Ray took a moment before responding to the purple woman. “uhhh… I think so?”

“Well, now that we’ve established contact human, sit there and shut up for a minute”

Ray kept his hands behind his head in supplication whilst the purple woman turned to the trees and let out a bird call whistle. After about 20 seconds of waiting, 5 other purple people came out of the trees. Ray realised these must be dark elves due to the system language prompt.

The dark elves were exactly as Ray had read about in past books. Slender, long pointed ears, cat-like eyes and dark toned purple skin. Aside from the feature changes, they seemed to be able to communicate without the need for direct speech. It seemed to Ray that an entire conversation was happening while he was just sitting there.

Of the 5 elves other elves, 3 were male and 2 were female. The male elves still looked extremely feminine, aside from some slightly more masculine features, such as a sharper nose and bulkier arms, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

As the silence went on, Ray began to feel uneasy. He noticed that the woman who had shot the arrow at him was beginning to frown deeply. Ray had always hated awkward silences. He would usually try to fill them. Unfortunately, his nerves had failed him, he was clearly being deliberated over and he didn’t want to make things worse for himself.

After a few minutes, it was clear the conversation had broken down. The woman was starting to make visible signs of frustration. She suddenly stamped her foot in exasperation and said “ugghhh why me? Why do I have to be the babysitter?”

The oldest looking elf, possibly an elder spoke up “Well, you’re the one advocating for the human to live, you deal with it”

“Fine..” The elf said, clearly acting like a child being dumped with a chore they didn’t want to do. She turned to Ray “You human, on your feet.”

For the time being, Ray complied. He was willing to bide his time to find a mechanism of escape if need be. Ray slowly stood and decided it was time to at least try and gather some information.

“Hi.. My names Ray, umm, I’m not sure what to call you or your friends?” Ray said. Out of nowhere, Ray was knocked to the ground, he was definitely hurt from the fall, though he didn’t know how much. The woman knelt by his side with a panicked expression on her face.

“Shh! Don’t speak. It could cost you your life. The elders are still deliberating what to do with you. If you must know, my name is Ilaria. You’ll get a chance to speak soon. We’re taking you back to our clan centre”

Ray started to gain a basic understanding of what was going on. Some of the elves clearly wanted him dead while others may be in his corner. He slowly stood up again and nodded at Ilaria. As Ray had finally come to his senses, he noticed that the other elves had disappeared again. Ilaria prompted him to start walking, while following the stream.

As they were walking, Ray couldn’t help but admire Ilaria’s physique. With sleek black hair, a nice body and only being slightly shorter than Ray himself, he immediately knew that elf or not, Ilaria was attractive. He knew that Ilaria had noticed him checking her out, but it was clear that she didn’t mind, if anything, she started swaying her hips a little more, enticing him.

As Ray was walking, he once again noticed a blinking icon. It looked like a plus symbol. Unfortunately, as he wasn’t allowed to speak, he wasn’t able to access his character sheet. It’s not like thinking ‘character’ would activate…. A system message, followed by the character screen.

[Congratulations, you have taken a beating. Continue your masochistic ways to get stronger… Body +1]

Name:

Ray Atton

More Info +

Race:

Human-Error (F)

Level:

2 (F)

Stats

Strength

5

Dexterity

5

Agility

5

Body

6

Vitality

5

Intelligence

5

Mind

5

Luck

15

Unallocated Points

5

Titles

Outcast (Unique 1/1)

Coins

Arkus System

0

Ray smiled to himself. Knowing that he could simply think about activating the screen meant that he wouldn’t look like an absolute idiot by shouting the commands out every time. He was also extremely happy that levelling wasn’t the only way to get stats. It looked like you could also gain them through various normal means. He would have to put this to the test later.

While Ray was walking he decided to also check his status screen since he wasn’t sure how much damage being thrown to the ground had done. He still hurt a little from it.

Health

16/22 (-88) (Regenerating 1 hp/hour)

Mana

10/10 (-40)

Buffs

None

Debuffs

Death – You have recently died (-80% Maximum Health, -80% Maximum Mana), Cooldown Remaining: 5h:22m

Using his status screen, Ray could see his regeneration rate, along with the remaining cooldown on his debuff. About 30 minutes had passed since being revived. Since he couldn’t gauge time yet, this was at least a good indicator.

They kept walking in silence for another hour before Ilaria showed any signs of relaxing. Clearly the elders had come to a decision in their silent discussions. Within 10 minutes of Ray noticing this, Ilaria began to speak.

“You’re free to talk now. The elders have decided to at least question you for information before making any decisions” she said.

