The Icy Gamer
Chapter 1:
Gray Fullbuster woke with a start to a high pitch pinging sound. He opened his eyes... and stared. There was a blue floating box above his head with black letters in it. As the eight year old rubbed the sleep from his eyes, he read the sign;
HP and MP have been restored to 100%; you have slept in your own bed.
HP? MP? What did that mean? Gray remembered his parents talking about magic, and he thought his dad used some sort of it, so maybe it was something like that?
His mum knocking at his door startled him out of his jumbled thoughts.
"Gray, I'm making breakfast in the kitchen, get dressed quickly and set the table ok?"
"Sure mum"
As Gray came downstairs, having kind of figured out how to make the glowing blue box disappear (he had flung his hands through it accidentally) another strange thing occurred, involving his mother. There were black words hovering above her head.
Mika Fullbuster
Level 5
…
From her unworried actions, Gray realized that she probably couldn't see the black words above her, and he certainly wasn't telling her, as he was afraid she would think he was crazy (though, in all honesty, he wasn't sure that he wasn't crazy either)
She turned to him, and smiled. "Good morning! After we finish breakfast, I thought we could go meet your father at the barracks, then do some grocery shopping and go to the library afterwards, ok?"
He nodded "Sounds good"
His dad was part of the Town Guard, which was kinda understaffed. The guard was responsible for protecting the town from wolves, bears or other dangerous beasts that wondered their snow- covered land. Silver Fullbuster was one of only two wizards in the town, which made him extremely valuable in the guard, and on call at all times of the year, unfortunately for his family.
Gray and his mum sat down, and the dark haired boy dug in. His mum's cooking was as good as it always was. After the meal, a loud ping suddenly rang in his ear, and he turned.
Skill Created!
Table Manners - Level 1
This ability effects people's opinion of you after they watch you eat, good or bad.
Level 1- Right now, a dog would be better at eating nicely than you.
Gray frowned, kind of insulted at the harsh words (he was only eight!), before realizing that this had never happened before. He had to find out what all of this meant, assuming this was real and he wasn't insane.
Ping!
Quest Alert!
Find out about your new powers!
Rewards-
50 exp
Failure-
Loss of sanity
Accept/Decline
Gray's eyes widened as the quest appeared. He was just thinking that! But what did exp mean? Quickly checking to see if his mum was occupied (she was washing up) he clicked accept. While he might not understand what some of the terms meant, he did understand he needed to know more about this new… power.
Avoiding loss of sanity sounded good as well.
After going to the barracks and seeing his dad,
Silver Fullbuster
Level- 16
his mum dragged him to the grocery store, and he waited outside watching people go past (and their levels- Gray discovered most people in the village had a level between 2-7, depending on their age, which made him wonder about his own level) and eventually he had made a new skill;
Observe- Level 1
By observing a target you will gain information
Level 1- Name and Health
Which he then put to good use, and ended up leveling it so it looked like:
Observe- Level 2
By observing a target you will gain information
Level 2- Name, Health, and Mana
But, despite gaining a skill, Gray was still no closer to figuring out what these powers were and how they worked.
It was starting to frustrate him.
…
Scratch that. It really frustrated him. Gray wasn't exactly known as the most patient person in the world.
As his mum came out of the shops with bags on both arms, he darted over to her and took two. She gave the young boy a small smile " I'm sorry about making you wait outside in the snow, but you know how Jean is. Anyway, we have enough time for a short visit to the library, if you still want to go."
Gray grinned. The library was his favorite place in the village, not because of the books (though he liked reading well enough) but because of the librarian, Nina, who told the best stories, and also happened to be the other mage in the village. She was also his mother's best friend.
"Of course!"
The duo quickly reached the library, aware of the sun getting lower in the sky. They darted inside, brushing off the snow that had settled on them during the short walk. The interior was cosy and warm, and every surface seemed to be covered in books.
Gray's mum frowned, staring at the many books which seemed to be devoid of life "Nina? Gray and I are here to borrow some books, but if your to busy, it's fine-"
"Nonsense!" A small, middle aged woman cried, emerging from the back room and interrupting Mika. She smiled kindly at Gray, and he grinned back, noticing the black words hovering above her and the highest level he'd seen:
Nina Lester
Level 18
Ha. Gray had known she was strong, and used magic because of her stories, but to see proof…
Very cool.
