Mike's Mind snapped back into focus as the world seemed to once more solidify around him. Teleportation was quite a weird feeling. It felt something like being pushed through an invisible force that you hadn’t even known was holding you back. As his weight settled back down on the ground beneath him, he noticed a few others also stood around him. There was a man wielding a longsword, with metal armor covering all but his face.
Next to him stood a woman with a bow and quiver, wearing leather armor, similar to Mike. Contrary to Mike, she looked young, as though she was barley out of high school. Behind both of them was a boy with a long wooden staff. He wore metal armor, and just like the woman looked very young. All four of them stood in a clearing, surrounded by loosely packed trees. They each looked at one another, sizing the others up, when the warrior in metal armor spoke up.
“Names Martin, nice to meet you all. I’m assuming you are just as in the dark as I am about all of this?” He had the voice of a man who had smoked for 40 years, though he didn't look much older than 30. The man with the staff seemed like he was about to respond, but closed his mouth. The woman looked equally as unwilling to speak, so Mike kept the conversation going.
“Good to meet you too, my name’s Mike. Unfortunately, I don’t think any of us know much about what the hell is going on. I take it from that huge pokey stick you got that you are a warrior?”
“Got it in one.” The man said with a smile. “I take it from that oversized nail whacker that you are one as well?”
“Ya got me.” Mike said, enjoying the brief back and forth. He looked over to the two who had yet to speak. “What are your names, if we are here together we might as well get to know one another.”
The boy looked hesitant, but spoke up after a moment. “My name is John, nice to meet you.” With what looked like the little bit of social energy he had been spending, he didn't follow up with any more introduction. After it was clear he was done talking, they all looked over to the girl. She looked back at them, not saying anything. After a few moments of awkward silence, she stammered out her name.
“H-Hailey, my name is Hailey.” She said, seeming to be the epitome of shyness. Everyone else took the hint and didn't press further. After another moment, Martin once more broke the silence and spoke up.
“Well, from the looks of it, we are not in a particularly accommodating area, so I think it would be best if we got a look around the place.” As he spoke, Mike's opinion of the man only went up. He seemed like a social person, which would be nice to have around if they were to stick together.
“Makes sense to me, always good to get a lay of the land.” Mike said, agreeing with the man.
They began walking after Martin picked a direction, and started getting a good look at the forest. Martin and Mike made small talk, chatting about what they did for work, with Martin in particular not being very upset at his newfound unemployed status. One thing Mike was a bit surprised about, though he probably shouldn't have been, was how annoying it was to navigate an unexplored forest. He half expected it to be like walking a trail in a national park, where the paths were clearly marked and well
traveled. How dare nature and its tendency to spread!
They walked for a bit longer, the other two not saying much, when they heard movement coming from a bush nearby. They all looked at it, expecting a small animal or rodent, which most of them weren’t too bothered by. The only person that seemed put off was Hailey, and she sure showed it. She fell back before standing up and pulling out her bow. She was in the middle of struggling to nock an arrow when the creature emerged, showing the predator that had been in hiding.
A small, white bunny sprung forth, bravely attacking the group. He weaved between legs, and went to attack the only one that seemed threatening at that moment. As Hailey looked up, an arrow finally on the string, the fearsome creature leapt up and headbutted her right in the shin. She yelped and cursed at the bunny before trying to kick it away. Before she could land a kick, Martin scooped up the bunny in an arm and held it close.
“Hey! What do you think you are doing, trying to kill such a cute little bunny!” He said, petting the rabbit, even as it was trying to bash its head into his chest.
“It tried to kill me!” Hailey yelled back, the adrenaline having taken away her previous shyness.
“Nonsense, it was just a love tap, all you got was a bruise.” Martin said, picking a few bright red berries from a nearby bush. As he held them in his hand for the bunny to eat, he continued. “He couldn't hurt a fly, look how small and cute the little guy is.” As he spoke, the rabbit seemed to calm down, picking some berries out of his hand. “Look at that, he was just a little hungry.” He said, smiling.
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Face red as the rabbits berries, Hailey stopped talking and just looked at the ground, avoiding eye contact with the smiling Mike and John. They continued walking, Martin picking more and more berries as they walked. As he fed the bunny, Martin talked about how he grew up on a farm and that had given him a strong fondness for animals. He also talked about a time one of the cattle on his farm chased him around on his dirt bike, trying to knock him over. According to him, he had both a love and healthy fear of animals.
