David's hand touched the obelisk and the world exploded into notifications.
[CONGRATULATIONS - YOU HAVE COMPLETED A SYSTEM ASSIGNED QUEST AND CONTACTED THE OBELISK WITHIN A SAFE ZONE]
[REWARD: ACCESS TO THE SAFE ZONE, INCREASED MANA GENERATION WITHIN THE SAFE ZONE, SYSTEM ACCESS]
[BONUS REWARD FOR EARLY COMPLETION: ACCESS TO SYSTEM HELP WHILE TOUCHING THE OBELISK - TUTORIAL]
[PLEASE NOTE THAT FUTURE ACCESS TO SYSTEM HELP AFTER THE TUTORIAL WILL COST MANA AND USE MAY BE RESTRICTED TO ENABLE OBELISK ACCESS]
[WOULD YOU LIKE TO ACCESS YOUR TUTORIAL BEFORE PROCEEDING?]
David's analyst brain kicked in immediately. Free tutorial now, paid consultation later. Classic freemium model.
"Yes."
[YOU ARE IN A SAFE ZONE - ATTACKS ARE STILL POSSIBLE]
[YOU WILL LOSE AWARENESS DURING TUTORIAL AND TUTORIAL WILL TERMINATE EARLY IF YOU ARE ATTACKED]
[PROCEED?]
"Yes, dammit, I want information."
The world turned white. The background hum of mana vanished, along with Camila and Charlie's distant argument about emergency protocols.
David found himself in an actual room this time. Off-white walls, solid floor, nothing like the glowing void from his initiation. More like a high-end conference room designed by aliens.
The figure floating in front of him definitely qualified as alien.
Tall, androgynous, sitting in lotus position about three feet off the ground. Six arms in three pairs, each smaller than the one below. Feathered wings spread wide from its back, black and silver patterns that reminded David of a peregrine falcon documentary he'd seen once.
No mouth. Solid black eyes plus a single silver eye in the center of its forehead. The largest arms ended in two-fingered, two-thumbed hands tipped with black claws that touched the floor as anchor points.
David's mind immediately started categorizing. Seraph variant. Combat capability unclear. Definitely not human evolutionary path. Then he stopped himself, there was no way that human stories captured anything about this, was there?
Welcome, do not be alarmed by my appearance.
The voice came from everywhere at once despite the lack of visible mouth. David's gaming experience suggested telepathy or magical communication.
As you should understand by now, I did not evolve on your earth. I was chosen as herald for the integration of magic into your world by the lords and ladies of the system.
Classic exposition dump incoming. David settled in for the tutorial sequence.
I apologize if my use of your language is imprecise. I have only recently learned your languages as increasing mana allowed me to interact with your recorded media. I still have a lot to learn.
Internet access through mana absorption. Interesting. That explained some of the gaming terminology in the system interface.
My main role here is to guide those who awake to the system and help them survive and prosper during initiation.
The Herald continued with what sounded like a prepared script. Talking about how the system would protect him and humanity in general. Typical sales pitch. Still there were some interesting bits in there for him to chew on.
…Initiation has been caused by the arrival of a mana wave at your world. As unbound mana rushes past your world every living thing absorbs it and begins to generate its own mana in turn. Eventually even the inanimate will absorb mana and initiation will complete. This means that your world will be whole for the first time in your history and normal planetary growth and evolution will become possible…
David couldn’t help but go down the rabbit hole of history from the perspective of the colonizer. Still planetary evolution and growth sounded cool but probably hid another calamity.
Even as he reasoned through this he started to get snippy and headed down a rabbit hole - they were doing fine, he was doing fine before this. Well not fine, but OK, he had a job, some of his friends had jobs, lots of debt too. Damn, stupid sales pitch, still he refused to believe things would be better.
OK, enough trying to understand everything – he needed to focus on the data to avoid missing anything. A quick review revealed that no, he hadn’t missed anything important, just some self-aggrandizing stuff about how the system was the best hope of humanity. Then the bastard actually explained in that calm voice why.
