My eyes flares open to see a white ceiling. Seeing that, I relaxed.
'I knew it was a dream,' I thought as I looked at a familiar looking white ceiling. This was most definitely my dorm room.
Why in the world would I die that stupidly? It made more sense that it was all a bad dream.
I sat myself up on my bed and as I was rubbing my eyes, I stretched out my arms and my back.
"Ah," a quick yelp escaped my mouth as I felt a sharp pain up my back.
…
No.
I refuse to believe it.
I must've just slept on my back weird. My bed wasn't exactly the most comfortable one in the dorm.
I finally opened my eyes to look around, hoping to see my familiar dorm room. Hoping to see that familiar view of my college campus.
News flash.
It wasn't.
I was in fact within a room. A smaller one then my dorm actually. Besides the bed I was on, there were nine other beds that were twin sized just like mine. Down the end, opposite to where I was, there was an doorway with no door. Just a flimsy looking curtain.
I was observing the room, by whipping my head around, until I looked down at my hands.
They were familiar hands. The skin color was the same olive skin tone I'm used to seeing. Yet the hands were different.
They were more calloused, yet just a bit smaller then what I was used to seeing.
It's as I feared.
I wasn't in my body. At least. Not the body of Loreli Leon. But in the body of someone else.
A no name, canon fodder level, dumb, stupid… I digress.
I was in the body I was locked inside of for so long.
Listless.
A person living within the world of Fate Strand. A world with magic, swords, and gunpowder. Set in the age of yet another Industrial Revolution after discovering new ways to merge fantasy and science. A world where the monarchy still existed in, yet in a strangely modern format. How would the world work knowing monsters exist out of the safety of towns or even knowing that gods do in fact exist. That was what Fate Strand Challenged.
I shook my head, exasperated at the fact that this wasn't a dream.
'You'd think after 17 years, you would get used to the fact that you transmigrated into a novel, but noooo,' I thought to myself.
Fate Strand was my longest and hardest work. I practically hurt myself writing all SEVENTEEN books. Each book built up the entire universe! The main storyline was great. I had it proof read a thousand times by multiple different people.
When I finally handed it over to a publisher, I was practically set up for life. Seeing the great amount of online reviews I had gotten of samples I released.
All for what. Just for me to die from a damn virus I caught while traveling, not even a day after I signed with the publishers.
I WAS ONLY 25 FOR GOD SAKE.
I don't claim to be a genius or anything, but for my Fate Strand, I wrote a new book practically every year. It helped that I had money from my parents that passed away, but still!
It was all a waste. A WASTE I TELL YOU, A WASTE!
I remember my first memory being the stupid system message thing.
[Probability Lacking… Variable Patched… Logic Locked… Probability Cleared]
[Character (?) survives birth… Character Path Unclear… Character (?) Rating… Bottom… Path Begins]
It was irritating. The only reason I knew I was in my book was because of the merging of me and this body. The body of someone that wasn't even part of my story, even as a background character.
It felt weird being Listless and myself. I can't even say that I'm fully sure how to word it yet. But when I became Listless, I experienced life as him. The constant milling about. The way he/I felt blacking out then coming back into my sense whenever I needed something.
I'm now both a 17 year old and a 25 year old. Because I'm in this body, I experience things more on 'List's,' side.
I've had plenty of damn time to wonder what is going on whenever those blackouts happened. It was so frustrating not being able to do anything with my body during that time but no matter.
I clenched my fists. "No more just flowing about here and there," I said to myself.
I blink away the tear that was coming up as I finally felt like I could control my body more.
A thought flickered in my head as I say out loud.
"Status?"
{Name: Listless}
{Title: Dead Man Walking}
{STR: 25 STA: 14 CON: 28 DEX: 11}
{MND: 18 MRC: 12 MAG: 12}
{Physical Trait: Strong Body}
{Soul Trait: Connection}
{Aptitude: Persistence}
{Innate Ability: Polarity}
Wow that's a lot of information.
This was in fact a system based on my book. It was the basics.
