A steep dive from this height was the only way I could see the world without the System, that ever-present lens over my eyes.

One moment I am wiping condensation from my aviator goggles and adjusting my helmet, able to stretch my hand out and touch the clouds. The next, my body reflexively sank into the safety of my saddle, praying the carabiners affixing me to it were still in working order. The rumbling chortle from the beast taking me down with them was reminiscent of laughing, especially as their wings furled inwards and we went into a headlong dive towards the ground.

I relaxed.

Almost weightless.

Let the blood retreat from my head and pool all somewhere else.

+Status warning! Approaching stun threshold.+

I blinked away the window. If only I could get rid of it entirely, just for a day-

We passed through a cloud. The wild forest blended into a wash of green and orange, a perfect autumn palette. Going very fast.

+Status warning! Stun threshold reached! You are Incapaci-!+

Eyes, hazy. Gravity - natural ruler of reality – melted away all the windows and bars, consciousness nearly fading, replacing the world for the briefest of moments with just… that… glimpse of empty void and-

Leathery bat-like wings, their span rivaling the main sails of a brigantine ship, fluttered and boomed as every flap stabilized our descent into a relatively gentler glide. My face crashed into the saddle with the deceleration, knocking sense back into me as my Health, Mana, Level, statuses all gradually faded back into view. Stun threshold bar emptied itself out before fading completely.

“DID YOU SEE THEM?” I shouted over the air currents caressing our combined silhouette. Well, more theirs, I was a passenger nestled into a crook where the neck met body riding in a saddle anchored to large spines going down the back. There was enough turbulence today that I was glad to be bundled up in my duty uniform, padded gambeson warm and comfy while letting me forget about the heavy breastplate.

The long serpentine neck of my partner shifted, their head turning enough for me to see a large molten orange eye blink at me. Secondary eyelids scoured away dust and moisture as the orb flicked between me and the ground somewhere.

One hand on the saddle, I leaned over to catch a glimpse of the ground below.

“Survey, humanoid.”

As the words left my lips, drowned out by the sky my companion gracefully navigated, the intent of my will acted on the world around me. The faintest drain of mana accompanied the calm washing over me, all distractions and sounds gone save for the quiet hum of the skill working its magic. Leaves and branches turned transparent, motes of life flashing yellow and red and green before subsiding, none being the category of my target.

“THERE!” I yelled, pointing toward what looked to be a hill, maybe dense thicket. “NOWHERE TO LAND NEAR IT, DROP ME OFF!”

Undoing the carabiner clips, I swung my leg over the side and slid down the shoulder of my companion’s scaly hide. Muscles rippled under my hand as I caught myself, waiting.

They snorted. I let go of the saddle handle. Freefall for a few seconds.

My midsection was seized in a set of large talons. Bracing against them, wings disturbed the forest as we hovered next to one of the taller trees. Deposited on the branches, I looked back.

Easily the size of two commuter buses end-to-end, the overgrown flying lizard I worked with still had a grace to the way they retained altitude. Smoldering amber eyes, set under an impressive horned crown that sloped back and upwards, trained on mine. Embers and streaks of black smoke leaking from the corners, there was a thrumming sigh from deep within the chest as they shook their snaking neck from side-to-side. Black scales shone with a faint iridescent sheen much like drops of oil splattered across puddles, tail waving like a rudder back and forth tipped with a long metallic blade. There were hints of soft red around the underbelly, overtaking the oily sheen, though my reverie broke as the Dragon snorted. There was a pointed glance between me and the ground.

“I’ll try and make it quick. Don’t go too far, okay?” I reassured, beginning to climb down. “You’d think the world was getting emptier with the huge influx of new blood.”

[Don’t take too long. My wings are beginning to ache and I’m itching under where your bottom has been sitting something fierce,] a feminine voice much smaller than the being looming over me said into my mind.

“We could always take a dip in the lake?” I replied, carefully hopping from branch to branch. Thankfully it was Ironwood, more than enough to support my heavy frame.

