Back to the present-

∞

Dolly initiated the ready check, and the affirmatives came in one after another with satisfying precision. “Good,” she said, a grin tugging at her lips. “Let’s do it.”

The rest of the dungeon clearing went smoothly -a little too smoothly. Every pull was textbook. Her team executed each strategy with clockwork efficiency, making the whole thing feel more like a speedrun than a real challenge. It was exhilarating to see how quickly they tore through the dungeon, but the lack of any real hiccups left Dolly feeling oddly hollow. This was routine, not an adventure.

The final boss went down in a cascade of sparks and virtual gore, and Dolly leaned back in her chair, ready to call it a night. She glanced at the loot screen, mentally filing away the drops to distribute later. Her finger hovered over the button to log out.

And then it appeared.

A notice, glowing faintly in the center of her screen:

CONGRATULATIONS: SPECIAL DUNGEON UNLOCKED. DO YOU WISH TO ENGAGE?

“Did anyone else… see that?” Dolly asked, frowning. Her voice was steady, but her gut tightened with unease.

A flurry of affirmations came through her headset. “Yeah, I’ve got it too,” Rachel said, her voice tinged with confusion. “What the hell is this?”

“Special dungeon?” Rick mused. “I’ve been running this game since launch and never heard of a ‘special dungeon.’ Is this some kind of update?”

Dolly could hear the frantic clacking of keys as her team began scouring the internet for answers. Chat exploded as her stream viewers speculated wildly. ‘Hidden content?’ ‘New expansion teaser?’ ‘A glitch maybe?’ The comments were relentless, offering no clear answers.

“Guys,” Rick interrupted, his tone sharper now, “there’s a timer. Thirty seconds.”

Dolly’s gaze snapped back to the notification. Sure enough, a countdown had appeared beneath the text. 00:30... 00:29... The numbers ticked away with a cruel inevitability.

“We’ve already wasted some time,” Rachel said, panic creeping into her voice. “We need to decide, like, now.”

“Well,” Rick said, a hint of excitement in his voice, “what do you think? Should we go for it?”

Rachel hesitated. “I mean, sure, but didn’t you say you needed to get to bed early? Classes and all that?”

Rick laughed. “Yeah, I did. But come on, this is like finding a golden ticket. I can’t pass this up.”

“What about the rest of you?” Dolly asked, quickly toggling another ready check. “Click ready if you’re in, decline if you’re out.”

Affirmatives flooded in almost instantly, every party member choosing to dive into the unknown. Dolly’s heart raced as she turned back to her camera. “Looks like we’re doing this, folks,” she said, flashing a quick smile to her stream. “Something new, something rare. Wish us luck!”

Her chat filled with cheering emotes and encouraging messages: ‘You got this, Dolly!’ ‘GLHF!’ ‘Hope it’s not a wipe fest!’

With mere seconds left on the timer, Dolly clicked ACCEPT. Her party followed suit, the countdown disappearing as a loading screen replaced it. But this wasn’t the usual loading screen. The vibrant Emrys Gaming wizards hat logo was absent, replaced by a black void speckled with faint, shifting lights. A low, resonant hum filled her headphones, sending a chill down her spine.

And then everything changed.

∞

Dolly blinked and found herself on her knees, the cold surface beneath her unfamiliar and unyielding. A crushing headache slammed into her skull, as if her brain were trying to claw its way out through her temples. Groaning, she pressed her hands to the sides of her head, hoping to quiet the relentless throbbing. The pain immediately ebbed but for a phantom touch of it that remained.

“What the… hell,” she managed, her voice shaky.

She wasn’t the only one. Around her, other voices groaned and muttered in discomfort -her party. Everyone was there, and they all sounding as disoriented as she felt. Rick’s deep baritone cursed softly, while Rachel let out a sharp hiss of pain.

This is impossible, Dolly thought.

She forced her eyes open, squinting against the disorienting blur of her surroundings. The room she found herself in was unlike anything she’d seen in the game -or anywhere else, for that matter. It was circular, with a glowing diagram etched into the floor: concentric rings interwoven with lines that formed a Möbius-like knot design. The pattern seemed alive, pulsing with a hypnotic, otherworldly light that danced across the chamber.

Her breath caught as she realized the design didn’t stop at the floor. The glowing lines radiated outward, climbing the walls and connecting to an identical pattern on the ceiling above. The chamber pulsed with an eerie rhythm, the lights shifting in a mesmerizing, almost seductive dance.

She tore her gaze away, nausea twisting in her stomach. The whole scene felt… wrong. Like it wasn’t meant to be seen by human eyes.

Dolly turned her head, blinking rapidly to clear her vision, and froze. Her gaze landed on Rachel -but not the Rachel she knew. This was some surreal amalgamation of her real-world best friend and the druid avatar Rachel played in Nexus Eternal Online. The sight was both familiar and alien.

