Dante closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He saw nothing and heard just as little, the only thought in his mind directing him to focus. He didn’t know what to expect when Laurelai told him to sit down and ‘look’ into his abdomen, but when images of blue-white liquid appeared in his mind, moving through looping veins hidden inside himself, he was forced to admit that he was pleasantly surprised.

There was another form layered over his real body, one made of milky white liquid tinged in an ethereal blue. Laurelai called the liquid ‘astral energy’ and the insubstantial form that contained said energy his ‘spirit’. She claimed there wasn’t really another body inside his own, with it being more or less a metaphysical container that overlaid the third dimension, existing in a separate space that layered their own…

Somehow?

“I’m sorry, Laurelai,” Dante said, scratching the back of his head, “but I just don’t understand what you’re saying. I can hear the words, and I can grasp their basic meaning. I just don’t have the technical knowledge to know what you mean by overlapping dimensions that don’t interfere with one another.”

“Ugh,” Laurelai groaned, her eyes dull as she let out an exasperated breath. “I’ll explain it to you later then, so how about we move on to the next two?”

Nodding his head, Dante closed his eyes again and visualised the energy moving about inside his veins. Not the magical, alternate dimension veins of his spirit, but the veins that carried his literal blood around his flesh and organs, delivering oxygen and nutrients before picking up waste products to be excreted.

Instead of the plain liquid he expected to see when he closed his eyes, Dante found the familiar motes of red light he had tried to shove into his muscles when he fought the hawk. They were just floating about inside his blood, moving along with his circulation. Some of the brighter motes of light randomly entered his organs and muscles while others were returning to his bloodstream, dim and lifeless.

“See those little specks of red light in your bloodstream?” Laurelai said. “That’s your blood essence. It nourishes and sustains your body, moves with your blood, wards off energy poisoning, and so on. Now, focus on your head so we can stay on schedule.”

Dante nodded, keeping his eyes closed as he shifted his focus.

Compared to the specks in his blood and the liquid in his spirit, the energy inside his brain was of a whole different variety. Not only was it in constant flux, shifting in colour and shape, it wasn’t even staying in one state. Sometimes it turned into a liquid, but for the most part it simply drifted around his mind as a gas.

A transparent, rainbow-hued gas, almost like the strange colour of petrol when it gets spilled on the ground.

It was a completely different beast from the other two, almost like a living creature. He had no idea where to begin until he noticed a stream of liquid solidify into a bright red jerry can with petrol pouring out of its nozzle, the very thing he had been thinking of when he first laid eyes on this strange form of energy.

Opening his eyes in shock, Dante's head turned to Laurelai on instinct.

“Unusual, huh?” She said, her arms crossed with an amused smile plastered on her face. “What did your soul force turn into? Mine coalesced into a gentle downpour from a raincloud the first time I visualised my energies.”

Dante became even more curious. He imagined a petrol spill since it reminded him of his soul force, but Laurelai’s subconscious showed her rainclouds. Was this ‘soul force’ of his constantly changing with his thoughts, almost like a representation of his consciousness?

“They say your first impression defines your nature. Although it sounds ridiculous, some masters will refuse students that have particularly ominous impressions. My own teacher didn't believe in that nonsense, but even I could tell she was secretly pleased. So, what did you see?”

Dante coughed to clear his throat as his eyes wandered to the roof. “Uh, it was a petrol can, if that means anything to you.”

“Petrol can?” Laurelai muttered, her little eyes blinking in confusion before she burst into laughter. “One of those containers of fuel that your people use to power machines? I’m not sure how that could be interpreted. An explosive temper? Someone who bottles up their emotions?”

Dante blushed as she continued to cackle, deciding to quickly change the subject. “Shouldn’t we leave the cavern now? I don’t want to stay here when I could be somewhere without giant man-eating hawks.”

“Relax, will you? You’re safe for the next…” Laurelai muttered, stifling a lingering giggle. “Two hours of Earth time. Leaving now or in two hours won’t make a difference, so let’s just get through this introduction before we talk about leaving or staying.”

“Staying?” Dante said, visibly wincing. Was that some kind of joke, or was she being serious? “No, I want to leave right now, please. We’ve been here for far too long. Besides, we can do the introduction once we’re safe.”

“You can’t leave yet,” Laurelai said, shaking her head. “It’s impossible for you to escape, so don’t even bother trying.”

“What, are you keeping me prisoner?” Dante muttered, his voice low.

“No,” Laurelai said, flying up so she was in front of his face. “I’m a friend. Remember that, okay? Helping you is helping me, so you better believe that I have your best interest at heart. You can’t leave because you don’t have any way to do so yet. What if the hawks chase after you? Can you outrun them? Block their attacks?”

Dante swallowed, realising he was in a worse position than he thought. If he ran out the front door of the cavern, he would probably die within seconds. And if he did manage to survive, it would only be until a hawk carried him to its nest.

He needed to learn how to use the energies inside him, or else he will, without a doubt, get killed by something before getting a chance to resist.

