I wake up on soft green grass. A gentle breeze brings a slight chill to my face. It looks like noon time. The sun is up. It isn't cold, but it feels like late spring in Northern Europe.
Where am I? I sit up a see a large boulder next to me and beyond it a can hear the trickle of a small stream. I walk towards it. It looks no wider than I can jump. Well, maybe could jump in my younger days. Since I passed 30, anything more than a slight walk seems to come with an undue amount of pain and tiredness.
I don't feel tired, nor do I feel any aches or pains. When did I last feel this full of energy and awake? My body feels as young as I have always felt mentally. I walk towards the stream to see if I can catch a glint of my reflection. The water is mostly moving too fast to see, but in a small quite pool I see something that looks like a younger version of myself.
I recognize him from old pictures. I pull my fingers through my hair and find too much of it. My thinning hair and receding hairline is gone! My constant reminder that I am a lot older than I feel is gone. My short cropped beard seems to have been replaced by the stubble of a young man just being able to grow a bit of manliness.
I notice that my physique is slender bordering on skinny. Gone is the barrel chest that I gained in my 30's. I guess all things come at a cost, even regained youth. I remember how hard I tried to gain muscle and weight in my teenage years.
My internal monologue is interrupted by a roar. No, two roars. In the corner of my right eye I sense movement. I quickly turn around, realizing how little of my surroundings I have taken in. Beyond the boulder I see a grass clearing going on for a couple of stone throws. It ends at the edge of a forest. The forest stretches all the way around the clearing. The stream looks to be at the edge of the clear.
Where did the roar come from? I am tempted to turn around, but remind myself that with my back to the stream the roar and movement seems to have come from the left. Above the trees I can see mountains in the distance. I hear the roar again, it is a lot closer! I look up and see two massive shadows circling above me.
I instantly feel dread creeping through my body threatening to paralyze me. I feel the need to resist this instinct reminding myself that I am a rational human, and not a prey frozen in fear by its predator. What am I looking at? Am I it's prey? What about the second shadow.
As I regain my senses time seem to go quicker, as I look up and shadow my eyes from the noon sun. What I see looks like two flying lizards circling each other grunting and roaring at each other. They do not look friendly. I relax as I realize I am not the target of their roars.
Fire bursts across my vision. Where did that come from? I feel the heat from a second much larger burst. It is coming from the lizards. Dragons?! I suddenly realize how large these creatures are as they descend covering each other with fire. My forehead feels like it is going to catch fire and I and instinctively dive for cover behind the boulder. I feel the flame lick around the boulder. The dragons must be on the other side near or on the ground.
I look around when the flames die down for a bit. My idyllic clearing has been turned into a flaming hell. Strangely only the closest trees have caught fire. I duck for cover as I sense incoming flames. These are bigger than the last ones, and I feel soaring pain from my right shoulder. I am getting burnt. My boulder is no longer safe. I suddenly realize that safety has been right in front of me the whole time. The stream!
It might only reach me to my waist at the deepest part, but I dive in grabbing for anything at the bottom to hold on to. The cold water splash against my cloths and I feel searing pain from my right shoulder and back as my fresh burns come into contact with the water. I look up and see the shimmer of flames above the water.
I feel the current gently pulling at me, but it releases its grip as I drift to the edge of the stream. With the tingling fear of getting my lips burnt I slowly ease my lips to the surface for an urgently needed gasp of air. The water is warming up, but the fire seems to have shifted further up the stream.
Finally it goes quiet. As I drag myself out of the stream, I feel the full strain on my body. My right shoulder and back hurts badly. I definitely got some first degree burns if not more. Despite my burns, I doubt I was any more than an ant to those flying lizards. They were dragons right? Fire breathing lizards. Well I am likely not on earth. What if this is a dream? Ouch, no that pain would have woken me up.
Ok, lets do one thing at a time. How bad are my injuries and what can I do about it? I little window pops up in front of me. Is it really there? my hand goes through it. I blink, and it is still there. I turn and it follows my vision. "Stay!" Not sure why I said that, but the window seems to have stopped moving.
It looks like a PC screen, just more see-through. Aaaah, I am dreaming that I am in a game! Ouch, almost forgot about the pain. "Am I in a game like world?". No response. So no AI then. Well, what does the screen say. Charts and pictures show me what I already know, I got first degree burns on my shoulder and part of my back. What about a cure? The screen focuses in on a small note lower on the page. Plants with high resistance to flames my assist in treating burns.
It gave me a tip, so this is more than just data that is already in my head. Or did I just deduce that? What is this ability? A new screen pops up. Skills list, original skill, Analyze Level 1. Description; Ability to analyze ones surroundings. Not the most extensive description I have seen, but it explains a bit. Guess I should treat this whole experience as a game. And this skill might actually save my life. Knowledge is power as they say. Ouch, better look for something too sooth my burns.
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I look around the clearing. It looks scorched. The trees haven't caught fire though. Maybe I can use something from the trees, but which one? Better look for something that stands out. Further down the clearing I see a green patch amid brown and blackened scrubs. This looks more like it. Time to use my Analyze skill.
Dragon Leaf; Limited nutritional value. Highly resistant to fire due to gel contained in the leaves. Not toxic.
The last bit is reassuring. If I put some on this gel on my burns it might just help. I break some leaves in two and squeeze the gel out. I can feel the soothing effect of the gel as I spread it over my burns. I look at the charts and pictures from my analyze skill. There is more information now. Why is that? Remedy applied. Time to heal without remedy; 6 days. Time to heal with remedy, 48 hours. Likelihood of scaring; limited with remedy.
