Well, at least she wasn't bored anymore. But she was dead, which had its own set of problems. Wearing a nice dress, was not one of the problems she thought associated with being dead though. And, this place she was in was a strange thing, like it defied explanation. She looked about it and could find no words to describe it. It was like a house, but not a house...gods, her brain wasn't working right now. Probably because it was rotting away with the rest of her or something.

"Confusing eldritch places of confusion are kind of par for the course, being dead and all. Why the dress though, is the real question" she muttered to herself, looking around to see if there was anything she could recognize.

"Well, would you have preferred to be in your battered, bloodstained armour?" a voice asked. Ethereal and everywhere, the voice was very off-putting and yet soothing at the same time. Estaria didn't like it, mostly because it made itself soothing like it was trying to tell her what to think.

“I….fail to see the connection” The booming voice sounded confused now, which was only natural.

“I’d probably be a beggar talking to a brick wall or a woman in one of them prison hospitals where they keep the disturbed” Estaria explained, before taking a stroll through the Halls of the Dead.

“I can’t argue with that. But I can argue with you being dead, because you aren’t. You are just between lives right now, and I am bored, so I am going to try something cool and interesting” the voice told her. Estaria raised an eyebrow, but before she could say anything, the halls retreated from her vision, there was the feeling of being thrust many leagues, and then she landed in her body. Awake, and alive. And confused. She was sure she was dead, but after the axe, the whole thing got a bit confusing. And now she wasn’t dead. Maybe she wasn’t actually dead and the axe just hurt a lot, and then she had hallucinations. She had heard that when you nearly died you saw things that weren't there...

Sitting up, there were people around her, some groaning in pain, others silent as the grave. This gathering must have been the after-action pile, where people were placed so they could be looked over by the medics. However, her mind was drawn to something that was hovering in the air.

Welcome to the tutorial, Player. To begin, please give the mental command ‘Status Screen’

A luminescent box floated in the sky and was filled with words. Words she could read, but make no sense of.

‘Mental Command? It wants me to….think it maybe? But...what even is it?’ Estaria stared at it for several moments before reaching out and touching the box. It was a physical thing, her finger could feel it, and yet it moved with her eyes. After poking it a few times and looking around to have it follow her head no matter how fast she moved it, Estaria let out a sigh and could no longer put it off. ‘Status Screen’ she tried a slight nervousness to her though.

But, it turned out to be the correct way to do things because the box vanished and was replaced with a new, larger box. It was filled with details, but only the top bit was illuminated, the bit highlighting her name, ‘Estaria’. The rest was shaded, not so she couldn’t see it, but enough to bring attention to the name. Hesitantly, she reached out and tapped it, and a new box appeared, separate from the large detail-filled box.

Estaria Zashira. Daughter of Karl Zashira and Emi Zashira. 28 years old

It was interesting to see a strange box know who her family was and how old she was. And also a little creepy. She tapped the new box and it disappeared, and then a new box replaced it, giving her some more information, albeit too late.

This is the Status Screen. This is a screen where you can see your status

Estaria gave the box a scathing glare as it made such an obvious statement. And once she had done trying to intimidate illuminated floating boxes, she carried on reading.

Here you can see your name, title, rank, Job, Level, Health, Luck and Special Resource (Cool) in the first box

Each of the lines of the box was lit up against a dark background to bring Estaria’s attention to them as she read them. So clearly, some mental connection with this thing beyond being able to call it up and down. She read what was lit up when it was lit up and was somewhat confused. “Estaria Zashira. (Blank title). Captain. (Blank Job). Level 1”. Confused at the blank spots with Title and Job, she touched them both and got two boxes.

Title - an acknowledgement of deeds done within the system. Grants bonuses related to the deed

Job - The designation of one’s skill focus. More jobs open as the player levels up

Estaria had assumed that is how the system referred to her. As a Player. As if this was a game of dice. But, not having a title or a job made more sense now since they were deeds done while having this strange thing, and she had not had this strange thing for more than a few moments. And then she pressed the special resource. This, “cool”.

Cool - The ability to remain calm and level-headed, the spending of this resource allows the use of supernatural feats of dexterity and precision

Certainly lived up to its name. Supernatural feats of dexterity and precision did sound like something she’d like to be doing. But curiosity was still abound, so she let it continue with its explanation.

Your stats are in the second box, separated into nine headings. Strength, Stamina, Constitution, Dexterity, Agility, Precision, Intelligence, Wisdom, Luck. Skills may be increased with stat points earned from quests and levelling up, or training

Estaria looked over them for a few moments and then nodded softly. They were basically numerical designations of a person’s abilities. Most were a moderate 10, whereas Dexterity and Precision were a hearty 20. Maybe. She didn't actually know what the scale was. Maybe 10 sucked and 20 sucked a little less...

