Name — Kyran Hall Race — Human Gender — Male Height — 5'10" (179 cm) System — The First Half (Unique) Class — None Attributes Strength: 113 Speed: 94 Dexterity: 109 Toughness: 101 Vitality: 96 Intelligence: 140 Stats Health: 960 Mana: 700 Class Abilities None Special Abilities Fire Affinity: Born with a natural affinity to fire. Able to inherently understand the properties of fire. Medium Inventory: Ability to store and retrieve items from a pocket of space. A maximum of 10 items can be stored. Identify: Ability to gain general information about the world around you. Able to discern limited information from the status window of others. Party: Ability to create, join, or disband a party. Individual members can be invited or kicked. Party members can see general information about each other. Status Abilities Status Window: Say or think "Status" to open or close the Status Window. Edit Status Window: Choose to hide information or enable descriptions within the Status Window. Share Status: Share your status for others to see. You may choose who can see your Status Window. Description: Say or think "Description" to receive detailed information about any part of the Status Window.

In a word, Kyran was dumbfounded.

Unique?! WTF? This is… what? I don’t…

Maybe a little bit too dumbfounded. He was lucky he wasn’t babbling his inner thoughts out loud, lest he look like an idiot. But his confusion was justified, as what he had just received was a Unique-ranked system.

A system given by Sada could have one of four different rankings: Common, Uncommon, Rare, and Unique. Each rank was increasingly more rare and often more powerful than the last, up until Unique. As the name suggested, these were systems of which only one existed in the world, and if the scholars were to be believed, were personally created for and tailored to the recipient by Sada herself.

But why would I of all people receive something like this? I’m not particularly special in any way. I don’t really stand out. I’m just the son of a blacksmith.

Ordinary or not, Kyran had been granted a Unique system nonetheless. He was still so bewildered by this fact that he almost forgot to check what the system actually did. Almost.

[Description]: System – The First Half.

With a thought, his status opened up a short description for him alone to see.

The First Half System (U)

Description:

The First Half.

Bonuses:

Extra Attribute points upon class level up.

Access to [Medium Inventory] special ability.

Access to [Identify] special ability.

Access to [Party] special ability.

???

Well… that isn’t very helpful. Those bonuses though… For a Unique system they seem almost too mundane. [Medium Inventory] is handy for sure, and [Party] is a useful enough ability that systems with access to it are in decent demand just because they can use it. Extra Attribute points are always great, but this doesn’t specify how many or what kind. Is it random? Or are they just bonus distributable points like I’d get on a normal level up? That would be way too good to be true. Although it is a Unique system so…

Kyran had initially glossed over the [Identify] skill because it sounded pretty generic. But after thinking about it, he hadn’t ever heard of an ability with that name. He double-checked the description of the ability in his status.

Identify: Ability to gain general information about the world around you. Able to discern limited information from the status window of others.

Wait, I can see OTHER PEOPLE’S STATUS? No, there’s no way, right...?

Okay, a little test couldn’t hurt.

Kyran looked over to Natalia, the red-haired elf girl on his left, and simply thought about using the skill. Much to his surprise, her basic status without descriptions popped up in his view.

Name — Natalia Harris System — The Explorer (C) Class — None Attributes Strength: 83 Speed: 116 Dexterity: 129 Toughness: 79 Vitality: 88 Intelligence: 97 Stats Health: 880 Mana: 485 Class Abilities None Special Abilities Small Inventory Party

Holy shit. This is “limited information”? This is the basic status she’d show to someone to verify her identity. It may not have descriptions, but the fact that I can see not only her attributes and skills, but also her class and system is insane. On that note, I guess that’s why she was disappointed earlier. {Explorer} is a pretty basic system, but at least it’s useful. She’ll be alright.

After a little bit of testing, Kyran found that he could not, in fact, use [Description] on someone else’s status. Go figure.

He soon returned his attention back to the description of his new system. Particularly the mysterious three question marks lingering there. That… was new. Was it an implication of something unavailable to him at the moment but achievable later? Or was it some kind of hidden passive that was already accessible and he just couldn’t see the details? As he thought about it, it made sense that there had to be more to the system than what he currently saw. It was Unique, after all, so the power imparted by it should amount to more than a few passive bonuses and practical abilities.

