It was just another normal day for Terry when the world went dark and he got to speak to the Universe. Terry was on a road trip, driving to see his brother. He was on the East side of Nebraska, going West. Traveling in his Buick, jamming to his music. There was nothing but fields for as far as he could see and the traffic wasn’t terrible either, only passing a few cars on the road. He was grateful for the light traffic as he hated driving in rush hour.
Terry was driving along, day dreaming when it struck. His car stalling and slamming him against the wheel as it skidded to a halt, stopping in the middle of the road. He looked in his rearview mirror and saw a few other vehicles skidding and swerving on the road as well. One even crashing into the ditch. Same with the ones in front of him. Luckily there was enough space in between them that there were no serious accidents. He went to get out of his car and take a look around when suddenly he felt his head spin and he became light headed. Last thing he knew was his head hitting the steering wheel.
When he woke up, there was nothing but darkness. He knew he was awake but he couldn’t see or feel anything. He tried moving his head or even his eyes, everything around him stayed black though. In the distance he could swear there were stars or something shining, casting just enough light to make him feel like he was awake. Trying to move around and look at his surroundings Terry thought he might be in space, if he wasn’t going crazy.
As Terry was trying to move and look around, he suddenly felt a slight pressure start building in his head. Or what he figured as his head. When he tried to turn his attention towards the pressure it squeezed his head even more. Wanting to scream as it became more unbearable, he wanted to open his mouth but there was no mouth to open, so he just screamed in his mind. As the pressure built and built, he was on the verge of unconsciousness when finally, it eased up, but he could still kind of feel it in his head.
“Hello, young one.” An elderly sounding voice said in Terry’s mind.
“Hello? Who’s there?” Terry thought back.
“I am the consciousness of your Universe.”
“The Universe?” Terry asked uncertainly “So, are you the one responsible for what happened on Earth?”
“In a way, yes.”
“How so?” Terry asked. He had played plenty of games to know what was happening and he wasn’t going to waste the chance to talk to this entity.
“Well, every planet in this Universe has a rule. That rule is when the planet’s inhabitants create a certain technological advancement they will be added to the wider Universe, through the use of mana.”
Terry wasn’t sure how that made sense but he had read things that made less sense. “That doesn’t really make any sense. Will the technology be useless once mana gets involved?”
“Yes, that is correct but with the use of mana the people of the planet will be able to advance much further than with technology alone.”
Terry wondered how many people would die because of this change and if any of his family and friends would make it. “What’s the survival rate of the inhabitants when a planet is added?”
“It depends on the people. I’m estimating your race to have a survival rating of about 11%. That’s after the eighteen-month waiting period though.”
“11%, That’s it?” Terry felt his heart sink at that number. It was hard to hear even with his gaming experience. “I don’t know, humans are pretty resourceful.”
“Yes, but they also like to war among themselves and are not very good at becoming unified.”
“I suppose that is true.” Terry thought about it for a minute. “Though I’ll still hope for a higher survival rating than that.”
“With your hope there may be a chance it could be higher, after all it is just an estimate. Now then, I suppose I should let you get to picking your class.”
With that a list of classes appeared, there had to be hundreds of them. Scrolling through them and selecting a few of them to see what the descriptions were, Terry looked at a few. There were basic classes like rangers, druids, warriors, mages, wizards, thieves, etc. There were also classes the he couldn’t even pronounce and the descriptions were weird. He did notice that he could filter things, like weapons used, armor type, pets, etc. He filtered out a few and looked at them but didn’t really see anything he liked.
“I could be any one of these?” Terry thought to the Universe. He felt himself get giddy at the thought of being able to wield swords and spells, mostly spells though. He had played most of his Role Play Games (RPG) as a spell caster and loved the idea of being able to sling spells.
“Yes, though humans may be better suited to some, more than others, so choose wisely.”
“Are there any classes that there are limited numbers of?”
“Yes, there is a list of classes that are unique, only letting a handful of people choose them.”
