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'Ugh… what-?' "Ah!"
My eyelids snapped shut after opening a tiny crack, nearly suffering what I'd think would be permanent damage from the sun's oppressive glare. My hand was lifted up to block the harmful rays, and my eyes hesitantly slid back open.
'Lousy god damn stupid ball of fuckin' space gas…' I made to sit up, various joints in my body protesting as I did so. "Blegh. The hell's with the stiff-… ness…?" I trailed off when I realized I wasn't in my bed. Instead, cold grass with the feeling of underlying damp earth below it was what greeted my lowered arm and pierced through my pants.
The few working cells that survived being knocked out by the revelation had to whack the backup generator of my brain a few times to force a reboot before I could even have a chance of processing everything. Luckily, it didn't take as long as last time to return to functionality.
"...it really wasn't a dream, huh…"
Looking around, I was greeted with a ring of trees. I deduced that I had woken up in a clearing, surrounded by forest on all sides. "...shit."
I wasn't allowed to focus on the feeling for long, though. The center of my vision was suddenly occupied by a line, which expanded into a window.
[MAIN QUEST ALERT!]
It shrunk and moved off to the top left, allowing a bigger window to fade in.
[Brave New World]
You've woken up in a clearing, in an unknown forest on an entirely new planet. It would be prudent to get your bearings.
Objective(s):
-Find signs of civilization.
Reward(s):
-100 EXP
Cannot be refused.
The majority of the window fizzled out, with only the name of the quest and solitary objective moving to the left edge of my vision. Above it, what I quickly deduced to be a minimap warped in, a purple arrow outlined in red taking center stage surrounded by inky black rimmed by a circle edge. Complementing it was a compass, sliding into the top of my sight. In the lower left, a red bar labeled 'HP' filled up, a numerical representation appearing beside it. Finally, a gray bar rose up into my vision at the bottom center, '0 / 100' appearing next to it. 'That's EXP,' I concluded.
With my goal set, I began wandering westward with the help of the handy-dandy compass, continuing to push off the inevitable mental breakdown.
For the most part, the journey was… quiet. Almost to an unsettling degree. I picked up on just enough distant animal noises to avoid feeling like something was overtly wrong, but I still felt uncomfortable from just how little there were. Why wasn't there anything close by? This forest was already feeling huge, and it had to be lived in by more than just a few critters. So where were they all?
'There's definitely something off about this whole thing…'
My thoughts were once again interrupted upon arriving at a small pond. And when I mean small, I mean pretty tiny. I was pretty close to calling it a large puddle, but hesitated when I saw the small aquatic bugs and such swimming around and doing their things.
I decided to take a bit of a rest, and gaze at the body of water for a time. While my mind was on the subject of water, it wandered off, leading to me discover that I hadn't yet felt the tell-tale itching in my throat telling me to drink some fluids and hydrate myself, despite everything pointing to the idea that it should be happening right now. And on the subject of drinks, my stomach hadn't started complaining yet, which raised a huge yellow flag in my head. Come to think of it, I also wasn't feeling tired whatsoever.
'Okay, that's a huge "hold up" right there. What in-… wait a second…'
For the third time that day, my thoughts were interrupted by outside stimuli. In this case, it was my eyes catching sight of an object that normally wouldn't have any business being where it was. From my current spot, thanks to the way water interacted with light, it came out looking like a blob of brown, but its color was markedly different from the ground around it and had a very distinct shape.
'Is that…?' I leaned over, trying to touch as little of the liquid as I could while reaching out to grab the foreign object. All things considered, I was successful, with only part of my arm getting wet. Grabbing the object, I discovered that it was quite heavy, but managed to pull it out and onto the grass, sending ripples throughout the pond and disturbing the natural order of things for the bugs.
Now that my task was complete, I hefted the thing up to reveal the fruits of my labors, backing away from the water a few steps in the process.
'Yep, a sword. Had a feeling.'
[Weapon "Rusted Short Sword" received.]
It wasn't a very large piece. If I had to guess, the sharp bit was maybe a little longer than a foot and a half, around the length of my arm, and about as wide too. Like a standard medieval blade, it was double-edged. However, it had definitely seen better days, being pock-marked with rust, yet surprisingly not as much as I would have expected there to be for something that was clearly quite ancient. I figured that maybe being submerged had something to do with it as I swapped it to my other hand to flick my right dry before another window popped up.
