The Gate, when one finally appeared in my town, cut me clean in half.

I know this, because I have the scar, a long silvery thing that goes all the way down the middle of my body as I hang suspended and naked above a lake of perfectly still mercury.

I could sort of see a weirdly short person - a Dwarf, I thought, standing by the shore. He was dressed in dark robes, with an… unhealthy amount of skull motifs.

“Ah, you awake in my dark realm. You can even understand me. Marvellous.” He said, drily. “Now then… beginning experiment. Subject is a Gate-sent human, ranked in the Quintillions. His body does not hold any power beyond a basic system connection. Subject will be infused by a Low-Grade Quicksilver Essence via a bolt of necrotic lightning. Odds of survival are estimated at around 85%…” His voice was like dark chocolate, for all that the contents of his statements were alarming.

Then, the lightning bolt, edged with horrible grey ephemera burrowed into my chest, and I was speared by a pillar of mercury that drilled straight into my abdomen.

To say that it was beyond painful was not quite accurate. It was… exquisitely painful. I could feel every one of my muscles cramping, fighting off… something. It felt like death, and cold. I’m pretty sure my heart stopped. I know I stopped breathing.

SYSTEM UPDATE INITIATED

CLASS: NONE

STYLE: NONE

FOCUS: NONE

PATH: NONE

SKILLS

PAIN TOLERANCE

POWERS

ESSENCE: [BLANK]

TRAITS

… CALCULATING

“[Inspect]… Hmm” The short figure considered. It’s shining white teeth were reflected in the still mercury at the lake’s edge. My own was gone as the mercury rippled beneath me.

“Oh, a success! Delightful. Although that the traits are still calculating is a tad concerning. Now then…” Cold wrapped itself around my limbs, and I was dragged through the air.

The dwarf had a scalpel. “Beginning examination of the subject.” His eyes were the red of blood. His teeth glimmered in the darkness. Blood poured from his neck, as it was parted from his body by a shining blade.

The… thing in front of me burned with heat. I had a brief impression of gold, of sunlight and endless fields of wheat - and then it was gone.

I collapsed to the ground, and warmth filled my limbs. Whatever strange force that had kept me calm and still vanished like forgetting a dream.

I hurt, again. This time, every twinge and cramp spread warmth deeper towards my bones, and down into my chest. Then, blessed relief, I could breath again.

I will admit to screaming, finally. Hot tears warmed my eyes and rolled down my face.

TRAITS CALCULATED

SYNCRETIST

FEY DEBTOR

INFERNAL DEBTOR

HUMAN: MUTANT

ANALYSIS COMPLETED.

PLEASE COMPLETE EVOLUTION.

QUALIFICATIONS ACHIEVED

BEARER OF SUFFERING(COMMON)

HORROR OF SCARS(UNCOMMON)

ARTISAN(RARE)(BASIC)

AVAILABLE STYLES

SPELL-SLINGER

HELL-SWORN SOLDIER

AVAILABLE PATHS

PATH OF HELL

PATH OF CHAOS

AVAILABLE FOCUSES

HEROICS

VILLAINY

WARBRINGER

“I’ve read some webserials, you fucking System” I muttered, glaring at the choices before me. “But these are some shit choices”.

About a decade after the Gates had first started appearing all over the world, Gates became a core part of the secondary education curriculum. That was almost fifty years ago, but of course a lot of the information was ‘classified for security reasons’.

Classes were sources of skills.

Styles were sources of powers - activated abilities and spells - and usually focused around combat.

Paths and Focuses were confusing, since they had the most classified information. They affected progression… somehow.

That was pretty much all I could remember from my secondary school days.

Still, the Class and Style choices were easy.

CLASS [ARTISAN] GAINED

SKILL GAINED [ARTISTRY]

SKILL GAINED [EYE FOR VALUE]

SKILL GAINED [EYE FOR FLAWS]

SKILL GAINED [BASIC MAGICAL ART THEORY]

STYLE [SPELL-SLINGER] GAINED.

POWER [SPELL SYNTHESIS] GAINED

POWER [TALISMANIA] GAINED

POWER [HIGH SPEED REFLEXES] GAINED

And now… what? I decided to see what a Focus would give me first - It was another easy choice, to be fair, but I was distinctly more anxious about it since I had no idea what it would do. I had no interest in villainy or war, after all…

FOCUS [HEROICS] GAINED

SKILL GAINED [ACROBATICS]

SKILL GAINED [ENDURANCE]

It seemed oddly disappointing, gaining 2 skills. I tried to blink and rub my eyes - the blazing blue letters left me feeling tired. It around then that I noticed that I… couldn’t really feel my body. I hung in a void, letters blazing in the air around me. Turning my attention away seemed impossible, blue fire and endless darkness pressing down on my mind.

I flailed, mentally. I wanted to leave this void, NOW.

PATH [CHAOS] GAINED

ROLLING…

SKILL [GENTLE SKY FIST] GAINED

POWER [SUN STEP] GAINED

EVOLUTION COMPLETE

I was really, really coming to appreciate the mere act of breathing. I got to enjoy it for all of three seconds before the fucking universe decided to shove a spike of ice through each of my eyes. Figuratively, of course.