Chapter 4 – Stats, Occlumency and the Cauldron
After Finishing his supper, Alucard heads back to his room as Vittoria has informed him that the books on occlumency have been placed in his room. On the way he chats with Isis, "Well that went quite well, all things considered." He tells her, "What do you think?" he asked.
[yes but I did choose this dimension for you, there are infinite to choose from, this one is quite easy since it is your first, as long as you act smart and you don't make any massive mistakes you should not have any problems] Isis tells him.
"What so you could have made it easier for me?" He asks.
[Of course, but without any challenge, you will never really improve] she tells him, making him grumble slightly to himself but he wasn't really bothered because even if he is the type that plays games on easy he knows that without any challenge at all it would get boring relatively quickly.
Getting back to his room he takes a look around not having taken the time to have a proper look in the morning, other than the four-poster bed and two bedside cabinets, there are two large wardrobes against the wall as well as a sofa and comfy looking chair around a small coffee table in the corner. Then there is the door to his private bathroom which leads to a bathroom with a shower and a large bath that could easily fit 2 adults never mind one 10-year-old boy, Alucard is quite happy with his room.
Having looked around he noticed the small pile of books on the coffee table. Looking at the titles he sees they are the books sent by Vittoria, He takes the one off the top of the pile, thinking it will be a good place to start, Occlumency For Beginners, opens the cover and starts reading. It seems like it just takes a glance at the page to understand all the words on that page, flipping to the next then the next getting faster and faster until he finally finished the book in just ten minutes. He was shocked because he thought that it would take at least a few hours to finish the book, confused he decided to as Isis what was going on.
"Isis, do I have some sort of skill to absorb books?" he asks her excited because that would make learning so much easier.
[Haha of course you do, but it isn't as exaggerated as what you just experienced, what that was is because the old Alucard had already read that book. You will experience similar with all the books your new body previously read] Isis informs him.
"Oh well that's both good and slightly disappointing, is there a way for me to see what my skills are? Since you are a system" he asks her curiously.
[Sure, just mentally call out status screen while thinking about seeing your status screen, that will show you your status screen] she says amusingly.
Alucard getting the point that he should have thought of that before now does just as she suggests 'status screen'.
STATUS
Name - Alucard Drago Lestrange
Race - Human (Magical) - Human born with Magic
Rank - Mortal - Can Die of old age and can be killed.
BODY
STRENGTH - 5 - Physical power, how much you can carry.
CONSTITUTION - 5 - Health, resistance to illness and poison, recovery rate.
DEXTERITY - 5 - Coordination, body control.
AGILITY - 5 - Physical speed.
MIND
INTELLIGENCE - 11 - Memory, Thinking speed, Processing Information.
WISDOM - 14 - Decision-making abilities, connecting Information.
PERCEPTION - 9 - Processing of senses.
MAGIC
MAGIC POWER - 6 - Amount of Magic, base recovery is 5% of total per hour.
MAGIC CONTROL - 2 - How easy it is for you to use your magic.
A screen seems to appear in front of his eyes, though he is sure it's essentially just a mental image and other people will not be able to see it. It is much easier to appraise yourself when you have a screen that gives you all the stats you need. He can see it's pretty straightforward, no surprises though it does look like it is only stats that could be measured, no charisma, charm or willpower. "Isis, can you tell me what those numbers represent? Is 5 high or low?" Alucard asks her.
[Oh, well for this world, 10 would be about the number of an average male adult magical human. And before you ask, 30 would be about the natural limit for this world, so about 30 Strength would be your world's strongest man, about 30 Intelligence would be the world's smartest man, so on and so on.] Said Isis, before continuing.
[Be careful though, that's just the natural limit for pure humans, other species like Goblins or Veela could be completely different and someone like Voldemort would have done plenty of rituals to increase his limits. Thought there would still be limits, they could be much higher] Isis answers him, giving him what he needs in order to compare to others. Looking at his stats he is quite proud of what's there, it isn't amazing, but he is only ten years old.
His lowest stats are his physical stats which he will start to work on soon, before he starts making any plans, he makes sure there is not anything else that Isis hasn't got round to telling him yet. He isn't sure why the god him made an absent-minded system but she is far better than no system so he wasn't going to complain.
He didn't want a repeat of when he asked about the stat system, so he gave it some thought and thought out 'Skill Screen' and low and behold another mental screen popped up for him to view.
Skills
General
Wild Magic - 1 Natural magic (accidental Magic when uncontrolled)
Mind Magic
Occlumency - 4 Protection of the mind
Mundane Mental Skills
Languages - 4
French - 73
English - 70
Alucard is shocked at how few skills he has, but after a moment he remembers what happened with his occlumency skill, she figures he will have to relearn everything, but what he knows will be learned extremely quickly. He is quite curious if it will work with any of his skills from his past life or only what he already learned in this life.
"Hey Isis, is that all the menus? Or is there anything else?" Alucard asks "There really should be a tutorial for this Isis" he adds, thinking with a guide this would be much easier to make sure he doesn't miss anything.
[Oh, think traits and you will get a list of all your traits, this is one of your most important Screens as this covers all your special powers.] Isis explains sounding serious for a moment before her cheeky tone returns [and there is no tutorial, but that's why I am here] she said. "Wonderful" he replies in a deadpan voice. He is not too impressed as she hasn't told him anything yet unless he has asked.
