The first thing Michael saw when he regained his senses was a blue screen that filled his vision, he recognized it immediately as a game style notification screen. The prompt was straightforward and to the point, with a single question filling the box:
He chuckled as he looked at the prompt before mentally selecting “Yes”. The instant he did, a new screen appeared:
Michael gave a mental “yes” before he realized how natural it was to navigate the menus with just a thought. He was then snapped out of his thinking as he was presented with another menu that gave him the option to select a species from one of the following: human, fae, dweri, draconid or beastkin. Michael stared at the options for a moment, before focusing on “fae” for a moment, when he did another screen appeared in his vision.
Under the text, the screen showed images of the three lineages. Michael chuckled as he examined the images recognizing them as “elves”. The Seelie looked the most like the fantasy elves he was familiar with, with pale skin and hair that seemed to be made of finely spun metal. The Unseelie looked much the same, but their skin was darker in color and their hair had earthy tones to them, ranging from the deep green of forest leaves to the varied colors of dirt and soil. The last lineage of the fae, the Sidhe, had the widest variation of colors, with bright shades of blue, pink, purple, green and orange just to name a view for their hair and a wide range of skin tones to match. Michael chuckled and that is when he noticed the gender select option and clicked it from “male” to “female” and all the images turned into female versions of the lineages. His next question was immediately answered as he finished reading the rest of the screen.
Michael chuckled for a moment and declined, and the screen returned to the species options and looked at the “dweri” option. His eyes went wide at the variety of dweri, to his eyes there were hobgoblins, goblins, dwarves, gnomes, and orcs. As he looked over the images, he noticed that the “hobgoblins” were called “kabalen”. The kabalen are roughly the same height as humans, but with arms that extend well past their knees and with a muscular build that reminded Michael of a Silverback Gorilla. The kabalen has skin coloration options ranging from a pale green to a dark tan, but the hair coloration options were limited to white or black. The next dweri option was that of the “balen”, which he recognized as regular “goblins” but their skin color choices were much more varied, with multiple shades of green, blue, red, purple and orange, but their hair color was locked into a single option, black. Michael didn’t know exactly how he felt about that but he knew that regardless of any bias in his new world, that his mental image of goblins was too set that he didn’t want to be reincarnated as one. With that, he moved onto the next option, which he thought of as dwarves. The name above the image of the dwarf was “bodanalf”. The options for the bodanalf just made Michael chuckle, as their skin coloration could best be described as “northern european” and the hair colorations matched. He remembered calling his ex-wife a redheaded dwarf, which of course led to another screaming match. He had to admit that she was correct in that the term “dwarf” had been a borderline slur to those back on Earth that were much shorter than normal. Michael had been careless at the time, thinking about the more Tolkien style of dwarves, meaning stubborn, proud, quick to anger, short, and stout individuals that craved the precious gems and rare metals of the earth.
He shook his head to clear the thought of his ex-wife, it had been nearly five years since he caught her cheating on him and he had been rid of her for nearly four years, but she still found ways to creep into his mind. He just counted himself blessed to have never had any children with her.
With his head cleared, he turned back to the options of the dweri and looked at the next lineage, the one that he thought of as “gnomes”. The “gartenalf” as they were called, were diminutive in stature but other than that looked identical to humans. He shook his head and then moved onto the last of dweri options, the orcs or as the label above their image showed “starkalf”. The starkalf were taller than the fae, ranging from 7’ to 7’6” tall and had broad, powerful bodies. It was at this moment that he realized that he never read the information on the dweri.
After reading everything about the dweri, Michael came to the realization that he would have a hard time adjusting to being anything but a male human. He quickly selected male, double checked that the prompt was there for continuing as a male human and he decided to go forward with that.
Michael took a long moment to think about which lineage he wanted. He mentally crossed both fae and celestial-blooded lineages off the list, simply because he couldn’t get a good grasp on if the non-pure bloodlines were going to be discriminated against or not. So he started to look at the Abalonian, Lisbethian and Vashidan lineages. He didn’t plan to be in extremely hot environments, so the Vashidan lineage didn’t seem like it would be that much of a boon. So he was going back and forth between Lisbethian and Abalonian, along with the traits of “Knowledgeable Trader” and “Plains Runner”. He had to admit that “Plains Runner” sounded like a much better general trait, but he didn’t plan on doing a lot of running, if given the choice, he was going to find a place in the world for him to be able to travel as freely as possible and it seemed that the “Knowledgeable Trader” trait would find that lifestyle best. Having made up his mind, he selected the “Lisbethian” lineage and was greeted by another scene.
