I felt myself floating in nothing. Endless, endless nothing. The only exception was the screen before me displaying in green text on a dark background, something which made me think more 'developer console' than 'advanced user interface' and my two floating hands, which kind of responded like I was in an old school VR environment… I looked at my options. Fire, Ice and Lightning? Maybe? Magic? Wait… did I break the game? I tried accessing my Pod’s controls… no, they are all there… back to my choices… I reached out and touched my choice… nothing happened. I tried double-tapping it… nothing… I brought my hand down to grab the bottom to shake it, and a keyboard appeared. Hitting the key brought a letter up on its own line. It was a console… I hit the enter key.

  Colour faded back into the world. I was no longer on my feet, but in a more squatting position, with my back against the wall. My head was throbbing, and something warm and wet trickled down my cheeks. I reached up to rub it off and found blood on my fingers…

  “That shouldn’t have happened…” said the concerned woman whose actions had put me in a strange state.

  “What… the…” I panted, feeling like I had been hit by a truck.

  “I’ve transmitted training packets multiple times and never had that kind of response… the closest was…wait…How long have you been fully integrated? Surely the Explorator guild gave you basic training before sending you out into the Isles?”

  “Who? And maybe a day? At least, I woke up from the coma with access to the system a day ago… if that is what you mean by fully integrated? Though I suppose it would depend on how long I was floating around unconscious…maybe longer” I tried to stand up, gave up and let my feet go out from under me. My stomach was doing back flips.

  “Woke up with it?” Her eyes go wide. “No, no, that sounds more like initial integration. Only a day from the completion of the initial at your age?…floating? Ship wrecked? You are from the Homelands? The Great Voyage happened? Do you know if many made it out?”

  “We lost the central kingdoms, the eastern ones sent several great fleets, the last got out with almost all the civilians left before the last walls fell…” I repeated what I knew of the background story.

  “It is good that there are survivors, though this is a harsh land for the uninitiated. Knowledge of the New World wasn’t unknown amongst the rulers of the eastern kingdoms. The risks of integration and the mysterious powers, though, kept only those who needed to know informed. Fear of someone finding great power and using it to dominate and conquer. When the undead threat became inevitable, our guild was tasked with finding weapons or tools here in the hope of winning the war back home. We failed in time, and a few years ago, we were told to change our focus and start preparing for the arrival of colonists. My husband and I weren’t young anymore, so we took on the responsibility of charting these isles as our retirement, still hoping to find something to help. I am truly sorry, young lady… I thought I was giving you a great gift… It was supposed to be a copy of my life’s work. The language of the Ancients and my spell library, I didn’t think for a moment you were newly integrated and still adapting to the system integration. I may have done more harm than good. Are you still able to access your HUD?” I tried to access it, and the screens came up the same as before.

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  “That’s a relief, since we are talking, and I can see your health recovering. The worst-case scenario was that your interface was burnt out, and it would need time to repair itself. Were you able to receive any of my gift?” Looking at the HUD, I realised there was a flashing icon I hadn’t noticed before, notifications. The icon led to a new page listing all the notifications going back; at the bottom, there were some new ones.

  

  Bury the Explorator Quest complete -Material reward

  Bury the Explorator Quest - Hidden objective complete - Knowledge reward

  ‘ENCI rapid integration forced attunement, your attunement is now 3.

  

  Partial Language data files integrated - Ancients - Written

  New side quest generated: Learn the Ancients' Language

  Partial Language data files integrated - Arcana - Written, Verbal

  New side quest generated: Master Arcana

  Spell System unlocked

  Spell tree unlocked - Storm

  New spell discovered - Spark

  New spell discovered - Shocking Grasp

  Further spells will become available with increased levels of Resonance

  “It says I have partial language files for Ancients and Arcana, and the Storm spell tree with Spark and Shocking Grasp. Further spells with increased levels of resonance.”

  “Worse than I hoped, better than I feared.” She acknowledged. “Spark is a medium-range projectile spell. Shocking Grasp is a more powerful spell, but it does require you to make physical contact. Your Resonance stat determines the strength of your spells, and your Aether stat reflects how much energy you have available to cast spells. Attunement determines how well you are integrated with the ancient systems. The higher it is, the easier you will find it is to do things with the System; equally, though, it also increases how easy it is for things to affect you through the System. Resonance builds up from casting spells effectively. That means you can practice a combat spell, but only in actual combat does it help to make you stronger. Non-combat spells will eventually help you, but at a considerably slower rate. Aether grows like a muscle; the more you work it, the more it grows. Every five ranks of a stat, the system will give you a bonus. For aether, for example, it is usually either mana pool size or mana regen value. Some think it is random; I suspect it is more based on how you have used that stat. Tanks get tougher, Rogues get sneakier, Us mages get… mage-ier…” she gives me a quick look over. “How are you feeling? Your health pool is now full.”

