[Alix]

Why am I in a forest, and why are the trees yellow and orange?

I’m quickly on my feet to get a better look around and yep, definitely a forest.

Also, the sun is quite obviously blue. Whaaat?

Not that the mossy smell is unpleasant, or that I mind the sound of the rustling leaves cut by the occasional buzzing insect or bird chirping. But... last I remember, I was running on a treadmill with a bunch of monitoring equipments checking on my vitals. That was part of the physical testing to go in the Study.

Oh.

I must have lost some time because of the uplink.

Damn, this is impressive.

Of course I knew it would be like this from the testimonies on TV, but unexpectedly waking up inside with no transition, and not even realizing I’m in a simulation… Sick. They weren’t kidding when they claimed it’s impossible to tell the difference between this place and reality!

Until they ruin it with a notice.

S.T.U.D.Y. System initializing, Status will be available shortly. In the meantime, you may read our

terms and conditions.

Yeah right, as if I wanted to read some boring law gibberish. I’m already here, and I know that no matter what, there’s no log-out button for a year anyway.

So. I’m alone in the middle of a forest, my priority is to survive. I can hope to find some kind of civilization but I should work with the assumption that I wont. So… Water, food and shelter first. The temperature is nice right now but I bet the night will be cold.

The notice quickly drifts away as I start walking downhill, I avoid the obstacles on my path, trying to stay in the relatively clear areas under the large trees. Thick surface roots and treacherous rocks on the slope make for really bad footing. I notice small animals quickly scampering away when I pass close to them, but I don’t manage to catch a real glimpse, only a rustle of leaves. Probably lizards or some kind of rodent.

I guess that’s a possible food source.

The forest is getting ever so slightly wetter, it’ only a matter of time before I stumble upon the river. I just hope the water is fresh and fit for drinking it.

A new system message is suddenly there, far more interesting than the first.

You have chosen to be granted a great power within the S.T.U.D.Y., however, some forces want it for themselves and will do anything to tear it away from you.

They will never rest as long as you draw breath.

Calculating choices… You have 27:45 to choose before the System chooses for you.

Hell yeah, give it to me!

It doesn’t take long.

Kinetic Mastery

Absolute Regeneration

Greater Light Manipulation

Air Manipulation

Walker of the Perfect Path

I stare at my option, torn.

It’s like the System knows exactly what I’d like and wants me to pick one of a bunch of choices I’d never refuse if it was alone.

Hmm, actually, maybe I did suggest those myself at some point during the time I’m missing. That would make sense.

I was afraid it wouldn’t show up since I didn’t feel any different when I woke up, but there it is. I wanted to go in the Study to have superpowers in a fantasy world. Being awesome and capable of kicking the ass of monsters and evil empires!

I quickly look around with some worry, I haven’t been paying attention to my surroundings because of the system notices, but no terrifying monster in dire need of death by hero is rushing to kill me before I have the means to be said hero.

Good, good. Nobody would want me to die too soon, that would just be lame.

I do wonder what happens if I die here. I wouldn’t die die, obviously, but it can’t be nice. I pinch myself. Yeah, no such thing as a pain dampener in place.

Maybe there is something for bigger injuries but I’m obviously not going to try to break my neck just to see what happens.

Well, there’s a good reason to ignore the regeneration power, drowning monsters in my blood only sounds fun if it doesn’t imply actually being hurt enough to bleed a literal river.

Then there’s the question of what does Walker of the Perfect Path even means. I wish somebody was around to explain this stuff, or at least that the system felt like helping.

No such thing around.

Kinetic Mastery sounds like a fun time, but can I really pass the other two? Air bending seems just as awesome, and the light manipulation is “greater”.

“uuughh”. How do I choose, damn it.

I can think of a dozen flashy moves with any of those three! And maybe the last one would also be awesome if I knew what it meant!

I sigh.

If I let the system pick for me I can pretend I never knew there were other options that I’m missing on, but I might get stuck with the regeneration thing.

Well, the system is some kind of machine, when in doubt with a machine, just order it to do what you want and see what happens. Always works with Robotics.

