Nis found himself standing, surrounded by... nothing, it seemed. It was just darkness and emptiness, with a few dim lights that looked like stars far in the distance. Nis felt like other colors did exist around him but were hidden from his sight.
His feet felt like they were planted on the ground, but there was nothing to have them planted upon. It was too shocking to even make a comment about. Thankfully, a kind voice brought his mind back to reality.
"Welcome to the subconscious. Physical body is currently in transit. Please enjoy the complementary knowledge."
Before Nis could even understand what the voice was talking about, glass tablets appeared in the air in front of him. They seemed to just float, subtly bobbing up and down, awaiting his touch.
'She really doesn't give me any time to process, does she. And why is she being so polite, I thought we were traveling buddies.'
Nis looked at the tablets, scanning their contents. On the tablets, symbols were engraved onto the glass. Nis wasn't familiar with these symbols, but for reasons he didn't understand, he could understand their meaning. He grabbed the first tablet and began to read.
The first tablet read: Arriving at destination in Estimated 10 minutes.
'Huh, incursions have travel time. Weird.'
Nis placed the tablet back into the air where it was floating. It just resumed floating effortlessly as if it had never left.
'It's... nice that the voice is giving me all this for free, but I can't read right now. I need to take some time to organize my thoughts before learning other random nonsense.'
Nis bent down and slowly lowered himself to the non-existent floor. He assumed a cross-legged sitting position and closed his eyes.
'Firstly, I have undoubtedly become an infected. This is my new world, the only one I can live in now. To be completely honest, I'm pretty excited, when I learned that there was a certain type of person that could freely wander outside their own planet, I was pretty hurt the universe didn't pick me to be one of them.'
'But, now that I am one, there is so much more to the life I could live. I get to have supernatural abilities, partake in space exploration, and finally have enough money to go to an arcade! Wait... that might be dreaming a little too small... a rich people arcade!'
'Secondly, I am being forced to undergo the first incursion, more cages, I guess. Whatever planet I will be placed on will be attacked by another race. At least that's my current understanding of what incursions are. It will probably be incredibly dangerous, and I'm not exactly a good fighter. I'm much better at running away. Unfortunately, that's not an option this time around. I'll just have to handle the danger as it comes and simply not die, I'm talented enough to do that at least. And to do that, I need information.'
Nis stood up and glanced at the table that had his ETA on it again. It read that he had 8 minutes left.
'It's time to thoroughly enjoy my complementary knowledge.'
Nis grabbed the second tablet that was floating, symbols meaning Status written at the top. He continued to read the rest.
Your Status will appear in your mind when you wish. By default, a Status lists the owner's Name, Rank, Level, EXP, Reality Shard and the Abilities and Hinderance within the Reality Shard. When desired a description of each will appear.
Just as Nis finished reading the kind voice rang out again.
"You have obtained new personal knowledge.
"You have gained 2 EXP"
'Wow, she's so generous, not only do I get free knowledge, but I get free EXPs too. Now I just have to figure out what the EXPs are.'
Nis smiled a little and closed his eyes and focused on summoning his status. Something that looked very similar to the glass tablets appeared in his mind, the two differences were the size and that the engravings were in English. The tablet was not something he could actually see. It was similar to picturing an object in his mind that he could understand the contents of.
The contents of the Status were fairly simple.
Name: Ina Nis
Rank: Individual
Level: 2/100
Exp: 15/20
Reality Shard: Domain
Nis honestly thought that those words were very fancy and impressive, but they effectively meant nothing.
'Yes, thank you Status. I am aware I have an odd name.'
Nis's eye twitched a little while still closed. He focused in a little harder on the Name, trying to bring up the description. A new small string of text appeared on the tablet in his mind.
Name Description: A name is your signifier to the universe and is unique to you.
'Huh, why does the universe need to know my name? And what if someone else has the same name. Actually, never mind, send all my mail to them. They can deal with all my hardships instead.'
Nis quickly moved on to read the next description. This one pertained to the Rank.
Rank Description: A Rank is your current level of existence. It defines you as a being.
Individual: Your soul is that of a single being, and a singular being is all it can support.
'Wow, so insightful. I never knew I was just one guy before... The voice needs to get more vocabulary.'
Nis's heart was filled with spite, but he continued to read on.
Level Description: Your Level dictates your power within your rank. The higher your Level, the greater your physical, mental and existential power will be. Levels are reset upon reaching the next rank.
Nis continued onto the next line, since these two seem connected in some way.
Exp Description: Experience Points (EXP) are points acquired from multiple sources. Some include but are not limited to, defeating an enemy and attaining new knowledge. Exp is used to increase one's Level.
'Oh, I get it now. This is how I can become stronger. Get a lot of EXPs and increase my Levels, and I will become stronger in many ways, but most importantly physically. I can already see it, once I reach level 100 running away will be a thing of the past. Ranks also seem to have something to do with strength since it resets the Level on Rank up, but I don't understand that bit yet. I hope it doesn't make me weak again if I rank up. If it does, I'll stay an individual my whole life... As I always have been?'
Returning to a state of mild confusion, Nis decided to focus on the last line. Starting from the top, there were three items, and their descriptions listed.
Reality Shard Description: A Reality Shard is a small portion of reality itself that has become part of you. This gives one the capacity to hold Abilities and a Hinderance that could allow one to warp reality to as they see fit.
'More word slop. But an Ability sounds useful. Reality warping is too vague a concept, so I don't really understand it. I can't just alter the laws of physics as a whole, so then how small scale of a change can be considered warping reality? Is running half a meter per second faster considered warping reality? I can't possibly know. Thankfully, it might explain a little about that next.'
Domain Description: The area around you belongs to you, so you may do what you wish with it.
'Just...what?'
Abilities: Domain
Abilities Description: Abilities are the sections of reality you are capable of affecting.
Domain Description: You have ownership of the area around you, and that cannot be changed or manipulated.
'Just how little sense can it make?! So, what, I'm just a landowner now! I can't even sell it for profit. Why couldn't it be something cool, like gravity or something. And I bet the Hinderance is somehow going to make everything worse.'
Hinderance Description: There can be no advancement without sacrifice. Therefore, with an Ability must come a Hinderance. A Hinderance will be a set back to the Ability or to the user. This flaw can never be overcome.
Hinderance: A Hinderance will be acquired upon achieving the next Rank.
'Nice? I get no drawbacks for my Ability for now? That's really good right? Wait... isn't that basically admission that my Ability is useless? I gained no advancement and therefore got no drawback. I miss the colony; things were simple then.'
Finally finishing the 2nd tablet, Nis heard the voice once more.
"You have obtained new personal knowledge.
"You have gained 5 EXP.
"You have reached Level 3."
Nis's mouth formed a tired smile.
'I guess that some consolation.'
Before Nis could even properly form his thoughts, the kind voice sounded in his ears once more.
"Physical body has completed travel.
"You have now arrived at your destination.
"The time for Complementary Knowledge has now been completed.
"Unfinished Necessary Knowledge will be administered directly with no reward.
"Unfinished Unnecessary Knowledge will be omitted.
"Initiating Incursion.
"Please, enjoy your stay. I await your return."
Suddenly, the darkness became darker, the non-existent floor disappeared, and the unprovable colors were no longer there. Nis could feel nothing, except the warmth the polite voice left him with.
'I didn't even get to finish my complementary knowledge...'