《Exile Online》


 Prologue and Chapter 1

    My name is Andrew Mackenzie, and I am about to start my new life in a new game.


    Virtual reality games have been around for about 20 earth years now and I have been an avid player since the start of it. I even went ahead and uploaded myself to the virtual community 3 earth years ago. I figured since this was where I spent all my time I may as well let go of my physical body. I took horrible care of it anyway. I have a job as a streamer, with an editor, web developer, and general badass manager A.I. named Carlie. She manages all of my videos and game footage for me, as well as doing the same stuff for around a hundred other streamers. A.I.¡¯s are monsters when it comes to managerial stuff and number crunching. Anyway, as I said before, I¡¯m about to start a new game, but not just any game. Exile Online. Now you are probably thinking ¡°Oh look, another VR game. Just like all the other VR games.¡± And I would agree with you on any other ¡®just came out¡¯ VR I¡¯ve played in the last decade, but not this one. This one is truly unique in comparison to all the other games I¡¯ve played. It has a huge amount of different systems, but they all stem from 2 massive changes.


    First, the game has a long term log-in policy. This means that in order to play the game, you are actually stuck in game for at least 1 earth year, or 4 in game years, at a time. In addition, if you log out after that period, you have to wait another 1 earth year just to log back in. Now this seems crazy at first glance, but it¡¯s actually a medical requirement because the game can give players extra sensory abilities, let you control extra limbs, and does knowledge and skill downloads straight to the player¡¯s brain. If they didn¡¯t have this policy your brain would fry from repeatedly switching from what is basically a massive sensory overload to sensory deprivation over and over again. But for me, this doesn¡¯t matter since I¡¯m logging in to stay anyway. I am virtual after all.


    Second, the game hides all stats and runs them in the background. That¡¯s right, you don¡¯t know your levels, your ability scores, your health, mana, or anything. The numbers just don¡¯t get shown to you. Instead, in situations where a player would need to know that kind of information, they give you an approximate descriptive word that tells you how strong and weak, or high and low, something is IN COMPARISON TO EVERYTHING ELSE. Want to know how much extra damage an enchant gives? It gives a low damage boost. How strong is that monster? It is moderately stronger than you. They have 7 levels, from lowest to highest its: slight, low, decent, average, moderate, large, and huge. That¡¯s it. This change caused a massive ripple through all of the in game systems. Races are different, classes are different, skills are different, abilities are different, everything. It¡¯s amazing and insane all wrapped up together.


    And that is basically all the information I have about the game. The company behind the game, Gamers United, is very tight lipped about any in game information and all the beta testers signed very severe and binding non-disclosure agreements. Apparently the in game tutorial and help systems are very robust and informative, but Gamers United has also stated that a lot of the fun and draw of the game is going to be variability in character builds, discovery and exploration so the help systems probably only help on the basics.


    But enough of that. New life, here I come.


    Chapter 1


    I speed through all of the form filling; setting up an account, connecting to my streamer account, Gamers United¡¯s legal forms. I¡¯m glad that¡¯s all done. Now, onto character creation!


    ???: Welcome to Exile Online. My name is Zan, and I will be assisting you with creating your character.


    Wow, that got started fast. As soon as I started character creation there was a bright flash and a beautiful voice spoke out. Looking around, I appear to be in an area filled with a pale white mist. I can¡¯t see anything, no walls, floors, or ceiling, just mist. Well, and this amazingly gorgeous woman wearing a sleeveless white dress.


    Me: Nice to meet you Zan, and thanks for helping me.


    It always pays to be nice to A.I., learned that from a little thing called ¡°Prior Experience,¡± especially when there is a possibility that they may be gods or goddesses in a game. They tend to be sneaky about revenge. Zan has long silver hair flowing down to the middle of her back, large breasts, wide hips, and a face I would put on a ¡°Top 10 most beautiful women¡± list without hesitation, but the most striking part of her are her eyes.  They seem to be a whirlpool of swirling ever changing colors that just suck you right in.


    Zan: The first part is choosing a race. There are currently 98 races available to choose from. Once a race is selected, you will choose a gender and then modify your appearance.


    Damn this list is long. It¡¯s got the basic fantasy races, humans, elves, dwarves, and orcs, but then it has all these extra races, like elementals, dryads, draconian, and beast kin. What really drives the number up though is the number of half breeds. There is a half human half whatever for a good portion of the things on the list, you can do elven and dwarfish hybrids too.


    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    Me: Do these races gain any starting bonuses? I¡¯m not seeing anything mentioned on the list.


    Zan: Races gain bonuses that reflect their biology, culture, and lore. However, these bonuses are not shown at this time and can be viewed once in game. This is done to allow players to choose a race that they are comfortable not only playing as, but living as, without worrying about optimum choices.


    Alright, nice reasoning and I appreciate that kind of philosophy, but it doesn¡¯t really help my decision. The problem for me is that I¡¯ve always been a versatile and adaptable player. I can play anything, tanks, healers, damage dealers, support; I¡¯ve played them all and been good at them all. Sure there are some I¡¯m better at than others, but I¡¯ve never been unable to do a great job in any role. So at this point I¡¯m just picking a race I¡¯ll enjoy to live as, but I¡¯ll enjoy any of them. Gah! I¡¯ve been agonizing over this for about 10 minutes already and I¡¯m no closer to making a decision.


    Me: I may as well just roll the dice and see what I get at this point.


    Zan: I can randomly choose a race for you if that is what you wish.


    Me: Wait! Seriously?!


    The corners of her mouth twitch up.


    Zan: Indeed.


    That¡­¡­sounds pretty amazing actually. I¡¯ve always been of the opinion that playing with the hand you have been dealt is more fun than picking the best cards.


    Me: That sounds perfect actually, although I would like to add something, if I may?


    Zan: That will depend on what it is, but I am most certainly willing to hear you out.


    Me: Can I not know what race I get until I get into the game?


    She raises her eyebrows in surprise.


    Zan: That is acceptable, but this would cause your gender and appearance to be based on your current appearance. Would you still like to do this?


    Me: Yes.


    Zan: Very well. Your race, gender, and appearance will be chosen when you transition into the game world. The next choice is of your starting traits.


    Me: Hold on, can you explain traits for me?


    Zan: Due to the lack of information and direction granted to players, as well as classes being earned in game and not started with, you will be provided the choice of starting with traits that give various bonuses or detriments to your character. Traits are ranked from 1-5, where rank 1 traits have the least impact and rank 5 have the most impact on your character. In addition there are positive traits, which provide positive bonuses, and negative traits, which provide negative bonuses. You are able to choose a free trait, with a maximum of rank 2. After that free trait, your traits must be balanced. If you wished to gain an extra positive trait that is rank 4, you would need to also take enough negative traits to make up for 4 ranks of negative traits. Did you follow the explanation?


    Me: Yeah, but before you give me the list, can I randomize this too?


    Now she looks absolutely shocked. Haha! I shocked a goddess! Achievement unlocked! (Not really)


    Zan: I can, but are you sure? All the other players I have helped all considered this to be the most important choice they made in the character creation process.


    I give her a smile


    Me: Yup! When you take a chance, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, but it will always be interesting. I¡¯m here to have fun, and this having a random character is going to be a blast!


    She gives me smile and laughs.


    Zan: I think you will be an interesting character to follow. Alright, I¡¯ll randomize your traits as well. I look forward to seeing your adventures.


    ???: As will I.


    I spin around to see who that last voice was. Standing behind me is another woman, but this one is wearing a form fitting dark blue pinstripe suit, with sky blue eyes, and sporting a pixie cut with bright pink hair. Where Zan was super model material, this woman was more my type, with just the right amount of curves in just the right places.


    ???: Keep on taking chances, and I¡¯ll be sure to make them interesting.


    I see her smile, and then the world flashes again and goes black.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>You have gained a Blessing: Fortune''s Smile</td></tr><tr><td>"When you take a chance, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, but it will always be interesting."</td></tr></tbody></table>

 Chapter 2

    I wake up a little groggily. I feel a little stiff, not sore but more like I haven¡¯t moved in a long time. As I try moving, I find out I can¡¯t. Opening my eyes I look around and see what looks like a study or research room. There are diagrams all over the walls and a long table with a chair covered in books and papers. I look down and see that I am strapped down to a table. Well, I was expecting a random start but this seems a bit too peculiar. As I think about what is going on a man walks in the door. He is wearing an open long white coat and wearing a decent quality shirt, long pants, and leather shoes. His black hair is a mess and when he looks at me I see his pale green eyes.


    ???: Oh¡­..you¡¯re awake. I was expecting that to take a bit longer.


    Me: Um, hi.


    ???: Sorry, I imagine this is fairly confusing for you. Hold on a moment and I¡¯ll explain. Oh, and my name is Albert.


    He pulls over the chair and sits facing me.


    Albert: Well, before I begin, do you remember your name?


    Remember my name? Isn¡¯t this the tutorial? I haven¡¯t given a name yet, so I shouldn¡¯t have one to ¡°remember.¡± Guess I¡¯ll just use my favorite one.


    Me: Yeah, my name is Tobias.


    Albert: Great. Well Tobias, we have a lot to go over, so I¡¯m going to just keep talking and you stop me if something I say goes over your head. Alright?


    This is one confusing tutorial.


    Me: Um, yeah.


    Albert: Good. First thing we should get out of the way is what you are. You are a homunculus that I have created in order to host a special ability that we will come back to later. Right now the main thing is that in order to get a soul for the body I made, I had to pull a soul from the afterlife. The afterlife is a confusing place even using magic, so I don¡¯t rightly know from exactly where I got your soul. So we need to test your memories, and how well your soul integrated with the body. We will start with the memories. This world is called Terra, do you remember it?


    Holy shit, this is insane! I¡¯m a homunculus. With some special power that I don¡¯t even know about yet. I didn¡¯t see that option on the race menu when I was looking before. Maybe when I randomized it I got extra races thrown into the possibilities? Well, Terra is the game world, but if he pulled me from the afterlife maybe I can do something here that never worked in any other game I¡¯ve played. Maybe the A.I. in this game can handle it.


    Me: No, I am from a world called earth. No one on my world ever had magic either. Are you a dream? Am I hallucinating?


    Albert: Hm. That is fascinating. But no, this is not a dream, and no you are not hallucinating. It would appear that the afterlife connects to multiple worlds.


    I am stunned, just absolutely stunned. Not only did the game not glitch out at the mention of other worlds, but he just incorporated it into the systems in this world. That is AMAZING! This is going to be an awesome life in this game.


    Albert: But back to topic. If you don¡¯t know about this world I will give you an overview later. How clear and complete would you say your memories are? Using a scale of 1-10, with 1 being none and 10 being perfect?


    Me: Probably a 9, I think. I don¡¯t have any missing memories that I recognize and I think the clarity is normal.


    Albert: Perfect, I guess I got you before you began losing them. Now for body integration. Please place both hands flat on the table, palms down.


    I do so. And then I do the hundred other little checks he has. Twist this, bend that. Half way thru he warned me against trying anything violent and then undid the straps so we could finish.


    Albert: Alright then, looks like your soul has successfully connected to the body. Now, this world has a few things generally called world magic, but most researchers and academics call it system magic. This magic is something that you need to be familiar with in order to live in this world. In order to access this magic, think ¡°System: status screen.¡± If there is anything on there that you don¡¯t understand, focus on it and think ¡°Additional Information¡± and if that doesn¡¯t explain, you can ask me although I probably won¡¯t know more than the system in regards to your status.


    I must be gaping like a lunatic. The npcs can access the system menus. I don¡¯t even know what to say anymore, beyond this is amazing.


    (From now on <¡­.> is an internal dialogue or command)


    <me> system: status screen


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Name</td><td>Tobias</td></tr><tr><td>Race</td><td>Homunculus (Experimental)</td></tr><tr><td>Primary Class</td><td>N/A</td></tr><tr><td>Secondary Class</td><td>N/A</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Traits</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Unique Beginning


    Magical Neutrality</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Blessings</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Fortune''s Smile</td></tr></tbody></table>


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Hmm, it would appear I got two traits and the blessing from the other goddess, who I¡¯m assuming is Fortune. Since I already saw the blessing, I focus on the two traits to see what they do and then I check what my race does.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Unique Beginning</td></tr><tr><td>You have a unique beginning. You start as a child of your chosen race and gender and grow into the appearance you chose. Your family, societal status and environment are all chosen to allow for a unique beginning. By having a unique beginning, you may gain additional traits and abilities that you would not have otherwise been able to have. Possibility of positive and negative factors in your unique beginning.


    Due to your random choice of race, the set of possible factors in your unique beginning include; ALL POSSIBLITIES</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Magical Neutrality</td></tr><tr><td>You are unable to use spells from the following categories: holy, unholy, divine, celestial, and demonic.


    This does not prevent the use of blessings and abilities in those catagories.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Homunculus (Experimental)</td></tr><tr><td>You are a created life form and your body has been built using a male human as a template. Your body is ageless, immune to most diseases and poisons, and does not require sustenance. You are unable to gain physical attributes through training.


