Congratulations Realm Swap Initiate. You will be embarking on a wondrous journey in a Realm foreign yet familiar. Your Tutorial Guide will by now have given the introductory monologue and we hope you kept all questions to the end - as is tradition. In the coming [7 days] you will be taught the basics of the system and get a sense of what you wish to specialise in. Your Realm Swap Partner (RSP) during this time may choose to send you 1 item of importance from your world to support you. This is encouraged to help you acclimate but is not a requirement so will vary from person to person. Depending on your Realm this may be a weapon, artifact or important piece of equipment. It could equally be something to remind you of home. That’s one of the many exciting variables of the Initiative.
- From the Introductory Page of the Realm Shift Initiative Tutorial Guide.
***
The book I had skimmed through was more of the same as Bale’s opening monologue and oozed HR corporate positivity. Somehow the explanations I’d been given by Bale had proved more helpful. But it had filled in some gaps of the intro monologue I had missed in my daze, and I was feeling a bit more ready for whatever this tutorial week entailed.
Apparently once it began my area would begin to be populated with different objects based on what the system expected me to be interested in to experiment with. Classes seemed to exist to an extent, but it was more so that they were unlocked as a collection of abilities. It was more a category to explain what your ‘style of advancement’ was than a set skill list you were locked into.
I’d since changed out of my pyjamas and was now wearing what looked like the standard adventuring gear you’d expect in a general fantasy or medieval RPG. The tutorial zone and equipment apparently seemed to generate in line with the type of ‘system’ you had the most familiarity with.
Which meant it was likely someone out there was getting nanotech and laser pistols from watching and playing sci-fi media while I got the Middle Ages treatment. You weren’t locked out from that kind of thing but there were phases of ‘integration’.
There were ‘rings’ which worked their way outwards slowly beginning to expand the possibilities and opportunities to interact with elements of the world and other people. First, they put you in the inner ring which was built entirely with you in mind and populated by the system. The next ring allowed you to interact with a select few from your realm with similar based ‘integrations’ (the sci-fi nerds with the sci fi nerds, fantasy with fantasy etc).
Then it expanded further each time integrating you more and more with people from your Realm until you were mixing with Shiftees from other Realms and finally you became completely ‘integrated’. Which happened after being in a few rings where there were regular people born in the realm. This was generally considered the end point where you made the final decision to return home or live here indefinitely.
But that was a long way off - for now I was in a tan tunic which was much more comfortable than it looked, brown boots and matching brown trousers. I felt very rustic, like I was going to a ren faire. Which I’d never been to - where I lived in England they didn’t happen often and not usually near me and God knows I wasn’t travelling to London.
While finishing the chapter on the rings system in my book I had stabbing pain shoot through my head. I dropped the book cradling my head. An alarm sounded in my head and began permeating throughout my body saying:
The Tutorial Week Has Commenced. Please report to your trainer to activate your HUD.
I did as it asked half crawling out the door to Bale. “Bale… tutorial… help… HUD… Head… ow”. I said meekly.
The guide looked at me almost with excitement. “Oh boy Kid you must have a few starting traits! It’s a lot to cope with all in one go but this is a great sign! I remember a few shifts back, I had a kid…”
“BALE… HEAD… TUTORIAL… HELP!” I shouted at him to get him to stay on task and fix my head that was on the verge of exploding.
“You’re so impatient Kid,” he replied but did as I had asked. His eyes glowed from the usual black to a bright white with a series of green numbers flashing rapidly. The pain began to ease, and I managed to find my feet again rising back up to look at the world as my HUD activated.
Loading. Please Wait while we set things up. Please enjoy this animation from your home Realm while you wait.
The loading bar slowly moved across the ‘screen’ of my vision. My animation the system provided was a game of pong on each side of my peripheral vision with accompanying sound effects as it hit each paddle. This went on for longer than I would have liked and so while I waited, I sat crossed legged on the floor while Bale continued to regale me with his former Shiftees and inane details I didn’t need.
Finally, it activated, and the HUD filled my screen. Honestly it was a little underwhelming. There was a notification in my main eye line saying, “HUD setup complete”. There was no health bar, no stamina bar, no inventory icons and nothing around me was glowing. There was just a small icon of a man in the corner that waved when my mind focused on it. A bar appeared with the text: Enter name. I thought of my name “Edward”. The text filled the box and closed. I blinked and rubbed my eyes and the HUD disappeared.
