Aetheria

Mira woke with grass pressed against the side of her face and the smell of damp earth filling her nose.

For several seconds she remained where she was, caught between the memory of white light and the sensation of wind moving over her cheek. The character initialization had failed somewhere between the Cleric selection and entry into Aetheria, yet the world around her had loaded with an almost offensive degree of detail.

She opened her eyes.

Blades of grass crowded her vision, each one edged with tiny beads of moisture. Beyond them, blue sky stretched overhead between drifting clouds.

Mira planted a hand against the ground to push herself upright and nearly threw herself sideways.

Her arm extended farther and faster than she expected. Her shoulder followed without the resistance she was accustomed to, forcing her other hand down before she toppled into the grass.

She stayed on all fours for a moment, more confused than hurt.

The hand supporting her weight was white.

Not pale.

White.

She lifted it from the grass.

There was no skin over her fingers.

Individual bones extended from her palm, divided at each joint by narrow spaces that should not have existed in anything capable of holding itself together. She turned the hand over and watched the bones move beneath the morning light.

Her thumb touched her index finger.

Then her middle finger.

Ring finger.

Little finger.

Every joint responded exactly as she intended.

Mira brought the hand closer to her face and inspected it from the side. Nothing connected the bones in any obvious way. There were no tendons, no ligaments, no tissue hidden within the gaps.

Yet she could feel the breeze moving over them.

She pressed one fingertip against another.

Pressure registered immediately.

The failed character initialization had done something strange to the avatar model. That explanation was at least compatible with what she remembered. The System had begun loading her selected appearance before everything fractured into broken windows and white light.

Mira pushed herself upright more carefully.

Her centre of balance felt wrong as well.

Her body followed movement too readily, without the familiar drag of muscle or the small corrections she normally made without thinking. When she shifted one foot beneath herself, her leg seemed almost weightless.

She finally stood and looked around.

The meadow descended in a long green slope toward a dense forest. A narrow dirt road curved through the grass before disappearing beneath the trees. Beyond the meadow, low hills rose toward grey mountains blurred by distance.

Mira slowly turned.

The mountains did not dissolve into decorative scenery when she focused on them. Light and haze obscured the smallest details naturally, and the forest canopy became less distinct as it extended away from her.

Wind passed across the meadow in broad waves.

Individual stems bent beneath it.

A small insect drifted past her glasses, corrected itself against the current and disappeared into the grass.

Mira forgot about her hand for a moment.

She crouched and brushed her fingers through the meadow.

The grass parted around them. Moisture gathered along the bone. Several blades caught briefly between the narrow spaces of her fingers before sliding free.

She rubbed her thumb against her index finger and watched a droplet smear across both.

"Daniel, what did you people build?"

Her voice sounded normal.

That made the rest of her body considerably stranger.

Mira straightened and looked down at herself.

Her first reaction was disappointment so immediate that it temporarily displaced every anatomical concern she had.

The Cleric outfit was gone.

The layered ivory robes from character selection had been replaced by an off-white tunic that reached just beyond her hips. Rough stitching circled the sleeves and collar. A dull grey mantle covered her shoulders, while a plain rope had been tied around her waist.

Her boots looked like the cheapest pair someone could manufacture while still technically qualifying them as footwear.

Then she found the scarf.

Mira pinched the narrow strip of grey cloth hanging around her neck and pulled it outward.

During character selection, the Cleric's headpiece had wrapped ivory fabric elegantly around the hair before descending into layered cloth across the neck and shoulders. There had been embroidery along the edges, golden detailing around the mantle and several small charms worked into the design.

The thing in her hand had a frayed end.

Mira inspected the other end as though it might contain some hidden justification.

It did not.

"They lied to me."

A bird answered from somewhere near the forest.

Mira released the cloth.

She had chosen Cleric for more than the clothing. Healing would be useful in an unfamiliar world, and a support class offered options she could understand through experimentation.

The outfit had been a significant factor.

A very significant factor.

She looked down at the rough tunic again.

Apparently, the game expected her to earn the version worth wearing.

That at least gave her something to work toward.

Mira stepped toward the road.

Her first stride carried her farther than intended.

She corrected on the second, shortened the third, then deliberately changed how much force she applied through her leg. The body responded consistently even if the sensations were unfamiliar.

That became interesting enough to distract her again.

There was feedback from the ground when her boots landed, but little sense of muscles contracting above them. She could bend her knee, rotate her ankle and feel pressure through the foot, yet none of the familiar internal tension accompanied the movement.

