It didn’t take Erin as long to wrap her head around the new body thing as she thought it should have.

[You will find your new Mind stat has increased your mental fortitude.]

Oh good another mind reader.

“What’s new about it?” She asked once her breathing had slowed down again. “It just says ‘normal’ on the…” she trailed off, not wanting to call the glowing lines of letters a ‘character sheet’ out loud.

[Normal for Tier 2]

Her Liaison supplied.

“So I’m what, a superhuman or something?”

[While unranked, you are still Tier 2 and that comes with certain benefits. Once you rank up, these benefits will improve.]

Erin set all that aside for a moment. It made some kind of sense. She had been a gamer after all and understood the concept of progressing her stats just fine.

“What about my class? It says I’m an unranked mage. Is that not optional? The mage part I mean.”

[You have been selected for Tier 2 world: Jetriser. All reincarnated souls share the mage class in this world, though the term is broader than you’re imagining.]

She frowned with dissatisfaction. Erin had always preferred to play a melee fighter. A good old-fashioned sword and board, if she could manage it.

“So let’s get this straight. I die and I’m being reincarnated into a fantasy world with game mechanics, and I don’t even get to choose my class? People in the books have the choice. “ She could almost feel her Liaison’s non-existent eyebrow raise and Erin shook her head.

“Nevermind. Just tell me how this works. Where do we go from here?”

[As an entry-level Mage, you choose from one of the elemental schools of magic: Fire, Water, Earth, or Air. Once you select the school of your first proficiency, you will gain the first spell in that school.]

“Are there other schools besides the four?”

[As you earn experience and fulfill certain requirements, The System will provide more options to you.]

“So there are more options. That’s good to know.”

She turned her focus to the choices in front of her, only to find more floating lights had popped into existence and shuffled themselves into words.

Fire

Water

Earth

Air

She reached out her hand and tentatively pressed her fingertip to the word ‘Fire’ and the glowing letters rearranged themselves. This time into something that resembled a help or info section.

Fire

Bronze Spell: Fireball

Slot: Unassigned

Description: You gain the ability to conjure and discharge concentrated balls of flame.

Erin’s eyes scanned over the brief message several times, and then she asked the obvious questions.

“What makes it a Bronze Spell?”

[All spells begin at the bronze quality and are improved through use. This is done in situations the System would consider dangerous. For example, using the spell to kill a monster would generate much greater growth towards the next rank than over-using it to light a campfire, or on a training dummy.]

Right, Erin thought, using it in combat improves the skill. It was pretty standard fare for gamers. Skill-based systems were nothing new to her.

“What is a slot, and why is it unassigned?”

[Spell slots 1, 2, and 3 are each tied to your Soul, Mind, and Body attributes and each confers a different bonus to the spell in its assigned slot. The rank of the spell in that slot determines the rank of the attribute itself.]

“So that’s why they’re all showing as normal? Because I don’t have any spells slotted?”

[That is accurate. When you slot a spell for the first time, the classification will change.]

“Can I remove spells from a slot?”

[Yes. It is a common practice to change spells based on the needs of the situation.]

“So what if I slot in a lower rank spell than my previous? Does the attribute change to the lower rank?”

[No, attributes will always reflect their highest assigned spell.]

“How does that work?” Erin asked with a frown.

[Changing the slotted spell does not destroy the previous spell. It is stored away to await further use.]

“So can I just, I don’t know, take my highest rank spell and apply it to each slot to raise my attributes?”

[Once a spell has been assigned to an attribute slot, it can’t be used in any other. The link between attribute and spell slot is permanent.]

Erin pushed the fireball information to the side, and her eyes scanned the full character sheet again.

Name: Erin Young

Class: Unranked Mage

Tier 2

Soul: Normal

Mind: Normal

Body: Normal

Spell Slot (Soul):

Aug 1:

Aug 2:

Spell Slot (Mind):

Aug 1:

Aug 2:

Spell Slot (Body):

Aug 1:

Aug 2:

Spell Slot (Special):

Aug 1:

Aug 2:

A few things had already changed since the last time she’d looked at it. I guess my character sheet is at least partially determined by my understanding of the world. Her gaze fell on the last spell slot. The one labeled ‘4’ was now ‘special’.

“What’s up with the fourth slot?” She asked. “Why is it ‘special’?”