“So… I get to live? Will I be a prisoner, or a slave, or will I be allowed to go free?” Ray asked nervously

“Honestly, I don’t know what the elders are thinking. They are confused by you. You are human, but you are not. You look like a baby to us. I mean, what adult human is only level 2? Were you sheltered at birth?” Ilaria said.

Ray was about to start speaking but Ilaria clearly wanted to keep talking, so he waited.

“The only reason I didn’t kill you on the spot is because you somehow drank the water and came back to life, are you immortal? She continued

“I’m not immortal, at least I don’t think I am. Honestly, I don’t even know what’s going on. I’m sorry I can’t be much help in that regard. I’m only level 2 because until today, I didn’t even know that you could level up” Ray replied hesitantly. He was trying to be careful about providing information that could potentially get him into further trouble. The trouble was, Ray didn’t feel like he could gather information without providing some of his own.

“Wait… are you an off-worlder?” She hissed. “are.. are you a System chosen?” her hands immediately moved back to a dagger at her waist. She had drawn it so fast that Ray hadn’t even noticed before it was pressed against his throat. The other elves had quickly responded as well, swords and bows at the ready.

“Let’s just kill him!” one of the elves shouted.

“Yeah, it’ll save us the hassle of elder interrogation” another said, though more quietly.

Ray quickly piped up. “Wait… Just settle down!” he tried to take a step back, but Ilaria was on him immediately “I’m not a System Chosen, just check me! I don’t even know where I am”

Ilaria looked at him fiercely, she pressed the dagger so hard into his neck that blood was drawn. “You’re clearly an off-worlder, it makes sense now. You must be a chosen” She whirled around and pointed at the eldest elf. “Arj, your identify skill is the highest, use it, I know it’s not polite to use it on other people but now isn’t the time for that. We could all be in danger!”

Arj moved closer to Ray. His eyes drilling into Rays soul. Ray noticed a green light appearing around the pupils, this was clearly the activation of the Identify skill. While Arj was looking into Rays information, it felt like he was being violated.

Around 10 seconds had passed before Arj began putting his weapons away, he was clearly shaken by something though, as his hands were shaking.

“Arj, what’s wrong?” Ilaria asked, she had never seen Arj so shaken from a simple identify.

Arj didn’t even look at Ilaria, eyes still locked on Ray. “What the hell are you!?”

“Mate, the names Ray. I’m 28 years old, clearly a human and I’m from Sydney, Australia. Can you point me in the right direction to get home?”

Arj laughed in response. “You aren’t going anywhere until we sort out what you truly are. You’re clearly an off-worlder…” Arj was cut off by a loud hiss by the other elves. Arj turned to the others and continued “BUUUT… He’s not a System chosen, in fact, by the looks of it, he’s the furthest he can be from that”

Ilaria blinked in surprise. “What do you mean? How can he be an off-worlder, without being a chosen? That’s never happened before”.

“My skills clearly show that he’s not a chosen, but rather an outcast. Ray, can you please explain to the rest of us how this came to be? If you can’t we’ll have to kill you here and now, you are still an off-worlder”

Ray sighed and decided he’d best just explain his situation. He went over the events of the last few days, how he believed he may have died multiple times, explained the conversation with the system and how he had died drinking the water but was resurrected.

After explaining, Ray ended his recount by asking “What is an outcast anyway? Also, what’s the problem with being a system chosen?”

Ilaria slowly removed the dagger from his neck but was clearly wary. “System chosen are a cancer. They are people who have become part of the System. They can still think for themselves but are driven by one goal, to assimilate worlds into the System”

“Our race along with others on our world have been fighting against the System for the last 122 years but unfortunately, we are slowly losing. Nearly 40% of our world is now assimilated. Every time it happens we have to evacuate the area” Arj stated.

“Wait, but aren’t you using the System and its skills?” Ray asked.

“You noticed that huh? For some reason, when the system decides to assimilate a world, all members of the world are provided access to a levelling scale. As the world gets stronger, so does the inherent energy of the world. It’s essentially a gamble by the System” Arj responded.

“So… If I understand, people get stronger by the defined rules of the System, so that it can get a tastier meal?”

“Yes… And no… Our understanding is that if we manage to beat the System back, we get to keep our world without losing our abilities. We believe it’s some kind of trial. Anyway, with what you’ve provided, you’ll likely be allowed to go free after speaking directly to the full council, though you’ll definitely be interrogated first” Arj said.

“Lets get to it then I guess, I suppose I can ask questions on the way?” Ray said

“Sure” Arj said. "we are still around an hours walk away. Ilaria can answer any questions you may have".