A few hours later, my mind still buzzed with the implications of what Chow Li had told me. It wasn’t so much that Stratos or whoever was running this thing had named this place after the city from which we’d all been abducted, when you looked at the bigger picture it made a lot of sense. It was seeing this bigger picture that had thrown me for a loop.

As you’d expect from the name, the Isekai World GameCon had been a world-wide event. It didn’t just happen in Toronto, it had been held on the same three days in dozens of places across the globe.

I hadn’t really thought about why all the Players here came from the same place. I guess I assumed we’d been chosen because...why? Because of me? Because I was so damned good at picking out players? That’s pretty arrogant.

When I stopped to think about it, it would actually make a lot of sense if the same thing had happened to people everywhere the convention had been held. There were probably dozens of Stratoses, and that meant there were probably several versions of the city, each one named after the Earthly city its Players were abducted from. A London. A Vancouver. A New York, a Hong Kong, a Brussels, a Milan, an Addis Ababa, a St Petersburg, a Seoul, a Tokyo. Dozens of them. I bet the Seoul Players were over the moon, this was exactly the kind of isekai stuff they were crazy about in South Korea.

It was kinda mind-boggling. The amount of work that must have gone into creating the city and all the NPCs and all the Players bodies was incredible. And if they did this dozens of times in different places? Poof! Mind blown.

And for what purpose? Was it really just a game? Or was there more to it? Nothing was accidental, so to call the world Crucible...was this actually some kind of test?

Since it all seemed to be following the standard isekai tropes, could the purpose be similar to those in the stories? Characters get isekai’d for all kinds of reasons: another world in trouble summons them as heroes to fix it, or after a tragic life the character gets reincarnated for another chance in another world, or a higher power thrusts them into another world for their own amusement, or they’re being introduced to a larger community of other advanced worlds, to name just a few. What was this new game world all about, really?

These were the thoughts that skittered across my mind as I trudged along the path that led from the city to the Eastern Forest. Was Toronto the only city to get isekai’d, or were there dozens of versions of this path spread over whatever planet this was, one for each city that hosted the Isekai World Gamecon? Or were there dozens of planets, each with its own city? Did they all have the same medieval fantasy theme? Just what kind of game was this, and for whose benefit?

System: Your mastery of Game Design has evolved

My skill leveled up. That gave me an inkling that I may have been onto something with this train of thought.

At this point, I reached the edge of the forest. My mind had been churning so hard I barely remembered the trip from the city, just the vague impression of rolling hills covered in grassy vegetation that made me think of pictures I'd seen of Scottish moors. Here at the forest’s edge, the path led into the trees and quickly vanished into the dark growth.

I paused and checked my gear. After I’d told Shashu about my intention to go into the forest he’d offered to accompany me, but for some reason I felt like this was something I should do on my own. I didn’t want to rely on NPCs, although I suppose that’s what NPCs like Shashu were there for. But if I was going to learn about my abilities and how to make the best use of them I wanted to do as much as I could on my own. Still, I had accepted his offer of equipping me with some gear from the Dragon Clan storerooms.

He’d given me a different set of clothes, the fancy silk tang suit with the embroidered dragon was lovely but impractical for what I had in mind. The clan had a number of different outfits to choose from, all appropriately kung fuey, and all (surprise, surprise) in my size. I’d chosen a nehru-style jacket with black bone buttons running from its Mandarin collar down to around my navel, but open below and with a slit in the back for freedom of movement. It was long, almost to my knees, in a dark blue color that was almost black, and had an armor rating that provided an extra defense. The pants were black, as were the sturdy boots that also added to defense. Did I look a bit like Neo in the Matrix? Yes, yes I did. Was that an accident? No, it was not. All I needed were the sunglasses, but those were too anachronistic to find in the Dragon Clan store room. I wouldn't have worn them anyway. Sunglasses and any kind of hat are two accessories I am just plain unable to pull off, something about the shape of my head makes either look wrong on me.

The clan had also loaned me some weapons. I wanted to try out a few different ones to see which felt best to me, so I had two swords — one longer and the other shorter, both wide, flat, and double-edged in the Chinese jian style — and a few knives and daggers of various lengths and shapes strapped to my belt. Before I’d left the clan house, Shashu had come to wish me luck and given me a backpack loaded with some basic gear, which had ominously included a significant number of bandages and medicinal balms, as well as a large bento box of food.

I was keen to get going, not only because I wanted to see what I was capable of, but also because I hoped I could achieve another first and earn more reward tokens. Other Players would have had the same idea to go outside the city to get some experience, and I’d learned my lesson from being too late to get a room at an inn. If I dallied too long others would scoop up all the achievements.

I did mention gamers as jealous and selfish, right?

I also hoped to meet some other Players outside the walls; the sort of Players who’d venture out like this were the kinds of Players I wanted to assemble on my team.

