----
[Mystic Might Character Sheet]
Name: Guren
Awe: 13
Source: 22
Vitality: 11
Spirit: 18
Source Traits (2):
[N^3] - numerical values can be exponentially increased in quality once per object.
[Immortality] - Immortal soul and body, agelessness, body reconstruction.
Source Attunement: [Life], [Wealth]
Dead Traits (2 - 1(Spirit)):
[Mute] - Your voice is destined to remain silent.
----
"So it's my final level up," A brown-haired man commented to himself while reviewing the character sheet in front of him.
This was his character for the roleplaying game, Mystic Might, which he played with a group of close-knit friends on weekends. Mystic Might was an interesting role-playing game where you take on the role of 'Gara Spirits', or special blessed spirits who represent a race or aspect of the world. Gara Spirits were powerful aspects that incarnated into the world to change the times, some could be chaotic and evil, while others were good and respected.
They were equal to minor gods in the world and could earn 'Source' by getting mortal races to gather around them. Source is a precious expendable resource that only recovers when a Gara Spirit influences the world enough or affects enough mortal races to generate a 'Source' according to their Mistique attributes to refill it. Mystic Might was a game of influence, clashing interests, resource management, and plans.
This close group of friends of this man had been playing this same game for more than three years, and their characters were entering the 'end game' of character building. In fact, in their last session, the majority of them reached the max level for their characters, usually meaning that it was the last time they'd play them.
Since it was their last time playing the characters, their game master let each member do their final level-up on their own back home. The last increase could get a bit ridiculous, considering that level-ups in Mystic might increase exponentially with each level. The 'free' attributes for the final level were already '8' on their own, not to mention a 'UP' for a previous Source Trait, and an additional Source attunement.
"I think I'm going to put it all into Source. Since it gives me 30, I can take a 3rd Source trait, even though I'll pay for it due to the imbalance of Spirit." The man hummed to himself.
"I'll use my 'UP' on the newest trait as well, evolving it from [World Soul], to [Universe Soul]." He muttered happily.
"Haha, this will make Guren difficult to handle." He laughed lightly to himself.
"What would Frank say about this? Too broken?" He giggled at the thought.
"Since this is my 3rd Source Trait, the Dead Trait is going to be annoying. Is there anything in the list he can deal with?"
"This is the best I can do... kind of difficult since the more traits you have, the stronger the Dead Trait you must pick."
"[Bad Impression], will no doubt be harmful for relationships. But it won't affect his combat effectiveness."
"Let's go with that. And finally, the Source Attunement... let's go with [Soul], it's one of the higher options I can get since it's my third one."
The man nodded with a smile as he set down his pencil from making adjustments to his character sheet. The corner of the character sheet contained a well-drawn image of his form, an abnormally slender humanoid made of gold and green skin, and an obscured face like a coin. It had some of the most expensive robes made of luxurious purple and gold. He had made some additions to the face of his Gara Spirit, adding the [Soul] attribute into his design.
Half of the face now looked like a swirling vortex of blue and didn't look human. While the other half suggested a 'virtual face' that would appear as if he was wearing a human face mask.
He looked it over to see if he missed anything.
----
[Mystic Might Character Sheet]
Name: Guren
Awe: 13
Source: 30
Vitality: 11
Spirit: 18
Source Traits (3):
[N^3] - numerical values can be exponentially increased in quality once per object.
[Immortality] - Immortal soul and body, agelessness, body reconstruction.
[Universe Soul] - Void immunity, unaffected by erosion and entropy.
Source Attunement: [Life], [Wealth], [Soul]
Dead Traits (3 - 1(Spirit)):
[Mute] - Your voice is destined to remain silent.
[Bad Impression] - You leave a bad first impression on everyone you meet. This will result in most people being hostile or neutral to you at best.
----
"Looks good", the man smiled, before letting out a big yawn and glancing at the clock beside his bed.
*Yawn*
"It's already past midnight? No wonder" he mumbled to himself.
He climbed into bed still wearing his work clothes, but before he could sleep he felt his entire bedroom start to shake.
"What?"
*Boom*
"Huh?- No, what?!" The man screamed as all tiredness evaporated from his face.
The roof of his building had collapsed due to a powerful earthquake. He only had a moment to understand what was happening before he was crushed to death by the heavy weight of the apartment building.
But this was not the end for him, it was only just the start.
...
A tall humanoid creature that didn't look quite human, towered over the small trees and shrubbery at 10 feet tall. Its 'skin' color was a mix of gold and green, while whisps of white ethereal smoke drifted off of its shoulder blades and head like smoke from a fire. No creatures dared to approach within a mile of it while it slept. It looked like a tall slender man from a distance, but up close it bore no human facial features.
*Yawn*
"I slept well this time," the creature mumbled tiredly.
Despite there being no mouth to speak, a voice still came from its head as if it did have a mouth.
"Huh? Where is this? A forest..." The creature looked around at the trees and berry bushes near him confused.
The creature looked down at its elongated fingers that were twice a normal human's size and stumbled backward in confusion.
"Wait, these hands aren't mine!" The creature exclaimed.
It rushed through the trees until it came to a small pond, which reflected itself in it. It stared at itself while touching the vortex-like face on its head.
"This can't be possible." It murmured, looking at itself in a daze.
"This is my character from Mystic Might, Guren." the creature named Guren mumbled in disbelief.
Guren then looked around his surroundings again, as if taking it in for the first time. He was deep in a woodland area and the air was filled with soft blue particles that could be seen sparsely in the air.
[Systea loading...]
[Error... error... unknown creature contains dangerous levels of power... estimate unknown.]
[Systea self-destruct started...]
A series of words filled Guren's vision and he felt a tiny sliver appear in his soul. It was a black shard that felt malicious during his first feeling, but the words that appeared in his vision made him realize what it was. This sliver shard should be a system like in the many popular online novels! With hope, he thought it might help him navigate this strange situation.
However, as soon as this hope appeared, it was taken away. The system named [Systea] initiated self-destruction upon realizing how powerful he was. It almost seemed... afraid of him? No that couldn't possibly be it.
"[N of Third Power], Source Burn!" Guren shouted quickly, while sweat ran down his face.
He didn't know if his shouting the name of his [Source Trait] would work like how he roleplayed doing it during the Mystic Might play sessions. But he had a feeling in his gut that if he didn't do something to the Systea shard within his soul, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity might be missed. He felt a drain on his [Source], causing his entire body to feel as if it had run a marathon, but he knew he had succeeded in activating his Source Trait.
[Error... unknown energy has entered the Systea node module...]
[Tzz... tzzz... tzzzzz... Errorrrr....]
[........]
[Welcome to the Guren Systea.]
[Guren Systea loading...]
Guren began to laugh loudly, despite feeling extremely tired. He felt the black sliver shard that used to be Systea, grow exponentially multiple times. It now resembled a full flat disk, covered in a mix of gold, white, and green.
[Guren Systea loading complete.]
[Welcome Administrator.]
[View your Status with the 'Status' command.]
[View the Admin menu with the 'Admin' command.]
[View Logs with the 'Logs' command.]
"Logs," Guren spoke and a list of logs appeared which seemed like an organized set of bullet points of the history of this world.