[After the last time? Frozen hells, no. Get the new person and let’s go home, on the double!] she chuffed, snapping jaws at the air before beating her wings to once more touch the clouds.

Shaking my head with a smile, I clambered down to the forest floor and off to do my job.

///

It looks like the target had arrived in one of the less dangerous parts of the Boreal Wilds. No high-Level predators, mostly neutral ambient creatures, the odd canine scavenger, a couple of mana nodes where various Elemental sprites congregated. Plenty of materials to gather off the ground and put together rudimentary tools and shelter. As far as starting zones went, this one dubbed the Viridian Tundra in the northern hemisphere was one of the more forgiving compared to, say, the Ashland Lava Plains or Sandstorm Plateau, let alone an underwater area such as the Abyssal Steppes.

It looked like interactable resources had been taken in grid squares as I combined Survey and Analyze to try and track down where the target had decided to make camp. Methodical, commendable for their first day.

I could never imagine being an Otherworlder. Ripped away from your reality and transported to another place. Some of the veteran Observers talked about the experience after interviewing victims. Fewer still were one themselves, or a descendant. The concept of having lived life in a place without the System and then dying or teleporting to our world, some other vehicle, was so foreign that it sparked my little pastime of trying to get in their shoes.

Hence a slightly unhealthy habit of chasing statuses that removed the System I’d been born into. My seniors called it Gee-force blacking out and-

Squish.

“Eh?” I eloquently noted. My boot sank into an unrecognizable gob of meat. Trying to kick it away and scrape the gunk off on the leaf litter turned out to be a mistake.

Snikt!

The world turned upside-down in the space of a breath. A loud bell rang from the direction I last sighted our target.

+Status warning! You are Immobilized!+

Swaying back and forth, the situation was less than ideal. A snare trap like this was not something I would be letting anyone know I walked right into. My Level might be way out of the league of this new person, but even a minor inconvenience of a trap like this still worked no matter the being. Breaking out of it was child’s play, considering I could touch it and the crude rope they had crafted would practically explode.

Then again, they were smart enough to employ something like this. I could have a little bit of fun. Roleplaying. Maybe the Otherworlder was easy on the eyes, someone impressionable, someone worth keeping in contact with?

I felt more than saw the person’s approach. Man, appeared Human, somewhat unfit from the winded panting, though the System was appearance agnostic to a degree with regards to actual Attributes. Adapting to the survival aspect seemed to be working out. Hit Level 2 within the hour since we detected him, so not too bad.

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

“Hello? Hellooo?” I mumbled, arms loose and still swaying a meter or two from the ground as the target approached from behind. “I sincerely hope you don’t try doing anything stupid.”

A careful poke from their spear – a poor quality branch with a sharp rock tied to the end – spun me to face them.

He was dirty. Denim Jeans, cotton polo, eye spectacles with one lens cracked, scratched up and cuts in the clothes. Shoes looked alright, hiking boots perfect for this environment. One hand had welts from wrestling with a campfire or Fire Sprite, the other smeared from most likely butchering an animal.

“Capti sunt alieni?” he said, stepping backwards. Guarded, spear down but ready.

“Oh, stars below, this is going to be-,” I sighed heavily, putting my hands out nonthreateningly. “Look, can you understand me? Do you know where you are, how you came here?”

“Si colloqui inter se possent, nonne existimarent id quod apud se erat nominabant?” the Otherworlder replied, still unintelligible. I could pick out a little bit of the System’s underlying translation, something about conversing. “Nulla quaestio.”

“Okay, that’s gotta be frustrating.” Taking a risk to pull my goggles up and the neck gaiter down to expose the fact that I was a similarly pink-skinned specimen as them. A look of understanding, I hoped, as his eyes met with mine. “See? Human. Homin. Hominid. Sapient. Anthropos.”

Nodded. Slowly, but eventually he smiled. He looked over to the rope keeping me aloft and went to undo it. I half-expected him to cut the lashing and drop me to the leaf litter, but thankfully I felt myself lowered gently enough to guide the descent with my own hands. Leaving the spear behind, he came over to untangle my feet.

