So, to anyone reading this chapter... It's a boring one and was very tedious to write. Even so, I recommend you read it since it lays out the basics of the leveling system for the character. Its a simple system but takes a bit to understand. I plan on making the next few chapters more interesting, but I had to make this one this way to explain a bunch of things. Again... sorry ahead of time

-Reaper019

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Richard didn’t know how to respond to the big warrior. Yes… he had been pretty badly screwed by everything so far. Then again, he had picked the whole ‘Legendary’ skill and its associated risks even after being warned not to. So, overall, it was his own fault. However, he couldn’t tell the warrior that. Instead, he asked, “So, that’s why I’m begging you… please help me. I have no clue where I am or what I’m supposed to do.”

The large warrior sighed and asked, “What’s your name?”

“Richard… Richard Jaeger.”

The warrior nodded and said, “I’m Martin. And I’ll be honest with you. You’re right now in a pretty dangerous zone. As for what a zone is… well, it’s like a part of the World Labyrinth. You’ve heard those words right?”

Richard nodded and said, “Yeah, but I have no clue what it means. The office sleazebag just told me it was a new world or something.”

Martin chuckled before explaining, “A new world is about right, but its more than one world. Think of it as dozens if not hundreds of worlds all linked to one another. One world may be the Garden of Eden to another world’s fiery hell. There are gateways that connect these worlds, but only a small portion of the gateways are mapped out. You can technically live on just one of those worlds and not do much, but a lot of us like to wander around. That’s why we’re called adventurers. Also when I say ‘us,’ keep in mind that there’s also a ‘them.’ Most of the people in the ‘us’ category are like you and me. We weren’t born in the World Labyrinth and were instead sent here after dying in our original worlds. As for those in the ‘them’ category, they are either the original inhabitants of the World Labyrinth or born here. The reason I’m telling you that is because in some ways we are special. Do you know why?” With that, the warrior gave Richard a questioning look.

Richard scrunched up his face and thought about what he knew. Suddenly, it hit him. “The core and skill thing.”

Martin nodded but said, “Close but no cigar. A sizable number of creatures and all sentient beings in the World Labyrinth have cores and skills. However, what they can’t do is pull up the core interface like you and I can. It’s the blue screen with the different tabs. I hope you know about it.” When Richard nodded, Martin continued explaining, “Well, most of ‘them’ can’t use the interface, and they’re limited in some other ways as well. For example, the only skills they have are what they’re born with. And by skills, I mean something like the special skill you might have been given by your interviewer and not your every day abilities. For example, there’s a special skill called ‘Cooking.’ You can cook without that special skill, but if you get the skill somehow, you’ll be able to some interesting things with food, like making it so food can heal or strengthen someone.”

Richard was following most of what Martin was saying, but he was still a bit lost about the differences between him and ‘them.’ “You said that we aren’t limited in skills like the locals. What does that mean? Is it because of the interface? How does that make us different?”

Martin smiled slightly. “Good questions. Let’s just say that while the locals are limited to the skills they are born with, we aren’t. Technically, we can learn an infinite amount of skills and subskills, but we’re limited in how many we can equip and use at any given time. On average, most adventurers can equip maybe eight or nine different skills, while a powerful local might only be able to use the three or four that they were born with. It can be a hassle if you want to manage and level up a dozen skills at the same time. Of course, that’s where the interface is so useful. Using it, we can manage our skills, check on their progress, and keep track of things like equipment and items. Also, the interface also gives us a constant update as to our abilities in the form of stats. All that of course makes it easier for us to level up in comparison to the locals.”

Richard remained silent for a while, chewing on his lips as he thought about what he had just learned. It really seemed like some kind of game system to him. Of course, this wasn’t a game. It was reality. He then thought about the last thing Martin had mentioned: something about stats and leveling. “What are stats and leveling?”

Martin looked at Richard with surprise written all over his face. “Don’t tell me that you haven’t checked your stats yet?”

When Richard shook his head, Martin sighed. “Look here youngster, you better start figuring out things. Otherwise, you’ll be a dead man soon. You’re lucky you ran into someone like me out here and not someone from The Damned or the Joker’s Fist. They would have used you as bait for monsters or enslaved you without a second thought.” Richard suddenly felt sick to his stomach when he saw the pure seriousness etched on Martin’s face.

Whispering, he asked, “Who’re they?”

Martin wearily rubbed his eyes and replied, “People you don’t want to meet. You hear those names anywhere, you run as far as you can as fast as you can. That’s all you need to know for now.”

After a few seconds of silence, the warrior cleared his throat, “Alright, pull up your interface and pick the tab for your stats.”

Richard followed the instructions, curious as to what he would see. The screen that popped up in front of him was a bit smaller than the other screens but was a bit weird as well.

