As intrigued as Yu was of all that just happened, one thing caught his attention to the utmost extent right now; That was the shining glow, stemming from something on top of a pedestal. Yu didn't know if one could call that shimmering, it was more like a shining shadow. It was bright yet dark, blinding in light yet also in darkness. It had this purple sheen to it, softly calling out to him.
"What you are observing at this very moment is something which is referred to as a 'Rune'. Runes are a special unique item, developed by the Academia, to store skills and abilities within. We have made sure that your species is compatible with the rune and sufficiently integrated within the sys-"
All of a sudden, noises of static disconnection were audible again. Communications were cut off. What was that all about? An Academia? A school or university of some sort? What about all that talk of skills and abilities. All of this was confusing Yu. He knew he was human, but it seemed like there were other intelligent species that ARC was talking about? And there, at the very end; What did they mean by integration? Before Yu could continue his train of thought, the sound channel was reactivated, confirmed by yet another sound of crackling noises.
"I deeply apologize for my previous conduct. Please dismiss any of the previous information, as it is not relevant. Please step closer to the Rune."
Yu raised his eyebrows and made a mental note of what just transpired. Despite all that, he deemed it a wiser choice not to question it just yet and approached the rune. Stepping closer, he now clearly saw how the rune looked.
The thing ARC called a rune was shaped like an octahedron, with a prism like structure to it. Its purple shining darkness and engulfing brightness were concepts Yu was mesmerized by. The rune had a symbol on it, which at closer inspection looked like it depicted the Greek letter for 'Alpha' but slightly modified.
"So, what do I do with this now?" Yu asked hesitantly.
Silence.
ARC was not very helpful, Yu secretly thought to himself.
He stepped closer to the Rune and held out his hand, hesitant and in contemplation if touching this would be the right choice. But the smile on Yu's face made the decision for him; Reaching for the bright shadow, he touched the rune. That in itself sent a sensation through him that he has never felt before. As such, he didn't know how to put it into words. It felt neither good nor bad, neither comforting nor distressing. It was just there, and his body and mind made note of that. Yu grabbed the Rune, gripping it even harder. But, despite not even applying the slightest force, the rune shattered, its dark, fluid matter within dispersing into the environment. Not long after, this dark goo-like substance converged at a point overhead, before shooting in a straight line into Yu's body. Yu, expecting this to pierce his innards out, was surprised to feel the sensation of his body soaking up this strange material. Soon enough, the dark matter was nowhere to be seen, fully absorbed into his body, everything returning to 'normal'. But Yu didn't get any time to process what just happened, as just a second later he fell into a deep slumber.
Yet again Yu opened his eyes, a period of nothingness passing by, Yu sat up again, but this time all of what happened previously came to him immediately. Not just that, in his peripheral vision was a hovering window. Not an actual physical glass window, although it had a lot of reminiscence with a physical window in the way it was presented. It was more like an application window, a graphical interface of some sort, hovering out and about right there in front of him. It was an understatement to say that Yu wasn't extremely overwhelmed by this. A glass like interface, semi-opaque, with rounded corners and a grey tint to it. Perfectly utilising the three axes of space, the UI elements seem to recognise perspective, angles and depth, the elements positioning themselves accordingly. Yu stepped closer towards the floating window. He noticed the faint glow stemming from this aerial panel.
- Access to [wrld.sys] has been granted. Assigned user profile.
What did that mean? Yu's already enormous perplexity level reached new heights at the influx of this sudden, incomprehensible information. Wasn't ARC talking about some sort of system before? Yu tried to rack his brain whilst extending his finger towards to 'Okay' the window displayed right below that message, when he got hit with yet another window that left him completely dumbfounded.
Appraising
[Yu Kaedehara LV1]
XP: 51%
HP: 100%
SP: 55%
What? 'Appraising' it said. What exactly was it appraising? Himself? Yu glanced over all the visual pieces of information, trying to make sense of this entire thing, when he noticed an odd similarity of what was displayed to a popular choice of information display in a medium he personally indulged in and really liked, which was Video Games. The clues were all there, literally: An HP bar that likely signified his physical health, a meter displaying his – what he surmised – was his current experience level. This was all just video game stats. Was he in a game? Or a simulation? How was this possible? He tried grabbing his head with two hands and pulling upwards, as if to take off an imaginary headset but to no avail.