Standing, my grin matched his and I held up a finger. There was a little trust established but I wasn’t going to blow it by making sudden movements. My hand went to my belt, crossing over sheathed dagger on my thigh and the holster for my six-iron, digging through pockets to produce two items.

One was an unassuming white pearl. Flecks of gold sparkled here and there across its smooth surface, magic at its core.

The other was a thin black slate, half of which flat and glass-like, the other with a series of characters and symbols. Less magic, the complex Tek item felt more like it was made of hundreds of other items that still made my skin crawl each time I used it. Some people had vomited from the dizzying amount of information the System read back if they had the idiotic idea to Appraise it. I couldn’t wait for the MagiTek equivalent to finally be convenient enough to distribute.

Offering them out to the Otherworlder, he reluctantly took both. He flipped the slate with the buttons, symbols towards him with some recognition. That was a good start, seeing he knew the intended way to hold the tool. I motioned for him to press the pearl up to his temple. Tapped my fingers to my own head insistently before he lost his nerve.

I could imagine what was going through his mind. The System populating a window asking if he would like to use the item that would bind it permanently. If he was a magic user, he would get the idea of what the pearl did, how it acted, the benefits, the fact that it had no drawbacks. A martial Class would understand it was magic. Judging by the hesitation, I was inclined to believe the latter.

Beyond that, he was also wondering again whether or not to trust the individual in front of him registering as Level ?? as he was no doubt viewing through the System. It wasn’t as overt as using an Analyze, Survey, but someone was always able to see a surface level read of the world around them. I saw in front of me a status bar with grayed-out Level 2 – yet with no Class – for an Otherworlder far beneath my power. They in turn were looking at the very least Level ?? in bold red lettering, maybe even the nefarious skull-and-crossbones indicating certain death should we clash.

Taking the plunge, the pearl found its way to the side of his forehead. It sparked, flashed, popped, before crumbling into a dust that absorbed into his skin. Working as intended.

“Hoooly fuck, dude, that stings!” my new charge shouted, dropping to his knees while clutching his head. “Wh-what did that do to me?!”

“Well, for one, you should be able to understand me,” I said while offering a hand to him. Gritting his teeth, he gratefully accepted. “It’s something we developed to help ease your transition to the World. You seem to know what this is?”

“Oh, the tabula rasa? Errh, diskio. No, that doesn’t sound right, it’s a long-speak-far,” he fumbled for words. Confusion and frustration. “This is a screen and a board of keys, right?”

“Correct. Don’t… worry too much about the name not coming out correctly. We’ve only recently undergone a type of what some call an industry revolution or something, the System hasn’t caught up yet so-to-speak,” I elaborated, looking around at the area around us. There was a distinct lack of creatures avoiding my presence. “You seem to be doing alright for yourself, but might I interest you in coming to civilization?”

“What do you mean? Isn’t this the part where the Quest NPC-, well, um, the locals tell the new guy what his purpose is for coming here?” the man asked, scratching at the spot the pearl had fused with his being. “Oh, oh god.”

He turned green, keeled over, trying to avoid my boots as he emptied his guts. What remained of some rabbit, cooked uncomfortably rare, was noisily evacuated.

I undid the cap to my canteen and offered it.

“Water, with some small enchantments. It’ll cleanse the Poisoned condition and even sate Hunger and Thirst for a little while,” I explained as he chugged heartily. “To answer your question, not quite. That time is behind us. There’s no Prime Evil or Demon Lord, no global crisis in the conventional sense for Otherworlders to deal with after finding themselves here.

“I was born here. My parents said that was all solved hundreds of years ago. Mother’s from Earth, father’s family was from Terra.”

Whether or not this particular man was able to take all this in stride wasn’t necessarily my problem. I could feel a prickling situation go down my spine as the words of my companion resurfaced.

“Wait, I was hit by a truck before I-,“ he floundered, starting to panic.

