by Ivan Kal
And so Morgan set out in the forest, looking for any sign of animals he could hunt. It didn’t take him long to find rabbit tracks, and a part of him jumped with glee as he realized that he knew exactly what he needed to do. He tracked them and in short order he found himself back at the camp with two freshly killed rabbits. He even got some exp from them, though only 2 exp each, and he needed a hundred to get to the next level.
Once he returned to the camp, Morgan borrowed Vallsorim’s knife and skinned them as if he had already done it a hundred times before, making sure to keep their fur intact for them to sell later, as the twins told him that it would be valuable. They cooked them over the fire and started eating.
“So, since you are ascended, that means that you have a class?” Morgan asked between bites.
“Yes,” Vallsorim said. “Both of us are knight class. It was the only class that we could learn in our village.”
“Why is that?” Morgan asked.
“As we said before,” Vestella said, “there are not many ascended in these parts, and usually in order for someone to learn a class, they need a teacher, a skill stone, or at least a skill book. We were trained some by our father, and the rest we learned from the books left by our parents.”
Morgan saw her eyes take on a sad look to them when she mentioned their parents. “How did they come by the book?” Morgan asked finally.
“They were ascended,” Vestella said.
“Were, as in they are retired now, or…?”
“They are probably dead,” Vallsorim said.
“We don’t know that for sure,” Vestella said, rounding on her brother. Vallsorim just shrugged as if he didn’t care, but Morgan recognized the look of someone trying to make themselves believe something that was not the truth. He had done much the same during his life on Earth.
“They would’ve come back if they weren’t dead,” Vallsorim said.
Vestella opened her mouth to argue, but then she just deflated and stopped.
“I’m sorry for asking,” Morgan said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “I never knew my real father; my mother said that he died, but I never really believed her. I always wanted to try and look for him. And now I will never get the chance.” Flashes of memory came to him, but he pushed them down quickly. There was no point remembering that.
Vestella rewarded him with a weak smile, her green eyes meeting his. “Our parents came to our village before we were born; we don’t know why. Then one day, when we were thirteen years old, they left to hunt monsters and didn’t return.”
Morgan squeezed her shoulder once and then pulled his hand back, giving her a small understanding smile. “It must’ve been hard. But you still decided to follow in their footsteps.”
“Living a simple life was never for us,” Vallsorim said. “And we know very little about our parents. Vestella is hoping that if we become adventurers, we will eventually meet someone who knew them and learn more.”
“Maybe even find them,” Vestella added.
Morgan could see that Vallsorim had little hope that their parents were still alive, but he didn’t speak.
“I understand,” Morgan said.
“And what about you? I don’t know much about the places you chosen come from, but if I remember what I read correctly, chosen are always from other worlds, right?” Vestella asked.
“I can speak only for myself, but yes, I am from another world. The world I was born in is nothing like this one,” Morgan answered.
“How so?”
“Well, for one there are no monsters there. And no races other than human—no elves like you two.”
“We are not full-blooded elves. We are half-elves actually,” Vallsorim said. “Our father was human, and our mother an elf.”
“Huh, cool,” Morgan said.
“You speak very strangely…” Vestella shook her head with a small smile on her lips. “I don’t see what cold has to do with anything.”
“Ah…no. It is an expression that can mean a few things. ‘Cool’ can mean great, all right, awesome or it can mean that something is agreed upon,” Morgan said.
The twins tilted their heads, confused.
“Actually, I am surprised that you know how to speak English,” Morgan said.
“In-glish?” Vestella said.
“The language we are speaking now.”
“Ah, we are not speaking your language, we are speaking basic. I remember reading that for chosen their native tongue gets translated into basic. You think that you are speaking and hearing your own language, but it is in fact not. Basic is most wide-spoken language in the World,” Vestella said.
Morgan frowned; he hadn’t read anything about that in the guide. But he did have a skill that allowed him to know basic, he remembered. He just hadn’t realized that he had been speaking it all this time.
“Well… That is good to know,” he said finally.
“So what do you plan on doing after we reach the town?” Vallsorim asked.
“Well, I was hoping on sticking with you guys for now. As I said, I know very little, and, well…my goal is simple, really. I just want to get stronger and live for as long as I possibly can,” Morgan said with a grin.
“You are welcome, then, to stay with us for as long as you so choose,” Vallsorim said, and his sister nodded her head, agreeing as well.
Morgan felt good about the two siblings, and it was not like he had any other options.
Soon after, their conversation slowed, and they settled in for bed, with Vallsorim taking the first watch. And unlike the day before, this time they woke him up for his watch.
Morgan sat on a rock and kept his senses on the forest around them. His watch went by slowly, and he passed the time by attempting to make a connection to his element. It was not going as well as he had hoped. How the hell am I supposed to make a connection? Frickin’ rules and jackass god-not-god. Morgan shook his head in frustration, again lamenting that this was not like a real game where he could just google the problem and find the answer. But while he might’ve been a quitter and a lazy-ass in real life, he had always been somewhat of a perfectionist in his video games—and now was the perfect time for him to take that quality and make it a reality.
