Drip, drip, drip

I could feel something dripping down my face.

As I slowly opened my eyes what came to view was a ceiling full of stalactites. In my confusion I placed both my hands on my face. I thought long and hard to remember what I did last night. I was sure I wasn’t drunk before I went to bed. So how did I end up here?

I sat at the edge of the bed and slowly got up. At a quick glance I am in a cavernous area. The walls were wet and thick with moss growing in every crack. Underneath my feet I could see lines that connect into some sort of sigil. I looked to my left; a small crack of light was leaking through a slightly opened door. I walked to it and slowly grasped the handle and pulled.

On reflex I covered my eyes as a bright room came into view. Walls of old books littered the entire room, and the floor was covered in polished marble like the ones you see in a five-star hotel. In the center was an old table and stool unbefitting of the lavish ambience. Placed in the center of the table there was a letter and ring and hugging each side of the table were two giant cylinders. Each cylinder contained an unknown creature.

At the bottom of the cylinders appeared to have engravings with letters that I was unable to read or understand. The creature on the left was a round hairy animal with no noticeable legs or arms. Two horns that curved upward were protruding upon the forehead and from the back were two angelic like wings that wrapped around the body as if protecting itself. Most notably, the creature had a serpent with two sharp fangs for a tail.

As I continued to question what kind of creature that I just saw, I looked to my right. The creature on the right was much simpler than what I had seen on my left. It was just an egg about the size of my hand with a particular pattern on it. The egg was all black in color with tiny white stars placed randomly on it. It looked like a 5-year-old had completed their first art assignment.

As I continued to ponder about the creatures, I walked to the table and picked up the parchment to look at it more closely. It looked warn and old as if this parchment should have been preserved in a museum. If I incorrectly touched the parchment it could rip into a thousand pieces. The parchment was sealed with red wax. The seal itself appeared to be five different rings overlapping one another to form a flower.

I slowly opened the parchment, words that I did not understand stood in front of me. As I stared at the incomprehensible letters they started to morph into English.

Dear Michael,

If you are reading this, then I am probably no longer in this world. I hope your journey to this world was smooth and safe. I understand that you are confused at what has transpired. I have summoned you to achieve a singular purpose of collecting the five rings. I have kept one of the rings safe for you. Once you have collected the other four you can finally meet ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛. ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ will explain everything to you. I do hope you succeed.

Let us meet soon.

Best,

⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛

PS: if you wish to return home, you’ll need to find the rings.

After reading the letter I placed the parchment back down on the table. Suddenly a familiar “ding” chime rang in my head. In front of my eyes was a familiar transparent light blue window that read

“Congratulations you have read the letter from ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛, the father of ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛”.

I blinked my eyes a couple times and rubbed them. “I must still be dreaming. How is this even possible?”. As numerous thoughts continued to spin around in my head, I had a thought. I need to confirm that I am in another world. There is no way that any of this is real. This must be some sort of elaborate prank. To confirm this, I decided to leave the cave and find out.

I ran past the two giant cylinders and was about to head out the entrance in front of me.

Ding!

Another chime ran in my head, and it read as such:

“Warning! You are about to leave the cave of beginnings. If you leave now, you will not be able to come back.”

Do you still wish to leave?

->Yes

No

Ding!

Another notification popped up asking for a confirmation. Have you ever had that feeling when you are trying to purchase something that is limited in stock and for some god-awful reason the system keeps asking for confirmation? That is what I am feeling right at this moment. “Yes, I want to get out!” as I frustratedly yelled out.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Are you sure?

->Yes

No

Ding!

A second confirmation pops up again asking the same question. I stopped and calmed myself to think through this. Something is amiss. Why is the system continually sending me confirmation as if I shouldn’t leave? It’s as if this was someone or something is providing me assistance. Would this be akin to a tutorial provided to a new player in a game? With this same line thought, am I to believe that there is something more to do here? Thinking back the mysterious letter did mention some sort of ring was left behind for me.

Are you really sure?

Yes

->No

I back tracked and walked back to the table and picked up the ring. As I took a closer look, I can tell the design was simple in nature. It was a clean smooth silver ring. It reminds me of a minimalistic male wedding band. As I held the ring between my index finger and thumb, I looked at the gallery of the ring. I could see an inscription that said “argenti”.

