CHAPTER 2: LOST IN ANOTHER WORLD

Jocelyn collapsed onto the rough ground next to the lifeless bird, her muscles seizing and shaking with each labored breath. Her body was a canvas of blood and dirt, painted by the various attacks from the Crazed Crow. Long and deep scratches covered her body in various places, each movement causing her to wince slightly as she inspected her body looking for anything serious. Not seeing anything life threatening she glanced back to the screen that had appeared in front of her after the crow had died.

* Would you like to loot Crazed Crow?

“This just doesn’t seem real. How can any of this be possible?” She reached out to touch the floating digital screen in front of her and jumped back a little when she felt a light static shock as her hand made contact with the screen.

“It all feels so.. real… I can’t be dreaming or imagining this.” she muttered. The panic from earlier took root once more as the reality of her situation became clear. She was alone, powerless, and vulnerable to the world around her. The realization of her situation overwhelmed her with panic and fear. She felt like the world was shaking and dizziness began to overtake her. Gently she lowered herself back down on the ground and looked down at herself. It was then she noticed it was not the world that was shaking, she was trembling.

She laid there in the grass for what felt like hours. Trying desperately to close her eyes and wish herself back home. Back to where she could understand the world, back to a place where things made sense and birds didn’t violently attack people out of nowhere. No matter how hard she wished to go home she knew deep down this was her reality and there was nothing she could do to change that. She let herself lay there and absorb everything. The fear was still there, but there was something else growing inside her. Determination. Jocelyn was determined to not be beaten by whatever events were going on.

Groaning in pain and reluctance she sat up and was immediately greeted by that same floating screen from earlier.

* Would you like to loot Crazed Crow?

“If life gives you lemons, make some goddamn lemonade or something…” she said with a pained smile on her face. On a hunch she mentally accepted the question and more text appeared

* You have defeated Crazed Crow

Quest: Fowl Feathered Fury

* Objective: Defeat Crazed Crow - 1/1

* Simple Shirt has been added to your inventory

* Simple Pants have been added to your inventory

* Would you like to loot Crazed Crow?

* Bird Thighs have been added to your inventory

* Healing Salve (Copper) has been added to your inventory

The dead creature next to her turned completely black, smoking and hissing as it began to break down. The whole process only took about five seconds, but it felt like an eternity to Jocelyn. Transfixed by the sight of the creature rapidly breaking down, she failed to step away as the smoke poured over her. The putrid smell of rotting flesh hit her, causing her to dry heave until the smell faded away.

“God that’s wretched!” she cried out in disgust, “Why does it smell so bad?” The smell was fading just as quickly as it arrived however, so she turned back to the screen hoping for some good news.

* Bird Thighs have been added to your inventory

* Healing Salve (Copper) has been added to your inventory

Jocelyn frowned in disbelief. “An inventory? Really?” she muttered, shaking her head. “This really is just like an RPG game.” Letting her eyes roam and explore the interface and for the first time she noticed icons displayed in the upper right of the screen. Each icon looked intuitive and suspiciously similar to video game interfaces. Raising her hand she selected the icon that looked to be a map.

Immediately, the display in front of her changed to show the map she had been inspecting earlier. “Well, this is familiar. I’m glad I can come back to the map again.” She let out a sigh of relief. Part of her was happy how intuitive this display was, another was extremely bothered by the idea of an interface so perfectly curated to her needs. Questions burned through her mind, but with no way to answer any of them she continued on exploring. Flitting her eyes back up to the top of the screen, she noticed a chest icon. An idea suddenly came to her as she stared at the icons. Jocelyn focused intently on the chest icon and thought about selecting that icon. The screen responded immediately to her wishes, changing to display columns and rows of boxes.

In front of her were icons with pictures representing different items she had obtained and placed within her inventory. Scanning through them, her eyes stopped on the two clothing items she received from her quest. She focused her attention on the shirt and immediately a new window appeared overlaid on top of the inventory screen.

Item: Simple Shirt

A roughly made canvas shirt. It will offer a limited amount of protection from the cold.

She mentally dismissed the window and focused on the pants icon. Again the same information screen appeared like the first.

Item: Simple Pants

A roughly made fabric pants. It will offer a limited amount of protection from the cold.

