Novels2Search

Chapter 4

"Am I dead?"

"Where am I?"

"There's nothing."

"Did I fall and hit my head on the stairs?"

"Seriously, what was in that tea?"

"Where am I going?"

All these thoughts flew through his head as he sat in the void, it took him a moment before he realized he was moving. He could feel a point in his body, the same one he could tell pulled him towards the book latch onto something in the vast distance, and he was being dragged towards that point. Zane was strangely calm, wherever he was he couldn't get back now, and keeping a calm head may just save him. That being said, he could feel his heart nearly hammering out of his chest. This was wrong. This isn't how the world works. Just what in the world was that book? It wasn't long before Zane could see a small point of light in the distance. His destination? No, something told him it was just in his way. Nevertheless, he would be going through, and it was keeping him from his safety. With grim determination, Zane pressed on, nothing would shake him.

He was almost immediately proven wrong. As Zane approached the point of light, he could begin to see more clearly, but he wished he hadn't. The moment he saw what the point of light was, he immediately shut his eyes as his mind was bombarded with thoughts, ideas, truths, myths, legends, feats, goals, aspirations, love, loss, victory, defeat, system, power. Every thought shot through his brain, immediately understanding what each of these thoughts meant before the enlightenment leaving his mind as the next impression took over. Flashing in his brain, it was like his thoughts had a heartbeat, and with each new beat, a new epiphany, and with each beat, a new epiphany lost. Zane truly didn't know how he was holding on, but rather than attributing it to himself being able to fend off these foreign thoughts, he could almost feel like wherever these impressions were coming from, someone, or something was holding back. Nothing stuck with him, like his brain was just not expanded enough to understand even one of these concepts. A small part of him was upset that he couldn't keep any of this insight, but that was drowned out by the unwavering panic that came with his brain being on the brink of implosion.

After what felt like an eternity, the impressions came slower and slower, and after a while, the impressions stopped all together. Zane sputtered, not realizing he was holding his breath, choking for air, before realizing he wasn't getting air, but he could still breathe? How did that work? He didn't have time to think about it, before seeing more pinpricks in the sky around him. Instead of being a black, inky void like where he started, he was now in a dense night sky full of stars. He wasn't close enough to receive the same impressions he did before, but he could tell the first one he flew through was far vaster than the other lights. The points of light flew by quickly and the longer he flew, the less and less he saw of the points of light before he was in the black nothing again. Zane sighed, he still had no idea where he was going, but that part of his body was still pulling him towards something in the far distance. Zane continued on for what felt like hours flying through the void, and somehow after all that happened, he was becoming bored. Zane snickered, only he could be bored after flying through space after entering some portal giving him enlightenment. That being said, Zane's memory of the events of the field of impressions where almost all gone. Like, he could remember the experience, but even trying to recreate the feeling in his mind proved impossible. As he was thinking this, he saw it. Another point of light. This one was significantly dimmer than the rest of the ones he saw, like a dying lightbulb compared to an LED. But, no, it wasn't dying, it was just young, growing. As Zane jettisoned through the void towards the point, his heart clenched when he realized he was going to fly through it. Zane shuddered as he received some impressions, but instead of the mass of information he had received previously, he just got four names: Time, Space, Lia, and Ren. Zane did not have time to process what kind of names Time and Space were, before he felt he became uncomfortably close to the point of light, which had now become a veritable beacon of light as he flew into it. He braced himself for the flood of information again, but instead, he smashed into the light like he struck a transparent screen, shattering it entirely. The last thing Zane saw before he blacked out was the rolling landscape beneath him.

Zane's head pounding woke him. At first, he had no idea where he was, remembering everything as if it were a dream. It wasn't until he looked around that he knew it was no dream.

"Unless I blacked out and went a few states over, that wasn't a dream." Zane muttered, as much to prove to himself he could still speak.

Zane gazed across his surroundings, eyes falling upon the trees around him, massive trees reminiscent of redwood trees, massive red trunks extending into the thick canopy blocking the sunlight above him. The trees were spread out, yet the canopy above was so thick it looked to be an entirely different plant. Zane had never seen trees this big, let alone in his new home state. He dropped his hand to his ribs to see how his injury was doing, when he realized it no longer hurt. Confused, he reached up to touch what should have been his swollen black eye, but it felt normal. Zane's heartbeat quickened, he must've been unconscious for days for his injuries to have completely disappeared, and based on what happened in his memory, that very well could be the case.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Ok," Zane said, righting himself "take a deep breath and approach this calmly, you were sucked through a magic portal made by a magic book, sucked into a magic void, and now you are in a forest surrounded by magical trees and probably magical wildlife."

