The system's origin is not known. From the earliest texts known to us we have proof of the existence of the system. The scope of it however has only expanded as time went on. While the earlier texts show how the system was used as a crutch to grow, now it is the main engine of growth. The system dictates the rules of the game and decides what role each person should play. The different classes, ranks, levels all play a major part in deciding what this role is.
But how the system decides this is beyond the scope of this letter, much of which is still a mystery to the world.
But what is known for sure is that the system has no real objective. From the countless studies of how it manifests in people, we have arrived at the conclusion that the powers are random and so chaotic that any semblance of planning is nonexistent. Even though this is acknowledged to be a fact in our academic circles, I for one would like to think otherwise.
From my own personal studies and experiments I've come to the conclusion that there is a logical explanation on the relation between the powers a person possesses and that said person's life experiences. Even though I would love to share the details of the experiments with you, I would rather do it face to face for obvious reasons. But in short the innermost desire of a person tends to get expressed as different abilities. The simplest example of this is the power of elemental mages. The ones with an underlying desire to cause destruction upon people for many different reasons, tends to be adept at fire magic, and the ones with a strong sense of self tends to be good earth mages. Even though these are results of my experiment, I believe even more research is needed to be able to publish these results. I strongly believe the same magic affinity can be obtained from polar opposite desires too. But that needs more validation.
- Excerpts from the letter of Mage Scholar Alynd dated 4327 SE.
******
As my conscience once again returned to me, I was bombarded with a flood of messages.
< Evolution successful.>
< Stats have been upgraded. Coalesce bonus have been added. >
< You have unlocked your class. >
< New skill unlocked. >
Wow. That's a lot of information. Let me check each one at a time.
But before that I surveyed my surroundings and to my relief I was still in the tunnel and the tunnel entrance was still closed. After I was sure about my safety I sat down and focused on myself. And my stats were displayed in my mind.
Species - Human.
Class - Apprentice Summoner level 1
Stats -
Vitality - 20(5)
Mana - 23(5)
Endurance - 15(5)
Will - 26(5)
Coalesce - 0
Skills -
Absorption level 2.
Sprout level 1.
Character points - 0
Pure energy - 3
That's a lot of changes. I'm a summoner? That's quite interesting. Not sure what to make of it at the moment. I guess I'll see if this class is good or not in the future. Moving onto the next item, what is up with the stat list. It looks so crude.
I shift my focus onto the stats and the information from the System trickles down into my mind. Vitality, endurance increased by three and mana, will increased by eight because of the evolution but the additional five points in each of them is from the coalesce attribute. Now that is mind blowing. And here I thought it was a waste of time to spend on it. Another fascinating thing is that it was reset to zero. I'll have to put in more points, I guess.
What bothers me is the fact that the system didn't allow me to invest in any attribute other than coalesce and during the evolution I get additional bonus because of that. It's as if the system wants me to invest in that attribute. Strange.
Anyways onto the next, skill!
I quiz the system for any clues to what the skill is and unlike last time I didn't get any response. Guess I'll have to try it out to understand.
Once again I shift my focus onto the outside, bringing me back from the trance like state.
"Sprout," I said calmly.
< Not enough pure energy to perform the action. Pure energy 3/10 >
Oh, that's disappointing. I guess I'll have to kill even more monsters to even use this skill once. That's pretty disappointing. I was hoping to get some good skills but my hopes were not met. But I can't complain though, I got my stats boosted more than I thought. So everything evens out in the end.
I once again ventured out into the cavernous forest outside my tunnel, I had to find out what my skill could do and I wasn't going to wait around. I wasn't sure how much my stat improvement actually meant in a fight, which meant I still had to hide behind trees and boulders while moving out.
After a few minutes I came across a wersok. This one was feasting on a monster it had just killed. I don't like to disturb people when they are eating their food, it's just not good manners, but this was the labyrinth and I had to use every opportunity to my advantage in order to survive.
And so I lunged at the unsuspecting wersok, kicking the creature as hard as I could. And boy did it fly or what. The creature was sent crashing into the rock a few feet away from me. The sudden attack caught the creature off-guard as it suffered serious injury to its front legs.
I knew I put all my strength into that attack but I never expected it to be this effective. The stat gains are really good. I was ecstatic.
I dashed towards my opponent who was having a hard time standing up. My kick connected, this time hitting its head and once again the wersok was pushed back. The monster was bleeding heavily from the two attacks and was already on the cusp of defeat. Without giving it much time, I once again resumed my attack and after getting two more blows on its body, it died.
