Angela couldn’t care less. Sure, it would have been neat to have some unallocated points right out of the gate, but it would still be cool working out how the system worked. She was going to min-max the shit out of this place. “Hey, whatever. I’m just pumped about this whole process. This is going to be awesome!”
That’s what I want to hear! I love enthusiasm. I hate stupidity, though. Try not to get those two mixed up.
Okay, before you head down, here are the main bullet points: Don’t die, don’t get too worked up about killing things—that’s how you level up your Renown, after all—and know that your Class choices will be limited by your thoughts and actions.”
“Wait, so I won’t be able to just pick Druid?” Angela said. She was going to be pissed if she got sent to an amazingly awesome RPG fantasy planet, only to be told she couldn’t be an elf or a Druid.
It depends. If you are the kind of person who loves nature, and conservation, and protecting—
“That’s me! You’re describing me!” Angela shouted. “I’m ecologically conscious, vegetarian, concerned about global warming… everything. All of that is me. I work for an NGO! You sure as hell don’t do that for the money.”
That does sound like a decent start. It’s ultimately Ennàd’s decision, though. Entering the service of a god is not a unilateral decision, nor one to take lightly.
“That’s the god of nature?”
Aren’t you the sharp one. It seems like you’ve got a pretty good handle on things already, so what say we get that paperwork signed, and I can send you on to your new life?
Some sort of floating holographic tablet computer appeared in front of Angela. There was the briefest flicker of a green “Accept” button that only existed long enough for Angela to mash her finger down, banishing it to oblivion and sending her rocketing toward the planet, a big smile plastered across her face.
Excuse me, the voice said. I asked if you have any questions?
Mark stared at the glowing rectangle in front of him. One press, and he would be off to somewhere incredible. A world that was a combination of game and real life. Go anywhere, do anything, be anyone. It was more than he could ever dream.
Except for one thing.
“I do have a question,” Mark said.
Yes?
Mark braced himself. “It’s about my… condition.”
The voice didn’t respond. Mark began to wonder whether she was still there.
“Hello?”
The voice reappeared, but it had a different tone. One Mark knew all too well. It was the one he’d heard from doctors all through his adolescence when they had bad news to deliver.
Yes. I am aware of it, the voice said. I should apologize. We wouldn’t have selected you for the program under normal circumstances.
Mark took a moment to collect himself.
“Is it treatable?” Mark said. “On Earth, I had medication. It took a long time to find a combination that worked and another four years to get my life back. I don’t want to go back to how things were.”
I’m sorry, there isn’t. There are fundamental differences between Earth and Arenia, the most significant of which is that Arenia is a planet with advanced magics, whereas Earth is a planet with advanced science. Your medication falls under the realm of science.
A glimmer of hope surfaced. “Does that mean there’s a magical equivalent to Earth medication? Or even an outright cure?”
Let me cut you off right there. The short answer is yes, but you are a long way from being able to afford it, if ever. I realize that’s a harsh thing to say, but I don’t want to give you false hope.
“Then just give me the cure! You’re the ones who abducted me by accident.”
If I could, I would. But there are rules. I can’t just give you a pile of money. And trust me, it would be a LOT of money.
“So what’s a viable route?” Mark said, raising his hands. “Nothing? You’re taking away the only thing that keeps my life together and then dropping me into a place full of wild animals and monsters who want to eat me? Is that what we’re talking about?”
Mark, I’m very sorry. As I said, it was a mistake to bring you here.
“Yeah, but you did, didn’t you?” Mark snapped. “And you don’t even know if I have any rebirths left! I’m super excited about the prospect of lying useless on a forest floor while a dragon comes along and eats me.”
A dragon would be very unlikely. Those are quite rare.
“What eats me isn’t the goddamn point! The point is that you screwed me, and you know it.”
Mark, I—
“No! Forget it. I don’t want to hear whatever it is you have to say unless it’s how you can make this right. Can you? Can you say that?”
He waited, but there was no answer.
“That’s what I thought.”
Mark held up the tablet with the glowing green button. “Just promise me you’ll make that asshole who sent me here watch what happens. Because when I die, my blood is on his hands.”
Then he pressed the button.
Peter floated in the nothingness, half-listening to the disembodied voice explaining their situation and what was to come. It took all of fifteen seconds for his brain to go into total lockdown. He knew he should be paying more attention, but holy hell. Maybe this was a dream scenario for the kids, and Beth was born with her grandfather’s resilience, but all he could see were the struggles they would soon face. Honestly… how much could one family endure?
Rough times were a theme with this family. Jack’s wife, Beth’s grandmother, had died of cancer when Beth’s mom was only 17; years before Beth was even born. Then the same fate befell Beth’s mother, setting up a chain of events that saw Beth lose both of her parents and getting pregnant with Angela while Beth and Peter were still undergrads in university. To say it was a rough time would be a gross understatement.
