Corrine was falling. Darkness surrounded her. It wasn’t an absence of light but a functional inability to perceive light. She couldn’t even close her eyelids. Her mouth opened to scream, but nothing came out.

Then she landed with a thump.

Cool, dank cave air filled her airways as she blinked owlishly at Jason. He sat in the kitchen chair, which teetered precariously on an uneven rock floor. The dark gray rock glittered wetly as it reflected a dim bluish glow coming from a cyan mossy growth coating the ceiling, walls and parts of the floor.

“Huh?” Corrine blinked again, straightening as she momentarily forgot about Jason’s injury.

“Well, this is new...” Jason murmured, his steely gray eyes piercing the darkness. Corrine shot her boyfriend’s roommate a glance. The distant exhaustion in his eyes was gone, replaced by a befuddled shock that mirrored her own.

“What...what happened?” Corrine said. She spun around, noting the massive, melty stalactites hanging from the ceiling. Water dripped periodically from their tips, splashing into pools or onto other stalagmites, rearing up to accept the droplets. The light was dim, but more than enough to see two dark tunnels winding away into the darkness.

Before Jason could answer, a ping sounded right behind her head. She and Jason jumped in unison as floating words manifested before her eyes.

‘ding!’ ‘You have entered a named minor Temporal rift! The “Tutorial” welcomes you. Escape to prove your worth!’

The message faded away, leaving the pair of undergraduate students frozen.

“Did you see that message?” Jason eventually said. His tone was conversational, as if something impossible hadn’t just happened.

“Was that what it was?” Corrine replied dryly, somehow the shock of it all had overflowed and left her feeling empty. Before she could say anything more, another message tinged, causing both to flinch.

‘ding!’ ‘You have gained one free skill point. Use it wisely.’

“I’m assuming you got that one too.” Jason broke the silence again, spitting a globule of blood onto the clammy cave floor. That drew Corrine’s attention, and she spun on him.

“Oh my god, you’re still injured,” Corrine said, hovering uselessly around Jason. She wasn’t a med student, and her few emergency care courses usually had spare bandages to treat injuries like this. Unfortunately, Tyler hadn’t handed her the dorm’s medkit. Wait! Where was Tyler?

“I don’t—” Jason coughed more blood onto the ground. His eyes were glassy and staring at the middle distance, as if in shock.

“Let me help you,” Corinne reached out but paused a second later. Unsure of what she could do.

“Just one second,” Jason shrugged her off. His eyes unfocused again, flicking rapidly as if reading. No, Corrine realized, he wasn’t staring at nothing. He was staring at the...interface. The floaty words.

“Let’s see if this works,” Jason said a second later.

Corrine rocked back on her heels as Jason’s flesh writhed before her eyes. Sundered skin ejected torn tissue like some terrible CGI. In agonizing slow motion, the damaged flesh knitted itself together, sucking in excess blood and ejecting various unwanted bits. Blood scabbed over in seconds, then dried and started flaking to reveal smooth, unblemished skin underneath.

“What—How are you doing that?” Corrine stammered in awe, leaning closer to examine the wriggling skin.

“Check your interface,” Jason said, rubbing at his ribs with a grimace. “God, that feels weird. Just think ‘status’ and a whole character sheet should pop up. At least that worked for me.”

“A character sheet? Like in a game?” Corrine asked skeptically, but her voice trailed off as a status window exactly like an MMORPG materialized in her vision.

“Sure,” Jason continued. He got up, stretching slightly as he touched the wound in his chin. The skin was bright pink and angry but no longer openly bleeding. “There should be a submenu where you can choose a skill. I chose [Regeneration], which is how...all this.”

Jason gestured vaguely toward his face as he carefully stepped around the still-frozen Corrine. His footsteps made hollow clacking echoes reverberate across the cave.

“I have three skills to choose from,” Corrine said hesitantly. She glanced at Jason, becoming more shocked that he seemed to be taking all of this so well. “And [Regenerate] isn’t one of them. Which should I choose?”

Jason crouched beside some glowing moss and touched it gently with one of his large, calloused hands. Corrine paused her perusal of the interface, idly noting it vanish as she watched Jason inspect the moss. He was remarkably gentle for his size and strength, but Corrine couldn’t help but notice how a childlike curiosity had replaced the shock and exhaustion in Jason’s eyes.

“You know something cool?” Jason said, ignoring her question. “Bioluminescence is a fairly rare evolutionary trait that only really appears in fungi, bugs and, like, shrimp and shit.”

