Many, An Unforgiving Start

Arsene woke up not long after, the smoldering sun would have already burnt him if he didn't have his robe... robe? they dressed him up? "fuuuuuck" The man stands up, dusts himself of the golden sand that was his bed mere minutes ago, he looked over the world, the golden sands covering most of the place "what a beautiful sight" he was, enamoured with what he saw, nothing could have prepared him for this, he almost forgot about the fact that he was stranded in a desert... it matters not "i should start moving" he started walking in one of the directions, it didn't matter which, after all, he didn't know the place.

Welcome to the Unforgiving Desert, this land has seen civilizations fall, even his name has eroded due to the sands of time, you are a persecuted man, until the time comes where you can settle down, be it from your power, or the elimination of the threat that pursues you, if you die in your travels you will appear in the last "safe" place you slept in.

"Oh Great, not even a homebase, just dropped into the middle of a desert, thanks god"

While Walking he looked himself over, a long dark red robe covered his body, tied with a normal rope alongside his waist to keep it closed, under it there were some plain clothes, unremarkable, but comfy, he had some wooden sandals that made it a bit hard to walk on sand, but he was not taking them off just because of that, but the part he liked the most about the clothes he was wearing, was pointy hat, unnecesarily big, it gave a lot of shade which was a bonus, he was happy looking the part of the mage "yeah, that's the stuff" he said, Realizing something he looked inside of his pants and yep, two of them "Creepy" he said, still not accustomed to have more than one appendage there, he kept on walking

After a while walking he finally realized, he didn't have the time to check his stats! now that is totally unaceptable, he fumbled for a minute, almost tripping over himself while fighting with the UI, he finally managed to get there, it took him longer than he wanted, but the pop-up helped a lot.

Level up! you have reached level 1. As a Serpentine blessed by a divine power, you have 5 attribute points to allocate, you have gained +1 rationality, +1 perception and +2 guile, if not allocated by the time you fall asleep it will be done automatically

"Man, im wet paper, really just the resistance of wet paper, no stamina, no health, a lot of mana though" he sighs, he really did sing up for this when he choose these stats, but no matter those 5 extra points will surely make a difference! he does not want to get those allocated automatically, so he adds them while walking towards the unknown desert.

Yeah, that was not the best choice, it did not raise his mana as much as he wanted, but the regen was nice, and the supposed extra spell power it was gonna give him was nothing to scoff at, he was happy with his choice, even if he's still wet paper, on that front, he starts checking his abilities, just to see what he has, his skills, the equipment, everything! he needs to know what he's working with after all.

Divine Potential: Blessed by a Divine Power, Your affinity for all skills starts at 100% and will never diminish

Heavy Tolerance: Poison, Toxins, Venoms, all second nature to your kin, while you yourself are not poisonous, the stuff has no effect on you, and you are able to identify them at a glance, or a taste.

Not So Cunning Linguist: Blessed by a divine power, you are capable of quickly learning any spoken language heard.

Marked for hunting: You have something of interest to multiple groups of people, in the less than reputable circles, your head is marked for ****.

The Heart Of Desire: This Artifact embeded into your body points you to whatever it may be you desire, it is hidden from normal investigations, but magical searches might show this powerful relic, activation cost of 20 mana or one hour of concentration.

Inspect: Concentrating on someone or something will reveal information regarding its properties.

Meditation: Meditation is a special ability given to mages. everyone can meditate, but only mages benefit like this, recover mana at triple the speed by cutting yourself away from the world.

Frozen hand: Your hand hardens and turns to ice whatever it touches, dealing damage as long as the spell is actively making contact with the target, costs 20 mana per 5 seconds of casting, Associated Attribute = Willpower

Lightning Bolt: Launch a quick bolt of Lightning at fast speeds towards the target, simple, but surprisingly powerful, mana cost 50, Associated Attribute = perception

"ok, ok, some nice traits, meditation and the ability of this heart thingy..." he stays silent a second, touching the part where his heart was, it feels normal-ish, it's weird to think that whatever is pumping his blood right now, it's not his heart, and that there will be npcs hunting him to take it from him.