    Due to being an experimental subtype, you can absorb the effects of enchantments on objects and incorporate them into yourself. This ability is currently locked, and will be unlocked during the course of your tutorial.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Right then. So traits first, it appears I got a neutral trait and a negative trait, with no positive traits. Kind of annoyed that it didn¡¯t balance it, but the negative isn¡¯t that bad and this unique beginning seems like it is going to make me really powerful really fast. This race though, holy shit is that just amazing. I basically am immortal, and I have this enchantment thing which is probably what Albert had mentioned earlier. The physical attribute thing is going to be a huge setback though, hopefully I can work around it.


    Albert: You figured everything out there?


    Me: yeah, I understand everything except for the special ability of my race, but you mentioned that we would talk about it later.


    Albert: Good, and that ability is going to require some materials so we will probably cover it tomorrow. The status screen is the biggest and most important part of the system magic for most people. There are some other functions as well, but you have to have other materials to either access them or unlock them. The status screen is the only freebie, along with the help system.


    Me: What about skills?


    Albert: Not sure what you mean by that, but this is probably a good example of how to use the help system. Think ¡°System Help: Skills¡± and you should get an answer that will help you out.


    <me>: System Help: Skills


    <table><tbody><tr><td>System Help


    Query: Skills</td></tr><tr><td>Exile Online aims to provide a high level of realism. Skills information and levels are kept as background information. Anyone can use any skill at any time that skill would be usable. The success rate of the skill depends on your attributes, skill level, supporting skill levels, and an additional myriad of factors depending on the skill. For example, anyone can attempt to use the lock picking skill to pick a lock. The success rate of the skill depends on your dexterity attribute, intelligence attribute, perception skill, listening skill, tool handling skill, difficulty of the lock being attempted, type of lock being attempted, quality of lock being attempted, and quality of tools being used. In addition, possible factors even include humidity and temperature, and accessibility of the lock being attempted.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Right, so I have learned a valuable lesson. This game is realistic, and things get complicated out the wazoo when you attach numbers to them. I am now of the opinion that background info should stay background info, because I don¡¯t need to pull out a calculator and sheet of paper every time I want to swing a sword.


    Albert: Did you get your question answered?


    Me: Actually yes, the system help was surprisingly helpful.


    Albert: It is for that one but keep in mind it only helps on questions about system magic. Well, I suppose that¡¯s it for the checkups now. You are free to look around if you wish, just be careful with my stuff. Oh, and if a door is locked, it¡¯s locked for a reason.


    Me: alright, what are you going to do?


    Albert: I had just finished lunch when you woke up and now it is time for dinner, since us humans still need to eat and all that. You are welcome to join me, just because you don¡¯t need to eat doesn¡¯t mean you can¡¯t eat. But if you want food you will have to help me cook it.


    Me: Well, I think it will take a bit to get used to not eating food, so I will take you up on your offer.

 Chapter 3

    Chapter 3


    Albert leads me out of the room, and through the rest of the house. It is a stone house with wooden flooring, and a lack of any sort of decorations. Aside from the room I woke up in, I haven¡¯t seen anything hanging on the walls, and there are no paintings, rugs, or ¡°that unique pot that I got from that place at that time on that trip.¡± It is a little weird, but to each his own. My room is on the second floor, which is just one big hallway with a few rooms on it. As we walk through the downstairs, Albert points out where the kitchen, dining room, and bathroom are. We pass by what looks like it should be a lounge area but is currently empty.


    Albert: Here is the kitchen. Go ahead and wash your hands first.


    The kitchen looks surprisingly modern. It¡¯s made with stone and wood, and a bit of metal. The really weird thing is that I can recognize the appliances, like the fridge, stove, oven and sink.


    Me: Hey Albert, is that a refrigerator?


    Albert: I¡¯m not familiar with that word, but we call it a cold box. It has magic inscriptions on it that keep the inside cold to preserve food for longer and keep it fresher.


    Me: So it is enchanted? That¡¯s neat.


    Albert: Well, sort of. Let¡¯s get started with the cooking, and I¡¯ll explain as we work.


    As I go wash my hands he pulls out some meat that looks like chicken out of the cold box, along with some vegetables. He tells me to start chopping vegetables as he washes his hands and then gets started on prepping the chicken as he talks.


    Albert: In regards to making magic items there are two main methods of going about it, with a few more esoteric and specialized methods for certain items. The first method is inscriptions. This method involves writing formulas and runes into the item to cause a specific effect, then powering those inscriptions with a mana crystal of the necessary element. For example, the back of the cold box has an inscription that the mana it gets from the crystal embedded in it will chilled, then be equally applied in a specific amount within the confines of the exact dimensions of the cold box. Since the mana crystal is a water mana crystal, the inscription uses some of the water mana to chill another portion, and then injects the chilled portion into the cold box. The stove works in a similar manner but uses fire mana and is adjustable. This method is preferred for common and mass produced items because it doesn¡¯t require the creator to be a magic user. You just need to have the knowledge of the formulas and runes to produce the effect you want, carve them into an item, then provide the necessary mana crystal or crystals to power it.


    As he explains all this we finish the cooking and set the table to start eating. As we eat he continues to explain.


    Albert: The second method is enchanting, which involves imbuing mana directly into an object to cause a specific effect. This method requires that the enchanter be a magic user capable of using whatever magic he wants to imbue into the item. On the other hand, this method produces stronger effects and is more based on the intent of the caster, requiring significantly fewer years of study in order to learn how to enchant. Both of these methods have their pros and cons. Inscription is more widespread, but the mana crystals are expensive. So the base cost of the items is higher than enchanted items, but enchanted items are rarer, which drives up the total price making enchanted items much more expensive overall. In addition, inscriptions are fragile. If I were to go and scratch out a portion of the inscription on the cold box, it could stop working, do something it wasn¡¯t intended to do, or overload and cause damage depending on what I scratched out. Enchanting is imbued in the item itself, so as long as the item isn¡¯t destroyed, the enchantment will still work. Enchanting also creates significantly stronger effect, because it isn¡¯t dependent on other sources of mana, and is capable of generating its own mana to power its own effect. Magic items are classified from lowest to highest as common, uncommon, rare, artifact, legendary artifact, divine artifact, and primordial artifact. Inscriptions can hit a max rank of rare, but those are few and far between. Most inscriptions are common and uncommon. Enchantments on the other hand spread across all the ranks. Common, uncommon and rare enchantments are what most enchanters make. When you get to artifact enchantments, they start requiring additional components or rituals to create, and may start having unusual quirks. For example, I have an artifact here that in order to make it a soul had to be bound to it, and that soul turned the artifact into a sentient item. If you were to go out adventuring, most enchanted items you find will be rare or less, with a few artifacts mixed in. There are only a handful of legendary artifacts I know about, and only one divine artifact. The only mention of primordial artifacts comes from legends, and no one has ever found one.


    The meal has been done for a while now, and I think it is time to ask a question that I have been running around in my head since I met Albert.


    Me: So Albert, I don¡¯t mean to be rude but-


    Albert: You want to know why I made you.


    Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    Me: Yeah.


    Ever since I met him, Albert has yet to show anything but a calm demeanor. But now he lets out a long deep sigh.


    Albert: I suppose that¡¯s to be expected. Well, please don¡¯t take this the wrong way, but I made you because I was forced to. About a decade ago I developed a method to create homunculus, and in my fervor, I went to a noble by the name of Lord Maximillian Endos for funding to continue my research. I continued my research for 7 years, creating dozens of homunculus, of every time imaginable. Animals, humans, elves, dwarves, if I had a template available I made one, and I was always being gifted more templates by Lord Endos. After 7 years of research, I had almost perfected my method when Lord Endos revealed his true purpose. He was a 2nd cousin of the king, and felt that he would not only be able to rule this country better, but deserved to rule. He was using my research to create an army of homunculus assassins, and enslaving them using binding magic. When I found out, I immediately took my family and ran, destroying my research as I left. After I left, I suppose that Lord Endos felt what he had was good enough and attempted his coup. He failed miserably, was discovered, and had to flee the country to avoid being captured. I thought we were safe, so I used what funds I had left to get a home in one of the minor cities in the country and lived there with my wife and daughter, using my knowledge to create inscriptions and enchantments as a profession. We were doing well, earning more than enough money and had the respect of the community when Lord Endos showed up again a year after his attempted coup. He kidnapped my family, and put me in this house he made. He told me to create a perfect homunculus, with a special ability from a legendary artifact he had somehow acquired. In exchange he would let me and my family go free, and leave us alone. For 2 years I have been working towards this end, and finally have made you. We have a little while before Lord Endos comes by to check up on me, and I will use that time to teach you about the world and train you in your ability.


    Wow, what a backstory. This unique beginning is turning to be really deep. But¡­


    Me: Albert, do you really think he will keep his word to you?


    He makes a pained look but it quickly passes, leaving a melancholy look in its wake.


    Albert: No, I don¡¯t. I don¡¯t even know that they are still alive. I haven¡¯t seen them in 2 years. I want to hope, I so desperately hope that everything will be fine, and I can rejoin my family. But the part of me that reasons tells me that even if they are alive, when I turn you over, Lord Endos will just kill us.


    Me: Then why did you make me? Knowing against hope that it would fail.


    He snorts and chuckles for a bit.


    Albert: For revenge of course. If he had wanted an ordinary homunculus, then revenge would have been impossible, but the legendary artifact made everything different. You see, the ability given to you allows you to absorb enchantments to empower yourself, and even assimilate into your very being. This makes it so that Lord Endos¡¯ normal method of slave collars won¡¯t work on you, you could just absorb the enchantment and be fine. Instead he wanted me to incorporate binding magic into your very being, which I conveniently forgot about when I made you. Terrible accident.


    He says that last part with a smirk.


    Me: So you want me to kill Lord Endos for you? What about your family?


    Albert: Well, my family is my priority. I personally will try and do anything I can to save them. But for you, I don¡¯t want to make you promise to do the impossible. If you can promise me that you will try your best to save my family, and promise to kill Lord Endos, I would be grateful.


    Me: Of course. You have my word.


    He gives me a grateful smile, and seems to relax a bit.


    Albert: It is late, so how about we both go to bed, and start training tomorrow morning?


    Me: Sounds like a plan.


    He leads me back up to one of the rooms on the second floor, and inside is a bed and a desk and chair along the opposite wall.


    Albert: Get some rest. I¡¯ll see you in the morning.

 Chapter 4

    Chapter 4


    I wake up to the smell of breakfast, so I figure it is time to get moving. I go to the bathroom to wash up before heading downstairs. When I look in the mirror though, I was surprised by the face looking back. Zan had told me that my appearance would be based on the appearance I had during character creation, and the unique beginning didn¡¯t affect appearance. At that time I had short brown hair and eyes, with a smattering of freckles across my nose and cheeks, but now I have black hair and one pale green eye and one weird eye and no blemishes. It reminds me of Zan¡¯s eyes with the swirling colors, but mine only swirls with silver, gold, and the same pale green as my other eye. In fact, aside from the awesome swirly eye, I could pass as Albert¡¯s brother. Maybe it¡¯s a homunculus thing? I push it aside for the moment and head downstairs.


    Albert is already sitting at the table eating when I walk in and points me at another plate.


    Albert: Eat up. We got a lot to cover and some tests to run, so it would be best if we started early.


    I sit down and focus on eating, shoveling the eggs and potatoes into my mouth. After clearing the table, Albert pulls out a ring and sets it in front of my chair.


    Albert: Alright, it is time to teach you about your ability. The artifact I took the ability from was called the Grimoire of Enchantments, a legendary artifact that could consume enchantments and then reapply them to its user at will. I have no idea where Lord Endos found this and I don¡¯t think I ever will. I know that the ability was successfully integrated into your body, but there were some complications that lead me to believe that something about the ability itself changed during the transfer. So, more tests! First, that ring is a ring of minor strength, an uncommon magical item. Go ahead and pick it up.


    I move to pick up the ring, but as soon as I touch it I get 2 windows.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Racial Ability Unlocked</td></tr><tr><td>Identify Enchantment</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Enchantment Identified</td></tr><tr><td>SLIGHT increase to strength</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Me: Albert? I just identified the enchantment.


    Albert: Good, so that works as intended. The Grimoire was able to automatically identify enchantments for its user, which is a huge boon to any non-magical adventurer. Normally in order to identify enchantments, you have to use it and see if you notice a difference and hope it isn¡¯t cursed. Alternatively you could find a wizard to use an identify spell on it, and hope he doesn¡¯t lie to you.


    Me: Yeah, this is going to be convenient.


    Albert: I figured it would be. Now, onto absorbing the enchantment. With the Grimoire, the user would touch the grimoire to an enchanted object and say ¡°Absorb Enchantment,¡± although I think in your case you can just use a mental command. The enchantment would then be added as a page in the grimoire for future use. However, I think this part may be different since, obviously, you aren¡¯t a book.


    Well, let¡¯s try it and see. I focus on the ring.


    <Me>: Absorb Enchantment


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Racial Ability Unlocked</td></tr><tr><td>Absorb Enchantment</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Racial Trait Acquired</td></tr><tr><td>Arcane Vitality</td></tr><tr><td>By absorbing enchantments into yourself, your body has had to change to accommodate the increase in magic in your body. Your body is now partially made of pure mana. HUGE increase to Arcane healing taken. HUGE decrease to Holy, Celestial, and Divine healing taken. Does not affect natural or alchemic forms of healing.


