Chapter 1 Adam West and The Realm of the Everlasting System (Patreon)

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This will not be a regular series but a few weeks back this story came to me and if I didn't write it down it was all that I could think about. After cleaning it up I decided to shear it.

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The rain was a constant companion as I walked up the staircase of an old New York building. It was supposed to be a sunny morning, but I guess the winds changed.

It was one of the things I missed about living outside of cities. You can smell when the rain is coming, but here there's too much pollution. It was a long way up, but I didn’t want to use the elevator; it was too confining and too dangerous for my liking.

I was nearing the floor I wanted to go to when I happened to glimpse a reflection of myself in the window. What looked back at me was an old man, but that wasn't reality. This has been my fate for a long time, using makeup to make myself look old.

When I discovered this trick, and even now, I was still proud of myself. When people are looking for you, trying to find a young man, it's simple to hide when you look like an old one.

Even then, my time in this city was up. This would be my last meeting, seeing some of my last remaining relatives. Family has often been used against me, but it’s also the reason why I’m still here.

While it would be another sad departure, as always, I will cherish these memories, especially the younger ones when it felt like we ruled this city. But in reality, we were just enjoying the moment.

Just before I reached the correct floor, some force stopped me from moving. I was always on alert, but whatever this was, it came as a surprise. I tried to push through whatever was trying to hold me still, but it felt like I couldn’t even try to move.

Was there truly someone left that was still so strong, or perhaps there's new blood? Whatever this was, it also made it impossible to breathe, but then everything went dark.

The next moment, there was sunlight. What followed were screams of panic. My eyes immediately picked out that there were 9 other people around here. We were surrounded by nature, but as soon as I smelled it, I knew it was wrong.

This didn't smell like Earth. My body also felt weird. Then I noticed that I was not wearing what I had been just a moment ago. All of my stuff was gone. Now I was wearing brown pants with at least some pockets, and a blue T-shirt, of all things.

Everyone else was wearing exactly the same thing. At first, I thought that perhaps this was just my imagination, and that was why everyone was wearing the same thing and why we were in a weird, unknown place. However, something told me that this was too real to be fake. Perhaps someone has trapped me in an illusion, but something so real should be impossible.

Out of nowhere, a blue box appeared in front of me. I could not see if the blue boxes were in front of the other people here, but from their reactions and some screams, we were all greeted by the same thing.

System notification:

Your former universe (#32…) has been saved from destruction.

You have been given a new chance to start again.

For not being a part of the system before, you have been granted access to a beginner tutorial.

Take what you can from this tutorial and learn all you can. To help you overcome the trials of this new existence, you have been granted three life crystals. If you were to die, you would be respawned at the nearest safe location. Use them wisely; they are the only ones you will ever get.

I looked down to my left hand and saw three small crystals appear. When I ran my fingers over them, they felt like regular skin. This was a lot to take in.

"What is going on? Is this some sort of joke?" a male voice demanded an answer. No one knew how to answer him, and some even curled into themselves, overwhelmed with this situation.

In all honesty, I haven’t felt this overwhelmed in a long time, but it looks like I was still handling things a lot better than almost everyone else. Then, I saw the person that I thought might have been better off than me start weeping. OK, scratch that, I’m still the best out of everyone here.

The blue box had been in front of me this entire time, not changing, but then the current screen disappeared and another one took its place.

System notification:

Quest Given

First Step (1/7)

You are in an unfamiliar world with unknown threats. You are not how you used to be. You now have an essence core that will allow you to power yourself and be connected to the system itself.

To complete this quest, say "status" to open your character screen and view your information.

Is this actually happening? I took a few seconds to simply absorb all of this. This kind of reminded me of computer games. They were a fun new hobby, and from the looks of it, might actually help me survive whatever this is.

"Status?" I said out loud, and immediately the blue screen once again changed.

What opened now was confusing, but I could see a huge problem already. The character screen said that my name is Adam West. It's the closest thing to my real name, and unfortunately, a lot of powerful people were looking for me, and they especially knew that name.

When I focused on it, unfortunately, nothing seemed to happen. Can I not change my name? This will be truly troublesome.

"System, can I change my name?" I asked this entity out loud, but there was no response. There’s no helping this now. What else can I learn from this system? As soon as I thought this, to my left another screen opened up.

System notification:

Quest complete - First Step (1/7)

Reward: Access to the entire character page.

I had only looked at my name, and there was already more information to see. Fortunately, the character screen didn't update and was still just showing the limited version. There was obviously some sort of ranking system.

I did remember something similar being in a game. Rank E could mean the absolute lowest, but I have seen the rankings go to F or even G. Of course, this could also be completely different and have nothing to do with any ranking systems I am familiar with.

