Alex Watson considered himself a skeptic, someone whom didn’t really believe in the supernatural.

The fact that a blue screen was currently in front of him baffled him.

Someone is trying to summon you, do you accept?

Accept/Reject

Time until summoning is automatically rejected: 60 seconds.

His thoughts were a mess as he stared at it. Was he insane? Did he really snap? He thought about the day, the same old boring thing, there hadn’t been anything that would make him particularly stressed. His morning coffee was crap, yes, and there had been a problem in his metro, but he was fairly confident that he wouldn’t go insane thanks to these things. 

Maybe someone had spiked his coffee? Certainly would help to explain why it had that weird taste.

Time until summoning is automatically rejected: 30 seconds.

While the timer went down, his mind had wandered, should he…accept it? He was fairly sure that it wasn’t real, but if that was the case, there wasn’t exactly a whole lot for him to lose, was there?

And in the off chance it was real…well, he wouldn’t miss a lot of things. Or be missed, for that matter.

Warning, 10 seconds left!

Alex pressed the accept button.

“Here goes nothing.” He mumbled.

The effect was instantaneous, in a second, he was in the middle of a street in Chicago, the next, he was throwing all the contents of his breakfast in the ground.

In the background, he heard someone shouting…something. He was too busy throwing up to give a damn, he felt awful, like his whole body had been squeezed through something far, far too small to fit him, and that was only part of the problem. He was nauseous, he felt lightheaded and the air felt…heavy, which meant that that he had trouble breathing.

This continued for a while, to the point that he genuinely believed that he was going to die, he simply couldn’t get the oxygen in his lungs. Thankfully, after what felt like a eternity, his stomach was empty, which at least allowed him to breath, even if his nose felt like it was full of acid. Slowly, he felt like the air was lighter, until he felt like he could breath normally again.

Alex sat, then started to take deep breaths, ignoring the screen that appeared in front of him, and simply focused on getting as much air as he could into his lungs.

As he did that, he heard someone talking, but he wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention, which was currently on getting a grip on himself, slowly, he felt in control of himself, his

In front of him, he saw someone in what looked like a cultist. Dressed entirely with a black coat and with a dagger in his hands, he had his back towards Alex, with both of his arms extended; the he spun, staring straight into Alex.

He looked…oddly handsome, not exactly what Alex would think of a cultist, olive skin, dark hair, the only remarkable thing about him were his heterochromatic eyes, which had a look in them that Alex was quite familiar with: disappointment.

“What the fuck is happening?”

As if in answer, the cultist said something that was…garbled. Alex could understand some of the words, but most of them were in some language he didn’t recognize.

 His focus went to something else when the screen in front of him flashed red, a sound of sirens accompanying it; he figured that reading what was in front of him was probably important.

You have suffered a dimensional shift.

Adapting to current dimension. Initiating emergency Awakening protocol.

Starting process to adapt user to this dimension:

Step one: assure continued survival. Complete.

Step Two: Adapt body to dimensional standards. Starting in: 3 seconds

Step Three: Adapt mind to dimensional standards

Step four: Awaken extra sense.

Alex read the information, wait, what did it mean to adapt his body?

The answer was made clear when his entire felt like his entire body was pure pain. The feeling was like something was removing every organ and bone in his body then putting it back, thankfully, It only lasted for a few seconds, but the result was that he fell down in the puddle of his vomit.

“I…immediately regret all of my decisions…”

He mumbled, he felt...better, the pain had vanished as soon as it came, even if he was disgusted, he then remembered that there was one more thing.

“Wait, please W-“

Unfortunately, it seemed that waiting was not an option. He felt a splitting headache, as if someone was shoving hundreds of needles in his brain, while at the same time using it as a drum, he contorted in pain for the few seconds that it lasted. In the process, it seemed that all of his bodily functions went in overdrive, because he was crying, sweating, vomiting, and his pants felt a whole lot heavier.

“Stoopp…”

Once again, the pain vanished just as suddenly as it came, Alex then prepared for the next thing, and, to his surprise, this time, it was not painful, but it certainly was intense.

He felt overwhelmed by something…other. He felt as if was as if he had been blind his whole life and suddenly was able to see again. He felt an ocean of sensations wash over him, most of it was just…tranquility, but with 4 in specific standing out, the first one was a deep disgust, then came something like a calming stroll in a forest, then comfort, then curiosity, after that, the sensations lost its intensity, it was still there…just a whole lot more manageable.

Slowly, he opened his eyes, noticing that he was crying again, but this time, it was not due to pain or discomfort. Yes, the new sense had given him a whole lot of that, but the sheer beauty of it all made him shed tears, as he opened his eyes, he saw a new blue screen pop up.