Intrigued by the name I decided to wear it. As I was about to slide the ring onto my left index finger, I felt a nudge. Intuitively it felt like someone was guiding me to put the ring on my middle finger instead. As I contemplated, I decided to just go along with it. Once the ring was on my finger, I felt a searing pain as if someone took a blow torch and lit my finger on fire. I screamed and yelled and tried to wrench the ring off, but it wouldn’t budge. After a minute of agony, which felt like hours, the agonizing pain stopped. With sweaty palms and tears in my eyes I got up slowly using the table as leverage.

As I was still reeling from the immense pain the ring caused, I heard a crack on my left side. If I remember correctly that was the location of the first cylinder with the horned creature. As I turned my head to look at it, I find noticeable micro fractures on the glass. Fluid was seeping through the cracks and as I looked at the creature inside, it also looked at me.

The creature took a little distance away and was forming a posture as if it will ram the glass. To my utmost surprise it rammed the glass as hard as it can. Using its horns as a weapon it punctured the glass, and a gaping hole was formed. The horned creature leapt out through the hole and out its containment. It shook its body like a dog shaking off water from its fur. It laid its eyes on me and we both froze.

Ding!

My trusty system has decided to grace me with his knowledge once again.

A white bar floated in front of my eyes with a blinking text cursor. As I was wondering how to input the name without a keyboard or touch interface, the bar automatically filled with “Knubisu”.

Name: Knubisu

Title: The First Creation

Race: Chimera

Rank: ★

Skills: -

Knubisu stared at me as if waiting for a response. I lowered myself to be as close to his eye level I caressed his head. I spoke to him in a soft voice “let’s get along together little fella”. In its response it snuggled in my palm and purred.

As I had surmised this “creature” in question is an amalgamation of multiple organisms also known as a Chimera. If that is the case, then what is the egg on the right? As I pondered, I decided to break the glass open. I grabbed the old stool and threw it over my shoulder as if I was in a bar fight back at home. With a thud I failed to smash the glass. “Well, that was pretty anticlimactic.” As I whispered to himself. Once again, I hoisted the stool over my head. I flexed my biceps with an iron grip and grabbed the stool. I eyed the glass as if it was my most hated enemy that ruined my life and swung. The glass shattered and fluid leaked out onto the marble floor. I waited until majority of the fluid was drained and grabbed the egg. I cradled the egg and a took a deep long glance at it. Again, as if by some sort of machination, a light blue box popped up in my view with the egg’s information.

Name: -

Title: Aere Perennius

Race: -

Rank: -

Skills: -

This time there was no prompt to name the egg. While I pondered about the system. I ripped my sleeve off of my pajamas and turned it into a sling. I carefully placed the egg into the sling and flung it onto my back.

I walked over to the nearest bookcase to see if there is anything I can read to understand my situation. As I was searching from left to right, something glowed at the edge of my sight. My head naturally followed it as if something was tugging me to go. I walked to the farthest corner of the room. There in front of me was a purple grimoire with gilded edges. I pulled it out and read the title of the book, “The beginners guide to Alchemy Vol. 1”. I slowly opened the book and read its information with enthusiasm. As if I was hypnotized, I had read until I passed out on the floor. I slowly got up and another notification popped up in front of my view.

Description: A skill that allows you to make an already existing item into another using the same base materials

But be warned! If you use it too many times, you’ll faint. Tee Hee. - (✿◠‿◠)♪

I walked to the stool and decided to try the new skill that I had acquired. I used “Transmutation & Reconstruction”. As I began to imagine what type of item, I wanted the old stool started to turn into fine dust. Starting from the legs and moving all the way towards the seat. I imagined a round handle that I can easily grip, a pummel that can protect my fingers, and finally a long and sharp body. As if following what I had imagined the sword started to take shape.

Once the sword had finished forming, I grabbed the handle and firmly lifted the sword to inspect it. “Not too bad” as I said to myself in glee.

Ding

A notification ran through my head once again forcing my attention back to the blue box hovering in front of me.

Wooden Sword

Quality: Trash

Special Traits: Dull, Splinter – Small chance

Description: A useless wooden sword. Why did you even bother making one? Why didn’t you just grab a stick on the ground? It’s probably better than this.

I ignored the annoying description and proceeded to touch the marble floor. “I bet this marble would provide me with something good, right?” Again, I decided to imagine a sturdy shield. The body would be a square slab of marble.

Marble Shield

Quality: Fragile

Description: a beautiful shield. Very heavy, inefficient, and fragile. What blows can you block with this? You’re better off throwing this at someone to inflict damage than to defend yourself with.

At long last I decided that I am finally ready to leave. I proceeded to walk out the door and this time, no notification popped up as I left. Once I had stepped outside, I feel a rumbling sensation everywhere. I looked behind me and the entrance had caved.