Hello people, a quick note from me, Slightly Open Curtains. I'm sorry if any mistakes are made here, hope you enjoy it and would humbly like to request that you comment any feedback you might have. That's all from me till the end!
The panic-inducing sound of a raging alarm clock broke the relative silence of the morning, followed quickly by the sound muting under a palm. The items bells were being held still by a hand that had emerged from the bed next to the object. A click followed as another hand clicked the object back into silence and a dull, drawn-out, masculine groan was let out by the now roused inhabitant of the quilt.
"Fuckin' hell." Was mumbled out into the pillow, voice tired and baritone. Despite the exhaustion, the voice was easily recognisable as youthful, lacking any coarseness or growl to it. A quick shuffle and the teen was on his back, long hair flopping onto the pillow. It was dark brown, almost black but not quite, and hung down to his neck. Then, finally, a pair of eyes opened.
They were a gleaming, brilliant shade of blue. Aquamarine, ocean, sky, even silver could be seen mixing amongst the lines and details, pupils undulating as they got used to the muted lighting of the room. The heavy curtains stopped the suns light very well, plus he was on the west side of the building, away from the morning light. And then another alarm went off, only thirty seconds after his, just audible through the wall. Jeremiah would be awake now, it seemed.
Finally resigning himself to his fate, the boy rolled out of bed and stood, clad only in a set of comfortable shorts. He looked across his room and sighed. It was small, with a desk, wardrobe, bed, chest of drawers and a tiny en suite. It was honestly like a hotel room or dormitory… which is exactly what it was. He was in the dorms of the Wing Bind Academy, with his fellow Cadets. The walls were a boring white colour, with normal, boring wood for the furniture.
After a second to stretch, the boy walked into the bathroom and peaked at the mirror… there it was, as it had been for the last two days. Just above the sharp, slightly-fluffy jaw and the distinct nose and the gleaming eyes… above the forehead and the mess of fluffy, walnut locks was a set of four words, written in black script.
[Nathayre Grey]
[The Gamer]
Nathayre sighed. Still here, it seemed. He wasn't going insane… well, perhaps he was since he was accepting this so well. "An actual game. No rune, no spell… no trickery." He mumbled. After the first little while, he had guessed it was an illusion, the second, some kind of consistent rune but a rune of this scale would have run out by now. He was either in a game or going mad and… he had a bias towards not being insane.
A quick shower later, the boy was sitting at his desk with a page of lined, A4 paper before him. He was still dressed in his shorts, though a towel was draped around his shoulders to stop his wet hair from dripping onto his body.
He had written a few things to figure out and try out. The list was fairly simple, from commands to general rules in games. He had played his fair share after all. This was Reverse London, quite possibly one of the most advanced cities in the world. His little idea of testing things out came crashing down around him the moment he nodded to himself to affirm his plan.
[Quest Created]
The Basis of All Things
Objective: Figure out how [The Gamer] works.
- Status
- Inventory
- Skills
- Spells
- Quests
- Reputation
Reward: 100 exp, 50 Pounds, an understanding of your circumstance.
Y/N
A green 'screen' not unlike a recolouring the Aegis spell but with text, offering him a quest. The N option was greyed-out too. It was shocking but his curiosity forced him to push on with this nonsense. "Fuck it, fine, I've accepted the names, I'll take the fucking quest," Nathayre mumbled to himself poking the Y option and watching the screen vanish… he had about twenty-five minutes before class, a five-minute walk and getting dressed was another five so… fifteen minutes? He could speed-run a tutorial in that time, easy.
So he tried the most obvious thing ever. "Status." And yet another menu opened, once again like the Aegis spell, even in the right colour too. Light blue for the win!
[Nathayre Grey]
[The Gamer]
[Level 3]
Exp: 23.43%
Class: Wing Bind Cadet {+}
HP: 200 / 200
MP: 200 / 200
SP: 205 / 205
STR: 4
VIT: 5
DEX: 8
INT: 5
WIS: 5
CHA: 6
LUC: 7
Points: 0
Traits:
Magus {+}
? {+}
? {+}
You are Nathayre Grey, the chosen gamer of your world and a seventeen-year-old trainee Magus at the Wing Bind Academy of Reverse London. Your upbringing is a sad inevitability, orphaned as an infant, you were raised at North District Orphanage until the age of eleven, where you eventually chose to become a Wizard of Wing Bind. This resulted in you moving the dormitories and you have lived there ever since. You are an average student and have a year until graduation. The only abnormalities in your life are that you do not know who your parents were and that you received a mysterious gift when you started the academy.