    In addition, you and enchantments applied to you are more resistant to dispel effects, but successful dispel effects on you cause damage. You are aware of attempts to dispel magic on you.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Enchantment Absorbed</td></tr><tr><td>You now have access to the enchantment:


    SLIGHT increase to strength</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>You have unlocked new System Magic</td></tr><tr><td>You can now access the ¡°Enchantment Management¡± menu.


    In order to access this menu, use the command ¡°System: Enchantment Manager¡±</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Then the ring crumbled to dust.


    Me: It worked, I got a strength boost enchantment and I unlocked a new system magic called Enchantment Management.


    Albert: Excellent! Oh, and that was normal for the ring to be destroyed like that, so remember that when you consider absorbing an enchantment.  I was a little worried about how to manage the enchantments, but since it is system magic it should be quick and easy once you fiddle with it a bit. Go ahead and open it up and tell me what options it has.


    <Me>: System: Enchantment Manager


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''3''>Active Enchantments</td><td colspan=''3''>0/10</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Enchantment</td><td colspan=''2''>Modifier</td><td colspan=''2''>Affinity</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Strength Increase</td><td colspan=''2''>6%</td><td colspan=''2''>1%</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Of course I use the ¡°additional information¡± command on everything.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Active Enchantments</td></tr><tr><td>Using your ability you may enchant yourself with a limited number of enchantments from the pool of enchantments you have available. You cannot use a single enchantment multiple times. In order to activate an enchantment, use the command ¡°Activate: [Enchantment]¡± or from the enchantment manager, focus on the enchantment and use the command ¡°Activate¡±. In order to deactivate an enchantment, use the command ¡°Deactivate: [Enchantment]¡± or from the enchantment manager, focus on the enchantment and use the command ¡°Deactivate¡±.


    Current Maximum Active Enchantments: 10</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Enchantment</td></tr><tr><td>The type of enchantment. Indicates whether it is an increase or decrease when applicable. Use the ¡°Additional Information¡± command on individual enchantments for more information on that specific enchantment.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Modifier</td></tr><tr><td>Used for enchantments that cause an increase or decrease in one or more statistics. Applied as a percentage to the statistic before application. Has no maximum value.


    In the case of enchantments that do not modify statistics, this value denotes how much more effective the current enchantment is in comparison to an un-modified version of the enchantment.


    For example, if you have a ¡°Speed Increase¡± enchantment with a modifier of 10%, then it will increase your current speed by 10% while active.


    If you have an ¡°Invisibility¡± enchantment with a modifier of 10%, then your invisibility enchantment is 10% harder to detect and see through than a normal invisibility enchantment.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Affinity</td></tr><tr><td>The affinity you have for a specific enchantment. Affinity increases while enchantment is active. At maximum affinity (100%) the enchantment becomes permanent, and no longer counts against your active enchantments. Instead, it counts against your active enchantments if you wish to reduce or suppress the effect.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    This. Is. Awesome. I am almost drooling over these enchantments now. Oh, right, I¡¯m supposed to be talking to Albert.


    Me: Sorry, it¡¯s just that this is so powerful. I zoned out a bit.


    He laughs at me.


    Albert: It¡¯s alright, I understand, and it should be powerful. It is a legendary artifact after all.


    Me: So it appears that I can have up to 10 enchantments active at a time, and that there is room for me to upgrade the enchantments I have, although it didn¡¯t say how.


    Albert: Fascinating! The Grimoire was only able to do one at a time so that is a powerful change. In regards to upgrading, that was a function of the original Grimoire as well. In order to do that, you would need to absorb the same enchant multiple times. I just so happen to have another one of those rings.


    He smirks at the last part and pulls another identical ring from his pocket.


    I take it and absorb that one too.


    If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.<table><tbody><tr><td>Enchantment Absorbed</td></tr><tr><td>You have absorbed an enchantment you already have access to. The current enchantment and the absorbed enchantment have been merged together, resulting in an increase in potency.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <Me>: System: Enchantment Manager


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''3''>Active Enchantments</td><td colspan=''3''>0/10</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Enchantment</td><td colspan=''2''>Modifier</td><td colspan=''2''>Affinity</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Strength Increase</td><td colspan=''2''>10%</td><td colspan=''2''>1%</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Me: Alright, it boosted the power of the increase, although it wasn¡¯t doubled.


    Albert: The categories that the system magic uses actually cover a range of potencies. So the fact that the rings weren¡¯t equal isn¡¯t too surprising. Some academics actually break the categories down even further into low, mid, and high for each category, but most people just use the normal 7 categories.


    He pulls out 2 more rings, a dagger, and an amulet and puts them on my side of the table. I frown at him.


    Me: Where are you pulling these things from?! Were you really walking around with a dagger in your pocket?


    He laughs at the look on my face.


    Albert: Haha! No, I have a bag of holding hidden in my pocket that I¡¯m pulling them out of. The bag is also something you will be absorbing, but I don¡¯t really know how it will work so we are saving it for closer to the end. Go ahead and absorb all of these.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Enchantment Absorbed</td></tr><tr><td>You now have access to the enchantment:


    SLIGHT increase to speed</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Enchantment Absorbed</td></tr><tr><td>You now have access to the enchantment:


    SLIGHT increase to damage (fire)</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Enchantment Absorbed</td></tr><tr><td>You now have access to the enchantment:


    LOW increase to health regeneration</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Enchantment Absorbed</td></tr><tr><td>You now have access to the enchantment:


    Night Vision</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>You have unlocked additional System Magic functionality</td></tr><tr><td>You are now able to create sets of enchantments, and freely swap between sets. In order to create a set, activate all desired enchantments, and then use the command ¡°Create Set: [Name]¡±. In order to activate a set, use the command ¡°Use Set: [Name]¡±.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Woah! I can make sets!? This is going to be wicked. I can just see myself fighting and switching from a speed set to a strength set to a caster set. This is so powerful. I¡¯m going to have to make sure I think about how all of these abilities mesh together before I go to sleep tonight. Right now I should be focusing on Albert¡¯s testing and training.


    Albert: So, you should have gained enchantments with slight increases for speed, damage, and health regeneration, as well as the night vision enchantment.


    Me: Yeah, except the health regeneration is low. Wait, are enchantments arcane?


    Albert: Yes, they are based on pure mana structures, which would be arcane. It is simply the effects that can be something else.


    Me: That explains it. When I absorbed the first enchantment, I gained a trait called Arcane Vitality which increases the arcane healing I receive.


    Albert: If only you weren¡¯t the last. All of this is simply astounding, and I would love to look further into it. Perhaps¡­hmmm. Maybe later. Well, it is time for the last two enchantments. The bag of holding, which is a rare magic item, and an artifact. Here is the bag, go ahead and absorb it, I¡¯ll go grab the artifact.


    He lays the bag on the table and leaves towards the stairs. I go ahead and grab the bag and absorb it.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Enchantment Absorbed</td></tr><tr><td>You now have access to the enchantment:


    Dimensional Pocket</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Hmm, well that was¡­informative. I go ahead and pull up the enchantment manager and use additional information on the dimensional pocket.


    (A.N. an asterisk means that it is not a stat modifying enchantment.)


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''3''>Active Enchantments</td><td colspan=''3''>0/10</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Enchantment</td><td colspan=''2''>Modifier</td><td colspan=''2''>Affinity</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Strength Increase</td><td colspan=''2''>10%</td><td colspan=''2''>1%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Speed Increase</td><td colspan=''2''>7%</td><td colspan=''2''>1%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Night Vision*</td><td colspan=''2''>0%</td><td colspan=''2''>1%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Damage Increase (Fire)</td><td colspan=''2''>10%</td><td colspan=''2''>1%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Health Regeneration</td><td colspan=''2''>18%</td><td colspan=''2''>1%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Dimensional Pocket*</td><td colspan=''2''>0%</td><td colspan=''2''>1%</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Dimensional Pocket</td></tr><tr><td>A dimensional pocket for the storage of items. Due to being absorbed, some changes have been made to the normal operation of a dimensional pocket.


    The pocket no longer has a physical entrance. In order to store an item, touch the item and command ¡°Store.¡± In order to retrieve an item, think of the item and command ¡°Retrieve.¡± While the enchantment is active, you always know what is in the pocket. Storage and retrieval of items is only possible while the enchantment is active. The dimensional pocket still exists when the enchantment is inactive, and items stored in the dimensional pocket stay in the pocket during inactive periods.


    Current size of dimensional pocket: 5 cubic feet</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Oh look, I have an inventory. I guess everyone else is going to be trying to pick up bags of holding as fast as possible since the game doesn¡¯t have an inventory system. Albert comes back into the room carrying two swords that appear to be identical.


    Albert: Alright, this one is the artifact, the other one is an exact replica of the sword minus the enchantment since you will be destroying the artifact. Now, this artifact is of a type called greater training weapons, it is sentient, and its name is Autumn¡¯s Song. Training weapons are weapons that are imbued with a weapon master¡¯s skills, and are, as the name says, train a person in the use of a weapon. The weapons imprint the moves and forms onto its user, and when the user trains with it, it becomes heavier the more poorly a user performs the moves. This trains both the strength to wield the weapon and the skills to use it effectively. However, there are limits. If you are trying to learn a different set of forms with the same weapon, it will become incredibly heavy, preventing you from training. In addition, the weapon is limited to whatever skills and skill limit the weapon master gave it. This is where a greater training weapon comes into play. These weapons aren¡¯t imbued with a weapon master¡¯s skills, they ARE weapon masters themselves. A greater training weapon can both learn and teach, causing their value to dramatically increase as they age. Aside from this one, I only know of 3 other greater weapons in the world, although I¡¯m sure there are more. Be careful when you absorb this one, I don¡¯t know how its sentience will affect its absorption.


    He hands me the sword and I look it over before I absorb it. It looks like a Japanese katana, with a black handle and a red and orange wrapping. The tsuba (the guard on a katana) looks like a swirling breeze carrying falling leaves. The sheath is just a simple lacquered deep red wood, with a tassel made of intertwined red, orange, and gold threads.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Enchantment Identified</td></tr><tr><td>Variable Weight


    Mind Bond


    Bound Soul</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Enchantment Absorbed</td></tr><tr><td>You now have access to the enchantment:


    Variable Weight


    Mind Bond</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Soul Absorbed</td></tr><tr><td>You have absorbed a bound soul, releasing it from its bindings. You may either rebind the soul to yourself or you may attempt to assimilate the soul. Attempting to assimilate the soul will result in a contest of wills, with the stronger soul absorbing the skills and memories of the other.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Wow, this is scary. I think I am going to rebind it, since I''m not too sure about my ability to contest the soul of a legendary artifact. As soon as I choose that, the world goes black.

 Chapter 5

    Chapter 5


    I open my eyes and see a library. As I look around to try and figure out what just happen, I realize that this isn¡¯t just a library, it is MY library. As a virtual being I can basically create my dream home by simply buying programs and software that allow me to design any living space as I wish, kind of like using a simulation program, but more advanced and I can live in it. My favorite place in my home is my library. It is a huge space, with 4 floors, and tons of books. It has these floor to ceiling windows on every floor that look out onto different environments that I set, right now it looks like an endless sea of grass outside. In the center of the first floor is a circle of black stone with faint blue light swimming in it, with an identical circle on the ceiling. Each level has large bookshelves all along the walls, with the floor space having more bookshelves and tables, chairs and couches scattered about. One of the things that makes this library special, aside from the calm and quiet atmosphere, is that all the books are either books I have read, or about my life. I used an A.I. creation program to create someone I named Chronicler, who automatically logs anything I read and the story of my adventures as books. So not only is there a huge wealth of practical knowledge, but tons of stories and novels that I read, in addition to the books on my adventures. My library has always held a special place in my heart, and for some reason it is here. Did I get logged out? How would that even be possible? I¡¯ve only been playing for 2 days, it should be impossible to log out.


    ???: So this is your soul home. I wasn¡¯t expecting such a place.


    As I hear this voice, I rapidly spin towards it. That voice was definitely not Chronicler¡¯s. Sitting at one of the reading tables scattered across the first floor is a fox kin woman. She was wearing a white kimono, with a pattern made red, gold, and orange falling leaves that covered an athletic form. Her eyes were orange and her hair was a mixture of red, orange, and gold.


    Me: Well, I wasn¡¯t expecting to be seeing this place again so soon. Would I be correct in assuming that you are the soul bound to the Autumn¡¯s Song?


    ???: Indeed, but bound no longer. Do you understand what you are attempting?


    Me: In regards to the rebinding? Not particularly, but it was the safer of the two options presented to me so I chose it.


    ???: Hmm, normally I would say that is true, but your soul is much stronger than I thought it would be. Additionally, the rebinding attempts to rebind a soul in the same manner it was originally bound. In my case, through a bargain.


    Uh oh. This could be bad. If I have to bargain with a powerful soul I may have to give up a lot in order to simply keep my soul intact.