Looking up the skills screen my suspicions are confirmed. My analyze skill has gone up to level 2. That was quick, but when did it happen? As I analyzed the plant or as I analyzed the remedy on the burns? An alarm would have been nice. Could I have gotten more skills? Opening the full skills screen I see a lot more skills, most noted as new.
At the very top of the screen I see a clear heading of Level 1. This really is a game! My race is clearly noted as human and my level, whatever that is in this very real world, is marked as 1. I really shouldn't be running into dragons at this level. Below there are some attribute numbers, which mean absolutely nothing to me. The numbers disappear and change into short comments. Average normal human, below average normal human. Wonder what a non-normal human is?!
At least my analyze skill adapts to make it understandable. Instead of having a fixed menu, I seem to have an ever evolving and improving record of everything I need to know. Well, one day maybe. Looks like my one attribute above normal is intelligence, but otherwise I look pretty weak. This is definitely hard mode. Where is my nice beginner’s village?! Better find civilization as soon as I can.
Under the attribute section there is a small section called Unique Traits. Only two are listed; Fast Learner and Master Boost. Each have a description:
- Fast Learner; Learn skills faster and accumulates lifeforce quicker.
- Master Boost; Skills that reach level 8 are automatically boosted to level 10.
10 seems to be the highest level of a skill, which means that the Master Boost skill is a late game cheat skill. Assuming I am still alive it might be useful. Useless now. Fast learner is probably why my analyze skill went up so quick. What is lifeforce? A new description pops up. Lifeforce; an ethereal essence accumulated by all living things with a soul throughout their life. Enables the accumulation of skills which boosts abilities.
Looks like XP in games. How do I get more? The description expands. Life force is naturally absorbed and is spread thinly across the normal plane. There are limited fluctuations. To absorb more, it is possible to increase the local concentration of life force by killing living creatures, thereby releasing their stored life force. Definitely experience points!
These traits don't seem to have a level, so they are clearly different from skills. Provided I survive I might actually build a good character.... I mean have a good life. Need to get used to this being real, no save and load in the real world. Wonder if I got storage or item box like in the games. "Open storage", no response. "Item box", no response. Need to think differently, don't think about it as a game. Analyze, possessions, inventory, items, equipment, what do I have? As soon as my jumbled thoughts stop, the screen pops up. Guess there isn't a magic word to use this skill then.
The screen shows what I am wearing; t-shirt, jeans, boxers. Not even socks since I fell asleep on my sofa at home before coming here. Well, there shouldn't be any broken glass for me to step on here. Next on the screen there is a reference to soul space storage. Nothing in there at all, maybe if I hold the remaining dragon leaves up to the screen and drop them in. The leaves drop through the screen and land on the ground. Okay, lets just think outside the box. I imagine putting the leaves in my soul space storage.
The leaves disappeared. No fancy spectacle, just gone. On the screen the soul space storage has an icon. "9 Dragon Leaves, fresh, dry, normal temperature". Strange details to record for an item. What is my storage capacity? No response from the screen, but next to the storage space heading I see a dash and the infinity symbol. That can't mean what I think it means. Will need to test that out later when I start hording stuff.
Next, where am I? The analyze screen gives me a map page, but with the exception of a dot in the middle it is blank. Guess I will have to explore. Where to go? If there are any settlements, they should be near fresh water. I should follow the stream downwards. My bare feet cross crunching burnt grass to fresh soft grass, as I walk along the stream looking for anything interesting to analyze.
Hours later as dusk starts to set I climb the biggest tree I can find. Using rope like vines I tie myself to the tree, hoping I found myself the safest resting place. I encountered no animals on my walk, but it would make sense that they keep a low profile when dragons argue. I might face more dangerous days to come. Luckily food is everywhere. Fruits, berries and edible plants are abundant. My storage is full of stuff I found on my walk.
The analyze skill gives me the assurance that I can find edible non-toxic food, provided I remember to analyze. I tried some nice looking berries, only to chock on them. turns out they were slightly poisonous. I seem to have been rescued by my fast learning skill. When I started feeling better I was reminded of a ping I heard when I was choking. Turns out I got Poison resistance level 1. At the time I noticed all the other skills I had yet to read through and resolved to go through these in the evening.
With ropes around my waist and arms, I open the screen to review the other skills I learned this day and try to figure out how I got them. The only original skill I had when I arrived seems to be Analyze Level 1, now upgraded to level 2, which seems to give me more information when I analyze. A the rate I am going this one should go up soon.
I also got Fear resistance Level 2. Dragons can be scary, guess I jumped straight to level 2 on this one. This one might be dangerous at level 10, fear can after all be a life saver. Well for now nothing to worry about. Not surprising with my still tender shoulder as a reminder I got Fire resistance Level 2. Seemingly to counter the fire, I got Water resistance Level 1. Not sure I get this one. What does it actually do? Well it can't hurt.
Tonight I will definitely appreciate my Cold resistance Level 1, though it doesn't seem to get very cold, even as the sun is setting. As for the more practical skills I have picked up, Forager Level 1 makes sense consider all the plants and fruits I found. Not entirely sure what an increased skill does. My best guess is that it helps me find food better. Finally there is my Alert Level 1. This is by far the best skill. If danger approaches this should warn me and hopefully wake me up if I am asleep. I would rather not some animal starts chomping on me, while I am still asleep.
I fall asleep with some assurance that I can survive in this strange world.