Awakening Chronicles (A World Creation Novel)

"Ahh made ya choice, I see. About fracking time." She grumbled as she reached into a nearby cabinet, pulling out a dark metal ingot. "Arthurias help him with stats while I start working on this spear. It's gonna take some time, and we might as well kill two birds with one stone." He grunted a response, and a new notification appeared just to the right of what I could see.

Status screen unlocked. 85% of Stat points have been allocated. The remainder has been placed into your status page.

I glanced back to Arthuras and attempted the first thing that came to mind, and that was thinking of the word status. I mean if this world was functioning like a litrpg system, then it made sense that this would work

I looked over my stat page, and whistled appreciatively. My stats looked respectable though again, I had no real frame of reference on this one. But one thing did catch my interest “Hey, Athuras why do I have a blank section for sub stats?”:

"Substats are unlocked later on. Though that depends on if you keep the same operating system when you are established in your home world. But in general they are supplementary stats. For example, you might use grace to add onto dexterity, or constitution to increase your body’s relative strength. They are not relevant at this moment, but you will get them as soon as you are out on your own. I recommend you to not use your stat points till you get them though.” The man sauntered over to a chair and sat down on it, quickly crossing his legs.

“Huh, I figured that stuff would be considered a main stat line. How odd.” I found myself almost whispering as I tried to understand why. What was the system trying to emphasize doing it like this? Better yet, why give me the option to switch an operating system? I felt a headache creep up from the back of my spine, and spread into the back of my head. This could be too much at times.

“It's easier for new admins to process. Instead of giving you an entire stat tree, you can start small and work your way up. While yes, stat points do become scarcer at higher levels, this way you don’t dump them in something and then suffer afterwards. But this is also a prime learning experience for you.” Arthuras made a quick gesture with his hand, and my screen flickered, and the sub stat panel was highlighted.

“So as you can see, you lack specific main stats like vitality, intelligence, and such. The system compresses those into three main areas, health, stamina, and mana. Those stat points are directly tied in because of how rare stat points become in the later half of an Admins life. This way there is always some form of upward growth without scavenging for points.. Because of this your sub stat's are tied into your races and planets, and don’t always need to have a stat point put into them. Besides, those are so pedantic to keep track of at the moment, so they just remain hidden."

“Okay, I think I understand. But I do have a question though. You said I gain power from my races, and what not? How does that work?” I could grasp the idea of skill points, but having power tied into my races was a little strange. That wasn’t even considering how far I was falling behind with my questions as time went on.

"That would be the primary way administrators gain power honestly. It’s some fancy math about the average levels and stats of your population. Honestly, the only ones who tend to care enough to break down the exact numbers are the machines or the admins who love math."

“Huh, that would make sense. I’m not much of a math guy myself, so as long as I have an idea that is all that matters.” I’ll leave the math to those who cared enough! How else do I earn stat points if they become so rare?” The system was starting to make a little bit of sense to me now. It was slow progress, but there was a lot to take in.

“Our currency which is called creation points, or CP for short, can be used to purchase them. The other option is you can charge someone a stat point to trade stuff. There are ways, it’s just a matter if you have the brain or money for it.” The man snapped his fingers and another cigar appeared in his hand.

That makes sense too. At first I thought the system was geared towards stronger beings, but in all actually it was made to be as level as possible. All it took was for someone to levy their resources in a way that would push them farther. Furthermore, it seemed to reward those who expanded in either territory or in knowledge, and it punished those that stayed stagnant. Which would explain why the others were aggressive at times. But upon closer inspection it was truly a dual edged sword, which was why Alpha walked such a fine line. “So what are hidden passives?”

"Hidden passives are skills that haven't been implemented yet. They are common with freshly created races, as the system hasn’t had a chance to analyze them yet. Once you use them, or figure them out, it tends to reward you.” The man took a long drag off of his cigar, and blew out the smoke in small rings, which smelled like vanilla with a touch of orange.