Without Beth’s grandfather, the two of them would never have made it through those early years as a couple. Hell, they weren’t even dating when the pregnancy happened. How a 73-year-old widower who had just lost his only child managed to simultaneously run an orchard and help raise his great-granddaughter was beyond Peter. That old man was a different breed. But thanks to him, they persevered. First, with Peter finishing university while Beth had the baby, then with her going back to school while Peter took over the orchard. Peter had expected Jack to stay in charge until they nailed the old man’s coffin shut, but on his 80th birthday he declared that he had “two great-grandchildren and one job, and only enough energy for two of the three.” After that, the orchard was theirs.
For his part, Peter thought the old man was crazy. You could run a hundred orchards with the energy it took to raise two children.
Still, despite all they’d been through, nothing the family had faced was quite like this. Obviously. And from what the lizard guy said, when they did one of these abductions they would pick people like Angela—people who would leap into the experience with open arms. That description did not apply to Peter. Quite frankly, “pissed off” was a better descriptor.
Peter, are you listening? the voice said. I can’t emphasize enough how important this is.
“Sorry,” Peter said, struggling to keep the annoyance out of his voice. “I’ll pay attention.”
What has you concerned?
“Is ‘everything’ a viable answer?”
I know this isn’t ideal, but it isn’t good to make the transition with the wrong mindset. Your son was upset as well, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to calm him and was forced to move forward.
“Mark’s upset?”
That surprises you?
“Of course it does. As soon as Mark was diagnosed, he just kind of… tuned out of life. He sits around, plays games, and reads. I’d have thought this place was a dream come true.”
He is concerned about his condition.
Peter sighed inwardly. “Of course he is. But it’s no different here than it was on Earth. Does it make thing
s more difficult? Yes, obviously. But it can’t be an excuse not to at least try and accomplish something with this new life.”
I see, the voice said. There was a tinge of judgement in her tone, but Peter ignored it. Let’s put Mark aside. I’ve run you through the basics of your new life. Do you have any questions for me?
“So many questions.”
Please try and keep it succinct.
What was the most important thing to ask? Peter had never been one for videogames, but it sounded like his lack of knowledge was going to be a real disadvantage in this place. That was probably the place to start.
“So, all this game stuff?” he said. “Are there going to be menus floating around in the air or something? That seems distracting.”
The way you interact with Arenia will, to some degree, be reflective of your own preferences. What works for one person may not work for another. I encourage you to simply explore once you arrive.
That seemed fair enough. Although given Peter’s level of experience, that was going to be a lot of exploration.
“And you say that I might just show up by myself in the middle of nowhere?” he said. “I realize I look like a pretty rough guy, but I’m not exactly the woodsy type. I can raise crops, yeah, but I wasn’t a big camper.”
Most Earthlings who come to Arenia aren’t. Then again, they generally arrive in a city, so we’ve given you some equipment to help you survive the trip to Palmyre. I’m sorry we can’t do more.
Peter resisted the urge to groan. Quite the Thanksgiving this was turning out to be. “Okay, that was question one out of ten thousand. Number two is—”
Hold on for a moment…
Yes! Peter, if you go right now, I think we can put you down near your wife, but it has to be right now. I have a legal contract you need to sign, and I’m supposed to recommend you read it first, but that will take a very long time, so—
“Give it to me,” Peter said without hesitation. An enormous legal document appeared—like someone had printed out the entire works of Leo Tolstoy—but Peter wasted no time in flipping to the last page and signing.
Thanks, Peter. And good luck.
Gravity seized hold of Peter and yanked him towards the planet below. His stomach lurched as he sped towards the great blue orb, but he resisted the urge to look directly down. If they were to have any chance of reaching this Palmyre place, he needed to know where it was relative to his arrival point. If he could find a landmark to orient by, it could save him a lot of strife in the long run.
Peter’s eyes skimmed over the landscape. He spotted an ocean in the distance and two rivers that led across a huge forest. To the southeast, there was something… strange? A light emanating from beneath a mountain. Almost geometrical in shape, but it disappeared when he looked directly at it, as though it wasn’t really there.
“What on earth is—”
There was a flash, searing pain, and then unconsciousness.
The universe kept spinning—planet, stars, planet, stars—in an endless panicky loop. Then a voice appeared out of nowhere.
Hello, I am Verna. I have already spoken to some of your fami—
“CLUCKLE!” the turkey shrieked as the voice boomed into its tiny brain.
Oh, for the love of... CARL! What the hell is this? A TURKEY? How did we end up with... No, Earthlings don’t keep turkeys as pets! How can you not know that? Of course, they eat them! They’re poultry! UGH. Well obviously they didn’t want to bring it with them; who wants to be saddled with a turkey you can’t eat? No. No, Carl, I CAN’T send it back because you already put it into the system. Just... just go away. I’ll deal with you later.
The turkey abruptly stopped spinning.
A frigging turkey. Well, we have to follow protocol, I guess.
