Three days. I spent three days on a deep introspective journey within my empty throne room. I had come to the conclusion that I did in fact need a goal to drive me forward, but the foundational thing that drove me didn’t actually need to be well defined or clear. I decided that I would live for my own pleasure, that I would pursue fun and anything that interested me and damn anything that stood in my way. It was an utterly selfish motivation, devoid of any clear virtue, but it was what I wanted to do.
During my introspection I had gone outside on occasion, but I never strayed far from the entrance of my safe throne room. From those brief trips outside I learned that there are in fact monsters in this world, the wyvern that circled the air above a nearby forest made that abundantly clear. I also learned that this world had an abundance of natural beauty, I had spent hours just staring up at the night sky on my first night. The stars were all different from the ones in my memories, but there was only one moon just like my old world.
I also played around with my sword when I was bored of asking myself deep existential questions about who I was and who I wanted to be. I learned that I’m pretty fast and that my body is almost unnaturally fit. I could swing my sword around for hours before getting tired, and the handful of exercises and stretches I tried out were done with ease. I may not know exactly how to fight, but I figure I’m naturally fast and strong enough to slightly compensate for that fact. At least that should hold true for weaker monsters and regular people, I doubt peak human fitness mattered much when you were up against something like the wyvern I saw.
I also discovered mana during my three days of introspection. It was an utter accident, but when I was searching deep within myself in a metaphysical sense, I stumbled on a strange power that seemed to call to me. Once I came into contact with that power information flooded into me and I just instinctively seemed to know what it was, I even picked up a few ideas on how to use it for actual magic. Currently I couldn’t do much more than move my mana around and take in mana from my surroundings, but with some inventive creativity and some practice I was sure I could make a simple spell or two.
Humming happily to myself as I sat on my throne I realized that even if I hadn’t really left my throne room in three days I was still off to a good start. I wasn’t hungry, I don’t even think I could get hungry, and I didn’t sleep for all that long, maybe just an hour or two every twenty-four hours, so I didn’t have a major reason to stray from my new home. Sure, eventually I’d like to clean myself with something more substantial than a wipe down with a torn of piece of my coat, but since my entire outfit was self-repairing and self-cleaning, I didn’t feel all that dirty yet. I would head out into the greater outside world eventually, but I discovered that there was no reason to rush myself. I was stopping to smell the flowers, getting used to my new body and my new being before throwing myself into a life of danger and adventure.
With a small smile I stood up from my throne and stretched. I had come up with a training regiment for myself yesterday, and I was hoping that it would help me grow stronger. First would be a few hours of swordplay, I would try to become as familiar as I could with my weapon and figure out the best ways to wield it. Sure, I was doing all of this blindly, but with some luck and dedication I might even invent my own style of combat. After the sword work would come hours of meditation where I messed around with my mana. I would try to commune with my magic, draw in more from the world around me, and even try inventing a spell or two.
*
Drawing my blade from its sheath, and casually tossing the sheath somewhere behind me I settled myself into a relaxed stance. Everything I knew about combat came from stories and games from my past life, and most of that information was unreliable. I knew that realistically I couldn’t take everything I thought I knew for a certain fact, especially when the source of the information was suspect in the first place. That said, I was sure that there were a few nuggets of real wisdom and valuable information contained in the jumbled mass of half recalled stories within my mind. I was pretty sure I had already found a few of these useful bits of knowledge, and I was always sifting through my mind for more.
“Speed. Precision. Everything else is just excess, all that matters at the core is speed and precision. Speed is all. Precision is the goal. I must be faster than my opponent if I wish to win. I must be precise if I hope to land my attacks. Strength is useful, but it is not as important as speed or precision. My blade shall be the fastest thing in the world. My every action will be precise and graceful…” Softly muttering a number of tenets and mantras I had come up with to focus myself I began to move my blade.
I started slowly, simply flowing through movements that seemed like they could be useful. Simple stabs and slashes, deflecting imaginary blows away from myself, a flourish here and there just for fun, even the odd hacking chop for good measure. There was no real order to my movements, I wasn’t concerned with learning a kata, I just wanted my body to learn these movements and more specifically train myself to move between any of them at a moment’s notice.
I began picking up speed, but was careful to ensure that my blade never strayed from the path I intended for it. This meant that I wasn’t actually moving fast at all, but that was okay, this was only my second day of practicing this regiment. In time I was sure I would be able to do this blade dance at an even greater speed.
I began to move from my stationary position, flowing with my blade and dodging imagined strikes aimed at me. I was pretty sure that I would look ridiculous if someone were to suddenly see me right now, but I cast that thought aside and tried to lose myself in the flow of my imagined combat.
Time became a nebulous thing as I cut down countless enemies in my minds eye. To keep myself sharp, and to keep things from being to monotonous I made sure to imagine a huge range of enemies for myself. Everything from more normal opponents armed with every type of weapon I could imagine to various monsters I recalled from the memories of the many stories I had read or watched in my past life. Sometimes I would lose my imagined bout, either by missing a dodge or being to slow to hit them before they got me, but I just accepted these loses and tried to learn from what I did wrong.
