Time passed, or rather he believed that it did. It was impossible for him to know how long he'd existed in the darkness of the place that he'd been taken. No matter how many times he screamed for an answer, or struggled to stand up from his seat, nothing new happened.

Eventually, he stopped struggling and gave in to temptation. The sheet of paper on the table caught his attention earlier, but it seemed pointless to focus on it due to his strange captivity. He needed answers, not to play a game. The paperwork provided was nothing more than a character score sheet such as one that might be seen in a role playing game.

Scott reached up and rubbed his eyes. His throat was a little hoarse from the shouting, and his ass hurt a bit from sitting on the uncomfortably hard chair for so long. Wherever this place was, it was obviously designed to force him down one route. He would have to play along and do as the sheet of paper instructed.

"Who wrote these score values, though?" He stared at the status sheet critically. On the surface it seemed similar to the standard systems one might find in games such as Dungeons and Dragons, or Pathfinder. Yet, his assigned values were garbage.

"Seriously, why the hell is my strength a seven? Shouldn't I be a cripple or a scrawny weakling?" he asked. The stat values claimed that a core between nine and eleven was considered average. Every even number above or below ten offered a modifier that would help or harm his existence.

"See, that right there is bullshit," he said after reading a few of the brief notes on the back of the score sheet. Strength provided boosts to melee attack damage and ease of using heavy equipment, but most of all it determined maximum lifting and carrying capacity.

Scott snorted loudly. "You're telling me that I can only lift thirty-five pounds over my head? Bullshit."

In truth, with the exception of intellect his stats were all cited as ten or lower. His luck was actually a six, which meant that he was two modifier points lower than a normal personal according to this system. Of course, that stat he believed. Given how things worked out for him normally, it seemed more like a review of his life to date than a numerical value.

Surprisingly, his voiced question actually brought an answer from the voice that he'd heard earlier. Scott looked around alertly in an attempt to find the source of the voice.

"The system that governs this world is now undergoing an update process. Your scores are an approximation of the abilities that you possessed based on the previous system. The mathematical formulas have changed," said the voice in a strangely sweet manner. He did not notice it before, but the voice held a soft almost musical feminine quality.

Scott tried to ask a question, but the voice continued, "You must redistribute your scores in order to be able to have a reasonable life under the new system. Failure to do so will cause you to awaken with default scores."

"Default score?" He looked down at the paper and noted that the default score would be an eight across the board.

No more answers came to him, despite his constant inquiries. In the end, he opted to just go with it to see what happened. Whatever was going on, he could do nothing else but play along.

Scott read the brief explanation on the score sheet once more then picked up the dice. "Six-sided die..."

He placed the four dice into the cup provided and shook them vigorously. With a snort he tossed them out onto the table with far too much force. Fully expecting them to bounce of the table, he was surprised to see them each hit an invisible barrier and bounce back.

"High number, five," said the voice. "You will now have five ability points available to modify the new ability score rolls that you receive. You will also have five talent points that may be used to upgrade your chosen talents."

"Right..." Scott shook his head slowly then snatched up the dice and rolled again. This time the number shown was a six. However, it was acquired by adding the three best rolls of the four die that were cast.

Above his stats on the sheet there was a section with ten headings. He was supposed to write down the numbers rolled and pick the top seven for reallocation purposes. Six would be used for his stats and the lowest of those seven would be used as a skill point bonus. Reluctantly, Scott wrote a six into the first slot.

The six mediocre rolls later, he nearly jumped for joy when he received a sixteen. "Hell yeah! Finally something worth a damn."

Happily, he received two more good rolls as well. The final roll, however, was a three.

Once he finished rolling, several books appeared on the table. The overly sensual voice was prompted him to read them.

"Attributes for Dummies? Talents for the Talentless?" Scott read the titles while trying not to laugh. The bastards that did this to him wanted to rub his ignorance in his face.

He cracked open the largest book, one regarding the core rules of the supposed new system, and began to read. As he did so, he felt a strange sense of Deja Vu. It was like he already knew what he would find inside. The more he read, the stronger that feeling became. The strangest part of the situation was that he knew for a fact that he'd never known that information before. It was as though it spontaneously appeared inside his brain while he read the book!

Less than ten pages into reading, Scott stopped and then spoke a random number, and then rattled off what he suspected he would find on that page. He skipped ahead over one hundred pages.