    ???: I see this troubles you. I don¡¯t intend to make this difficult, as I am grateful for you freeing me from that sword. I simply wish for my original bargain to be fulfilled.


    Phew, dodged that bullet. Although now there is another one.


    Me: What was your original bargain? And what is your name? I am Tobias.


    ???: Hmmm, Tobias¡­that is a good name. My name is Autumn. When I was alive, I was a weapon master in the service of the Saul Empire as the First Blade. In that empire, the First Blade was not only the final line of defense, but also the teacher of weapons, for the royal family. I knew no equals in prowess or skill, and protected them for many years, eventually falling in love with the family as a whole. They were all kind and good people, and the Emperor ruled the land with a strong, but gentle, hand. As time passed, I grew older and older, and although my skills only sharpened, my body grew weak. It came to a point where although I was considered the best teacher of weapons in the entire empire, I could not safely say that I would be able to protect the royal family. In the end, I began looking for a successor, such that while I would live and protect the emperor until his death, my successor would protect the heirs, teaching them. However, before I could find a suitable candidate, I fell ill, and with my fragile body, I could not fight it off. As I lay on my death bed, the Empire¡¯s best artificer came to me and offered a bargain. He would grant my wish, of being able to protect and guide those I held dear, and in exchange I would lose my body, and become bound to my sword. I accepted, and was bound to my sword with the other enchantments that would allow me to fulfill my purpose. For three generations, I fulfilled my purpose and duty, protecting and guiding the leaders of the Saul Empire, but it all ended in a night of fire and blood. A rebellion rose up, swarming through the palace, while I was training the youngest heir, no more than a child. He was isolated so that I could not help the others, and he was to weak and young to use me with any skill. He, along with the rest of the family I had so deeply devoted myself to, had died. The rebels then threw me into a great river, and I was lost for many years, eventually to be found by a merchant. I have been traded through many hands until now, and I thank you for freeing what had become my prison.


    Half way through her story, tears begin to roll down her face while she struggles to maintain her calm fa?ade. When she finishes, she drops her face into her hands and cries in earnest. In some worlds, I have been a heartless monster, while in others a paragon of righteousness, but in all the lives I have lived, one thing stayed true. I would have a circle of close friends, my kith, and I would do anything for them. I¡¯ve always been a bit of a softie, and I can¡¯t help but sympathize with her. I pull up a chair next to her and put my hand on her shoulder.


    Me: So what bargain did you want to make?


    She looks at me with her tear streaked face.


    Autumn: I¡­I just, I just wanted to protect them. To teach them, help them grow up strong, and keep them safe from the demons of the world. I just wanted to protect them¡­


    She starts to fall back into her despair.


    Me: Then will you protect me?


    She looks at me startled.


    Autumn: You?


    Me: In this world, I was born two days ago. I am a soul from another world, pulled from the afterlife and put into a crafted body. I know nothing of this world, and the fighting style I gained from my world is pretty sloppy. I would be honored, and grateful, if you could help me on my path.


    She stopped crying, and looked at me, considering my words. Minutes passed, and I let them, knowing that this was a decision that would bind her to me for my life time, which with my body is forever.


    Autumn: I will do this. I will help you.


    She had a determined look in her eyes as she said this. When she agreed, a sound like a gong rang out, and a circle of glowing runes appeared around her, before closing in around her and sinking into her skin.


    Autumn: I submit to your binding. Thank you.


    She gives me a beautiful smile before the world fades to black.


    _______________________________________________________________________________________________________


    When I open my eyes, I see Albert above me with a concerned look on his face. When he sees me awake, he lets out a relieved sigh.


    Albert: Don¡¯t scare me like that boy. When you absorbed the sword you just fell unconscious and dropped to the floor.


    Looking around, I can see that we are still in the dining room.


    Me: How long was I out?


    Albert: About a minute or so. I had thought that maybe the sword had hurt you somehow.


    As he says this I hear another voice.


    <Autumn>: I would not hurt you, especially after agreeing to help you.


    I must have looked shocked, because Albert suddenly looks worried.


    Albert: What happened? You are alright, right? Did it hurt you?


    Me: No, it is just¡­the soul. Hold on a moment while I check something.


    <Me>: Autumn, you can hear him? Can you hear me?


    <Autumn>: Yes to both questions. I am now bound to you Tobias, so I can access your senses through the mind bond and speak to you as well.


    <Me>: The mind bond enchantment? I didn¡¯t activate it though.


    <Autumn>: Perhaps it activated because of the bond? It is definitely active though, I recognize it from before.


    <Me>: Right then.


    As I turn my focus back to Albert, it looks like only a moment has passed while I was talking with Autumn. So now I have a hot fox girl warrior in my head, bound to my soul. This will be interesting. I hear Autumn giggle. Apparently she heard that. Right, back to Albert, he is a safe conversation.


    Me: Yeah, I¡¯m fine. I had to rebind the soul that was originally bound to the sword.


    Albert: You rebound it?! I thought that when you absorbed the enchantment binding it that it would be released to the afterlife. Is it going to cause a problem?


    Me: She, and no, I don¡¯t think so. We came to an agreement, so she will help me out.


    Albert: Well, I suppose that is the best outcome then. Back on task though, those were all the enchantments I had for you.  Now, it is time for you to try them all out, and make sure you are familiar with not only how to activate and change your enchantments, but also with how those enchantments work with your body. Take the sword, and head outside. While you are practicing, I will make lunch. It is also probably a good idea to begin to get used to not needing to eat food. In the future you will either need to earn, find, or buy enchanted items, and any money you save can help since enchantments are rather expensive. Take the rest of today to train, and tomorrow I will tell you about the world.


    Me: Alright. Oh, and Albert, have you ever heard of the Saul Empire?


    I can feel Autumn¡¯s attention sharpen.


    Albert: Hmm? Saul Empire? Is that where the soul is from? Well, the Saul Empire was a powerful and prosperous empire, led by a family that surprisingly maintained their virtues and ideals through the generations, avoiding the corruption that typically comes with power. I believe they fell to a rebellion about 500 some odd years ago, and the empire fell apart shortly after. I will show you a map tomorrow and point out their land for you. A lot of their territory was either taken by other kingdoms or became new provinces.


    Me: Ah, thank you. I¡¯ll get practicing then.


    I head outside to find a spot to practice.


    <Autumn>: Why did you ask about them?


    <Me>: A couple reasons, really. First I wanted to know how long you had been lost for. I wanted to see knowledgeable Albert is about history, since he is teaching me about that stuff tomorrow and I could compare what he said with you. And¡­well, in my world, there is a saying, ¡°History is written by the victors.¡± I was worried that maybe the rebellion had slandered the Saul Empire in history, but I am glad to find that history remembers how good the royal family was. And last, I knew that you would want to know.


    I can feel her sadness through the bond, and I knew that she would be depressed over the subject. I wanted to make sure that we confronted the subject so that I could help her through it in a mostly controlled environment. Through Autumn¡¯s sadness I can feel a twinge of humor, and a lot of gratitude.


    <Autumn>: Thank you.


    Ahhh, I guess she picked up on my hidden reason. I will have to work on that. I sent back the mental equivalent of a hug, and opened the enchantment manager.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''3''>Active Enchantments</td><td colspan=''3''>1/10</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Enchantment</td><td colspan=''2''>Modifier</td><td colspan=''2''>Affinity</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Strength Increase</td><td colspan=''2''>10%</td><td colspan=''2''>1%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Speed Increase</td><td colspan=''2''>7%</td><td colspan=''2''>1%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Night Vision*</td><td colspan=''2''>0%</td><td colspan=''2''>1%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Damage Increase (Fire)</td><td colspan=''2''>10%</td><td colspan=''2''>1%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Health Regeneration</td><td colspan=''2''>18%</td><td colspan=''2''>1%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Dimensional Pocket*</td><td colspan=''2''>0%</td><td colspan=''2''>1%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Mind Bond*</td><td colspan=''2''>0%</td><td colspan=''2''>1%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Variable Weight*</td><td colspan=''2''>0%</td><td colspan=''2''>1%</td></tr></tbody></table>


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    So the main enchantments I am going to focus on right now are the speed, strength, and damage ones. Night vision I will practice tonight, and the dimensional pocket requires me to have some items to put in it. I have the sword but it is a little too valuable to be using as a test object. The mind bond needs to be active all the time anyways, so I¡¯m not going to worry about testing with it off. When I get to the variable weight, I use additional information to see what it does.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Variable Weight</td></tr><tr><td>Modifies the weight of an object within a range dependent on the strength of the enchantment. Can increase or decrease weight.


    Current Maximum Change: 10 pounds</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Neat, that could be useful in some situations. If I amp it up I could potentially make myself weightless and do the whole ¡°Leap over buildings in a single bound,¡± thing. Something to keep in mind for the future. Now how to test all of this? Speed is easy, so I will do that one first.


    <Me>: Activate Speed Increase


    I start running around, swapping the enchantment on and off as I run so I can get a feel for the effect. 7% speed increase is nice to say, but it is hard to tell how much that is without playing with it. After about 10 minutes I feel comfortable with both speeds, although at this point the increase is only noticeable because I¡¯m looking for it. Now for strength, I suppose I can just find a big rock and pick it up over and over again. As I do that, I alternate having the strength boost and not every other time I pick up the rock, and again the difference is noticeable only because I¡¯m looking for it. Maybe my stats are low? I did just start after all. On to Damage! How am I going to test this? Might as well activate it and see what happens first.


    <Me>: Activate Damage Increase (Fire)


    When I activate it, I am suddenly covered in a thin layer of flames. Oh shit, I just set myself on fire! AHHH¡­wait, it doesn¡¯t hurt. I am an idiot. I hear Autumn giggle in the background.


    <Me>: Glad you find this amusing.


    She is now seriously laughing.


    <Autumn>: But you were so frantic, you were screaming ¡°AHHH,¡± and then just suddenly stopped. It is just too funny! Hahaha


    Yeah, yeah, stand-up comedian here. Well, now that I am on fire, why isn¡¯t it hot? It is almost like an illusion, it looks like fire but there is no heat coming from it and it doesn¡¯t burn. Weird. How does this increase damage?


    <Autumn>: Maybe that is the key? It is a damage increase so maybe you need to deal damage first?


    That¡­is an excellent idea. I go find a tree and punch it. When I pull back my hand, I can see a scorch mark on the bark, but it still doesn¡¯t look like it did a lot of damage. Probably low stats giving a helping hand again. I need to figure out a way to boost my damage, so I can increase the value of the damage increase enchantment, because at this point all it really does is add the fire element to my punch.


    <Autumn>: Maybe you could enchant the sword with it? From my understanding, enchanting is really simple, you just need to hold the idea of the effect in your mind and push it and some mana into an object. The hard part is understanding all the variables in the enchantment. Since you already know the enchantment inside and out, maybe you can just push it into an object?


    Another excellent idea, I send Autumn my thanks before I try it. I¡¯m glad I bonded her; she is turning out to be very helpful. If this works then I can just boost my stats up like crazy for only the cost of mana and items. I hold the sword in my hands, since it is the only weapon I have available, and pull up the idea of the enchantment. Once I feel that I have it firmly ordered, I try to mentally push it at the sword. The sword is covered in fire at the same time I get a new message.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Racial Ability Unlocked</td></tr><tr><td>Enchantment Infusion</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Awesome! It worked! I can enchant now and feed myself enchants! I use additional information to figure out the specifics of the ability.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Enchantment Infusion</td></tr><tr><td>You are able to infuse enchantments you have absorbed into other objects. Infusing an enchantment grants the object the effects of that enchantment. Number of enchantments on object can hold is dependent on the quality of the item. Enchanted items cannot have enchantments infused into them.


    Infused enchantments count in regards to your active enchantments. An enchantment can be active and infused simultaneously, but both instances are counted as separate active enchantments. Infused Enchantments cannot be absorbed. Infused enchantments can be deactivated, removing the effect from the item while leaving the item intact. You may infuse multiple objects simultaneously, but all instances of infused enchantments apply to your active enhantments limit.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Aww, it didn¡¯t work. No endless enchantment farming cycle yet I guess. Still, this is a really cool ability and allows me to use those awkward enchants that are more useful on an item, like the variable weight enchantment. Well, now that I got all that working I should practice them. Maybe I should also make an enchantment set or two so I can switch between them quickly. Wait, I wonder¡­


    <Me>: System help: infuse enchantment sets


    <table><tbody><tr><td>System Help


    Query: Infuse Enchantment Sets</td></tr><tr><td>In order to create an infusion set, focus on all the enchantments desired in the set, then use the command "Create Infusion Set: [Name]". In order to use an infusion set, use the command "Infuse Set: [Name]".</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Score! I make an infusion set with the damage increase (fire) and variable weight enchantments and name it ¡°Flame Gram.¡± I then make an enchantment set with the strength, speed, and health regeneration increases, the mind bond, and the dimensional pocket, naming it ¡°Battle.¡± Then I make a neutral set with the mind bond, dimensional pocket, and health regeneration increases and name it ¡°Neutral.¡±


    Once I make the sets, I begin to practice. As the sun is about to set, I finally feel comfortable with not only switching sets at will, but with how those sets affect me or my weapon while active. This is going to be a pain if I have to re-familiarize myself with my enchantments every time they change, but for the benefit of what is looking more and more like unlimited growth and infinite versatility, I think I can handle the drawbacks. I start to smell food, so I head back inside. I am going to keep adapting to not needing food, but I need to talk to Albert about some of the questions I have been putting off in favor of my ability. When I get to the kitchen, it looks like he is done cooking and preparing to eat.


