《Interesting Times》 Chapter 1 - The Beginning Do you ever feel like a fraud in your own life? Like somehow even though you accomplished the impossible, it wasn''t really you. That you don''t deserve what you have gained. That you didn''t earn it. That''s what I feel like now. I mean not to say I didn''t work hard to get where I am. I nearly died many times. I risked insane odds only to come out breathing on the other side. But that''s what I mean. If things didn''t line up exactly right. If I didn''t get insanely lucky on every roll of the proverbial dice, I know I wouldn''t have survived. Hell, even those times I thought that my luck had forsaken me, everything played out in such a way that I was still the luckiest in the room. That''s why I don''t feel I deserve where I am now. But, this not a story about where I am now. This is a story about my beginning. The time the world shifted and things thought impossible, things that were relegated to myth and legend, suddenly weren''t. It has been so long I don''t really remember my prior life. I remember quaint things like the smell of cookies fresh out of the oven. The smile on my mum''s face as she tucks me into bed. Small things, things that as I sit here seem unimportant but had a massive impact on my early days and in all honesty probably led to where I am now. However, as I have already said, this is not a story about now. It all started when I was a child. I don''t really recall how old. Maybe six or seven. I do, however, remember this clearly. I had just gotten into trouble. I was out on the street, playing cricket with a couple of kids from around the neighbourhood. I was batting, the bowler, I don''t remember his name, but I do remember that he had dirty blond hair and brown eyes. He threw the ball incredibly slowly, trying to tempt me into hitting it high so one of the other kids could catch it. Like a kid I took the bait. I smashed it as hard as I could. I hit it perfectly. I could feel how the ball smacked solidly into the center of the bat right at the end of the bat. The ball rocketed forward, almost straight forward. There was only one problem we were playing in a cul-de-sac. The bowler and batter both facing houses. The ball shot forward like a bullet straight through the front window of this old guy''s house. I still remember the terror I felt as this old man, still wearing pajamas, came rocketing out of the house, screaming obscenities. We did what any kids would do, we ran. Unfortunately, I was still holding the bat and the old guy followed me to my house. Turns out that old guy was walking through his living room just as the ball came flying through. It had passed right in front of his head. During the discussion between the old man and my parents, I had never heard the word lucky so much in my life. I was sitting meekly at the kitchen table, while the adults discussed my fate. How big it all seemed then like my entire life was ruined. And the word lucky was flying around my head. I was just sitting there thinking, lucky, how is this lucky. If I was lucky none of this would have happened. I wish I was lucky. I don''t know how or why it happened but the words lucky just kind of imprinted themselves on my brain. I couldn''t get rid of them. I don''t even remember what my punishment was. The next few days were a blur for me. But then it happened.
Planet repaired Mana restored Scanning planet... Massive structural changes observed Critical imbalance Restoring...
One second I was inside in my bed staring at these strange messages floating in front of me and the next second everything just sorts of melts. Well, I suppose everything more sort of dissolved into nothing. The next few moments weren''t all that clear to me. I must have hit my head as the bed and house disappeared under me, dropping me to a ground that was suddenly a metre a way. But when I came to I was naked. Panic started to set in and I was about to cry and call for my parents when more writing appeared before my eyes. I know I wasn''t the best reader, my parents believed I had dyslexia. But the words in front of me were clear, the writing seemed to have a meaning I could feel.
Intelligent life discovered State your name
Without really thinking I spoke my name. "Perry Andrews."
Accepted Allocate your stats, as your body is not fully developed some stats cannot currently be changed, but will naturally increase over time.
STATS Class: (Locked)
NAME Perry Andrews Level 1 (0/100)
Health 50 Health Regen 15/hr
Stamina 125 Stamina Regen 12.5/min
Mana 50 Mana Regen 75/hr
Strength 5 (Locked until body maturity) Intelligence 5
Dexterity 5 (Locked until body maturity) Wisdom 5
Constitution 5 (Locked until body maturity) Charisma 5
Luck 5 Unallocated Points 20
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. And pretty much the only thing I saw was Luck. The only thing that has been going around my head for the last several days. I instinctively understood what the table meant and without any thought to anything else, I did the only thing that made sense to me. I put my 20 unallocated points straight into Luck. Another screen popped up asking me to confirm the changes and with barely a thought I did. Instantly a warmth rushed into me. It felt like I was glowing and like surrounding me was an indefinable sense of safety. And that is when my parents found me. Like me, they were both naked. When my mother saw me, she let out a cry and dashed over to me. She picked me up and fussed over me. Asking if I was alright. My dad came up and we all stood together huddled together. Around us the world was still changing. Out of nowhere trees grew, defying what we know of the natural world. In minutes the dirt hole where our house used to be was filled with grass and trees. The sun just starting to peek over the horizon, lending enough light to be able to see the now fully grown trees. I looked around in wonder seeing different types of trees, grass, and bushes, where minutes ago a neighbourhood had stood. I also noticed similarly huddled groups of people standing around. Mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, grandfathers and grandmothers. All standing around, staring at the changes that had just taken place. Suddenly a new window appeared.
