His form was humanoid almost human shaped, if that human was made of electric blue flowing light. It shimmered, rippling, constantly moving. The voice came into all of our minds. “I am the voice of the One, the All. They who have no titles, but are called by many names. I have been sent by the Elder Gods both high, and low. To give a message… and a warning. The celestial equinox has arrived. The prophecy has been fulfilled. The power of the heavens that which you call magic, has returned to your planet. As it floods in.” He stopped for a few moments i think to give a bit of extra drama.

He continued saying “Expect portals to open, across the world. Places of ancient power to reawaken. Around the world millions of beacons of power are being formed. All will soon disgorge beings of legend. Some you may call monsters, some are. But some will be the, as you once called them forgotten races. These areas can be claimed by chosen champions to create safe areas. Where humanity may be safe…for a time. Others will form into doorways. They will be locations of high concentrations of power. Folding in upon themselves, to create secluded fighting areas. Use them to help your defenders grow strong.

The governments of your world are now cast down. This is the end of your modern civilization. Forge your future, prove you deserve to survive. Or don’t… I care not. Your world was promised to us, and we have returned to claim that which is ours. From this day forward, some of you with natural talent. May exhibit unnatural powers. It will be a shadow of true power. Only the chosen champions can help remove the chains upon the populous. They shall be the new leaders, the heads of orders. Protect them. For without them, all humans will perish."

He turned gazing upon the world. "But as any gardner will know. Weeds must be cut, to allow the crop to florish. So be careful in who you put your trust. For a short time your modern weapons shall still work. Use them to defend against the hordes of monsters approaching. All to soon, the magic density will rise. So will the defenses of the monsters. Only those with the capacity for magic, will be able to defeat even the weakest of foes. Your future is in your hands, embrace it. Or your end will serve as a warning for future generations.”

With that the emissary vanished. We all sagged down in exhaustion. Keith looked at me. “OK either im hallucinating, or you were telling the truth.” I had wished we had been given more time to prepare. I had no idea what the talking blue lightning bolt, meant about unshackling people. Until I remembered how Katie had used a spell, than went catatonic. Even then she had not been able to see her status…until I helped her. I turned to Aiden. “You used a spell already right? Can you see a game interface in your vison?” He gave me a strange look. Then just shook his head in the negative. “Nothing at all? No health bar? No mana bar?” I asked. He shook his head again saying. “No nothing. What does it look like?” I said “Try mentally, and verbally saying ‘status’, hopefully it will unlock it."

Katie gasped “Oh like you did with me.” I nodded turning to Keith. While I heard Aiden behind me mumbling status over, and over. “Same for both of you. Your both gamers with the synaptic plug. So you should be able to use magic also. Just keep mentally, and verbally saying ‘status’, hope for the best. With a gasp of shock Adien jumped up “It worked!! I can see them. I’m a mage.” At this both Keith, and Erica screwed up their faces in concentration.

I hope it worked like it had for the others, but I had a slight bit of doubt. Neither had manifested an ability, or spell on their own yet. I felt a tingle in my body, glancing down I noticed my mana bar was half empty, it was slowlyticking back up. How did that happen? I wondered internally.

Erica jerked suddenly, I swear I saw wisps of a dark fog enshroud her for a second. Than her eyes opened wide, saying. “Woot i’m a rogue.” Keith opened one eye towards her obviously internally jealous, but made a point of congratulating his wife. He than screwed up his face in concentration so hard I saw little droplets of sweat form. His face started turning red. I was a little scared he would have a heart attack, or shit himself. Either would have been bad for all of us. I wished there was something I could do to help him... there was that tingle again, with an added pain in my whole body. I glanced down to see my mana bar was completely empty now. Ok this is wierd, i took shallow breaths feeling the pain subside as my mana bar climbed bsck up. Keith suddenly froze, eyes fluttering open. “I know kung-fu.” I rolled my eyes, saying “OK Keanu what’s your class?” He grinned “I’m a paladin.”

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

Immediately I jumped up in the air letting out a victory scream. Unfortunately this startled everyone around me. I opened my eyes slowly, noticing the looks of everyone around me. I gave a sheepish grin saying. “Oops sorry, I was excited. We have a standard group of five. Tank, healer, and three damage dealers.” I saw the recognition of the realization on their faces. I continued “With all of us together we can go grind some levels. Find one of those safe location zones. I could even convert it to my Goddess. She might be able to help us find special areas that are level specific. So we don’t walk into a high level zone by accident.” I turned to face everyone saying. “We are all first level. With us as a group, we could level, and survive. Where a solo guy would flounder, and probably die.”

We spent the next hour discussing our spells. Aiden had the spells teleport, fireball, and mage armor. He explained that the teleport was how he was able to travel to my house from across town in seconds. He also informed me that it took almost all his mana to use it. So it wouldn’t be useful in a fight. But it could be clutch in logistics. Being able to hop around town at will, could be a game changer.

Fireball was a very small walnut sized orb of fire he could throw out. Thankfully it was mentally thrown. He just pointed, and off it went. I don’t think Aiden could throw a baseball more than a few feet. We had to force him outside to show us. As my living room already had enough fire damage, thank you very much.

Mage armor caused him to emit a soft blue glow over his entire body. He was able to turn it on, or off by choice. He said it protected him from physical damage, but was poor against magic attacks.

Erica gained the ability shadow walking. It allowed her to emit a black fog to literally disappear from sight. If she moved too fast we saw a slight heat haze ripple. Like a certain predatory monster from a great classic movie. But if she moved slowly, noone could see her, well at night at least. I'm going to guess a blackish haze walking around in broad daylight, might be a bit noticeable.

She also gained an ability called envenom. It caused any weapon she held to be coated, and drip with a nasty caustic solution. I now have a few extra holes in my floor to show just how nasty it was.

Finally she learned an ability called pressure point. She said when she turned it on, everyone around her gained red dots. They appeared around certain locations on their bodies. She could just tell that if she attacked in those locations. It would cause the most damage, or be the most painful. Classic rogue in my mind.

Keith gained an ability called taunt, it forced anything he yelled at to focus all attacks at him. No matter how much damage anyone else did to it. But it only lasted for a short time.

He also gained the skill shield mastery. It allowed him to instinctively know how to use a shield. To just know not only how to block attacks, but how to angle them. This allowed him to deflect attacks thrown his way, minimizing the damage he took.

He also gained the ability cleanse. He said it removed poisons, curses, and bleeding affects. I had no idea curses would be a thing out of the game. So I was relived he gained that power.

Katie explained her powers to all of us. She had bind. Which caused vines to rapidly grow out of the ground, to wrap around a target. I remembered the nasty thorns they had, so I could just imagine it being very useful for crowd control. Meaning that if we faced two or more monsters, she could use that spell to hold one out of the fight for a time. While we focused on the other.

Wrath she explained shot out a bolt of lightning from her hands. After we had her demonstrate the ability. It almost looked like a baseball sized orb of crackling lightning. When it hit something, it surrounded the whole thing for a second.

We found that the smaller the target the more focused the damage. While the larger the target, it tended to disperse to much weakening it. My mailbox was the perfect size to be turned into a withered match stick. While a tree unfortunately, just tended to singe the leaves a bit.

Her third spell light. Was underwhelming at first glance. It shined a light down on a target. Until we inspected the tree stump she lit up. We saw it had a hole burned right through the top, to about a foot down. As Katie was inspecting the burned hole. The rest of us all subtlety glanced at each other, and with just eyes. Silently vowed not to piss off Katie.