Welcome challenger to the coliseum of death. As you have qualified to enter on the brink of death you have gained a bonus attribute. Welcome to the graveyard of mortals, challenger. May your fights be bloody and your death beslow.
The grey screen flickered in and out of vision in front of his eyes as he rapidly blinked
"Am I dreaming?" he thought while trying to blink away the unfamiliar light in front of him.
Welcome Clancy to the coliseum of mortals: activating selection screen in 3..2..1..
ERROR.ERROR.ERROR.
A sudden red flash hit his eyes as the error message blared across his vision and into his head. which confused him, why did it sound like it was coming from within his head?
Selection complete.
"Huh, what selection? I haven't done anything. Hello? Is someone playing a prank on me? Where am I?" he shouted frantically while trying to gather his senses. As he blinked away the flashing message he tried to look around but found nothing, a lightless void surrounded him in all directions.
Any hope of identifying where he was becoming fruitless as he felt nothing but his own heartbeat.
"Wait." he thought as he frantically reached for his neck. He ran his fingers along a rough feeling patch of skin.
"So, it wasreal." He thought running his hand along the scar running across his neck feeling his heart start to sink deeper in his chest.
Panic struck him as he remembered what he had been doing before being brought to this void. His heart sunk in his chest as he remembered...everything. He had died, or not really because this screen said he was qualified on the brink of death, whatever that meant.
Coming back to his senses he tried to focus on the screen as that was all he could see in this void.
Selection complete. All skills, attributes and spells selected.
Status screen:
Name: Clancy
Attributes: Child of Gravity
Active Skills: Focus
Spells: Whispers of Earth
The grey screen filled his vision as he tried to understand what he was looking at. Somehow this thing had gotten his name, and given him an attribute, skill and spell? Honestly he didn't have any ideas what he was looking at, but he didn't know what else to do so he tried to focus on his attribute to see if he could glean any information about it.
Attribute: Child of Gravity
As a child of Gravity, you were born to wield the power of gravity magic. Gravity mana naturally flows within you as though it were natural mana, all spells cast have an added Gravity affinity.
"Gravity mana? what the hell is this thing talking about? Mana as inmagic?" He had played enough video games in his life to know what mana meant, if it meant the same thing here as it did on earth. Confusion wrapped him as he tried to understand anything, what did it mean born to wield gravity?
He was born a normal person like anyone else, hadn't he? why was this..screen trying to tell him otherwise. He didn't know what to call the screen in front of him as he had never heard of something like this before.
Trying not to let the strangeness of this situation overcome him, he tried to focus on his only skill.
Active Skill: Focus
Allows the user to increase their mental focus slightly for a cost of stamina. Stamina cost relative to time spent using skill.
This one seemed far more straight forward then his attribute, for a cost of stamina, he could increase his mental focus slightly. Ignoring how bizarre that sounded he tried to keep his breathing steady, the thought of stamina brought a sudden shock of realization to him.
"Stamina, Mana, didn't this feel like a videogame?" He thought with a hint of excitement, he had spent a regrettable amount of time playing videogames in his early to late teens. with this thought he had centered himself and decided for now to treat this weird hallucination like a videogame.
With this thought in mind, he quickly went back to inspecting his status, focusing on the final line, his spell.
Spell: Whispers of Earth
Earth Whispers to very few, but all who hears her call grow because of it. For a large cost mana, you are able to slightly manipulate the Earth beneath you.
"Earth manipulation huh? That has to pair well with my gravity mana, right?" He thought excitedly after reading the description of his spell. All in all, whatever this screen was, the decisions it made were totally well thought out, well except for the focus skill, which he didn't see in as bright a light as the other 2.
Not having anything else on the screen to gain information before he was met with the lonely void once more. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't peer into the darkness and gain any information.
Darkness surrounded him as he tried to distract himself from the thought of what happened to him, he tried to remember the first thing the screen had said to him. Something about a coliseum of sorts, all he remembered was it had a gloomy name that didn't sound peaceful. Then again when in history had coliseums ever been a place of peace.
A lot had happened today that he was trying to cope with. First the gloomy storm, then the alley, then this. As time passed, he slowly started to accept what had happened in that alleyway, there was nothing he could do about it now. Either he was dead and this was heaven, or hell, or this weird screen was telling the truth, and he did qualify for some coliseum.
"Does that mean I have to fight people? Oh god, I can't fight." He began to worry at the thought of being forced to fight people.
He was not the best fighter by any means, he honestly had never gotten into a real fight before, just scuffles in high school that ended in him going to the nurse. He had zero talent for anything to do with fighting.
Suddenly he was reminded of his status, maybe these could help him fight.
"Wait, does everyone I fight get a set of these as well?" This thought confused him further, what was the scope of abilities someone could get?
"Is there a way to get more? Surely thereis." In most of the games he had played as a kid, there was always a way to get more skills. So surely, he could get more then these 3. The thoughts of running around with hundreds of skills fighting monsters, casting cool spells while fighting them valiantly.
He recognized that maybe sitting alone in this darkness was starting to make him a bit crazy, but he didn't know what else to do. As long as he didn't start seeing things he figured he would be ok.
"Wait, does this screen count as me seeing things? if so, maybe I'm already too far gone." That thought made him chuckle to himself. He started to try and distract himself with thoughts of his life on earth, when he was suddenly interrupted.
Additional Attribute ready.
You have gained an attribute: Fallen
Attribute: Fallen
Weakness comes at a cost, without interruption from the qualification system you would be dead. As payment for thisservice, you are unable to learn any new Attributes, Skills or Spells. Fortune favors the bold, and you have been labelled a coward.
Prepare for your grand entrance to the coliseum of mortals, remember to fightvaliantly, Fool.