…a personal System allows you to flawlessly direct mana avoiding the two greatest risks initiating sentients. First, the system automatically controls mana preventing spontaneous mutations caused by undisciplined thought that can cripple, kill or worse transform you.
The voice continued, even as David shuddered as he thought about the dog thing.
Second, your personal System insulates you from meddling with your initiation. Without this anchor external entities can alter you to suit their needs.
Oh hell no. David’s brain started working faster, was that what he had encountered? Did that explain what he saw in the white room?
…Finally, your System will allow you to transcend all previous limits of your species by building proven mana structures to grant you superhuman capabilities akin to those from your video games or cultivation stories…
Now that was more like it. Actual benefits that could help him. David half-listened, maybe it hadn’t found D&D. He would have led with D&D as the OG for this sort of thing. It was trying, badly to be relatable with, now he thought about it, multiple arms created complex gesture patterns that suggested emotional undertones the flat voice didn't convey. Still the whole thing felt like a training video.
Still he focused back in as it got to something substantial.
…allows users to unconsciously direct their internal mana flow. The system does this by directing integrated mana, which it calls experience, towards self-improvement.
The system uses leveling to control and measure mana absorbing capacity. The system allows users to understand their usage of mana through their status and make conscious directed changes by assigning experience…
So a framework, this made sense at least in David's mind. Experience as controlled mana allocation. Leveling as capacity management.
Standard RPG mechanics with a mana-integration twist. David could work with this. The next bit was important.
…resource pools of specialized mana are formed to accomplish tasks. These resources require a linked attribute to use them. Finally, skills linked to specific attributes allow the triggering of complex actions with power and efficiency…
This was big! David only half listened as the Herald droned on repeating the same thing in a different way, clearly this was the main lesson, hence repetition. It made a lot of mechanical sense, magical resources deployed through attributes like fuel and an engine or food and muscles.
Skills didn’t really fit the analogy, then he paused. No, they did! They were like control programs or maybe like the steering, gas pedal and lights of his analogy car - controls to turn the output into something useful.
The analogy needed work. Still the Herald had moved on so he started paying attention again.
…there are three ways you can acquire the templates to spend experience on improvement.
Titles – gained based on your actions, especially dangerous ones, and your systems adaptation to them making new template options available.
System interaction – quests and system artifacts like this obelisk can give opportunities to add new templates to your personal system.
Patronage – powerful system users including the Lords and Ladies can enter into agreements with you where they provide masterfully crafted templates developed and curated to boost your power optimally…
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David tuned out what was clearly a hard sell on the benefits of patronage, irritated that it didn’t even apply to him when suddenly the whole thing stopped.
The Herald's three-eyed gaze focused directly on David with sudden intensity. The flat delivery changed slightly, becoming somehow richer, filled with intent. It was speaking to him not at him.
Due to a significant portion of your absorbed mana upon awakening being integrated by another being that was outside the system, there have been alterations in your basic system that go beyond the adaption possible with titles.
Your patronage system has been replaced with mana structures derived from this external mana. To aid comprehension, this non-system element has been designated a bloodline. This is not normally covered in a tutorial.
David's stomach dropped. This Bloodline thing meant permanent modification and the loss of benefits was much more tangible now.
In every game he'd played, bloodlines were more narrative than anything, being the dragonborn, or the last heir of whatever. Somehow, he felt this was different.
They could be incredibly powerful or a pain in the butt limiting future choice. Sometimes both.
Until this change is documented, it is recommended that you avoid further mana investment in this area and seek quests and titles which allow you to repair this core system function.
The Herald paused, wings shifting in what might have been agitation.
Unfortunately, it is not advised that you simply excise the mutation as the loss of strength in the coming days would be crippling.
Translation: you're stuck with whatever happened to you. Make the best of it.
The Herald returned to script mode, outlining status commands and basic progression. David followed along, naming himself and learning to infuse his voice with mana to activate commands. It was an incredibly easy, clean voice addressing setup. More than anything made it all feel like real system magic and made his earlier fears about bugged systems feel foolish.
"System, Status."
His status window appeared, clean and familiar except for that ominous bloodline entry marked with question marks.
