I remembered the day that I went to get Registered into the System like it was only yesterday. It was three years ago, around the time I had just turned 31 years old. I got invited to Register as a Gen-7 Player.
To say that I was disappointed by the innate stats that I got when I completed my Registration process is an understatement.
Dad was a well-liked and well-respected Gen-1 Player. Though he was only B-Rank, he was one of the four Players who gathered allies together to help survive better when they were trapped in the 'Tutorial World'. So many Players had him to thank for their ultimate survival when the Gen-1 Players returned after they disappeared for one year.
His kindness was impossible to outmatch, and even though he was only B-Rank, his Tanking capabilities were considered the best of the best.
So, when I received the System's invitation, I had a lot of hopes up. For some reason, if members of the same family get an invitation from the System to be a Player, they seemed to get similar abilities to each other. I was expecting to be some sort of Tanker.
This is what I got:
[PROFILE
NAME: Eric Stoller
AGE: 31
ATTRIBUTES
FORTITUDE: D
APTITUDE: D
THAUMATURGY: N/A
VITALITY: D]
"Whoa," the man sitting by the desk in front of me murmured, "Check this out."
I was at Dad's old Guild, Hero's Stand. Ranked 9 out of all the guilds in Australia. I wanted to follow in Dad's footsteps, so I knew from an early age I wanted to join Hero's Stand.
When people receive an invitation, they must sign up for a Guild and enter their details into a government database, and since I was the son of one of the founders, they had fitted me in on an open appointment.
The man sitting at the desk I was standing in front of was Anthony Ryder. He was the Guild member tasked with helping me with my Registration and had said that he respected my father when he was still alive.
Now he was showing his colleagues, my fellow guild members, my terrible stats.
His colleague, Gary, quickly glanced over at Anthony's monitor and snorted before stifling his laughter badly.
"Hero's Stand has a place for any Player who wants to join," Gary said as professionally as he could. But I could see the smirk threatening to form on his face.
"Uh," Anthony spoke, "Well, I know this was not the stats you were expecting…"
My face started to flush as I willed the Window to disappear from my vision.
"As you know, there are positions open in the guild that does not require any actual Dungeon Clearing—"
"Put me down as a Dungeon Clearer." I interrupted loudly.
"Mate," Gary stepped forward, "Come on…"
"Put. Me. Down. As Dungeon Clearer." I repeated myself.
I glared at both men before they shrugged.
"Okay then," Anthony sighed, "That's all done. You'll receive your guild card in the mail in one to three business days. I'll send you an email with your login details when your account in our database is created. Congratulations on becoming a member of Hero's Stand."
"Thanks," I said abruptly as I stood up.
Their faces were red as they tried their best to stop themselves from sniggering. I almost ran out of the guild building because I was so embarrassed.
When I rounded the corner, the strength in my legs nearly all but disappeared. I leaned against the wall of the office building next door to the guild building and felt like I was about to faint.
I was going through a panic attack. Great.
I slowly and carefully slid down so that I squatted. The people around me must have looked at me like I was some sort of drug junkie and glared as they walked past me. I ignored them and tried to focus on the ritual I developed to calm myself down.
I breathed in deep and held it softly, then felt for my wallet, my keys then my phone and counted as I tapped my belongings. One. Two. Three. I breathed out. I repeated the process a couple more times.
Slowly, I started feeling better. When I felt strong enough, I stood back up while still leaning against the building.
I quickly flicked up my Status Screen up and set it to private. I felt the need to look over the whole screen without any judgement from another Player.
I read the information right the first time.
I never expected to be as strong as Dad, who after surviving the Tutorial World, ended up being one of the highest-ranked B-Rank Player in the world. But I definitely didn't expect to be so uselessly weak in the eyes of the System.
The fact that my Thaumaturgy Attribute, which is all about magic and spells and all that, was "Not Applicable" was truly shocking. I don't think I ever heard of anybody else having a rating lower than D like that.
I ignored the 'Gear' tab since I wasn't wearing anything worthy to look at in the System. I had barely just exited the guild after my Registration.
God, why did I insist on becoming a Dungeon Clearer like that? Now it's too embarrassing to go back and ask for a position that isn't as dangerous. I was sure that Anthony and Gary had started to spread the fact that I'm quite possibly the weakest Player ever, I don't want to go back in there so soon.
I switched over to the Skills page.
The Skills tab lists all skills and abilities that a Player can unlock and work towards. Though most are locked and details are hidden when you start your journey as a Player, you can sort of guess how strong you can grow innately by how many skills you can learn and unlock.
Usually, it starts off nice and simple for a lot of people by having a couple of skill trees they can start on, and you can see a sort-of outline of how big and varied the skill tree might be.
I was surprised (though to be honest, maybe I shouldn't be surprised since my Attributes were abysmal) to see only one skill available to be unlocked on my Skills page.
One word greeted me and stayed completely inaccessible to me for so many years. I never knew how to access the ability because three censored objectives in the form of question marks always greeted me underneath the skill title.
Until that fateful day when a Parasitic Hunter was chasing me down, and I had given up all hope of surviving.
[CONGRATULATIONS!
You have managed to fulfil all the prerequisites to use the Prestige Ability.
Would you like to Prestige?]
I heard a hissing noise from around the corner, and I knew that the Parasitic Hunter was about to find me. I wanted to know exactly what the prerequisites are to use the Prestige Ability, but I had no time.
"Yes." I basically shouted because of the stress.
Then everything went white.
I couldn't see anything. Not even myself.
I couldn't even feel anything. It was like everything but my consciousness had disappeared.
Just a blinding white light that surrounded everything.
Then I found myself around that very same corner where I had a panic attack after I Registered.
I was hunched over in a squat and realised I had been holding my breath.
I looked around and saw that I seemed to have been in the middle of my calming down ritual. I was gripping my mobile phone tightly.
"Three…?" I breathed out, utterly confused as to what I was doing there and how I got there.
I checked the clock on my phone and was shocked to realise that, against all odds, I did in fact travel back three years into the past. Back to right after I finished my Registration at Hero's Stand.
I heard a ding in my head that must have come from the System, and when I checked my Status screen, I was greeted by an extra screen first.
[CONGRATULATIONS!
You have successfully Prestiged for the first time! A bonus buff to the Player will be rewarded!
You have successfully Prestiged! The Player has improved the limits of their innate Attributes. You can now get stronger than ever before!]
I was ecstatic, to say the least. I quickly disregarded the notification screen and looked at my Status screen then froze.
[PROFILE
NAME: Eric Stoller
AGE: 31
ATTRIBUTES
FORTITUDE: D*
APTITUDE: D*
THAUMATURGY: N/A*
VITALITY: D*]
Nothing much changed. I was confused, didn't the System, just a minute ago, notify me that my limitations were improved? I then realised that there was an asterisk on every Attribute and thought about what it meant.
The System responded with a new screen that popped up over my Status screen.
[CONGRATULATIONS!
As part of successfully activating the Prestige Ability, the Player has unlocked the 'Personal Appraisal Ability'. Use this Ability to get an objective appraisal of the Player's current status.]
I checked my Skills tab quickly after the notification screen disappeared, and as the notification said, an offshoot did appear below the Prestige ability entry called 'Personal Appraisal'.
Without anything else to lose, I decided to activate the skill.
[APPRAISING PLAYER…]
[APPRAISAL COMPLETE]
[VERDICT: The Player is a complete joke…]
Well, that certainly doesn't bring a sense of confidence.