Will looked at his luck stat with interest. He really wondered what scale it was on. Was 10 average? If it was average, then having a five in luck would explain a lot. He wondered if he could increase it like the other stats. He would have to see when he got another level. He really wished he didn’t use all of his stats already. Will turned to his stat sheet where it said “no class selected”. When he focused on the line however, a box appeared that said he couldn’t pick a class until level 25.

Instead Will spent a few minutes exploring the new system. He pulled up the map first, and finally got a look at where he was. His heart sank. He wasn’t on earth. The crazy bat on the video had been telling the truth. And while it was conceivable still a hoax, creating an onboard AI to give you superpowers just to troll you was a little far fetched. There were two continents divided by an ocean in between. The ocean wasn’t large, being narrow and tall. There was a large group of islands to the north, and of course the two continents on either side. Will was on the eastern continent in a country called frostfell. It was north of the island cluster, but on the western shore of the continent. He was pretty far up there, in the northernmost part of the northmost country. Technically Arctheal, the country to the east and south stretched farther north as well, but he could tell that most of their population lived in the tiny little sliver of the strait they maintained. Most of their inland territory, though it stretched farther north, was obviously sparsely inhabited.

Will looked a bit closer. There he could see that overlaid over the map was another section, a more detailed part everywhere he had traveled. It turned out the forest was far smaller than he had thought. He had circled about an embarrassing number of times.

Will left the map, but not before setting a minimap in the lower right of his vision. It would seem to float next to him parallel to the ground. He turned to the inspection system, which seemed to just be a compendium of everything he had ever inspected, which was nothing. He inspected what looked to be a microscope, and a microscope entry popped up. It seemed to be filled with things he already knew about microscopes. Will didn’t understand what the point of the compendium was until he found a button to add libraries. He had to return to the repository, but he was able to add libraries of monsters, magical effects, runes, and many other things.

There was a lot of good information in the compendium after that, but it was like a dictionary. It wasn’t a guide or a tutorial, just a list of definitions. The information also seemed basic. He would have to seek out more information to pad out the compendium. He then moved to the questing system. It was a window that looked like an email inbox, that had the words emblazoned across it “No Quests”. And that was that. Will figured he would have to go find quests to figure out what this did.

The cultivation system was a whole lot of nonsense to will. It had a ton of metrics about his body, spirit and soul, none of which Will understood. The only thing Will could tell was that the Cultivation system had something to do with leveling and stat allocation. Looting was great. He was met with his very own inventory, which was something he had always wanted in real life. It had about 20 slots. It wasn’t much, but anything was better than nothing. He shoved his bundle of weapons inside, and it took up one slot. But he shoved his shortsword inside, and it also took up a single slot. A set of shelves from the room also took up a single slot, even loaded down with junk. Will grinned. He needed to get himself a bunch of crates. There were some settings that seemed to deal with looting monsters, but it was rather opaque, and Will decided to leave them alone.

The language system was fairly self explanatory. It had a library of languages, and Will could speak any of the languages in the library. It contained a long list of earth languages oddly enough, as well as dozens of languages that Will didn’t recognize. There was nothing like Draconic on the list, so Will didn’t know what these languages were.

And finally, there was the skills library. It was a library of hundreds, or rather thousands of skills. There was also a library of classes. What Will recognized early however was that nearly all of the skills were uncommon rarity or lower. There was the same issue with the class library. This skill library was basic, and he would need to find a better library if he was going to figure out how to get the better skills. He tried getting more from the sapphire like he did with the compendium, but it seemed he had all the sapphire was going to offer.

Will stood up, and looked about the room. Will started off by inspecting everything he could see. It was easy enough to get the system to respond; he simply had to focus on an object with the intent to inspect.

Skill nucleation detected.

Possible skills detected: 3

Inspect (Common)

Identify (Common)

Appraise (Uncommon)

Inspect (Common)

General skill which allows you to get information from the world around you. Focus on anything and receive general information about that thing. Better information is given with level.

Identify (Common)

Allows the user to identify the properties of items. Reveals the name and intended purpose of the item. With sufficient levels it will reveal the material components of items.

