Jake awoke with his glasses askew upon a comfortable bed of moss at the base of a large tree, its roots wrapping around on either side of him, as if forming a natural bedframe.
He sat bolt upright looking around the forest in alarm.
“The fuck’s goin’ on?” He whispered to himself. “Where am I?”
New Player Detected…
Jake, very much alike Hayden’s reaction to words suddenly appearing in front of his face, scrambled back away from them, only to let out an angry stream of curses as his head smacked into the tree he had awoken under.
The words vanished while he rubbed his head in pain.
New Jake Black Detected…
Analyzing…
“What. The actual. Fuck. Is going on?” He said staring at the words in confusion.
Analyzed
Distributing stat points…
“Stat points?” he asked. His eyes widened as he took in his status screen that popped up next.
Jake Black
Level: 1
Mind: 23
Focus: 17
Strength: 24
Dexterity: 25
Endurance: 22
Unallocated Skill points: 5
Unallocated Language tokens: 1
Skills…
“Holy shit.” He said slightly dumbfounded, whilst reading his stats. “I’ve been isekai’d!”
Excitedly he made his screen disappear and reappear a few times, wondering how it worked, his mind in overdrive.
“What skills do I have?” He asked.
Jake Black
Skills:
Animal Handling: lvl 1
“Oh…” He said, his disappointment clear in his voice.
He guessed it made sense. He had two dogs after all.
It just… would’ve been nice to have a few others.
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.
“Oh, okay. Maybe it just missed some in analysis.” He said with a little bit of hope coming back into his tone. “Well what other skills can I use my skill points on.
Accessing skill database…
His brain turned to mush and his body contorted in unspeakable pain.
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.
“Might have to figure out what skills I can learn myself then.” He thought for a moment. “Archery skill.” He declared.
*Ding* Would you like to learn skill (Basic Archery)?
Y/N
He quickly declined, realizing how stupid and rash that had been. What if no prompt had come up? He didn’t even know how valuable his skill points were. Did he get them every level or were they just a starting resource? He’d find out eventually, he was sure, but there was now one thing he really had to check.
He brought up his stat screen again.
“No HP bar?” He asked, and as he did the screen changed.
Jake Black
Level: 1
HP: 195/195
MP: 230/230
STAM: 220/220
His eyes lit up as they took in that beautiful little blue bar that had popped up in front of him. A smile crept across his face.
“Magic skill!” He declared with confidence.
Nothing happened.
“Shit, alright.” He said, determined to figure this out. “Uhhh, evocation magic skill?”
Nothing.
“Basic magic skill?”
Zilch.
“Healing Magic skill?”
*Ding* Would you like to learn skill (Basic Healing Magic)?
Y/N
It took every little thread of willpower inside him to stop himself from accepting immediately. He dismissed the notification and looked up at the sun filtering through the forest canopy, a warm fuzzy feeling thrumming through him as the sunlight warmed his face.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
“I’m home.” He whispered to the world. He looked around at his surroundings, taking in the forest around him and the soft moss beneath him. “But where exactly is ‘home’ for me now?” He asked as he got up.
Welcome to Estura
Yfeldeorc Forest
“E-felled-orc?” He asked, most likely completely butchering the pronunciation with his Australian accent. “Hopefully that doesn’t mean ‘home of the orc’ or something.” He muttered.
*Ding*
“Ooo! Another ding.”
Quest Offered!
Find the 2 others.
Do you accept?
Y
“Oh.” He said a little disappointed, “The tutorial.”
He accepted the quest.
Quest Accepted!
Others found: 0 / 2
“Who the fuck are ‘others?’” He asked looking around. The sun had risen a little by now so he figured that might as well be a good starting point, and easy to follow.
He set out, his mind still wondering about all the abilities he could learn. Looking around, he wondered what kind of forest he was in, which brought him to a stop, as it quickly formed another thought.
He looked around before his eyes fell onto the moss beneath his feet and he started focusing on it intensely. He was starting to think maybe he might have to try it on an animal or something when,
*Ding* Skill learnt: (Identify) lvl 1
(Identify) is a skill known by most sentient creatures, providing them with the constant flux of information needed to gain the upper hand within the cosmos. Know thy enemy and yourself and you shall never know defeat.
A small window of text appeared over the moss.
Carpet Moss
His smile grew wider as he started trying to identify things all around him, only for it to quickly fade as he got the responses.
Carpet Moss, Carpet Moss, Deorc Tree, Carpet Moss, Deorc Tree.
There didn’t seem to be a lot of variety…
He stopped again when he spotted two distinctly separate types of mushrooms that both only showed up as Mushroom.
He checked his skills tab.
Jake Black
Skills:
Animal Handling: lvl 1
Identify: lvl 1
“It’s too low.” He said in realization. “It would be nice if there was a guide or something.” That stopped him for a moment and he tried to unfocus his eyes.
As he stared off into nothing, he recognized a small question mark sitting in the bottom right of his vision.
He focused on it and a flood of information was instantly placed into his head. His hands clutched at his head as he was forced to his knees with a grimace of pain. “Too much!” He managed through gritted teeth and the pain vanished along with all the information and he fell down onto his hands, gasping for air.
“I was hoping more for some sort of book, or pages similar to the stat screen?”
Gingerly, he focused on the question mark again, hoping his wishes would be understood by whatever system was in charge.
A sigh of relief left him as a guide, almost like a wiki popped up in front of his eyes and he was able to read it without the pain of an immediate knowledge transfer.
He managed to find a skills tab and read through it briefly, coming up slightly disappointed with the information that was there.