"the spells are good too, a touch and a ranged one, though the fact that it's either a fifth of my mana bar or risking getting gutted by an enemy, it's kind of funny, anyways, it doesn't really matter, it will be fun!" as he says this he searches his inventory, there's not that much, two items stand out from the usual equipment of a mage, a curved wand with a metal tip, and a book with most of the pages blank, except for one of them.

"To Arsene, From Blank" the realization that this book was not a grimoire, nor a spell book, but something that will fill with knowledge that he learns, he just has to learn it first even using inspect on it relays little information, no origin, no purpose, just the title "The Price Of Knowledge" he puts the book back in the bag, still walking, starting to realize that he won't find anything just walking sand dune to sand dune, and burdened with the knowledge that people want him dead for having something is, well, exciting and dreadful.

"Fine! you win game, i will use this ability! god i wanted it to be more cinematic" Grumbling, thirty minutes or so of walking didn't do much on the finding stuff, so he activates the Heart's Power "ghk!" Pain shoots throught the mage, falling to his knees on top of the burning sand, grabbing his chest trying to stop the pain from overpowering him "Damn you! y-you c-cursed Heart!" his eyes go blank for a second, and he sees it, the entrance to what seems to be a tomb, the cold, slightly humid place, the smell of iron emanating from it and a message

STAB THE GOLDEN SAND, CENTER YOURSELF

With a trembling hand, Arsene pulls out the only weapon he has, The Dagger, and stabs the spot where he currently is, the dune starts to sink into itself, a vortex of sand starts to swallow itself, Arsene along with it, the pain of the Heart soon fades, just as he fades from the surface of the desert he feels dumb, what a way to die, overconfidence, thematic honestly, most mages die from that, the fact that this was a game just made him even more overconfident, oh well, nothing that can be done now, this is a lesson.

-30 hp

a loud thud as the Arcanist hits the ground, laying there in shock, he was alive? How? "what? shit, where am i?" he stood up "shit, im gonna rip you out myself you dammed heart!" his left ankle hurt a lot, but nothing that can be done, he has to suck it up, the entrance of that tomb, the potent smell of iron, no, now that he was closer, that this wasn't a vision, it was blood, dried blood, the cold air that made his cold blooded body shiver, he gripped his dagger, with a trembling hand, this time not of pain nor fear, but joy "maybe i won't rip you out, dear heart" of course, **** means a punishment yeah, but it was a proper dungeon, clearly way above his level, but the fact that he was about to go spelunking a real dungeon, or as real as it gets, well, it gets the blood pumping "Listen to me Tomb! your treasures will be mine! Your secrets? Mine too! Let it be known Arsene will take everything from you!" the only reason he didn't run insise the tomb was because he is not a fool, he does not want to get killed by a trap like a novice adventurer.

Speaking of that, it was clear that he wasn't the first one here, a skeleton pinned to the wall by an old trap right at the entrance, the fate of an unlucky adventurer definitely, everything that poor dead had, whatever it might had been, someone already took it, maybe he will be lucky enough to find unlooted adventurers, better to describe the scene, at least that way his mind won't overlook any details.

The entrance to the Tomb was a faded gold hue, whatever addorment it might have had where ripped by thieves or time, on the inside, loose stone plaques filled the floor, clearly old traps that were already activated by that unlucky fellow overthere, poor guy, didn't even make it two steps in, but the skeleton jammed the mechanism so a win for Arsene, the walls were clearly addorned with messages in a language he has yet to comprehend, everything was made with sandstone, but he could tell that magic played a part in the building of this place, the faint smell of mana lingering, almost obscured by the blood.... "wait, how do i know what mana smells like? ugh, better not to dweel on it, mage's assistant and all" he kept walking, reaching the end of the room, placing his hand on that heavy stone door, even though the place was old, the door still worked, lifting itself up to reveal the true dungeon