I slowly awoke to the ungodly beeping of my alarm. I reached over to the side table and tried to find the phone with my hand and swipe to silence without looking over. I failed spectacularly, managing only to knock the phone off the nightstand onto the floor, which somehow makes it sound even louder. I don't even try to roll over and pick it up, instead opting to send my tail down to grab it. After a bit of fumbling I finally get the phone in my grasp and pull it up so I can silence the godforsaken alarm.
As I pull it up to my face though I have a startling realization, I don't have a tail! I freeze, looking at the appendage that is wrapped around my phone, holding it suspended above my face. The tail is the same color as my skin and looks hairless. I reach up and touch it to find it feels like really smooth skin. In a daze I trace my hand down it until I find where it connects to the rest of my body just above my ass. I roll over to try and stand up, but something on my back gets caught in the comforter and tugged on. I stop once again, taking a moment to feel out the sensation. I begin to freak out once I realize it's not something on my back, it's something attached to my back.
I throw off the comforter, jump up, and run over to my dresser with a mirror. What I see there causes me no small amount of panic and anxiety. I was mostly normal, mostly human, mostly being the keyword. Except for now I had a few additional features, four to be exact. First was the tail, which I've already investigated. The only notable addition to my information is that the thing looks to be four feet in length. Second, was a set of horns above my ears. I don't know if horns is the right word. They are weird looking, being very thin and flat, about half way up it splits into two which end in separate points. It falls just short of the top of my head, and when I reach my hand up and touch one it feels cold and almost metallic.
The third is my eyes, they are definitely no longer human eyes. Now being a light orange color that almost seems to glow. The fourth, and most noticeable, is the giant set of fucking wings on my back. The things are big even while retracted, reach from just above my shoulders to just below my hips in height, and just short of being as wide as my torso while retracted. Turning around to get a better look, they seem to have a similar color to my skin, only slightly paler, and are connected to my back in-between the lower part of my shoulder blades. As I turn back around the edge of the right wing brushes up against the dresser. That's when reality hits me, when I realize I can feel them, and this isn't some weird illusion.
I scream, I scream loud and long. After I'm done screaming at the mirror I jump into bed and scream into the pillow. This isn't happening! I won, right? I remember winning! So why am I a demon!? Wait, I remember something about essence merger and race. Did the fucking magic turn me into a demon as my additional reward!? That's such bullshit! I just sit there screaming and crying into my pillow for the next thirty minutes. By the time I pull myself together enough to lift my head again, my pillow was soaked through and covered in snot. I reached over to the tissue box on my bedside table and just pulled it over to my bed, then I spent the next ten minutes blowing my nose. And crying some more, contemplating what I was going to do now.
I'm a fucking demon now, I may have beaten the demon in that soul war bullshit but I still lost out on the end. What kind of shity reward turns someone into a demon. I'm gonna have to live like some weird hobo in the woods now. I'll get shot if anyone sees me, oh god, I'll be hunted to the ends of the earth if they find out! What if they decide to capture me instead? I’ll be dragged to some lab in the bowels of the earth in the middle of nowhere and dissected, or worse! Fuck, what do I fucking do!?
- System initialization complete, would you like to start the tutorial?
- Yes
- No
[https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_CDupeG2T7QKmwh19vyjcPhqc8SlgWEFASAXgIHSflF9DO5O-dDktL6e15-k2MenqWvo83G2hvgXJD19G3StZGKrv3dFz-w6gvkeaclre1oWQ8EOQ05ikxLRMjfxV8wtz-nV0Wlc6XxgZEG7uAfeg5A]
“Holy shit, fucking ducker!” I scream while jumping back, falling off my bed and tumbling onto the floor. All the while the popup, for lack of a better term, remains square in the middle of my vision. I shake my head trying to get the intrusive box in my vision to disappear, but it sticks around like a clingy friend at a party. “Magic bullshit! Why did I turn into a demon?!” I scream aloud.
…..
…..
“Answer me!”
….
….
I just pull my knees up to my chest and curl up against the wall and resume crying. But even when I close my eyes the popup remains in my vision.