“Jason,” Corrine said, her voice strained. “That’s nice and all, but what do I do with this skill point? I don’t have [Regenerate] or whatever.”

“Oh, sorry.” Jason turned to her. “It’s [Regeneration], and uh. I suppose you could save it for now. We don’t know what’s what in this place. Might be that skill points are actually bad or something.”

“But...if it’s bad, why’d you choose a skill?”

“Well, I had a hole in my chin.”

A flush of frustration banished Corrine’s shock. “Which you still haven’t explained how you got, by the way.”

“Doesn’t matter, right now.” Jason turned back to moss. “We’ve got more pressing concerns.”

“Okay, fine.” Corrine chewed on her lip, conceding the point. “Where...where do you think we are?”

“Not on Earth. That’s for sure,” Jason said with complete confidence.

“What?” Corrine blinked at him, “You can’t be serious.”

“Deadly serious,” Jason said. He rose from his crouch, his steel gray eyes scanning the cave with an almost predatory intensity.

“How can you be sure,” Corrine asked, her voice small.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“This stuff isn’t lichen. Which means it isn’t a fungus. It’s not crusty or crumbly enough for that. And it’s too green,” Jason gestured vaguely at the glowing green carpet. “Which means it’s a moss of some sort. As far as I know, there are no plants on earth that glow like this.”

“It could be a new species?” Corrine sidled closer to Jason, inspecting the moss. “Or maybe you don’t know this particular species.”

“I mean, sure, but,” Jason straightened, brushing his hands. “I think the unexplained presence of our dorm’s chair is pretty damning evidence to the contrary. Also, I don’t remember getting kidnapped and dropped here. Do you?”

“Ahh,” Corrine murmured, glancing at the chair, then their environment. “Fair enough, I suppose.”

It was hard to believe. No. It was impossible to believe. That all of a sudden, she and Jason had been teleported into a cave for seemingly no reason. Nothing made sense. Not the weird holographic interface only she could see. Not the cave. Not Jason’s presence or even why the chair had come with them.

“The only thing I can think of is that we were somehow transported to a different planet,” Jason said. He didn’t seem particularly confident in his own words. “Or maybe somehow a wholly new ecosystem of undiscovered species was transported to a cave system on earth. Then, someone knocked us out and installed cyberchips into our brains. Either way, it makes about as much sense as winning the lottery and throwing the money in the ocean.”

“Yeah, that doesn’t make much sense,” Corrine murmured, mostly as something to say.

“Hey, could you check me for microchips or surgery scars?” Jason turned with a grin, feeling aimlessly at the base of his neck.

“Well...” Corrine dragged the word. “Maybe it’s a hallucination. Or a dream.”

“Hmm,” Jason nodded emphatically, eyeing the ceiling. For some strange reason, it looked like the guy was having fun. “I doubt it. Normally, my dreams with you are a lot less vivid.”

“Wait,” Corrine blinked, processing his words in slow motion. “What?”

Jason flashed her an impish grin and proceeded toward the left tunnel. She scrambled to follow, nearly crashing into him as he froze a second later.

“Something’s coming,” he whispered, all humor drained away as he pointed at the tunnel ahead.

A chittering croon coupled with a million tiny little taps on stone emanated from the dark tunnel. The sound was so alien that it sounded synthetic. As if there was a disturbed DJ behind the curtain of darkness playing a nasty prank on them. The sound grew closer and was soon followed by a dim shape slipping out of the darkness.

If Jason’s moss explanation hadn’t convinced her of her translocation, the creature's appearance certainly did. It was squat and long like a slug but covered in thick crocodile-like hide. Six waving appendages tipped with claws were arrayed in a line across the thing’s back. Its underbelly rippled like a blanket in a breeze as it hovered across the lumpy floor.

‘ding!’ ‘Grothlit lvl 4’

Corrine blinked the notification away as the creature — no, the Grothlit — paused as if sniffing them out. Before her brain could kick into gear, the beast reared up, revealing enough tiny little bladed legs on its underside to make a millipede jealous.

Its body flopped down, and it charged.

Things happened very fast after that. Jason shoved Corrine back, and she barely managed to prevent herself from falling by catching on a stalagmite. When she’d looked back up, Jason had caught the creature’s attention and was retreating across the cave in quick, flowing strides.

The Grothlit lunged, three of the six appendages snapping out. Jason ducked back, dodging two and slapping away the third with a contemptuous backhand. He strafed around the creature and suddenly twisted. A lightning-fast exploratory kick cracked against the tough hide of the beast. It floated aside, raking two of its six dorsal spines across Jason’s shin as he pulled his leg back.

