It was a dark and stormy night. At least that’s how Jasper felt the weather should’ve looked. A clear, sunny day did not fit the current situation. “So, are you going to give us your lunch money or what?!” said the most muscular of the three bullies, pinning Jasper to the wall of the old brick school building. Jasper just sighed. Why did people always pick on him? Sure, he was the perpetual “new kid” having been to 10 different public schools in the last 7 years. But it’s not like he looked like an easy target, he was 6 feet tall and 170 pounds, and certainly not chubby at that, he worked out regularly, and was quite proud of his burgeoning six-pack.
“Hey, LISTEN… to… ME!” The muscular one drew his arm back to punch him in the face. Jasper simply took advantage of the release in pressure to punch the bully in the nose. The bully, stunned from the punch, released Jasper and tripped on a rock, falling on his back.
The other two bullies stood nearby, but one was quite obviously toasted, and the other was not what one could call athletic, with some chubby boyish features that are typical of the comic relief in any good bully group. The muscular one stood back up quickly. “Do you know who my dad is? You’re going down!” “Seriously?” Jasper said as he dodged a poorly aimed punch, “Not only did you just deliver the most stereotypical line ever, you decided to give it to the freaking new kid! I literally moved in 2 days ago! How on Earth would I know who your dad is?”
“He’s got a point” said the toasted one, “you should’ve told him your dad was the principal first”
“Aw man, the principal?” said Jasper sighing, “I’m going to get suspended, aren’t I?”
“Yep, unless you… just… freAKING STAND STILL!” the muscular one started yelling, having been unleashing several attempted attacks at Jasper. Fortunately, the jab Jasper sent at the beginning of the fight landed on the bully’s nose and left him with tears in his eyes, distorting his vision and allowing Jasper to easily dodge the inexperienced punches.
It was at this point that something changed. A blue screen appeared in front of Jasper’s vision, distracting him just enough to allow the bully to finally land a weak glancing blow that clipped Jasper’s triceps. “Haha gotcha! Wait, what the heck?” the bully looked at the air in front of him, “Are you seeing this too?” “Yep” replied the chubby one.
“Yeah, me too” said Jasper with a slightly confused look. “I guess that rules out this being a hallucination,” he said. At that point they all looked at the extremely high bully who was throwing up on the ground. “Ugh,” groaned the bully, who slowly stood up after a couple seconds, “I feel frickin’ SOBER. Why on Earth do I feel SOBER, ugh I hate it.”
Jasper disregarded the 3 bullies and focused on the screen in front of him
Hello Citizens of world 5: EARTH, and welcome back to the Pantheon! We know we’ve been gone for a while, and we know that you have forgotten about almost all of us, save a few minor Gods that somehow ended up in your myths. For the last 10,000 divine years* the Accords have been in effect, and because of that, your world and its six sister worlds have been devoid of mana until a divine decade ago when the mana began to trickle back. This allowed the Gods to slightly alter some of your world’s media to prepare you for this day. The stories of the Fae, Elves, Vampires, Werecreatures, Humans, Half-men, and Monsters are the species or species groups are part of each of the 7 worlds, with the Fae races occupying World 1: Sidthe and the Monster races occupying World 7: Farzeen. Some of you may get to meet some of these other races eventually, but now onto more important business. The Accords have broken, allowing the mana to grow to the point where it will eventually reach the first mana threshold and start summoning mana beasts of the common variety. These beasts are dangerous, and at present, none of you will be able to defeat one in combat. Thus we, the Gods, have granted all of the sapient races of the 7 worlds the ability to participate in a tutorial to learn more about the Ascension System, as well as gaining the chance to gain an Uncommon, or even a Rare class, if you impress us enough with your potential and/or skill. Your tutorial will begin in 6 divine minutes*, so make sure to grab a weapon and some food, as the tutorial will last a full divine hour*. To dismiss this notification and any following notification, simply think Dismiss. If you want to review this notification or any following notification, simply think Review. *Each divine unit is equal to 48 units of Earth’s unit of time. So, a divine second is 48 seconds for you mortals
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“As Jasper read the screen, he slowly started thinking and nodding to himself OK so if I’m going to be in there for that long, I’m going need a bit more than just a couple of snacks, I need to head home now to make sure I can grab my pocketknife and some food. As Jasper was planning what food to grab, another notification appeared in his vision
Divine seconds left until tutorial 5 -> 4
Aww crap, Jasper thought I gotta go! My house is a minute run and I still need to grab all that stuff! Jasper quickly made it to his house, sparing no thought to the 3 bullies who were still reading the notification as if they didn’t understand the words written on it. Jasper darted up the stairs to get to his room, quickly grabbing his pocketknife on his nightstand before heading back down to the pantry to grab some food. He grabbed a few granola bars, some dried mangoes, and cookies. As he moved from the pantry to raid the fridge, he got yet another notification
Divine seconds left until tutorial 2 -> 48 seconds
Huh, that’s nice, I don’t have to do all the mental gymnastics to figure out how long I have left before I get summoned, Jasper thought idly as he grabbed a couple apples and a can of root beer from the fridge. As Jasper finally grabbed all that he figured he would need, he sat down, placing the food from the pantry beside him on the leather couch, and balancing an apple on each knee.
As the countdown continued, he started trying to review all the things he had heard about RPG’s. He had heard an acquaintance from the move before last mention something about classes and how they made you stronger than a normal person. He remembered something about killing creatures made you stronger, and he had played games with different rarity weapons being rare or uncommon, so he assumed that showing off combat skills would get him a better class so all he ha
*poof*
Suddenly, Jasper was gone, only the two apples resting on his knee, plus the root beer and knife in his hands disappeared with him.