Morning comes in the small village. Reece slowly opens as sunlight slowly creeps through his curtains. He stiffly gets out of bed with a pained groan, those kids are way too much for his frail body.
'Dad should be already at his guard station and Mom will be waking up for her tailor shop in thirty minutes, time for me to get ready.` Reece steps forward and a trapdoor appears below him. He falls into his castle, an endless maze of halls and rooms. Of course this vast space is his construction, so this fall has simply become a daily thrill to wake up.
SPLASH
He impacts a lake sized pool in a bathroom designed area of his castle. He slowly swims to the pool's edge where stairs form for him. 'That goddess picked an odd ability to grant me but it's probably one of the most useful but not overly powerful things to have, nothing made here has substance that can last outside this place, however, it still has impact.'
Reece walks through a hallway that could only be described as a space of endless rain! He moves over to the other side soaking wet but as soon as he steps over a sewer grate, any water on him is pulled off his body by an invisible force. "Ah, that washed off all that dried sweat..." He says patting his clothes.
"Pretty nifty usage of your blessing, Reece!" The system appears in a projection from the castle's power. It's a hologram by nature and that voice is an odd remix of people he's heard from his past life but who has been lost to him. "The coins from that quest came in when you woke up!"
"Then what to do now..." Reece mutters while moving to a bathroom sink and pulls out a toothbrush. It's an old habit to use modern methods of dental hygiene but internally, he'd hate every moment of neglecting it due to lackluster standards for this civilization level. 'I might save it for when getting stronger is needed but is there really nothing else I'm able to use coins for?'
"Well... You can use coins to increase experience on skills but word of warning, not all skills are transferable between bodies or worlds." The system leans in and whispers to Reece. It's not an issue for communicating when Reece just thinks broadly about what he wants the system to know. She's able to hear surface level thoughts like that like he's speaking. "So, I recommend doing it to lessen grinding skills! But only when you have a surplus of coins..."
Reece spits out the foam into the running water in the sink and looks at the window for a moment. He quickly moves his hand to pull up a system menu. It's been awhile since he read a certain skill but that idea of levelling then up made him think about it.
[Wonderland Pocket Castle (Soul bound Item) - Level 1
An endless pocket dimension stored with your soul. While inside you have absolute authority over everything there but to store objects or people into this castle, you must gain permission or no ownership has been declared on the object. Anyone can transfer ownership to you via a request.
(RULES: you must never kill using your castle's authority, Everything made via this authority has no substance outside this space, Time will flow based on the users perception, People must willingly enter into your space and can leave if that right hasn't been given away, To store an item you must have some ownership over it either through legal means or not.)
(0/3 Crowns to level up)]
"My other skills require experience to level up but my card skill needs... Crowns?" Reece asks while the traces of the foam disappear into a misty smoke that disappears with a simple exhale. His current body has full red hair and brilliant emerald eyes. It's weird going from being pale as a white sheet to having a tan that appears after a day in the sun without sunburn. "Does that mean skills can have multiple level up requirements?"
"Oh yeah! Certain skills cannot grow without certain things or may evolve through other methods but that's reliant on you figuring them out however." The system shrugs using her avatar's shoulders. She's always cheerful and smiling but for the first time in a while she frowns. "I however cannot show what I don't know! So, you may run into this through your own developments."
"Am I supposed to figure out what a crown means for this skill?" Reece turns around with a hint of annoyance and confusion but total bafflement at his question being ignored. "Could you please tell me?"
"Sorry but I'm clueless as you! It seems like that's a bit of information left out in my archives." The System's avatar twirls around and drifts to Reece's side. She hangs in the air like a ghost haunting him to his great dismay. "What I do know is, you'll learn soon as you finish this mission but either you get a crown or not, is a mystery~"
"That's annoying but I'm not going to stress about it until it's important." Reece sighs, stepping away from the bathroom setup and towards a door. He's had enough of this otherworldly information for today. "I'll go to the library to hunt for that story which grandpa told me, Mom seems dead set on him not repeating it to me..."
"Before you head back into the real world, I must congratulate you for getting 0.1 stat increases on agility and endurance!" The system chirped into Reece's ear. She's overjoyed at the slight improvement.
Reece recoils at the system speaking directly into his ear. His hearing has grown sharper with this body. "Please don't speak directly into my ear, System..." He sighs going to pull up the stat screen.
[Stats-
Might: 1 (1)
Agility: 1.1 (1)
Endurance: 1.1 (1)
Spirit: 1 (1)
Sense: 1 (1)]
Reece furrows his brow processing what this really meant. One thought quickly entered his mind. 'My real stats cannot grow outside the coins and my body's stats aren't stuck to it, that's a pretty good method of saving coins when I need to get way stronger.' A grin grows across his face thinking about methods of training. It'll be draining but this will be so cost effective!
A clock sound chimes throughout the castle which makes Reece's long and sharp ears perk up along his head. He looks towards the hygiene zone's time piece for confirmation. "Oh dang, I'm half way out of time, I should get out of here soon in case Mom wakes up early."
Reece snaps his fingers and a light blue cloth falls from above to quickly shape into a sort of a swing. He sits down on it before shooting upwards like an elevator, passing by him were sections of undefined or unused room for his castle. Everything here is ever shifting with Reece's perception and whims. He liked having his own space but it felt so empty without anyone else here.
He reaches the bottom of a tower with purple stonework and wood. That trap door he fell through is closed above him then his gravity essentially flipped for him. He stretches for a moment before opening the door and crawls up into normal reality.
It always hits you when leaving that unreal place. The air feels fake or a creeping vibe of being somewhere outside reality. He's adjusted to being hit by it but he'll forever exhale an empty breath leaving his soul castle. There's a smell of something from beyond his room.
'Okay, time to check the security thread.' Reece moves over to the door with a quiet step. He's hoping his kobold mother hasn't invaded his privacy yet. It seems untouched and in the place he put it last night. He lets out a sigh of relief, it's nerve racking every visit into his castle makes him worried.
He pulls it out before hiding the thread in his study inside his soul palace.
Reece left his room and walked down his home's small hallway to the living area. The smell of what you couldn't mistake for anything but eggs and something buttery in the air. He walked into the living area, it's not too separated from the kitchen and where his family would get ready to leave for the day. He walked over to the table with a gentle step from his small frame but his mother seemingly noticed him.
"Oh, good morning sleepy head! Just in time to have eggs and some fresh bread from the neighbors bakery." Janine walks over with a bowl of what seems like scrambled eggs with various herbs mixed in and a bread loaf resting at its side. She smiles warmly at him but stops herself from petting his hair. "Your hair is fluffy today! Oh, if only my hands weren't dirty from cooking..."
"Really? Thanks! You can pat it once you've washed them." Reece smiles while picking up the loaf. He might be overreacting his thoughts on her compliment but it did make him happy, his hair care has been extensive after all. He enjoyed his meal watching his Kobold mother move over to a hand powered water pump but something was different, it has a blue marble like stone making up its main body. "Oh! Thank you, Rain idol for the water."
"Thank you, Rain idol." Janine says with a passive smile while water poured from the pump and she cleaned her hands. She washed it for a moment before moving to dry it on a towel. She pats Reece's head walking past. "I need to go work on a commission, I'll be back, you know what to do with the bowl."
"Mhm! I'll be at the library afterwards, if I go somewhere else I'm leaving a note there for you."
Reece watches his mother turn back with a smile on her face before going outside. He knows instinctively that his body's mother truly loves him. There's a pit in his stomach for accepting it from her after all, he's not actually a child in terms of thinking.