In the world of magic and martial arts, there exists a secret spell that only the most powerful mages can do : the Rebirth spell.
It is so unique, and so incredibly powerful that it is say that only one arch mage out of a hundred is capable of doing it.
Here it was, in the form of a spell scroll, making it accessible to anyone who could get their hands on it. And here was Gabriel, after having finally managed to get one.
He stumbled awkwardly towards it, leaning on the wall for support. Gabriel wasn't born lucky, far from it. He was born ugly, deprived of magic and deformed, with a disease that had slowly taken most of his muscle mass. In a world where power was everything, his predicament was unfortunate. Had he not been a legitimate son of the emperor, he would have been killed. Even while being a prince, he was constantly being disrespected by everyone around him.
But Gabriel held no grudge against them. Or rather, he understood them, he thought while looking at his unsightly self.
He hadn't always been this ugly. But his disease had made his muscles so small and made it almost impossible to get fat. His limbs were thin, his ribs and spine stuck out like he was an actual skeleton. His head looked disproportionately large next to his stick like body. If someone saw him, they would have thought he was starved.
So no, Gabriel couldn't hold a grudge when he knew he would have done the exact same.
But this ends now, he thought. His skeletal hands caressed the scroll. Spell scrolls needed magic to be made, but once that was done, anyone could use it, even a nobody like him. This scroll was his ticket to success. It would give him a new body, and sure, it was a random process that wouldn't give him a perfect body, but even just average would be good. Hell, anything other than his current body would be good.
He open the scroll. A flash appeared. He felt the warmth of magic, such an unfamiliar thing, take hold of him. Something changed in his body. His skin tightened and relaxed, like play-doh. His whole body was remodeling itself. He started screaming. His bones cracked, moving around in an unnatural way. His hair grew linger than shorter. He felt a warmth liquid run from his back. It was blood. Another crack and two other limbs came out from his back. His arms, hair and legs shortened. The world got bigger, or no, he got smaller. His skin turned a deathly white, feathers started appearing.
Wait, feathers? That wasn't normal.
His whole skin got covered in feathers until he didn't seem human anymore. Another crack ,another drop of blood. It was too much. Then, everything stopped.
He stopped screaming. Or more accurately , he stopped being able to scream. Another flash. A screen popped up, and then another and another, until it was all that was left in his vision.
[ Congratulations on your Rebirth ! ]
[ Status function unlocked ]
[ Congratulations on becoming a system user ! ]
[ Look at your current Status ! ]
[ Shop unlocked ]
[ Look at your welcoming gift ! ]
What ? He flinched back. A bird flapped its wings right next to him. Wait. No. There was something on his back. Something new. He cautiously moved. It felt weird and unfamiliar. It seemed impossible, but… he had wings. No, he didn't just have wings, he had become an actual bird.
He extended one of the limbs on his back so that he could see them. They were covered in pure white feathers.
He cursed in his mind. He went through all of this trouble to get that scroll, only to end up like that. He wanted to cry. But… what's that ?
He looked a the screens. He tried to touch them with his mouth, or well, beak, but it just went through it like it wasn't even there.
He tried touching what was written on one of them. Another screen suddenly popped up and he flinched back again.
[ Status
Gabriel Everly
Level 1
Bloodlines : Dove ( lvl 1 )
Strength 2
Agility 12
Charm 10
Endurance 13
Magic 1
Skills : None
Stat Points : None ]
Oh. It was just like the normal status screening, except there didn't need to be a status reading spell to see it. Ah… his strength had gone even lower. He looked at the rest. Everything else had gone up. Had he really been less endurant than a bird ? Wait. He had a one right beside magic. His magic stat had always been at zero. That meant… he could…. do magic ..?
He flapped his wings and screeched. He could do magic ! Sure he had became a bird, but maybe this wasn't as bad as he thought.
He clicked on the other screen about a welcoming gift, wondering if it is maybe some stat points or just an explication.
[ The welcoming gift has been opened ]
[ + 10 Stats Points
+ 10 Shop Points ]
Nice, so it was some stats points. But what are shop points ? He never saw those when the adventurer's guild did status spells on him.
[ Quest
Use Shop Points ]
Shop points, that was probably for the shop, right? How does he open the shop though ?
[ Shop
1 Stat Point : 1 Shop Point
Lunge 5 Shop Points
Heal 5 Shop Points
Stealth 5 Shop Points
Singing 5 Shop Points
Magic Missile 5 Shop Points ]
Oh, so he could open it by just thinking about it ? Cool
He bought the Magic Missile spell faster than the speed of light, that was definitely a no-brained. He spend the last of his points on the Heal spell like the compulsive buyer that he was.
[ Quest Completed ]
[ + 10 Shop Points ]
He hold himself back from spending what he just won. Now that he thought about it, this system thing was definitely overpowered if he managed to get two skills in mere minutes and now had the points to buy two more skills even when he did basically nothing.
Yeah, maybe being a bird wasn't so bad. Besides, animals with a lot of magic could transform into humans. And although Gabriel was far away from that level, there was still hope.
He goes back to open the status again. But before he could, the door to his room slams open.
" Gabriel ! " The old maid yells. She looks around before noticing him. " Argh ! Get out of here lil' shit ! "
She shoos him away. He tries to get out but there is no exits. The old maid continues shooing him before noticing the problem.
" Tch. " She frowns, annoyed. She goes to the window and open it.
Instinctively, Gabriel's body moves on its own. Gabriel goes out from the window to escape the maid's yells. The wings on his back flaps again and again. Gabriel realizes quickly that it is too tiring and he won't be able to hold on for long. He tries to close his eyes tight, looking everywhere except under him.
He tries to flap his wings harder, his wings just get more tired. His feather manages to catch a current of wind. Suddenly, he doesn't need to move his wings as fast, the wind lifting his meager frame up in the air.
[ Quest
Hunts ]
Gabriel eyes the new quest. He would do it of course, but now wasn't really the time, he thought, still a bit panicked. He slowly looked under him. It was high, but not quite as scary as before. He felt his heartbeat slow down, and he could finally breathe again.
The shop is once again opened and he buys the lunge skill. He should also get more magic stat points if he wanted to be able to use magic missile more than once.
Flying through the sky, he finally felt hope. His one dream had always been to get stronger, when he was younger and his disease wasn't as present, he had struggled through drills after drills to try and master the sword. He had taken many magic crystals to upgrade his magic before learning he had no magic at all.
He had tried, and as of now, he had always failed. But how it was different, it still wouldn't be easy, especially while being a bird, and not a bird of prey either, but it was possible. And that is all he needed, just a possibility, something to hope for.