An explosion of notifications cascaded the screen. Along with it the screen transformed displaying three new items. The first was a small clear orb directly in front of the small figure. It was about the size of a fist and displayed a counter right below it.
[0/100 EN]
Then there was a small symbol at the top right of the screen that once clicked pulled up a character sheet for James.
[Status]
[Name: James Adler]
[Race: Human]
[Class: None]
[Rank: Tier 1 Mortal (Next rank Achromat)]
[Active Skills: None]
[Passive Skills: Seer (MAX), Idle Body (MAX)]
[Evaluation: Newborn.]
James stared at his status screen and was immediately intrigued by both the rank system and his two passive skills. He first clicked on his rank to see if there was more information.
[Mortal
-The initial rank for all sentient beings. Although the initial strengths vary for all sentient beings, they are all still capable of reaching the peak for their own species. Only by pushing past all 9 Tiers will a mortal obtain the chance to reach the rank of Achromat and truly start on the path towards eternity.]
The rank description excited James a bit. Even though it was sparce it still made him excited to see what other changes would come after he ranked up. Additionally, is seemed as though once he hit the rank of Achromat that was when the fun would really begin.
Excitedly James decided to quickly look at the information for the skills before going back to the game. However he couldn't help but freeze once he read the description for the skills.
[Seer (MAX)
-Given to one that has witnessed the beginning of all. All worlds are laid bare before your eyes. The secrets of the universe lay bare before you. Only your understanding shall limit you.
Effect 1: ---------
Effect 2: ---------
Effect 3: ---------
Effect 4: ---------
Effect 5 (Locked): {Hint! Witness the End} ]
[Idle Body (MAX)
-Two bodies linked as one, one soul to rule them all.
Effect 1: Positive and negative effects will be shared between both bodies (May be affected after merging)
Effect 2: Gained abilities/skills will neither degrade in quality nor be bond to the rules of any given realm.
Effect 3: No limits exist.
Effect 4: --------
Effect 5: -------- ]
Even though James could clearly read the description for the two skills he could not understand what they were implying. He was especially confused by the second skill as he wasn't completely sure if it was referring to him and the avatar on his screen. A strange foreboding feeling was starting to blossom in his heart. Despite his worries James decided to continue on with the game and look at the final new item.
This was another symbol at the left corner of the screen. After James selected it, the scene changed, and a prize wheel popped up. It was one of those classic looking prize wheels that he'd seen countless times on TV.
The prizes on the wheel were an assortment of random items. There was a car, clothes, a cup of coffee, and even money up for grabs. There was a small section on the wheel that covered 3% of the board that was identified as special. There was an even smaller section, covering less than .1%, that was termed random. James wasn't sure what that entailed since no descriptions were given but he had a feeling that it might be something extraordinary.
James then looked at selection bottoms for the wheel.
[Mortalx1 (100 EN)]/[Mortalx10 (1000 EN)]
[Achromatx1 (10,000 EN)]/[Achromatx10 (100,000 EN)]
[Locked]/[Locked]
[Locked]/[Locked]
[Locked]/[Locked]
[Locked]/[Locked]
.
.
.
.
[Locked]/[Locked]
Currently out of 13 options only 2 were open. Based on the naming convention James assumed he'd be able to open the next option after ranking up. And after seeing the 13 options James was able to get an idea of how many ranks there were. Although he didn't know their names, he had an idea of the structure.
Additionally, there was a timer below the wheel that refreshed every few minutes along with the prizes on the wheel. The prizes would change to a new batch of random items with a couple consistent items appearing back on the prize wheel, those being money and clothing items. Other than that, everything else refreshed. The amount of money and the type of clothing seemed to always vary.
James once again closed out of the prize menu and began to go on a tapping spree.
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
.
.
.
.
.
[+1 EN]
[Ding! Accumulated 100 EN would you like to advance?]
[Yes]/[No]
After 15 seconds of furious clicking James reached his goal. Without thinking much he clicked yes.
James sat there in anticipation, but nothing changed. When he looked at his status, he noticed he went up to Tier 2, and below the orb the numbers changed.
[0/200 EN]
Once again not giving it much thought James continued with his tapping spree.
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
.
.
.
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[Ding! Accumulated 200 EN would you like to advance?]
[Yes]/[No]
James selected yes and kept tapping.
------------
This process continued for a few sessions until James reached Tier 7 at which point something strange started happening.
---
At first James didn't pay it much thought but after a while he couldn't ignore it anymore. His body felt hot. It felt like he was burning up from a fever but strangely it was a comforting feeling. In addition to that his skin felt a bit itchy occasionally. After a few minutes the feeling went away and James went back to normal.
Even though the sensation had gone away he couldn't get the feeling out of his mind. The more he thought about it the more he realized that the feeling started happening the moment he ranked up to Tier 7.
Suddenly a crazy thought started forming in James'.
A thought so crazy he didn't want to believe it since it would mean giving up on any semblance of the reality he knew of. However rather than getting paranoid the simplest solution was to see if he could repeat the experience.
[57/700 EN]
James looked at his progress and furiously started tapping away.
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
.
.
.
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[Ding! Accumulated 700 EN would you like to advance?]
[Yes]/[No]
After taking a deep breath James hesitantly pressed the [Yes] button.
------------
'....Is that it?'
A few seconds went by with nothing happening. Realizing that he might have been overthinking things James decided to just keep enjoying the game when--
"AAAAAAHHHHHH"
Suddenly James whole body started burning up! In his mind he was in the belly of a furnace being cremated alive. It was the only way his mind could rationalize the intense heat and pain he was feeling throughout his entire body.
