Skills exist, whether inside or outside games, but what truly matters in the matter of skills is how one hones it, how one continues to train old skills and learn new ones.
- Xenos Skylark
Rays of light dawned upon the land of my home, the Earth, as the sun rose again for yet another day. As a beeping alarm clock rang really loudly, I groaned really awfully as I struggled to turn the damned thing off in my really groggy state. I wasn't one who liked sleeping often, but today was a rather large exception, since it was a Saturday, and I wasn't particularly fond of waking up early on weekends like these. However, I relented as I managed to open my eyes wide enough to walk to the bathroom without falling down.
As I reached my location, I washed my face to wake myself up fully, and I pondered as I muttered to myself, 'Status', and a window opened in front of my face. I stared at it as I tried to understand on what the hell was actually going on.
Name: Xenos Skylark
Class: The Gamer
Level: LV.02
EXP: 42.76%
Effects: -
HP: 250/250
MP: 50/50
STR: 4
DEX: 3
VIT: 4
INT: 8
WIS: 5
LUK: 4
Points: 5
I actually could not understand why that had actually appeared in the first place. It all started yesterday during school when I had woken up rather early. As I dressed myself for a normal day of school, some sort of status window suddenly appeared in front of my face, as if it were to give me a quest.
New Quest Received!
Go to School
- School rules require you to be early.
- Arrive to school before the bell rings.
SUCCESS: 100 XP, Increased Respect
FAILURE: Decreased Respect
Time Limit: 1 hour 30 minutes
I had winked my eyes really oddly, not believing that something like this would be even real at that moment. It seemed fully fantasy, and I really became curious as to what the hell was actually going on at the time, and over the course of class yesterday, I played a few RPG games during my free time, forgetting about it. It only came to me to try and understand what it was when I woke up this morning. Maybe it was because I was like really lazy and had nothing to do or something. Whatever.
I then walked back to my room, felling a little bit more awake now, and as I arrived back in my room, I then muttered to myself, 'Skills', and a different window opened. I tried to understand as I looked at the apparent list of skills I had. Apparently, I was given three ways of viewing my skills, in box format, in a list format, or in the form of a skill tree. I decided to stick with the box format as I noticed the two skills that I had. I clicked on the first one, and read the description.
Gamer's Body (Passive)
LV. MAX (100.00%)
- The gamer's ability to live the world as a game character.
- Sleeping in a bed restores HP and MP, and removes all negative effects.
I stared at it in disbelief. A passive skill? That was curious. Maximum level? Really strange, but not too strange. 'to live the world like a game character'? That would have been really interesting to me, but yesterday proved to me that it wasn't as interesting as I had once thought it to be. I sighed as I decided to check out the second skill I apparently had, which had the icon of a brain, which made me assume this skill had something to do with the mind and stuff.
Gamer's Mind (Passive)
LV. MAX (100.00%)
- Allows the gamer to use his mind in a calm and collective way.
- The gamer can remain calm in any situation.
- The gamer also becomes immune to psychological effects.
What was interesting to me was the fact that this skill was also both a passive skill and at a maxed out level like the Gamer's Body skill that was also in my skill list, which lead me to believe that they were part of a much larger skill set that I wasn't fully aware of. I decided to switch over the format into skill tree mode, and it didn't look too surprising to me. There was one sub-branch that involved the two skills I had saw earlier, apparently known as the Gamer's Self.
I shrugged a little, and I assumed that more skills would come with certain actions I did. I sighed as I sprayed my body with perfume and left the room to head to the canteen. I was one of the students at a boarding school which was a little different from one of the normal ones you'd find in the country. I am studying in one of the boarding school apparently reserved for students who are gifted and talented. I assumed that the reason my INT was quite high was because of my talent in mathematics.
Anyways, as I arrived at the canteen, I lined up in a queue to get breakfast, which was apparently something special for today, American-styled waffle and eggs, something they almost never serve at this sort of school. While I was lining up, in the corner of my eye, I noticed a friend of mine lining up in a different queue. It was my best friend and my sort-of crush, Elise Cyanis, heir to the sponsor who helped make this academy, the Cyanis Corporation. They were well-known throughout the country for their contributions to society, and to be friends with one of them was an honor.
As I gazed at her, making sure we didn't make eye contact, a status window suddenly popped up in front of me, surprising me for two reasons; one being that I had suddenly received a notification, and the other being the fact that nobody else seemed to have seen it.
From observing a certain person, item or enemy for a period of time, you have received a new skill, Observe.
I gasped in shock, making sure nobody saw my change in expression, and I immediately closed the window, silently reminding myself to check on the description of the skill later. As I took my breakfast and found a table, Elise so just happened to notice me, and took a seat directly opposite of me. She then asked me, "So, how was last night?" I looked at her rather oddly, and I then remembered what had happened last night. Since it was the end of the year, the academy organized a prom night.
