Freedom and Rebirth
Seran was fidgeting in place, munching on his bread-and-meat meal as he saw a countdown appear in his vision, along with a robotic voiceover.
[10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... 0. Activating system protocols... administrator access granted... developer console control applied... All systems online. Welcome, user.]
Seran felt a part of his being suddenly expanding, giving him a massive spiritual shock. The HUD flickered and glitched repeatedly before reforming with greater detail and with new features. The side menus had multiplied with the number of new options.
While Seran's mind was recovering from the startlingly powerful stimulus, William's excited voice chimed in, [Ah, I feel so free!] The system's lockdown had caged William even more than Seran, as the latter at least had a physical body. Being able to finally do things again made him happier and unfettered.
A moment passed as Seran managed to overcome the spiritual shock from the system's lockdown rescinding. His first thought was to check his status page, which he'd been unable to do since it shut down.
--
Name: Seran (No surname)
Age: 10
Class: Novice/Newbie
Level: 5
Bloodline(s): N/A
HP: 250/250
MP: 100/100
Attributes:
STR: 12
AGI: 18
DEX: 16
END: 20
VIT: 16
INT: 26
WIS: 26
LCK: 10
CHA: 16
--
Seeing his stats had changed quite a bit since he last checked, Seran wasn't surprised. Instead, he was thrilled to be able to see it again. Greenwood Village didn't have any connection to an Adventurers Guild, so nobody actually knew much about their levels or stats. The aforementioned Guild was only able to check names, classes, levels, titles and criminal records save for a few of the major guild branches that had higher grade inspection items.
"Those two years at least were worth something. My endurance went up by 10."
[Definitely. Your agility and dexterity rose by 5 since then too, with the amount of escaping you had to do back in the city... Oh, right, look in your inventory! There's some new stuff!]
The eager boy pulled up his inventory to see his infinite storage full of new items, along with an item preview on the right side. It even showed his current appearance. With his oddly white hair color and purple irises, the frail and light-tanned reflection of Seran himself appeared in his vision. "Oh wow, that's what I look like..? I look so strange..." His face had a slightly girlish look to it, along with his physique, making him look very cute.
[Don't ask me, I don't know any more about that than you do. Anyway, look at the stuff in your inventory!]
As Seran went through his inventory, he made sure to check over the items he knew he'd had before the lockdown. A handful of gold coins and a few jewels he'd lifted from a rich merchant, a pair of matching enchanted daggers with numerous chips on the edges, a case of silver acupuncture needles stolen from a healer and a gold ring he'd taken from a drunkard. All things he'd been unable to access without the system. Next to them, on the other hand, were three new items.
--
[Ultimate Gacha Package] x1
This package is given to all new users and contains 100 Gacha tickets to be used with the three Gacha vendors. Tickets have no expiration date and can be used at any time.
[Ultimate Starter Package] x 1
The best starter pack a user could ask for. It contains the following: 250 attribute points, 250 skill points, 250 magic/technique points, 5 random passive abilities, 1 random bloodline, 50 health and mana potions, and a one-time use key that will allow the user to be almost any class simultaneously.
[Divine Booster Package] x 5
The DBP contains two random items of Divine rarity. No more than 5 DBPs can be used by one user.
--
"Holy shit, that's insane! I knew there was one shop but there are 3 Gacha vendors too!?"
[Apparently there's even more than that, I'm still looking through everything. The 3 Gacha vendors are separated in what they do. The Cursed Gacha gives you something you need, while the Blessed Gacha gives you something you want. The Random Gacha will literally give you anything at random from a specified category. Say, a random ore. It'll give you a random ore regardless of its grade.] William was still flipping through the other menus while he explained the Gachas to Seran, who was almost losing his mind from joy.
"Ah, I can barely believe it! Let me open them!" Seran said as he bounced around the room. After clicking on each on the UGP and the USP, then selecting 'Use', he gained:
--
Gacha Tickets x100
Health Potions x50
Mana Potions x50
Master Class Key x1
250 Unassigned Attrib Pts.
250 Unassigned Skill Pts.
250 Unassigned M/T Pts.
Passive Skills:
[Meta Regeneration]
[Water Monarch]
[Infinite Flight]
[Absorption]
[Beast Mastery]
[Zeus Bloodline]
--
Suddenly being hit with a wave of drowsiness, Seran's last thought was, "This is going to be epic!"
--
The next morning, the young boy was woken up by a crow the size of a tiger cub fluttering in and pecking him in the forehead. "Agh! You little featherbrain, come here!" The crow cawed in a mocking tone and expertly flew back to the fireplace and outside. "Stupid bird..." grumbled Seran as he rubbed his reddening forehead.
Etienne stuck his head in with a mildly teasing look, "He likes you, in his own special way. If he didn't like you, he wouldn't be messing with you. Trust me, he still tries to pull one over on me from time to time. You're only getting pecked, just wait until he's trying to drop snakes on you."
This made the boy turn pale, "Has that really happened to you?"
