Daniel woke feeling groggy and tired on the rough ground outside. A cold wind blew across his face and he heard shuffling and grumbling around him.

Immediately he could tell something was wrong. Sleeping outside was something he’d long since gotten used to over the last ten years, but it had been quite a while since he would need to sleep on the bare ground. Combined with how clouded his mind felt, something that he hadn’t experienced since getting beyond level 30, and it was obvious that something was off.

Now if only he could get his mind focused enough to do something about it.

Daniel opened his eyes, wincing at the bright shine of the sun above. That was doing his head no favors, but he needed to get up. To figure out what was happening.

With an effort of will, and as the grogginess faded a bit, he turned and pushed off the ground to get to his knees. He braced both arms against the ground, ready to sit up, when the sight of his arms stopped him.

Mainly, it was his left arm that drew his focus. His flesh and blood left arm. Not a haphazard golem construct he never got the chance to replace.

But his actual freaking arm!

Shock pushed away most of the remaining mental fog and he lifted his left hand to his face. He took in the flesh there, opened and closed his fingers into a fist, and marveled at the sight.

He’d lost his left arm from the elbow down in that cursed final battle, and hadn’t managed to find a healer or priest powerful enough to heal him. The damage done by the demonic taint was too much for any ordinary healer he could find. A year later and he had come to accept the loss of his arm. Yet now it was back. Who had healed him? And why?

“What the fuck?”

“Where are we?”

“Hey which one of you fuckers kidnapped me! I’m gonna call the police!”

“Hey I’m getting no signal here! Does anyone else have one? Can you call the cops?”

The voices pulled Daniel’s attention away from his recovered limb, and once again he was shocked speechless as to what he saw around him.

A very familiar clearing in a forest, with a gentle stream running off to the side. The sun was reaching its zenith above. The ground was bare of any grass for several hundred feet, forming a large circle of barren earth. And surrounding the clearing were large trees and shrubbery, but there was a distinct lack of sounds of animals or bugs.

With him in this clearing were fifty people. All vaguely familiar. All dressed in an assortment of clothing he hadn’t seen in a long time.

Looking down, Daniel realized he was dressed the same. He wore a hoodie, with a t-shirt underneath, and some jeans. Clothes from Earth. Clothes which were familiar a long time ago, but now only brought him a very confused feeling of nostalgia.

Ding!

Welcome to Atheardeus! You have been summoned here from another world, and as an Ordered Being have now been integrated into the World System. To view your new status, simply assert your desire to view it.

Daniel stared at the blue screen for a long moment, barely able to believe what he was reading, then dismissed it with a single thought like he’d done countless times before.

Those words were hauntingly familiar. He’d seen them before, and should have only gotten a chance to see them once. When he’d been first brought to this world. To this clearing. But how is it possible?

“What the fuck is this!”

“Holy shit! Are we in VR? This is awesome! It’s so real!”

“What’s going on? What’s with these floating screens? Someone explain what’s going on!”

Daniel ignored the familiar cries of the people around him and brought up his status instead.

PROFILE SCREEN

Name: Daniel Shen

Title: Otherworlder

Perks:

-Gift of Languages

-Integrity of Soul

Classes: N/A Skills: N/A

Daniel stared for a long moment, taking in the screen that should have contained so much more. This couldn’t be real, could it? All his hard work, everything that had happened… Gone.

Just like that.

There was no way that was possible. Yet that could explain just why his mind felt so clouded, and why his body felt so weak and unresponsive.

And if it was possible, then…

Part of him felt like he should be offended. After all, that was ten years of blood, sweat, and tears, gone just like that. But the other part, the part he tried to push down in case this was some sort of trick, couldn’t help but hope. If he was somehow back in time… Then she was still alive. Everyone was still ali—

Ruthlessly, Daniel crushed the thought and instead reached within himself for his mana. It felt weak, tiny, a candle compared to the bonfire it would be in the future. But despite how clumsily it responded to him, it still did, and he sent what mana he had through his body and to his head, trying to cleanse any foreign magic that might be affecting his mind.

Yet nothing happened. The world didn’t waver. None of his senses changed at all. As if there was no illusion, no magic making him see this. As if this was really happening…

Stunned, Daniel fell back into a sitting position, eyes wandering across the people with him in the field. Some of them were still panicking, some arguing, and others calling into the forest. Yet he didn’t really see any of them. He was just too shocked.

