Hidden away at a tiny section of Verinza Plaza, Capres Town, I shivered, waiting. Nine hours had passed. The sky had shifted from its signature blue to a deep black by now, and yet I was still waiting for a distant promise.

“The Guide To Ascending” by the self-named “Master of Cultivation” was almost certainly a scam, like the hundreds of books I had bought prior to this that had promised the same thing.

Ascending.

The promise of exiting this garbage hole that the System called “Tier 12” to somewhere else. Somewhere… higher. Better. More… magical.

For fifteen long years I had been stuck in a place with nothing to do. Sure, I could run around the plaza like the other kids. But what was the point? Running around the exact same waterfall playing the exact same game got boring, quick. Sure, I could exit the town.

But it was not like there was anything there, anything exciting. The system called Tier 12 the Peaceful Realm for a reason.

Literally any and all resources were all only available via gathering them by chopping down trees and mining. Mining. That was to be my job when I grew up, there was no doubt about that. I had to mine.

Capres Town was a mining town. Or, as the mayor says it, “a Mining town.” You could practically hear the capital letter.

The system classified Mining as a skill, which could be leveled through use. What the system didn’t mention, however, was that ores were worth different amounts of XP and had different XP caps.

The known ores went Coal, Copper, Iron, Silver, and Gold. Capres Town was a coal mining town. Like every other town in Tier 12.

Needless to say, everybody’s mining skill was at level 10 by the time they graduated from Mining school. The maximum for Coal.

It was rumored that somebody found a Hellcoal deposit, and they got Level 11. However, that’s the highest leveled person in our town.

From the textbooks I had read, I knew quite a bit more information. For one, skill levels give 1 level of general XP every time a skill was leveled. So, skills were quite a good source of XP.

On the other hand, Ascending requires Level 1000.

The highest leveled person in the town is level 11.

Needless to say, the tales of soaring dragons and people with levels of hundreds of trillions seemed farther than ever.

Not all was terrible though. Even though the best I could become was a coal miner, I could at least become a competent coal miner. Mine enough coal, and I could retire from the coal mines that gave you the “Pneumonoultramicroscopicarboniosis” debuff. I was not sure the “50% weaken against airway-based diseases” was “perfectly harmless” like the teachers kept telling us.

In fact, I’ve heard rumors of diamonds being made of coal. I was not sure that was plausible, but if it was, I was going to mine some and hopefully get Mining to a higher level.

A voice jolted me from my state of thought.

A merchant stood in the middle of the square. He was a tall, bearded man, who was hauling a huge cart behind him, packed full of various odds and ends that I was sure was not legal.

“Wha-“

“Sorry I was late,” the man puffed gruffly, then muttered something about the dratted swamp. “You Everlon? Everlon Quiaz- Quiax-“

“Quiazine.”

“Everlon Quizaine, you mailed me a letter eight and a half days ago saying you wanted this book, the Guide to Ascending,” the man suddenly straightened and spoke regally, “for nine silver and fifty coppers.”

“Here you go, sir.”

The man bent down again to check the wheels. “That’s only eight silver and fifty coppers,” he said. “Don’t try to trick me, now.”

“Sir, that’s-“

With a bellow of “Dash”, the large man plowed into me. I fell down on the hard stone slabs of the Plaza.

“Oh, there’s the silver! My apologies little one, I miscounted. Here. Take this as compensation.”

The man tossed me something. A small pamphlet with instructions on it. I turned it over. The pamphlet said, “A Beginners Guide To Analyzing”.

I thanked the man, and hurried back to my tiny room in my tiny apartment.

Before I tried to read the book I had been waiting for, I studied the pamphlet. It had two sides. The first simply read “Inspect”, and the second read “Analyze”.

I glanced at the section marked as “Inspect”. Suddenly, a system notification popped up:

Would You Like To Perform This Action?

Action Type: Learning

Action Details: Learning - Skill - Inspect

Rarity: Below-Great Continent Common IV

Confirm: Yes/No

I stared at the window, puzzled. I clicked yes. A ding popped up.