< You've killed a level 6 Wersok. >
< One character point awarded. >
That was easier than I expected. The evolution really bumped me up real good.
"Absorb," I said after placing my hands on the creature. As usual the creature slowly turned into goo and I absorbed it through my body.
< You've acquired 1 pure energy. >
Nice. Four down, six more to go.
With the upgrades to my stats during my evolution and with this comfortable win against the wersok, I gained confidence to take down more monsters. Maybe not all of them, the fire breathing salamander was still quite terrifying, but nonetheless I was determined to collect ten pure energy.
And with that aim in mind I set out into the depths of the forest once more and in no time I found another prey waiting for me.
This time it was the cat-like monster I had seen a couple of times but never really fought before. And so I was cautious of its movements. The creature hissed a few times while it circled me. It's tail swung from one side to the other and I knew any strike from that thing would be deadly. It's tail was almost scythe like, with its ending broad enough to be mistaken for a sword. It seemed to be some sort of bone structure but the fast movements of the tail made it seem like it was made of softer materials.
I never took my eyes away from the creature, and when it charged at me I was ready. With a quick leap to my left I dodged its initial attack, or so I thought. It's tail followed me through my leap to inflict damage on my waist.
Damn that hurt. It was only a scratch but the cut hurt so much. Is it venomous? I didn't look like it, but I couldn't take any risk.
I bolted towards my enemy, my right arm winded back and ready to strike. The monster dodged the attack at the last moment, missing my strike by a narrow margin.
This beast is pretty fast too. Right after it landed a few yards away from me it flung its tail, which I barely escaped thanks to the distance separating us. When I dodged its attack, it dashed towards me and upon reaching near it let out a powerful cry. That sudden outburst made me close my ears and the monster took advantage of my carelessness. It bit me on the right side of the abdomen, taking a part of the flesh along with it. The sudden rush of pain brought me down to my knees.
The monster saw this opening and once more flung its tail which pierced my right thigh, just as I thought it would.
There was definitely an advantage in having a projectile attack. You could attack from a distance, but using something like a tail was a bad choice. I grabbed the tail with both my arms and yanked the creature towards me. The monster didn't expect me to retaliate and was unprepared for my pull. The moment it reached near me I grabbed its neck with one hand and pinned it down with my body, while using my other hand to batter its head. The monster tried to retaliate with its tail, but my close proximity to its body limited the usage of its sharp scythe like tail and in a few mighty punches, its head cracked, killing it on the spot.
< You've killed a level 5 blade tail. >
Blade tail? Quite the cheeky name. I quickly initiated the absorption process, and half way through I heard a shout from nearby.
A human? That definitely felt like a human's voice.
I rushed in the direction of the sound, my healing not yet complete. The injuries had been healed to a certain degree, but the deep cuts needed more time. But I couldn't wait for that, if there really was a human inside the labyrinth, that was my ticket out of here.
I rushed as fast as possible and the voice became clearer. I reached a small opening to see a woman locked in a battle with a monster. She had a leather armor over her chest and brown pants and a bloodied sword in her hand. From the looks of it she was in a bad situation. She had bruises all over her body, the armor was in bad shape but the opponent - a Poison Fang, looked poised to attack.
Realising she wouldn't be able to hold off, I jumped into the battlefield only to realize how wrong I was. An intense beam of light shot out of her sword which arced horizontally slicing the beast into two.
"That was neat," I said my astonishment evident in my words.
Panting heavily she fell on her knees using the sword to lean on. I quickly rushed to her side but the worn out woman quickly raised her sword at me.
"Who are you and what do you want?" She questioned.
"I'm Adrian and I wanted to help."
"I'm fine on my own and I don't need your help."
"Not to be rude lady but you are in a pretty bad situation and I don't think you are in any condition to fight another monster."
"I said I'm fine. I don't...." She trailed off once again collapsing to the ground.
"Look miss, I don't know who you are nor do I know what you are doing here, but you're my best bet out of this place and I'm willing to take a chance with you." So saying I inched closer and closer towards her till I finally stood right in front of her.
"Now you could stand there glaring at me or we could get back to my hideout and we could continue our conversation there."
The woman grunted and looked around a few times and said, "Fine. But if you are trying to deceive me you will taste my blade."
"Good to know. Now let's hurry before another monster finds us."
We hurried back as fast as we could to the safety of my hideout.