Everything that happened so far pointed very much into the direction of this being some sort of video game or a digital environment of some sort. If that was true, Yu was seriously impressed. The level of detail in his surroundings was very much life-like. Did he volunteer to test out a new type of technology? But why was his memory missing? Was him having artificially induced amnesia part of the agreement? Or even worse, was he held here forcefully? No matter how Yu thought about it, none of this all made sense to him in any shape, way, or form. How was all of this even possible in the first place? He vividly tried to remember the latest memories he had, before waking up in this place. He clearly remembered friends and family. He remembered Lia, his girlfriend and all the countless dates they've been on. He recognised the face of his mother. But when he tried to think even remotely about what the last thing was that happened to him, it was all a blur.
- A New Skill Has Been Learned.
Suddenly a new window popped up, telling Yu he'd learned something called a skill. In RPG's, skills were usually specific instances or sets of supernatural powers one's in-game character could acquire. And Yu learned one? A new window opened up, making the alert disappear. It was the same "Select" window as before but now, on the left top side, where a colored plain background was, was now a name. The name of his new skill.
[Shadow Weaver LV1]
An interesting name for sure. And 'LV1' it said. So, whatever this skill was, it had potential for growth. He proceeded to lift his finger, thinking about opening the skill menu. But before his hand was even halfway up, the menu opened itself.
Mental navigation, that's cool, Yu thought to himself.
The skill menu showed in detail how his skill worked.
[Shadow Weaver LV1]
The user gains the ability to manifest and control a special substance made out of an unknown material, including its physical state, viscosity, shape and more. The higher the level of this skill, the easier and more refined the control and viability of this substance becomes.
Yu could control a special substance? How would he even do that? He lifted his arms, trying to do anything that resembled super-powery movements, but it didn't work. He didn't even know what exactly was supposed to happen to him. In a last ditch effort, Yu called out to ARC.
"Hey, I need help. How do I use this new skill?"
There was silence for a little while before the crackling noise activated.
"In this world, using skills of any type or origin is supposed to feel and execute naturally. The skill and its requirements activate in a logical and natural sense, as if it was something one always knew how to do."
With that, the crackling noise disappeared.
'Skills of any type or origin'
Yu made note of this statement, before lifting his hand and closing his eyes. Shadow Weaver was described to have control over some sort of substance. So, was it rather liquid? A black, goo-like substance it was then. With his eyes closed and his arms extended into the air, Yu tried imagining a black mud-like goo, thick, liquid and everchanging. Opening his eyes, Yu saw clearly in front of him that his visualizations helped; The woven shadow was hovering just over his arm. Perfect, this worked out. In that case, wouldn't the next step be trying to change its state of matter? Yu should be able to do that. In the skill description, which was still hovering just a bit away overhead, the text read that he could change the goo's viscosity, shape, and matter state. Which meant, he should be able to change the state of the goo from viscous liquid to hardened solid. Yet again, he tried just that, trying to imagine something rather small and simple to harden into, like a cube. And yet again, it worked. But not without its flaws. It was clear that this ability needed lots of training and refinement, as the cube was very uneven and had different viscosities all around its body. Nonetheless it was a start.
"In order to fully test out this ability, please step into the chamber ahead."
Yu followed suit and walked, towards a new pathway that opened just ahead. He was now engulfed within darkness, as there were no light sources in this room ahead. Even the small light source from the room behind him disappeared as the door closed, leaving just Yu and the darkness.
"Please make it to the exit. Any further communications will be cut off until the exit point is reached. The requirements needed to solve this labyrinth style room are entirely provided with the skillset you have been entrusted with."
And with that, the crackling noise yet again signaled to Yu that he was alone again. A room full of darkness huh. And as Yu understood it, this was a Labyrinth to boot. So, how exactly should Yu find the exit in pure darkness? Even if his eyes adjusted to the darkness, which wouldn't magically give him night vision. Or would it? Yu suddenly had an idea. He opened Appraisal again, which was the skill that apparently accessed the underlying system for the stat and skill view. Opening the panel, he realized that the panel was clearly visible as it was dimly illuminated. But not just that, the light coming off of this panel seemed to slightly light the surroundings too. Perfect. He tested out a few things, to make sure he could reliably press onwards with this new discovery. When moving, the panel moved with Yu, like it was fixated to remain at a position relative to Yu. That was great, as he didn't have to stop to reopen the panel every time. The second useful revelation was, that Yu could adjust an open Appraisal panel by extending his hand towards it with an open hand, which seemed to signal to the panel that it was being interacted with. If he then clenched his fist, the panel was 'grasped' and ready to be moved around, just like a 'Drag And Drop' function in an operating system. This was odd. How did this technology work? Yu got all the more curious, but the time to think about that wasn't now. Using his combined newly learned knowledge, Yu continued on with the panel lighting his way. He couldn't see far, the light's radius from the panel was barely a few decimeters but it was enough for Yu to not walk face first into a wall.