“Yes, that’s unfortunately a common method for getting here,” I consoled, getting him up to his feet. Shoving my hand into my satchel, I conjured in my mind the idea of the tool I needed. Full toon? Fall town? No, hooking from the sky. Skyhook? “The bright side is that you’re now in a world where death is an inconvenience and life modeled more after, I assume if you recognize the tablet, a game from your time.”

The magic satchel’s mouth ballooned as I pulled out the strange device and attached my carabiners to the main body. A second bundle followed that I offered to the man processing what might be a quarter-life-crisis.

“Here, put this on. Have you ever gone skydiving?” I asked innocently.

“N-n-no? Why?” He took the temporary harness that magically adjusted down to his figure. I gestured for him to hurry up, helping him into it and hooking us together.

“You may or may not enjoy this then,” I laughed, pulling on the Skyhook’s strap to activate its MagiTek function.

An Air rune violently reacted with a Fire one in order to simultaneously ignite a gas. The resulting reaction filled a bladder made of durable membranes, quickly ascending with a steel cable attached to it, spool tucked inside the Skyhook’s packaging. Balloon breaking through the forest canopy, our combined mass jolted when it stopped, waving like a beacon high above the treetops.

Moments later, a screeching roar echoed from the sky, scattering wildlife, birds taking to the air.

“What the hell was that? Why are you sending the ‘here, eat me’ sign?!” he babbled, trying to undo the metal clips linking us together. “Why the fuck are we attached to it?!”

“Oh, drat, I forgot to mention there are terrible flying creatures that prey upon us land dwellers,” I half-heartedly moaned. “Looks like we’ve attracted the attention of one, oh no.”

With a rattling hiss, a familiar silhouette beat their wings above us. Maneuvering around to grasp the Skyhook’s specially forged handles designed with the taloned forelimbs of an aerial creature of burden in mind, I tensed as the first yank shivered along the sturdy cable. The second caused us to skid along the forest floor for a moment, the third vaulted us through the air.

“WHAT IS GOING ON, WHERE ARE YOU TAKING ME?!” the young man screamed in my face. “I DON’T WANT TO GET EATEN!”

Smiling, I looked up and pulled him to my chest, covering his face from the stray branches that tried stopping our ascent into the heavens.

The Dragon’s scales shimmered with that oily sheen in the afternoon sun as we were pulled aloft. Well above the treetops, each flap of the wings brought us higher and higher.

“You can open your eyes now,” I said, patting the Otherworlder on the back.

Childlike wonder slowly diluted his abject terror. He shuddered with every battering we took from our Dragon’s wings, the turbulence of the warm airs, the fact that a thin steel cable and the huge claws wrapped around it were all that kept us from hurtling back down to the ground.

[All lies well. Shall we return to Greenharbor? I want that hot bath,] the mildly annoyed voice whispered in my mind.

“Wh-who was that? The Dragon?” the Otherworlder asked, hugging me tighter. Not like anything else could bring comfort at the moment, I allowed him that. “The Dragon, it speaks?! How?!”

[Yes, she speaks. She is a Draco and she resents the idea that she would be accused of entertaining the thought of eating another sentient being,] my Draconic partner huffed. Serpentine neck arched and craned downward to let her bright orange orbs glare at both of us as we hovered in midair. [She also has a name, but I am guessing you didn’t tell him yours?]

“No, I didn’t, and it looks like I didn’t see anything except his Level either. That’s nine for nine this month so far,” I sighed, shaking my head. “The Prefect isn’t going to like this, but we can deal with that later. Let’s go home before they hit us with another retrieval.”

[You do not have to ask me twice,] she laughed, our Skyhook swaying back and forth precariously as her body tensed, coiling like a spring.

“Alright, now you might want to hold on tight again,” I suggested calmly, clenching my hands around the cable and the Otherworlder’s harness.

“Wait, wha-, WOOOAH-!”

Laughing as she cut through the air, we trailed behind our ride a little past her tail. The glint of the metallic blade crowning it waved back and forth but for the hundreds of times we’d done this she’d never accidentally severed the line.

There was that one time over a lake, but I had deserved it. The joke had been worth it up until the point that she forced me to swim to shore while a school of man-eating fish nipped at my heels.