"Aberrant" means abnormal, so why do I have the "Aberrant Mind" trait? Maybe it's because of the System itself? Most likely.
The Shop is a place that sells uncommon and epic items, though not heroic or mythical ones. The Battle Pass is where you can also obtain titles, weapons, armor, traits, and currency. For early levels up to 12, this would be top-tier loot.
I opened the Shop and began searching for the most useful trait: "Magic Initiate." I typed "initiate" into the search bar, and it popped up first. It cost 300,000. This would save me if I ended up with a non-magical class like a Monk, Fighter, or Barbarian. I immediately added it to my favorites.
Right, now I need to put together a build. It's a bit pointless without a class yet, but I still need to favorite all the useful skills and ritual resources quickly.
I want to be a versatile, stealthy, melee-focused Mage. I'll need: Kir potions, the "Wild Talent" trait, "Remarkable Recovery," "Alert," "Stoic," and "Spell Juggler." Plus, a ton of experience points dumped into Charisma and Intelligence for analysis.
God, I'm going to confuse myself soon; it's already hard enough for people to understand me. Lord, whoever created this system could have at least included tooltips, like: "If you do X, Y, and Z, you will be granted Transcendence Points." Does it happen every level? Then why isn't my level showing? It makes no sense.
I need to read some books for beginner mages. Maybe that's how I'll earn points. I really should just go read, otherwise, I'll bury myself in these thoughts.
I got up and went to find the library. It was a small room on the second floor with walls lined with bookshelves and soft sofas in the middle. I searched for books on magic to understand how it works. Clearly, the game simplified magic significantly; if it works the same way here, I know half of it already and just need to fill in the gaps.
I found what I was looking for: "Tales of the Eastern Dragon – Ryu Manju," "The Other Side of Souls – Cyrrolin," "Soul, Body, and Mind – Kang Han Soo," and "Theories on Racial Differences – Ryu Syukui."
First, I need to understand what magic is and how it works. Then, how the types differ and how to use them. I read the back covers of all the books and figured out the reading order. First, how it was discovered: "Tales of the Eastern Dragon"—this is about the discovery of spells and Kir. "Theories on Racial Differences" covers how races developed and evolved under the pressure of Kir. Then, "The Other Side of Souls" and "Soul, Body, and Mind" discuss how beings across the world researched Kir and recorded their findings.
Taking the books with me, I headed back to my room. I pulled out a notebook and a pencil case and began my studies. I opened the first book and started reading:
[If you know how dragons give birth, I pity you. If you don't, you're better off not knowing. My father abandoned my mother, so she couldn't hatch me while I was still inside the egg. I crawled out of the shell earlier than the others and was sickly my whole life...]
I wrote down the first rule of using Kir in my notebook: There are no rules; Kir is that which breaks rules. However, this does not apply to the soul or the mind of a being, as long as they haven't dissipated. For this reason, it is called "Kir," which in the language of the Ancient Dragons means "Authority" or "Power."
Dragons, Elves, Yuan-ti, Genasi, Tritons, and many others are sorcerers from birth—meaning they are born with the ability to use spells. Many sought to study this, but the first to truly study Kir and weave a spell from it was the dragon Ryu Manju.
My eyelids grew heavy under the weight of the knowledge. The letters began to blur before my eyes. [...my spells became stronger...] What? Why? The meaning of the words began to slip away. [...the orcs attacked...] Wait, that's a completely different race, how could they attack those who were stronger? Shadows danced before my eyes.
After an unknown amount of time, I opened my eyes. It was night outside. Did I sleep until nightfall? I placed my pen between pages 73 and 74 where I had stopped. Getting up from the chair, I collapsed onto the bed with my full weight.
My clothes stank, as did my body. I need to wash—damn, I hadn't even changed out of my training gear. I stripped, grabbed a towel, and tossed my clothes into the basket by the door. Entering the bathroom, I threw the towel over the radiator.
I spotted a smartphone on the sink. Oh right, I forgot about that—I got too caught up in the atmosphere. I turned on the water, lay down in the bathtub, and picked up the phone. I turned it on, but I didn't know the damn password.
I started guessing: 0001, 0002, 0003, 0004, 0005, 0006, 0007... You have three attempts remaining. Damn, even here there's brute-force protection. Fine, I'm no math genius, so I'll just keep trying. 0008, 0009, 0010... Your smartphone is deactivated for 30 seconds.
Once the water reached the rim of the tub, I washed myself. Afterward, I went back to guessing passwords: 0011, 0012... 0019, 0020... Your smartphone is deactivated. I dried off, went into the room, and lay down on the bed.
Finally, I opened the System window and was surprised:
[ Characteristics ] [ Statistics ] [ Shop ] [ Battle Pass ] [ Archive ] [ Support ]Inside Archive, there were several more tabs:[ Weapons ] [ Spells ] [ Traits ] [ Races ] [ Bestiary ] [ Resources ] [ Artifacts ]
This is great. Under "Races," there were many different windows showing various races and their sub-types. I know all of these; I scrolled down, and more and more races appeared. Then: [ ???: You have not discovered this race yet ]. God, I still have to unlock them. At least there aren't many left behind the question marks. They weren't in the original game, so they probably aren't important.
Support was a chat interface:
[I am your personal assistant, Camelot. You may ask for help, and I will assist you to the best of my abilities.]
I tapped the text box at the bottom and typed: [Who are you? How did I get into this world?]
[I am Camelot. You were brought to this world for the sake of a higher mission.]
[What is this mission?]
[This information is confidential. Do not worry; we have already altered your destiny. You will not be able to change it, no matter how hard you try.]
That sounded terrifying. I couldn't bring myself to write anything else. I wasn't going to get any answers anyway.