At the top of the golden screen it read in black letters {Welcome to the Universe Core System}.
Beneath that were several lines of text.
{Status Page}
{Abilities}
{Equipment}
{Relations}
{Universe Shop}
{Quests}
{Storage}
'It really is like in those novels I read all the time. Incredible', I thought to myself.
Chaos, who had heard my thoughts, said: "Of course it is incredible. I created it afterall."
I could definitly hear pride from her voice. But I didn't mind that as I thought: {Status Page}.
The lines on the golden screen in front of me disappeared and new lines written in black appeared. This time it read:
{Status Page}
Name: Simon Lito
Age: 0
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Level: 0
Experience: 0/100
Universe Value: 100
Attributes:
-> Strength (STR): 0
-> Agility (AGI): 0
-> Dexterity (DEX): 0
-> Wisdom (WIS): 10
-> Intelligence (INT): 10
-> Luck (LUC): 5
-> Willpower (WIL): 12
-> Mana (MAN): 0
-> Charisma (CHA): 0
As I saw those lines I went into a short period of thinking. The level and experience means I can get stronger by leveling myself like in a videogame. I could guess most of the meanings of the attributes. Only the last three where somewhat of a mystery. But apparently I had some pretty strong willpower. The reason behind my wisdom and intelligence was propably the fact that I have already lived one life. Luck was apparent through me acquiring the Universe Core System. The first three attributes having a 0 could be explained through the fact, that I was basically still just a worm floating in a nutritious liquid.
Thinking that I asked Chaos: 'Hey Chaos, what's the matter with willpower, mana and charisma? What do those mean?'
The answer came promptly. "Willpower describes the determination you have when setting yourself a goal. The value is a bit elevated because of your rather extraordinary experieces. Mana is the energy in the world. One cannot normally see it and you can understand it as the lifeforce that leaked from my body since time immemororial. Charisma is a bit special, as it influences not you but those around you. A high charisma value makes people, who meet you the first time, have a good impression of you."
'I see. That makes sense. Truly like in those novels.', I thought, as I contemplated the newly acquired information. Noticing something else I asked Chaos: 'Chaos, what are those Universe Value?'
"That is the currency of the system. You will understand it`s worth when you visit the Universe Shop.", came Chaos' answer. I nodded to myself in understanding.
Continuing on I thought: {Show Ablities}. The screen changed once again. Merely this time apart from the headline reading {Abilities} the screen was empty.
The same happened when I thought: {Show equipment}.
I continued towards the {Relations} window. There was a whole lot of information here. I began reading it from the top.
{Relations}
Father: Dave Lito, Birthday: 19.6.1964, Astral sign: Twin, Status: Married with 3 children
Mother: Layla Lito, Birthday: 8.5.1964, Astral sign: Bull, Status: Married with 3 children (pregnant)
Elder Sister: Evelynn Lito, Birthday: 3.9.1994, Astral sign: Virgin, Status: Child
Elder Brother: Matt Lito, Birthday: 7.11.1996, Astral sign: Scorpion, Status: Child
Parental Grandfather: David Lito, Birthday: 15.7.1942, Astral sign: Crab, Status: Dead
Parental Grandmother: Irene Lito, Birthday: 3.8.1941, Astral sign: Lion, Status: Widowed with 3 children
Maternal grandfather: Herny Vogt, Birthday: 17.4.1943, Astral sign: Aries, Status: Married with 2 children
Maternal grandmother: Mina Vogt, Birthday: 27.2.1945, Astral sign: Fish, Status: Married with 2 children
I already knew all these informations, but it was still incredible to see alll this.
After reading through the {Relations} window of the system I opened the {Universe Shop}. I immediately received a notification, that all items that are deemed as 'not of great interest' or 'far too expensive' were removed from the opening page of the shop. Only items that were of use to me were displayed on the front page. If I wanted something I could not find there, I would have to search the shop for it. I guessed that the classification of the items was done by Chaos. And I was grateful to have the shop organized.
As I started scrolling through the items, I found a few that were particularily interesting. For example the 'Body Nurturing and Development Liquid'. It's description read, that it could strengthen the body of an unborn child and even that of the mother. The pricetag next to it read out: 40 UV. That was 40% of my current Universe Value points.