Congratulations for learning your first Ranked Skill!

Reward: Knowledge

Type: Tutorial

Sub-Type: Skills

Skills are actions that you can slowly gain more proficient at as you do it more. Skills come in several different kinds:

1. Adaptive

Adaptive skills have a hard cap of how much XP can be gained through repeating the same action to the same object. Further XP past that mark can only be gained through doing the action to a higher-tier object. An example of this type of skill would be Mining.

2. Static

Static skills have no hard cap of how much XP can be gained through repeating the same action to the same object: however, the XP requirements for this type of skill will be much higher. An example of this type of skill would be Inspect.

3 more unavailable. Gain a skill of that type to see.

There are several different ways of gaining skills:

1. Repetition

Skills can be gained through repeating the same action that has an associated Skill enough times to gain enough XP to advance to Level 1. This is the slowest and most trial-and-error method of gaining a skill.

2. Skill Books

Skills can be gained through books. After looking at the Skill Book through unobstructed vision for 10 seconds, a prompt will pop up. If Yes is clicked, you will gain the skill.

2 more unavailable. Gain a skill in that way to see.

Rarities

Skills come in many different Rarities. The higher the Rarity, the better the skill, but also the higher Requirements. (Note: You can only learn Below-Great Continent skills until you ascend to the Great Continent)

Below Great Continent Rarities:

Unranked: This skill is very common, and cannot be learned in any method but repetition.

Common I-V: This skill is relatively common.

Uncommon I-V: This skill is relatively uncommon.

Specialized I-X: This skill is specialized. It may only be useful for one specific thing.

Rare I-V: This skill is rare, and powerful.

Epic I-V: This skill is very rare, and very powerful.

Legendary I-X: This skill is extremely rare, and may come from legend.

Unique: This skill is one-of-a-kind.

+9 more unavailable

Great Continent Rarities:

Ascend to the Great Continent to see.

Location Name Unknown Rarities:

Ascend to Location Name Unknown to see.

Name unlocked when ascending to the Great Continent.

Location Name Unknown Rarities:

Ascend to Location Name Unknown to see.

Name unlocked when ascending to Location Name Unknown.

I sighed. It seemed I had a long way ahead of me.

I learned Analyze, then started reading the Guide to Ascending. Suddenly, a message popped up:

ERROR: CONTACT WITH POST-SYSTEM ARTIFACT

ASKING FOR PERMISSION…

PERMISSION GRANTED

TYPE: EVIOLODONIC

ORIGIN: ERROR_NOT_IN_DATABASE

RARITY: ERROR_NOT_IN_DATABASE ERROR_NOT_IN_DATABASE

REBOOTING…

RESTARTING…

QUEST GRANTED: THE LEGACY OF THE EVIOLODONS

New Quest Received!

The Legacy of the Eviolodons(Quest Chain)(Required)

Rarity: Location Name Unknown - Chaos White

ERROR: Quest Not Available In Current Location(AGRLTY_12)

Solution: Delete Quest

ERROR: Quest Tag=(“Required”)

Solution: Lock Quest Until CurrentLoc=”NR_15”

Quest Locked

New Quest Received!

Unlock Quest: “The Legacy of the Eviolodons”(Quest Chain)(Required)

Rarity: Universal - Unique

Reward: Unlocking the Quest “The Legacy of the Eviolodons”

Unlock Quest: “The Legacy of the Eviolodons” Step 1:

Advance to Tier 11 (Level 10/1000)

Reward: 1 Rare item

Quest List Now Available!

The Legacy Of The Eviolodons(Locked)

(Locked)

Unlock Quest: “The Legacy of the Eviolodons”

Advance to Tier 11 (Level 10/1000)

Congratulations on unlocking your first Quest!

Reward: Knowledge

Type: Tutorial

Sub-Type: Quests

Knowledge already present.

Skip tutorial? Yes/No

I clicked Yes. I already knew what Quests were, from the various games the other children would play in the square.

