Chapter 1 - Getting Started

Mason Hughes was what you might call a light sleeper. He woke at the smallest of noises and at the slightest glint of light. So with the suns blazing down on him and the strange scents of pine, earth, and morning dew pervading his senses, it didn't take him long to stumble into consciousness.

While most people may like to be woken up by the rising sun, birds singing, and the smell of fresh air, Mason was not that kind of person. In fact, Mason detested those kinds of people.

To say Mason found his current situation strange would be an understatement. What was most strange was not that he was waking up outside or the fact entirely naked, nor was it his inability to remember how he had ended up there. No. The strangest, most infuriating thing about his current situation were the dagger-like blades of grass that were currently stabbing him in places better left unstabbed.

He shifted his body to alleviate the discomfort. Eyes still closed, not yet prepared to face the world, he tried to piece together what had happened. He had been sitting on the toilet, scrolling through Facebook. He heard a knock at the door, went to answer it and boom, he was waking up here.

He frowned at the memory. Finally opening his eyes, he found he couldn't see anything. It wasn't that it was dark; there was just nothing to see. It was as if there were a completely white canvas spread across his retinas. He squeezed his eyes shut again as he started experiencing vertigo. Nausea and dizziness hit him with the force of a double-decker bus. It was everything he could do not to immediately throw up. Keeping his eyes firmly closed, he pushed himself into a sitting position.

He slowly opened his eyes. Taking a deep breath, he vowed never to drink again. He took in his situation. He was naked, God knows where and apparently blind. The force of all this hitting him at once caused him to start hyperventilating.

*DING*

As the noise faded, he noticed in the middle of his vision, there were little black squiggles. When he focused his attention on them, they changed into words.

Achievement unlocked! Rise and shine, sleepy head -Reward deferred

He stared at the words in disbelief as they faded.

"Um… what?"

Already wholly fed up with whatever was happening, Mason repeated himself louder.

"What?"

*DING*

Achievement unlocked! Better get started -Reward deferred

"Get started? What the fuck am I supposed to start?"

The moment the word 'start' left his mouth, more squiggles appeared in his vision swirling with movement. Once again, he focused on them, and they formed into words he could read.

*DING*

Quest Received! Zero to Hero

Quest Objective - In order to begin your journey, you must take your first step, reach level 1, and begin initiation.

Reward - Small item box (Common).

Accept? Y/N

'Quests? Achievements? This all sounded strangely familiar. Am I in a goddamn game?! Fuck, this is weird.'

"Er, yes?"

The whiteness disappeared. Blinking a few times, Mason's surroundings came into focus for the first time.

He found himself in the heart of a dense forest, standing in a tiny clearing encircled by towering trees whose foliage was so high he could barely see the leaves. The forest's thick canopy blocked out most of the sunlight, casting dappled shadows on the ground. The clearing opened up to a narrow path that snaked deeper into the woods, disappearing around a bend and leaving him to wonder where it led.

The grass that had been, just a moment before, poking him in the rear was a peculiar shade of blue, quite unlike anything he had seen before. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that it swayed gently back and forth as if moved by a breeze. Mason found it perplexing that not all of the grass was blue but rather scattered in patches throughout the visible areas of the forest. The rest of the grass was a more familiar green, which only added to the strangeness of his surroundings.

Looking up, Mason could see that wherever he was, had two suns—one at each end of the visible horizon. One was yellow, like the sun he was used to, but the other had a slight red tint and wasn't nearly as bright as its yellow counterpart. Partially blinded by idiotically staring at the suns, Mason closed his eyes and waited to regain full use of his sight.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Using this time to try and calm himself down, he started counting down from 10 as if meditating. He tried to imagine that he was in this forest by choice, not naked and not freaking the fuck out. Five seconds in, he felt something trigger internally, as if someone had flicked a switch. Everything once again went white. This time, however, words were already there, as if imprinted onto his eyelids.

He was looking at something that resembled the Character Sheet you'd see in a typical RPG, but seeing one while his eyes were closed was making him feel like he belonged in a psychiatric hospital.

After scanning through the text, his mind went into overdrive, attempting to process what was going on.

The way he saw it, there were three explanations here, 1. He was dead, and the afterlife was a weird naked camping game. 2. He was in a coma, and this was his subconscious's way of telling him playing Skyrim for the 15th time was once too many. Or 3. This was a dream, and he would wake up any minute, get ready for work and continue living his life.

