The world twitched before him as a bright white screen unfolded before him, listing four options.
[Help Menu]
[General]
[Luminosity]
[Stats]
[Notes]
A menu? Was this a menu? Why was he looking at a menu right now? He was at least 90% sure right now that this was definitely a real world that he transmigrated to for some unknown reason, so why was there a menu? Was this some kind of new hyper realistic game he had started playing without his knowledge? Was he still asleep and this was all just a dream? -No way that was possible, it all felt way too real. But why was there some kind of [System]menu in front of him? And where did he have to go to know how to Fabricate something? When he had Blazed the iron ingot it had said something about a stat increase, so he mentally chose [Stats] before getting thrown into a massive wall of text.
--K̶a̶e̶l̶e̶n̶ ̶C̶a̶l̶d̶e̶r̶ Abel Cyrus--
[Level 3], [EXP to next Level: 27]
[Health Points: 25/25], [Mana Points: 8/8], [Stamina Points: 60/60], [Lux: 43]
[Attack: 16], [Defense: 14], [Dexterity: 10], [Speed: 13], [Intelligence: 12], [Wisdom: 10], [Adeptness: 11]
--Skills--
[Forge Mastery, Level 6], [Sword Mastery, Level 3], [Spear Mastery, Level 3], [Bow Mastery, Level 2], [Weapon Mastery, Level 1], [Death Watcher, Level 1]
--Sigils--
[The Sigil of ___________ ]
There was a lot of information all at once, but none explaining how to Fabricate something. A few things caught his eye immediately. First was the name Kaelen Calder crossed out next to his own name, Abel Cyrus. Kaelen Calder. The name of the man whose body Abel Cyrus had transmigrated into. Had he killed Kaelen? It was a good question that he'd have to think over later, but for now he really needed that information on Fabrication. Second was the skills list, in particular[Death Watcher, Level 1]. He recognised that name, but wasn't exactly sure where from...
It was bugging him and something he would need to think over very soon, but again, not what he needed. [Lux], however, was interesting to him, it was what increased when he Blazed the iron ingot, however when he turned his mental attention to it nothing happened. The fourth and final thing that attracted his attention was the third part of the list, --Sigils--. What was a Sigil? He had played enough games to understand what skills were and what they did, but Sigils? And what was the one listed there and why wasn't it's full name listed? Why was it censored? As useful as he was sure all of this information would be, right now it was completely useless to him, so he went back to the previous menu.
[Help Menu]
[General]
[Luminosity]
[Stats]
[Notes]
Perhaps [General]would be of use to him?
[Day cycle]
[The town]
[Religion]
[???]
It really was just general information. Except for the fourth item on the list, [???], without hesitating he pressed it with his mind, only to hear a strange buzzer-like noise. Apparently he wasn't allowed to look at that one yet. Meaning this part of the menu was also useless to him right now. He went over to [Notes] next.
[New note]
Only to find a single option, [New note], also useless to him right now. Though it was something he'd definitely use later if it let him make his own notes on whatever he thought was important, but for now that meant that the last part of the menu was his only hope, so he went to [Luminosity] praying that it would have what he wanted in it.
[Lux]
[Blazing]
[Fabrication]
[Luminosity Decay]
[Skills]
[Mana]
[Spells]
[Sigils]
There! [Fabrication]! Exactly what he needed! And there were sections here for almost everything else he had big questions about after seeing his [Stats], this was by far the most useful part of the [Help Menu] that he had seen so far. Without any further delay he dove into [Fabrication].
[Fabrication is the second of the three primary ways in which Lux can be used. The Fabrication of any given item, object, material, or other concept requires two things. Knowledge and Lux. You must know the rough composition of the item or material before you can Fabricate it, this knowledge can be acquired through either study or large amounts of Blazing of that item or material. You must also have the Lux required. Every material or item or concept has a given Lux cost per volume or amount. In order to actually Fabricate something you must focus inwards towards your Lux and then outwards, willing it into the shape or material of what you want. If you have both the knowledge and the Lux you will successfully Fabricate whatever you wish.]
Everything he could have wished for was right there. Only there was one small problem, did he have the knowledge? He was pretty sure he would have had the Lux for it as- He didn't know her name, but the woman that Kaelen once knew had given him 30 Lux, so he suspected that that was all he would need to Fabricate some proper clothes like the ones the woman had. But there was no way to know whether or not he had the required knowledge, he'd just have to try and hope that he did. He focused inwards towards his Lux and then focused outwards towards his hands and tried to focus on a shape and style similar to clothes like the woman's.
???: Are you... Are you struggling there Kaelen?
It wasn't working. That and he hadn't even realised that the woman, whatever her name was, was still there, he had completely forgotten about her whilst trying to navigate the [Help Menu].
Abel: Just... Long day you know?
The look of confusion on her face only grew when he said that. Had he said something wrong?
???: Something bad already happened? But it's so early.
Abel: ... Early? But it's so bright!
She tilts her head, growing more and more confused.
???: Yeah? Of course it's bright? Why would it ever be anything else?
That's when he remembered something he saw in the [General] part of the menu, [Day cycle]. Days were different in this world, and he had no idea how.
???: Kaelen, are you okay?
Abel: Yeah, I'm good. I'm fine.
???: ... What's my name?
Abel: What?
???: My name, what is it?
Oh no... She was getting suspicious of him, the look on her face said it all. She wasn't sure what was going on and suspected something might have happened to Kaelen, and to be fair to her, it had. He had been replaced, by him. Only he didn't know her name, so couldn't answer her question to alleviate her suspicion of him.
???: It should be easy, we've known each other for years.
Abel: Yeah yeah, sorry, just a bit of brain fog you know?
???: We've only known each other for a month, why didn't you correct me?
Abel: I just didn't-
???: You're not Kaelen. Where is he? What have you done with him?
Damn it! What was he supposed to do now?! What was she going to do once she learnt that Kaelen was gone? And that he, Abel, was in his place? How did he explain this without her thinking that he killed Kaelen?!
Abel: Kaelen's asleep in his room, I'm his brother.
???: He doesn't have a brother.
Abel: Metaphorically speaking.
???: I was lying. He does have a brother, Renan.
-! She had played him like a musical instrument! She was extremely smart and was testing him with every method that she could think of. This was beginning to become unfair.
???: Where's Kaelen? What did you do to him? Why do you look exactly like him?
Abel: Uhmmmm-
He immediately ran back inside and slammed the door shut behind him. He had no idea how to deal with this woman. What was he supposed to do in this kind of situation?! He hadn't even fully come to terms with being transmigrated and now he was being interrogated by some random woman he'd never seen before! This world had game-like aspects and right now it felt like he had accidentally skipped the tutorial! He heard her start to slam her fists against the door, shouting at him.
???: LET ME IN! WHO ARE YOU?!
She was doing some serious damage to that door and he wouldn't have been surprised if- She managed to break the door down and come charging into what was once Kaelen's house.
???: YOU! WHERE IS HE!
Abel: I-I don't know!
It wasn't a complete lie. He indeed did actually know what had happened to the mind that had once inhabited this body, that of Kaelen Calder, to his knowledge the mind had died and the body had been put into a vegetative state, allowing his mind to transmigrate into the body. He had no way to know.
???: DAMN IT!
She ran into the house and began to search it. This was his chance to escape from her! So he stood up and fled, running away from the house to wherever the path would take him.