Rachel’s features were still hers -the same delicate cheekbones, the same sharp, mischievous eyes- but her skin carried a faint blue tint, almost like moonlight given form. Intricate tattoos, dark green and pulsating faintly, traced elegant patterns across her flesh, as if the essence of nature itself coursed through her veins. Her hair was no longer its usual chestnut brown but a cascading waterfall of silver-white, shimmering like spun light as it trailed down her back.

Rachel’s clothing completed the transformation. Her druidic garb was a masterpiece of otherworldly craftsmanship, an ensemble of bark, leaves, and woven moss that seemed to shift subtly with her movements. Streaks of crystal-clear water flowed across the fabric, disappearing and reappearing like rippling streams. The elements themselves appeared to have been bound into her attire: wind, wood, and sunlight fused into tangible form.

She held a staff, gnarled and ancient, its surface crawling with faintly glowing runes. Dolly recognized it immediately -it was the legendary weapon Rachel had fought tooth and nail to earn, a hard-won prize that had marked one of their guild’s greatest triumphs. The sight of it now, in this strange, vivid reality, sent a shiver through her.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Before Dolly could process further, her gaze shifted to her other side, landing on Duncan. He was largely the same -still tall, broad, and exuding the kind of effortless confidence that made you think “jock” at first glance. But there were differences, stark and undeniable. Duncan’s physical presence was amplified; she could tell he was taller, more muscular, his frame imposing in a way that spoke of pure, unyielding strength. His features had taken on a chiseled, almost heroic quality, and his blond hair caught the light as though it belonged to a movie star mid-action scene.

But it was the inhuman details that truly stood out.

Duncan’s ears tapered to sharp, elegant points, marking him unmistakably as a high elf. His armor -silver and gold, gleaming with a polished brilliance that defied grime or wear- fit him like it had been forged for a king.

His oversized pauldrons and vambraces gleamed in the chamber’s strange light, their intricate designs catching every glimmer. A massive tower shield rested beside him on the floor, and his longsword, strapped across his back, radiated quiet menace.

Dolly noticed his helmet cast to the side, a detail that gave him a rare vulnerability as he sat hunched, clutching his head in pain.

“Duncan,” she whispered, the word catching in her throat. The sound of it was wrong. It was not quite her voice. She turned her attention to herself, dreading what she might see. Slowly, Dolly looked down.

Her breath hitched.

“Where the hell are we?” She heard Rick’s voice cut through the haze, his usual bravado replaced by genuine unease. As she gazed at her own changes.

“Better question,” Duncan interjected, “is how the hell are we?”

What the hell? She wondered as she marveled. She was only aware of the discussion going on around her as background noise.

“This isn’t the game,” Rachel whispered, her tone trembling. “This isn’t even possible. I… I don’t know what this is.”

Dolly pushed herself to her feet, her legs wobbling like a newborn fawn’s. Her breathing was shallow, her pulse thundering in her ears. She turned slowly, taking in the room and the people around her. Her party was all here -or at least, they looked like her party. Their avatars were gone, replaced by flesh-and-blood versions of themselves. It was strange -like a mixture of their in game personas and their real life bodies.

Her gaze returned to her hands. They weren’t the hands of her cleric avatar from the game.

She moved her fingers and watched them in fascination. They were hers -she knew that intellectually, but they were also no longer those of the mortal gamer she’d always known.

Her skin, now luminous and flawless, glowed with a soft, pearlescent sheen, faint trails of light rippling across her flesh as if some divine energy thrummed within her. Her cleric avatar’s sun elf heritage had fully manifested. She was radiant in the most literal sense -her presence cast a faint halo of warmth, a glow that painted the chamber’s strange walls with golden highlights.

Her attire matched the transformation. Her fingers played across the fabric as she marveled at the changes. Layers of flowing robes shimmered with iridescent hues, catching the faintest light and refracting it into rainbows. Her light armor, delicate but unyielding, was etched with holy symbols that radiated calm and strength.

She felt powerful, untouchable. Her breath quickened as the realization sank in: this wasn’t just an illusion. Her avatar wasn’t just a character anymore -it was her. Every stat, every level, every achievement she’d earned in-game had been fused with her reality.

“It’s not just me, is it?” Rachel said, her voice thin with panic. “It feels… real. Too real.”

It is real, Dolly thought, trembling, and pale with shock. She clenched her hands into fists, feeling the smooth leather of her gloves -the same gloves her avatar had equipped moments ago. Her breath hitched. No. This isn’t possible.

A sharp voice broke her reverie.

“I can’t log out,” Rick said, his voice rising. “The interface -there’s no interface!”