I remember dancing with Elise that night, happily, and I remember fully confessing to her regarding my crush for her. I suddenly blushed a little and tried to cover it, which apparently worked. I tried to rid myself of those weird feelings, and I nodded. She smiled a little, and told me, "I remember what you told me last night, how you looked last night with your suit and tie, and other things." I looked at her a little shocked, and I smiled back as I continued to eat my breakfast. After a few minutes of eating and talking, we parted ways, heading to our respective dormitories, planning out the day ahead of us.
As I arrived at my room, I went to the bathroom again, this time with a set of new clothes, a towel and my toiletries as I went to take a shower and get ready for the day. Once I was done with my morning bath, I looked at myself in the mirror as I smiled to myself. I was wearing something not too normal for someone like me, a somewhat resilient grey striped shirt I had custom ordered from a website the other day, and some normal jeans to top it off. I then remembered what I wanted to do, and I took a seat by my bed.
I then muttered to myself once again, 'Skills', and the skills window opened once again. I then switched over to box format as I pressed the third and new skill that I had suddenly gained. Apparently, it was a simple, yet really interesting one.
Observe (Active / Passive)
LV.01 (48.59%)
- The gamer's ability to gain information through observing the world around him.
- Allows you to know the HP, MP and level of the target.
Woah, that seems to be really overpowered. An active and passive skill? That's something I have never really seen before, for it has never been something I have seen in RPG games before. Another thing that made it interesting was that it let me apparently gain information from my surroundings. I decided to use this new skill I had learned on a bottle of water I had held on me.
I then looked at the bottle of water as I muttered to myself, 'Observe', and a few seconds later, a status window appeared in front of me.
Bottle of Water
- A bottle of plain water for all of your hydration needs.
- Heals 10 HP and eliminates the Dehydrated status; will heal more HP the more it is used.
I was surprised for the fact that something as simple as this could do something quite apparently big, both being a HP healer and a status remover. What surprised me was the last phrase, that made me wonder a little on how healing items in the game I played actually worked. Apparently, the more you used a certain healing item, the more HP it would heal, or was it only for this particular item? I then looked at my water bottle supply, which amounted to a bit more than 50 bottles. I cheered on the inside as I sighed in relief that I had a lot of healing items on hand.
I then remembered something I had really forgotten to do, and face-palmed as I muttered to myself, 'Inventory', as another window opened up in front of me. I then decided to try if it could actually contain items, and I took the water bottle I had Observed on earlier, and I tried to put it into one of the boxes in the inventory. All of a sudden, it faded into the window, and it appeared as one of the items in the inventory, making me gasp in shock. I cheered inside a little bit more.
I then remembered about something in my status window, and I muttered to myself yet again, 'Status', as the status window opened. I then noticed the fact that I had leveled up to Level 2, and that I had 5 points spare to upgrade my stats. I held the urge to recklessly add all of the points into my STR, and I decided to think a little bit differently, and a bit more towards the future. I remembered that INT would have meant Intelligence and STR would have meant Strength, so I figured that Strength wouldn't do too much without any weapon.
I decided to do a 1/2/2 spread of Dexterity, Vitality and Intelligence, to get all three stats up to multiples of 5, and it was convenient enough. As I closed the status window after noticing a HP and MP increase, I suddenly noticed an odd item on my table, something I've never seen or taken into my room before. As I walked towards it, I decided to wait a few minutes before touching it, and I decided to use Observe on every item in my room to see if there were any other consumable items in the room that I could use.
Ten minutes later, my inventory was filled with bottles of water and pieces if bread that served a dual-purpose as healing items, and the skill. Now somewhat prepared, I walked towards the odd item on the table and I tried Observing it, to no avail. Somehow, even with my Observe skill at Level 4, it was of no use. I decided to test my luck, and as I touched it, I was suddenly sucked into it, and I suddenly found myself in a rather dark alleyway. Ugh, dark alleyways, how I hated them.
Name: Xenos Skylark
Class: The Gamer
Level: LV.02
EXP: 42.76%
Effects: -
HP: 300/300
MP: 75/75
STR: 4
DEX: 5
VIT: 5
INT: 10 + 0.4 (4%) = 10.4
WIS: 5 + 0.2 (4%) = 5.2
LUK: 4
Points: 0
Skills:
Gamer's Body LV. MAX (100.00%)
Gamer's Mind LV. MAX (100.00%)
Observe LV.04 (23.34%)
Inventory:
Bottle of Water x 50
Piece of Bread x 10
Observe reality, and try to understand it.
