Sunlight woke him. Opening his eyes and stretching, Zach looked around. He was still in his cell, of course. Looking out his window, he judged that it must have been around eight in the morning. If nothing else, the courtyard of the prison was beautiful. Even if it was just grass, it was better than nothing.
Zach’s mind slowly booted up, bringing with it the unwelcome memories from the day before. Wait, he thought. If it’s eight in the morning- he decided to look at his clock, which displayed 8:47 am. The guards serve breakfast at seven. He felt his heart sink, remembering something the ‘system’ allegedly said: “If you have any questions, simply send a query through your mind.”
Holding his breath, Zach tried doing what it said. Okay. Sending a query to something that may or may not exist. How does one go about that? Well, it said to do it through my mind, so… he cleared his throat. Querying The Multiverse Game, he thought. With a ding, a blue screen popped up.
Hello, Zachary Silver!
What is your question?
After seeing it, Zach’s legs felt weak. He sat back down on his bed, feeling utterly confused. Placing his hands on his head and massaging his temples, he thought to himself, Could this actually be real? Zach did believe that sentient aliens existed, and the video shown kind of made sense. Moreover, he was reasonably sure that no mental disorder, no matter how severe, had the capability to do this. If I’m stuck in a ‘dungeon’ right now, it would make sense that the guards are gone. They could have been killed. In that case, he thought, I got lucky. This may be completely fake, but I need to treat it like it isn’t. At least for now. Taking a shaky breath, he nodded to himself.
Realizing that he had gotten off track, Zach remembered that he was supposed to have a question. Thinking, he decided to ask about the Rare Grade thing he had received. Yes, I’d like to request some basic information about the Rare Grade class I received, Zach responded to the system.
Grades, as they’re called, are a measurement of a variety of factors in order to determine the ‘level’ of a particular item or thing. The five most popular ‘things’ defined by a grade are: Weapon, armor, class, skill, and profession.
There are many grades, but only a few currently applicable to you. Common, uncommon, rare, legendary, and unique. In your case, you received a rare grade class, which equated to an uncommon class. With every step up or down, the rarity of your item mirrors it. For example: if you earned a legendary grade class, it would be of a rare rarity.
By that logic, classes and professions are set at a base of one grade lower than weapons and armor. For example: if you earned an uncommon grade skill, it would be of an uncommon rarity. If you received an uncommon class or profession, however, it’d be of a common rarity. Therefore, common grade classes and professions are impossible to get.
You can receive different graded things by creating them, looting opponents, completing dungeons, finishing quests, or otherwise pleasing the system, aka central AI.
After reading the screen over a few times, Zach felt like he had a good grasp on the concept. Common grade equals common skills, armor, and weapons. Uncommon grade is uncommon skills, armor, and weapons, but common classes and professions; and so on.
“Okay,” he said aloud, “Now to learn about my class. Necromancer, huh? Always hated it.” Back when Zach was a child, he’d dabbled in a few role-playing games, RPGs for short. It was kind of hard not to, in this day and age. He’d always played a pure good, melee kind of class, like paladin or knight. Mages, or anything long-range for that matter, didn’t captivate him much. It was much more enjoyable to hack and slash your enemies, in his opinion.
“If there’s anything that I learned in that period of my childhood, it’s character sheets.” A table that displayed the player’s statistics and whatnot. Uhh, he thought, Bring up character status? With a ding, a screen appeared.