You have successfully adapted to the current dimension.

Now continuing Awakening protocol.

Generating character sheet.

Starting generation of class and path.

Perk generation geared towards continued survival of user.

Due to cicurmstances, a new attribute has been created:

Insight

You have successfully adapted to this dimension, now, generating status sheet:

Name: Alex Watson.

Age: 22

Gender: Male

Class: (Generating)

Title: None

Path: (Generating)

Skills: None (Moving to own tab)

Perks: (Generating, moving to own tab.)

Affinities: Dimension, (generating)

Level: 0

Inflexible attributes:

Strength: 90

Dexterity: 110

Agility: 100

Constitution: 100

Logic: 120

Semi-flexible attributes:

Insight:1

Free Points: 0

In front of where the cultist was previously standing, was a literal knight in shining armor. He was dressed in full plate, not an inch of flesh showing his body, and his armor seemed like…not, it was literally glowing. Alex was simultaneous horrified by what happened and awestruck by the person’s presence.Before he could ponder on what all if that meant, he saw something, which he really wish he had not. It was the tip of a sword, which he saw protruding from the cultist that he saw earlier, blood spilled in the circle, then, he was sent flying by a kick.

The knight lowered the leg that he had used to kick the cultist, and then stared Alex , whom stared very nervously at the knight’s bloodied sword.

“Are…You…” The knight tried to say something, but his voice was…garbled, he understood a few bits and pieces, but most of it was in a weird language.

“Don’t kill me please! All I did was pressing a fucking button!”

The figure obviously could understand Alex as well as Alex could understand him, but seemed to get that he was in a bit of a panic, helped by the fact that he was crawling backwards. The knight took a few steps back, and then put his sword in a sheath, then, he raised his hands.

Alex took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself down, but the disgusting smell that covered him really was not helping.

“Calm…”

The knight once again started talking, with a shooting tone, in a way that reminded him of when people were talking with their pets.

While Alex couldn’t help but feel a tad insulted, it did help him, slowly, he started to control himself, the knight nodding in response, when he seemed to have calmed down, the knight then raised his hands towards him, which Alex reluctantly accepted, then he was brought to his feet.

The moment he got up, Alex almost feel face fist into the ground, his body felt…different, and unsteady, the knight, however, helped him stay steady in his feet.

It was in this moment that he noticed that the knight was not alone, and he found difficult to believe what he saw.

Behind the knight, Alex saw two other people. One was what he only could describe as the stereotypical elf: Tall, blonde and gorgeous. He ears were long and pointed; her face had an inhuman beauty in it, striking him dumb for a second, she was dressed in what looked like leather armor, and was holding a longbow in her hands.

Floating besides her was someone that made her look tame, a bona-fide witch, whom was floating on top of a flying broom. She was human looking, albeit also inhumanly beautiful, and was dressed on all black, long black hair flowing in the hair beneath a large witch hat.

Alex noticed that he had been distracted when the Knight lightly tapped him on his arm; he winced, having been taken by surprise by their appearances. The knight seemed to be trying to drag him somewhere, shakily, Alex walked alongside him, stopping when he saw where he had been taking him, a wooden bench, slowly, he sat down, he felt exhausted, but was glad that he wasn’t lying on his own vomit anymore.

The knight took a step backwards, then started to talk with the other two present about…something, they were talking fast and he could only understand half of what they were saying, so his comprehension went straight to hell. A bit curious, he looked around him; he hadn’t bothered to figure out where he was until now. Well, he knew where, in a fantasy world. That much was obvious by now.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

He looked around him; the place looked like a massive cathedral…to Cthulhu. Most of the place was like all the other cathedrals that he had seen on his life, big, made of stone, lots and lots of benches, but instead of what normally would be Christian stuff, like crosses and stuff, were instead tentacles. In the furthermost part of the cathedral, he could see what looked like a statue of what he imagined an eldritch abomination was like, which utterly terrified him. Unfortunately, while looking around, he saw the body of the cultist that he had seen stabbed earlier.

He felt his breath accelerate again, when he saw the corpse, then he glanced at the knight whom had stabbed the cultist, suddenly reminded about the fact that the knight had killed somebody. He started to panic again…and then he saw something, the cultist was moving.

Alex very mixed feelings by that fact, which turned into terror as he saw the cultist tart to crawl towards him. Wait. Not towards him, Alex then noticed something that he had not. The place where he had appeared was a very big circle, in the center of the circle; he saw a really weird book, which, just from looking, made a shiver run down his spine.