“Bale, where did it go?”
“Did you think we all walked around with meaningless data floating around in our vision?”
“Well… Yeah? Where's my health bar or my stamina and mana?” The scarecrow quickly whapped me on the head with his wooden post ‘arm’.
“Oww what was that for?” I lamented.
“There’s your health bar.” He spoke. “That hurts. If you feel more pain you die, break your neck you die and so on etc... Did you not have pain receptors in your world?”
“I mean, is there like a number that shows me how much damage I’ve taken and how much health I have?”
“No, there’s probably some item out there that does it, but do you really need a number to tell you you’re bleeding out?”
“I suppose not.” I said a bit deflated. “So, I’m just as likely to die as before?”
“Oh no, certainly not,” Bale replied, and I perked up a bit, “if anything you’re more likely to die - given you’re in a world that relies on you improving yourself to survive. Survival of the fittest and all that.”
My stomach sank as I suddenly realised this wasn’t going to be as fun as I had initially expected. Bale seemed to read my face as he tried to cheer me up “well for now at least, you’ll be able to improve your stats to increase pain tolerance and reduce likelihood of death, extend your lifespan and the system naturally cures most mental illnesses and untreatable conditions. Maybe that’s part of why your head hurt so much. Maybe they had some bits to fix in your noodle.”
Bale talked to me through my HUD. I could reactivate it and open and close different windows at will by focusing on the man. It was pretty unintrusive even when open so I couldn’t really complain. To open my inventory, I just had to envision the little stick figure man in the top right with a backpack, and he’d turn around showing one which would then open, and a list of items would appear. For now, it was completely empty given there was nothing stored within it. Bale showed me how to access my Dimension screen which was what my tutorial island was listed under. Apparently as time went on, I could upgrade it and improve it like a home base sort of thing. It currently listed:
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
Buildings:
- Fantasy Shack with starter furniture
Staff
- 1x tutorial guide Bale - Level - NA,
- Class: Tutorial Guide,
- Primary Skills: Diplomacy, Education, System Management.
- Primary Stat: Charisma.
Given I could see this all by doing a quick look around this wasn’t super helpful for now, but it would likely be helpful to audit what was available to me here once I started making some progress and upgrading the area. If I lived that long. I was starting to feel just a touch like death was fast approaching me. Maybe respawning was a possibility, or resurrection? For now, at least I had a week of practice to prepare me for the trial by fire.
Bale showed me how to access my notifications menu which caused my little HUD man to walk in place to a mailbox which he then opened and held a letter above his head. This opened to show me several general logs:
- Congratulations, you have successfully activated your HUD. You can now access your map, inventory and status screens. Speak to your Tutorial Guide [Bale] for more information.
- SYSTEM NOTIFICATION - Several active debuffs from prior to your Realm Shift have been removed.
- SOCIAL ANXIETY - naturally low level of serotonin and dopamine, levels rebalanced - need for medical intervention no longer needed.
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder - dual presentation - option added to system menu to automatically apply effects of concentration-based medication. This is automatically set to off. You can activate this within your Medical Traits Menu.
There were a few other notifications telling me that I’d essentially been cured of some minor issues I’d barely even noticed - minor hip spurs, an astigmatism I didn’t know I had, a headache disorder which I suddenly noticed meant my head felt much less tense. This thing was better than every doctor I’ve ever had combined.
I appreciated that I could turn on and off my ADHD automated medication - like when I used to take a “medication vacation” as my family called it. Although that was usually imposed by my pharmacist’s supply running out or me forgetting to take my meds. I immediately jumped out of the menu to activate this. The effect was immediate unlike the Earth equivalent medication. I felt concentration flow through me and evening out my waning lack of interest in reading the list of notifications. It also didn’t make me feel queasy, give me a headache or any of the other long list of side effects that my old medication gave me.
I hadn’t noticed but aside from the splitting pain, an awful lot had changed in my head as well as my body. I could breathe easier from the lack of that feeling of constant panic in my gut. I was standing up straighter since my back was no longer affected by the years of slouching at a desk. My joints didn’t seem to click or crack when I moved around - as it turns out not all my bones fit together perfectly originally but was otherwise nothing to worry about medically - but now all my joints felt like butter.