Michael paused for a moment considering the three choices. He could see the considered the “Orphaned Acolyte” origin for a moment, but he dismissed it because it just felt too trope for him and he felt that trying himself to one of the gods of the new world was asking for problems that he did not want to get involved in the moment he arrived. He felt the same about being a noble, if nobles were anything like the nobles from Earth, that meant a combination of expectations and responsibilities that would be added on top of his mission to investigate the way magic was being used to work around the System. Of course, the first option was exactly what he had asked for from Creation and that instantly made him suspicious of it. That thought gave him pause and he realized that it probably said a lot more about him than it did anything else. He then selected the first option and a new screen popped up in front of his face.
Michael chuckled as he read over the screen, “Eighteen, well I guess that was when I felt I was at my best”. He let out a long breath that he didn’t realize that he was holding as he read down the screen, shaking his head slowly at the hidden trait. “Of course, you are going to keep a secret about myself, even from myself”, his voice resigned as he finished reading, only for a glaring red to start blinking over his vision.
Michael squinted against the harsh red of the screen only to find the effort was wasted, before taking a moment to read the error message. “Well, that is something. Already going and breaking the rules. And what is this new trait.” he said to himself.
“You know, speaking to yourself is a sign of mental degradation.” a sweet, lyrical voice said beside him.
Michael turned to the voice, seeing a feminine figure wreathed in a blue light. It felt like looking at a computer screen in a dark room, but in a vaguely humanoid shape.
“I am Integrity.” The glowing figure said, as an introduction, before continuing, “It would seem that Creation’s mention of the foundational nature of magic in your brief conversation gave you insight that far outstrips your worldly experience. Originally, we had agreed that if we pulled a spirit from another reality, we would force their skills to remain within the limits of their System Level. However, we are in agreement that we are going to need someone exceedingly special to act as our agent. Thus, I am giving administrative access to the system. I warn you right now, that if you abuse that privilege, there will be dire consequences for you. My advice, do not use your privilege for anything other than allowing your current skills to be as they are.”
The moment Integrity finished speaking there was a flash of light and Michael was once again alone in the void that was his private creation zone. With a deep breath to help him process the information that Integrity just gave him and the warning that followed it, he had to chuckle as the powers that be were once again giving him power beyond the fathom of the average person. “New world, new powers, new problems, same limitations and responsibilities.” He mused to himself, but this time he kept the words inside his head. Then with a thought, he pulled up his System Information again, focusing only on the traits.
Michael took a moment to think about what his new trait did and the warning about abusing the privilege, he was about to move on and complete his creation, eager to start his new life but he realized that there was something that he should do before he arrived in the new world. With a thought, Michael set his displayed magic skill level to 3 and the associated specializations to 6, he then hid his System Admin and [Hidden] traits from being shown. Then an errant thought entered his mind about just how video game-like the system was, but there was a very distinct lack of health points, mana points and stamina points. He started with what he knew the most about, magic, and his conversation with Creation replayed in his mind. After a moment of thought, he realized that there wasn’t a mana pool for him to draw on, it was a system of exchange between mass and energy. Michael knew that his understanding of the Theory of Relativity was lacking but he knew the equation of E=mc2 and just doing some “back of the napkin map” meant that being able to manipulate that raw potential meant that even converting the small amount of mass into pure energy would be devastating. Michael then considered that if magic had a scientific analogy, that flesh and body likely wasn’t going to be remarkably different from biology of Earth, which meant that health points and stamina points were going to be a useless measure anyways. With that last thought, he gave a last once over of his choices and selected the small flashing icon in the corner of his vision, causing the message to fill his vision.
Michael selected yes, and instead of experiencing the blackness that he was expecting, he became aware of a soft, pleasant voice calling out, “Hey! He’s finally waking up”.
There was a haziness to his thoughts, the words sounded odd to him, but he was able to understand them. He could feel whatever he was laying on swaying side to side, and the motion caused his head to swim and his stomach to turn. He did however manage to win his fight and keep his last meal down, barely. “Ooftah” he hissed as he slowly opened his eyes to blurry vision, just able to make out the form of a person next to him with what he assumed to have red hair. There was a faint green light filling the rest of his vision.
As his vision cleared, he could make the details of the wooden planks with supporting beams that they were attached to out. A brief gust of air stirred the sour smell of sweat, bile and blood that filled the room, made all the worse by a thick humidity and oppressive heat. He looked over to the figure that was still tending over him and found the source of the strange green light, it was coming from an intricate pattern of swirls that hovered in the air between himself and the figure’s hand. As his mind cleared, he was able to see past the magical sigil and make out the form of the caster.
His eyes fell first on her red hair, then he corrected himself, her hair was the color of pure copper and with a luster to match the metallic coloration. Her skin was that pale that goth girls and geisha both strived for, but he could clearly see that it was her natural skin tone. He found himself staring at her features for longer than he felt was polite, but he couldn’t help feeling that unease that CGI created when looking at something that looked human but clearly wasn’t. When her emerald eyes turned from whoever she was talking to and settled on him, he finally noticed her pointed ears and his addled brain finally realized that she must be a fae.
