Marvel: Elden Ring System

Nestled on the high cliffs overlooking the ocean, Fort Haight stands resolute. The gray bricks of the outer walls are cracked and faded from erosion, vines growing all along the walls making the fort look decrepit and old. 

Ray lights the grace at the bottom of the cliff, sitting down and calling Melina so that he can increase his stats. With the over 9,000 runes he got from the golden eyed rune bear along with the rest he has gathered, He is able to increase his strength from 15 to 16, dexterity from 10 to 18, and vigor from 10 to 12. 

Ray tenses, expecting pain like before but instead feels a powerful itching sensation as his whole body undergoes a startling transformation. His muscles grow slightly but the main change is the fact that they loosen up and get more flexible. His skin also slightly changes in shade, adding a little more color to his pale skin. 

Once Melina leaves, Ray flexes his arms, a silly grin on his face. "Now that is more like it… My body feels way better every time I increase my stats. It's a shame that I have to go the dex route first but I am still undecided if I should focus on incantations or sorceries. Once I get all of the first five stats to around 18-20 will I fully commit to play style. To be honest it's probably going to be INT - DEX, seeing as it gives me access to a slew of sorceries and the stats will make me an agile caster."

Ray tests out his new body, running around at speeds far greater than he could achieve previously. He marvels at the flexibility of his arms and legs, even doing a perfect split with no discomfort. 

With a large smile on his face, Ray summons Torrent, giving his trusty steed a helping of rowa raisins before riding up the sloped pathway to the fort, swerving around the wooden palisades with ease. 

Atop the wall of the fort is a manned ballista, the soldier behind it loading a large bolt into the firing mechanism and aiming at the intruder. But before he can fire, a crossbow bolt slams into his forehead, killing him instantly as his body falls backwards into the courtyard. 

Ray puts his crossbow back into his inventory before pulling out the flail he got back at the gatefront. Now that he can wield it, he wants to take it for a spin. He spurs Torrent up the final hill where he sees a group of three soldiers scrambling for their weapons. 

Before the first soldier can grab his sword and shield, Ray does a run by, smashing the flail head into the soldier's helmet, making a very large dent before the soldier's body dissolves into runes. The next soldier lifts his tower shield up just in time to deflect the lethal weapon, only for Ray to flick the flail over the shield and into his helmet, another soldier biting the dust. 

Ray leaps off Torrents back and runs towards the final soldier, the flail spinning rapidly as he approaches. The soldier holds up his brass shield and advances towards him, his shortsword stabbing towards Ray's chest. Ray easily dives to the side and clips the soldier's leg with the flail, causing him to fall to the ground. With one final swing downward the soldier meets his end. 

Ray isn't given any time to celebrate as a pumpkin head jumps down from the fort entrance, his massive frame impacting the ground and causing a mild quake. The pumpkin head's weapon is also a flail, though it is much larger and has a long cylinder with spikes instead of a spiked ball at the end. 

The pumpkin head stomps towards Ray, his every move shaking the ground. It raises the flail over It's head and slams it down, Ray just barely rolling out of the way in time. He quickly stands back up and swings his own flail, hitting the pumpkin head twice in the chest before he has to duck to avoid the opponent's flail that flies just over his head. 

With Ray's vastly increased dexterity, he easily dodges every attack from the pumpkin head, his own flail smashing into its body over and over until it can no longer withstand the abuse and falls to the ground. Ray takes a few deep breaths while walking over to the sapling of the erdtree nearby and plucking a golden seed from its base before walking up the stairway towards the entrance of fort Haight.

At the entrance, he sees a small courtyard in front of him, littered with the decaying bodies of some demi-humans that were living here previously. Feasting on their decaying flesh is a swarm of large rats. These rats are bigger than most dogs, their grotesque flesh covered in matted hair and scabs.

Ray's nose cringes in disgust, he quickly wraps some cloth over his face so that he no longer has to smell this awful odor before running forward and smashing every single rat with his flail. Once the rats have been dealt with, Ray pulls out his crossbow and shoots the emaciated fire bomb throwers before they have a chance to throw a single bomb. 

Once Ray has fully cleared out the lower courtyard, he enters a small storage room where he finds the nomadic warrior's cookbook [6] before heading up the rickety wooden stairs towards the second level. Waiting for him in a smaller upper balcony area is a godrick knight with a large greatsword, blood continuously dripping from the tip onto the ground at his feet. The knight turns towards him and pulls out the sword, holding it in a ready stance and waiting for Ray to come to him. 

Ray puts his flail back into his inventory and pulls out his lordsworn's greatsword, holding the handle with both hands out in front of him, the tip aimed towards the sky. He lifts the blade up to his left shoulder and sprints forward, swinging down at the knight with all his strength. The knight casually lifts his sword and meets the attack head on, the ringing of steel against steel echoing throughout the fort. 

Ray's eyes widened in shock, unable to comprehend how the knight stopped his full strength attack with such a carefree defense. Ray quickly backtracks to make some distance but has to roll to the side as the knight uses the bloody slash ash of war, creating a blade of blood that slices through the air, nearly cleaving off Ray's arm.

Gritting his teeth in anger, Ray crouches low and thrusts his sword at the knight's legs, hoping for a debilitating hit. The knight sees this coming and easily sidesteps his thrust and follows it up with another bloody slash, Ray getting clipped by the wave of blood and feeling searing pain from his side where he was hit. 

Ray tries to backpedal to get some distance and recover his stamina but the knight is unrelenting, throwing bloody slashes left and right with no breaks in between. After getting clipped by another bloody slash, Ray has no choice but to drink from his flask of crimson tears, the red liquid flowing down his gullet and revitalizing him. He puts the flask away and dodges another bloody slash before swapping his greatsword for his shortsword and rushing towards the knight once more. 

