*Date: 33,480 First Quarter - Isles of Selqua*
Aris was now seventeen - middle height, dark-haired, a slim but fit teenager. He spent his days working, doing menial tasks around the cottage, his hands roughened by years of labor.
"Psst. Psst." He heard voices outside and stepped out of the wooden cabin, looking all around. When he didn't see anyone and returned to the cabin, he saw the black fox sitting at the gate.
The fox had clearly gotten old over the last four years. Some of the hairs around its mouth were starting to gray, giving it a distinguished, weathered look.
"Fox. What are you doing here? I thought you were done with me."
"I'm not here for you. Look down the cliff - someone hit the shore unconscious. All the seagulls are waiting for them to die so they can tear them apart."
"Oh no..." Aris immediately ran to the cliff and saw a body stuck between two stones. It would take too long to descend from the path. Scaling down here would be impossible for him, he thought.
"I jumped with Demir back on our world, Aris thought. Well, Demir had pushed him, he remembered. But he had to take the leap now.
He unbuckled his belt, threw a rock at the sea, and jumped from forty meters.The water hit him like a rock. He gulped for air.
The impact drove the breath from his lungs. He recovered, swam upward, took a breath, and swam to shore. His body ached from the fall, but adrenaline kept him moving.
When he reached the shore, he saw the body up close. It was a female lizard person - one of the made-up sixty-one races in Realmforge, Aris thought. She had a green scaly body and a long jaw, clearly built for aquatic life.
She was covered with bruises and cuts. "How could she still be alive?" Aris wondered.
Every night before bed, Aris had been charging his healing touch in case it was required. He pressed down on the body, made sure she was still breathing, and used his healing touch on her chest. It was the biggest aura transformation he'd ever produced, and Aris felt it. Green light embraced the woman, stopped all bleeding, and made her breathing regular.
Aris lifted the body and put her on his shoulders. When he adjusted her position to fit his shoulder space, she dropped some things - an intricate-looking sphere that didn't look like it belonged in Aethyros, and a wet ledger. He wasn't strong enough to squat and pick up the objects while carrying her.
"All right, all right, I'll pick it up. You take her to the cabin, hero," Fox said. Aris looked around and saw the fox running in the air, rose petals materializing out of nowhere as it moved.
"You're so helpful today. What's gotten into you?"
"Grrr-grrr," Fox made nonsense sounds with the sphere in its mouth.
"All right, all right, I won't ask again."
When they finally reached the cabin, Master Nebu was watering the small vegetable garden. When Aris saw his master, he was panting from exhaustion.
"Master, help!" Even though Master Nebu was old and looked to be in his seventies, he was stronger than Aris. He rushed toward them.
"What happened here? Who is she?"
Aris was still panting, trying to catch his breath. "I don't know. Fox told me a body hit the shore. So I went to check. I closed all her wounds," he said, still trying to catch his breath.
"Good job, Aris. You should have called me. What if she had internal bleeding?" Nebu started examining the body. He checked her breathing, looked into her eyes, checked her reflexes. He gathered his hands and opened them with a sudden movement, pressing one hand to her head and the other to her heart, beginning to cast a spell Aris had never seen.
When the spell ended, she started coughing, spitting out water. After thirty seconds of coughing, she began to regain her senses and sit up. Her eyes turned red, her face was puffed up, looking like a zombie mixed with a giant Komodo dragon.
"Are you all right, miss?" Nebu asked.
"Oh my, it worked! I'm alive! I can't believe it! Oh, uh..." She started checking her body, searching through crevices and pockets. "Where is my device? And my ledgers?" She looked around and saw Fox had dropped the items in front of himself, watching the situation beside Aris.
She reached for the small sphere device. "That's mine, I'm taking it back. Thank you very much. Heh, lucky. Only one ledger left." She was clearly celebrating her success at being alive, but what were those bruises from?
"Miss, are you all right? I am Nebu, this is my apprentice Aris. He found you." **[Bzzt!]** - interference passed in front of Aris's eyes again.
"I am Lyra. Thank you very much for saving me. I will compensate you, but first I need to head to the city center. Where am I?"
"Lyra, you're in no condition to walk. Your leg is broken - I eased the pain. Stay with us a few days. I can mend it properly, then you can leave."
"Oh shoot, it is broken. I missed the canal jumping and hit the concrete side. Thanks, Aris, for saving me. Now help me get to the cabin. If I can't walk, let me sleep."
With the help of Nebu and Aris, they carried her to the cabin and placed her in the patient bed in their small cottage. "What a lively person, even though she'd been seconds away from death just moments ago," Aris thought.
At midnight, Aris was charging his healing touch by casting six duds in a row. He heard sounds coming from the patient room. He went there and was shocked. A giant screen was open - not like the screens embedded in their eyes when he'd arrived at Realmforge, but a screen from the outer world, like the ones used on their planet.
When he was still in shock from that sight, he was shocked again, this time much more. Lyra was attached to the device with a cable, and her shape was shifting into an elven woman. When she realized Aris was there, she immediately closed the screen and rushed toward him.
"Shh, I was gonna explain myself in the morning. I'm not a Lizardkin. I turned into one to survive in the water."
"Why not Seafolk?"
"I didn't have time to look at all the races."
"Are you a shapeshifter?"
"She's not a shapeshifter," Fox said, sitting on the window, watching the whole situation unfold with a grin.
