Chương 3: Chapter 2 – System Integration

Kai's pulse thundered in his ears. What…? Before his reeling mind could make any sense of the situation, Lena let out an excited squeal.

"I-it's real…!" Daniel blinked. Once, twice. His manic expression returned to a carefully neutral state as he took in the emotional state of his family.

"Ah," he said eloquently.

"T-the ambient mana levels were actually rising, Dad!"

"Yes."

"I thought– but– it's all real?!"

"Mhm."

"How– Can I also–" Lena paused to raise her hand, pointing up to the afternoon sky.

"Mana Bolt!" The excitement slowly faded out of her eyes as her 'spell' failed to produce an effect, and the absurdity of the situation was enough to snap Kai back to reality. Just as he was about to wind up for a long string of questions and expletives, his mother preempted him.

"Now hold on a minute," she stated with forced calm, turning towards her increasingly sheepish husband.

"Explain." = = = = = Apparently, Kai's father was a Wizard. With a capital W, on which he vehemently insisted. The ritual circles they had drawn together years ago had been actual magical rituals. The fantastic bedtime stories of mages and swordsmen and goblins and ogres had simply been memories from another lifetime – decades spent in a different world, monster-slaying and adventuring with a party of heroes.

He would have called an ambulance, had his father not just deleted a tree from existence in front of his very eyes. Frankly speaking, the explanation left a lot to be desired. His mother and sister agreed for very different reasons. As their half-shouted questions began overlapping, Kai could see his father getting more and more irritated. Daniel had always hated noise, and tended to completely stop listening if more than one person talked at once, just like Lena did.

And sure enough, he did not tolerate it for long." Quiet." The word reverberated through the world, backed by something much more tangible than charisma. His father had obviously not intended to do that judging from his flinch, but it had the effect he undoubtedly intended – everyone shut up instantly.

"I will explain everything in time," he stated as a matter of fact, and the heavy atmosphere lifted. Kai's mother was having none of that.

"You're telling me the accident back then–" Accident?

"We'll talk later, honey. I promise." There was a note of desperation in his father's voice, something almost as alien to Kai as the works of magic he had seen earlier. It took visible effort for Laura to restrain herself, but she finally let it go with a weary sigh.

"Fine. So, what now? How do we… deal with this?" She made a sweeping gesture around the barn, ending with a finger pointed directly towards the tree stump.

"First of all, I need to try something." Daniel lifted his hand once more, and another schematic – no, ritual matrix – shimmered into existence on the barn floor.

"... What is this for?" Kai asked hesitantly. To his surprise, he actually recognized some symbols and structures from hours spent in the barn with his father, back before Lena had fully claimed the space as her own. He identified a bunch of 'mana accumulators', and–"A containment field?" Lena muttered.

"Mana storage, enrichment, dispersion."

"Good catch," Daniel said.

"It's essentially a convergence array, modified to–""Honey, what is it for?" Laura interrupted with obvious exasperation.

"No specifics. Just tell me what it does."

"... It draws ambient mana from the surrounding area to concentrate it here."

"Why?"

"The accumulators pull–""No! Why did you make it? For what reason does it need to exist?!"

"Oh. Well, if my theory is correct, a higher mana density should speed up system integration. I figured that it would make things easier if you all got it at roughly the same time."

"System integration? You mean that 'stat screen' you mentioned?" Kai asked, finally getting a sentence in.

"Why would we get that?"

"Because I just got the system back," Daniel explained slowly.

"I've been disconnected from it for seventeen years. It coming back now probably means that this world is in the process of being integrated." If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

'This' world.

"Is that a good or bad thing?" Laura inquired, concern written plainly on her face.

"... It gives people power. Quickly, unevenly. I'd call it 'dangerous' rather than goo–""Daniel."

"I could hold a monologue for an hour, but it would be easier to explain if you stepped into the ritual," he gestured towards the glowing circle, "and waited for a minute or two. I need you integrated before anything unexpected happens." Lena, who had been eerily quiet after the earlier interruption, immediately tried to step forward, only to be caught at the wrist by her mother.

"Is it safe?" Laura asked, fixing her husband with an intense gaze. Daniel blinked again.

"Safer than not being integrated." Reluctantly, she let go of her daughter's wrist, who immediately crossed the boundary while radiating pure excitement. Laura followed shortly after with a tense groan.

"Are we seriously– Oh, whatever." After a moment of hesitation, Kai entered the circle as well, bracing himself for whatever was to come. The first thing he noticed was a major headache the moment he crossed the boundary. His mother seemed to fare better, but Lena did not, rubbing her temples while stepping in place like she always did when stressed. Upon noticing her children's distress, Laura immediately turned an accusatory glance towards Daniel.

