Chapter Four: He’s a New World Man
Marc didn’t like the feeling of standing too near the forest. He had no idea what lived in there and wanted at least a little bit of space in case something decided to make a rush for him. He started to walk down the hill and soon came to a small outcropping near the foot where it leveled out into a wide valley. He couldn’t see any obvious signs of civilization or even people in general nearby. No roads, trails, signs, not even abandoned garbage buried in the dirt.
He started to worry that he might be further away from the town than he had estimated from the top of the hill. Now it was feeling like those areas far between cities where you only need to step a few hundred yards off the highway to lose all signs of human habitation.
The temperature was mild, and the climate looked a bit more friendly than the New Mexico desert he had just left. It looked more like the pictures of New England you see in bathroom calendars with the barns and bridges. Lots of trees, grass, and bushes spread around low hills in every direction. He had lost sight of the town as he had descended, so he stopped by the rock to orient himself and take inventory of his situation.
As his head cleared and his memory had come back, he thought back to the last part of his conversation with Mary. That was the important stuff. He felt comfortable confirming that this was indeed a parallel world. Either that or someone had gone through a tremendous amount of trouble to deceive him. There was no way this was the American Southwest. The air was too humid, too cool for the time of day, the plants and trees were all wrong, and the air even smelled different.
Marc took another deep breath through his nose. He could smell a strong scent of dirt, like after a rainstorm, and oddly enough a light aroma of… onions? Like the strong onions they put on cheap fast food to hide the taste of low-quality meat. Sweet, spicy, and a bit rotten. At least he could breathe the air and things seemed similar to what he was used to. Mary had mentioned something about how parallel worlds have some differences, but also share a lot of similarities to each other. Particularly with the fundamental laws of nature. At least the ones closer to his world, whatever that meant. Then he remembered the next part of the conversation.
“That world, it has magic.” She had dropped that little bombshell.
Magic, it seems was real, at least in this world. Real Magic like in the novels and movies. Mary had explained that it was a type of natural phenomenon, made possible by some characteristics of this dimension that were not present in his own. Marc had certainly started paying a lot of attention to the conversation when this topic had come up. What kid doesn’t dream of having special powers after all? He had not been that into comic books or Harry Potter, but he would sometimes fantasize about being able to instantly teleport somewhere, usually when his car had broken down. Once after watching a movie, he had stared intensely at a wad of paper in a trash can in an attempt to cause it to break out into flames. Instead, he just got a slight headache and quickly walked away hoping no one had seen his behavior. But Mary had said that here, true Magic existed, and better yet, that he would be able to use it.
But not yet. It would take some time, Mary had warned him, until he would be able to use magic like people in this world. Something to do with the transfer process and the weird cells that made up his new body. That reminded him that this was a new body. That explained the healed smoker’s lung thing he thought to himself. Now that he had a chance to stretch his legs, everything felt the same for the most part. He didn’t feel taller or stronger, or anything like that. Perhaps a bit healthier. I guess Mary didn’t bother transferring all the toxins and chemicals that surely infused his body from a lifetime of bad lifestyle decisions. He thought about smoking a cigarette again, but quickly dismissed the thought, realizing that the urge was a lot easier to control without the physical addiction backing it up. He vowed to stay away from any vices like that with this new body.
While he couldn’t use magic yet, Mary had given him a few tools that he would be able to use while in this world. She had called them his hacker’s toolkit. Abilities that neither people from his world nor the locals in this world would have. Something unique to dimensional travelers.
Marc took another deep breath, then fixed his eyes on the rock he was standing beside. He stared intensely at the rock, suddenly realizing he was replaying the fire in the garbage can episode, and quickly spun his head to make sure no one was watching him. He laughed a bit at himself at that reaction, but as he turned back to the rock, he noticed something. A single word, floating in the air right in front of the outcropping. He immediately recognized that it was the same text-in-a-box phenomenon that he had experienced after the meetup he had with the truck earlier, Even the same word processor font was used, although this time instead of following his eyes, the word seemed to be tied to the same point in space. A single word hung there.
【ROCK】
Thanks, he thought to himself, really helpful. He blinked his eyes and the word was gone. Next, he tried it out on other things around. A nearby bush was 【BUSH】, and a stone was 【STONE】, he looked down and the popup box appeared.
【SHOE*】
His brow furrowed. He focused on the “*” next to the word and the word exploded into a large textbox covering his vision.
【* A SHOE. THIS ITEM HAS ADDITIONAL PROPERTIES HOWEVER YOUR INTERFACE LEVEL IS INSUFFICIENT TO DISPLAY THEM AT THIS TIME. LEVEL UP YOUR INTERFACE TO GAIN ACCESS TO MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS OBJECT. 】
Marc slowly exhaled, letting the air push its way out of his lungs in a barely audible whistle. He tried to figure out what that meant. He remembered what Mary had told him about this ability. The Interface was a utility to help him adjust to this new world. A guide or tutorial that would explain things to him in a way he would be able to understand. She had explained that it was mostly drawn from his own mind. The appearance was determined by his preferences and experiences. I guess that makes sense, Marc thought to himself. He now recognized the boxes and words as the guides used in video games. Games like the ones he played as a kid, and more recently the online game he supported at the call center. It was like he had been given an additional sense, like sight, smell, etc. The INTERFACE was the front end so he could interact with that new sense, although telling him a rock was ROCK didn’t seem particularly helpful. He held his bag in front of himself and sure enough, the word appeared in bright glowing text.