The pieces started to match in his head. The person looked like a cultist, was in the middle of a cathedral of Cthulhu, and was going towards what he could only describe as the Necronomicon’s weird cousin. Alex had played enough call of Cthulhu to know where this was going, and he wanted no part in it.

“Hey” Alex tried to talk to them, but they seemed a tad focused on their own conversation, he tried to get up, but his legs were not cooperating. “Hey”

When they gave no reaction, he took a deep breath. “HEY!” This seemed to make them finally notice of him; he then pointed a finger towards the cultist.

Oddly enough, Alex understood perfectly what the witch said next.

“Well, shit.”

In that moment, the cultist flipped himself, took a knife from…somewhere, and then stabbed himself in his heart. The moment this happened, blood started to flow from his body unnaturally, almost as if being sucked from him by the circle, he then started to laugh maniacally. Alex really had not thought that his day would have with him encountering Cthulhu.

The effect of this towards the people around him was immediate, the Elf jumped backwards, managing to cross most of the weird cathedral in a single movement, the witch started flying upwards and the knight rushed towards him. He briefly panicked as he saw that, but his intentions became clear when Alex was lifted off the ground in a bridal carry.

As soon as he did that, the Knight sprinted towards the entrance, laying him down nearby it, before rushing towards the circle shouting something, leaving a very dizzy Alex behind.

At that moment, he felt a chill go down his spine as he felt something…other appearing. That was the best way he could describe the feeling, other. It didn’t belong in this world, or Earth, for that matter. Alex felt a weird sense of clarity, because at this point he knew he was in the front…well, backrow seat at this point, of the summoning of an eldritch abomination.

Thanks to your proximity to extradimensional magic, your affinity towards it has increased!

At least it seemed that something going his way for once. Even if he had to question what an affinity towards eldritch abominations would do to him. Alex stared as the Knight stood behind the circle, sword held high, he briefly wondered why no one did something already. Was it rude to interrupt someone being summoned?

Valkoz, lord of (Error) has been summoned.

Your insight has increased!

Entering disaster mode. A local party has engaged with the disaster, would you like to join?

Yes/No

Alex stared at the screen; it sure was comforting when even the freaking system screen was showing errors. Still, not seeing a point of not doing so, he shrugged, and then clicked yes.

In the corner of his vision, Alex saw another blue screen pop up.

Wind the last true guardian

HP: 99%

MP:80%

Stamina: 90%

Sky the living saint

HP: 99%

Stamina: 90%

Alice the good witch

HP: 99%

MP:90%

Stamina: 99%

His eyes where once again drawn towards the magic circle, from which tentacles started to emerge; just looking at them made Alex’s head hurt, the pain getting worse as more and more tentacles emerged from the circle. As soon as the first tentacle emerged, the elf, whom probably was Wind, started firing her bow like it was a machine gun, a constant stream of arrows hitting the tentacles, making it look like a hedgehog. Meanwhile, Alice started chanting something, while Alex could understand some of what she was saying earlier, now all of it was gibberish. While all of this was happening, the knight simply stood there, in front of the circle, menacingly.Alex stared at the screen, all of sudden feeling like he was an npc that the DM threw for the epic level party to escort, still, it was nice to know their names.

Meanwhile, was sitting on a bench, feeling a tad out of his depth, he tried to think of something that he could do, he felt…useless, maybe there was something in his status screen? As soon as he thought about it, it appeared in front of him, but...the only difference was that he gained 1 point of insight. He could do fuck all against that thing.

More and more of the being started from emerge, Alex’s head hurting more and more, he also noticed that no part of the creature was leaving the circle, but he was fairly sure that the circle wasn’t big enough for that…”ARGH” A sudden spike of pain filled his mind as soon as he thought about it, at the same time, another blue screen appeared in front of him.

Thanks to constant mental interference, a perk has been generated:

Strong mind (0/100% to next level)

Your mind is naturally protected against all form of mental interference, both direct and indirect, it also becomes easier to notice such interference, and even when successful, their impact will be lessened.

Thanks to this perk, the Willpower attribute has been unlocked.

Alex mumbled a numb yey as he saw the notification, his eyes once again were drawn away from it and towards the giant tentacle monster. At the very least, it hurt less to look at it.

More and more left the circle, more than it should be possible, but Alex tried not to think too much about it, more and more arrows hit it, and Alice continued her chant, then, he felt it. Valkoz had been fully summoned, he knew that instinctively, helped by the fact that he felt a massive shiver go down his spine again.

