Imperious, Chapter 005 - Character Creation (Patreon)

The rain fell, thunder rumbled, and Anna stood in her front yard looking up at the sky. Water streamed down her face, her eyes closed as she savored the feelings inside of her. The sated bloodlust made her feel satisfied in a way that she couldn’t fully quantify. Her injuries seemed to hurt less, her heart felt full, she felt energized, euphoric. The act of violence didn’t bother her at all, a sane person would have found how she had behaved to be monstrous, barbaric. Destroying the unthinking skeletons were one thing, but the big one was eloquent, capable of thought, sentient.

Maybe she wasn’t a sane person, maybe that didn’t matter, the world was different now. 

Different rules, She mused as the pleasant feeling passed from her. She let her thoughts wander in the rain, wondering what had come over her, why she felt the way she had felt. What had driven her to overcome her pain? The very same pain that was slowly inching its way back into her consciousness, her brain registering the agony in her shattered arm as it hung from her side. She squeezed her eyes shut and lowered herself slowly to her knees, not daring to touch the wound. Feels like I might have a few broken ribs too, ah shit, this really hurts.

She pressed her head against the wet grass and tried to force down the agony that was building in her throat. The scream tried to come up, but she fought it off with all her might. Her lips trembled and she opened her eyes, bloodshot, and glanced around. It was then that she noticed the other skeletons had collapsed after the death of their leader. Her eyebrows furrowed, Were they dependent on them? She groaned, Don’t tell me I’ve been fighting summons this entire time. She paused, Summons? Magic summons. 

Magic.

Magic was a thing. She should have figured it was a thing, given she’d been fighting skeletons and everyone in the world disappeared in an instant, but… that moment of confirmation was enough to distract her again from the pain. Magic. I want magic. What can it do? How does it work? She licked her lips and tried to stand up again. She winced and groaned but finally managed to push herself to a standing position. She swayed a little before turning and slowly, step by step, walked back into the house.

She collapsed into the couch after that, too tired to move, too tired to think anymore. Too tired to sleep. The ache that encompassed her entire body and the endless agony in her arm kept her fully alert as time marched on. She zoned out now and then, nearly falling asleep before shifting a little and earning her a fresh spike of pain. In the end she pulled up the countdown timer and stared at it, watching the numbers slowly go down and letting her mind drift like she was watching a campfire.

Supervisor ETA: 1 Hour, 23 Minutes, 59 Seconds

Huh, maybe I did fall asleep for a bit. She thought, snickering a little, Woah.

She closed her eyes again.

Supervisor ETA: 37 Minutes, 15 Seconds

Nice, it's about time, heh, time. She chuckled inwardly only to wince at another flare up in her arm. Another dizzy spell and her eyes fluttered shut again. 

Attention! The waiting period for a supervisor to be sent to your location has ended.

Her eyes opened and she groggily read the words. “Oh… finally,” She mumbled.

All planetary supervisors are currently occupied with servicing the integration.

She sat up straight, the pain in her arm shrieking up to new heights. She didn’t give a shit. “WH-” She was about to start cursing when another message followed.

To avoid continued delays a new supervisor will be created. Bare witness, o soul standing at the beginning of your path, to the genesis of a new life.

For a fragment of a second, for the smallest instance of time, an infinitesimal mote of a moment, she felt something look at her. For just that tiniest blip, an existence so beyond her comprehension, so beyond the scope of anything she felt like she could ever comprehend, so far beyond her own reason and logic, looked at her with all of its attention. She felt her brain itch and her mind struggle to hold itself together while her blood boiled and raged screaming a voiceless challenge towards the thing that glimpsed her.

Then it was gone, and reality seemed to melt in the air in front of her. The air churned and bent like liquid metal, a faint glow beginning to bubble up from nowhere. The bending world, even in the darkened room, twisted and churned as it collapsed in on itself. The light grew more intense and she had to raise her good arm up to stop it from blinding her. She grit her teeth as a pressure crashed down on her mind once again, a feeling of heaviness that pushed her back into the couch.

