2 02 - Powerful System
[Doppelganger System is being activated!]
'What? System... system... system like those Chinese web novels systems? What luck! I'm saved!' Shawn thought excitedly.
His biggest fear in this world was not interacting with people. That he could get used to. But Shawn's fear was dying to some monster, or even another human.
He was just an ordinary person in his previous world, he didn't even know how to use a knife to defend himself, let alone use a sword. Now, being 23 years old would he have to take a sword to fight monsters? The probability of dying in a situation like this was over 50% being very optimistic, if the monsters are stronger than he thought the chance could rise to over 90% which was not acceptable at all for Shawn .
Luckily he had already read a few webnovels before he died, and he always envied the successful people in those stories, as he knew he could never be like them in his life, so it was best to just read and immerse yourself in the stories to get some personal satisfaction.
But with a system like those stories, Shawn was confident he could finally be like those protagonists he always dreamed of, but of course, without the stupidity of offending 10 young masters in every town he passed, or even being enchanted by every beautiful woman he sees.
Shawn just wanted to be strong, not depend on anyone, and maybe leave a story of his accomplishments, maybe even several stories.
"Hello everyone. As you know, the monster wave starts in three days, so unfortunately you won't have much time to familiarize yourself with the swords you will be using, as the time it took to bring these swords from other cities was too much. They're bigger than we imagined, but with these swords you can display the potential that you have, and at least three of you with enough potential can become knights of the city, so do your best to be able to show that you deserve one of these places because after all, it could change your life." The captain gave a quick speech, but it aroused the passion of these peasants who wanted to change their lives. And for him, that was enough.
Shawn looked at the man skeptically. Probably these 3 vacancies were just to fill the vacancies of the knights who were going to die, so it wasn't so generous. And probably these 3 vacancies already have owners, among people that the captain or the baron already had an eye on.
At this point, the only thing Shawn cared about was that the system would activate soon.
And as if waiting for him, the system made another message appear in front of him, on a translucent blue screen.
[Doppelganger System is activated!]
[Congratulations host! Being a person with little personality, but a lot of desire to change, the Rulers decided to give him another chance. This system is not an artificial intelligence and will only serve as an interface to measure your progress and understand your abilities. Any type of contact will be ignored as it is not within the system's guidelines to understand and answer questions.
The following functions are available: (Status)
Quests may be automatically generated depending on the user's situation. Quest will give rewards depending on user contribution, but will not be mandatory.
Basic explanation about the world: Other humans also have basic systems granted by the Rulers, but theirs is just like a... looking for reference in host memory... reference found... their system is like a basic RPG system from the user's previous world. Showing levels, stats, classes and skills. No rewards are given for leveling up, no stats are easily gained, the system just makes it easier to measure skills and stats, and learn basic knowledge about something.]
Looking at the explanation of the system, Shawn was slightly disappointed, until he realized that the system said that the human system in this world was a basic RPG system, it didn't say that his own was also a basic one. Especially the fact that his System is called Doppelganger System already said that there was something special about it.
Curious, Shawn said mentally. 'Status'
[Shawn Berowne
Level: 5
Strength: 5
Dexterity: 5
Agility: 5
Endurance: 5
Skills:
Metamorph Lvl 01 0/2,000 exp.
The host manages to change their appearance completely once every 24 hours. Being able to change their appearance into any being of their own race. If only a single feature is changed, such as hair or eye color, the energy consumption will be greatly reduced.
Only 50% of the target's stats will be copied while the transformation is active. If the host's stats are higher than the target's, the higher number will prevail.
The higher the target's stats, the greater the energy consumption for the transformation.
Mimicry Lvl 01 0/2,000 exp.
The host can observe the abilities of other beings of their own species after fully transforming into them and learning the ability for themselves. However, the proficiency in the skill must be obtained by the host itself, the higher the rating of the target skill, the longer it takes to use the Mimicry skill again.]
Looking at these abilities, Shawn was shocked. There was no other word to describe it besides 'Dominator'!
With these two skills, Shawn could learn any skill he wanted, and he could be whoever he wanted! He would no longer be limited to mediocre abilities, mediocre appearance, resulting in mediocre living.
No, now Shawn could change his appearance to whatever he wanted, as well as having enough skills to be domineering!
Looking at the captain speaking in front of the peasants, an idea came to Shawn.
'To be the captain of a Town's guard, a knight must be much more powerful than the rest of the other knights, or at least have some useful skills. You will be my first target!' Shawn thought with an inward smile.
[Do you want to save 'Captain Nolasco' for a later transformation? This will be saved for 7 days.]
Shawn was surprised by this functionality, he thought that just by looking at the person he could transform into them later, but apparently that's not how it worked.
