This will work. This will work. This will work.

There was a splash. The red fish leapt out of the small lake, its oval-shaped mouth spread wide, releasing a ball of flames at Stacy. It briefly lit up the dark cave, the only source of light here other than the glowing moss.

Speaking of— Stacy ducked under the ball of fire, letting it whizz past her straight to a clump of moss. Whatever this was, it was highly flammable and very dense. It gave her a lot to work with to start a little fire. Using the sharp mandibles of the fetidbud, she sheared the moss off the walls and laid it on the ground.

“Ouch, ouch, ouch, hot!” She knew better than to talk. But old habits died hard. And she grew up vocalizing any sort of filler thoughts without thinking. Still, she tried to keep a lid on it. Alright, now to go behind this stalagmite…

The fish, whatever it was, kept trying to get her. It popped out of the water, searching for Stacy, but she was nowhere to be seen. She sat with the fire, her delicious meal in her hands, mouth watering in hunger, eyes watering in disgust.

Clapping her hands together, she whispered a silent prayer as the fetidbug cooked over the flames. Please, God, Buddha, Allah, or literally anyone. Heck, even whatever developer who decided to send me into their hyper realistic VR game. If you can hear this prayer, please bring me back home when I open my eyes.

She opened her eyes and saw a stream of baby fetidbugs leaving the cooking fetidbug’s mouth. With a sigh, she accepted her fate. At least it has protein, right? May as well try going keto while I’m in this world.

* * *

“Blurghhghrgh…”

Stacy wasn’t actually puking. She was gargling her mouth in the lake’s water, washing the taste of the fetidbug from her tongue. It was, legit, not that bad. However, the fact that she found it even a little bit delectable was enough to make her, like, so sick.

She saw a ripple form on the water’s surface. The same fish from before leapt out, and she grabbed it before it could shoot its ball of fire. She held it by the tail as it flopped wildly, spraying water all over her clothes. Okay, so this is definitely [Quick Thinking] and not all those years of baseball.

Feeling a rumble from her belly, Stacy was debating whether or not to have some sushi or to keep her little firestarter alive when another creature jumped out at her. [Evade] brought her out of the way of the ball of fire in time, but she couldn’t catch the second fish before it sunk back into the lake.

Well, since there are more of you… Stacy sauntered back to her little hiding spot, holding the first fish with both hands as its struggling grew very violent. “Stop. It. Will. You? God!” She smacked it around until a sound resounded in her head.

You have defeated a [Fire Fish (White Rank)].

*DING!* Rank: White has leveled up to level 2! Free Attribute Point +1

Stacy jerked back. This time, it sounded like a literal bell went off. Her head was ringing, she clutched at her ears and tried to muffle the loud sound, but it didn’t go away. Sitting back down, Stacy set the fire fish right beside the still-burning pile of moss.

“Literally, what even is this?” She wasn’t being discreet. Stacy was very acutely aware of how noisy she’d been since the fetidbug showed up. First of all, killing another living being was not something that could be done silently. The fetidbug screeched as she struck it very loudly with a rock, and now the fish made a wet, slopping sound as she slapped it against the rock floor.

The only reason she even was able to kill them as thoughtlessly as she did was because her father used to bring her to fish and hunt as a kid. Oh, also, because this was still too surreal to believe.

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Like, she just leveled up. And this time, this was something even she knew about on her own. She played a few games on her iPhone to past the time: Candy Crush, Bejeweled, and sometimes Tetris. They all had levels in them.

Stacy focused. She recalled the status she pulled out earlier, and it appeared in her mind.

Status:

Name: Stacy

Rank: White – Lvl. 2

Health: 97%

Mana: N/A

Stamina: 62%

Attributes:

Power: 6

Magic: 0

Dexterity: 11

Resiliency: 5

Intuition: 4

Worldliness: 0

Free Points: 2

Skills:

White Rank Skills:

[Evade], [Lesser Stamina], [Quick Thinking]

Okay, so I’m level 2 now. Also, I have 2 points for my attributes? Again, this was like those tabletop games one of her exes played. If she spent the points on an attribute, she’d see real changes to herself… or so she assumed.

She had six attributes to choose from. When she reached White Rank, they increased on their own. But she didn’t realize until now that she could possibly raise them herself. She gained +2 to her dexterity, which was nearly a 25% increase to the attribute, a figure which she felt was right judging from her better stamina and hand-eye coordination. So, it wasn’t just a minor change.

Theoretically speaking, she could be as strong as a man her age if she increased her power, right? Or stronger, even. She just had to spend both her points on the power attribute.

Good job, Stacy. You’ll be able to bench 250lbs. That doesn’t mean you’ll be able to fight off a literal monster tiger.

That was definitely not what she wanted. Dexterity would help her run longer, maybe even faster, but she’d still be eaten by a monster tiger. Resiliency might make her skin rubberier to a monster tiger. Intuition would probably let her know when she was being eaten by a monster tiger. All that was left was magic and worldliness.

Magic was almost self-explanatory. Stacy watched Harry Potter when she was in her tweens (that was slang for pre-teen). She even read the novels! If she could cast a spell of some sort, she’d definitely be able to kill a monster tiger or turn it to stone! Worldliness piqued her interest too, but she assumed it probably made her more at peace with being eaten by a monster tiger.

So, magic it was.

Both her attribute points went to magic, and she felt a sensation rise in her stomach. It filled her with an alien feeling, as if a new organ was forcefully inserted into her body, a kind of reverse surgery that granted her a new sense of perceiving the world.

Blinking, Stacy took in… an eclectic mix of scents. She could still smell the burnt fish lying before her— it wasn’t like it suddenly vanished. Instead, something else perfumed the air, something she could only describe as the smell of magic.

It was a lovely fragrant. Thin, not too obtrusive. It didn’t clog her nose like the overwhelming stench of deodorant, nor was it as wonderful as the lavender of flowers blooming on a spring day. If it were music instead, it’d be building up to the crescendo. A teasing beat that hinted of something so much more.

Stacy sighed, delighted. Is this magic? If so, it was a beautiful thing. Why couldn’t it have existed on Earth? Smiling, she grabbed the roasted fish and nibbled at its burnt scales, uncaring of the foul taste assaulting her mouth.

What can I do with this? Can I sprout flowers from my fingertips, turn anything I touch into gold? Can I fly on a broom, create a dress for a ball, or make anything I wish come true?

Lost in her thoughts, Stacy didn’t feel the soft rumbling of the earth until it exploded into a full quake. She shot up to her feet, dropping the fire fish in a panic. She heard something burrowing through the ground right beneath her. A crack formed on the rock surface as the stalagmites crumbled into pieces. Stalactites fell from above, forcing her to make a break for it.

The ground collapsed, and a creature burst out of it. A giant worm, hundreds of yards long, poured out of the earth, consuming everything in its path. The fire fish fell into its gaping maw, hundreds of bent teeth hidden within its long mouth. It didn’t even notice Stacy as she ran as fast as she could away from it.

She glanced back once, only to see the giant worm burying itself in the ceiling. It left a hole as wide as a house in its stead, slithering back into the earth, uncaring for this massive cave chamber that was so small to it.

If Stacy learned magic, could she possibly kill that? One sniff of the foul stench left behind by the giant worm told her otherwise. And it was not the literal smell of shit she discerned. It was the overbearing, inundating sense of magic it exuded from existing alone.

Crawling back into her little cubby hole, Stacy went to sleep and dreamt of fishing.