John floated above his sleeping mother while going through his Guide. The way in which he interacted with the Guide was instinctive and intuitive, but very strange.

  The Guide lacked what he would consider a regular interface. There were no screens, no floating words in his vision, and no voice. Though options for such did exist. Instead the Guide was a distinct Presence within his mind. He could ask questions and get detailed responses back, but the responses felt like remembering something instead of say reading something. Sometimes there were feelings, images, sounds, and other rich sensory experiences in the new memories.

  He learned that the Goddess had given him 5 Precursor Traits based on the qualities of a long dead race of System Engineers. The Traits were called Precursor's Metamorphosis, Innate Linguistics, Duality, Spiritual Independence, and Inherent Magicality. Each Trait increased one of his 5 Prime Stats by 5 points, gave an Essence Attunement, a Skill, and 5 points in that Skill.

  Based on the Traits and Skills the Precursor's had been an odd, but powerful race. They were natural shapeshifters and incredible linguists. They likely made excellent spies and infiltrators. Their ability to split their minds between physical and spiritual bodies and have those bodies act independently had to have created a rather strange society. Finally the ability to see and manipulate Essence when most could barely sense it had to have given them a distinct advantage.

  The Precursor's heritage was now a part of the man formerly known as John. He was conflicted about the Traits. They would make him different from anyone on the planet, a unique existence. This created a sense of loneliness that broke through the numbed emotions of his Spirit form and reminded him that his family on Earth was lost to him potentially forever as his soul no longer part of Earth's Cycle.

  Reviewing his Traits led him to exploring what the Guide had to say about Prime Stats. There were 5 Prime Stats: Body, Social, Mind, Spirit, and Magic. John noted that the number 5 appeared strangely important to the System considering how often it came up in the Guide.

  According to the Guide his Stats could be improved by using Cultivation and Essence. The Guide explained that Attuned Essence would be more efficient than Personal Essence for Cultivating Stats related to that Attunement. His Traits gave him access to Vital, Charm, Psychic, Spirit, and Arcane Essence for Cultivating the Body, Social, Mind, Spirit, and Magic Stats respectfully.

  His 50 total Essence, half of which was Attuned, required active Cultivation to restore for some reason he couldn't find. There were various options for acquiring Essence such as Ambient Essence, Essence Crystals, and even foods to name a few sources. Stats could be Cultivated either by circulating Essence while performing related activities or by spending Essence directly on upgrades at Shrines. The first was by far more effective and efficient.

  It seemed growth along the Five Fold Path would require massive amounts of Essence overtime. Luckily the Guide let him know Body Cultivation extended lifespans significantly. This led to John to look into and study the effects of Stats and Cultivation, which were both fascinating and exciting.

  Body Cultivation would make his physical body better. Increased strength, speed, endurance, durability, and general health were all possible among many other improvements. At the extreme end supernatural feats like force projection, touch based telekinesis, and other more exotic abilities like weight reduction were available as Skills. He could choose a Body focused Path, which appeared like focused attribute builds.

  The information on Body Cultivation showed John images of people of multiple races doing amazing things. There were healers that used Vital Essence to accelerate natural healing. Farmers that used it to grow better crops. There were martial artists that could break stones with their fists and others who could lift objects that should have been impossible to move. John’s favorite was a female dancer who could make herself light enough to dance on a breeze and land on a flower without crushing it.

  Focusing on Social Cultivation would make him more attractive, his voice more alluring, and even make him smell better. However, the truly significant impact seemed to be on how it could be used to influence others through vibration. By speaking, gesturing, singing, dancing or playing musical instruments Social Cultivators could change how others felt or acted. At the extreme end they could create compulsions and illusions. One image was particularly striking as it showed a high level Social Cultivator who rallied a rag tag group of rebel peasants and routed a professional army who fled in fear from the peasants with makeshift weapons.

  If he chose Mind Cultivation he could improve his memory; making memorization and recall easier. He could also improve his ability to process more information faster and even help him focus. Other possibilities included improving coordination, reflexes, and even enhancing how the senses are processed. Mind Cultivators could act as living libraries, exceptional scholars, extraordinary teachers, and tap into the Astral Plane to gather information. At the extremes it became possible to gain psychic-like abilities to read minds or even probe the memory of a rock. The Guide showed people having nightmares turned into pleasant dreams, lies exposed in court, questions answered on a hill, and even a man adding to a history text based on the impressions gleaned from a sword used in the battles.

  Of the types of Cultivation he looked at so far Spirit Cultivation was the most mystical and esoteric in nature. It would improve his ability to connect, commune, and channel the power of various non-corporeal entities; be they gods, demons, devas, or even the dead. Spirit Cultivation was the realm of priests, clerics, shamans, ritualists, necromancers, and many other spiritual roles. The only way to describe the extreme end of Spirit Cultivation was miraculous. Through their links to gods they could perform literal miracles from heaven.

