Double nice.
After confirming I could at least move still, I proceeded to plop my butt down on the nearest pile of ancient rubble. There was a sun above my head shining like the Rift never happened. After blinking a few times trying to adjust my eyes to the light, something interesting caught my attention.
Tiny gusts of colour carried with the wind in little swirls, passing by without a care in the world. But I saw them. They were like leaves, except they seemingly disappeared from view over time into nothingness. I’ve seen the phenomenon before, although those swirls back then were more evil and malevolent than the playful colours here.
They were little strands, but magic nonetheless. To me, however, it was still like being able to see air for the first time. I knew magic was all around me, but seeing it was still a bit alien. How utterly charming, I thought. It was like the universe was thoroughly reminding me that I was in another world, even while I was just sitting down and doing nothing.
There was no sign of Giselle around anywhere, nor did I have a clue on how much time had passed during my time in the Rift. In fact, there wasn’t anyone around me. Good. For now, I could finally gather my thoughts and finally take a damn break. Taking a deep breath, I whispered the fateful command aloud.
“Status.”
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+
Kathleen Ravenclast [+15]
Human Healer, level 21
(No party affiliation)
[Light Element]
Attack Power: 750 (E)+
Magical Power: 2809 (D)+
Constitution: 1000 (E)+
Wisdom: 100 (F)+
Movement Speed: 500 (E)+
+
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Yeah, okay. I stared at the screen for a moment before deciding to just roll with it top to bottom. Firstly, nothing changed about my name, but lying beneath it was a shiny new Title. How nice, it matched the Face Slapper’s. The description was simple and elegant: Earned by clearing a Rift alone for the first time. However at the moment, there wasn’t any sort of bonus coming from it.
Heh, for such a strong bird like Emily, it was a shame that she got defeated so easily. Now, her skull serves me as a gruesome little ornament on my Oblivion Staff’s crown. I have no choice but to pitifully use it for my personal gain.
Leveling up felt wonderful and these Stats felt monstrous. However, after the shiny effects wore off, I felt physically normal. Judging by others’ reactions, they didn’t seem to know I was leveling up.
Heh, now that’s playing into my ridiculous childishness of being secretly powerful.
Additionally, I wondered if leveling up my Attack Power would make it difficult to open doors normally or that the attribute only applied when it mattered. I knew that I could lift the staff itself more easily. Compared to when I was level 1 trying to prop up my Healer’s Warped Staff, I could tell there was a massive difference. However, there were no evil doors to shove open, so I didn’t have much to test my Attack Power on.
Then my eyes fell on the lonely Wisdom Attribute.
A sinking feeling told me that I should have upgraded it a bit more. If I, a Healer, was magic based, then perhaps those classes had some degree of Wisdom, no? It said it was Magic Defense, right? It would help contain a magical attack, right? But… thinking about how it could have helped me live up to this point gave me a headache. How ironic! Still, the pathetic 100 looked quite out of place next to its neighbors. A million excuses flooded my brain in order to justify my poor, miserable life choices.
Would I have survived the minotaur attack if I invested all my points in Wisdom? Nope. Would I have survived my older brother’s assault in the Lab if I had it then? Not that time either. Was I annoyed at the fact that I am slowly being proven wrong by the world and now have extra work to catch up on? Totally not! Would it have helped if I had points in Wisdom when I drank that purple juice?
That… I didn’t know! Considering the ass-whooping feeling the Core gave me felt the same as the mana-draining attack that cup of purple juice had for me, I figured I could mitigate the effect by replicating the solution I had used the last time my Mana Core went under complete shock. That being, making my magic pool much bigger.
In retrospect, it didn’t work out. What even was Wisdom? I scowled at the Attribute’s tag.
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+
— Wisdom
100 (F)+
Allows one to see the truth more closely.
+
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Okay, now what the hell does THAT mean? I gritted my teeth. Wisdom, my foot! I swore it said something different awhile ago. Oh, bother. I was out of status points now that would make a damn difference, so my attention drifted elsewhere. Mainly, the shiny Light Element that appeared under my lonely party status and new title.
The element Light made sense to me somehow, considering I was a Healer class. Yet, there was no explanation for how it arrived, or why it bothered to grace my Status now. Checking the Database didn’t help either. I theorized that my Spells were possibly tied to the Element, though I wasn’t sure how that entire system worked. I’ll take the Spells and Skills when they come. As far as my knowledge went in this world, Light magic usually came with a splash of the color gold. Gaudy and bright. Ugh.
