It takes me maybe a minute or two before I open my eyes again, and start looking around. It appears I'm in a room; a large window is responsible for the light, and I was standing inside some sort of pod?
The floor looks metallic, like steel or silver ? Very clean, very clinic; under the windows is a long metallic table. Next to a wall is a sort of cabinet.
I take a look at the window; I'm apparently at ground level, with a rocky clearing. And it appears there is trees on the right of the building I'm in, and more trees a bit farther. I don't see skyscraper or other building from down there. Maybe a cabin in the woods? Or I was born in a tree people city? Or the city is on the other side of the building I'm in?
Oh, and there is a door, that probably doesn't go outside if the outside is by the window…
No mirror, but from touching around, I'm human; my ears are rounds, my hair go to the middle of my back, two of each thing, except for the nose. I have a lot of muscles everywhere, which I never had, so cool. And yeah, I'm a girl, nice. And all my scars are gone too; it makes sense if it's a new body, but I can only appreciate the situation. I'm wearing some sort of light synthetic clothing, like an hospital gown but with pants, and no shoes.
- OK that's weird
"What, who, how! Wait, Toriel ? " Hearing a voice inside my head is so weird; I technically did while I was dead, but alive well, strange.
- Yeah, I'm a companion AI now, and it's weird. I should have access to my own interface if I were a companion, or you should have something in yours, I can see your interface, by the way, but still only talkative thoughts.
"The system did say I needed a class to have a companion, so maybe it's because of that? And while nobody is around, I think I prefer to talk out loud. And what is an interface? Like a video game? "
- In the same way you talk to me in your head, when you want to, you can will your interface to appear. And talking out loud all the time will get you in trouble at a moment or another.
"Oh, sweet, I can see it! Same thing I had before waking up except for the {willful} and [rule-breaker] thing, I think the system must be susceptible…"
- And yeah, a lot of classes allow you to have some form or another of companion, and yours is definitely not it. Maybe later.
I'm inspecting what can only be described as a power outlet, "Didn't you say that it was a medieval world ? That room looks a lot futuristic."
- Don't know what to say, my job is to know about the System and explain it to you, not to explain the world and the places you end up in.
"I guess … I'm going to open that door now, and hope that I will find someone to explain to me where I am and find out where I can go from there."
I am a bit nervous, want to make a good impression, didn't have a lot of friends in my last life, this time it will be different !
As I touch the handle, my hand feels immediately stuck as I get an instant migraine.
Mental connection attempt
Trait check : Digitize mind detected
Master Node of the Network is attempting to take control of your mind
Will contest to resist mind control : Your will : 14 vs Master Node of the Network : 115
Failed Will contest, you are under mind control.
Receive instruction from the network, overriding goals and personality
Missing trait {Part of the network}, overriding impossible.
Receive self-delete instructions from the network
Missing trait {Part of the network}, overriding impossible.
I got a feeling of surprise, and the migraine recessed a little as the hold on my brain released itself for a moment. I immediately jump back and manage to remove my hand from the handle.
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"Holy shit, what was that. What do they mean, self-delete!?"
- Oh shit, I think robot cores are being controlled by that Master node thing ? If you didn't choose your traits you would probably have the {part of the network} and that thing will have taken you over completely, and we almost took it before going for connect, you got lucky.
"Yeah lucky, I thought I was immune to mind attack, let me check my status."
- There, look, you are immune to effects that target your mind but not your soul, and since they connected to you using your digitized mind, which is now part of your soul, it was a direct soul connection.
"Oh incredible. I added a backdoor to my soul to get killed by the robot leader. Do you think the node is in the building? Should I run? Where to? It was the only door, and I don't really want to see if she can find a way to go around the error. "
- You can always go through the window
"It's a big ass window, and I don't really want to break something or cut myself; we are not in a movie, Toriel"
- Do I need to remind you that you have increased attributes, and if you don't want to take risks, you have an ability to give you temporary strength.
"Oh, OK, how do I activate it?"
I open my interface and look intensely at my
And I can feel my a bit of interface that seems just outside my vision, I focus a little, and I can see the notification.
"Wait, why is my magic point regeneration negative ? I only reduce by 100% ? "
-
"I can go below zeros ???"
I focus, and I feel the tingling, my mana, I guess, go to my muscle, and when I push more, I feel it flow from my core, faster and faster, my senses become better, I feel my muscles budges, and I'm feeling amazing !
And then it all stops; I'm feeling like I'm back in my hospital bed with all the medicine giving me nausea, and it's only luck I don't empty my stomach on the ground. Or the fact I didn't eat yet ?
"So I can reduce by as much as I want, but no more magic points and I feel like dying, and I need something like 11 minutes to get back to full, not optimal."
- I think you are going to need to get used to it, especially since your abilities are percent based, and unless you get some abilities or skills, your max magic point and mp regeneration will scale together, so always 11 minutes to get back to full.
"Yeah, well it sucks, and I'm gonna find a way to have more mana and last longer and stronger. I'm just going to sit a little bit here, hope nobody comes to kill me, and then destroy that window !"
- That sounds like a good plan.
"OK, take two. If I only reduce my mp regen by 90, I can maintain the boost for, like, forever, no? "
- Yeah, I guess
OK, I'm ready. Definitely ready, just need to believe in my new-found magical abilities, and jump through glass.
- Whenever you want
"aaaaaah"
I didn't expect the glass to be in my face so fast. Holy shit, holy shit I'm fast, the glass broke around me, I feel some shard try, and fail to pierce my skin, so I guess high Constitution makes you a little bit harder?
"Oh shit that hurt."
That shard did manage, 8 constitution is not enough to totally be immune to cut, I guess. Oh! that hurt a lot, and yeah, it's a big shard of glass the size of my hand directly inside my belly.
Oh, that's a lot of blood too, and good news, it's still red.
"Well, that was fun while it last, thank you Toriel for your advice, and I want you to know that"
- Dumbass, you got a regeneration trait just for that if you need a reminder.
"Oh"
For my defense, I had a very weird and packed last fifteen minutes, and magic is very much new to me. I just have time to throw the shard away than the wound has already disappeared.
"OK, now I'm almost sad it's gone so fast. I was looking forward to seeing what
Achievement: You faced an enemy more than 5 times your level, and survived. Exp awarded
Your soul warrior class level increases.
Your soul warrior class level increases.
-How will the system balance traits if User can get new one and their descendant inherited them ? After something like two generations their natural advantage will make them so much more powerful than the natural species ?
- Yeah, that was a point that we worked on a lot, the system will add debuffs on new born while they are ahead of the curve. Depending on the specie, the debuff will vary. The same for the same specie, but different from advanced specie to another.
- Do you have some examples of theses kind of debuff?
- Of course, the first lever is to add a negative System debt, they are starting with a leg up, so it's only fair that they don't get as much attention from the system. Another lever is the reproduction capabilities: slow grows, high cost to create descendant, difficulty to create new life. That lever is more about limiting the potential of the specie to replace the rest of the native population, as they may have powerful individual power, but low number.
- I understand, thanks for your answers.
Press conference
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