Mira tried a small jump.

She rose almost twice as high as expected.

Her arms flew outward as the meadow dropped away beneath her. She landed with one foot ahead of the other, failed to compensate for the lack of weight in her upper body and stumbled several steps through the grass.

By the time she stopped herself, she was laughing.

"Okay."

She returned to the same patch of road and tried again with less force.

The second jump was lower.

The third landed more evenly.

On the fourth she noticed that she had started adjusting before touching the ground. Her body was still unfamiliar, but the previous mistakes were remaining available in a way that felt unusually precise. She could recall how far the first push had carried her, compare it to the second, and narrow the difference without needing to consciously reconstruct each attempt.

Mira stopped moving.

The sensation was difficult to isolate because nothing felt faster inside her head. She had simply retained more of each attempt than she expected.

It could have been part of the game interface.

It could also have been excitement making her overanalyse basic learning.

She decided to keep testing before assigning an explanation.

A soft chime sounded near her ear.

Translucent text formed at the edge of her vision.

Welcome, Mira.

Additional information appeared beneath it.

Species: Human

Class: Cleric

Level: 1

Mira looked down at her hands.

Then back at the status window.

Human.

She raised one skeletal hand beside the word as though proximity might embarrass the System into correcting itself.

Nothing changed.

That made the failed initialization explanation less comfortable.

If the avatar model had loaded incorrectly, the System itself still believed she was Human.

Unless Species described her original selection rather than her current body.

Unless the visible skeleton was some kind of equipment effect.

Unless the character data and physical model had desynchronized.

Mira lowered her hand.

She did not have enough information to distinguish between any of those possibilities yet.

The Class entry opened when she focused on it.

Cleric

A sacred support class centred on restoration, protection and the use of Essence against hostile or corrupted forces.

Starting Skills

Minor Heal

Radiant Spark

Blessing of Shelter

Mira selected the first.

Minor Heal — Common

Channels restorative Essence into a target, encouraging damaged living tissue to return toward a healthier state.

Essence Cost: 6

That description was better than simply saying it repaired injuries, though not by much.

What qualified as damaged tissue?

Would the skill remove foreign material before closing a wound? Could it heal an improperly aligned fracture in the wrong position? Did it restore what the body considered normal, or did it merely accelerate whatever process was already underway?

The wording also specified living tissue.

Mira glanced at her forearm.

She could see directly through the gap between the radius and ulna.

Her Species entry remained Human.

The contradiction had become considerably less amusing.

She moved to the next skill.

Radiant Spark — Common

Condenses Essence into a short-ranged discharge of sacred light.

Essence Cost: 4

The final ability offered more detail.

Blessing of Shelter — Common

Wraps a target in a temporary layer of protective Essence, reducing the force transferred through incoming attacks.

Essence Cost: 8

Mira opened her full status.

Mira

Species: Human

Class: Cleric

Level: 1

Strength: 4

Agility: 5

Endurance: 4

Perception: 8

Intelligence: 10

Spirit: 9

Essence: 45 / 45

Unassigned Attribute Points: 0

Skills

Minor Heal — Common

Radiant Spark — Common

Blessing of Shelter — Common

Ten Intelligence looked impressive only if ten meant something.

Without a baseline, population distribution or clear explanation for how the System translated a number into actual ability, the value told her almost nothing.

Spirit interested her more because it appeared alongside a separate Essence reserve. Spirit therefore was not simply another name for magical energy.

Perhaps it governed how effectively she interacted with Essence.

Perhaps it affected recovery, control or capacity.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

The available information was too limited to justify distributing causes yet.

Mira closed the screen.

Only then did she notice the small pouch tied beside the rope at her waist.

She opened it.

Twelve copper-coloured coins lay inside beside a folded square of cloth, two strips of dried fruit and a small wooden token stamped with the symbol of an open hand surrounded by a circle.

When she focused on the token, information appeared.

Novice Cleric Token — Common

Proof of basic Cleric initiation. Recognized by some temples, shrines and associated organizations.

Mira turned it between her fingers.

So there were organizations attached to classes.

The coin displayed no information beyond its name.

Copper Coin

That could wait until she found something with a price.

She took one strip of dried fruit and bit off the end.

Sweetness spread across her tongue, followed by a mild sourness.

Mira stopped chewing.

She reached into her mouth with one finger.

Teeth.

No lips.

No tongue that she could feel directly.

Still, she tasted the fruit.

Her skeletal hand remained skeletal.

Mira swallowed.

