Aidan

The Realms

Unknown date (day 1)

Late morning

Somewhere in the Mistvale Highlands

With a sigh, Aidan walked over to the flat rock the old man had been perched on and took a seat himself. “Well, first things first, I guess?” He mused and re-opened his character screen. Methodically, he went through every part of the screen and focused on it to gather more information.

Chosen get +2 stat points per level and have at least one Trait which is completely unique to them; they also have a higher incidence of Traits in general. A Chosen who dies will revive after a period of time in the place in which they last bound their soul. Chosen look and act like any other member of their race, and there is no easy way to identify a Chosen from anyone else. Commoner is the default Class which every sapient creature is assigned until it reaches level 10. Commoner offers no bonuses or penalties to any Attribute or Skills and does not provide any extra Traits or Abilities. Might (Mig): Measures the ability to exert physical force. Might increases muscle tone, carrying capacity, and damage dealt with most weapons. It also has a small effect on Stamina. Agility (Agi): Measures precision muscle control and the ability to coordinate actions and thoughts. Agility affects manual dexterity, hand-eye coordination, and the ability to multi-task effectively. It also has a small effect on Concentration. Speed (Spd): Measures the ability to move quickly. Speed affects your movement speed, attack speed, and reflexes. Toughness (Tuf): Measures vitality and durability. Toughness affects muscle tone and resistance to poisons and diseases. It also has a significant effect on Health. Endurance (End): Measures the ability to withstand sustained exertion. Endurance affects the amount of time you can hold your breath and how quickly you become fatigued and exhausted. It also has a significant effect on Stamina and a small effect on Health. Senses (Sen): Measures the refinement and sensitivity of all senses. Senses affects every sense available to a character, but only in proportion to the baseline. A human with high Senses still has a worse sense of smell than a dog with average Senses. Logic (Log): Measures rational thought and the ability to process complex ideas. Affects spell power with some types of magic and improves the effects of many scholarly skills. It also has a small effect on Concentration. Intuition (Int): Measures instinct and the ability to make connections subconsciously. Affects spell power with some types of magic and improves the effects of a wide array of skills. Willpower (Wil): Measures the ability to resist distraction and temptation. Improves the ability to cast complex spells. It also has a significant effect on Concentration and a small effect on Health and Stamina. Charisma (Cha): Force of personality and ability to impose one’s will upon another. Affects spell power with some types of magic and improves the effect of skills involving interpersonal relations. Attractiveness (Atr): Measures physical appearance and sex appeal. This effect is relative to each person’s preferences and prejudices, and no amount of Attractiveness will make someone attracted to you who would not otherwise be. Luck (Luc): Measures the ability to unconsciously bend the universe to your will. This has an effect on almost everything. Health: The amount of physical damage that can be sustained before risking death. Stamina: The amount of physical exertion possible before becoming exhausted. Concentration: The amount of mental exertion possible before becoming dazed. Limitless: Your potential is without limit. With enough time and dedication, you can reach any height imaginable. Your Affinity for all Skills is permanently set to 100%. Cunning Linguist: You can understand and communicate fluently in any form of language you are exposed to. Speaking and reading or writing are separate for this purpose. Analyze I: You may concentrate while looking at any object or creature to learn some of its properties. This Ability has multiple levels; further levels reveal more information and may be unlocked in time.

He also mentally checked each of his spells and tried using Analyze on the items he had been given.

Flame Jet: Fire Magic, level 1.

Fires a thin jet of fire from your hand or implement that deals 10 fire damage per second to anything it touches.

Cost: 25 Concentration. Duration: Concentration, up to 5 seconds. Casting time: 1 second. Patch Wounds: Vivimancy, level 1.

The target recovers 10 Health over 2 seconds. This healing is caused by pure life energy and will not cause scarring. This will cure Wounds of Minor magnitude.

Cost: 50 Concentration. Duration: 2 seconds. Casting time: 10 seconds. Ruby Rod: A short, straight mahogany rod topped with a sizeable marquise-cut ruby. Flamboyant and loud, but gets the job done.

Rarity: Uncommon. Quality: Above Average. Damage: 1-3. Reach: Short. Attack Speed: Slow.

Effects: Fire Magic spells channeled through this implement will cause slightly less mental fatigue. Backpack: A common way to carry small quantities of gear and goods across long distances.

Rarity: Common. Quality: Average. Capacity: 13 gallons by volume, 50 pounds by weight. Waterskin: A better method of carrying water than pouring it into your backpack.

Rarity: Common. Quality: Average. Capacity: 1 gallon. Small Treasure Chest: Keeps its contents secret and safe.

Rarity: Rare. Quality: Well-Crafted. Capacity: special.

“That’s a lot to take in,” Aidan muttered to himself. “Player characters have a special sub-race, although it sounds like it’s not unique to me given what that old guy was saying. That’s how I get the usual automagic resurrection, plus it gives me some extra stat points so I’ll be better off than a ‘standard’ Helltouched Human. Twelve stats, divided up into five physical, five mental, plus two miscellaneous; even counting the two forced points in Willpower and Charisma, I only get eight per level, so there isn’t really a way to stay well-rounded. Specialization is likely to be essential, but the fact that multiple stats figure into each of Health, Stamina, and Concentration means that there’s some wiggle room there. Assuming everything except Attractiveness and Luck started at 10, it looks like I did get the points for level 1, but they were automatically distributed for me. Commoner is basically a tutorial baby mode Class, nothing I can really do about that for now except level up.