I focused on the Human male (variation) Rank E, and to my surprise, it actually produced a new screen with some explanation.

Human - a species added in the Cambrian region expansion. Humans are a species that start at rank E, one step away from being the lowest ranked species. Despite that, they have some promising attributes.

Humans rank in the 99th percentile for their ability to manipulate the physical world around them. This has helped them overcome their relative physical weakness and overall lack of natural defensive or offensive features. Humans have excellent stamina and are especially good at long-distance running.

These two attributes have helped humans achieve dominance on their home planet, where, besides them, multiple different sapient species and almost 100 different semi-sapient species have lived, most of whom were added into the system as sapient species.

Humans also boast an incredibly flexible and changeable genome that will allow them to thrive in system-run worlds.

Human variations - are often the result of their incredibly flexible and changeable genome. In almost all humans, there are percentages of other sapient humanoid species that have been incorporated and sometimes used to better the human race as a whole.

With humans now being a part of the system, it is almost certain that human variations will become the dominant form of the human species.

That was a lot to take in. One of the things that immediately jumped out was the fact that rank E wasn’t the lowest; it was rank F. From there, it would probably go F, E, D, C, B, A, and S.

Why S was the strongest in these kinds of games, I never learned, but there are sometimes even SS or SSS ranks, with some even having an additional + mark at the end. For the rest of the information, I guess it sounded correct, but I did not know if it was good compared to other species. Next, I concentrated on the essence core part.

E-rank essence core - is one step away from the weakest. The stronger your essence core, the more strength you can derive from your stat points. An essence core connects you to your own body and the system, allowing you to strengthen yourself while using the gifts the system provides.

Having an affinity means you resonate with that affinity. Every being has an essence core affinity. It can give you access to classes and abilities that would otherwise remain unavailable.

Life affinity - means that you resonate with the very idea of life. You are good at giving, sustaining, and taking life. It is one of the more common affinities, yet what you can make of it often depends on the person itself.

Many have lived and died never truly realizing what life affinity can offer, while supreme masters have learned what depths this affinity can achieve.

The prospect of gaining more strength from your stat points was truly interesting, but everything else said also helped me piece together more about this system. Now I was kind of getting curious, so I said "status" once again, which updated the current limited version to the complete one.

The first thing I noticed was my dismal starting stats, but then I remembered I didn’t know what other people's starting points were, so I shouldn’t judge too quickly. The second thing I noticed was the trait ‘Long-lived’. I focused on it, and a blue screen opened up.

Long-lived - A person with this trait has a longer lifespan than is normal for their species. Often, these people become elders of their communities and are reverently looked upon when they finally pass away. This trait, however, is not inheritable.

Two words and a short description. Was that all that I had achieved? So much struggle, so much joy, so many memories, yet for the system, it was worth so little.

I looked up to see two more people seemingly looking at their interface. Did I look as perplexed as they did? One of the people had curled up in a fetal position and seemed to be nonresponsive. Hopefully, time would fix that, but right now, I really needed to concentrate on figuring everything out.

It was also troublesome that a new quest hadn’t triggered. The first one said one of seven, so I was assuming the second one would start right away. I did a thorough look around just in case, but I didn’t see any dangerous things looking to kill us just yet.

I decided to start with the equipment, as it was kinda interesting that the blue T-shirt was counted as an equipped item. When I focused on it, a new screen popped up.

It took me a moment to absorb the new page. It seems that this system had equipment slots and accessory slots. But did the slots actually do anything, and could I wear things if I didn’t use the slots? Focusing on the blue T-shirt that was somehow occupying two slots, another screen opened up.

Wow, once again a lot of information. I was starting to get the feeling that you could use anything in a slot and it would give you some bonus. Why was that kind of awesome? Now that I think about it, a blue T-shirt taking up a chest and shoulder slots kinda makes sense.

It also seems to give a two dexterity bonus, which is nice, but I only have like 3 dexterity overall. And what is eff% bonus? Before I tried to get a deeper look at the stats, I also decided to open up the brown pants screen as well.

Nothing surprising here, except that they also gave two dexterity. Something was definitely not right. I closed those screens and on the main character page, focused on the stats section.

Base values all being 7 was weird. Equipment bonus for dexterity being 4 was completely reasonable and something that I was expecting. Total values didn’t make sense until I looked at the last section.

Efficiency, that made sense. It seems that, unfortunately, rank E was not that good at using existing stat points. At least that part of the description made sense. Why the efficiency bonuses were so varied, I did not get an answer as focusing on them didn’t bring up any more screens.

I went back to the main character screen and focused not on the long-lived trait but on the trait section as a whole. This, as I expected, brought up a new screen.

