Marvel: Elden Ring System

When next he wakes, Ray finds himself washed up on a beach, a small wooden club gripped in his hand. He slowly stands up, brushing the sand off his chest and arms before taking in his surroundings, noting the scattered debris of wrecked ships and a small land octopus splashing in the water a few yards away. He looks down and sees himself wearing nothing but a loincloth, the garment not even able to hide his dignity. 

"I don't even get to keep my clothes!!! Come on, system..."

As he says 'system', the golden letters appear in his vision once again. 

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Name: Ray Winters

Level: 1

Runes: 0

Vigor: 10

Mind: 10

Endurance: 10

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 10

Intelligence: 10

Faith: 10

Arcane: 10

Inventory: Club,

Sorceries: (+)

Incantations: (+)

Unique skills: Gamer's Body, Gamer's Mind, World Traveler, Grace-bound

Gamer's body: Grants the host a body that allows them to live the real world like a game. Sleeping or resting at a site of grace will restore your health, stamina, and FP along with curing all status effects. (Author's note: To make things easier on myself, health, stamina, and FP will not be quantified.)

Gamer's Mind: Host is immune to psychic attacks and mind altering. Host is less likely to have his emotions cloud his judgment.

World Traveler: Host is able to travel between worlds. When not in the host's origin world, time will be stopped until the host returns. In order to travel to a world that has not been unlocked yet, certain conditions must be met. (Current worlds unlocked: Lands Between, Earth-????[Origin] Error… Unable to identify world designation…)

Grace-Bound: If the host takes too much damage, they will 'die' then be reborn at the previous site of grace. If the host is in a world without grace when they die, they will be forcefully brought back to their origin world. (Warning!!! Repeated deaths in a short period of time may cause permanent damage to the host's soul.)

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Ray looks over his stats and skills while trying to remain as calm as possible. He can already feel the Gamer's mind stopping him from having a panic attack but it hasn't stopped his anxiety. 

"The Wretch start… Really!!! Come on Ray, just relax and think things through… I am on a beach somewhere in Limgrave (hopefully) and I only have a club for a weapon. This world is very dangerous so my first objective should be to explore my surroundings, maybe find some armor or scavenge around for items."

Ray takes a better look around and sees a small land octopus crawling its way along the beach towards one of the larger ones, the massive beast being twice as tall and around five times larger than himself. To his right, a pack of demi-humans are lazing about on a rock, thankfully not paying any attention to him. In front of him is a large stone structure that has been buried in the sand with a shallow incline trail behind it that leads to the top of the cliffs.

Ray grips the club tightly before heading over to the ruined structure, picking up a few ruins fragments and rowa fruit as he circles it and starts to walk up the trail. Whenever he picks something up, it automatically enters his inventory. The menu that appears over his eyes he likens to wearing a pair of sunglasses with words written on them, and it is identical to the actual game menu, though he still feels a little disoriented trying to read the menu while walking up the cliff. 

Just when he reaches the edge of another stone structure he hears a roar from up ahead. He crouches down, hugs the corner, and peeks around it, only to see a large troll with a massive sword in its hands pacing around right in his path. He watches the creature for a few minutes before finding an opportunity to sneak past it along the cliff face.

Though it seems luck is not on his side as the troll turns around when he got only half way past its area. The troll roars at him before charging at his location, its sword swinging around menacingly. Ray quickly scrambles forward, climbing over the larger rocks and jumping over the smaller ones as he makes a beeline for the Church of Elleh. 

He manages to stumble into the ruins and activate the grace just as the troll swings its sword at one of the pillars, causing it to fall in his direction. Ray dives to the side but is far too late as the pillar crushes his left arm. The pillar breaks apart and sends debris in every direction, freeing Ray's arm out from under it. 

Ray screams as he feels his arm getting flattened, his mind going blank from the pain. He looks over and is shocked to see his arm perfectly fine without any scratch or blemishes, even though he still feels the pain throbbing like a heartbeat. 

With the pain clouding his judgment, he grits his teeth and hops back onto his feet before running towards the troll and smashing its right leg with his club. He hits the troll three times in rapid succession, actually causing it to fall to the ground. 

Ray dives out of the way so that he isn't crushed by the falling troll and quickly climbs over its body to reach the head. Once there, he lifts the club up high and smashes the troll's face over and over again until its body goes limp and it disintegrates into a small whirlwind of floating runes that get sucked into his body.

Ray collapses against the brick wall of the church, his heart pounding like crazy and his body glistening with sweat. He still feels the phantom pain of his injury, though it is fading as time passes. Just when he manages to catch his breath he hears someone talking.

"While I don't appreciate you drawing that troll here, I will commend you for slaying it with nothing but a wooden stick. You must be tarnished, I can tell that much."

Ray turns to the voice and sees a merchant wearing a red shirt and cape with a fancy hat. Behind him is a donkey of some kind laden with goods. Ray slowly walks forward and sits down near the fire, his body shivering from the cold wind. It takes all of two seconds before Ray comes to the conclusion that he should play along for now and get as much information as he can. 

"You would be correct, Mr. merchant. My name is Ray, what is yours?"

"I am Kalé, purveyor of fine goods. Judging from your current attire and lack of a decent weapon, I can assume that you are not after my head. Why not browse my wares, maybe purchase something? If you have some spare runes, you should buy yourself a crafting kit. A crafting kit allows you to make basic items on your own. Essential really, if you intend to survive out here for any duration."

A new menu appears in Ray's vision, displaying Kalé's goods along with their price. Looking at his current rune count shows a grand total of 1000 runes, just enough to buy some chain leggings or gauntlets. While he could get the crafting kit and a few cracked pots right now, he still needs the crafting recipes if he wants to make the throwable pots. 

With a heavy heart, Ray purchases the chain leggings, equipping them immediately through his menu. They materialize in the blink of an eye, a white cloth covering his private area while chainmail covers his legs from the thighs down. Kalé looks at him with something akin to pity.

"While it's not much, it's better than nothing, aye? I will stay here for a while, so do come back when you have more runes…"

With no runes left to his name, Ray racks his brain about how to acquire more of them safely. The only thing he can think of is to kill some of the mob enemies in the area over and over again till he can afford the remaining items in Kalé's inventory. He knows that there are quite a few Godrick soldiers to the northeast that he could ambush in the forest. He might even get their armor and weapons if he is lucky.

'It's not like I have any other options at the moment. I can't just make a beeline for Agheel like I would when I play the game. While this world seems far more like the game than a real world, it still feels real, meaning that it might be more dangerous then it seems.' 

Ray slowly stands up and walks over to the crumbled wall to the north, looking at the forest just ahead with melancholy. 

'Well… Might as well get a move on. I won't get any runes just sitting here…'