Quick Change Volume 1: Slyborn

by C. T. O'Leary

  Class: Scout

  Role: Ranged Fighter - Long Range Damage

  Scouts feel most comfortable with distance between themselves and their targets, and are masters of ranged combat.

  Next to last, there was a version of Seth wearing flowing white robes with gold stitching and detailing. A short wooden wand was strapped to his left hip, and a heavy leather-bound tome was clutched in his right hand.

  Class: Priest

  Role: Ranged Caster - Healer

  Priests use magic granted from their divine patrons to heal their allies and smite their enemies.

  Last in the line of class options came a version of Seth wearing another robe, dyed deep purple. He supported his weight on a gnarled wooden staff with a knobby top that came up to his neck.

  Class: Mage

  Role: Ranged Caster - Long Range Damage

  Mages use their intimate knowledge of their chosen arcane art to rain death and destruction on any who stand against them.

  Seth’s head reeled, and he took several moments just to re-read all of the windows. He scanned around in other directions, but no other windows materialized, and no other options were obvious. The only way forward seemed to be making a selection. A brief flare of annoyance pushed itself into Seth’s thoughts as he wished there was some kind of how-to for this little selection experience.

  If the afterlife was indeed a giant video game, what kind of character did Seth really want to play for the rest of his life? Would he have the option to change his selection later? Would he wake up from this trippy dream any second?

  Seth was pretty sure such a poor user experience couldn’t have sprung forth from his unconscious, so he decided he should probably take the choice seriously.

  All of the descriptions centered around how the different options fought battles. Seth wondered how prevalent battles would be in the afterlife video game, and what would happen if he were hurt or killed.

  Seth stared greedily at the pulsating runes burned into the mage’s staff for several long seconds but ended up ruling out that option. Shooting magic certainly sounded exciting, but in every game Seth had ever played, mages were always called squishy, meaning they couldn’t take any damage and were easy to kill. Seth wanted to make sure he made a good choice as far as surviving in whatever came next, so that ruled out both the mage and priest options as they both only had cloth robes on for protection.

  On the other side of the defense coin, knights seemed to be entirely defense focused and might not be able to actually do damage to their enemies, so Seth ruled that option out, too.

  That left, warrior, rogue, and scout. Seth didn’t really see himself sneaking around in the dark, doing shady deals and stealing stuff, and a giant sword just seemed so much cooler than a bow, so Seth decided on warrior.

  Seth wondered how he was supposed to actually make his selection, and tried pointing at the warrior copy of himself. Nothing happened, so he tried speaking aloud, “I choose the warrior class.”

  The knight, rogue, scout, priest, and mage all disappeared almost instantaneously. The warrior copy, who had until then been completely immobile, turned his head slightly, and his eyes met Seth’s. Seth started to take a step back out of fear, but the warrior just grinned at him, nodded his head in approval, and vanished like the others.

  Seth was left in darkness for a moment before another pop-up window appeared in his vision. It read: You’ve been granted one divine boon. Select your boon.

  Seth had gathered that this selection experience was voice activated by this point, and so said aloud, “What are the options for my boon?”

  The pop-up faded away only to be replaced almost instantly by a large window with a list and a scroll bar, indicating the list was too lengthy to display in the window space. Seth focused on the first item in the list, Nourished, and as if by reading his mind a description appeared to the left of the list of boons. He was moderately annoyed that everything was voice activated, but just this focus had selected an item from the list to learn more about. There wasn’t any consistency. He tried to tune those thoughts out and began reading.

  A traveler blessed with Nourished needs 50% less food and sleep to feel healthy, and has substantially lower chances to contract any disease while they’re Well Fed.

  Seth thought the prospect of needing less food sounded pretty useful, but he needed to evaluate every option before making a decision. He looked around into the darkness in every direction and, when he didn’t see anything different from before, took a seat on the featureless ground and kept paging through the boon options.

  Some of the options in the list were absolutely incredible, like Fervent Health, which made someone heal from injuries three times faster, but caused their body to burn calories six times faster when healing any wounds at all.

  Seth mentally divided the boon options into three groups. Firstly, were general utility or survival powers, like Nourished or Fervent Health, which would just generally be useful powers to have.

  Secondly, there were social focused boons, like Charming, which made the owner fifty percent more likeable to all other humanoid beings, whatever that meant.

  Lastly, there were combat focused boons, like one called Prescient, which let its owner accurately predict what their opponent would do in battle, up to several seconds into the future. Some of the combat focused boons listed that they were warrior specific, like one called Herculean, which simply said, Gain 10% more strength per level. Seth again wished he knew how important combat would be.

  By the time Seth neared the bottom of the list, which seemed like it had taken upwards of thirty minutes, the running leader was a utility boon titled Anthropologist, which allowed you to pick up any skill just by studying someone performing it several times. Seth wasn’t quite sure what exactly constituted as a skill in this framework. Could he watch someone do a crazy kung-fu kick and then do it perfectly himself? He was excited to find out.

  Seth read the last item on the list and chuckled to himself, feeling even more confident in the choice he was about to make with Anthropologist. The last boon on the list was Quick Change Artist.