Finally, my stats were shaping up nicely despite the glaring flaw. A monstrous 2794 points in Magical Power gave me a giddy feeling of true strength. It even shot up to grade D. Everything besides, heh, I closed the window quickly. I think my grandpa would be proud if he knew I’ve finally exceeded multiple grades above straight F’s. So what if it wasn’t about school? I waved it off and immediately switched to the Plus Menu’s notifications. Good news only, I silently hoped.
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+
Notifications
> Host is under a severe Mana draining attack.
> Host is under a severe Soul draining attack.
> Host has survived through a severe Mana draining attack! Host has gained 5 status points! [Total: 5 status points]
> Host has survived through a severe Soul draining attack! Host has gained 10 status points! [Total: 15 status points]
+
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Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
I scanned the pings of me getting bullied by a Dungeon Core and rolled my eyes. They sounded about right. The 15 free status points I got were a nice little compensation to the suffering I went through, I guess. It was strange that I did not receive anymore Notifications on the Core itself. I thought I’d get more than just 15 points. However, would seeing the truth about a Dungeon Core help me survive a magic attack…? I wondered if Wisdom was all about my soul, then. How complicated.
I couldn’t help but wonder if Emily Ravenclast’s sou was sucked into a staff form. Even in death, was she planning some kind of twisted scheme to come back to life with the Core’s power? Well, if she was planning on starting shit and get back at me, I was game. I had to slap her in the face and get my revenge, after all.
She can power up all she wants in the dark as a little skull. As for me? I’ll be leveling up in the light.
As for the rest of the Ravenclasts, who knew. They might be still after me or even Giselle, but based on how every evil group goes— I don’t think they cared much for their little underlings. I skipped back to the main panel. Fortunately, it revealed a number of new things to work on. The Plus Menu was quite busy now, I see.
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+
> Status
> Notifications
> Item Box [8/20]
> Database
> Item Shop [Conditions Not Met]
> Ascendancies [Conditions Not Met]
> Unknown [Level 35 required]
> Skill Points [15]
> Skills [5]
> Exit
+
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How lovely. New headaches. I remembered the Item Shop. Ascendencies sounded like a complex system by itself, and the fact that my Plus Menu decided to toss it in there gave me a foreboding feeling. However, the new option after Ascendencies had showed up to the party with a refreshingly simple task. It aligned with my own goals quite nicely: Level up as high as I can go.
I understood that the total status points were linked to my level and having more of them meant it would rise, though it was quite vague in explaining the basics. I didn’t have an experience point bar telling me how close I was to the next level. The Plus Menu seemed to like giving points to me arbitrarily, like causing pain, surviving crazy things, and even killing people. However, guessing how much or the exact methodology eluded me. I didn’t know how many points it would take to reach level 35. Or even whether or not I’d survive in this world for that long. The fact that I was here breathing and sitting in this grim world was nothing short of a miracle.
I rubbed my temples.
It can’t be too bad, Kathleen, I thought to myself. You’re level 22 and it’s only been a few days in this world. Give yourself some credit. Thinking too hard about the Plus Menu would only give you headaches and misery. Thinking about Wisdom would hurt your brain more than it should. Heh, well. Acquiring more of it would.
So naturally, I made things worse for my brain and moved onto the Item Box to review the shiny treasures I’ve gotten. It had the Lizardman’s Stormfang sword, Leah’s skull, a few Bloodstones, an evil staff, the big horn, and the Bloodstained Key. I understood that maybe I was using the Horn wrong. But all of my loot was packed neatly in a row of impersonal squares, as if they were mere household items instead of dead bodies and bloody stuff I stole.
The Oblivion Staff in there called me like a siren’s song. As cool as it was, I imagined open carrying that thing would be a violation of this world’s ethics codes or something — they’d call me a witch for sure. Then again, so what if I was called one? I didn’t care. So I pressed the Oblivion Staff’s icon and pulled it out of the screen that appeared afterwards. The heavy metal rod stabbed the earth in front of me unapologetically, and for what it was worth— Emily’s skull did look menacing while giving off that murderous aura. It was quite cold to the touch and felt more like wrought iron more than wood. What, was Emily made out of metal?
Totally wicked.
If I didn’t invest in some Attack Power, I doubted this thing would let me hold it. Then I remembered what the Oblivion Staff was made out of. I was holding Emily’s skeleton, which was twisted into a badass weapon. You’d better watch out, Sister, I shook the stick. You’d better serve me well, or you’ll live in the box forever! Nothing happened.
Whatever, I flicked my hair, but immediately regretted it when the thick strand slapped my neck. It was uncomfortably damp with sweat and dirt, like the rest of me, tangled and matted.
Civilization was my next stop, or a river somewhere. I sighed, standing up and stretching. There was an enormous stretch of snow laden grass ahead with a distinct trail for me to travel on. The rolling hills here weren’t as pretty as the battlefield in the Rift. I’d like to visit that world again, if it was even real or not. What even was real anymore?