Finally, the bottom box details your stat points, your money, and the xp to next level, as well as any Traits. When you have finished, use the Status Screen mental command, to close it

She had 0 stat points, a handful of coins, and 0% xp to the next level. As one would expect, you couldn’t jump into a game half-way through. Even a most strange game like this…The one thing that was there was a trait, called “Powder-Child”. She could guess but decided to get the game to tell her what it meant, and so pressed it.

Powder-Child - The fascination of firearms is deeply ingrained, and skill follows such fascination. Gain +20% range and +10% damage with black powder weaponry

That was very numerical. She didn’t know weapons had range and damage, but maybe this system was affecting more than just herself. Maybe it was affecting the entire world...staring into the sky for a few moments, she got herself back on track.

‘Status Screen’ she thought, closing the screen and getting a new box.

Basic Tutorial complete. New quest gained: Arrive At Middenheim

It hovered there till she tapped it, at which point it vanished and sanity returned. No more hovering boxes. Plus, it had given her a quest that was basically what she was doing in the first place. She could get used to that kind of quests. “Quest, wake up” “Quest, eat breakfast” “Quest, blink”. She’d ascend to Godhood in no time. But, thoughts of ascension were going to wait, for now, she was going to go out and see what the world was up to around her. So she stumbled to her feet, feeling a little stiff but certainly not like someone had just stuck an axe in her chest, and went out. Finding Sargent Borrago - Borrago Beast Eater, as he was known from one expedition having supply issues and he implimented the idea of supplementing them with the Beastmen that came to raid - she gave him a wave.

Estaria was always amazed by Borrago. She wondered how a man could grow as tall as a Norscan and expand even wider than one and still be a jolly man from The Empire. His patchwork face, more scar tissue than actual face, belied his temperament, and he was an all-around excellent Sargent to have. Some new recruits would look at his rotund body and pass him off as a fat noble who bought his way in until Borrago outran them in the track and outfenced them in the field.

“Captain! I win!” He boomed, walking over to her. He did not move with the grace of a courtier, or the lithe stride of a Master Swordsman, but rather the inexorable nature of an avalanche. Everything about Borrago was Bigger. He had spent a small fortune on the custom-sized armour and weaponry he had to fit his meaty physique, and it repaid him threefold in the field. There were few sights more enjoyable than Borrago bludgeoning an Ork to death with his shield, or him using his cannon-esque pistol to put a fist-sized hole in a man.

“And what is this that you win, Borrago?” Estaria asked, eyeing the rest of the camp. They had recovered well from the fight, and with the help of the surviving villagers, normalcy had returned and the train had broke early for dinner to tend the wounds, gather the loot and burn or bury the bodies.

“A Shilling! Someone thought you were dead, and I said it was not something you have the temperament to undergo. So there was a bet made and here you stand!”

“Mmm, I certainly felt Morr’s cold fingers beckoning me to the grave. And then I punched him in the face and came back. Far too busy to die” She gave him a grin, and then wandered about the rest of the camp with him, to oversee people’s actions and show she was still alive. The great mountian range that Middenheim was built into was looming now, and they would arrive soon....ish. “Have you ever been to Middenheim, Borrago?” Estaria asked, looking up at the big man.

“My father took me on a journey to the great Temple of Ulric there once. He wanted a blessing of Ulric that he might find joy in his drab life. And by the Wolf did it work! He was like five men after that day, in all he did. Even dying!” Borrago let out a laugh at the last, honouring his father’s memory with jublience rather than despair. Estaria raised an eyebrow, glad for the conversation to distract her from thoughts of the strange system that still lingered on her mind. Why was it there, what was its purpose. It's secrets?

“I never knew you were a worshipper of Ulric. I thought most people from Reikland worshipped Sigmar” Estaria was one of the small percentage of people to follow Ulric, the God that Sigmar worshipped, above Sigmar. As one would follow the Rieiksmarshall over a Captain.

“My Grandfather came down here on a job, part of the White Wolf mercenary unit. It was here that he met my Grandmother, and they had a few years of adventure before he retired to raise a family. And he worshipped Ulric, as did my father and as do I” he spoke with great pride, and it made Estaria smile. Few these days were as proud of their religion as they were of their finances. And a few were dangerously fanatical, a risk to all that surrounded them. Borrago occupied a happy medium.