“I can’t get close to this thing!” Jason winced, bouncing back and favoring his injured leg as the Grothlit lunged at him. His kick only looked like it had made the creature angry. The monster released a discordant, warbling croon that grated on Corrine’s eardrums and lunged again.

Despite its best efforts, however, it couldn’t keep up with Jason’s nimble evasion.

Corrine’s heart pounded in her throat as she watched the horrible game of cat and mouse. It made it hard to think. Hard to focus on anything but the eldritch abomination that was chasing her boyfriend’s roommate across the room. It was a nightmare scenario, but it somehow made her brain go into overdrive instead of shutting down due to fear or panic.

She briefly considered her unspent skill point but dismissed it as her eyes fell from the rocks to the chair that had come with them. Like all dorm furniture, it was made to survive neglect and aggressive abuse from generations of college students. The heavy wooden timbers composing its frame made the thing annoyingly heavy, but perhaps it would serve as a good weapon.

“Jason!” Corrine called, pointing at the chair. “Use the chair!”

Jason’s attention flickered to her, then the chair, before he abandoned the lethal dance with the Grothlit. He dashed across the room, arriving at the chair in the blink of an eye. The Grothlit gave chase, flowing eerily around stalagmites as its six appendages waved questingly after its prey.

Jason didn’t let it pounce. He grabbed the chair and heaved. What must have been nearly fifty pounds of solid oak lifted and spun around before descending down to earth like a hammer. Heedless of the danger, the Grothlit charged directly into the attack.

A sickening crack filled the room as several dorsal appendages snapped. Bones snapped inside the creature’s body as one of the chair legs pierced through the thick hide. The Grothlit crooned mournfully as liquid oozed from underneath its body. The remaining appendages flailed weakly after Jason, but he slapped them away before tearing the chair out of the broken body and slamming it down again.

And again.

And again.

‘ding!’ ‘Your party has slain a lvl 4 Grothlit. Experience awarded’

'ding!' 'Congratulations! Your level has increased to 2. 5 stat points awarded'

Jason slowly straightened, panting like he’d just ran a marathon. He stepped away from the growing pool of ichor around the beast and stopped beside Corrine.

“Good call on the chair,” Jason huffed, staring at the corpse. His eyes were unfocused, probably looking at his interface before he refocused on the dead beast.

“You killed it,” Corrine said, then louder. “Oh my god, you killed it!”

“Yeah, that was...that was, something else,” Jason said. “It looks like I gained a level from that.”

“Same. I got five stat points from that.”

“Do you think there are more of those things in those tunnels?” Jason said. “Presumably, there is also an exit somewhere over there. Or at least that is what the first prompt said.”

“I think...” Corrine trailed off but squared her shoulders as she forced her confusion down with rationality. “We need to take a breather. Maybe hide in the back of this room to really take a good look at this system interface. We need to figure out how to spend our stat points before continuing. If this is really a game, we can make all the future fights easier by investing a little. How’s your leg?”

“Good?” Jason said, seemingly surprised at a scab already beginning to peel across his shin. “Well, would you look at that...”

“If all skills are that powerful, then I need to choose mine.”

“What are your options, by the way?”

“[Barrier], [Spike], and [Stonegrip],” Corrine pulled up her interface. Focusing on the skills gave her more information that she quickly read to Jason. “[Barrier] looks like a short-term shield, [Spike] creates a stone spike that does ‘moderate’ earth damage, while [Stonegrip] is an enhancement that grants ‘minor’ earth damage.”

“Why are the skills so...boring?” Jason frowned. “Or I guess simple is a better word.”

“Why isn’t there [Mega Tornado of Death]?” Corrine chuckled. “Beats me. Hopefully, simple skills mean we don’t encounter anything more complicated than that Grothlit.”

They fell into a companionable silence, neither willing to take the next step just yet. Eventually, Jason broke the silence.

“Do you think [Spike] actually summons a spike of stone out of the ground?”

“I don’t see why not. Your [Regeneration] is already breaking physics. As far as I’m concerned, this is a dream, and I’m just going to roll with it. Pretend everything is real and take it seriously.”

“If it’s a dream, shouldn’t the opposite logic apply?” Jason quirked a grin.

“Well,” Corrine hesitated. “I mean, there is the off chance this is real, and I’d rather take it seriously than end up dead. You follow?”

“Sure, makes sense,” Jason shrugged. His eye lingered on the moss, then the broken alien corpse. “Besides, you’ve got to admit. It’s kinda exciting.”