"All right. That's another problem."

She put the remaining food away and followed the road toward the forest.

The next stretch took longer than it should have because the environment kept stealing her attention.

A spider had built a web between two low branches, and individual strands flexed when the breeze passed through them. Mushrooms crowded the shaded side of a fallen log. When Mira accidentally stepped into mud near the roadside, her boot sank deeply enough that the ground pulled against it when she lifted her foot.

She crouched beside the print.

Water slowly seeped into the depression.

Mira pressed one finger into the mud.

Cold registered through the bone.

When she withdrew it, dirt remained packed around the first joint.

The body made no anatomical sense, yet sensations reached her with enough consistency that she was reluctant to dismiss any of them as simple visual errors.

She wiped her hand through the grass and continued into the trees.

The forest changed the world almost immediately. Sound became less open. Leaves shifted overhead, insects buzzed among the undergrowth and branches knocked together whenever the wind strengthened.

Mira had travelled perhaps a hundred metres beneath the canopy when movement appeared between two trunks ahead.

She stopped.

A short green figure stepped onto the road.

It carried a rusted knife.

Mira recognized the creature immediately.

The goblin stood a little shorter than she did, with narrow shoulders, long arms and bare feet spread across the dirt. Its skin was green with darker mottling around the elbows and neck. One ear had a missing piece near the tip. Old scars crossed its left forearm.

The weapon in its hand looked barely maintained. The edge had been sharpened unevenly, and strips of dark leather wrapped the handle.

A marker appeared above its head.

Goblin — Level 1

Mira's attention sharpened.

The goblin breathed.

She could see the motion beneath its ribs.

Its eyes moved from her face to her hands, then lower toward the pouch at her waist.

That was when excitement finally yielded enough space for caution.

Mira shifted one foot backward.

The goblin screamed and charged.

She had enough time to realize how much faster it moved than she expected.

Then the knife was already coming toward her.

Mira threw herself aside.

The blade tore across the front of her tunic as she stumbled off the road. One boot caught in the grass, and her unfamiliar balance almost sent her to the ground.

The goblin pivoted after her.

"Radiant Spark!"

Nothing happened.

Mira's stomach dropped.

The creature raised its knife again.

She reached toward the skill mentally rather than speaking.

Something warm gathered behind her sternum.

The sensation appeared so abruptly that she almost lost track of the goblin.

Mira thrust out her hand.

Light burst from her palm.

The discharge struck high across the goblin's shoulder and exploded into a brief flash.

It staggered sideways with a cry.

Mira looked at her hand.

The spell had responded to intent rather than its name.

The goblin lunged again before she could do anything with that information.

She retreated and struck a root with her heel.

Mira dropped hard onto her back.

The knife descended toward her face.

She kicked.

Her boot struck the goblin near the knee.

The creature pitched forward and drove its weapon into the dirt beside her head.

Mira scrambled away on her elbows and heels.

The goblin ripped the blade free.

She needed something between herself and that knife.

A branch lay beside the road.

Mira seized it and pulled.

The wood snapped halfway down its length.

Rotten.

The goblin slashed across her raised arm.

Pain hit so violently that Mira screamed.

Everything else disappeared for a moment.

She stumbled backward clutching her forearm.

A deep groove crossed the white bone.

There was no blood.

The pain did not care.

It radiated from the damaged area through the entire arm with enough intensity that she struggled to process anything beyond the goblin advancing toward her.

Mira forced both hands down.

Her mind was already producing answers faster than her body could use them.

Stay outside the knife arm.

Keep the tree behind the goblin instead of behind herself.

Attack the wrist when it commits.

Do not retreat in a straight line.

The creature stabbed.

Mira understood where she needed to move.

Her feet reacted too late.

The knife entered beneath her ribs.

She gasped.

The blade passed through the front of her tunic and emerged between two bones without meeting an organ.

Both of them stopped.

The goblin looked down at the weapon buried through her torso.

Mira did the same.

There was no blood.

There was no resistance inside her chest.

The goblin yanked the knife sideways.

The blade caught between two ribs.

Pain flared along the bone where metal scraped against it.

Mira grabbed the creature's wrist with both hands.

The goblin snarled and pulled.

Her boots slid through the dirt.

It was stronger than its size suggested.

Mira kicked at its shin and missed.

She adjusted immediately and struck lower on the second attempt.

The goblin lurched.

The failure had given her distance, angle and timing all at once. For a strange instant she could feel the first kick remaining intact in her thoughts beside the second, as though her mind had preserved the entire mistake instead of merely remembering that it happened.

