Numbers and more numbers

Having to come to terms that my old life was over was not that easy. Luckily, Dara got me up to speed on how some of the rules of this world worked.

There were other menus on the System to work through. Not all of them were broken for me, some still worked.

The Skills, Professions, Passives, and Traits menus were showing the same critical error. They were inaccessible to me, and Dara's eyes lit up every time she saw the problem.

But other menus were still working.

"Equipment," I said and a menu of the same name appeared. It showcased a human body with different layers of clothing and armor. At that moment, I could see the clothes I was wearing.

"That works then... Press on one of your clothes" said Dara.

I pressed with my finger on one of my clothes. Like my literal physical shirt. I looked at her confused as if nothing happened.

"On the screen" she fixed her glasses.

"Oh, right... That makes sense" I answered, clearly embarrassed while I did as instructed.

The screen zoomed in when I pressed on my shirt (on the screen this time) and gave me information about it.

[LV1 Plain shirt]

[STR: 0 DEX: 0 INT: 0

AIM: 0 DEF: 0 RES: 0]

[Slot: 0]

[Materials: Cotton]

[Made by: Kalamith]

"Who's Kalamith?" I asked when I read the name.

"One of the 4 gods," Dara said while reading the screen. "Which means you had contact with them."

That was either good or bad.

The pants and shoes gave the same type of information, although the last ones were made out of leather.

Out of curiosity, I checked my underwear.

[Lv2 Underwear of doom]

[STR: -2 DEX: -2 INT: 0

AIM: -2 DEF: 0 RES: 0]

[Slot: 0]

[Materials: Cotton]

[Made by: Kalamith]

"What in the...?" Why were my trousers giving me negative stats? And on those? And what is up with that name?

"What kind of childish joke is this?" Dara asked, once again fixing her glasses. "Let us proceed. You can take them out of your person later."

I want to take them out now.

The next menu that worked was Inventory. It is what you thought, it gave information on every item available on my person. At that point, nothing was shown, but I managed to notice it gave information on the containers I had on me, like the pockets on my pants at that point.

"Everything else seems to be functioning normally," Dara said, inspecting the screen. "Only some of the screens related to your stats don't seem to work."

"And what does everything mean?" I asked ,"I am still not sure what is going on."

"I still don't know, to be sincere" Dara started to walk in circles trying to think. "So far I have not seen anything like this, what about you, Nayleth?"

Ah, so that is what her companion is called. He did not answer with his voice, he only shook his head, saying no. I have not heard a single word coming from him, only using expressions to talk.

Dara took me to the outside of the courtyard. She gave me a short sword and placed a training dummy made of hay in the middle of the place. Some of the grunt soldiers of the castle did carry it.

On the way there, I paid more attention to the rest of the castle. It was a mess. Again, walls crumbling, carpets torn apart, a general state of lack of maintenance. Probably Dara calling the situation past the point of desperation was a clear clue of what was happening.

"We will check if the system is still working on you" Dara stood beside the dummy and aimed the palm of her hand at it. "Scry" A white light appeared on her hand and then a small screen appeared on top of the Dummy. "Now, hit it with your sword."

[HP: 2000

MP: 0]

It was like a video game. Levels, stats, inventory. What kind of world did I fall into? I got close and raised the sword, and made a diagonal cut with it on the Dummy. A Number appeared.

-18

"So I can even see the damage I cause..." I looked, surprised. I had played RPGs before and seeing numbers come out when you hit was not something rare. I quite enjoyed it. But it was odd to see in real life.

"Yes. The Dummy has 0 DEF, and the sword, if you check the stats, you will notice it increases STR by 20" Then she fixes her glasses, noticing the pattern of when she does that "...and with your underwear reducing it by 2, it means you are just causing no damage except for the one on the weapon."

"Wait, is that deep?" And the way she said that like she was theory-crafting for a game... was something I would not expect.

"What do you mean?" Dara asked.

"The system affects what I do that deep? I should still be adding damage with that swing, shouldn't I?"

I tried to hit it harder this time. Again, it did -18 damage.

"Give it a weaker hit"

I did, I applied what I assume was half the force on my cut, getting stuck in the middle and my sword bouncing. This time, the damage shown was -9, a clear difference.

So, reducing force on the hit, it reduces the damage, so why not go stronger to cause a higher output? I went ahead and hit it as strong as I could, and again was -18.

"Fascinating, probably the System is not-" Then Dara's eyes went wide as she looked at something past me. With a swift movement, she stretched her arm and I felt some form of force pushing me back a couple of meters, causing some dirt to rise from the ground. I manage to keep my balance.

For a split second, I managed to see a ball of fire pass right by me and hit the Dummy, causing an explosion that I was barely away from. Dara was just away from the area of damage, and if she had not pushed me with a spell I would have been hit. I see the damage on the dummy:

-350

"Why is the prisoner not in chains and holding a weapon?!" I heard the voice of Kali behind me. I looked back and there she was. When I was chained she looked taller and more imponent, probably caused by the confusion (that I was still feeling) and the fact that I was chained. "Explain yourself, Dara!"

"I am just running my experiments, Ka-my queen" She almost called her by her first name by mistake again. "There is so much that we could-"

"Yeah, less than 18 points of damage when the weapon he is holding is what?" She janks the sword from my hand. I could barely put any force against her attempt, not like I tried to, either. She went through the equipment menu and checked the weapon stats. "The sword has a STR stat of 20 and he is causing less than that!"

"To be fair, that is caused by my under-" I tried to interject, right before getting interrupted.

"I don't care! You were summoned, you admitted that yourself! You are working with the filthy gods of the 4 realms!"

"Kali, wait!" Yelled Dara.

Kali dropped the sword and stretched her right arm. A big scythe, made of some form of dark matter that oscillated appeared on her hand and placed the edge on the back of my neck, looking at me in the eyes. My life was getting threatened once more by this woman, and I could feel the weapon's blade starting to touch my skin.

"I will not stand them! I will send you back to them just to show that my realm is strong enough to continue fighting back!"

Shit, if I die right there, is the last of it. I am not reincarnating or anything else anymore. I was not chosen by any of those gods, and the one that brought me here by accident, Kalamith, seemed to be happy with just letting me die.

"I am telling the truth! I am not helping them!"

"He seems to be telling the truth, Kali," Said Dara. On her side, Neyleth nodded. Somehow, I seem to have made 2 allies that day.

"I don't care!" She said, I could see and feel her anger coming from her expression, the way her face contorted as she was holding on to some rage from deep within.

Luckily, something wanted me alive. I say it was luck, but in reality, it was not as pleasing as I would discover.

"My queen! Is an emergency!" Everyone heard a strong voice speak. It was the orc from before, running from one side of the courtyard. "My lady! Listen to me!"

"I am busy, what it is?!" She asked, clearly holding herself.

"My queen! The village of Jumbo is under attack!"

Her eyes went wide in surprise when she heard what the orc had to say. I looked at Dara, who had a similar expression, and then Nayleth, whose face was a sight of pure unadulterated horror.