“Shadow user!” I shouted in realization as the magic came back to me. It was really underpowered in this story, but it fit exactly what I needed. There were no shadow mages teaching at the Academy, so any apprentices were left out to dry, creating a cycle that wasn’t broken for decades.

Beyond that, I will also need to start thinking about what weapons I will be majoring. I’d try guns, but I made them completely unusable and the Academy didn’t even have a set on hand as students never majored or even minored in them. They existed for the sole purpose of normal citizens having a way to hold off monsters. I, for now, added a weapon I grew up using but would probably go back and change it later.

Now there was also something I titled, “Innate Birth Rights” also most times seen as skills. Looking back on it now I wish I called it skills; however, can you blame a writer for wanting flashy names? Skills were limited to enhancements of your body and in rare cases magic power. They didn’t adapt over time and whatever you were stuck with at birth you were stuck with for the rest of your life. So, in some ways, the naming choice made sense.

Thinking it over the choice was easy, EyeSight. Magic power was special and insanely overpowered, but my plan will be much easier with what EyeSight has to offer. Now the backstory, and thankfully it doesn’t have to be anything tragic nor would I want it to. I’m likely going to at one point or another be noticed for my achievements and I wouldn’t want them misunderstanding why I act the way I do.

“Short and simple… short and simple.” I repeated but it still turned out to be like three thousand words. I halfway through it realized the ‘Being’ running this may take liberties if I didn’t describe every little bit of things.

My most recent history could be summarized as, “Parents are dead from supposed natural causes, but was instead my older brother wanting reign of the family. His actions were never noticed and instead led the Family to its apex. His brother was a genius and born leader taking charge from the get-go, on top of being a Jupiter Academy graduate.
Ziph never had any drive to be Patriarch so he was never perceived as a threat by his older brother. Sent off by his brother to that same academy Ziph dreams of living up to his brother’s expectations.”

I wanted it to be simple and that may seem to be nothing but simple but if my past was completely dull and ordinary the investigator would find that stranger than finding any information at all.

I looked back at my initial choice of a dagger and changed it for something I felt would be more useful.

With the powers and history set in stone, I felt my stomach drop. This was it, this right here was where it all came to fruition. The introduction had been complete and now my ass was to the flames. I knew what was coming but that didn’t make it any easier, knowing the future doesn’t mean you can live through it. I took a deep breath and hardened my resolve, with save pressed and time moving the nerves only heightened.

[Author has created a stellar but simple backstory along with a standard choice of weapon, underpowered magic, and advanced Innate Birth Right. The decided grade was a B. A perfect score would have been given on a stellar story of a boy living under the wing of his father and love of his brother and mother. Along with setting him up with characters he unique will be interacting with. In addition, magic was the perfect choice, weapon should have been “hidden weapons” instead of “Bow”, and Innate Birth Right should have been ordinary. The reward is now available.]

I wanted to argue with the system, but it wasn’t wrong if my plan was to set myself up to fill the role Ziph was initially supposed to play that would be perfect. I took my own path though and was looking to fix the mistakes I made. I shouldn’t be surprised but it even knew my thoughts on even unwritten incidents, Ziph having a connection with ‘her’ was something I never mentioned in his settings document. Not that it matters since I scrapped Ziph and now in this version of his background they never met.

There was a knock at the door followed by, “Delivery for Ziph Rose.” I stood up from the bed and opened the door to find a standard tall strong delivery man who stood a solid head above me.

“Thank you.” I took the package in hand and slightly bowed my head before closing the door with my foot behind me.

With the package laid on the bed, I made the guess this was the reward from the system. My room hadn’t been published yet and if my family wanted to send me something they would have sent it with me before I left. Inside was a bow, and a black leather looking jacket. Neither stood out as special but were both above average. From the examination of the jacket, it was found to have three runes, two protection, and one temperature regulation. The material was skinned from a monster in the snake family but was covered by cow leather.

The bow was less so remarkable barely above the level of the equipment given here. The usefulness came with the single engraved rune, curve shot. It looked to be a recharging rune as well, fulfilling the role of a trump card till I could make my own.

It was getting late and even when time was stopped I still suffered from fatigue, so I laid the two rewards beside me and went to sleep.

+++

“Everyone pick your weapon. You may at any point change weapon but you must return the weapon and a 3 grand fee.” The teacher’s loud voice sounded off inside our individual heads, a skill related to voices.

He called us based on our evaluated rank for the school, I was rank 675 exactly middle of the pack.

“Anax Freelan,” He walked up and within the less than 24 hours from yesterday’s speech, everyone was looking at him again with lust, respect, awe, jealousy, anger, and select few indifferent. He walked up and took the sword in hand. Seeing him with the sword in hand, he embodied the main character cliché more than before.

“Ji Gin,” Seeing his robust stature walk up to the stage and grabbed his weapon, a broadsword, I felt tears run down my face. ‘I couldn’t go more than a few hours without crying, damn it!’ Ji Gin was modeled after one of my first followers. His hair was messy and brunette, along with an overly muscular body. His eyes were dark and drooping and his lips were tightened into a frown. The broad sword was placed on his shoulder but he didn’t look to notice the weight.

I got an email one day about a young man in the hospital, seeing it was sent through the light novel site I read it. The man knew an admin and had them send me an email, guess in some ways you could define it as a dying wish. Touched by his story I made the three-hour drive to where he was treated.

The scene is still burned into my memory, a man laid there unable to move. His body was in pain and he couldn’t talk without coughing. I didn’t ask him to speak and instead told him my own story, the hours flew by and I retconned the initial character design of Ji Gin. This man who had nothing left found my story worthwhile, he used the little energy he had to read my story. It was touching, it was a moment I would never forget. So, seeing him now standing up on that stage was something I couldn’t help but cry at. The single photo I was given that evening, of a man remarkably similar to Ji Gin stood in front of a stump with a tree over his shoulder.

“Ziph Rose,” There was nothing remarkable or even noteworthy to how I got up to the stage. I pulled the bow from the rack and in silence and a hardened face walked back into the crowd of students. I wasn’t the star of this story, no need for me to take the glory.