[The fourth slot is not tied to an attribute and is locked until the first three slots are filled. Any spell in that slot will have increased effectiveness.]

“So it’s some sort of ultimate ability?” Erin asked, but it wasn’t a proper question. She’d seen systems like this before. She brought the Fireball selection back to the center of her vision and backed out of it so she could look at some of her other options.

Fire

Water

Earth

Air

With no genuine excitement, she selected the ‘Water’ option and watched the letters made of light rearranged themselves.

Water

Unranked Spell: Jet

Slot: Unassigned

Description: You gain the ability to conjure water as a pressurized stream.

Even as she read it, Erin scrunched up her face at the prospect of being the mage equivalent of a garden hose. She dismissed the idea, along with the spell description, and backed out once more to the school selection. Her eyes lingered on ‘Earth’, but she shook her head. Hard pass; dirt and rocks just aren’t for me. So instead she moved on to the last option; Air.

Air

Unranked Spell: Scythe

Slot: Unassigned

Description: Gain the ability to conjure and discharge a blade of compressed air.

“I suppose this is my first dilemma. Fire or Air.” As she floated in darkness and contemplated her options, Erin’s right hand moved up to cradle her chin. A habitual gesture she’d picked up from her father. As her thoughts turned to her family, a cold pit formed in her stomach. She dropped her hand away from her face and pushed away from the thoughts of the dad she’d never see again and found that the sensation of loss faded.

I should probably be worried about that. She shrugged it off, refocusing on the question before her.

“Fire or air?” She asked her Liaison on a whim, not expecting a reply, and was surprised to find she could feel the presence in her mind contemplating the question. For several long moments, Erin endured the eerie sensation of another mind working alongside her own before her Liaison answered.

[This is a decision for the Mage to make.]

“I’m not asking you to decide. Just asking what you would do if you were me. Think of it as sourcing your opinion.”

[I’m sorry, but I can’t give advice that might influence your decision at such a critical stage. It’s important your experience of the world to come is untainted.]

“Why is that important?” Erin asked, one eyebrow arched

[This is not a question I can answer.]

“What, because the System said so?”

[No.]

“Then what?”

[This is not a question I can answer.]

Air blasted from Erin’s nose as she gave vent to her exasperation.

“Fine, keep your secrets.” Erin tried to continue on being annoyed but just couldn’t make it last. The emotion slipped away like water through her fingers. I always thought I was pretty relaxed, but being dead has taken it to a new level, she reflected. Or maybe there’s some sort of magical calming thing in effect, so I don’t go insane trying to deal with all this.

With a shrug, she once more raised her hand to her chin, this time not noting the gesture.

“Fire or air?” She said aloud, this time asking herself. She couldn’t deny there was an appeal in the mental image she had of herself, slinging fireball after fireball in rapid succession. As her mind turned to the air equivalent, she became more certain.

Sure, there was an advantage in her attacks being practically invisible, but maybe she was just a showboat at heart? An image of herself, arms aloft as pillars of fire roared outward, engulfing the world around her, seared itself into her mind’s eye. She felt a twinge of amusement at her own imagination. Who knew I was such an arsonist?

She had dabbled in fire magic from time to time in the video games she’d played, but if she were being honest, melee fighters were her first love. It figures that the real-life RPG thing would happen to me, and there are no good options for a scrap. She reached up to push a lock of her red hair out of her face, and she decided.

“Fire.” she said firmly, and the drop-down jumped to the Fireball selection. This time featuring a dropdown box made of the same golden light. She moved her hand in front of her and hesitated in front of the ‘Confirm’ option for only a second before pressing.

All the golden letters that comprised the fireball selection lost their shape, like candles melting before a bonfire. The golden hue of the light turned to amber before moving all the way into orange as the formless symbols compressed together into a large ring that spun in front of her face. Symbols she didn’t recognize formed the borders of the ring and their color shifted and danced, like flames in a breeze.

“Well, that’s pretty cool.” She said to nobody in particular as she reached her hand out to touch the circle of fiery symbols. As her finger made contact, her Liaison spoke.

[Where would you like to assign your Fireball rune?]

“Does it matter?” Erin asked, green eyes still transfixed by the dancing light.

