“K-Kezner, Kezner…” Kezner recited the name until he got completely familiar to it. Yes, he now had a proper name, but what was this predestined stuff about? Bah, that didn’t matter.
“Host, the Wizard System will now teleport you to the next city, the Wizard System has found slight hostility against you in your current location, if you were to remain, you will be attacked and most likely die. Please keep in mind, the Wizard System will rarely intervene, but in special situations caused by the Wizard System, the Wizard System will get you past the tribulation by the bare minimum. Short-Range Minor Teleportation commencing, please standby.”
And with that, Kezner was given the boot and kicked out of the speaking darkness. With shut eyes, he grasped around only to feel his fingers dug into a wet and squishy surface. Terrified, Kezner widened his eyes and hastily moved his hands towards where his hands were only to feel his stomach overturn… His fingers were inches deep into some dead slave’s wet wound in their back.
He pulled back his hands as his breathing deepened with tears forming in his eyes. The acid in his stomach was now neck-high as he kept swallowing to keep down the vomit. However, nothing could stop his eventual bawling as he stared into the dull and blank eyes of the corpses surrounding him.
Kezner was a 16 year old that had experienced hardships and witnessed deaths, but had never been this close. He would occasionally witness the deaths of the other slaves, however he would only feel some pity, but was mostly thankful that he wasn’t the corpse. When he first witnessed the death of a fellow slave, his night terrors lasted weeks as he remembered the horrified yet dull eyes of the falling corpse. After that, he usually felt detached from other deaths, it wasn’t him doing it, he wasn’t the one taking the lives of the slaves, however, he had never been this close, his hands were never stained with blood.
Suddenly he saw a silver-white symbol started being drawn above him. It was atrociously complicated causing Kezner to be stunned and stuck in a daze. Soon, however, the drawing stopped and a white rim appeared around the symbol. Just when it started rotating, Kezner felt the hair behind his neck rise as he quickly turned around, only to be met with a hyena’s strong and defined jaw aiming for his neck.
“Oh sh-”, Kezner thought. However, just as he was about to finish this thought, the symbol and its rim shone a light that could cause the sun to lay down in shame. And with that, Kezner disappeared from his spot, with the hyena biting air, and its body crashing into the pile of corpses. “Confused” couldn't begin to explain its state.
---
“H-huh?.” Kezner’s tear filled eyes suddenly paused as he wiped the snot on his face with his arm, and looked around until he realized he was in a random room he’d never seen before. He slowly recovered in a daze as he stared around. His traumatizing experience was slowly covered up with enthusiasm.
“The room is so large and clean, the bed is huge!” Kezner was amazed at how good a room could look and how big a bed could be. To be fair, this was your average tidy bed and barely clean room as dust was literally everywhere, and the beds contained the smells of countless… body odors, should we say.
The Wizard System then spoke, “Host, the Wizard System has brainwashed the owner of this tavern, but only manipulated him into believing you have paid a week’s worth of stay. After a week, you will have to either leave or pay for another day. The option is up to the Host whether to stay or not.”
“Oh alright…”, Kezner responded in a slightly disappointed tone. If he could stay here for the rest of his life, it would be much better, but so be it.
“The Host does not need to respond out loud, the Wizard System can hear the Host’s responses via his thoughts.”
“Alright- I mean…”, Kezner mistakenly responded aloud but quickly corrected himself in his mind, “I mean, alright! Wait… doesn’t this mean that the Wizard System can hear all of my thoughts… Weirdo!”
“Not necessarily, the Wizard System only reads thoughts that are intentionally targeted towards the Wizard System, any regular or offhand thought will not be seen or read by the Wizard System.”
“Nice! But uhh… hey Wizard System, what do I do now? I mean, I’m not a slave anymore, am I?” Kezner was honestly lost as to what to do now, he had been a slave for 16 years and was only shown how small and weak he was. He didn’t believe he could truly amount to anything.
“Well legally, you are still considered a slave with an owner, you aren’t a registered citizen, neither are you part of a union, guild, or church, so it is safe to say you should avoid any situation that requires proof of birth or citizenship, unless you want to be sent back to the Valley of Stars as a slave. You have a slave seal on your chest that is also within your bloodline, however, as soon as you comprehend the structure of the seal, you can break it. In all honesty, mage magic could be considered somewhat inferior to wizard magic in terms of profoundness, this mere seal couldn’t even stop the weakest of experienced wizards.” The Wizard System was the Wizard System after all, so it would boast about how great wizards were compared to mages.
“The Wizard System believes this should be an ideal moment to begin the true introduction of the Wizard System. Host, the Wizard System could be considered a being above anything else in this universe, nothing could get in the Wizard System’s way, however, only your strength is required to ascend, not the Wizard System’s. The Wizard System is simply a guide, the Wizard System is only here to activate and allow you to push your potential forward, so please keep in mind that the Wizard System will only give you the bare essentials of becoming a wizard, anything else will be from your own hands and the fruits of your labor. In the future, if you want to receive a reward from the Wizard System, you will have to exert at least twice the effort than the reward is worth.”