"Storm is a bit of a prankster, and he loves doing very over-the-top things, but he's still very protective of the village. Don't be fooled by his appearance, or those of his kin. All of them are rare magic beasts, rare enough to have 1% of the Golden Crow's bloodline. Storm is even more so, as he was born atavistic, with 10%." The village chief chuckled, "They always warn us when a bad storm is coming, some of which have saved villagers in the past."
"I know they're cool and all, but it's hard to take them seriously when the biggest one loves pranking me," Seran grumbled a little again.
Etienne shook his head with a grin before looking over Seran seriously, "Something about you is different... I'm not sure what... it might be because today is the day you'll be going to Lightwood Fortress's Adventurer Guild. As today is your 10th birthday, by Aregard tradition we are going to awaken your class."
"I can't wait!" The boy wasn't lying when he said he couldn't wait to do so; it meant he could finally become a real professional.
"Get ready then, kiddo. The two of us will be going together, as will Storm." When the chief got an incredulous look in response, he said, "If I know that bird, he'll immediately follow us. He thinks it's his duty to protect the village children... and that he thinks I'll get us lost."
Seran rolled his eyes, "I'll get ready. Give me a couple of minutes."
"No worries, I've got to get some things I have to get before we head out." Etienne walked off with a chuckle, heading to his office.
Closing his room door, the boy called up his new status:
--
Name: Seran (No surname)
Age: 10
Class: Novice/Newbie
Level: 5
Bloodline(s): Zeus
Affinities: Water (Divine), Lightning (Divine), Darkness (Average)
HP: 1000/1000
MP: 250/250
Attributes:
STR: 24 (^12)
AGI: 18
DEX: 16
END: 20
VIT: 50 (^34)
INT: 26
WIS: 26
LCK: 24 (^14)
CHA: 26 (^10)
--
"Wow, it went up quite a bit."
[Naturally, dude. Zeus was the Greek king of the gods, so it's unlikely for his bloodline to be weak. Still, you need to use your Gacha tickets and the DBPs. You also need new abilities and techniques.]
"I'll do that later. Right now, I need to use the shop function..."
[You don't really even need to, to be honest. Just ask me to use the developer console to do what you need. There are only a few things that it can't help with.]
"I need skills related to weapon proficiency, lightning, water..."
[I'd also recommend escape techniques... While I get to it, use your attribute points.]
Seran nodded began distributing his unnecessarily abundant points. With a variety of internal debates over distribution, he eventually made the following changes:
--
HP: 25000/25000
MP: 10,000/10,000
Attributes:
STR: 50 (^26)
AGI: 70 (^52)
DEX: 60 (^44)
END: 50 (^30)
VIT: 50
INT: 50 (^24)
WIS: 50 (^24)
LCK: 50 (^26)
CHA: 50 (^24)
--
After looking it over, Seran noticed he was close to being an all-rounder type of fighter, which would suit what he hoped to do in the future. "This will do, I guess."
[Alright, I've added new normal and professional skills, along with the abilities for you.] William pulled up Seran's full list of skills.
--
Skills:
All Weapon Proficiency: 1/10 (Combined from multiple skills)
Master Thief: 1/10 (Combined from multiple skills)
Silent Steps: 7/10
Hand-to-Hand Combat: 1/10
Exotic Weapon Proficiency: 1/10
Spellcasting Proficiency: 1/10
Blacksmith: 1/10
Enchanting: 1/10
First Aid: 1/10
Cooking: 1/10
Crafting: 1/10
Tailoring: 1/10
Herbalism: 1/10
Mining: 1/10
Appraisal: 1/10
Alchemy: 1/10
Omnilingualism: 1/10 (Upgraded from Language)
Beast Mastery: 1/10
Water Monarch: 1/10
Absorption: 1/10
Physical Resistance: 7/10
Mental Resistance 7/10
Elemental Resistance 2/10
Infinite Flight: 1/10
Meta Regeneration: 1/10
Immunity to: Water, Lightning
Spells:
[Summon: Weapon], [Summon: Shield], [Tsunami], [Imbue Element], [Enchant], [Alchemy], [Thunder Barricade], [Rainstorm], [Call Rain], [Master Heal], [Muffle Sound], [Quench], [Stormbird], [Truesight Orb], [Water Dragon]
Abilities:
[Water God Body], [Water God Combat Style], [Thunder God Body], [Thunder God Combat Style], [Camouflage], [Shadow Step], [Lightning Transformation], [Water Transformation], [Aegis], [Fade Out], [Escape Artist], [Flash Step], [King's Aura]
--
[You've got a shit ton of good things... You can figure them out by yourself, it's too much for me to talk through. Use your skill points to upgrade them. Just so you know, the required points to upgrade them increase by 1 per level. and to upgrade them requires double the maximum. Combining is an exception, though, but that's not going to happen much...] William sounded slightly distracted as he was still busy going through all of the things in the system that he was part of. [Shit, I almost forgot. Get your butt out the door, hairball, you've got a date with destiny today!]
"Har de har har, William," muttered Seran as he headed out of his room. Etienne was waiting for him by the front door with a smile, a jade pendant carved into a tree around his neck. The chief was mildly confused again at Seran's sudden and inexplicable change but shrugged it off. The two soon headed to the edge of the village, to the hunting trail that the boy had once come through.