It was the screeching of an owl that startled me awake. As the sleep slowly left my eyes the forest around me came into view. That was the first problem. Last night I’d gone to sleep in my own comfy bed in the middle of the small town of Hanover, Pennsylvania. Which while no stranger to trees of all kinds was certainly no forest.
It had been an ordinary day like so many before it. Work at a dead end factory for too little money in order to pay too much money for too little apartment. The usual for a thirty-four year old American in the 2020’s. Afterwork just sit around on the computer all day reading, playing video games, or watching youtube. Rinse and Repeat ad nauseum for far longer than I care to remember. I’d gone to bed at my usual time of way too late to be healthy, and awoken in this damn forest.
If this was a prank I was not laughing. The second problem came when I did a more thorough inspection of my surroundings. Everywhere I looked was nothing but trees that seemed...odd. It took my panicking mind a moment to pinpoint exactly what was strange about them. The leaves were a shade of purple.
Finally standing revealed problem three. My balance was off. A tentative step showed a stride smaller than normal. Looking done revealed two things more out of place than the trees. Breasts. I had breasts. This would not be a problem if not for the fact I’d gone to sleep without them. After five minutes of loin girding I finally put a hand downward to check the other half of this equation. Yep, no dick. WTF was happening.
The only positives to be found in this whole situation where the clothes I had on. A warm brown leather jacket covering red and black checkered flannel shirt. The courage to look under that flannel was absent yet. Below was sturdy blue jeans and a pair of leather hiking boots. Perfect for a stroll in the woods. The only thing slightly disturbing was just how plain they were. No markings, no tags, and a quick check showed even the boot tread to be the most basic pattern.
An errant thought went through my head at that moment. This seemed almost like the books I loved to read so much where the main character ends up in a game. I had read so many of those novels I had almost started to fall out of love with them. Another look at the purple leaves made it seem just slightly plausible enough that I said “Status” mostly so I could eliminate the least possible scenario off the bat and move on.
Instead a white panel opened up in the air in front of me. It was slightly translucent and completely incorporeal. On one side was a rotating picture of a fairly short woman, but what grabbed my attention was her face. It was beautiful. Pale skin with high cheekbones, a pert nose, and sparkling blue eyes. Her hair was midnight black the same color I saw when I grabbed a lock of my hair and brought it around for inspection. On the other side I saw thus:
NAME:NOT SELECTED
RACE: HUMAN
LEVEL: 0
HEALTH: 50/50
MANA: 144/144
AGE: 34 TERRAN YEARS/ 20 STANDARD YEARS
CLASS:NOT CURRENTLY SELECTED
PROFESSION(S): NOT CURRENTLY SELECTED
ATTRIBUTES:
BODY
STRENGTH: 4
CONSTITUTION: 5
DEXTERITY: 14
MIND
INTELLIGENCE: 12
CRITICAL THINKING: 9
CHARISMA: 18
POINTS AVAILABLE: 6 (DETERMINED BY RACE AMONG OTHER FACTORS) PLEASE NOTE YOU CANNOT GO ABOVE AN 18 SCORE USING FREE POINTS.PLEASE ASSIGN THESE POINTS NOW.
Okay, that was as far from my expectations as it could have gone. I was either in some kind of game... or some place that ran by game rules. The only thing for certain was that this was not Earth. Before waking up in this damn field I would have broken down long before this. I am self aware enough to admit this, but for some reason everytime I started to falter I felt a warmth blossom from somewhere near my heart and the panic would subside. The feeling was nearly indescribable. Bolstered by this unknown sensation I started to look through my options.
After a moment some basic facts came to mind. The stats could not have been based on my previous ...life, body, existence? I now had maxed out charisma which usually in these systems meant I was as beautiful and persuasive as possible. Previously I was an average looking wallflower who avoided social interaction whenever possible. I’d also been about 280 lbs and decently strong. My respective 4 and 5 strength and constitution scores meant a good strong breeze might either knock me on my ass or do something harmful.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Second, the 18 max start was the same as D&D where 20 was the absolute max without very powerful items or magic. In those systems 10 was the average meaning my body was potentially even more pathetic than I’d thought. Of other concern was that 9 critical thinking. Was I really below average in thinking things through? That almost dragged me down a self-defeating rabbit hole.I really wanted to pump my 6 points into intelligence, but the danger in being tissue paper was too great for my peace of mind. With a heavy heart I put 5 points into constitution and 1 into critical thinking leaving only strength below par if this really did work like I suspected.
As soon as that was finished the screen changed into a single screen list with yet another message at the top. I also noted my health jumped to 100. Some simple math told me each point of constitution must translate to 10 points of health. Always good to know.
BELOW ARE ALL THE CLASSES YOU QUALIFY FOR WITH YOUR ATTRIBUTES. CHOOSE WISELY.
The list was hundreds of classes listed some of which I’d never heard of in my life. There had to be some way to narrow this down without looking at each one of them. Since it had responded to my earlier voice command I decided to try something. “Search” I said somewhat hopefully. Immediately a separate screen appeared., this one a top and bottom display instead of side to side. On top was a single blank line and on bottom a classic qwerty keyboard. Below the keyboard where a bunch of parameter boxes to narrow your search.
Some were simple toggles instead with simple binary choices for them. Things like melee/ ranged, pet/ no pet, and the one that grabbed my eyes like a magnet magical/ non magical. There before me in simple English was proof that magic was real in wherever this was. I could wield magic. No, I WOULD wield magic. Without hesitation I hit that switch and also selected the ranged option. With a 6 strength and 10 constitution there was no logical reason for me to even consider melee.
