When I reached the outer edges of the light, his head snapped up, and for the first time, I got the crawling feeling that he wasn't human. Then I saw the signs. The short, squat stature, which had been disguised before by the darkness and lack of perspective. The rough, almost leathery skin, which had little shine to it. And of course, the long beard that fell to its feet. I was meeting my first Gnarish.

“Greetings, Human,” the Gnarish said. His voice was deep and grated like a rusted blade against stone. “You have walked a long way to enter the temple of Omagnar Dragon-Tamer. Why have you come?”

I didn't think I'd had many other options, but maybe that wasn't what he wanted to hear. “To learn. I want to know more about the world.”

“If you want to know more of the world, you must explore it.” The Gnarish made a sound like a bag of pebbles rattling together. He was laughing at me. Nothing I wasn’t used to at this point, though.

“But I can teach you some things,” the cowled being continued. “First, the practicalities. You are alive — and remain alive — for one simple reason: health. If you concentrate, you may notice a red meter at the bottom of your vision.”

All I had to do was concentrate? I screwed up my eyes and did so, but it didn't take much for the bar to appear. With it came three other bars: one green, one blue, and the last silver. “What are the other three meters?” I asked though I suspected I already knew.

“Stamina for physical exertion, mana for magic, and spirit for channeling.” He held up a warning finger. “Careful with these four meters. On their own, only stamina will replenish. For the others, you must perform specific actions for that to occur, or have certain traits, blessings, or other statuses that facilitate it. For health, these actions will come naturally enough: resting, eating, sleeping, drinking potions. For mana, drinking potions and stopping by mana fonts, which occur throughout the Everlands, will help with this. For spirit, worshipping at temples or visiting holy places will suffice, but be careful: the gods here are jealous, and won’t appreciate anyone paying heed to too many.”

The Gnarish smiled a garish grin, his leathery skin barely relenting to the gesture. “Mind your meters. You'll see soon enough how quickly they run out.”

I wasn't sure I liked the sound of that. But I'd have to take what came at me. “Okay. What about my character stats? Skills, profession? And leveling up?”

“Ah, those.” The Gnarish stroked his long, frazzled beard for a moment. “Simply concentrate to pull up your stats.”

To get a sense of where I stood with things, I decided to do just that. A moment later, an overlay popped up before me with my stats. I glanced it over. “Anything I should know about my stats?” I asked.

My tutor shrugged. “You gain experience points, XP, from combat, quests, and developing skills. Gather enough XP, and you will advance to the next level. Upon advancing, you will gain status points, SP, and attribute points, AP, by which to propel your character to greater power.”

I liked the sound of that. “Alright. I guess I’m good to go.”

“One more thing.” The Gnarish smiled again, and I didn't like the look of it. Too much of the evil warlock in it. “In this world, the pleasure, as well as the pain, is as real as your own. Count on experiencing it.”

I heard scuttling from the darkness, and I whipped my head towards it. A game it might be, but the Gnarish was right about one thing: this felt as real of fear as I’d ever experienced. “What’s that?” I demanded. “An enemy? I have nothing to fight.”

“Think again, Marrow. Concentrate. Have you checked all your resources?”

The scuttling was growing closer, and it was hard to think of anything else. Still, I wracked my brain for what the warlock might be talking about. Then it came to me: I hadn't checked my inventory! Concentrating as I had for the meters, I brought up the inventory, another transparent overlay with a series of boxes. All of them were empty but for two slots, occupied by a knife and a red potion.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Crude Iron Knife

Quality: Poor (10/10)

Rarity: Common

Minor Healing Potion

Quality: Fair

Rarity: Common

Use: Gain 1 health per second over 90 seconds.

That wasn’t much in the way of stats, but it gave me some information at least. Maybe I had to have higher skills to see more specific stats.

I didn't have the knife actually on my person, so apparently items that I hadn't equipped didn't show up on me. I concentrated on the knife to equip it, and it suddenly appeared on my belt with a subtle blue glow. I immediately drew it and gripped it tight, readying myself for whatever was coming.

“Good, Marrow. But you aren't using everything at your disposal.”

Not everything? Ah, of course — I had mana and spirit meters, and the warlock had said I'd use them soon. That probably meant I knew a low-level spell in each. I concentrated again, and my stats came up again. There were two listed for magic: Magelight, which would illuminate dark places, and Magic Missiles, a minor damage spell. Under channeling, I didn’t understand the one entry, True Belief, and the description didn’t much help.

Magelight

Affinity: Light

Cost: 20 mana

Effect: Produces an orb of radiance that illuminates up to 30 feet around and lasts 30 minutes.

Magic Missiles

Affinity: Light

Cost: 25 mana

Effect: Sends a volley of light projectiles that cause up to 50 damage to a single target.

True Belief

Affinity: White

Faith: —

Cost: —

Effect: Convey your true allegiance to a faith or deity with indisputable veracity.

No more time to look. The first of the scuttling creatures came forward. Were they ever ugly; black, hairy beasts that moved liked spiders, but had a mess of claws, teeth, and other sharp parts that looked like they’d been put together from any number of creature parts. I didn’t like the look of them at all, especially with just a knife and a damage spell I didn’t know how to use yet.

One by one, they emerged from the darkness and surrounded me, stopping at the edge of the pool of light to gnash their many mouths. There was no way I could defeat them. “What am I supposed to do?” I yelled at the Gnarish.

But the warlock had a strange look in his eyes. “Players can’t be trusted,” he said in a low voice. “Not until they’re tested.” Then before my eyes, the warlock whirled his cloak and simply disappeared.

I was alone with the creatures. Which was exactly when they attacked.

One lunged for my knee and caught it in its teeth, crushing the bone. Pain lashed through my leg. It felt real, way too real. I didn’t sneak into the game parlor to get tortured. What the fuck was this game?!

But I wasn’t just going to be chimeric spider food. I stabbed the creature that had me in its bulbous body, and gray liquid spurted up around the hilt. The creature let go and backed away. I grinned savagely at it, but it was hard to feel too victorious when I couldn’t even stand.

Two more of the things came forward, one from each side, and charged. Whirling on my good knee, I desperately tried keeping them at a distance, but my knife only clipped the jaws of one, allowing the other in for two slashes on my chest. My health meter flashed before my eyes, almost three-quarters of it dissipated. I didn’t need the reminder. I felt every bit of that pain in my body.

I was going to lose. I was meant to lose. But why? Why start players off this way? What the hell was The Everlands all about?

I managed to stab the spider attacking me, but the other one leaped forward again while my knife was still buried deep in its fellow’s flesh. Not knowing what else to do, I thrust out my hand and yelled, “Magic missiles!” like an anime character. Considering the circumstances, I barely felt stupid doing it, especially when bright, violet darts shot from my hand and zoomed at the spider, crashing into its body and bursting it like a gory water balloon.

But there was no end to the creatures. Their sharp-limbed bodies faded into the darkness around me, a sea without end. Three came on this time, and I knew this was it. I was going to die. What came after that?

Ava appeared from nowhere at my side. “Brace yourself!” she yelled. “And close your eyes!”

I felt a chill run down my arm as her pale, ghostly hand gripped it, frosty as winter air, but welcome in the midst of the hot pain everywhere else. I closed my eyes as instructed, and waited for the creatures to tear me apart.

Then the floor pulled out from beneath me, and I felt nothing but the cold of Ava’s hand on my skin.