Vina flailed as she fell. Everything around her was a blue blur as she seemed to gain more and more speed. She could not hear anything except the air rushing past her ears. She desperately tried to orient herself, to look down, but she didn’t seem to have any control. She fell for what felt like a few minutes when she abruptly stopped falling and was thrust upwards. She popped out of a blue swirl on the ground and landed on her back. She gasped for air as adrenaline pumped through her body. She got to her knees and looked around wildly.
She appeared to be in some kind of room with stone walls. A cave? A cellar? She had no idea. She saw a stone table, a moldy shreddy bed, and a gate made of metal bars. She realized she was in a prison cell. She ran over to the gate and tried to force it open, but it wouldn’t budge. She walked back to her bag, hoping she had some tool to help her out.
Text appeared in her vision.
Welcome traveler to Palitern. You have no doubt come far to visit our gentle home. Palitern is currently experiencing a lockdown. You may not leave this world until the lockdown has been lifted. This world has limited technology. All technology too advanced will now be confiscated.
Vina shook her head. What was she seeing? Was she hallucinating? She tried waving her hands in front of her vision to make the message go away. It did, but then another appeared.
“Happy 18th Birthday Vina! Upon reaching this age, you are now able to gain levels and attributes, and improve skills. I hope you enjoy your opportunity here and I can’t wait to see what you do.”
Vina called out, “Hello? Who are you? How are you doing this?”. There was no answer, so she read the message again. She was confused. It wasn’t her birthday yet, was it? She was an orphan though. Did the orphanage get her birthday wrong? She tried to swipe the message away, and it obediently closed.
Vina waited a moment and was relieved when no more windows popped up. That was a strange and distressing thing to happen without warning. She quickly peeked into her backpack. Where did her prepaid phone go? She looked at her wrist and saw her watch was gone as well. She groaned when she recalled the first message. Of course that was advanced technology. Even her textbooks and homework were missing.
She looked around again, desperate for a way to escape this prison cell. Above her was a hole in the ceiling. It seemed water or weather had long ago worn away the stone and daylight was now streaming through. It was far too high for her to climb out. Her eyes rested on the stone table. There was a small wooden box resting on top that she had not noticed earlier. She reached out to the box and opened it.
Inside she saw some short metal sticks and a leather wrapped letter. She took the letter out of the box and unwrapped the leather straps. She took a deep breath and read it.
Dear Vina,
No doubt you are very confused right now. I apologize for how overwhelming this all must be. Unfortunately I cannot answer all of your questions in this letter, but it is my hope I can prepare you for what is outside. This world is very different from the one you came from, but that world is not your home. This world is your home. Sixteen years ago, you were sent to Earth to keep you safe. I am sorry to have pulled you back home, but Palitern needs you now.
This world is very different from Earth. Here your skills, knowledge, and power will grow without ever degrading. It is important for you to embrace this as it will be your only means of survival. You must learn as many skills as you can and practice them diligently. There are many people and creatures here that have had decades of a head start on you. Initially you will not be a match for most of them. Vina, please listen when I say your first priority is this: Survive.
At the time of reading this, you are likely level 1. You can view your character by willing yourself to. Sometimes a thought like ‘view status’ helps in the beginning. Your status screen will show you more information than you will likely ever need to see, but you should focus on your attributes. You will start with 10 attribute points to allocate. I recommend you choose to invest in your agility and mastery. These two attributes will most greatly increase your chances of survival. Later you may choose to branch out.
Now I am sorry for this Vina. Learning skills is incredibly important and I must insist you learn one now. The cell gate is locked, but I have provided you with ten lockpicks. You must now learn how to pick a lock. Go slow and take your time. I am sure you’ll learn the skill in no time.
Before I leave you to that challenge, I want to reassure you. You are loved. You are not alone. You have a family. I may not be your birth mother, but I was there when you came into this world. I took you as my own daughter. I have two more daughters as well and they are your sisters. You were all so young then. Please find them and keep each other safe.
I have made several notes such as these and placed them in hidden places. You may find the next one 67 miles to the southwest.
I love you.
Love,
Priya
Vina couldn’t breathe. She wasn't from Earth? She had a family? Her hands shook so much she couldn’t hold the paper. Her emotions were out of control as she tried to calm herself. Priya was her mom? No, that’s not right. An adoptive parent then. Someone who knew her when she was born. Where was her birth mother or father then? Where was Priya? What about her sisters? She had sisters! Vina had to sit down when the world began to spin. Then some windows popped up and made it all worse.
New Personal Quest: Find your adoptive mother New Personal Quest: Find your sisters New Personal Quest: Find Priya’s notes. New Quest Marker Added New Personal Quest: Learn new skills 0/5
Vina felt sick to her stomach as she swiped all the notifications away with her hands. But a little yellow dot in her vision would not go away. Like a speck of dust in her eye, she couldn’t blink it away. She turned her head, rubbing her eye. The yellow dot was gone, but when she looked forward again it returned. “Is this the quest marker?” she said.
She had not had much opportunity to play any video games on Earth, but what she had seen, it was just like this. Taking a calming breath, Vina thought about what the note said. She just needed a command word. She tried to speak out loud, “Hide quest markers”. The yellow dot immediately vanished. She spoke again, “View status”. As expected a large window appeared in front of her eyes, just slightly translucent. Her eyes swept across the page that displayed far more information about herself than she ever expected. Name, age, height, weight, hunger, thirst, bladder fullness, and cleanliness were only the beginning. She thanked Priya silently for helping her focus. She used her voice again, “ Show attributes”. The window cleaned up immediately and she saw this.
