Chapter 5: Awake

“Ugh.” Derek groaned as a slight pressure hit his armor encased body. Still out of it, Derek was just beginning to awaken. It had never taken Derek so long to acclimate after waking. Everything was fuzzy in his head, and though he could make out some noise in the distance, he could not figure out what was actually happening because of his nonlucid state.

“Ugh, stop it, give me a few more minutes.” Derek finally managed to mumble. There was a tugging on his hand that he did not understand. “Let go of me.” He shooed whoever was trying to pull him up from his bed, but the tugging continued, becoming even fiercer.

“I said stop!” This time, he slapped at the person messing with him, not coherent yet, he was unable to contain his strength.

‘Awoo!’ A loud cry broke through the foggy barrier of his mind. His eyes shot open.

Derek shifted his head around, taking in everything that was going on. What the hell happened? He wondered. Shifting his gaze to the animal in front of him, he got excited.

“A puppy! Come here, boy,” Derek exclaimed after studying the snarling creature. Derek sat up, then furrowed his brows.

“What’s this?” He shifted his body over a little and noticed the little boy lying underneath him, shaking.

“It’s not that cold yet. Why are you shivering? Did you use me as a blanket?” Derek asked, confused.

“N-no, I didn’t,” The boy said. It seemed to be the only thing the boy could say.

Wait! I can understand him now. What the hell? Now Derek was really confused. He could not figure out how one minute the boy was speaking gibberish, then the next minute, he was speaking English.

“Boy! How are you speaking English now? Were you toying with me earlier?” Derek asked the boy. His memory was still fuzzy and all he could remember was that the boy was staring at him from across the fire.

“I uh, I don’t, what’s English?” The boy finally managed to say.

Suddenly, the wolf pounced at Derek again. Derek let the wolf latch on to his bracer while still staring at the boy. “English is what you’re speaking, it’s a language.”

The boy looked incredulously at Derek, who was now rubbing the top of the wolf’s head with his gloved hand. “N-no, we’re speaking the language of the Great System. It’s pretty much the only language we use. Everyone has the Great System, so we don’t really use other languages.” The boy explained to Derek. Still terrified of the beast, but even more so of the man that was treating it like a pet.

Great System language? Derek still could not wrap his head around it. There’s no universal language from the System. If you want to understand other languages, you have to spend an ungodly amount of time leveling up the Linguistics skill, and I certainly did not level up that skill. While Derek was thinking, the wolf charged his face. He quickly grabbed it from the bottom of its mouth.

Noticing that the fangs on the right side of its face were missing, Derek asked, “Aw, what happened to you? Was somebody mean to you?” Derek cooed quietly to the wolf.

Seeing the wolf still tearing at the man’s gloved hand, but the man treating it as if it was playing, Thomas got the courage to speak. “I think you knocked its teeth out when you slapped it away while you were waking up.”

“Awe, I sowwy, did I hurt it?” Now, Derek was baby-talking the monstrous beast.

Thomas could not believe what he was seeing. Is this man OK? Is he crazy? What have I gotten myself into? He just could not take his eyes off the strange scene.

“Anyway, what’s this Great System language?” Derek asked.

“It’s the language of the Great System.” Thomas answered back as if it was the most common knowledge a person could know, and it was. He was beginning to feel like this man was as much an idiot as he was crazy.

“No shit, asshole. I’m asking what it IS, why is there a system language.” The way the kid was looking at Derek did not escape him, even though all his focus was currently directed toward the wolf.

Seeing the man’s attitude shift to being annoyed, Thomas stammered, “I’m not really sure. The language of the Great System has been here for as long as the Great System has been. And nobody knows how long that is. I mean, I’ve heard my grandma say something about ancient languages, and there supposedly being a time before the Great System, but that’s just fairy tales and myths that every kid hears when they are little.”

Derek did not expect much coming from a ten-year-old boy, but was actually surprised. The boy seemed to be much more mature than he looked. This was much more information than the ‘I dunno’ that he was expecting.

“So, the system comes with its own language then,” Derek muttered. I wonder what else is different from the system on Earth. Derek was already shocked that there was a place with a different system than the one he was used to. He was thinking about different questions he had, and whether or not the little boy would be able to answer them.

“Hey, kid. What level are you anyway, why are you so scared of this little guy, he can’t be too high of a level?” Something that he did not understand was how the kid, even as young as he seemed, was not able to be a high enough level to take on the wolf. The way it sounds, this planet has had a system for centuries. It took me and many others only a couple of years with our system to be able to beat a monster like this. Hell, we had ten-year-olds that could kill this wolf in one punch.

“Level? I’m level zero. I’m not old enough to properly use the Great System yet. I’m a few months away from being 13. Even then, leveling isn’t exactly easy, you know?” Thomas was confused by the questions the man was asking. He’s much older than me. Maybe he lost his memory. Thomas stared at the man. Maybe he’s always been by himself. He doesn’t seem to even have the manners of someone from my village.