“I don’t really see what the big deal is with Limitless, either, though that might be system ignorance talking. I guess it makes it easier to learn Skills?” Aidan shrugged. “Cunning Linguist at least seems extremely useful if this game has a robust language system. I assume not every player character gets it, or it’d be pointless to include it. Analyze seems like a bog-standard item identification ability, but maybe there’ll be more to it as it improves. The spells … are really, really basic and unimpressive. I hope I get something cooler quickly, or I could be restarting sooner than I thought. I should probably at least test Flame Jet before I leave this safe zone just so I have an idea how everything works before I have to roast a wolf or whatever.”

Finally, Aidan got to his ‘gift’ items. “Wait—capacity ‘special’? What does that mean?” He looked closer at the treasure chest. It looked exactly like a miniature version of a stereotypical fantasy treasure chest. He opened the lid and peered inside, but it was empty. However, opening the chest also caused Aidan to become aware of a new icon at the corner of his awareness. When he focused on that, a small four by six grid of squares appeared in the center of his vision. A two by two section of that grid was taken up by what looked like a hamburger with the number 4 superimposed over one corner, and a one by two section showed a glass vial filled with red bubbly liquid—that icon had a 3 superimposed over it. “Hold on, is this a chest of holding?!” he exclaimed.

Aidan reached into the chest and focused on the hamburgers. He felt something in his hand and, when he pulled it out, he was holding a steaming hot burger, complete with a toasted bun, lettuce, tomato, onions, cheese, and even two strips of bacon. He Analyzed it to be sure.

Shamburger: Exactly as tasty and filling as a real hamburger, and magically good for you to boot! Just don’t ask what it’s made of.

Rarity: Uncommon. Quality: Above Average.

Effects: Counts as a full, nutritious meal.

He lowered the burger—he refused to give in to the pun—back into the chest and let go; it vanished. Then he focused on the vials of red liquid, pulled one out, and Analyzed it as well.

Healing Potion: Tastes like cherry soda, but this is for emergency use only.

Rarity: Uncommon. Quality: Average.

Effects: Restores up to 50% of maximum Health, and reduces the severity of the three most severe Wounds by one step.

He put that back into the chest, considered for a moment, and then reached for the ruby rod. He carefully fed it into the chest lengthwise and, sure enough, instead of pressing up against the bottom, it vanished into the inventory screen, taking up a one by four square space. With a thought, he retrieved the rod—he didn’t actually want his closest thing to a weapon being stuck in extradimensional storage—and then closed the chest. “Well, well, that actually is a great starting item. It can’t hold too much, but it’s way more than the space it takes up, given that like objects stack. It looks like anything which will pass through the opening can be stored inside, at least up to a point. The free meals and potions will come in handy too, I’m sure. I wonder if anyone who holds it gets the same access or whether it’s keyed to me?” He mused, then shrugged again. “No way to know for now.”

Aidan put the chest into his backpack, attached the pre-filled waterskin to his belt, slipped the straps of the pack over his shoulders, and wriggled until its weight settled evenly, then picked up the ruby rod and gave it a once-over. It was very simple, just a straight stick of reddish wood about two inches in circumference and a foot or so long. It was topped with a thumb-sized ruby cut into a sort of teardrop shape, except that there was no rounded bottom portion, having instead another sharp point attaching it to the wooden rod. He waved it about to no effect, but he hadn’t really expected one; the description made it reasonably clear that its purpose was to help him cast fire spells, not to cast spells on its own like a wand. The question was … how did he cast a spell?

Fortunately, the answer turned out to be relatively easy. Somehow, he knew precisely the motions and words he needed to cast his spells, and how to modify Flame Jet to use the rod as a source instead of his hands. He pointed the implement at a small boulder about five feet away, said a few words (which his Cunning Linguist Trait did not translate), and made a gesture with the tip of the rod. Suddenly, a flamethrower-like stream of fire was rushing from the ruby, arcing through the air, and splashing against his target. Aidan could feel the heat from the jet of flame, but despite emerging only inches from his hand, it didn’t burn him. It also wasn’t hot enough to melt the rock; after the five seconds of the effect was over, the boulder appeared unaffected save for a small blackened patch.

Aidan cast the spell again, this time paying attention to his status page. As soon as he began the incantation, his Concentration dropped to 77/103, and once the spell’s effect stopped a second time, his Concentration immediately popped back up to 102/103. He looked more closely at the bar, and there was a thin darker blue section at the end, presumably 1 unit (or less) thick. Aidan guessed that was the “mental fatigue” that the ruby rod was supposed to help with. Given that two casts only reduced his maximum Concentration by such a small amount, it didn’t seem like a big deal at the moment, but then again, he was only dealing with newbie-tier spells. Raining fire down across an entire battlefield will probably be more mentally taxing, if I ever get to that point.

Satisfied that he had explored as much of the interface and experience of the game as he could from the spawn point, Aidan turned, located the mouth of the cavern, and walked out into the wide world beyond.