For the King
With a quick look around he noticed that Maverick had already left through the door. With the difference of how time flowed in this room his actions were too late to assist. Now that Maverick was fully transferred to the other world, his chest piece was in play and his hands were tied.
waving his hand a podium rose from the floor. Taking out a bag from his pocket he produced an identical green marble matching the one that Maverick procured for himself and placed it into the slot upon the structure.
The sounds started to echo out as the words repeated themselves from before.
'Error' - Note
'Error' - Note
'Error' - Note
Bernie's eyes changed into golden orbs for just a blip and the stone stopped uttering the phrases changing back to familiar words
"At this rate Ill have to change the water in my pond." - Bernie
"A contestant has arrived. State your name." - System
Pressing a small latch on the side of the podium, a small slip of paper popped out from the podium. In the same way you would think to see within a kids gaming store, tickets were spitting out with small writings on them. Bernie waited for the process to stop before moving to grab them.
He scanned them furiously checking for some hint that the situation would not get worse.
"My gods.. I must reach the counsel. I've awaken an Realm writer."
Without another word Bernie exited out of the door. The room, the stone and the door embraced the silence.
A torn piece from one of the tickets flittered to the floor with the words scribbled in the middle.
Blessing Allowance
Contestant Maverick [700]
Soul Size Boundless
Title Realm Writer
Elements All
Innate Ability's Author
Restrictions System Authority
Error Error
***New World***
Holding his head and rubbing his eyes Maverick felt disoriented. The soft lighting of the Trial room had intensified, and the air felt dry. Noticeably the quiet echoing room now carried the sounds of foot traffic with the sweet smell of fresh bread.
The chattering of people speaking filtered in the distance. An ambience of tents flapping in the wind, wagons creaking and what sounded like hooves pounding the hard ground echoed in the distance.
Looking down, Maverick squinted, covering his eyes as they adjusted. Instead of cold pastel stone he found that he was observing a mixture of dirt and ruble. He was no longer in the Trial and escaping did not place him back inside of Bernie's shop.
Maverick - "What do I do now.."
As if prompted a small blurry box slid into his view. Not expecting a response He backpaddled and attempted to remove the obstruction from his sight. As if pinned in place, the object moved in turn with his head and held an oddly perfect clarity within his sight.
*Thud*
The wall impeded any further retreat as Maverick's shock wore off and he started to examine the screen that was floating in his vision.
"Tutorial Requested, loading basic guide data.."
"Quest System has been loaded."
"Action Assist has been partially loaded."
"Visual and Audible Assist is temporally activated."
"Tutorial Progression 0.01%" -System
As the cascading messaging populated and faded in the corner of his vision the last message was accompanied by a small audible blip sound. The next blip finally provided direction or at least a broad goal.
Quest Log
For the King [0/??] Chain Quest
Reward [Starter Gear] [0/3] Defeat 3 knolls
Reward [Traveling Goods] [0/1] Collect fruit
Maverick found that as he attempted to see the information it filled his mind instantly. Like a post-it note or homework assignment flittering vividly in his mind he simply knew the information. This was somewhat alarming as his thoughts were never this crisp. His ability to recall breakfast was only aided in the fact that his stomach informed him more than his memory that he had not in fact eaten.
"Well, That was not exactly what I meant. At least I have some kind of direction."
Maverick pushed himself off the wall and started towards the end of the alley. As he neared, the sounds of peddlers and the busyness of business increased. Based on the few people who passed by the alley as he noticed the garbs worn were of an Arabian style pants and shirt that were belted with cloth to cling to the calf and waist of the individuals. This made him think about how hot it was in the shade of his current location.
This brought up another thought as he stepped into the light of the street. The blissful smell of food filled his senses pulling him out from the shadows and into the middle of the road. As he stood there his nose brought focus to a small stall next to the door of a three story building.
Behind the stall a petite brunette was tossing dough into the air catching his attention further as he walked over to the business. He took note of the sweet tangy smell lingering between each toss of the soon to be loaf. Salivating he failed to notice the dough disappear under a metal cover laid upon the surface of what appeared to be a large flat grill. Powered by his hunger he looked down and reached into his pockets only to find them empty. pulling them inside out he had nothing on him he could use to purchase food or water.