Pulling up her inventory again she instinctively reached out toward the icon like she was going to grab it. The icon disappeared and in her hands she held the pants. Appearing as if by magic instantly. A grin spread across her face. “This would be a great party trick,” she mused, holding up the pair of pants to an imaginary crowd. “Ladies and gentlemen! Watch as I make these pants disappear!” She pushed the pants back into the empty slot in her inventory, and watched them vanish. “Ouuuuu ahhhhhh and the crowd goes wild!” Jocelyn chuckled to herself, her humor starting to resurface. However, a gentle gust of wind reminded her of her fresh wounds as they throbbed and stung. “Okay, I really should figure something out about these cuts,” she groaned, turning her attention back to her inventory to look for that healing salve she received from looting that bird.

Item: Healing Salve (Iron Rank, Common)

Common healing salve for minor injuries (healing, consumable)

* Effect: Heals minor injuries when applied to the area. Effect reduced when applied on Iron Rank individuals.

Jocelyn pulled the item out of her inventory and took a closer look at it. In her hands, she held a metal jar with a removable lid. The grooved lid needed to be twisted like a mason jar to reveal the contents. As the lid came off, the smell of the paste hit her. Unlike the dissolving crow smell, this scent was much more tolerable. The scent of old cough syrup filled the air and she could almost taste it.

“At least it doesn’t smell like death.” She shot a glare at the spot on the ground where the crow had dissolved, still harboring some resentment for the cuts on her body and the attack on her nose from looting. Turning her attention back to the metal jar, she used one finger to scoop the paste and applied it apprehensively to one of the more superficial scrapes. As the ointment touched her skin, she felt a slight burning sensation followed immediately by instant relief, almost as if she were running a burn under cold water. With a quick jerk, she pulled her hand away, worried she had made things worse.

“What the hell?” Looking closer, her eyes went wide. The cut was completely gone. Not even a scar remained to provide evidence of the injury. “Woah… That’s some potent healing paste. It’s almost like magic!” she said with a mix of disbelief and glee. Eagerly, she began to apply the paste to the rest of her body, moaning with relief as the pain she felt slowly faded away.

“Magical healing paste, magical inventory powers, and killer crows. Everything points to the impossible. Everything here points to things that are simply impossible!” She shook her head in frustration. “I can’t assume this is some grand delusion or breakdown. What if it’s all real and I make a mistake that I can’t take back. For now I have to assume everything I’m experiencing is real, despite signs that point otherwise.”

Another light breeze reminded her that she was still naked, so she pulled the clothing out of her inventory and put it on. The awkward clothing felt like wearing a potato sack. It was rough, loose, and not at all flattering, but it was better than being out here with nothing on at all.

Finally healed and dressed, she took the opportunity to be more thorough with her investigation of the interface, determined to find answers to her situation somewhere within. She slowly started combing through and exploring every menu for information or strange new abilities. One part of her interface gave her more questions than answers, though. “Character Sheet?” she said with a shake of her head, “Let’s hope I have some magical powers or something.”

Jocelyn Barlowe

* Race: Aether Traveler

* Rank: Normal (Progression to Iron Rank: 0%)

* Stats:

* Strength: Normal

* Speed: Normal

* Soul: Normal

* Recovery: Normal

* Resilience: Normal

* Racial Powers:

* Quest System

* Map

* Inventory

* Interface

* Fundaments: 0/5

* Strength Attribute (No Fundament Bonded)

* Speed Attribute (No Fundament Bonded)

* Soul Attribute (No Fundament Bonded)

* Recovery Attribute (No Fundament Bonded)

* Mental Attribute (No Fundament Bonded)

“Wait… I’m not human? Since when did I stop being human?” Jocelyn focused on the race section to see if more details would appear.

* Race: Aether Traveler

* Description: Aether Travelers are beings touched so profoundly by their journey through the Aether their race fundamentally changed. Magic has been infused with their soul causing them to develop abilities to better help them adjust to the new world they find themselves in after being pulled away from their homeworld.

“Another world?” The words froze Jocelyn in place and the implication of it gripped her heart. She finally had an explanation to what was going on, but it failed to provide relief. Coldness gripped at her. Jocelyn was alone in a brand world far from hers and this was real. The hope of some delusion or coma or any sort of reasonable explanation for this experience disappeared entirely. “This is life or death. One wrong move and I could find myself seriously hurt, or worse.” She grimaced, “I need more answers. I need to find a town, or a city or someone I can talk to about all of this.” Determined, Jocelyn put on a brave face and steeled herself to explore and figure out her next move.

