All is One and One is all. Advance Oneself and by doing so Advance the One. The highest degree of worship is not through material sacrifice or fatuous rituals. Cast aside distraction and diversion and devote to progression and the gain of experience. Only by reaching the pinnacle are you worthy of being of the One.
Opening Passage of The First Tenet from the Book of the One.
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In Kar’Anan, the One’s True People’s city, the city of heroes and home of Our One True God, people went about their functions. Citizens laboured for their nation, Practitioners studied the plane’s most veiled secrets, and Leaders directed the masses to greater heights. Soldiers drilled their formations, guardsmen patrolled the city’s streets, merchants pedalled their wears, and craftsmen invented and innovated. The cogs of the kingdom twirled and articulated, well oiled by the sacrosanct teachings of Our One True God and the knowledge that by progressing themselves they grow closer to the One.
Within the flawless machine that was the True Kingdom, a small boy, a child really, was trying and failing to remain nondescript amongst the bustling crowds of Edgewood’s Main Street bazaar. The boy walked alongside the shoppers as they strolled and browsed the stalls, drawing the nearby guards’ eyes.
The boy was largely unremarkable in appearance. He was short of his age. Where other boys may be going through growth spurts, drawing close to their adult height, he was barely five feet of skin and bone. Black hair and black eyes haunted features drawn sharp with malnutrition. Dirty linen clothes that would pass more as rags hung off his frame completing the ‘dirty street urchin’ image. He was not trying to make a fashion statement.
Though the boy was largely unremarkable and demanded no second glances (indeed most shoppers went out of their way to not look at him), the guards’ attention did not waver. They had seen such children before - children with no home, no money, and no one who cared. Vagrants whose desperation inevitably gave way to depravity. Those filthy few who have turned their back on the One True God and in turn, had the One turn on them. There was no place for such dissident deviance in their glorious kingdom. And so, the guards watched the urchin, and waited to enact the will of the One.
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After having been unwillingly indoctrinated into the Expedient Gents and having my class changed to Peon, I had unwillingly let out a shocked exclamation. Thankfully, Brute then clarified that I was not to be a slave or minion but something of an apprentice. I then obtained another notification from the voice in my head that I had become a Vagrant again:
Class changed: Peon → Vagrant
What the heck does that even mean? I had asked myself, only to be answered by that same voice.
Colroy Vagr-
…
Henry Stone
Vagrant 0 (33%); Vagrant* 11 (9%)
STA: 40
WIS: 15
Robust DIgestion
Enhanced Immunity
Tired, overwhelmed, and confused, I had let myself be led back to the safehouse for a good night’s rest. The next morning, after a brief breakfast of unidentified dried meat, oats, and lukewarm water, I set about my day. The Gents’ last instruction before they had disappeared into the night to go about their ‘work’ was to ‘get experience and stay out of trouble’. And so I left the safehouse and let my dirty bare feet carry me any which way through the slum, being careful not to step on anything hazardous.
I tried to wrap my head around my current situation and found it mostly incomprehensible. I was reincarnated? Resurrected? Probably not resurrected, last I checked I was still alive. Definitely transmigrated to a different world. There’s been too many inexplicable things for any other explanation. I’ve been ‘Oz’ed’ or maybe it should be ‘Dorothy and Toto’ed. I didn’t even get hit by a tornado or a runaway truck-kun, how did I get Isekai’ed? At least there’s no wicked witch wailing at me for revenge. I miss my cat… this would be so much better if I had a Toto of my own.
I had wandered into a busy market road. I noticed the stalls’ goods were quite foreign, corroborating my transmigration theory. Shiny rocks of various shapes, sizes, and colours were piled in neat rows; metal trinkets in the form of the same pedigree symbol on the chapel and other more practical forms like knives or spoons; hanging unidentified meats and piles of bloody chunks waiting to be sliced; produce I’ve never seen before were by far the most widespread. I’m definitely not in Kansas anymore.