    Me: I¡¯m back, Albert.


    Albert: How was practice?


    Me: I feel a lot more comfortable with the enchantments now, thanks for allowing me the time for it.


    Albert: Of course. Now have a sit, you look like you have some questions.


    Me: Am I that readable?


    Albert: No, it is just what I would do in your situation, and you seem like a fairly intelligent person.


    <Autumn>: Considering that library, you would have to be.


    I mentally chuckle at Autumn and take my seat as Albert starts plating his food.


    Me: Ah. Well, I think I will start on what I am. What can you tell me about homunculus? I know that the system said that I am ageless, immune to most diseases and poisons, and don¡¯t need food and water to survive, but it also mentioned that I can¡¯t increase my physical attributes through training. Why is that?


    Albert: Well, that is mainly because your body isn¡¯t really a body, per se. It is more like a golem, or a construct, simply vastly more advanced and complex. As such, and forgive my bluntness, the body you have now is permanent, it can¡¯t grow, change, or adapt naturally on its own. In regards to your physical attributes, since your body can¡¯t grow, you can¡¯t build muscle or tone it. There are a few methods that can help you get around it, but they are all either magical or alchemic. For the same reason, you won¡¯t age if you don¡¯t grow, and you are immune to diseases and poisons that target a normal body since yours is predominately made of things that aren¡¯t natural in a human body. Additionally, your body won¡¯t get tired like a normal body would. You don¡¯t have stamina and instead simply fuel your body with mana, which you naturally absorb from your environment. This causes you to have both a larger mana pool and higher mana regeneration than normal, but it comes with the downside that if you run out of mana, you won¡¯t be able to move since you have no energy to do so with. In such a situation your body systems may begin failing and you could die. So, keep that in mind when you are using magic or mana, and remember to always keep a reserve or minimum amount. In regards to sleep, that is something that is both a physical and mental need, so you won¡¯t be able to avoid it, but you may be able to adapt yourself to less sleep with practice.


    Me: Yeah, I am pretty averse to death, so I will take your advice to heart. But that leads to my next question, how does magic work in this world?


    Albert: Well, that one is a tricky question, because the answer greatly depends on what you are trying to do with it, and how you want to do it. In general, magic is simply the manipulation of mana to achieve an effect. For example, one could draw mana from their mana pool, imprint it with the idea of light, and focus it into a sphere.


    As he says this he hold up a hand and an orb of softly glowing light appears above it.


    Albert: However, such a simple spell as an orb of light like this can be done in dozens of different ways. Instead of using your mana pool, you could draw the mana from the environment, from another pool of mana such as a crystal or font, from another person¡¯s mana pool, from another spell, or even from the gods. And that is just the variation for one step of one of the simplest spells I know. The more complex spells can have a dozen steps themselves, each of which has multiple variations. So when you ask, how do magic work, the answer is really however you want to do it.


    Me: So what about spells? Aren¡¯t those specific?


    Albert: Sort of, it is more of a methodology developed in order to train people to use magic, or as a method of standardizing how groups of magic users use magic. When I say ¡°orb of light¡± spell, it is really more of naming a standard effect, then the method used, when communicating within the magical community. So a ¡°spell¡± is really just a name for an effect caused through magic. There are also rituals, but those are based on the method used, in addition to the effect caused.


    Me: So I can do magic however I want?


    Albert: Yes and no. In order to use magic, you must, at the most basic level, manipulate mana. So you can just shout ¡°Fireball!¡± and cast magic, but using words and chants can be used to help focus yourself on the desired effect, although I personally believe most magicians use it as a crutch for the lower level spells. So, step one for any magician, is sensing mana. Unfortunately, this part tends to take the longest for most aspiring magicians, as sensing something that no one can accurately describe to you besides ¡°It feels like mana,¡± is understandably difficult. Meditation is considered to be one of the most effective methods to begin sensing mana. There are other methods but they are, well, let¡¯s just say they are less than pleasant. So perhaps you can meditate for a portion of your normal sleep schedule, if you wish to be efficient with the time we have.


    Me: Alright, I have two last questions tonight. Why do I look like your brother? And how long do we have before Lord Endos shows up again?


    Albert: Hahaha, you could pass for my brother, couldn¡¯t you! The reason is because I used myself for your template. While this makes you look like, albeit younger, it also makes you have a similar body to mine. You should naturally have higher physical attributes than me, but unfortunately as I am somewhat lacking in that area, higher than mediocre will still leave you with low attributes. Fortunately, your mental attributes are all based on you, and I think you are particularly gifted in that area based on what I have seen from you. As a gift for you, I am currently collating all of my research together, and I will give it to you when I am done, which should only be a few days. In there are some methods of creating alchemic solutions to enhance your physical body, along with other things that I wished I could have done for you but lacked the materials. Hopefully, you will be able to use some of them. As for Lord Endos, I am also expecting a visit from him in a few days. He or one of his minions typically come and check up on my work once a month. Hopefully it is one of his men this time around. It would give us some more time to prepare.


    Me: Preparation time would definitely be nice, but I think I will go try meditating and hopefully be able to sense mana quickly. I think it would be good to have magic available when Lord Endos arrives.


    Albert: I believe that is a wise choice. I will see you in the morning then.


    I leave for my room to meditate, and perhaps prepare some plans for the future.

 Chapter 6

    [A.N. This chapter was edited (July 13, 2016) for better readability and flow. Some of the information that was originally in this chapter was removed, and will be put back in when it becomes more relevant (specifically the political and economic details of the races), as I felt it was excessive and unnecessary at this point in time. Also named some things that weren¡¯t named before, like mountain ranges.]


    Chapter 6


    I wake up an hour or two before dawn, and begin to meditate and try and sense mana. Last night, I had tried to make a plan but I realized I didn¡¯t know enough about this world to decide any long term plans. Short term though, I have a few goals.


    One, kill Lord Endos and try to protect Albert and his family. I¡¯ve come to like Albert, and over time begun to consider him kith. I will definitely fulfill my promise to him to kill Lord Endos, but I am also going to try my damnedest to reunite him with his family. Unfortunately, I may have some trouble doing so if he shows up in a few days, unless a miracle happens.


    Second, learn some skills. Pretty obvious, I know, but it is still important enough to go on the list. The main skills I want are magic and alchemy right now. Fighting is also there, but I don¡¯t know what I can do with my physical stats being so low. Albert is more of a scholar than a fighter, and since I inherited his physical attributes I will need to fix them somehow. Autumn had mentioned that she can teach me fighting as I was thinking this last night, so we planned to try it out later today after History 101 with professor Albert and see what Autumn¡¯s opinion on my fighting style is. So not looking forward to that, I know it is going to be bad since most other games I played had activated abilities and Exile Online has a glaring lack of those.


    Third is to get more enchantments. My enchantment abilities are going to be central to my power later so I want to get as much of a head start on that as I can. Unfortunately, there isn¡¯t much I can do on this one at this point, since Albert doesn¡¯t have any more stuff. Beyond those three, well, I am still in the tutorial so it can wait, I think. Not much use in worrying about it now, especially not when I have so much else to work and focus on.


    So, back to meditating. From Albert¡¯s explanation last night, I should probably focus my mind, clear my thoughts, and try to feel the energy around me, or something. But! And it¡¯s an important but! I remembered last night that my body is partially made of mana. This means that I should hypothetically be able to try to look through my body to find anything that feels different from my regular body, and that difference will, in theory, be mana. If it doesn¡¯t work, then I will go back to the mystic mumbo jumbo and do it that way.


    So I start focusing on my body. I try to feel my body and it just all of a sudden lights up like a perfect diagram in my senses. I don¡¯t know if it is a feature of the game or if it¡¯s because I¡¯m a homunculus, but that took way less time than I was expecting. Now I can feel my lungs fill with air, my heart beat, the blood rushing through my veins. I can feel my muscles expand and contract as they move and my tendons as they extend and retract. I can even feel the signals being sent between my nerves, and the electrical pulses in my brain. Shit, I am getting a huge migraine and it¡¯s getting worse. I think I am overloading on sensory information. Stop, stop, stop!


    <Autumn>: Tobias! Can you hear me?! Tobias!


    <Me>: Shit, not so loud! What?!


    <Autumn>: Your senses! Don¡¯t look at them, don¡¯t try and interpret them, just let them wash over you!


    Well, it¡¯s a better idea than any I got and this migraine is bad enough now that even thinking is just hard and painful. I do as she said, just letting the information wash by me. I just relax as best I can and try to go zen and stop thinking. I can feel an immediate slight improvement, so I keep at it. Some time passes, I don¡¯t know how much, I obviously wasn¡¯t keeping track. The whole not thinking thing and all. But, I eventually got to the point where all those extra senses fell to the background and faded away. I still know the information, but I can¡¯t actively feel it anymore so it must be being filtered by my subconscious. Now that I¡¯m no longer in danger of being overloaded, I shift my attention to Autumn.


    <Me>: Thanks Autumn. I am good now. I so glad you are with me. I think I would have just killed myself or gone into a coma.


    <Autumn>: Thank you, but I was so scared there, are you sure you are ok?


    <Me>: Yeah, I have the information from them still, but I think my subconscious is filtering the senses for me. I am going to try and see if I can find the mana now, although I am going to go slowly and be very careful.


    <Autumn>: Alright, make sure you stay careful. I will be here in case I need to try and pull you out again.


    <Me>: Thanks.


    I can feel Autumn¡¯s focus and worry, so I try and send her some more reassurance. I try to calm my mind again and it takes a bit but I finally calm down. Once I find my zen, I try to look for the mana in my body. I keep looking and looking for what feels like a few hours when I finally find it. I feel like an idiot for not finding it earlier because in hindsight it was very obvious. I am MADE of mana, it isn¡¯t just in my body, it IS my body. Once I looked deeper into my muscles I began to notice that they were saturated in something, which I originally thought was blood. But then I looked at my blood and noticed that it was saturated in the same thing. Turns out that my mana is literally glue that holds my body together, and my mana pool isn¡¯t a specific spot in my body, but is actually the oversaturation of mana in every cell in my body.


    I got excited by my success and, like an fool, immediately try to manipulate it. It hurt. A lot. I think I may have screamed a bit from the pain. Autumn was definitely not happy about my, er¡­experiment. As I thought about what happened, I came up with the possible cause being that I tried to move ALL of my mana, including the glue stuff. Yeah, ripping my body apart is not one of my better ideas. Trying to move only the oversaturated mana worked like a charm, and I can feel it flowing into my hand. I want to try that light spell that Albert showed me, but I¡¯m not sure how to make it, well, light-y instead of mana-y. As I am thinking of how to do this, I hear a knock on the door.


    Albert: Tobias! Are you alright in there?


    He opens the door and looks in with a worried face.


    Me: Yeah, I am now. I was meditating and I found my mana, but when I attempted to manipulate it I accidently tried to move the mana that is binding my body as well.


    He takes this in with a shocked impression on his face. Ha! Shocked Albert, another achievement unlocked! (20% progress towards achievement [Struck Like Lightning!]. Not really)


    Albert: You found your mana?! Already?! I was expecting that to take at least a week or two, not your first try. Hmmm, I guess I will start teaching you how to manipulate it later today, although it is a fairly straightforward concept, just takes a lot of practice. Anyway, now that you are up, I am ready to begin teaching you about the world we live in. Come down to the table.


    I follow him out of my room and downstairs to the table. He motions me to my usual seat and as I sit down, I look at the map he has on the table.


    [A.N. I have a map sort of sketched out on paper, and I will be trying to make a nicer copy to post up. When it is done I will post it as its own chapter, with just the map and any annotations I feel are needed. I will have it up before the end of the tutorial arc, which we are currently in. Until then feel free to ask in the comments if you have a question about the map.]


    When I get settled Albert takes a deep breath and begins.


    ________________________________________________________________________________


    Our world has three continents, Northland in the north, Eastland in the east, and Darkland in the south. In between Northland and Eastland is a stretch of sea named the Broken Sea, due to the large number of islands in it. Perpendicular to the Broken Sea is the Leviathan Sea, and it separates Northland and Eastland from Darkland. There have been some sea expeditions in the past to try and find any other continents. However, all ended in failure and most people have given up on the idea by now.


    There are seven major races in the world; humans, elves, dwarves, merfolk, beast-kin, demons, and celestial. There are also many other minor races that exist. This includes the monster races like orcs, goblins, and kobolds, as well as more neutral and friendly races like dryads in Sel¡¯Merilyn and draconian in the mountains. I personally haven¡¯t travelled far, so my knowledge about the other races is mainly through books and hearsay. We will start with humans, since you will mainly be dealing with them when you leave.


    Humans are one of the most populous races, only the demons come close in population. We are also a versatile and adaptable race, taking up the largest amount of land of any of the races. Human lands span almost the entirety of the western and southern areas of Northland, and are separated into four kingdoms; Salem, Andlen, Morghal, and Carrendin.


