A hand.
A hand was reaching for me, through the cosmos.
Piercing.
A hand was reaching for me, through the cosmos and piercing all of reality to get a hold of me.
At first, I tried to fight it, to hold it back, to tell it to leave me be. As the strings from its fingers threatened to infuse with my body, I refused to become a puppet.
But eventually, I got tired of fighting. Just take the hand... what's the worst that can happen? I reached out for it and-
Miko!
Somewhere behind me, there was a voice.
Calling me. Calling me... away from the hand. But... why? The strings are so... calming. Just let me be...
Miko!
The voice continues! I turned around to see a girl looking at me, pleading for me to go to her. Who are- princess?
As the realization hit me and my body woke up, I felt the strings tighten as if they were clinging to control. But it was too late for them, the connection was already severed.
I am not going to lose myself.
Miko!
Another voice?! But this one is-
I turned around to see its face.
Mom...
She smiled as I went to reach for her.
Suddenly, the entire dreamscape shattered.
"Miko! Wake up, you stupid sleepy dolt!"
SHIT, JUMP!
I narrowly dodged the princess's attempt to kick me awake.
"I'm up!"
Putting my hands up in defense, I saw the princess smirk. Behind her, one of the Fae' ro ladies rolled her eyes.
The princess lightly punched my arm, saying "Look at you, you fast learner!"
"Well, when your biggest hobby is kicking me awake, I kinda have to."
Roan peaked his head into my chamber. "Hey, we're here."
For some reason, he started to frown. "Why is he just waking up."
Shrugging, the princess said "I was being merciful today! What, do you want me to kill our savior?"
"No, I'd rather he doesn't die. Miko, get changed. First impressions are important."
Laughing as I leaned my head against my pillow, I said "Ok, I'll get on it."
Roan shuffled a bit and put on a more stern impression. "Now? You look like a mess."
The princess chuckled.
Ganging up on someone who just woke up is so unfair!
As I walked towards the mirror I started rummaging through my hair. I'll just fix my hair up and be fine-
A zombie was staring at me through the mirror. My hair was all over the place, my eyes were all baggy, my skin was pale, and my clothes were all wrinkled. When did this happen?
A few servants came in with fresh clothes and what I think was called a basin, shooing the princess and Roan out. It took almost an hour, but they eventually got me fixed up and into a nice pair of clothes that were relatively reminiscent of home. One of the servants smiled as she saw my affixation with them. "You'll find that our kingdom is significantly more tech-savvy than the others. We are science-affiliated after all."
I nodded my head.
Not far off from the capital, I went to show off my fashion upgrade to Roan and the Princess.
Roan merely gave a grunt of approval, and all the princess did was snicker. Come on!
"We're here." The science lady popped her head into our chamber as the carriage slowed to a stop. She hasn't talked to us since that day.
Vakash. You're going to die.
I looked down at the sword, hanging meekly by my side. I may be nothing now, but you wait. I'm going to paint the world in your blood. Yoku, you too.
"Hide your weapon."
I looked over at Roan as his weapons disappeared.
"Huh?"
Roan shook his head as if what he said was common sense.
Disarm ourselves?
"The people here hate any form of violence. That includes brandishing your weapons."
I looked down at my sword. "Oh."
Using the system, I unequipped my sword. Strange policy during wartime, but we have to keep up appearances. I doubt we'd survive without their help.
We got out of the carriage to be greeted by a group of 20 or so Victorian-style houses.
Followed by 3 servants, each of them chose one of us to guide us to our new home. Each of us gets a house!
While my servant worked to get everything arranged, I decided to look over the system again. After almost losing such a powerful reward, I've been regretting deciding to skip the tutorial. It's just, usually, that's ok in a video game.
Well, let's start with the menus first.
Stats, Level, Magic, Shop, and items.
I wonder why Stats and Level are separated.
I opened the stats menu, and it honestly was straightforward.
Health points (Hp): 40/40 At least I'm healthy.
Mana points (Mp): 23/23 Isn't that a weird number? All of my spells cost a multiple of 5 mp. What am I gonna do with 3 mana left over? Eat it?
Stamina: 22/22 I can't let the princess know this, she'll have me running even more!