As I struggled to see around other shoppers’ waists I was reminded of the cruel fact that I was not in my body anymore, but that of a child’s. This raised a few concerns in my mind, namely whose body was this? There was the beginning of a name whispered by the creepy voice in my ear, Colroy Vagrant was it? Did I somehow commit murder as I repossessed this person? Did this person have a family, a place to belong to, people who cared? I was starting to feel really guilty, and that initial feeling of wrongness stirred in my chest. Moving around in this body felt unnatural, like driving a new vehicle, learning how sensitive the gas and breaks were. I suppose it will take some time getting used to but I wasn’t sure I wanted to get used to it. Inhabiting someone else’s body was uncomfortably intimate, and not knowing the person’s situation and having the person be a kid was not helping. This is so awkward. How am I supposed to go to the washroom?
I felt anxiety give way to hopelessness. Here I was, stuck in another world, in someone else’s body, completely ignorant as to how this happened and what to do. I knew nothing of this strange world and had no one to ask for help. The life of one Henry Stone, twenty-eight year old extended care unit nurse at Toronto General Hospital, proud cat-daddy, perpetually single, avid antisocialite, and estranged from his family was not a penultimate example of self actualization or the epitome of a healthy lifestyle. I had struggled with depression for years, feeling woefully inadequate in most every aspect of my life. Things that most people found easy were a struggle for me; sometimes just waking up and getting out of bed was too much. Still, I was attached to my life and the comforts I had. The sense of loss was harsh.
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I found a quiet corner, a tiny alleyway between two shacks and huddled down and cried. I cried for all that I had lost and the powerlessness and fear I felt at that moment.
Eventually, after I started feeling less horrible, I got up, dusted myself off (not that it helped to clean my rags at all), and continued on my walkabout.
The archetypal tale of going back in time and reliving life with knowledge of future events and years of experience was appealing. But this was very different then that idealized fantasy; I was not in my own body or my own world! I was completely disoriented, and had only a couple of sketchy thugs to rely on. Instead of being given an opportunity to excel and surpass my previous self, avoiding pitfalls and unforeseen mistakes, I was thrust into a situation where my only choices were between different degrees of bad. And it was frustrating. I needed information of this world before I could do anything to move forward.
My thoughts drifted back to yesterday’s ordeal with Brute and Dagger and mister magic fingers Mercier. I was really out of it at the time but in hindsight I had seen something truly inexplicable. Real magic. The warmth that had radiated from his hand on my forehead had no discernable origin, and my head felt remarkably clear after, with no dull throbbing or lightheadedness or nausea. I even noticed the cuts and broken nails on my hands were gone. I was awestruck and I wanted it. I skipped about an empty Edgewood street as dreams of flying through the sky flinging lightning, parting the seas and clouds by my mere whims, summoning storms by my breath and curing cancer with a touch carried me away. I tried to imagine a fireball in my mind and pointed a palm forward as I said, “Fire!”, but predictably nothing happened. Work in progress then.
I decided to shift my focus back on the most immediately perceptible extraordinary phenomenon: this voice in my head. As a nurse, I have had a few patients with colorful psychiatric histories including schizoaffective disorders with auditory hallucinations but I could never truly relate to them having never experienced anything similar before. I was in a somewhat different situation (at least I hoped I wasn’t having a psychotic episode; I wasn’t going to rule it out considering the preposterous situation I was in) but I now understood how disconcerting it was. The voice sounded like a fearful, anguished woman and it sounded so real. It made my hackles rise. Who am I? I asked myself or the world or whatever and received the answer:
Henry Stone
Vagrant 0 (37%); Vagrant* 11 (9%)
STA: 40
WIS: 15
Robust DIgestion
Enhanced Immunity
There was my name, which spoke for itself, and there was not one but two vagrant designations listed. Is that normal? Maybe one of them was from the original inhabitant of this body, which made my stomach turn once more.
I wondered if I could get the creepy voice to tell me more by asking more questions so I started spamming her: What is a Vagrant? What is a Peon? What other classifications are there? What is a Warrior? What is a Wizard? What is a swordsman? What is a Brute? What is a Dagger? I snickered at the last two questions. The voice remained silent but I wasn’t overly frustrated, moreso enjoying the process of discovery. I went back to investigating the report on myself.