    First, the kingdom we are in is the Salem Kingdom. It claims the southwestern coast of Northland, and mainly contains plains and rolling hills with scattered forests. The people of Salem are light skinned, and have colorful natural hair and eye colors due to the higher density of mana. It isn¡¯t unusual to see some greens, purples and blues for hair, and the entire color spectrum for eyes. I personally am a little odd with my normal black hair and green eyes in comparison. Our kingdom is ruled by a hereditary mage king or queen, and currently Grand Magus Merlin holds the throne. Salem is well known for its magic, including both people and items. Most villages have a magician of some sort and cities usually have magician guilds. The capital of Salem is Camelot, in the center of the kingdom and about four days travel east of here.


    To the north of us is Andlen, which takes up the western coast line and stretches to the elven forest in the far north. They are also fair skinned, but with more usual hair colors like browns, reds, and blacks and blue, green, and brown eyes. Their kingdom controls a good amount of mines and quarries, so aside from the dwarves they provide a large amount of metal and stone goods. They are also the foremost alchemists and artificers, but lacking any major magical aptitude within their population. They have a hereditary king, currently King Joseph III, who rules with a council of advisors made of prominent nobility. Their environment and climate are very similar to Salem, the only difference is their forests are a more prevalent and their hills less numerous.


    To Andlen¡¯s east, and our northeast, is Morghal. Morghal is bordered on their north by the elven lands, and their east by a mountain range, called the Darkroot Mountaints. Morghal is mainly made of plains, with very few forests or hills except for closer to the mountains. Its people have dark tan skin, with dark hair and eye colors. The Morghal kingdom is a kingdom of warriors, where strength is the greatest virtue. Their king is chosen by rite of challenge, and the strongest warrior is the one who holds the throne. The current leader is King Zackman, but that may change anytime due to the nature of the position. Morghal also has the most farmlands of any human kingdom, and produces most of the food that is traded around, aside from the elven lands.


    The last human kingdom is on the southeastern coast of Northland, and is the kingdom of Carrendin. Carrendin is populated by people with features of all the human populations, and is considered a big mixing pot of heritages. This is mainly due in part to the extensive ports they maintain and the trade that runs through the kingdom. Their land is mainly arid savannah and ill-suited to extensive farming so they rely on their fishing industries and trade for the majority of their food. Carrendin is ruled by a council, which is theoretically ruled by a merchant king. However, the council goes through enormous amounts of intrigue and infighting and the kings are either assassinated quickly or the puppets of one faction or another.


    Unfortunately, humans are somewhat xenophobic as a whole, and generally discriminate against other races. Populous cities are usually more open minded due to trade, but most small villages and towns will chase out non humans. This, coupled with the policies of other races, has led to the formation of roving bands of nomads and gypsies, who are predominately half breeds of one form or another. They roam the human lands trying to make a living off the land and through trade. Unfortunately, their lives are usually dangerous since they tend to be accosted by bandits and slavers.


    Elves live to the north of the human lands, in a great forest named Sel¡¯Merilyn, and usually have lithe bodies and long pointed ears, as well as an aura of grace. They live in scattered cities they call ¡°enclaves¡± and are ruled by a ¡°Grand Enclave¡± from their capital of Mar¡¯Doryl. There are three types of elves, high elves, wood elves, and moon elves. Elves have a high affinity for magic, with each sub race having its own specialty, although this doesn¡¯t prevent them from branching out into the other specialties. High elves are experts at arcane magic, and they are the premier wizards and magicians of the elven people. The wood elves are attuned to nature magic and I have never heard of a better druid than a wood elf druid. The moon elves specialize in divine magic, and are the priests and priestesses of the elven people.


    The dwarves live on both Northland and Eastland, in their mountain cities which they call ¡°Forgehomes.¡± They have stout, short bodies, and have clan tattoos on their face and beards on the males. They are also the finest metal and stone workers of any of the races. One of the interesting aspects of the dwarves is that their Forgehomes are within the bounds of another people¡¯s lands, albeit in the mountain ranges. There are two Forgehomes in human lands, MacDurnadin which is in the Darkroot Mountains. The other is in the Skyreach Mountains, on the border between the kingdoms of Salem and Carrendin, and is named Anvilmet. The last Forgehome, Stonehearth, is in the beast-kins¡¯ territory in the southeastern mountain range called the Spine.


    Beast-kin live on the southern half of Eastland, and their society revolves around tribes made of specific beast types. The beast-kin tribes also have varying abilities and attributes based on what beast they are a hybrid of. They are generally a free-spirited people, prone to combat and fighting. They are almost always at war with the demons on the north half of their continent.


    Demons live on the northern half of Eastland, and are somewhat of an enigma to other races. The closest approximation of their government style would be a theocracy, and they worship the Council of Sin. Their appearances vary drastically from demon to demon, and there seems to be no common factors aside from a general dark appearance. They tend to be radical and unrestrained in their actions, causing them to either have skewed morals or no morals altogether. This fact causes most other races to be wary of them, with the beast-kin at war with them due to the demons frequent raids on beast-kin territory.


    The celestials are an enigma for another reason, which is their extreme isolation. They are a winged race capable of flight, and live on two flying island cities that migrate between Northland and Eastland. We know they serve the gods and goddesses, and we know they are mortal enemies of the demons. Aside from that, they mainly keep to themselves.


    The final race is the merfolk, who live in the waters between the Foul Lands and the demon lands a little northeast of the Broken Sea. They are another race that greatly varies between individuals, with some looking like finned blue humans to having the body of a human with the lower half of a sea creature and covered in fins and scales. All merfolk are adept swimmers regardless of body type and all can breathe underwater. They are slowly expanding into the broken sea and have a small colony in the large inland sea in the center of Eastland called the Middle Sea.


    Those are just the main races. There are many other minor races that exist. This includes the monster races like orcs, goblins, and kobolds, as well as more neutral and friendly races like dryads in Sel¡¯Merilyn and draconian in the mountains. Most of the major races leave the neutral and friendly minor races alone, but in human lands they are basically treated the same as half breeds.


    The southern continent is called Darkland. It is mainly unexplored, and is one of the prominent locations for adventurers to go to find their fortune. There are ruins and dungeons filled with dangerous monsters and rich treasures for the strong and prepared to find. If you find yourself looking for new enchantments, I would recommend going to Darkland once you gain some experience, as you would likely find new and powerful artifacts in the dungeons there.


    On a side note, the Saul Empire at its peak controlled the lands that are now Carrendin, Salem, Morghal, the Darkroot Mountains, and a little bit of the Foul Lands.


    ____________________________________________________________________________________


    Albert finally stops long enough to take a breath and drink some water. I have been following along with his explanation using the map, and so far it seems the world is fairly large.


    Me: Albert, what are the Foul lands? You mentioned them but never explained it.


    Albert: Oh, did I? Sorry about that. The Foul Lands are the area beyond the Darkroot Mountains and north of the Sea of Sand, a desert north of Carrendin. They are filled with tribes of monsters and various minor races, and almost all of them are hostile to other races. There are a few dungeons in the area, as well as some places with valuable resources. The reason most of those resources are unclaimed is because the monsters breed incredibly fast and there always seems to be more, no matter how many subjugation teams we send in.


    Albert: Morghal is a prominent staging point and supplier for subjugation teams. The adventurer¡¯s guild has their headquarters in Morghal as well, at least the human headquarters. The adventurer¡¯s guild is a group of people similar to mercenaries, but where mercenaries will hire out as security details or as supplementary troops in an army, adventurers will accept jobs of all sorts, from gathering herbs to joining subjugation teams in search of rare resources or treasures.


    Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    Me: What are dungeons?


    Albert: Dungeons are another one of those mysteries. We know what they do, but not how they work. A dungeon is basically a regenerating monster den to use simple words. Dungeons are filled with monsters, resources, and treasures and the dungeon absorbs mana in order to replenish them if they are killed or taken. Be careful if you go into a dungeon, because they will try to absorb your mana. But how a dungeon absorbs mana and creates creatures and objects, or why they exist at all, are not known.


    Me: So magicians are useless in dungeons?


    Albert: No, there are methods of shielding your mana from outside manipulation that I will teach you once you practice some more with mana manipulation. Considering what you are, mana shielding spells are going to be something you want active all the time.


    Me: Got it. So after I kill Lord Endos, is it safe for me to stay in Salem?


    Albert: Yes and no. Legally, yes. You are safe from persecution if you were to kill Lord Endos, as he is still wanted by the Grand Magus. They may even give you a reward. The reason I say no is because of what you are. There are no laws protecting the rights of sentient constructs as they are incredibly rare, so you as a homunculus would have little protection against, say, some researcher abducting you to study you. If you want to stay here, you would need to work very hard to learn how to disguise your mana, or find an enchantment that would protect you from scrying or detection or some such. Although now that I think about it, if you were to be rewarded by the Grand Magus you may be able to ask for such protection, so that may be an idea to keep in mind.


    He stands up and starts moving into the kitchen.


    Albert: Now, it is time for me to get lunch, I¡¯ll let you work your way through all the information and get to your practicing. Oh, and with manipulating mana. In order to change mana into some sort of attuned mana, you simply need to ¡°imprint¡± it with the idea of the element. For example, if you wanted to attune mana to fire, you would need to imprint the ¡°essence¡± of fire. The heat of fire, the light it provides, how fire both consumes and burns. Then you need to mold it into the effect you want. In the beginning you will probably only be able to do simple spells, but with practice you will be able to do spells with complex conditions or operations, and with multiple variables. So for right now, focus on simple, and elements you are familiar with, like light, fire, water, earth, air, and shadow. Things you encounter every day. Don¡¯t go trying any of the more esoteric or unusual elements until you are more adept. Make sure you manipulate mana outside of your body. Don¡¯t go summoning fire inside your body or something like that. Oh, and you can keep that map with you.


    Me: Alright, I will be outside practicing then. Thanks for the map!


    Albert nods at me and waves me out. I grab the map and put it in my pocket dimension then head outside, eager to begin practicing magic.


    <Autumn>: I think this might be a good time to see your fighting aptitude, since I don¡¯t know how long it will take and the sooner we can get started the sooner I can properly train you.


    <Me>: Ah, right. I got distracted by magic. So how did you want me to do this? Just get my sword and swing it around? We can¡¯t really spar.


    <Autumn>: Actually, we can. Come to your soul home. To do that, just clear your mind, and focus on the feeling of home. You should then feel a connection to your soul home and then you follow that connection.


    I do as she says, sitting down and meditating to clear my mind. Focusing on the feeling of home and following the connection to my soul home only took a few seconds, and then the world blacks out around me and my library fades into existence. I am standing on the black stone circle in the middle of the first floor, and Autumn is standing at the edge of the circle.


    Me: So are we just going to spar here?


    She giggles at me.


    Autumn: No, we will spar in there.


    She points behind me. When I turn around I see a door there that I haven¡¯t seen before. I think it took the place of one of my windows.


    Me: Where did that door come from?


    Autumn: Where do you think my soul home went? Everyone has one; it is just that most people don¡¯t realize they are there. When we bonded my soul home became attached to yours, just as our souls are now connected. Come on, let¡¯s get started.


    She dashes forward, grabs my arm, and drags me over to the door. She pulls it open and in we go. Wow, this is cool. It looks like one of those Japanese martial arts dojos, but it is huge. It looks like it is the same size as one of those earth gym rooms that hold swimming pools, with a longer length than width. All along the walls are weapon racks with every type of weapon imaginable with a few tables with what look to be special or unique weapons. I can see archery targets on the far small wall and practice dummies on the small wall near us.


    Me: Wow.


    Autumn: You like?


    She asks with a smirk.


    Me: Yup. This is cool.


    She giggles again.


    Autumn: Alright, so I think the first thing to do is to see what you know. You can pick any weapons you like, then we spar for a minute or two, then we will move on to another weapon. We will do this until you have gone through all the weapons you have used before, and any weapons that I think may suit you after seeing how you fight. Don¡¯t hold back here, this body is just an avatar of you that your mind creates. Any injuries you take will hurt, but will heal automatically.


    This is going to be an un-fun experience. I know how sloppy my weapons styles are without using in game abilities. Might as well get it over with. I go and grab a long sword with a hand and a half grip as Autumn goes and grabs a replica of her sword, Autumn¡¯s Song. We move to a clear spot on the floor and begin. After just a few seconds I can already tell just how much better at weapon fighting Autumn is than I am. I can¡¯t even get close to her and she always seems to find all the holes in my defenses. And she isn¡¯t holding back on the injuries either. This hurts like hell. After a minute she calls out.


    Autumn: Halt!


    I stop and step back, groaning a bit at the residual pain. She gives me a searching look.


    Autumn: Hmmm. Next weapon.


    I put up the sword and grab a spear. We keep sparring with all the weapons I have ever used. Knives, swords, shields, greatswords, spears, axes, hammers, maces, staves. I have at one point or another used almost all of the common types of fantasy weapons and I sparred with Autumn using all of them. She even had me shoot a bow and throw knives and axes at the archery targets from varying distances. After two hours or sparring I was beat, and hurting all over. Autumn finally calls an end and we sit facing each other in the center of the floor.