“Remove Absolute Regeneration!”

…

I’ll be damned.

It actually worked, the regeneration is gone and the list is down to four items.

“Help?”

“Kinetic Mastery details?”

“Bonus explanation?”

“Power explanation?”

“Power details?”

Gah, fuck off.

Fine. Random it is.

So, back to finding a river.

Hmm… Do I remove the walker of the perfect path thing too? Shit sounds like Buddhist philosophy or something.

If this was a video game I’d pick it just to clarify, but something tells me there’s no walking back once I’ve made a choice here.

One in four that I get it, and I give it half a chance to be disappointing…

I can live with those odds.

- - -

The system finished initializing, and I just have the time to take a look at all the information on my status before a brutal headache suddenly overwhelms me.

I’m on the ground clutching my head before I know it.

My world is searing pain, wave after wave of agony so strong I can’t even count them. I can’t muster the strength to yell in pain, reduced to barely more than a crying and whimpering mess on the floor.

And then it gets worse. I barely see a blinding light before the world goes dark.

- - -

When I come back to my senses, it’s nothing like earlier. My whole body feels sore and my head hurts. I feel like I got run over by a bus or something.

I struggle a bit to sit up, but things get better once I start shaking some blood back into my limbs.

Hmm.

Why is there dust floating everywhere?

Why is it going through my skin like it isn’t there, and why can I see it through solid objects?

I stay frozen in fascination for a minute, just observing. I decide to look in my status and I see a few new lines in my traits : Mana Sense and Mana Manipulation (minor) first, which seems to mean that mana appears as floating dust that goes through everything. Interesting stuff, but then there’s another pair of new lines.

Greater Light Manipulation [Boon]

You have an uncanny affinity with light magic, and possess a deeper understanding of the physics behind the power photons can produce than most will ever have. This Trait helps you instinctively manipulate mana to create Light magic formations. This Trait grants you exceptional skill at figuring out new spells and uses of Light Manipulation. This Trait gives you some protection against the effects it provides.

This Trait has enhanced your mind and mana pool. This Effect will remain even if the trait is lost. Currently : 70 INT, 500 mana

This Trait is a System granted Boon, making it more likely to evolve.

This Trait is a System granted Boon, making it less likely to be lost.

This is why it felt like knowledge was forcefully crammed into my head earlier, that’s exactly what happened. I was a bit surprised by the massive amount of intelligence it brought to me, but upon further inspection, I didn’t actually get suddenly incredibly smarter, it’s just the System measuring magical knowledge.

Intelligence (INT)

Intelligence is a measure of both how fast your mind is and how much knowledge you have. Each point of intelligence is reflected by a matching mana point. Intelligence is one of the hardest measures to compare and should be considered the least reliable of all stats.

Like all stats, pushing yourself to the limits of your intelligence will eventually make it grow.

However, intelligence is unique in the fact that it can also grow with relatively low effort, from simply learning new things.

I… I know I can do things now. I don’t really know what, but I feel it, some actions, some specific ideas and wants in my mind will work. Just like I don’t need to think about how my skeleton, muscles and tendons work together to let me stand, I snap my fingers and a spark of light shines for a second, brightly illuminating my smile.

One mana gone.

This is awesome.

Hunted [Curse] (Minor)

Outworldly beings are relentlessly invading this plane of existence specifically to hunt you down and rip away the Boon of Greater Light Manipulation you own. This Trait helps them invade relatively close to your position, and regularly nudges their instincts in your direction. As this Trait is still in its minor stage, only lesser entities may slip through the cracks between existences to hunt you down.

This Trait is a System granted Curse, allowing it to evolve once you reach specific milestones.

This Trait is a System granted Curse linked to another of your Traits, making it impossible to be lost as long as the linked Trait is still owned.

Hehehe. They want to hunt me? Now that is going to be fun.

I extend an arm and the mana simply obeys. A few incredibly complex structures extend from the tip of my fingers, small black cubes that capture the light and let none pass, as if a god decided to remove five little chunks of reality itself.