Upon having that thought, Zane quieted to see if he could hear any wildlife around him. He sat still, eyes closed and breath slowed. He could hear bird calls in the distance unlike any he had ever heard before, and the calls were echoed across the forest until they passed over his head and continued on. Zane's eyes opened and he scanned his surroundings. The forest was slightly hilly, but his view was almost completely negated by the trees surrounding him on all sides. It wasn't until he had slowed when he realized that feeling that pulled him toward the book and toward this place was still present. He focused on that sense and Zane could almost feel it pulling himself in a certain direction.

Zane exhaled, "Ok, small quiet movements. Follow my soul compass until I either end up free of the woods, or I end up dead, no big deal."

Zane was about to stand up and following his sense when he felt a spike of, something appear in his mind. Zane whirled around, but nothing was around him. Just then, a chime sounded in his head, causing him to flinch.

[Connection Established]

[Please stand by while the adjustment process completes]

A steely feeling voice echoed through his mind, leaving Zane stunned.

"Hello? Is anyone out there?" Zane asked at a higher volume than he would have liked, but there was no response.

Zane just sat there, terrified, but could also not deny the excitement building in his heart. If this place was magic, would he be magic? Or would he be just some random mundane guy in a new magic world? Or, which would be far worse, if he entered a magic portal and flew through the void, only to end up on another mundane world. Zane stayed still, mind racing while he waited for the voice to return, which after about five minutes, it did.

[Unauthorized entity from unintegrated world "Earth" has crossed system-controlled space to enter the non-system integrated world "Aether"]

[Human "Zane Winters" unintentionally entered an integrated world from an unintegrated one]

[Awarding Title: Spectral Walker]

Just then, what seemed to be a screen entered Zane's vision, which followed him wherever he looked.

Status

Name: Zane Winters

Race: [Human (F) – lvl 1]

Class: N/A

Subclass: N/A

Stats

Mind: 8

Body: 7

Soul: 6

Free Points: 0

Titles

Spectral Walker

Zane knew he should be terrified, that he should be shaking with fear. He still shook, but instead of fear, he shook from pure, unadulterated excitement. Stats? Titles? Classes? This was like a video game turned real! Zane's breath quickened as he attempted to investigate his status. When he attempted to mentally click on class, nothing happened. He moved down the page to the admittedly simplified stat list and attempted to get clarification on soul, but nothing happened. Becoming nervous, he scrolls down to the last thing, his new title, and clicked it.

[Spectral Walker - Unique Title]

[Description: You have travelled the spectral between worlds before your world was integrated and arrived in a non-System integrated world. (Grants access to the System)]

That was the second time this "System" had been mentioned, is that what brought him here? It seemed that according to the title he wasn't supposed to be here, and that the System also wasn't here. It seemed that the screen he was using right now might just be the system the title granted.

[Adjustment process complete, welcome to Aether]

[You are of age to receive your base class, advance to level 10 to receive your true F grade class]

[Base Class Options: Mage (Inferior), Fighter (Inferior), Ranger (Inferior), Light Fighter (Inferior), Heavy Fighter (Inferior), Healer (Inferior)]

The prompt flooded Zane's screen, showing each of the choices before him. His mouth curved up into a big, goofy grin. Mage. Magic truly was real here. Zane realized he had to think hard about this, the choice of his class could determine his future for however long he was here. That being said, he only really had two choices. Mage, for incredibly obvious reasons, and Fighter. Magic was a major priority in this world to Zane, but if there were no people around, he may have to discover everything himself and be stuck. If he chose fighter, he would already have a head start due to his fencing career. Of all the sports that he was forced to play by his parents, fencing was the one that resonated with him the most. He stopped then, and thought about what he had left behind. How would his parents react to his abrupt disappearance? Would Ms. Wen be charged with his disappearance? Would she keep the money Mr. Millian had promised her. And why did he want that book? Zane shook his head, those were all things to be left in the past, for now, he had a choice to make. The smart choice was fighter, he was in a survival situation and having a class dedicated to physical strength and speed would be important, and it seemed like all physical stats were morphed into one here. On top of that, his experience with fencing would allow him to be far more adept with a weapon than otherwise, giving him an early head start. Zane sighed, his choice obvious. Then he mentally clicked on Mage, cause magic.

[You have selected the class: Mage (Inferior)]

[You have learned the following skills:]

[Krisis Bolt (Inferior)]

[Basic Krisis Control (Inferior)]

[Magical Sense (Common)]

[Krisis Reuse (Inferior)]

[Due to being in an extreme situation when evolving your class, one or more of your skills have evolved to adapt to your situation (Warning, evolving your class when in extreme situations can result in fewer class selection options, and may change or entirely remove previously owned skills, beware) Awarding title: (Reckless Advancement)]

[Krisis Reuse (Inferior), has upgraded to: Krisis Harvest (Uncommon)]

Zane couldn't hold himself back from pumping his fist and doing a little cheer. He was magic! And if this world was magic as well, he was going to see exactly what this world had to offer.