Name: Elias Grey

  Race: Human, Male

  Age: 17

  Disabled Functionality: N/A

  Disabled Functionality: N/A

  Life Points: 47 / 91

  Mana Points: 41/41

  Strength: 17

  Endurance: 15

  Vitality: 15

  Willpower: 16

  Intelligence: 13

  Perception: 14

  Agility: 12

  Luck: 35

  Available Attributes for distribution: 0

  Elias stood mouth wide open as he read his statistics screen; there was no way this could be right. He knew that they weren’t this high before—how had he gained so much since the battle? He was just led up in a bed.

  After reading his attributes for the fourth time, he stopped and looked to Jacob, “I don’t understand, how—how could they have changed so much?”

  Jacob shrugged, unable to hide a smile, “It makes no sense to me at all boy, but—well, I know you don’t know too much about the System and in truth, I didn’t tell you because the System tends to take care of all of the explanation type stuff when you Awaken,” Jacob moved his hands in a rectangular fashion as he continued, “Usually, you get these things we call, ‘System Prompts’, they’re rectangular windows, about this big, and ever since I awakened, any change could be explained through those.”

  Elias felt his face flush and his eyes darted away from Jacob; he knew, without a doubt, that the almost dozen notifications he’d told to disappear held the answers he was after, “Ah…” was all he could muster in response.

  He explained to Jacob that’d he’d dismissed the System Prompts and his concern with not having read them—to which Jacob only laughed and told him that he just had to bring them back to his attention and that he needn’t worry. Elias was desperate to get back to a room and read them all, but his mentor had assured him that there was no rush.

  So, they ended up finishing their walk and Jacob talked him through the rest of the events during his slumber. A fair amount of time passed and it was nearing early afternoon—Jacob had told him to review the prompts over the next few hours and join him for dinner. Elias quickly agreed and headed back inside Thom’s home, greeted the kind, aged man and then shut himself in the small room, his curious nature temporarily distracting him from his grief.

  “Quest: Survival 1 has been completed. Calculating rewards…” a monotone voice said within Elias’s mind as the a prompt reflecting the words appeared before him.

  It had taken a while, but he’d finally been able to pull the prompts back into view, one at a time. The first on his list—the bizarre quest he’d been given towards the end of the night. He wasn’t so sure what to expect, Jacob had dismissed him without any warnings or advice, just a ‘They’ll explain themselves, boy.”

  Now, sitting on the uncomfortable bed, Elias stared at the notification, “Calculating rewards? What does that even mean?” he thought. How did the System reward people?

  He had heard plenty of tales—stories of Adventurers receiving powerful artifacts; weapons or armour that would go down in history and shape the fate of the decade—but he had an inkling he would not be receiving something like that.

  “—Bonus reward earned for surviving against a foe two tiers higher than your own—” the voice continued, Elias raised an eyebrow “Did it not take that into account before giving it to me?!”

  “—Bonus reward earned for surviving with the least possible life points—” Elias let out an audible gasp, followed by a sight of defeat, “Are you mocking me?! I barely survived at all, and you’re rewarding me for cutting it so close that getting poked could’ve killed me?!”

  The voice continued, “—Bonus reward for completing a System Quest at Tier 0, calculating final rewards… Final reward calculated, Elias Grey will receive: Tier 0 Skill Enhancement Crystal – Rarity – N/A”

  The flat voice finished and an orange light appeared in front of him—the light gave way to the materialisation of an orb, wispy streaks of light bloomed in all directions and finally, a small crystal appeared as the light faded. Instinctually, he reached out to grab the orb; it was almost translucent, with a faint reddish tint enveloping the imperfect sphere. It looked as though it had been chiselled by hand from a larger crystal—and in a rush too.

  As he touched the orb, the reddish colour within pulsed ever so slightly before it settled once more. He examined the orb closely, passing it gently from one hand to the other. It was both heavy and cold and yet, it rolled through his hands as if it would float if he let go.

  It didn’t.

  The orb landed with a loud thunk against the wooden floor as Elias groaned at his own stupidity, he bent down and picked it up, glancing quickly around to make sure no one had seen. “That was embarrassing…” he thought.

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  Taking a moment to forget the last few seconds, he focussed hard on the orb—willing a response from the system, Jacob had said that the System would explain, “So, explain!”

  After a few moments of deep concentration another prompt appeared: “Skill Enhancement Crystal – Tier: 0 – Rarity: N/A – Unable to appraise function and/or abilities of item. You do not possess the Appraisal skill.”

  With that realisation, Elias knew he wouldn’t learn more about the Crystal without Jacob’s help, he placed the orb on the bed and moved on to the next system prompt.

  “Title Earned: Mons—Correcting—” the text flickered before stabilizing, “—Aberration Slayer – Slay your first Aberration – Reward: + 1 Strength.”

  Elias raised an eyebrow at the ‘correction’ the System made but shrugged, he did recognise the title, this was one of the few things he had learned from Jacob’s books—the ones he had access to. Titles were granted for achieving specific milestones, ranging from amassing great wealth to slaying an Aberration, or even ruling a kingdom for a set number of years. Jacob had always intended for Elias to get this title, just, not yet.

  He dismissed the prompt and moved on.

  “Title Earned: Brave Antagonist – Slay an Aberration one Tier above you – Reward: All Attributes + 3.”

  Elias shook his head at the reward; the System was actively encouraging him to endanger himself. It felt as though the more he planned on endangering himself, the more he would receive, “Well, it’s done now, may as well enjoy the reward.”