But to sum it up:
Skills get stronger the more you use them. Higher leveled skills will yield better results.
“I could’ve figured that one out on my own…” He muttered. He quickly looked through the guide but didn’t see anything he thought would be immediately helpful so closed it and continued on his way until he heard the slight roar of cascading water in the distance.
He followed the sound until he came to a beauteous lake with waterfalls falling from cliffs and a castle ruins on top of them.
He hid just back from the tree line, not wanting to expose himself too much while he took in the view.
The castle seemed the next logical option to head up to, especially because he could see a tower, that, unlike the rest of the ruins, looked like it was still in good shape.
The incline looked like a pain in the ass to get up because of the thorny bushes in the way, but he didn’t see why he couldn’t cut back inland a little and go around them.
He was about to do just that when of all things, a human in a high-vis shirt walked out of the tree line about 50 meters to his left, between him and the ruins.
The man had short, light-brown hair very similar to his own, that had been trimmed into a mullet, as well as work shorts and steel-cap boots on.
It mustn’t just be me that has been isekai’d then, he thought to himself.
*Ding* Quest update!
Others found: 1 / 2
Well, that’s rather helpful.
Just because the quest had updated however, didn’t mean he was just going to approach this random tradie in the middle of the woods.
Was what he thought to himself, right until the man turned just slightly, and Jake was able to see a side profile of him.
“Hayden?!” He said in surprise, unable to stop himself.
“Jake?!” Hayden asked in equal surprise.
“What are you doing here?!” Jake demanded, almost insulted his older brother was trying to latch onto his new life adventure.
“I don’t know! What the fuck are you doing here?!”
“Isekai!” Jake said, gesturing all around him as if that explained everything.
“The fucks an Isekai?!” Hayden said, obliviously.
“This!” Jake responded indignantly.
“That doesn’t explain anything!” Hayden shouted, now getting angry.
Jake put his hands up to calm his brother down as he realized Hayden wasn’t as much of a nerd as he was.
“We’ve been transported to a different world.” Jake said plainly.
“Well, I figured that one out already, didn’t I genius?”
“That’s what an isekai is!” Jake said, as if Hayden was the idiot.
“Just say that then, don’t go making up words for no reason!”
“Its not a made up word it’s a genre.”
“How the hell do we get out of a genre then?” Hayden asked.
“Iuhnno” Jake grunted with a shrug.
“Aren’t you just helpful.” Hayden said, looking around again, his eyes unfocusing for a second as he took in the quest development. “Well, if you’re one other, then who’s the other other?”
Jake looked up at the castle ruins before responding. “Probably Sam, I’d guess.”
“Why would you guess that?” Hayden said, looking at his younger brother.
“I mean, it could be mum or dad, I might’ve even guessed maybe some type of mentor or teacher figure that might help us make our way through this new world, but I’m gonna put my money on Sam.”
“Why?” Hayden asked confused.
Jake pointed behind him towards the castle ruins. “Because I’m pretty sure that’s Sam running away from the castle now.”
Hayden turned to see a figure, that did look suspiciously like their eldest brother running down the hill and away from the castle and straight for the thorny bushes.
Six small figures chased behind him, but they were hard to make out in the long grass that stretched around the castle.
Sam crashed into the bushes, and only slowed down a little, his legs lifting high as he scrambled over and through them, his clothes snagging and ripping as he did.
“What the fucks chasing him?” Hayden asked looking on with worry.
The two brother’s made brief eye contact before bolting towards Sam without any further words.
The two covered a lot more ground, out in the open than Sam was able to as the little figures chasing him also dived into the bushes, although they seemed to have a little less success than Sam did, and they were only about twenty meters away from the closest bush when Sam popped out of them, clothes and skin torn and bleeding.
He paused, his already scared eyes widening even further as he took in his two younger brothers.
All of them stopped in a quiet moment of recognition as they all looked at one another. The moment broken by a quiet *Ding* that they all heard in their own minds.
“Run!” Sam shouted at them, taking off in a sprint once more, in the direction of his brothers.
“From what?!” Hayden yelled back, but was dumbstruck only a moment later as the first of the six little figures managed to break free of the bushes behind Sam.
A short creature, only about waist height with green skin. Its long and pointed ears and nose jut out from its head, with bumps and warts covering what little skin it had exposed. It wore a brown leather wrap all around its body that looked almost like a poncho that had been tied at the waist and covered what looked to be chainmail around its arms.
“Is that a fuckin-” Hayden began.
“Goblin.” Jake said with a smile, his eyes unfocusing for a moment, his smile growing even wider as he read the quest update.
*Ding* Quest Completed!
Others found: 2 / 2
You have completed a quest!
Here are your rewards:
1x Class
1x Class Equipment
Please choose a Class from the following:
(Fighter)
(Thief)
(Ranger)
His smile dropped a little, not seeing any mage classes, but that was something he could look at later. He wanted to see what classes his brothers got before he picked.
His eyes refocused again, seeing Sam still sprinting across the open clearing with fear in his eyes and the goblin behind him holding something up.
“Oh shit!” Jake said as he realized exactly what the goblin was holding up. “Duck!” He yelled at Sam as the goblin let the bolt fly from his crossbow.
Sam let out a scream as the bolt pierced through his shoulder, sending him sprawling to the ground.
“NO!” Hayden yelled as the blood drained from Jakes face, both of them frozen as they watched their brother go down.
“Ahhh!” Sam screamed from the ground, as he looked up at his brother’s, the fear in his eyes just as much for them as it was for his own life.
“RUN!” He screamed at them.
*Ding* Congratulations! You have chosen (Ranger)