[Skill "Observe" received.]
[Rusted Short Sword]
Mt: 6
Wt: 5
Rank: E-
An old blade found lying in a pond. Likely not very durable, but still sharp and has some cutting power left in it.
I elected to save the skill notification for later and instead focus on the weapon stats. Raising my free hand, I experimentally poked them, surprisingly succeeding at getting them to reveal their secrets.
[Mt: 6 - Might. The weapon's base power. Added to your strength to determine your total base attack damage.]
[Wt: 5 - Weight. How heavy the weapon is. If this number is higher than your strength stat, your agility will be lowered by the difference between the weight and your strength.]
[Rank: E- - The required weapon rank needed to wield the weapon properly. If you have a lower weapon rank than the requirement, your damage output and accuracy will suffer heavily, and your weapon skills will be weakened.]
'Weapon rank, eh? Suppose I'll get a tutorial on that when the time comes.' Now sufficiently knowledgeable about weapon stats, I turned my attention to the skill.
[Observe (Active), Level MAX]
Displays relevant information about an object or sentient being.
Unfortunately vague, but I supposed it would have its uses. I mean, given how I'd seen it used in several other works of fiction with this same premise, I imagined it would be worth its weight in gold.
I was yet again broken out of my thoughts when the outside world decided to intrude on me once more. Normally, I would have been fed up with this happening so many times, but I found myself hard-pressed to be angry when I heard an inhuman growling noise emanating from behind me. I slowly turned around in response, raising the well-used sword to a ready position as I did so.
The baleful red eyes were the first thing I saw. Next was its matte-black, unmistakable canine head. The rest of its body then came into view, colored the same as its head. It appeared to be some unholy fusion of beast and man, like a kind of demonized werewolf. The fact that it only came up to my chest didn't dampen the fear factor at all.
It also looked very familiar.
'Red eyes, black fur… red eyes, black fur…' My eyes widened. 'Oh, shit.'
I fired off an Observe to clear up any doubt, and was met with this.
[Stray Beowolf Pup]
Level: 2
HP: 150
VIT: 15
STR: 13
DEX: 12
AGI: 14
Condition: Healthy
If I wasn't occupied with bigger things to worry about, I would've wondered why it was missing half of the stat labels that I had.
The Beowolf continued its approach as my mind tried its best to deal with what this new information entailed.
'Don't freeze don't freeze don't freeze don't freeze DON'T YOU DARE FUCKING FREEZE, DAMN IT!'
Strangely enough, I never felt my face twist up into an expression of muted terror. All that it bore was a blank mask of complete neutrality. Besides the furrowed eyebrows, that is.
All of a sudden, when the monster got close enough, it quickly raised one of its paws. I was just fast enough to recognize what it was about to do in order to dive to the side before it leapt forward, completely avoiding injury and causing the thing to splash down into the pond.
I took no notice of the background music that started playing right then. If I had, I would've made a crack about a copyright lawsuit.
[Track Cue: Duel (Tear Ring Saga)]
I hit the ground with a grunt, quickly scrambling to return to a standing position and face the Beowolf, gripping my weapon with both hands and angling it forward.
I saw the red-eyed terror slowly rise to its feet, twisting its head to glare at me as its designation, level, and HP bar appeared over it. Then, a blur filter was applied to my vision, causing the world to seemingly come to a stop, and two white swords zoomed in from the top left and right to cross in the middle with a visual flair. A new window expanded into view.
[COMBAT TUTORIAL]
It moved upward, allowing instructions to appear.
[Time to fight!]
Moving an enemy into your weapon's range will allow you to perform basic attack combos. They will have no special effects unless stated otherwise by either your equipment or your skills.
Enemies will also attack you when you enter their range. Watch carefully for their tells and either dodge to avoid taking damage, or use your weapon to block the attack and drastically reduce the damage you take.
The tutorial disappeared when I finished reading, and time started back up.
[ACTIVATING COMBAT MODE]
My waterlogged foe crouched down again, and a notification appeared above it.