I don't know how long I cry for, but it's a good while. The popup hanging in my vision the entire time, demanding my attention. Eventually, I manage to stop crying again. I walk over to the dresser and inspect myself again. I almost start crying again, but barely manage to keep it together, god I look like shit right now. And that's not taking the wings, horns, and tail into account. Funny enough my tail is still holding my phone, which stopped beeping long ago. I yank my phone out of the grasp of my tail and unlock it. No new notifications, it's eleven A.M, and I only have sixteen percent battery power left. I walk over to my night stand and plug my phone in, it takes a little effort because this stupid popup is still in the center of my vision. I'm tempted to click no, but I know better than to do something stupid just because I'm upset, learned that lesson the hard way.
I sit down on my bed and look out the window, the city seems fairly calm right now. I can see a few helicopters flying around in the distance but otherwise it's fairly dull. No massive explosions, no distant screaming, no city wide alarms. Granted I'm in the suburbs and my window is closed, but I'd like to think I could hear that shit from here. Scratch that I know I could hear it, I've had my window closed during the yearly tests before. Still, there will be active patrols and cleanup squads, and if one of them finds me, I shiver at the thought.
I instead turn my attention back to the popup, no sense putting this off more. I use a tissue to blow my nose again and clean up my face before continuing. OK, so how do I go about hitting yes on this? Is it a verbal thing, or like a touch screen or?
- Yes detected, beginning tutorial.
- Welcome, new user to the magic interface system, or M.I.S for short.
- Starting part one: Input and Output
- The system has several modes of input, all of which may be used simultaneously.
- The first method of input is touch, you may interact with the displayed interfaces similar to a touch screen. (Warning, as your interface is normally only visible to you, you may look like a weirdo if you use this method regularly.)
- The second method of input is voice, you may say phrases such as "Show Stats" to open the stats screen or "Add point to 'attribute name'" to add points to a selected attribute. (Warning, as your interface is normally only visible to you, you may sound like a dumbass if you use this method regularly.)
- The third method of input is mental commands, these are similar to touch and voice commands, except you think about the action you wish to take. For example, you may think, add point to 'attribute name', to add a point to a selected attribute or, show stats, to open the stats screen. (This is the recommended mode of input.)
- The key factor in using an input method is intent, if you make the motions to perform an action but do not intend to actually perform it, nothing will happen.
- The system has two primary means of output.
- The first method of output are visual boxes such as the tutorial prompt you accepted to start. This kind of output is mainly used for some user-requested actions as well as important information, such as the spell, skill, and stats screens. This form of output is only used for the most critical alerts due to its disruptive nature.
- The second method of output is direct transmission of information into your mind. This is the most common method of output due to its flexible nature and non intrusiveness. Some users may receive this output as light whispering in the back of their mind, others as a stream of text they can visually imagine, results can vary by user.
- Missed outputs or notifications may be viewed again by requesting to review output history using an input method.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
- End part one
- Starting part two: Interface walk through
I was blinking rapidly while trying to take in all the knowledge. The weird part was I could both hear the notifications as a whisper and see them as text if I wanted to, freaky only puts it mildly. Before I can do anything else though, a new window opens in my vision, blocking most of my sight except for the very edges.
[https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/ZuYF7J7oBO0T90mVagnM3K9-j3T9cTvWagWmYUiKVZB3pEx8CgibZlxoS8H8qLlSytmS4Eq0XYSN1lkQFup2-fh1DNFrwHVGAAdDJMAr1nbbvOlpFuT7tzdaWFzPBmFxwpGdlZ6AfJ4PUqgQc4G1z74]
- The currently displayed window is your stats screen. The arrow indicates the top row of information. The boxes on this row are in order, name, race, class, and power level
- Name: The name by which you regard yourself.
- Race: The species to which you biologically belong.
- Class: The direction of specialization you take in terms of magical advancement.
- Power level: This is a standardized measure across all users of the system, it is a rough representation of how much essence you possess.
[https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/Q1rleymYz7I75G2eVkUBoyntwEusA1xWXLAUlWgqM578jSCLbFLevMZxKhgn5MY7fZtpGjAxv6NpA-d66vnnI33XlAscpiuwJUjSQkLFBUEZUlPyKm56Q7SBSUy-gmYRY3SuWzuCvrRZVhfSj719qzs]
- The arrow now indicates your mana maximum to the right of the slash, and your current mana to the left of the slash. You are also able to feel your approximate mana level, but that is a separate technique not covered in this tutorial. Max mana is determined by a mix of attunement and power level.