Mira released one hand from the goblin's wrist.

Radiant Spark.

Warmth gathered.

She shoved her palm toward its face.

Light detonated between them.

The goblin shrieked and reeled backward.

Mira's vision flashed white behind her glasses.

The knife remained trapped between her ribs.

She blinked furiously until the road returned in fragments.

The goblin had stumbled several steps away with both hands pressed over its face.

Mira grabbed the knife handle.

She pulled.

Nothing.

She changed the angle, following the path the blade had taken between her ribs.

It slid free.

The weapon was heavier than it looked.

Mira nearly lost her grip before wrapping all four fingers properly around the handle.

The goblin lowered its hands.

One eye remained squeezed shut. Angry red damage covered the skin around it.

Mira barely had time to register the injury before it charged again.

She tried to bring the knife into a position that felt controlled.

Her first instinct was to hold it with the precision she associated with instruments.

Wrong situation.

The goblin crashed into her while she was still deciding how to grip it.

They hit the road together.

Its weight drove Mira onto her back.

One hand seized her wrist. Its mouth opened near her face, revealing uneven teeth and strings of saliva.

Mira shoved against its throat.

Her palm slipped across its skin.

The smell hit her a moment later.

Sweat, old dirt and something sour enough to turn her stomach despite the uncertainty surrounding whether she still had one.

The goblin snapped its teeth at her cheek.

Mira twisted violently.

Its weight shifted.

She drove one knee upward and felt the impact travel through her hip.

The creature grunted.

She did it again, harder.

The pressure over her torso changed just enough.

Mira turned onto her side and drove the knife forward.

The blade entered beneath the goblin's ribs.

Resistance travelled through the weapon.

Skin.

Then firmer tissue.

Then a sudden release.

The goblin made a wet, startled sound.

Mira froze.

She had aimed near where a human liver would sit.

That assumption had been made without knowing anything about goblin anatomy.

The creature struck her across the face.

Her glasses flew away.

The back of Mira's skull hit the road.

Her vision blurred instantly.

The goblin scrambled away with one hand clamped against its side.

Dark blood seeped between its fingers.

Mira pushed herself onto one elbow.

The world beyond a few feet had become soft and indistinct.

Of course the glasses mattered.

Apparently Aetheria had simulated her eyesight too.

The goblin became a green blur against brown and green surroundings.

Mira reached across the road with her free hand, searching for her glasses.

Nothing.

The creature moved.

She heard its feet before she could see enough detail to judge the attack.

Mira raised the knife.

Something struck her shoulder and spun her partly sideways.

The goblin caught the front of her tunic.

Mira stabbed toward the centre of the blurred torso.

The blade entered.

The goblin jerked.

She held on as it tried to pull back, and the movement dragged her forward.

Mira ripped the knife free and struck again.

The angle was terrible.

Her wrist folded inward when the blade met resistance, and metal scraped against bone somewhere inside the creature.

The weapon nearly twisted from her fingers.

The goblin collapsed.

Mira crawled backward until several feet of road separated them.

The creature moved weakly once.

Then stopped.

For a few seconds, all Mira could hear was the frantic rhythm of her own thoughts.

The forest returned around them gradually.

Leaves stirred overhead.

Water moved somewhere deeper among the trees.

An insect buzzed close to her ear.

Mira looked at the knife still clutched in her hand.

Her fingers were shaking.

The sensation was peculiar when there were no muscles to tremble, but the movement was unmistakable.

A notification appeared.

Goblin defeated.

Experience gained: 18

Mira focused on the body.

A faint shimmer appeared across the goblin's belongings before fading.

So loot was not simply generated into an inventory.

At least not here.

She searched for her glasses first.

Her hands moved through loose soil and grass until her fingers touched the frame several feet away.

One lens had acquired a long scratch near the edge.

Mira put them back on.

The world sharpened.

So did the dead goblin.

She had preferred it blurry.

Mira remained crouched for several seconds while the reality of the body settled somewhere uncomfortable inside her.

She had worked with cadavers.

She knew what damaged tissue looked like. Blood itself was not new to her.

This was different because the goblin had been moving less than a minute ago, and she had been the reason it no longer was.

Mira looked at her damaged forearm instead.

The knife had carved a visible groove across the radius.

Pain returned the moment she touched it.

She opened Minor Heal.

If the System still categorized her as Human, perhaps the skill would recognize whatever was holding this body together.