Back in the days of legend, when Capres Town had Adventurers and Dread Knights and Umbral Riders and such, Quests were a common thing. Quests, or Tasks as they referred to it back then, were handed out willy-nilly to everybody. Now, however, they were long ago buried things like the Legendary VI Rarity Zomet’s Edge and the set of Unique armor worn by Verna, the Dread Knight.

I was already overwhelmed with all the notifications, but there was just one more to go.

Hidden Quest Completed!

Quest Name: Complete the Basic System(Quest Chain)(Hidden)(Required)

Rarity: Pre-Great Continent Exclusive - Common I

Unlock All System Functions(11/11)

Reward: Interactive System

Congratulations on obtaining the Interactive System!

Reward: Knowledge

Type: Tutorial

Sub-Type: System Introduction

(Note: This is an Interactive tutorial; it will take you to an alternate space. Some disorientation may be experienced during the journey.)

Transporting… Transport Commenced.

I suddenly felt like I was falling. This was all too much in an hour to process. I suddenly felt nauseous and threw up all over my bed, which was… not there. Instead, the vomit landed on a flat gray floor that stretched seemingly infinitely.

“Hello, User. Input your name here.”

Feeling foolish, I said: “Everlon.”

“Loading Personality… Personality #302913 loaded.”

Suddenly, a young woman’s voice sounded in my mind.

“Hello, Everlon.”

“Hello,” I said, then I asked, “What’s your name?”

“Name? I don’t know. And you can talk to me in your mind as well. Just try!”

“Okay, then I’ll call you Sarah. Is that fine?”

“Hmm… what does that mean?”

“I don’t know,” I replied honestly.

“But why would you name me something that you don’t know the meaning of?”

“Because it sounds good.”

“Sarah. Saaaaarrraah. That’s a good name.”

“Aren’t you supposed to teach me something?”

“Oh, right. Your System Introduction. First, we have to look at what you have. Think “Status”.

Feeling foolish, I did so. A screen popped up:

Status:

HP: 10/10 (0.1/min)

SP: 40/40 (0.4/sec)

DEF: 2

MP: 30/30 (0.3/sec)

Rank: Bronze

Advancement 0 Stage 0 Tier 0 Level 12

Attributes (Unspent Points: 24)

Strength (Talent: Average)

Rank: Basic H-02

Dexterity (Talent: Excellent)

Rank: Basic H-04

Agility (Talent: Excellent)

Rank: Basic H-03

Constitution (Talent: Poor)

Rank: Basic H-01

Intelligence (Talent: Above Average)

Rank: Basic H-03

Wisdom (Talent: Above Average)

Rank: Basic H-03

Psych (LOCKED) (Talent: Excellent)

LOCKED: Proceed to Tier 8 to unlock

Meta (LOCKED) (Talent: Above Average)

LOCKED: Proceed to Tier 4 to unlock

Skills:

Inspect

Common IV

Level 1

Analyze

Common III

Level 1

Mining

Unranked

Level 10

Quests:

The Legacy Of The Eviolodons(Locked)

(Locked)

Unlock Quest: “The Legacy of the Eviolodons”

Advance to Tier 11 (Level 12/1000)

Location: (Physical Body)

Macro: Subspace - Aggressive Realities - Tier 12 - Instance #434

Micro: A’dreya - Dlamalar - El’Gurrod Forest - Capres Town

A waypoint can be set anywhere within the current Macro Location (Waypoints Active: 0/5)

Inventory:

Unknown Location - Chaos White Items:

The Guide To Ascending(Quest Item)(Locked)

Uncommon Items:

Multi-Use Analyze Skillbook(Uses: 4/5)

Multi-Use Inspect Skillbook(Uses: 4/5)

5 more tabs locked - Gain something that modifies those tabs to view them

12 more tabs locked - Advance System to a higher Level to view them

“Wow. A Chaos White item. That’s the-“ Sarah started choking in my mind.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I probably shouldn’t talk about it anymore.”

“With those aptitudes, you should go for Rogue as your first class.”

