Halflings are often called halfmen, midget and other names as few have respect for them in any matter save for the creation of food. They tend not to have or even need a government aside from the occasional case of younger halfling stealing food that is not theirs. That is unless they are introduced to the crimes and cruelties that exist in other cultures. They are considered to be good trading partners for luxuries by most kingdoms. Those who have grown up in the slums of other societies are often involved in the shadier trades as there are naturally skilled in stealth.

Adrian

Sitting on the straw covered cot I close my eyes and turn my mind inwards to connect to the Architect's System.

Adrian Ravnos

Gender: Male

Race: Human?

Age: 17

Strength 12

Intelligence 16

Mana Potential 6

Skills

SP:132

Dexterity 15

Wisdom 16

Mana Potency 5

Languages

Titles

Agility 13

Cunning 15

Luck 14

Traits

Options

Endurance 10

Willpower 14

Perception 14

Magic

Reality Control

Vitality 11

Alertness 12

Reality Control 2

Classes

Racial Class

Appearance 14

Charisma 11

Health 93/93

Mana 5/5

I touch the options section and see a new screen come up.

Options

Colors

Connection

Immersion

Color choices? Well I don’t mind the purple so I’ll just leave that alone. Connection and Immersion though could be interesting.

Connection

On Meditation

On

On Rest

On

On Attack

Off – Due to Immersion

On Hit

Off – Due to Immersion

On Level

Off – Due to Immersion

On Mana Use

Off – Due to Immersion

On XP Gain

Off – Due to Immersion

Immersion

Full - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - <> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Game

Changing how often I connect and allowing notifications in real time. Should I mess with this? Why is this the default? I touch the Immersion slider and a warning appears before me.

You are at the optimal level of Immersion, further integration will force you to suffer the constraints of your derived numbers. Limiting further growth and breaking through by effort. This is considered to be a larger detriment than having continual access. Once you alter your Immersion Level it cannot be lowered.

So, the Architect has us defaulted to what is considered to be the best option. Going further into a game system would bind me to the rules of health and mana bars. If I don’t know my HP or MP I can push past those limits with enough willpower. That’s a good enough reason for me so I dismiss the screens without changing anything.

SP is supposed to be able to be spent to increase my stats and while I doubt that it can do anything with my magic I touch that tab anyways, and immediately regret that I had not done so earlier.

400/500 Reality Control 2

80 Death 1

320 Space 2

80 Soul 0

40 Fate 1

160 Life 2

80 Primal 0

40 Mind 1

80 Time 0

20 Transmutation 1

10 Telekinesis 0

40 Fire 2

40 Lightning 2

20 Light 1

10 Darkness 0

I can augment my magic. Why did I have to assume that I could not earlier? If I had done this before Tomas may not have died. If I understood Life better I could have healed him. I don’t have the SP for it but I could have gotten it somehow if I had known.

I dump SP into the Reality Control stat until it turns into a three. Once it does the Spheres that were discolored turn normal signaling that I can spend SP to increase them. I however frown in that I no longer have the SP needed to purchase much of anything. I want to save the SP up in order to purchase Life so I can make sure my friends will not die but there are more pressing needs than healing.

I need to gather wealth so we can get out of the city. For that I will end up stealing and for that I need to keep myself concealed. Sound does not seem to be an option at the moment but I can think of a few ways that I can use Light to be invisible. . .

I purchase the next rank in the sphere and some sort of three-dimensional symbol appears in my mind. It flashes and shifts in different colors as if it were showing me something and just before it vanishes I have an eureka moment on how light is represented on the fabric of reality. How I may be able to push and prod at it to do my will.

Then the vision ends and all of the screens save for the main starting screen dismiss themselves.

Adrian Ravnos

Gender: Male

Race: Human?

Age: 17

Strength 12

Intelligence 16

Mana Potential 4

Skills

SP:12

Dexterity 15

Wisdom 16

Mana Potency 3

Languages

Titles

Agility 13

Cunning 15

Luck 14

Traits

Options

Endurance 10

Willpower 14

Perception 14

Magic

Reality Control

Vitality 11

Alertness 12

Reality Control 3

Classes

Racial Class

Appearance 14

Charisma 11

Health 93/93

Mana 3/3

I look over the screen as there has to be a reason why it was not dismissed like the others and frown at the two mana related stats. They’ve gone down, significantly down. Why?

The only things that changed were my magic. Wait, the description of Reality Control said that there would be an inverse correlation between it and most other magics. My own magic conflicts with the mana based magics of this world. At least in my ability to use them.

I wonder if there is a way around it. I could use Ravnos magic most of the time and save the more finite resource of mana for when people disbelieve. But I am unsure if it is even a viable option now if it even was before. Will there be a problem if my mana hits zero?

I dismiss the screen more happy than sad with the changes even if they come at a cost of more than just SP. Now I drift to sleep while thinking of what I can get ahold of that would pay our way out of this city.

In all the games I’ve ever played, a zero in an attribute causes the character to die. I’ve never heard of anyone in the family growing too powerful in our magic and dying from it but should I be worried about it? Is mana even something that is needed for me to remain alive?

Morning comes and there is are still the same concerns on my mind as when I fell asleep but I know that there is nothing I can do about many of them. I put on a fresh tunic though I do not feel much cleaner for it.

