For the sed time in a day, he woke on a beabsp; A firetruck bred into his ears, a cacophony of bells that rattled his sore head. He groaned and tried to roll over, c his head with his arms. The tangy st of his waterlogged clothes hit him hard, ached. Smells almost as bad as that squid, he thought. He lurched upright, suddenly remembering the sea monster. He looked around frantically, heart pounding with adrenali was early m, the sun just beginning to shine on the gray sands and dull green sea. He could see his left leg where the creature had grabbed him, the skin was blistered and torn. The same was true of his left forearm, and my god, they hurt so bad! He held himself still, riding out the pain until he could get a handle on it. He focused oails to cope, running his hands through the cray sand (why is it gray?) and noticed that both of his wounds had small, circur ridges where the flesh was torn. Su cups. He shuddered. A bell rang brightly in his ear three more times, spiking the pain in his head but distrag him from his arm ahen he saw it: a small i shaped like an excmation point was fshing in the er of his vision. "What is this?" He thought it looked like...No, that wouldn't make sense. Looking directly at it was impossible, it kept moving to the side. He stood up, his legs protesting as the blistered skin stretched tight. He tried spinning toward the blinking object, but it'd dance away immediately. After five minutes, he had had enough. "AGH! What the hell! Open!" And it did. His vision was suddenly inundated with small blue boxes, semi-transparent and filled with rge off-white script. He couldn't pce why they seemed so familiar until he read one. "No way." Wele Traveler To The ti! Choose Your Rabsp;This is insane, he managed, his mind reeling. It's like a game. Dozens of names began to popute beh the Race header, and he caught a few. Human, Elf, Dwarf, something called a Traxik. But then another notification popped up, c the other options. ERROR! Extra Options Granted!ERROR! Race Already Selected!You Have Chosen: Nym Nym: Will of Earth, Soul of Fire. A Lost Race.+1 to WIL, INT, DEX and END per Level, +5 Bonus Stats per Level. -5% XP Gain. "What? I didn't choose anything..." Before he could finish the sentehe notifications cleared and repoputed. gratutions! You Have Revealed Your Omen!ERROR! Omens--ERROR!You Have Revealed: The Magi+2 to WIL, +1 to INT, and PER per Level. Error? Omens? Magi? He didn't even know what that meant! And then he did, as if the knowledge was shoved into his brain: The Magi: The Will to Know. That's...less than useful. He ran a hand through his dark hair, slig it back with an increasing amount of sweat. The heat (and his predit) had him covered in a flop sweat. He was overwhelmed. Whatever was going on had more rules to it than he could grasp. As stupid as it sounded, even in the privacy of his own head, it felt like he was in an RPG or MMO game. Except he wasn't familiar with the Nym ra fi, and the term "Omen" was also unfamiliar, though he guessed it was something like a css? No clue. Ihan a breath, another pop-up: Choose Your Born Trait! This time the notification oputed by dozens, hundreds, then thousands of options. A scroll bar on the side of the notification window slowly grew smaller and smaller, until he could barely see it. The error message doesn't reappear, however, and he found himself staring at more options than he knew what to do with. The growing list of optied from useful to dht bizarre. Mighty Thews: +2 to STR and +2 bonus to as of Strength performed.Talented Voice: +2 to CHA and +2 bonus to all iations with se creatures that share yuage.Fish Breath: Breathe uer, able to eat entire fish in a single swallow.... "So many...." Suddenly, he was almost gd his rad omen were chosen for him; if there were this many options for everything, then he'd be hip deep in these notifications for hours. He tried to close the window, hoping that he could put this off longer, but the notification would just shake before returning to its inal position. Looked like he had to make his choiow. He put his hands to his temples, feeling the remnants of his hangover resurfag. The world felt like it inning just slightly too fast, and he had to croud sink a hand into the warm sah him. This was too much. First that terrifying o, then the killer monster, now this? What ? And he was Nym, now? Not even Human anymore? "Where the hell am I?!" he half-shouted ao his butt in the sand. He was so tired. He tried to close his eyes, but the pop-up notification was still there. He thrashed his arms