[Huh, not impressed, eh? Well, if you can't ask the right question then you don't deserve the reward] Isis tells him almost petulantly. [You have your old memories, so you do have some idea of what you should ask] she finished sulkily. Alucard's eyes light up at that, it should have been obvious, if he has a jump chain type system there should be some similarities with the ones he has read about in the past, completely forgetting about his trait menu in his excitement.
Alucard takes a minute to think about what all the systems have that his should have. A warehouse? He doesn't think so because his Hubworld isn't there yet, maybe an inventory? He had best ask to be sure. "Do I have a warehouse or an inventory?" he asks Isis with a sense of anticipation.
[Oh, we have a winner, good question. Though you will be disappointed in the answer, me thinks] Replies Isis, [you don't have a warehouse as you have a Hubworld, though it will not be unlocked till after this world. As for an inventory, you don't have one, but once you have unlocked your Hubworld, you can dedicate a space to act as an inventory that you will be able to use without having to come into your Hubworld] she explains to him.
Alucard is disappointed that he had no inventory in this world, but not overly disappointed as he is currently in a world with expandable trunks and mokeskin pouches that he can use and he will have access to it in the next world. Not having it means he doesn't have anything in it, no starter kit or gifts from the system. Well with a tricky system like Isis, he will ask anyway, better to ask and be wrong than not ask and miss out.
"Is there any starter pack or gifts?" He asks her, then has another thought and asks, "And what about Gatcha tokens?". He remembers that's quite a common thing, also leads to getting access to some wonderfully useful things, plot armour at its best he thinks to himself.
[Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you but there is no Gatcha system. But there is a gift for you, left to help you with your first world. There are 4 Companion Tokens, that can be used to get some helpers though they can't be too powerful, so basically base humans, not even magicals, but they will be able to grow in strength with you. You won't have to worry about loyalty either, if they agreed to come, they will have sworn an oath of servitude.] Isis told him, that made Alucard very excited, there were quite a few characters he would enjoy meeting and quite a few beauty's that he wouldn't have minded becoming his lovers in his past life, this being in a 10-year-old body will at least save him from being controlled by his lust and picking girls solely on how much he wanted to sleep with them in the past. Of course, even though he didn't have any urges at the moment doesn't mean he wouldn't plan for when he does.
"Is that everything? No other things I need to know about?" Alucard asks, he is starting to get the hang of dealing with Isis, getting anything from her is like pulling teeth.
[Fiiinnneeee, there is an item that you saved for yourself as it has limited uses at the godly level, but it is great for someone starting out, there is the 'Divine Cauldron of karmic punishment' that you can store in your soul space.] She said reluctantly, he was getting the idea that she wants him to miss something either to inform him at just the right moment or laugh at him later when he misses the perfect chance to use it.
"OK, Isis, what does the 'Divine Cauldron of karmic punishment' do? And what is a soul space?" Alucard asks patiently knowing she will be honest as even if she isn't the most forthcoming, she is still there to help him.
[Well first, a soul space is just what it sounds like, it's a space in your soul that certain items that are bonded to you may reside but more on that later, as for the 'Divine Cauldron of karmic punishment' it has several uses, but the ones that are important to you in this world are that while it is in your soul space it protects your soul from being attacked and one which you will find quite useful, if you place people into the cauldron it will refine them into pills but the trick is that the quality of pill depends on how much negative karma a person has] Isis explains, she goes on to explain what happens to someone with positive karma [but if he placed a person with positive karma into the cauldron then they will be put into a form of healing stasis which can keep someone even on the brink of death alive, this will greatly help in emergencies and for people fatally wounded or ill.].
Of course, Alucard after being very excited sees a major flaw with using it to help people, he has no way to measure peoples karma levels so if he tries to save someone that's in the negative then they will be refined into a pill which isn't something he wants to happen to his allies.
"Seeing as it will mostly be used to refine people? How does it work?" he asks Isis.
[You will have to be able to call it out on your own, then the cauldron will let you know how to use it] Isis informs him. Alucard has no idea how to go about that, but he already has far too much on his plate right now with relearning all his skills and sorting out his memory's, so he isn't in a rush to figure it out. He also doesn't actually have anyone to use it on in the first place and since it is already in his soul space, he guesses that the passive soul protection is already on.
"Thanks, Isis, that's enough to go over in one night, I'll try to get more information out of you some other time. As for the companion tokens, we will leave them till later once I know what I need, there are plenty of people I still need to meet and speak to here that I don't want to deal with introducing some more people that appeared out of nowhere" He thanks Isis and explains what he plans, although she may be his system and quite troublesome, she is still his most trusted partner.
Now Alucard is trying to think of how he got onto that conversation in the first place and sees the occlumency books on the table and sighs, thinking that he is tired but it's still earlier and he could do a few more books before he goes to sleep. It has been a long day, after all, he woke up in a new body, had to get used to having two sets of memories then he had to meet his new guardian and explain everything. Picking up the next book 'Protect your secrets by Blackford Oakes', Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be a book that he had read before and he had to read it the old fashioned way, word by word. He gets a few chapters in before he feels his eyes starting to dip and he decides that's enough and heads to bed. Once in bed, he follows the advice in the occlumency books and attempts to clear his head before nodding off to sleep.