everyone using the system?” I asked.
“No. If you give the item to anyone outside of your party, it will reset the item to it’s base version. That person will need to investigate it from scratch.”
“My party?”
“It’s a group you’ll form later in the year, but we’re getting off track.” The Guide said waving it’s transparent hand dismissing all the windows. “Finally, I’ll teach you how to manage your equipment. Grab that sword again, the one with the revealed bonus.” The Guide said. I reached out and grabbed the sword. “Now open up your main stat window.” I did and noticed nothing had changed.
“Shouldn’t my strength, Endurance and Intellect have changed?” I asked.
“Ah ha. Again so observant. While you may be holding the sword, it’s not equipped to you. There’s a distinct difference. You can pick up any item and use it, like wands, swords, potions, bombs…”
Bombs? I took note of that particular mention.
“…Armor, the list goes on. If it has a practical use, like a potion you can use it without the need to equip it first. Those are what we would call ‘active’ benefits. The plus values on the sword you see are what we’d call ‘passive’ benefits and they only apply if an item is equipped.”
“Okay… So what do I need to do to equip it?” I asked staring at the sword in my hand.
“For armor it’s not that hard, just put it into your inventory and then from there you think about equipping it on the particular body part. It needs to be in that order for it to work correctly. Items like potions are the same, inventory first and then equip them in your quick slots, which you start with only having 5 basic slots. You can get items or skills that give extra slots for those later down the line.” The Guide said as it moved over to me.
“Weapons are a slightly different story. For most of them, you’ll can only equip them in a safe zone. It’ll be pretty clear when you’re in one of those because when you try to equip the weapon outside of one, you’ll receive a warning. It’ll flash up over your whole vision. It’s actually really annoying. There are a certain class of weapons you can equip outside of a safe zone, but only if you’ve got the slot free. These have the identifier of off-hand in brackets under the name. As soon as you pick one up if your main hand slot is free or you have a skill or job that unlocks the off-hand slot, you’ll equip it. So be careful to examine all weapons before you pick them up or put them straight into your inventory. Once you’ve equipped a weapon you can unequip it at anytime and it’ll land in your inventory. If you throw a weapon you have equipped it will still count as equipped unless you unequip it, but your passives won’t work until you hold it again or it returns to your inventory. Make sense?”
“Mostly. So are we not currently in a safe zone?” I asked warily.
“Technically no, but it’s an easy switch. I’ll turn it on and you can try equipping.” The Guide made another hand movement and although nothing visually changed suddenly I heard the sound of a sword being sheathed.
“I think that worked. Does that sound change depending on what I equip?” I asked while quickly opening my stats window. The values had actually changed this time and I could definitely feel like I was a little bit stronger with that added strength and endurance.
“No. It’s always the sword sound actually.” The Guide said.
“Weird.” I said.
“Maybe, when you’re out in the physical world, don’t say things like that out loud. The Quartermaster doesn’t take criticism well.” The Guide said as it waved it’s hand again. The sword disappeared and my stats returned to normal.
“Oh. Good to know. Soooo… It can’t hear us right now?” I looked around the blue void.
“No. Like I said, I’m simulating the system here, it’s not actually running yet. When you wake up I recommend acquiring your license as soon as you can. You want to get used to using the system by instinct. It won’t come naturally for the first few days, but with repetition eventually you won’t know how to live without it.” The Guide said.
“Can any of the functions work without the System?” I asked. The Guide tilted their head to one side and I could tell it was surprised by the question. I continued. I really wanted to know the answer. “It’s just you mentioned eventually we can create our own, right? And if I’m thinking about this from everything you said, the system is there to help us use our innate magic, but in a specific framework and with restrictions and rules. Does that sound right?”
“Yes, that’s basically correct.” The Guide said.
“So, we don’t need the system then?” I finally said. The Guide smiled widely.
“I can see you’re going to be trouble.” The Guide laughed. “Yes. If you completely understood magic and it’s use at a fundamental level, you wouldn’t need it. But the system is there for students to learn and grow in a measured and manageable way. But let me be clear.” The Guide moved in close. “Do not make the Quartermaster mad. Whatever you do. You don’t want to test that. No matter how curious you might be, the consequences will be worse than the benefits. There’s a reason you can’t explore systems until your final year, August. Trust me on this one.” I wanted to ask more questions, but it felt like that was all I was going to get on the matter.
“Alright.” I said finally letting the subject drop.
“Good Boy.” The Guide said. “Our time is nearly up here, so let’s go through one final thing. Bring out your card again.”