NOVEL NEXT B1 | Chapter 1
High above the World of Val
“Chaos! Don’t you dare initialize another world!” The voice of Justicar, the Primordial of Order, echoes throughout space as Chaos calmly flies through the emptiness towards a lovely ball of blue and green known as Val. His next target for Initialization. “The System Events are filled up as it is! If you keep this up I’m going to have to create more Events and it could hurt the new worlds you’re initializing!”
For some reason he’s just felt like initializing a bunch of worlds recently. So the Primordial of Chaos has been doing just that for a few months now.
Chaos isn’t entirely sure why Justicar is so pissed off. Or rather, he is sure, but he just finds it amusing.
“Chaos, I know you hear me,” Justicar’s voice echoes out once again, the man himself no doubt in his little temple watching over everything. But he can’t keep tabs on Chaos. No one can. “I swear, if you-”
The Primordial of Chaos tunes the man out as he stops flying right after entering the atmosphere of Val. Then he begins to grow larger and larger, his form that of a massive raven with eerily glowing crimson, purple, and black feathers. But when the people of the world of Val see him, every last one of them sees a different sight. Whether that’s a large crack in the sky, a meteor falling down on them, a floating person in the sky far smaller than Chaos actually is, or any other sort of animal or bizarre events that come to mind the moment they see him.
Yet, somehow, not a single person bats an eye at the strange sight. Instead returning to their previous day to day lives.
Chaos watches for a few minutes as office workers go to the office, the sun having just risen over the horizon, barely leaking through the skyscrapers of the world’s capital. As construction workers yawn while driving or walking over to the construction sites they’re currently assigned to. And as enforcers – those who use the naturally given ‘abilities’ every human being is born with to keep the peace – fight against the rogues. The criminals with particularly powerful ‘abilities’.
Of course, Chaos knows perfectly well that these ‘abilities’ are no more than the roots of their skill trees. But these people will learn about that soon enough.
In the Tutorial.
“Chaos, please, just listen to someone for once,” Chaos hears Justicar’s voice once more, the man beginning to grow rather tired judging by the tone of his voice.
The man can’t do anything to stop Chaos physically, so it makes sense he’d be tired.
Chaos almost pities him.
“Don’t worry dear old Justy,” Chaos says, his raven form flashing to appear as a humanoid one before blinking back and forth between a raven and a human. With a wide smirk on his face, of course.
“Are you really going to listen this time?!” Justicar exclaims, sounding rather shocked and filled with disbelief.
“Yep,” Chaos responds with a light nod of his rather massive head. Then he waves his hand which turns back into a wing midway through the wave over the world before making a fancy red and black System screen appear before him. “I’ll listen.”
Justicar’s sigh resonates across the world, inaudible to the people living within it. Then he says, “Thank-”
Chaos moves his other hand-turned-wing to press the big glowing red button on the screen, making a System message spread all across every being within the universe.
“-you…” Justicar’s voice trails off as he no doubt sees the message himself.
Primordial System Notification
The world known as Val has now been Initiated into the System by the Primordial of Chaos. All beings within the world will be sent to a tutorial to introduce them to the System. They will all then participate in their very first System Event upon completion of the tutorial.
Welcome them all to the Primordial System, for they are the newest members of the Tree.
“I said I’d listen,” Chaos says while transforming fully into a humanoid form with long black, purple, and crimson hair, and two black and crimson raven wings that look just like the wings he had in his raven form. With a set of armor on that looks different every second it’s looked at, constantly changing appearances. “Never said what I’d do with what I heard, but I did listen! I promise you that!”
The Primordial of Order starts shouting at Chaos again, just as the man always does. But Chaos’s attention is quickly taken away by something in one particularly large building on Val. A building that has something in it letting out a strange wave of energy.
Chaos Energy? From a newly initialized world?
Because this is more important than the regularly scheduled lecture from Justicar, Chaos quickly teleports over to the large building – a building that appears to be one of the largest on the entire planet – before he spots a girl lying down on a hospital bed wearing a hospital gown. She has long black hair, a beautiful yet short figure, and appears to be about twenty-two years old based on her DNA’s age and in a coma.
Then, just like everyone else on the planet, the girl is transported to the tutorial.
But Chaos’s attention doesn’t leave that quickly. Even if he is the Primordial of Chaos. So, while Gates leading to monster-filled dimensions are beginning to spawn all around the world, he opens the System’s Broadcast Menu before navigating to the section for this newly initialized world. Then he goes to look at the tutorials section and begins to search for whichever special tutorial that girl ended up in.
Eventually he finds her in a tutorial that not a single person is watching. And for good reason, too. Because all of the people in the tutorial are just like her. All in comas, and all still unconscious even after being teleported.
A place where they are either able to rest for eternity, or until they wake up and are sent to a different tutorial. One of the normal ones.
