There are two things that help us rise above the animals: Tools and Strategy. I’ve believed this for a long time. The first time I realized it was when a bully and I got into it when I was 11. We were talking in our backyard, and he said something objectionable about my mother. I won’t repeat it, but my sense of justice was incensed, and I felt I had to teach him a lesson. My role models, Batman and Spiderman, wouldn’t have put up with it. Why should I? Unfortunately, his name was Jared, and he was 15, outweighed me by 50lbs, and didn’t seem to understand he was in the wrong. I punched him the way I was taught in Karate. He laughed at me. I realized right then that I was in soooo much trouble. A short beating later, I was on the ground looking up at nothing. Jared had already left looking for others to torment, no doubt. I couldn’t understand what had gone wrong. I did everything right. I was in the right and had done everything I was trained to. Turns out it only works if you have enough muscle to back it up. You don't stand a chance against someone 50% bigger than you. What could I do? I would love to say I started a training montage, packed on the muscle, and returned to avenge my mother's honor. What I actually did was pick myself up and went inside, wholly dejected. I wasn’t going to tell anyone of my failure, but my bruises betrayed me. I learned something that day from my father. He asked me what happened and when I told him he laughed too. I wasn’t too happy about that, but what he said next opened my eyes. He said two things I will never forget.

1. Evil doesn’t care about your morals.

2. If you are outclassed, all you have are tools and strategy.

Once again, I was outclassed. This time, though, it wasn’t Jared. At this point, I could take Jared. I had worked hard to make sure of that. At 6 feet and 200 pounds, I could have quickly dealt with Jared. Nope, for some reason, I was looking at an Orc. A 300-350lb 7-foot monster. I have no idea how this happened. I'm pretty sure something happened, though. Orcs aren’t real… right? He took a swing at me, and I ducked. I could feel the breeze as his arm moved over my head, and I knew if that had connected, it would be game over. This thing wanted to kill me without a doubt. I dodged around him and kicked at his knee as I went past. I wasn’t trying to break it. I was sure I couldn’t, but I needed time to think, and this Orc was fast! I managed to get him to stumble down to a knee and took a second to get some distance and look around me. The first thing I needed was tools. I had nothing on me. The whatever-he-was that brought me here didn’t let me bring what I had on me. Even my pocket knife would have been welcome. Looking around, I was in a forest, and there wasn’t much. I saw a rock about the size of a coconut, and that was about all. I grabbed it and ran to the nearest tree. Three branches came together in a V, so I threw the rock up so it would get caught there and jumped up to the nearest branch about 10 feet up. Thankfully, I was full of adrenaline because I reached it easily, pulled myself up, and kept going. I felt a shudder in the tree and saw that the Orc had just missed my leg and hit the tree with his head. He shook his head, and while he was shaking off the blow, I grabbed the rock and jumped down. Using my momentum and all the strength my frame could muster to swing the rock down, I hit the Orc on the head. It didn’t knock him down! It did daze him, though, and I wasn’t about to lose whatever advantage I had just given myself. I hit him again from behind several times until he fell to his knees and then down to the ground. I didn’t stop until he wasn’t breathing anymore. You might say this was overkill. You might even say I didn’t have to actually kill him. My father was military, though, and one of his favorite sayings was ‘boots on the ground.’ Meaning don’t second guess the person who was there. I’m telling you it was him or me, and if he got back up, I was done for.

I was winded and dropped my rock from numb hands. The shock from the blows had been hard to take. The Orc's skull was much thicker than a human's. Not that I’ve bashed in a human’s skull, but I know it isn’t that thick. This thing’s skull had to be a half-inch of dense bone. Everything about this Orc was big. I just sat down looking at it, unsure how I had beaten it. Even lying down on the ground, it looked huge. It was a gray-green and covered in thick bands of muscle. More than any bodybuilder I had seen on Earth. It was only covered in a loin cloth, and you could see multiple scars all over its torso.

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My breathing finally calmed down. I picked up my rock and went over to see if it was actually dead. It wasn’t breathing, and I checked its pulse to make sure when all of a sudden, lines of script came into view.

You have defeated Level 15 ORC. Do you wish to absorb EXP and Skill points?

Yes. No.

20 minutes Earlier

Where am I? I looked around. One second, I was in my office writing a prescription, and the next, I was in a white forest. Not white like from snowfall. The trees were white. The grass was white. Even the flowers were white. That may be wrong. It was more like pure rather than white. There was color, but it was faint, like a rainbow you might miss.

You are in transit. Said the woman standing there. She was not someone I knew, yet I felt I knew her better than anyone.

“Do I know you?” I asked. “And what do you mean by ‘in transit.’ Where am I going?”

“Of course, you know me.” She said. “I am the mother of your soul. The part of you that is eternal. Unfortunately, we don’t have much time. You are being pulled into another dimension. The one pulling you there is crafty and has already gotten around my protections. I think he is pulling all kinds of beings at different times. Now, he pulls you from my world, and I can’t stop him. I am sorry, my dear. I can only help you a little on your way.”

Wait, wait! My soul? You are the mother of my soul?” I felt like every word she spoke about broke my brain. Not that I couldn’t understand her. I was getting more information than just the words she spoke. It was like her words conveyed more meaning than words actually should. I knew, for example, that what she said was true. She was the mother of my soul and had spent eons helping me grow before I was given a chance at having a corporeal body. All that came from her saying, ' Mother of my soul.’ I couldn’t keep up, and she said we had little time.

I didn’t know what to say, so I just looked at her. Pleading with her for help with everything I had, yet I didn’t say a word. I just knew she would understand.

“Yes, I will help you, but I don’t have much power. All my power is taken up elsewhere, and whatever I do will require that the one taking doesn’t know. Otherwise, he will strip you of whatever I gift you.” She looked down and bit her lip. Obviously trying to think of what she could do. Then she looked up with a sparkle in her eyes that made me feel like whatever answer she had would be enough to help me.

“Ok… I have an idea. In the world you are going to, there will be others and a lot of magic. Earth didn’t have a lot because I was using all of it for supporting your growth and then preparing your more powerful body that you would have gotten after you died. Where you are going, there is no such help given to you. Instead, you are left to make your own way. Usually, you have to kill other creatures or people, and then you get a part of their power. You don’t usually get to determine where that power goes in your body. I can make it so that you can choose where to put the power. That should make it so you can allot it properly and not have it go to wasted powers and skills. This will be done in your brain and be hardwired into how the power flows through you and won’t be noticed.”

Again, everything she said had so much more information than just the words. My brain felt like it might explode from the information, but one thing I knew. I needed this to survive. I started to say thank you, but she suddenly looked panicked and said, “There is no time! He is pulling you over! Brace yourself; I’m going to re-wire your body. Good luck, my child!”

That’s when I nearly blacked out from the pain, and then I was panting, standing in front of an Orc.