“Okay, I understand,” Dante said, raising his head. “What do I have to do to get out of here?”

Seeing the corner of Laurelai’s mouth quirk up, Dante heard a familiar bell a moment later.

Would you like to learn about your menu?

Yes/No

After accepting the notification, a golden scroll popped into existence out of nowhere. But instead of it landing in his hand, the scroll floated in front of Laurelai, unfurling itself as she read through its contents. Which was a good thing since it was a human-sized scroll, the width of it being even longer than she was tall.

As the little fairy went through page after page, the excited glint in her eye only dwindled until she began to frown.

“WHAT?” Laurelai shouted, skimming through the pages even faster. “You’re not messing with me, right? No, this can’t be real. I must be dreaming.”

Dante rolled his eyes at her theatrics. He had been teleported and almost murdered by a hawk that was nearly as tall as himself, and yet she was the one freaking out?

“What’s going on? Why are you so emotional all of a sudden?”

Laurelai drifted to the ground before she weakly leaned against a pillar of emerald green crystal. “Do you remember when we first met?”

“Yeah, of course I remember,” Dante said, sitting down in front of her. “We met today.”

“You know how I was confused about you not having any powers yet? Well, it’s because you aren’t a mid or high-grade talent. You’re a peak-grade talent, an elite level genius that will be given custom tutorial grounds rather than the hole everyone else gets put into.”

“That’s a good thing… right?”

Although he was the one that said it, he really had no confidence in the statement itself. Laurelai was practically lifeless, just staring off into the distance like a corpse. That behaviour didn’t scream ‘happy!’ to him.

“No, because you have no talent!” Laurelai jumped up onto her feet and pointed at his face, poking his nose with her tiny finger. “The system thinks you’re a genius, but almost all of your metrics are average or non-existent. I originally thought you were struggling to use your astral energy and blood essence because you were panicking, but no, you couldn’t use them because you can’t. You’re a god’s damned cripple!”

Dante shrunk back, feeling the sting of her words. “How am I a peak-grade talent if I don’t have any outstanding traits?”

Didn’t that mean he was screwed? Without two of his three energies, how was he possibly supposed to survive? Although he managed to use his soul force to ‘kill’ the hawk, Laurelai had already explained that using soul force was far more complicated than learning how to use the other two. Blood essence and astral energy were by far the mainstream energies in the multiverse for a reason, or so she said.

“You have a pretty average mind,” Laurelai said, sitting back down, “but there is one thing that stands out above all else. You have an ocean of soul force locked away inside your head. It’s practically infinite. And no, before you ask, it isn’t literally infinite. I said practically. As in, you cannot possibly use all of it before your consciousness dissipates and your brain turns to mush.”

“Isn’t that still a good thing? I mean, better than having no soul force and no talent. If I just figure out how to increase my mental endurance, that means it will become a major advantage, right?”

“Wrong again, idiot. The sheer quantity of soul force hidden inside your head means it has to move like the ocean in a storm. Although it may not look too bad on the surface, the strong currents in your mind will be too difficult to fully take command of. That means your control, which was average to begin with, has now plummeted to basically nothing.”

“Well, is there anything that can be done? And why is that such a big deal?”

“No,” Laurelai said, shaking her head as she calmed down. “The only thing we can do is speed up the tutorial so you get more time to learn some techniques. And it’s such a big deal because this is a peak-grade tutorial, meaning it’s designed to be difficult for someone truly talented. As in, not you.”

“Okay,” Dante muttered, trying to quash the millions of thoughts racing through his mind, “so let’s get a move on then. What do I do next?”

“Your next step is to say ‘menu’ out loud.”

“That’s it?” Dante said sceptically, raising his eyebrow.

“What?” Laurelai scolded, her voice rising again. “Did you think there was a secret code or something? You should be thankful it’s so easy to monitor your progress, fool. The people before the system needed very expensive tools to figure this stuff out, now we only have to will a screen in our head to appear and it tells us our progress.”

Even though Dante got what he wanted, he still let out a defeated sigh as he spoke. “Menu.”

Name: Dante Alighieri

Race: Primal (Human)

Level: 0

Titles: Prime, Apex Talent, Primal Elite

Strength: 0

Agility: 0

Endurance: 0

Vitality: 0

Perception: 0

Wisdom: 0

Intelligence: 0

Willpower: 0

Dante could guess what everything meant since he had played an online game before, but he was left beyond confused when he began to go through his menu. First of all, it listed his name, which was… self-explanatory. He felt like it wasn’t necessary, but he brushed the thought away since it might just be a way for the system to categorise his data.

Next, he was shocked to see that he started at level zero and had no stats across the board. Did that mean he was so terrible at everything that his accumulations over the years were worth nothing in the eyes of the system, or was there something he was missing? Games usually started you off at level one and gave you some base stats depending on your race, but that was flawed thinking since this wasn’t a video game.