Hoping it was the last one, Mason pinched himself hard on the arm, "Fuck, ouch! Okay, probably not a dream", he muttered to himself, rubbing his brand-new bruise vigorously.

He closed his eyes again, reopening his character sheet, trying to get a better grip on what was going on.

"Ok, so…" Muttering to himself, he inspected his Character Sheet.

Character Sheet

Name: Mason Hughes

Level: 0

"Level 0? What the hell, I'm calling hacks, don't you usually start games at level 1? At least I kept my name; it's better than being called Link or 'The dragon born' or some other crap."

Current XP: 0/1

"Looks like I need to get single XP to level up. How does experience work in this game? Do I just find something and kill it? Or is this one of those, level up by 'learning how to walk and move the camera' kind of game."

He took a few steps around just in case, but nothing happened, so he continued.

Race: Human

Class: N/A

Rolling his eyes, "All the weird and wonderful races in the fantasy genre, and I'm still Human." Looking to the sky as if shouting at God, he added, "If I was given a choice, I'd have gone with Elf. "

Health Points (HP): 100

Mana Points (MP): 100

Stamina: (SP): 100

"Pretty self-explanatory here, 'HP' keep alive, 'MP' do Magic and 'SP' keep running. Not sure if 100 is a lot, but I guess I'll find out. Also… am I going to learn magic?! That's pretty awesome… Maybe I don't want to wake up after all."

Stats

Strength: Locked

Agility: Locked

Endurance: Locked

Vitality: Locked

Resilience: Locked

Intelligence: Locked

Perception: Locked

Willpower: Locked

Free points: 0

Skills

Locked

"…I think these might be locked."

Current Quest

* Zero to Hero

In order to begin your journey, you must take your first step, reach level 1, and begin initiation.

"Hopefully, after I figure out how to level up, whatever 'initiation' is will give me some clue as to what the fuck is happening. Judging by the wealth of information I've been given so far, I doubt it."

Closing the menu and looking around at his surroundings, Mason started walking, following the path.

'I don't know what's going on, but whatever it is, I need to take this seriously. I'm either insane, in a coma or dead. There is always the possibility that some bullshittery happened, and I'm actually here in a forest full of ridiculously tall trees, blue grass and two suns. Not to mention that I'm naked, I feel like puking, and these fucking trees, man, why are they so fucking tall?'

After walking for what felt like hours, but in reality, was 15 minutes, Mason started formulating a plan of action.

Step 1. Find something that isn't a tree.

Step 2. Try and kill that something.

Step 3. Level up?

Step 4. Don't Die.

"That feels like a pretty solid plan; step 4 definitely my favourite."

After walking for another half hour and starting to find the infinite number of tall fucking trees he passed truly sickening, he felt a sharp pain on the back of his neck. He instinctively smacked the spot as hard as he could. Pulling his hand away, he saw the culprit was a palm-sized mosquito now squished in his hand. Mason recoiled at the size of it, staring in shock.

After staring at the squished bug for a few seconds, words popped into existence right above the corpse:

Loot Corpse? Y/N

"Um, yes?"

The remains of the bug in Mason's hand vibrated slightly, and one singular coin appeared, dropping neatly on top of what used to be the mosquito's head.

Inspecting the coin closely, it appeared to be made out of copper, was about the size of a thumbnail and was completely smooth to the touch.

Mason switched the coin to the hand not covered in dead bug and, partially due to his newfound hatred, wiped the remains on the nearest tree.

"Thanks for the coin and all, but I don't exactly have pockets right now, so Imma just leave it here for now… aaand I'm talking to myself again."

Noticing something in his peripheral, Mason tried focusing on it; the moment he paid it any attention, the words slid from just out of sight to the centre of his vision.

You have slain - ??? ('Identify' Skill required)

You have received 1 XP

Level up.

"Well, that was easy." Closing his eyes, he brought up his character sheet again.

The page of information and stats was still there, but they were greyed out slightly. A box appeared on top of everything else with the words, 'Begin Initiation Y/N?'

Praying that this might answer some questions or at least up his survival chances, Mason took a deep breath, "Yes."

Struck with a sudden blinding pain, Mason passed out.