Sid woke up. He realized he was currently in the spare room that Gazzel had shown him the day before. It wasn’t spacious but big enough to fit a small mattress and a basket to keep clothes. This was his new home.
Sid sat with his back on the wall as he stared at the wall in front of him.
Many things had transpired and he had a hard time accepting everything.
But, probably the most troublesome of it all was this glitchy screen in front of him.
Player Profile
Name: Error: Entity has not been initialized.
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Title: Member of the S Club, T̵͉̩̑̓̔h̷͓̔̌̊e̵̳̋̉ ̷̼̋̆͊Ǘ̸̘̐ǹ̷̯̳͊̿i̵͉̦͘͠n̶̦̺̫̐̎͐ì̸̼̪͝t̷͔̺̀i̷̹͝a̶̺͆l̸̟̾í̶̟̎̉z̵̨͌̿e̶̮̠̙͐͠d̸̻̘̜̹̻̼̺̥̍̀̕
Level: Error: Entity has not been initialized.
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Str: Error: Entity has not been initialized. +0.2
Agi: Error: Entity has not been initialized. +0.2
Con: Error: Entity has not been initialized. +0.2
Sol: Error: Entity has not been initialized. +0.2
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Skill Point: Error: Entity has not been initialized. +3
He had tested it multiple times during their journey to the fort. He could make the Profile screen go away and come back as many times as he wanted. No one else could see his Profile screen except for himself. He had tried touching Title and other sections of the Player Profile to see if he could get more information, but they would be returned the error, “Entity has not been initialized”, each time.
This wasn’t the only function he had tested. Supposedly, once a person became an Initiate, they would receive The Voice’s guidance on the functions of the various screens and how to use them. Gazzel had taught him roughly the basics of them.
He wasn’t seeing things. He had investigated the Player Inventory screen, the night before and found a One-Star Treasure Box which occupied one of the twenty free inventory slots. Like last night, he got the same error, trying to access the treasure box or interact with the inventory in any way.
With only the Class Tree screen remaining, his hope of not seeing the error seemed slim. He had tried to verify it last night but Ridley had abruptly come out from the Town Hall building.
Just thinking about Ridley, made him remembered what transpired last night. A sense of bitterness swelled up in him. He didn’t know why he was feeling this way.
To the current him, she was a stranger who had helped him and that was all he had seen her as. It was just frustrating having emotions forced on himself when he couldn’t understand why.
Letting his thoughts go, he focused on the Class Tree screen in front of him.
Class: Novice
Rarity: Common
Description: A beginner at everything.
Unlock Requirement: None
Class: The Uninitialized
Rarity: ???
Description: ???
Unlock Requirement: ???
The two options were on different nodes that seemed to branch off in different directions. From what Gazzel had explained, every Initiate had the Novice Class unlocked at the beginning. From there, classes were unlocked depending on the current Initiate’s class and what achievements and requirements they had accomplished and fulfilled. Choosing a class meant they would get all the benefits that it offered, but at the same time, they would be locked to that specific branch. Unless the branch connected to a previous node, the Initiate would be locked out from changing to that class, making it nearly impossible to change class from a Mage to a Warrior.
Sid’s finger reached out as he touched the node with the word, “Novice”, hovering above it.
Error: Entity has not been initialized.
He didn’t expect it to work, but still, he was disappointed. Letting out a sigh, his gaze moved to the other node on a faraway branch.
“The Uninitiated…”
That was what the error had been about. Yet, why did he have such a class?
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Would it once again show the same error?
He reached out and touched the node.
A burst of white light exploded from the screen, blinding him.
Registering player…
Finding player name…
Player is commonly referred to as Sid
Setting name to Sid
Setting level to 0
Calculating player’s initial attributes…
Player’s strength value is 1.2 times higher than the initial average calculated strength value of all players
Setting Str to 1.2
Player’s constitution value is 1.3 times higher than the initial average calculated constitution value of all players
Setting Con to 1.3
Player’s agility value is 1.4 times higher than the initial average calculated agility value of all players
Setting Agi to 1.4
Player’s Sol value is null
Setting Sol to 0
Found bonus attribute points…
Adding to respective attributes
Two titles are available…
Equipping Member of the S Club
Class found…
Setting class to The Uninitialized
Registration completed.
The voice and light faded and what lied in front of Sid was the Player Profile screen. This one, however, was not glitchy and perfectly readable.
Player Profile
Name: Sid
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Title: [Member of the S Club], The Uninitialized
Level: 0
Class: The Uninitialized
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Str: 1.4 (+1)
Con: 1.5 (+1)
Agi: 1.6 (+1)
Sol: 0.2 (+1)
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Skill Point: 3
His finger moved quickly as he clicked on the screen, causing different information messages to display.
“It’s working now,” Sid uttered as his vision shifted from one message to another. “It’s actually working now.”