Was he really back in time? To ten years ago, when he and a bunch of other people from Earth had been summoned into this world?

But how? How was that even possible? And how had it even happened to him? Did someone send him back? Had he done it himself?

Actually, what had he been doing before this?

Daniel’s face scrunched as he thought about it and couldn’t remember. Then, it slowly came back to him.

The expedition to the Relpid ruins setup by the Church of Light. Him joining along, hoping to find something to help him get off this doomed world. The ambush by those demonic elite.

Ragnar’s back as he tossed Daniel an artifact and told him to activate it in the center of the temple. That it was supposed to save the world. The wolfman’s howl of power as he made his last stand.

Running as hard and fast as he could, just like he had done after that disaster of a final battle.

Reaching the center of the temple and placing the relic down, hearing the screams of triumph from those damned demons.

Then the golden light. The divine light. Surrounding him. Seeping into him…

And the warning… No, the command.

Tell no one of your travel until you have prayed to me at one of my grand temples. Tell me everything that happened.

“Daniel, are you okay? Do you know what’s going on?”

A voice made Daniel jump and reach for a blade that was not at his hip. Still, long honed instincts brought him to his feet and made him face the voice, ready to defend himself. Only to stop as he looked at who had surprised him.

It was a young man with short brown hair. He was still a bit stocky, but now with more muscle than fat, unlike his highschool days. He was dressed like Daniel with a hoodie, t-shirt, and jeans. And his face… familiar. Very familiar. From a long time ago.

The last time he’d seen that face, it had been frozen in terror and covered in blood. Dead before their first week in this world.

“Whoa man, it’s just me,” Nathan—Daniel's friend from his childhood all the way to college—said, his voice worried though tinged with a bit of amusement.

He probably thought Daniel looked silly, holding is fists up to fight, since Daniel had never been much for fighting. Not until they came here, that is.

“Sorry,” Daniel said after a moment and put his arms down.

Even now, with his memories of just before his travel back in time in his mind, he could still hardly believe it. That his friend from so long ago, who died such an ignominious death, was alive and well.

“It’s fine,” Nathan said, a lazy grin on his face. “So do you know what’s going on? I can't remember how we got here. And then there was that screen. Like did we sign up for some crazy VR game or something? Cause if we did, maybe I should sue them over the memory loss. Unless we signed a waver… but then again, wavers don’t cover ever—”

“Hey everyone!”

A loud voice called out, cutting off Nathan’s ramblings, and bringing everyone’s attention to the center of the clearing.

The owner of the voice was familiar as well, though he was much younger than Daniel had last seen him. He’d seen the man die too, though it was long after Nathan had died. 1 year ago from Daniel’s perspective, at the final battle.

The last time he’d seen him, he’d been clad in holy rune inscribed armor, golden light flaring from him as he stood against one of the major demons of the invasion. He managed to hold it off for quite some time, something even far more experienced people couldn’t have managed.

Yet he fell in the end, torn apart, just like most of them had been. They had made the demons pay the price for every life lost, but it hadn’t been enough.

“So from the sounds of it, most of us are confused. I know I am as well,” The dark skin young man said, his voice strong and carrying. His name was Clark Bennette. A bit older than Daniel had been the first time he’d been here, so nineteen or twenty. “But maybe if we worked together, we could figure out what happened. First, though, does anyone remember how we got here? Or where we are?”

There was silence for a moment, and Daniel briefly entertained the idea of yelling out that he did. That they were the byproduct of an overpowered summoning spell from another continent. That they were well into the unclaimed frontier to the south of the Tarith Kingdom, with the barbarous mountain men to the East. That those screens were right, and they weren’t on Earth anymore.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

But he had no way to explain how he knew that, so he held his tongue.

Even if these people, who had until today never experienced magic, would somehow believe him, he could still feel the goddess’s command. He wouldn’t be able to speak of traveling back in time. He wasn’t quite sure what the limits of the compulsion put on him was, but he was sure that it wouldn’t let him explain anything about time travel. When he even thought about voicing such things, even in a more roundabout way, he could feel his throat tighten and a subtle feeling of danger.

Annoying but not the worst thing. After all, Daniel wasn’t all that keen to shout to the world his status as a time traveler, even if it would make some things easier if he was believed. Because there were far more people to be concerned about than their summoned group. And being an Otherworlder was already going to draw far too much unwanted attention and attempts at exploitation. Being a known time traveler with knowledge of the future would be much worse.

