Chapter 5-Gear

‘With every minute it seems that the world has been transformed more and more into a game world. First mana and dangerous creatures, then the status screen, and now quests, this can’t be a coincidence.’

While Eric would love to find out why things seem so similar to video games, he is far more interested in finishing the quest, receiving the reward and then looking at his spells.

Concentrating on what he wants Eric focuses on his Status Screen and thinks ‘Status’. ...Nothing happened.

‘Status’

Nothing.

Wondering if it still works Eric says “Status”, and nothing changed.

‘Am I doing something wrong, I couldn’t have lost it somehow, I mean I still see my Status Screen showing… Wait.’ Eric wills the Status closed wondering if that was the issue.

‘Status’

Status Screen

Name Eric King Level 1 Age 19 Strength 7(0) Gender Male Constitution 8(0) Species Human Dexterity 11(0) Class Warlock Agility 11(0) Profession - Intelligence 14(0) HP 78/78 Wisdom 13(0) Mana 122/122 Charisma 8(0)

And there it is, Eric’s status screen opens up in front of him. He wants to complain, but the quest did say to open the Status Screen and one can’t open what is already open.

Congratulations!

Quest-Silent Status Completed

Would you like to receive your reward now?

Yes No

Clicking yes, a small burlap sack and staff fall onto the floor next to Eric. Before he has any chance to look through it though another screen appeared in from of him.

Level Up!

1→2

Level 1 +1 Strength 7 +2 Constitution 8 +1 Dexterity 11 +1 Agility 11 +1 Intelligence 14 +5 Wisdom 13 +3 Charisma 8 +1

Congratulations!

You managed to complete a hidden quest.

Gather enough experience to reach level 2 before you had access to your Status Screen.

(only available for 24 hours after mana has officially entered your world)

Reward: A random available ability

New Ability Obtained

Analyze (Level 1)

‘Wow, slow down, stop throwing so much at me at once.’ Before Eric has any time to process and truly digest the “Tutorial” and the information dump along with his starting kit, Eric already completed a quest, a hidden one at that. That alone implies that there are other Hidden quests out there that you can complete without even knowing about it.

He also got a new ability before checking what he can do already. If this were a video game Eric would suggest that the devs give him some breathing room. It does not help that Eric is not a morning person and prefers his morning to start slowly.

Deciding to take things in order Eric decides to look at his Starter Kit. The staff is presumably part of it, so he picks up the staff first. It is made of a dark wood and an even darker golf sized stone on top. The staff is about 160 cm tall and is about 3 cm in diameter. There isn’t anything else of note, neither does some item information screen pop up like in video games.

’So this isn’t just like in video games. Either I’m doing it wrong or there doesn’t exist an “Item information Screen”. Odd that exactly this part is realistic when so much else is clearly copied from video games. What else is similar to video games and what is realistic? Though I guess these video game aspects are what is realistic now.’

Next is the sack, the sack is light brown. It is made from some cloth that even Eric can recognize is very cheap and poor in quality. The top is tied with a piece of string which Eric promptly unties, revealing another piece of cloth, two golf ball sized orbs, two scrolls, and two rectangular…crystals?. Opening the first scroll Eric sees text that is written the most exquisite penmanship he ever saw. All letters seem to flow into one another but the document is still very legible.

Greetings receiver of a [“Starting Kit” Warlock edition],

This kit contains the following items:

Orb of Water (Basic): Produces water when mana is channeled through. Orb of Fire (Basic): Produces a small fire or heat when mana is channeled through. Scroll of Mana Channeling: Gives the ability to channel mana. Simple Health Crystal Simple Mana Crystal Class Gear [Warlock] Simple Magic Staff Simple Magician’s Robes

To learn Mana Channeling open the Scroll of Mana Channeling and say ‘Learn’.

‘Nice that they tell me what I received and what these things do, well… with the exception of the gear and crystals, there they just tell me the name. The names of the crystals do suggest what they do, in games one would have Health and mana potions instead of crystals.’

Next Eric grabs the what he assumes is the Scroll of Mana Channeling. At the top is written in an even more incredible script the words “Scroll of Mana Channeling”. Below that the entirety of the page is filled with glowing lines and symbols the like which Eric has never seen.

“Learn”

After saying the word, the scroll starts to glow, not uncomfortably bright for Eric but so that his surroundings become brighter, as quick as the scroll started glowing it bursts into pieces. The pieces, still glowing, fly towards Eric entering his head.

New Ability Obtained

Mana Channeling (Level 1)

“Yes! I have another ability. But how do I use it?” While Eric did receive the ability, he had no idea how to use it. For now, he decides to continue looking through the sack instead of worrying over other things.

Next, he grabs the fire and water orbs, one in each hand. In the right one, he holds what Eric assumes to be the Orb of Water. It looks like a ball of clear water and weighs about the same as a golf ball. He tries to simply will mana into the orb, but nothing happens, leaving Eric to wonder if there is more. In his left hand, he holds the other orb, this one looks like a fire frozen in time, and then shaped into a perfect sphere.

‘Not gonna play with fire for now.’ With that, he placed both orbs to the side.

The rectangular crystal pieces are strange to him. They look rough, the kind of roughness as if it were freshly mined, but its shape is too perfect for it to be mined. That also brings him the question of how to use these crystals. If he had gotten health and Mana potions that would be simple, but crystals he has no idea how to use it.

Grabbing the last content of the sack, Eric pulls out a midnight black robe, it has dark blue lines going in seemingly random patterns across the robe. It looks like it would go all the way down to his ankles. There is no hood or anything else like that, but the material is a durable cloth, figuring that this should be what a mage wears for armor he is happy for that. Otherwise, the sack is empty, not that he expected there to be something more in it, the letter did only list 5 objects.

Eric's Status Screen

Status Screen

Name Eric King Level 2 Age 19 Stength 9(0) Gender Male Constitution 9(0) Race Human Dexterity 12(0) Class Warlock Agility 12(0) Profession - Intelligence 19(0) HP 90/90 Wisdom 16(0) Mana 196/196 Charisma 9(0)