With that a new list appeared, this one much shorter, less than one hundred classes. Terry took a look at the list and read a few of their descriptions. Some of them were pretty sweet and looked like they would be really strong classes. He filtered the list to only show classes that only humans could be. That narrowed the list down to five classes, Lich Lord, Star Master, Greater Elementalist, Greater Light Wizard and Battle Necromancer.
Terry selected each of them and read their descriptions, each one sounding like they would be badass. The one that really drew him though was the Battle Necromancer. It could do everything, tank, heal, melee damage and ranged damage. In the games he played he always tried to choose a class that was multipurpose. He liked being able to be in any position that was needed. Selecting the Battle Necromancer class brought a message up.
Would you like to assign the Battle Necromancer class to yourself? Yes/no.
Selecting yes, Terry felt a wave wash through him and what felt like a tingle go up his spine, even though he was pretty sure he wasn’t in his body.
Congratulations, for being the first of your species to select a class you have been awarded a boon.
Congratulations, for being the first of your species to select a unique class you have been awarded a boon.
Reading the two messages Terry felt giddy at the prospects of getting two rewards just for choosing a class.
“Congratulations, young one on choosing your class and a unique at that.”
“Thank you, I think it’ll serve me really well.” Terry felt giddy at the class he chose and what he could one day do with it. “Now… I was wondering about pets. I have two cats and a dog; will I be able to use them in battle when things wake up?”
“There are some classes that use pets as battle companions.”
“Yes, and I’d really like to have mine as battle companions, even though I don’t think my class uses them.” Terry said, he figured he was talking to the thing that could get him advantages and he was going to use to as best as he could.
“You are correct that your class doesn’t use battle companions. And I don’t see why I couldn’t do this for you, it has been so nice to be able to talk to someone else.”
Congratulations, you have been awarded three battle companion slots. They are prefilled with your previous pets.
“Wow! That’s awesome, thank you.”
“You are most welcome, young one.”
With all the games that Terry had played they had all had an inventory system that allowed for storage of items. Plus, he really didn’t want to have to carry everything in a backpack and get weighted down. So he asked, “will there be an inventory system or will we just have to carry bags and such?”
“There is indeed an inventory system. Each sentient creature starts out with twenty slots and it will increase by five slots every five levels.”
“I’m guessing only things generated after this will be able to be placed in there?”
“Yes, that is a drawback but as you level up you will be able to carry more and most creatures use their previous technology less and less as they level up.”
“Okay, that does make some sort of sense. Is there any way to increase inventory slots other than levels? Or what about inventory bags, ones that can carry even previous world things?”
“Some classes have inventory skills that can increase the slots they have. As far as bags go there are some though they are rarer.”
“A bag of holding sure would be a great asset, I’m sure.”
“Yes, the people who have had them have said as much.”
Congratulations, you have been given a bag of holding by the Universe.
“Wait… What?”
“I have given you a bag of holding. I am enjoying talking to you and would like you to survive long enough to have another conversation. So, if giving you this bag will help you, I will do that.”
“I’ve enjoyed talking to you as well. Will this be the only time we’ll be able to talk?”
“For right now, it is the easiest, yes. When you wake up it will be more difficult but still possible.”
Congratulations, you have been granted the ability to converse with the Universe.
Congratulations, for being one of the few sentient creatures able to converse with the Universe you have been awarded a boon.
“Mana has almost covered your entire planet so you will be waking up soon. Is there anything else that you might need in order to survive?”
“Could I get some starter spells?”
“Yes, that is within my power to do.”
Congratulations, you have been given 3 Apprentice level spells. Apprentice heal, apprentice firebolt and apprentice ward.
“Now it is time for you to wake up.”
With that Terry’s vision faded to an even darker black and he lost consciousness. Feeling like it was just a second, his mind woke up first. Opening his eyes and then shutting them tightly, he groaned as the sunlight streamed in. Slowly opening them again he lifted his head and slowly looked around. As he did, he noticed a blinking envelope in the lower left-hand corner of his vision. Focusing on it brought up a message.
