The first thing Yuki felt when he woke up was a throbbing headache. Next came the feeling of dizziness that usually made the rooms spin and would surely make him vomit. Thankfully, he was lying face down on a cold, hard surface which he assumed was floor and what little he could see was further hindered by his blurred vision. He decided not to push his luck by trying to get up. Instead, he tried remembering how he got into this state. 

Mom sent him out to get groceries for dinner. He bought a box of eggs, soy sauce and veggies. He recalls the cute cashier smiling at him. Probably just being polite. On his way back home he remembers hearing a weird voice in his head and then a flash of dazzling white light followed by… Wait, where are the groceries?

Still unable to clearly see he tapped the ground around him desperately searching for a paper bag full of dinner ingredients.

"Mom is gonna kill me if I bring home broken eggs." he groped a strange handle of some kind but continued searching as it wasn't neither a paper bag or a broken egg. The dizziness eased up so he rolled over and sat, hysterically tapping.

"Well, finally you're awake." said a squeaky, feminine voice somewhere around his head. "You have been sleeping on that floor for three hours straight!" Yuki was surprised to hear another voice near him but concluded that there are still kind souls out there willing to help those in need.

"I a-apologize for the inconvenience," said the boy tapping away at the ground. "I am very grateful to you for taking care of me while I was unconscious. Was I hit by a car?” 

“Nope.” answered the voice.

Due to his blurred vision, he had trouble pinpointing where the person behind the voice was. “Would you be so kind and help me with one more thing? My sight is still fuzzy and I need to find the groceries or my mom will...” Yuki paused, his face taking on the color of a white piece of paper after a thorough bleaching. “What did you say? Three hours?!" He lay back on the floor. "Well, my life is over. Might as well just stay here."

"Please stop spouting nonsense and get up. We have work to do." said the voice, noticeably annoyed. "Also don’t call me Miss, it somehow makes me feel old when it comes from your mouth!"

"No, you don't understand. When my mom gets angry..." Yuki stopped. His sight was coming back and the headache was weakening. He was looking at a weird circular shaped vaulted roofing. A dome of some kind. In the middle it had a small opening through which he could see a starry night sky. He looked to his sides. There was an old sword on one and a paper bag swimming in a pool of soy sauce and egg whites on the other side. He couldn't recognize the place he was lying in which was obviously upsetting but the thing that bothered him the most was a yellowish floating light flying around his head. 

"Helloooooo" a voice came from the floating light. A squeaky one. "What kind of prince charming are you anyway? You are supposed to rescue me from this place and here you are, sleeping and calling your mom." the floating light couldn't make face expressions but a mental image of a pouting little girl could be conceived.

Rather than conceiving this funny and charming mental image, Yuki let out a stifled scream and started crawling backwards. He got as far as the pillar holding the small dome. 

"I wouldn't recommend leaving the checkpoint just yet. Monsters will rip you apart in a matter of seconds if you're not prepared.'' Every time floating light opened its non-existent mouth Yuki let out a tiny scream. He looked behind, past the stone pillar. A terrifying nightmarish forest was staring back at him. Creepy leafless trees, eyes glowing in the dark, wolves howling in the distance. He looked back and past the other pillars holding the dome. The forest was everywhere. Realizing he has nowhere to go, he returned his terrified gaze to the floating light. 

"You can't possibly still be scared of a tiny wisp after seeing all that?" the wisp couldn't make face expressions but you could imagine it rolling its eyes to the back of its head.

"W-wisp? Why are you a wisp? W-why am I h-here?

"Yes, yes, a wisp. Not of my own choice but it is what it is. A wisp. Why? Well, that's complicated and we have no time for that story now. And you are here, like I said, to rescue me. As you can see, I am stuck in the middle of a cursed forest, surrounded by monsters, scared for my life and you, my prince charming, are here to save me. Capisce?"

Yuki pinched himself making sure he was not dreaming and asked the wisp: "Where am I?"

"Ah finally, we are getting somewhere. The world is called Aloodia. A place very different from where you come from. Although, rules by which this world operates should be somewhat familiar to you. More on that later. First, I want to know about your skills?"

"About my what?"

"Your skills, dummy. What are you good at? I can see you are not a fighter; your world doesn't understand any form of magic; you're definitely not the brightest tool in the shed. So, what are you good at? Jumping? Climbing?

Yuki was pinching himself relentlessly. His fear was mixing with confusion and he was desperately trying to understand what was going on. Aloodia? Skills? Monsters? He’s just an ordinary university freshman living with his mom in a small town south of Tokyo. He doesn’t have any special talents, nor is he particularly strong physically. But now, he is supposed to fight monsters that lurk in this hellish forest?

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One thing dawned on him. A cruel truth that sent shivers up his spine all the way to the top of his head. He is stuck in whatever this was. A nightmare, a dream, a different world, whatever. There was obviously no way out and his leg was starting to hurt from all the pinching. 

"Are you good with a bow? Sports? Uh, maybe you know martial arts?"