"Damn. It wasn't perfect, but I got most of it right," he said. Somehow reading the first ten pages of the book granted him knowledge of things that he would not find for another one hundred pages. His memory was not one hundred percent accurate, but it was close enough.

He went back to reading from where he left off. By the time he reached page one hundred he could almost perfectly recite information that he'd never seen before that would not be found until page three hundred. It did not matter to him what page he chose, he could see it clearly inside his head before he even read it.

Scott spent quite some time jumping back and forth in the book while guessing at the information that he would find. His guesses proved nearly perfect each time.

"Congratulations. You've learned the core rules," said the sensual voice. "It will be impossible for you to forget them regardless of your ability scores. Please read the remaining books."

The same phenomenon occurred with each of the other books. The shorter books were learned within less than a dozen pages, while most of the remainder took only thirty or forty pages to master.

"You have to be kidding me," said Scott. The entire world would be entering a dream world in order to work toward developing their abilities and skills in anticipation of a total shift in the way reality on Earth worked. Death in the dream would be for real unless someone used a resurrection spell, similar item, or special tokens were used to buy resurrection.

"A game? The whole world is turning into some sort of game..." Scott shook his head, bewildered by the very thought of it. The rule books and system information did not call it a game, but what else could it be? There were stats, levels, skills, and even a respawn system.

Silence reigned for a while as he came to terms with things. Either everything he'd experienced was some sort of coma dream, or it was actually happening. If it was the former, then nothing mattered and this was just something his dying brain threw at him to keep him busy. If it was the latter, his choices would be extremely important.

A tag line from one of the books arose within his mind. "What you once were is no more. What you choose to be is all that matters."

Scott tasted those words on his lips for a time. What did he wish to be? If given an actual chance to be whatever he wanted to be, what would he choose?

He frowned. It was obvious, actually. Save for a brief golden period back when he was a small child, and his father was still alive, life had decisively chosen to make him its bitch.

"Day in, and day out, the same old grind," he said with a growl. The only people who bothered to try and get closer to him were also people solely looking to get him to do things for them. They either wanted him to take their work shifts so they could go fuck off somewhere, or asked for free food handouts.

People did nothing but take, and take. He wanted to be free of such things. More, he wanted the power to do anything that he desired.

Scott quietly admitted the truth to himself. He was something of a loser in life. In point of fact, it shat heavily upon him at every opportunity. At times it almost seemed like life was deliberately out to get him.

It was impossible to get close to people, to trust them. Trusting them only brought problems, or worse. No. If he had a legitimate chance to be rid of his old self and try to do anything else but be a cosmic butt-monkey, he would take it.

"If this is true, then in about a year everything will be different. If I don't want to be someone else's bitch, I'll have to be too strong to mess with..."

Power, unstoppable and undeniable all-around power. That was what he needed. How could he achieve it, though?

He searched his new memories. Magic was a thing now, apparently. However, it was heavily limited in that it drew on the life force of the caster. Using spells would allow for incredible potential, but it came at a high cost.

"Going full magic would make me beholden to others to keep me alive for a long time. Fuck that," said Scott. No, he would not choose to be a pure mage. However, magic would definitely be important in the future. Even the little tidbits of what he'd seen in the book showed the potential for supernatural power.

The more he thought about it, the more he began to categorize the choices available. He needed brutal power, lots of flexibility for growth, and enough life force to both cast spells and heal from is wounds quickly.

It came to him in a flash of insight. He needed a selfish new life that included skills and abilities focus on total dominance. "Not a pure mage, and definitely not a pure fighter route. I need something that is combined both with a focus more on magic early on."

His lips spread into a thin, grim, smile. "Oh, that could work..."

Scott immediately began making choices for his options. He placed his ability scores in the status slots that he believed would be most beneficial in the long run, and not just immediately. Once that was done, he chose his talents. Magical affinity and a talent that granted him improved vigor were the order of the day.

As far as skills went, the system was designed to work in three tiers. There were primary, secondary, and tertiary skill-tiers. He was allowed to pick skills that went into each tier and fill all of the available slots. After picking them, associated skill books appeared on the table. One by one he read through them, starting with the skill books for his primary skills as he was required to read them in order.