    Autumn: Your fighting style is¡­peculiar. Your transitions between forms and moves are expert, but the moves themselves are awful. Your use of the shield, and your dodging, are also very good. Where did you learn this?


    Me: Well that is going to be somewhat complicated to explain. You remember that I am from a different world right?


    Autumn: Yes, and your soul was taken from the afterlife and put in a homunculus.


    Me: Right. Well, in my old world we had the capability of creating¡­other worlds, so to speak. People were then able to create avatars on those worlds, and experience them as if they lived there, while still allowing them to leave and return to the real world. That is where I learned all of my fighting. I never fought on the real world. The reason for what you noticed is that in a lot of those worlds, the creators were able to, um, grant knowledge to the avatar itself in the form of things called abilities. A user would then be able to activate the ability and the avatar would perform the ability without the user really knowing the knowledge or having the skill.


    Autumn: That is bizarre, but I think I understand now. So to attack you would use one of these abilities and the avatar would perform it, but you would have to set your own patterns and transitions. And I am assuming from your skill in blocking and dodging that these were not abilities that the avatars had?


    Me: Yeah, that sums it up well.


    Autumn: Hmmm. This will be difficult in some ways and easy in others. Did you notice where your strengths and weaknesses were when it came to weapon choices?


    Me: I wasn¡¯t strong enough to handle a lot of the larger weapons, and even some of the medium sized weapons, like I was used too.


    Autumn: Indeed. I assume this is because your current body is significantly different from your avatars. Your body is significantly more dexterous than it is strong. In addition, you seemed to focus heavily on skill and strategy rather than brute force. Hmmm. I think that you should foremost learn unarmed martial arts. This will mesh well with your abilities and enchantments in addition to being available in the case of being weaponless. Additionally I think a sword style focusing on speed and precision will work well with you. A sword would give you the capabilities to stand face to face with other weapons users and are a good weapon to choose when fighting against monsters, which I imagine that we will be doing fairly frequently.


    Damn, I am SO glad that Autumn is with me. She is crazy smart and helpful in addition to being a weapons master. I can easily see how the ruling family of the Saul Empire allowed her to stay around until she got old. I definitely will make sure I take care of her as well as she takes care of me.


    Me: That all sounds good, I will defer to your judgement in this. What do you want to start with? And when and how long should we train each day here?


    Autumn: Well, time moves slower here than it does outside, with about a three to one ratio. So we could easily practice for a long period of time in here and only take up a little time out there. However, this is still ¡°awake¡± time for you, so we should probably limit it to four hours here at the beginning. That will be a little over an hour outside and won¡¯t strain you too much I think. We will do that for a few days and see how you do, and make changes as needed after that. For now, we will start with the martial arts since that is what you have the most enchantments for. Unarmed combat will serve you better in the beginning since until you travel to the Foul Lands, most of your opponents will be humanoids who will underestimate you for being weaponless.


    She motions for me to rise and begins teaching me hand to hand combat. We go over some basic forms and moves, and practice those for the next two hours.


    Autumn: Alright, that is enough for now. You are learning very quickly, I will have to adapt my training plans, especially since I can¡¯t give you physical strengthening exercises. Hmmm. Ah well, something for me to think on. Time for you to practice magic.


    We head back to my library.


    Me: Yeah. Hey, I don¡¯t know if I mentioned this yet, I probably thought it was obvious, but feel free to read any of the books in the library. The first two levels are all stories I have read in my world, the third is practical knowledge, and the fourth is stories about my time as an avatar in those created worlds.


    She gives me a smile.


    Autumn: Thank you. I didn¡¯t want to presume or ask since most people who know about them are very protective and guarded about their soul homes.


    Me: Oh, yeah, I imagine they would be. I didn¡¯t even think of it that way, I still just treat this like it is my library and not my soul. Either way, the offer is still open. And thank you for sharing your soul home with me.


    Her smile deepens and I can see a faint blush in her cheeks.


    Autumn: You are welcome.


    I give her a smile back and leave my soul home. Getting back to my body I check the sun, and it looks like Autumn was right about the time difference. A little over an hour has passed, so I have about 4 or 5 hours until evening. Time for some magic!


    I ponder and contemplate what to start with and I finally decide on light. It is fairly easy to imagine and since it is a form of energy it shouldn¡¯t be too hard to imprint it on mana which is already energy. Light also has the benefit of being hard to backfire with. I could blind myself sure, but I won¡¯t be burning myself, drawing blood out of my body, or turning my arm to stone by accident. Having all my limbs intact is a nice feeling and I¡¯d like to keep it. I start to meditate and focus on my mana. Once I get a good grasp on it, I shift it to the palm of my hand. Oh, wait. Do I manipulate the mana, and then form it? Or the other way around?


    The second option would probably be a little safer. I take the mana in my hand and form it into a sphere floating a few inches above my hand. Or I would have if it worked. Turns out making my mana leave my body is a ¡°bit¡± more challenging than I expected. I spend another two hours beating my head against the metaphorical wall before I figured it out. I had started to go a little crazy from failing too many times and decided that I had to cut my hand open to ¡°LET THE MANA OUT¡± or something like that. Not exactly sure what my reasoning was at this point. Also, I have cool blood, it is red like normal but it is shiny and kind of glows. Anyways, one bleeding hand later, I had an epiphany. I technically DID need to bleed my mana out, I just didn¡¯t have to literally bleed it out.


    Turns out that my skin naturally creates a barrier to keep my mana in my body and in order to get my mana to leave my body I had to make the barrier porous. Then my mana would naturally flow out from my high mana density body to the comparatively low mana density area around me. Luckily enough, I could still feel and control my mana like normal once it was outside my body. After that, manipulating it to be light mana came pretty naturally. I just had to focus on the mana I wanted to change and ¡°push¡± the idea of light into it and it became light mana. So aside from those two hours I will never speak of again, using magic is pretty easy and straight forward. Seems like all I need to do is have a clear idea of what I want the mana to do and keep focus on it until it is done. If I lose focus then the mana starts to dissipate and spread out into the area around me.


    With some more experimentation I learned a few important things about spells. One, the effect lasts only as long as I keep feeding it mana and costs more mana the more potent the effect is. Two, the mana I release into the area around me is only under my control within a certain radius. Outside that area I lose control of it and it becomes absorbed by the environment. Third, Albert was right about doing the manipulation change outside of my body. Sudden fire mana inside my body is indeed very painful. The good side to this one is I learned how to do an arcane healing spell on myself by pushing the idea of healing into the mana in the damaged parts of my body. Lastly, doing things with mana inside my body is significantly easier than outside my body. Like using a quarter as much mana and almost no focus compared to doing things outside my body.


    After a significant amount of testing, experimenting, and explaining to Autumn how I got hurt, I came out of my meditation and realized that the sun had set. Wow, those stars are beautiful. I wish I could take a screen shot or something. I activate night vision for the first time in order to make it back to the house. Once the enchantment takes effect, everything becomes visible from what looks like an ambient pale light. I can easily see shapes but the colors are in greyscale. I make it to the house and it looks like Albert already went to bed, so I must have been practicing for a lot longer than I originally thought. Well, I am pretty tired too so I go straight to bed and I will worry about my plans and research tomorrow.


    [A.N. Woot! History 101 with Albert! If you have any questions about the world or anything else, feel free to ask in the comments. Thanks for reading!]

 Chapter 7

    Chapter 7


    The rising sun finds me outside meditating, thinking about the past two days and practicing my magic. So far I have been focusing on the light, air, and fire elements and am at a point where I feel comfortable using them. My martial arts training has also been going well. Autumn and I have settled on a routine of 4 hours of training in Autumn¡¯s soul home, and 3 hour of practice in the real world with my enchantments. For the past two days I have almost been training nonstop, with the only exceptions being sleep and a few conversations with Albert. Those few conversations have been very enlightening though.


    One of the things I learned from talking with Albert is the reason spells exist. Originally I questioned why there were spells when you could just free form what you want. The reason is that it becomes easier to do a spell the more often you cast it, in addition to costing less mana. So if I cast a fireball spell over and over, that spell would cast quicker, with less focus, and have a cheaper mana cost. Apparently most magicians take advantage of this and have a few ¡°signature spells¡± that they practice and use the most, causing their signature spells to be more efficient and powerful than normal. I haven¡¯t decided on what kinds of spells I would make my signatures, or even if I want to have any.


    Another thing I learned is that the reason enchanted items are so rare and expensive is because of the sheer mana and focus required to make them. Yeah, in comparison to inscriptions it is way easier to learn to enchant, but you have to have complete focus. If you slip for even a second, the mana for the enchantment will burst out of your control. Consider the fact that a common enchantment requires the full mana of three average magicians being used simultaneously and the amount of mana released basically turns into a large bomb. It is really dangerous for most magicians and those that can do it easily are usually archwizards who have better and more useful things to do.


    So in short, I am going to end up being a jack of all trades until I can find more enchantments to absorb and better define a path.


    Albert: Today is the day Tobias.


    I turn to find Albert walking out of the house to join me.


    Albert: Lord Endos should be coming today. Are you prepared?


    Me: As much as I can be. I can always wish for better circumstances, but they won¡¯t change. May as well focus on using what I have to the best advantage.


    Albert: I know I made you promise to kill him, but I didn¡¯t give a time limit. You can always wait until after you have trained some more.


    Me: And leave you to whatever plans Endos has in mind? No thanks. I said I would do my best to save your family too, and I meant it.


    He gives me a sad smile.


    Albert: Thank you.


    He sits down with me and we wait for the coming visit.


    Albert: By the way, I finished compiling my research. Here.


    He hands me a large book. Damn, this thing is huge. Not only is it thick, it is about the same length and width of a laptop, like one of those big atlas books you find on a pedestal in a library. I open it up and start skimming through the contents. Wow, this is ALL his research. Not only are there recipes and instructions for making homunculus, but all of his alchemic knowledge and recipes. I could probably teach myself alchemy just from this book alone. Even better is the inscription knowledge towards the back of the book. This is basically the holy grail in crafting skills and knowledge for me right now.


    Me: Wow, Albert, this is amazing. I can¡¯t believe you are just giving this away to me.


    Albert: Eh, I know it all already and you will need it to help advance your body. Besides, if I survive this I think I am done with alchemy. I will take my wife and daughter away and start a business in inscription. I sure know enough to make good money.


    Me: You will make it Albert.


    He gives me another sad smile as he stands up.


    Albert: I hope so. I hope you make it too.


    He goes back inside as I put the book in my pocket dimension and move on to martial arts practice. Two hours later I hear someone approaching and I head back inside to warn Albert. We both head back out and wait in front of the door. A few minutes later we see a man coming out of the woods surrounding the clearing. I am incredibly confused. Not only is there only one guy, he definitely doesn¡¯t look like a lord. Honestly he looks more like a rogue type. He is wearing dark leather armor and a black hooded cloak, carrying two large sacks on his back.


    ???: Hey, you Albert?


    Albert: Who are you?


    Wait, Albert doesn¡¯t know him either?


    <Autum>: Maybe you should switch to the battle stance? Just in case he is hostile.


    <Me>: Yeah, but that would reveal what I am. I want to hold off on that in case he isn¡¯t affiliated.


    ???: Names Shiv, I was sent by Lord Endos to train some runt. I assume that¡¯s you?


    And such a pleasant guy. Well, at least we know he is from Lord Endos. But train me?


    Me: Yeah, but train me in what? And where is Lord Endos?


    Shiv: Ah well, train ya to be an assassin. And he is *ahem* ¡°unfortunately indisposed at the current moment in time, and will deign to visit in one month¡¯s time.¡± Pansy bastard, but he pays well so here I am. Don¡¯t know why I am training you though. He shoulda just gave me the job. Here.


    He tosses the one sack at me.


    Shiv: Told that one is for you, courtesy of the lord. Why you need that many enchanted items?


    Oh boy. Did he say enchanted items?! I quickly check the sack. Indeed he did say that. I see a bunch of weapons, jewelry, and equipment in there and the sack itself is a bag of holding. This is awesome!


    Albert: Were you not informed as to the nature of who you are training?


    Shiv¡¯s eyes sharpen and he looks us up and down.


    Shiv: No, you look like a scholar and you both look like brothers.


    Me and Albert share a glance. Looks like he is going to let me take the lead on this. I may as well tell Shiv, especially if he is going to be training me for a month.


    Me: I am a homunculus.


    Shiv: What?!?!


    Me: And you are training me to kill the Grand Magus.


    Shiv gives us both a much more attentive look.


    Shiv: Shit. Ahhh, shit. This is bad. I don¡¯t think I like where this is going.


    Me: Well, that at least makes three of us. Any chance you would break contract?


    Shiv: Damn! No. No wonder that sneaky bastard wanted a sealing contract. Damn him!


    Shiv decides to pace and go on an impressive rant of cursing. This is quite the informative class on gods and goddesses. I keep watching while I ask Albert a question.


    Me: Albert, what is a sealing contract?