Chaos blurs the broadcast before appearing in the tutorial and walking up to the girl, who is still in her hospital gown while lying down on the floor. He then reaches for and rolls her over to lie on her back, following which he touches her forehead.
The corners of his lips quirk upwards ever so slightly. Only to quirk upwards even more.
Eventually he finds himself letting out a quiet chuckle. Then another. And another.
I found one… found… one… found one, found one, found one found one found onneee!!!!!
His laughs turn into a cackle before he turns back into his raven form, moves up to the girl, and slashes at his own stomach to pour some of his blood onto her. Then he forces the unconscious girl to drink the blood, making her body flash with a crimson light as his own self-made wound heals in the blink of an eye.
“I found her,” Chaos’s voice echoes throughout the entire universe, no longer just a thought. And the moment all of the other Primordials hear it, they stop whatever they were doing.
Even Justicar who was still trying to lecture Chaos stops mid-lecture and mutters, “Found her? Found who?”
Chaos doesn’t answer. Instead he leaves the tutorial as the crimson light begins to fade and large black and crimson raven wings shoot out of the girl’s back. Wings almost identical in appearance to Chaos’s own wings. Meanwhile she shrinks ever so slightly, growing a little younger and even more beautiful than before.
Then, right when the girl’s now-liquid crimson eyes finally open, Chaos vanishes in an eerie red and black light.
Ashley
My eyes slowly drift open, feeling strangely weak. And when they do, I soon find myself staring up at the ceiling. An odd ceiling at that, with dimming and glowing crimson lines running across it.
I try to lift my head, only for my body to feel even weaker than my eyes. So I just look around with my eyes while being careful not to strain myself, quickly finding that I’m in some sort of chamber. One with those same crimson lines occasionally dimming and glowing again on the otherwise black, metallic walls.
Not sure where I am. Or why there are dozens of people lying around me, all of whom are in the same state of attire I’m in. Just a hospital gown.
More importantly though, who am I?
All that comes to mind is my name. Ashley Sinclair. The fact that I’m a twenty-year-old woman. And what feels like some common knowledge? Like how everyone on the planet Val is born with a single ability, and some details about how the world is structured around that.
I try to look down at myself again to get a closer look rather than the glimpse I had in the corner of my eye. But I still find it hard to move my head.
And what I do get to see pretty much comes down to just my chest and arms, both covered in the hospital gown.
But I do manage to figure out a few things from that alone. Since I can barely move my fingers, and I can see my forearms past the gown. And what I find is that my skin is rather smooth, I’m lacking quite a bit in the muscle department, but other than that, I look perfectly fine.
The lacking muscles thing does look weird though. Unnaturally so.
Did something happen to me to cause that? Or maybe I was asleep for a while?
I continue trying to move for a bit, and gradually I manage to regain some ability to move. But before I can use that ability much, I find a bright crimson light flashing in my face before some strange screen appears. Something resembling a computer screen.
Primordial System Notification
The user known as Ashley Sinclair has woken up from her one year, two months, and fourteen days long coma. Therefore she will be transferred to tutorial #10002.
Coma? Guess being asleep for a while was the correct answer.
The strange screen flashes a few times in my vision before I find myself appearing somewhere else. And for some reason I feel a lot stronger now. Strong enough that I can finally rise to a sitting position, then even stand up and take a look at my own body. While ignoring the strange looks being sent my way by most of the few hundred people in this chamber. A chamber that looks a lot like the other one. Just without the people in hospital gowns comatose on the floor.
Conveniently enough, I find that I’m near the wall this time. Close enough that I can see a bit of my reflection in it.
Although, what I see in the reflection is rather odd.
My hair is three different colors. Black, purple, and crimson. With black and crimson being the dominant colors. And it’s long enough to reach down to my mid-thighs, rather thick, and very nice to the touch. Meanwhile it’s hard to tell when I’m sitting down like this, but I think I’m rather short. Maybe like five foot three or so inches at a random estimate. Somewhere around there. My hospital gown makes it a little hard to tell what my figure is, but from a glance, I can say my body is relatively small overall, albeit not small in the chest department, and just like I noticed before, well cared for. To the point that my skin is incredibly smooth to the touch.
Makes me wonder if I was rich or something.
Although my muscles still aren’t anything to be proud of, even if they for some reason look a lot better than before. Probably something to do with my sudden relocation and that strange screen.
Actually, that might actually have something to do with my nice hair and skin.
What confuses me the most, though, isn’t any of that.
It’s the sight of two black and crimson raven wings sticking out of my back through holes ripped out of the otherwise closed hospital gown. And the two liquid crimson eyes staring back at me in my reflection.
Eyes that look like pools of both blood and magma yet are also calm and apathetic. Almost empty.
