Beacon from Beyond

“Woah” Leven said as he read over everything in the window. With the Systems assistance, he again had an innate understanding of certain things. His Class was used for his combat abilities, while his profession helped in non-combat scenarios, and he would specialize both into his fighting style and his… well, profession, respectively.

His stats were a measure of his body's capabilities for certain things. Physical decided how strong or fast he was, his physical body. Mental decided how quick he could think or his creativity, his mental abilities. The other two were not as intuitive.

Spiritual decided how strong his soul was. The Spiritual stat generally decided the interactions the magic in his body had with other magic interfering with his body. If a mind controller attempted to puppeteer him, his Spiritual stat would be in charge of resisting it

His Magical stat decided the potency of his mana that interacted with the world around him, how strong a fireball was or how much force a rock would be shot at using a spell.

There was nuance to each stat, but it seemed purposefully blurred by the System for now, to not overwhelm him.

If he had to summarize his stats, it would be: Physical for body, Mental for mind, Spiritual for his defense against outside magic, and Magical for attacking others with magic.

On top of this, Stats could be specialized. If someone was a mage, they could specialize their Physical stat into mana. It would lower their Health Points (HP) and Stamina Points (SP), but greatly increase their Mana Points (MP).

The explanation for affinities was completely blurred, so he skipped those for now.

As for Skills, the idea was simple. Inner skills were things that he learned on his own, while outer skills were abilities given to him by the System, perhaps via his class or profession.

He also knew that he could expand the skills to get the descriptions of their abilities, so he clicked on [Pandora’s Box (Contained)]. A window opened up for the briefest of moments, but closed itself just as quickly.

[It appears you have reviewed your Interface thoroughly. You will learn about Affinities while in the world, so I will seal the information until you have organically learned enough about them to cross an undetermined threshold.]

[The problems that must be discussed are your spells, [Pandora’s Box (Contained)] and [Pandora’s Box (Unleashed)]

[Pandora’s Box (Contained) is a spell that was created to contain the excess Wrath Mana created from your Wrath Affinity, using your Kindness Affinity. Mana Storage spells are designed to contain mana for a small amount of time, then release it in a larger spell. You, however, stored excess mana for over two decades.]

[This resulted in a strengthening of the Skill more extreme than 99.99999993% of applicable samples to draw from, and it instead became a permanent storage for Mana]

[Moments after your death, you released all of it, pushing back entities of the void. If you had released it a second earlier, you would have become an unwitting nuclear warhead, and your city, as well as everything within two cities, would have been annihilated with the force of mana exiting your body.]

[The officer shooting you in the heart saved many, many lives.]

[I am warning you of two things. Firstly, your new body will not perfectly fit your old spells. All of their levels will be cut to one fifth of their current level, and you will need to manually repair each skill before using them, but once they are repaired, you will progress faster in these spells until your previous ability level is re-obtained.]

[Secondly, Pandora’s Box has already evolved twice, and neither of these spell evolutions will go away. Instead, they will be fully integrated into the spell. Be careful, as you may explode from the spell being too strong for your body if it evolves again.]

[That is all. Prepare for rebirth]

Leven felt himself being pulled somewhere else ‘I haven’t even gotten a word in, you chatty System!’

“Errr, if I fail, I hope you succeed in finding someone else to bring your lover back!”

Moments before he was pulled too far away, he felt an explosion of complicated emotions, before it was all behind him and he was somewhere else, above a vibrantly colorful planet. He couldn’t move his body or view, but his vision was rapidly descending upon a certain point on the planet.

On a continent, into a jungle, through the opening of a cave system, through a secret entrance to a hidden underground village. He was moving so fast that he was barely able to see a second of two people ‘doing the deed.’

‘Ewww are those my parents?!’ he thought for a moment, before he merged into his mothers belly and his ability to think went away.

An indeterminate amount of time later.

Slowly coming back into consciousness, Leven realized that he was in a room of darkness, unable to move. Oddly enough, he didn’t feel like panicking though. All of his emotions were muted and distant, and he was okay with that.

Over the next few months, his mind would awaken more and more. Memories of his past rising through his mind. He never really had a chance to process it all, before the void monsters, then the System, and now his rebirth all took precedence over his mental state. Jumping from one life changing event requiring his full attention to another, he never had a moment to think.

Now, with months of nothing but thinking, he could finally tackle everything. The hurt of his wife cheating on him with his best friend still horrified him, still made him furious, but he was nowhere and could do nothing but work it out in his head.