She pulled her map up and looked closer at the blue triangle icon that was clearly where she was. Zooming out, she could see more of the map, but everything outside a small circle around the triangle looked grayed out and obscured slightly. “Assuming video game tactics I’ll probably have to physically go to a place on the map to discover the area.” She groaned outwardly, not at all looking forward to the painful journey ahead. “I don’t even have shoes to walk in. This is going to suck so much,” she said, frowning at her bare feet. Looking into the sky, she saw the sun was well past midday. If she had to guess, it was probably around 4:00 or 5:00 in the evening. She would have to find some sort of shelter to avoid being out at night. With that thought in mind a new screen appeared in front of her.

New Quest: Find Shelter Before Sun Sets

The sun is setting and you have yet to find shelter for the night.

* Objective: Find a safe place to rest before the sun sets (0/1)

* Reward: Variable Reward

Tearing her eyes away from the new quest window, she took one more look around her map, hoping that something would jump out and give her a clue as to which direction she should start heading in. Something at the edge of the visible area on the map was just slightly exposed. Exactly north of her, there looked to be the very edge of a river and maybe some sort of buildings next to it, but she could only see the edge of it. She turned to the North and looked in the direction she suspected she could see the river and next to it were indeed some sort of buildings. They were too far away to make out any details, but they were definitely man-made structures. With a destination in mind she steeled her reserves and started to walk toward the buildings in the distance.

Jocelyn was not used to walking barefoot and began to miss her tennis shoes already. Each step she took was awkward and clumsy. It was taking her much longer to make any sort of progress toward the buildings. About five minutes of awkward walking passed before she noticed the scenery around her was slowly changing. Beautiful bulb-shaped flowers were becoming more abundant among the long grass. Each one seemed to glow and radiate in the evening sun, almost as if they were capable of producing their own light. Brushing past one was a mistake, however, as a sharp stinging sensation came from the back of her thigh.

* A Yeedow has hit you with Toxic Sting

* You have been inflicted with Plant Toxin

Plant Toxin

Effect: (Stackable, Poison) Inflicts ongoing poison damage until the toxin can be cleared. Additional instances create a stacking effect.

Whirling around, she saw a small creature about three feet tall, covered head to toe in vines and leaves, and it had a vaguely humanoid shape due to the way the vines and leaves were placed. The vines covering the creature's body looked slimy and wet giving the creature a disturbing wet dog look. Protruding from its stomach was a thick vine leading back to a plant on the ground, similar to the way pumpkins are attached to vines. The creature almost looked like some sort of vine sculpture. One of the various vines on the creature was painted red from her blood.

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The creature hissed at Jocelyn and lashed out suddenly with its vines. She had no time to react as she was knocked down to the ground so hard the wind was knocked right out of her. She tried to get up but she felt the vines slam into her again. This time a sharp stinging in on her left side caused her to cry out in shock.

* A Yeedow has hit you with Toxic Sting

* You have been inflicted with Plant Toxin

Instinctively, she reached out and felt her hands wrap around a vine protruding from her body. Unlike the other vines she had seen this vine was rough and she was able to maintain a grip on it. She tried to yank it out of her body, but she felt it suddenly tense and suddenly pain began to run up and down every nerve in her body.

* A Yeedow has used Infectious Toxin on you

Infectious Toxin

Effect: (Stackable, Poison) Instances of Plant Toxin will begin to multiply over time. Additional instances create a stacking effect.

Vines began to reach out and wrap around her body. Jocelyn could feel the vines pinning her in place preventing her from escaping. Before the vines could fully constrict her though she found one and bit down hard. Immediately she felt herself be yanked right toward the creature as it screamed out in pain. She felt more vines wrapping around her and realized the Yeedow had pulled her right into its chest. Right next to that central vine on its stomach.

