by Ivan Kal
Right, Morgan thought to himself, pulling his hand back and wiping it on his pants. How in the hell did I even manage to spit on my hand if I’m dead? Morgan wondered.
Oxy then tilted his head and pointed his palm at Morgan. Then he grinned, and Morgan felt heat radiating from the center of his chest—but then it changed, as if something in the core of his being shifted. “Great,” Oxy said, and stepped closer. “Now, I am in a bit of hurry, so we should get this over with. Oh, and I will need a piece of your soul first.”
“What?” Morgan asked, but he had no chance to react before Oxy slammed his hand through Morgan’s chest. Morgan glanced down only to see Oxy’s hand elbow deep inside his chest. “Mother fucke—” Then there was only pain.
CHAPTER TWO
Morgan woke up screaming, his hands flying to his chest as he stood up. He looked closely, but there was no hole on his chest. There was no pain, actually; in fact, he felt better than he ever had. The hell did that asshole do?
Suddenly, large letters appeared in front of him.
WELCOME TO THE WORLD!
SURVIVE, THRIVE!
UNLOCK ANCIENT SECRETS AND MASTER PRIMAL POWERS!
GAIN STRENGTH AND CONQUER THE TOWER OF CHALLENGES!
BE VICTORIOUS AND YOU SHALL BE REWARDED!
Morgan read through the large blue letters and frowned. “The hell is this crap?”
“Greetings, master,” a voice said, startling him.
Morgan jumped around, releasing a high-pitched noise that some might categorize as a squeal. In front of him floated a woman. An animated woman? The hell?
“I assumed this form because you have quite an attachment to it. Did I err?” the woman—or rather Sabila, Protector of the Light, his character from the MMORPG game The Braves—said.
“Uh…” Morgan didn’t know what to say. The character he played in a game was floating in front of him, in its full video-game quality. Startled, he looked at his hands—I better not be animated! He sighed audibly in relief when he saw that he was still looking like a normal person. He raised his eyes and realized that he was surrounded by gray space that stretched endlessly all around him.
“Who are you?” Morgan asked his former avatar. She’s even wearing the gear I had equipped yesterday. “And where am I?”
The purple-haired avatar, dressed in colorful red, orange, and green dragon-scale armor, tilted her head at him. “You are in the PSS, or player soul space. We need to prepare you to enter the World. The Guiding Force is only waiting for us to create your visage before you can be sent into the World. I am your control interface, fashioned out of a piece of your soul by the Great Lord. I was given all the information you might need and a semblance of intelligence before I was reintegrated with you. I am here to help you navigate the World, as well as answer any of your questions, although there are things that I am not allowed to say unless certain conditions are met.”
Morgan blinked, slowly. “I assume that the Great Lord is Oxy?”
“Yes, although the inhabitants of the World refer to him as the Great Lord, or Creator.”
I guess the asshole hadn’t been lying, although he is a pretentious prick if he makes people call him the Great Lord. And seriously? Who names their world the World… No imagination. Morgan shook his head and then narrowed his eyes at the avatar. “So what is your name?”
“You may address me as you wish. I am a part of you; I have no name.”
“Sabila it is, then. So what do I need to do in order to get to the World?”
Suddenly another person appeared in front of him alongside with text and sliders to the side. Morgan did a double take as he realized that the person was him, and then was even more surprised when his double mirrored his movements.
“Ah, a character creator.” Morgan nodded in understanding.
“Yes. You may choose your gender, and adjust your physical appearance. Just focus on the sliders and buttons to press them.”
Morgan raised an eyebrow, surprised that he could change his gender. He debated for a moment whether he wanted to change anything. I most certainly will not be playing as another gender here, he thought to himself. It might be fun to play as a female character in game, but he was going to be living here from now on, he was a bit disappointed that he couldn’t change his race, but then again he had never really been into playing fantasy races—he always picked human races in any game he played. His appearance wasn’t too bad; he hadn’t been the greatest looking dude in life, but he hadn’t been ugly either. He had short black hair, brown eyes, and he was fairly athletic from his martial arts training. He adjusted his height a bit just to get him to 190 cm and accepted the changes. He was far too excited to get going.
Are you sure? (you will not be able to change your choice)
Yes/No
Morgan pressed Yes and his double and the text disappeared.
“Good. Next you need to assign your available attribute and skill points as well as choose your class. Your beginning stats and skills will reflect the experience you gained in your previous life, but you will still be starting your new life as a first level.”
Then a few other screens appeared in front of him.