And of course, if the cults ever found out and realized what that meant, they’d do everything in their power to capture or kill him.

“Alright,” Clark said, his voice still calm and collected. It was something Daniel had been jealous of in the past. Of Clark’s ability to lead and stay calm, even if he was just as confused and worried as the rest of them. “So none of us remember. That’s not great, but it’s not the end of the world. Since we can’t do anything about that, we should focus on something else. Survival. We’re lost in the wilderness. My scout training says that we shouldn’t wander further, and find some shelter and supplies. First we should get an inventory of what supp—”

“And who the fuck put you in charge?” A large man shouted out as he stepped out of the crowd that had formed around Clark. The older man was tall with a buzz cut and a five o’clock shadow. Probably in his early to mid twenties. He wore a tight white wife beater and some cargo pants.

Daniel remembered him as well. Joseph. Military, though he hadn’t ever learned what service the guy had been in. He adapted well to this world, though he was a bit of a bully and often belligerent.

Despite Joseph's loud and rough attitude, Clark wasn’t cowed. The tall young man just smiled and shook his head. “No one did. I’m just offering my suggestion as a former boy scout with some survival training. If you have better ideas, I’m sure we’d all be happy to hear and discuss it.”

“But you should probably wait your turn,” another voice interjected. It was a young blonde who was a bit tall for a woman and was around the same age as Clark. She had piercing blue eyes and stood confidently out of the crowd. She was standing closer to Clark, though wasn’t actually beside him, and wasn’t at all intimidated to be talking to the loud man. “After all, we’re a group of people trying to coordinate what to do in a survival situation. Yelling over each other is hardly going to help that.”

Daniel recognized her as well. For many reasons. Part of it was her looks. She was a striking beauty, and he’d probably have had a crush on her in the past, if he hadn’t been distracted with someone else at the time. She also survived everything that happened to their summoning group, and had been at the final battle with Clark and a few others from this group as well.

And if he was remembering right, she was also some kind of internet celebrity. That had mattered a lot more to Daniel in the past than it did now. Her name was Sapphire.

“And who the fuck are you,” Joseph said, sounding annoyed and taking a step forward towards her. Clark took a step forward too, as if to intervene if the big man tried anything.

“Sapphire,” she said, undeterred. She then gestured at Clark. “And this is Clark. Why don’t you introduce yourself? And since you seem so insistent, is there something you’d like to suggest to the crowd as to what we should be doing?“

“Names Joseph,” The man said, still annoyed, but he didn’t take any more steps towards the blonde. His eyes squinted as he thought for a second. “And yeah, I have a suggestion. Instead of wasting fucking time waiting it out in this place, we should be trying to get the lay of the land. Gonna look pretty damn stupid if we set up camp here, but we’re only a 30 minute walk from a town or road.”

There were some murmurings from the crowd at that, though it was hard to tell if anyone was for or against the idea.

“And if that leads to us getting even more lost? Do you happen to know how to navigate your way through a forest?” Sapphire asked, putting a hand to her hip. “We could be miles from civilization. And this clearing with a nice calm stream seems like a great place to camp out and throw up some smoke signals or something. We might not find a place as good as this if we just leave now.”

“I’ve had survival training in the military,” Joseph said with a roll of his eyes. “And if you're so afraid of not being able to get back to this place, then we can leave a trail. Beside, you want to wait here for whoever the fuck kidnapped us and dumped us here?”

That earned some soft agreement from the crowd. Seemed some of them hadn’t considered that. Not that it really mattered or was something they actually had to worry about. The people who had brought them here were a continent away and had no idea that they’d done it.

“How about we meet in the middle,” Clark said, holding his hands up placatingly. “You and a group of volunteers can try searching around to see if there are any signs of civilization nearby. Since you have survival training, you can lead that group unless someone else is more qualified. The rest of us can stick around here and set up camp in case we can't find anything.”

“But what about the kidnappers?” Someone shouted from the crowd. It was followed by more mutteres of agreements.

“Well for one,” Sapphire said, turning to face where the question had come from. “We have no idea if we were kidnapped or not, or if we all just have memory loss of something we agreed to. We have no idea what happened. And even if we were kidnapped, if these people wanted to do something to us, they would have already been able to do anything to us when they brought us here unconscious. It seems to me like a dumb idea to go running into the woods in fear to avoid people that already had us at their mercy and lose a good camp ground like this.”