{Predator Lunge}
I once again jumped to the side and let it fly past when it hurled itself at me, creating a mini-geyser and likely permanently damaging the pond. Only this time, I landed on my feet and rushed the thing while it was recovering, delivering three simple, newbie-level slashes with the rusty sword.
Each slash caused a white, slightly transparent '15' outlined in black to float up off the point of impact, as well as lowering the monster's health bar by exactly 10%.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to react fast enough to its retaliatory attack, and suffered a savage swipe across the chest.
CRITICAL!
A red '10' was knocked off my own health bar. Failing to deal with the pain opened me up for three more attacks, suffering another critical hit in the process, before it leaned back and raised both of its claws, causing another notification to appear.
{Feral Scissor}
It struck, the sharp bits of its paws glowing red, leaving a crosshatch pattern of crimson trails in their wake. Thankfully, I was able to power through the burning feeling from the wounds and raised my blade in time to guard against the double swipe, making sparks fly and reducing the damage to a paltry '1.' It also knocked me back a fair few steps, however.
This did let me and my opponent catch our breath, though. Or whatever passed for that for the Beowolf, at least. It just looked to be doing a whole lot of salivating. I think? I really couldn't tell if it was drooling or not.
Weirdly enough, the white-hot pain was gone now. But I was drawn in once again by the system.
[(Sword) weapon rank increased to E.]
[Weapon skill "Powerslash" received.]
The world stopped again as another info window faded in.
[WEAPON SKILLS]
Increasing your weapon rank with a weapon type will grant you weapon skills that can only be used with that specific weapon type. These can be triggered at any time, but are often best used at the end of a standard combo to ensure they land, and will often offer bonuses to encourage this kind of usage.
For example: Powerslash, the skill you just received, adds an extra .1 to the strength multiplier it uses when calculating damage dealt if it is used after a standard combo.
Like all of its kind before it, the window disappeared once I had finished reading. The rank notice also disappeared, but the skill notice instead condensed itself into a glowing little ball. The light faded away to reveal a red marking of a sword being swung, complete with fade trail. A stylized, detailed circle appeared in the bottom right of my vision. The skill indicator traveled down to the circle, then locked itself in at the top-left, giving the entire thing a transparent red filling. The marker flashed twice, then returned to normal.
Thus, time flowed once more.
That was the Beowolf's cue to snarl and charge forward. I quickly sidestepped to the right when it raised its left claw before it struck, once again avoiding damage, and used the opportunity to counter.
Three more slashes impacted the foul beast before I gave the command to use the skill.
[Powerslash]
The rusted sword became coated in a bright red glow, fading to a purple gradient at the edges that trailed behind the weapon's path. My body executed a full 360-degree spin on its own before bringing my blade down on the creature that was still suffering from hit-stun, the sheer force behind the attack sending it stumbling backward. A white '19' wafted upward, bringing its HP down to 41, and the skill indicator inside the circle on my lower right darkened and turned gray, beginning what I assumed to be a cooldown process.
'Okay, perfect! Three more hits and he's down!'
The dark creature also let out a pained howl of anger, clutching at the right side of its face as it retreated. I reasoned that I must've put one of its eyes out with that last assault.
Luckily, I refrained from making a comment about this thing seeming easier than I thought, because it would make what happened next all the more embarrassing.
I advanced on the unbalanced Beowolf, hoping to end this quickly without further injury. That proved to be a mistake, as the time I took to move in allowed it to recover and prepare.
[Track Cue: Endless Battle (Tear Ring Saga)]
{Predator Lunge}
I registered the notification too late and failed to bring my sword up in time. Consequently, the monster caught me in its leap, carrying me with it through the air and slamming me back-first into the grass. The landing stunned me, leaving me helpless against what it did next. And boy, did it go all-out. The rage must have been building up inside it, if that was even possible for this kind of creature, because it started ripping and tearing away at my chest with no signs of stopping until I was done for.
It got off six attacks before I managed to push through the pain and swing my sword at it. But to my horror, it lifted a claw up and caught the blade, effectively no-selling the attack as a tiny, pathetic '1' hopped out. If I didn't know better, I'd say it let out a single chuckle when it yanked the sword out of my hand, sending it flying away to stab itself into the ground.
