18 RECORD
Aldrich's entire being went into an ultimate focus mode as he saw the video.
The video started with an aerial view; something had scorched the ground black. One could see red-black fluid piling up even from the height of hundreds of meters. Various ambulances, military jeeps, and trucks were carrying bodies upon bodies and were dumping them in a huge ditch. It seemed like someone had detonated a pocket-nuke on the city.
And the reason for this calamity was proudly pointing his sword towards heaven. It was an equestrian statue.
In the first weeks, the Party allocated to this Random-Dungeon couldn't complete the raid, and this horror had come alive. The statue, impervious to any bullets or missiles, had massacred around 12,000 humans. As reported by the news reporter, the statue stopped by itself at the end of 5 hours.
And its brethren had carried out similar slaughter in various places. After that, the countries passed a law to evacuate people out of the area of influence of the Statues, before every Random-Allocation deadline. The authorities concluded only Dreamers could hold their grounds against these 'Animated' statues.
There was one more thing that Aldrich had been eager to find out. Were there others who hadn't come out after their initial 5 hours of 'Sleep'? One thing that was crystal clear to Aldrich, that he had come out alive only because he had gained lucidity in his dream. And the way he could only do it by the end of his dream, then it was undeniable that none of the other lucid-dreamers had done the same. Aldrich spent 3 hours chewing and digesting all the information thoroughly. But he couldn't find the answers to a few questions even on the internet.
He looked at the screen, which was still flashing with the notification. And a defeated sigh came out from his mouth, "Here goes nothing."
Aldrich took a deep breath and said, "Assign the name 'Aldrich' in the System." He used the well-described words as mentioned by the online community.
[…
Assigning 'Aldrich' in the System…
Welcome to the System Aldrich
You can access your Stats window and other services by thinking or saying RECORD
Best of Luck
…]
'Best of luck?' Aldrich made sure there wasn't any mention of 'best of luck' anywhere. He didn't like the way how atypical his circumstances had been turning out to be.
"RECORD."
Many runic symbols in Aldrich's eyes followed a light breeze in the room, and words and numbers materialized in front of Aldrich. Aldrich was ready for only a Stat window, and yet a superfluity of information surfaced in his mind.
He could see his mother, his father in the shop, pedestrians on the road, vehicles running and even the birds and rats up and down. Aldrich knew he could perceive such things through the research that he had just done, but not to this unimaginable extent.
And soon he found out the reason, within the numbers on the screen.
[…
Record of Aldrich
Time Left: 157:30:00 hrs
Status: Healthy
Level: 1 (0/100 ExP to next level)
HP: 158/158
SP: 107/107
MP: 895/895
Rank: Common
Class: Generalist
Title: NA
Attributes -->
Strength: 5
Defence: 4
Agility: 6
Vitality: 10
Perception: 100
Correspondence: 15
Unassigned Attribute Points: 0
Active Skills -->
1. Metacreativity: Lvl 1
Skill Points: 0
Passive Skills -->
1. Shared Vision
Inventory --> (0/10)
…]
Aldrich's mind processed all the information that the RECORD's Stats window had spewed out. Even though Aldrich wasn't a big fan of video games, he had researched most of them.
'A 100 perception? Wasn't it supposed to be the lowest of all Attributes?' Aldrich compared his results with the average Dreamers. And even the blue bar under MP Stat had broken the balance by a tremendous amount.
'I know what this "Time Left" means. And he had also found an explanation for other Stats online. But even more important are the Classes and Skills.' Aldrich followed the instructions given on the ADA website for new Dreamers. He focused on the Stats to get an in-depth view of them.
[…
Class: Generalist
Description: NA
Warning: More Data required
Class-Specific Skill: Metacreativity
…]
'Hmm! If I am right, then this is because I had been sleeping for 1 year.' Aldrich could only guess the reason for the unavailability of the Class description.
'If there are others who have specialized in over one area, would they also receive this same class?' Aldrich thought. He again went through all the Classes he had seen on the internet in his mind, and yes, there was no such Class mentioned. At least not publicly.