“Sorry” Michael apologized before asking the fae, “I didn’t mean to just stare, but what happened?”
Her genuine smile made his heart pound in his chest, and whatever was left in his stomach threatened to come rushing forth. Just as quickly as the sensation rose, he was able to tamp it down but only in time to realize that her lips were moving. She had said something to him and he had completely missed it. “Can you say that again? I think I hit my head as I am having trouble focusing.” He said, his lips curling into a sheepish smile.
She gave a small giggle that sent a jolt through Michael’s body before she spoke, her voice soft and so sweet that Michael was afraid of getting diabetes if he listened to her talk for too long. “You did in fact hit your head Michael, I am not sure how much you remember, but as we were boarding in Bluestone, one of the men from that was helping your load your cargo called your name just as you were getting ready to step down the stairs from the main deck to come down to the staterooms and you missed that step, tumbling down the stairs. You need to give a prayer to Deutrix Rosalyna that you didn’t snap your neck.”
Michael furrowed his brow as he thought for a moment, hoping that he would actually have memories to recall upon and that this wasn’t some sick joke from Creation to explain his oddness. With a bit of effort that did cause his head to throb a little bit, memories started to come back to him. He remembered that he was sent by his father, Jakoby, on a trade mission to Lewiston from his home city of Bluestone with the hope of restarting trade now that the war between the Tri-Crown Alliance and Abalonia had been three years ended. He also recalled that Rosalyna was the name of the Goddess of Life and Medicine, which made her an Intermediate level goddess. The Greater Gods and Goddesses had three domains that they controlled and the Lesser ones only had a sole domain.
Bringing his focus back to the fae, he recalled that she was a Seelie, but for the life of him, he could not remember her. Taking his eyes off of her, to look around the room to buy himself another moment to let his mind start working again, he saw the hard face of a man with a beard full of thick, curly black hair and hard, ice colored eyes. The deep cracks carved into his face spoke of years of outdoor living, but it was the slight crook of his smirking lips that triggered the memory for Michael. “Bernard, you could at least act like you are happy to see me returning to the living.” Michael said, remembering the captain of the mercenary company that his father hires for long trade missions like this. It was seven days to Straitport from Bluestone, and that was if the weather and waves favored the journey, if they did not, it could easily be three times as long, provided the ocean or its beasts didn’t swallow the ship whole.
“Why would I be happy? I knew you would be fine, I was more worried about the ship after it crashed into your block of a head.” Bernard said gruffly, which earned an exasperated gasp from the Seelie healer.
Michael gave a laugh, in spite of the pounding of his head, “All the same Bernard, it feels like you are inside of my skull trying to bash your way out with that warhammer of yours”. He then turned to the healer, “You have me at a disadvantage, you know my name, but I am at a loss, do I know you?” he asks.
The Seelie healer’s cheeks turned a light pink, “No, while you were unconscious, I had to analyse you, to make sure you didn’t have any curses that would prevent healing magic from working, or worse a curse that would harm one or both of us.” she said softly.
Michael raised a hand to stop her, knowing how poorly society viewed analysing someone without their expressed permission. “I trust someone blessed with the power of Deutrix Rosalyna would understand the potential damage that could be done if they revealed anything they gained via analysing someone’s System information. As long as you promise to keep that information to yourself, there is no harm done.” Michael replied with a smile.
The healer gave a deep sigh of relief, “Thank you. I am Alexi, it is a pleasure to meet you, but if you are feeling up to it, I would like to get out of this room. I’ve spent most of the last two days since we left Bluestone at your bedside making sure that you didn’t die.” Alexi said, before she gestured to the room that was surprisingly clean, save for the bucket full of a foul mix of what Michael could only assume was the former contents of his stomach. Then with a graceful motion to a wall, she pointed to a simple turmeric colored shirt. “I managed to get your shirt washed for you”
Michael smiled and slowly stood from the cot that he had been laying on, thankful to find that he was not dizzy, even with the floor of the cabin gently lowering and rising with the motion of the waves. He looked down to find that he was wearing a pair of sturdy zouave style pants made from a fabric that was softer than the wool and cotton mix that he was expecting, but stiffer than mull muslin, and dyed a soft blue color. The pants were loose and airy around his upper legs with plenty of room to move around in, and with them not bloused into a pair of boots, allowed for a generous amount of airflow. After locating his boots tucked into a corner below his hanging shirt, he gave a nod to Alexi. “Let me get dressed, and I will join you on the deck, I could use some fresh air as well.”
With that simple statement, Alexi gave a soft smile and fled the stagnate air that was heavy with the smell of stale stomach acid and half digested meat. Michael wasted no time getting dressed and the moment he slipped his boots onto his feet and tucked the legs of his pants into them, he picked up the vile bucket, departing the cabin for the top deck.
