Where am I?
That was the first thing he thought as he he opened his eyes, he was in the middle of a prairie, he sat up and looked around. The prairie was surrounded by a forest of pine trees, casting an ominous dark atmosphere all around the prairie. The grass around him was almost as tall as he was and the sun shined brightly above the clouds it was oddly… peaceful?
“Wait a moment!? WHERE AM I!?” He jumped to his feet, trying to remember how he had gotten to this place. Rocking his mind repeatedly, he couldn't remember a single thing prior to waking up. Frustrated, he stomped left and right when he noticed a small pond, slightly hidden by the tall grass.
He walked up to it, somehow expecting to get answers from the body of water. Reaching the edge, he got on his knees and looked carefully at the water, the only thing that he saw was his reflection.
“So this is how I look like…?” he plunged his arms into the pond, still expecting it to give him the answers he longed for, pulling his arms out of the pond after a few seconds and threw himself to the ground, relegated to his apparent grassland prison. Observing the sun subtle moves as the minutes passed by…
“Hey!” A voice said at the back of his head. He chuckled, thinking he was probably losing his mind.
“Hey!” The voice called out again, this time he was sure he wasn’t mad… yet. He sat upright, looking around, expecting someone to appear from behind the grass.
“You finally listened.” The voice scoffed. “Look, you are a—”
He had heard enough. Jumping and looking around, he began to panic as he searched for the voice which tried to calm him down with little success. The voice felt so real, like a ghost was speaking to him from beyond.
“Where are you?” His voice shook with every word uttered, he was still scanning his surroundings, expecting something or someone to jump him when the voice spoke again.
“Calm down boy, I’m not going to hurt you!” The voice said calmly, but it barely made a dent on his fear.
“Where are you!?” He screamed with all his might, a flock of birds flew in a blind panic from a tree close to him.
“Inside your head… sorta.” The voice replied.
“Wha—”
“I wanted to appear as a cricket to talk to you but I’d assumed it would have caused you to panic more…”
“And this doesn’t!?” He complained, crossing his arms. “And who even— no, what are you!?”
“I’m the little voice inside your head that will guide you in your moments of need, your conscience or guardian angel!” The voice now seemed more energetic.
“My conscience? And what should I call you?” He asked, the voice didn’t reply for a brief moment.
“Ben”
“Alright, Ben. And where exactly are we?”
“You are in Adreria, an exoplanet of—”
“An entire planet!?”
“You didn’t notice?” Ben asked him. He shook his head.
“An entire world to explore, and what can I do here?” He asked.
“Your guess is as good as mine, ehm, what should I call you?” Ben asked.
He realized that he couldn’t remember his name at all either, he chocked as the the sting at the back of his head came back, realizing just how much he had lost of himself. He tried to remember, even the slightest grasp at a memory, a feeling— anything— He gave up after trying for a couple of minutes with no success. Pouting as he admitted defeat.
“I… don’t have a name…” He said while looking down.
“…Very well…” Ben said and out came a large rectangle, making him fall backwards.
“What did you—”
“I didn’t do anything!” Ben exclaimed. He observed the black, almost see-through rectangle, curiosity got the better of him as he placed his right hand on its surprisingly smooth surface. The black rectangle shifted slightly and on its front large white letters appeared.
INPUT NAME
“What is this Ben?” He asked.
“Your guess is as good as mine.” Ben replied.
He looked at the bottom of the rectangle where Adreria’s alphabet was located, realizing it was asking him to write his name. He thought about it further, trying to grasp at anything he could to remember his past name one last time. But all he got was the same fog as before, his story was lost up to that point and deciding not to linger in his past, he would create a new present for himself.
LUDO
“Ludo” he repeated. With a loud pop the rectangle dissipated, leaving Ludo alone once more.
“Ludo? Has a nice ring to it?” Ben said inside his mind yet again. “Then, I will be happy to keep you company lad.”