[https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/jD22yACS_mJW_4-dKi3HAsUOjIZBzHrbrLJq1w0lDUvDkz84B7CWTsZlTYNEMxz7sXnj4XERkEXwraCrhGEpp82T5oQdo_dYUN2A1jGFMDpZTnncotYca4ZjnRT4KVgASLp3skrwOjTuE8ELKUk5UzM]
- The arrow now indicates your available ability points. Points are a reflection of available magical energy used to focus on improving various aspects of yourself. 5 points are granted every one hundred power levels. (If a creature starts over power level 100 it will not receive points retroactively as the magical energy has already been used naturally for other improvements)
[https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/Bz5tdJ8RNQFAuS8Ht9Z4sfddmY1kkNFhHDFClxpZJEGLBr85GSM6bNh6-kgzNC-NcPyusEWrSAinWGH4S8BtuX6qIvPDZJoIRJ8idYF3164i11h8CWSDLQgUIeNAusAavxn5L2jreG_PnUdVApECqB8]
- The arrow now indicates your stats, or attributes block. The rows under the Stats indicator are your attributes. In order from top left to bottom right are, strength, agility, dexterity, endurance, intelligence, and attunement.
- Strength: The measure of how much weight a creature can lift or how much force can be put into a punch.
- Agility: The measure of how flexible a creature is, how well it maintains balance and how fast it can move.
- Dexterity: The measure of how fine a control a creature can exercise over its own movements and how well it notices changes or other creatures in the environment.
- Endurance: The measure of how healthy a creature is and how long it can perform extreme exertion before tiring.
- Intelligence: The measure of how quickly a creature thinks and how well its memory operates.
- Attunement: The measure of how well a creature synchronizes with mana, how much mana it can contain safely, and how efficiently it utilizes mana on spells and skills.
- The stats window is the keystone of your interaction with M.I.S.
- To open and close the stats window, use an input command of some form with the intention of opening or closing the window.
- Example: Think or say "open stats" or "stats window" or "open stats window" to open the window. Substitute the word close for open to close the window.
- Please demonstrate proficiency by closing the current stats window.
I sit watching silently as the arrow jumps around while the stream of information gets dumped into my head as fast as I can process it. When it finally stops I blink and rub my eyes, not that it does anything to the giant ass box covering my vision. Staring at this screen isn't a strain on my eyes because it's not actually there physically but it is tiring me mentally. And the system just dumped so much on me there, like a toddler that never ceases to bable until they ask you a question. So many questions too. How much do the stats affect me? How much of an effect does one point have? And how does one increase power level? Among other questions. Maybe that will get answered later in the tutorial. I take a few more breaths and give myself another moment to rest before unleashing the next part of the tutorial upon myself. I think the words "close stats".
Instantly the window disappears and my sight returns to me. My room is still only lit by the light coming through the window, the comforter on the floor where I knocked it loose in my haste to see the wings on my back.
- Stats window closed. Congratulations user, you have taken the first steps in proficiency with M.I.S.
- Only one window may be open at a time, closure of the active window will close the interface and restore sight.
- Windows can be freely swapped between with open commands or by using window swap commands such as "go to stats" or "swap to stats".
- Note: leaving or swapping away from a window will cause all unconfirmed changes to be lost.
Before I could do anything else a new window opened itself and again my vision was obscured.
[https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/xxGSTW_U9b-MwfAJQToomXJaxb4TAaG6gnz9xWmVCerHPFTx6JFwGk8GlpyfaDYyc2M59MVZuIJ3A06Dvbm-K_c3CcaXBv78wiqS5ujWV9W8u8SJwxq0-ZIF717gHA3x3tZjEbb0ExnTAqiZeGNl7Hc]
- The currently displayed window is your skills window.
- Skills are a form of magic that do not require mana upkeep to perform.
- Some skills fall into one of three categories, toggleable, passive, conditional.
- Toggleable: Skills that can be activated and deactivated by the user at will.
- Passive: Skills that are always active and cannot be disabled by the user. (Note: Passive skills may still be suppressed by other skills or outside effects.)