Kyran had a distinct feeling that the true nature of this system lied behind those marks. If only he could start out with some kind of hint to revealing it. He could have stood there thinking about it all day, if not for his fiery-haired neighbor realizing he had been staring directly at her for the past thirty seconds.

“Um, anything I can help you with?” she whispered, an eyebrow raised and a little wary.

That was enough to knock Kyran out of his stupor and make him realize he didn’t have a way to explain why he’d been staring at the girl’s nape ever since awakening his system.

“Oh! Uh, no, sorry. It’s nothing. I’m just a little confused about some of this. It’s a little… abstract.”

Natalia gave a little smirk at that. “Got something good huh? Well, next time you try to understand your status next to me, my eyes are up here, Silver.”

Embarrassed, Kyran winced and scratched his head. Luckily, he didn’t have to dwell on it for too long as Zarkan had just finished bestowing up with the final person in their group.

“Sada has given all of you her blessings. I wish everyone a prosperous future. You may take your leave now.”

At his prompt, the group shuffled out of the temple and scattered. Some wanted to sightsee in the capital some more and some wanted to shop, though most wanted to join in the growing festivities. Kyran, however, had a friend to meet and a very important conversation to have.

He made his way back through the city towards the Night’s Rest inn, almost stopping to buy some very fragrant pork belly from a festival vendor, before realizing that Neil still had all their money. He frowned.

This has to change.

He soon reached the inn and made his way to their room on the second floor. After a knock, he let himself in and saw Neil organizing the belongings in his pack.

“Took you long enough,” Neil started, forming a grin. “So, who starts?”

“We’ll be talking about mine for a while so… hit me,” Kyran answered. He grabbed a chair from against the wall and sat it across from the bed Neil was sitting on.

Neil gave an inquisitive head tilt before he began. “Bulwark system, uncommon. Buff to defenses, Vitality and Toughness on level, and a [Taunt]. Pretty good for a protector. I guess it matches my build a bit,” he chuckled.

It really did. Neil was a large guy, especially for his age. Kyran pictured him in full plate armor, absorbing attacks from monsters like they were children fighting their father. It wasn’t a difficult thing to imagine, and was now a distinct possibility.

“Well that’s me. What ’cha got? Are we still a go?”

“Well…” Kyran considered for a moment before he decided to just share his status with Neil. It was probably easier than trying to explain it himself.

As Neil started reading, his eyes widened, and his jaw dropped.

“Dude.”

“Yeah.”

“Unique?”

“Yeah.”

“…Dude.”

Neil sat in awe for a minute while collecting his thoughts. It really was a lot to take in. Here he was ready to brag to his childhood friend about his relatively strong uncommon system, when lo and behold that very friend received a Unique one. There were a lot of unanswered questions about that system, though, so for now he wasn’t jealous. Okay, he wasn’t that jealous.

After some deliberation, Neil broke the silence.

“Okay… so it doesn’t exactly seem like a combat system. It has some useful abilities, but nothing that really distinguishes you as an adventurer. However, the extra attribute points on level up alone makes it worth a shot. Depending on what exactly that entails, you could keep up even without combat bonuses.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too. Besides, there’s these question marks that could be hiding literally anything behind them. You never know, it could be something for combat.”

“I doubt it, especially with that name. {The First Half}, huh? Doesn’t really scream combat. But it begs the question, what’s the second half? Maybe you were actually given half of a Unique system and the question marks are showing the other half you’ll never get access to. I don’t think Sada is a sadist, but this could be some weird, twisted prank she’s pulling on you.”

“I hope not. I have to live with it after all,” Kyran paused. “But for now, yeah, I think we stick with the plan. In the meantime, though, we’ve got a few hours of daylight and a city full of good food and festivities.”

“I like where your head’s at. Let’s grab some grub,” Neil said, standing up and heading for the door.

“Ok. But first, give me the money. I have an inventory now.”

“Right… that makes sense.”

Neil reluctantly handed Kyran their bag of credits, and the two headed off to eat, drink, and be merry.