“Very good questions! I see, you won’t just jump into your new life without thinking about it! I knew, I would like you! As far as I know, and I told you, how good a friend of mine the Administrator there is, the average commoner reaches Level five to seven around the age of thirty. The Leveling slows after that down a bit, so most people doesn’t reach more than… about Level ten to fifteen? Of course, there is nothing like Level Cap there, that would be just soooo lame!”

That was a problem. Prof could get Skill Points by postponing his “entry to the System”, but much less than living in the world would net him. After all, real life experience is worth more than fake knowledge on a piece of paper. Not to mention, the Locals would gain Levels in the same time. Prof would be left behind by them at the same age, more and more as the age got higher.

On the other hand he would be always much better, with higher Skills than a sixteen-years-old beginner. The buy-able Levels could solve the problem only within limits: Five Points were a lot for each Level, and he would be left behind nevertheless by the Locals – the free Points would be less, than a Local could get realistically within a year. Prof also didn’t miss the caveat: Sandy was speaking about commoners.

Prof was certain that there were Adventurer-types around – if everybody knows there is EXP grazing away peacefully on the meadow, and everybody knows More EXP = Higher Level and everybody knows Higher Level = More Skill Points or Power or Whatever, there will be some folks (some? A LOT of!) who will start to slaughter innocent, peaceful Dragons and smaller weasels or start stealing apples just for the added EXP. Having Adventurer-Types around just aggravated Prof’s problems.

To make it clear: with his current age (35) and Level (1 or maybe a few more) Prof would have been left behind by the Locals of his new world, and he had no inclination to start over as a bed-wetter little sixteen-years-old. Puberty was enough once.

After doing some calculation he realised, even if he bought a Level – what he was prepared to do, no matter what – because of some shenanigans of the System and how it calculated stuff, the workable upper limit for his age would be twenty-five, or rather twenty-two. Diminishing returns, it’s called. The real question was, if the extra money the System would give out (yeah, he found out accidentally that he got a starting capital, and that capital got larger every year he did postpone his entry) was worth a later entry. If he calculated correctly (he was a child of our times, after all! Who of you could do multiplication without using a calculator? Or just use it for “convenience”?) he would get 17.000 copper at age of twenty-two and 23.000 at age of twenty-five. Assuming, he didn’t spend Points for a higher social status or more money. Which he could not do because of the price of the associated Perks.

“Sandy, I’m almost ready to begin., but could you help me put in the monetary system there? It's clear I would get some Copper Coins, but how much is a Copper worth? What other denominations are there?”

“WOW! You really did think about things! There are a few monetary systems and exchange rates there, but for the setup we use an average value for a Copper here! Isn’t it neat? If I recall correctly, a Copper is worth around one EUR, depending on the market and the exchange rate, but one Copper to one Euro is about right! Mostly, one hundred Iron Bits make a Copper, one hundred Copper are a Silver, one hundred Silver are a Gold and one hundred Gold is a Platinum! There are higher denominations, but those are rarely used!”

That was less helpful than you may think. With multiple monetary systems and exchange rates between currencies, a copper could have a value of… whatever. At least for the set-up Prof had something he could work with. He was somewhat aware of medieval prices – however, the exchange rates between currencies and inflation within countries being problematic points – and he had found some allegedly authentic price-lists for RPG-campaigns so he was relatively sure, he could outfit himself from the lower amount and would still have some pocket money. Of course, he would not have enough money for some nice high-end gear even if he would have spent a lot of Points on Status and Wealth. Which he could not.

The next question was, in what kind of environment and style he planned to live his new life. He rejected every combination of peasant, artificer or bureaucratic career out of hand. The last one he already tried in his last life (and there was still the option of HR on the Death Star, after all, which seemed better if he wanted to push files around. Even counting folks trying to blow up his office), and if he had the option to have his self given an objective value with the possibility to advance and progress like the System promised, he would not spend his time tilling fields or making nails.

He also rejected the Wizard-Mage-Sorcerer line, because he never played one and didn’t excite him now either (and was waaay too expensive in this System), and the sneaky-backstabby option was also not for his liking. First, wealth-redistribution was, in contrast to games, frowned upon in the marginally civilised parts of the real world (save for politicians, but that’s another game entirely), and secondly knowing things about the medieval justice system, he wasn’t keen to experience lashing, mutilation, quartering, breaking by the wheel and all those other “fun” things folks back than invented to rehabilitate criminals. So, he had to… reinvent himself… as some kind of warrior.

Prof assumed, that at least for the first part of his new life he would be adventuring alone, so the secret for survival was to deal as much damage and in as short a time as possible. Focusing on defence was well and good, but if you can not deal overwhelming damage at the same time, you will have a stalemate or you lose. That’s not a problem, if you have friends to exterminate your enemy, but on your own? Sword-and-board wasn’t to his liking either: less damage output for slightly better defence. He needed damage! Lots of damage!