With the pointy stick gone, it continued wailing away as I fruitlessly tried to stop it. Six more hits chipped away at my health bar, eventually leaving it with…
[DANGER! HEALTH CRITICAL!]
HP: 1 / 100
Red crept into the peripheral edges of my vision, and it seemed like everything was becoming less and less saturated, turning the surrounding forest grayer by the second. I was practically at my limit, and the creature on top of me could have ended everything right then and there if it had just elected to perform another standard swipe.
But the wolf wasn't satisfied with just slitting my throat with one paw and being done with it. No, it wanted to make this feel special for all that I'd done to it. Eye for an eye, right? So it leaned back and prepared to finish me off with style, with what I could've sworn to be a cruel smirk appearing on its maw at the thought.
{Feral Scissor}
An angry red glare shone from the tips of its claws. A moment later, it swung them down… only for my hands to catch both of them at the wrists, the light trails coming to an abrupt halt.
'NOPE!' I threw every single point of strength I had into holding it back, and for a while, I managed to stop its advance. But then it started growling again, and began fully utilizing its own strength, slowly forcing its little daggers closer and closer to my skin.
My thoughts went into overdrive as death inched further by the second. 'Fuck, fuck, FUCK! I can't die in the god damn tutorial! How the hell do I win this?! My arms can't hold it back…'
And there was my answer. 'Wait. My arms can't, but…' I briefly flicked my eyes towards my lower body before going back to the black terror.
'...one shot. Do or die.'
I then tilted my head up, directing my vision again towards my lower body, adding a "what the-" for good measure.
And in a miraculous stroke of luck, the damn thing fell for it, looking towards the exact same spot. In the process, it lost a tiny bit of push in our ongoing battle.
That was when I struck. My right knee came up, nailing the fucker right at the spot where his legs extended from his torso. A pale '9' signaled the beginning of its end, as I suddenly had a lot less force bearing down on my arms. I capitalized as hard as I could on its moment of weakness, switching angles and pulling its claws down to the ground beside my head. It almost felt like the world slowed down as I crouched my legs up below the abomination, wringing out every last bit of power from my core muscles, and delivered what would likely be best described as an upside-down mule kick directly into its face, letting go of its wrists as I did so.
Regrettably, it wasn't enough to send it flying, but what it did do was get it off me. And that gave me the opportunity to scrabble to my feet and deliver an unbelievably satisfying-sounding straight punch to the jaw, at last knocking it down and sending it tumbling to the floor, as well as reducing its own HP to 4.
I bolted for where my sword had fallen, ripping it out of the ground in a flash and turning back around to charge the nearly-dead bastard. It was still getting up, about halfway through the process of putting its feet back under it.
As you can imagine, I had no intention of simply letting that happen.
With a roar of my own, I sprinted towards the Beowolf, sword at my side held in both hands and pointing right at it. The sound attracted its attention, and its head turned towards me, eyes widening as it realized what was about to happen.
"HAAAAAAAAAAH!"
I thrust forward, and the sword pierced the wolf's skull.
CRITICAL!
[Track Cut]
For a moment, it felt like the only things that existed in the world were me, my enemy, and the blade impaled through its head.
Then a tiny part of the fur on its head flaked off its skin, lazily rising upward and growing smaller and smaller before it shrunk out of existence.
More bits of the creature of darkness slowly began losing cohesion and floating off to disappear on the wind.
I lifted my foot up to its still-intact chest and used it as leverage to tear the old weapon out, kicking the monster off and leaving it to collapse to the ground in a heap. It subsequently started rapidly degrading into so many black specks that blew away in a sudden gust of wind, discorporating completely after another moment.
I stood silently for a few seconds, then breathed out air I didn't know I'd been holding in and fell to my hands and knees, panting heavily from what felt like exhaustion but in reality was probably just the mental aftereffects of adrenaline.
Finally, in congratulations, I became swarmed with notifications, and a fanfare started up out of nowhere.
[Track Cue: Victory! Cloud (Super Smash Bros. Ultimate)]
[YOU WON!]
Battle Rewards:
100 EXP
10 Lien
Beowolf Fur x1
["Stray Beowolf Pup" added to Bestiary.]
