Gradually, my focus returned, though I still couldn’t feel anything below my neck. The worst hangover I’d ever experienced pounded in my head. Ghimli was right in front of me, looking ill. His skin was green and…

Wait, his skin was green!

My body jolted awake at the realization. The stench of stale beer, shit, and piss assaulted my senses. A cheap wooden table separated us, and we were seated on stools made from tree trunks.

“Fucking hell!” Amanda exclaimed next to me. “We’re in an fucking Tavern.”

“Where’s Bea?” Ghimli asked, looking worried.

“GODDAMN IT!” Bea’s voice came from somewhere near Ghimli, but we couldn’t see her over the table. He looked down and burst into laughter so intense that I feared he might choke on his massive teeth. Yes, he was an Orc, complete with massive lower canines and all. Amanda and I stood to see what he was laughing at and found Bea clambering back onto her stool. “I’m fucking tiny!”

Bea was about 1 meter tall, dwarfed by the new 2-meter-tall Ghimli. I wasn’t short myself, standing at about 1.80 meters, and Amanda was now a bit taller, about 1.90 meters, but that could be due to the horns…

“Holy shit, Amanda! You’ve got horns!” I exclaimed in shock.

Ghimli looked over and fell to the floor, laughing hysterically. Meanwhile, Amanda touched her new horns with her newly red hands. “I guess I’m a Tiefling,” she sighed. “It could be worse. I could be an Orc.”

“Who’s an Orc?” Ghimli asked, catching his breath from the laughter.

“You, dumbass,” Bea retorted, sitting back at the table.

“What?” Ghimli turned serious the instant he poked his new meaty hand at his new teeth. “Goddammit!”

I confess, that got me, and I almost forgot what was happening. Almost.

“What am I?” I asked, concerned.

“You’re lucky,” Amanda answered.

“No, really, what am I?”

“Human,” Ghimli answered, sitting back down and sulking next to his sister.

“What? Really?” I asked, trying to hide my happiness.

“You don’t need to be _that_ smug about it,” Amanda teased, poking my arm with longer nails than she’d ever had. It drew a speck of blood, staining my shirt. We were all wearing commoner’s clothes, the same as everyone around us, and everyone else looked as lost as we did.

“Can I get something for you lot to drink?” A burly man approached our table, wearing a leather apron and carrying what I presumed was a tray under his arm. His beard was incredibly bushy, filling his entire chin area, and his hair was unevenly cut.

Looking at the man, Ghimli rubbed his chin and almost cried when he didn’t feel his beard. “The strongest drink you have for me, please,” he said. I genuinely thought he was going to cry.

The rest of us ordered Ale. Ghimli looked funny at Bea when she ordered, but said nothing. We stared in silence at our cups for what felt like ages, the drops of ale forming a mug-shaped ring on the table with every sip. No one dared say anything.

Ghimli took a deep breath and said, “I think we were Truck Kun-ed.”

“What the hell is that?” Bea asked, looking angry at her brother.

“You know, like in an Anime.”

“I don’t watch that stupid stuff,” the three of us looked at her in shock. “Yeah, I’ve said it!”

“Truck Kun is kind of a running joke in Isekai animes,” Bea looked puzzled by the foreign term. “It means _Other World_. Usually, the main character is hit by a truck and reincarnates in another world, hence the joke _Truck Kun_,” I tried to explain.

“Do you mean we died?” Bea was getting angrier by the second, with every answer we gave her.

“Either that, or it’s a dream.”

“It’s not a dream,” Fabio said, appearing right next to our table and scaring the hell out of us. “It’s all real. Finish your drinks and follow me, if you will.”

“Why should we?” Bea asked defiantly.

“Because,” he answered, turning to face her with the biggest grin I’d ever seen in my life. It stretched across his entire mouth and cheeks, like the Cheshire cat. “You want to know where you are, and how to survive this whole world, don’t you?” I could feel Bea’s shiver from across the table, or maybe we shivered at the same time. Hard to know. He turned his back and left.

We finished our drinks and followed Fabio to a corner room. We saw other groups entering the same door, but when it was our turn, it was empty. The room had the same layout as Fabio’s game room, but instead of a campfire, a stone shaped like a d20 was in the center.

“Welcome to Hyndior! Or, more precisely, to Jhorn, in the realm of Kethlen,” Fabio said, opening his arms to receive us.

“What the hell is happening, Fabio? Where are we?” I asked.

“I’ve just told you, Hyndior, in the city of Jhorn, Kingdom of Kethlen. Were you even listening, Doc?”

“Right… but _where_ are we?” I asked again.

“Okay, from the beginning.” He cleared his throat and opened his arms again. “Welcome to Hyndior!” A chair flew in his direction, and he ducked at the last moment.

“Be fucking serious!” Amanda shouted angrily.

“Okay, okay… Geez…” he fixed his suit and hair before explaining some more. "You were right, this is another world. Imagine, if you will, that all the fantasy that we read on earth is real. All the monsters, the halflings, Orcs, Tieflings, Goblins, Kobolds… Everything is real, but in another plane, another reality, that merges with ours in some kind of feverish dream.

“I know that all of you dreamt about being in a real-life RPG. We talked about it when we were teenagers all the time. Now, it’s true! It’s all real, and you are part of it!”

“We were teens, for god’s sake,” Amanda said.

“We grew up, Fabio,” I tried to stay calm, but my voice was shaking. “We have a life back on earth. You must send us back. Please.”

“No can do.” The Cheshire cat smile returned to his face. “One-way ticket. For now, anyway. Come on, guys. This is gonna be fun!” At his last words, he disappeared, leaving us alone in the room.

At the center of the table, the stone started to rumble. We got close to see what was happening, and a glowing green 20 appeared on its face, and an incorporeal voice came with it.

“Choose your class. You’ve got 20 minutes.”

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“What the hell is that?” Bea pointed at four stone slabs that appeared on the table, each one with our name on it and in the center a wheel with different symbols.

We looked at it for a while when the stone shifted on its side, and now a giant 19 was glowing.

“Guess this is a timer,” Ghimli said.

“I don’t know what to do.” Bea said, flickering her wheels in panic.

“Don’t worry, we’ll help you,” Amanda said, hugging her.

I looked at my wheel and nudged to the left. A box of text appeared below the slab.

Class: Warrior

You are the pillar of your team, able to attack in long or short range, you can take a punch or two. With high Constitution, you keep your party safe

Constitution + 2

When I finished reading, I saw Ghimli glowing next to me, his slab changing and the wheel disappearing. He smiled at me. “What?” he asked, puzzled. “They said to pick a class. I’ve picked a class.”

I sighed. “I guess we have to pick a class…”