Compendium of known System mechanics (book 1 end)_Godstrike

An introduction to System empowerment & new world peculiarities, by Ryan ‘Breathless’ Gesler

 For new recruits: Know that there will be a thorough formal examination.

 Preliminary note:

 This introductory brief is full of speculation. We are woefully unaware of the System’s true purpose or intentions and forced to fill in the blanks with inferences. In truth, our knowledge is yet in its infancy. Regardless, something is better than nothing. This document will not touch upon the various extraction, refining, production and stand-alone statlinks, as we simply know far too little about them as of yet.

 General System terminology: The auto-translation feature appears to draw on some kind of collective subconscious or perhaps popular knowledge. The intent appears to be general comprehension rather than precision. Thus, words which appear familiar, such as ‘cantrips’ or ‘magic’, are in fact often misleading.

 PGS: Abbreviation for Post-Godstrike and the foundation of the new calendar system, beginning at the apocalypse. Day/night cycles are 30 hours, months are considered 30 days per the Ascension games cycle and ten months comprise a year. No seasonality has been observed as regions appear climate-locked. *We use ten months rather than twelve as it aligns more closely to the old-world ‘year’.

 Progression: Appears to adhere to unified principles. The arithmetic is that of additive incrementation. The first stage is always given for free, e.g. first level, first quality, etc. The first improvement costs 1, the second 2, the third 3, etc. For levels, the number is derived from lootable energy from slain Errant. For statlink progression, it is hours spent applying the statlink. For quality, it is the hours spent working on the item. For magical endurance, it is energy spent. For those bad at math, 4950 is the cumulative number for reaching 100.

 Classes: Subdivided into pures and hybrids. Pures appear to fulfill generalized purposes and are ‘immediately online’. Hybrids are specialized and often… complicated. Moreover, each hybrid appears to have two sub-specialization paths, based on their primary stats. We dare not speculate on their intended purposes, but weapon mages are currently understood as Greatbeast killers.

 Stats: Quantification of empowerment. Even so, it seems the relative numbers are more important than the absolute, as their effects appear to vary depending on environment. As such, the exact baseline is unknown and nonlinear regardless, but multiples of 25 are a good estimate for human baseline capabilities. Stats can be willed ‘off’ to an extent. Subconscious regulation seems to apply, preventing unintended mishaps and causing others. Distribution is fixed.

 Physical power (PP): Fairly straightforward. Governs ability to exert and resist physical force.

 Physical speed (PS): Fairly straightforward. Further influences direct mental processing, including reflexes and perception of time. Heavy activation seems to induce hyper awareness.

 Physical endurance (PE): Ability to resist and recover from damage and injury. Sufficient numbers provide nigh immunity from non-energy empowered sources, e.g. falling from great heights. The number directly correlates with waking hours before fatigue sets in, but heavy stat draw and level of injury reduces this.

 Magical power (MP): Governs effectiveness of magical damage. Appears to influence the ability to sense magic.

 Magical speed (MS): Governs simultaneous activations of magic. Multiples of ten allow for programmatic mental sub-processes, but these can only affect magic.

 Magical endurance (ME): Governs resistance to magic, size of havens and range of vision and safe energy absorption per second before rate limiting. Suspected to influence an exceedingly large number of factors and thus resists deductive experimentation even more heavily than usual. Suspected to be of paramount importance, especially due to its universally rapid progression.

 Free point: So far a singular event shortly after the eclipse, allowing a user-chosen progression increase of +1 stat/level, permanently.

 Class Abilities: Shared by all members of same class, fixed.

 Class Skills: Manifested by ‘vocalizing’ ‘tags’ sequentially upon reaching levels 2-4. All classes gain three skills. While allowing for a degree of self-determination, some kind of underlying logic applies. Previous choices seem to influence future ones and all final results create a comprehensive ‘kit’.

 Cantrips: Active ‘spells’ with fixed, non-scaling effects. Create food and drink is universal. Others are chosen by vocalization. Irritatingly vague. Pure fighters do not receive cantrips.

 Low magic: Passive effects which can be turned off/on. Vary extremely. Selected from a list of general categories further subdivided into first specific sub-categories and finally stats. Only stats which naturally grow allow for selection. Only appear upon ascension. Pures do not receive low magic (*Jill is an exception, don’t ask). Have no energy cost.