Global Quest: It''s time to rebuild Gather your friends and neighbours. Time remaining: 10:00 Reward:Altar
As soon as I finished reading the message. I looked at my mum and dad. Both of their eyes were wide. I looked at them but neither of them were moving. Not really understanding what was happening I said the first thing that came to mind "Come on, we only have 10 minutes, we have to come together." My mum looked at my dad and asked him if he saw it too. My dad nodded and suddenly we were moving. The next ten minutes went by fast. People were shouting and yelling, but in the end, everyone had gathered in the middle of where the cul-de-sac used to be but was now just a grassy field. Off in the distance, I could see several more groups of people like ours. All standing together and waiting for the last 10 seconds to count down. As the last few seconds disappeared a bright light flashed down in the center of our group. The ground started to tremble and everyone quickly backed away. Out of the ground, an object appeared. It was a white streaked with black stone pyramid, about 5 metres long on each side. In the middle of each of the 4 sides were a set of steps leading up to a flat top that looked to be about a metre wide. In the middle was a black streaked with white stone obelisk, stretching up a metre high. A couple of the older kids, around 10 or so years of age, started to run up the sides of the altar. Their parents running after them, telling them to stop. A couple of the kids reached the obelisk and touched it before their parents could stop them. Shouts of cool and awesome were shouted out before distressed parents dragged them away. It wasn''t long before one of the adults touched the obelisk. The next few hours passed by slowly for me. My mum finally let me down and I had been hungrily listening to the conversations going on around me. Lots of people were scared and talking about how the government should do something, but I quickly tuned those boring things out. I heard lots of things about the obelisk and what it could do. Like create building blueprints and it was a shop and it could give quests. It sounded amazing but mum told me I couldn''t go see it. Chapter 2 First Steps Needless to say, I tried to sneak away several times, but after the first time, my mum kept a close eye on me. The most interesting thing that happened that day was that hours after everyone interested had gone up, that old man, who looked like the oldest person here, went up and touched the obelisk. A couple of minutes after he had touched it, a message popped up.
The village elder has named your village. Your village is now called Eridith.
Seconds later the old man''s laugh sounded out from the top of the pyramid. Not too long later I saw a bunch of men and women surrounding the old man. I couldn''t hear much but from the scraps I could hear, as they drifted closer to where I was standing, it sounded like now the village was named they had some more defensive options and they were worried about what that might mean. We were all still mostly milling around, but I started to notice some of the men and women who had gathered around the old man were going out towards the other pyramids that had appeared in the distance. As far as I could see there were another 5 of them. But they all looked fairly far away. I heard mum and dad say that our village had just over a thousand members. My dad had finally gone up to touch the obelisk after the town was named. And he told my mum that the obelisk said there were 1017 villagers. Not too long after the people left for the other pyramids a powerful voice blasted out from the top of the pyramid. "Hello, my name is Joe Henrickson. I know many of you have questions, but unfortunately, I don''t have answers, hell, I don''t even have any clothes. What I do have is 30 years in the Army. And I have a question for you. Where will you stay tonight? What will you eat or drink? What will you wear? We need to work together. In a moment our elder Samuel will issue some quests. Your involvement in the quests will impact the amount of experience you will receive. I know a lot has changed. But at this point in time we have two options. We can either shut down and wait to die or we can stand and fight. I know what I am going to do. When you have decided, come to the north side of the pyramid." A couple of minutes after he finished talking a series of quests appeared.
