"Ugh," Alex groaned, massaging his forehead as he sat up. "I swear I'm never drinking again. Wait—I don't remember drinking." He looked over at his nightstand and noticed that his glasses were missing. "Glasses? I don't wear glasses." Blinking away the sleep in his eyes, he tried to piece together his scrambled thoughts. "Where am I? Wait, what's this?" He murmured to himself while inspecting the strange, blue circuit-like lines running along the walls. "I don't recall seeing these yesterday. Yesterday? What was I doing again?" He groaned as a sharp pain shot through his head. Alex tried to calm himself down by taking deep breaths. "First, I need some water."

  After fetching a glass of water, Alex sat down in his living room. "First, let's recap what I did yesterday." Taking a sip of water, Alex leaned back on his chair and closed his eyes. "I just finished moving and went to sleep after unpacking- No wait, I went to sleep after Realms at War crashed." Alex opened his eyes as he leaned forward. "Ok, that does not help, let's try something more basic. What gender am I? I'm male, ok, what's my name?" It took a worrying amount of time for the answer to surface in his memories."Alex- (Alex Alveron). No, that's not my name." Alex winced as another sharp jab shot through his head. "Ok, what's my age and birthday? I'm 37(15) years old and I was born on October 15 -(Tidecaller 15 3530)." Taking a deep breath, Alex tried going over his memories once more. However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get the facts straight; contradicting memories kept popping into his mind. It didn't take long for Alex to notice a pattern in the memories that weren't tangled together.

  "No, that can't be." No matter how hard he tried to rationalize it, Alex could only come up with one explanation for his jumbled memories. "I was reborn into Aetheria. How can that be? I don't remember dying." The younger part of Alex wanted to panic, but his older self quickly put an end to that. "Right, need to prioritize the more important things. First, let's do some testing." Alex's older self can recall stories similar to his current circumstances. "Let's see, what did Realms of War have again? Ahem, menu?" Nothing. "Hmm, Settings?

  [Graphics]

  [Controls]

  [Sound]

  [Difficulty(Locked)]

  "Maybe it's for the best that these are unavailable. I can't even imagine what changing something like graphics would entail. " Alex opened up the only available option.

  [Diffuctly(Locked): Realistic]

  -Disable Stats

  -Remove NPC limits

  -Remove Monster Limits

  -Disable Inventory

  -Disable MiniMap

  -Enable Permadeath

  

  Alex tried to read the whole list but gave up after page 20. "Let's try, quit? Save? It was worth a shot, ok then, ahem Player Info."

  [Alex Alveron]

  [Stats]

  [Class]

  [Traits]

  [Quests]

  "Stats."

  [Alex Alveron]

  Stats:

  lvl:1

  Health: 20 Mana: 10

  Str: 1 Dex: 1 Int: 1 Wis: 1 Con: 1 Chr: 1

  "Hmm, can't tell if that's good or bad." Staring at the crossed-out stats, Alex tried flexing his arms and stretching his fingers. "On the downside, I can't rely on my stats to carry me. On the bright side, I didn't randomly get weaker." It would have sucked to wake up as weak as a baby. "Let's try, Quests."

  Ongoing Quests:

  Prologue

  The Great Hunt

  Survive

  "Well, this is new. Expand Quest Survive"

  Quest Survive:

  Description: You found yourself with breath, a heartbeat and the instincts to live. You can only come to one conclusion: you are ALIVE.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  Goal: Live

  Reward: Continue Living

  Failure: Dying

  Penalty: Death

  Rubbing his eyes, Alex let out a deep sigh when there was no change to his quest. "This must be some sick joke. -sigh-, well, let's try Class."

  Class: Weaver's Disciple

  Previous Classes: Mana Weaver

  "Not sure what I expected. That only leaves Traits."

  Traits: Arcane Sight, Inner Library, Mana Eater, Scarred Body, Parasitic Bond

  "Parasitic Bond? Didn't I see something like that in the Origin Generation? Expand Parasitic Bond."

  Parasitic Bond: It Lives Inside You

  Your host to one of Arcane Weaver’s Spawn. It feeds on your mana.

  -75% Mana Regen

  “Fuck!” After a few minutes of yelling and some worried questions from his neighbour, Alex finally managed to calm himself down after a quick meal. "The reduction in Mana Regen isn't ideal, but I'm sure I can figure something out. If I recall correctly, this came from the Great Hunt Questline." When hunting the Arcane Weaver, you'll eventually run into people infected with her offspring. One big thing that made hunting the Arcane Weaver unique was the many ways you could tackle the quest line. You could hunt down and kill everyone infected, cure them, or help those infected tame their parasites. If done right, you could even recruit infected NPCs into your team. "This means I have the choice of trying to cure myself or tame the parasite." It was then that something clicked for Alex as he leaned back in his chair. “When did I get infect—” he was cut off by a sharp pain in his forehead, followed by a torrent of memories.