Strength, Stamina, Constitution, Dexterity, Mind, Magic Recovery, and Magic. These were cold hard stats that could actually be increased through training. These were what kingdoms, academies, families, etc. looked at whenever they were recruiting any one for training.
Then there were Traits, Aptitude, and Abilities. These were what separated the wheat from the chaff. If you had any one of these you would able to qualify as a Entrant. One who has already stepped foot on the Path.
Depending on what type any of the aforementioned categories are, you could be classified as an Mage, Knight, etc. Whichever would suit said type.
Did it matter if you had more then one of these? Yes, however that would mean there would need to be a type of synergy for said categories.
Let's say you grew up tall but only had the strength of a child. That would be an example of the imbalance that might occur if one didn't have the proper "build." (Imagine I used my two fingers here to do the quote unquote gesture)
Usually Traits can influence your aptitudes but there can be exceptions. Similarly how someone built like a gorilla would be able to sing like a lark. Aptitudes could be a plethora of different things. It could be in magic, weapons, and training. It could even be in twiddling thumbs. (I actually made that one in the Fate Strand… he's kinda powerful actually)
Anyone could be determined as Entrants of the Path, the ones that get treated the best are usually those with strong/unique Innate Abilities. These innate abilities are abilities that always have an effect on the world or yourself. These abilities could be used, though it incurs cost still, without the use of incantations and can be applied to practically anything within the confines of the ability. Innate abilities can evolve and change according to growth of its user.
Traits determine your state of being and are centered on you and can influence Aptitudes and Innate abilities.
Aptitude determines the areas where growth could occur the fastest, and even effect innate abilities direction of growth.
Innate abilities are direct powers that can effect the world or yourself. Anything with scope of the ability is subject to change according to however the user develops the ability. It can work hand in hand with Traits.
Looking through the panel, I saw that the traits were separated into Physical and Soul. Even more so was the number system the stats took. I hadn't done that in the book. In the book it was separated by Tiers of Strength as typical to other novels. From F all the way to S or higher. Speaking of differences, one wasn't able to tell their status like this. A device was needed, but evidently that wasn't the case for me?
Was that because of transmigration? Add that to the other list of things that doesn't make sense.
Looking back, I saw that this panel even showed a title?
Having focused on it, the screen popped out like an email box.
{Title: Dead Man Walking}
{Effects: Hidden}
{Description: One who stood before Death, now walks among the living}
Well that sounds ominous. Why is the effect hidden though?
Shrugging it off, I was able to not to think too much into why something like this existed in the book I wrote.
17 years living as Listless was long enough for me to accept facts as they are in the world. One fact being that this is no longer just a brain child I created. There was bound to be aspects of this world that I didn't come to think of.
I decided to look at the rest of the panel.
{Physical Trait: Strong Body}
{Effect: Can resist physical damage and poisons to a certain extent. Strength is heightened to a great extent. +10 to STR and CON}
{Description: One must exercise great control over great strength. To improve one must exercise even greater effort for greater strength}
{Soul Trait: Connection}
{Effect: Easier to Connect with Souls}
{Description: Connection of such a level will provide great insight and even create boons. Or a curse}
Just looking at my traits, I could already tell that I was pretty much made to be a tanky guy.
Looking at the description then at my current state I realized why exactly my body looked like a sack of meat.
I remembered a character in the book that had a similar trait.
I made the trait so that even if one had great strength it didn't mean that you were automatically fit. That's why even though I was fat kid, I couldn't work it off. Nothing was capable of exerting myself like that. At least while I was List, I didn't.
My soul trait was strange but it wasn't the strangest. Looking at the descriptions now, I could kind of guess that they are basically hints of a sort.
Which made the Title description even weirder to me.
Anyway, onto the next.
{Aptitude: Persistence}
{Effect: Any tasks that involve persisting will increase related areas}
{Description: No Pain, No Gain}
Wow.
…
Looking at my Physical Trait and Aptitude, I couldn't help but imagine that I must be made to be a training maniac in the future.
Now onto the crème of the crop.
{Innate Ability: Polarity}
…
…
…
"What even IS this!" I yelled.
(That may be the PG 13 version of what I said… it was most definitely shorter too)