I ended up staying awake till the morning after I found a new grouping of tree limbs and branches to take shelter in. It didn’t take too long, maybe an hour or two after I had killed the wolf. I didn't pay too much attention to the time or much else for that matter as my mind was still reeling from the voice and words that had informed me I had leveled up.

The more I thought about it, the more panicked I felt. It was proof. Undeniable proof that I was in a different world now. For a solid hour, I had to fight off a panic attack that kept threatening to take away my logic and common sense. After I was done dealing with my little mental problems I turned back to thinking about the voice and level. I had played plenty of RPGs growing up so I was familiar with the concept of leveling up and getting stronger. Did this world run on one?

Eventually, I had an idea. All the RPGs I played tended to have a status screen that showed character stats. Maybe I had one too?

“Status…?” I said aloud feeling like an idiot as I did so. I waited a few seconds and nothing seemed to show up and I started to think maybe I didn’t have anything like that. But after giving it another thought I started trying to imagine a status-like screen in my head. At first, I thought it was just another dumb Idea before something flashed in my head like before and I saw something I could only see in my head.

Alexander Magna Burleson

Personal Lv-2

Primary Class-None

Secondary Class-None

Strength-★

Constitution-★

Dexterity-★

Agility-★

Intelligence-★

Wisdom-★

Spirit -★

Charisma- ★

-Primary Skills-

-Secondary Skills-

-Spells-

“Huh,” I said as I stared at the mental image in front of me.

It faded away after a second but another thought put it back and I found I had to somewhat keep thinking about it to keep the thing in place. Once that was sorted out I took my time to examine the screen. I was vaguely scared that whatever the voice was it somehow knew my full name despite having never said it or even thought of it since arriving here. The Primary and Secondary classes thing was also interesting but I ignored it for now. What did the stars beside my stats mean though?

I also couldn’t help but notice the empty spells list at the bottom of the screen. That proved to me magic was also real in this world which was both amazing to me and terrifying at the same time. Magic was something I had always thought was an interesting concept and would often think about the implication of what using magic would be like in real life. While many of the ideas and thoughts were fascinating to me a few were downright horrifying to think about. And all that was when I was thinking of it as a fictional thing, not a real and physical force in the world.

I mentally stared at the screen for a good few more minutes, seeing it was still freaky to me but now that I had somewhat moved past the ‘In a new world thing’ I thought more about a world that worked on an RPG system. Do you kill things to get a level up? If you did, what kind of society would form around the idea of killing things to be stronger? Was murder encouraged?!?

All the thoughts just gave me a headache as I finally stopped focusing on the screen and it faded. I stared off at the moon that was about halfway below the trees and was slowly descending to leave behind the new day. Then I noticed that the moon was a bit bigger than mine, it was a full moon, and it didn’t seem to have any craters in it and looked like a perfect sphere of silver. Just another thing to note down and shove in the back of my head before it simply added to my headache.

Eventually, as a slightly more gold-in color sun crested the horizon while the moon bid its farewell I was reminded of my situation by a growl. This growl didn’t come from a monster though, instead it came from my stomach as I realized it had been maybe eighteen or twenty hours since I had last eaten anything. Sadly I had just as much luck finding anything to eat as I did with something to drink. Well… there was one thing I could eat.

I found my eyes shifting toward the corpse of the wolf-like monster I had killed just two hours ago. Several problems popped into my head as I contemplated skinning the damn thing for its meat. First off I had no idea how to. My father had taken me hunting a few times but I had never really taken to it and by the time I was older and could enjoy it more he had already had the accident. That thought caused me to pause for a second before shaking it away and going back to the problem at hand.

I didn’t know what meat to take for cooking, which led to the problem that I didn't have a way to cook any of it. The more I thought about it the more I just couldn’t see getting anything to eat from it. But as I was looking at the corpse my eyes lingered on its claws, seeing the crystal that made up the body part. That might have some value for me to use later, assuming I made it to said later.

I got a bit closer and had a look at the natural weapons on the monster’s paws. They were unnaturally cold and felt like I was touching ice and they seemed quite sturdy as well. In the end, I spent a good thirty minutes getting most of the claws using some of the swiss army knife's different options and afterward I had another thought and decided to open the ice wolf’s jaws.