“Thanks Ben.” Ludo gazed upon the forest ahead of him, an entire world and he had wasted hours in this small patch of it. Now determined to explore Adreria, he ventured into the forest. It was strangely familiar, even if he had no memories of going into a forest, his movements felt natural and swift, had he done this before?
“I can understand your confusion.” Ben said.
“How could you?”
“I’m inside your head, your thoughts are in full display here.”
“That’s so? Ben I’ve got to ask.”
“No need, walking through a forest is something everyone does at least once, you are probably remembering it subconsciously.”
“And how can I access them?” Ludo asked, jumping over a large root.
“I don’t know boy.”
Ludo continued through the forest, reaching a clearing after many hours, he threw himself to the ground, tired. Observing the blue sky above, he began to wonder about why he was here of all places.
“Hey Ben.” Ludo said.
“Yes Ludo?”
“What is my purpose here?” Ludo awaited Ben to immediately respond, but his conscience stayed silent for quite a while until it finally spoke up.
“It is whatever you set yourself up to d—” And with a loud bang a second rectangle manifested before Ludo. This time, something completely new was written on it.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
LUDO (18)
HUMAN - MALE
LEVEL 1
STRENGTH: 0
STAMINA: 0
MANA: 0
SPEED: 0
DEFENSE: 0
INTELLIGENCE: 0
POINTS AVAILABLE: 15
“What is this!” Ludo tried to crawl away, but the rectangle followed him. “Ben! A little help!”
“It seems it wants you to modify yourself.”
“Modify?!”
“Yes, it wants you to put those ‘points’ in things you want to excel. Or I think thats what it means.”
Ludo sat upright watching the thing in front of him carefully, not sure where to spent his [points] at all. He didn’t want to ask Ben for help in any of this, but he had forgotten that the voice inside his head could read his mind.
“There is no shame in asking for help, you know that?” Ben said.
“It’s easy for you to say! This isn’t your body!”
“I’ll die if you die as well, I’m completely unique to you.”
Ludo hadn’t thought of that, for the last few hours he felt Ben as some sort of omnipresent being, but now that Ben had told him that, it put him somewhat at ease.
“Alright Ben, where should I add points?”
“Intelligence is where I’d put most points!” Ben said with a voice full of pride.
“Why?”
“What do you mean by why? That way you can learn everything else sooner, no?”
Although not entirely convinced, Ben’s argument was sound and Ludo didn’t want to be caught out in the wilderness by night.
“I’ll chose now and live with it!” Ludo exclaimed.
“…If that makes you happy…”
LUDO (18)
HUMAN - MALE
LEVEL 1
STRENGTH: 4
STAMINA: 3
MANA: 0
SPEED: 0
DEFENSE: 3
INTELLIGENCE: 5
POINTS AVAILABLE: 0
“No speed or whatever that mana thing is? Are you sure Ludo?”
“I’m sure Ben!” Ludo pressed a button below his available points and a new screen came up.
STARTING ABILITY
The new screen didn’t last, exploding into three smaller screens, each one floating and moving slightly with the breeze.
SUPER STRENGTH
SUPER SPEED
MAGICAL EYES
“Which one should I chose, Ben?” Ludo asked.
“Is there no way to see what they do?”
Ludo shook his head. “They’re pretty obvious on what they do Ben. I’ll just close my eyes and see what happens.”
Before Ben could say anything Ludo closed his eyes and reached for one of the screens, he opened his eyes again and saw both of his hands were on the magical eyes. The screens all disappeared and for a brief second Ludo was left alone all alone, his thoughts racing and Ben trying to reassure him that everything would be fine when he felt a sharp pain coming from behind his eyes. Making him fall back to the ground and curl around trying to scratch his eyes.
“What is happening!?” Ludo cried out.
“I tried to warn you, but you chose the magical eyes at random.” Ben said.
Ludo, through tears, saw the world in a completely different way than before. The world around him was now full of information previously invisible to him, he could see far and wider than before and could zoom in into the minuscule bugs and droplets of water.