  You may instantly swap between two outfits.

  “Who in the world would choose Quick Change Artist?” Seth muttered to himself. His eyes shot open in horror, however, as the Quick Change Artist boon lit up, and then the whole boon list disappeared. “NO!” He shouted in desperation. “Cancel! Go back! I want Anthropologist! I didn’t mean to select that! You always need to have a confirmation screen before locking users into a big decision!”

  Seth’s cries seemed to go unheard. The warrior clone of himself appeared again directly in front of him and zoomed towards him. He closed his eyes tight right before the clone would crash into him, but no collision ever came. He opened his eyes as the black void surrounding him began to fade to a new scene. White text flashed for a brief moment.

  Searching for suitable starting area…

  Found…

  City: Bosqovar outlying farming community Country: Efril Transporting…

  Chapter 2

  Like a low-budget movie transition, Seth’s eyesight faded from black to reveal a dramatic landscape. From glancing around, it appeared he was surrounded by steep mountains on all sides, and he quickly realized that he stood in a massive, ancient crater. Lush grasses covered the ground in the center, which must have spanned several miles.

  The smell of damp soil tickled his nostrils, and a gentle breeze left him with an ever so slight chill. Toward the edges of the area, where the crater walls began to jut skyward, the grasses fell off, leaving steep cliff faces of brown and white stone.

  Seth didn’t spend too much time gaping at the fantastical scenery, though, because a shimmer appeared in the air directly in front of him. The shape resolved into a woman, looking like she may have been in her thirties, in a sharp business suit. After spending the previous chunk of time staring at copies of himself in medieval clothing, Seth thought the woman’s attire looked incongruo
us in the fantastical crater.

  The woman’s eyes met Seth’s, and she started to speak. She sounded like someone who was used to being listened to, and Seth thought she may have even made Geoff Treso feel intimidated.

  She said, “Hello, adventurer. Welcome to the world of Morgenheim. You’ve been brought here because you are descended from the adventurers who departed this realm with me thousands of years ago. I’ve gone ahead and modified your genetic makeup a bit to make you a full-blooded adventurer. There shouldn’t be too many adverse side effects…” she trailed off, and her eyes focused over his left shoulder.

  Seth tried to respond in the short silence, saying, “Um, I’m sorry, but am I dea—”

  The woman kept speaking as if Seth hadn’t said a word, “I’m sure you have tons of questions, and I truly wish I could be there in person to answer all of them. Unfortunately, though, I really can’t take the time to speak with all of you, so this little recording will have to do. I’ll try to answer as many questions as I can, so please listen up. I won’t be repeating myself.”

  Even knowing the image of the woman was just some kind of hologram recording, the command carried such weight that Seth kept silent and paid rapt attention. She rotated her head from side to side, stretching her neck, and then grasped her snappy black suit coat by the lapels and straightened it before launching into her monologue, “As I said before, this is the world of Morgenheim. This world is a totally different place from Earth, I suppose you’d say a different dimension. I’m a goddess in this realm, specifically the goddess of adventurers, but several thousand years ago, someone tricked me into granting them a wish, and then wished all the adventurers would go somewhere else.

  “Sadly, to send the adventurers to another plane of existence, I had to go myself, or perish, as my life is linked to yours. Some ancestor of yours was one of these adventurers and was ripped from their life here to be deposited on the planet you know as Earth. I’ve spent my time since then trying to get someone to un-wish that wish and, finally, was able to make that happen today. I didn’t have hardly any of my power on Earth, but I was still able to grant wishes. Bringing your technology level up to a point where I could replicate Morgenheim in your video game culture took…quite some effort. Anyway, you’ll be living here now. This world is your birthright.

  “Typically, boons are difficult to come by, but I was able to make the case to the higher-ups that you’ll all need something extra to be able to survive here, so I hope you chose your boon well. As you saw, they’re incredibly powerful.” Seth groaned aloud, but the goddess kept on speaking, “Even an average human citizen could wipe the floor with you in your current state, so you’ll need to train and become strong.

  “Things have changed since we left, and not in a good way. Scales have tipped, new players have appeared on stage. There will be people on Morgenheim that want to hurt you, to kill you, even. It may seem like nature itself is rebelling against your presence at times, just know it is up to us, up to you, to rebalance this place. I will try to assist you when I can, but there are rules pertaining to how involved I can get.

  “I’ll give you your first quest now, when you’re done reading just say ‘I accept’ aloud, and I’ll keep going.” At that the goddess paused, like a frozen video, and a new pop-up appeared in front of Seth’s face.

  Djinia, patron goddess of adventurers has offered you a quest!

  Title: Impress me Limited Quest - may only be redeemed 100 times globally The goddess Djinia has offered an open quest to all adventurers, the first 100 adventurers that do something that impresses her will earn a private audience. (Djinia, I know you’ve been gone a while, but you really need to put more effort into these quest descriptions…I’ll let it slide this time.) Reward: Audience with goddess Djinia Claimed: 0/100

  Accept? Decline?

  Seth read over the prompt and said aloud, “I accept.”