A patch of dirt appeared under the turkey’s feet, and a sense of gravity settled over it. For the first time, it calmed a little. There was even some corn sitting on a green circle at the bottom of a squiggle-covered rectangle. Instinct took over, and the turkey pecked at the corn, hitting the green circle in the process.
The ground disappeared, and the turkey shot towards the planet, clucking frantically the whole way.
Chapter 3
Beth
The world raced up at Beth in an increasing frenzy of acceleration. It began to dawn on her that she wasn’t actually going to slow down. At all. And considering that her velocity had left behind the triple digits some time ago, her brain now shifted from concern over her wellbeing to wondering just how much damage she was going to do to the forest when she hit the planet going faster than the speed of sound.
Clenching her teeth and wincing at the prospect of what was to come, Beth watched, paralyzed, as the ground flew up faster and faster until she finally hit the ragged dirt and… every ounce of momentum vanished, leaving her standing quietly on the edge of a clearing in the middle of a pine forest.
Beth dropped to her knees, her whole body shaking as she tried to get her nerves under control.
“Oh. Oh, dear. I did not like that. I did not like that at all,” she said.
She stayed shaking on the forest floor for a good long while as she struggled to regain control.
Okay. You can do this, she thought to herself. You’re on a different world, in the middle of a forest. What do you have with you?
Beth assessed herself, noticing right away that her clothes had been replaced with some sort of local garb made of rough, homespun fibres. She was also wearing a backpack, but when she tried to take it off, she discovered that her hands were still shaking so hard that she could barely fumble the straps off her shoulders.
This won’t do.
Beth had to calm down. She dumped the pack on the ground next to her and stood upright in a proper posture, then closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out in one smooth exhale that pushed all the air out of her lungs. She continued two more times, the yogic breathing bringing her a calm that would allow her to deal with the current situation.
The moment Beth opened her eyes, a small flare of yellow light appeared in front of her, and a single piece of paper appeared, unfolding from an impossibly small size before stopping and floating in midair.
Beth grabbed the paper and read its contents:
NEW GENERAL SKILL LEARNED!
Yoga – Level 22 (Tier-II)
Three breaths, a sense of calm… and a new Skill! Very well done. It’s rare for someone to bring a new Skill to Arenia at such a high level of expertise. Careful about closing your eyes, though—there are lots of dangerous creatures around here.
Tier-I Bonus: Increase Dexterity by one-quarter of your Yoga Skill level for 4 hours following your first yoga session each day.
Tier-II Bonus: Yoga practitioner may teach classes. Students also receive a Dexterity bonus following their first lesson of the day.
*Well, well, well! Someone was taking a lot of classes at the Y! Since this Skill predates your arrival in Arenia, it has been set at a level commensurate with the practical ability you already possess. Note that this calculation will only happen if you actively use a Skill from your old, boring life.
2,950 XP Earned (cumulative)
RENOWN LEVEL UP!
Level 2 Achieved
RENOWN LEVEL UP!
Level 3 Achieved
RENOWN LEVEL UP!
Level 4 Achieved
XP: 2,950
XP to next Renown: 350
WORLD FIRST!
A new Skill has been introduced to Arenia! As the first yoga practitioner on Arenia who is capable of teaching the Skill to others, you have introduced it to the world. Do you spread what you know? Or do you keep it to yourself, content to let it vanish from Arenia when you run out of respawns or die of old age, becoming a Lost Skill? Either way, let’s have a Bonus XP party! Doot doot!
1,100 XP Earned
RENOWN LEVEL UP!
Level 5 Achieved
XP: 3,950
XP to next Renown: 1,150
As
soon as Beth finished reading, a book appeared in the air beside the paper, opening up and allowing the paper to flit inside its pages as though being consumed. Even though the paper only appeared for a moment, Beth had somehow absorbed the entire contents of the message, a fact that she was still coming to terms with when the book vanished, leaving Beth standing there in utter shock.
“What on earth was that?” Beth said. Then she remembered what the lizard man—Carl, apparently—had said earlier. Something about a Tome? Well, that was just a fancy word for book, wasn’t it? All Beth needed to do was work out how to bring that book back so she—
The moment Beth thought of the book, it appeared, hovering motionless before her. With an air of trepidation, Beth reached out for the floating book. The moment her hand closed on the cover, it stopped floating and settled into her hand. It was surprisingly light. When she inspected it more closely though, her heart leapt.
It looked exactly like the diary she had kept when she was in high school! It was white and covered in a rose pattern that looked like wallpaper from an old-age home, and every detail was perfect, right down to the worn corner in the top right and the brass lock that hadn’t worked since the day she got it—a gift from a girlfriend for her birthday. Oh, the memories this diary held. But… that diary had been gone for years. How was it here?
Curious, she opened the book up. The first page should have been a heartfelt letter from a childhood friend about how wonderful Beth was. What was there instead was certainly about Beth, but it wasn’t a letter.
ELIZABETH “BETH” SULLIVAN
Arrival: Legends of Arenia Book 1 (A LitRPG Story) Page 3