Two mystery titles, First Blood and Ghostbane. Both sounded combat-related. One that sounded defensive, also ominous – why did he need a survivor title? Then an unexplained bloodline, no actual ability to do anything as he lacked the resource pools and attributes that practically applied mana within the system. After that he would need to get a skill to do something truly RPG worthy.
The Herald's demeanor shifted again, becoming more present and focused, it was creepy how he could hear the difference when it actually spoke to him.
Interesting. You defeated a possession during initiation, one significant enough to reward titles.
The three-eyed gaze intensified.
This appears to be related to your bloodline as 'Ghostbane' is consistent with defeating a certain kind of possession, unusually though this appeared to happen before system integration. Hence the first blood title. Would you like me to analyze the bloodline for you?
David weighed the loaded question. The Herald clearly didn't know what his bloodline was, needed his permission to investigate, and might learn more than it shared.
Information was leverage. But ignorance was dangerous.
"I agree, as long as you share everything you learn with me."
Agreed.
A silver beam shot from the Herald's third eye, striking David's forehead. No pain, but a flood of chiming sounds like broken bells. Then, with a ripple of movement, the ghost from his initiation flowed out of his chest to hover beside him.
Nath. The name came with the vision, along with fragments of alien understanding.
The scan continued for several seconds before cutting out. When the Herald spoke again, its voice carried genuine concern.
You encountered one of the k'r'nath.
The formal pronunciation seemed specific, also more complex than the syllable that popped into his head a moment ago. At least the ghost suddenly had a name.
"That one is here is concerning. The Nath are unsurprising, mere vermin. In your language the Nath are what you might call ghosts or spirits or fragments. They exist within the mana and possess bodies, usually dead ones, to act. The K’R’Nath is a higher order member of the same group.
The zombies. David's analytical mind made the connection immediately.
The creature seems to have modified your system to facilitate communication and control of the Nath. The resultant bloodline is currently attuning hearing and speech to mana, both generally and specifically to the frequencies which hold the signature of the Nath.
The Herald paused, wings folding tighter against its back.
Your bloodline can best be described as necromancer in your language.
Necromancer. David felt a chill that had nothing to do with the white room's temperature.
I must contemplate this development.
The Herald's image flickered, becoming less substantial. When it spoke again, the flat tutorial voice had returned.
You have sufficient energy to begin to upgrade your titles. Please focus on the system initiate title…
David followed the instructions, channeling experience into his title and watching the numbers shift. The mechanics felt intuitive, like allocating skill points in character creation.
Now he needed to apply what he had learned. There were a few different resource pools available to start and he could get more down the road.
Information was limited, an annoying feature but he had to live with it. Still, he slowed himself and reviewed what he knew and what he speculated based on his gaming knowledge as he reviewed his choices.
Health was always useful but boring. Probably essential eventually but way too dangerous as a first investment because to benefit he would need to get injured. That sounded like a bad idea…
Stamina sounded pretty cool. Physical feats. Probably led to warrior and rogue builds.
Chi sounded restrictive. Being warned he would not be able to form lots of other resources in the future was probably bad when everything was barebones. Could be OP as a result but again high risk.
He had visions of a Monk dancing through combat then serenely meditating for hours. Nope, mediation wasn’t his jam. He just ended up making to do lists the one time he tried it.
Psi was a wildcard that could be overpowered or useless. There just wasn’t enough information given to understand what it would do and undead being immune to Psi was a common trope. So in context probably bad. Especially if he had some undead bloodline going on.
Magic offered the most versatility and growth potential. Plus, honestly, the idea of casting spells appealed to his inner teenager who'd spent countless hours reading fantasy novels.
"I choose magic."
…you must now select an attribute to pair with your resource pool…
The attribute selection required more analysis. He grinned, realizing he was enjoying this. Which shocked him for a moment, then he just focused and let himself forget all the shit going on outside for a moment. New game, new build. It was fun!
Arcane sounded like a very general magic stat that only gave bonuses to spells, sorry magical skills. Screw that, they were spells in his mind. Still, a viable choice as it seemed to do exactly what it said on the tin.
Channeling seemed to focus just on speed and power again only for spells. A maybe, sounded useful if he got fighting spells that were slow to cast but otherwise likely wasted.