Luckily this feeling started dying down after a minute and with its disappearance a new cooling sensation took over his body, caressing every pore, and washing away the painful memories that were just created a few seconds before.
Before James could get a hold of this new sensation, the door to the employee's lounge burst open and James' coworker rushed in.
"What the hell is going on?? What's all that screaming?!?"
He was caring a small handgun at his waist ready to attack the apparent intruder. But after seeing just James on the floor he rushed over and checked up on him.
"Hey, you okay?! What's going on? I thought someone broke in again and was ready to finally put this big boy to work."
"I'm fine, just not feeling well. I accidentally hit my shin is all," James replied back.
James' coworker nodded at him sympathetically before taking a closer look at James' condition.
"You sure you're okay? You don't look so good, and what happened to your face?"
Before James could answer his coworker suddenly had a very serious look on his face. He leaned on before quietly asking a question.
"Did you take anything? I know you're not normally the type but..."
James could understand his coworker's sentiment. He was sure he looked like the picture book definition of a junkie at the moment.
"I'm okay, I just need to clean up a bit. You know I've been clean for 3 years now."
His coworker looked at him for a bit, hesitated before finally responding.
"Just go home for the day James. I'll cover your shift."
Before James could voice his disapproval, his coworker raised his hand silencing him.
"Look, you've helped me out in the past so let's just call it returning the favor. Go home, get a good night's rest, and let whatever is going on with you run out of your system."
James couldn't help but smile towards his coworker.
"Thank you. I owe you one."
"Don't worry about it."
After catching his breath James decided to quickly head home. Normally he wasn't one to take favors from others but today was a very weird day and he need a quite safe space to figure out what was going on.
------------
An hour later James stepped out of the shower, with a towel wrapped around his waist, grabbing whatever leftovers he could from the fridge.
'That shower really cleared up my head.'
After a quick meal James put on his evening gown, returned his towel to the bathroom, and froze when he saw his face in the dimly lit bathroom mirror.
"What the f***!?!"
James saw a face in the mirror that he hadn't seen in ages.
Long gone was the broken face carrying years of pain, and in it's place was the youthful glowing figure that he left home as years ago. James stood stunned as he caressed his face gently, running his fingers across as if he was discovering it the very first time.
Once James came out of his stupor, something seemingly clicked in his mind. The crazy thought he'd been suppressing at the back of his mind surfaced, and with it, shattered his perception of reality.
"It's real. All of it is real."
Immediately all doubts evaporated from James's mind as he turned to face the phone lying on his old, withered bed.
He slowly moved to the bed before gently picking up the phone and carefully looking it over. The phone felt so much heavier after his realization set in. He didn't know why he received this phone, or even who gave it to him but one thing was for certain, James had stepped into a world beyond his own understanding. There was no turning back now.
Even if he could James wouldn't even consider the thought of going back. As he felt the changes to his body James truly immersed himself with refreshing feeling of having a strong body once again.
James had been an athlete in his earlier years so he could readily assess the condition of his current body. If he had to guess, his body was now about 1.5 times stronger than his strength at his peak form. It was a strange invigorating feeling.
After getting his mind back on task James opened up the [Realms] app and checked if there was any new changes.
[Status]
[Name: James Fae]
[Race: Human]
[Class: None]
[Rank: Tier 8 Mortal (Next rank Achromat)]
[Active Skills: None]
[Passive Skills: Seer (MAX), Idle Body (MAX)]
[Evaluation: Newborn.]
[0/800 EN]
From what he could tell there was nothing different except for his updated rank. After confirming there was no new additional changes, James sat down on his bed and started tapping away.
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
.
.
.
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[Ding! Accumulated 800 EN would you like to advance?]
[Yes]/[No]
Without hesitating James selected [Yes] and prepared himself for pain.
The anticipated wave of pain this time around was barely noticeable. If anything, he felt the cool refreshing feeling more strongly. As for why this was the cause James assumed that the previous pain was likely due to his body being forcibly recovered to a healthy status. His body had been badly broken from years of abuse to an extent that healing it brought about new sensations he hadn't felt in years. His pain receptors that had been deteriorated were revived and brought to full function.
Now that he was back to full health he didn't suffer as much from his tier upgrade. After a few minutes the comforting sensation disappeared, leaving behind as strange feeling of overwhelming strength. James marveled at his newly acquired strength before checking the new change to his status.
[Status]
[Name: James Fae]
[Race: Human]
[Class: None]
[Rank: Tier 9 Mortal (Next rank Achromat)]
[Active Skills: None]
[Passive Skills: Seer (MAX), Idle Body (MAX)]
[Evaluation: Newborn.]
[Promotion Available]
[0/9,000 EN]
[0/1 Origin Spark]
James had to read the last few lines of his status to confirm he hadn't mis read anything.
"9,000?? Why did it jump up so much??"
The only explanation James could come up with was that it was likely due to this being a rank promotion rather than just a Tier upgrade. Dispute the high value James wasn't too worried about the energy (EN) value needed for his promotion. He was more concerned about the Origin Spark.
[Origin Spark
-An anchor point that acts as a catalyst for the accumulation of non-fundamental energies. Usually found within lost dimensions, on the corpse of recently deceased Fallen Nightmares, or acquired through the Mortal Rank roulette.]
There wasn't any further description past this point, but one thing was made abundantly clear to James, he would need to do a lot of grinding in the upcoming few days.