When his mind finally woke itself up enough for him to think and act of his own accord, he felt calm enough to tackle the other thing he had been putting off, reviewing his character sheet more fully. The pain of his entire life being for nothing was still a raw scar on his mind, but he needed to do something other than just wallow in despair. Pulling up his character sheet, he looked again

Name: N/A

Race: Human (Fetal)

Class: N/A

Profession: N/A

HP: 2/2

MP: 2/2

SP: 0/2

Stats:

Physical*: 2

Mental: 12

Spiritual: 10

Magical: 11

Affinities:

Kindness: Mid-Rare, 27%

Wrath: Low-Uncommon: 77%

Soul: Low-Common: 0%

Inner Skills:

Kindness: Pandora’s Box (Contained) (50) (33/2000), Call for Help (9)

Wrath: Pandora’s Box (Unleashed) (2), Growing Pains (16)

Outer Skills:

None

There didn't seem to be many differences, but there were a few. Firstly, he was still a human. Next was that he had a physical stat, as well as HP, MP, and SP. Lastly was that his “Spells” as the System had called them, were in fact one fifth of their original level, rounded down, but that didn't surprise him, as he had been warned.

It seemed to him that his Physical stat had a one to one for his “consumable” stats, he would call them.

Although, looking again, it did seem like there was a footnote for his Physical stat, so he mentally selected it. It felt weird that he knew exactly how to interact with his interface, but such was life with how the System implanted knowledge into his mind. The window that pulled up read:

[Fetal status has halved the effects of Physical stat on HP, MP, and SP]

That didn’t matter much to him, as he didnt exactly have control over anything right now, but it was good to know that his consumable stats would double after he was born.

The next thing he pulled up was his first skill, [Pandora’s Box].

[Pandora’s Box - Level 50 - Kindness Affinity - 33/2000 Mana Stored

To contain your sin, you have created a tangible field within the world of concepts. To resist giving in to your anger, you refuse to lash out. You refuse to express your Wrath as you rise above your base instincts.

Creates a pool within your soul that contains the excess Affinity Mana produced by the various affinities of the user, unless otherwise specified

Contains (2)*((Spell Level)/10) mana rounded down per level (Currently 10 mana per level)

Also contains twice as much mana within the Spell

Also concentrates the mana within the pool, giving a conversion rate of 6 Affinity Mana to 1 Concentrated Affinity Mana (mild concentration)]

[WARNING: Spell incompatible with body. Use of spell may result in harm, disfigurement, or death]

It stored 2 mana per level, starting at level 10, and increasing by 2 mana every 10 levels, also working retroactively on all the previous levels.

Reading the last two lines of the spell again, they seemed a little odd. Thinking back though, this was probably what the System meant when it said it had undergone two ‘evolutions,’ and that they would be fully integrated into the skill. He wasn’t an avid gamer in his previous life, but he knew his way around a skill tree, and to him it seemed like his spell had been upgraded twice. Once to contain double the normal amount of mana, and again to concentrate and mana that entered the pool.

While he didn't consciously pick these choices, it seemed like he had subconsciously decided the ways in which he wanted to go, and it made sense based on his previous life's choices. Both skills were meant to contain as much mana as possible, and this ‘excess mana’ appeared to be what was causing both his and his fathers anger issu-

Wait

Did his dad have an affinity for wrath? Was he also accidentally making spells and using them? He remembered how his dad would rarely talk about how he used to be in the military, but never said anything more than that, not even the branch he was in.

Leven lived his life believing in magic, but not that much. After all, the only magical thing he’d ever seen was his ability to sense people in need, so he always knew that there was something magical going on, but what if his father had a more active control over the magic in his body? What if he was in some sort of wizard division in the military?

Scary to think about, but not unreasonable. It was weird that Leven was never drafted into it, despite having the same affinity as his father though. But did they know? Did his father ever tell the government? ‘Most likely not, and I never had an outburst throughout my entire life. They might have suspected after the incident when I was six, but nothing after that gave anything away’.

That was terrifying to think about, that he could have become a military weapon if he had ever gotten angry, that he might've lost the life he had always lived.

‘Yea, like I didn’t end up losing it anyway’

[34/2000 mana stored] he watched the skill tick upwards.

He stopped himself from continuing to think about it or losing himself again in self pity, instead he continued thinking about the spell.

It was simple in concept. He held a bunch of mana, and his body also refined it down to a more pure form, that way he could hold even more mana; he also needed to take note that the amount of mana within the pool went up when he got a angrier, meaning that he produced mana when angry, and when that mana leaked out, it messed with his emotions further

‘That sounds like a dangerous feedback loop.’