Was I really improving like this? It was hard to tell, I was training against my own imagination using a style I invented myself based on knowledge I gleaned from fiction. I felt like I was getting better, but there was no real way to know if what I was doing was worthwhile until I faced off against something or someone else.
All I could do is try to hone myself, and I would continue to do so until I felt ready to head out into the world.
*
I found that meditation came easily to me. I would sit cross legged and let my mind sink within myself. I didn’t ever have a problem finding that fugue state that verged between conscious thought and unconscious being, all it took was a few moments to center myself and turn my attention inward. What was far harder was actual magic.
I could sense my mana easily enough, and moving my mana inside of my body was only a matter of simply willing it to happen. With enough effort I could even direct my mana outside of myself but that was it, my mana just left my body and then I lost control over it as it scattered into the ambient mana around me. I had learned how to pull mana from my surroundings by reversing my efforts at directing mana outside of myself, but it took time for me to convert the mana I took in into my own personal mana that I could control. I was going to focus on trying to speed up that conversion process today.
Taking a deep breath, I willed a tiny amount of mana to the surface of my skin, and I let a portion of that mana escape into the air. With focused intent I tried to recall that lost mana, and I pulled with the full force of my willpower. It came in as a slow trickle at first, foreign mana funneled into me through the channel I had made with my own mana. I felt strange as the ambient mana around me entered my body, sort of chilled and electrified at the same time. I suppressed the shiver that my body wanted to unconsciously do and forced myself to continue taking in mana.
Something I had noticed is that my mana when it isn’t being used tends to gather in the center of my chest. I figured that this was my mana pool, and I noticed that when this pool wasn’t full mana seemed to simply appear within me over time to help refill it. This natural mana regeneration wasn’t particularly fast, it took almost twelve hours for my mana pool to go from empty to full again relying on just my natural mana regeneration. Taking in mana from my surroundings and converting it into my own mana speed things up considerably, and it also had the advantage of letting me overfill my mana pool and force it to expand.
The sensations I felt while absorbing foreign mana weren’t exactly pleasant, but the fact that I could grow my mana pool by doing this more than made up for that downside in my mind. Sure, it was a slow growth, but any growth was an improvement and I was sure I could speed the whole process up with practice and familiarity.
*
My day ended and I stared up at the night sky and the crescent moon that seemed closer than the one in my past life.
Training had been… Interesting wasn’t quite the right word for it. Fun wasn’t right either, but it wasn’t boring.
“Satisfying, I guess…” I nodded slightly as I considered it. Yes, satisfying was the right word. I could feel myself making progress, slow progress but apparent. I would keep up this regiment, maybe tweaking it here and there as I discovered what worked best for me.
I could already see myself slowly mastering the martial and magical paths here in my throne room. Eventually I’d head out into the forest and try my luck against some monsters and wild animals, hopefully defeating a few will allow me to level up.
With a thought the familiar semi-transparent character menu appeared in front of me.
[Name: Hex Umbra | Race: Human (Eldritch)]
[Level: 0/1 | Soul Stage: Mundane]
[Classes: N/A]
[Magical Attunements: Null: 7% / Chaos: 50%]
“At least my null attunement went up a bit.” I wasn’t entirely sure what that actually meant, but I saw it as solid progress. As my menu faded away I went back to watching the sky, I had so far to go. I wanted to accomplish a lot in this world, I wanted to be a person with authority and power, someone important.
Reaching out I closed my hand into a fist over the moon.
“Power. Money. Women. Respect. I’ll have it all one day, and I’ll make sure I enjoy every step on my path to greatness.”
There under the night sky I swore to myself that I would make sure to live my new life to its fullest.
*
Days began to blur together to me. I would wake up, meditate a bit and try and get my mana to do something new, then when the sun rose it was time for sword practice. I ended the day with more meditation, this time focusing on absorbing mana and converting it into my own mana, all the while forcing my mana pool to grow slightly. On occasion when I felt too dirty I would go down to the little river I had found behind one of the grassy hills around my home and wash myself as best as I could. At night I watched the sky or meditated until I felt tired enough to sleep, then I would make myself comfortable on my throne and rest until I repeated the routine the next day.
Every so often I would change my training regiment some, adjusting the goal of a training session or attempting something new that I thought might help me improve. Ultimately I never changed all that much, and I always seemed to come back to my original training methods.
I had no idea how long I had done this. I had watched the moon go through its phases completely for thirty-two entire cycles, and I had seen it turn light blue twice. That was my only real reference for tracking the date, and as I had no idea how long it took for the moon to complete its phase cycle in this world, I had no idea how much time had passed. When you don’t need to eat, barely need to sleep, don’t seem to age, don’t have to deal with any sort of hair or nail growth, and repeat the same routine everyday… I had long given up any hope of tracking the passing of days.
Running an arm across my forehead to keep the sweet from dropping into my eyes I stared down the brawny orc that faced me. I stepped forward and swept my blade through the beast’s neck, the entire motion being almost faster than my eyes could follow. As always, my attack was perfectly precise and I watched as the head of the imaginary orc toppled from its shoulders.
Taking a breath, I decided that I would stop here for now.