I open the door to my room and see that neither Bryan nor Abagail are awake. For a moment, I think of waking them but I don’t want to risk them suffering the same fate as Tomas. Even just getting better equipment for the three of us is going to be dangerous already with how most of it will end up being stolen unless I can find a shady gambling rind or the like.

I walk out of the common room into the street to see that it is early morning. First thing I need is a place to pawn whatever I manage to acquire. The poor section of the city seems like the right place to go though I am unsure if that assumption is true. Still my walk to that portion of the city while it does take a while, I am not interrupted before I actually reach the slums.

A thieves’ guild or a similar organization will have what I need as well as ways to keep me from having to deal too much with the Althaen law. Now, how do I find such an organization? Large seemingly abandoned complexes or find and threaten some pickpockets? Such a complex would also have an underground section and I might be able to find those if they are populated. . .

I begin to walk down the streets at random, simply wandering as I delve into the Sphere of Life to feel for the lifeforces that are nearby. The poor that are in the streets avoid me as I walk around and I consider talking to them, asking for information but I doubt that they will be forthcoming. If they were what I am looking for would not be in the city itself.

A few hours pass before I feel something, dozens of lives under my feet. Lives that are too strong to be rats or some other vermin in the sewers and drainage of the city. I turn to the nearest building, a large building that looks like it is a warehouse that had been converted into a shop of some sort. A sign hangs over the door that reads “Lucky Angelo’s Discounted Goods”.

I walk in the store to see mostly empty shelves with various weapons, tools and dried foods are scattered around the shelves. The two customers that appear to be browsing move slightly as if they were maintaining a flank as I look around inspecting the room myself. None of the items out here are in good enough condition for me to consider buying but that isn’t why I am here anyways.

I release a ripple through the fabric of reality performing the only trick I know in the Sphere of Transmutation; to sense the nearby locations of some material, specifically iron. I feel the hidden knives, arrowheads and mechanical components of what I think are miniature crossbows.

I walk over to the front counter; the store clerk gets out of his chair as I reach the counter.

“Is der something I can help ye with?” the clerk asks in a drunken slur even though I can see a small amount of dust on top of the open bottles near him.

“I would like to speak with the boys downstairs” I answer and the clerk sobers up immediately.

“Give me one good . . .” the clerk begins as the two false customers begin to move towards me.

“Consider this as payment” I say as I withdraw a small crossbow from within the loose sleeves of my tunic and lay in on the counter.

The two thugs reach for their crossbows but I grab the second via Translocation Grasp before they get ahold of them first. It and all of their knives join the first cross bow in the table within seconds.

“How?” the three begin as they stare at the small pile of weapons on their body and I am oh so joyful that the sheer amount of magic in their society has caused them to accept so much to be within the realm of possibility.

“Are you going to show me to your bosses downstairs or do I need to make a scene?” I interrupt.

“We can’t just . . .” the clerk begins before I interrupt having expected such a reaction.

“Then go and tell him I would like a word with him but do hurry before I decide to stop waiting.”

The clerk nods and the now unarmed thugs look at the pile of their weapons and then to me and back before one of them asks, “can we have those back?”

“Not yet” I answer.

It is only a few minutes before the clerk returns with several other men.

“Are the thugs necessary?” I ask.

“Disarm yourself or my men will shoot you” says a burly man in Black leather amongst the thugs.

“Will I be getting my requested audience?”

“You will be taken and tortured unti. . .”

I glance around the room as I say “then it seems I’ll be making a scene” interrupting the lead thug.

No torches, at least not on ground level but sunlight is entering one of the windows and I can use that. I pull at the god's rays bending them in an instant to create a flash temporarily blinding the now hostile thugs giving me a few seconds before I have to worry about their attacks.

I need something more offensive, I don’t have enough light or time to make a laser. I need fire and there is only one way I can get enough in time. I call a vial of alchemist fire from my room and toss it on the floor.

The thin glass breaks and a rush of flame spews forth before I grab ahold of it and light the two thugs next to me on fire. They scream but I push the flames to burn hotter and faster to kill them as I grab one of the crossbow on the counter.

I fire it and one of the thugs in the hall let out a cry of pain. I should have thought about how to convince them to give me an audience rather than just finding them. Of course they would be hostile to an uninvited stranger that knows about their secret base.

They recover from their blindness just after the two thugs nearest me fall to the ground, dead or close enough to it. I don’t remember what swear word I say as I take a crossbow bolt to my shoulder as I take cover behind a shelf. This also causes me to lose control over the fire in the room and it begins to spread.

I remove the bolt by teleporting it into my hand through Translocation Grasp and delve into the Sphere of Life as quickly as I can. I can feel a numbness spreading from the injury for until I begin to heal myself. Rejecting the damage to my body and accelerating my metabolism and cell division.

Should I get out and try somewhere else or push to get what I wanted in the first place? I have to stay and deal with it, if I don’t then I’ll have to deal with them coming after me.

I grab ahold of the flames once more and send them as a wave of fire into the hall, bathing the hallway in fire until the screaming stops. Then I grab the light around me with my will and bend it, keeping it from touching me thus making me invisible as I walk into the smoke-filled hall towards the stairs that I assume will lead me towards the actual operation.