Hitting enter narrowed the search considerably, but still not enough. The problem was some of these seemed to be so close that making them different classes seemed like needless fluff to me. What is the difference between a Ranger and a Forest Warden? Damned if I know after reading the basic description provided for them. Going back to the search bar I added the word mage and tried again. Finally I was getting somewhere. There were only three options now.
The first was something called a shaper mage, next was an elementalist, finally was summoner. Bringing the description of the shaper mage up showed this: THE SHAPER MAGE DOES NOT CAST SPELLS AS ALMOST ALL OTHER MAGES DO. INSTEAD THEY PROJECT THEIR WILL INTO OBJECTS OF NATURE SUCH AS WOOD AND ROCK, AND SHAPE THEM TO THEIR WILL. OBJECTS CREATED IN THIS FASHION ENJOY MULTIPLE BENEFITS SUCH AS MAGICAL REINFORCEMENT, THE STRENGTH OF BEING ONE SOLID PIECE WITHOUT VULNERABLE JOINTS OR HINGES, AND INCREASED CAPACITY FOR ENCHANTMENT. SELECT? Y/N
Elementalist showed: EACH PERSON IS BORN WITH AFFINITY TO ONE OF THE ELEMENTS.THE ELEMENTALIST COMMANDS THE RAW POWER OF THEIR ELEMENT TO EMPOWER THEIR SPELLS . AS YOUR CONNECTION WITH YOUR ELEMENT DEEPENS YOU WILL UNLOCK MORE SPELLS AND GREATER STRENGTH. SELECT? Y/N
Summoner: SUMMONERS PULL FORTH CREATURES FROM OTHER REALMS TO FIGHT FOR THEM. CHOICE OF REALM HAS DRASTIC CONSEQUENCES ON AVAILABLE SUMMONS. SUMMONS ARE EXTREMELY POWERFUL BUT WILL NOT WISH TO BE CONTROLLED, AND WILL NEED TO BE CONTROLLED BY THE SUMMONER. ONLY THE STRONGEST OF WILLS WILL MAKE TRUE USE OF THIS CLASS. SELECT? Y/N
It did not escape my notice that all three had some variety of force of will as their main parameter. My 18 charisma was kicking in. My 12 int however must not be high enough for the traditional spellcasting wizard. I could not dredge up too much regret however, as these all sounded extremely powerful.
Right off the bat I eliminated the summoner class. No way was I getting into a fight of wills with a demon or some shit. I would bet my ass a bunch of people were going to get themselves killed with that class. The other two were much harder. Fling spells at my enemies or potentially create works of wonder no artist could match. Unable to decide I reached for that warmth and it pulled me towards the elementalist. Taking a leap of faith I selected the elementalist.
YOU HAVE CHOSEN ELEMENTALIST. YOUR ELEMENT IS ICE. YOU RECEIVE AS PART OF YOUR CLASS THE SPELLS ICE SHARD AND ICE SPIKE.
ICE SHARD: AN INSTANT CAST PIECE OF ICE SHOT FROM YOUR HAND TOWARDS YOUR ENEMY. MANA COST: 36 DAMAGE 12-24
ICE SPIKE: A TWO SECOND CHANNELED PIECE OF ICE SHOT FROM YOUR HAND TOWARDS YOUR ENEMY. MANA COST: 6 DAMAGE 12-24
A sharp but brief pain rang through my head. When it subsided I knew how to cast the spells as surely as I knew how to ride a bike. The idea of instant knowledge transfer was almost as exciting as the spells themselves. The same spell just instant versus channeled. At least I had some hope if someone or thing got into melee range, but that mana cost was extravagant. I could only cast Ice shard 4 times before I was out of mana compared to Ice spike at 24 times. I hadn’t yet seen any kind of mana regeneration stat. Definitely a top priority to figure out. While I was thinking about this a new message appeared.
PROFESSION CANNOT BE CHOSEN OUTSIDE OF STARTING VILLAGE. MOVING TO NEXT STAGE OF CHARACTER CREATION.
Almost immediately the screen changed again.
YOU HAVE AN UNSELECTED NAME. CANNOT CONTINUE WITHOUT SELECTION.
BEGIN SELECTION? Y/N
Taking a sheltering breath I pressed Y.
The screen brought back the top/bottom search box this time without any toggle or boxes besides the top line. It did not take a genius to figure this part out. Reaching for that blossoming warmth brought to me a name as if some God had given it to me. For all I know that’s entirely possible. Putting fingers to the display I typed in Lorelai and hit enter.
YOU MAY NOW ENTER YOUR STARTING PATH LORELAI. DOWN THE ROAD IS YOUR NEW HOME VILLAGE. MAKE YOUR WAY THERE. YOU WILL BE TESTED ALONG YOUR PATH, AND YOUR CHOICES AND THEIR SUCCESS AND FAILURES WILL BE WEIGHED BY THE GODS. THEIR VERDICT WILL HAVE SWEEPING RAMIFICATIONS FOR YOUR NEW LIFE ON HOPE’S BASTION. FAIL SEVERELY ENOUGH AND THE GODS MAY EVEN RESCIND SOME OF THEIR GRANTED POWER. POWER MAY BE HELD BY ANYONE, BUT ON HOPE’S BASTION ONLY THE WORTHY HOLD ONTO IT.
The moment that message finished the screen disappeared. When I had woken up the forest had nothing but trees. Now before me the trees had moved to either side of a road I would have sworn had not been there moments ago. Taking a deep breath and reaching towards the magic I now knew how to access I started down the road.