At any rate, if there were any upgrade I could ask my Plus Menu for, it would be a shower button. For now, I think my gruesome appearance right now would scare off a couple of creeps, right? As I continued to walk down the path, I opened my Status again.
My eyes glanced at the Database. It was nice to have, I supposed. Perhaps it could make for some nice literature if I ever hitched a ride somewhere. It was simple and elegant, which was nice compared to everything else in the Plus Menu. I found that it was odd that I was receiving this inner encyclopedia just now, until I realized it revealed more details on each entry. For example, when I opened the Worldline tag on Rifts, a flood of text spilled out for me to read.
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+
Database
> Rifts
Pathways to Worlds Beyond, opened by entities by accident or on purpose. Humans aren’t meant to understand them. Rifts contain Cores that can be extracted and used by affected Celestial bodies through careful means. Cores take the form of a floating crystalline geode, pulsing immense corrupted Mana power. However, when handled improperly, the offender may attract the attention of those certain entities. Rifts are also often unstable for the Host’s entry, resulting in greater chances for dangerous mutations to manifest.
+
> Rifts > Identification Methods
Rift Identification Methods have been discovered. Rifts are identified through Spells and Skills, including through the Host’s purified blood. However, Scrolls of Identification are usually not accurate, and therefore, not recommended. Increase the Wisdom attribute to gain more insight on all things Rifts.
Presently, Rifts have been able to confirm consistent traits, which are catalogued by Humans and Hunters alike. The codes contain the following tags: Timeline, Recommended Rank for the Hunter Parties, Biome, Entity the Rift’s Realm belongs to,
The Host’s memories of the first Rift they entered shall be used as an example:
Rift: E|E|L|A|N|1048AB
E: An Expected Timeline
E: Menial Rank
L: Labyrinth
A: The Armoured One’s Reign
N:
Y: Year 1048AB
+
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How lovely, I scoffed. If I ever needed to fall asleep, I could read this information. How typical that the Plus Menu still doesn’t know everything. Though, I suppose my level wasn’t high enough for everything. What was the highest level? My mind worried that it could stop at some point. It appeared that the Plus Menu was not omnipotent, but it was damn near on the way. But to upgrade Wisdom to unlock it all seemed like a low priority to me. I better upgrade it to Rank E sooner than later, as it also provided Magical Defense. It had to, right?
The final thing that I had to check on, of course, was the new Spells. I invested every point into my Magical Power impulsively, so I hoped that I at least got some decent Skills and Spells out of the deal. I pulled up the list of the brand new shiny Tier 2 ones since I must have mistakenly swiped the notification letting me know what ones I unlocked while fighting.
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+
Skills
> Tier 2 (D Rank):
[Major Healing]: Uses a higher amount of Magical Power for even more healing. The Host can heal as long as they have Mana in their Core and remain concentrated. Triggered by word and channeled through a compatible staff.
[Cure Minor Illnesses]: Heals weak and common sicknesses (Tier 2 or lower). Triggered by word and channeled through a compatible staff or hand.
[Blessed Hands]: Directly converts Magical Power into healing mana through physical contact, while also soothing pain. Triggered by word and channeled through both hands.
[Deep Wound Cleansing]: Cleanses wounds and Blood poisoning, setting up for potent healing magic treatment if desired. Triggered by word and channeled through a compatible staff.
[Force Away]: Emits a harmless Light elemental blast around the Host, shoving back nearby entities and knocking down weaker ones. Triggered by word and channeled through the Host’s body.
+
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No shower spell, I see. However, [Force Away] seemed like my kind of spell. Perfect for keeping certain Knights away. I looked around. It seemed like she left after shoving me in the Rift. Nothing around, so let’s see.
I closed my eyes, already seeing the vast planet of magic inside of me roiling. “[Force Away]!”
The second I said the spell’s name, my hands dipped low and then spread wide like I was fixing to throw up an armful of grass. There was no warning or theatrics, not even the crackling of electric or roar of fire. The “force” part of the spell simply happened. In a split second, the air around me solidified into a sphere of golden light, then shattered outward. The flash was gone in an instant, but the results were quite dramatic. The pressure wave rolled over the hilly terrain, kicking up a small crater with it in all directions with me at its epicenter on a tiny undisturbed island.
Nice, nice, I thought to myself, clapping the lingering golden glow emanating from my palms. Checking the radius of the peaceful zone I stood in, it was indeed an arm’s length away. A moat of pitted land, whipped up snow and uprooted grass surrounded me. A good toy. I hopped over the gap I made and continued on my merry way. That Giselle oaf mentioned a town somewhere along this path and I had a long road ahead.