Christopher braced himself for potential pain, his heart pounding. His fears turned out to be misplaced, all it took was a single blink of his eyes. One moment he had been looking at the white spotless walls, and then he suddenly found himself somewhere completely different. The experience was so unexpected and impossible that his head lurched. His brain not able to connect the sudden change of scenery.
‘So this is the place.’ Christopher gazed at his surroundings in wonder, he had never seen anything like it. He had been transported to some kind of forest, and his eyes were immediately drawn to the incredible massive trees all around him. Their circumference matched that of a small house. Looking up, he could not even begin to guess how high they reached. Light-red leaves danced from the numerous branches, and all around him, the forest floor was littered with the colorful leaves. Christopher was happy to discover that this world at least seemed to share the same blue sky that he was used to.
Christopher took some deep and calming breaths. It felt really good to be alive. He took in the smells, the sounds, the cold… oh no, not again. When he looked down, he saw his own naked and already shivering body. Those bastards had really put him here like this! He flipped off the sky, but immediately worried that the administrator of the world might be able to see it. ‘Let’s not make any enemies already.’
Maybe he should have expected his current state of undress. He had of course been naked earlier, and his inventory and status had shown no clothes. He resisted the urge to make any another obscene gesture at the sky. This might be troubling. Under the right circumstances, he might have called it a pleasant day, but unfortunately, the wind buffeted his body and already seeped some cold into his bones. He quickly took shelter behind the nearest tree to shield himself from the wind.
Oh right, earlier he had already decided on his best first move.
“Place bookmark” He spoke for the first time, his voice sounding as he expected.
image [https://i.imgur.com/hpdn8Y5.png]
[The bookmark has been placed. Use bookmark currently available]
If the skill worked as he expected, then he should have a way to save himself and loop back to this point if something went wrong. He was also happy to confirm that ‘Use Bookmark’ was available and not on cool-down yet. Not that he was stupid enough to test it and make sure.
Christopher continued to shiver. If only he had some Soul Points already. He would have tried to buy some simple clothing from the store. Unfortunately, he was unlikely to earn any in the near future. The first time that he would run into other people might get a little awkward though.
He went into a crouching position to conserve some body-heat by hugging his knees. He thought over his next move. ‘Let’s take a closer look at my attributes.’ Christopher decided. He focused on bringing up his attribute screen, and the interface hovered over his retina.
Vitality 10 Endurance 12 Strength 8 Agility 12 Soul force 4
The screen also gave him a representation of his health and soul force which might prove useful. Both bars were full.
‘Are these good starting attributes?’ he wondered. Back on Earth, Christopher had been relatively fit, but he did not know how that translated after everything that had happened to him. He wondered how difficult it would be to increase his attributes in the future. Right now, he did not feel confident fighting against anything but some small critters.
Most interesting to him was the last attribute on his screen called Soul Force, the score of four not looking all that promising. He wondered if this attribute was associated with magic? It would be amazing if he now possessed the potential to cast spells, but how was he supposed to use this soul force?
According to the automatic response system, the interface would present as something that would fit his comprehension. Well, he did not understand this Soul Force at all. Maybe if he concentrated on it…
He picked up one of the light-red leaves and placed it in the palm of his hand. He experimented for a few minutes. He tried to mentally lift it, freeze it, burn it, and to tear it. To his frustration, absolutely nothing happened. It seemed that he would not be able to figure this one out so easily.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
He opened his skills tab next. Besides his unique ability, there was one other skill that had been sponsored by the administrator. It was a common skill called [Linguist]. It seemed like quite an important skill if he wanted to succeed in this world.
image [https://i.imgur.com/6HdIJFx.png]
Luckily it seemed that the administrator of this world at least had at least some foresight. Without this skill, he and the other summoned would have quickly run into some monumental problems. He hoped this skill would prove as effective as the description suggested.
As he was about to take a look at the available skills in the store, he heard something that sounded like a woman’s scream coming from the distance. Oh, hell no… He had only been here for a few minutes, had trouble already found him?
Surely, nobody could blame him if he did not take any action here. He was naked as the day he was born and did not even have a weapon, only an idiot would rush in…
And there he went, it seemed that his feet had taken the decision for him. He comforted himself with the fact that he always had [Bookmark] to fall back on.