Faith was useless without patronage. So no.
Willpower gave mental defense and mana control. In a world where possession was a real threat, mental protection seemed like a survival necessity.
OK forget it, here was a stat that clearly did something on its own. The implication was there were more like it out there. So, second big decision; pick the stat with obvious real world applications and hope to get more like it to round him out or focus on the generic stat Arcane and depend on his spells to do stuff?
Given that he couldn’t’ see any spells or skills or whatever AND there was no way to progress without making a choice, it was simple really…
"Select attribute willpower."
The change was immediate, and a little unexpected. Everything sounded clearer, like someone had cleaned static from his mental radio. It seemed this stat did more than what it said in the very bare bones description he was given. He wondered if the others did too.
Before he could go down that particular rabbit hole David heard the recorded voice speak again.
Excellent, as you absorb mana you will gain experience. This occurs passively over time and rapidly when mana attuned entities die near you, especially if their mana is connected to yours.
Damn, a very abstract and clinical way of saying kill other magical entities for power if he wasn’t mistaken… This was cleared up a moment later.
Eliminate non-system entities with your system to progress faster.
OK, not abstract at all.
Next the Heralds recorded message made him choose where excess mana would be allocated. Sort of a default spend. Just to be bloody minded he chose his bloodline when it tried to railroad him into more system by focusing on the system initiate title, it was an emotional act of rebellion but he stuck with it – he couldn’t shake the nagging suspicion that the system wasn’t altruistic and wanted a little something when the other shoe dropped.
The Herald concluded the tutorial by telling him new quests were now available from the Obelisk with rewards to help him advance. Typical Freemium model, show him a bit of the good stuff then more effort to get all the way…
David found himself touching the obelisk again, blinking away the white room's afterimage. The ghost was back inside him, quiet for now. Then it happened the Obelisk gave him a new quest. One in ominous red that filled his vision.
[NEW QUEST: SAVE YOUR PEOPLE 1]
[HUMANITY IS IN GRAVE DANGER. THE WORLD IS CHANGING AS MANA INFUSES INTO EVERYTHING. ONLY WITHIN THE SAFE ZONES CREATED BY THE HERALD AND THE SYSTEM CAN PEOPLE ADAPT AND RESPOND SAFELY. BRING 10 SYSTEM-COMPATIBLE PEOPLE INTO THE ZONE OF CONTROL OF THE MONOLITH.]
[THIS QUEST CANNOT BE REJECTED ONLY FAILED IF YOUR SPECIES DIES. AS AN EARLY AWAKENER YOU CAN SAVE MANY AND FIND A PATH FOR YOUR PEOPLE TO THRIVE IN THE NEW WORLD.]
[REWARD - SYSTEM UPGRADE, NEW QUEST, TITLE.]
David went cold. “What, the, actual, fuck.” The calm feeling of the safe zone was washed away. Being told his species could be exterminated and it was up to him to stop it would do that…
Then, as though it hadn’t just put him right back in the middle of the apocalypse another quest populated across his vision, this one in cheery blue.
[NEW QUEST EARN YOUR FIRST SKILL.]
[EITHER BRING AN UNINTEGRATED OR SYSTEM COMPATIBLE HUMAN INTO THE ZONE OF CONTROL OF THE MONOLITH FOR AN IMMEDIATE REWARD OF ONE SKILL.]
[OR ACQUIRE BASIC INFORMATION ON A SKILL FROM OBELISK HELP THEN PRACTICE THE SKILL UNTIL IT REGISTERS ON YOUR STATUS. ESTIMATED 1000 REPETITIONS REMAINING.]
Necromancer bloodline. Mental defense against possession. Cool new system. Learn a new skill. Save the whole human race.
One of these is not like the others… Strangely the thought didn’t do what he expected and paralyze him.
He looked toward Camila, Charlie and the others still discussing and arguing about his new world. Time to apply his new knowledge to the survival equation.
David stepped away from the obelisk and rejoined the group, his analytical mind already working through the implications of everything he'd learned.
Planning time, then action.
Do you like the style for the system prompts?