These were the 3 stats most emphasized by the system, but there were 3 more underneath.
Souls: 16 That... isn't ominous at all.
Sword: Level 1 Yeah, that tracks.
Artifacts: 1 Huh? what does that mean?
I tried to think of anything that I had that could be considered an artifact but drew a blank. Maybe the sword is an artifact?
Hmm.
Unable to think of any other explanation, I decided to move on to the next menu. Level.
I don't know why, but I expected some sort of simple level: 1 without much other context. In actuality, this menu was fairly dense and sported a bunch of mini screens. It reminded me a lot of Skyrim. At the top, it gave me what I suspected was my class.
Pyromantic Blademaster.
"Wait, is this because I took that fire spell as my reward?"
"Yes, my lord!"
I jumped at the sudden squealing interjection made by the cat. You damned cat!
"Why didn't you tell me that!"
The cat grinned. Asshole. "You said to skip the tutorial, my lord."
I'm an idiot!
I dejectedly looked at the cat's stupid face.
"Well, can I complete the tutorial now?"
The cat started flying around the room excitedly. Every time he went close to a vase or picture frame I momentarily forgot his incorporeality.
Stupid damn cat!
Suddenly, I was face to face with his demonic gleeful eyes. "Of course, my lord! Tutorial commencing in 321 let's go!!!"
The entirety of space turned black for a second, and then I found myself in some weird void-like space. Somewhere in the void, I heard the cat's voice.
"Ok! Move around!"
I know how to walk damn it.
After a few torturous minutes of learning the hardest concepts ever invented: walking, jumping, running, etc. (you know how tutorials can get) the cat finally moved on to the first menu.
"Ok, the stats menu!" was pretty straightforward and what I imagined. For some reason though, he skipped the other 3 stats, souls, sword level, and artifacts.
"Onto the levels menu! First, you have your main class which is decided by your playing style. As of now, you're fighting style is a sword, so you are a Blademaster. When you accepted your first reward, you chose to main in fire spells, which is why you are classified as a Pyromantic Blademaster. Now that you have experience, it may be hard for you to switch classes, my lord."
Great.
"Now, you can see all the levels of various skills under your class. Certain levels of these skills can give you perks. For example, because you leveled up once in one-handed, your swords can now do 5 percent more damage! Let's test this out real quick!"
Suddenly, 3 undead soldiers appeared from the void. I tried to use my new spell, but it seemed as if my magic menu was locked. Limited to my sword, I charged at the soldier on the left.
Since it was a tutorial, I thought they would be easy to beat. However, even after I plunged my sword into its chest the undead didn't falter. Kicking me across the void, my vision turned blurry as I heard gleeful chatter.
"My lord, would you like to revisit the combat tutorial? It was automatically completed when you fought those mercenaries."
"Shut up, cat."
Killing these soldiers wouldn't be enough, I see. Knocking one soldier to the side, I sliced my sword clean through another's neck. It turned into a puff of smoke. I would just have to dismember them.
The soldier on the left got up and regrouped with the other remaining one.
"You need a 2v1, huh?"
In a flurry of slashes, I cut off all of their arms and legs before stomping their heads. As they turned into smoke, a notification popped up in front of me.
Melee +1.
"My lord, splendid work! As you can see, because you killed the soldiers by stomping on them, your melee leveled up to level 2."
That seems faulty, most of what I used was sword-based.
"In total, you have 10 different skills to level up. Perception, Sneak, Annihilation magic, Healing magic, Illusion magic, One-handed, Two-handed, Armor, Charisma, and Melee."
"Now, onto magic! Since you are currently weak" Really necessary? "you can only equip 4 spells. As of right now, you have 1 equipped. In the magic menu, you can look over your spells and equip them. Would you like to equip your 2 unequipped spells right now, The Dragon's Breath and Healing Touch?"
2?
"Uh, sure."
The cat flew in his excited manner as usual. "Yippeee!"
"And then the inventory and shop is self-explanatory! Collect items, look at them equip them, use the shop to buy items and potions, yata yata yata! Now, for the fun part!"
Feeling an excessive amount of overwhelming pressure, I turned around to see a gargantuan orc being formed out of the smokey puffs from earlier.
"Kill the boss to complete the tutorial and receive your reward!"