  Images of times long passed, people with blurred faces and vague voices—a loud siren followed by screams. Memories of running, being pinned down and attacked. A giant silhouette loomed above him before everything went black. Before he knew it, Alex found himself on the ground, drenched in sweat, gasping for air. "Shit, not this again(What was that?). I thought I was past this(That's all?)." Wiping the sweat on his brow, Alex got up from the floor. "That monster must have been the Arcane weaver, meaning that must have been when I was infected." It was then that things started to make sense.

  "Here I thought I just had abysmal Mana, to think I was being drained of it this whole time." 'On the bright side, because I was infected at such a young age, the Spawn never had the chance to eat enough Mana quickly enough to awaken. "Meaning I still have time." With the reassurance that he wasn't in any mortal danger, Alex looked at his other Traits. " Expand Scarred Body."

  Scarred Body: An Injury Long Forgotten

  A Constant Reminder

  Reduce Str and Con by 10% or Reduce Dex and Con by 10%

  "Do I have scars?" 'I do have small scars, but I don't think the small cuts I got while cooking would have given a 10% reduction in Str.' Heading to the bathroom, Alex took off his shirt to see if he had missed anything. The first thing he noticed was his pink eyes."Did I always have pink eyes?" Ignoring the sharp pain assaulting his head, Alex looked for any major scars. Not seeing anything at first, Alex turned around and was shocked to see a huge, dark blue hole on his back with crack-like lines radiating from it. "What the? That wasn't there before, or was it? Wait a minute, Expand Arcane Sight."

  Arcane Sight: You can see Mana.

  With the ability to see Mana, you can cast spells more efficiently.

  For the first 3 turns of battle, your spells cost 15% less Mana to cast.

  "Mana? Is that what I am seeing?" Looking at the circuit-like lines running through the walls, Alex tried to recall what he knew about Arcane Sight. "Arcane Sight is a rare mutation that allows a person to sense Mana. Unlike the name suggests, a person with Arcane Sight doesn't always sense Mana via sight; it can develop using any of the senses. People could live their whole lives without it awakening, and triggers include traumatic events, being exposed to a large amount of Mana, experiencing a kind of enlightenment or other similar events. I guess receiving another set of memories can be considered both a traumatic event and an enlightenment in a way." Putting on his shirt again, Alex sat in the living room after refilling his cup with more water. "Better check my other traits, expand Mana Eater."

  Mana Eater: A different kind of addict.

  No repercussions.

  You are immune to Mana Sickness.

  "I can't tell if I always had this or not. The teacher always emphasized that draining all your Mana was a bad idea. So I never tried. It's also not like I had the chance to get a Mana Potion before, and if I did, I'd probably sell it instead of drinking it while full-on Mana." Alex took a sip of water to moisten his dry lips. "That only leaves: Expand Inner Library."

  Inner Library: Store Memories

  Knowledge is Power, so never lose it.

  Removes the limit on how many spells you can memorize.

  "I always had a good memory, though it can't compare to what I have right now. Hmm, I can't tell if that's because my memory suddenly improved or because I have two sets of memories to pull from." Alex shook his head, trying to keep his mind from wandering. "That isn't important right now; what's important is figuring out what I should do. I have three years before I'm old enough to enter Starage Academy." It was then that it dawned on him. "Shit, I still need to pay rent."

  'Unlike in REALMS or Realms at War, I still need to buy food and pay rent.' "So my main priority needs to be getting as much money as possible. I still have a decent amount from my inheritance, and the director paid enough in advance so I won't need to worry about rent for at least four months. The problem I have is that a normal job isn't going to cut it. I also still need to study for the entrance exam and condition my body to be strong enough to survive the upcoming challenges. I need a Pass from the Academy to legally go anywhere dangerous, meaning traditional Monster Hunting and exploration are off the table until then." Alex has memories of his younger self doing odd tasks for pocket money. In comparison, his older self's work experience can be simplified as hard labour or programming.

  "With my frame, no one would hire me to do any hard labour, and if they did, that opens up a whole new set of problems. Which leaves using my programming skills to earn money." Alex could only think of one thing that could earn him a lot of money in the shortest time. "Copying a game from my older self's memory and releasing it. However, that leaves me with the problem of not having a device I could use to program. I have roughly 46,000 Credits left from my inheritance. It would cost about 600 Credits for the base device and an additional 300 for the necessary accessories. I'll also need to check if there are any laws or age requirements that might hamper any attempts to sell my game. What about copyright laws? Ugh, looks like I have a long day ahead of me."