Congratulations people of Earth, you have finally been introduced into the wider Universe. Mana has flooded the planet and everything on it will be changing over the next eighteen months. As you wake up you will be able to select a class (Notice, you will not be able to go past level 5 without choosing a class.) and with that class you will be able to get stronger and live a full and adventurous life, so choose wisely.
With that, the message blinked out of Terry’s vision and another message popped up.
Welcome to class selection. You have already selected your class, Battle Necromancer. You will get +1 Intelligence, +1 Wisdom and +1 Strength and 5 unassigned stat points per level.
With that the class selection window closed and a new window came up.
You have 3 boons would you like to redeem one now? Yes/no.
Selecting yes, Terry thought about what to ask for. After a bit he thought he’d see what he could get. So, speaking out loud he asked if he could get +1 to all his stats per level and double the amount of stat and skill points he got per level. After a minute of silence, he thought he might have made a mistake or something but then he got his answer.
Your boon has been accepted and granted. +1 to all stats per level and you will get double the amount of stat and skill points per level.
You have 2 more boons to redeem, would you like to redeem now? Yes/no.
Selecting Yes, Terry thought about what he wanted next. Wanting to be able to get stronger faster, he decided on what he wanted. Speaking out loud he asked to get triple the experience from all sources and four times the amount of credits from all sources. Waiting for the answer he thought about what he might like for his last boon. It wasn’t long before he got his answer.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
Your boon has been accepted and granted. Triple experience and four times the credits from all sources.
You have 1 boon left to redeem; would you like to redeem now? Yes/no.
Selecting Yes, Terry knew what he wanted this time. Speaking out loud he asked for the ability to resurrect any of the dead, with no time limit on how long they’ve been dead. This time thought it took almost five minutes before he got his answer.
Your boon has been accepted and granted, with the change that you will only be able to resurrect three times a day.
Sighing with relief Terry brought his stats up and looked at them, he had ten unassigned points to put in. He decided to try and even out his stats, so he put three points into constitution and agility and two points into charisma and luck. He then switched to his skills tab and looked at what he had.
At the very bottom he had summon bone weapon and summon minion that he could get at level one and connected through a line Just above those was summon bone armor and increase minion health. In between them and just above were leech life and slowing curse, everything else above them was covered in a fog. He had two skill points so he put one into each summon bone weapon and summon minion. His stats and skills looked like so.
Name: Terry Roth
Level: 1
Health: 90
Mana: 80
Stamina: 90
Race: Human, Male
Class: Battle Necromancer (Apprentice, Unique)
Strength: 9
Constitution: 9
Agility: 8
Intelligence: 8
Wisdom: 7
Charisma: 6
Luck: 7
Non-Combat Skills:
None
Abilities:
Connection to the Universe Resurrection
Combat Skills:
Summon bone weapon 1 Summon minion 1
Spells:
Apprentice Heal 1 Apprentice firebolt 1
Apprentice ward 1
Terry went through all his skills and focused on each. Connection to the Universe seemed like it was just that, a connection to the Universe so they could keep talking. He would have to investigate that more when he had time. Summon bone weapon was a class skill that allowed him to rip and shape the bones of a corpse into a weapon of his choosing. His level determining how much damage the weapon did. Summon minion allowed him to use the corpse of something to summon a minion of the same creature, with reduced stats at lower levels.
His spells were a little more forward, Apprentice heal healed a target for fifty health. Apprentice firebolt shot a fireball at a target dealing fifteen damage. And apprentice ward wrapped the target in magic that absorbed fifty damage. They weren’t things that would be powerful, but at the lower levels they should come in handy.