Right as the knight goes to block his sword swing, Ray equips his glintstone staff in his off hand and fires a point blank glintstone pebble into the knight's chest. The knight is caught completely by surprise and steps backwards from the impact. Ray presses his advantage by thrusting his sword towards the knight's ribs, the blade piercing through the armor and into the flesh beneath. 

The knight grunts in pain before letting go of his sword and punching Ray in the face. Ray's head snaps back from the force of the punch but he grits his teeth and stabs his glintstone staff into the knight's neck and fires three more glintstone pebbles, geysers of blood fountaining from the wound with each impact.

The knight's blood red eyes slowly fade into nothingness as his body falls to the ground and turns into runes. Ray sits down on the stone floor and chugs his crimson flask two more times, fully healing himself.

"What the hell kind of steroids was that knight on? He was far stronger than I thought he was going to be. I nearly died again…" Ray looks over and sees the knight's greatsword laying on the ground next to him. "Well, at least I got a souvenir…" 

Ray begrudgingly stands up and grabs the greatsword, storing it in his inventory for the time being. He then heads over to the singular tower off to the side and climbs the ladder, finding a chest out on the upper balcony. He opens the chest and finds the left half of the Dectus Medallion, a necessary item if he wishes to get to the Altus Plateau via the Dectus Lift instead of taking the longer path through the Ruin Strewn Precipice. 

And now, with Fort Haight cleared of enemies, Ray rides Torrent north towards a large piece of rubble that is suspended between two small cliffs to make a bridge. 

There he meets Kennith Haight, an aristocrat that was driven out of the fort by the knight that he just killed. After a short conversation where Ray tells him that the fort is now empty, Kennith gives Ray the Erdsteel Dagger and heads to the fort on his own, letting Ray know that he shall rally the demi-humans in the area and that he should visit in the near future. 

Before Ray leaves the east side of limgrave, he quickly grabs the Fervor's Cookbook [1] which allows him to make sleep pots, a throwable item that can put enemies to sleep. He then heads back to Kalé and buys all three of the cracked pots that he sells so that he can make the sleep pots with the few St. Trina lilies that he could find during his exploration of Limgrave. 

But upon his arrival to the church, he finds Lunar Princess Ranni seated on a small stone wall, the full moon shining down on her exquisite form and enhancing her already stunning beauty. One of her four hands lifts up and beckons the tarnished forward.

"This way, Tarnished. May I have a word?"

Ray slowly walks towards her, internally freaking out at getting to meet one of his favorite NPC's from the game in real life. Ranni looks him up and down, assessing him with a practiced eye. 

"A pleasure to meet thee, Tarnished. I am the witch Renna. I'd heard tell of a tarnished hurtling about atop a spectral steed. And upon looking into the matter, the talk, I surmise, is of thee… Thou'rt possessed of the power, no? To call forth the spectral steed known as Torrent."

Ray nods his head, trying his hardest to appear confident. "Yes, I can call the spectral steed…"

"Ah. As I had hoped. I was entrusted this, for thee, by Torrent's former master. Tis a bell for calling forth spirits." 

Ranni hands Ray a small sliver bell and a small jar of ashes.

"Summon them with it, from ash unreturned to the erdtree. The spirits will obey thine command but briefly, as they recall battles past. Now it is thine. To do with as thou wishest."

Ray bows from his waist. "Thank you for this gift, witch Renna." 

Ranni shakes her head, her hands clasping together. "You needn't thank me, Tarnished. Twas merely my duty… I doubt we shall again meet. But all the same, learn well the land between. How long will it be, I wonder… Before the Tarnished tire of obeisance to the two fingers?"

And with that, Ranni's body dissolves into blue particles that float away in the wind. The full moon is still shining down and blanketing the area in its soft, blue light. Ray puts the spirit calling bell and lone wolf ashes into his inventory before sitting down at the grace with a thoughtful expression on his face.

'Man, I guess it still hadn't sunk in fully that I am literally in the world of Elden Ring until now… Meeting Ranni in real life, even if it's just a projection of her mannequin body, was an eye opener for sure. At least I am role playing how I believe the Tarnished would talk quite well, I hope… It would be embarrassing if anyone knew that I was acting like this…'

Ray slowly stands up and does some stretches, spending a moment to think about what he wants to do next.

"I think I have had enough of this for now. I will finish clearing out limgrave in a few days, let's head back to the marvel world."

With but a simple thought, Ray activates his world traveler skill, returning to his bed in the SHIELD headquarters. Within minutes he falls asleep, not realizing that he will have to explain his sudden bodily growth in the morning.

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Name: Ray Winters

Level: 17

Runes: 17,167

Vigor: 12

Mind: 10

Endurance: 10

Strength: 16

Dexterity: 18

Intelligence: 10

Faith: 10

Arcane: 10

Inventory (+): lordsworn's straight sword, lordsworn's greatsword, brass shield, flail, soldier's crossbow, lordsworn bolts (47), tree and beast surcoat, chain leggings, chain coif, pumpkin helmet, kaiden armor, kaiden gauntlets, glintstone staff, great epee (thrusting sword), warpick (hammer), knight's greatsword (Bloody slash), erdtree dagger (quickstep), spirit calling bell, lone wolf ashes, crafting materials (Just assume he has at least some of each material from each area he explores), ETC. 

(Author's note: this list is going to get ridiculously long very quickly so I might just use this section to show the important items that he is using currently)

Sorceries (+): Glintstone Pebble, 

Incantations (+): 

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

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