A dozen seconds pass like this during which I marvel at the power I feel gently rising, a warm feeling following each movement of my hand, I feel another sensation.

One mana spent.

I release my hold on the structures and they erupt into blinding flashes of orange and yellow, the information they intercepted on the surrounding forest is released all at once, each about as strong as a powerful camera flash.

That was dumb but it felt fine. Looking at those flashes should have burned a mark on my retinas for at least a couple minutes, but the trait protected me well, my vision isn’t hampered in the slightest.

The headache and physical pain are completely gone now, like a bad memory washed away by the rain.

I’ve got power, I can take on the world!

I’ve never felt this alive.

- - -

Four days have passed since I woke up in the Study. And well, I’m having a good time.

Light manipulation quickly became the best friend I’ve ever had. I can easily use it to make a giant magnifying lens, quickly and easily starting any fire. I started always keeping a structure of mana accumulating photons while I walk around looking for my next hunt. I haven’t quite figured out how to release it with the efficiency of a laser yet, but I’m compensating that with the overwhelming power of one hour or so of light accumulated spent in a single pulse. It’s enough light to durably blind whatever it’s aimed at, and enough energy to cause harm, like a sudden, really nasty sunburn.

The thought of being a sentient UV bed trying to murder every animal on its way does make me chuckle somewhat.

“The real drawback is how much mana I need. Sitting on a log with mana sense turned on to the max and manipulating mana as fast as possible to push it back in my body is boooooring.”

I mean, I’ve got a very decent mana pool at least, I started a bit over 900 and it’s inching towards 1000 as my magic related traits are progressing.

I got a new one forming called Bringer of Light that is focused on hoarding and empowering the light in my little cages of power.

The drawback is that I spend a lot of mana, which in turn means I need to manipulate it back from the outside world into my body to regenerate it faster.

My goal is to stay above 800 at all times, I haven’t seen any of those outworldly beings from another plane of reality who are supposed to be hunting me yet, but I’d rather be ready when it happens.

A keening noise rings softly through the forest, disturbing my time off.

This is a first. I jump on my feet and look around, mana constructs already starting to form with barely a conscious thought, bigger versions of my usual photon accumulators.

I quickly find the source. It’s only about a hundred meters away from where I was sitting.

A bizarre sight.

In between two trunks, there’s a huge black spiderweb.

I hesitantly edge closer, I haven’t seen spiders yet and this one isn’t in the middle of its two meter wide web.

The keening sound repeats, much harder than the first time. It’s like somebody is grinding a fork on a metal plate.

The web spreads doubles in size, piercing through the trees that do not like the treatment at all. It isn’t a web at all. The thicker strands clearly look like cracks now. Cracks in the fabric of reality, hanging in mid-air.

A mirthless smile on my lips, I take position, stretching my light gathering structures and ignoring the rapidly increasing cost. Time to fry some otherworldly invaders.

Tendril-like structures spread from saucer-sized black areas in my hand, intercepting all the light they can and directing it to bounce within the slowly warming accumulators that cover my hands.

For the third time, reality quivers and cries out as it is brutalized, and the cracks spread as they spew a copious flood of small spindly creatures, like a giant mouth vomiting demons from the deepest levels of hell.

Disgusting crustaceans, with soft slimy parts and many chitinous legs fall to the floor. Thin legs snap and break from the brutal arrival. The first ones down are squished by the sheer weight of those coming after. Hundreds of hand sized confused creatures that definitely don’t seem very efficient.

It would be comical in a way if they weren’t so disgusting and so many.

For each that dies, a dozen start moving around the place in a seemingly random direction. A particularly lucky one got somehow pushed straight in my direction and is already halfway to my feet.

And then, like obeying a silent pulse, they all stop for a beat before all rushing in my direction with unerring accuracy.

Oh shit.

My accumulators aren’t very loaded yet, just a few minutes worth, but on fragile creatures like this, unleashing a blast will probably have some effect.

Although they don’t seem to have eyes…

Bringing forward a hundred mana and transforming it into light to further fuel the flash takes no time at all.