[(Unarmed) weapon rank increased to E.]
[Weapon skill "Heavy Cross" received.]
The EXP label flew down to the bar at the bottom of my vision, filling it up completely. It flashed once, then turned gray again, causing more windows to pop up. The money, on the other hand, dropped into a counter that appeared above the bar, ticking it up to 10 before it faded out.
[LEVEL UP!]
[You are now level 2!]
[Skill "Imbue" received.]
I blankly stared at the storm of windows for a moment, before leaning back and hitting the ground spine-first.
[Track Cut]
'...fuckin' hell, I almost died.'
I took a look at my HP bar, which was now back to full and sporting '150 / 150' next to it.
'Huh, must've been refilled by the level-up. That could be exploitable… or not.'
I was silent for a while longer, before the absence of danger allowed my mind to start coming to terms with what I now knew.
"...Remnant," I muttered. "Christ, I'm a fuckin' dumbass. How did I not figure that out before?"
A thought called up my status window.
[Personal Information]
Name: Zeiss Serven
Title: Newbie
Class: Drifter
Level: 2
~Status~
HP: 150 / 150
VIT: 15 (+5)
STR: 14 (+5)
WIL: 11 (+4)
DEX: 14 (+5)
AGI: 14 (+5)
RES: 11 (+3)
LUK: 11 (+4)
CHR: 8 (+3)
Unspent points: 5
Condition: Healthy
My eyes went up to the top right, where the money counter was, complete with currency symbol. "Yup. Base shape of an L, too. Holy hell, I'm blinder than a damn bat. And here I was, thinking I was great at spotting interface spoilers."
I went back to staring at the sky, populated by the occasional cloud here and there. A hand came up to rest over my eyes with a groan. "Why did it have to be this one, of all shows…?"
I laid there for a while, contemplating the reality of my situation and cooling down from the rush I'd just gone through.
"Well, thank god it was just a pup." I wiped some nonexistent sweat off my brow. "Would've gotten fuckin' destroyed if it was an adult."
Five seconds later… "I just set myself up for a boss fight, didn't I?" Sighing, I dragged my hand down my face. "Great. Perfect. Wonderful. Thanks, Murphy."
I sat up, finally paying attention to all the notifications. The weapon skill did the same gig as the last one, turning into an orb, this one sporting an icon of a red fist seen from the side, pointed left, with impact decals flying off the knuckles. It dropped down to the circle and sat itself next to the Powerslash icon. Imbue's icon, on the other hand, was instead a pale green heart, and traveled past the other two skills, landing on the exact opposite side of the circle. This ended up splitting it in half, with one side sticking with the offensive skills' signature red, while the new side was instead given a transparent green hue.
The bestiary notification, on the other hand, just decided to close up without any added fanfare. To this, I shrugged. 'Meh. Enemy codex isn't much of a priority right now, anyway. I'll check it later.'
Eventually, I put my feet under me and stood up. "Where the hell even am I, though?" All I'd encountered so far was just forest, trees, and more forest. Not very iconic, but… "Hm. Emerald Forest, maybe? I hope not. I don't do free climbing." I began trekking once again, making my way through a whole lot of green. "Maybe… Mistral, or something? That'd be even worse."
I ended up covering quite a bit of ground while I was wandering - enough that I began to hear a noise that rang the bells of home in my mind.
'Hold it…' I stopped, going silent and focusing on the sound. 'Is that… the ocean?'
Being raised on the shores of California had ingrained the distinct indicator of waves crashing on the shore into my brain at a young age. Every time I had visited the beach, I'd heard that sound, eventually getting so used to it that I usually started filtering it out as white noise after a few minutes of listening to it. But nonetheless, it was a sound I doubted I'd ever forget.
It became clearer the further I walked. 'Yeah, no doubt about it. That's the salty sea I'm hearing.' A thought popped into my brain. 'Wait, but that means…' I picked up the pace, jogging at an accelerated rate towards the source of the noise. Soon enough, I broke through the tree line at last.
I was met with a cliff, stretching off to both the left and the right and curving backwards on both sides, below which was nothing but water. I hopped up to the edge and looked out over the horizon, staring at the endless expanse of dark blue.