The sharp fangs of the creature were made of the same ice-like crystal and two of the fangs were bigger than the others. It reminded me of a saber tooth tiger and I noticed that I could probably grip one in my hand and use it like a dagger. And so despite how tired I was from getting the claws, I started work on removing the fangs as well. At least they were a bit easier after I got the first one out and could better grip the others.

And so after a good hour of work, by which point the silver moon was gone and the golden sun was climbing the sky, I had several claws and fangs made up of cold bluish crystal. I put most of them in one of the large inner pockets of my trench coat but after a moment of thought put one of the big fangs in the side waist pocket where I keep the Swiss army knife as well. I had been right that it was big enough to effectively wield as a dagger so it would be a nice backup weapon if something happened to my other weapon of circumstance.

With that done I took a moment to examine the area, hoping to find some kind of sign about where to go. I was still very hungry and the dryness in my mouth was getting a bit too much to handle so I needed to make a good choice about where to go. After a moment I looked toward the position of the sun to see where it was rising. Assuming it was the same in this world as my own then towards the sun would be east. If that was the cause it would probably be best to go either north or south.

In the end, I simply decided to head to what I believed was south. Sadly I wasn’t educated on what to do in this situation and in all honesty it was going to be by luck’s mercy that I found what I needed. It left a pit in my stomach that seemed to fight with my hunger for dominance on what was more annoying to me but in the end I did my best to ignore both.

“God or whatever deity that can hear me. It would be lovely if you could provide some help here. Just saying,” With my little prayer spoken I made my way once more through the forest.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

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I was really starting to dislike this Forest.

The golden sun hung around the middle point in the sky, showing proof to the world below that hours had indeed passed, yet I had nothing to show for it. Just a pair of sore feet and slightly more worn-in boots. By now the thirst was almost too much, at least it was drowning out the pain from hunger which was also nagging at me. All in all, I was not in a good situation and it was getting worse with each passing hour.

Things had started so well too. I don't know if it was due to leveling up or not but I had been feeling good as I left the fallen trees and ice wolf corpse. Strange animals had once more filled the forest and I had hoped one of them could give me some kind of hint on where to find a pond or really any source of water. Sadly none of them had proven a capable guide, usually either noticing me and running away from me or just leading me to nowhere.

So I decided to continue south, hoping that I came across some form of salvation. The last five, maybe six, hours had been pretty much nothing but walking. The only reward I had found was that it was now a bit warmer than before, though more than likely that was just a side effect of it being noon. Eventually, it just got a bit too much for me and I found myself sitting on the forest floor with my back against a tree.

As I tried to relax I could feel the panic I had been keeping at bay start to swell up once. I tried my best to fight it off, there was a time and place to let out emotions and now wasn't either or. For a few minutes, I simply sat in silence occasionally wiping away a tear or two that had slipped out. My mind seemed to be running nonstop as I faced my frustrations from both my current situation and former before I arrived in this world. The mental damn in my head was uncomfortably close to breaking.

With a deep sigh, I closed my eyes and focused on the various sounds of the forest. The rustling of the leaves as both wind and bird moved it. The chirping of some of those Rainbow birds off in the distance. The sound of the wind itself as it swooped and twirled between branches and limbs. If it wasn't for the past twenty-four hours it would have been a rather pleasant experience.

“Maybe I should just let the damn run over a bit…” I mumbled to myself as I continued to listen to the sounds of nature all around me. For a second I forgot everything as my mind drifted into a somewhat calm state as I debated with myself. But any decisions I would have made were immediately put to a halt as I heard something new.

A very human-sounding shout of pain.

My eyes shot open as I sprung to my feet. My head turned left and right as I tried to locate where the sound had come from. A second shout of pain was heard and my eyes snapped to where I was convinced I had heard the noise from.

For a few seconds, I debated what to do. On one hand that sounded like a person shouting which meant someone that could help me. On the other hand, it was clear from the shouts that they were in danger, and if I went to them so would I. The debate didn’t last though. I was already in trouble as it was, what difference did adding more and a possible ally make?