“What’s a Class?”

“Well-“ She started choking again.

“Okay. How do I gain one?”

“Just gain the necessary skills and attributes in order to get one. Think ‘Class’, and you can view all the classes you could hypothetically get without getting another one. There are secret classes, though.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, some classes, like a Dusk Archer, can only be obtained after you gain the Dark Archer class. It’s not important right now, though. Just think ‘Class’.”

“Class.”

Potential Classes:

Warrior

Basic

Light Armor Level 5

Basic F-Rank Strength

Rogue

Common

Sneak Level 5

Basic Daggers Level 5

Throw Level 5

Basic F-Rank Dexterity

Basic G-Rank Agility

Mage

Common

Basic Staff Level 5

Casting Level 5

Mana Manipulation Level 5

One Tier-1 Spell

Basic F-Rank Intelligence

Tank

Common

Heavy Armor Level 5

Basic D-Rank Constitution

Archer

Common

Archery Level 5

Basic Projectiles Level 5

Basic F-Rank Dexterity

Basic F-Rank Strength

Berserker

Uncommon

Berserk Level 10

Basic F-Rank Strength

Basic F-Rank Constitution

Shadow

Rare

Sneak Level 15

Invisibility Level 5

Camouflage Level 5

Night Vision Level 10

Basic F-Rank Agility

Basic F-Rank Dexterity

Rider

Rare

Riding Level 15

Taming Level 15

Basic Spear Level 5

Basic F-Rank Agility

Basic F-Rank Dexterity

Basic F-Rank Strength

Weaver

Epic

Manipulation Level 20

Basic C-Rank Intelligence

Basic D-Rank Wisdom

Verizon

Mythical

Basic Rapiers Level 20

Mana Manipulation Level 20

Mana Imbuement Level 20

Dual Wielding Level 15

Fire Magic Level 10

Water Magic Level 10

Earth Magic Level 10

Lightning Magic Level 10

Air Magic Level 10

Five Tier-1 Spells from different Attunements

One Tier-2 Spell

Basic C-Rank Intelligence

Basic C-Rank Wisdom

Basic C-Rank Dexterity

Basic C-Rank Agility

Basic D-Rank Strength

“Okay. Now, think ‘Display Class’.”

“Display Class.”

Sarah went silent for a length of time.

A very, very long length of time.

Worried, I asked, “Is it okay?”

“Okay? OKAY? You have a Mythical class! That’s rarer than Legendary! Most people only have a handful of choices, all Common, and maybe an Uncommon one. Rares are wanted everywhere, and most people never see a single Epic in their lives. You have two Rare classes, one Epic class, and a Mythical class, TWO TIERS higher than Epic!” She was yelling by this point.

“Whoa, whoa, calm down. Should I take the Mythical class or not? It seems awfully high in requirements.”

“The higher the requirements, the better the class.”

“How am I supposed to get all this? Three Skills at Level 20? Five Skills at Level 10? Five Tier-1 Spells? A Tier-2 Spell? And those Attributes - they’ll take me hundreds of Levels to get!”

“Don’t worry. Your amazing Talents will make it so that you’ll get a lot of levels really quickly.”

“What do you mean? What do Talents do, exactly?”

“Talents come in eight tiers, but only six you know. I can’t say the other two, otherwise I’ll choke again. If you have an Average talent, one Attribute point will equal one point in that Attribute. If you have an Above Average talent, one Attribute point will equal two points in that Attribute, and so on. It goes Average, Above Average, Excellent, then one more tier I can’t tell you about. It goes in the reverse direction as well. Average, then Below Average, then Poor, then Horrific, then one more.”

“What about the Skills?”

“Oh, they’re all decently common. The rarest would probably be Dual Wielding, at Uncommon V, but I can’t imagine it being that difficult to find. Anything else?”

Honestly, I was pretty full up on crazy world-changing information tonight, and I just asked Sarah if I could go back to my apartment.

“Sure. Just think ‘Exit’.”

When I landed on my bed, sleep came faster than ever before.