Once Terry was done with his stats, he just sat in his car for a few minutes thinking about what had just happened. He almost couldn’t wrap his head around the thought that life was now more like a game, or at least had aspects of a game. He didn’t know what to feel as he was excited, scared, happy, and so much more. He knew he should be feeling more scared right now but he couldn’t. He had played plenty of RPGs to know that this could be a great thing. Plus, with all the technology and stuff offline, it would mean that he wouldn’t have to pay his student loans or credit cards anymore. As of this moment, he was debt free.
With that thought Terry looked up with a smile and looked for his first monster to kill. Looking out the windows of his car he looked around and saw the cars that were in front and behind him. Some had movement in them others he didn’t see anything, though that didn’t mean they weren’t still in there. looking to his left, there was a field that was unplowed and there seemed to be creatures in it. From his position they looked fairly big and rat like. Looking to his right he saw pretty much the same thing, though a few more of the creatures. Unbuckling his seatbelt, he then got out of the car and inhaled deeply. Something about the air had changed, he just couldn’t put his finger on what it was.
Patting his pockets, he looked for anything that he might use as a weapon. That was when he noticed a bulge on his belt, pulling it around, he took a look at it. It was a black leather and cloth bag that was kind of small, similar to a fanny pack. He focused on it and it came up as his bag of holding. It lessened the weight of any item that was put into it by ninety percent. Readjusting the bag, he opened his back-driver’s side door and looked at what was in the back seat.
Terry grabbed his backpack and wished he could put it in his bag of holding. With that thought his backpack disappeared, looking around for it he wondered where it went. It didn’t take him long though and he put his hand in his bag and thought of his backpack. It appeared in his hand. Smiling, he thought his backpack back into his bag. Looking in his backseat he didn’t see anything else that might be useful.
Going back to the driver’s door he popped the trunk and went to see what might be useful in there. There were a couple of blankets, some reusable bags, a battery starter and a few other things that he took that might be useful. He also lifted up the center and took out the tire iron. Shutting the trunk, he looked around again and saw a few people out of their cars and milling about.
Gripping his tire iron, Terry looked to the fields on his left and right. There were only four of the rat like creatures to his left and about a dozen to his right. So, going for the fewer rats he started walking to his left. The rats were about a hundred feet from the road, so when he got onto the field he slowed down and tried to crouch down, hoping to get into a sneak mode.
Luckily the rats weren’t facing him so he slowly walked towards them, trying not to get their attention. As he got closer, his heart was hammering in his chest so loud he thought the rats might hear him. There was one rat that was kind of outside the group, so he angled towards that one. As he got close enough to strike, he took a deep breath and leaped upon the rat creature. Hitting it from a sneak position caused him to get a critical hit and stun it.
Even though the rat was stunned the others still whirled around as Terry hit it again and killed it. Seeing them turn around he quickly cast summon bone weapon on the rat corpse. As the skill was cast, he heard cracking and ripping as something bone white popped out of the corpse. Grabbing it he pulled it the rest of the way out, he held a long sword that was about four feet long in total with a three-foot blade. He quickly focused on it and it came up as Bone Sword, damage six, durability twenty. His tire iron had only had a damage rating of 3, so with this sword he should be able to make short work of the rest of the rats.
Terry unsheathed the sword and brought it up in front of him. The three rats forming a semi-circle around him. The rat on his left lunged at him and he brought his sword down and across the rat, slicing it in two. While his attention was turned away, the rat on his right jumped and bit his calf. Screaming at the pain he slashed down at the rat, scoring a hit on its back. It let go of his leg and the middle one jumped at him. He reversed his sword and brought it in front of him, blocking the attack.
The rat on Terry’s right lunged at him again and he kicked the rat away, plunging his sword into the rat as it fell. Quickly extracting his sword, he turned towards the last rat and cast summon minion on the rat he just skewered. The minion rat coming to life on his right. With that the last rat turned tail and tried to run away, but Terry lifted his hand and shot it with a firebolt. As he looked around at the two bodies, he saw a flashing sword in his vision. Focusing on it brought up his combat log. He scrolled through it a bit and saw his damage output; it wasn’t terrible but definitely not the best. He did see that he had gotten 720 exp from the fight. Going back and grabbing his swords sheath he put it on his belt and sheathed his sword. walking to the bodies he put his hand on one and thought loot, which gained him some rat meat and rat teeth, which he put in his inventory. Turning around Terry headed back towards the road and the other side.
