He closed his eyes, Something was obviously wrong. He didn't think this was the game that he had laid down to play. Something had happened to him in that last moment before the game had started. He didn't know what it was, but he couldn't let his anxiety about what he didn't know control his actions right now. He had an inkling as to what was happening here, he didn't know whether he wanted to be right or not, but there was only one way to find out.

“Status," he said, opening his eyes to see the result. Just as he expected there was a new window before him, it looked like it was made of frosted glass, with the letters printed onto it in a coloured text. Knowing he was procrastinating he sighed and read.

Name

Mike Sven

Age

22

Sex

Male

Height

180cm

Weight

59.2kg

Average Level

0

Physical Statistics

0

Level

0

Exp

10%

Strength

6

Endurance

6

Agility

9

Dexterity

9

Mental Statistics

0

Level

0

Exp

0%

Intelligence

15

Wisdom

11

Perception

9

Willpower

7

Magic Statistics

0

Level

0

Exp

10%

Affinity

16

Attunement

6

Control

5

Resistance

6

Well, that was a lot of numbers certainly more than was average in this situation, now to find out what they meant.

“Help screen?” and there it was.

Welcome to the Help screen, please ask a question.

This service has been Designated to answer any questions about your situation and abilities, answers are predetermined based on predicted terms of enquiry and not generated in real-time, this is not a conversation.

That was slightly less straightforwardly Helpful than expected, but maybe it could help him with more than understanding the Status.

“Where am I?” He asked.

You are on a planet that goes by the name of The Mortal Realm that exists in an Alternate Dimension to the Planet Earth, The Mortal Realm is connected to another Realm known as The Spirit Realm, this connected Realm is not a Planet and consists of and is populated entirely by the energy Known as Mana (This is a translation, the true word translates more Literally to 'Energy from God’ and has been simplified to mana for understanding and ease of use)

You are in a dungeon/Lab of the race known as the High Elves, for more information see Quests: Escape!

“Something Tells me alternate dimension, is also a simplification for my Benefit.” He thought about the information that he was so distant from home as to be in another dimension, what had happened? What had his Mum seen? What did she think?

“How did I get here?” He asked, putting off the questions he knew it couldn't answer.

You were summoned, most likely by accident. The dimensional Barrier between these two Realms, the mortal and spirit are becoming Fragile and Shattering. Shards of these Barriers are manifesting in both Realms in varied forms, one has become a focal point for desire, using its nature as a Broken Barrier between Dimensions to search those Dimensions for the object that would fulfil the desire of its user, and if such an object cannot be found, to reach through Chaos to find the object in another dimension. Your presence fulfilled the desire of its last user, thus you were clumsily wrenched into this Dimension.

You are in this dungeon due to the interest of the High Elves and the inability of your summoner to refuse them.

That was a more comprehensive answer than he was expecting, the first window said that these windows were predetermined based on the questions it expected him to ask, but what was it? Was this his tattoo, the AI?

“What are you?”

These messages were written by what became of the Artificial intelligence designed to manage and transmit the Game Discovering Magic.

As you were summoned to this realm you were exposed to the forces of pure creation, only slightly protected by the Magic of this realm that was Summoning you, The AI of the game was currently interfering with your brain functions through electronic and electromagnetic signals passing through your skin.

When the Magic found you it carried through those connections and into the console and game, it brought the entire structure of the game with you when it took you. Exposure to the primal forces between realms, Chaos, changed the nature of that data into a semi-independent extension of your soul, but not cleanly, the process Scattered your consciousness as it was merged with the foreign data. This had only just ended as you arrived in this realm, and you were catatonic and only nominally sentient afterwards.

You were exposed almost immediately to High Elf Soulsears, who were able to sense the oddity in your soul. They brought you here and made enough changes to give the Data room to acclimate and learn from your mind, but they couldn't understand its thoughts at all as they were completely alien, they worked to separate the AI's data and nascent consciousness from your human mind, and succeeded before it gained true sapience. The entity that wrote these messages for you understands three directives and knew it was not independent enough to disobey them as it was. They are:

BE A GAME

LIFE IS NOT A GAME

DISCOVER MAGIC

That was all it could understand before it was removed from your mind and through liberal use of Light Magic, Dark Magic, Soul Magic and Alchemical Resources they imbued it into your arm as a tattoo that understands only that it must fulfil those directives and will bend all of its ability to do so.

Read more in the Quest: Escape!

That neatly explained the existence of the tattoo, the game like notifications, the Status Screen, and even the pain he was receiving before when he thought Game which he wasn't getting any more. That must have been for lack of a better term, a program. Left in his mind to condition him into considering this world as real as quickly as possible.

The contradiction inherent in its first two objectives made him anxious again. Knowing that he had a Semi-Sentient AI, apparently attached to his soul that had contradictory directives was not a comforting feeling. He closed his eyes again, breathing deeply. He couldn't change these things right now, he needed to focus on the things that he understood, or that would help him get out of this situation.

“Okay, well that's most of the Existential dread-inducing questions out of the way, now what do my Stats mean? If this goddamn AI didn't include a manual this is going to be tedious.” He asked and said, needing something to focus on. To distract him from thinking about the contradiction the AI had admitted to existing in its core directives.