Valkoz, in all of his glory, looked…like a lot of tentacles. He didn’t have a mouth, face, or anything of the sort, he was just…tentacles. His tentacles had tentacles that had even more tentacles. In truth, Alex had trouble describing him, mostly because his head started to hurt when he tried to think about how it looked, or what it’s color was, thought of it like a Shoggoth, and decided that it probably was healthier to think about it that way.

The thing started to try to move beyond the circle, but it was as if it was hitting an invisible wall, it crashed again and again against it, and slowly, Alex felt that something was starting to break. A tentacle went beyond the circle, thrashing part of the cathedral, more and more tentacles started to leave it, then, with another chill going down Alex’s spine, all of it burst outwards.

The mass of tentacles rushed forwards against the closest person, Sky didn’t react as the wall of tentacles rushed him, merely raising his sword, and standing still, then, Valkoz crashed into him, but somehow, the knight stood his ground, the sound of his sword blocking the abomination echoing through the cathedral. In defiance of the laws of physics and common sense, he was not pushed back, despite the sheer weight of his enemy.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the witch stopped chanting, Alex saw something in the corner of his vision, and then, he looked. An absolutely massive ball of fire was in front of the witch, the size and intensity of it such that he could only describe the thing as a mini sun, then, it shot forwards towards the tentacles.

The mini sun shot forwards, but immediately, Alex noticed that something was wrong, as soon as it moved, it started shrinking, before it reached the monster, it had become the size of a basketball, then, it vanished as it touched the tentacles, it was in that moment that Alex figured that he was well and truly fucked.

After that, more and more of the tentacles rushed forwards, the knight blocking them, and dodging when they tried to grab him, and occasionally cutting it when he could, but the effect he was having was minimal, same for the arrows that were pelting it, it was obvious that they needed something big to kill it, and the fireball hadn’t been it.

Alex kept watching the fight, feeling more and more helpless, not helped by the fact that in the corner of his eye, he saw as their stats dropped. Alice tried a bunch of different things, throwing lighting, ice, a green cloud, but the result was always the same, as soon as it reached the tentacles, it vanished. In the middle of the fight, a tree grew in the middle of the cathedral, breaking the floor and going towards it, only for the three to stop moving when it got nearby the monster.

Sky continued to hold his ground, somehow stopping Valkoz from going beyond him, every time the tentacles tried to bypass him, he moved with inhuman speed and cut it, this, however, was doing little to actually harm the monster.

None of that was working. They had to do something different, but what? He idly wondered as he looked around the cathedral, trying to find something that could potentially useful. Then he thought about something, all of their…magic were big in scale. The problem was that the monster nullified it, so maybe…

He stared towards the witch, whom was flying around the cathedral, he tried to wave at her, but she either ignored it or was too focused on the giant tentacle monster. “Err…Alice!” He tried to shout, but the sounds of the battle were far too loud for her to hear him, he sighed, looked down, and then slowly tried to get up.

His legs were still wobbly, but much less than before. Slowly, he tried to walk towards the witch, founding that each step was easier than the previous one.  While he could move, a problem became apparent, and that was the fact that she was moving way too fast, so instead of going after her, he stood where she occasionally passed, then kept waving at her while shouting her name, hoping she would notice.

“Alice! Alice!”

Finally, after his throat was hurting from shouting so much, she finally seemed to notice him, she stared at him for a few seconds in disbelief, then looked at the giant monster, then back at him, it seemed like she was going to ignore him for a second, but then she  flew towards him.

The witch stopped in front of him, floating in her broom, Alex was a bit stunned by her appearance, because holy crap she was gorgeous, almost inhumanly so. Dark hair and green eyes that literally glowed stared at him; her look made it obvious that she was annoyed.

“Do you understand me?” Alex asked.

While communication hadn’t worked previous, but he could understand bits and pieces of what they were saying, maybe he was learning their language really slowly?

She stared at him blankly, and then shook her head. “It’s…”He understood bits and pieces, but whatever was translating her was not working properly, he then tried to articulate with his hands what he meant, pointing towards the ceiling, then towards the monster.

“Collapse the cathedral. Collapse the cathedral. “He kept repeating, gesturing wildly hoping that if he repeated something enough, they would understand.

Her annoyance seemingly started to grow, since she was openly glaring at him now, but then, realization seemingly struck.

A perk has been generated:

Human translator (0/100% to next level)

You can talk, read and write in any language that is spoken by humans, while also increasing the speed of learning of all types of languages.

Alex gave a sigh of relief, thankful that he wouldn’t have to learn a entire different language to be able to talk with anyone, the witch nodded, looking around the cathedral.