Why do I have non-human characteristics? I thought I was a dud without an ability…
I blink at that thought.
Wait, how do I know that?
And why do I look younger than I for some reason remember being?
“Hey, girl,” I hear, making my head swivel around to find a lot of the people in the room staring at me. With the exception of the people panicking in the corners trying to convince themselves they’re dreaming for some reason. With one young high school boy with short brown hair wearing a school uniform standing in front of me. “Please focus on the icon on the side of your vision.”
The corner of my mouth twitches slightly downwards at that before I blink at the man in confusion, only to realize there really are icons in my vision.
“The tutorial won’t continue for us unless you do,” he explains further, for some reason beginning to fidget with his hands as he avoids looking at me in the eyes the moment I meet his own green ones.
Oh.
That screen thing did say something about a tutorial.
I focus on the icon at the left corner of my vision – some sort of refresh icon with two arrows going around in a circle – and the moment I do so, another notification appears in my vision.
Primordial System Notification
Tutorial #10002 has now restarted due to the addition of a previously comatose user to the tutorial.
Everyone looks away from me, turning towards the front of the room where some sort of stage is. A stage I didn’t notice before.
Strange.
Then an even stranger man with long black, purple, and red hair who looks a tiny bit similar to my new appearance arrives in a crimson flash of light on the stage. He even has the same wings as me sticking out of his back, albeit much larger than my own. And the same eyes too. Except his are filled with a lot more excitement and just emotion in general than my own had in the reflection on the wall.
His height and facial features couldn’t be more different than mine though. Which crosses out the possibility of any sort of familial relationship with the man from my mind.
Also, for some reason I can’t make out what he’s wearing. Almost like it’s changing every time I try to figure out what it is.
“Hello everyone! I am the clone of the Primordial of Chaos designated to be in charge of your loooovely tutorial!” The man says while spreading his arms out with a grin on his face. “To start things off, you may notice that you have several icons in your vision now! You can make those go away by thinking ‘interface off’ and make them reappear by thinking ‘interface on’! So go ahead and try it now!”
Looking around the chamber, it doesn’t look like anyone’s particularly surprised about what he’s saying.
Other than the people who were panicking and – in several cases – are still panicking. They’re not even paying attention.
Doesn’t hurt to try, I guess.
I think ‘interface off’ and the icons vanish from my view. Then I think ‘interface on’ and they reappear again without a sound.
Interesting.
A few more seconds pass before the clone guy says, “Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s start with a quick rundown of everything that’s happening! I, in all my extraordinary knowledge, decided to initialize your world into the Primordial System created by me and the other nine Primordials! You will all be given access to your full Skill Trees instead of just the initial starting root skills that you’ve all had till now. And while I’m sure most of you probably thought that was some sort of special ability and the only power you all had, it’s not. That’s not an ability.” He shrugs. “It’s just the first skill of your Skill Tree.”
The corner of my lips twitch downwards at that. Making the start of a frown but not a full one.
A Skill Tree?
To my surprise, no one tries to shout at the clone guy despite what’s going on. Which makes me look around the chamber to see if there’s a reason. While also taking in my surroundings a little bit more now that I’m not focusing on my own appearance.
Everyone’s wearing different outfits. Some business suits, others nurse outfits, or school uniforms, or even regular everyday attire. All different sorts of clothing from various different backgrounds.
And they all look rather terrified. Especially those closest to a few piles of mutated ash and flesh sitting around inside of some torn clothes.
Spots everyone seems to be avoiding like the plague.
I didn’t notice them before because it’s on the opposite end of the room, but if I had to guess, some people most likely did try to raise a fuss or even potentially attack the clone guy before I arrived.
And that’s what resulted from it.
It’s the only reason I can think of for everyone to be so quiet and not saying anything. Because people just aren’t so obedient in a situation like this.
Whatever this situation is.
“To open your Skill Tree, focus on the tree icon in the top right corner of your interface,” the clone says before adding, “your vision.”
I glance at the corner of my vision before focusing on the tree. Then a single large and eerily crimson orb appears at the center of my vision.
“This is your Skill Tree. It contains every skill you yourself can obtain in your lifetime,” the clone continues as I furrow my brows ever so slightly. “You all start out with just your root skill which everyone across the universe outside of the System often assumes is just a natural ability humans are born with. As for the rest of the tree? When you focus on the grayed out orbs branched from the root skill, they will show you a brief description of what the skill is and how many Skill Points it’ll take to unlock it.”
What… is he talking about? There’s only one orb.