Appraise (Uncommon)

Allows the user to identify the properties of items. Reveals the name and intended purpose of the item. Reveals the market value to the user. With sufficient levels it will reveal the material components of items.

Please choose a skill.

Inspect (Common)

Identify (Common)

Appraise (Uncommon)

Blind Upgrade.

Will looked over the list. And realized that this was why the skills library was so necessary. Before, when he had gotten shadowmeld, he had blind upgraded by default. But in this case, Inspect, Identify and Appraise were all in the library. It meant now that he had the basic requirements for all of them, he could choose which path his skill took. Since only one was an uncommon rarity, and it was a skill only for items, Will decided to roll the dice. He chose blind upgrade.

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You have gained Skill: Inspect.

Well, that sucked. Still, it meant that he could level up his inspection ability, and hopefully he would be able to get a better inspection ability in the future. This meant that Will had a new priority. He needed more compendium libraries, more skill libraries, and frankly better skills in general. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have a library full of legendary skills. Every skill could be legendary. So overpowered.

Will grinned as he looked out on the room. With all of his business done, he could get to the fun part, Looting. He saved the first few slots for his weapons, since he could quickly summon them to his hand. But for all the other spots, he took whole desks full of random junk. There were bookshelves, and Will was elated to find that he could inspect each book, and the whole contents would be added to the compendium in a new tab. As long as he could sit there for a minute or so with each book, it worked just fine. That was until he found the books that resisted his identify.

He ended up with a single bookshelf from the twenty or so. That bookshelf held all the ones that he couldn’t identify. He would have to read them manually before they would be entered into the compendium. But they were all the most interesting titles, having to do with magic. The only problem was that none of them seemed basic. He would deal with that in time. He finally made his way to the giant sapphire. He didn’t know what he could do with it, but he knew he wanted it.

Error. This System Relay Node (SRN) has been locked by an administrator. Your administrator level is insufficient to unlock this item.

And that was all that happened. The message didn’t even come up again when he tried a second time. He was finally forced to admit defeat. Will heard a roar outside, and paled. The bear had come back, and it didn’t sound happy.

Will rocketed up the ladder, to find himself staring at an odd scene. The bear was surrounded by hunters, but instead of fighting in the village as Will had thought they might, they had tried to pass behind the bear and get through the pass before it realized. This had not worked out well, and Will could already see that a number of people were already dead, and one of the carts laden with carcasses had been broken. Will could see the old man huddled at the front of the caravan, farthest from the bear. Will was going to turn away, but he watched a man get swatted thirty feet into a stone wall.

He supposed he did owe the old man something.

Will pulled out the greatsword from his inventory. It was long, but far lighter than he might have expected. He embraced his concept and activated Blade of Desolation. The frost formed more quickly than last time, extending the blade a foot farther than it’s already gargantuan size.

Will moved faster than he had ever moved in his life, supported by a dexterity twice what it had been before. Will sprinted toward one of the back legs of the bear and slashed out, slicing through the meat and tendons at the back of the foot. The bear bellowed in rage as it’s foot was no longer able to support its weight, but it still managed to flip around far more nimbly than Will could ever have thought. A paw tore through the air at Will, and Will dove to the ground to avoid it. The paw rushed past like a freight train, and the gust of wind from the attack tossed Will to the side. Will jumped to his feet just in time to dodge another paw stomping down where he had just been. Will hacked down with his blade, half severing the foot, but leaving it still usable.

The bear jumped back, and took a deep breath. Only a second later, it blew out a wave of fire that covered Will completely. In the moments before it hit, Will sent mana to his concept, and established his cold aura, turning the fire breath into a rancid breeze that was slightly warm. The bear had already turned to his other attackers, expecting Will to be dead. But was rewarded by a giant cut to his flank. The bear staggered back. It was slowing down, unable to keep up with the millions of small cuts inflicted by the hunters, and the large wounds caused by Will. But it was still dangerous.

The bear turned back to Will, rage and pain in its eyes. Instead of using its firebreath, it simply charged, intent on crushing Will to death. That was its final mistake. Will dodged the incoming paws and turned into a whirlwind of blades, landing a hit on each of its legs, and one on its neck. Will dove aside as the bear collapsed. It lay there gasping for breath as its life bled out. And then it simply disappeared.