That seemed to mollify most people as the mutterings stopped, but one person raised their hand up, as if asking permission to speak.

With a small but amused smirk to her lips, Sapphire pointed at the person with their hand raised. “Um yes? Do you have a question? You don’t have to raise your hand like that.”

It was a scrawny looking guy, probably around the same age as Daniel, with glasses and unkempt hair. Daniel didn’t really recognize the guy, and tried not to think too hard as to why that was. Instead, he just watched and listened to the familiar, almost nostalgic, discussion.

“Um, yeah. Sorry,” The guy said, sounding nervous. “But are we gonna ignore what those message boxes said? About being in a new world? I mean we all just got that blue game screen, right? I’m not going crazy and was the only one who got those, right?”

A couple of other people muttered that they saw them as well, and Clark and Sapphire gave reluctant nods to that.

Before either of them could speak up, however, Joseph did. “What does it matter? It’s obviously something just to mess with us. Like being taken to another world? Grow up man. This isnt a fucking fantasy novel. This is the real world!”

Hearing that, Daniel almost snorted. Early on, no one wanted to believe the truth. And it's not like he could blame them. He hadn’t wanted to believe it either. After all, someone kidnapping them and using secret high tech stuff on them was more realistic than being magically summoned to another world. At least that was the case when you lived your whole life believing magic didn’t exist.

The nerdy looking boy, despite being nervous, held his ground and narrowed his eyes, even if he was shaking a little. “I’m not saying that it’s magic or something! I’m saying we could be in VR. Or maybe they put AR tech into our eyes or something, to make those screens!”

“And?” Joseph asked with a scoff. “You want to assume we're all in like the matrix or something? Just sit around and wait to die, hoping we wake up in reality? That sounds dumb as fuck.”

“I’m not saying that! Stop putting words in my mouth, you fucking asshole!” The nerdy boy shouted, before his eyes widened as he realized what he said. He started stammering and trying to back track. “Wait, u-ugh sor—”

Joseph, looking pissed, stepped towards the nerdy boy. “Listen here you little—”

Clark quickly moved between them, his hand held up placatingly. “Okay, okay. Things are getting unnecessarily heated. Why don’t we just take a step back.”

Seemingly more annoyed, Joseph stepped up to Clark, getting into his personal space. “And who's gonna make me? You?”

The whole crowd went quiet at this, but Daniel wasn’t overly worried. While his memories of this time weren’t that great, as he didn’t have any of his Mage memory skills yet and didn’t have a great memory before that, he could still recall that nothing violent had occurred here. And Clark wasn’t alone either.

The older man was large, but Clark wasn’t a small man either. He held the older man’s gaze with a placid smile on his face, which became more confident as another young man walked out of the crowd and got within arms reach of the older man to his side. His name was… Steve. At least that’s what Daniel could recall. A quiet man despite his size. He was even larger than Joseph, despite clearly being younger, and could match the angrier man in muscles too.

“No one is gonna make anyone do anything,” Clark said with a smile. “Just trying to be the voice of reason. There is no need for things to get heated… Right?”

Joseph narrowed his eyes, and glanced at Steve. He didn’t look phased, but snorted and took a step back.

“Now that that little dick waving contest is over,” Sapphire drawled, sounding annoyed. “Let’s get back to the screen things. And personally, I don’t think it really matters all that much. If it’s VR, or virtual reality for the non-nerds here, then we are fucked regardless what we do. But since that’s the case, it’s better to assume it's AR, augmented reality, and they are just somehow beaming those screens to us and messing with us. That means we are really here, and need to treat this as a survival scenario.”

“But what if we are in VR and it’s a death game?” The nerdy looking boy said, looking a lot less nervous with Clark and Steve standing between him and Joseph. “Like that anime. Where if you die in the game they kill you in real life. And if it is VR and a game, then there could be monsters in the woods. And if not that, what if whoever brought us here really wants to go in with the game theme. And they are like animatronic monsters or just crazy animals or something.“

“Then, again, nothing changes,” Sapphire said, shaking her head. “I don’t recognize where we are, but it's not like forests are completely safe either. Whatever precautions we take for fending off wild animals, would be the same as if we were fending off monsters or whatever. Unless someone has gotten some kind of game tutorial and there some kind of game mechanics we need to practice before going out? Or do you have any ideas of what we need to do to prepare beside what we already do in a survival situation for dealing with wild animals? I’m open to suggestions from anyone.”