I glanced over my status screen and saw that I still had several status points left to distribute. I won’t use these just yet, not till I finih this training stuff. Probably once I get my own place figured out, then I would start dropping them. “Alright thank you Arthuras. You’ve been a great help.”

“Not a problem sir. It’s always a pleasure to help a new admin.” The man shrugged and his face revealed nothing. So I wasn’t sure what he was actually feeling. But now it just felt awkward sitting here waiting for the black smith to finish. So I decided to just stand there patiently waiting for her.

I spent a couple hours looking through my new menus, and I didn’t see much. It seemed like I was locked out until I was in my own control room. More than likely that was for a few reasons. Mostly to stop me from pressing buttons I shouldn’t be pressing until I get a companion, and to stop whoever helps me from ascending from abusing me in some form. Regardless, I was bored, and I wanted this to be done.

So, I decided to go check on Armarina. So, I stood up from my chair, and wandered back over to the forge. The woman was hunched over her anvil with a hammer in her hand. Her soot stained skin gave nothing away, and I stared at her trying to figure out what race she could possibly be. Her eyes looked slightly draconian, but she was bipedal. Some sort of kobold, or maybe some sort of dragonkin? Either option seemed pretty interesting. "Hey, Armarina, are you done?" The woman looked up from the forge and glared at me with her piercing blue eyes before tossing the hammer to the side.

"You young bloods are so impatient. Give me just another moment.” She hissed through her breath, and grabbed a chisel and a slightly smaller hammer. She brought it down to the anvil, and I saw my spear laying there. It looked far more ornate than what the picture had shown, but I wasn’t sure yet.

Carefully she brought the chisel down onto the blade, and carefully taped it. The sound of metal creaking filled the forge as she moved up the length slowly but surely. With each strike the shaft would pulse, and glimmer with golden energy until it became a miniature sun. At least until she pulled her chisel away. Then the room grew dark for a few heartbeats before returning to normal.

Amarina grabbed the spear and gave it a quick flourish and it tore my breath away as I gazed upon its beauty. It was a long piece that looked to be over two meters in length. The metal shimmered in the orange flames of the forge room. Red flowed through carefully channels like rivers of blood. Those same channels wrapped around the shaft like vines, and crept up towards the spear’s head. Which was not a spear tip, instead, it was like a small sword with a series of barbs extended from around the base of the sword. It was a sword spear now and I couldn’t complain in the slightest. It was the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.

“I modified it slightly to fit your class. A single spear head would have shattered from a single use of one of your abilities, so I gave you some length to help the energy expand and contract.” She ran her hand up the length of the spear almost sensually, gazing at it one last time before she brought it over to me.

I gingerly took the weapon, and found that it was light as a feather. The metal seemed to be both warm and cold at the same time, and it fit my hand perfectly. I was never one to believe in love at first sight, at least until I held this weapon.

At that moment, I decided it was a she, and now, all I needed was a name. But that would take some time to figure out. After all, it needed to be special. “Is there anything else I need?”

“Not at all. Before ya go though, do be aware. That spear is made out of Etherium. It will hold you for a while, but you will need to bring it back to be upgraded eventually.” Amarina smirked as she crossed her arms and stood away from me.

I decided at that moment, whatever the cost was, I’ll upgrade her. This was my baby now, and I wasn’t going to exchange it for anything. "Thank you for the weapon. I do appreciate it."

"Don't you worry. Next time you see me, it's gonna cost ya." She called back, as she bent down to pick up her hammer and went back to work.

"Do we need to do anything else, or was this the last bit?" He stood on his tip toes and glanced over at the forge mother for a second before he answered me "Nah. This was the last bit. Any questions you may have, please refer to your system companion when you acquire one."

"Thanks, for.." I trailed off as he reached up and pressed his index finger to my forehead.

"Yeah yeah. It's no problem, but now it's time for you to leave.. wakey wakey."

My vision turned white, and a single message appeared.