When Terry got to the road he looked left and right, looking for the people that had been milling around their vehicles. He didn’t see anyone though. Figuring they must have wandered off he headed towards the dozen rats that were on the opposite side of the road. They were about two hundred feet into the field, so he started walking towards them, his minion following him.
As Terry got within twenty feet or so of the pack he went back into a crouch, his rat trying to do so as well. He pulled his sword out and got ready to sneak attack the closest rat. As he got closer to it, he took a deep breath and brought his sword up and struck the rat, killing it in one blow. He readied himself for the rest of the pack but they didn’t turn around. So, he kept in his crouch and waddled his way to the next rat, doing the same as the first one, killing it in one blow.
Terry continued to sneak attack the rest of the pack until they were all dead. Then he went around and collected the loot, mostly getting rat meat and teeth, which he dumped in his inventory, luckily the items stacked. Taking a look at his combat log he saw he did twice the damage from a sneak attack, he would have to keep that in mind. He also saw that he had gained 2160 exp from all the rats. Which brought his eyes to the lower left-hand corner of his vision. Bringing the message up it read.
Congratulations, you have reached level 2! You have 10 unassigned stat points.
Looking at his experience he saw that he was fairly close to level three as well. He decided to put three points into constitution and agility and then four points into wisdom. He also saw he had gained the sneak skill and the sword mastery skill, both of which were level three.
Before Terry left, he used summon bone weapon on one of the corpses to get a new sword, cause every little bit helps. When Terry was done, he turned back towards the road and went to his car, he leaned against it and slid down to sit. Looking at his hands they were shaking so much that he could barely control them. Taking a few deep breathes he tried to steady his nerves. When he was fighting it hadn’t seemed so bad but now that he was done he could feel the adrenaline wearing off. After a few minutes of sitting there and breathing he stood up and made sure he had everything that he could use. Then he looked up and down the road and figured he would try and go back home.
As Terry made his way back East, he thought it weird that he didn’t see anyone else on the road. He kept his eyes on the fields and his ears open for any sounds of fighting. He made it about a mile before he heard the roar. There was a curve in the road that it sounded like it was coming from. Terry broke into a little run and got to the curve in a few minutes, rounding it he came to see what looked like three minotaur’s running after a dozen or so people.
Terry took off at a run and chased them down, once he was within striking distance of the middle minotaur he jumped and slashed at its back, drawing its attention. He ordered his rat minion to get the right minotaur’s attentions and to trail it along until he could get to it. The third one was still chasing the people but with the other two occupied they were in less danger, than they were before.
Terry’s minotaur charged at him, trying to tackle him down to the ground and gore him. He sidestepped the charge and sliced the minotaur on its back again and then jumped back. The minotaur turned around and tried to backhand him but he was already out of reach. Focusing on it he saw that it was a level five and had about sixty percent of its health still.
Terry circled the minotaur and waited for it to charge again, which he sidestepped again, cutting its stomach this time. It stumbled and went down on one knee. Terry took the advantage and plunged his sword into its back and through its heart, killing it. He then looked around at the other two, trying to decide which one to take care of next. His rat was trailing its minotaur very nicely so he decided to go for the one still chasing the people.
As Terry got within twenty feet of the minotaur chasing the people, he let out a yell that felt primal and instinctual, drawing its attention to him. As the minotaur came at him, he brought his sword up in front of him and got ready for it to charge. As it charged, he tried to sidestep it like the last one, but one of its horns caught his arm and flung him around and to the ground. Rolling out of the way and getting up as fast as he could, he faced it again.
