The familiar triumphant sound of brass instruments resonates within my mind, the strong cries of Nordic choir sing 3 notes in unity, a mighty battlecry! I've levelled up! A vivid dream appears before me, what I remember to be the interface for leveling up, and my thoughts? Surprisingly sussinct. Perfectly clear in fact.
It did look a little different admittedly this time though, there was no screen border of course and the menu appeared to float in front of me as a if it were a projected hologram, only not pixelated, rather it appeared to be painted in the style of a church mural, text was written in a style similar to that too, with nordic flourishes added to the lettering. At the forefront of everything else was a panel of sorts asking whether I wished to improve my Health, Stamina or Magicka. Looking down below, I saw Lokir's stats....
25 Health, 50 Magicka and 50 Stamina...
That's a bit rough... The Dragonborn gets a base 100 in each of those attributes at level 1... This is just... Well, at a rate of 10 attribute points per level, it's going to take me 19 level-ups just to match that... No.... Magicka I won't worry about increasing.... Becoming a powerful mage will be important if I'm going to survive long term, but if I follow the right methods and use the right enchantments eventually... Hopefully I won't need more than the 50. I don't like having such a small pool of magicka, but I'm at least grateful that I can learn new spells and cast them... That means I can improve. I would also need to develop my warrior skills as well. Magic in Skyrim just didn't have the stopping power that melee did. And at the very least, I would need to learn to use a shield and armour to keep me alive while casting.
What I can't rely on, is a health pool of 25... It simply wouldn't do. One shot with an arrow and I'm a dead man. In fact, a single strike from a Mudcrab or a skeever, some of the weakest enemies in the game would probably kill me. Nearly about to focus on the notion of selecting my health for level up, I pause as the vision in front of me begins to shimmer and ripple violently before a series of strange characters ripple before my eyes and a sudden rushing sound and crackle of energy bring forth an additional option:
4!SP!3R!RT! !CKN0WL34G34 & !MM3N434
F0R3G0 CL!SS PR!S0N3R => CL!SS C!T!Z3N?
I... I think I get it... I know that classes such as bandit exist in Skyrim. Stuff like that determines an NPC's base attributes in conjunction with the level of the player... So, yeah, Lokir was a prisoner, that much makes sense... Citizen must be an upgrade from that... There's only one way to find out... If i'm right, selecting this option should change my base Health, Magicka and Stamina instead of levelling me up! Yeah! I don't know what this customisation to the system is exactly, but the fact that it responded to my concerns... If it doesn't work out, I can always stick to staying inside the walls of a city and make a living doing alchemy or something...
"Forego" I think as loudly in my mind as possible. Levelling up in Skyrim takes increasingly greater exp as you level-up, so if this option allows me to improve my base stats without needing to level up first, that's fantastic... And if I were to have any advantage in this world, it would be in understanding its mechanics from an outside perspective and using that to get strong as efficiently as possible.
PR!S0N3R CL!SS 3XCH!NG3D F0R CL!SS - C!T!Z3N
50 Health, 50 Magicka and 50 Stamina
"Sweet!"
85 BOUNTY ADDED TO WHITERUN
GOD Damnit Lokir...
Well, at least now I know exactly what I owe. I should check my inventory and see what I can sell before arriving so I can pay off the fine... One of the good things about skyrim if it works as I'm hoping is that the first couple of thousand septims are the trickiest to make, at least if you focus on alchemy and it doesn't take days on end to brew a bunch of potions... Which is a real possibility... Fines like Lokir generated are a nuisance early on... But after that, I should be in the clear.
I raised my vision to see the interface transform into a galaxy of stars above me. The ground at my feet appeared to reveal itself as polished black stone, perfectly flat as it appeared to trail off to the horizon. Most of it appeared empty, save for the occasional clusters of tall black artificial shapes... Skyscrapers perhaps? Off in the distance, soft green light emanated from them and danced about slowly, causing me to fixate on them for a time, until I shook my head before getting too distracted and looked upward.
Above me were constellations, each of those used in the game for assigning the perks you gain from levelling up by selecting ranks in the different skills. But before I could really focus on them, my vision began to darken... I couldn't stand, instead falling backwards and tumbling into a deep slumber.
I awoke to a freezing bucket of water splashed on my face. Cold hard stone was grinding into the side of my head. and when I opened my eyes, roughly upside down... More toward a 70 degree angle was Delphine "HEY, if you want to stay another night that's fine, and maybe you should, but you were Jibber Jabbering in your sleep and I can't have you doing that again or you'll scare off other customers. You haven't been visited by the madgod in your sleep have you?"
"Um, I'm fine, thanks, I was at... Helgen, so uhh, forgive me." I mutter as I raise myself up off the ground.
Delphine stares at me and nods slowly. "So I've heard, you were talking about it all last night to Faendal and Sven, Horse Thief".
"And some other petty crimes, should be 85 gold I owe now, by my calculations." I stand, realising i'm clammy and I'm fairly certain it wasn't due to the water. "Do I owe you anything else before I go?"
"It's not that" Delphine mutters in irritation. "You can stay another night if you want, but you need to quit muttering in your sleep, a healing potion might be good, you can buy the ingredients cheap here, otherwise"... She turns away and begins sweeping but points to the door whilst looking away. "Get to a shrine or something. I shouldn't be promoting this, but there IS one nearby, about a mile up the way you came, only instead of going left at the fork towards Helgen, keep going straight. You should see a cliff in front of you with a little path that goes partway up and on the outcropping there's a-" "A shrine of Talos?", I interjected.
"Shhh, keep it down will you? But yeah, and if you really did see a dragon, it can't hurt to get a blessing from him anyway. For a couple gold you can grab breakfast from the pot and some bread." She pauses a moment "Just don't go offroad, you might run into-". "Bandits", I speak aloud, interrupting without meaning to. "Yeah", Delphine replies with a weird expression on her face, "And wolves, but bandits have been spotted near the shrine, see if the guys are willing to go with you."
Waking up on the wagon headed to Helgen, you're probably panicking and asking yourself "Have I been reborn as the Dragonborn? How the hell am I supposed to handle this?"
Without the ability to save my game, or load previous saves, I knew I was in trouble from the moment I opened my eyes.
But what was worse still? I wasn't even the Dragonborn, no, I was on the wrong side of the cart...
Instead, I've been reborn in the body of the horse thief, Lokir of Rorickstead!
Waking up on the wagon headed to Helgen, you're probably panicking and asking yourself "Have I been reborn as the Dragonborn? How the hell am I supposed to handle this?"
Without the ability to save my game, or load previous saves, I knew I was in trouble from the moment I opened my eyes.
But what was worse still? I wasn't even the Dragonborn, no, I was on the wrong side of the cart...
Instead, I've been reborn in the body of the horse thief, Lokir of Rorickstead!
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