Origin ARS 5 (4 page)

Scott checked the salvation mirror since
something he remembered something that he had heard from Rhea
before reincarnating. “Sweet! Unarmed combat and twilight sorcery
increased!”

“The experience pulse must have caught up.
Good job.” said Mid.

Experience in this world did not accrue
instantaneously. It pulsed slowly and filled invisible experience
pools. It was possible to fill those pools and not know it. If that
happened someone would waste time and energy if they continued to
grind a specific skill or spell. A person’s class level determined
how large the various experience pools were, while intellect
determined how much experience was absorbed during each pulse.

It all happened behind the scenes. Only
things like the development of a headache or becoming incapable of
concentrating effectively would give a clue that such a point had
been reached. Again, it was to simulate realism.

Those pools of experience were important to
remember, as there were actually three of them for his character
level. He had pools to fill for skill development, combat actions,
and social interaction. He could not simply murder fluffy woodland
creatures and rocket up the level ladder. He had to actually
interact with the world and develop his skills. In short, he had to
live an actual life instead of hunt all of the time.

Luckily, taking and completing quests counted
as social interaction. He could work on everything at once if he
took on a lot of jobs and spent a little down time afterward
hanging out in various places in town.

He could also gain social interaction
experience from coming to a personal understanding, or rather
mental and emotional growth counted as social experience as well.
Expanding his general knowledge of the world through literature and
listening to stories could also work. Basically, social experience
was acquired during moments of living life outside of skill and
combat development.

Scott moved back to his training spot and
started to work on developing his spell once more. This field was
in a place outside of normal time and space. He could take as long
as he needed to develop his initial abilities and no sense of time
would actually pass.

He took a moment to calm himself and to begin
to control his breathing. With each breath he became more in touch
with his inner thoughts. He was able to focus on connecting with
the lightning in the world around him and within his soul. It took
a moment to recreate the blurring palm strike image he had used
before, but once he did the rest of the spell pattern clicked into
place. The surge began once more. His palms shot out at a rapid
pace.

After a while he started to add his mana to
the flow to further empower the spell. The weak skitter of
electricity increased in intensity. Soon it became a steady arc of
power that snapped and buzzed.

It became obvious after a while, however,
that he was missing something in the equation. His aura was what
actually maintained the electrical arc. His palms were merely used
to maintain circulation of his aura. They were more of a
concentration tool at this point that an active part of the
spell.

Scott concentrated on the pattern of his
spell, the movement of his hands, and the circulation of the
lightning. It was not enough. He needed more power, more mana.
“Could it be so simple?”

He stopped for a moment and changed tactics.
Instead of merely repeating the pattern constantly, he focused
entirely on drawing his mana to a single point within his body. In
this case, that point was within his chest. He continued to focus
on increasing the concentration of mana at that point until he
could not draw more, until it became difficult to even hold it
there. He could feel some of it start to slip away as his
concentration scrambled to keep up with the flow.

A lot of that mana was lost when he tried to
split his attention and focus on the lightning energy, and his
spell focus. As that mana drifted away in large amounts Scott began
to feel strange. The bizarre feeling started as an itch along his
spine and a sensation of his body heating up. He ignored it at
first, as that was something he had felt before when he had used
his new spell for a lengthy time period.

He became alarmed when things rapidly
changed. In the space of a few seconds, his fingertips became numb,
his vision blurred, and his heart began to beat erratically.

Scott gasped loudly then clutched at his
chest. The rest of the mana that he had drawn erupted outward and
flooded his body system. He could not even scream due to the sudden
pain overwhelming his senses.

He fell to the ground and gasped like a fish.
He could not speak and could barely move. His body could not
determine if it was burning hot or freezing cold. Soon, it no
longer mattered.

[System Notice]

You have died.

You will resurrect in five minutes. Death penalties
will not apply due to your current location.

Please be more careful with your precious life. I am
lazy and would prefer not to take your soul to meet my sister in
the afterlife. (She has a boyfriend now anyway, but don’t tell her
that I told you.)

~ Silence, God of the End

[—]

Scott awoke in a dark, lonely, place. It was
not his house on Earth. It was nothing really, just black space
with neither light nor sound. He was barely coherent, but the few
minutes that he spent in that omni-present darkness were distinctly
uncomfortable.

He awoke again, this time with a start and a
jerk as he bolted upright. He blinked rapidly then felt at his
body.

“Welcome back.” said Mid in an amused tone of
voice.

“The hell was that?” he asked.

Before Mid could say anything a little blue
screen rose up, surprising the man once more. He had seen many of
them in his recent life, but this was something new.

[Achievement Unlocked]

This. Is.
ARS.

[—]

There was an image of Scott clutching his
chest, a ridiculous look of terror on his face, positioned below
the apparent achievement. “What the hell is
this
?”

Mid laughed musically. “You gained your first
achievement.”

“Achievement?”

“Yes, you died doing something stupid so you
earned the achievement: This. Is. ARS.” said Mid, as though that
really explained anything.

“This… Are those worth anything?”

“They’re just fun things that people like to
collect. You only get bragging rights for them.” she said.

“So, only fun. No stat boosts or anything?”
asked Scott. He was aware of the concept of achievements. A lot of
games had such a system. He just hoped he would get something out
of his first death other than a goofy picture of himself clutching
his chest in terror.

“That’s why they show up on a menu screen.
They can be turned on or off, though they are still earned
regardless of that fact.”

Another thought occurred to him then. “I’m
naked?”

“Oh yes.” said Mid with a mischievous
grin.