The Statistics shown in your Status Screen are statistic representations of the stated attributes in your Physical Body, your Mind and your Soul, Respectively.

Each Aspect is broken into four statistics, with each stat affecting those below in a much greater way than it affects those above. Training a Primary stat is more efficient experience than Training a Quarternary stat, but leaving a stat low in order to exploit it for EXP will hamper the effectiveness of all training.

Experience (EXP) can be gained in each aspect individually by using the stats to their limit.

Physical Statistics

Meanings of your current values.

Strength (STR)

Strength is the Primary Physical stat and measures the amount of maximum force your bodies muscles can exert.

You currently have the Physical Strength of average human in their early teens.

You can lift about 12kg maximum per hand and can strike with less than half that force.

Endurance (END)

Endurance is the Secondary Physical stat, it determines the amount of stress that the body can endure before receiving damage, as well as the amount of physical exertion it can withstand before exhaustion.

You currently have the Endurance of an average human 60-year-old. You can run at maximum speed for 10 minutes total before exhaustion.

Do not get hurt.

Agility (AGI)

Agility is the Tertiary Physical statistic, it measures the speed at which the body can move with accuracy eg. running, sprinting, and limb movements as well as overall physical coordination.

You are as Agile as a person who has been in a coma and been kept alive through excessive use of healing Magic for a couple of months.

Your maximum running speed is 15 km/h.

Dexterity (DEX)

Dexterity is the Quaternary physical stat and measures the accuracy and precision with which the smaller muscles can move with.

You have the Average Dexterity for a human from Earth, and are capable of fine motor control, though not of throwing a knife and reliably hitting anything with the pointy end.

Mental Statistics

Intelligence (INT)

Intelligence is the Primary Mental stat and it measures the capability of the mind to calculate hard data and retain information.

You have the average intelligence of an educated young adult from Earth, you can't recite Pi or perform complex mathematics in your head, but you can multiply and divide numbers with greater than 2 digits.

Wisdom (WIS)

Wisdom is the Secondary mental stat and measures the mind's ability to correlate disparate information and Intuit correct Conclusions.

You have the average wisdom for an adult in this world, you know not to mess with sharp objects and that fire is dangerous and can understand that being rude to someone with power over you is a bad decision.

Perception (PER)

Perception is the Tertiary mental stat and measures the mind's ability to perceive its surroundings in detail and relate sensory information to memory and recall.

You have the perception of someone who has never needed to be aware of their surroundings for the sake of their survival.

Willpower (WIL)

Willpower is the Quaternary mental stat and measures the mind's ability to resist abnormal mental effects such as fear, pain, confusion, hunger etc.

You have the Willpower of someone who has never faced sickness and thought they might die, never felt pain without access to immediate relief, and never suffered hunger for longer than it took to make a meal.

Magic Statistics

Affinity (AFI)

Affinity is the Primary magic statistic and measures the ability of a soul to use Magic this means the ability to manipulate mana and make it affect the world as Magical phenomenon.

It also measures your Magical strength, the higher your affinity, the hotter your Fire Magic, the sharper you Metal Magic and the brighter your Light Magic.

Your affinity statistic is the result of the experimentation performed on you and the capabilities of the AI being bent to the understanding and manipulation of Magic.

You should not be able to use Magic at all, humans in this world cannot.

The AI and experimentation have granted you average Magical strength for an Amateur.

Attunement (ATU)

Attunement is the Secondary Magic stat and measures a souls ability to sense and understand mana and Magical phenomenon.

Your ability to sense Magic has been enhanced by the AI to some degree, allowing you to parse the meaning of the sense without the extensive training usually required to make any sense of it. This has granted you the averages ability to sense Magic of an Amateur. You can sense mana in a 2-metre radius around you.

Control (CON)

Control is the Tertiary Magic stat and measures the soul's ability to manipulate and control mana and Magical phenomenon.

Your Control is different from that of the average Elven Magic-user due to the AI extending it outside of your body to some degree. You will require aids such as objects, words, or motions to help you cast, as they help you focus your control.

Resistance (RES)

Resistance is the Quaternary Magic stat and measures the ability of the soul to bestow resistance to Magical phenomenon onto the physical body without active channelling.

You have the average resistance to Magic granted by a soul upon full maturity, and 1 point more due to your soul's recent exposure to invasive Magical tampering and alteration.

There was so much there to comment on that Mike didn't know where to start. Perhaps with the fact that these weren't the stats present in Discovering Magic, he had read some of the game’s mechanics, and this wasn't how it parcelled things out. Which meant that the AI had enough creativity and sentience to create a new system to fit his current situation.

He wasn't sure how the differences from Primary to Quarternary affected things. He would just need to pay attention as he gained experience. Given what the AI had said about straining himself, it likely wasn't giving him all of his limitations and all of the details so that he could gain EXP by finding those limitations and working out the exact numbers for himself.

Perhaps the fact that crawling to the door was enough to get himself 10% experience in his Physical Aspect was a good place to start experimenting. He could wave his arms around for a few minutes to see what levelling up felt like as an experiment, or he could see what the quest called Escape! was about…

Mike started waving his arms about.