His primary skills were magic oriented, since they drew on his life force. It would be important to train them as rapidly as possible due to their cost of use. In his secondary slots he chose combat skills, and an ability that would allow him to use magic more effectively. The tertiary skills were used for support abilities and crafting skills.

After making his skill and stat choices, he was asked to create a name for his dream self. He thought briefly about it, and decided that he did not want to use his original name in the dream world. The last thing he wanted to deal with was people finding out who he was and hassling him in real life.

"What's a proper name for someone like who I want to be?" He considered a few choices, but in the end he decided to settle on something that sounded dark and edgy. A fitting name for what he chose to become.

Choosing a name, and finalizing his choices raised his level from zero to one. Upon doing so he gained more skill points, acquired additional skill slots due to his intellect modifier, and also gained two more ability points. He spent them on his magic and blade masteries. Doing so allowed him to start off with two sub-skills, Longsword Mastery and Dark Lightning Mastery, at level one. The latter decision allowed him to learn the most basic dark elemental lightning spell, Jolt!.

STATUS

Name: Scott Logan

Dream Form: Blackthorne

Level: 1

Ability Points: 0

Talent Points: 0

Skill Points: 0

Life Force: 18

Strength: 13

[+1]

Agility: 12

[+1]

Vigor: 16

[+3]

Intellect: 14

[+4]

Charisma: 16

[+5]

Luck: 10

[+0]

TALENTS

Superior Magical Affinity

Minor Vigorous Body

PRIMARY SKILLS

Dark Magic

Rank: 18

- Sub-Skill: Basic Dark Lightning Mastery

Rank: 1

Conjuration Magic

Rank: 1

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

SECONDARY SKILLS

Heavy Armor

Rank: 1

Blade Mastery

Rank: 20

- Sub-Skill: Basic Longsword Mastery

Rank: 1

- Sub-Skill: Basic Shortsword Mastery

Rank: 1

Arcane Ring Mastery

Rank: 1

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

TERTIARY SKILLS

Synergy

Rank: 1

Jewelry Crafting

Rank:1

Enchanting

Rank:1

Alchemy

Rank:1

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

The sub-skills were most useful for their additions to his fighting power at the moment. Spending skill points on them would be wasteful as they required twice as many points to increase their rank when compared to their basic skill.

Whenever he gained a level he would acquire two ability points and twenty skill points as a base. The Intellect modifier would provide additional skill points, and also added new skill slots to use, but otherwise he would only be able to upgrade his skills through usage. According to his new knowledge that could be a lengthy process, though the intellect modifier would help.

His talents point were spent primarily on upgrading his magical affinity talent. It provided various bonuses, not the least of which was a boost to the intellect and charisma modifiers. Those bonuses would be quite important since the maximum ability score that he could gain through spending ability points was twenty. At least, that was the maximum that he could acquire during this phase of his life. After he left this tutorial area, things would be different.

If he wanted to increase a stat he'd need to spend ability points equal to the base state modifier. At nine-to-thirteen points that would only be a one point requirement. After fourteen points it started to increase as the fourteenth point in a stat granted it a plus two modifier.

"Isn't it weird that charisma is the primary magic stat?" he asked lightly. Intellect mostly focused on skills. As far as the system was concerned, charisma was strength of spirit.

"Charisma is both an attractive quality that can inspire devotion, and a divinely granted power or talent," said the voice. "In the original context it often led to the development of powerful command oriented talents and overall leadership capacity."

The voice paused briefly and then continued, "In the new system it also relates to the ability to control supernatural forces and can be seen as similar to strength of spirit or willpower in that regard."

"Ah, I see..." said Scott. He knew that charisma was cited as something that paladins had that related to leadership and their magical abilities in some games. It made a weird sort of sense.

The table and its contents disappeared a moment later. He was drawn to his feet and then his chair disappeared as well.

"Your reallocation has been completed. The character file changes will go live in twenty-four hours. Thank you for your support, and have a nice existence," said the voice.

"Oh? So what happens, now—" began Scott. He was cut off before he could complete his question, as another flash of light flared in his field of vision.

With a start his eyes shot open and he sat up on the couch. His heart hammering in his chest, he looked around bleary-eyed while trying to comprehend what had just happened. On the still-playing television a similar situation occurred as the surgeon and his assistants began to stir.