  I tried standing up. Whatever had knocked me for six had resolved itself while I had listened to her explain the spirit stats. “I feel better,” I said in response.

  “Good. Shall we try a spell?” I nod, suddenly excited. Magic! “Spark is a good general-purpose, low-cost hitter. It can pack quite the wallop with enough resonance. One of the tricks with spellcasting is realising that the words and the gestures don’t really matter. It’s about putting yourself into a specific mindset; it’s the pattern in your head that matters. So once you get the hang of it, you can cast most of the spell in your head and mentally do the gestures. If you are particularly good, you can learn to cast one spell while doing the gestures of a different one. The first thing to do, though, is access your spellbook.”

  The small blue bead burst out of my hand, shot across the gap between us and smashed into the wooden bucket I had been targeting. Wendy had patiently talked me through accessing the spellbook, understanding how to read its instructions and then following them to get the result I desired. It took me a couple of goes to get the spell the first time, adjusting fingers and even pronunciation, but it became easier and easier, until I was consistently casting within 3 seconds.

  “Good. Now would be a good time to ‘consolidate your gains’ as my husband used to say. Judging by the state of the bones, it’s been a while since he died, so it might be best to check the house carefully, in case something decided to move in in his absence. Equip yourself with something more protective than those rags and then explore the town. If the pests haven’t moved into the house, they definitely will have reclaimed some of the cottages. Avoid the docks and the bottom 2 tiers; it’s been too long since the dungeon was last cleared, and you aren’t ready to face those alone. To save energy, I'm going to go back to sleep. Come and see me once you have levelled a bit.” She seemed to break apart into blue sparks, which then streamed into her sarcophagus.

  I stepped out into the graveyard, headed towards the stairs and brought up my status screen.

  

  [Forced Attunement Destabilisation]

  ‘Attunement was forcibly advanced by (2) ranks. Attunement must be naturally achieved before further system enhancements can be integrated.

  [Famished]

  I pulled out the roasted fish and hoped it would be enough to clear off that debuff. As I walked, I checked the quest journal. I had two new side quests:

  The local quest, Unknown Island, had also gained a new objective:

  ‘Clear the top tier of the unknown town and then return to the senior local Explorator for further guidance.’

  As part of my casting training, I had exhausted my mana and then had to sit and let it regenerate. Wendy had explained that out of combat, when relaxed, both my stamina and mana recover more efficiently. In combat, though, some of that energy went to keeping me alert and ready to fight.

  By the time I reached the door to the big house, all my pools were full again, and the walking stick was in my hand, ready.

  The place reminded me a lot of the old plantation manor houses from the southern Americas. The once white-washed walls gave way to large wooden shutters, which possibly had once been painted in bright colours, but were now faded and stripped of paint. The front of the house was dominated by a ground-floor decking area, which spanned the full width of this wide building. A matching balcony above it cast a shade across the porch.

  An old bench sat beneath one of the windows, and a swing chair occupied the far corner, its upholstery sun-bleached and covered in windswept debris. Piles of leaves and dirt were scattered when the wind pleased, and the floors felt gritty underfoot. If nothing else, this place needed a good sweeping. I caught myself thinking how much easier it was to clean things in games and how much I had to kick myself to do it in the real world.

  The door resisted at first, refusing to open more than an inch when I first pushed upon it. Though once I got it going, it let out a loud creak in protest. Inside, the air was musty. The room had not been opened for quite some time. With the shutters closed tight, the only light into the room came from the open door, revealing little more of the room than a rough, darkened outline of the furniture in the foyer.

  If I were to explore this place in any depth, I would need more light. Returning to the outside, I proceeded to pull open each of the shutters, letting light into the house once more.

  With the room now lit, I was able to see that the room was focused around the receptionist's desk. Large embossed letters raised in some kind of signage and then underlined by several words fill the bottom of the desk facing towards the entrance. There was a brief flicker, like static, that passed across the letters, and then a system overlay projected the English translations over the Ancient’s text.

  ‘Welcome to’

  ‘S.H.I.F.T.E’

  ‘The South Harmony Institute for Furthering Technology and Engineering’

  There was a squeaking noise coming from my left. I turned just in time to see a giant rat launching itself at me.