After a while and a few twists and turns Yu seemed to be quite lost, as he was deep within the labyrinth with no sense of direction or a light source other than the Appraisal panel. He realized quickly that this wouldn't get him anywhere. As Yu would always do when he was at an impasse, he took a minute to retrace his steps for a different solution. Starting with the instructions from ARC. Yu realized very well by now that the way ARC gave their instructions was very much predetermined and formulated in a way that should give clues to the test subjects if read between the lines. So read between the lines Yu did.
'The requirements needed to solve this labyrinth style room are entirely provided with the skillset you have been entrusted with.'
This meant that his ability held the key to solving this room. But how would that help him now? Yu never properly inspected the skill list. He opened the Appraisal panel and accessed the skill list. That's where he saw a full list of the skills Yu had.
Skills:
- [x=n%]
- Appraisal LV1
- [Shadow Weaver LV1]
What? What was that weird formula? Yu was extremely dumbfounded to find such a thing in there. But trying to find out more or to appraise it didn't lead anywhere, as he always got the same answer.
- Entity Not Found
Yu supposed there wasn't much to find out here. The skill list was a bit unexpected but there was another sector that Yu seemed to have overlooked when initially looking through Appraisal, which was a sub sector named 'Titles.'
Titles:
! [Umbramonarch]
A title? What was that? It also seemed to need attention, as it was highlighted with an exclamation mark compared to the rest of the interactable elements in the system. Interacting with the title called 'Umbramonarch' opened a new window with a flood of messages:
- Title acquired. Skills [Ruler Of Night LV] and [Shadow Weaver LV1] attributed.
- Skill [Shadow Weaver LV1] was incorporated into pre-existing skill.
- "Skill [Shadow Weaver LV1] reached LV2.
With that, the window closed and only the title window was to be seen. The exclamation mark and with it the highlight of the title 'Umbramonarch' had disappeared. What exactly were titles? To find out, Yu inspected the title closer. Opening up the 'Umbramonarch' title revealed an explanation panel, just as with the 'Shadow Weaver' skill.
[Umbramonarch]
Title
The ruler of shadows. This title allows the holder to learn any shadow-based skill easier through proficiency and exert greater control over them. Awards skills 'Ruler Of Night LV1' and 'Shadow Weaver LV1'.
That was a lot to unpack. So, there were titles and skills. To Yu's understanding, skills were predetermined functions that use some sort of supernatural powerset. Titles seemed to be purely ornamental at first, but 'Umbramonarch' seemed to be quite the title. Ruler of shadows? The edginess ramped up by a lot here. Anyhow, titles can contain skills too as it seemed. He inspected the skills he gained. Opening the skill window, Yu indeed gained another level of his main skill. Seemed like acquiring skills one already had resulted in an additional level. What was the other skill Yu gained?
[Ruler Of Night LV1]
First stage of the 'Night' series. [Ruler Of Night] consolidates all night-based skills. [Ruler Of Night] includes the following skills:
- [Night Vision LV 1]
- [Nocturnal Endurance LV1]
- [Moonlight Grace LV1]
- [Stealth LV1]
- [Echolocation LV1]
- [Shadow Step LV1]
Those were a lot of skills. So, this was something called a consolidation skill. A skill which had not a direct purpose in and of itself other than grouping together multiple skills under one umbrella. Purely based off of the skill list, one might think Yu was going for a stealth build. Maybe that wouldn't be so bad after all?
But alas, finally Yu had what he needed to essentially even start to make out his way out of this labyrinth. Namely, the 'Night Vision' skill. Yet again, just as with Shadow Weaver, he imagined himself using this skill as if it were natural. Trying to not embrace the light on his membranes, but the everlasting darkness itself. And it worked; Suddenly he was able to see most details about his surroundings clearly. It wasn't the same as with regular light, but Yu assumed that with further levelling, this skill would become quite useful in the future.
Now that Yu could see, Yu investigated his current whereabouts. As presumed, he was deep within a labyrinth with no clear sense of direction , even with the light. The walls towered high, so high that Yu could not see the end to them when he looked up. Currently the only pathways open to him were the one up front or he could go back again. Considering he didn't exactly know what he missed on his way so far, that could very well also be a viable choice. After careful consideration (which technically was a lie as he), he pressed onward, further into the direction he was already headed in.