The error that he had seen before was nowhere to be found. He could now read the information about his attributes, titles, level, and even his name.
If this works…then that must mean—
Sid quickly opened his inventory screen. The treasure box that was sitting in one of the slots now sat on the ground in front of him.
It came out… Sid rubbed his eyes. He let out an incredulous laugh. Just how magically was this? Then again, he did see a cemetery and hospital disappearing right before his eyes. Making this treasure box appearing out of thin air shouldn’t be that surprising, but it was for him because he was the one who had made this box appeared out of nowhere.
Like a child who discovered a magic trick for the first time, he performed the act over and over again. Each time the box would go into the inventory and then come back out.
Letting out a satisfied smile, Sid opened the One-Star Treasure Box. The treasure box shook as it disappeared, leaving three items on the ground.
Ragged Phantom Cloak
Rank: ★
*Require Constitution to be 2.5 or higher to use.
Description: The favorite cloak of the Mist Phantom.
Con +0.5
Agi +0.5
Sol +0.5
Improve the rate at which wounds and injuries are healed.
Red Blade x2
Rank: NR
*Require Agility to be 1.0 or higher to use.
Description: The murderous knife of the Mist Phantom’s when she was alive.
Str +0.1
Agi +0.1
Skill Scroll: Corrosive Beam
Rank: ★
*Require Sol to be 1.5 or higher to use.
Description: A skill scroll to learn the Mist Phantom’s signature move, the corrosive beam.
Wearing the cloak, Sid felt uncomfortable and tired, but he felt fine when he took it off.
It must be the cloak rejecting me for having low Constitution, Sid thought as he stared at the black cloak in his hand. Then that means, the +1 bonus to all attributes from equipping the title, Member of the S Club, doesn’t count as having 2.5 points in Constitution.
Sid didn’t ask Gazzel intensively about titles. What he did get from Gazzel was that titles gave different effects when equipped and the way to gain them was to fulfill the Fragmented World’s hidden conditions. For the title, Member of the S Club, he had to complete a dungeon with a clear ranking of S rank or above.
Sid sat with his legs crossed, deep in thought. Gazzel had told him that they cleared the dungeon by killing a Mist Phantom monster. Was it the same one he fought? Could he had somehow helped them clear the dungeon? There was that trance he was in too.
Sid let out a sigh. There were too many questions with no answers.
Putting back the three items into his inventory. Sid opened the screen that caused everything just now. He immediately noticed The Uninitialized class node had turned bright white while The Novice node had turned dark, making it impossible to select it. Clicking on The Uninitialized node, Sid could see there was additional information.
Class: The Uninitialized
Rarity: ?
Description: The one who pointlessly struggles.
Unlock Requirement: Acquire the title “The Uninitialized”
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Skill:
Boundless [Rank: ?] 0/1
[Passive] Add a secondary class slot
Leaving alone the cryptic description, there was a skill he could use his Skill Point on. From what he had heard from Gazzel, Initiates could only have one class at a time. Yet there was a skill here that could give him an additional class.
Without another thought, Sid added one point to the Boundless skill. The Novice node which was dark before shone brightly.
Class: Novice
Rarity: Common
Description: A beginner at everything.
Unlock Requirement: None
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Skill:
Analyze [Rank: E] 0/10
[Active] Scan a being to get its level and name. Accuracy increase with each level up.
Rush [Rank: E] 0/3
[Active] Give a burst of speed. Increase with each level up.
Sol Comprehension [Rank: E] 0/5
[Passive] Increase knowledge of the world’s primal energy, Sol.
[Passive] Increase Sol by 0.1 with each level up.
Invigorating Spirit [Rank: E] 0/5
[Active] For a short duration, improve the body’s recovery rate.
[Passive] Increase Con by 0.1 with each level up.
Nimble [Rank: E] 0/5
[Passive] Improve the dexterity of movement.
[Passive] Increase Agi by 0.1 with each level up.
Sid was tempted to select Novice as his secondary class, but he felt that he should learn more about the Class Tree first. The last thing he wanted to do was to be stuck with a class he couldn’t change.
He lay on the bed as he looked through his different screens over and over again. He couldn’t help but felt a sense of contentment as if he had done so many times in the past. This time, however, he was managing himself and not a character in a game.
That was why he had to be careful. He couldn’t let other people know about this and not Keise. Gazzel had told him that the Initiates, under the effect of the skill Analyze, would have their name and level revealed above their head. He remembered how Keise was already suspicious of him. If he suddenly appeared with a level above his head, Keise might execute him on the spot.
Remove Member of the S Club. Equip The Uninitialized.
He sounded the command in his head. The effect of The Uninitialized was unique, to say the least. It could conceal his name, title, and level at the cost of reverting his attributes to 1 and locking his skills and classes, making him the same as a person who had not been initialized. Before he could check his updated profile.
Loud knocking noise could be heard.
Right, I was supposed to meet up with Gazzel.