Scott nodded slowly, his thoughts had already
turned to what had happened. “Why did I die?”

Mid stared at him. “You don’t know?”

“No, if I did I wouldn’t need to ask that
question.”

“Ah, that’s right. You spent so much time on
the casual server where everything is done through system
assistance that you never really learned how magic works.” said
Mid. “It’s a common problem.”

“OK, so what’s the solution to that common
problem?”

“Time and training. You might also want to
stop charging your mana as high as you did. There is no possible
way that you can hold that much power while trying to cast an
incomplete spell.”

“I killed myself because I overloaded my body
with mana?” he asked.

“Yes, you fried your nervous system and your
organs failed. You probably developed a lot of internal burns and
bled profusely to go with it. Go see for yourself.” Mid pointed to
an object nearby and Scott turned to look at it.

His eyes widened. “Shit, it’s me.”

“Oh yes, that is the well-cooked corpse that
you left behind. When you are resurrected outside of a holy place,
or a low-quality resurrection spell is used, a new body is
generated in the closest system designated holy place.” said
Mid.

"Is it really resurrection if I get a new
body?" he asked slowly.

"What's life without a little arbitrary
whimsy?" she asked lightly. "In order to restore your old body, the
one doing the restoration would have had to use either an extremely
intricate resurrection spell, or multiple lesser spells."

"Why?" he asked.

"Dear childe, look at your corpse."

Scott walked over to the overdone corpse of
his former life. His body was a mass of bruises and cuts, the eyes
were a disturbing ruin, and his fingernails had fallen off for some
reason. His corpse had an appearance similar to what he believed he
would look if he had been treated like a piece of link sausage that
was tossed into a microwave.

“That’s just morbid.” he said.

"It's also extensive damage. A healer would
need to protect your body from being possessed by spirits, heal the
damage to the extent that it can be re-invigorated, call your
spirit from the beyond, reinitiate the silver cord that connects-"
Mid rattled off a list of things that a healer would have to do to
resurrect his corpse on the spot and Scott drew a mental blank. It
sounded like a lot of work.

"So, basically, resurrection is easier if the
one doing it simply casts a spell to have a new body prepared?"
asked Scott.

"Absolutely. It is mostly used by priest or
monk type characters with a divine connection. Basically, the
system just generates a new body for the deceased's soul to
inhabit, and the resurrecting party loots the previous corpse."

"Corpse looting..." Scott muttered. This was
all a convenient way to force people to traipse through dangerous
areas to try and regain their stuff after they died! Unless there
was a dedicated individual in a party who can resurrect the dead,
there was no point in even bothering with a corpse run as anyone
else would just take what they wanted from the person they had
resurrected.

That was the major reason behind the fact
that player killing was more common on the classic server. There
was no system in place to protect your items. If a person was
killed, the killer could loot them with impunity and all in the
name of realism.

“You might want to loot your corpse dear. I
don’t mind seeing your business, but my cute little sister might
become jealous.” said Mid while eyeing the imagery before her.

Scott closed his eyes. That was right, he did
feel a refreshing breeze at the moment.

He bent down, and quietly ignored Mid’s
sweetly proclaimed, “Oh goodness.” He then set about stripping his
corpse of valuables. He was thoroughly disgusted by what he saw
after pulling his pants off.

“Oh god. I am not putting those things back
on.” Scott turned away from the ruination that his underwear barely
kept in check. He had lost all control of his bowels and bladder
during his idiotic death.

Mid chuckled. “A soldier going commando, such
a rarity.”

Scott could not help but laugh at the
silliness of that comment. He put on his simple noob clothes. They
were plain white items which consisted of a cotton tunic, loose
cotton pants, cotton socks, and a pair of cream colored shoes that
were not made of cotton in any form. The cotton underwear had been
left in place due to extenuating circumstances. None of his current
items were clean, nor had they been before his death. However, they
were far more tolerable than the underwear. He then turned to face
Mid. “Alright, guess I’m ready to try again.”

“Take your time dear. I’m enjoying myself.”
she grinned at him then leaned against her staff.

“I bet you are.” he said with a smile.

Scott stepped away from his corpse then took
a deep breath. He winced immediately afterward. “Damn.”

He moved away from his corpse to find a more
pleasant location. His old body had started to stink, though the
scent that assailed his nostrils had mostly been from what his old
cotton underwear had held at bay.

Mid laughed at his plight for a moment. The
situation was too funny.

Now that a decent distance had been gained
from his former body, Scott was able to try again. He could not die
for good here, so it was best to work out the kinks in his magical
knowledge before he left. The same sort of process would happen for
Ero and Herbert as well. The three of them were separated for the
duration of the opening tutorial, but they would all arrive in ARS
proper together at the same time. By the time they stepped into the
world for real, they would know exactly what they needed to do in
order to use their skills and abilities.

He began to center himself and focus on
breath control once more. He had died before because he had taken
on too much, too soon. This time he decided to try increasing the
mana charged and stored in small increments.

Scott centered the mana in his chest once
more, and drew on just enough to maintain the energy stored there.
He then connected with the lightning element and began the process
of surging his energies once more.

The twilight master experimented with several
things. He tried to create the surging palm spell pattern first and
then shoved the mana into the spell. That had resulted in an
agonized scream as his arms sped forward uncontrollably. He had
been forced to lie down and rest to restore his torn muscles and
ligaments to good health.

After he recovered, he tried a similar
tactic. Except, instead of dumping the mana into his spell pattern
all at once, he released it in small increments. The results were
better, but a bit lackluster.