[Each rune slot confers a different bonus effect. These effects can vary from one spell to the next, but are always linked to the attribute from which they stem. For Fireball; Mind, decreases the recharge time. Soul enhances its augmentations, and Body reduces the spell cost.]

“Wait, what’re augmentations?” Then she recalled the character sheet. Under each Spell slot was the word ‘aug’ repeated twice.

[Augmentations are lesser runes that change the nature of a spell.]

“Change how?”

[You will find many of your questions will be answered more easily once we arrive on Jetriser.]

“So can I assume I won’t be receiving any of these augmentations as part of the whole reincarnation deal?” Erin asked, “And what’s with the Body attribute reducing cost? Isn’t that more of a mind thing?”

[No, you will not be receiving an augmentation rune before your arrival, and the transformation of magic into a spell is a bodily process. Each cast will eat into your stamina.]

Erin rolled the options around in her head. There was no point in slotting the spell into Soul if she didn’t have augmentations yet; which left Mind or Body. In most games, either would be a viable option.

But this isn’t a game. She reminded herself. The decisions she made could and would be the difference between life and death. With that in mind, she weighed out the pros and cons. Body was the endurance attribute in this case, and Mind was the output. Shorter cooldowns at regular cost or regular cooldowns at a lower cost.

“Mind,” she chose, hoping she wouldn’t come to regret her decision. Erin figured that being able to cast more frequently would be of greater benefit early on than endurance. Better to attack with overwhelming force and end a fight before it could get started. There wasn’t much point in an endurance battle if she only had the one ability, anyway.

Before her eyes, the burning rune broke apart into small ribbons of orange light that swirled around her outstretched arm. The magic attached itself to her skin and moved down her arm like a living tattoo. A gentle heat spread through her body as if she were under a thick blanket in a warm room. When the sensation reached her head, she was treated to another new experience.

Knowledge imprinted into her mind and, with no more effort than it took to endure for a moment or two, she understood the nature of magic. She could feel the Fireball spell under her skin. As if the runes that she had absorbed continued to swirl and shift inside her.

“I’m a mage.” She said, Her Liaison must’ve taken this as a prompt because the golden light of her character sheet bloomed once more into existence before her eyes.

Name: Erin Young

Class: Unranked Mage

Tier 2

Soul: Normal

Mind: Bronze

Body: Normal

Spell Slot (Soul):

Aug 1:

Aug 2:

Spell Slot (Mind): Fireball (Bronze: Rank 1)

Aug 1:

Aug 2:

Spell Slot (Body):

Aug 1:

Aug 2:

Spell Slot (Special):

Aug 1:

Aug 2:

Erin’s eyes scan the words and seeing the spell’s appearance on the list, alongside some new information she grinned to herself.

“Bronze again?”

[Jetriser’s System classifies spell ranks with a tier system. Bronze is the lowest.]

“What’s the highest tier?”

[This is not a question I can answer.]

“Is it... Diamond?” Erin asked with a smirk, and she could almost feel the entity in her head roll her nonexistent eyes before answering.

[Yes.]

Her tone was exasperated. Erin shook her head, still too excited about the fact she could do magic to worry overmuch about the seemingly arbitrary rules. With a small shrug, she resigned herself to her fate. If her guide wouldn’t guide, she’d figure it out on her own.

[Would you like to begin reincarnation?]

“Yeah, let’s do it.” Despite her trepidation at plunging headfirst into a brand new world; she knew she’d floated in this black void for too long already. The first notable change was that the lights of her character sheet vanished, plunging her once more into perfect darkness.

She felt her outstretched limbs becoming heavier as if she were exercising and sending them straight into that post-workout noodle state. In just a few moments, her stamina was spent and the weight that had fallen on her limbs reached out and asserted itself over the rest of her body. At which point she fell… again.

In perfect silence, she plummeted through the air. Only the tumbling of her stomach to tell her she was spinning as not even rushing air marked her passage this time.

As if the uncontrolled fall through darkness wasn’t punishment enough, reality itself jerked to one side. A sensation she felt in every atom of her being as kinetic impact and sheer wrongness.

The dark marble that made up this black bit of In-Between cracked like it was being crushed between a god’s fingers. Light bled through as the darkness splintered into jagged forks all around her. In the depths of her terror, she heard the voice in her head say,

[Well, that’s not good.]