Yuki regained his composure, got up to his feet and started walking toward the floating light. Silent, steady, calm. The wisp was so busy listing what was now an enviable number of skills that it didn’t notice its impending doom approaching. When he got close enough, Yukio reached with his arm and grabbed the tiny light squeezing just enough for it to stop the skill tirade with a tiny yelp.

"Okay floating light, you will now explain everything to me." The boy's face was comically menacing but wisp recognized his newfound determination. "You can start with this world and how it operates. Apparently I am stuck here, so before I do anything, I first want to know everything." Things are going to happen his way or no way.

If it could, wisp would try to hide its silent mocking laughter, but there was no need for it. Yuki couldn't tell either way. 

"All right, momma’s boy. I'll start from the beginning. I promise."

"You will call me Master Yuki from now on!" victoriously exclaimed Yuki, squeezing the hand further, claiming his rightful rule over the evil wisp.

"Oh, now you're pushing it momma’s boy." The wisp dispersed into a cloud of golden dust, escaping the tight grasp and, out of pure malice, zapped the rightful ruler's hand. 

"Ouch." Yuki jumped backwards frantically waving his hand. "Ouch, ouch, ouch. You brat!"

The wisp zapped him one more time, just for good measure, then returned to its original form.

"I am gonna pay you back for this, you, you, you floating cluster of dim light."

"Yes, I am trembling with fear. You are probably going to bore me to death with your stupidity and cowardice." you could almost hear the wisp sighing. "But never mind. I promised I would tell you everything, so listen up because I won't repeat myself."

The little wisp cleared its non-existent throat and started.

"Ever since the dawn of time, people from this world would call upon mighty heroes from your world to help them in times of great need. The heroes would answer the call, save the world and everyone would live happily until the next great need arose."

Wisp paused for a moment observing Yuki. The boy was carefully listening.

"These heroes, they would sometimes bring valuable knowledge to us. Not often mind you, since magic is superior to your primitive technology in almost any form. Knowledge of Japanese language, however, was a revolution. The language is simple and effective, much better than Chromatic Elvish that we used as a common language before. Some recipes from your world. Delicious! I remember stories about wars being waged for ingredients to make delicious truffle steak with homemade vermicelli on the side. Hah! In the past we used truffles solely as a feed for pigs. Imagine that!"

"Anyway, I'm getting off track. Sometimes the heroes would stay here after finishing their tasks and sometimes they would leave taking with them some knowledge from our world. From what I learned, knowledge from and about our world is presented in stories you call fairy tales and fables. Cute."

"So, there is a way to get me out of here?" Yuki interjected as soon as he could. 

"Yes. The calls to your people I mentioned, they come in the form of wishes. A person can only wish once in their life, and if the wish is sincere and honest, the call will be answered. The person called upon has to fulfill the wish of the caller if he wants to be set free. You see, in some twisted way, I am actually your master, haha!

Yuki frowned, but didn't say anything.

"The next important aspect of this world is The Level System. Every living being is assigned a level at their birth. The levels range from one to ninety-nine and once assigned they are set in stone. I understand that you are not completely oblivious on how the level system works. Am I wrong?"

Yuki was familiar with quite a few different level systems as he was a passionate gamer. He now realized someone brought back the idea of a level system from this world to his. That would mean that this world must operate similar to video games he religiously played. This ignited a spark of curiosity in his eyes and he could feel excitement growing in his belly.

"I know a thing or two about it." he said, deciding to keep the full truth to himself for now. "If they call humans in times of need"  he thought "that means our levels are probably at ninety-nine and we are way stronger than anyone here."  his excitement grew even more. The thought of being the most powerful being in the world was tempting. He would be able to fulfill the wisps' wish with ease and have some fun doing it.

 "So, what is my level then?" he asked, feigning ignorance.

"Yours is level one, of course." The wisp answered with cold indifference which broke Yuki's heart and pride. But mostly pride.

"L-level one? B-but how? Yuki regressed from the overexcited, overconfident omniman back to a scared little mouse shrunken on the floor. 

"Why was I even called here? I am going to die in a matter of seconds. Maybe that was the reason in the first place. Maybe I am just a sacrificial lamb."

The wisp wasn't thrilled with the sight of its mighty white knight, hopeless and depressed, squatted on the ground.

"Get back on your feet coward. The reason your people are so needed in this world is because they don't suffer from level restrictions like us. You might be as weak as a gnomebettle, but with my help you will grow strong soon enough. You apparently don't have any skills other than cowering in fear which makes things a bit more challenging, but it's doable. We have no other choice."

Yuki, still squatted on the floor, asked. 

"But, why me? Why was I summoned? Or why did you summon me? There must have been better specimens to make a white knight."

"I don't doubt that, dear Yuki. But like I said, there was no other choice, there is no other choice and there will never be any other choice. You are the only one I could wish upon. A person can only wish upon their soulmate. And in the entire universe, no matter the dimension, plane or whatever the place of existence, there is but one other person to be your soulmate."

"T-that means..."

"Yes, my dear Yuki, that means we are soulmates.