'It's ok, even if there are others in this Class. If there aren't, then this could create some problems. Do I have to use the trial-and-error method for it?' Aldrich, lamenting over the lack of data, could only proceed to the next one.
[…
Skill: Metacreativity
Nature: Active
Lvl: 1 (0/3 Skill Points to next level)
Cooldown: 168:00:00 hrs
Description: Dreamer can create Items and Skills of Common Class upon sacrificing Experience Points.
Warning: Items must be equipped upon creation. Unequipped items would be destroyed.
Warning: Only 'Active Skills' can be created. The Skills created can't be upgraded using Skill Points.
Warning: Dreamer would permanently lose the ExPs once used. There is a high chance of dropping to the previous Level.
Warning: The number of ExPs would be calculated based on the description provided by the Dreamer.
…]
Aldrich had been standing in shock since he saw the description.
'This… this is unbelievable. If this is true, then….' And a smile had surfaced on Aldrich's face. One could have only called it the most villainous of its kind.
'Hmm, Experience Points. I must get ExPs and a lot of them to use this Skill. It's not like I need to wait for the Random-Dungeon.' Random-Dungeons were Dungeons in which RECORD forced Dreamers to raid. But Dreamers could still go on the raid in the Dungeons on other days if they wanted to. Aldrich checked the list of Dungeons, which Dreamers had cleared recently. These Dungeons would soon spawn Crawlers.
'Tch, I would have to register myself as a Dreamer first. Let's leave it for later.'
There was still another Skill left to be discovered by Aldrich. He thought of the Skill and RECORD presented the details on the Stat Window.
[…
Skill: Shared Vision
Nature: Passive
Description: You can see what ?#?#?# sees.
…]
'…?'
"Damn it," Aldrich was now a little annoyed by this RECORD.
No matter how offended Aldrich had felt, there was nothing much he could do about it. But the differing of norm hadn't finished with the cryptic description. There was one more thing that had not hidden its peculiarity. The thing Aldrich was looking forward to the most was neither Skills nor his Class, but the Bonus Item that every Dreamer had got in their Inventory.
Aldrich menacingly looked at the 0 in front of the Inventory and focused on the word nonetheless.
[…
Inventory: A storage space
Description: Storage space that doesn't occupy any volume in the real world. The space in Inventory is calculated in Inventory-Units which increases with every Class Upgrade.
Warning: Only equipped Items can be stored in Inventory.
Warning: The total units of equipped Items stored can't exceed maximum storage capacity.
Status: 0/10
Warning: You don't have any items in your Inventory. It is recommended to obtain an item before the next raid.
…]
"DON'T WARN ME."
"What happened?" Aldrich's mother came running to his room. Good thing he had locked the room.
Aldrich closed the Stat window, rubbed his hands on the face, and opened the door.
"Ah, nothing. I was thinking of registering as a Dreamer. So I'll be going out for some time." Aldrich cheerily explained.
"Oh! So, which class do you have? You know, I have checked all the classes just now, it said Mages are all comparatively good. They don't have to go too near to the monsters."
Seeing the expectant eyes of her mother, Aldrich didn't know what to say, and yet something must be told.
"You are right! I am a Mage, and don't worry I'll probably be back before you guys go to sleep."
"Oh! That's good. Let your father know too." Mrs. Sarah patted her chest.
"Did you call Boomie? He was the one who brought your things from up the Ridge."
'This, he isn't just anybody now. I need to be careful in this new world even more.'
"I'll let him know. If he comes again, just make him wait for me at home." Like Mr. Ben, even his mother put up a weird expression, not finding any reason for this secrecy.
*
The closest Dreamer Verification Center, or DVC, was in Wenatchee, Washington. Within an hour, Aldrich had reached the largest city of the County. A 10 storied building with glossy black panels stood tall within the heart of the city. Most citizens had called the logo of ADA, a raised fist with the background of earth, a symbol of hope. People were going in and coming out like a swarm of bees, and yet the elegance of the place didn't diminish at all.
"Let's do it."
Only a few journeys begin with the first step, most of them drag one down unwillingly.