“This is exactly the reason I’ve been saving it in the first place...”

It only takes a second to spread a thin layer of mirrors in the air around my target zone. The more light gets send back, the more likely the things will get fried.

The strongest flash I’ve made yet is unleashed in a large cone and some of the dispersing light is reflected back down onto the kill zone. The rest is lost in the forest which is brightly lit for a second, as if a small sun had suddenly decided to appear at my command.

The ground is purged, things like grass or fallen leaves pretty much vaporized by the burst of energy.

A shower of kill notifications assault my mind as dozens of the weak beasts die outright, cooked by the flash.

My only regret with light magic is how silent it is, but the tiny cries and the sounds of soft flesh shriveling is music to my ears.

You’ve slain a lesser beast from beyond. experience gain : 1%

You’ve slain a lesser beast from beyond. experience gain : 1%

…

You’ve slain a lesser beast from beyond. experience gain : 1%

Congratulations, you’ve leveled up!

The system is now more in tune with your mind and body.

Rewards will be evaluated and granted as soon as you’re out of combat.

You’ve slain a lesser beast from beyond. experience gain : 0.3%

…

You’ve slain a lesser beast from beyond. experience gain : 0.3%

I’ve got no time to count but that was at least fifty.

The teeming mass got hit pretty badly, but hundreds remain. Many of those are still alive but out of commission for now, partially burned, the core of their body wasn’t directly exposed but they took too much damage to keep moving properly.

But the reinforcements are quickly moving forward, stampeding their dead and injured alike, while those that were half buried before the blast crawl out from under their deceased meat shields.

The first of the beasts that gets near me is on its last leg, and I kick it away before it can do a thing.

I could blast them again, that wasn’t too bad but it wasn’t as efficient as I hoped.

The cracks are closing though, the speed of their disgusting delivery is plummeting quickly. Good. I have no idea how to mend fractures of reality. If it heals itself then I’m happy.

In that case, time for a tactical retreat.

“You’ll get tired before I do you stupid bugs!”

- - -

They didn’t.

Well, their loss really.

I turn to the clattering horde that is dutifully following me. They are stubborn, but they don’t move faster than my walking speed.

This time, my gathering array had the time to load up properly. The accumulator has been growing steadily warmer, enough that I had to detach it from my hand about ten minutes ago. I decided to try and circle around the mass of beast so that the faster ones at the front turn back and join up on the slower ones that got hurt for one reason or another during the walk.

Honestly, if I could walk for a full day or two, this problem would probably solve itself from pure attrition as they chase me. They hurt themselves in their haste to keep up, and they don’t stop to eat or drink or rest. No way that they can hold this pace for very long.

Unlucky for them, humans were built to endure long walks, and my wanderer trait is helping a little in that regard.

Anyway, back to the present, I got crabs to fry.

I don’t bother with the mirrors this time, not only the hundreds of beasts are more spread out than during my first try, the power is nothing comparable.

I’ve spent around two hundred mana loading this blast, and I’ve been using it to gather rather than to generate light.

It’s orders of magnitude more efficient to catch the energy passing by rather than producing it myself.

This time, I extend a reflective structure in the front of my eyes. I have a feeling that this light show is going to be more than my trait can handle without support.

Even though I know intellectually that they are foreign, I am not willing to ignore those instincts.

I bring the basketball sized pitch black zone in front of me. It currently holds more than two hours of accumulated photons over a large area, including some of that sweet blue light of the midday sun snatched in a clearing.

I can’t resist.

“Kaaaa… Meeee… Haaaaa… MEEEE.. HA!”

For a second, the wrath of a dozen suns flashes forward in front of me. The air temperature rises sharply, warm wind that wasn’t there a second ago gently caress my face.

I take stock of the devastation as I reabsorb the mana from the various constructs surrounding me.

You’ve slain [343] lesser beasts from beyond. experience gain : 93%

As far as the eye can see, the fresh yellow of the tree trunks is gone, replaced by charcoal black. The rich floor of the forest is covered in dust and the swarm of critters turned into a pile of shriveled mollusk and chitin remains.

