Absolute. Nothing. No sensation. No sound. No thought. Just... emptiness. A cold fear gripped me. What was happening? Was I dead? Was this the end? This total absence. It was terrifying. It lasted. How long? I didn't know. Time didn't exist here.
Then.
I opened. What? Eyes. Red. My vision flared to life. It was black. Then, a shape. A cave. Dark. Damp. I saw the rock. Strange formations. A faint, bluish light came from... somewhere. I didn't know where.
I was on a surface. Rocky. I felt a weight. Limbs. Thin. Articulated. They wouldn't obey me. I tried to move. A leg twitched. Abruptly. A metallic screech echoed. My own sound. Strange.
I thrashed. My limbs were a tangle of metal. I felt a smooth, round shell. A tail. It dragged. It hit the ground. Clang. Metallic. Was this me? I tried to coordinate these legs. I twisted. Fell a little. Got up. Every movement was a struggle.
I concentrated. Again. On the movement. Leg by leg. Slowly. One minute. Two. Three. Finally. I understood. How to propel myself. How to move forward. It was heavy. Clumsy. But I was moving.
Ahead, the ground sloped down. A faint light. It reflected. A puddle. A small pool of water. I moved towards it. My legs scraped the ground with a metallic sound. I stopped. At the edge.
I looked.
My reflection.
A sphere. Blue. Smooth. My single eye reflected as an intense blue point. Thin, articulated metallic legs, many of them. They were not human. A flexible metallic tail, ending in a sharp point.
This was me. A construct. A... monster. The coldness of the metal. The horror struck me. This wasn't Alistair. I was this.
Then. Information. Direct. Into what was my consciousness. Not a voice speaking to me. Just knowledge implanting itself.
[WELCOME. HOST DETECTED.]
[ANALYSIS COMPLETE.]
[YOU, ALISTAIR, DIED DUE TO AN EXPLOSION IN YOUR ORIGINAL REALITY.]
[REINCARNATION COMPLETE. YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS IS NOW LINKED TO A NEW ENTITY IN THE WORLD OF ELYSIUM.]
[ACCESSING SYSTEM.]
Dead. Explosion. Alistair. That's right. I remembered that. And I was reincarnated. In this thing. The shock left me speechless, with no concrete thoughts, just a wave of tremors that ran through my entire body. Elysium? What was that?
A luminous interface appeared. On my shell. I "saw" it.
[Status]
Name: One
Species: Spherical Droid Arachnoid
HP: 50/50
MP: 20/20
XP: 0/100
Level: 0
AP: 0
SP: 0
My name. One. My species. Spherical Droid Arachnoid. It made sense now. And it terrified me.
[Stats]
* STR (Strength): 5
* AGI (Agility): 5
* CON (Constitution): 5
* INT (Intelligence): 5
* MP (Mana Points): 5
HP (Health Points), my consciousness explained, was the amount of damage I could withstand before... dying again. The very idea made me shiver. MP (Mana Points), on the other hand, represented the raw energy used to fuel magic, a fundamental force omnipresent in Elysium. It was a power source, a conduit for supernatural abilities.
My Skills. A list. I had no idea how to use them.
* Sharp Tail Strike
* Electric Discharge (Cost: 10 MP)
* Material Analysis [Basic]
* Robotic Adaptation (Passive)
A notification. My first Quest.
[Quest: Awakening - Understand your new form.]
[Reward: 10 XP]
XP (Experience Points), the System detailed, were gained by defeating creatures or completing tasks. Accumulating enough XP would allow me to Level Up, increasing my base stats and granting AP (Ability Points) and SP (Skill Points) to further customize my growth. Quests, like the one I just received, were structured objectives designed to guide my progression and reward me.
A flood of information poured in, too fast, too vast. My head, or what served as it, throbbed. Questions sprang faster than I could form them. Elysium... That was the name of this world. A world where magic existed, where I was no longer human. I should breathe, but I had no lungs. The feeling of being an outsider, a monster, became overwhelming.
Who am I? Why me? And what kind of world is this?
The System, as if anticipating my panic, continued its explanations, attempting to structure the chaos within my consciousness.
