Sam yawned as she sat up, rubbing her eyes, “Man, what a good night’s sleep! I don’t remember sleeping that good in…forever.” Opening her eyes, she looked over to see what time it was and. “What the hell?
Where there should have been a phone on her bedside table was grass, blue grass to be exact. Her sleep-addled mind took way too long to process this as she stared blankly at the grass in question for a full thirty seconds before finally speaking her thoughts, "What the fuck?"
Jumping to her feet, Sam looked around franticly, her thoughts chaotic, "Last night I went to sleep in my bed, in my apartment, an apartment that had walls…and a ceiling, right? Today is Sunday, my day off, so I slept in," by now she was trying not to hyperventilate, but it was difficult, “this is just a weird dream; it has to be.”
Except it wasn't a dream. As she looked around, Sam felt the panic intensify. Checking her surroundings, she was apparently in a clearing roughly the size of her small apartment and surrounded by a dense dark forest that was eerily quiet. Looking at the grass under her bare feet, she thought, "What forest has blue grass? Wait, is that really a thing…not just a genre of music?"
“Okay, you got me, you can come out now,” she spoke loudly into the quiet forest, even her voice sounded muted in the oppressive silence. She had no idea who or what she was talking to, “kidnappers, maybe?" Nothing, not even the sound of insects, could be heard. The silence of the forest was starting to creep her out, that and the fact she was here in the first place, “wherever ‘here’ is.”
"Hello, can anyone hear me? Hello...umm...kidnappers? I don't know who you think you have, but I can assure you I am not that person." She waited, hoping for a response, but no sounds came.
“This is bad,” she thought and then had an idea. She pinched her arm as hard as she could on the off chance she was dreaming. The pain made her grunt, but she didn’t wake up, “nope, not dreaming.”
That’s when Sam saw something looking strangely like an icon of herself with three horizontal bars next to it fade into view in the upper left corner of her vision. The top red bar flashed around its border for an instant, and a -1 appeared floating up from the bar before fading away. Then, the image and bars faded from her view like they had never existed.
That's when Sam thought it was as good a time as any to freak out, and she started hyperventilating. This place…it wasn't normal. None of this was normal! She was standing in a scary forest while hallucinating strange blue grass that looked like plastic but was incredibly soft under her feet, along with strange icons of herself floating in her vision. To top it all off, she was still in her night clothes, which consisted of nothing but an old brewery shirt that was threadbare and had holes everywhere, also known as the perfect sleepy-time shirt.
Starting to feel panic welling up inside her chest, Sam did her best to control her rapid breathing and start thinking clearly. After several deep breaths she managed to calm herself a little. Speaking aloud she said, "Okay, I need to think about this logically. I know I'm not crazy, at least not the last time I checked anyway. So, where am I? Let's see strange blue grass, check. An oppressively silent, dark, and scary forest also check. I could have been sleepwalking," she looked at the forest around her. There was no forest this dense anywhere near where she lived, "maybe sleep-driving then…no, that's ridiculous! Maybe I was abducted by aliens or hooked up to some super advanced hyper-realistic VR module as an experiment?" She sighed; not only were those ideas also ridiculous, but "who would experiment on a random attorney living by herself in an average apartment? Probably no one," she concluded to herself. So, what then? Try as she might, Sam could think of no plausible scenario where someone could go to sleep at home, in bed, and wake up in a random forest.
Sam looked closely at the trees around her, “am I even in America?” She didn't recognize any of the trees bordering the clearing, and she knew most of the tree species in North America, but she couldn't think of any books she had read that mentioned black trees with grey leaves, “is this even Earth?” Looking up at the sun high overhead, it looked normal enough, maybe bigger? "I haven't invested much time staring at the sun, so I'm unsure if it's different. At least it's daylight. Although I've never seen a forest as dark as this in the middle of the day." It was as though the canopy barely let sunlight through; from where she stood, Sam could only see possibly five small patches of sunlight peeking through breaks in the thick canopy deeper into the forest. “What trees are these? They look like cypresses, but I've never seen this color, and the bark is all wrong. And what is up with this blue grass? It looks fake."
Sam's thoughts were interrupted by a low rustling behind her. Her whole body went stiff with fear. She slowly turned around and came face to face with a, "What the hell is that thing?" She asked herself.
Stunted Imp: [Level ??]
‘Bing’ Congratulations! You have learned the general racial skill: Identify.