She had been talking mainly to the nerdy looking boy—Daniel really needed to get his name so he didn’t need to think of him like that—who shook his head with a frown on his face, but directed that last part to everyone as she swept her gaze around the crowd.

“Then that’s that,” Sapphire said, before gesturing at Clark and Joseph. “So for the setting up camp group, I think most of us should let mister boyscout here take the lead, unless anyone else has more experience? No? Good. As for scouting. Maybe mister Joseph here can take a group out if he’s willing, and see if there is anything nearby. Maybe we can even send out one more group, too, if there’s anyone else here who feels confident in being able to navigate the forest and not get lost.”

There was a general muttering of agreement, while Joseph shook his head and said, “Whatever. Anyone who doesn’t want to waste time, come with me.”

The big man then gestured to a couple of other rough looking guys and they went over to him. They probably knew each other from before the summoning. “But if we are the only ones with the balls to go scouting, then you better not be expecting us to go empty handed. Everyone hand over whatever food and drink you have. You guys got a stream, and are too chicken shit to go far anyway. Who knows how far we have to go to find something.”

That brought some discontented mutterings, but Clark nodded along. “That makes sense, of course. We should inventory what we all have together first and then distribute it…“

Daniel tuned out the rest of the discussion. Everything was happening exactly as he remembered it. And while he could give some of his own survival experience to help their planning, he needed time to think about other things. Besides, most of his own experience involved using magic or magical tools, except for the last time he was back here, and everything that he could remember from that was taught to him by the same people leading everyone now.

So Daniel only listened with half a ear as he tried to recall everything that happened during this time in his past. At the same time, he needed to figure out what he was gonna do, and what steps he needed to take to get them done. Most of all, though, he was thinking if there was a reason he shouldn’t run off and try to get to the Mageoracy and the Great Academy by himself. To see her again, live and whole. To hold her in his arms…

Even if she wouldn’t be the same. Wouldn’t have the memories of their time together. Wouldn’t remember him…

“Hey, we should go join the fishing group,” Nathan said, pulling Daniel from his thoughts with a nudge. “I’ve done some fishing with my dad and gramps, so I’m sure I’ll be able to catch something.”

Daniel took a second to push away his darker emotions and let himself be in the moment. He looked around and saw people breaking up into groups, some people grabbing sticks and sharpening them with pocket knives and heading to the stream, while others were just collecting nearby wood and rocks for building materials and starting a pile in the middle of their clearing.

There was also a pile of supplies on a blanket they must have gotten from someone, with some food and drinks that were being sorted. Daniel couldn’t remember what he had been doing before he had been summoned, but he didn’t have either on him so he ignored that.

He snorted and nodded at the people headed towards the stream. “Do you have a fishing rod tucked away somewhere? Cause I don’t think your experience is gonna help with spear fishing.”

“How hard could it be,” Nathan said, shrugging. “Besides, do you really want to just go collect wood or something?

“Yeah actually,” Daniel said, seeing a chance to get some more quiet time to think and plan. Part of him wanted to spend some time with his long dead friend, but he just had too much to think about. “I doubt I’ll be able to catch any fish anyway, and I need some time… To take this all in. See you in a bit. You go show them what your fishing trips were worth.”

“Alright…” Nathan said, looking at him in worry. Then he looked to the side and let out a laugh. There were a couple of people arguing about wasting the sticks on making spears, or for saving them for building materials. “Make sure you go get a sharpened stick too. You know, in case of monsters.”

Nathan said that last part while wiggling his fingers and making a ooohing sound.

Daniel forced out a laugh, despite picturing Nathan’s blood covered face again. That attitude was gonna get people killed. He would need to do something about that. But first, he needed time to think. So he kept his trepidation to himself and nodded and walked off with a wave. He would go join one of the gathering groups and get his thoughts in order.

As he made his way over though, he saw another familiar face that made him falter for a second. Because unlike all the other familiar faces he’d recognized so far, this one didn’t make him feel anything but anger. Anger that this fucking bastard was here.

It took everything in his power not to go grab one of the sharpened sticks and stab the fucker through the eye. To finally kill the twisted scumbag that got away. But that wouldn’t be smart. No, he needed to be smarter about it. So he kept walking to where people were organizing themselves to go gathering from the forest.

But he made sure that in his future plans, regardless of what else he did, he would end that twisted sicko before anyone got hurt this time.