0. Alive Again

0. Alive Again

“I’m alive...again?” Adam’s eyes fluttered open, though he quickly regretted it as the sun’s rays pierced his eyes, in the way that it would after a good night’s sleep. He brought up an arm to shield himself, rolling over onto his side.

As he did, the world froze before him.

Roll your dice.

“...”

He tried to open his mouth to speak, but he couldn’t. As much as he willed his mouth to open, it refused to move.

Nothing moved.

Master Time had brought his attention to the world, allowing Adam to roll his character before he could set off on his journey.

“You’re late,” Mistress Fate said, pouring some sugar into her tea. “He’s already in the world.”

“Is that my fault?” Master Time asked. “Who was it that-“

Chaos cleared his throat. “Thank you, Master Time.”

Mistress Fate smirked, stirring the sugar into her tea. “Yes, thank you. I’m ever so grateful whenever you stop time for me.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Master Time disappeared to his own realm immediately after, not wanting to get caught up in their mess. He had already given so much power to the world, even if it was just a drop in the bucket compared to what he could do. Still, there were ruled to be followed, Laws to uphold.

“Must you always bother him?” Chaos asked her.

“Bothering him? I never bother my dearest Master Time. If I was bothering him, you’d know.” She smiled innocently, a smile which hid the deaths of countless worlds.

Chaos sighed. “Am I to remain here?”

“Please,” Mistress Fate replied, nodding her head. “If something interesting happens, please call for me.” She placed down a cup of tea for Chaos, and left him unsupervised with the newly made world.

Chaos picked up the tea cup and sipped the tea. It was sweet. So sweet. He could feel an itch begin to invade him, and he cast his eyes towards the world once again.

Roll your dice.

‘How am I meant to roll the dice if I can’t move?’

‘With your mind, obviously.’

Adam had forgotten what the voice sounded like the moment it had pierced his mind, but that wasn’t important in the moment. He willed the dice to move within his mind.

Rolling

4d6d1 = 12 (1, 2, 4, 6)

4d6d1 = 15 (1, 3, 6, 6)

4d6d1 = 17 (1, 5, 6, 6)

4d6d1 = 16 (1, 5, 5, 6)

4d6d1 = 15 (1, 4, 5, 6)

4d6d1 = 12 (1, 2, 4, 6)

‘Holy!’ He couldn’t believe the rolls.. ‘I have never rolled so well in my entire life!’ He blinked, mentally, because he was still frozen in time, and wondered if maybe something had gone wrong.

‘Did I do something wrong in my previous life that I...’ He eventually recalled how he came to be reborn into his third life, and the rolls sweetened the bitterness he felt.

12, 12, 15, 15, 16, 17.

These rolls were a little too good for his liking. Adam could only think about what kind of life he was going to live, and how Mistress Fate might come for him after giving him such stats.

‘You won’t ask me to die again, will you?’

The thought flowed out there, into the nothingness, and though Mistress Fate heard his worries, she decided against responding to him at the moment. Instead, she sipped her tea as she focused on countless other realms.

Adam sighed, mentally, and shook his head, mentally.

‘I guess there’s no point worrying about that for now.’

[Hello there.]

‘Hey.’

Adam looked at his dice rolls for a little while, thinking about how he should assign them. The rolls were great, and he could do whatever he wanted with them. Even if someone replaced the 17 with an 8, he would still have great stats.

If he wanted to, he could become a Guardian once again. That was his favourite class, though he really enjoyed the Warrior Wizard hybrid he had started off with. The only issue was, he wanted to be able to resurrect people. He had had enough death.

‘Wait, what?’ Adam had only just realised that he had heard something else whilst lost in thought. ‘Hello?’

[Hi.]

He could hear something in his mind, a presence which was strange and foreign, and vaguely familiar. It was right there, in the back of his head, gnawing at him.

‘Who the hell are you?’

[I’m Bell.]

‘You mean, the god? The God of Chaos?’

[That’s Belle, he has an e at the end of his name. I’m just Bell, ring ring, you know?]

‘And that makes you different?’

[Of course it does. There’s one less letter in my name.]

‘Of course it does,’ Adam repeated, rolling his eyes, mentally. ‘Well, what are you doing in my head?’

[I’m living in it.]

‘Rent free?’

[I wouldn’t mind that. The prices for people’s minds have been doubling every decade.]

‘Hey, you don’t have to tell me.’ Adam recalled the property prices before he died the first time. He had been your average everyday kind of guy, and there was no way he could afford to buy a house like his parents had done a generation before. ‘But, uh, what are you doing here?’