Kezner only nodded to this and thought it was fair, after all, he did nothing to obtain the Wizard System, and didn’t doubt there could be someone else more qualified to receive it. He didn’t want to lose his lifeline and go back to laboring like a slave.
“The Wizard System has granted the Host five items, please receive them.”
With that, Kezner went back into the endless darkness and saw fireworks occur in front of him as he saw the twinkling lights of the fireworks condense into five different objects.
The first one was a dust-gray hat that matched his hair, with an overly large brim and a point that curved backwards. On Earth, anyone could recognize it as a stereotypical wizard hat, though this one was oversized, however to Kezner, this was completely foreign and looked… eccentric. The second item was a cloak that was also gray, with the same simplistic design that matched the oversized hat. Thankfully this looked like a simple cloak that wouldn’t stand out all too much. The third light turned out to be simple gray boots with a buckle, they also came with socks!
The fourth was a wooden stick. Well, a stick with a handle, to be fair. It was made out of smooth dark wood that gave it a sleek appearance, though Kezner didn’t know what in god’s name this was, he could already tell it was disappointing.
The final object that condensed in front of him was… a book? This was a large gray leather book that had a simple buckle that closed it. The book was large enough that you had to hold it with two hands, on top of the fact it was very thick, the book was probably very heavy. Kezner was even more disappointed, a book? He barely knew how to read and write, let alone read through such a thick book. How long would it take until he was comfortable with reading and writing, this was even worse than the stick!
Oh well, he already got three cool pieces of clothing and a book he could help him learn to read, maybe a stick was an accessory that strong people wore… Oh that made sense! The Wizard System wouldn’t disable him for any reason, that stick has to be some sort of accessory for his clothing that could distinguish him from a slave!
If the Wizard System had access to whatever the hell Kezner was thinking, then it would be speechless beyond belief. What accessory, what piece of clothing, it was a wand! Hundreds of thousands would slaughter each other in the wizard world for such a wand!
“The Host has acquired the ‘Novice Wizard Hat’! Would you like to bind it for quick use?”
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“Yes?”
“The Host has acquired the ‘Novice Wizard Cloak’! Would you like to bind it for quick use?”
“Sure...”
“The Host has acquired the ‘Novice Wizard Boots’! Would you like to bind it for quick use?”
“Alright?”
“The Host has acquired the ‘Novice Wizard Wand’! Would you like to bind it for quick use?”
“I guess…”
Kezner was pretty confused about what binding an item for quick use meant, but agreed as it wouldn’t hurt him. Since he was confused, he asked straightforwardly in a comfortable manner, “Hey System, is it okay if I call you System? Anyways, what’s binding for quick use mean?”
“The Host may refer to the Wizard System as anything as long as the keywords ‘wizard’ or ‘system’ are present, but even then, anything directed towards the Wizard System in general would be heard. Binding for quick use, in simple terms, allows you to instantaneously retrieve an item from the Wizard System Inventory. For example, if you wanted to normally wear the ‘Novice Wizard Hat’, you would have to directly refer to me, ask to open up the Wizard System Inventory, then confirm if you wanted to equip it. However, quick use bypasses such tedious and time consuming actions, and summons any binded item to the Host, in other words, you would be able to wear the ‘Novice Wizard Hat’ with a single thought. The catch is that there are certain categories for items, you cannot bind two different hats for quick use, this applies to all categories.”
“Wait if you know the process is tedious and time consuming, then why is it like that to begin with, couldn’t you make both of our lives simpler by just being able to summon any item from the inventory?” Kezner asked in a curious tone.
“This process is to psychologically reaffirm if the Host wanted to take such actions and allow the Host to rethink his plans. Maybe the Host didn’t need the ‘Novice Wizard Hat’ for a certain situation, but some other hat, this process is more than long enough to reflect and rethink.”
“I see…” Kezner responded as he thought about it from this angle. “It seems a lot smarter than I thought…”
“Hey, System, can I see how I look in this?” As soon as he asked this, the infinite darkness slowly transformed back into the tavern room. Rushing to the dresser, Kezner wanted to see how he looked in his new gear in the large mirror. However, he was disappointed to only find his usual tattered clothes.
“Oh wait- Hey, System, I want to activate all of my quick uses.” And with that, Kezner became unrecognizable. The brim of the wizard hat basically obscured his eyes from others, only revealing the face under his eyes. Although his vision was slightly obscured, he could simply just raise his head slightly. He also noticed the wooden stick in his hand, it still seemed pretty useless.
“The Wizard System wants to also introduce the Grimoire and Statistics features. The book the Host has obtained is what is referred to as a grimoire. Grimoires are books that hold and record spells and procedures for creating talisman and arrays. They are vital for any wizard and cannot easily be replaced once directly binded with the Host. Some of the best grimoires have added bonuses, such as increased damage output or recitation speeds.”
“System, does my grimoire have any bonus?” Kezner became enthusiastic, a grimoire given by the almighty system couldn’t possibly be bad… right?