Screw you, Kiki.

After gearing up at the clan house I set off as quickly as I could, going up Dagger Street to the town square and taking the street directly across, Bow Street, following it to its terminus at the city wall and passing through the gate there, which opened onto the path to the forest, then ultimately led me to the forest’s edge.

It only took a few steps into the forest to feel swallowed by the tall trees. They were mostly hardwood, oak and maple, the kind you find in and around the real Toronto. Whoever designed this was meticulous. The canopy above was thick with leaves so little sun made it down to the forest floor, but the scraggly undergrowth was still formidable. The dense foliage enveloped me in an oppressive aura of gloom and the image of Snow White alone in the forest getting grasped and groped by claw-like branches flashed into my mind. I should have felt the chill of fear, this is the sort of thing that would normally trigger a serious bout of the anxiety shakes, but all I felt was a kind of jittery excitement. The meandering path drew me deeper into the woods, but unlike in Snow White there were no glowing eyes in the shadows, no branches clawing at me.

Dammit, where were the glowing eyes? Why hadn’t I been clawed yet? How the hell was I supposed to test myself without anything to test against? Where were all the damned monsters?

Right. Time to venture off the beaten path, as they say. I needed to be careful, though, I did not want to get lost in here.

Wait a second, maybe I couldn’t get lost. I had a map.

I opened the map and was pleased to see a little dot showing my current location inside the forest. I zoomed in on the map and kept the screen open as I stepped off the path and into the wild woods. As I’d hoped, the dot moved when I did. No way I could get lost with this. I closed the map and plunged ahead among the trees, using the short sword as a makeshift machete to hack at any undergrowth that annoyed me. I gave up on that pretty quickly, though; the sword was awkward and I kept bashing things with the flat of the blade instead of its cutting edges. Maybe it was ineffective as a machete, or maybe I was incompetent as a swordsman. Either way, I resigned myself to getting annoyed with the undergrowth and plodded through it.

Stolen novel; please report.

I stopped when I reached a small clearing. This seemed like a good place to test out Good At Everything with Affinity Control. I’d made fire with it, but there were a lot of other elements and I could theoretically use them all. I held out my hand the same as I’d done the night before, only this time I thought about ice. It took some concentration and active imagination but eventually, a thin film of frost spread from my palm to cover my fingers and crackled up my forearm before thickening into a layer of cool, solid ice.

System: You have developed affinity with Ice

I closed my fist and the ice shattered.

Sweet. I wondered if I could make it appear somewhere else.

I thought about ice again, only this time I stared intently at the stump of a fallen tree across the clearing as I did. I managed to make a small area of it frost over, but that’s as much as I could muster. It took a lot more effort to create it at a distance. This would take some practice.

Okay, that was affinity with Fire and Ice down. Let’s try a different element.

I thought about water. Nothing happened.

Maybe I was being too vague. I should try picturing something more specific.

I held out my hand again and imagined a ball of water swirling above my open palm. Almost immediately a liquid droplet manifested over my hand and began to grow, swelling into a churning ball of water about the size of an apple.

System: You have developed affinity with Water

I drew the water ball back then hurled it at the trees like a softball. It flew then exploded like a water balloon against a tree trunk with a satisfying splash. Pity it wasn’t the tree I was aiming for.

Ah well, I never was very good at softball. That would take practice too, I guess.

What’s next?

I tried to remember all the elements I’d seen people have affinity with and attempted to conjure them. I managed to create a few small rocks that I could fire like bullets, a gust of wind that made the fallen leaves on the ground billow, and I even made my hand nearly disappear into a flimsy vapor of shadow, earning new affinities with each. There were still other affinities to earn, but I was feeling worn out from the exertion so before I worked on them I decided to take a break and see if I could improve my fireballs from a flashy distraction into a viable attack after some lunch. I dug into my pack for the bento box and sat down on a stump.

I opened my status to see if my efforts had borne fruit.

Daniel Lamont Team Builder Affinity: Air - Novice

Earth - Novice

Fire - Novice

Ice - Novice

Life - Novice

Shadow - Novice

Water - Novice Gifts:

Good At Everything

Jack of All Trades

[Hidden]

Powers:

All Shall Be Revealed - Competent

Skills:

Affinity Control - Novice

Brawling - Novice

Cartography - Novice

Game Design - Competent

Laying On Hands - Novice

Kung Fu - Novice

Teaching - Novice

Trivia - Novice

Wow. My Status was getting pretty long. Look at all those Affinities and Skills.

I grabbed a ball of sticky rice wrapped in what looked like seaweed from the bento and took a bite. I was pleasantly surprised to find a spicy bean paste filling hidden inside the rice.

Fantastic. I could get used to the food here.