He kept at it, trying to clear his mind and reach out to the woods around him. He had no idea how much time had passed, but then suddenly he felt something just at the edge of his consciousness. Recognizing a chance when he saw one, Morgan grabbed on to the feeling and pulled.
Then, suddenly, his perception of the world changed. He felt the life around him, the trees—stationary, old, and strong. The little blades of grass that swayed on the wind, it was as if he could feel every leaf, every plant, and insect and creature around in a small radius, about ten paces around him. There was a squirrel sleeping in the hollow of a tree just five paces away from him, an owl sitting high in another looking around for prey. And there was life beneath the ground: worms, rodents, and things that he couldn’t even recognize squirming through the dirt.
And there intermixed with all that life was something else, something darker. There was death all around him. Leaves fallen from trees, the remains of a mouse—all retaken by the earth. He could feel the entropy around him. He could feel the power that came from that life being turned to death. It did not feel wrong; merely like it was a part of nature.
Morgan blinked his eyes as, suddenly, his perception of their surroundings disappeared—or rather focused. He no longer felt all that was around him, but his sight had changed. He could see a faint glow all around him, with denser and brighter glows around things that held more life. Morgan turned his head back to look at the twins and found them glowing like bonfires, and looking down at himself he saw the same thing.
He also noticed that he was breathing harder, his clothes were soaked in sweat and he felt as if he had been running for hours. His head was pounding. He shook his head, trying to figure out a way to dismiss the sight, only he had no idea how to do that.
Th
en Morgan noticed movement on the other side of the camp, behind the twins’ sleeping bodies. Deep in the forest, four glowing shapes were approaching, and Morgan could immediately tell what they were.
“Goblins, get up!” Morgan yelled out, waking up the twins.
He jumped to his feet and started drawing an arrow, but as soon as he stood up, the glow vanished. Damn it, now you turn off! Without the glow he could see only the dark forest, but he still fired an arrow in the direction he had seen one of the glowing forms. The arrow flew true, and he was rewarded by a scream that pierced the night.
The twins had already gotten to their feet and recovered their weapons, just as three goblins jumped forward enough to be illuminated by the fire. Their war cries chilled Morgan to the bone, enough that he froze for a moment before he started drawing another arrow.
Vallsorim, on the other hand, didn’t freeze at all. He charged at the goblins with his two-handed sword and swung at the first one. The first goblin ducked, but the second goblin run straight into the swing. Vallsorim’s sword cleaved through the bone of his skull, and the goblin fell to the ground.
Morgan blinked his eyes and just stared at the falling goblin with his arrow nocked. Huh, I’ve never seen what it looks like when half of the head is cleaved open. The goblin had taken the sword at its temple and it hadn’t even went all the way through—instead, the upper part of its head was still attached. It flapped open to show the inside of the head as the goblin fell.
Turning his eyes from the sight, Morgan aimed at the third goblin, his arms shaking as if he were exhausted. He fired the arrow and watched as it hit the goblin in the upper arm, staggering him for a moment. Morgan tsked as he missed his mark. Immediately, he started drawing another arrow.
Vestella had followed her brother, and just as the first goblin—the one that had ducked her brother’s attack—turned to attack Vallsorim’s back, she slammed her shield into his shoulder, sending the monster flying.
Vallsorim turned to finish the downed goblin, but the third one—with Morgan’s arrow sticking in its upper arm—jumped forward, swinging with its club. Vallsorim wasn’t fast enough to dodge, so he put his sword in the way, but the downed goblin chose that moment to attack from the ground, swiping one of Vall’s legs.
Vallsorim fell to his knee and his sword missed the club, which caught him in the shoulder. Morgan grimaced as he remembered how much that hurt. But as Val fell to his knees, Morgan had a clear line of sight, and he let another arrow loose. It flew straight into the goblin’s chest. Quickly, he drew another and fired it into the goblin as well, felling the creature.
The last one on the ground tried to grab and pull Vallsorim down to the ground, but Vestella was there to put her sword in its guts. She pushed and then twisted, pulling the sword up and then stabbing again at the goblin’s head.
Morgan walked forward slowly, his legs feeling as if they were made out of lead. He reached the twins, who were both fighting to get their breathing under control. Morgan gave them a crooked smile; for some reason he couldn’t feel half of his face. He shakily raised his hand.
“Never been easier, bro. Fuck yeah, up top!” Morgan said, and then night covered his eyes. Well, that is strange. Wasn’t the fire still burning? Then he felt his legs give out and he fell forward on his face, losing consciousness.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“Welcome again, master. I keep getting surprised,” Sabila’s voice chirped from somewhere above him.
Morgan groaned. “Again? The hell happened this time?”
“You lost consciousness from exhaustion, master.”
