The Gamer's System

Chapter 103: Level 1

Twelve years ago, right before Zeke Elwood's life was taken from him, he fell unconscious. In this state, the spear used by Glade does not affect him meaning, he can use all his skills freely. But, none of these are useful for his current predicament.

While he is completely fine in his subconscious, as soon as he returns back to the living world, he will be paralyzed. His skills will all get restricted once gain and, death would come only a few seconds shortly after.

"I'm really going to die then." Zeke said, thinking how futile everything has been up to the recent point. Each and every part of his mission has always been interfered and tampered with; making things harder than they are supposed to be.

But just when he was ready to die, the notification bar appeared in front of him. 

[Notification: The final skill [???] claimed from killing all monster's in Elysium's forest is now unlocked.]

[Name: Soul Transfer]

[Rank: Unranked]

[Mana Cost: None]

[Requirement: The skill owner must be moments before their death.] 

[Requirement: The skill owner must use the skill outside the physical realm.]

[Information: The caster will transfer to a random body which just died. Any corpse with too many broken parts isn't part of the random selection. Small wounds taken by the body transferred to will automatically heal.]

[Information: Upon transferring, all skills accumulated will be lost and the transferred body's level will be reset to 1. The system will be retained, however, the features will also go back to level one and some slight modifications might occur.]

[Information: Any negative statuses or modification done to the body transferred to will all be removed. Skills of the body's original owner will be retained.]

"I don't really have any choice on this matter, do I?' Zeke thought to himself as he viewed the skill and then, a smile formed on his face. A thought came across his head. One which would place everything in his favor.

"System, will the main deities be able to trace me in my new body?"

[Answer: Since it is not the human body blessed by the deities, the connection between you and them will be lost.]

At this, Zeke finally understood the full gravity of the skill which he just acquired. There wasn't even any hesitation in his mind when he said:

"Soul Transfer"

A blinding flash of light soon followed. It was an indistinguishable feeling but, it was as if his soul constantly shifted from being heavy to being light. Like it was fighting the natural order of things as it searched for the new host.

Then, he finally woke up. The gamer slowly rose and felt the huge difference with his new body. Everything about it felt like he was small and this made him nervous. Turning his eyes to his hands, this thought has been more or less confirmed.

"You gotta be kidding me." He said out loud as he distinguished the small hands to be owned by a boy.

"Status window." He continued, looking at the information on the new body and, immediately having his eyes widen in shock. 

"Keith?" He uttered in disbelief.

The gamer immediately looked around him and, saw how the whole area is actually devastated. The traces of fighting were not present as, what the scene showed looks more like a one sided massacre. With the whole area being laid flat by what seems to be a giant meteorite. And he knew exactly who it is that can create such an attack.

"He was with Miss Sylvia before he died." He said to himself, getting an ominous feeling regarding the state of his party members. Unfortunately for him, with his level going back to [1], his [Voice Chat] feature and [Party] feature are both lost. Giving him no means to communicate with them. 

Plus, he figured how dangerous his position is. The body of Keith itself may be something which Glade would look for. Gallio probably placed some sort of tracker on the boy but, with the last clause of the skill, [Soul Transfer], he figured that it won't be an easy task.

"I'm sorry but I need to survive first." He said to himself, regretting his current state which cannot hope to save anyone. 

Zeke knew that the secret underground base of the Leonis household will not be safe. Burnt houses will also prove to be problematic for the young man. What he needs immediately is a place far from the capital and any of the towns. 

With his understanding of the continent's geography, Zeke headed west; using the sun's position as his compass. He ran until night and, finally stumbling upon his desired location. 

There are various forests within the continent but, the smallest of these is one which nobody ever bothers going to. There are only a handful of trees, making it a bad spot to gather resources. Monsters do not live there, making it less likely to be visited by adventurers or any warrior. It is also far from any of the towns which makes visiting it unprofitable. And it is precisely because of the said clauses that, Zeke decided to stay there.

He went on to viewing what Keith's abilities are and, frankly speaking, the starting attributes of the kid is superb. This much is to be expected as he is son of the famed Blademaster although it is just Gallio hiding within Hark's skin. Then there's lady Sylvia who is considered to be the strongest mage in the continent. But the most notable thing about Keith is the only skill which he owns.

[Skill Name: Mana Cultivation]

[Rank: Unranked]

[Skill Type: Permanent Scaling]

[Information: The owner of the skill is able to use the mana flowing around the world and absorb them within his or her body. This is highly dependent of the user's understanding of mana flow and on the awareness of the skill's existence.]

[Information: Upon reaching a higher stage, magic circles can be formed through the blood veins of the user's body, making the vessel itself a large mana container which could be used for various purposes]

[Information: Although it does not level up the user, the skill raises all basics attributes without any limit. Depending on how it is used, there is no end to the possibilities which the user can reach.]

"Well isn't that something?" Zeke said to himself as he understood quite clearly what the skill meant. 

Through it, he can go undetected for as long as he wishes. Zeke's goal now is to make Glade feel safe and secured. If he succeeds, there will come a time when the elf would let his guard down and, this is the moment when Zeke will strike.