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【BAG*】
He focused on the “*” and in an instant,
【* A BAG. THIS ITEM HAS ADDITIONAL PROPERTIES, HOWEVER YOUR INTERFACE LEVEL IS INSUFFICIENT TO DISPLAY THEM AT THIS TIME. LEVEL UP YOUR INTERFACE TO GAIN ACCESS TO MORE INFORMATION ON THIS OBJECT.】
He looked into the bag at the various items inside. Each item was soon accompanied by a floating word followed by that asterisk.
It must have something to do with the fact I brought these all with me from my world, Marc realized. Then, on a whim, he looked at the palm of his hand, and instantly his whole range of vision was blocked out by a giant pop-up box.
On one side of the box was a picture of himself. His whole body standing like a police mug shot staring straight ahead. On the left side of the box was a dense group of text.
NAME: MARC CHURCH
AGE 19 (EARTH RELATIVE TIME)
INTERFACE LEVEL: 0% TO NEXT LEVEL
RACE: DIMENSIONAL TRAVELER
AFFILIATIONS: NONE
STATUS: HEALTHY
HEALTH: 100%/100
STAMINA: 100%/100
BASE LEVEL: 1
STRENGTH (STR) [4] +1
CONSTITUTION (CON) [4] +1
INTELLIGENCE (INT) [7] +1
AGILITY (AGI) [5] +1
DEXTERITY (DEX) [6] +1
LUCK (LUK) [0] +1
HEALTH RECOVERY (HR) [0.203%] (HR)MIN
STAMINA RECOVERY (SR) [0.523%] (SR)/MIN
PASSIVE SKILLS:
ACTIVE SKILLS:
EQUIPMENT:
HOODIE (DUR 8/10)
JEANS (DUR 7/10)
T-SHIRT(DUR 6/10)
UNDERPANTS (DUR 7/10)
SOCKS (DUR 9/10)
SHOES (DUR 7/10)
INVENTORY: 0/20
After the heading for Inventory, there was an array of empty boxes, four across and five deep. Marc wondered for a moment why his bag was not counted in his inventory when the bag suddenly disappeared. At the same moment, the boxes under inventory were filled in. In the first box was a picture of his backpack, and then each item that was in the bag filled out the next few slots. A flashlight, wallet, water bottle, Soda can, Tacos (2), Book, ID Badge. If he focused on any item, then the description would pop up. He focused on the water bottle and the text appeared.
【WATER BOTTLE*】
He focused on the words and suddenly all the boxes covering his vision disappeared like cockroaches when you turn the lights in the basement on. Suddenly the bottle appeared in his hand. Without thinking, he opened it and took a swig. The water tasted bitter, but it relieved his dry throat as he swallowed.
Then he focused on the back of his hand and the status screen reappeared in front of him. He focused on the bottle and it popped back into his inventory. It seemed to work instinctively, reacting to what he wanted, rather than any verbal or mental command. This was by far the coolest thing he had ever seen. He could carry things without worrying about the weight. He didn’t have to worry about forgetting something or getting robbed. Maybe this was worth getting hit by a truck after all.
He wondered about how it worked. Why did all the items in his bag get moved to their own slot, but the batteries inside the flashlight stayed in the flashlight and all the cards in his wallet didn’t get split up? There seemed to be some rules he didn’t quite get, but the basics were pretty simple to grasp.
With his hands free and everything inside his inventory, Marc started walking again. As he walked, he experimented with the interface, probing the power to see what kind of powers and limitations he could confirm. He realized he could not get information on things that were too far away. About ten feet seemed to be the limit. Anything further and nothing happened when he focused on it. Similarly, he could only place things he was touching into his inventory, He tried to put the large rock inside, but he received a warning instead.
【THIS ITEM IS TOO LARGE TO BE PLACED IN YOUR INVENTORY AT THE CURRENT LEVEL. LEVEL UP YOUR INTERFACE TO INCREASE THE AMOUNT AND SIZE OF OBJECTS THAT CAN BE STORED.】
Marc was ecstatic. Not only was this the most amazing thing he had ever seen, but it was possible to upgrade it to be even better. He imagined how different things would have been in his life, all the things he could have done with this power. His imagination started to flip through ideas of jobs he could have excelled at, pranks he could have pulled off, and even some less-than-legal schemes that would have made his life very different. Now, he just needed to figure out how to get back to civilization so he could start his new life.
Pop! A small square appeared in the upper right side of his vision. This time there were no words, but instead a small yellow arrow-like mark “^” appeared at the center of the otherwise empty box. Marc focused on the box and it instantly grew to cover most of his vision. Other than increasing in size, however, nothing else appeared to have changed. He frowned for a moment, then something occurred to him. Turning to his left, then his right, Marc saw the small arrow in the middle of the square spin around mimicking his movement. He mentally imagined the map zooming out and immediately the arrow started to shrink in size. Soon a large dot started to creep into the frame from a corner. Marc tried to get more information by focusing on the dot, or the arrow, but the map stubbornly refused to divulge anything more. Still, by aligning his body with the arrow and facing in the direction of the dot, he confirmed that it was in the rough direction of the town he had seen earlier.
Marc was extremely pleased when he realized what the box was and how it worked. It was like those GPS boxes that people put in their cars. But after fiddling around with it for a minute his mood dampened. There were practically no details he could use, and no useful information beyond what a basic compass could do. He focused on the dot, willing more information from the tiny glowing arrow representing Marc.
【THE MAP CAN SHOW YOUR CURRENT POSITION, HEADING, AND PRE-SET WAYPOINTS. IT CAN ALSO DISPLAY KNOWN PEOPLE AND FAUNA. LEVEL UP YOUR INTERFACE TO EXPAND THE AVAILABLE INFORMATION.】
Marc started off, hopefully in the direction of safety and shelter. What exactly awaited him he had no idea, but he couldn’t help but be excited by the possibilities. Especially now that he had these amazing gifts to help him. The first thing to do however is to level up.