I was a bit surprised that all of them were under the same screen, but I guess as time goes on, this was going to expand a lot. No immediate effect for my trait was another stab in my heart. Well, whatever, it didn't matter that much.

This left one section, and I focused on the class part of the character page, which brought up my class selection screen, but before I could dive into it, a new notification popped up.

System Notification:

Quest Given

Choose a class (2/7)

Choosing a class is an important step in your journey. While it will define your immediate future, also remember that you get more class slots as you continue to level. You can also upgrade and change your current class when you reach certain milestones.

Well, that was straightforward, and I was glad to see the second quest. Well, I was going to do that anyways, but hopefully, there will be some sort of a reward. I now focused back on the class selection screen.

Warrior, the first steps on your journey to become a true warrior.

Ranger, the first steps on your journey to become one who guards the wilderness.

Rogue, the first steps on your journey to become a warrior of shadow.

Healer, the first steps on your journey to become the one who mends the broken.

Farmer, the first steps on your journey to become the one who feeds the others.

Blacksmith, the first steps on your journey to become the one who equips the others.

Leatherworker, the first steps on your journey to become the one who equips the others.

There were other classes as well, but they were greyed out like Mage, and I could only see a few of them before they got too blurry. The descriptions also weren’t the best, but I can work with them.

Farmer, blacksmith, and leatherworker were out. I might pick them for my other class slot, but currently, the most important thing would be to stay alive. There was no telling how dangerous this new world was going to be, but I was pretty sure that it was going to be worse than Earth.

For that reason, healer was also out. It might be an excellent choice, but I did not want to rely on others to help me defend myself. That didn’t mean that I wasn’t going to pick this later on; most likely, I was going to do that because there was one obvious thing that was missing from my character's page.

There was no health bar. I'm pretty sure damage still worked the same like on Earth, so healing could be incredibly useful, but like always, it's better not to get hit at all and kill whoever is trying to kill you before they can hurt or kill you.

Three main choices all fit me. Currently, however, I did not have any ranged weapons, although I did see some stones. Being stealthy was also probably not the best choice, as I didn’t have the gear to be able to hide myself. Going around and trying to be stealthy in a blue shirt seemed ridiculous. So, I chose the warrior class, which brought up a new screen.

System notification:

You have leveled up. You are now a level 1 warrior.

System notification:

Quest completed - Choose a class (2/7).

You have chosen a class. Every class grants you access to seven class-specific skill slots and seven open skill slots.

Class-specific skill slots make any skill put into them stronger, while you can put almost any skill into the open skill slots. As a reward for completing this quest, you have been given information about how to unlock the other class slot.

The information planted into me was supremely weird. Fortunately, it seems that it wasn't painful. What the information told me is that when I reach level 10, I will be able to get access to my second class slot, and when I reach level 20 in my first and level 10 in my second class, I will get access to the third one. It's actually quite straightforward.

There was also a bit more information about the classes and skills in the warrior class screen. SPPL means Skill Points Per Level, and of course, it also showed the skill slots that I currently had access to next to.

To the right of my vision was also a notification symbol that was blinking. It seems not all notifications would be pushed in front of you like the previous ones had been. I focused on it, which now opened up the system notification.

System notification:

For achieving level 1 in your warrior class, you can choose one of three abilities:

Quick Strike - execute a strike faster than normally possible.

Heavy Strike - execute a strike stronger than normally possible.

Shield Block - block an attack that's normally too strong or fast to block.

The descriptions of the skills were good enough to give me an idea of what they would do. Shield block was out as I didn’t have a shield. While I could possibly use some piece of wood from a forest as a shield, I didn’t actually know if it would count as one.

Choosing between the other two was a bit harder, but in the end, I chose quick strike as I preferred to be faster than my opponent. As soon as I chose it, another screen opened up.

The restrictions section was gibberish to me. I tested and I could put the skill into the open slot, remove it from the open slot, and put it in the class slot, and then remove it as well without any problems.

I left it in the class slot and then threw a punch while thinking about using quick strike. Immediately, the punch that I threw was way faster than it should be possible. In fact, my unstretched muscles should be screaming right now from the speed of the punch, but it seems that the skill compensated for things like that.

What I did feel was something inside of me being used. The last stat came to mind: Essence capacity. As I focused on the essence core inside of me, which was weird, I could understand roughly how much of essence I had and could also feel that I was slowly recharging what was inside of me.

For a rough estimate, I think I could use this skill five times in a row before I would run out of essence to use.

System notification:

Quest Given

Gather sticks (3/7)

Gather 3 random sticks. This is a dangerous world, and using what's around you can mean the difference between life and death.

Those were some fancy words to describe a pretty basic quest. Looking around, there wasn’t anything that I would call a stick, but there were some smaller branches that perhaps someone would call a stick.