and legs in the sand and yelled. "AAARRRAAAHHHH!" Thirty seds ter, he panted in the white sands, physically aionally exhausted. His limbs were heavy from his little fit, and his left arm ahrobbing from where he had torn open parts of his blisters. He was all alone in a strange nd, with deadly monsters everywhere, and opaque RPG-style game rules. Why? Why am I here? He sched his eyes closed and tried to envision himself ying on his futon in his tiny studio apartment. He tried to remember the feel of his down forter, and the unfortable sts beh the thin mattress. But the notification taunted him, gring bright and blue and unavoidable. He opened his eyes with a sigh. I don't know why I'm here, or how I get home, but if I'm going to survive this insane pce then I need some serious advantages. He squared his jaw and sat up, fronting the notification. His Omen was called The Magi. It had something to do with Will or Willpower, acc to the vague description. His Race was Nym, and he gained boo some sort of stats. He couldn't remember, exactly. He started fumbling around his dispy, hoping for some reminder of what those bonuses were and received a single line of text in reply. ot Open Status Page At This Time "Huh. So that means there is one." Despite himself, he was intrigued. His frustrations began to fall behind curiosity. He was blind to whatever stats he had, but he thought that his Rad Omen gained boo WIL, INT, DEX, END, and PER. If this was anything like the RPGs he'd pyed then those hopefully stood for Willpower, Intelligence, Dexterity, Endurance, and Perception. He had double boo WIL and INT, which fed into the idea that his css had access to magic or something. His breath caught for a moment. Was magic real, here? "Don't get distracted. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. The Trait options might clue me in. What sort of Traits do I have avaible?" He refocused on the Born Trait sele window, slowly making his way down. There were thousands of options and he quickly got lost in reading them. They covered all sorts of options and character builds, but he had no clue what to expe this strange pce. Would the ability to se his blood of impurities once daily be useful? Sure, especially if there oison or something close by. Would it be better thaher options? He had no idea. Three hours. He spent three hours sitting on the bead reading the various Traits. He was surprised at how easily he lost himself, feeling a sudden thrill of fear at the thought of being caught unaware by some beast. He ended up filing them into three categories: Utility, But Useless, and Over Powered. But Useless was easily the rgest category, filled with thousands of Traits that seemed less than optimal. He was blind to the rules of this pd also his own stats, but even he could tell that being able to "eat a ut whole and spit out the rind at high speed" was dumb. Utility had some iing options, including a way to jump up to three times his height at will. That would be cool as hell, he thought. There was even a Trait called Mageborn, which granted him a rger than normal mana pool. It also firmed the idea that magic existed on the ti, wherever that might be. The knowledge thrilled him, and he couldn't help but grow excited thinking about hurling fireballs and other wizard stuff. But the st category taihe only Trait that seemed entirely perfebsp;Keen Mind - +2 INT. You have perfect recall of all events within the past 30 days, and have a 20% ce of perfect recall beyond 30 days. The nature of knowledge meant that memory was critical, and if his Omen description was any indication, knowledge was core to his css. While being stronger or faster might help him survive, Keen Mind would let him thrive. It was just a gamble oher he could live long enough to make it useful. He hesitated before seleg it. He spent long minutes going over the other options, but nothing caught his eye except feborn whily gave him a small bump to his mana pool in the beginning. He didn't know how much mana he'd be using ter, but he didn't even know any spells right now. He shook his head. Screwing up his ce, he selected Keen Mind. You Have Selected Keen Mind As Your Born Trait!GRATULATIONS!What Is Your raveler? He paused. Should he use his real name? He had never really liked his name, and who knew what things he'd enter here. Maybe it was smart to hide his real name? So, feeling a little foolish he decided to input a name he had used in several games: Felix Nevarre Thank You, Felix!Wele Again To The ti!We Hope You Survive. Then the blue window disappeared. I'm sorry, what? He--no, Felix was worried. That st line was not encing. Then his train of thought was interrupted by a metric fuck ton of PINGs and blue box notifications. You Have Taken 1 Acid Damage!You Have Taken 1 Acid Damage!You Have Taken 10 Bludgeoning Damage from The Dread's Tentacle!You Attacked (Bite) for -7 Pierg Damage!You have Taken 10 Acid Damage! Due To Eating A Mythic Creature and Surviving, You Have Gained a Title!Gourmand (Rare)!Eat Your Foes! Learn Their Strength! Knowledge Fuels You!