STRENGTH
(10+3)13
Strength measures how strong a person is, how much power their physical attacks hit for and how much they can lift. (+3 for previous life experience)
AGILITY
(10+4)14
Agility measures how fast and coordinated a person is, how precise their attacks are and how fast they can react. (+4 for previous life experience)
CONSTITUTION
(10+2)12
Constitution measures how healthy a person is, how much damage they can take, and how fast they recover. (+2 for previous life experience)
INTELLECT
(10+2)12
Intellect measures how quickly a person grasps unfamiliar concepts, and how powerful their alignment is. (+2 for previous life experience)
WILL
(10+1)11
Will measures a person’s willpower, allows them to resist harmful effects, and deepens the connection with their alignment. (+1 for previous life experience)
WISDOM
(10+2)12
Wisdom measures how intuitive a person is, how perceptive they are, and how good at decision making they are. (+2 for previous life experience)
CHARISMA
10
Charisma measures how charismatic a person is, how much they can influence people who don’t know them with their speech, and how much loyalty or intimidation they can instill.
LUCK
(10-1) 9
Luck measures how lucky a person is. (-1 for previous life experience. Got hit by a car, hah)
UNASSIGNED POINTS
3
attribute points available.
Morgan blinked at the last stat—his luck. That jackass! He shook his head at the jab from Oxy, as he was certain that that was from him. All in all, his stats weren’t bad at all. At least he thought so; he had no way of knowing with nothing to compare. He also had 3 more attribute points to allocate. But he knew very little about what he needed, and after he tried to add one point to his strength he saw a text that asked him if he was sure, as any change was irreversible. He clicked no, and decided to wait before spending his points. He turned and looked to the next screen.
SKILLS
Hand-to-Hand Combat II (previous life experience)
You are trained in hand-to-hand combat.
Weapons I (previous life experience)
You are trained in basic use of most weapons.
Language—Basic (The World beginner skill)
You can speak, write, and understand basic.
Morgan whistled as he saw his skills. I guess that six years of martial arts and almost a black belt counted for something at least. He had one skill point to spend, and looking at the list of skills he saw that there were hundreds—but some were unavailable and color coded. He left that for later,
as he still didn’t know what he needed.
The next screen was a class table, with nine distinct classes separated into three categories. As far as he could tell there were fighter classes, ranger classes, and magic classes. Classic video game classes so far. He moved ahead, not wanting to pick a class until he looked at the last screen.
The last screen was a hexagon with elements on each side. On the left were three, and on the right three as well, with each element seemingly paired diagonally with its opposite on the other side. Fire—Water, then Earth—Air, followed by Metal—Nature. The three on the left—Fire, Earth, and Metal—were labeled as Domination, and the three on the right were labeled as Discipline. Morgan frowned at that. According to what he was reading he was supposed to choose one elemental alignment.
“Hey, Sabila. Can you explain this elemental alignment to me to me?”
“Of course, master. Choosing an elemental alignment is extremely important as it governs what kind of abilities you will be able to learn and use.”
“Wait, so if I chose fire alignment and let’s say, soldier class, I will have different abilities than if I pick let’s say soldier and water?”
“That is correct. However, there are some abilities that are available to all classes and all alignments, as well as some which are available to some alignments and not to others.”
Morgan was glad he asked. That made things far more interesting in his opinion; it was a strange system, but one that seemed to be fairly diverse.
“Is there any explanation or a guide available to me?”
“There is. Here,” Sabila said, and a wall of text appeared in front of Morgan.
Hah, I bet that most people don’t even ask. Then as he looked back on the screens he realized that they were placed in a weird order, almost as if someone wanted people to mess up by picking attributes before their class and alignment. Jackass—Morgan was certain that that was Oxy’s idea.
He read through the guide available to him twice. He didn’t know how much time had passed, but there didn’t seem to be any rush. Finally, after he was certain that he understood, he closed the guide and looked back at the screens.
The first thing he needed to do was pick a class. According to the guide, he would be able to pick another from the base 9 classes at level 5 and then he would be able to merge and upgrade his class at level 10; although from what he understood he would need to find class stones or teachers inside the World for those, and the two classes that he picked would govern what he could learn. According to the guide there didn’t seem to be a way for him to pick up a second alignment, but the wording had made him suspicious, as it did hint at more classes being available later. Regardless, he would need to pick carefully, and it didn’t seem like his skills were class locked. He would be able to learn anything provided he found a teacher or a skill stone, basically the same as in the real world. Choosing a class would just give him a few skills and abilities for free; the overall class system seemed to be more fluid, and he was even able to make his own class.
The guide didn’t tell him much about the world, other than inform him that there were settlements where people gathered which were generally safe areas. Monsters ruled the land, and sprinkled around the world were dungeons which had stronger monsters as well as better loot and a chance to gain more experience. Oh, and if one died in the World, one died for real—no third chances, it would be back to the tunnel and the light for Morgan. There was no respawning as far as Morgan could tell. This was a real world, and it was not a nice world that Oxy had created.
Experience was how one advanced, the same as in most games and same as in life. But the way you gained exp seemed strange. It looked like it was adaptive based on the person’s performance and the amount of their struggle as well as several other factors; and from what he gathered, experience was gained after an encounter ended. Abilities and skills could be learned in two ways, by consumption of skill or ability stones, or in the regular more mundane way—studying and practicing them, the way it had been in his birth world.