“All right, sweet!”

I even reach a second level up. I’m not sure what the point of these are really, the system things are hardly impressive, but I guess those free stats are nice. Not enough for me to feel any real difference but I’m sure they mean something.

I wish I knew how good my stats actually are. Being just a touch above a hundred everywhere except for my two hundred intelligence feels pretty solid.

A few stragglers of the beasts trickle to the recent killing ground, I don’t worry much about them, I can effortlessly out-pace by a landslide. They will die before they ever have a chance to be threatening.

- - -

Day twelve in the Study, I’m getting really sick of these stupid relentless monsters.

“Leave me alone already!” I’m sure something heard that and will avoid me. As it damn well should.

I’ve been walking somewhat aimlessly, trying to find hints of any civilization.

I need walls and guards around me so that I can get a good night rest. I even got the perfect system skill to negotiate with anyone : universal translation!

Most of the creatures that slip through the cracks barely deserve to face my light manipulation, but they often come in groups and I’ve been forced awake more than once by the blind aggression of hurt monsters I left for dead behind me.

At least my wounds haven’t gotten infected yet, even the nasty one I had to try and cauterize with a mana lens.

Lenses are pretty great, I’ve figured out I can place an accumulator in the focal point of a lens to charge it just as quickly as with the tendrils I used at first, but for less mana.

It does take some extra attention though, principally when I’m moving, it’s a struggle to keep the fragile structure of the lens following properly.

“And I’m always moving you know?” I mumble.

The saving grace is that most monsters are woefully unadapted to land. Even with hours to catch up, I’m sure I’m not even seeing most of them.

I chuckle at the image of an ancient fish abomination flopping on dry land a few times and dying while weakly flailing ugly tentacles.

“Fucking monsters are no match for how awesome I am.”

- - -

“The hero struggles, his body is reaching its limits and his voice is hoarse from talking to himself too much.”

“Loneliness and pain take turns to try to break him, and yet, the bringer of light pushes ever onwards, the hunted man searching for civilization with resolve in his heart.”

I cough a few times.

Things got seriously dicey when I hit level 8. The trait got upgraded from minor to middle ‘level’

The system being more attuned to me means I got more details in the description. The curse can now pull both lesser and minor entities from wherever they come. They can appear closer to me too. And I now know when the next ‘upgrade’ is coming : level 24. If I live until then.

Turns out minor entities are much more annoying than the lesser ones. They aren’t as dumb, they are bigger and tougher, and they often come with a nasty surprise or two.

At least they don’t come in swarms as often.

I cough again, and I taste iron. Shit. I swallow my blood back.

I was careless with the last one, it looked like a relatively normal jellyfish, a neon blue bell letting itself be carried by air currents, with many tentacles lazily trailing behind.

An easy shot really.

I only noticed the hairs after the thing was dead and crashing down in slow motion. Touching them burned, and they also were covered in some kind of poison that made me numb.

The real problem is that they broke and I breathed in some pieces of them.

That was the opposite of a fun experience.

And it looks like there’s rain coming up today.

“Shit.”

Clouds during the night means I’m not even getting the light of the stars to fight with if need be.

- - -

It’s badly cooked – both burned and raw – and it’s bland. But I don’t care and eat through half of it as soon as I can touch the meat without burning myself. Rabbit is on the better end of the food I’ve put my hands on so far.

And objectively, it sucks.

I angrily throw the bones away.

“Argh, what the fuck am I doing in this place.”

Maybe I’ll be killed in my sleep, that would solve a bunch of problems at once.

It’s all because of those shitty monsters.

“Come up here and fight me!”

I yell over the forest and only a distant echo answers as my voice washes over the valley, another damn valley like a bunch of others that I’ve crossed.

“None of you can beat me! I’ll burn you all! Come out of your disgusting shit hole of a world and face me fair and squ...” Kof - cough

“Square.” I mumble once my fit of coughing is over.

“Fucking jellyfish.”

Of course nothing has the balls to answer the hero’s challenge.

“he. Hehehe.”