Decision made I broke into a light run.

It took a minute or two before I found myself running into a small clearing in the forest. I almost slid to a stop as I reached into my coat pocket and pulled out the swiss army knife and flipped open the knife option. Standing before me were three ice wolves, the same kind I had killed this morning but seemingly a bit smaller. But my mind focused on the other figure in the clearing.

A human.

A guy more specifically though he did have a bit of an androgynous appearance about him. He was a bit short with a dirty white shirt and some well-worn farmer’s overalls and had long messy brown hair done up in a ponytail. He was fairly dark-skinned from what I could tell but living around a farming town gave me the experience to know that it was a deep tan from years of working out in a field rather than a genetic thing. This was supported by his bare arms being decently toned and muscled which was easy to tell even from a good dozen feet away. The strange thing about him was the wizard hat and staff that he had owned which rather clashed with the farming vibe he had going.

That almost distracted me from noticing that his left forearm was bleeding from what looked like a bite. It didn’t take much effort to see that one of the wolves had bitten him and probably caused the shouts of pain I had heard earlier. One of the wolves even had some blood around its muzzle. Said wolf along with the other two paused and turned to look at me as I had entered the clearing. The man, more a boy really, also paused to look at me but recovered faster than the monsters and quickly took advantage of the distraction.

“Mana Blast!” I heard him shout.

I blinked as he said the words but something in my mind felt weird about them. Like they had some kind of power to them that my mind could not object to. The blast of purplish energy that erupted from the guy’s free hand only punctuated this. The wolf that had the bloody maw didn’t have time to react as the energy hit him full-on and knocked him several feet away from the fight.

The blast startled the other two wolves who growled as one went for the now panting wizard farmer while the other one decided to head for me. I gritted my teeth as the ice wolf all but lunged at me in a maneuver that reminded me of the one I had killed. I jumped to the side and tried to slash at the creature as it passed by but missed as it landed and swiftly turned towards me. We started to circle each other as I heard the tanned guy say something else that had the same effect as the previous words but I didn’t pay too much attention.

Turned out to be the right thing to do as a moment later the wolf once more lunged at me, its maw of ice-like crystal fangs ready to take a bite out of me. This time I slightly moved to the side and just punched the thing in its ribs as hard as I could while it missed me. I couldn’t help the hiss of pain as it felt like I had just punched a wood wall.

As I dealt with the new pain I heard a growl and the old feeling of mental ice flowed through me as my body froze up. From the corner of my eye, I made out the wolf shake its body a little from its pain before going for a third lunge at my now paralyzed body. I regained motion in my legs a second later but the only thing I could do was fall back to avoid the jaws gnashing down on my face. I ended up on my back as the thing landed on top of me, its weight nearly knocking the breath out of my chest. I felt the swiss army knife fly from my hand as well despite my best efforts to keep a hold of it.

I quickly grabbed the wolf’s head just as it was about to come down on me. Still feeling weak from my previous fight and the lack of food and water I could barely keep the thing from biting my face off. The next couple of seconds were filled with my muscle straining as the thing rabidly tried to bite me, only an inch or two away from my nose. But I could feel my strength failing and knew that if I didn’t do something soon there would be zero inches between me and the ice wolf’s jaw.

Moving my leg slightly I thrust my knee up and into the monster’s lower torso. It let out a yelp of pain and stopped trying to kill me for a second. That second was all I needed. My right hand quickly reached into my side pocket and grabbed the crystal fang. Just as the wolf was about to continue its onslaught of bites I stabbed the fang into its neck. It went in far more easily than I thought it would as the creature let out a much louder yelp of pain.

With a grunt, I rolled over while still grappling the wolf until I found myself on top of it. The thing tried to struggle as I kept it down but the new neck wound was affecting it too much. With a shout and stab at the monster’s chest, the cold fang once more easily went through the wolf’s body like a hot knife through butter. I repeated this until the creature seemed to finally stop struggling and stay still.