“Well, I look forward to seeing it for myself. I feel that without first-hand experience like you, the worship of Ulric is diluted and different in the South. I may not recognize or be recognized by the Ulric priests when we arrive” She spoke, and then shook off such a dreary topic and waved him over to come get a hearty meal.

The night passed without incident, illuminated and warmed by the corpse-fires that the Norscans were burned upon. And in the morning, they carried on their journey. Further incident, was fortunately lacking, and so the arrival at Middenheim was prompt. Initially, they were wary, as they were expecting an army to lay siege and then a battalion appeared at their gates, but the acknowledgement of reinforcements rather than besiegers was swift and Estaria got her men inside the fortress-city with good speed. Her curiosity over what was going to happen was answered quickly as a luminous popup box appeared.

Quest completed! - 200 xp rewarded. New tutorial available

Estaria read and then closed the box, and opened the status screen, seeing that she was 40% of the way to next level. A most generous reward, but she was at the very bottom. Rewards were generous at the bottom, and equal effort gave reduced accomplishment as a person grew. The heroic deeds of a private were the expected duty of a Greatswordsman. It would be a few hours before she was obligated to go to the other military leaders in this city, and so she tapped the new tutorial on her status screen and was greeted with a new box.

Welcome to the Combat Tutorial. To begin, please proceed to the training ground

She was then even given a cute little map, highlighting her position, and the position of the training ground. Following the guide, she got there in good time and saw quite the field of dummies. Several were occupied by those either running punishment drills or having the ambition to ascend the ranks, but there were plenty free, so she walked up to one. It spawned a red bar above its head when she got close, and a small numerical value at the end of this bar. Its name, ‘Training Dummy’ was white.

This is a basic enemy or Mook. It has just a health bar and no special abilities. Every hit will reduce the health, and the Mook shall die when the health hits 0. Kill the mook

Estaria thought it was pretty simple. It was just giving numerals to your average fight. There was nothing strange about it, so she drew her blade and struck the ‘torso’ of the dummy. Most of the health dropped, but it required a second strike for the health to be depleted and a luminescent “40 xp” sprung up from the training dummy. Which was good. The dummy seemed to sag for a few seconds before the health returned to full and the damage she had done vanished. That was definitely magic, and Estaria stared at it for many seconds, before killing the dummy again - getting a Free training, please follow quest instructions to continue popup as she did - and watching it. The damage did just repair itself. Nobody else seemed to notice, so she decided to do some more noticeable damage.

Taking her sword to its neck, she struck with all her might, hacking the double-strike needed to ‘kill’ the dummy and taking most of its head off so it hung by a string. Stepping back, she waited a few seconds and the head put itself back on. She stared around, but nobody seemed to be even looking in her direction, let alone seeing the crazy regenerating dummy. One final kill to ensure she really wasn’t just seeing things, and it was confirmed. Regenerating dummies. Well, ok then.

Now that was out of the way, Estaria was curious about this level up system, and so struck, struck and struck again, killing one dummy while the other regenerated until she got a ping sound inside her head, and a new popup box covered the passive-aggressive please follow quest instructions to continue box.

You have levelled up. Main attribute increased by 2, other attributes increased by 1

Looking at the Status Screen, she could see the results. Precision, her apparent Main attribute, was now 22. The rest were 11. Her health, luck, and cool had increased slightly as well, and her level was now 2. She didn’t feel any different, but two shillings was hardly any more than one shilling, that was to be expected. Finally getting back to the tutorial, it directed her across the training ground to a different dummy. This was a larger thing and looked altogether more robust. Its name ‘Elite Training Dummy’ was white, with the Training Dummy’s name being a dull grey. A yellow bar was underneath the red bar, but its number was considerably smaller than the red bar’s number.

This is an advanced enemy or Elite. It has a small Luck bar to protect it from direct strikes, and more health and better stats than a Mook, often possessing damage-reducing armour. Kill the Elite

Estaria looked at this bigger dummy and nodded to herself. This was your average Marauder Warrior as opposed to a simple Norscan Tribesman. She threw a strong blow at the dummy, but it was off somehow and only glanced the dummy, barely grazing it. Cursing softly, she looked up, sure it would have done little damage to the thing. But instead, the vast majority of its luck bar depleted, down to a two digit number. Then it hit her. Luck protected from direct strikes. There was no doubt that this system was manipulating reality outright now, turning aside blows that would damage the target when it still had luck. The Luck statistic must have increased this Luck bar, making it harder to hurt you.

Grinning at this, she unleashed a second blow sharp and hard, reducing the luck to 0 and taking a decent amount of health off.