Shawn created a theory that in order to change his appearance, he could change to whoever he wanted, but to learn someone else's skills, he would have to 'keep' the person in the skill and after 7 days or he would have to see the person again, or he could no longer become that person.
'7 days is a good bit of time, if anything happens I can just add another 7 days after that time is up.' Shawn thought confidently.
'Yes' He confirmed the system request.
['Captain Nolasco' has been saved as a possible Metamorph.]
With an inward smile, Shawn listened to Capitan Nolasco's speech about peasants having to line up for swords.
Whenever one of the knights handed a sword to one of the peasants, a face of disgust was clearly visible on these men's faces, as almost all the peasants worked in the fields, making them very dirty with earth.
Many, like Shawn, couldn't even see much of their skin, so out of disgust the guards didn't even ask the peasants anything and just handed over their swords before letting the peasants out.
This was the perfect situation for Shawn, who grabbed his sword and ran out of town.
Initially the guards were afraid Shawn would run to another town to sell the sword, but knowing this peasant dressed like a beggar, they knew he couldn't run to another town without dying to some monster along the way.
Silver Dust Town was a town surrounded by forests with monsters, so they had to invest in swords to be able to protect themselves from the wave of monsters. The peasants were practically the hostages of the Baron, as they could not leave the city without the escort of knights.
So no one ran after Shawn.
Arriving in the forest, Shawn first sought a place on the riverbank with some fruit trees for him to eat and drink from, while looking at the sword with enchanted eyes.
This was his first time holding a sword. In his previous world he had already held a firearm, even a bow as a child, but never a sword.
Looking more closely, this sword was not as well made as he imagined, there were even some parts crudely made on these swords.
'Probably defective products from other cities' blacksmiths... that's why that greedy baron bought swords, it must have been very cheap.' Shawn thought.
But not that it mattered much to him, considering it was free.
Then, with a thought, his appearance began to change.
From a 23-year-old Caucasian male with black hair and stubble, Shawn has grown into a 35-year-old man with shaved hair and toned muscles.
The neutral expression he had previously maintained has now been replaced by a confident, almost arrogant expression.
The captain's facial expression was not one of skill, but rather of the observations Shawn made as he watched the man.
Since Shawn could now transform into other people, he also decided to change his own behavior to how that person would act, to avoid future problems.
'Status'
[Shawn Berowne (Captain Nolasco)
Level: 5 (11)
Strength: 5 (13)
Dexterity: 5 (11)
Agility: 5 (8)
Endurance: 5 (12)
(50% of the target's stats have been copied to the user while the transformation is active.)
Skills:
Military Sword-play of Silver Dust Town (Rank: Bronze Peak) (Mastery: Master): Military Sword-play taught to all soldiers of Silver Dust Town, this sword-play has been refined for over 100 years, becoming a Bronze Peak skill, only on a threshold to reach Silver level.
Silver Dust Town Military Footwork (Rank: Bronze) (Mastery: Specialist): Military footwork taught to all Silver Dust Town soldiers, this footwork was invented to be compatible with Silver Dust Town's Military Sword-play, amplifying it even more the attack power of sword-play.
Double Slash (Rank: Low Silver) (Mastery: Expert): Sword skill that allows the user to attack so fast that the sword will go forward while attacking and backward after the attack, making two cuts to the target very quickly.]
Shawn was stunned by Bronze and Silver ratings, as well as Captain Nolasco's mastery of skills.
Curious, he clicked his finger on the transparent screen and saw what these values meant.
[Ranks: Bronze < Silver < Gold < ??? < ???? < ????? < ??????]
[Mastery: Novice < Amateur < Expert < Specialist < Master < ???]
'Hmm, so the skill at Rank Silver is a very good skill! That's what I will learn!' Shawn thought confidently.
[Error. To learn 'Double Slash' the user must first have achieved 'Expert' mastery in some sword-play skill of at least Rank 'Bronze'.]
'Damn it!' Shawn was frustrated. He thought he could start with a Rank Silver skill pretty easily already, but unfortunately he would have to start at the bottom.
Unfortunately for him, he didn't know that getting a Rank Bronze skill was already a dream of many people, that they had been chasing it for so many years but many couldn't even develop a skill.
To get an ability, normally a human would have to obtain the training manual for that ability, and train for months or years before the ability appears in their system. When the skill appeared, the human would receive a lot of knowledge about the skill, and could finally increase mastery in it.
Shawn, who didn't even know how to hold a sword properly, just because of his Mimicry ability was able to copy an ability to his own System it was impossible for everyone.
While many spent years training to get the skill, Shawn with a thought learned that, greatly accelerating his future development.
But that was something he would only find out later. For now, Shawn's only goal was to take advantage of those three days to achieve a high mastery of skill and be able to obtain 'Double Slash' for himself.