  “Title Earned: Potential Prodigy – Single-handedly slay your first Aberration, one Tier above you, whilst still at Tier 0 – You have begun your journey with grit, determination, and, most importantly, power beyond your station. You have faced foes beyond your peers and prevailed. Will your path lead to greatness? Or will you fade into nothingness…? Time will tell – Reward: All stats + 5, All stats + 5%”

  This was different from the last couple of titles, it had a description of some sort. Maybe it was the first title worth of genuine recognition from the System? He wasn’t sure, but he started to understand where all the attributes had come from. He was surprised with how many titles he was awarded in one go—he recalled how Jacob had said how lucky he was; it also explained some of Jacobs confusion glances when Elias had recounted the story, “Maybe it’s rare in the Empire?” he thought.

  Elias knew that it was much more than luck that he had survived, he clutched at the space in his chest—where the crimson light had pulled into him. He shook his head and pulled the other three notifications into view.

  He gained two more titles: Survivor, for surviving an encounter with one life point, giving plus three to his strength, endurance, vitality and willpower—and Seedling, for completing his first quest for the System, that one awarded him plus one to all attributes.

  He had received a bonus of more than seventy-two points, excluding the bonuses to his luck. He couldn’t quite work out where they had come from and expected the following notification to solve the riddle.

  Without further ado, he opened the prompt:

  “This can’t be right…” Elias said, his voice hollow.

  Days passed since Elias had reviewed the notification of Titles and rewards, he’d thrown himself into work; clearing rubble, repairing damaged homes and attempting to comfort those who had lost loved ones. One of the days he’d volunteered for a working party trying to clear the rubble near to his home, he’d tried to help but as he approached the site of Tess’s final moments, he couldn’t contain his own emotions, he’d ended up escorted away by some of the other villagers, they all knew how he felt—because they felt the same.

  When the daylight began to fall away, he would practice with Jacob—using a rusted sword he had given him. His movements were clumsy and awkward, far more powerful than he’d ever been before, but it was obvious that an increase in attributes didn’t immediately mean an increase in control.

  He and Jacob met frequently, his mentor was caught between joviality and curiosity towards him and a seriousness that he’d seldom seen—he spoke of the broader implications of the aberration attack. It wasn’t just Haven’s Point, or the local settlements that had suffered, No, almost every area of the Empire was affected.

  The Aberrations had attacked the entire Empire.

  Jacob had said that the far-reaching nature of the Aberration assault was unprecedented in their generation and that the Empire, being completely reliant on their network of Adventurers was ill-prepared for the attacks.

  A week after he’d awoken from his slumber, Elias stood in the clearing behind Thom’s house, the rusted sword Jacob had gifted him held loosely in his grip. He took a deep breath, centering himself as he’d been taught and began the sword forms. Unlike other days where Jacob would set him off on a training regime, he had decided to join in on the practice.

  His first swing almost threw him off balance as his arm moved faster than expected, “Calm down, Elias.” He thought as he swang again, the blade whistling through the air—he stumbled again, barely keeping his footing.

  “Damn it,” he muttered as he tried again, trying to slow his movements. The results were mixed, his swings were jerky and awkward and nothing like the smooth swings that Jacob had shown him.

  Frustration boiled up within him. He’d been doing it for days—“Why does it still feel wrong?!”

  With a grunt, he launched into a sword form sequence, determined to prove himself—he let irritation fuel his movement, a flicker of crimson flashed over his vision, his sword blurred, cutting through the air faster than he thought was possible—he felt a surge of adrenaline, of pleasure cut through his entire body. “Power!” he thought.

  Then the flash of crimson disappeared as quickly as it came—his foot slipped.

  The world spun as he lost his balance, sword flying high into the air, his hit the ground hard, the impact knocking the wind from him. Above him, the sword tumbled end over end.

  Time seemed to slow as he watched the blade fall, its rusted edge drawing towards him, “Shit.” He thought as it came closer to his face. His face flushing red with embarrassment as he tried to roll to his side. He imagined the irony of surviving the two Aberration attacks—only to be impaled by his own sword.

  Then, suddenly, a hand shout out, grabbing the sword from the air only a few inches away from his face; Jacob stood over him, the blade held casually in his hand.

  “I’d say that was enough practice for today,” Jacob said, offering him a hand.

  He took it as he felt his cheeks burn with embarrassment. “Why can’t it just work?!” he thought as anger rushed through him again—crimson flashed in his vision as Jacob pulled him up and he heard something pop—the colour faded and he saw Jacob wince, rubbing his hand.

  “I—I didn’t mean to—” he stammered,

  Jacob waved him off quickly, “It’s nothing, boy, just getting old,” But Elias could see a curiosity in his mentors eyes, he was staring at him, as if he was trying to analyse him.

  “Why…” Elias began, “Why does it feel that even with all these rewards, I’d still lose against an Aberration?”

  His mentor stood and examined him for a long moment before nodding slowly, “Power’s a tricky thing, my boy. It’s not about just having it, you have to know how to use it. Access to the system and it’s power is necessary and it helps, sure. But, that’s not all there is to it.”

  Elias frowned and Jacob shook his head, “Now, don’t take this the wrong way, those attributes you’ve got, those titles you’ve earned, they’re great an’ all. But they aren’t enough. You’ll understand soon.”

  Jacob knelt and picked up a scabbard on the floor, passed it to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, “There’s so much more to this world, to the System, to you. So much to tell you, I just thought—” he paused and his expression changed to a sombre one, “I just thought I’d have more time to show you.”

  They returned to the house and Elias couldn’t shake the feeling of helplessness burned into him. He needed more power and he needed it quickly.

  Tessa’s eyes flashed into his mind once more. He had to become stronger, for her, for Jacob and everyone else he failed to save.

  Because if he couldn’t—what was the point in surviving at all?