Unable to kick or punch the creature, she did the only thing she could think of. She opened her mouth wide and bit deep into the vine on the Yeedow’s chest. The creature screamed, and vines quickly wrapped around her chest and neck and began to squeeze. She tore into the creature bite after bite, desperately trying to ignore the constricting vines tightening all around her. All she wanted in that moment was to inflict as much damage as she possibly could. All her hate and frustration from the situation she was in came pouring out of her. Every bite was satisfying in a way nothing else ever had been before. The anger flooded out of her and inbetween every bite she screamed, “I” “WILL” “NOT” “DIE” “FROM” “SOME” “HENTAI” “TENTACLE” “MONSTER”

Another tight squeeze caused her to gasp and cough violently and she gasped all the air in her lungs out. Her vision began to dull and swirl as blackness crept along the edge of her sight. Jocelyn was dying; she felt her life slowly fading away, helpless to stop it. Memories began to flash before her eyes. One pivotal memory stood out from all the rest. As her vision faded away she felt herself pulled into relieving that memory all over again.

“Jocelyn? Sweetie? Do you want a turn to speak before we lower the casket?” A soft voice caught her attention.

She turned and saw her Mom, Maddie, looking at her, eyes red and makeup smeared from the endless tears she had shed during the funeral. Jocelyn turned her eyes to stare blankly at the casket in front of them and spoke softly, “He’s not even in there.”

Maddie sighed and frowned slightly at her. “I know… I wish he was… it would make things easier for all of us.”

Nodding, Jocelyn let the silence linger between the two for a minute before she broke it. “Would you come up with me?”

Smiling at her daughter and brushing away a tear that rolled down Jocelyn's cheek. Maddie spoke gently “Of course, love. Today, I’ll be your shadow.”

Jocelyn stood up next to the casket, her mom holding her hand as she poured all the sorrow and pain into her words as she said her peace barley holding back sobs “You may have left this world Dad, but I know you’ll wait for me in the next. You were the best father any daughter could ask for. I’ll always be your little shadow. I love you.”

The present snapped back like a ripcord as she felt the vines tightening over her, ready to end her the same way she had killed that crow. She bit down again, tearing into the creature's chest, ignoring the tightening vines covering her body. Expecting the taste of leafy plant matter, she was surprised when the metallic taste of iron flooded her mouth. This time she had bitten clean through the vine on the Yeedow’s stomach causing it to spray all over her with green blood. The vines that held her tight suddenly fell limp and unmoving on her. She gasped for air as the tightness in her chest disappeared. Each breath came in ragged and pained, so she lay there on top of the dead creature's body with her eyes closed, not willing to open her eyes to be greeted by those tormenting screens she knew would be there, waiting for her.

* You have defeated a Yeedow

* Would you like to loot Yeedow?

Groaning and rolling off the monster she was determined to be nowhere near the monster when she accepted the prompt. She backed away until she felt like there was enough distance between her and the dead monster. In position, she gave her mental assent to loot the dead Yeedow. Just like the crow the Yeedow began to melt and dissolve into the ground. Even the blood covering Jocelyn’s body began to dissolve into black puffs of smoke filling her nostrils with the putrid scent again, despite her efforts to avoid it.

* Shadow Fundament has been added to your inventory

* 1 pair of hiking shoes has been added to your inventory

* 1 Iron Rank Antidote has been added to your inventory

The antidote reminded her about the poison that was still running through her body. Looking down at her side she saw her veins were turning black around the area where she was stabbed by the Yeedow’s vine. “That doesn’t look too good.” she muttered while pulling out the antidote from her inventory. It looked just like a bottle of cough syrup you could buy at the pharmacy. Curious, she opened the bottle and hesitantly tasted it. It was bitter and overly sweet on her tongue, but she threw back the bottle and drank the entire thing. “Eughhh, god that’s horrible. I feel like magic powers should make things taste good too.” she frowned and shook her head. “Does it work immediately or..” A screen suddenly appeared in front of her, cutting off her sentence.

* All instances of Infectious Toxin have been cleansed

* All instances of Plant Toxin have been cleansed

“Oh good, at least I won’t die slowly and painfully out here all alone now.” she sighed in relief despite the sarcasm and began to look at her other new items. Jocelyn’s eyes lit up with excitement when she saw the hiking shoes in her inventory and quickly slipped them on, sighing in relief as she felt the cushion underneath her soles. Despite the good fortune of having shoes again, a feeling of unease struck her, “Why does my looting system provide me with items that are suspiciously tailored to the situation I’m in?” she muttered, throwing an uneasy glance at the dissolving Yeedow. “It’s like… The system is reading my mind or something… and I hate the implication of that. I wonder if that fundament thing could be useful for me as well?”