Using Affinity Control so much had left me ravenous, so I polished off the rest of the food like the kid who was bound and determined to get that blue ribbon this time after coming in second in the pie-eating contest at the fair for the last three years in a row.

That’s when I noticed it, a pair of tiny red eyes glaring at me from within the trees. Who knew how long they’d been watching me eat.

Yes! Let’s do this. I was time for me to pop my hunter cherry.

Grinning like an idiot, I created another ball of water in my hand and lobbed it at the eyes. It vanished into the darkness between the trees and I heard it splash.

I know what you’re thinking. Why did I choose to use the Water affinity and not something a bit more offensive like, say, Fire? I wasn’t sure what it was in the trees and didn’t like the idea of going nova on it right off the bat. Maybe it was something nice, like a bunny or something. I figured that if it was harmless then getting soaked would just make it run away. And if it was dangerous, then an unexpected soaking might at least give it reason to be a little wary and, I dunno, maybe slow it down a bit.

It seemed like a solid plan at the time.

Something rustled in the trees, then it emerged into the clearing. It was small, white, and furry, with two long ears. It was a bunny after all. Only this bunny had two antlers poking out of its head just in front of the big ears. It was also soaking, the weight of the water making its ears flop adorably.

“Jackalope!” I shouted. “So cute!”

It looked up at me with those piercing red eyes and shook its body, spattering water all around.

“So cute!” it said in a voice that sounded just like mine, and took a hop toward me.

Okay, that was unexpectedly creepy.

Jackalope Don’t be fooled by its small size and cute bunny-like appearance, this ferocious monster uses its ability to mimic any sound to lure its prey in close enough to pounce on. Those unfortunate enough to survive its venomous bite will wish it had killed them once the Jackalope’s curse sets in. Powers:

Verbal Mimicry - Expert: Mimic sounds and voices

Jackalope’s Curse - Expert: The Jackalope’s vicious bite is laced with a potent venom that contains a curse

Skills:

Astounding Leap - Expert

Vicious Bite - Expert

Whoah, what’s that now? Curse? Vicious bite? Potent venom? And all at Expert level?

"Uh oh."

The Jackalope took another hop toward me. "Uh oh," it said in my voice. The red eyes boiled and turned dark, like two black holes boring into me. A horizontal slash appeared under its nose that almost seemed to split its head in two, then I realized all it had done is open its mouth. Foamy froth spilled out of the wide gash over jagged multiple rows of fangs, like a shark.

Screw this, burn you poisonous little bastard!

I concentrated on forming a fireball in my hand. It appeared instantly. I let the flames flicker for a few moments and tool a step foreward, wondering if it would make the creature back off, but the Jackalope only moved one hop closer too, pitch black eyes locked onto me and its appallingly wide mouth snapping shut with a clack.

“You asked for it!” I said, and threw the fire at it. It hit the Jackalope and exploded harmlessly off its wet fur with a slight sizzle.

“You asked for it!” it said, and leapt at me, gaping maw open and fangs bared.

“Crap!” I cried, jumping back instinctively. My foot slipped on some damp leaves and I toppled backwards, landing hard on my tailbone. A sore butt was a small price to pay, though, because if I hadn’t fallen I would’ve been directly in the path of the Jackalope’s attack. Instead, I lay sprawled on the ground as the Jackalope sailed through the air over me. Our eyes met for a brief moment, then it adjusted its flight path by twisting its head mid-flight in an effort to take a bite out of me. A split second before its mouth was about to close on my face my flailing arm struck its antler and skewed its trajectory. I laid there, helpless but insanely lucky, watching the little monster careen off toward the trees behind me.

I was far from out of the woods yet, though. As I watched, the Jackalope land elegantly against a tree, planting its hind feet on the trunk then immediately springing back at me. I rolled, then jumped onto my feet again. The longsword hissed as I pulled it free from its scabbard.

The Jackalope crouched on the ground, pink nose twitching, black eyes shimmering with menace. “Crap,” it said.

I hefted the sword and made a clumsy trial swing.

That wasn’t gonna work. The balance of the sword was all wrong for me. Either it was too long or too heavy or I was just too weak. Who am I kidding, I was just too weak.

I dropped the longsword, keeping an eye on the Jackalope, ready for it to pounce at any time. I didn’t even bother to pull out the short sword, if I couldn’t use it against a stationary branch then it’s not something I’d want to trust my life to against a small, bitey, moving target.

The Jackalope cocked an ear at me.

I made a mental note: must work on getting weapon skills.

There were still the knives and daggers left to try. I had a few to choose from. I pulled out a long pointy one, meant for piercing thrusts. I jabbed the air with it.

Oh yeah, that felt better.

With the longsword lying discarded on the ground at my feet and the short one ignored in its scabbard, I held the knife out in front of me, daring the Jackalope to come at me.

The Jackalope came at me.