They’ll sneak during the night and try to catch me by surprise.

Well I’m beyond caring.

Just like their predecessors, they’ll die all the same.

- - -

A clear sound rings in the crisp air of the mountain.

I’m quite high up, not very far from the relatively low crest that will lead me into the next valley.

The cracks are perhaps fifty meters above ground, it looks like an impact on a windshield, concentric circles like something big tried to shatter a pane of reinforced glass.

“Well, well well, look at how big you are.”

“Are you the one that will make the king of this hill fall?”

I can’t help but grin wildly as I contemplate the spot where my challenger will emerge.

Attacking me at noon? Whatever it is, I’ll obliterate it.

My accumulators are already hot. One baseball sized construct for each hand, silently drinking every photon that crosses its way.

I merge the structures into one, and I feed it more and more mana. it’s the size of a basketball now, and I move it above my shoulders. Long gatherers spread from it in a mirror of the crack I’m watching forming a web of distortions and dark lines in the air.

Of course, I could make a huge accumulator instead, but I’d have to keep it closer to both of my hands. Walking around with a blind-spot the size of a fridge in front of me is obviously far from a good idea.

The crack suddenly triples in size, and a second later, the ringing reaches my ears.

Light always beats sound in a race.

Looks like a really big fish is on the menu today. It better not disappoint.

I grow my gathering array further than ever before, my mana pool is going down steadily with over a hundred points already spent in the last minute.

I start moving back too, just in case I need to buy a few extra seconds.

My walking pace turns into a run as a third ring breaks through the silent mountains, grown more discordant as reality protests against the invasion. I’m digging into my reserves, ignoring the sting of old wounds reopening and the deep weariness of my legs.

I glance back to see the cracks covering at least fifty meters in all directions. Deep gaps opening towards nothing. A terrifying sight, a deep darkness that has never known any light.

A terrifying sight because the cracks are far bigger than any I’ve seen before, yet nothing is coming through.

I bind a far-sight construct to my left eye, a trivial trick with my powers, and I take a good look.

No swarm of angry leeches, no stalking monsters, no graceful jellyfishes. The crack opened to a dead place.

Almost dead.

A pair of evil glints stare back at me, piercing the distance with the same ease as myself.

There’s a shudder, and the cracks are suddenly gone, replaced by a massive monster floating in the air, a huge maw surrounded by angry tentacles tasting the air.

The sound-wave hits me a second later. A brutal cry of rage and defiance as the beast faces me.

Discordance made sound, the sheer pressure of it is painful, I feel it rattle my insides like a physical shove.

Praise be, my spell structure mostly ignored the assault.

Well. This is no time to save mana.

I start growing my array to even larger proportions, but the monster’s tentacles suddenly all wave together like it’s swimming in water, and it works. The beast is flying through the air at a surreal speed.

Never mind gathering, the thing will be above me in seconds.

Every point of mana I have remaining is turned to light and added to my accumulator. Most of the gathering array is re-purposed in much the same way. I just keep back some of the structure to make the barrel of a gun.

A barrel of mirrors, an invisible path to try and better point the photons in the right direction.

I haven’t figured out lasers yet.

I wish I had.

The monstrous flying whale is quite close now, perhaps fifty meters away and getting nearer.

“AND YET, THE HERO STANDS.”

The flash is bright enough to hurt even through my closed eyes.

Then the wall of sound hits.

- - -

“Uuuugghh”

Even opening my eyes is painful. But it’s dark.

I’m not sure what woke me up, but it smells nice here.

Wait. Didn’t I… Die?

An unfamiliar voice breaks the silence. For once, I’m pretty sure it isn’t me talking.

“Hey, hey, easy. What’s the matter?”

Movement.

I summon a tiny light and… a man? Jumps back.

“Sorry about that. Glad to see another human. The surprise is welcome, but unexpected.”

I cough. Pretty sure most of that went through?

Better act natural and go from there.

Hmmm… Natural?

Come on Bringer of…no, Alix. You can do this.

What would Alix do here?

Same as anywhere else.

“Do you have something to drink?”