[I’m the system.]

‘The system? You mean, like a role playing game?’

[That’s right.]

‘So are you the Bell system, or is Bell just your name?’

‘That doesn’t sound a like a nothing kind of well.’

[Don’t worry about it.]

‘I wasn’t worrying about it, but now that you tell me not to worry about it...’

[No, seriously, it’s okay. Why don’t you pick your Skills and stuff?]

‘...’

Adam remained suspicious, but what could he do? He couldn’t force Bell to speak if he, she, they, it didn’t want to.

Skills

Athletics, Perception, Arcane Lore, Investigation, Persuasion, Intimidation

Tools

Smithing

Languages

Aldspeech, Elvish, Dwarven, Drakken

Weapons

Simple, Martial

Armour

Light, Medium, Heavy

He didn’t know what Aldspeak was, but assumed it was the basic tongue of the humans in the region since he couldn’t find a similar option.

‘Did they give me more options?’

[Yes. Due to the fact that you didn’t get to pick your Background, and because you have no idea what it is, they have given you two additional choices.]

‘That’s rather nice of them.’ He assumed that he wouldn’t know what the catch was yet. ‘I get features from both a martial class and a magic class, but I am not getting additional hit points?’

[You will gain maximum hit points every level, but you are considered to only be a single class.]

‘Bell.’

[Yes?]

‘This Tricks list is...’

[You are no longer restrained by class specific spells. You have access to every spell.]

Adam needed a moment to think about what he had just heard. He was able to access every class to acquire spells?

‘Bell, isn’t that overpowered?’

[In some ways, yes.]

‘What’s the catch? I want to know.’

[Your XP thresholds for each level have increased.]

‘How much have they increased?’

[You don’t want to know.]

‘...’

[...]

‘Fine.’

Adam was finishing up his sheet, picking the spells he thought would be most useful to him at the time. He was considering which tool he wanted to take, but decided to take up smithing since he had taken the dwarven language as one of his options.

Features

Darkvision, Feyblooded, Multicultured

Martial Features

Martial Arts, Tough Spirit

Magical Features

Spellcasting, Spellbook

Being a half elf gave him the first three features, which amounted to being able to see in the dark, having some resistance against charms and sleep effects, and additional choices for various skills.

Martial Arts gave him the strength to fight without weapons, just in case he was ever without a blade, something he could fall back on.

Tough Spirit allowed him to take a breath during the fight to shrug off some damage, and would allow him to survive at lower levels.

Spellcasting and Spellbook do exactly as it says on the tin. He had the ability to spellcast, and he had a spellbook.

Then it was time to pick his spells, and this was when he needed to concentrate.

[What are you going to pick?]

‘Give me a few minutes.]

Bell waited. And waited. And waited.

Adam needed to think about his choices, since he had so many options, but very few he could truly select. Every time he thought about this Trick or another, he fell back to three choices.

[Your choices are... interesting.]

‘I will take that as a compliment.’

Tricks

Stabilise, Guidance, Flame Bolt

1st

Comprehend Languages, Healing Word, Hex, Identify, Shield, Summon Familiar

Stabilise, so that he could get to his companions and make sure they don’t die right away.

Guidance, to assist people with their skills.

Flame Bolt, for a ranged attack option.

Tricks were spells which he could cast infinitely. They were quite weak in comparison to gated spells, which required one to pass a gate before they could cast them. Typically, this required a caster to level high enough in order to be able to cast them.

The combination of Martial Arts and Flame Bolt would allow him to deal with most issues, even if he was butt naked. If he couldn’t speak he wouldn’t be able to use Flame Bolt, but at least his fists could speak for him. If he couldn’t use his hands, then he could kick. If he was tied up, then it sounded like a rough night for him.

His gated spells were far more difficult to choose, but he went with a few classics he liked. Most were utility, or defensive in nature. His single offensive spell, Hex, allowed him to deal more damage to someone, but it was also used for utility due to the debuff attached to it.

[It seems you’ve completed your choices. Have you thought about the kind of weapon you want to use?]

‘I’ll have to go with what I picked before.’

[Sword and board?]

‘There’s something romantic about a sword, don’t you think?’

[Please don’t romance a sword, you’re not a Bard.]

‘I should have picked Bard.’

Inventory

Chain mail, sword, shield, (2) handaxe, dagger, wizard’s die (spell focus), spellbook, backpack, bedroll, (10) torch, (10) ration, tinderbox, mess kit, waterskin, (50’) hemp rope.

[Are there any questions?]

‘Yeah, ca-‘