God that was… a bit much, wasn't it? Two secret Traits, a fairly average stat spread and a… well, a very succinct summary of who he was. The little plusses next to the Traits and Title might have been- yeah, a quick poke had revealed some dropdown boxes, featuring information on them… god this was a bit wordy.
[Wing Bind Cadet]
[You are a student of the Wing Bind Academy and are entrusted with a Wing Bind ID Card]
Right, yeah. An apt title. He was a WBA attendee and his card was sitting on the table in front of him, marked with his date of birth and rank and even the ID number. Nathayre Grey, 29/02/04, Senior Cadet, 9875436345. That was him for sure… the next was pretty self-explanatory too, with him being a natural born Magus.
[Magus ]
[You are one of those born with the ability to harness Mana, allowing you to interact with magical beings.
Able to see and interact with [Magic] class beings. Unlocks MP Stat.]
All was in line here, but now it got a bit weird, at least in his eyes.
[?]
[Due to an encounter in your infanthood, you have greater than average ? and are now ? able to interact with ?.
Able to see and interact with ? class beings. Unlocks SP Stat.]
The fuck did that even mean? SP wasn't Stamina? Some sort of… uh… there was nothing Nathayre could think of other than Spirit maybe? But that didn't explain much else. Maybe he could find out later? But now was even fucking weirder.
[?]
[You are a part of ? and have the natural ability with ? associated with ?.
+25% Exp and Effectiveness with Skills affected by ? Skill. -25% MP Cost to Skills affected by ? Skill. +100% to ?]
The hell kind of Trait was that? A massive boost to the skills attached to another one? Plus a mysterious stat that was doubled? This was some wacky shit. But what really could it be? Context said that it was some sort of maybe group? Perhaps this was a link to his parents? That'd be… he'd been asking about it since he could speak and no-one ever told him a thing. If he could figure out what it was all boosting and stuff, he could even look into them!
This idea caused another window to appear before him.
[Quest Created]
Who Am I?
Objective 1: Discover the effects of your mysterious Trait.
Objective 2: Find out what causes the effects.
Objective 3: Find concrete evidence of your parentage.
Bonus Objective: Gain access to your inheritance.
Reward 1: 100 Exp, 10 Pounds, Knowledge of your Trait, 1 Spell associated with your Trait
Reward 2: 250 Exp, 50 Pounds, A link to your parents. 1 Skill associated with your past.
Reward 3: 1000 Exp, 250 Pounds, Knowledge of who your parents are, 1 Skill from each of your parents.
Bonus Reward: 500 Exp, 100 Pounds, Your inheritance, 1 randomised skill book.
Y/N
Holy shit.
Holy fucking shit! Nathayre was sat wide-eyed at the prospect of finally knowing where he came from - who he was. And he was… he was being rewarded for it?! Any doubts, any caution was gone. If this madhouse of power had any links to who his parents were, it could take his kidney if it told him. Caught up in immature passion, Nat had found himself fully embracing his new life… He accepted the quest immediately.
Then he noticed the time. "Shit!" He yelped, standing up and noticing another quest appear in his view. All he had the time to read was.
[Quest Created]
Don't Be Late!
Before he was across his room dressing in an instant. Boxers, socks, jeans all went on in a near-instant, followed quickly by him draping his shirt over his body, leaning down to tie his boots without doing up the shirt. That issue was quickly rectified, though he had to flick his hair back to get it out of the way of the top button. A moment later, the sleeveless jumper was pulled on and a few key items were slid into his pockets. Wallet(with ID) and phone, though they'd be joined by his keys in a moment.
After all that was ready, he took a moment to take his jacket off of the coat-hook on his door. It was something he was going to treat a little more gently since it meant so much to him. After that was on, his bag came off the hook beneath and was slung over his shoulder. Keys jingled, a door opened, got locked once more and… Nathayre was gone like the wind.
He dashed past other students, younger students, those going to other classrooms. For now, he just had to speed up and throw himself around a corner…
Right into someone.
Yeah... uh. I did a thing! I hope the start of the story is interesting enough. I definitely plan to do more, but this idea was just begging for me to release it into the world... so I did! Now I'm gonna go close the Curtains.
Nini!