+1 to INT and VIT! "What?" Felix was dumbfounded. "A title? Just from biting the squid? That's...yeah, that's weird." The notifications tinued. Every time he closed one, another was ready to take it's pce. Most of them were damage notifications, probably from that nasty green o which Felix now assumed was a low grade acid. That's what I'm smelling! Vinegar! That had been bugging him for a while. You Have Learned a Skill!Acid Resistance (on), Level 1Decrease damage from acid by a fixed pertage. Pertage increases with Skill Level. Felix grimaced, the taste of the Dread's ichor still faint in his mouth. At least it was good for something. The moment he closed the notification, ahree appeared in quick succession: Due to prolonged exposure to the Bitter Sea and the requisite skill, you have gained further resistance!Acid Resistance is now Level 2!Acid Resistance is now Level 3!Acid Resistance is now Level 4! Huh. Felix's eyes widened as he felt his injuries begin to burn less. Now instead of a faint burning they just felt like a standard open wound, wet and stinging in the air. Did this mean he could train Acid Resistance by jumping in the brackish water? He g the waveless sea before him, imagining the creatures squirmih. He shuddered. Hard pass. You have Gained a Title!Survivor I (Unon)!Your Health has dropped to 1, but you lived to tell the tale! +1 END, +1 VIT! You Have Learned A Skill: Analyze (on), Level 1Intuit knowledge of people, pces, and things! Will garner more information with further use! You have successfully identified your enemy! he Dread (Mythic)Type: AberrationLevel: ???HP: ???/???MP: ???/???Lore: The Dread is All ing. Analyze, huh? Felix was inordinately pleased. If he was going the route of knowledge gatherer then this would be a core skill. That monster name and lore though...Yikes. You have escaped The Dread (Mythic)! You fled rather than die a painful death! Wise move! EXP earned! Felix let out a shrill yawp as suddenly light enveloped his body. He scrambled to his feet as a nearly inaudible yet haunting melody crashed against his ears, and the light faded just as quickly as it appeared. A new notification appeared before him, and this time the box was gilded and surrounded by a stylized border. Level up! You are now Level 2!+3 to WIL! +2 to INT! +1 to DEX! +1 to END! +1 to PER!You Have 5 Uat Points! "Holy shit," he said, his eyes wide. "It IS a video game." This firmed his increasingly paranoid suspi that he had died and goo a particurly straerlife. He had stats. And levels! What even was this? The notifications tinued, unabated. Your Title Gourmand Has Garnered You Insight!You Have Learned A Skill! Memories of the Past, (Unon)Capture Memories from the Mana of your foes! Relive collected Memories to gain insight and learn from your enemies! Memories st until relived, then fade. Pertage retained determined by Skill Level. SYNERGY DETECTED! Your Born Trait has near perfect synergy with the Skill Memories of the Past (U)!Evolution in process... Felix suddenly felt light-headed and sweaty, as if he haden in days and tried to run a marathon. His hands shook as he held them up to his head. He saw fshes of blue and gold in the ers of his vision, like fireworks just out of sight. His body felt like a defting balloon, and all of his air was rushing out of him, gathering at the edges of his vision. You Have Discovered A Skill!Lessons of the Past (Rare), Level 1Capture Memories from the Mana of your foes! All Memories are retained perfectly for 30 days, after which retention is increased by Skill Level. ce of learning Skills from retained Memories increases with Skill Level. Holy cow. His head felt stuffed with cotton and also vaguely on fire. The pain of the evolving Skill was vivid but brief, a dull burn that even now faded away. If he was reading this correctly, he could learn Skills from the memories of enemies he'd, what? Defeated? Entered? That was wildly overpowered. His choice of Born Trait was already bearing fruit. You have gained a Memory from [The Dread]! Would you like to review it now?Yes/Yes