Aside from that, he didn’t learn much more, but that in itself helped him make his decision about which class to pick first. He didn’t know which upgraded classes were available, and there was no way for him to see that now. Morgan grimaced at that. He was used to reading guides and walkthroughs online and then min-maxing his builds. But that didn’t seem possible here. So he would need to act on the information he had now and his knowledge of games.
Looking at the classes carefully he dismissed the more combat-oriented classes, as well as magic ones. Their abilities seemed great, but they would most certainly require equipment and more levels to really shine. Magic casters were usually powerful in the later stages of the game, but weak at the start, and they had one massive weakness according to the guide—they required time to cast their spells, at least on lower levels, time during which something might chop Morgan’s face off. And I am not planning on dying again anytime soon. Fighters required equipment, and while Sabila had informed him that he would be given a starting gear, he really didn’t like the idea of getting close to something to stab it. He did want magic, but it looked like every class had some kind of spells based on the alignment chosen anyway, so he didn’t worry much.
On the other hand, he did worry about other things. He had no idea where his starting point was going to be—Sabila refused to say—so he needed to prepare accordingly. That left him with only a few choices, namely two of the ranger classes, which provided some survivability: Scout and Hunter. Scout seemed more oriented on speed and maneuverability and perception, while Hunter seemed more suited for hunting as well as surviving outside in general.
Without any idea about where he was going to be starting he needed to make sure that he could survive, and that meant that he needed to choose the Hunter class. He could always take a more combat-oriented class once he hit level 5. For now, though, he needed to make sure to stay alive long enough to get there.
He picked his class and confirmed his choice.
YOU ARE NOW A HUNTER. YOU HAVE LEARNED NEW SKILLS AND ABILITIES.
You’ve gained new skills — Archery I, Hunting I, Monster Lore I, Skinning I, Herbalism I.
You’ve gained new abilities — Pinning Shot I, Scatter Shot I.
Immediately Morgan felt something change, and suddenly he had knowledge he didn’t possess just a moment before. Huh, that is strange, Morgan thought to himself. The skills and the abilities he gained seemed to be embedded right inside his mind. He couldn’t remember learning them, but he had the knowledge. On his skill screen he saw that there were elaborations on what knowledge each skill gave him.
Shaking his head to clear it from the strange sensation, he turned to the elemental screen, trying to decide which element he should choose. Each of the elements had a few sub-elements associated with it, so he took the time to study them all and narrow down his choices to two: Nature and Metal. One was Discipline and the other Domination, and he wasn’t yet sure what that meant. Sabila had proven a poor help, as she couldn’t tell him, saying that it had something to do with the rules. In the end he decided on Nature, as it looked to be the one that had the best synergy with his class.
Next he took a look at his skills. He still didn’t know much about what he would need, so he spent his point on upgrading his Archery skill to Archery II, which gave him a nice boost to precision and targeting with a bow.
The only thing left was for him to assign his attribute points. Going by what he knew from years of gaming, he put his three points into Agility, Constitution, and Wisdom. He was tempted to raise his Luck to 10 but ultimately he decided to leave it for later, as he didn’t know how much that stat affected anything.
STRENGTH
13
AGILITY
(14+1)15
CONSTITUTION
(12+1)13
INTELLECT
12
WILL
11
WISDOM
(12+1)13
CHARISMA
10
LUCK
9
As soon as he accepted the points allocation, he felt a shiver pass through him. He could feel himself change; he didn’t know how, but he knew that he was stronger now, faster, more perceptive. With that done, Sabila told him that he could now enter the World.
“Before you go, as one of the Great Lord’s chosen, you are allowed to pick one gift to help you on your journey.”
“A gift?”
“You may pick between a better weapon, better armor, or a bag of holding.”
Intrigued, Morgan raised an eyebrow. “A bag of holding?”
Sabila nodded and a small backpack-looking thing made out of brown cloth appeared in her hands. “This item allows you to store up to twelve items of any size inside a small pocket dimension, as long as the items are smaller than the bag’s opening. To retrieve an item from the pocket dimension you need only reach inside and think on what you want to retrieve.”
“That might be useful,” Morgan said. “Do other bags, ones that can fit inside that one, count as one item?”
“Yes, as long as they can fit through the opening.”
Very useful indeed—Morgan knew all about inventories from games, but he had almost forgotten that he would need to carry his own stuff now. This world took a lot of inspiration from video games, but from what he had read it was still a real world.
“I’ll take the bag.”
“Great choice, master.”
“Anything else, or can I go?”
“Nothing else. But be advised, master, that while you are inside the World, I will be unable to speak to you directly. I will be facilitating your interface and be able to provide information through it. You will be able to call your character screens, but the only way we will speak like this again is when you have accumulated enough experience and power to gain a level. Once you have done so, you will be able to activate the ascension and transfer your mind here to your PSS, where you will be able to choose how you will advance. And as this occurs inside the PSS the ascension will seem instant, as time inside the PSS goes by much faster than in the real world. I will then facilitate the change inside your body.”