Most importantly, he felt like some things were missing. Where was his mana and health bar? Were there skills and magic like there would be in a game, and if so, where was his skill sheet and class list to pick from? If he could learn some earth magic on the fly and make a tunnel out of the monster-infested cavern, all of his problems would be solved in one quick go.

Then again, could he use soul force to create magic? He didn't actually know what any of the three energies could do.

Dante put those thoughts on hold since none of them measured up to the dread he felt when he saw his race. What the hell was a ‘Primal’, and why was his actual race in brackets? Surely it didn’t mean he was something other than a human being?

That thinking felt wrong for some reason, but it did make sense if there really were other races in the vast multiverse. Since the hundreds of universes were populated, Dante imagined there were many different types of humanoids. And if that was the case, that would mean a lot of overlap between species.

Was it maybe some kind of multiversal nomenclature for his genus, kind of like how a snake and a lizard were both reptiles despite being different? If he was wrong and humanity was segregated into groups, that could cause an endless list of problems. A lot of people didn’t like each other already, and most of that hatred was based on nothing more than skin colour or the place where you were born. The last thing he wanted for the Earth when magic and superpowers were introduced was a new kind of racism.

However, that didn’t feel right either.

If thousands of different humanoids, all branching from a similar ancestor, were to congregate somewhere, it would be a nightmare to figure out who was who. Dante wouldn’t be surprised if he one day met an alien that looked exactly like an Earth human, only for them to really be descended from an ancient bird or be some kind of shapeshifting parasite.

“Hey,” Dante muttered, looking up from his screen to see Laurelai fervently reading the scroll again, but much more slowly this time. “What’s going on with my menu? There are a few things I’m confused about.”

Laurelai began to speak without looking up from her scroll, which kind of annoyed Dante. “Your name is your name, usually given upon birth by your guardian, parent, or brood mother. It’s extremely straightforward and probably the simplest part of your menu. It can be changed using multiple tricks, but it is usually a near-guaranteed identifier as well as proof of your allegiance to a specific group. It’s basically like a license for driving one of your metal cubes, but the whole multiverse accepts it instead of a few countries.”

It was as he had thought. The menu not only tracked his progress, but also his details. He could imagine sharing his screen while standing out the front of some medieval city to prove he wasn’t a wanted criminal. However, what was strange was that Laurelai knew what a car was, almost like she had been spying on Earth’s culture.

But again, that wasn’t important.

“What about my stats and levels? Why don’t I have any stats whatsoever?”

“Levels and stats are a reflection of the energy you currently hold,” Laurelai continued in the same excited voice, still refusing to look up from her scroll. “Levels reflect how much energy has been imbibed into your body, refining your very existence to a higher level. Stats are much the same, except they reflect how much power is stored inside of you. They multiply what you’re already capable of. “

“So having no stats or levels to start off with is normal?”

“Yes and no. I’m going to guess that the World Core of your planet was damaged before the system fixed it, meaning that there was no energy for you to absorb. Many people of newly integrated worlds often start off with a few levels, and that means they have a few stats as well. Since your world has no energy, that means that no one should have any stats or levels right now.”

“You’re lucky that the damage to your World Core was light, or else you would have been put through hell before the tutorial even began. The system likes to take its time at the start while it repairs the world core, but after that… “Laurelai shuddered, looking more disturbed than Dante had ever seen.

Dante thanked lady luck for not heavily damaging the World Core. Although he didn’t know what a World Core was, it seemed pretty self-explanatory. And from the context of the conversation, it seemed as though it produced energy somehow, which Earth’s World Core apparently wasn’t doing until the system arrived to fix it.

“So, if the World Core wasn’t damaged, I would have a few stat points? Does that mean I would have higher mental stats than average since I study a lot?”

Laurelai stopped reading and actually looked up at him with a strange expression, only for her to quickly look back down at the scroll like it was some kind of holy text. “No, your understanding is off. Stats are allocated based on which class you have. If you don’t have a class, the energy just fills up where it can, almost like it’s a gas diffusing equally into every compartment of your body. That means every stat you gain before you get a class will be equal across the board. Five strength, five intelligence, five vitality, and so on. Everything would be the same number even if you never exercised in your life or were a complete idiot.”

“So my future class will allocate the energy into specific stats? And stats aren’t a representation of my current abilities?”

“Your class is pretty much the direction you focus on. Want to farm magical fruits? Get a farming class! Want to be a spearman? Get a spear fighting class! The class you choose narrows down your options and helps you achieve the goal it’s working towards. A spearman with the ability to grow plants isn’t going to be a good spearman.”

“As for the stats? They multiply your current abilities. For example, say that you and a brain-damaged giant both have ten points in intelligence. The giant will outwit you very easily because you naturally don’t have as much brainpower to work with. Say that you also have ten points in strength, the giant will also be much stronger than you since it simply has more muscle mass and is thus much stronger. Every person has their own strengths and weaknesses, meaning you have to focus your stats on those areas so you get the most benefit.”