Consulting the rule book again, the possibility was there for lots of damage in a short time: two medium one-handed weapons with relatively high damage output, medium armour at most (oh, yeah, armour reduced Agility and Dexterity… Why not going the fantasy-way where heavy armour even gives out Agility and Dexterity?!?!), and the highest possible chance to land a Critical Hit. With some careful spending, he could make it work.

How fast he could attack depended on Agility and Dexterity, which in turn also determined the hand-to-hand Skills. Strength played also a role, as well as for the damage bonus, and how heavy a weapon he could wield. He started making calculations, flipping through the rule book. For Critical Hits he needed Luck, and for a lot of Skills – and of course, Skill Point per Level – Intelligence was the to-go Stat. After almost a dozen failed attempts, Prof checked his notes and calculations a last time and turned to his Customer Service Advisor.

“Sandy, I think, I got it. How do we proceed from here?”

“Very good! You finished earlier than I thought! You are so awesome! Concentrate of the concept of Character Sheet, and we can start the setup!”

After trying for a short time, Prof managed to open his mental character sheet – not a customary Blue Box, but what looked like the collection of parchment pages. The design was logical, it was a medieval world, and not some glittering Sci-Fi with touchscreens after all. Prof quite liked it. The sheets were currently empty, the boxes next to Species, Gender, Age and Stats flashed a bright red, meaning they have to be filled out before proceeding.

Prof realised that the boxes had to be filled out in a particular order, starting with species. He remembered a lot of species from the rule book, and despite some of them having interesting and nice bonuses, he didn’t feel it in himself to live the rest of his live in the skin of some not-quite-Human – or in the skin of that… thing… on page fifteen of the list. Nightmare stuff. No thank you.

Without much thought, he kept with the crown of creation. Human, that is. Gender was even easier. It was one thing that he played mostly with female characters in computer games (yeah, looking at a clothed female while playing was better in his opinion than watching a male), but gender swap was another.

Besides: in medieval times as a female? Treated like breeding stock, burned at the stakes when giving lip, and generally looked down upon? No, thank you very much! Have you guessed? Yes, he kept himself as a male. Since he did the calculations beforehand, Age didn’t pose a problem either: 22 years old and neither did the next task, namely to fill out his Stats. Well prepared by his previous character creation binge, Prof filled out those boxes fast:

Strength: 14

Agility: 18

Dexterity: 18

Endurance: 14

Perception: 11

Vitality: 14

Charisma: 11

Intelligence: 18

Willpower: 12

Stability: 12

Luck: 16

He needed the high Agility and Dexterity for his planned fighting style, and the high Intelligence for Skill Point per Level. Prof thought, that in order to close the gap arisen from his advanced age in relation to the local greenhorns, he needed as many Skill Points as possible – he would be still under-leveled, but at least his Skills would be good. He wanted to rise his Luck to 18 too (for a better chance at Critical Hits), and felt his Charisma and Perception a bit on the lower side, but could do nothing against it. He didn’t have any more Points – he didn’t want to decrease his other Stats, neither wanted take on even more negative Perks than he already had to. That extra Level was expensive!

After he filled out the boxes, the sheets disappeared from his view, and he was presented with a full-length mirror. And of course he was naked – at least in the mirror. Stripping in front of your Next-Life Advisor was probably frowned upon. He looked a bit… better… than in his past life, his developing beer muscles (that’s the politically correct name for beer belly, if you didn’t know) retracted, and his whole physique got a bit more toned.

Of course it did not reach bodybuilder-toned, but there was a marked improvement. His face too got a bit more… charismatic. And of course there was the minor point, that he rejuvenated thirteen years. Prof admired himself for a bit, and concluded, he never looked so good and fit in his entire life. Is that fair? You have to die to look better? Folks making a living out of their looks should be told that.

Prof realised, that he could change his looks in detail. Skin, hair or eye-colour? Size and shape of his ears, nose, everything? It was like he made a character in one of the better games. Not that he ever managed to get the looks right there, but at least he could play around a bit.

And playing around he did.

Among others, he made himself to be hung like a horse – guys, who amongst you wouldn’t try it, if you had the chance, just for fun and the looks? In the end, he kept his default looks. In his thirty-five years he somehow got attached to his splendid visage (and, as stated previously, he looked better than in life already), he just decreased his body hair a bit – ok, lot – and finally decided to… modify his… best friend’s… length slightly. Just a couple of centimetres. Just for… Well, why not, it was free.

No, don’t be afraid, this won’t be a Harem Novel where you can (or have to) marvel about his extreme power between the sheets! I don’t write that kind of stuff!

Moving on.