“Can you understand me now?” She asked.

“Y-yes, I’m…not sure how.”

“Probably a perk, they tend to be convenient like that. Anyway, I recommend that you leave the cathedral as fast as you can.” Alice said, shot Alex a grin, then flew away.

Alex nodded, then proceeded to dash towards the entrance, focusing in his immediate survival, as he did that, he almost fell on his face, he remembering the small fact that his body was currently in an odd state, getting up, he decided to move on a more sedate pace, hoping that they wouldn’t bring the building down on him for being too slow.

Thankfully, it seemed that they would be taking their sweet time doing it, because he safely left it, as soon as he left the cathedral, he felt his body freeze up.

“It’s way too fucking cold.”

The outside of the cathedral was filled with snow, he could see the outlines of a road, but it was mostly covered. He stared around the place, it seemed like the cathedral was in the middle of the woods, and It seemed that a big battle had happened, because there were a lot of weird stuff in the landscape, spots that were scorched, trees and roots were growing in weird places, and a giant metal spike was nearby the entrance.

Before the whole isekai thing, he had been outside in the middle of summer, as such, he was dressed in a t-shirt and shorts. In the middle of a whole lot of snow. He then heard a loud crash coming from behind him. He quickly choose that a bit of cold wasn’t worth certain death and rushed forwards, doing his best to not fall on his face.

As soon as he was at what he felt like a safe distance, he turned towards the cathedral again, discovering what had caused that noise. Massive trees where growing inside it, destroying huge chunks of it. In the corner of his vision, he saw Wind’s mana bar rapidly dropping, still, it was having an effect, the cathedral started to wobble, this causing Alex to take a few more steps backwards.

As soon as the cathedral looked like it was about to collapse, he saw the three of them quickly leaving it, the witch flying through a window, the elf jumping through the entrance, and lastly, the knight stood by the entrance, fending off the tentacles.

As soon as the knight left, he heard a loud crash, then the cathedral started to fall into itself, Alex took a few more steps backwards, covering his hears to try and protect them from the sheer volume of everything crashing down. He had not noticed previously just how big the freaking thing was, after a few seconds, it was finally over.

“It’s not dead.”

“Well, shit.” Alex honestly wasn’t sure who said that, maybe himself?

It summarized his thoughts exactly, he wasn’t even sure who said that. Maybe it was himself.

Then, a brilliant idea hit him.

“Burn it.”

“What?” The three of them turned towards him, equal parts surprised and confused.

“Burn it, light it up, incinerate it, or in other words, put the fucking thing on fire.”

“I tried before, didn’t work great.”

Alex shrugged. “Just try it again.”

The witch looked at her companions, and then shrugged; she flew to the side, and then started once again to say something in a language he could not understand, an oddity that he would investigate later. Meanwhile, the other two stood ready, the knight with his sword in hands and the elf with her bow pointed towards the cathedral, inside, he could see something moving in the ruins, trying to escape.

Alex went from freezing to being cooked alive, because this time he was nearby when the massive fireball formed nearby him, and holy crap it was hot, he took a few steps backwards, because he noticed that the fireball was still growing, and he really did not want to be cooked to death. He noticed that the other two were not even fazed by the mini-sun in their side. One of them had not even flinched when a giant tentacle had struck him, so perhaps he should not have been surprised.

A perk has been generated:

Elemental resistance (0/100% to next level)

Your body is naturally protected against all common elements, significantly reducing the effects that they have on you. Effect of perk is increased by constitution stat.

Synergy with Strong Mind.

The moment he saw the notification, lessened the effects of the sheer heat of the fireball by a lot. He still felt it, but was not as bad as before.

Then, the fireball shot towards the cathedral, and things went exactly as he had planned. Well, in truth, more like he had hoped it would work.

The fireball impacted the cathedral, setting it ablaze, the flames quickly spreading through it, more and more of it being set ablaze, this kept for a few minutes, until the thing was a giant pyre, and then, he felt the pants-shitting screeches of Valkoz.

The screech made his body simply...shut down. the only reason he didn’t hit the ground face first was that someone held him. Then, his nose started bleeding, his brain felt like it was melting, he felt like he was going to die, for a moment, he was sure that his mind was going to break, but he felt something different inside him. A shooting sensation, which felt like a stroll through a forest, while at the same time something tried to tear his mind to sherds. He felt like his brain was destroyed and reconstructed, but slowly, he grasped control of his mind, the pain in his mind lessening, bit by bit, then, just as suddenly as it began, it stopped, all that remained was the forest. Until, at last, darkness.