After picking three of them up, one just being the size of my fingers while the others being more stick-like. As soon as I had three of them in my possession, the notification symbol at the corner of my eye started to blink once again.

System notification:

You have gathered 3 sticks. Would you like to complete your current quest: Gather sticks (3/7)?

Yes/No

I picked yes, and the three sticks disappeared. It wasn't instant, but it wasn't slow either. They kind of transformed into light particles, and a status appeared.

System notification:

Quest complete - Gather sticks (3/7)

You have found three sticks and turned them in. As a reward, you get a better stick that you can use to defend yourself.

In my hands appeared a decent-looking stick that seems to be made out of hardwood or something similar. I swung it around a bit to find it a pretty good weapon.

People often look down on a stick, but it can be a pretty good weapon, especially if you don't have anything else. My swinging, however, seemed to have caught someone's attention.

"Wait, did you just finish the gather stick quest? How did you do it so fast?" a young-looking man asked, who had kind of a beer belly just a bit bigger than mine. I really had let myself go in recent times. Yet, when I looked downwards, there wasn't one to find. That was weird. "Yeah, just gather any sticks. They don’t have to be too big," I answered while still looking at my belly.

"Nice, that makes things easier. And don’t be too surprised about your belly. I used to be way fatter and a bit more run down. It seems that the system improved all of us to a certain degree. Also, my name is James, nice to meet you," James said, while starting to look for sticks.

"My name's Adam, nice to meet you too. However, I kinda wish it was under better circumstances." James and one other chuckled at that. The other person was the woman who looked like she was messing with her character page.

It seems she was listening but not truly focused. Then she started to search around as well, looking for sticks. A few others seemed to snap out of it at this moment and started to ask questions. Luckily, James was more than happy to answer any of them.

System notification:

Quest Given

Equip an item (4/7)

Equipment items are a way to boost your power. They will help you augment your base power and often mean the difference between life and death.

Immediately, I looked at the stick in my hand. I tried to get information about it, but nothing came up. "Status, inspect, view item." I tried many different commands, but nothing seemed to be working on the stick.

Then, I went into my character page and opened up the items interface. Now, when I looked at my weapon slot, there appeared to be a list of options that I could choose from. Currently, there was only one: hardwood stick. Now, when I concentrated on it, it opened up a new screen.

It looked like if I were to pick it, I would gain four strength and one percent of efficiency. There was no reason not to pick it, so I did. Immediately, my strength shot up. But was I supposed to be holding this weapon all the time?

There was a convenient loop on the belt that I was wearing. The stick was a little bit thicker at the top, so when I put it through the loop, it didn't fall through and stayed in a perfect position so you could quickly pull it out if there was danger.

System notification:

Quest completed - Equip an item (4/7)

This quest completion means that you have acquired the knowledge of equipping items. While you now know the basics of how to equip items, there's always more to learn, and right now is the perfect time for experimentation.

Reward: One pair of socks and shoes.

In front of me, on the ground, materialized a pair of shoes and socks. The shoes were kind of like a mix between hiking boots and running shoes. I kind of liked them, and the coloring was quite close to nature as well.

The socks were black socks that seemed decent enough and made from what looks like modern materials, and when I felt the boots, so were they. That was weird.

Well, I was quite happy to see the shoes and socks, so I didn’t really care about what they were made out of. The grass here was nice enough, but only a few steps away was more rocky ground with a mix of dirt and sand.

I put the socks on and then the shoes. Next, I did what the quest reward text suggested. In the equipment screen under the feet slot, I noticed I had two options: black socks or hiking shoes.

The socks gave me a plus one to constitution, while the boots gave me +4 to constitution and 1% to efficiency. Of course, I chose the boots, but thinking back on the quest text, I decided to change them for the socks and found an interesting development.

The items didn't change immediately; instead, it seems like I needed to concentrate on it so they would keep changing, and during this time, it also looked like I wasn’t getting the bonuses for either item.

This was probably so during a fight, someone couldn't change from one item to another. That made me think about the skills that I had and how I could change that whenever I wanted to. This time, however, when I tried, the same thing happened like with the socks.

Was it because I had already used the skill, and now it was properly locked to this slot, so I would need time to remove it from there? That was probably the case. I stopped trying to change the feet slot to the socks. It was at this point that another notification popped up.

System notification:

Quest Given

Kill an opponent (5/7)

System worlds are dangerous. You need to be willing to fight for your survival as others would happily use you as fuel to strengthen themselves.

That was way more ominous than I was expecting. Looking around, I was not certain everyone would be willing to kill to survive, but I have been wrong on that front plenty of times. But what opponent could I defeat?

There was one simple answer: the people around here. If I were to attack one, they would certainly be an opponent. For now, I did not want to go down this road.