"Let's see how you like it when you're the one getting surprised." Zeke thought to himself, with the system notifications showing in front of him again.

[The Main Quest: [Escape the Capital] has been cleared.]

[10 Skill Points will be given as a reward]

"Of course there'd be a quest like that." Zeke thought to himself, understanding how the changing of the body may have also altered the quests which he needs to accomplish.

As a boy, it isn't logical to give missions connected to the killing of kings and the restoring of peace. Hence, even with the notification popping up, Zeke wasn't surprised at all. Zeke focused all of the points on surviving, buying two skills which greatly increased his chances of lasting through the first few days with his body.

[Skill Name: Iron Stomach]

[Cost: 3 Skill Point]

[Rank: F->

[Skill Type: Passive]

[Information: Allows the user of the skill to eat meat or herbs which would normally be poisonous or dangerous for consumption.]

[Skill Name: Farmer]

[Cost: 1 Skill Point]

[Rank: F->

[Skill Type: Passive] 

[Information: Makes the skill owner more proficient in taking care of both farm animals and crops.]

[Skill Name: Earth's Blessing]

[Cost: 6 Skill Points]

[Skill Type: Passive] 

[Information: Allows the user to speed up the process of growing plants.]

"Okay, let's start from scratch." He said, beginning another tiring and long journey.

On the first year, Zeke focused on strengthening his vision of the mana flow. With the skill given to the boy's body, it naturally entails that Keith has a high affinity towards mana. Day by day, Zeke would simply sit under a tree, removing all excess thoughts and trying to grasp the flow of mana which surrounds the world.

It was a hard task for the gamer who wasn't accustomed to such trainings. What made it even more difficult was how there weren't any instructions as to how mana flow could be seen. But, with the time he spent with Allesiah, he knew that this is doable. And, after a whole month of practice, Zeke started seeing strings of mana around him.

Then came the actual assimilation of the mana flowing around him. Normally, there would be no clear determinant if the process works or not. But with Zeke's analyze, he could see all the attributes and how much they get affected.

At first it was random. 

Speed.

Agility.

Luck.

The attributes did continue going up with each and every passing day but not with the desired results. He didn't like it of course so he tried to find a way in order to get this done more efficiently. After another month passing, Zeke finally succeeded with the [Gamer's System] integrating with his skill. Thus, new features were added to the skill including [Transcendent Eyes] and [Mana Flow Control].

[Transcendent Eyes] lets him see the flow of mana around him at base rank. With each rank upgrade it gets, Zeke's eyes will allow him to see different mana colors signifying the difference in the mana and their effects on his body. Even with this knowledge, Zeke will still have little to no control over which could enter his body and, this is where [Mana Flow Control] comes in. 

The skill allows Zeke to force the mana around him to bend to his will. At base rank, this proves to be really difficult. Even though he can only distinguish blue mana, Zeke still couldn't take it all by force and, needs to concentrate on acquiring it through meditation. 

More years passed and slowly, Zeke ranked both skills up through the natural means. Since Zeke came back to level one, his skills can only rank up from constant use. Hence, he practiced using these skills each and every day in order to make them stronger. 

[Optional Quests] offered Zeke with additional skill and attribute points. He bought more skills with the points he gained, those which could be made use of without getting noticed.

[Dig]

[Cave Explorer]

[Limitless Lungs]

[Iron Body]

[Greater Defense]

[Regeneration]

[Torment]

[Unbreaking]

[Relentless]

[Focus]

[Clarity]

[Object Manipulation]

[Phase Shift]

[Area Control]

[Mana Conversion]

[Detonate]

[Poison Cloud]

He bought more and more skills with the focus of creating an underground pathway. Zeke needed to enter the Demon Continent first because, it is only on this land where detection skills are a bit more difficult to use. Hence if he starts here, Glade will have a hard time finding him and so will all those unidentified entities which continued toying with him.

Zeke's level never went up. It stayed at level one. But, with how much stronger he got, two items from his inventory finally activated. One is the [Summoning Crystal] while, the other is the [Morphing Egg]. This gave Zeke two new subordinates in the form of Heron who has a blank memory and a creature which is shaped like a human but has horns of a minotaur sticking out of its forehead, a tail of a dragon and, wings like that of a demon. He called this boy Morpheus, thinking of how the child looked a lot like the combination of a lot of creatures.

The three of them lived under the cave and, Zeke never failed to train these two. Zeke continued extending the length of the cave and, as soon as the exit was made to the demon continent, Zeke permitted them to go hunting. Discreetly, the two creatures carried out this task every day, ensuring that they get stronger while not leaving much traces of their activity. 

Day in and day out, this is the routine of the group. Zeke in particular continued cultivating and, simply bought a skill which allowed him to share experience points with the two. This allowed him to reach level 20 soon enough, gaining back his [Conjurer] class.

A lot of other things have happened within the past years but, all of these will reveal themselves at the right time. For now, what matters is that the gamer is back and, his two new companions are within the labyrinth in Elysium, saving the captured Windsprites.