In the depths of the earth a beat thrummed as it had for untold millennia. Unceasing, unending, and unchanging. Above that beat creatures scurried, storms raged, civilizations rose and fell. As more time passed streams became rivers and rivers became canyons. Change, an inherent aspect of the world made its way to everything in enough time, and just like the earth itself the unceasing thrum of a certain beat was not to remain untouched. Another night, another storm, like many of the others that had come before it. Rain poured from the sky, thunder echoed through the world like an angry petulant god, streaks of lightning flickered through the dark rainy night, ozone in its wake. A cliffside collapsed under the storm and a beat that had thrummed in the deep began its descent.

I have always found waking up after something went wrong to leave a bad taste in my mouth. This time was worse, much worse. “Huughhhh”, Gasping I began to awake. Only to begin violently coughing my guts out. I was soaked, buried halfway in mud. Water poured from the sky. I tried to scream, I tried to breath, but my throat would not work. I felt my surroundings shift. Then I began to slide. For a sickening moment I felt nothing holding me. I fell with the with a torrent of mud. Then “Whoosh” as I smacked back first into the water. Immediately I was gripped by a cold hard current. I struggled to get above the water only to have the raging current crash down on me over and over. I gurgled on the water as it entered my lungs. I was swept into the rocks barely remaining conscious as I was battered around. It felt like eons. A cycle of pushing my head above the water for a second only to have myself dragged back under. Over and over barely conscious until I felt myself smash into some mud and for and instant finally stop. Raising my head, on autopilot I frantically pulled myself onto the shoreline. Crawling, and hacking out my lungs I pulled myself further and further from the river. Alone and drowned I lost consciousness.

I once again began waking up. Confused I lifted my head. Where was I? What is going on? In front of me I saw a wall of rock. I was lying face first on a muddy ground. I could feel the wind sweep across my backside. Groggily I began to push myself off the ground. My arms trembled at the exertion. I was able to slowly raise myself up. I held myself steady with one hand against the cliffside wall as I took it all in. Looking around me I saw that the wall of rock that I first saw when I woke up was a cliff. Gazing up the side of the cliff I saw it rise thousands of meters above me. Looking behind me I saw another cliffside. At the top of the cliff, I could see a rolling mass of trees stretching across the top of the horizon.

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At that point it all began to hit me at once. Shaking I fell against the cliffside wall. It was hard to breath. I lay there shaking for minutes. My body was a wreck. I was feeling worse than the times I had been bedridden with the flu. I could distantly feel pain everywhere. But it was hard to care about the pain, like a distant phantom you just could not get yourself to be afraid of. It took me a couple of minutes, but I was able to force myself to sit up. Looking at myself I realized I was not wearing anything. My whole body was caked in mud. Branches were scattered around, the water lapping at the shoreline about 1.5 meters from my feet. I tried to think of how I got here. I remembered waking up the night before, unable to breath, my throat dry and the fall and roar of the water. Before last night, the last thing I remembered was the library basement and studying for the finals in my Modern Physics class. All of that was running through my mind as I heard a resounding “ding” in the recesses of my mind. A box appeared at the core of my vision.

System Integration Initiated

Eyes opening wide I stared incredulously at the box that had appeared right in front of me. What the freaking hell was going on here. Squinting, I raised my hand to touch the box in front of me. As my hand swiped through the box. The box disappeared only to be followed a second later by another “Ding”.

Excessive Mana Exposure Detected

Flabbergasted and stooped up against a cliff I stared at the screen in front of me. Another resounding “ding” rang out.

Due to excessive exposure to Mana

Species designation has warped

“Ding”

Voidling Subspecies Added

As the look of incomprehension clouded my face a roar reverberated through the canyon. Birds flocked from the trees at the top of the canyon. The look of incomprehension turned to fear. What the hell was that?