“Oh, so you can’t be indoctrinated into the system until your thirteenth birthday then?” Derek was starting to get interested in these new system rules.

“Yes, 13 is the age at which the Great System will accept a person,” Thomas said.

“So, when you turn 13 the system just says what? ‘Congratulations, you survived 13 years without becoming monster chow, have some levels.'” Derek couldn’t really understand why this new system would not allow people to be able to defend themselves for a whole 13 years when the system he was from allowed everyone full access as soon as they could understand how to use the interface.

“Not exactly. When you turn 13, you are given the chance to use the Great System. There are many who never unlock the ability to level and get powerful.” Derek’s lack of basic knowledge made Thomas feel like he was teaching a student.

“Oh? How does someone access the system then?” Derek looked at the boy in a bit of a panic. Does this mean that I will be one of those who are unable to use this system? His thoughts were drifting to the worst possible scenarios.

“Well, everyone can pull up the interface of the Great System by just thinking ‘Status.’ So everyone can at least check their stats and ailments. But in order to be able to go past that, the requirements are both easy and difficult.” Thomas said, trying to think of the simplest way to explain the process to Derek.

Hearing the kid say that, Derek went ahead and thought, ‘Status,’ like he had done thousands of times before.

Status

Name

Derek Hunt

Age

29

Level

0

Experience

N/A

Class

N/A

Race

Human (Modified)

Health

4000

Mana

1950

Stamina

4910

Defense

49 (Armor + 135)

Attack

46 (Weapon + 0)

Stats

Strength

343

Dexterity

241

Endurance

491

Vitality

400

Intelligence

203

Wisdom

195

Stat Points Remaining

0

Skills

No Skill Learned

Skill Points Remaining

0

Awards

No Awards Achieved

“What!” Derek was looking over his stat sheet and had to do a double-take. “How the holy fuck am I 29 years old! Is this a fuckin’ joke to you? I was in there for decades if not centuries. How the fuck are you going to say that I was only in there for two years. You fucking shitty ass motherfucking piece of shit!” Derek lost it when he saw that this new system had only shown that he was 29 years old, meaning that he had only aged two years while he was trapped in the void.

Thomas was staring at Derek with his jaw on the ground. He had seen people have outbursts before, but this was on a whole new level. The crazy man is… getting crazier. The unexpected outburst that came out of nowhere cemented Thomas’s opinion of Derek being absolutely insane.

After a lengthy amount of time went by, Derek finally calmed down. Think rationally, how could I have only aged two years? Was I only in there for two years, was I just hallucinating for the majority of the time I spent there? No, that’s not it. Maybe time flows differently in the void. That’s the only thing that makes sense. But still, even if it’s like that, I still would have aged, right? Ahh! I’m going to go crazy thinking about this. Let’s just put it on the back burner and circle to it later. Derek looked over his ‘Status’ again just to see what had changed.

No level yet. That’s to be expected, it is a new system. I wonder what ‘Modified’ means. Maybe it’s taking into account how my body was changed by the old system. At least I know now that the system really affected me on a physical level. If not, I would have lost my stats along with the system. Derek frowned while going over everything.

Thomas was speechless. He had never seen so many emotional changes in such a short amount of time. First, the man was screaming mad, but all of a sudden, he calmed down and put on a thoughtful look. Then, his eyes would furrow and he would frown, which shortly changed to him nodding his head. Then he smiled, grimaced, then smiled again all within 30 seconds. It seems he’s checking his ‘Status,’ but what could his status have in it to make him show so many emotions. Thomas couldn’t wrap his head around what he was seeing.

Derek studied his ‘Stats’ for a period of time. It seems like my base stats are my overall stats, including my Titles, other than ‘Solo King.’ It makes sense since I’m with the kid right now. Derek suddenly had a thought. “Hey kid, stay right there and don’t move.”

“Huh? Why…” Thomas started, but Derek was already kicking up dust, wolf cradled in his arms. “Where are you going?” Thomas yelled, but he could only see Derek’s back getting smaller and smaller in the distance. So fast.

After running a few kilometers away, Derek checked his ‘Status’ again.

Status

Name

Derek Hunt

Age

29

Level

0

Experience

N/A

Class

N/A

Race

Human (Modified)

Health

4000

Mana

1950

Stamina

4910

Defense

49 (Armor + 135)

Attack

46 (Weapon + 0)

Stats

Strength

343

Dexterity

241

Endurance

491

Vitality

400

Intelligence

203

Wisdom

195

Stat Points Remaining

0

Skills

No Skill Learned

Skill Points Remaining

0

Awards

No Awards Achieved

Fuck! It’s the same. He had expected that once he put some distance between the boy and himself, his ‘Solo King’ title would kick in and all of his stats would rise by 15%. This was not the case. Dammit! So this means that I actually don’t have the titles anymore, and whatever buffs I had when I went unconscious became my permanent base stats. Still, for base stats, that’s gotta be good. Derek turned back to head to camp. He still had many questions to ask the boy. Like what his name is. Haha.