The chime, which sounded similar to a phone notification, resonated in Sam's head along with lines of text floating across her vision, which she could barely register because she was suddenly making eye contact with a small terrifying creature in front of her standing a meter or so outside the clearing within in the shadows of the trees. It looked like a grotesque cross between a chubby cherub and a terrifying demon. Loose pale gray skin covered the creature's body in direct contrast to the dark claws on its hands and feet. It had tiny dark-grey wings that didn't look to Sam as flight-capable and a pair of short stubby horns protruding from its forehead.
Sam took an involuntary step back, and the creature smiled, revealing rows of razor-sharp teeth in a too-wide mouth. Her eyes were drawn to a small sphere of blue flame hovering a few centimeters over the Imp's open palm. Seeing the fire, Sam's fight or flight instincts kicked in, and 'flight' instantly won out. Taking off at a dead sprint, trying to put as much distance between herself and the horror show behind her as she could, Sam's mind was in full panic mode as thoughts were racing through her mind as she ran, "What the actual fuck is happening? What kind of a creature is that? Did that thing have fire in its palm? Focus, Sam, flee first, then freak out!"
Sam only ran two steps out of the clearing when a blast of searing heat slammed into her back, right between her shoulder blades! Her whole world went white as the pain hit her. It felt like she had just been splashed with a frying pan full of flaming grease. The scorching pain flared across her back and down her butt and legs as the liquid fire quickly burned through her nightshirt and flowed down her back and legs, her skin sizzling as it did. The pain was more than she could manage, and her mind went numb, utterly overloaded with pain. The smell and sound of her skin and muscle burning made a sickening crackle as she was roasted alive. Her vision blurry from intense burning, Sam only made it one more step before she tripped and fell; an ear-splitting scream ripped from her throat, her vision narrowing to a pinprick. Too disoriented to catch herself, Sam hit the ground hard. Rolling onto her back, still screaming, she tried to smother the flames, somehow remembering, through the agony, the stop-drop-roll technique she had been taught as a child. Trying to wipe off the flaming blue liquid from her legs, she only managed to transfer it to her hand instead, which she quickly wiped onto the detritus of the cool forest floor.
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As the flames died down, so did any remaining energy she had left. Sam knew she should keep running; the Imp was only a few meters away and probably preparing another one of those liquid balls of death to end her life. But try as she might, Sam couldn't move. Her world was nothing but agony as her vision narrowed until she could see almost nothing, but despite all of this, and to her dismay, she did not blackout from the pain as she hoped.
***
Sam lay on the forest floor for what seemed like hours but was, in reality, only a few minutes. She stared at the red bar in her vision slowly ticking down. It had not taken her long to realize the red bar represented her life force as she watched it drop slowly even after the fire burning her died out. The bar finally stopped reducing, leaving the tiniest sliver of red remaining. The border around the bar was flashing emergency red. The crippling mind-bending agony was, thankfully, beginning to numb.
“Probably burned away all my nerve endings,” Sam thought as the pain faded, then a frightening thought hit her, "How long have I been laying her? Shit! Where's the fucking Imp?" Still too exhausted to move, she called out, “What the fuck are you waiting for?” Her voice was raspy from all the screaming. She heard nothing, and then a message popped up in her vision.
'Bing' Congratulations! You have learned Heat Resistance [Level 3]: Bathing in liquid fire while practically naked has tempered your body to resist heat. You will now receive less damage from heat-based attacks. Pain from burns is also reduced slightly.
There were other notifications, but Sam ignored them momentarily, thinking, “What is up with that description? It’s not like I intended to bathe in fire.” She decided she had more pressing concerns at the moment Sam lifted herself to look for the Imp, and then she froze. The Imp was staring right at her just inside the clearing opposite the side she was on, its red eyes staring into her own as it hovered in midair on its leathery wings that still looked too small to fly.
After staring for a few moments, she realized something, “the wings aren’t moving!” Looking closer through still blurry eyes, Sam could see the Imp wasn't moving at all; it was like the little creature was frozen in place. She couldn't even tell if it was breathing from where she was. She had no idea what was happening and thought, "Should I try to run now? No, if it gets free, it can firebomb me to death instantly! I already know I can't outrun it. I have no idea what is happening, but I need to take care of that…thing…before it gets free."
The pain from the burns was nearly gone, which made Sam worry a little about how much damage had been done to her back and legs. "I bet my back and ass look like fried pork belly. Am I going to be permanently disabled? Can I even move properly? How will I survive in this forest if I cannot even defend myself? I guess it's not like I could before…but there is no telling how far it is to civilization, if there is even any civilization to get to in, wherever this forest is." Her disjointed thoughts were interrupted by another notification.