“What is this!?” Ludo yelled as his eyes focused on a spider resting on a log.
COMMON SPIDER
BEAST
LEVEL 1
THREAT: NONEXISTENT
“What in the world is this!?” Ludo whispered.
“I thought you said all three abilities were pretty obvious on what they did.” Ben said in the back of his head.
“Shut up, Ben! I—I thought I would shoot magic through my eyes or something!” At that moment a doe breezed through, but in Ludo’s mind the event happened a different manner. The doe moved slowly, almost frozen in time, Ludo had been able to inspect the doe.
DOE
BEAST
LEVEL 2
THREAT: NONEXISTENT
“Now what do I do?!” Ludo kept scratching his eyes. “I can barely see.”
Ludo tried to walk despite his adversity, taking to steps to the right and falling face first into the mud. He got up to great difficulty only to crash into a tree four steps to his left. He sat down on the dirt, thinking of his options.
“Ben! You said you were inside my head right?”
“You shouldn’t be that happy you hear voices inside your head…” Ben sighed.
“That’s not the problem, you can guide me?”
“I sure can.”
Ludo got back to his shaky feet. He closed his eyes and let Ben be his guide.
“Left!” Ben said.
Ludo began moving to the left, before Ben told him to stop just before hitting another tree. He now began walking to his right. The two continued their troubled journey all the way to the banks of a river. Where Ludo let himself open his eyes where he was received by the explosion of information, most importantly, he saw something that captivated him.
CHERRY BUSH
PRODUCES: CHERRIES
EATABLE
Ludo plunged himself to the bush, grabbing all the red orbs and feasting on them like there would be no tomorrow. After eating like a king, he threw himself headfirst into the river, trying to hold as much water as possible in his hands and drinking it all. Once the feast was over, he looked up towards the sky, to see the the afternoon sky turn into darker shades of blue by the minute.
I need to search for shelter!
“You think!?” Ben said.
“If you are not going to help then please be quiet!”
“If I keep quiet you’re going to get eaten by some bear. Follow the river.”
“Why?” Ludo asked.
“Rivers usually lead to settlements and other people, Ludo.” Ben said.
Following his conscience’s advice, Ludo followed the river with his eyes closed, with Ben being his guide. As the minutes went by a growing sense of dread began overtaking Ludo, worried that he would be deep in the forest all alone. Ludo stopped listening to Ben as his thoughts further surrendered to despair. He felt a massive pressure at the top of his head as if he was sinking, Ben’s commands only registered as muffled screams at that point.
Ludo finally had enough, he opened his eyes and was blasted with information and began running away from the river, ignoring Ben’s commands to not get away. The sun had almost disappeared and it was barely visible at this point, Ludo couldn’t see beyond his hands. He would continue to aimlessly run in a panic until he tripped over a tree root. Now on the floor, Ben’s voice cleared as Ludo regained his mind.
“You shouldn’t never panic on situations like these!” Ben scolded Ludo. But he had no intentions of hearing him. He was still afraid he was about to die, he began to stand up when he heard a bizarre mushy sound he had not heard in all of his twelve hours of conscience. Peeking over the tree he saw a strange creature. Small, round and green, the creature jumped to move, its entire body vibrated every time it hit the ground. Ludo inspected unwillingly.
SLIME
LIQUID
LEVEL 1
THREAT: LOW
Ludo kept staring at the slime with curious eyes, unable to part away from such a weird creature he had never seen before. Unlike the usual beast that inhabited the forests, this slimes were an oddity for him, standing out from the rest, his mind kept screaming at him that there was something wrong.
“You’re wondering why you feel that way, aren’t you?” Ben asked in the back of his mind.
“Is it because my brain remembers seeing things like deer or wolves but not slimes?”
“I think you hit the spot.”
The pleasant chat was stopped by the sound of a twig breaking behind Ludo, he turned around and saw a shadowy figure standing before him. Ludo chocked with his own spit as he attempted to scream, he felt backwards, hitting a rock with his head and fainting.