    Albert: It¡¯s a contract that uses blood to bind the people in the contract to follow the contract. If anyone breaks the contract, they take an incredibly painful backlash and are magically marked as contract breakers. As you can imagine, that mark is very hard to remove and most people shun contract breakers.


    Me: Ouch, that sucks. Oi, Shiv! Why would you sign a contract like that?


    Shiv: Because it was just a training contract! And he paid an extra half of the normal pay just for the contract! Said you were a downright disagreeable ass and I might be tempted to leave. Damn you Fortune!


    Me: Hey! Don¡¯t be cursing Fortune, she is a great goddess.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>You have gained a Minor Blessing</td></tr><tr><td>For the next 12 hours, your luck is doubled.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    I send a quick mental thanks to Fortune hoping she hears it. Hot and generous, I think I know who I am praying to.


    Me: So what now, Shiv?


    Shiv: Argh! Fine, I¡¯ll train you. But I will definitely get back at that bastard!


    Me: Glad to hear it. We are planning on doing that too. Only with a little more ¡°knife in the throat¡± and maybe some disembowelment.


    Shiv: You gonna kill him? HA! Now that is something worth training you for! Now what¡¯s the deal with the bag of stuff?


    Me: Hmm, well can you keep it secret?


    Shiv growls a bit at me.


    Shiv: You gonna make me sign a contract to keep it secret?


    Me: No, it is just that it is a special ability of mine that I would rather keep secret. You are going to find out anyways if you train me. It is just a matter of if I tell you or make you figure it out.


    Shiv: Ah, then yeah, I¡¯ll keep your secret. As long as there isn¡¯t torture involved.


    Me: I can eat the enchantments and use them later.


    Shiv gives me this look of disbelief.


    Shiv: You¡¯re shitting me.


    I reach into the bag and pull out a sword and absorb it.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Enchantment Absorbed</td></tr><tr><td>You now have access to the enchantment:


    LOW increase to damage (lightning)</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <Me>: Activate Enchantment: Damage increase (lightning)


    I raise up my fist as sparks start dancing across my skin.


    Shiv: You are not shitting me. Right then. I am just gonna go sit over there and stare at the sky for a bit.


    He wanders over close to the tree line and just flops down and stares up at the sky. Interesting coping mechanism I must say, just sitting down and processing things. Albert decides that the situation is fine and goes back inside. I decide to deal with the new stuff. First I turn off the lightning enchantment. Then I dump out all the things in the bag and absorb them all, then pull up the enchantment manager menu.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''3''>Active Enchantments</td><td colspan=''3''>3/10</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Enchantment</td><td colspan=''2''>Modifier</td><td colspan=''2''>Affinity</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Strength Increase</td><td colspan=''2''>10%</td><td colspan=''2''>2%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Speed Increase</td><td colspan=''2''>21%</td><td colspan=''2''>2%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Night Vision*</td><td colspan=''2''>0%</td><td colspan=''2''>1%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Damage Increase (Fire)</td><td colspan=''2''>10%</td><td colspan=''2''>1%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Health Regeneration</td><td colspan=''2''>18%</td><td colspan=''2''>3%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Dimensional Pocket*</td><td colspan=''2''>200%</td><td colspan=''2''>3%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Mind Bond*</td><td colspan=''2''>0%</td><td colspan=''2''>3%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Variable Weight*</td><td colspan=''2''>0%</td><td colspan=''2''>1%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Damage Increase (Lightning)</td><td colspan=''2''>17%</td><td colspan=''2''>1%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Regenerative Ammunition*</td><td colspan=''2''>0%</td><td colspan=''2''>1%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Anti Scrying*</td><td colspan=''2''>0%</td><td colspan=''2''>1%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Magic Defense Increase</td><td colspan=''2''>17%</td><td colspan=''2''>1%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Damage Increase (Ice)</td><td colspan=''2''>13%</td><td colspan=''2''>1%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Silent Movement*</td><td colspan=''2''>0%</td><td colspan=''2''>1%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Mana Efficiency Increase</td><td colspan=''2''>15%</td><td colspan=''2''>1%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Extend Reach*</td><td colspan=''2''>0%</td><td colspan=''2''>1%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Sharpness*</td><td colspan=''2''>0%</td><td colspan=''2''>1%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Dexterity Increase</td><td colspan=''2''>9%</td><td colspan=''2''>1%</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    I then pull up the additional information for the unfamiliar enchantments.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Regenerative Ammunition</td></tr><tr><td>Ammunition put in this container are replaced when removed. Can replace ammunition at a rate of 1 unit per second. In order to remove the ammunition without replacement, dump it out. Then replace with the ammunition to be regenerated. Cannot regenerate magical ammunition or ammunition using high mana density materials.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Anti Scrying</td></tr><tr><td>While active, you cannot be targeted by magic that is designed to identify information about you. High level magic and divine magic may overcome this effect.While active, you cannot be targeted by magic that is designed to identify information about you. High level magic and divine magic may overcome this effect.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Magic Defense Increase</td></tr><tr><td>You have a higher resistance to negative magic effects. Damage you take from magic is reduced and the chance of being afflicted with a magical affliction or negative status effect is reduced.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Silent Movement</td></tr><tr><td>Equipment you wear does not make noise from movement and your footsteps are silent. Does not affect other sounds you make or sounds cause by your equipment due to collision effects.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Mana Efficiency Increase</td></tr><tr><td>Your use of mana is more efficient causing you to use less mana to gain the same effect.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Extend Reach</td></tr><tr><td>Extend the reach of your attacks with the enchanted object. Can be suppressed at will by the owner. Maintains the original motion of the attack, i.e. slashes will be extended slashes and stabs will be extended stabs.


    Current Maximum Extension: 5 feet</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Sharpness</td></tr><tr><td>The enchanted object is always sharp and does not need sharpening. Only effective on edges.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    In addition I gained 10 cubic feet for my pocket dimension and another boost to speed. These enchantments are definitely awesome. I so am going to pray to Fortune from now on.


    <Autumn>: Are you sure you want to train as an assassin?


    <Me>: At this point, I don¡¯t have much choice, so yes. And will I personally don¡¯t have anything against the assassin profession. Some people may think it is evil but really it¡¯s just being sneaky with a focus on killing strikes. It¡¯s just not something I want to do with my life as a profession. I will use the skills I get here, but I will change it when I find something better.


    <Autumn>: I understand.


    I get ready to practice with my new enchantments and update my enchantment sets, but it looks like Shiv is all better now. He walks on over to me.


    Shiv: Alright, that enchantment thing you do. I will leave time for you to practice with it, but don¡¯t go using it while I am training you. We want to train your base level.


    Me: In case you don¡¯t know, I can¡¯t physically train. Wait, let me rephrase that. I can physically train, but I won¡¯t get any stronger or faster by doing it. I can still learn the movements and the skills though.


    Shiv: What? Why.


    Me: It¡¯s a homunculus thing. My body is stuck as it is and can¡¯t grow.


    Shiv: Damn. That makes this a little harder. Well whatever, we will figure it out. To start off, what do you know about assassins?


    Me: They use stealth, skill, and sometimes tools, in order to kill a target as efficiently as possible.


    Shiv: That pretty much covers the basics. There are different kinds of assassins and most trained assassins end up taking a sub class that supports their style.


    Me: Wait, how do subclasses work? For that matter, how do classes work to?


    Shiv: You don¡¯t know about classes? What, were you born yesterday?


    Me: Four days ago, actually.


    Shiv: Wait, seriously?


    Me: Yeah.


    Shiv: How¡­is it a homunculus thing?


    Me: It¡¯s a homunculus thing.


    Shiv: Right. Alchemy is weird. So, classes. A class is a general path you follow in order to better yourself. Kinda vague, I know, but there are LOTS of classes, for everything under the sun. Most classes share two things though. First, a class increases the benefit you get from training for certain attributes associated with the class, called a growth rate. For example, an assassin gets a decent boost to dexterity growth rate and a slight boost to intelligence growth rate. Unfortunately for you, that dexterity growth rate won¡¯t do you shit. Luckily, you can change classes as long as a month has passed since you picked your current class.


    He pulls a knife from nowhere and starts twirling it across his fingers.


    Shiv: The second thing is certain abilities that come with the class. The abilities are usually something that exemplify the way a class works, and most classes have one or two abilities, with a few having three. Assassins get one. It¡¯s called ¡°Stealth¡± and it merges your hide and move silently skills into a single skill called stealth. Real handy that one is. You following?


    Me: Yeah, I follow.


    Shiv: For you, I recommend picking a different class after all this is done. When you switch classes, you lose the growth rate and some of the abilities, but you keep the training gains you already did and some abilities. For assassin, you would keep the intelligence gains you will get and the Stealth ability, and pretty much lose nothing for switching.


    Shiv: Right, so on to secondary classes. Basically, where a class is a general path, a secondary class is the specifics. All sorts of secondary classes exist for all sorts of specifics. But the difference is that secondary classes don¡¯t come with growth rates. On the flip side, they usually come with special abilities or unique skills. Mine is Shadow Knife. It lets me go invisible if I¡¯m in deep shadow and I can jump from one shadow to another. Neat, right?


    Me: Definitely. So how do I get a class?


    Shiv: Most classes you just need someone to give you a quick training session on it and then you can pick it up. Some have special requirements though, like a certain race or certain abilities. For example, there is a class called Scale Dancer that you have to have the blood of something with scales in you to get. But best we get started, almost noon.


    Shiv motions me forward and tosses me the knife he was twirling while pulling out another.


    Shiv: I¡¯m gonna show you how to hold a dagger, and how to get a good stab in with it. Then I will show you some weak points humans have and how to exploit them. After that, you should get the class.


    He shows me both a normal and a reverse grip, and how to strike with both grips. Next he shows me where to strike to hit the heart, lungs, and kidneys for maximum damage and lethality. That all only takes two hours before I get a prompt.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''2''>You have gained access to the class: Assassin


    Do you wish to accept this as your class?


    If you choose yes, you will not be able to change your class for 30 days.


    If you choose no, you must fulfill the requirements again in order to gain access again.</td></tr><tr><td>YES</td><td>NO</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <Me>: Yes.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>You have the primary class: Assassin</td></tr><tr><td>You have gained the ability: Stealth


    DECENT increase to benefit gained from training in DEXTERITY


    SLIGHT increase to benefit gained from training in INTELLIGENCE</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Stealth</td></tr><tr><td>The skills ¡°Hide¡± and ¡°Move Silently¡± have been merged into the single skill ¡°Stealth,¡± and ¡°Stealth¡± skill level have been increased to match the cumulative skill levels of ¡°Hide¡± and ¡°Move Silently.¡±


    Any actions which would normally use ¡°Hide¡± or ¡°Move Silently¡± now use ¡°Stealth.¡± Any actions, abilities, or effects that would normally apply to ¡°Hide¡± or ¡°Move Silently¡± now apply to ¡°Stealth.¡± Any time you would normally gain experience with ¡°Hide¡± or ¡°Move Silently¡± you now gain experience with ¡°Stealth.¡±</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Shiv: You got it?


    Me: Yeah.


    Shiv: Alright, then we are done for today. I am going to go inside and get settled in and set up. We will start seriously tomorrow morning an hour after dawn.


    Shiv heads on into the house and I move onto testing the new enchantments. I decide to add the Anti Scrying and Mana Efficiency increase enchantments to my normal enchantment set. I would add the silent movement too, but I will save it until after I am done training with Shiv. Unfortunately, there isn¡¯t much I can do with the regenerative ammunition yet, so I focus on the extend reach and two new damage enchantments by infusing them into my sword.


    <Autumn>: Make sure you use the extend reach on yourself too. It may apply to your punches and kicks too.


    Sure enough, it works. I can punch and kick from five feet away now, but I noticed that it still feels like I am hitting it normally. So when I punch a boulder, like the excited nit that I am, it hurts.


    <Autumn>: Haven¡¯t you been an adventurer on many worlds? How do you keep hurting yourself in practice?


    She sounds pretty amused.


    <Me>: Ah, well, I am one of those people that learn best from experience. I will probably get caught in traps, hit by spells, or struck by special moves all the time, but I won¡¯t get hit by the same thing twice. Well, ignoring mitigating circumstances and all.


    <Autumn>: So it is useless warning you about things?


    She sounds even more amused. I can almost hear faint laughing.


    <Me>: No, I will listen. You will just have to warn me every time because I will forget unless I get caught in it.


    Yup, full blown laughter now. I am just going to ignore that and move on. I test the mana efficiency enchantment and I can tell the difference, it is going to be especially helpful in prolonged fights. Next I test if I can have all my damage elements active at the same time and it turns out I can¡¯t. When I try and put all of them on, I only get the lightning one and it forcibly deactivates the others. So it is probably a case where the highest bonus is the one used.


    I spend the next hour practicing with the darkness element, since I will be doing assassin training for the next month. After my four hours of training in Autumn¡¯s soul home, I move on to my three hours with enchantments running. Finally, as the sun sets I head back in to prepare for tomorrow morning and assassin training.


    [A.N. Thanks for reading! If you notice any errors please let me know in the comments. In regards to Shiv¡¯s language, there may be characters here and there who curse like that but generally speaking I will only use cursing as expletives, not part of common conversation.]