‘Bing’ Natural healing and recovery detected. Your body’s ability to metabolize stored compounds and use them to heal itself has been analyzed. Mana has been added as a metabolic component to passively speed your natural recovery ability.
'Bing' Congratulations! You have learned the passive racial skill Recovery [Level 1]: Your natural healing ability was rudimentary at best, but with the addition of mana, you can now recover from all wounds, no matter how severe, given enough time. Although passive, this skill can be enhanced by adding your personal mana to it.
'Bing' System Quest received: You have been summoned to a System-controlled world through an unknown means. The System has recognized this and has granted you a timed quest, offering mana channels and a class option. Return to the nearest System-generated temporary safe zone to receive Mana Channels that will grant you the use of your personal mana and unlock your class options. The closest safe zone is 1.7 meters. Time remaining to complete quest 147 seconds, 146 seconds, 145 seconds…
“Mana? As in magic energy from fantasy stories? This is like an extremely painful and terrifying game that's very similar to the RPGs back on Earth I played occasionally. I suppose the 'magic' thing shouldn't be too surprising, considering I was just blasted by a freaking fireball-flinging demon cherub! What's weird is not even this 'System' knows how I was summoned here, wherever here is. And if I am reading this right, it sounds like this isn't the only world the "System" controls," Sam mused, then she mentally slapped herself, "shit! You idiot, stop thinking and get to that clearing! Time is running out!"
Sam assumed the safe zone was the clearing by the Imp being frozen in place, which made it safe, right? She hoped so. With an effort of will she didn't know she had; Sam started crawling back toward the clearing. Regeneration or not, she was nowhere near fully healed as she noted the red bar in her vision as proof. Every motion opened her burn wounds, causing fresh waves of pain to wash over her as the exposed raw muscle tissue flexed under the strain of her slow crawl. The quest timer counting the seconds was an excellent motivator to keep moving. Sam fought through nausea and pain, dragging herself, agonizing centimeter by agonizing centimeter, ever closer to the blue grass of the clearing and, she hoped, to safety.
Entering the clearing with fifteen seconds remaining on the timer, Sam collapsed to her stomach, breathing like she had just finished a hill sprint. Looking at the timer, she realized it hadn't stopped ticking down…14…13…12…11…realizing her legs were still outside the circle of the clearing, she summoned the last of her strength to drag them into her chest, rolling to her side and curling up into a fetal position. Her feet and legs were finally inside the clearing. She looked at the timer again; it had stopped at three seconds. "Way to play it down to the wire there, Sam.”
'Bing' Quest Complete: You have arrived at a System-generated safe zone within the allotted time limit. Would you like to receive your reward now? Yes/No
Sam focused on the floating text with the words Yes/No that followed the notification. She tried mentally highlighting the word 'Yes', but nothing happened. She spoke out loud, "Yes, give me the reward!" Still, nothing happened. Getting frustrated and a little worried, Sam closed her eyes, focused mentally on the somehow still visible text, and thought, “Yes,” the word highlighted, and the text faded from her view. Sam's body was instantly yanked violently upward and sideways to hover suspended over the center of the clearing, facing down slightly. She screamed from the pain of her wounds and the shock of an unseen force suddenly grabbing and jerking her around like a rag doll without warning.
Hanging suspended the way she was, Sam watched as a small patch of blue plastic-like grass began to grow upward, moving toward her like sharp little vines snaking through the air. The grass blades started splitting until she felt dozens of them reach the tips of her fingers and toes, where they paused for a second before pushing inside her body!
She tried, she really did, but try as she might, Sam could not hold back her scream as the thin blades of grass burned their way under her nails, through her fingers and toes, past her hands and feet, and into her limbs. She was tired of screaming, tired of what seemed like constant pain since she had woken up just a few short minutes ago, but no pain relief came. She couldn't move a single muscle, the unseen force holding her suspended in place, not allowing any movement. The agony of each blade of grass burning new paths into her body was almost unbearable. Then, through bleary, tear-filled eyes, she saw what was coming next, "no, no, no, please, no," she thought in horror as two blades of blue agony rose in front of her face, level with her eyes. Each of the blades split into hundreds of tiny tendrils as they extended closer to her eyes, which were held open by the force suspending her in the air, forcing her to watch as the blades grew ever closer. Without slowing, the tiny blue needle-like tendrils of pain entered her eyes, nose, and ears simultaneously. Sam felt the torture as new pathways were burned into her optic nerves; barely aware her health bar had started blinking red again as more pain exploded in her mind. Mercifully, Sam blacked out moments later, her mind and body no longer able to withstand the brutal agony.