There was also the warning about incompatibility with his current body that he had to worry about, but he would have to think more about it when the mana was closer to being filled up, and when he could actually move and see.

Moving onto the next spell, [Call for Help], it showed something he was a lot more proud of

[Call for Help - Level 9 - Kindness Affinity - Passive

Going out of your way to help others when it isn't required, you actively seek out those in need. No evildoers shall escape your vision as you come to the rescue of those in their darkest hour.

Grants the user a sense for those who desperately want help within a 100 meters per Level radius of the user

+0.01% chance per level for user to be made aware of situation that they would greatly desire to be at for selfish reasons]

[WARNING: Spell incompatible with body. Use of spell may result in harm, disfigurement, or death]

Simple enough to understand and probably the reason he was in the situation he was currently in, remembering how he knew something was up before he had even gotten home. He felt more rage bubbling inside of him, so he didn’t dwell on it and instead moved on to his Wrath spells, Starting with [Pandora’s Box (Unleashed)]. He really had to hand it to the System, the naming sense on these things was top-tier.

[Pandora’s Box (Unleashed) - Level 2 - Wrath Affinity

To attempt to contain the world's sin is a sin in and of itself, pure hubris. Sin is unavoidable, and nobody can be truly perfect. But maybe, just maybe, can we find hope at the bottom of the box, can someone harness their sin into a more useful endeavor.

Allows for one to release the Wrath Mana contained within [Pandora’s Box (Contained)] in a specific way to accomplish a specific thing]

[WARNING: Spell incompatible with body. Use of spell may result in harm, disfigurement, or death]

This one was weird to him in multiple ways. Firstly, it was at level 11 before he was crammed into his new body, when he had only ever used it once. It sort of made sense because he had used it to fight off entities within the void, and he was using it as the second half of a formerly level 254 spell, so the level could be shrugged off as “that one use I got out of it was very effective.”

What couldn’t be shrugged off though was that this spell seemed sort of incomplete. The other two spells gave exact numbers and a clear definition on what they did, but this one just said that it allowed essentially for him to “do something specific.”

How was his release specific? He simply exploded with mana when he used it. Looking back into his memories, it seemed like he literally exploded with mana when he used it, as the walls from his [Contained] spell just shattered.

‘Perhaps that's why it's incomplete? I never actually finished making the release spell before my Containing spell exploded.’

That… actually made a lot more sense. He couldnt be sure, and he abso-fuckin-lutely was not going to try it out right now, but he might actually be able to harness the Wrath within [Pandora’s Box (Contained)] if he used this correctly and somehow finished making his spell. He still wasn't going to touch it just yet though, so he moved on.

Reading [Growing Pains], he was certain that was his favorite out of all his spells

[Growing Pains - Level 16 - Wrath Affinity - Passive

Feel the burning of your muscles as you move it to the beat. That's not just you working up a sweat, but also PURE RAGE! Let nothing stand in your way as you reform your body into that of a Greek God! Let the adrenaline flow through you as you tear yourself apart, only to come back stronger for it!

Gives a heightened rate of muscle growth, allows for classless stat growth past Physical: 14 at the cost of Wrath Mana]

[WARNING: Spell incompatible with body. Use of spell may result in harm, disfigurement, or death]

Not only did he find the description hilarious, it was a muscle building skill! He used to love working out in his previous life, and he was positive it would be the exact same in this next one.

‘Hmmm,’ he thought, ‘The warning at the end of this one makes me nervous though… it's a passive spell, so I can't exactly turn it off either. If I start having trouble with it, and I can't fix it quickly, I'm screwed.’

He didn't really know how to test it either, as he couldn't even move right now ‘or can I?’

Babies kick all the time, he couldn't move right now, but maybe that was because he was out of Stamina? He opened his character sheet and looked at it again

Name: N/A

Race: Human (Fetal)

Class: N/A

Profession: N/A

HP: 2/2

MP: 2/2

SP: 0/2

Stats:

Physical*: 2

Mental: 12

Spiritual: 10

Magical: 11

Affinities:

Kindness: Mid-Rare, 27%

Wrath: Low-Uncommon: 77%

Soul: Low-Common: 0%

Inner Skills:

Kindness: Pandora’s Box (Contained) (50) (34/2000), Call for Help (9)

Wrath: Pandora’s Box (Unleashed) (2), Growing Pains (16)

Outer Skills:

None

He was still, in fact, out of Stamina, so he hunkered down and waited to see if it would increase.