Henry Stone
Vagrant 0 (38%); Vagrant* 11 (9%)
STA: 40
WIS: 15
Robust Digestion
Enhanced Immunity
I stopped my merry jaunt in my tracks, focusing in on the change in percentage point after the first Vagrant 0. It went up by one! What does that even mean?
Experience: 38/100; 3170/3572
Woah woah woah woah woah. I gained experience! Just like Brute and Dagger told me to. And I haven’t even gotten into any trouble.
I was beginning to see the game-like elements integrated into this world. I realized that Brute and Dagger didn’t mean for me to get the kind of experience that comes with travelling and getting my heart broken a few times. I have plenty of that kind of experience, I thought bitterly. Brute and Dagger wanted me to level up like a video game. I had been in eighth grade once, I played games with the best of them. A part of me wanted to get to lvl 99 with max skills and legendary gear and walk around like a boss pwning noobs. Another part of me told that part of me to shut up and freak out because this should not be happening. This should not be happening! Am I in a virtual reality game or something? It feels so real...
Shelving the doubts I had related to my sanity and perception of reality in order to prevent another panic attack, I decided to focus on the feeling of accomplishment for gaining that 1% exp. It felt like progress, like I was moving forward to where I should be going. Sweet, sweet victory. But what did I do to gain that XP? I was just walking down what looked like a typical Edgewood path, surrounded by a few tattered tents on one side and some modest shacks on the other. A woman walked by in the opposite direction holding a bucket of water and a satchel of something. She didn’t look at me. There was a man lying down in front of a shack a distance in front of me but he didn’t seem conscious. I turned around, looking back at the immediate path I had walked, frowning, nothing catching my notice. Did I get a percentage from asking questions? Or was it my spectacularly unspectacular attempt at magic? Was it solely the act of walking?
I decided to experiment. Standing still with my hands out in front of me, I brought the image of a campfire to the forefront of my mind, and whispered, “Fire”. Nothing happened. Experience?
Experience: 38/100; 3170/3572
Didn't change. Test number one - failed. Test number two: asking questions to the voice in my head (maybe I am having a psychotic break. I hope they put me somewhere nice). Who are you? Why am I here? Who is Colroy Vagrant? How do I gain experience? Why do I have two Vagrant designations? What is STA? What is WIS? What is Robust Digestion? What is Enhanced Immunity?
STAmina: increases the relative density and/or efficiency of connective and epithelial tissue by 1%/point while maintaining function
WISdom: increases the relative efficiency of neuroglia by 1%/point
Robust Digestion: Increases capacity to digest material
Enhanced Immunity: Enhances capacity of adaptive immunity
Woah that’s a lot. I was actually quite surprised to get so many answers from the voice it kind of all passed me by. I’ll look over that later. Experience?
Experience: 38/100; 3170/3572
No change! Test number two - failed. Test number three: running around for experience gain. Here I go. I burst forward into a quick sprint, surprised at the suppleness of this youthful body. I marvelled at the lack of pain in my knees or back. Oh to be young again. I sped down the street I found myself on and turned around a house. I was getting myself right and proper lost but I had a general sense of which direction the hideout was and was confident if I just kept heading in that general vicinity I’d find my way back. A few minutes of running later I was out of breath, but I still found myself impressed with the longevity of this debilitated corpse. Maybe it’s that STA thing kicking in. Moment of truth; experience?!
Experience: 42/100; 3170/3572
Wabam! Look at me leveling like a boss. I really wanted to know what happens when I hit 100/100 but the voice was silent. I really wanted to find out though, so I prepared to go for another run but right went I set off I bumped into a guy that jumped in front of me.
“Excu-”
“Ha! I got you, you little rat! No more running!” My apology was cut short by a victorious cry by the guy I had ran in to. I took stock of him. He was in his mid twenties and had annoyingly curly hair and a spectacularly square jaw. He was in a leather armor with a breastplate marked by that pedigree symbol. He had a cudgel at his side and his hand on my shoulder. Oh flip. I was not comfortable with this situation!