Warm golden light gathered around her hand.

Mira directed it toward the damaged bone.

The Essence flowed easily enough.

It sank into her arm.

Then dispersed.

The groove remained unchanged.

Mira watched the last traces of light fade.

She tried once more, concentrating more precisely on the damaged section instead of the arm as a whole.

Essence moved through the same path.

Nothing repaired.

Her status listed her as Human.

Her Cleric skill behaved as if the body did not contain living tissue.

Those two pieces of information did not fit together.

Mira closed the skill.

She did not have enough Essence to waste repeating an experiment that had already produced the same outcome under slightly different conditions.

The goblin's knife lay beside her.

She picked it up.

Goblin Knife — Common

Durability: 13 / 21

An uneven iron knife maintained through repeated sharpening.

It was ugly, poorly balanced and already stained.

It was also considerably better than rotten wood.

Mira wiped the blade thoroughly through long grass before securing it beneath the rope around her waist.

Then she approached the body.

The System's earlier shimmer had highlighted the goblin's possessions, not the corpse itself. Mira checked the belt first.

A small leather pouch contained three copper coins, a bent iron buckle, two lengths of cord and a dark stone with a chipped edge.

The stone produced information.

Low-Grade Flint — Common Material

That went into her pouch.

So did the cord and buckle.

She hesitated over a strip of dried meat wrapped in cloth.

The goblin's personal hygiene made the decision easy.

Mira left it.

A second item hung beneath the creature's belt: a narrow metal spike, slightly longer than her hand, with a flattened end where it had once been part of something larger.

Broken Iron Awl — Common Material

Mira turned it over.

Too dull to be a useful weapon without work, but the metal itself might have value.

She kept that as well.

When nothing else appeared, she sat back on her heels.

The fight replayed itself in her head with uncomfortable clarity.

She had seen the first stab coming.

She had understood the direction of the second.

Several times she had known what action made sense before she executed the wrong one.

Her problem had not been a lack of ideas.

Her body had not possessed the timing, balance or experience needed to perform them.

Knowing anatomy had not helped much either. She had placed the first stab based on human organs and had no idea whether the wound mattered because goblins shared the same internal arrangement or because sticking a knife that deeply into almost anything was damaging.

Mira looked at the blood spreading beneath the body.

She could learn.

The way her mind retained each failed movement during the fight suggested she might learn quickly.

That was different from already knowing how.

She stood.

Her legs still felt unreliable, and the groove in her forearm throbbed whenever she moved the limb.

Mira returned to the road with considerably less enthusiasm than before.

Every sound among the trees now received attention.

The environment remained astonishing, but wonder had acquired sharper edges.

She reached the stream nearly twenty minutes later.

Water moved over smooth stones beneath a break in the canopy. Sunlight caught on the current in scattered patches.

Mira knelt on the bank.

Mud covered one boot. Dirt streaked her tunic. One sleeve had been torn open by the goblin's knife, and the narrow grey scarf had somehow rotated halfway around her neck during the fight.

She pulled it back into place.

It looked even worse damaged.

"Wonderful."

Mira leaned over the stream to rinse the dirt from her hands.

A skull looked back at her.

She recoiled so violently that one hand slipped on the bank.

Water splashed across her tunic as she fell backward.

Mira stared at the current.

The reflection moved with it.

White skull.

Round glasses.

Empty eye sockets behind the lenses.

Her hand rose toward her face.

The skeleton in the water copied her.

Mira touched her cheek.

Bone met bone.

Her fingers moved lower.

Teeth.

There were no lips surrounding them.

She reached for her hair and found nothing.

Her hand slid over the back of a smooth skull.

"No."

Mira grabbed the collar of her tunic and pulled it outward.

White ribs descended beneath the cloth.

Between them was empty space.

The knife had not passed through a visual error.

Mira shoved one hand beneath the tunic.

Her fingers entered her own rib cage.

There was no skin to stop them.

No muscle.

No heartbeat.

Nothing where her stomach should have been.

A scream tore out of her before she could stop it.

Birds exploded from the trees.

Mira staggered away from the stream until her back struck a trunk.

Her hand remained buried beneath her tunic.

She ripped it out.

The world tilted.

Her father was at home.

Her body had been sitting in the chair.

She had put on the headset.

Daniel had told her the hardware handled everything automatically once initialization began.

She had selected Cleric.

The character creator had broken.

She remembered the falling sensation.

Then the meadow.

Mira pressed both hands against the sides of her skull.

The System said Human.

She looked like a skeleton.