- Conditional: Skills that require certain conditions to be fulfilled before they will activate.
- As the user has no conditional or toggleable skills the parts of the tutorial will be skipped and repeated later when skills matching the criteria are acquired.
- Please demonstrate proficiency by swapping windows to the stats window.
Woah, hold up, what's this nonsense about generating essence. The system said earlier that power level is a rough measure of essence, am I basically just passively generating levels? Well it can't be that powerful, it says humans do it too, and most defenders say that killing demons is the best way to increase one's level. Supposedly defenders only get one power level every week or so. So I suspect humans have a similar skill, a skill I should have. Bah, reward my fucking ass, stupid magic!
God I hate it, there's gotta be a way to turn back into a human. Magic is some freaky shit to put it lightly. Those stories of witches turning people into frogs, defenders have actually done shit like that before. Reminds me of the really funny story of that dude who tried to grope the defender and movie star Bedazzler. He burst out of the crowd while she was walking down the red carpet at some movie awards thing, and went to try and grab her ass. Being a defender her reflexes were quick and she cast a polymorph spell to turn him into a duck while saying, "If you want to act foul then you can be fowl." What made it even funnier was the dudes panicked quaking and honking as a security dog piled on him. God that shit was funny, thinking about it brings a small smile to my face, something I really need right now.
But enough of that, what is this essence sensing thing? Is it like life sense? It says the essence levels of living beings, so I guess it sort of works like life sense if they have essence. And I should be able to tell how powerful they are if essence is related to power level. Unfortunately I don't know shit about magic, the system, or demons, aside from they exists, magic cool, defenders have system, and demons bad. We were supposed to cover some more basics on all this in the coming weeks at school in our civics and humanities class. So much for that, like hell I'll be going to school anymore. I let out a huge sigh then flop backwards onto my bed. My wings surprisingly press neatly and comfortably against my back, causing me no discomfort as I lay on my bed. Well at least these things aren't a total pain in the ass. Alright time to move on, go to stats.
[https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/uuXj6fsSj9AdvJY_0ImjO0i1Gl-7AVkfPgID28ONcAAVUzEayyjUseLGDc85CoAtGhFy-Ap1smpS8psO4YEKHB4Au_QZgHByrH1KSEfgMVHVyHWe2bzsuu7MHrt6sQBQRCOWiY9zvBorS1XQGfXB-jk]
- Congratulations user, your proficiency with the M.I.S grows!
- The third and final window for this part of the tutorial is the spells and magic window.
- This window can be opened with standard open or swap commands.
- Closing the current window.
-Please demonstrate proficiency by opening the spells and magic window.
Suddenly my sight is restored and I sigh, at least it's being thorough. I've played games with shitty tutorials and that isn't fun. I don't want to imagine how much of a shitshow it would be if the tutorial for real life magic was bad and people were running around like headless chickens mis casting spells and other stupid shit. Alright, open magic and spells. Wait, that was wrong. Before I can correct myself the window opens anyway.
[https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/3vuahtes5-jRFB3qREOan4oF2cgUU-IZEoT7ts5At-yz0eF1fAjJgJxUvo0BNXaFVBX14BS9OJvBsA9VPoGyqWAhKfsGdfRPULiPhCiz7Wn_5pDYsRIiUiQ_0IS-eG12YwlQtZzFA38vcrERauynYCU]
- Congratulations user, your basic proficiency with M.I.S is almost complete.
- The currently displayed window is the Spells and Magic window.
- Spells are a specialized form of magic meant to perform certain tasks, actions, or objectives quickly, effectively, and efficiently, but are heavily limited in their flexibility.
- A common example would be the fireball spell, capable of doing damage quickly and effectively, with a small chance to start a fire. However, it is a poor light source and not consistent enough to be used as a normal fire starter.
- Magic is the generalized usage of mana for spells of a given type. It is flexible but lacks the efficiency, speed, and perfection that spells in the same category offer.
- An example would be fire Magic, in contrast to the previous example of the fireball, can be used to start fires, create light and perform offensive actions. However, it is less efficient, quick, and precise than spells that could accomplish those tasks.
- It is recommended to use spells for repetitive tasks the user will do very frequently and keep magic for other situations that do not arise as frequently.
- End part two