It had been quite some time since Yu made his grand discoveries about his skills and titles yet there didn't seem to be any progress regarding the exit whatsoever. The individual straight pathways of the labyrinth were so long that it took him half an hour-ish to clear just one. What Yu did notice though, was that there were occasional torches hanging on the walls whereas other pathways didn't have that. But the torches were so rare and far apart that it didn't make real sense to orient oneself on these. Yu kept walking, thinking about everything he found out so far. Whatever this was, be it another world, a simulation or just a spaceship or hidden bunker or whatever, this place ran on a system, like a computer program or a video game system. Specifically reminiscent was this Appraisal system to the latter, with a rather RPG style assortment. There were status bars signifying various aspects to Yu's condition, skills that were predetermined functions that interact with the world on a supernatural level and titles that Yu didn't fully understand yet except that those had the ability to give him further skills. To find out more about this, Yu seemed to have to make it out of here first though. He decided to inspect all the skills that 'Ruler Of Night' gave him during his leisurely stroll.
So, 'Night Vision' seemed pretty self-explanatory. Using it now, Yu thought so too.
'Nocturnal Endurance' was a skill that was interesting. It reduced the exhaustion rate of stats by 10% during the night or in clearly dark areas.
Similarly, 'Moonlight Grace' regenerated HP and ?? at the rate of 5% every second.
Whatever ?? was, Yu didn't have access to that resource as it seemed.
'Stealth' was pretty cut and dry too. It reduced the possibility of detection by obscuring his sound and visuals by 10%.
'Echolocation' also seemed quite useful, as Yu was able to 'see' with sound through this ability, similarly to how bats substitute their lack of vision. At level one, he could substitute around 10% of his vision with pure sound.
But 'Shadow Step' was definitely one of the most intriguing powers on this list. He could briefly step into a shadow and instantaneously reappear wherever there was another shadow cast. That was a useful skill for short range teleportation.
With all these skills, Yu thought he might actually be off to quite a strong start. Whatever came, by the sounds of it those challenges were all tailored towards his powerset, so shouldn't he be able to clear them all? Yu had all these skills, like Night Vision or Echolocation…
Echolocation.
There was a singular torch on one of the walls of some pathways. If Yu's bet was correct following those would be the key to getting out. But with Night Vision alone he wouldn't get far, as each torch was too far away from another to properly follow a path. But that changed with Echolocation. Yu immediately closed his eyes, trying to use his Echolocation to find the next torch around him. He couldn't immediately make it out but after a while of focusing he could visualize the faint crackling sound of fire in the distance. Now, opening his eyes, something odd happened; He could see the outline of the torch through the walls. He had to actively focus on it, but he could visualize it through solid matter. All of a sudden, an Appraisal panel opened up.
Skill Synergy found.
- Skills [Night Vision LV1] and [Echolocation LV1] have been consolidated into [Night Perception LV1]
Interesting. Skills that synergize well can be automatically converted into one. So now Yu owned Night Perception. At closer inspection it said the following:
[Night Perception LV1]
The user can use all their senses heightened and/or extended in the absence of light.
This was perfect. The outline of the torch started to waver a bit, so Yu strengthened his focus on that point, to which the outline reacted with becoming stronger. With this, coming by the next fork within the labyrinth, he knew which path to take as the torches were only on one of the paths. Slowly making his way through the at this point uneventful labyrinth, he made it to the final pathway, where he was able to see a big door that was lit up with torches all around. When Yu approached the door, a familiar crackling noise started to play yet again.
"Very good, you have made it to the end. I would like to hereby congratulate you for the excellent use of your wit in figuring out how to use the tools provided to you."
"Thank you, I guess" Yu responded calmly.
By now, Yu has gotten used to the mechanics of how this entire testing situation worked. If this stayed just a test of wits, then Yu thought there would be nothing that could stand in his way.
"As you might have surmised, this test chamber was specifically designed around your given skills. The requirements for testing were a calm wit and a mind that can connect the dots, which you have proven you have."
Yu felt kind of weird about all the praise. Sure, he might be smart, but he sensed something coming.
"As we believe we have tested the factor of intelligence enough, we are now going over to the next phase."
With that, the giant door opened outwards slowly, showing a dimly lit, elongated room behind it. But that was not what got Yu sweating all of a sudden. Behind those doors were multiple traps set throughout what seemed to be a parkour course. And little turret-like robots, all with a laser pointer aiming for Yu.
"Welcome to the ARM Facility."