So as to not make a preemptive mistake in buying something overpriced I continued scrolling through the items. I stopped at another interesting item called 'Beginner Body Strengthening Technique Level 1'. Unsure what that meant, I asked Chaos: 'Chaos, what does this item do?'
Chaos answer was quite simple: "It is a technique to use the lifeforce energy of the surroundings to stengthen your body. I believe it to be quite similiar to those things from the Eastern Fantasy novels you read. As for the item itself. It is the first level of nine of the beginner grade technique."
'Hmm. It has a pricetag of 50 UV. That is quite expensive for an extremely low level technique', I thought to myself. But it might be worth it.
I moved on and quickly spotted an interesting item. It's name was 'Initial Mana Sensing'. It's price was only 10 UV. I guessed that it was a method to sense the energy that Chaos had described previously.
Not wanting to be hasty I decided to check out the {Quests} section of the system. I wanted to understand how valueable those Universe Value points were, since I guessed that they could be earned through quests.
The golden screen new lines appeared on the screen. There were quite a few already.
{Quests}
Quest: Bodily Strength Threshholds
Objective: Attain a certain amount of strength (10, 100, 1.000, ...)
Reward: 50 UV
Quest: Agility Threshholds
Objective: Attain a certain amount of agility (10, 100, 1.000, ...)
Reward: 50UV
Similar quests appeared for all attributes. It also seemed that they were repeatable. But my reasoning told me that later on the rewards would become negligable.
Quest: Dantian
Objective: Attain a dantian
Reward: 200 UV and a specialised training regime
Quest: Body Enhancements
Objective: Attain one improved bodypart
Reward: 100 UV and a technique fitting that bodypart
Those were all the quests I currently had. The last two seemed very valueable, but they were also incredibly difficult to obtain. As I had these thoughts, I was also planning how to spend my time in my mother's womb effectively. Training seemed like a good idea. Just doing nothing was not a good thing. I could imagine myself going crazy doing nothing. So training it was.
Quickly checking out the {Storage} and seeing that it was empty, I returned to the shop and bought all three items that I had inspected before.
Immediately a notification sounded in my head. [CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE BOUGHT 'BODY NURTURING AND DEVELOPEMENT LIQUID', 'BEGINNER BODY STRENGTHENING TECHNIQUE LEVEL 1' AND 'INITIAL MANA SENSING']
I sensed something and quickly thought: {Storage}. The screen changed and a grid appeared on the screen. Three of those grids had something inside. One was a bottle and the other two were small booklets. Information about them immediately appeared in my mind. Those were the items I had just bought. Along with the information came the method to use these items. Immediately I acted according to the instructions and the bottle dissapeared from the grid. I immediately sensed something with my wormlike body. The surroundings were warmer. Other than that I couldn't pinpoint any other changed for now. I also followed the instructions for the two booklets and the information on how to use the methods appeared in my head.
After reading through the methods I quickly rejoiced at my luck. It seemed that, in order to train the body strengthening technique I need to use the mana from my surroundings. and unless I can perceive that energy I cannot use it. So buying the mana sensing method was a huge lucky strike for me.
After asking Chaos whether she had some tips for me or some advice I quickly got to training my mana sensing. It worked my just sensing my surroundings. After some time of quite sensing I began to sense some faint wisps floating around me. They flickered in accord to the strong beat that had been accompanying me the whole time. I had long since understood, that that was my mother's heartbeat.
As I perceived those weird wisps aroung me, a notification sounded in my mind [CONGRATULATIONS ON SENSING MANA FOR THE FIRST TIME! YOU HAVE BEEN REWARDED 20 UV]
After hearing the notification I quickly began to train according to the Body strengthening technique that I had bought. I used my mind and imagined those wisps flying towards me and melting into my body. It was exhausting. But after a few hours I suceeded. My small body felt hot all over. It felt like I was burning. My mind was screaming in agony. But after a while it let off. While exhausted I also felt my mother's heartbeat turning a bit irregular. It would seem that she had also felt the heat radiating from my body and was a bit panicky. After some time the heartbeat normalized and my mind drifted away.