Status WindowName:Richard Jaeger[tr]Race:HumanEndurance:NExperience:0%[Strength:N Experience: 0%Agility:N Experience:0%Dexterity:N Experience:0%Wisdom:N Experience:0%Magic:N Experience:0%Defense:N Experience:0%Charisma:N Experience:0%

“Ummm… there’s some things like Strength, but then there’s just a lot of letters like N's and 0%’s.” Richard had no clue what he was looking at. Part of the status window made sense since it listed certain attributes, but the rest seemed out of whack.

Martin interrupted, “Interesting… N's.... Very average… yet... hmm…”

Hearing the word ‘average,’ Richard closed the screen in front of him and looked up at the warrior a bit annoyed. “Don’t say average. I had enough of that from the stupid interviewer guy.”

Martin smirked and replied, “No… I wasn’t making fun of you. Just commenting on your attributes. If they're ranked as N right now, that pretty much means they are about average. It means you don’t have any real strengths, which isn’t helpful, but the good part is that you probably don’t have any serious weaknesses either.”

“Huh? How’d you get all that from the just reading a bunch of letters.” Richard had no clue what the warrior was talking about.

Martin sighed and said, “Think about it. Where is the letter N in the alphabet? It’s near the middle. That means all you attributes are about average.”

“But, what does that mean? I mean, does that mean I’m screwed compared to others.” Richard didn’t understand what the warrior was trying to explain.

Martin nodded and explained, “Let’s put it this way, if a wrestler or body builder showed up in this world, his strength ranking may be L or K, and his agility may be an O or P. If a sprinter showed up, his strength may be an M and his agility may be a K. The higher the letter, with A being the highest and Z being the lowest, the more capable someone is when it comes to that attribute. The experience bar for each attribute is for the experience you’ll gain to level up each of your attributes by doing various things. When I say various things, I mean various things. There’s thousands of ways to gain experience for your attributes, but it gets harder to accumulate the necessary experience the higher you move up in the letter scale. For example, someone trying to level up from N to M would have it 100 times easier than someone trying to go from an H to a G. Also, gaining the experience is very arbitrary. This isn’t some kind of game where numbers will pop up saying you gained this much experience for this action, but each attribute’s experience bar will show your progress as you progress through daily life. It’s almost like training yourself to run continually for an hour over the course of a few months. It’ll take time to improve and to reach your goal, but then again, some people will never be able to get past a certain point due to various reasons. “

For a few minutes, Richard stared at the ground, trying to understand the crazy status system. It sounded like some kind of third grade report card rather than a game system.

When he told Martin that, the warrior frowned. “Put that out of your mind. This isn’t a game! There have been a bunch of people, who’ve shown up in the last few decades who thought of it as one. Most of them talked about leveling up and respawning and started off by trying to hunt in the various zones. Very few of them survived, and most of them ended up being monster shit. Remember this: death is as real in this world as your old one. Mind you, there are spells that can bring you back to life, but there will always be consequences for using those spells. You may turn into a mindless, undead creature or you may turn into a halfwit, who can barely function.”

Chastened, Richard nodded and instead asked, “You said we can level up the attributes. How does that affect us?”

Martin scratched at his cheek while contemplating how to answer the question. Eventually, he said, “That’s something you’re better off understanding over time. It’s a bit hard to explain, but I’ll give you a small example since I don’t’ want to leave you clueless. Going back to the wrester example, the guy starts out with rank K, so he’s about three or four times as strong as you. If he gains another rank, he’ll be even stronger… maybe six or seven times as strong as you. However, you won’t see him gaining more muscle or anything. Somehow, all the changes occur to our cores. So a skinny, weedy looking fellow could have a strength rank of J after training and leveling it up and be stronger than the bulky wrestler. Appearance means very little in this world. You should have the basic guide for the world in your menu options there, so I would look it over if I were you. It’ll at least give you descriptions of each attribute, but as for the changes, that’s something you’re going to have to learn over time.”

When Richard didn’t say anything further, the warrior stood up, his armor creaking in the process. “Well, I hope I was helpful, but like I said, you’re going to have to learn things on your own from here on in. Most adventurers won’t share details about their skills or attributes, and they definitely won’t tell you how they level up their attributes. Anyway… I have to get going. I wish you luck youngster.” With that, the warrior tried to walk off.

However, Richard was quicker. He scrambled in front of Martin and said, “Please, I need to find a way out of here. I don’t know where to go or even if there’s a nearby town or something.”

Martin sighed and said out loud, “Serioiusly…”

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This was an annoying chapter to type. For one thing, I wanted to get away from the leveling system most people have been using so it took me a crazy amount of time to figure how I wanted to explain things. I'm still feeling things out though... Lastly... I felt like this thing was a damn lecture... I felt like shooting the main character myself for his annoying questions, but then again, I didn't want to make him all wise since he was supposed to be an average wuss. For those of you, who have voiced being annoyed with him, well... yep.. he's an idiot. But again, these are still the intro chapters. So give it some time. Also, I did some foreshadowing in this chapter... And i'll leave you with that.