I gulped down some air as I shakily got to my feet. A grin crossed my face for a moment as I felt the adrenaline running through me. But everything stopped as I once more heard the growl and froze. I was able to twist my eyes just enough to see the third wolf that had been blasted glaring at me. It looked hurt from the blast but apparently, it still had plenty of fight as it almost grinned at me and started to lunge. I could do nothing as the monster’s fangs grew closer to me and wished I could have closed my eyes before it hit me.

“Empower Spell-Gust!”

Just an inch away from my face the wounded ice wolf was hit with a powerful gust of wind and once more thrown back magically. I was just regaining control of my limbs when the thing got back up and shot another glare at me and the other guy before limply running off into the woods. There was a pause before both I and the farmer wizard let out a sigh of relief, I turned to better look at him and saw the other monster that had attacked him lying dead against a tree that it had crashed into. As I was contemplating what to say to my new comrade in arms he beat me to the punch.

“Thank ya so much friend for helping me there. Them Winter Wolves got me when I wasn't looking while practicing some spells. They ain't suppose to be on the outskirts of the forest.” His voice was also somewhat androgynous as he spoke with a decently thick country-sounding accent, along with the vernacular to match as well.

I gave a smile as I bowed a little, adding in some dramatic flair for good measure before looking back up to him and speaking, “Oh it's nothing good sir. Was just taking a walk around these fair woods after a…teleportation mishap. Glad to have been of service.”

The man smiled at me wider before pausing at my words. An odd look of excitement came over him at what I had just said and it seemed to bleed into his voice as well, “Teleportation mishap?!? Are you some high-level Mage sir!?! No wait, that don’t make sense with how you fought. But what caused it!”

He was almost in my face as he said the last part, his words getting progressively faster as he spoke them and the excitement getting more and more pronounced. Suddenly he paused as if realizing what he was doing and a blush over came his face before he stepping back.He spent a second training in his enthusiasm before speaking again, “Sorry about that. Ma always said I get too excited about magic. I guess I should introduce myself before shoving my face into yours. Names Danny Wheatmen friend. Any help I can provide ya with?”

I let out a little chuckle at his antics. It was clear he was very interested in magic and couldn’t help himself when I mentioned what had happened. As I chuckled I took a moment to think about my story and decided to delay a bit more by asking for something I desperately needed right now. I gave a charming smile to him before speaking once more, “Names Alexander Burleson. And I would be a liar if I didn’t say I could go for a drink of water right now.”

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(POV-Danny)

I eyed the stranger as he all but chugged the leather waterskin of water I gave him. He had a fanciness about himself. Kinda reminded me of Mister Hous’ brother who would come to visit Vanners once a year during the New Year's celebration. Which probably meant the man in front of me was some kind of noble.

I thought about bowing for a second before deciding that if he ain’t complaining about it now then he didn’t care, like Mister Hous himself. His vestments agreed with my thoughts as they seemed very nice and well made. He was also rather good lookin to, enough that my little sister would be all over him if I brought him back to Ma and Pa’s.

After draining my Waterskin dry he let out a sigh of relief before turning back to me and speaking. “I truly do appreciate the drink, quite refreshing. I’ve been wandering around this forest for about a day without anything to drink or eat and am understandably not in the best of ways right now. On a side but related note, if you have some food on you it wouldn't go amiss to offer some.”

I took a second to marvel at his words. He seemed to fit more words into a sentence than I thought was possible. If he ain’t a noble then he’s definitely some high-class man. I was glad to have found him when I did, poor man would have died out in these woods.

“Well,” I began, “I’m glad to be of help sir. I’m afraid I don’t have jerky or anything on me but if ya want I can take ya to my Ma and Pa’s to rest and get some good food.”

The man, Alexander he said was his name, put on a rogue’s grin and waved his right hand as he spoke. “Well, that sounds delightful. A fine idea I can get behind. And if your parents are as wonderful as you are Danny then I would be more than happy to be your guest.”

I felt heat on my face as I turned to hide the blush on my cheeks. Anna Would definitely be all over him when we got there. After a second to get rid of the redness I turned back to him and gave Alexander my best welcoming smile.

“Ma and Pa would be happ-er I mean more than delighted to have ya Sir Alexander.”