“This brings us to the Statistics, or Stats, feature. The Host has six basic statistics that take into account passive and combat abilities, the six being strength, agility, stamina, endurance, affinity, and vitality. Strength is your physical power in general. Agility is the ease and swift movement of your body. Stamina is focused on increasing the length of using your full power be it casting or physical fighting, while endurance is focused on increasing the number of times you can reproduce an action within a certain length of time. Affinity is your resonance and comprehension of mana which could affect casting speeds and efficiency of spells, talisman, and arrays. Vitality is basically your physical energy, if mana is what fuels spells, then vitality is what fuels a fist fight.”
“Uhhh, okay, so System, can I see this ‘stats’?” Kezner was slightly lost. It was a lot of information to retain, but he got the very basic gist of each stat.
“Host: Kezner
Strength: 2
Agility: 1(+4)
Stamina: 1(+3)
Endurance: 3
Affinity: 5(+4)
Vitality: 2(+2)
System’s Assessment: Could possibly win against an ant.”
“Hey System, what’s with the plus stuff?” Kezner was confused as to what gave him the extra stats, though he could barely add up the numbers, he knew the very basic math symbols like the plus or minus signs.. He also decided to ignore the assessment, he didn’t want to be on bad terms with the Wizard System over a casual remark.
“These additional stats come from the equipment and clothing you are currently wearing, the Novice Wizard Hat gives a (+2) to Affinity and (+1) to Stamina, while your Novice Wizard Cloak gives a (+2) to Agility and Stamina. As for your Novice Wizard Wand, that’s an additional (+2) to Affinity, and your Novice Wizard Boots give a (+2) to Agility and Vitality. The numbers without parentheses represent your base stats before equipment, while the numbers with parentheses represent the additional stats given by equipment.
Now let’s look at Abilities. Abilities are related to stats as they could raise and/or lower specific stats. Some abilities can manipulate a single stat, while others are able to change every stat across the board. Abilities are obtained through items, clothing, comprehension, and experiences. The Host currently has two abilities;
Former Slave’s Physique: (+20%) to Strength, Vitality, and Endurance for a duration of 10 seconds. Cannot be reused for 1 day.
Jack of All Trades, Master of None (Grimoire): (+5%) to all stats for a duration of 1 minute. Cannot be reused for 20 minutes.”
“Oh… that’s it?” Kezner was pretty disappointed in his grimoire’s ability. Only (+5%)? It didn’t even speed up anything, this was a pretty crummy ability, especially compared to “Former Slave’s Physique”.
“Host, do not be discouraged by your grimoire’s ability. Not only could you possibly obtain new abilities, a grimoire grows alongside its owner, meaning your grimoire could either gain a new ability or have its current ability boosted. It’s all a matter of growth.”
Kezner’s eyes shone at the thought of this. If he continued to get stronger, wouldn’t his grimoire’s ability increase as well. If he did his math right, upgrading this ability twenty times, he would be able to exert twice his total power for a minute, maybe even the minute would increase!
“Oh, by the way, what does this stick do?”, Kezner asked as he waved around the wand and looked back at himself in the mirror.
“That is the Novice Wizard Wand, it is the medium between you and the surrounding mana. The wand works similarly to the mana channels of a mage, notice the engraved lines on the wand. It is what allows you to manipulate mana. Waving the wand in the air, you can draw the symbols of a spell to cast it. Passively, wands decrease the chance of fizzling a spell. A fizzle could be caused from either an error in your casting, lack of endurance, unmet requirements, or lack of surrounding mana. The first two situations could be patched up by your stats, a higher affinity would naturally give you more insight towards a spell, lessening any errors you could make, while you could raise endurance.”
“Speaking of which, how do I raise my stats? Oh, and how do I cast spells and stuff?” Kezner realized that everything broke back down to stats, so he needed a way to increase his stats before he could jump into zapping people.
“The Wizard System believes you’re missing the mark about something. Your stats do not affect you, you affect your stats, they simply represent the state you are currently in. However, the Host will be given stats by the Wizard System as special events and rewards. The Wizard System uses stats because it wants to simplify the information for the Host.
Casting spells requires you to obtain a new spell in your grimoire, which shows the process in drawing out or chanting a spell. Not all spells can be drawn out, some of them require an incantation, where you recite the Language of Magic. The Language of Magic is an obscure existence, it exists in all and in nothing. It is the chains that bind the universe in its state, it is the law of nature and all that exists under it. When you speak the Language of Magic, they aren’t intelligible words and letters, the best that can be expressed with your current comprehension is that it’s a sound that represents the ins and outs of mana. However, it usually requires a very strong wizard, you will die if you attempt to recite the incantations.
Host, the Wizard System will now give you a single elemental spell to start off with, you can choose between fire, water, earth, air, and lightning, please choose in a timely manner.”
“Earth.”, Kezner didn’t even hesitate. Though he was oblivious to what a wizard was earlier, he had always wanted to become a mage. Gazing at the stars through the hole in his ceiling for years taught him how small he truly was in the grand scheme of things. Even ants would be able to tell how boundless the sky was, but to graze the heavens, one must be able to jump off the ground properly.