  Magic Cultivation would improve his ability to work with Essence itself and the various techniques used to manipulate it while creating tangible effects. Witches, Alchemists, Wizards, and Mages of all sorts Cultivated Magic. Through talent, practice, or study Magic Cultivators could do virtually anything with enough knowledge and Essence. Though the need for specific types of essence, the use of spell languages, runes, rituals, and other paraphernalia were needed for the greatest feats of Magic. The Guide conjured scenes of Mages turning deserts green, forests into ash, and shaping stone like clay among many other amazing feats.

  The possibilities excited John greatly. Here with the Guide, Essence, and Cultivation one could do practically anything even achieve immortality and godhood. Of course there were plenty of limits, constraints, and rules. It would take a lot of time and effort to reach such dizzying heights, but it was possible.

  John knew now that his Traits gave him a significant headstart over others when it came to Stats. He had the equivalent of years of Cultivation and thousands of Essence in essentially free Stats.

  The next thing to catch John’s attention were his new Skills. If one counted Cultivation he had 11 out of 31 possible Skills. The Guide specific Skills were another reminder of the video game-like nature of the System.

  The Analyze Skill seemed to work like an identify ability and provided various levels of details based on personal knowledge, other Skills, and access to System databases. Of course the Quarantine Protocols blocked most of the database feature.

  The Loot Skill would let someone extract Essence from objects, dismantle things based on related skills like harvesting or skinning, and even pay Essence to extract metal from ore. Of course the last option was also not available due to the Quarantine Protocols.

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  John had a particular interest in the Inventory Skill from his tabletop gaming days in college and the famous bags of holding from role playing games. This Skill gave him access to a personal dimensional pocket maintained by the System and linked to his Essence Core. Unfortunately, the Protocols prevented the System from maintaining the space, but it had a manual option.

  He could personally maintain the dimensional pocket by paying Essence, but the cost depended on the size and mass of what he stored, which could make it a very expensive Skill to use constantly, which he wanted to.

  The Map Skill seemed simple. It worked like a mini map charting his travels. Under the Protocols it could only map what his senses picked up. Before it could tap into the constantly updated System databases. The Quarantine Protocols seemed to hobble the Guide Skills. He wondered how many other functions were impacted.

  The last Skill Timekeeping was a clock and calendar combination that could provide information like time, season, and so forth. It used sensory cues like sunlight to calibrate itself without being able to query the system infrastructure. With the System database access the skill was apparently more accurate.

  The Skills he got from his Traits were more interesting than the Guide Skills. The possibilities were enticing.

  The Shapeshifting Skill from Precursor's Metamorphosis would allow him to change his appearance and eventually mass. He could even have one preset form per point in the Skill. As the Skill advanced he could make more drastic changes and develop more preset forms. It would be a very cool skill if he had a body to use it on right now.

  Precursor's Innate Linguistics gave the similarly named Polyglotism Skill, which would come in very handy as he doubted English was the primary language of Sierrallas. He could use the Skill to rapidly learn new languages over time. It seemed to be able to grant understanding without necessarily knowing a specific word. He could learn a new language for each point in the Skill. That seemed like a lot to John until he remembered there were hundreds of languages on Earth.

  One of two Skills responsible for his current state of existence was the Split Mind Skill from Precursor's Duality. It gave him the ability to split his mind in two and with the help of the Spirit Walking Skill, from Precursor's Spiritual Independence, meant his consciousness was currently a floating incorporeal ball of whatever spirits are made of. The real concern is what happens when his physical body develops.

  Essence Perception was the last Trait granted Skill from Precursor's Inherent Magicality. It let him percieve what others could barely sense. With concentration he could percieve Essence in the air, in objects, and even living things. It was beautiful and one of the few Skills he could use actively while essentially trapped in a room with his new mother.

  —

  With his review of the main parts of the Guide done; John turned his attention to the room he was in and tested the few Skills he could.

  He used Analyze on his mother first. It told him that she was named Shinobin Aseralis, was a member of the Wylderfolk ethnic group, and was approximately 40 years old, around 5’10” tall, and about 165lbs. The problem of course was that she looked like she was in her late teens or early twenties and her weight seemed too high for her appearance. The coincidence of getting 5 pieces of information wasn't lost on John. He also noticed that he only got information he could easily learn or guess on his own.

  He used the Analyze Skill over various objects and examined the room with Essence Perception. It appeared that most of the furniture was made out of Wyldwood and that there were a number of enchanted objects in the room.

  There was an unusual lack of metal, glass, and ceramics. The furniture was rustic yet exceptionally well-made. The bedding consisted of quality cloth made of something called Jucha Fibers, which seemed to be a plant.

