[Beginner Wooden Sword (Trash)
Durability - 100/100
Attack - 1
Equip restrictions - None.
Description - A wooden sword so plain and simple even a newborn could wield it. It has no special features whatsoever, hence its trash grade.]
A screen popped up above the sword when I lifted it in front of my face, providing a nice list of details about the sword itself.
Unlike last time with my rank, I knew for certain that this sword was garbage. The grade itself was enough of a signifier, but the description only hammered the final nail in the coffin.
'No special abilities whatsoever'
But the fact that this was even mentioned in the sword's description gave me hope. If special abilities existed, that other weapons perhaps had, then this place was most definitely not normal.
'It might even have magic.'
The child in me was practically screaming with joy at the possibility of this. But being realistic, I knew that it wouldn't be all sunshine and rainbows.
Using magic and abilities in games and using them in real life would probably be drastically different, not to mention the mental effects of being thrust into a real life danger scenario.
Most people who considered themselves 'hardcore gamers' would probably keel into a ball and piss themselves in front of the first fantasy monster, or whatever this world's equivalent was, they came across.
'I've already died once, so I definitely wouldn't like to go through that again.'
Having seen the details of my shitty wooden sword, it only made me more curious to see my own.
"Status."
Reciting the word like the system had said a few messages ago, a screen appeared before my eyes, like I was expecting.
[Name: Nick Balls
Race: Human
Sex: Male
Title: None
Rank: Apprentice 9
HP - 150/150
MP - 0/0
Strength - 12
Intelligence - 10
Vitality - 15
Agility - 10
Magic - 0
Luck - 1
Skills - None.]
'Hmm, not too surprising if I have to say so myself.'
The stats made sense, if I took 10 as the base level for any normal human to have, which of course I was making an assumption with.
I'd always been a little stronger than normal, and my job doing heavy lifting in the warehouse is probably the reason my strength is rated as 12. As for my vitality, well, I don't really have much input as to why that might be so high.
The only thing I can think that relates to it is that I can count the number of times I've caught a cold in my entire life on my hands, as well as the fact that I've never broken a bone, despite some bad falls at work and such.
As for the other stats, they made some general sense as well. My intelligence is average, that I'm not afraid to admit, and this just confirms it. As for my agility, I've never really worked on that so that explains that.
I've never heard of anyone having magic or anything supernatural like that, so my magic being set to 0 makes total sense.
As for luck…
Well, I don't really know what constitutes good or bad luck stats, but starting with 1 seems pretty dogshit, which would coincide with my shitty luck in life!
'My HP seems to directly coincide with my vitality as well, seemingly being 10x the number of vitality I have. But seeing my very life force being quantified like this is strange.. Does this mean I'll die if it reaches zero? Does a lower HP reflect on my body physically? Or can I look completely fine to an outside eye, but be on the verge of death on 1/150 HP?'
I had many questions, which would seemingly remain unanswered unless I searched for the answers myself.
'But what's this MP? I have a guess, but that may as well be worthless for all I know.'
Sure, everything seems quite game-like so far, but this is all still completely new to me. Just because what I've experienced so far has followed the same general theme, doesn't mean that everything will.
[MP is your Mana Pool. It is used to cast magic or skills that require it.]
'Hmm, seems to be following the same theme.'
The system's explanation followed my guess, as expected.
And even though I may have average intelligence, I don't need to be a genius to figure out the correlation between my Magic stat and my MP! They are the only two values in my status that start at 0, so the answer couldn't be more obvious.
'I wonder how it feels to use magic…'
Hearing all this talk of magic and skills only got me a little riled up! Who didn't have dreams of becoming a wizard or having magical abilities or superpowers when they were a kid?
The prospect of being able to experience this in real life…
It was unimaginable.
"Okay, so how do I get Magic then?"
I asked my main question out loud.
'…'
But only silence followed.
There was no answer from the system this time.
'Strange, the system seems to be selectively answering my questions. It answered my question about MP, but not about my HP, or how to obtain magic?'
Whatever, I'd likely find the answer out myself anyway. That was probably what the system wanted as well, which I presume, is why it stayed silent.
'It said I'd become a Dungeon Explorer, so why don't I get to it and start exploring then?'
It wasn't like I could do anything else anyway. I had already died, I think…? Not to mention that I was already under the mercy of the system now.
It had already shown that it could destroy my soul for simply declining the option to be a dungeon explorer, so it was clearly some sort of terrifying entity that I definitely wouldn't want to offend.
As if the system was waiting for me to say that, all of the screens and stats that took up the majority of my vision disappeared and brought me back to reality.
All that remained was the wooden sword in my hand, and I found myself standing amidst the old, medieval-like corridor.
'Just like my title, this place resembles something like a Dungeon from the middle ages, probably somewhere underground.'
A little nervously, I willed for my inventory to appear before me, and to a great relief, it did.
The moment I saw all the screens automatically disappear, I didn't know whether I would be allowed to access them again!
Thankfully, that seemed to be the case.
Clearing my mind, I held the sword tightly and started to take my first steps in this strange place…