Community Quest (Eridith Village): Construction Materials 100 x large logs Experience Available: 30,000
Community Quest (Eridith Village): Someone has to do it... 20 x latrines Experience Available: 4,000
Community Quest (Eridith Village): Tonight we eat? 300 x small animals or 60 x medium animals or 20 x Large animals Experience available: 30,000
Community Quest (Eridith Village): Where shall we cook? Collect the wood for and dig a fire pit. 100 x large fire pits Experience available: 10,000
Community Quest (Eridith Village): Operation cover up Using plant fibers weave some clothes 1017 x woven garb Experience available: 101,700
Soon after the quests appeared mum and dad had a quiet talk and the next thing I knew we were all walking over to the pyramid. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.After 20 minutes nearly everyone was over at the north side of the pyramid. "Alright listen up. Anyone who wants to participate in gathering the production materials, follow Jared here. He had 20 years as a lumberjack. Before you ask no we don''t have axes. But we will make do. One of our runners discovered a river and we were able to identify a cache of flint." He stayed quiet for several minutes as the interested people gathered around Jared. Then they went off to the East. "Anyone who wants to gather firewood and dig fire pits, follow Mary. She''ll tell you where she wants the pits and how big." He again waited and Mum and I moved towards Mary. She was a biggish lady. Her hair had started going grey and she had a no-nonsense look about her. I looked around and I noticed that the majority of people that had gathered around her were kids and their mothers. Mary looked around and when she saw all the kids she started smiling. "Okay everyone, we are going to build the fires to the south of the pyramid." And with that, she started walking. About 20 metres from the pyramid she stopped and started marking out large circles, of about a metre in diameter, 3 metres apart from each other. As she was marking she started talking. "I would like all of the kids and 20 parents to go and find firewood and bring it to each pit. If you find any decent sized stones bring them back too. The rest of you start digging out the pits about half a foot deep. Use anything you can find, sticks, rocks, even your hands if you have to." She watched every one organise themselves and had to pry a couple of nervous mothers away with a couple of patient words. But eventually, everyone was ready. Even my mum had to stay behind. I had already found my friends and was eager to go. We walked off into the edge of the forest on the Southside of the pyramid, where we already were. Only about 20 metres from where they were digging fire pits. As we started to spread out more, I excitedly asked my friends. "Where did you put your points? I put all of mine in Luck." "Really, why in Luck? That''s stupid, what does luck even do?" Sally said, "I put mine into Intelligence and Wisdom." "Luck is not stupid." "Yeah, it is." "No, it''s not." "Okay, then, what does it do?" "What do you mean?" "Well when I put 10 into Intelligence and Wisdom, my mana went to 150 and my mana recovery went to 11.25/min. So what did Luck do?" "Doesn''t matter, I''m lucky now." "That means it did nothing." Sally then started laughing. My eyes started to get hot and not wanting her to get the pleasure of seeing me cry, I runoff. I didn''t get too far when I come to the bank of a river, I barely see it in enough time to come to a stop without falling down the bank. As I am staring into the river pitying myself, wondering if maybe I was stupid to put everything into Luck. I look down and see the most beautiful stone I have ever seen. It was a dark blue that almost seemed to shine in the sun. Picking my way carefully down the bank I pick up the stone that was just above the water. I make my way back up the bank and sit down underneath a tree. I look at the stone and I realise it looks like it has been cut and polished like the diamonds you see on the television. The way it has been cut it looks like an oval. As I look at it, I wonder what kind of stone it is. I feel something within me react and the next thing I know I''m looking at screen hovering above the stone.
Water Foci - Rare Increases ability to learn water magic. 20% greater control 20% less mana required for spells
Magic I can learn magic. How? Gripping the small stone I walk back to the river. I look at the river and I don''t have the slightest clue where to start. I look back at the stone and try to see the writing again. I feel the same pull somewhere in my middle and the writing appears again. It increases my ability, but how do I go about learning it? Well, it says it takes mana like in a game. What do I know about mana? In games, it''s a power inside you. Can I find it? I close my eyes, hoping Sarah doesn''t see me now and tease me about it. Now what? Well in fantasy books it''s a ball in the middle of your body. I focused inwards and then my eyes shot open. I had felt it it was like a sun, but with no light or heat. I know that makes no sense but at the same time that is the only way I can describe it. I felt a pressure that felt like light and heat. I was excited now, it also reminded me a little of the feeling that happens when I make the information window appear. I looked at the Water Foci and bring up the window again. That sensation came back and the window opened. Yes! That''s mana. I found it. I started dancing around beside the river. Just then I heard my mum calling my name. I say I''m here and then run to her voice. When I got to her she was all worried and told me to stay where she can see me. I didn''t know what the big deal was. I''ve been able to leave her sight for ages now. On the way back mum made me pick up lots of wood. It was just laying everywhere. Mum said I need to pick it all up and bring it back. Mum also saw my stone and said it looked valuable, whatever that means. I tried to ask her to see the writing, but she didn''t want to try. I don''t think she likes the screens and stuff. I think it''s pretty cool, like we are in a game.