“It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this.”

— The Legend of Zelda

“Fascinating…” the old man finally decided. At my silence, he continued, “It’s rather fascinating, no? To think the world you come from has no magic, but harnesses the power of lightning itself… The talent is far beyond me.”

“Well, that’s not exactly how it works,” I corrected. “It’s not really lightning…”

He waved me off. “Is a droplet not an ocean? Is a spark not a flame? To an ant, perhaps. But these things are what they are without measure, only given weight within the perspective we have of them. With a different one, perhaps your ‘electricity’ becomes lightning, after all.”

I raised my eyebrows at him, then shrugged. “Whatever you say, broheem.”

Aeon tilted his head. “Broheem? This is a term I am not familiar with, Crafter. Would you mind explaining?”

I shook my head, chuckling. “It means ‘friend,’ where I come from.”

The wizard nodded slowly, humming to himself. “Broheem… I see… Well, I am honored to be your Broheem, Crafter.”

“As am I,” I replied. I guess this meant Aeon and I were friends now. “Despite the sudden summoning,” I added, speaking aloud by mistake. The old man's cheeks reddened, but he didn't say anything, instead retreating into the tunnel with some vague excuse about preparations he needed to ready.

I decided to take a walk through the valley to untangle my thoughts and really process everything, and strolled toward one of the massive oaks. Birds flocked around the lower branches, and the top of it vanished into the clouds. While I walked, I attempted to revisit the skill tree that could magically appear before me.

Aeon had said that the Summoned Crafter's magic would manifest in a way that made sense and came instinctively… or was it intuitively? I didn't remember. But it certainly felt rather familiar to navigate the floating translucent screens. When I wanted to see them, they would appear, and if I needed to focus on something beyond them, I could swipe them away, sure, but they would also vanish on their own if I didn't and just tried to look through them.

Their behavior was tied to my thoughts, that much was clear. I didn’t even need to consciously think of any particular command. They appeared when I wanted them, and went away when I didn’t.

Honestly, if I was going to be tied into a HUD of some kind, at least it wasn’t an annoying one that was omnipresent, glitchy, and immersion-breaking. Although, I don’t think you can really break immersion when you’re actually living the story.

And what a story it is. No matter how much I looked at it, I was in awe of the world around me. The valley was massive, it smelled like a clean spring day. And the breeze was just perfect. Everything about this place was… except for that ball of darkness, of course. But looking at the world around me, facing away from it, I could almost believe I’d found the mythical Garden of Eden.

No matter how far I walked, I could see the tunnel behind me, emerging from the ground like Elytheria’s hungry maw, even an hour away. Vibrant foliage covered the top, and jagged stones poked through like horns. It sort of reminded me of a dragon’s head.

And above the Maw, as I decided to call the cave, the Stygian Sun floated in the distance, pulsating infrequently, dark bursts of power rippling out from it.

What have I gotten myself into? I wondered. That ball of darkness was intimidating, to say the least. And why did the ley lines pick me? A gamer? A debugger? Someone the furthest away from a builder or a crafter.

A terrified screech nearby drew my attention. I looked up, shocked to realize how far I’d gone while lost in my thoughts. One of the giant trees was directly before me. Up close, it was even bigger than I’d originally estimated. The trunk must’ve been at least two hundred feet in diameter, and looking up at it gave me a sense of vertigo.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

The source of the noise seemed to be a young woman with mint green skin and shamrock hair. She was swinging a small wooden flute around at a trio of hairy bat-like creatures with sharp talons, needle teeth, and glowing eyes. They buzzed loudly, flying sawzalls.

I couldn’t just stand by and let someone be killed. Glancing around, I noticed I was surrounded by fallen branches from the tree. Big branches. Acting on instinct, I grabbed one of the relatively smaller ones, about the size of a baseball bat, and launched into the fight.

The first monster was easy. None of them saw me coming and, with a shrill shriek, it dropped like a 2007 IBM supercomputer. But only the first one was easy, because after that creature crashed to the ground, the other two turned their attention to me.

Snapping angrily at me, they flew through the air in my direction. I swung my stick at them but, with something like glee in its eyes, the bat to my right bit through the wood, chewing it up like a chainsaw, inhaling like a vacuum. Not even dust was left.

“Run!” the green girl shouted. “They eat wood! You can’t hit them!”

This was a mistake, I realized as I sprinted in the opposite direction of the flying beasts. I ducked as I heard one dive toward me. When I got back to my feet, I kept running.

Long stalks of grass, flowers, moss. It all flew by quickly. There was nothing helpful in this fight. I picked up a branch from the tree and hurled it behind me. But as expected, the monsters chewed it up with ease. Maybe I’d bought myself some time?

I glanced behind me to check, and my toe slammed into something solid, sending me crashing to the ground, dirt in my mouth. I felt around with my hand, found a dull point sticking out of the earth. A rock.

Could these things chew through rock? Only one way to find out. I yanked, and the piece came free. With a grin, I rose to my feet, staring down my opponents. I raised my hand to attack, and the rock was gone.

My smile vanished. I looked around in confusion. “No!” I shouted. Had it been my imagination? The bats charged me. I was out of breath. No running now. I looked around me frantically. “I needed that!” I howled at the world. “Give it back!”

And just like that, the hunk of stone reappeared in my hand. I didn’t spend time to wonder about what happened. I swung it at the first bat. Its mouth moved, teeth spinning like little drills, but the rock shattered them like glass, and the creature collapsed, spasming. Some of the spinning fragments of teeth cut my hand and arm, but I focused on the second bat. It went down like the first one, quick and easy, but cutting up my arm even more. One sharp fragment sliced my cheek.

My makeshift weapon vanished from my hand again, and I dropped to my knees with a sigh. It was only then that I noticed the notifications that flashed in the corner of my vision. When I looked up at them, they expanded. I ignored my burning arm and stinging cheek for the moment. If Aeon was any kind of wizard, he’d be able to heal me.

Auto-Store Activation: Stone (x1) Collected!

Store Accessed: Stone (x1) Removed!

Auto-Store Activation: Stone (x1) Collected!

Ah… Auto-collection… That “handy” ability I’d unlocked from the tutorial’s forceful instruction. That explained the sudden disappearance of the rock chunk. I dismissed the notifications, looking to further examine my wounds, but another box appeared in my vision, apparently satisfied that I’d seen the others first.

Level up! You are now level (2)! You have (1) unspent Skill Point!

Level up? From killing those things? My mind reeled for a moment as I tried to reconnect the game logic to my real world actions. Sure, it made sense in video games… but here… it was so real. It was too real for experience points and levels.

But the floating notification testified to the contrary. I dismissed it, standing to my feet. My arm was bleeding, there were fragments of teeth stuck in my skin. I touched my cheek. It burned, and seemed like it was swelling up fast. The left side of my vision was becoming a bit obscured by it. My face throbbed.

Cringing, I started to pull some of the tooth splinters out of my arm. I yelled as I did, this being the most pain I’d experienced in my life. Inhaling sharply, I yanked, and blood flowed down my arm.

I was about to take off my jacket and rip up my t-shirt to wrap my arm, as I’d seen done in movies. Maybe it hadn’t been smart to pull out the teeth, but couldn’t leaving foreign objects lodged in your wounds cause infections? I don’t know. I was never a medic.

A gasp caught my attention as I dropped the last bit of bat tooth to the ground. Looking up, I saw the green-skinned girl from before. She still had her flute, but tears were flowing from her big, expressive, emerald eyes.

I was going to comment on how even her tears were green, but instead, I passed out.