Name: Zachary Silver
Level: 1
Class: Necromancer (Pending)
HP: 100/100 (Regen: 7/min)
MP: 110/110 (Regen: 7/min)
Titles: None
Achievements: None
Stats:
Intelligence: 11
Wisdom: 12
Strength: 10
Vitality: 11
Agility: 10
Dexterity: 9
Luck: 5
Endurance: 10
Perception: 10
Charisma: 8
Skills:
Summon (Beginner Level 1)
Animate (Beginner Level 1)
Spectate (Beginner Level 1)
Bingo, he thought. Zach read the screen over, deciding he had a pretty good understanding of what his stats did, just from personal experience. But, just in case, he queried the system. It told him several things. First, they operated pretty similarly to a normal RPG. Intelligence determined his mana capacity, the strength of his spells, and his brain's functions, like general intelligence and processing power. Wisdom, on the other hand, affected both mana regeneration and real world decision making. Vitality determined his overall health regeneration and capacity, while endurance was his ability to take and resist damage. Dexterity contributed to his hand-eye coordination and fluidity of movements, mainly used for rogue type classes. Meanwhile, agility increased movement speed, chance to dodge attacks, and attack speed. Perception, as the system said, was the ability to pick up on things not able to be otherwise understood, kind of like a sixth sense. Strength was the simplest: the physical strength of the player. Luck, on the other hand, was barely included. The only thing that the AI said about it was that it increased the game's favor for him. Finally, charisma was his outward appearance, determining how helpful people would be towards him. Seeing as it had some sort of psychological factor associated with it, Zach knew it would play an important role once strong enough.
After reviewing everything the system submitted to him, Zach scratched his chin. I wonder why and how this thing created the game to be so similar to Earthian forms of entertainment, he pondered. It seems a bit hard to believe that many other species also played RPGs. He contemplated the matter a little, trying to come up with a reasonable assumption. Maybe- maybe on the surface it’s designed for ambiguity? It shows people what they’re comfortable with. In my case, that’s a video game-ish layout. After a few more minutes of deliberation, Zach nodded his head. He'd stick with this theory, at least for now.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Then he frowned. Supposedly. Supposedly this is all happening. But until it’s proven, I’m going to read all of this with a grain of salt.
Nodding again, Zach moved on to his skills, realizing that he couldn’t glean much information off of their names alone. Well, he thought, that’s what the AIs are here for. Or, he interjected, Some part of my mind. Anyways, back to the matter at hand. Querying system- could I have descriptions of my three skills?
Displaying data requested. Please note that some information will be omitted until you have sufficient levels and intelligence.
Necromancer Class Skill- Summon: This skill is the backbone of the Necromancer class. It allows you to bring something, of your own creation, into the physical realm. To activate this skill, create a clear visual in your head of the creature desired, then simply think the word “Summon”. Remember, each summon requires an initial payment of mana. With every level that you progress Summon, your usage cost is lowered, the summon’s available stats and/or options are greater, and the number of Summons you can have are higher. Current maximum = 1
Necromancer Class Skill- Animate: Similar to Summon, this skill allows the player to control undead. Instead of creating your own, however, Animate must be used on a deceased creature. The player has less freedom with this option and the creature has a greater degree of free will, yet the creature is also stronger than any Summon of similar cost. Current maximum = 1
Warning: You cannot use both Summon and Animate at the same time.
Necromancer Class Skill- Spectate: Spectate is a complementary skill to both Animate and Summon. After gaining control of a creature, the player is able to use this in order to see and feel what their summon or animation is doing. As with Summon, Spectate requires a constant flow of mana. The more you spend, the more accurate your spectating experience will be. Leveling this skill will both lower the cost to use it as well as increase the sensory realism.
After reading the information provided, Zach felt like he had a pretty good handle on his skills. Summon would, as the name suggested, allow him to summon something of his own creation; animate would do the same, but only on real, deceased creatures; and spectate would let him experience what his creatures experienced.
Okay, he thought. No time for dilly-dallying. If the guards are dead, then I really need to get out of here. Fast. And the only way I see myself doing that is with my skills.
Letting out a breath, Zach decided to try using Summon. If the guards really were dead, he needed some way to get out of his cell, and fast. Otherwise, he’d starve to death. Alright, he thought. So I need to visualize something. Closing his eyes, Zach cleared his mind. To start out, he figured that he’d make something simple. He thought of a tarantula, crawling around in some empty plain. Wanting to keep it simple, Zach converted its hairy body into simple white bone and left out the spider’s poison sac. But, of course, the human mind wasn’t perfect, and he constantly had trouble conceptualizing every little bit of it all at the same time. Zach didn’t have anything in his cell to draw it out, either, so that was out of the question. Grumbling, he had to satisfy himself with just his mind.
It took a few minutes, but he eventually succeeded in capturing a sufficient image. Processing the word Summon, his mind seemed to artificially blank, wiping out anything he was thinking about. With a sound akin to thunder, a spider popped into existence on the floor in front of him. It was about two inches in diameter, pure white in color.