Looking at her inventory she focused on an icon of a small black cube before the informational window appeared.

Item: Shadow Fundament

* A magical manifestation containing the purest concept of Shadow.

* Consumable

* Absorb to obtain a magical concept ability

* You have 0/5 absorbed fundaments. Would you like to absorb Shadow Fundament?

* Yes

* No

Taking the item out of her inventory, she inspected it more carefully. In her hand, she held a smooth black cube. It seemed to absorb any and all light around it, causing it to be midnight black. A chill began to seep into her fingers as if it was siphoning away her very life force. It gave her the creeps and made her entirely reluctant to absorb random cubes of darkness. “I’m not entirely sure absorbing a magical cube of darkness is something I really should do. That seems more of a villain kinda vibe.” She put the cube back into her inventory, deciding to come back to it later when she knew more about it. Looking around, she could see the sun had dipped even lower, causing the shadows all around her to lengthen and sprawl out further as if reaching for the horizon. Knowing she couldn’t stay here for too long, she began to walk north again, determined to find shelter and maybe some answers.

It took roughly 30 minutes of walking before she could see the river and another hour before she could clearly see the buildings. The buildings were clearly abandoned and neglected. Even at a distance, she could see the wear on the structures was significant. The closer she got, the more worn and weathered the entire area looked. The paint was cracked and faded, the air thick with the smell of rotting wood, and in some spots, the wood had worn away, causing the roofs to cave in a bit. In total, there were 10 different structures arranged in a circle around a central building in the middle. Even the central building had a circular shape instead of the regular blocky and square shape the other buildings had. On her map, the whole place resembled a stereotypical target. “Whoever built this place sure had an unhealthy fascination with circles, huh?”

The best-looking building was the one in the center of the circle. Although still worn and decrepit, it looked much more habitable to her tastes. She stepped forward, ready to go inside, when she noticed a new screen in front of her.

Quest: find Shelter Before Sunset

The sun is setting and you have yet to find shelter for the night.

* Objective Complete: Find a safe place to rest before the sun sets

* Reward: Blood Knife, Blood Fundament

“Blood knife?” Jocelyn, her curiosity peaked, rushed to her inventory to inspect the item closer.

Item: Blood Knife (Iron Rank, Rare)

A knife belonging to an ancient cult of blood worshipers.

* Effect: Inflicts ongoing necrotic damage and inflicts an instance of the “Reaper’s Mark” curse on a target as long as it has blood.

Curse: Reaper’s Mark

Death is inevitable. Your soul belongs to the reaper, it’s only a matter of time before you succumb to the mark.

* Effect: A curse that amplifies all necrotic damage taken by the target. Each application of the curse stacks, causing the target to suffer increasingly severe necrotic damage over time until cleansed.

Jocelyn held the knife in her hands gingerly, careful to keep the blade away from her own body. “This is a seriously wicked blade. Why couldn’t I get a gun that shoots rainbows or something? I’m more likely to stab myself with this thing by accident if I’m honest with myself” She carefully put the knife back in her inventory and pulled out the Blood Fundament. In her hands, she held a blood-red cube that looked wet and slippery, but it felt completely dry under her fingers.

Item: Blood Fundament

* A magical manifestation containing the purest concept of blood

* Consumable

* Absorb to obtain a magical concept ability

* You have 0/5 absorbed fundaments. Would you like to absorb Blood Fundament?

* Yes

* No

This item appeared to be the same as the Shadow Fundament, but with the concept of blood instead of shadow. She once again contemplated absorbing the fundament, but something just felt wrong about absorbing something that contained the concept of blood. Putting the stone back into her inventory, she looked up at the building in front of her. Despite the traumatic events she had been subjected to over the last hour or so, she was determined she would be able to control her own fate now.

“See! Things are gonna be great! You keep getting evil magic stones, you have an evil knife to go along with the creepy stones, and you don’t have to sleep outside. Things are finally looking up!”