I felt good and that was only the second notification. My next notification outlined as Bale had rightly predicted - my newly unlocked ‘Traits’. Traits seemed to be like Feats in Dungeons and Dragons. You could unlock them by doing tasks or quests but there were also hidden unknown unlocking requirements which seemed to be at the whim of the system and individualised to each person. The system seemed to decide whether or not you had earned it. When Shiftee’s entered the world, they often got a Trait or two upon activation of the HUD since it was factoring in all your life experiences and how you reacted to the shift. Which is how I got my first Trait unlock
- Congratulations you have unlocked a new trait
- Easy Sleeper - You passed out following the opening dialogue of the tutorial showing you truly can sleep anywhere.
- Effect: You can sleep anywhere and are able to fall asleep immediately.
I was a bit insulted by this but couldn’t argue with something that would have made my life so much easier by just being able to hit the off switch until morning. It would have also made the handful of house parties I’d been to an easier time if I could sleep anywhere regardless of how uncomfortable and loud my surroundings were.
Next were a few new traits which appeared to me based on my life pre-shift.
- Congratulations you have unlocked a new Trait
- Hyperfocus - You experienced your life with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder with a dual presentation of inattentive and hyperactive. In your life you have often flitted between fixations. You followed the dopamine becoming uniquely attentive to something until the rest of the world no longer mattered. Unfortunately, this was not often a healthy fixation on work or your physical health.
- Effect: +25% experience gain when solely focusing on one skill for a period of 1 hour or more
This one made me laugh - it was pretty accurate but still calling me out for being too lazy to take advantage of an ADHD hyper fixation was a bit harsh.
- Congratulations you have unlocked a new Trait
- Special Interests: When you like something, you REALLY like something. Many would argue it borders on obsessive - many more people would realise it is obsessive and that the others are being polite. In your world you would refer to it as being a high functional autistic adult male. Combined with your hyperfocus, you tend to obsess and then drop interests for something else. This gives you a unique advantage for learning new skills - but not mastering them.
- TRAIT SYNERGY - HYPERFOCUS AND SPECIAL INTEREST - Special Interest upgraded to Jack of all Traits Master of None
- Effect: Unlocking a trait or ability is 50% easier but it develops slower after the first 5 levels in that skill.
I hadn’t read far enough in the guidebook to get to the part about synergistic Traits upgrading each other but it made sense. I bet there was an entire industry on documenting and unlocking new and valuable synergistic Traits. Turns out being born autistic with ADHD was one of these synergies - which I imagine was difficult for people here to replicate since it said “in your world” when it referred to autism implying that wasn’t really a thing here or I guess they maybe just didn’t see it as something worth labelling. I suppose if your life is built around an omnipotent system actively giving you unarguable labels you don't need to come up with additional ones.
The final one was what I would imagine would be the most beneficial in terms of my continued survival.
- Congratulations you have unlocked a new Trait.
- Danger Sense: Your brain was wired to make you feel like danger was always around the corner giving you a sense of hypervigilance. That must have been exhausting. No longer will you need to be in constant fear - you will now know when you are in direct danger. Instead of that feeling being a constant reminder of how you felt that time you called your teacher mum you can rest easy knowing that it now means a giant flesh-eating monster is right behind you.
- Effect: You experience a feeling of anxiety when you are in imminent danger.
It seemed like the system was almost adapting to how my brain would best receive this data. Long run on comedic sentences definitely helped me remember what these did. Plus, the effect being separate made it easier to make sense of what I was now capable of. Honestly it would have been a godsend when I was in my old life, but I wasn’t sure how helpful this would be when I was dropped into the inner ring.
Essentially, I had Spidey-sense which in the comics almost always happens too late. I could fall asleep anywhere - I just hoped it didn’t affect my ability to wake up when I needed to. Then finally I could grind out abilities easier but couldn’t level them as easily past level 5 - which I wasn’t even sure was high or low? If there were 100 levels that was just as much a negative given how much slower the higher levels would take. But if there were only 8 levels max for a skill then maybe that would be amazing. I needed more info to make sense of how screwed I truly was with my traits. Although it seemed my hyperfocus could, at least to an extent, cancel out the slower ability growth but only if I focused for over an hour on one singular skill. And what did 50% easier mean? I had more questions than answers after those unlocks. But I guess I had a full week to figure it out.