“Skill Points are given out during the tutorial and during the System Events that you will all be competing in once a week which are broadcast across the universe for all to see. And they will also be given for killing certain special monsters even outside of System Events. Every skill takes a different number of Skill Points to unlock, and everyone has a different number of potential skills in their Skill Tree that they can unlock,” the clone adds, bringing my attention back to him to find the clone swinging one leg in a rather bored manner at the front of the chamber. Like he’s done this too many times before. Also while not seemingly expanding on the fact that he said monsters at all. “Some have five. Others twenty. Others may even have a few hundred or thousands. And other people can see how many potential skills you can have in your tree. It’s actually a rather common way for people to judge others in the Primordial System. Based on how many skills they have.”
He looks up again to find everyone staring at him, the people probably having already gone through this spiel before I arrived.
But I’m still confused. Do I just only have a single skill in my Skill Tree or something? And what’s that about monsters?
Also, he said this ‘root skill’ is what was called an ability. Does that mean I actually do have an ability, or, rather, skill, after all?
Although I’m still not sure why I remember not having an ability when I don’t remember much of anything else.
Deciding to put off my questions about monsters for now, I do what he said and focus on the orb before some sort of message appears in my vision. One that I hear voiced out loud in my head by a robotic sounding female voice.
{Assimilate – Allows the user to unlock the Skill Trees of those they kill within ten minutes after activating Assimilate. Through the use of this skill, the user will immediately unlock the root skill of each of the Skill Trees unlocked, and they will be able to purchase the unlocking of the rest of the skills within the Skill Trees through Skill Points.}
My mouth parts open for a moment at that before closing again without me saying a word.
Then the clone continues speaking, “Now that we’ve got that out of the way, please close out of your Skill Trees by focusing on the icon once more. Then go ahead and focus on the icon that is just a simple picture of yourself below it. That will open your personal status.”
I finally fully frown at that as I feel more confused than ever thanks to what I saw for my lone skill. But then I shake my head and proceed to close out of the Skill Tree, soon opening the other icon he mentioned.
Because I’d rather not miss anything in this tutorial.
It seems important after all.
After focusing on the icon, another screen appears in my vision similar to those ‘Primordial System Notification’ screens.
Ashley Sinclair *
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Level 0
8
PHY
11
MEN
11
MAG
Chaos Energy
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Successor of Chaos
“You should find a new screen appearing in your vision telling you your name in the first box, your current mana capacity in the second box, followed by your current health bar – which you can later turn into a numerical format after the bars grow too numerous, the same as your mana – your level – which you can raise by killing monsters – your physical stats, your mental stats, your magical stats, either an empty box or a box listing any secondary types of energies you may have, and last but not least, a box listing if you were turned into a Primordial’s successor or not,” the clone explains, making me stare blankly at the last box in particular. Once again putting the monsters thing aside for the moment. “For most people it should be blank. Unless you were visited by a Primordial and given some of their blood, of course.”
My eyes shoot straight towards the clone to find the guy staring directly at me with a grin on his face. But for some reason, the others in the chamber don’t seem to notice. They aren’t even looking at me. As if they don’t see the resemblance between us. Then the clone turns away and continues speaking, “Now, I’m not like the other Primordials. I don’t like telling you absolutely everything.”
Everyone focuses on him, their eyes widening slightly in fear and wariness. Making me realize that he probably just reached a new part he hasn’t gotten to yet since my resetting the tutorial.
The clone’s grin remains strong as he says, “We Primordials all do things differently. Chrono, Hel, and Nyx, the Primordials of Time, Death, and Void, never bother to initialize new worlds. Aether and Justicar, the Primordials of Space and Order, give out all of the details they believe to be absolutely necessary before tossing you into the second phase of the tutorial.” He takes a single step forwards while putting his thumbs into his pockets, his grin growing wider. “Lux and Gaia, the Primordials of Virtue and Life, like to baby those they initialize and walk them through every last detail spending hours before sending them to their tutorials. And Etheria gives out all of the details they believe to be necessary, just like Aether and Justicar. But unlike them, she also enjoys helping out anyone she sees to have potential as a mage. Given that she’s the Primordial of Magic and all.”
He stops moving at the edge of the stage with that grin still on his face. “Then there’s Erebos. The Primordial of Sin.” He raises a brow in amusement. “Just be happy he didn’t initialize your world. He wouldn’t explain anything and would just dump you into the second phase blind.” Then the clone straightens up a bit. “Chaos, on the other hand, Chaos loves to explain a random amount each time before dumping you in.” His grin widens again as more fear spreads across the chamber and whispers begin to rise despite the eerie silence that had been filling it other than the clone’s voice until now. “Now doesn’t that sound like fun?”
The clone claps his hands together, sending a bright red light shining through the entire chamber. Meanwhile his voice echoes out along with the light.
“Figure out the rest for yourselves and have fun in the first real trial of the tutorial!”
Then all of the voices fade away in the light and I feel that same strange sensation I felt before when I was moved to that chamber in the first place.
All while still feeling confused about who I even am, much less what’s happening.
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