 High magic: A feature of pure mages. Chosen by vocalization and correlate with low magic categories to an extent. Have varying effects but generally tend to be powerful and require no energy to use. Instead, have specific stat ‘charge’ requirements which are added to on a daily basis based on stats. Governing category (‘element’; colloquial) can also be infused into abilities & skills for additional effects.

 Energy: Primary resource of the System empowered. Anything affected by energy appears to take primacy over non-affected physical reality. Regenerates naturally at a rate of 1 per hour. Appears to have a varying passive presence not unlike background radiation, which is the bane of the author’s existence because it makes proper experimentation fucking impossible.

 Condensation: Colloquially referred to as ‘loot’. Slaying an Errant typically gives three options. 1. To condense into pure energy crystals. 2. A creature-specific magical material. 3. Manual harvesting. Energy crystals can be fused along a treadmill of increasing quantities, although coins (1-1000 energy) are the most commonly used. Can be split into previous fused steps but transference is preferred for transactions & gifts. Note that higher quantity crystals produce increasingly loud sounds akin to cracking ice when depleted.

 Absorption: The universal ability to consume condensed energy to refill ones internal supply. Rate of absorption appears to be unlimited and instant.

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 Statlinks: System-ordained magical extraction, refining and crafting. Tools and materials are highly specific and need to be of a magical nature, yet often appear surprisingly mundane.

 Hubris: A psychological effect of overconfidence resulting from stat gains. Stronger with permanent gains, far lesser with temporary ones. Suspected to contain a permanent component as well. Can cause a psychotic break in extreme cases. Losing stats permanently due to switching around of statlinks causes a depressive episode instead.

 Magical materials: Energy empowered variations of ‘normal’ materials, suitable for System crafting and equipment. Using statlinks allows for minor manipulation of properties. Appear highly generalized, e.g. there is no differentiation between different types of ‘metal’.

 Dragonsteel: A unique resource gained from equipment slagged by Greatbeast dragonfire. Non-weapons become brittle and require painstaking extraction of hardened veins within the brittle charcoal-like material. Suspected to vary and be a defense mechanism to provide resources which can damage an endobeast. All observations are based on singular encounter. Especially powerful in the hands of weapon mages.

 Capacity: Ability to wear magical equipment and influenced by stats. PE has the most effect, followed by PP and finally PS. Colloquially categorized as ‘none’ (no natural gain), ‘light’, ‘medium’ and ‘heavy’. It is worth noting that magical armor provides an extreme survivability increase. In truth, the line between medium and heavy is blurred as both are able to equip themselves with nigh abandon.

 Tiers: Appears to be a multiplication factor for quality. Generally a good approximation for both the rarity and value of a material. Tier one (the lowest) manifests by some form of green coloration, tier two appears blue. Advanced materials blur the lines due to composite properties, which were previously referred to as tier x.5.

 Quality: An indication of how much statlink-work has been spent on an item and correlates directly with its effectiveness. Two breakpoints are known: 10 for overcharging and 100 for awakening. Quality 100 seems to correlate roughly with the powerlevels observed among Ascendant abilities/skills but even low quality gear is an incredible jump up from nonmagical equipment/halfworks (both essentially useless).

 Ascension: At level 100, no further levels can be gained until completing the ‘Ascension Games’, which are a battle-royale type coliseum dungeon-deathmatch. 10 go in, max 5 go out. Succesful completion provides upgrades to ability, skills and sometimes other effects, such as access to low magic, further cantrips, etc. Multiple levels of Ascension are suspected to exist. The first grade allows willful exemption from biological processes/increased tolerance to environmental factors, at the cost of no natural healing and energy regeneration. (Note: No natural healing means you are literally slowly dying! PE * Hours appears to be the limit before catastrophic physical failure sets in. Do not test.)

 Awakening: Something an ascendant can do upon improving an item to quality 100 by themselves with one of their own statlinks. The initial forging does not count, thus the total amount of hours equates to 4949. Effects are unknown, as we have not been empowered by the System long enough for anyone to have completed all the requirements.