This time when the minotaur charged Terry whirled around it and sliced its back open, causing it to stumble. He then run up to it and raised his sword up high and brought it down on its neck, decapitating it. Looking around for his rat, he saw it about fifty feet away still trailing the minotaur. Focusing on the minotaur he saw it was down to eighty-five percent help. At least his rat was doing some damage to it.
Terry ran after his rat and the minotaur and when he caught up to them, he used his yell again to draw its attention and then ordered his rat to jump on the minotaur’s back, tag teaming it. As the rat jumped on its back it charged Terry, who whirled out of its way, and stuck his foot out, tripping it. His foot hurt after that but he powered through it and sliced the minotaur as his rat chewed at its face. Finally killing it, Terry looked around the area and saw the group of people off in the distance. Looking at his combat log he had gotten 1260 exp from that fight, which means he leveled up. Looking at his messages:
Congratulations, you have reached level 3! You have 10 unassigned stat points and 4 skill points.
Terry decided to put three points into strength, constitution and intelligence and then one point into luck. Looking at his skills he couldn’t use any of the skill points so he closed out of that and went to loot the bodies, getting a few minotaur horns. He then went to the least damaged Minotaur and cast summon minion on it. It rose as his rat collapsed. He took out his previous bone sword and handed it to the minotaur, who took the weapon and looked at it. Swinging it a few times, it then looked at him and snorted.
By this time the people that the minotaur’s were chasing had started to come towards Terry. He waited for them to gather around him, there were about twenty people in the group now. As the group got closer and gathered around him, they all started talking at once. He waited for them to quiet down before talking.
“Everyone, just quiet down.” Terry shouted.
“What’s going on?” Someone in the crowd shouted back.
“Did all of you read the first message?”
“What message?”
“If you look down in the lower left-hand corner of your vision you should see an envelope flashing, focus on that.”
Terry waited a few minutes as people glazed over and read the messages. He did some deep breathing while he waited and kept an eye out for anything that might attack them as they read and chose their classes. It took about ten minutes for the first to come back out of it. He signaled for them to keep quiet as the rest finished up.
“Did everyone pick a class?” Terry asked as everyone seemed to be back.
“What do we do now?” A woman at the front asked.
“You can do whatever you want, no one’s stopping you.”
“Yeah, but what about the monsters? Who will protect us?”
“If you couldn’t tell already, it’s kind of the apocalypse.” Terry scoffed.
“So, you’re just going to leave us to die?”
“Not necessarily, I’m heading back to Minnesota, so if you want to go that way, I guess you could come with me. If you’re wanting to head someplace else, yeah, you’re on your own.”
“That’s not fair!”
“Honey, life isn’t fair, especially now.”
“But we won’t survive.”
“Then you might want to get a move on and try and find a safe place before all the monsters get too high level.”
“Ugh!” The woman grunted.
Terry turned and headed back towards the road, if any of them wanted to follow him they could, but he wasn’t a babysitter. When he got to the road, he looked back to see who had followed him. There was only a handful of people. He started walking East, following the road. He turned and talked while they were walking.
“What classes did you all pick?”
“I’m Robert and Fisherman.”
“I’m Jeremy and picked Lumberjack.”
“I took Blacksmith and Richard.”
“I got Fletcher and my name is Dean.”
“I got Illusionist and you can call me Pope.” The last man said excitedly.
“Seamstress.” The first woman said. “My name is Sam.”
“Guard and I go by Izzy.”
“Enchanter and Penelope.”
Terry looked back at the one woman who took guard, Izzy. “Is that a combat class?”
“Not really, I don’t think.” She shrugged. “At least it doesn’t sound like it is. It seems more like a defensive class.”
“Well that may still come in handy. You could always defend the rest of the group while I take on the monsters. Same for you.” Terry nodded at the illusionist, Pope. “You may come in handy too, especially if we run into too much trouble.”
They kept walking, following the road, each in their own heads, thinking about what the coming days would bring.