"Alright, that's enough of–" ~ INITIATING Kai recoiled in shock as the pressure suddenly lifted and a shimmering blue screen thing appeared in his vision. As he stared, it began printing lines like a DOS interface. ~ Subject 15-1B42 registered. ~ Determining initial attribute values. ~ Analysing Class compatibility. ~ … ~ …… ~ Delegating to background process. ~ Provisional statblock created. Mental interface activated. Mental interface…?

"That was much faster than I expected," Daniel mumbled.

"Did I underestimate the density needed?" Kai barely noticed his father's words, fully distracted by the messages. How do I see this mental interface? It turned out that simply thinking about it was enough. The strange log was shoved aside by a new screen, packed with information he was not equipped to fully understand. ~ Kai Brandt ~ Level: 7 ~ Title: – ~ Classes: [N/A]"I'm level seven?"

"Apparently, so am I," the baffled voice of his mother replied.

"Lena?" There was a moment of hesitant silence, before she answered.

"... Six." Oh, my level is higher than hers?

"Good. Most people start at six or seven," Daniel nodded.

"Have you checked your attributes?"

"Attri- oh." As before, the moment Kai had the thought, a new interface appeared. ~ CON: 4 ~ STR: 4 ~ DEX: 5 ~ INT: 4 ~ WIL: 4 ~ PER: 5"What am I looking at here?" Laura demanded.

"In essence, this is a summary of your physical and mental capabilities," Daniel explained.

"A four in any given stat should be roughly the average of uninitiated humans. Though it might be higher over here, given access to nutri– Never mind." He interrupted himself with visible difficulty.

"The stats themselves are immensely complicated to explain, the latter three in particular, so I'll start with the easier ones. Constitution makes you physically resilient, Strength is physical power and stamina, Dexterity lets you move faster and more controlled. Keep in mind that this is a vast oversimplification," he cautioned.

"Got it," Kai nodded. So far, it made sense – he considered his build to be around average, and the slightly higher DEX was probably a result of HEMA training.

"Now, the mental stats. Intelligence is… processing power. How fast you process large quantities of information. Don't misunderstand, a high Intelligence score will not make you smarter. It will just make you very good at being dumb." Kai chuckled at that, but his father moved on without so much as an eyebrow twitch.

"Willpower is perhaps the most difficult to grasp, and I consider it a misnomer. It does impact mental resilience, but it also interacts with the soul in ways nobody really understands."

"The soul?" Laura asked in disbelief.

"That's… real?"

"Very much so. Moving on – Perception. Perception is incredibly nebulous and can mean entirely different things for different people. The common ground is that it helps perceive the world, in any way you can imagine. Sight, smell, touch, magical senses. It slightly improves every manner of perception, but focuses on… Doesn't matter for now. Just keep in mind that it is important and will help you in combat." Daniel shrugged. His wife frowned.

"You keep talking about resilience, combat, danger… What the hell are you getting us into here?"

"Good point," he nodded, expression blank.

"The… best way to gain levels and increase your attributes is to fight and kill monsters."

"And why would I want to raise my attributes in the first place?"

"So you don't get killed yourself. Also, Constitution and Willpower dramatically increase your natural lifespan." That explains how Dad looks younger. I wonder how high his attributes are… Immediately, a new window popped up in Kai's vision, right next to his father's head. ~ Wizard, Level??? ~ Hero of the Northern Marches ~ ~Inspection failed~ Daniel suddenly cut off the barrage of questions Laura threw at him and turned towards Kai.

"Good, you figured that out. Be careful though, with high enough perception, people will notice if you inspect them. Try a basic inspection instead."

"Basic…?"

"Only think about 'Class', 'Level', and 'Title'. Those are considered basic information."

"... Alright." ~ Wizard, Level??? ~ Hero of the Northern Marches"Done?" At Kai's nod, Daniel continued.

"'Wizard' is the class I want to display. I could pick any other one of mine." The text in Kai's window changed from 'Wizard' to 'Magus'.

"The question marks indicate that my level is higher than yours. If you're focused enough, you can discern levels slightly higher than yours, but with the difference in our case, don't bother trying." Ouch.

"As for the title, think of it as an achievement in a video game. If you have more than one, you can freely swap." Kai took a few deep breaths, trying to clear his mind. As Laura once again began peppering her husband with questions Kai did not particularly care about at the moment, he studied his sister. Lena stood motionless, except for her eyes darting around screens he could not see. She was utterly absorbed, her single-minded focus impressive if it weren't so unsettling.

Then, she flinched violently, and her family turned towards her, worried.

"What's wrong, dear?" Laura asked. Lena blinked, then slowly began to speak as a rare smile crept across her face.

"It says I'm a Wizard now."