When a strike will do more damage than you have luck, the rest will be taken off health. Armour reduces damage done to health, to a minimum of 10% damage

The system, while crazy and reality-bending, seemed to be based in logic. Even the greatest of armour would still not mitigate the whole of the force. And there were tales of some legendary armour still being intact despite the wearer being dead. A few more blows had the training dummy sag, and an “80 xp” popped up. The elite dummies gave twice the exp of the basic mook dummies. But took more than twice the blows to fell. The luck and armour were difficult to get through. Finally, she was told to head to another dummy, which she did. This one was huge and imposing. She felt somewhat intimidated by a dummy.

This is a master enemy or Boss. It has a larger Luck bar than an Elite, and more health as well as more armour. It is liable to possess special abilities and has a Critical Wound slot. Kill the Boss

Estaria wasn’t sure what a critical wound slot was, but it didn’t sound promising. Still, she got down to it, slicing at the Boss and watching its luck deplete. Some experimental side of her made her well...experiment. And so she swung lightly and knocked a chip off its luck, and then swung heavy and knock a chunk off its luck. The strength of the blow was what judged how much strength was knocked off. But with the auto miss system that was around Luck, made it somewhat dangerous to throw a hammer blow while luck was still up, it could put you off balance. So she decided to be more cautious while attacking luck, and only throw down when it was all gone.

When the luck was gone and the first strike took off some health, the dummy suddenly swung round and grazed her head, her luck bar diminishing some as the attack was absorbed. In response, she got a popup.

This enemy possesses a Counter-Attack trait. Every time it takes health damage, there is a chance of immediate retaliation. This may be blocked or avoided as normal attacks.

Which, would have been something to know before the start of the fight, damn thing. But there was no point bitching now, she just got her shield up and struck with the blade, keeping a watchful eye on any attack, and catching it on her shield when it did come. Apparently, Luck didn’t kick in when you intended to block it. Maybe it only happened when you missed the block? Either way, she eventually managed to bring it down to 0 health, at which point a small skull appeared next to the health and its luck and health went back up some.

Once a Boss loses all its health, it suffers a Critical Wound, reducing its stats and opening it up to be killed. Stronger bosses have more Critical Wound slots. Stat-dependent traits will be disabled if they drop below the required number

Estaria thought for a moment and nodded. It was like the last desperate gasp of a dying man. She had seen it in combat, where a man was severely wounded, and yet suddenly flushed with zeal and passion, driving on to make his death as glorious as he could manage. So Estaria obliged, chipping it’s luck away before smashing its head off with one thunderous blow!

The exp then came after that kill. 250 xp was the reward. And a “Boss token” going into the Inventory.

Congratulations on defeating the boss. It has granted you loot, in the form of a Boss Token. This may be exchanged for rewards in the shop. To find your Boss token, open the Status Screen

Estaria read it and wondered where this Boss Token was. She hadn’t received it, only heard of it. Still, she opened her Status Screen, and a tab at the top of the box was lit up. “Inventory” it said, so Estaria tapped on it, and was given a whole new box. It was a mirror image of her, with boxes across her body. One on her head, one on her neck, one on her torso, two on each of her arms, one on her legs, and one on her feet. All were filled except the headbox. And below it, were thirty-some boxes, twenty-nine of them empty, and an ornate badge occupying the first box, with a small “1” in the corner. Tentatively reaching out to touch it, a second box popped up suddenly, making Estaria take a step back. There were several things in this box. Some money, a title, something called “Stat Potion” and other oddities. They had a small picture of the badge and a number next to them, assumingly the number of badges required to buy it, as only the top one with a small “1” was lit up, the others were grey.

Not sure if she wanted to spend the boss token or not, she decided that if they were important, she’d just kill the boss dummy again to get a new one. So she pressed the top button and got a new, small box.

You exchanged 1 Boss Token for 300 gold. Quickly followed by You have gained gold. The Shop is now open after she shut the first one down. The Shop was interesting. Was she going to buy fake things with fake money? The third tab Shop was now lit up, and she tapped it, getting a new box that filled her eyes with items. Too many to read, and most beyond her money finances. Still, she was curious, and so bought herself a bag of 20 bullets for 100 gold, which got transferred to her inventory. Navigating to her inventory, the bag was there, with the little “20” below it, but touching it, she got an option to Withdraw which filled her with curiosity. The button was pressed, and her eyes were filled with wonder as a bag of twenty bullets and powder charge was dropped into her hands. Nobody and nothing in this world could create something so permanent from nothing. This new system was disturbingly powerful if it could create a seemingly unlimited supply of bullet out of imaginary currency. She could arm entire battalions with an endless supply of bullets and powder, and they wouldn’t need to be anywhere near supply trains or cities to restock. The consequences were mind-boggling....