Please enter your name
First: Brak
Last: Iznutri
There was nothing else, just darkness, and the bright blue dialog box before him.
He’d been staring at it for a long time, how long exactly he couldn’t say. Something about this was bothering him. It wasn’t the box itself that seemed strange to him, in fact it seemed rather normal, natural even. It definitely looked like some sort of game. What bothered him was those bottom two boxes.
He didn’t know who Brak Iznutri was. Seemed like a kind of weird name, if he was being honest about it. The thing was, he didn’t know what to replace it with. He assumed he must have a name, but nothing came to mind.
I suppose it will have to do, maybe I can change it later. Accept.
The system accepted his mental command, as he somehow had known it would, and the dialog box disappeared. A few moments later, a new one took its place.
Choose your race:
Human
LOCKED
LOCKED
*#&^$
Elf
LOCKED
LOCKED
Dwarf
LOCKED
$^9@(^#
&8#Xato*@!
I mean, human right? I’m clearly human. Human. Accept.
Human. The most common race in Xion. No particular strengths, but no weaknesses either. 5% increased xp gain. Are you sure you want this race?
Yes.
The dialog box disappeared. Then a few moments later, another popped up.
Choose your race:
Human
LOCKED
LOCKED
*#&klz^$
Elf
LOCKED
LOCKED
Dwarf
LOCKED
$^9@tr(^#
&8#Xato*@!
Wait, he had seen this one before. Maybe he had accidentally canceled the choice. Human. Accept.
Human. The most common race in Xion. No particular strengths, but no weaknesses either. 5% increased xp gain. Are you sure you want this race?
Yes.
The boxes vanished again, then returned as they had before. What the hell? Human feels like the right choice.
He tried two more times, with the same result each time. Guess I don’t have much choice. Elf. Accept.
Elf. Lithe and graceful forest folk. Long lived, Bonuses to DEXTERITY and INTELLIGENCE, penalties to STRENGTH and FORTITUDE. Are you sure you want this race?
Yes.
Same result as when he had tried human. Dwarf. Accept.
Dwarf. Stout and hardy mountain folk. Bonuses to STRENGTH and FORTITUDE, penalties to INTELLIGENCE and DEXTERITY. Are you sure you want this race?
YES!
No success. He started to panic a bit. Is this broken, am I trapped in some sort of broken system?
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
The rest of the options were either locked or gibberish.
No wait, maybe there was something to that last one. Xato? What the hell was a Xato? Well it was worth a try, at least he only had to think it, and not try to pronounce it. Xato. Accept.
Xato.
Are you sure you want this race?
Well that was helpful. Yes.
You have chosen Xato.
Name: Brak Iznuti
Class: Unguided
Race: Xato
Level: 1
Is that correct?
I have no idea. Yes.
Very well. Welcome to Xion.
Brak threw his hands up as light filled his vision, and he turned his head down and closed his eyes. Hands. Eyes. I have a body!
Once his vision began to clear, he took a look at his hands. Deeply tanned, and smooth looking, he was likely fairly young. He took in a breath of clean, fresh air. He hadn’t taken a breath in… well he didn’t know how long. One thing at a time. Where am I?
He stood upon an open grassy plain, a light breeze carried the faint scent of… was it oak?
What’s an oak?
No it wasn’t that. Similar though, certainly pleasant. Some sort of short golden grass rose halfway up his calves, and seemed to stretch out in every direction, unblemished except for a curious looking stone protrusion sticking out of the ground nearby, maybe a hundred feet off. The plains extended beyond his vision in three directions, and up to a cool, inviting looking forest in another. The sun rose high in the sky above him, and the temperature was pleasant. It felt like home.
Wherever that was.
Well anyway, he seemed safe enough for the time being, maybe he had time to get his bearings, and take stock of what he knew. He didn’t know his name, so Brak would have to do for now, but he was pretty sure he was human. Certainly not a Xato, whatever the hell that was. He wasn’t from here, but it seemed similar to wherever it was he was from.
Well if it was a game, he could probably bring up some menus to help him sort things out. He began to try mental commands, like in the darkness.
Status.
Nothing. I thought for sure that would work.
Attributes.