Minor Heal treated her as though there were no living tissue to restore.

Radiant Spark worked normally.

She could taste food without a tongue, feel cold through bare bone and experience pain from damage to structures that should not have remained articulated in the first place.

The information would not arrange itself into anything reasonable.

Mira shut her eyes and tried to force her breathing under control.

That created another problem.

She was not breathing.

The panic had given her every subjective sensation she associated with rapid breathing, yet when she placed one hand against her ribs, nothing expanded.

No lungs filled.

No chest rose.

Her body was reproducing the experience without performing the action.

Mira opened her eyes.

The stream continued moving.

Nothing else had changed.

She forced herself back toward it.

Her legs trembled badly enough that she lowered herself onto the bank before leaning over the water again.

The skull waited.

Mira turned her head.

The reflection followed.

She opened her jaw.

Its jaw moved.

She lifted one sleeve.

Radius.

Ulna.

Carpals.

Metacarpals.

Phalanges.

Human skeletal proportions, at least from what she could judge externally.

She touched the groove left by the goblin.

Pain flared immediately.

The body was skeletal.

The System called it Human.

Neither fact cancelled the other.

Mira sat back.

A fresh status window opened at her request.

Species: Human

The word remained exactly where it had been.

She focused on it.

No expanded description appeared.

Mira closed the window.

For once, she had no desire to keep testing.

She pulled her knees toward her chest and wrapped both arms around them.

Bone pressed against bone beneath the cheap tunic.

The grey scarf hung crookedly over one shoulder.

Her glasses were scratched.

Her sleeve was ripped.

She had dirt across most of the clothing she had already hated.

The situation was objectively horrifying.

The outfit somehow remained insulting.

A strained laugh escaped her.

Mira lowered her forehead against her knees.

She stayed beside the stream until the panic softened enough for her thoughts to stop colliding with one another.

When she finally raised her head, she looked at the reflection again.

The same skeletal girl stared back through round glasses.

Mira adjusted the frames.

"If I'm stuck looking like this for now, the clothes are definitely getting replaced."

That thought was shallow.

It was also manageable.

Mira stood, washed the dirt from her hands and cleaned the remaining blood from the goblin knife.

Then she checked what she had gained from the encounter.

Eighteen experience.

Three additional copper coins.

A knife.

Flint.

Cord.

A bent buckle.

A broken iron awl.

The collection was unimpressive, but it was hers.

More importantly, it established something about this world.

Creatures carried things.

Those things had material classifications.

Equipment wore down.

Materials could be recovered rather than disappearing with the defeated creature.

If towns existed somewhere beyond the forest, then damaged gear and monster materials might have value even when Mira did not need them herself.

Her eyes moved to the torn sleeve.

Better clothing required either money or materials.

That gave the goblins one redeeming quality.

Mira returned to the road.

She kept the knife in her right hand this time instead of tucking it beneath the rope.

Holding it did not make her feel capable.

After the first fight, she knew better than that.

Still, when the forest shifted around her, she began noticing distances differently. Which trees narrowed the road. Which roots could catch her feet. Where the ground rose or dipped. How far she could move before an approaching creature reached her.

Her thoughts compared those details almost automatically to the mistakes she had made against the goblin.

The knife felt awkward.

Her footing remained uncertain.

Her injured arm still hurt.

There was a long way between understanding what should happen and teaching her body to do it.

Mira continued deeper into the forest anyway.

By the time the stream disappeared behind her, she had stopped thinking of the character initialization as a simple graphical failure.

Whatever had happened, the System itself had recorded her as Human.

Her reflection disagreed.

For now, that contradiction was the only answer she had.

Status

Mira

Species: Human

Class: Cleric

Level: 1

Experience: 18 / 100

Strength: 4

Agility: 5

Endurance: 4

Perception: 8

Intelligence: 10

Spirit: 9

Essence: 25 / 45

Unassigned Attribute Points: 0

Skills

Minor Heal — Common

Radiant Spark — Common

Blessing of Shelter — Common

Equipment

Beginner Cleric Tunic — Common — Damaged

Beginner Cleric Mantle — Common

Beginner Cleric Scarf — Common

Beginner Boots — Common

Goblin Knife — Common — 13 / 21 Durability

Novice Cleric Token — Common

Inventory

Copper Coins ×15

Dried Fruit Strip ×1

Folded Cloth ×1

Low-Grade Flint ×1

Cord ×2

Bent Iron Buckle ×1

Broken Iron Awl ×1

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