He tried to stealthily make his way through the forest detritus and unfortunately failed miserably. The noise he was making would have alerted anyone paying attention, but it was easily drowned out by the yelling and the sounds of fighting. He heard the ringing of steel hitting steel.
The screams also continued, and they were getting a lot closer. He believed that he could even hear the shrieks from children now. He finally came to a clearing in the forest. It looked like a path that had been deliberately cleared for travel. It only took a few more moments for him to spot his first-ever creature in this world.
What the hell were those things. He first quickly tried to get a grasp of the battlefield in front of him. There were bodies strewn everywhere, both humans and… Goblins? That was the word that came to mind. Smaller and thinner than humans, greenish thick skin, and large pointed ears. They were clothed in rags, and some of them seemed to be wielding clubs and blunt swords.
The battlefield was littered with them, there were probably twice as many dead goblins than there were fallen humans. It looked like the Goblins had overrun the travelling group in large numbers, too many for the people here to deal with. The Goblins that remained seemed to be trying to make their way into the last remaining wagon with the few survivors.
An older man was frantically swinging his sword for all his life was worth to keep the goblins from entering the wagon. In the wagon, he could also spot a young woman, a teenage boy, and two younger children. The young children were screaming loudly in fear. The young woman also tried to keep the goblin’s at bay, by using a wooden plank to push off those trying to climb onto the wagon. Unfortunately, they seemed to be the last people left standing.
There were not that many Goblin’s remaining, he only counted four. What should he do? Next to the corpses littering the forest floor he saw plenty of weapons scattered across the ground. The old man received a passing blow with a club, and staggered, they were not going to hold out long like this. The Goblins had not seen Christopher yet, maybe if he quietly grabbed one of the swords and took some of the goblins by surprise…
His feet were already moving, apparently not caring for his inner doubts. Christopher managed to reach and pick up a sword just as one of the goblins spotted him. The people from the cart were now looking at him as if they could not believe their eyes. In his full naked glory, Christopher dashed forward looking like a madman, holding his sword in a manner that would no doubt have made any self-respecting sword user scoff.
Before the other goblins realized what was happening, he managed to chop his sword straight in the closest goblin’s neck. Unfortunately, he seemed to lack strength, so his sword got momentarily lodged. He kicked against the back of the goblin, and the sword broke free.
‘Shit!’ The three remaining goblins were now looking at him with faces full of rage and hatred. Luckily the old man used the distraction to impale one of the goblins still hanging on to the wagon through its chest. Of the now only two remaining goblins, one looked confused between the now two potential targets, but the other was already running straight for him.
Christopher and the Goblin both raised their weapons at the same time, but the greenish monster was actually faster than him. It swung its club hard against Christopher’s free arm and pain blossomed from the impact. Luckily his sword was sharp, and a moment later the sword left a deadly wound at the surprised goblin’s midsection. He quickly impaled the now off balance goblin to finish it off.
Christopher stumbled when he pulled out the sword, his center of mass was so different when he held it. The last remaining goblin wielding a blunt sword had now also decided that he was the bigger threat and was moving his way. Luckily, Christopher received some help here.
The young woman on the cart threw everything she could get her hands on at the green monstrosity. He used the goblin's anger and confusion and managed to cut the wrist holding the blunt sword clean off. The now enraged goblin tried to jump on top of him but Christopher quickly managed to dodge out of the way and impaled the last remaining monster.
His own naked body was now covered in sticky goblin blood. He sank down on his knees and put his right hand against his damaged left arm. It had been hit at full strength by the deceptively strong goblin. There was a blinding pain, there was clearly something seriously wrong with it.
His body shook, not so much from the pain in his left arm, but perhaps more from the shock from all of the killing. His last remaining illusions of playing some kind of game had shattered. Just as he thought this, he realized some messages had popped up.
[ You have defeated a minion of entropy; 120 soul points have been acquired]
[ You have defeated a minion of entropy; 120 soul points have been acquired]
[ You have defeated a minion of entropy; 120 soul points have been acquired]