Nope.
Characteristi…
Before he finished the word, a translucent blue menu popped up before him. Ah, character, so it is a game.
Name: Brak Iznuti
Class: Unguided
Race: Xato
Level: 1 (0/90)
HP:
10/10
MP:
0/0
Attributes:
STR
1
INT
1
FORT
1
WILL
1
DEX
1
CHA
1
SPD
1
CHM
1
Well I don’t think I need to know a lot about this world to know that a bunch of 1’s isn’t great. I wonder what all of this means?
He looked towards the class block, and another, smaller block popped out, with a small description.
Unguided: Blessed by and beholden to no Archon. Triples Potential per Level.
Triple? That sounds quite good.
Turning his attention to the Race block, he got:
Xato: +1 All Stats per Level. Triples Potential per Level.
I guess that means potential isn’t a stat? But both my class and race triple it, so does that mean I get 9x potential per level? That sounds amazing!
He was pretty sure he understood most of the rest of it, except for CHM, which he focused on. A smaller box popped out.
Charm: Your ability to beguile, convince, or otherwise entrance others.
Brak dismissed the menus. “Guess I’d better take a look around.” He said out loud. HIs voice was quite a bit deeper than he had expected, but he kind of liked it. It sounded… powerful. He grinned.
He started heading towards the closest stone protrusion, since they seemed to be the only thing of note in his immediate vicinity. Once he got closer, he could see it looked liked a grave marker of some sort, rounded on one side and flat on the other, with words carved into the stone towards the top:
NO WOODS FINDOTHERSTONES
Odd, and not very well formatted.
At the base of the stone, slightly obscured by the grass, was a small wooden box, about two feet wide and a foot deep, and coming up to his shins. He bent down and reached for the lid. There was an odd tingling sensation that went through his arms before he touched it, and he began to recoil, but it quickly dissipated.
Was it some sort of trap? I really don’t know what I’m dealing with here.
He seemed to be fine though. Cautiously, he reached again, but felt nothing this time.
Well I’ll just add it to the list of shit I don't know.
He gently pushed back the lid, revealing a small, crude looking dagger made out of some sort of glassy stone. It reminded him of obsidian, but it was gray, rather than black.
Might be useful. He took the dagger, then paused. Where do I put this, what am I even wearing?
He looked down at his clothes. It appeared to be some sort of soft gray woolen tunic, with a well oiled leather belt cinching it about his waist, and supporting a small pouch on his left hip. Below that he wore green breeches and some brown woolen socks, tucked into a pair of simple brown leather boots.
The pouch looked pretty sturdy, and the dagger didn’t look terribly sharp, so he figured it would probably be alright in there. He opened the pouch up and slipped the dagger in, then snapped his hand back as it disappeared into thin air.
Of course he thought. These games always have some sort of storage system for the characters.
A faint translucent blue box in the corner of his vision caught his eye, looking more solid as he concentrated on it, revealing the text written within.
Stone Dagger added to inventory
I wonder if there is anything else in there?
Inventory
Inventory
Trail Ration (5)
Waterskin (Full)
Stone Dagger [LQ] (1)
He looked at each item in turn.
Trail Ration: Enough food to sustain a person for a day. Rather bland.
Waterskin: Can hold enough water to sustain a person for 5 days. Or enough wine to keep you piss drunk for about a day.
Stone Dagger [Low Quality] : A rudimentary dagger made from bladestone. Crafted by Brak Iznutri. Equip? [Y/N]
Yes.
He didn’t feel anything different, but the entry for Stone dagger did have an [E] next to it now. More importantly, why did it say he had crafted it? Maybe it was a typo, some kind of localization error or something.
Brak climbed up on top of the tombstone to get a better view, it was a bit slippery, but he managed to maintain his balance. He spotted what looked like another tombstone a quarter mile or so closer to the woods, and a third about the same distance in the opposite direction.
Guess I’ll trust the tombstone, since I have literally nothing else to go on. You’d think there would be a tutorial or something.
He hopped off the tombstone and headed off towards the stone away from the woods. He’d made it about four steps before screaming out in pain and stumbling forward, as needle-like teeth sank into his right calf.