[WORLD INFORMATION: ELYSIUM]
World Nature: Elysium is a vast and diverse world, saturated with mana, where magic is a palpable force that influences everything, from geography to life forms. It is a place of wonders and dangers, dominated by a single Dungeon.
Major Races:
* Humans: The most widespread race, adaptable and ambitious.
* Elves: Known for their affinity with nature and magic, living in deep forests.
* Dwarves: Masters of smithing and engineering, inhabiting under mountains.
* Beastfolk: Beings with animalistic features, often linked to tribes and natural cults.
* Demons: Originating from other planes, they are often linked to destruction and manipulation.
* Elemental Creatures: These are spirits or entities made of pure elements (earth, air, fire, water, etc.), whose essence is the element itself. They are rare and powerful.
Your Species: Spherical Droid Arachnoid
Your species is new and does not fall into the established categories of Elysium's major races. It appears to be the result of a unique convergence of technology and magic, or an anomaly in the reincarnation process. Its full classification and potential are not yet entirely defined by the System.
The Dungeon:
There is a single, colossal Dungeon in Elysium, extending deep beneath the world's surface. It is a living, immense structure, divided into 13 distinct strata, each deeper and more dangerous than the last. Each stratum is a self-contained ecosystem, with its own challenges and creatures.
This Dungeon is Elysium's most massive source of mana. The creatures living within it, including monsters, have a constant need for this energy to survive, reproduce, and evolve. Natural expanses and shallower passages connect this Dungeon to the surface, serving as entry points for adventurers and exit points for monsters that sometimes venture outside. It is in these transition zones that the majority of monsters are found.
The Era of the Twelve Plagues and The True Genesis:
Millennia ago, Elysium was ravaged by the Twelve Ancient Monsters, entities of colossal power and unprecedented destruction. They were walking cataclysms, each embodying an an aspect of terror or a destructive element. Their names are both legends and warnings:
* The Dragon of Apocalypse (Fire)
* The Leviathan of the Abysses (Water)
* The Titan of Earth (Earth)
* The Celestial Cyclone (Wind)
* The Devouring Shadow (Shadow)
* The Lightning of Ruin (Lightning)
* The Sand Worm (Sand)
* The Ice Golem (Ice)
* The Corrupting Swarm (Poisons)
* The Psychic Whisper (Spirit)
* The Sphinx of Truth (Illusion)
* The Devourer of Souls (Void)
These monsters reshaped the continent, annihilated civilizations, and left deep scars in the very fabric of Elysium. They are now dormant, or imprisoned. However, the threat of their influence still looms.
Currently, the Twelve Ancient Monsters are secretly working to create a thirteenth Ancient. Their goal: to trigger an apocalyptic event they call the True Genesis. This event promises to irreversibly reshape the entire world, unleash unprecedented catastrophes, and break the established balance. Its arrival will unleash a wave of mana of unparalleled intensity, making the Dungeon even more active and monsters more powerful, but also threatening to destroy what remains of Elysium.
My mind reeled. Humans, elves, dwarves... and me, a spider-like droid, a new species. A single, 13-stratum Dungeon beneath the world, with monsters spilling out onto the surface through vast expanses. Ancient monsters capable of destroying civilizations. And worse, these Twelve Ancient Monsters, actively working to create a thirteenth for a True Genesis that would destroy everything. This wasn't a dream. Panic surged, cold and relentless. How could a mere human like Alistair, who had lived a normal life on Earth, survive here? In this body? Against things like that? And a 13-stratum dungeon, each one more dangerous...
My fear was palpable, a searing ache in my new metallic body. But amidst this terrifying wave of information, a spark began to glow. The System had explained how this world worked, how I worked. There was no going back. Alistair was dead. I was One. And One had to survive.
This wasn't the life I had known, but it was the only one I had now. Fear would lead nowhere. Only understanding and strength would allow me to prevail. I had to master this body, these skills, and this System. I had to become powerful enough to face the dangers of this world, never again to know the helplessness of the void, nor the terror of being prey.
Understand. Yes. I had to understand every facet of my new existence. Every experience point, every skill, every evolution. I had to not only survive, but rise. Become something more.
My new quest, Awakening, asked me to understand my form. But my will extended beyond that. I wanted to understand this world, these Ancient Monsters, the True Genesis,and more.