  A quilted blanket reminded him of something his grandmother might have made on Earth, but used irregular fabric sections rather than perfect squares, creating a more organic appearance. A small glassless window sat just beneath the ceiling. The walls were made of smooth grey stone blocks with irregular polygonal shapes, each about 18 inches in diameter with no visible mortar.

  Smaller, darker, decorative stones with irregular polygonal shapes comprised the floor, but were covered by a woven rug in natural colors. Everything was in browns, oranges, beiges, greens, greys, and off-white colors ie Earthy natural colors.

  A thick door of Wyldwood with a roughly arched shape was surrounded by a frame of bent wooden logs. Thick logs and tightly packed thatch like material made up the ceiling. All the woodwork was smooth and polished yet retained the irregularities of natural shapes and appeared to have been bent to form and fused together. The construction method baffled him.

  Using Essence Perception to peer inside things, he found no metal, glue, mortar, or glass in the room's construction beyond the bronze door hinges, handle, and a small bronze mirror that hung over a polished stoneware basin.

  There were markings on the enchanted objects. His Polyglotism Skill and Analyze let him know the language was called the Lingua Arcana, but not the meaning of the symbols. Similar markings surrounded the window frame, door, and other places around the room. The markings resembled decorative runes and scrollwork from Earth.

  There were no electronics or machines of any sort—not even candles or oil lamps.

  By Earth standards, the room was simple and rustic, but spotlessly clean. Everything was well-built but neither obviously machine-made nor hand-made. He wondered if Sierrallas was a primitive world and worried his physical self might face a lack of modern comforts. He couldn't reconcile how a primitive world could have an AI overseer like the Guide System.

  After using Analyze and Essence Perception a couple dozen times John discovered that his Personal Essence, Mind Essence, and Arcane Essence were depleted when he experienced an odd pain while trying to use a Skill. Analyze had used Mind Essence until he ran out, Essence Perception used Arcane Essence. When those two resources were depleted they had used Personal Essence, but less efficiently.

  With no other options for entertainment John chose to use his Cultivation Skill to restore his Essences. When he activated the Skill his world seemed to shrink, his focus sharpened. There were eddies of Essence all around him moving in a languid dance that he could sense without actively using Essence Perception albeit at very short range. The Cultivation Skill encouraged him to reach for one of the eddies and draw it into himself. The Skill then processed the energy in a way he couldn't follow before a tingle ran through his consciousness as his Essence increased by one.

  He deactivated the Skill to focus on what it had felt like, but got distracted by the Guide letting him know he had been in a meditation-like trance for 20 minutes. He was somewhat dumbfounded as it had felt like moments, but the real problem was how long it took to restore a single Essence. At 3 Essence an hour it would take him 8 hours to return to full. He really hoped leveling Cultivation improved the restoration rate.

  The Guide helpfully let him know he could invest 1000 Essence to raise his Cultivation Skill by 1 point or spend 100 hours actively using the Cultivation Skill to restore his Essence to achieve the same effect. The numbers for Stat and Skill growth were the same.

  With this new knowledge he appreciated his Trait bonuses even more. According to the Guide everyone started with a single point in each Stat and Skill. John started with 5 in each or 20 more than most. Based on his new understanding it would have taken 20,000 Essence or 2,000 hours of Cultivation to achieve those same results. Working 12 hours a day for 6 months straight would have been required to reach the same level of development essentially for free.

  This led to looking into what the numbers in the Guide meant. Why was his Level 5? Turns out Level was a measure of your total Stats averaged. His 50 total Essence was based on Level times 10 and each Attunement represented 10 of his total Essence pool.

  He would have to do more testing with other Essence sources, but it seemed that Ambient Essence was an inefficient method of Cultivation. He wondered if there were areas with more abundant or easily assimilated Essence or if the efficiency was purely skill based. Only time and testing would answer his questions. In the meantime he planned to Cultivate until his mother woke up.

  —

  Status Sheet

  Name

  Age

  Race

  Height

  Weight

  Level

  Total Essence

  Personal Essence

  Attunements

  Vital Essence 5/5

  Charm Essence 5/5

  Mind Essence 5/5

  Spirit Essence 5/5

  Arcane Essence 5/5

  Traits

  Precursor's Metamorphosis

  Precursor's Innate Linguistics

  Precursor's Duality

  Precursor's Spiritual Independence

  Precursor's Inherent Magicality

  Prime Stats

  Body [5]/0

  Social [0]/5

  Mind [0]/5

  Spirit [0]/5

  Magic [0]/5

  Skills

  Cultivation 1

  Guide Skills

  Analyze 1

  Loot 1

  Inventory 1

  Map 1

  Timekeeping 1

  Path Skills

  Class Skills

  Profession Skills

  General Skills

  Shapeshifting 5

  Polyglotism 5

  Split Mind 5

  Spirit Walking 5

  Essence Perception 5