 Overcharge: Achieved by consuming 1000 energy to empower an item (requires a minimum quality of 10). This appears to overload the item with energy and improves the quality by roughly 90. Overcharged items dissolve from the strain in a couple of hours. Exempted from rate limiting. Overcharging an overcharged item again results in a catastrophic explosion. The effect can be weaponized, but at extreme risk to the user.

 Rate-limiting: A System safety precaution, invoked by absorbing too much energy per second. The safe limit appears to be ones magical endurance per second (colloquially: ‘a full bar’). One second of no energy use allows for the use of twice ones magical endurance (colloquially: ‘a double bar’). It is recommended to use slightly below the maximum, as pushing the limit does cause heavy strain. The rate limit is always a crippling 10 energy per second and temporarily reduces ones maximum ME. The duration varies depending on how excessive the overdraw was.

 Recovery: Taking excessive damage induces recovery ‘comas’, commensurate to the amount of damage taken. While total recovery from even nigh death appears to be possible, it is not guaranteed. Losing limbs and especially internal organs has a disproportionate effect on recovery times.

 Suppression: An effect observed from significant power differentials, a specific low magic, and passively exerted by most Errant, especially prevalent in the Underway and below. Manifests as total darkness. Modulated by havens and absolutely resisted by sanctuaries. Can be countered with the ‘light cantrip’, but the cantrip is highly vulnerable to disruption and thus endurance mages are a better solution.

 Vision: Passive background energy has a profound effect on vision range. Moreover, the Errant’s passive suppression gives them a form of stealth, preventing spotting from extreme distances. Once within ‘detection’ range, the Errant become observable out of nowhere. Surprisingly, this effect is not jarring at all and needs to be consciously thought of to even be noticed as unnatural.

 Haven: One’s ability to resist suppression, manifested as increased vision range within suppressed areas. Naturally manipulated by endurance mages and can be chained by individuals whose ranges overlap.

 Sanctuary: A vision radius of ten meters surrounding every System-empowered individual and inviolable by suppression.

 Errant: Monsters and apparent enemies of the System. They respawn indefinitely, accumulate in power by slaying each other and evolve if left alone for too long. Their likeness, properties and abilities display extreme variety and often make no apparent sense whatsoever.

 Variants: Evolved Errant, seem to follow some kind of pattern. It is unknown whether variants can evolve but the answer is probably yes. Will eventually wander out of their respawn zones.

 Greatbeast(s): Enormous monsters with overwhelming power. Only one has been observed, a dragon. Seem to be an outer shell for the endobeast within. Can only be manually harvested and provide no ‘experience’.

 Endobeast(s): A creature which appeared to control the dragon ‘Redhead’, made entirely of dragonsteel. Extremely dangerous, intelligent and nigh invulnerable to system abilities, skills and magic. Required dragonsteel wielded by a weapon mage to slay.

 Fort(s): Strongholds of the Errant. Contain vast amounts of extremely aggressive Errant. They are dangerous to approach as they have powerful long-range offensive capability. Periodically send out battle groups of Errant to wreak havoc upon surrounding areas. Guarded/manned by a reflection. Defeating the reflection allows accessing a ‘core’. Interacting with a core calls down a System-strike. Upon doing so, it is important to evacuate the area as total obliteration will follow.

 Reflection(s): Constantly regenerating core guardian of a fort. Extremely dangerous. Appear to be some kind of undead forms of past Ascendants.

 The Underway (-1): An underground mazing tunnel network, subdivided into Errant respawn zones. Long hallways filled with traps separate zones. In between zones a stairway can be found to -2. The middle of each underway zone contains rooms, where variants seem to form. These also seem to function as command zones and the Errant within begin to organize and feed the variant with lesser respawning Errant. Entering a zone with more than one person at a time causes an escalating swarming mode to trigger.

 Solo’s Layer (-2): Lower level of the Underway. Contain ‘level 100’ Errant and have extremely varying geography, but are far less cramped. Highly dangerous and it is recommended to have either a group or to be an Ascendant before venturing here. Contains safe rooms with stairways leading further down. Transcend zone borders.

 Groups Layer (-3): Contains solo’s level Errant but in large organized combined-arms groups. Extremely dangerous and largely unexplored.

AliNovel

Compendium of known System mechanics (book 1 end)