You have slain Madracora, The White Terror Level 32.

You are now level 13.

Giant Bear Pelt (Excellent) has been added to your inventory.

Giant Bear Meat (Good) (60 tons) has been added to your inventory.

Giant Bear Viscera (20 tons) has been added to your inventory.

Giant Bear bones (5 tons) have been added to your inventory.

Monster core has been added to your inventory.

Will stared at the loot list. 60 tons of meat. He opened his inventory. Thankfully it only took up one slot. What the hell was he going to do with 60 tons of meat? He hoped this inventory was the kind that would keep the meat fresh. This was ridiculous. And the viscera? What was he going to do with twenty tons of bear guts?

Will noticed the hunters staring at him, and he deactivated his Sword of Desolation and his concept. For the first time he realized he could understand the people around him. They were talking to one another, whispering scared comments, wondering if he was going to kill them. Will had nothing to say to them, and so he just started to move on.

“Wait!” A voice rang out. Will turned to the voice to see a bearded man jogging toward him. The voice was that of a young man, but the beard made him look far older. It was full and halfway down his chest. “Umm, you like the coat?” Will turned fully to the man, who was a head shorter than he.

“I do," Will said, and Koma yipped his agreement. Will had forgotten that Koma was in his coat, and was glad the pup hadn’t been hurt. “Why do you ask?” Will narrowed his eyes at the other man. The other man held up his hands.

“No, no. Nothing like that. I am just happy to see someone enjoying my craftsmanship. I did the leatherwork, and Old Morris did the inking. I can ink too, but he is better." The man looked Will up and down. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s yours, seeing as you saved our lives today. And I don’t think anyone will object.”

“That is relieving, I suppose.” Will said. He was still uncomfortable standing in the midst of the hunters. It seemed the other man was uncomfortable too. “Well, I am going to go. I hope you all have a nice day.” Will turned to find several men kneeling prostrate on the ground.

“Oh great one! Will you not allow us to escort you to the nearest town! We cannot offer much by way of hospitality, but we would be honored if you would allow us to help!” Will stepped back and turned around to find more hunters prostrating on the snowy ground.

Of all the results of this, this was not what he had expected. Will turned to the man who had been speaking to him earlier, and found him reluctantly dragged to his knees by his fellow hunters.

“You were just hunting me. You shot at and tried to kill me.” a collective moan spread through the hunters, and the same one spoke up as before.

“Please forgive us O Great One! We mistook you for a common monster, and then a common thief. You seem to be missing the godly aura that most of your kind possess, and we did not recognise you for what you are!”

“And what is that?”

“A god most high! You must be of the second tier, or even the third to pull off such a feat!” The fervor in the man’s voice was starting to make Will sick to his stomach.

“Fine I’ll come with you, just get up!” Will said, and the hunters rose with bows and mutters of your holiness. The only one to not bow so obsequiously was the first man. Will beckoned to him.

“What the hell was all of that?” Will asked in a low voice.

“I come from a city where gods are fairly common. We know that while most gods like respect, the bowing and prostrating gets really old. They don’t see many gods around here, and so the religious training kicks in full force. You will find both the most devout and the least devout in rural areas like this. Those who cannot see the gods for what they are.” The other hunters were hovering around waiting for their conversation to be over.

“What do you mean by gods?!” Will demanded. The man looked at Will oddly.

“I mean gods like you. People with power and might, people who go around slaying monsters and saving people. You know, gods.” Will thought that sounded more like adventurers, but in the end, it seemed to be a simple issue of semantics between him and the man. It was far more than semantics with these hunter nutjobs.

Will allowed himself to be dragged away by the group of hunters and be set up on a wagon. He had to insist that the wagon not be emptied for his sake, and that he would ride in the back with the stuff. Somehow that made him the most generous person they had ever seen. Old Morris, the man who had given him the tattoo, timidly approached and offered Will his helmet back. He was ecstatic when Will allowed him to keep it, though Will didn’t understand why.