“You awaken in a forest, with several rings of dead trees centered around one big deceased tree that you are all currently laying against…”

“Mrrfgh” I say as I wake up. Even though My eyes are closed and my arm is over my head, it is STILL really bright! It's almost like the sun itself is intentionally in my eyes to try to wake me up. Why would it even do that? I finally open my eyes and discover that, yes, the sun is trying its hardest to wake me up. “WHAT THE HECK MAN?” I yell at the sun in annoyance.

After I fully gather myself I realize. “Hold on one moment” I mutter. Where am I? I look around and notice a few key details. First, I am in a forest. This is the least surprising thing, as, if i was going to wake up somewhere that is NOT my cozy home, the woods is at the least the best second option.

Second, all of the trees within sight are dead. This is slightly concerning, but it makes sense because it feels like winter right now, and it's quite chilly.

Third, there are more people around this tree. I had walked around the tree to try and get some sort of sense of where I was, when I noticed 2 entirely different people laying against the tree I woke up against. One of them was a human, and looked kind of insane. The other one was an elf, who looked like they had a bad hair day today. Both of them were asleep. After looking around more, I spotted some kind of pedestal with nothing on it, which was strange.

This is when I realized the fourth thing; I don't remember anything. Except for one thing. My name is Harry. I remember nothing else. Freaky. I go back to my side of the tree and sit down and ponder. Then I realized something. ELVES? There are elves here? Is this a video game or something? Then I noticed something. If this is a video game, is there a pause or

something similar? I whisper out “pause”, which does nothing. Then I whisper several other things like “menu” and “Harry”, until I say “status” which causes a window opens up:

Name: Harry

Race: Human

Class: N/A

Sub-Class: N/A

Hp: 10/10

Inventory: Wild Card, Map (2/6)

Equipment: N/A

Status Effects: N/A

Skills: 1

Recently Gained Skills:

Inspect: a common skill used to get a description of an item, enemy, or more. Can also be used on status to get more information on things.

Interesting. So this is an isekai, or at least similar. I decide to use inspect on “class”

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Class: a class is a representation of your main focus and goals. Classes give skills based on the class, and number of skills is based on how you got your class . You can get a class by either forcing it through meditation (warning, May take several days) or through gaining levels.

Very, very interesting. A class sounds very useful. I decided I would try to get a class. The first class I could think of was a rogue, which would hopefully give me skills like sneak attack, or stealth, that might help me survive. Since the description mentioned meditation, I sit down and go into the classic meditation pose and think.

— — — — — —

I woke up to someone yelling. By the light from the sun, I could tell I was outside, and since I don't remember falling asleep… wait. I don't remember anything. That's concerning. After waiting a while until I felt like whoever yelled was gone,

I opened my eyes and looked around. I was in a forest of dead trees as far as the eye could see, and there was an elf next to me, and a human who looked like he was meditating? Who the heck meditates in the woods? Well, I guess this guy did.

After a quick double take after I realized there was an elf here? I realized something. I'm from Earth, but there's an elf here. To my knowledge, elves don't exist on Earth, and therefore, I'm no longer on Earth.

I remember from Earth that I read a heck of a lot of litrpg isekai books, and this is giving some serious isekai vibes. The most common thing from those books is a system, so, I say “menu”, but nothing happens, so I try “status”

Name: Trazyn

Race: Human

Class: N/A

Sub-Class: N/A

Hp: 10/10

Inventory: Map, (1/6)

Equipment: N/A

Status Effects: N/A

Skills: 1

Recently Gained Skills:

Inspect: a common skill used to get a description of an item, enemy, or more. Can also be used on status to get more information on things.

Neat, I use inspect on everything, and thought up a quick summary: name is my name, race is my species, class is important, subclass is just a class, but worse, hp is my health, but also my levels? That is odd, but still pretty in line with what I know from reading. Inventory and equipment are what you would expect, status effects are things like being on fire, and skills are class/Sub-Class given abilities, and you can also get them through effort.

I quickly realized that a class might be critically important for the future, and that I should try to get the best one possible as soon as possible. I decided I would try going for an artificer, which is a kind of magical blacksmith, or similar, focused on breaking the system. I also wanted a cool “affinity”, as, in the books I read, the protagonist generally had a unique ability, such as gravity or something. I went with cosmic.

I began meditating on what I thought I needed for my imagined class.

— — — — — —

Waking up, I stretch my arms and yawn. Blinking quickly to wake up. I open my eyes and stretch even harder and then suddenly, I feel it. My hand hit a tree. Why am I outside? I quickly snap to reality and realize that we aren't in Kansas anymore.

I brush my hair out of my eyes and stand up. I wipe off my clothes and look around. It's a odd looking forest with no green in sight. The grass was dead, the trees dead, and the sky was gray. It's also really cold, which makes me want to get out of here as soon as possible. It feels like I'm going to get snowed on any moment!

I wander around the area and end up finding two people meditating for some reason. I try poking them to see if they respond, but the completely ignore it. “Dang these crazy’s are concentrated” I comment.

I then notice that they are both wearing backpacks, so naturally, I try taking them. When you're in the woods, every resource counts. However, when I try to take off one of their backpacks, it refuses to even budge.

Confused, I reach back to see if I'm wearing a backpack, and I am. It pulls off easily, and I open it up. Inside is one thing. A map. I look at the map and find that I am in the middle of nowhere, and that the nearest city is like, 20 miles away, and the only thing in the way is forest and farmland! I also noticed that there is a large river spanning the whole area, a entire mountain range, and a large valley.

Because of this, I decide to go to the city that's closest, and I go north. I start walking for quite a while, until suddenly, I see green at last. The dead forest becomes a normal one!