Then it ended, just as quickly as it had begun. She lowered her hand, squinting, as a sphere of light about the size of a softball hung in the air in front of her. It bobbed slowly and it felt like she was sitting in front of a person rather than some strange glowy light thing. What is this thing? Then it felt like its attention was on her. It didn’t have eyes, but it felt like its eyes opened and observed her. It wasn’t as cataclysmic as whatever that was earlier, but it was still a little unsettling.

“Hello!” A cheery voice came from the ball of light. It didn’t seem to have a noticeable gender to its tone, not one she could pick up on anyway. It seemed almost childlike.

She stared at it, “Uh… hi?” Was all she could manage.

“I am a System Supervisor created to handle your case! Nice to meet you! Based on the limited and temporary authorities I’ve been given, it looks like you need to begin the character creation process, is that correct?” The happy voice asked.

“Ye-Yeah,” Anna said, feeling more than a little lost. “Can you get that started?”

Abruptly her home was gone and she was sitting at a desk in the middle of a vast white void. The sudden shift from dark to light made her eyes hurt. That was the only thing that hurt, though. She frowned and looked down at her busted arm and found that it was completely healed. She jerked up and nearly got out of the chair as the voice spoke, “Certainly! Let’s get started!”

She whipped her head up in the direction of the glowing ball across the desk from her. She had more than a few million questions starting to bubble up now that this thing was here but instead, all she could do was mutely nod.

“I assume you would like to keep your name, you sentient races are very attached to those for some reason. Anastasia Flitt, right?” The entity asked.

“Y-Yeah,” She stammered, “I do like my name. I’d rather it didn’t change. Anna is fine, by the way,” She quickly added, cringing at her full name.

“Very good!” The jolly voice said, “Now! First thing is first! Let’s have you pick a class, you have two to choose from and will serve as the foundation that you build upon going forward!”

Just as it spoke, a pair of windows appeared in front of Anna.

Warrior
A fundamental class. Warriors focus on the use of melee weapons in combat, be it skirmishing with light weapons and armor or standing in the front of a battle in a suit of heavy armor, fending off attacks.
Attributes Per Level: +1 Str, +1 Vit, +1 End, +2 Free Points
Starting Skills: Weapon Proficiency Skill (Common-Base), Armor Proficiency Skill (Common-Base),  Combat Skill (Common-Base).
Starting Items: One common-grade suit of armor. Two common-grade melee weapons or One common-grade melee weapon and a common-grade shield.

Caster
A fundamental class. Casters focus on the use of magic in combat through practicing any of the five circles of magic. Using magic to deal damage, heal wounds, control the battlefield, inspire allies or weaken foes.
Attributes Per Level: +1 Int, +2 Wil, +2 Free Points
Starting Skills: Circle Magic Skill (Common-Base), Weapon Proficiency Skill (Common-Base), Spell (Common-Base)
Starting Items: One common-grade magic implement or focus. One common-grade melee weapon. One common-grade robe.

Anna read both of them carefully. The flavor text, because that’s what it was, was pretty vague but she figured that was the point. Her suspicions were confirmed when she got to the starting skills. She assumed these were what the skeleton was talking about. There weren’t any specific skills but rather a generic placeholder. She guessed that meant that she would get a choice of skills once she made her class choice.

The warrior was straight forward, she got a weapon skill, armor skill, and a combat skill which she assumed was some sort of attack power or something. Then she got a set of armor, and her choice between two melee weapons or a melee weapon and a shield. Her eyes moved back up to the attributes per level. So you level up in this, whatever it is, System? She mused and looked up at the ball of light.

“What are the attributes?” She asked.

“Great question!” The entity burbled happily, “There are nine attributes that can be found on the character sheet. You don’t have a character sheet yet because you have not chosen your class, but I’ll explain them in brief!”

She nodded and sat back a bit to listen.

“Strength, Agility, Intellect, Vitality, Endurance, Willpower, Awareness, Insight, and Presence,” It rattled off. 

Anna bit onto one of the stats in particular. “What is presence?” She asked before it could continue, she remembered the skeleton suggesting that she had been manipulating her presence somehow.