I let out a fond sigh after a while. 'Heh. Guess some things never change, do they?'
Having thoroughly enjoyed the moment, I looked to the right, spotting nothing of interest, and then to the left, where something did catch my attention. A tiny peninsula, barely large enough to be worthy of the title. In the middle of it sat a decently-sized, blocky gray object that was indiscernible at this distance.
My subconscious began connecting the dots while leaving my waking mind to figure out the puzzle on its own. 'That…' "I've seen that before. Right?" 'Yeah.'
I half-ran towards the construct, extremely curious as to what would elicit such a reaction. I powered down to a walk when I reached the peninsula, as I began to realize what exactly this particular object was when it became sharper to the eye. I didn't even need to get up close to figure out what it was now.
'A gravestone. On a peninsula, overlooking the ocean…' I had definitely seen this before. My brain was poring over the information it had and cross-referencing it with what it knew of the world of Remnant, but it was sadly slow going. In the end, though, it did manage to find an exact match.
Right when I hit the distance that allowed me to decipher the engraving on the stone.
SUMMER ROSE
Thus kindly I scatter
I stood there dumbfounded for a hot minute, then backed away a step and looked again at the sea. I twisted around, gazing back at the forest as the objective marker at the side of my view shone, the description's font turning bright green and a check-mark appearing next to it, before it slid up into the quest name above it. The name marker then moved front and center while expanding to make sure it held my attention. Another window wiped itself into view over it, before sliding up to sit on top of it.
[MAIN QUEST COMPLETE!]
[Brave New World]
Rewards Received:
100 EXP
The experience dropped down to the bar at the bottom of my vision, filling it halfway before my vocal cords started working again.
"...Patch," I muttered, almost in disbelief. "I landed on fucking Patch."
I contemplated this new information for a bit, pondering what I could do with it, as well as what it meant for my near future. While I considered my options, I rotated around, and caught sight of the tomb again, turning my thoughts toward it with a pensive frown.
'Should… should I say anything?'
I hesitantly approached it, unsure of what exactly I wanted to do. "Uh…" I lifted my hand up at a snail's pace, stopping before it touched the stone. Scanning my surroundings and finding nobody else present, I let it rest on the cold marker.
"Ah…" I wasn't sure where to start, so I just decided to say whatever came to mind first with a sigh. "Look. I won't pretend that I really knew you. Or that I liked you, or… even cared about you." I cringed at the detached tone, but I supposed that was to be expected whenever I was being completely honest. "But… even then, I can't help but say that… I'm sorry this happened to you." My eyes averted themselves from the gray block. "I… can't say whether or not you deserved it. For all I know, maybe you did do something to warrant this." Something approaching a smile appeared on my face. "I have a feeling you didn't, though. You never struck me as being that kinda person."
I gazed up at the horizon, dark blue meeting light blue in a visible curve. A self-deprecating laugh left my throat. "...I know, I know, I suck at this. But… at least let me say this." The rose emblem emblazoned on the stone became the center of my attention. "Your kids... they're gonna do great things. That's one thing I know for sure. So…" I gave it a thumbs-up. "You can go ahead and rest easy. They've got this. They might trip, stumble, or even fall along the way, but… no matter what happens, they'll see it through to the end. They wouldn't be your daughters if they didn't."
The hand on the stone gave it a few pats as a full-on grin stretched my lips. "You hear me? They're gonna be okay." I capped it off with a wink. "I'll make sure of it."
My impromptu speech concluded, I returned my hand to my side. I won't say that any of that cliché beyond-the-grave wind or phantom touch or anything happened, but going out of my way to address and reassure the dearly departed woman when I had no real reason or motive to do so felt… nice, in a sense.
I turned around, facing the forest once again. Scrutinizing the treeline, I caught sight of what almost looked like a pathway. Sure, on the surface it just seemed to be two sets of trees that were farther apart from each other than the rest, but hey, it was something. And that was better than nothing.
The system decided to encourage my choice.
[MAIN QUEST ALERT!]
[Grimm Island]
Using the Beowolf and Summer's grave as references, you've concluded that you're on the island of Patch, in the world of Remnant. But you're not out of the woods yet. Before you can truly rest, you'll have to get to a safe zone.