“What? All I did was sit on a rock for a few hours!” Morgan said as he turned around to look at Sabila floating in the gray void.
“The exhaustion came from your overuse of your alignment, master. You depleted your energy,” Sabila said in a monotone voice, like always.
“I barely used it, I mean I just figured out how to!”
“Using the alignment abilities is taxing on your energy, and seeing as this was your first time attempting it, your body was not ready for the energy draw. As you grow stronger and keep using your abilities, your body will adapt. Or you could just raise your will,” Sabila said.
Morgan frowned at her, and then the fact that he was back in the soul space penetrated through his mind. “Wait, why am I back here? Tell me that I am not dead, please!”
“Like the last time, you have accumulated enough exp for another ascension level.”
“Already?” Morgan asked as he brought up his status screens. The first thing that he noticed was that his skill screen had a message. He frowned and turned his eyes to it.
CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE LEARNED A NEW SKILL.
You’ve gained new skill — Elemental Alignment-Nature I
You’ve gained new ability — Nature Sense I, Life Sight I
Excited, Morgan took a closer look at the new skill and abilities to see what, exactly, they did.
Elemental Alignment-Nature I: You have a basic connection to the Nature element. You can utilize your alignment to boost your abilities and manipulate the powers in the domain of Nature.
Life Sight I: You can activate Life Sight to see the life glow of your surroundings. (Current range: 25 paces.) Range and depth increase with rank and intellect, while drain decreases based on will.
Nature Sense I: You can activate Nature Sense to sense the Nature element around yourself. (Current range: 10 paces.) Range and depth increase with rank and intellect, while drain decreases based on the will.
Morgan nodded as he read through, he had already figured that it would be something like that. All were very useful, and complemented his chosen class well. But the fact that he had learned these skills without being taught or without purchasing them told him that there were more ways of getting skills and abilities than just spending points. He also noticed a few new green-coded skills becoming available for purchase, but he decided against purchasing any. If he could learn new skills on his own, then his points would be better spent on increasing his skill and ability ranks.
He turned his eyes from the skills and abilities screen to his character screen, which had a message floating over it.
GROUP EXP GAINED!
4x Goblin Scouts killed = 40 exp
G.F. bonus—detected the Goblin ambush = 30 exp
G.F. bonus—survived the Goblin ambush = 50 exp
Morgan Newton LVL 2 — EXP 129/100 (ascension possible)
Huh, I guess I’m, like, totally awesome. He knew that he had gained a few exp points from ascension crystals, and those weren’t noted here, but with this exp he was already leveling up again. Morgan grinned and pressed the button for the ascension. His LVL changed to 3, and he gained another two attribute points, along with one skill point. There was no ability point this time. I guess that we don’t get the points all the time, and I got one less attribute point. That meant that he would need to be extremely cautious as to how he allocated his points. He now had two skill points, two attribute points, and one ability point—from his previous ascension—to allocate. He decided once again on leaving his ability point for later, but decided to spend his attribute and skill points now.
He put his two attribute points into agility and intellect, since he really was a sucker for magic, and intellect governed how strong his magic was. For his two skill points he decided to spend them on his Archery skill, upgrading it to three. He had had a great deal of luck so far, and his skill with the bow seemed to have paid off. But he had missed a few shots, and from everything he saw up until now, missing in this world could mean the difference between life and death.
After he allocated and accepted everything, he took one final look at his sheets.
Morgan Newton LVL 3 — EXP 29/150
STRENGTH
13
AGILITY
(16+1) 17
CONSTITUTION
14
INTELLECT
(12+1) 13
WILL
&n
bsp; 11
WISDOM
12
CHARISMA
10
LUCK
10
SKILLS
Hand-to-Hand Combat II
Weapons I
Language-Basic
Elemental Alignment-Nature I
Archery III
Hunting I
Monster Lore I
Skinning I
Herbalism I
ABILITIES
Scatter Shot I
Piercing Shot I
Life Sight I
Nature Sense I
You have 1 ability point available
Satisfied, he turned to Sabila.
“Anything you think I need to know before you send me out?” Morgan asked. He figured he’d ask, but already knew that his new imaginary friend wouldn’t give him any useful information. ‘Cause why the hell would anyone make a useful implant-soul magic type of thing? I’m speaking to you, Oxy!
“No, master.”
“I figured as much,” he said with a sigh. “Fine, send me out.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Morgan woke up and found himself in their camp, with the twins standing over him. It looked like it was still night. The twins looked disheveled—almost as if they had just fought a group of goblins.
Vestella smiled down on him when she saw that he was awake. “Ah, there you are. We hoped that you would wake up quickly; the two of us hit level three, and we thought it likely that you had as well.”
Morgan stood up and stretched his muscles a bit. The soreness that he now associated with leveling up was present and his body felt a bit strange. No wonder it feels strange—an implant made out of my soul had just messed with my body. God, how in the hell did I end up here? Right, I died. Sorry, Sabila! I value you! Don’t mess up my body, please!