Opening his eyes, Vin looked around at the black void he seemed to be floating within. He twisted around, looking in all directions, but was only met by more darkness as far as the eye could see.
“Gonna be honest, if this is the new world, this kinda sucks,” he called out to the void, not really expecting a response. Instead, some familiar floating text suddenly appeared directly in front of him, waiting for his acknowledgement.
Welcome to Edregon. As you are only now being integrated into the System, please select a class.
“Oh, RPG rules huh? Sure, makes about as much sense as everything else,” Vin shrugged. As soon as he read the text, a large list of presumably classes replaced the floating words.
“Jesus,” Vin muttered, flicking his fingers and scrolling through what had to be at least a few hundred classes. “Can you break these down into categories or something?”
He’d yet to receive a response from the strange floating text up until now, so he was surprised when the monstrous list of classes actually split into three still large, but far more manageable lists.
“Now we’re talking!” Vin looked at the three lists, noting the categories at the top. The three new lists were divided into combat, crafting, and support classes. Immediately he dismissed the combat classes; the fresh memories of him being slammed to the mat time and time again by the grinning mohawk monster still fresh in his mind. After a moments’ hesitation he dismissed the crafting classes as well. While he did like working with his hands, he didn’t want to spend his new life cooped up in a workshop somewhere. No, what he wanted was something like…
“Jackpot,” he whispered, finding exactly what he was looking for halfway down the list of support classes.
Explorer Class: A class based around discovering the unknown and uncovering secrets.
Bonus: +1 Endurance per level
Starting Passive: Mental Map
“Plus one endurance per level?” He asked the mysterious void. “So I get stats like an RPG as well?” Rather than answer him, a new text box appeared, this one looking straight out of a video game.
Vinnie Stone
Explorer: Lvl 1
Titles: None
Exp. 0/1000
Strength: 13
Dexterity: 14
Endurance: 17
Vigor: 15
Focus: 11
Magic: 0
Passives: Mental Map
Skills: None
Spells: None
“Now you’re talking,” Vin grinned, admiring his stats. He had no idea what constituted a good or bad number for each of the six attributes, but he appreciated the fact that all his years of hiking around the country seemed to factor into his endurance and vigor. “So, do I get any details on this stuff?” He tried calling out into the void. “Like, is having zero magic something I should fix?”
Sadly, this time he didn’t get any response. Shrugging, he mentally confirmed the Explorer class.
And recoiled as the void exploded in color.
Cursing, Vin barely had time to shield his eyes before it was over. Blinking the spots from his eyes, he looked around, gaping at the sudden change in landscape.
He stood in the middle of a large grassy field with a few gentle hills rolling in the distance. There were scatterings of trees surrounding them, and a nice, refreshing breeze carrying the scent of flowers swept through his hair. Before he could do much more than look around however, he felt a strange series of tingles in his head. Turning his focus to the odd sensation, a barrage of floating messages appeared and disappeared one after the other in rapid fire.
New world discovered! 100,000 exp gained.
Level up! Explorer lvl 2.
Level up! Explorer lvl 3.
Level up! Explorer lvl 4.
Lev-
System override: Level ups canceled, level manually set to 1, all experience removed. Explorer class
Note: Vin, apologies for the confusion, but thank you for revealing that
“What the hell?” Vin muttered, eyes scanning across the final message before that too vanished into thin air. Had the system actually spoken to him? And what on Earth did silencing him entail exactly?
“Gather round!” A deep voice called out, forcing Vin to put his perturbed thoughts on hold for the moment. Joining his fellow first wavers, Vin helped form a semicircle facing Colonel Spur, the man who had been given total authority over them. Like just about every other soldier that had been selected to be part of the first wave, Spur had a powerfully built physique. Wearing the same grey camouflage military fatigues as the rest of them, the man’s main distinguishing features were his keen eyes that seemed to pierce deep into Vin’s soul and the brand-new long sword secured against his hip.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Despite only their brief training, Vin was impressed to see all one hundred of them come together in only a few seconds. He did however do a double take at the number of people just like Spur that were suddenly carrying various types of medieval weapons. He was pretty certain he would have noticed if anyone had been carrying a greatsword or a longbow before they’d been warped over here.
“Well… We made it,” Spur said as soon as they’d formed up, surprising Vin by shooting everyone a wide grin. Despite his high rank, the man didn’t seem to act very military. “Can’t say we expected the class selection thing, but at least it looks like we’ll get some interesting tools at our disposal. Here’s what we’ll do to start. We’ll split into groups based on class type, and Lieutenant Myers will come around and collect information on everyone’s class. We’ll plug that into some programs we brought, and while we analyze the data, we’ll divide into groups and start securing the perimeter and looking for basic necessities.”
“Hold that thought Colonel,” Lieutenant Myers, Colonel Spur’s second in command called out, currently sifting through a collection of packs on the ground. Her long black hair was secured up in a bun atop her head, and unlike most of her fellow military members, she wasn’t carrying a weapon as far as Vin could tell. “It looks like all our electronics are gone. Not fried like we’d feared, but totally gone. Guns as well.”
“Well crap,” Spur said, scratching his head. “Any other surprises regarding the gear we should know?”
“The food and water are still here, as are most of the tools and physical books we brought,” Myers said, standing up and frowning as she skimmed through one of the thick encyclopedias. “Though strangely, some of the books now have various sections that have been completely blanked out, as though the words were never printed in the first place. Looks like anything regarding our more advanced technologies, such as electricity or atomic energy.”
