“The fuck am I?” Hayden asked as he looked around the small glade he was in.
Tree’s surrounded him on all sides and soft grass was cushioned beneath him as he sat up. The air was warm and the sun shone through the leaves, dappling him in light and shadow.
Words formed in the air in front of him as he tried to gain his bearings, shocking him backwards as he tried to quickly scramble away from them in panic, only to find they followed him.
New Player Detected…
“Player?” He asked under his breath “What?”, his eyes wide and confused as he read the words. Until they shifted into something slightly different.
New Hayden Black Detected…
Analyzing…
He tried to look around but found the words took up most of his view. He wished they were smaller, and found as he had that thought, the words zoomed away from him. They still sat in the middle of his vision, but he was able to see around them. Not that he was really able to comprehend the strange forest that surrounded him right now.
Analyzed
The words changed again.
Distributing stat points…
“Stat points? What does that even mean?” He asked, now getting frustrated.
He quickly found out as the words disappeared again only to replaced with some sort of screen.
Hayden Black
Level: 1
Mind: 21
Focus: 16
Strength: 28
Dexterity: 21
Endurance: 26
Unallocated Skill points: 5
Unallocated Language tokens: 1
Skills…
“Skills?”
The window shifted once more, only to be blocked by a smaller pop-up window.
New player acknowledgement: Skill’s are usually gained through training or performing an action again and again. The system has analyzed and added recognized skills. Any further shows of proficiency in an area may still provide reanalysis and the acquisition of additional skills.
Hayden read the pop-up, taking in its words, and as he finished it vanished, although, even only having read it once, the message seemed to echo through him, its meaning staying with him as if he could never forget it.
Hayden Black
Skills:
Carpentry: lvl 5
“That checks out.” He said, considering he was a carpenter by trade. He looked around the screen for a little ‘x’ or something to get out of it but found it closing as he thought about it, giving him an unrestricted view of his surroundings.
He looked around taking in the glade once more.
Lush green grass, thick forest on all sides full of tree’s he’d never seen before. They looked like oaks maybe? He was a carpenter not an arborist. He’d have a better idea if he cut them into planks first, but that was the last thing on his mind.
All he knew, was that he was pretty damn sure this wasn’t midsummer Australia.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
He found himself thinking about his stats again and the screen popped up again.
Hayden Black
Level: 1
Profession: -
Mind: 21
Focus: 16
Strength: 28
Dexterity: 21
Endurance: 26
Unallocated Skill points: 5
Unallocated Language tokens: 1
Skills…
“Alright. Strength and endurance seem pretty good.” He mused. “What does all this mean though?
“I’m assuming language token means I can learn French or something. Skill points obviously go into my skills but does that just level up my current one or are there other skills I can learn.”
Accessing skill database…
Hayden’s head erupted with knowledge as billions of potential skills poured into his brain. His body slammed back in seizure as the almost omniscient amount of knowledge tried to fit into his tiny human sized brain. A scream tried to escape his lips but was unable to as his body tore itself apart from the inside.
New player acknowledgment: Erasing skill database from knowledge. Adding ‘Are you sure prompt?” when trying to access skill database. Reversing damage done from accessing skill database. Eliminating the memory of unbelievable pain. Providing knowledge that accessing skill database is currently a bad idea. Offering apologies.
Warning! No future reversals will be available should you damage yourself again from opening the skill database.
Hayden sat back up with a gasp. “What the fuck was that?!” He shouted. He’d had lines of Columbian marching powder with less kick than that.
New player acknowledgement: unallocated skill points are able to be spent on one level of skill. whether learnt or unlearnt.
“How would I allocate a point to a skill I haven’t learnt about?”
You are trying to access the skill database
Are you sure?
Y/N
“Hell no.” Hayden said with confidence as he felt an incredible ominous feeling even at the thought of trying to access it. He couldn’t quite remember why he didn’t want to access it. He just knew that he didn’t.
He let out a sigh and got to his feet, dismissing his status screen.
“This still doesn’t answer where I am.”
Welcome to Estura
The words had more emphasis and a grander feeling than the others had, almost like an announcement until they faded from his vision and were replaced with some with a similar if a bit less grand feeling to them.
Yfeldeorc Forest
“Oh…” He responded in mild surprise at the helpfulness of the response as the words faded away. “Well, where the hell is that?”
Welcome to Estura
‘Estura’ shimmered in the air a little more this time before disappearing again.
“Now you’re just fucking with me!” Hayden shouted, pointing up at the sky.
Only silence answered him.
“Now what do I do? How do I ‘welcome to earth’ again?” He asked nobody, glancing around his unfamiliar surroundings once more as a breeze cut through the glade with a cooling presence.
Quest Offered!
Find the 2 others.
Do you accept?
Y
He read the prompt a few times before answering.
“Why ask me if I accept if you’re not going to give me the option to say no?”
Quest accepted!
“I didn’t even say yes!”
Others found: 0/2
The words, unlike all the others, didn’t fade away. Instead, they simply shrunk and moved off to the left of his vision.
“I suppose I’m trying to find these others, then.” He said resignedly, turning on the spot, he looked around for which way to begin searching. It was as he was trying to decide that he realized he could hear a faint buzz in the air.
It was almost like a constant dull roar, only barely perceptible.
It seemed to be coming from the same direction as the sun that, even in the few minutes he had been messing with his stats, had risen quite high into the sky already.
He decided that was as good a direction as any and set off through the forest.
It wasn’t long before he realized what the dull roar was.
Water. It sounded like a waterfall.
He picked his pace up a little and picked his way over the thick roots of the trees that seemed to sprawl through the thick, soft grass and mosses that carpeted the forest floor.
He quickly found himself pulling up short, eyes widening in awe as he took in the sight before him.
A small break in the trees showed a lake stretched in front of him. Cliffs rose up from it to his left and stretched almost a third of the way around its edge. Forest or small clearings surrounded it on all other sides.
All along the cliffs, waterfalls poured down into the lake sending small sprays of water into the air forming rainbows that glimmered in the sun.
A small rock shelf clung to the bottom of the cliffs in some parts, the waterfalls forming rockpools where they hadn’t already downright eroded it entirely
It was a majestic sight to behold. His eyes taken it all in as they glanced from the water to the cliffs and back, finally settling on a set of ruins that had been built over the top of the waterfall closest to him.
“At least that’s a sign of humans.” He muttered.
He thought for a moment before deciding that was the logical next choice of exploration, he looked up the forested incline that would take him up to it. It was heavily covered in thick, thorny berry bushes which looked like they would be an absolute bitch to get through, and they even ran right up to the cliffs edge, meaning he would have to cut back into the forest to try and get around them.
He looked down at himself. He still had his work clothes on, which meant a bright yellow, high-vis shirt, his work shorts with empty pockets and his steel cap boots.
Not wanting to cut up his legs trying to get through the bushes, he resigned himself to a bit of a longer walk, and went to begin, but before he could even take a step, an all-too-familiar voice called out from his right.
“Hayden?!”
Hayden turned around in surprise. “Jake?!”
*Ding* Quest update!
Others found: 1 / 2