Bang. Bang. Bang.
The knocking at the door didn't just rattle the wood; it felt like a Dwarven warhammer was striking directly against the inside of my skull.
I groaned, burying my face deeper into the feather pillow. Beside my head, a fourteen-pound ball of silver-tipped fur let out a pathetic, vibrating whine.
"Make it stop, Noah," Snow's telepathic voice whimpered weakly in my mind, entirely lacking her usual haughty edge. "Tell the loud peasant to cease their assault on my royal ears. And tell the room to stop spinning. I think I was poisoned by that bearded brute."
Bang. Bang. Bang.
"Delivery for the Guest!" a muffled voice called from the hallway.
I blindly swiped my hand through the air, trying to dismiss the blinking red icon hovering in the corner of my vision.
[ SYSTEM PING ]
"Coming, coming," I croaked, my mouth tasting like dry sawdust and stale ale. I dragged myself out of bed, my oversized linen pants tangling around my ankles, and stumbled toward the door. I slapped the copper Guest Card against the runic lock.
The door clicked open, revealing a young, exasperated-looking Beast-Man with rabbit ears. He was holding a large woven basket.
"Morning," the kid said brightly, completely oblivious to my suffering. "Guild Master Adda sent these up for you. Said you can't go to the training grounds looking like a vagrant who lost a fight with a potato sack. Just be careful of shady wizards, whatever that means."
He shoved the basket into my chest, forcing me to take it, and quickly rattled off his instructions. "Inside is a standard-issue novice kit. Tunic, trousers, boots, and some basic toiletries. The Guild Master expects you in the training area in exactly one hour. It's through the heavy iron-banded door on the east side of the main hall. Don't be late!"
Before I could even mumble a thank you, the kid gave a quick salute and darted off down the hall.
I nudged the door shut with my foot and carried the basket over to the desk. I rummaged through it, feeling a genuine wave of relief. At the bottom was a small wooden box containing a bristle-brush, a tin of minty-smelling paste, and a bar of actual soap.
But the real prize was the clothes.
I quickly shed the scratchy wool cloak and twine-belted pants and hit the shower, marveling at the surprisingly modern bathroom. I even managed to snatch Snow and pull her in with me to get her cleaned up—luckily, she's never had a fear of water.
After scrubbing the jungle dirt away, I dressed in the Guild's offerings. It wasn't anything fancy—just a pair of dark, sturdy canvas trousers, a breathable grey cotton tunic, and a wide leather belt. But compared to what I arrived in, it felt like a tailored suit. I slipped my feet into the leather boots, lacing them up tight. They fit perfectly.
I walked over to the small mirror hanging above the washbasin.
I paused, gripping the edges of the wooden frame. Staring back at me was a kid who looked about sixteen. He had my messy dark hair and my eyes, but his skin was clear of the stress breakouts I'd had for a decade, and his posture was completely different. It was the posture of someone who had a [Level 5] physical baseline and a literal system running through his blood.
"Alright," I whispered to the reflection. "No more hiding. Let's see what we can actually do."
I turned back to the bed. Snow was currently attempting to dry herself under the heavy wool blanket, leaving only her two starlight tails exposed.
"Come on, your majesty," I said, grabbing my copper card and a leftover piece of dried meat from last night's feast. "Time to go see a bear about a training montage."
"If I am forced to exert physical energy before I have had a proper nap," Snow grumbled, finally poking her wet head out and glaring at the sunlight streaming through the window, "I am going to bite someone. Preferably the Dwarf."
We made our way down the stairs, and I noticed the Guild Hall felt a lot less like a riot and more like a workplace this morning. We headed to the east side, pushing open the heavy, iron-banded door the rabbit-eared kid had mentioned.
Inside was a massive, gymnasium-style room. It was lined with racks of training weapons, heavy-duty weights, and strange-looking mechanical resistance equipment. In the center of the vast floor, Adda was already standing there, towering over Thorek and giving him a visible hard time about something, while the Dwarf just laughed and rubbed his braided beard.
As soon as she spotted us, she waved us over. "Right on time, denim-wizard! Glad to see you're actually wearing clothes that fit."
A Guild employee followed behind her, pushing a heavy metal cart. Resting on top was a large, polished crystal hooked up to a complex-looking interface that looked suspiciously like a high-fantasy motherboard. It had brass dials and a flickering glass screen that felt oddly familiar to my tech-oriented brain.
Adda gestured to the machine. "This is a specialized Resonance Reader. It's more sensitive than the Aptitude Stone you broke yesterday. It's going to give us a much better idea of exactly what we're working with—skills, stat distribution, the works."
She stepped back, her expression uncharacteristically soft for a moment. "Look, Noah. I know your situation is... unique. I'll let you check the results first in private. Take a minute, look over your data, and then we'll talk about what you actually want to share with the Guild."
She didn't wait for an answer, simply grabbing Thorek by the shoulder and ushering the others toward the weapon racks at the far end of the gym, leaving Snow alone and me with the hum of the machine.
"Finally," Snow purred, hopping onto the cart and peering at her reflection in the crystal. "Some digital recognition of my greatness. Go on, Noah. Let's see how much we've broken the local laws of physics today."
I took a deep breath, my heart thumping against my ribs. I reached out and placed my hand on the smooth surface of the Reader.
The moment my skin made contact with the crystal, it wasn't just my internal UI that reacted. The brass dials on the cart spun wildly, and the heavy glass screen flickered, casting a dense, sapphire-blue glow over my face. The system in my head didn't just ping—it sang, a high-frequency digital hum that harmonized perfectly with the physical machine.
My interface merged seamlessly with the Reader's display, projecting a highly detailed, sprawling character sheet right in front of me.