  The Djinia hologram unfroze and let loose a sigh, some of the tension dropping from her shoulders like melting candle wax. “Now that you know the gist of what’s going on, I should probably let you get some fighting experience. In Morgenheim, everyone is taught to defend themselves at a young age. Practice here as long as you’d like. When you’re ready to begin your journey, say ‘I’m ready’ aloud, and I’ll take you to a moderately safe location in the world. As long as you stay here though, I won’t let you perish to these apparitions.”

  As she finished her sentence, she raised a hand up, placed her index finger and thumb together, and snapped. Several things happened at once. Seth’s eyes, seemingly of their own accord, darted to the now vacant space where the woman’s hologram had stood. He could still hear a faint echo of her fingers snapping, but she’d vanished the instant it had happened.

  Several paces to the left of where Djinia had stood, a figure had appeared. It was mildly humanoid in appearance, but looked more fungus than man. A bright red mushroom cap attached to the top of the short creature’s head. It stood perhaps four feet tall, and its skin appeared to be almost made of wood.

  Two features of the mushroom man jockeyed for Seth’s focus. Most concerning were the two sharp claws at the end of each of the thing’s arms, where its hands should have been. The murder-pincers were made even more terrifying by the look of pure malice on the monster’s face. Darker wood surrounded two holes on its face in a mimicry of human eyes, and an angry orange color shone out. As Seth made eye contact, the eye-holes narrowed to slits, and the thing wound up, readying to charge him.

  Seth backpedaled in a blind panic. He had literally no fighting experience, and as he raised his fists in what he imagined a boxer’s pose to be, his eyes happened to catch a glimpse of the roughshod sword strapped to his leather belt. He took in the rest of his new garb in a glance, way too preoccupied to wonder about the brown linen pants and roughed up leather boots he wore.

  Seth scrambled to pull the sword out of its sheath, not worried in the slightest about the chipped state of the blade as the mushroom monster closed the distance between them with its right claw outstretched toward Seth’s face.

  The blade came free of its sheath, and Seth let loose an, “Aha!” He leveled his new sword at the monster, surprised by its weight. As the monster was about to reach him, Seth, who was still backing up, caught his heel on a rock and sent him falling backwards into the void, arms pinwheeling. The world seemed to slow down, and Seth watched the monster’s eye-holes widen in surprise at it flew clean over him, claw-hand tearing into the empty space that Seth’s face had occupied moments before.

  The monster landed much more gracefully than Seth could have wished to. It spun to face Seth as he struggled to his feet, denting his already battered sword on the rocky ground as he used his right hand to steady himself.

  Seth wasn’t given much room to breathe, as the monster propelled itself in his direction again. Seth was more prepared this time. He planted his feet wide and held his sword low. His gamble paid off as the monster repeated the exact same tactic as during its first charge. It leapt into the air a few feet before it reached Seth, four scissor claws outstretched.

  Seth brought the sword up at the last moment and the mushroom man’s momentum carried it squarely onto the blade. A look of shock crossed its wooden face, but Seth was more focused on one of the scissor claws that had burrowed itself into the meat of his right forearm.

  It hurt. Seth screamed something incomprehensible and lost his grip on the sword, sending it and the mushroom man falling to the dirt. A red bar flashed into existence in the lower left of Seth’s peripheral vision, and then proceeded to drop by about a fifth before refilling at a quick pace. Likewise, the wound on his arm knitted together like he was some kind of superhero. It tingled as the pain disappeared almost as quickly as it had arrived.

  The mushroom man’s claws scrabbled at the sword penetrating its chest for a few moments, his eyes not leaving Seth’s and his expression of pure loathing never diminishing, before he ceased movement and lay still.

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nbsp; Seth’s breathing was heavy, hands on his knees as he stood there, shell shocked. He’d just killed some crazy mushroom man. Seth had never been one to hunt, and the only times he’d ever killed other living things were when bugs invaded his house. Even then, he muttered apologies as he flushed them down the toilet.

  Panting, Seth slowly leaned down and retrieved his sword from the deceased fungus. As soon as the sword left its body, the husk turned to dark brown dust and fell into an ashy pile on the ground. Even the small pile of ash began to disintegrate before his eyes, looking like some kind of ultra-fast time-lapse video.

  Seth heard a rustling sound behind him and whirled around, adrenaline still roaring through his veins, only to see another mushroom man standing exactly where the first one had appeared. It looked identical to the first one, and Seth thought they could have been twins.

  Mushroom Jr. leered at Seth, and just like his predecessor, raised his wicked sharp claws and charged.

  Chapter 3

  Seth lost count somewhere after the fortieth fungus man. By that point, he’d figured out the system. The first mushroom had appeared after the busy business woman hologram had snapped her fingers, and more would keep appearing, one at a time for as long as he held onto his weapon. If Seth sheathed his sword or even dropped it to the ground after slaying the fungus man, it wouldn’t reappear.

  Seth had started to think of the fungus man as a single individual because the appearance and behavior was so incredibly consistent. As soon as Seth had his sword in his hand again, another fungal copy would appear and shoot towards his face.