I was faster than I could have ever imagined being when I first started, and my blade moved with a precision that made it seem like more of an extension of my will than an actual physical object. I felt like I could confidently take on just about anything short of a dragon or something ridiculous like that. I would certainly have no trouble dealing with goblins or bandits unless I was drastically underestimating this world’s inhabitants.
“I’ll head out soon. I should be ready to take on the forest now...” Once again I repeated the familiar words I had been telling myself for so long now. I had confidence in my sword style, and I was even fairly confident in handling myself if I was somehow disarmed, but magic was still eluding me.
My mana pool dwarfed what it once was when I first started my training, and I could now refill it by absorbing mana from my surroundings almost instantly and unconsciously. Even if I was utterly empty of mana I could draw from my surroundings and have my mana pool be at full capacity in one or two minutes. Yet despite this progress I was utterly incapable of casting a spell. I could discern the difference between mana elements, and even identify some of them with my sixth sense alone, but getting my mana to do anything outside of passively reinforcing my body was beyond me. I couldn’t even move small objects or conjure up the tiniest of flames.
I was leagues stronger than I was when I first came into this world, but the fact that I hadn’t yet gotten a class or been able to cast a magic spell was a worry that was holding me back from further exploring my world. The fact that I didn’t seem to age only made coming up with excuses for not to venturing out easier. After all, I had plenty of time. I didn’t have to worry about my age being a limiting factor, and I was half convinced that my body wouldn’t die from age either so I really did have all the time in the world. Why not wait until I could cast a spell or actually had a class before I set off into the greater world.
I let out a sigh as I plopped down onto my throne. I had grown used to the smooth hard surfaces of my favorite, and only, piece of furniture. It could still use some padding to make it more comfortable, but I had decided long ago my throne was fine as it was now too.
“I guess I’m just procrastinating at this point. Being indecisive isn’t good, so…” I needed to set a deadline for myself. Something that would force me to go out into the forest to hunt and level up, even if I never learned magic. “The blue moon should be coming up soon. The next time the moon turns blue I’m heading out, no matter what.”
I nodded. I would hold to this deadline, even if the blue moon turned out to be tonight. I remember being told that I had cheat regarding magic, but maybe I was just misremembering things. Even if I never learned to cast a spell, I would still have to venture out and try and accomplish my goals. Power, money, love, respect. I could probably still attain all those things even without magic, though it might be harder.
With a thought my menu appeared in my vision.
[Name: Hex Umbra | Race: Human (Eldritch)]
[Level: 0/1 | Soul Stage: Mundane]
[Classes: N/A]
[Magical Attunements: Null: 46% / Chaos: 63%]
The growing percentages of my magical attunements gave me some hope, it showed that my magic training wasn’t totally in vain. The growth of those percentages along with the way I learned how to infuse mana into my attacks were the only hopes I had that I would one day learn to wield magic. Even if I didn’t learn how to cast spells, infusing an element into my equipment or even my body was sort of like magic too, just a much less flashy type of magic.
“Maybe it would be cooler if I had different elements of mana…” I could imagine that infusing fire into my sword would give it a fiery aura or something. I didn’t have that element so I couldn’t know for sure. All I knew was that infusing something with chaos gave it a staticky aura, sort of like the static snow that was a problem with old televisions in my past life, and infusing something with null didn’t show any visible effect at all.
Lulling my head back I let my mind wonder. A theory I had come up with a while back was that I actually needed a class to be able to cast magic. Sort of like how in a video game only magic oriented classes could cast magic while the more physical fighter classes had aura or rage or some other power set. I hoped that this wasn’t the case as it would mean I had wasted a long time hoping for something that was actually impossible, but it would also mean that I needed to obtain a class even more desperately than I thought and I still wasn’t sure how to get one. My top two theories were that I either needed a level or two to pick a class, or someone needed to teach me how to obtain a class like in some games.
“Regardless, I guess I’ll have my answer soon enough…” I was sort of looking forward to that blue moon now.
*
Amidst the howls and roars I stood in the entrance of my throne room and stared up at the night sky. The moon wasn’t blue, instead it was a bloody crimson that seemed to faintly bleed light into the sky around it. The noises of monsters and animals only grew louder around me as I stared up at the sky.
Flying creatures filled the sky, and I watched as they fought each other in a bloody battle to the death. I also heard the cries of victory and pain coming from the nearby forest, and I could imagine that similarly fierce battles were happening within the trees.
The sound of running feet drew my attention to the forest, and I watched as green skinned humanoids charged out towards my home. They carried a clubs and blades in their hands, and wore a mixture of furs and mismatched armor pieces. They were clearly goblins, but they were not as short as I was expecting, each one standing at somewhere around five feet tall.
With a calmness that surprised myself I draw my blade and cast aside the sheath, much as I had so many times at the start of my practices. I stood in my relaxed stance, and watched my enemies approach me. I decided it might be best to meet them in the grassy plain instead of in my own home, after all I didn’t want to dirty the place I lived, and so I started walking out to meet them mid charge.
This would be my first real fight in my new world, and it would tell me much about myself and the world around me. I felt confident, I knew I could kill these goblins. Now all that was left was to do it.