“They deserve respect, just like any person.” He said, giving Hailey a look. “Especially when they can't even hurt you.”
“My shin still hurts…” Hailey mumbled, clearly still embarrassed by the whole ordeal.
The bunny perked up and sprung out of Martin's arms, landing by Hailey's legs. Before she could back up, it began nuzzling her shin in the spot she had been hit. A dim glow appeared on the rabbit fur, dim enough that Mike probably wouldn’t have noticed if it wasn't for the shade cast by the trees all around. By the time Hailey backed up, the bunny hopped back over to Martin looking up at him.
“Well would you look at that, little Kenny can glow!” He said through a smile, scooping up the rabbit.
“Little Kenny?” Mike asked.
“Yeah, I needed something to call him, and that's what came to mind.”
Hailey was about to say something, before looking down at her leg and pulling the pant leg up. Where Kenny had rubbed against her leg, the bruise that had spread was now gone.
“My legs feel a lot better.” She said, surprised.
“Little Kenny’s got magic!” Martin exclaimed, holding the little fluff ball in the air.
Just then, something about Martin seemed to change, like he just got a little bit more.
“Well, would you look at that?” Martin said. “I just got a profession.”
“Really?” John spoke up, an excited expression on his face. “What's it called?”
“Beast tamer.” Martin said, looking at something that apparently only he could see. “It says I got it for evolving a creature in my care. Not sure how that happened, but it is quite cool nonetheless. I even got a skill, other than that useless language one and weapons one”
John seemed to grow even more excited at hearing that. “Like from a video game, that sounds so cool.”
“I guess so. It's called Nurture. It can make any creature under my care stronger for a few minutes.” Then he looked a bit confused. “I’m not sure how to use it though.” He looked at Kenny, putting a look of extreme concentration on, when suddenly Kenny started to glow all over. The bunny hopped out of his arms and began running around noticeably faster than before. After a few minutes of watching him sprint around at top speed, the rabbit slowed down before hopping back into Martin's arms.
After the rabbit had settled back in, Mike wondered about something. “Where are you seeing all of this? You seem to know more than we do.”
“By opening my status menu.” He said, responding as if it was a dumb question.
“Well how do you open it?”
“That feeling you have in the center of your abdomen, try and push that out in front of you. That's what the dude in the starting room told me.”
Mike shrugged, and gave it a shot. He had to start by finding the feeling that was described. He sat down, closed his eyes, and focused on every feeling in his body. The presence it all had. As he focused further, he felt the anomaly Martin had described. After finding the feeling, he tried to push it out, only to feel like a small bit of it moved. As it reached outside his body, a blue screen showed up in front of him.
Even with his eyes still closed, he could see it. Opening his eyes, since it felt more natural, he skimmed over everything on the blue screen. He saw a large blank space, with two tabs at the top. One was labeled notification, and the other was labeled status. After trying to “poke” the status button, a list appeared, similar to the one he read on the paper given to him in his starting room.
Name: Mike Jones
Race: Human (level 0)
Class: Warrior (level 0)
Profession: N/A
Trait: N/A
Titles: N/A
Health: 100/100
Mana: 70/70
Stamina:100/100
Health Regeneration: 13 Per minute
Mana Regeneration: 5 Per minute
Stamina Regeneration: 14 Per minute
Stats:
Strength: 7
Constitution: 7
Agility: 6
Intelligence: 7
Wisdom: 5
Charisma: 6
Perception: 6
Fortitude: 6
Skills:
Advanced language comprehension (Uncommon)
Basic weapon handling (Common)
It all looked the same, except for a new skill at the bottom. He guessed it was one from the class he chose, it had after all said that Warriors are skilled in melee combat. Looking back towards the top, he selected the notifications tab. In it he saw just one notification, and read it with a hint of disappointment.
*Status menu unlocked*
He was disappointed that not much else yet had happened. Not even congratulations on being able to do it. As he was pouting about the lack of validation, a new notification appeared in front of him.
*All human have now been placed on Earth, commencing Introduction*