Status Screen

Alex woke up with a start in the middle of a forest.

Not a Rift, thankfully.

This, he could tell because whenever he went into a place with lots of mana, he felt prickling sensations crawling around his skin, making his survival instincts flare up. Manaless people felt that when they came into contact with mana, and it was a constant reminder he did not belong here or anywhere where magic was involved.

This was an ordinary forest, though.

An hour and a half drive out from Haven, the city that Alex called home.

The same spot that Alex had followed the team of mages out with to enter the Rift.

But there was no Rift, no swirling portal of green hovering between a pocket of trees.

Alex groaned as he felt a monster headache start to radiate outwards from his temple.

"Are you okay?" came a voice. A gentle hand touched Alex's shoulder, and he looked up to see a woman peering over him, her black gloved hand outstretched atop his body and radiating green, healing magical energy.

The energy made Alex feel comfortably warm, but he had not really been hurt, much to his surprise. The pain from before was completely gone, and nothing was broken or torn. Almost made him wonder if everything that happened in that strange temple had even been real.

The woman was dressed in all black robes, but on her chest was a golden badge shaped into a star outlined in a circle.

The symbol of the Court of Keys, the largest organization of mages in the Western hemisphere. Probably some kind of official here to make sure everything was fine, though Alex had never been formally educated in magic to know properly.

Alex sat up and shook his head. "I'm fine, I think."

He looked around to see that there were more black robed figures scurrying about, investigating the area, taking samples, inspecting the place with hands glowing with magical energy, eye pieces meant for analyzing mana, and so on.

The six mages from the team were here too, surprisingly well and alive, though Alex would not have shed a tear knowing they had died either.

They had seemingly regained consciousness before Alex. And, upon assessing them with a second look, maybe they were not doing too well.

They were being questioned by Court mages as well, and they all seemed pale as if they had seen a ghost.

Some of them, Ivan especially, were shaking.

Alex would have felt pretty good about them getting roughed up like this, but he was far too preoccupied with what was going on around him, especially what was in front of him-

"Let's see here," said the Court mage by Alex. She looked down at her phone. The clash between ancient magical robes and modern tech was interesting, but one that Alex was used to by now. "Your name is Alex, right?"

"Yeah, that's me," said Alex.

"Good. It seems that you are in clear possession of your mental faculties." She jotted down notes on her phone. "You can call me Ciara. Do you know who I am?"

"From…from the Court?" said Alex.

Ciara blinked. "Well, yes, technically that is true. Specifically, do you know which department?"

Alex shook his head.

"I am from the Umbra, the investigative and punitive arm of the Court, but don't worry, Alex, we're not here to punish you or anyone else.

You see, the Rift you and your team entered spontaneously collapsed, something that rarely ever happens, and we're just here to sort out details and try to figure out what happened." Ciara knelt down by Alex so that she was at eye level with him.

She had pretty, strikingly green eyes that were almost disarming, and Alex wondered if they were magically enchanted any to make questionings easier.

She gave him a faint smile, as if to project that she was not to be feared, and continued, immediately beginning on questioning. "You were filed in to clear this Rift as a porter, is that true?"

"Yeah," said Alex. He bit his lip to hide his nervousness.

"Please bear with me," said Cira. "I know this may be tedious, but we have to report things properly."

"I know. You won't have a problem with me," said Alex, but he kept his attention close to the mages that had gone in with him.

"Do you remember what happened before the Rift collapsed upon itself?" Ciara asked. "What you saw? Felt?"

Alex looked at the faces of the mages as they were being questioned. They had blank expressions. Some of them were shrugging.

"I don't know! I don't know!" shouted Ivan from afar. "I thought I was dead, I tell you, but what-what killed me, what happened, I don't know!"

Welp, that confirmed it.

"No," said Alex as calmly as he could, though his voice shook a little. If they did not know, Alex was not going to let up and say anything either.

If he got roped into a real Court investigation, he could get taken in by them, questioned, or even worse, maybe even experimented on because the Court had jurisdiction beyond any government laws.

"I see," said Ciara. She typed more on her phone. "Your physical and mental condition is far better than the others. Any reason you can think of as to why this might be?"

Alex paused for a moment, not sure how to answer this, but suddenly, another Court mage stepped in and patted Ciara on the shoulder.

"The porter's a Dud. He won't know anything the mages don't. Probably doesn't even know what he's doing here, and I don't like the idea of harassing civilians when we're supposing to be protecting them.

Let's not waste our time, C. Get back to the field team and brief me of their analyses. Also, tell the others to round up the mages for further questioning."

Ciara nodded and walked away with prompt, military swiftness, not sparing Alex another glance as she continued on her job. Her previous aura of friendliness, her gentle, warm gaze, all of that was just gone in an instant.

Alex shuddered at how easily she could conjure up a genuine aura of friendliness like that and break it with the snap of a finger.

The new Court mage patted Alex's shoulder. "How old are you, kid?"

"Twenty," said Alex.

"Twenty? Damn, thought you were younger." The Court mage adjusted his shades from under his hooded robes. It was evident he was an older man with wrinkles around his face and a white speckled goatee gracing his chin. "Guess I'm getting too old to tell whose a kid and who isn't."

A brief and awkward pause.

Alex did not feel comfortable interacting with this guy, not when Ciara was able to fake friendliness so convincingly like that for answers. For all he knew, this could be a tactic to disarm him for even further answers.

"Well then." The mage checked his phone. "Alex, is it? This whole thing is a, how do I put it, mages only thing. You catch my drift?"

Alex paused for a moment, gathering what the man said, and then understood. He stood up almost in disbelief that he was being let go and gave the man a nod. "Yeah, I got it."

The mage truly believed Alex knew nothing and had nothing useful to say because he was a Dud, and if there was a memory wiping event that affected the mages, then there was no way Alex was going to escape it either.

Maybe the one time in Alex's life where being a manaless Dud had actually helped him.

"Good man." The mage squeezed Alex's shoulder with a heavily tattooed hand and pointed him away, over to a group of white robed mages bearing badges showing the Caduceus staff.

These, even Alex recognized as healers.

The mage continued. "Get yourself checked out for any injuries or curses by the healing team there and you're free to go.

You'll be compensated for your time here, and if you have any registered equipment that was lost or broken, file it to the nearest Court center and we'll see what we can do for paying you back.

Go home and get some rest. You look like you need it."

Alex nodded and walked away almost in a haze, his heart beating extremely quickly. He was thankful that the Court mage mistook his nervousness for tiredness.

Because he came to realize that nobody could see the status screen floating in front of him.

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Name: Alex Lin

Level: 1

EXP: 0/10

Stats:

-Strength: 5

-Agility: 4

-Constitution: 6

-Perception: 4

-Willpower: 10

-Luck: 1

Passives:

-Divine Binding: Mana

The host is incapable of utilizing any mana. The host cannot store any mana. In exchange, the host obtains the right to walk the path of ascension into a Martial God.

-Divine Binding: Fists

The host is restricted to utilizing only his body to defend and attack with. Weapons are forbidden, though armoring for the body and fists is allowed. In exchange, stat gains for strength, agility, constitution, and perception are doubled.

Forms: [LOCKED]

Skills: [LOCKED]

Quests:

Main Quest: Trial Run

Difficulty: ???

Details:

The host has twenty four hours to accomplish the following:

Run 50 kilometers. Perform 500 pushups. Perform 500 sit ups. Perform 500 squats.

Rewards: Variable.

Depending on how much of these tasks the Host accomplishes, the rewards will vary. The more the Host accomplishes, the better the rewards. Insufficient performance will lead to death.

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