"You have access to the game!" Aris was still in shock.
"I don't. I mean, I have it and I don't. I'm not a shapeshifter. I was created two expansions ago for the Engineers of Creation storyline. We can change species to adapt."
"But you have a screen. I saw the UI - it's Realmforge's UI!"
"Nonsense, it's my specialty. Your master can heal, I can change form," she said, trying to brush off his accusations.
"She's lying. I can smell deceit from a hundred miles away," Fox said, smiling.
"Fine! I can monitor for a few minutes every day without giving my location. But I can't manipulate anything. Our leveling is fixed anyway."
"Please, you have to show me!"
Lyra was visibly hesitating, but Aris's genuine begging wore her down.
"Fine. You saved my life. Sit here." She revealed her device again and pulled a cable from the sphere. For each centimeter of wire she extended, the sphere shrank. Lyra placed the tip of the cable to Aris's temple. A screen emanated from the sphere device and formed a holographic display.
**[Name: Aris Orvellis]**
**[Level: 1]**
**[Race: Human]** - 10% bonus to all stats
**[XP: 10/43,486]**
In the right corner were his titles:
**[Acolyte Healer]** - 2 tier 1 healing spell slots, +1 Manifest
*[Healing Touch TRP Points: 6/6]*
*Each healing touch requires spending 6 Title Resonance Points. These will decrease with progression.*
**[Dabbler Alchemist]** - Tier 1 potion crafting chance 20%. Tier 2 potion crafting chance 5%. Tier 3 potion crafting not available. +1 Endeavor, +1 Harvest
**[Lucky Apprentice]** - Double each luck-based content. Luck spent [2/1,000]. Luck-based content can't be lower than 5%.
**[NW Points: 12]** - Reach 100 for Local Legend
**[Echo: 1]** - Captured Echoes: 1
### Core Body
| Stat | Points |
|------|--------|
| **Vitality** – Overall health & natural recovery | 11 |
| **Force** – Raw muscle; melee damage, lifting, breaking | 11 |
| **Agility** – Reflexes and precision; dodge, aim, stealth | 11 |
| **Resilience** – Toughness vs. trauma, weather, toxins | 11 |
| **Stamina** – Endurance for long exertion or work | 11 |
### Mind & Spirit
| Stat | Points |
|------|--------|
| **Insight** – Spot details, sense motives, track prey | 11 |
| **Manifest** – Manifesting power through mind. Create magic | 12 |
| **Will** – Mental fortitude; resist fear or mind magic | 11 |
| **Empathy** – Persuade, soothe, or inspire NPCs | 11 |
| **Resonance** – Sensitivity to narrative echoes; fuels Echo powers | 11 |
### Social Influence
| Stat | Points |
|------|--------|
| **Renown** – Fame or infamy that sways crowds | NA |
| **Command** – Authority to rally allies or intimidate | NA |
| **Credence** – Reputation for honesty and reliability | NA |
### Craft & Survival
| Stat | Points |
|------|--------|
| **Ingenuity** – Creative problem-solving, new blueprints | 11 |
| **Endeavor** – Grit for long crafting or building sessions | 12 |
| **Harvest** – Skill at gathering rare resources | 12 |
| **Attunement** – Harmony with nature; read weather, calm beasts | 11 |
### Hidden/Meta
| Stat | Points |
|------|--------|
| **Narrative Weight (NW)** – Global impact of your deeds; unlocks Resonance Tiers | 12 |
| **Resonance Points (RP)** – Energy to capture or replay Echoes | NA |
| **Mythic Tone** – Your legend's flavor (Hero, Trickster, Monster, etc.) | NA |
| **Continuity** – Stability of your personal "story" against decay or rival legends | NA |
Lyra took the cable back into the machine. "Ugh, level 1. What are you, born as a frog?"
"The coup happened the first day I entered. Before my first step," Aris said angrily. How could he still be level one? He'd hoped that even though they closed the system, he could still develop. But instead, he only had stupid titles and numbers that meant nothing.
"Sorry, sorry, I was joking. You earned more than forty thousand experience in the last four years. You should be level 20 if the game allowed it. But you figured out path. That's good."
Aris crouched down by the door entry, holding back tears. "Yeah, what an achievement. I'm alive on a cliff with no one."
"No, not that. You figured out the path."
"What path?"
"The one they left open for themselves. The titles path. You gain a title, you open skill slots. Yeah, you can't learn it with a button now or purchase from a merchant with a scroll. But with correct studying techniques and observation, you can learn anything, just like any local with potential."
"What are those numbers then? NW, RP, Echo?" Aris asked, curious. His mind was buzzing with ideas. After that small explanation, lost hope found him again.
"And that screen even shows meta data!"
"I'm tired. I'll look again tomorrow and write it down. All right, let me rest. And Fox, get away from there - you're blocking precious moonlight."
"Heh. All right then, sister. But I'll be watching you," Fox said with a grin.
After Lyra closed her door, Aris went to the front of the cabin. Fox was waiting for him there. When Aris knelt to sit on the side of the porch, Fox approached.
"Don't believe one word from her. She hides something, I tell you."
"Thanks. Without you, I couldn't even have found her."
"Don't thank me yet. And make sure she doesn't become your end."
Aris sat there in the middle of the night, lost in thought. Hope, mystery, possibility swirled in his mind. What could he do with these abilities? How could he get stronger without leveling?