“Presence governs one's personal aura, the intensity of their persona, and their capacity to interact with mana in the air to a degree. It helps a lot in social situations and even influences your physical appearance slightly,” It said, not even hesitating after the interruption.

She nodded slowly, “Um… follow-up question. How do skeletons see?” She asked, trying to see if the theory was correct.

The entity flickered only for half a second before it bobbed once, “Apologies, had to check to see you were privy to this information; A skeleton is capable of sight by sensing the ambient mana in its surroundings, creating a pseudo image of their immediate area. They see life-forms by their aura or the presence of their life force.”

So I was manipulating my presence somehow! Got it! She nodded hurriedly, “Okay, I understand, thank you. What about the other attributes?”

The entity eagerly continued its explanation. The first three were self explanatory. Strength governed strength, agility governed movement and reflexes, intellect increased spell damage and influenced acuity. The next three started to get weird, though.

“Vitality governs HP, regeneration speed and potency. Endurance governs SP, physical resilience and resistances,” Anna nodded along as she listened, “Willpower governs MT slightly and primarily governs mana cost and resistance to magical attacks. Vitality and Endurance also play a very small role in MT.”

Anna tilted her head, “MT? What’s that?”

“Mana Tolerance,” The entity explained.

“Tolerance? Wait, why doesn’t Willpower increase your mana pool or anything? Isn’t that a thing?” She asked, confused.

“Mana pool? I’m afraid I don’t understand,” The Entity said, sounding equally confused.

“You know, how much mana you have and then you use it to… use magic? Then it runs out and you have to regenerate it?” Anna pressed, so much of this was going off game logic that she’d just assumed magic worked the same way.

The entity floated there for several seconds, longer than any pause before, “Um… I apologize, but how is it rational that an infinite resource that permeates all of existence would be in any way considered finite? The only limitation to how much mana an individual can use at a time is determined by how much their body can take before breaking down. Ergo, Mana Tolerance.”

Anna opened her mouth, blinked, and closed it again. That… makes a whole lot of sense.

“If you become a caster, you can learn more about Mana Tolerance, but I am afraid that is all I can share at the present time,” The jolly thing said, “Would you like to hear about the other attributes?”

Anna rubbed her neck, “Uh… yeah sure.”

Awareness governed external senses and attention to detail while Insight governed awareness of the self and better understanding and using information that was provided. It was joined with presence as the third attribute of that group. In all, there were three groups. The external stats, the inner stats, and the service stats. Anna would have called the third group social stats herself, but she wasn’t going to argue with some floating ball of light again.

The entity fell silent after that point and she returned her attention to the classes. Obviously the warrior gained a steady increase to health and stamina as it leveled up. On the other hand, the caster only got one point in intelligence but two into willpower as it leveled up. She imagined that balanced out a little but based on what the entity suggested, ignoring her body for focusing entirely on willpower was a bad idea if her ‘mana tolerance’ was based on how much her body could take. She wondered what that meant in reality.

Also…

She looked up at the thing, “Uh, I know you don’t think much of them, but do you have a name or something? I feel kind of bad thinking of you as ‘the ball of light’ and ‘entity’, no offense.”

It flickered for a moment before speaking, “Entity is rather appropriate as I am known as a Juvenile System Entity,” It said cheerily, “I have no preference as to what you call me as names are largely meaningless to us.”

“Pixel it is then,” Anna said and got back to reading the classes.

She rubbed her chin. She’d already decided she wanted to be a caster but she wanted to make sure she knew everything about what she was getting into. Some kind of magic skill, based on where it is it must be like a proficiency if you compare it to the warrior. So it probably is a style of magic that I can pick. Cool. A weapon proficiency and a single spell. That seems fair to start. The gear that came with it was also sensible, the bare minimum to get someone started.

“Alright! I think I’ve made my pick,” Anna said and reached out to touch the screen indicating the Caster, it flickered and vanished.

“Are you sure that’s what you want? You seemed to have a talent for physical violence,” Pixel said thoughtfully.

“Nah, definitely magic,” Anna said, shaking her head.

Pixel bobbed again, “Very well! Beginning integration!” Its voice changed for a moment, but Anna didn’t have a chance to react as she was pulled into a starry void.