“Okay, we’ll have to operate on the assumption that our mysterious Sender X, or System, I suppose, has a desired level of technology we’re supposed to start at,” Spur said, glancing up at the sky. “Whether that’s a line we’re not allowed to cross ever, or just where we have to start remains to be seen. Granted, I’m in no rush to be smited, so nobody go about inventing the steam engine for at least the first few days.” Colonel Spur earned himself a few chuckles, and people immediately got to work following his directions and forming into three groups. Vin noticed that nearly three fourths of them had selected combat classes, while crafting and support classes were split with about a dozen each.
Turning to the person next to him, Vin was surprised to recognize the quiet girl who’d first appeared in a McDonald’s uniform. Even without her old uniform her bright red hair made her stand out, and despite the grey military fatigues she’d replaced the uniform with, she still looked fairly out of place.
Granted, so did he and the other forty-eight civilians. Apparently, it took more than three days of boot camp to turn someone into a killing machine.
“Hey,” he said, giving the girl a quick nod. “What class did you go with?”
“Trapper,” she shrugged, seemingly happy to have someone to talk to. “Seemed like a useful way to contribute without putting myself in any direct danger. What about you?”
“Explorer. I was something of a vagabond before all this, and I don’t really like to be tied down,” he explained.
“Oh yeah, you were the guy covered in dirt that came in,” she laughed softly, shaking her head. “I mean, I was covered in grease so I don’t really have room to talk, but I remember you. I’m Alice by the way.”
“Vin,” he said, shaking her hand. “So, did you get a starting passive too? Anything cool?”
“Hopefully!” She grinned, clearly excited about this strange new world they’d been tossed into. “My class came with Personal Trap Sense. No idea what it does yet, but I’m hoping it will let me know when an animal actually triggers a snare or something.”
“Oh man that would be useful,” Vin admitted. “Sure wish this weird magical System thing gave us more details on stuff before we made our choices. I got Mental Map, but I don’t know what it does either. Though come to think of it…” Focusing on his ability, he grinned as a small map appeared in front of him. Currently it was pretty small, only showing the distance he’d walked so far and the surrounding area, but he had the feeling it was going to be invaluable once he started running around. “Strike that, it looks like I get a free map of the places I travel.”
“Wow, I’m betting Colonel Spur is going to want to talk to you about that,” Alice said, looking impressed. “I think they were hoping to use drones to map the surrounding terrain, but seeing as we lost all our tech, you might be the next best thing.”
The two of them chatted for a few minutes about their new classes and this entire crazy situation they’d found themselves in until Lieutenant Myers came to collect their information. Sure enough, the moment he explained his passive, her eyes lit up and she immediately sent him to talk to Colonel Spur.
Vin walked over to the colonel, waiting for him to finish directing a group of a dozen people to search for water before immediately sending another to start cutting down trees. Once he’d given out nearly half a dozen tasks, the colonel wiped his brow, giving Vin his attention.
“What’s up?” He asked, again surprising Vin with his informal attitude.
“Uh, hi. I’m Vin. Lieutenant Myers told me to come talk to you,” Vin explained poorly. “I took the Explorer Class. It came with the Mental Map passive. Looks like I automatically create a map in my head of the places I go, and she thought-”
Vin froze as Colonel Spur darted forward, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him vigorously.
“Vin, I could kiss you!” Spur shouted, letting out a whoop of joy and drawing more than a few gazes from his outburst. “Do you have any idea how useful that is going to be with our drones gone? Just about all us meatheads in the military took combat classes, and about half of the civilians did as well. We have a ton of weapons, but we’re desperately lacking in utility right now.”
“Happy to help, uh, sir,” Vin said, stumbling back a half step.
“Oh you can shove that sir where the sun don’t shine,” Spur grinned, a slight southern accent revealing itself in his excitement. “If you haven’t noticed, we are about as far from bureaucracy and regulation as physically possible right now. We’ll no doubt need to come up with some sort of official structure of command as more waves start pouring in, but until then, I plan on enjoying not having to shine my shoes and make my bed every morning.”
“I can do that,” Vin said, letting go of some of the tension that had been sitting in his gut with a sigh. He’d never had any sort of problem being his usual self around authority before, but something about being teleported into the heart of a Top-Secret military compound had stiffened him up a bit. Maybe it had been the hundreds of people with rifles practically trained on his back for three straight days. “If it’s okay, I kinda want to jump right into my class and start exploring. Need me to look for anything in particular?”
“Well there are the obvious things like water and food. Berry bushes, wild roots, and the like,” Spur said, scratching his chin. “Don’t bother trying to lug it all back yourself, just make a note of any location like that so we can send teams out to collect them when you get back. Other than that, look for anything strange or unusual. Magic clearly exists in this world seeing as we all have it listed as an attribute, so I don’t know, keep your eyes peeled for any wizard towers I guess? The more information we have the better.”
“Oh, and take this.” Spur reached into his pack and handed him a monstrous bowie knife that seemed closer to a short sword than a knife. “Hopefully you won’t encounter anything dangerous, but it would be dumb to send you off unarmed. I’d give you some signal flares too, but apparently those were too close to guns for the System’s comfort, because it ate all those as well. Just try and be back before the sun goes down. You know, assuming that’s still a thing that happens here.”
“I’ll be careful!” Vin said, strapping the knife carefully to his belt. Waving goodbye to Alice and receiving a thumbs up in return, he turned away from the bustling activity of the first wave, facing truly uncharted lands for the first time in his life. Taking a deep breath, he took a moment to enjoy the fresh air and knowledge that he was about to go where no man had ever gone before.
Smiling, he hiked his pack higher on his shoulders and picked a direction at random.
Time to explore!