Objective(s):
-Find and reach a place that the Grimm don't enter.
Reward(s):
-150 EXP
-100 Lien
Cannot be refused.
I puffed out a breath with my eyes closed, then flicked them open. "Alright." My silhouette grew in height slightly as I straightened up. 'I'll have to go back in. Hopefully I'll find someone that can help before one of the bigger ones finds me.'
The quest window minimized itself when I started forward.
"Here we go."
Save your game?
Please wait…
Game saved.
A/N: What's this? Grimm that are actually a real threat, and not just fodder? Heresy, I know.
So, yeah. The combat system, instead of just blatantly being a pure Xenoblade rip, is now more of a mix between it and a standard Square Enix-brand action RPG, e.g. FF7R. Talent arts are gone from the start this time (or are they?), instead of being there at the beginning and forgotten about after Zeiss leaves Patch. Weapon ranks are also now represented by letter grades instead of numerical skill levels. I've also removed most of the magic attacks from Zeiss's early skill gains, though I did keep Imbue on him just for that tiny bit of self-sufficiency healing. Of course, it's pretty crappy at the moment thanks to his low willpower stat, but at least he's not totally SOL on solo mid-battle healing. At least until he starts rolling in potions, anyway.
Music cues are still there, because that's something I still like about this story. Finding the perfect track to accompany a scene just satisfies me somethin' fierce. Of course, you don't have to do it if you don't feel like it. On a similar note, I find it somewhat sad that FFnet still hates links with a burning passion.
We also get a scene that wasn't in the original - a visit to Summer's grave. I thought it would be a good catalyst for the reveal that he's starting out on Patch. The little speech was a spur-of-the-moment decision, but I like how it turned out. I don't mean to toot my own horn or anything, but I think it gives a neat, small insight as to who Zeiss is as a person. Or, if nothing else, at least you know how he treats dead super-moms with protagonist kids that he's never met now.
(Oh, and before I forget: also unlike the original, do not expect updates to come this fast. I haven't even started on the next chapter as of now, and I was already done with this one when I posted the prologue.)
Anyway, that looks like everything. The next chapter should focus on a brief overview of the rest of the system's currently-known functions as described by Zeiss, covering everything we've seen so far and a few that have gone unmentioned. But before I go, I'd like to give you all a little something.
Outtake: License to Vibe
Zeiss charges the Beowolf, gripping his sword in both hands and leveling it at his side towards the enemy. Two words leave his mouth.
"VIIIIBE CHEEECK!"
The flat of the blade collides with the side of the monster's head, snapping it in the opposite direction and sending the body tumbling to the floor. Despite themselves, a few members of the camera crew start trying to hold in laughs.
A pained groan emanates from the wolf on the floor as its paw comes up to rub the point of impact. "Agghhh… damn it, Zeiss! That fucking hurts!"
The boy in question begins resisting cracking up as well. "Heh, sorry. Couldn't resist. Besides, doesn't getting stabbed through the brain hurt more?"
"Not when I don't psyche myself up for it and also have to deal with a surprise landing." The creature begins to stand up again, still clutching the side of its head. "I could've dislocated my shoulder if I didn't catch myself."
Zeiss's response is a roll of the eyes. "Come on, Jerry. For you, that's just a paper cut. I swear, you're like the Black Knight if the Black Knight was actually what he talked himself up as." A smirk appears on his face. "Either way, you deserved that. Your vibes were simply atrocious."
Jerry continues to grumble. "Oh, shut the hell up already. One of these days, I need to tell you how to separate an artist from their art."
They are interrupted by the sound of a bullhorn. "Alright, alright," the director calls. "Save the banter for your break. One more take, and maybe try to stop yourself from mad-libbing this time, okay, Zeiss?"
The actor shoots him a two-fingered salute as he and his coworker return to their marks. "No promises, but I'll see what I can do."
I should have at least one of these per chapter, assuming that the chapter's content allows it and it doesn't cause mood whiplash. Though, in the case of whiplash, I might just save the outtake for when the mood also allows it.
Okay, that's actually everything this time. Hopefully, I'll be seeing y'all again soon.
Peace out, m'dudes.