[ EXTERNAL INTERFACE DETECTED ]
[ SYNCHRONIZING SYSTEM DATA... ]
[ COMPILING FULL DIAGNOSTIC REPORT ]
The scrolling code snapped into place. For the first time, the "game" mechanics were laid out in hard, undeniable numbers.
====================================
[ USER PROFILE: NOAH STARGAZER ]
====================================
TITLE: The World Walker
TALENT: Aetheric Synthesis
LEVEL: 5 (Stage: Awakened)
AFFINITY: Sapphire Voltaic Dissonance (System Anomaly)
APTITUDE POTENTIAL: Prismatic Core
[ BASE ATTRIBUTES ]
STR: 4 (Below Average)
VIT: 6 (Frail)
DEX: 15 (Anomalous)
INT: 10 (Human Baseline Max)
WIS: 8 (Average)
CHA: 5 (Needs Improvement)
SPI: 15 (Anomalous)
UNASSIGNED STAT POINTS: 12
[ ABILITIES & SKILLS ]
The Architect's Eye (Passive): Perceives atmospheric mana, Qi, and Chakra as base-level source code.
Aetheric Bridge (Active): Acts as a high-bandwidth spiritual heat-sink to safely process catastrophic energy loads.
System Anomaly (Passive): Bypasses standard racial progression limits. Grants 3 Stat Points per level instead of 1.
Voltaic Step (Active): Channels sapphire dissonance into the nervous system for a micro-burst of superhuman speed.
Jolt Burst (Active): Sends a burst of electricity through the hands and through physical contact.
====================================
[ ACTIVE BOND: SNOW ]
====================================
SPECIES: Lunar Cat
TITLE: The World Walker, ????
LEVEL: 5 (Stage: Awakened)
TALENT: ESP Controller
[ BASE ATTRIBUTES ]
STR: 4 (Average for form)
VIT: 5 (Frail)
DEX: 12 (High)
INT: 15 (Anomalous)
WIS: 16 (Anomalous)
CHA: 10 (Above Average)
SPI: ????
UNASSIGNED STAT POINTS: 5
[ ABILITIES & SKILLS ]
Sovereign's Telepathy (Passive): Projects intent and thought directly into a target's mind.
Ethereal Frost-Weave (Active): Generates high-density blue frost capable of freezing physical matter.
====================================
"Okay, the numbers are starting to make sense," I murmured, tracing a finger over the glowing readouts. "My Strength is garbage, and my Vitality is sitting at a pathetic six. I'm basically made of wet paper. But my Dexterity and Spirit are off the charts for a Level 5 human."
I looked down at my hands. "The System isn't building me to take hits or throw punches. With that much Dexterity and Spirit, I'm built for high-speed evasion and massive energy output. A glass cannon."
"A highly mobile battery," Snow corrected smugly, her two starlight tails swishing as she read her own side of the screen. "Observe my Intelligence and Wisdom parameters, Noah. They are entirely anomalous. I am not merely a beast of burden; I am a tactical, arcane sovereign. The fact that your Charisma is a five while mine is double yours only proves who the true leader of this pact is."
I couldn't help but chuckle at the sheer absurdity of arguing stats with my cat grounding me. But as I kept studying the glowing blue text, the gamer in me started picking apart the discrepancies.
"Okay, ignoring my noodle arms for a second," I muttered, tracing a finger in the air over her side of the screen. "Why is your profile full of question marks? Your Spirit stat is completely hidden, your Aptitude Potential is blank, and your title says The World Walker, ????... Are you hiding a secret boss phase from me?"
"I am a creature of superior cosmic design," Snow replied smugly, lifting her chin. "I cannot be fully quantified by a machine built by unascended mechanics. The question marks are merely the System acknowledging that my true potential is beyond its current comprehension."
"Right. Very humble," I sighed. "But that's not the only thing missing. This is a great diagnostic, but it's practically useless for an actual fight. Where is my Health? Where's my Energy or Mana? And for that matter, where is my EXP bar so I know how close I am to Level 6?"
As soon as the words left my mouth, the high-frequency hum in my head pitched upward. The AR interface flickered, responding directly to my verbal prompt.
[ SYSTEM PING ]
[ USER REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGED. REFORMATTING UI OVERLAY... ]
[ INTEGRATING ACTION-RPG SCALING LOGIC FOR VITALS ]
"Action-RPG scaling?" I murmured. "Now we're talking. Let's see those big numbers."
The screen refreshed, shifting the data blocks around to make room for three universally recognizable colored bars: Red, Blue, and Gold.
[ UPDATED VITALS: NOAH STARGAZER ]
HP (Health Points): 800 / 800 (Scaling: Base 500 + [VIT x 50])
EP (Energy/Mana): 1,750 / 1,750 (Scaling: Base 500 + [SPI x 50] + [INT x 50])
EXP: 0 / 2,500
"If my base HP is only five hundred, and I'm only getting three hundred bonus points from my Vitality multiplier... I am severely unbalanced. Anyone with a high VIT stat is going to have thousands of hit points."
"You are not to engage in melee combat," Snow ordered, her tone shifting to pragmatic concern. "You will stand firmly in the back, dodge with your anomalous Dexterity, and act as an arcane battery while I execute the magical artillery."
"We will see," I said.
I instantly tapped the interface, siphoning four of my twelve unassigned stat points directly into Vitality, bumping it from a 6 to a clean 10.
The red HP bar flickered, instantly recalculating the multiplier and filling up to a much more comforting 1,000 / 1,000. It wasn't tank-level health, but it was enough to survive a lucky hit.
Heavy footsteps echoed against the gymnasium floor behind me. Adda was walking back over, having finished her argument with Thorek.
"Alright, kid," the massive bear-woman said, crossing her muscular arms as she approached the glowing screen. "Time's up. Let's see how much of a headache you're going to be for my Guild."