Strength:10 You can lift 45% of your body weight and weapons do 0% more damage Endurance: 10 Your stamina is increased by 0, and your stamina recovery is increased by 1 per minute Dexterity: 10 Your body is 0% more likely to do exactly what you intend, you are 0% more likely to hit your target Agility: 10 Your movement is 0% faster, and you are 0% more elusive, you can react 0% sooner Vitality: 10 Your health is increased by 0, you clear poisons 0% faster, you are 0% more resistant to disease Charisma: 10 People like you 0% more and you are 0% more likely to persuade someone Mastery: 10 You learn skills 0% faster. You are 0% more likely to learn a skill on your first try Divinity: 0 Locked.
Attribute points remaining: 10
Vina read all this and shook her head. She had health points now? She hesitated, trying to find the right word, “Health”.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Health is a measure of one’s life. When you become injured, your health will go down. Health can be recovered over time through rest and other means. If your health is fully lost, you will die.
Vina hesitated and spoke again, “I mean show my health”.
This time a red bar appeared in her vision that read 50 out of 50 health. She moved her eyes around, but the bar remained firmly locked to her vision. It was a strange experience to view her own mortality enumerated and displayed as a red line. Besides, was 50 even a lot?
Vina examined the rest of her attributes. Divinity was locked out and there was no description. The other attributes seemed to make sense to her. She tried to get more information, “What is Divinity”, she said.
Divinity is locked.
“No answers there, I guess”, she thought to herself. She placed Priya’s note in her back pocket. Thank goodness her jeans weren’t confiscated. She picked up a couple of the lockpicks that Priya had mentioned and looked at them. To her surprise a window popped up.
Item: Lockpick Common A lockpick can be used to attempt opening a lock. A lockpick will wear out over time and become unusable.
New Skill Learned: Examine. Examine is an active skill. Examine may provide you with further details. Examine does not gain levels. Quest updated: Learn skills 1/5
Vina swiped the window away with her hand, but her curiosity was piqued. She just learned a skill and advanced a quest. What would happen when she finished a quest? “No time for that now.” she thought and stepped over to the cell gate. She slipped an arm through to the other side of the gate and tried inserting the lockpick into the keyhole. She jiggled it around, but nothing happened. She leaned over more and tried to look at the lock.
Item: Cell Lock Common This is a normal cell lock.
“Well that wasn’t very helpful.” she thought. She struggled for a while more before she felt the metal of the lockpick snap and fall to the ground. She pulled her hand back and looked at the broken lockpick.
Item: Lockpick (Broken) Common This is a broken lockpick
Vina began to question how useful the Examine skill was. It seemed only to declare the obvious. She went back to the table and grabbed a few more lockpicks from the box.
Item Acquired: Lockpick
She paused for a moment, realizing something, “If I can’t get this gate opened before I run out of lockpicks…” she whispered to herself. She felt some panic begin to rise. She pushed down her feelings and tried to come up with some ideas.
She opened her attribute page again and decided she needed to allocate some points. “Mastery looks like the best attribute for learning skills.” she said to herself as her voice echoed in the empty room. She clicked Mastery and raised it three points. She paused, expecting a confirmation window to appear, but none did. She examined her mastery attribute:
Mastery: 13 You learn skills 12% faster. You are 3% more likely to learn a skill on your first try.
You have 7 attribute points remaining.
Vina chose to not use all of her attribute points yet. Getting out of this cell was important, but who knew what was outside. Priya had warned her about creatures being out there and she had no idea what kind. “Hopefully this will be enough.” muttered Vina as she returned to the door with 4 more lockpicks.
This time when she inserted the first lockpick, Vina felt something. Something as light as a breath in the back of her mind. It whispered wordlessly and she felt her hand ever so slightly being guided. She fiddled around for a while, trying to grasp what she was experiencing, but she quickly ruined her second lockpick. Twice more she tried without success. She held the 5th lockpick in her hand and tried to imagine what she was doing wrong. It almost seemed like her hand couldn’t move exactly the way the hints indicated.
Vina nodded her head in sudden understanding and opened her attributes once more. This time she chose Dexterity and raised it by three points. She examined her Dexterity attribute:
Dexterity: 13 Your body is 3% more likely to do exactly what you intend, you are 9% more likely to hit your target
You have 4 attribute points remaining.
Vina groaned out loud. Three percent didn’t seem like much. “This better make a difference!” she yelled out, her voice echoing down the stone hall. She returned back to the gate with her fifth lockpick and focused as hard as she could. There wasn’t any detectable difference for her initially and she soon ruined the fifth lockpick. She pulled out the sixth lockpick and inserted it into the lock. This time she felt something. A pin? She didn’t know for sure. Her mastery directed her hand and she moved it appropriately. Then another movement, a lift, and a twist and then the bolt slid back. The door swung free as she leaned on it in relief. She was no longer trapped!
New Skill Learned: Lockpicking. Progress to next skill level 42%. You have learned how to pick locks. Quest updated: Learn skills 2/5
Vina grabbed her backpack, the remaining lockpicks, and immediately left the cell.