Seeing the spider, Zach allowed himself to smile. It wasn’t a lot nowadays that he felt accomplished, and working towards that little thing gave him a bit of happiness. Okay, he thought, Now to use that skill I have. He thought the word Spectate. Immediately, the world went black. As he opened his eyes, he found himself looking at his adult body, albeit in a very low resolution.
Black hair, blue eyes. Small stature, scrawny build. All in all, a pretty average, if not a bit below, looking man. He was wearing a black and white striped jumpsuit, traditional for all inmates living in the prison. Anyways, back to the matter at hand. Zach was looking through the eyes of his spider. That should astonish me, right? He asked himself, a little worried. Why am I not freaking out? I’ve changed bodies, for Christ's sake! Why- Cutting himself off and taking a deep breath, Zach calmed himself. I can worry about all of this later. I need to keep working. He shoved all of his emotions and negative thoughts down inside himself, then closed the hatch. Later.
Now I need to use my spider to look around the prison, to try to find a way out. The question is- how do I move this guy? Can I just tell him where to go?
Spider, Zach commanded, still spectating, Move towards that window. Nothing happened. Mentally frowning, he decided to beg for help. How do I command my Summon? He asked.
Warning! Question Invalid- Answer deemed unnecessary.
Well shit, he thought. Guess I can’t get a freebie on this one. Stopping to ponder a little, Zach had a bit of an epiphany. Wait. If I have a status screen, surely my Summon has one, right? Crossing his metaphorical fingers, he demanded, Bring up my spider’s character screen. With a ding, his mood soared.
Summon #1 (Name: Spider)
Level: 1
Class: LOCKED
HP: 10/10 (Regen: 1/min)
MP: 10/10 (Regen: 1/min)
Titles: None
Achievements: None
Stats:
Intelligence: 1
Wisdom: 1
Strength: 1
Vitality: 1
Agility: 2
Dexterity: 1
Luck: 1
Endurance: 1
Perception: 1
Charisma: 1
Skills: LOCKED
Looking his little friend’s status over, Zach sighed. Of course it couldn’t take an order, the damn thing’s intelligence was at 1. The best thing going for it was its agility. Closing out of the screen, Zach decided to try something else. He turned off his vision, focusing, in his mind, on nothing but the window of his cell. With a push, he tried transferring the thought to the spider in the same way he had attempted to command it before.
Suddenly, a jolt surprised Zach. The spider was moving! Toward the window! Nice! He thought, excited to finally make some progress. Spectate was kind of like watching something on television, in that it was pretty unconvincing and restrictive. But it was the first thing he’d ever summoned, after all. Zach didn’t expect much.
Eventually, the spider got to the wall. From there, it was a good deal easier for Zach to command it to climb up. Again, the experience was kind of lackluster. As it reached the sill, he had it walk outside, still clinging to the wall.
It took a few minutes, but eventually, Zach found it. A window not attached to a cell. He had peeked in a few dozen others, each showing a different person, but all serving to reaffirm his concerns. Some were sleeping, a couple had weapons of some kind, and a bunch of others were doing miscellaneous actions. Two people, however, stood out. One person had magic. He was wielding fire, exerting it all around him. When Zach had looked around the corner, he was met with a fist full of heat, almost killing the spider. As it was, the damn thing’s health dropped nearly half. After seeing this person, Zach had also gotten a notification.
Congratulations! Skill Spectate is now Beginner Level 2!
Immediately, the world through the spider’s eyes became much clearer. It was as if he’d went from 20/40 to 20/20 vision, instantly. It was insane. He still, however, only received sight as a sense.
The other case was even more interesting. Or rather, lack of interest. At the point of coming across this particular individual’s cell, Zach was accustomed to being amazed at their cool abilities and items. So imagine his amazement when he came across their room and discovered… nothing. Well, that’s not true, he thought. There was a huge hole in the side of the room. Shaking his head, Zach’s mind snapped back to the present.
His spider was standing near the window he had found. It was identical to all of the others, besides the fact that it didn't open up into someone else's cell, which was exactly what he wanted.