“Calm down,” Dolly snapped, though her own voice wavered. She needed to focus, to think. Panic wouldn’t help them now. “Everyone, just… check your gear. Take inventory. See if anything works.”

Her words steadied the group, and the distraction worked, taking their minds off their unusual plight. One by one, they began testing their equipment. Duncan drew his shield, the metallic clang echoing sharply. Rachel muttered something under her breath, and a faint glow enveloped her hands -her healing magic, still functional but appearing weaker than in game. Dolly chalked that up to nerves, as her own abilities felt -right. More than right.

“Ready Check! Is everyone okay?” Dolly commanded, her tone shaky but tinged with the authority she always carried in-game. Concern and lingering pain weighed heavy in her words. The words triggered the desired response however, as everyone gave an affirmative-

-if you counted the ripple of groans and muttered curses that answered her.

Rachel crouched beside Rick, resting a hand on his shoulder as he heaved ragged breaths. “Dolly, what’s happening? This… this doesn’t make sense,” he panted.

Dolly started to respond but froze as a realization struck her. When she’d clutched her head moments ago, desperate to free herself from the blinding pain, something had happened. A warm light had flowed from her hands, soothing the pounding ache in her skull. It wasn’t an accident. Her healer instincts had kicked in, and one of her spells had triggered. She’d cured herself.

Dolly closed her eyes and concentrated, summoning the same divine energy she’d used before. Despite the confidence she had in her abilities, to her relief, a faint golden light flickered around her fingertips. The magic was there, -it was real- but it felt… heavier, more draining.

Experimentally, she stretched out a hand, watching as the faint golden glow turned from a spark of life around her fingers, to an eruption of healing power. The magic responded immediately, and freely, flowing through her like a long-lost extension of herself. Without hesitation, Dolly stepped toward Rick and Rachel.

“Here,” she said softly, placing a hand on each of them. Warmth surged from her palms, spreading across their forms. Both of them straightened instantly, their expressions clearing as the pain melted away.

Rick exhaled sharply, running a hand through his hair. “Whoa. That was… that was something.”

“Thanks, Dolly,” Rachel murmured, her silver hair shimmering as she glanced at her friend with wide, uncertain eyes.

Dolly didn’t stop there. She moved around the chamber, reaching out to the rest of the party one by one. Each touch delivered her magic in a soothing wave, leaving her companions visibly steadier, their breathing easier. Rocco -the archer. Espinosa and Pierson -the affliction and poison DoT specialists. Rick the dark knight, and Tracy, the mage.

Each member of her party stood tall and whole by the time she finished, though the shock on their faces remained.

Finally, they gathered in a loose circle, stunned silence settling over them as they took in their transformed selves. Dolly’s eyes darted from one face to the next. She didn’t know most of them in real life -only from pictures, vague impressions gleaned from months of raiding together.

Now, they were as real as she was, their digital personas brought to flesh and blood. And yet, the bonds they’d forged in-game shone through, unspoken but unbroken.

Rachel was the first to break the pregnant silence. “What the hell just happened?” she asked, her voice trembling.

“I don’t know,” Dolly admitted, though her mind raced with possibilities. “I mean… this is nuts.”

“I’ll tell you what’s nuts,” Rick interjected, his eyes sweeping over Rachel with open admiration. “Babe, you look amazing.”

Rachel flushed -a striking effect against her moonlit skin- but she managed a hesitant grin. “Thanks… I think?”

Dolly rolled her eyes. “Rick, focus. This isn’t exactly a fashion show.”

“Right,” Rick said, his tone shifting to something more serious. “So, what do we do now?”

The group stilled, Rick’s question hanging unanswered in the air like the distant echo of a bell. It felt as though the chamber itself was listening, waiting for someone to take control. The faint hum from the glowing walls pressed against Dolly’s ears, rhythmic and pulsing like a heartbeat she couldn’t quite block out.

Rachel shifted uncomfortably beside her, the bark-like texture of her staff groaning faintly as her grip tightened. Her silver hair shimmered under the strange light, her unease written in every line of her face. Duncan’s massive frame loomed quietly near the edge of the group, his eyes flicking toward the floor as though searching for answers in the glowing patterns beneath their feet.

Dolly pressed her lips together, a nervous twinge settling in her chest. Every instinct she had as a raid leader screamed at her to issue an order, find a path forward -but she wasn’t sure that she could.

She took a deep breath, her voice soft but resolute as she finally spoke.

“Well, I’ll be the first to say it,” Dolly began, her voice breaking the uneasy silence. She rubbed her temples, trying to organize the chaos swirling in her thoughts. “I know what we’re all thinking. Have we been isekai’d?”

The group exchanged confused looks, hesitant to respond, until Rachel crossed her arms and tilted her head, one eyebrow raised. “And the answer is… yes,” Dolly concluded with a weak laugh, followed by a sigh.