"I will always have time for you guys, you're my closest friends- apart from my books!" Nina said cheerfully.
As Gray laughed, his mum carefully picked a way through the books to her friend, grumbling good naturally. Nina called out to him " Just go into the back room, a new order of books have arrived. Maybe you'll find something good in there."
Gray nodded in thanks, dashing through the piles of books as quickly as he could. Arriving in the back room, he walked over to the new boxes of books, pulling out a book called Beginners guide to cooking. He was about to put it down, when he noticed a golden shine coming off it. Curious, Gray opened the book
You have obtained the skill book Beginners Guide to Cooking!
Learn Yes/No
Not really knowing what else to do, the dark haired boy clicked yes and with a faint pinging sound, suddenly the knowledge of how to cook came into his head.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill Cooking!
Cooking- Level 1
This skill allows you to cook your own food using other ingredients.
Level 1- You have a 5% chance of not messing up your dish. Meaning if you try to cook something for someone to eat, you'll most likely give them food poisoning.
Gray scowled, insulted. He had cooked before. It wasn't 5 star, but it was good enough to not give anyone food poisoning! However, his ire was forgotten as his eyes widened when he realized exactly what had happened. Gray had learned the entire contents of the book with one click!
His eyes darted to the box of new books, and after a quick check to see if the adults were occupied, he got to work.
After looking at the box of new books (most of them, to gray's disappointment turned out to be normal books) and scouring the rest of the library, the eight year old had 5 books that had a golden shine on them, identifying themselves as skill books. One by one, not bothering to read the titles, as he had to sound the words out loud, he opened them, getting the following skills.
Meditation- Level 1
This skill allows you to increase your MP.
Level 1 – Every 2 hours your mana increases by 5 points.
Gardening- Level 1e
This skill allows you to plant and nurture your very own garden
Level 1- You have a 10% chance of not killing everything you plant. Congratulations.
Knife Wielding -Level 1
This skill allows you to wield a knife. Techniques can be added.
Level 1- You have a 5% chance of a critical hit. Have fun trying not to take an eye out.
Pet grooming- Level 1
This skill allows you to groom your own fuzzy friend.
Level 1- You have a 5% chance of it looking ok. Subcategories for different animals can be added. Much pity on your pet.
After doing getting four new, slightly random skills (Gray took note of the fact that MP seemed to mean mana) he picked up the last of the skill books, opening it
You can not learn this skill.
20 wis is needed. Sucker.
Gray frowned, startled. It hadn't said that in any of the other skill books. He turned the book over to see the cover. Manual for Ice-Make magic.
Gray groaned. There were so many questions, and he didn't have any answers!
Putting the shiny golden book aside to borrow for later inspection (hopefully he could find out what wis meant) Gray looked around the room again, this time for book about… well whatever the blue boxes were.
After trying and failing to find answers to what was happening to him, Gray sighed, looking over at his mum and Nina who were still happily chatting about one thing or another. There was no chance he was getting a story about Nina's adventures today.
Glaring uselessly at the ground, Gray thought about the quest he'd taken…
And the failure option.
He couldn't give up!
Looking around at the book covered room to see if he could find anything useful to his plight, Gray saw a white slip of paper poking out of the bookshelf. Tugging it out of its place, Gray squinted at the cursive words on the front. The weren't familiar to him, but his mum (who homeschooled him) always told him to sound out words he didn't know.
"Sat-us. Stat- us. Status."
Before Gray could begin to sound out the next word, a blue box appeared with a ping.
Gray Fullbuster
Level- 3 Exp 160/500
Title- None
Health- 150/150
Mana - 100/100
Str- 5
Vit- 4
Dex-3
Int-7
Wis-4
Luc-2
Points- 0
Jewels-0
Gray Fullbuster is the eight year old child of Mika and Silver Fullbuster. He lives in Isvan, a snow covered country, and wants to get stronger in anyway he can, so he can protect his family.