Walking right up to the building in front of her with a bit more confidence she pushed open the door and took a single step inside before freezing. Standing about 10 feet away from her was a small figure around 4’9" wrapped in dark robes, with its back turned away from her so she couldn't see its face. Notifications appeared in front of her at that moment, but she quickly dismissed them. She could look at them after she assessed the situation. The figure appeared to be studying some sort of diagram drawn on the floor and was too preoccupied to turn around to look at her. “Joe? Is that you? Have you figured out what happened out there yet? The magical disturbance seems to have fixed itself. I don’t know what my spell could have done to cause such a disruption to the area, but I must have messed something up with the ritual ingredients. Rupert probably bought me some poor-grade Umbat Elixir or something. I swear, if he wasn’t already undead, I’d turn him myself and make him shovel Grendel poo for the rest of his eternal life.”

Frozen in the doorway and unsure how to respond Jocelyn did the only thing she could think of and spoke, “Oh! Hi. Um, is that a magic circle or something?”

The figure jumped and turned so fast that he fell over onto his back in surprise at Jocelyn's voice. As the robes fell off, she was able to get a better look at the figure. His skin was so pure white he looked like a living corpse. Dark short hair and a thick beard donned his face. However, a scowl of anger was present as the man realized Jocelyn was in fact not Joe.

“Oh shit, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you,” Jocelyn said and rushed to help the man up from the floor.

“Don’t touch me, human trash!” the man snarled at her as he started to pick himself up from the ground. Jocelyn thought she saw a pair of fangs on the man's face for the briefest of moments.

“Racism exists in other worlds too, huh? Figures… I guess you can’t expect every world to have overcome the archaic form of pretending to be superior over others just to make yourself feel better” Jocelyn rambled on as she put on her hands behind her back.

That comment seemed to put the man off kilter for a second. “Other worlds? Who are you? Stop speaking gibberish.” he demanded, frowning slightly.

“Me? My name is Jocelyn! I would say it’s nice to meet you, but it’s been fairly unpleasant, to be completely honest. You’ve been outright rude this entire time. I mean where are the refreshments? The tiny little appetizers on silver trays? I hope the rest of this world isn’t like you. Also, your face sorta bothers me. It’s weirdly flat,” she said quickly.

“Fool!” The man spat at her before a sudden realization came across his face. “Other worlds? You mean Aetheral Traveling? You ruined my spell?! Just my luck. An Aetheral Traveler just so happens to arrive right as I cast my spell. You ruined everything!” The man grew increasingly angry and lunged out at Jocelyn in a bid to vent out his rage.

Jocelyn, sensing the man's growing anger, had reached behind her, hoping she could pull her dagger out of her inventory even if she wasn’t looking directly at the inventory screen. Relief had flooded her when she felt the new dagger wrapped around her hand as the man began his tirade. She had just enough time to bring her knife up in front of her as the man lunged at her neck with his mouth open like he was going to bite her. Unfortunately for the man, his momentum caused him to land directly on the knife. Both of them stood there, stunned and frozen by what had just happened.

The man was dead before he hit the floor. The blood knife buried hilt-deep directly into his heart. Jocelyn was too stunned by what had just happened. It all moved so fast. Escalating out of her control. She didn’t want to kill the man… The realization of taking a life hit her hard. Her knees gave out as she collapsed to the ground and started to dry retch for the third time that day. Her mind spun, and she started to sob uncontrollably. “Please take me back! I don’t want this; I never wanted this. This has to be a horrible mistake. Please, I want to go back!” she cried to the universe. Jocelyn lay there, sobbing and retching for at least 10 minutes. Slowly, she grew silent, her mind shattered and numbed to the endless traumatic events throughout the day. Looking up she once again saw system messages waiting for her.

New Quest: The Blood Cultists

You have found the entrance to the blood cult’s lair.

* Objective: Explore the cult, eliminate all Underlings in the lair 0/12

* Bonus Objective: Eliminate all remaining cultists 1/56

* Reward: 5 Copper Etheral coins, 100 Iron Etheral coins, Putrefaction Fundament

* Blood Dagger has inflicted “Reaper’s Mark” on Lessor Vampire

* Blood Dagger has inflicted Necrotic Damage on Lessor Vampire

* Lessor Vampire “Darrek Langly” has been eliminated

* Would you like to Loot Lesser Vampire “Darrek Langly”?