His stomach growled loud enough that the lady could somewhat hear its complaints. This caught him by surprise as a tomato sized blue berry hit his chest. Jiggling and bouncing slightly off his shirt like a water balloon that failed to pop on impact, he caught it. Glancing up he caught the sight of the lady placing a woven basket full of berries back down from behind the stall.
"An glo his marc ju fair?" - Lady
"Huh?" - Maverick
He couldn't understand what the lady had said. The language was not English and did not sound anything like the words he has heard on movies or tv. They sounded made up. As he pondered what to do since he could not communicate with the lady he thought about the tutorial message and how the system had known his language.
Thinking about the system Maverick tried something direct and intentional with it.
"System, can.. can you translate for me?" -Maverick
The lady looked at him with some confusion as she also could not understand him either. Noticing that he did not speak her language she pulled out another ball of dough and began shouting as she teased the passing people with the smell of her delectable foods. Making eye contact she shooed him away while continuing to shout out to the streets.
Maverick stepped to the side in response as he heard a small blip noise followed by a louder triumph noise. Taking a sweet bite into the berry in his hands he hummed in bliss as both his thirst and hunger diminished under its sweet embrace. Juice's gushed into his mouth with a cold splash as the thick skin of the berry held a crispy sharp texture similar to biting into a fresh apple. The combination caused him to close his eyes to enjoy the moment. His actions brought focus back to the quest screen. Even with his eyes closed the screen persisted to be both illuminated and visible without doubt.
Noticing the screen also clued him in onto a small but important change.
Quest Log
For the King [0/??] Chain Quest
Reward [Starter Gear] [0/3] Defeat 3 knolls
Reward [Traveling Goods] [1/1] Collect fruit
Reward[Gift of Tongue Blessing] (+)[Save the Caravan]
Seeing that a task had been completed he noticed that another message accompanied the change.
Quest Completed, 10 copper dubs have been awarded to your inventory. Please claim other awards within the quest menu.
Maverick attempted to poke the the Reward screen. His finger passed directly through the interface causing nothing to happen.
The lady shooing him away glared at him now. She began to utter more sentences to him of which he had no idea how to interpret. He did however catch on to what she wanted as the universal pout sat on her motherly face with her hands on her hips waiting for him to move on. Embarrassed, Maverick thought about giving her some copper coins and moving on down the street. In that moment everything froze. A faint blue grey tint replaced all color within Mavericks sight.
*Tutorial Action Assist*
Inventory Usage
Coin
The words hovered out in real space this time. Displaced over the view of the lady in front of him Maverick took a moment to look around finding that he could not move. The world was frozen and so was he. Audibly the next steps started to utter out instructions to follow.
"Tutorial will explain the usage of your Inventory and assist with your first purchase. Completing this task will reward you with dust." - System
Maverick paused to take in the ridiculousness of what was going on. He felt like he was stuck in his head. It was the feeling of being in a dream where you can see what is going on and feel what was happening while still being oddly separated from the experience. He could not move yet felt no restraint. It was as if he could not simply because he was not trying to. Giving into the insanity brought by the vestige a galloping horse in the distance trotting along yet frozen between the transition of steps. Observing the single bird hovering mid flight with what seamed to be a worm flailing within its beak. He returned to the floating text transposed upon the world. He mentally thought a response to the system.
"Okay, go on." -Maverick
"User please access your inventory by word or thought now." - System
Listening to the system Maverick watched as a new screen expanded into view showing him five rows of five boxes. Each row empty except one counter in the bottom right that showed a brown dot with the number 10 beside it followed by a few more icons with the number 0 next to them. Maverick could tell that those were other sets of currency or items that he would have to learn more about later.
The system then talked him through various situations on how to pull out different amounts of copper dubs. It even listed values on the item in his hand. The half eaten blue tomato had a floating 1cd next to it. Within the system saying anything he inherently knew that cd was for copper dubs. The information was oddly satisfying as his understanding felt more like remembering than discovery. If anything it was almost like the system was implanting answers into his mind without the slightest notion of doin so.
Through out the process the system made one last announcement before the world started slowly moving and returning back to color.
"Contestant 700 complete action and purchase [Half Eaten Indigo fruit] from merchant."
Having finished each task in using the inventory, Maverick walked past the table with the speaking merchant lady and dropped two copper dubs into a glass jar on the table. It appeared to have appeased the petite lady as he picked a direction and walked through the busy street.
*10 dust have been added to your inventory.*
"Tutorial Progression 0.06%" -System