Yawning the sleep out of his eyes, Mandla awoke on the forest floor. Opening his eyes, he gazed up at the bright sky then quickly shut them.

What. The. Fuck.

The forest had transformed. Only the night prior, the area had been nature tamed. The trees had been in rows, the underbrush had been neatly manicured and there wasn’t a fallen leaf in sight. Now, the forest was wild.

What had been a sparse canopy was now dominated by massive trees with spreading foliage; he didn’t even think they were pines. The dull brown and faded green of the lumber forest had given way to an explosion of vivid blues, reds and yellows from all the flowering vines running up, down and between the mighty trunks. The sterile silence when they had been setting up the party was replaced by shrill bird cries, all the more unnerving for the fact that he hadn’t seen any birds the day before. Not to mention the strange blu-

The party!

Mandla shot up into a sitting position. Looking around, he saw a few people still on the ground, with many more already awake and gathered around Kaveh’s car, making a commotion.

He stood up to join the group, but stopped in his tracks when he realised he wasn’t just seeing things, there really was a flashing icon in the corner of his field of view. When he tried to focus on it, it expanded into several blue screens.

Lesser Atavism granted.

Congratulations, you have gained access to the Legendarium! Choose your legend!

Scanning: breakthrough species…

Scanning: progenitor gene seed…

Scan complete.

No overlap found.

Granting: greater Evolution…

Greater Evolution granted.

Scanning: lesser species…

Scanning: progenitor gene seed…

No overlap found.

Granting: lesser Evolution…

Lesser Evolution granted.

Scanning: optimal competitive environment…

Scan complete.

Competitive environment: Poor.

Terraforming…

Terraform complete.

Mandla’s view was completely filled with these small updates, like he’d ignored his phone for a week and beamed the mountain of notifications directly onto his eyeballs. He tried blinking and swiping at the air to remove them, and one of those worked, though he wasn’t sure if it was the blink or the swipe. One stubborn screen refused to disappear however.

“He’s awake!”

“Guys, Mandla’s awake!”

Two unfamiliar voices pointed him out and the crowd of people surged towards him, swarming the confused boy.

“What’s happening?”

“What did you do to us?”

“I want to go home!”

“Where are we?”

Questions pelted Mandla from all sides as he was submerged in the crush. It was all he could do to stay standing as people budged and jostled him, demanding answers. Some of them looked like they were in cosplay?

Is this just a bad trip? What the hell did I take last night?

“Hey, get off him!”

Kaveh’s distinctive voice sliced through the buzz of the crowd, making Mandla breathe a sigh of relief. His huge friend waded through the mass and grabbed the scruff of his outfit, physically pulling him out of the crowd.

“Bro, shit is crazy.”

Kaveh plopped him down on the ground in front of his car and continued.

“You’ve probably noticed by now, but these screens showed up last night in all our faces. After that, it’s darkness until we woke up this morning. In a fucking jungle, bro.”

A half-remembered geography lesson told him Kaveh might be wrong. Trees in the jungle had buttress roots, these looked like gigantic oaks, stretched out to ridiculous heights. But they had vines growing between them and what sounded like exotic birds trilling in their branches.

Do oak trees even grow naturally in SA?

It was just another strange thing to underline the strange day. Kaveh was still talking in the background.

“And now this Legendarium thing is… changing people. Like, it gives you the option to be some kind of military guy and when you accept, your clothes change, your whole… fuck it, you’ll see. None of us can even guess what’s going on.”

The crowd had settled down slightly in the background, as Mandla noticed Nicola speaking to them, calming them down.

Interesting.

Bringing his attention back to his friend, Mandla absorbed the information, then pursed his lips.

“Hmm. Remember when we watched Sword Art Online?”

Kaveh’s eyes widened.

“Yo I wasn’t going to say anything but I had the exact same thought! You think we’re in a game?”

Mandla held up his hand as he focused on the one stubborn screen in his view.

Lesser Atavism granted.

Congratulations, you have gained access to the Legendarium! Choose your Legend!

“These screens are clearly from some sort of program, right? How does that make sense if we’re not running on some sort of computer? If these screens are real, our world just got updated and we’re seeing proof that we actually are in a simulation. Either that or aliens. Final guess is severe mass hysteria.”

“Maybe it’s God.”

Mandla looked up at Kaveh. Kaveh shrugged.

“Fair enough, I guess. God’s as good a reason as any. Have you ‘chosen your Legend’?”

“Nah, I was waiting for you to wake up so we could talk about it. From what I’ve seen so far, it’s a permanent change and I’m not tryna make those on a whim in a survival situation.”

Mandla frowned.

“Survival situation? Does the car not work? The phones?”

Kaveh could only give him a sorry shake of the head.

“Bruh, what the fuck does that mean?”

“The phones were the first thing we tried. Something fried their circuits. Same with the car. Anything with electrical parts.”

Mandla looked down at his watch. It was a smart watch, and it too had gone dark.

He sat back, massaging his temples as the implications dawned on him.

Jesus. We’re out in the middle of nowhere and the world just changed.

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

“Okay, we’re kinda fucked, but do we have options?”

“Yeah I spent some time thinking about that. We could walk to the ranger station. I have no idea where that is but there should be signs, if we’re still in the same forest. If that doesn’t work out, we could walk to Malelane, but assuming what’s happening here isn’t just happening to us, it could be fucking anarchy. It’s also super far away on foot.”

Kaveh was the captain of a local basketball team his dad had bought and was always incredibly cool under pressure. He was like a rock, steadfast against the breaking panic of the larger group. Listening to him always helped Mandla get his thoughts in order.

“The ranger station is our best bet, I think. Even if no one’s there, they have to have a landline phone. Failing that, a gun.”

“Yeah, that’s what I initially thought but the Legendarium changes things. Open it up and you’ll see why I waited.”

Mandla mentally focused on the screen, willing it to reveal the Legends.

Legendarium

Infantry

Artillery

Cavalry

Support

“These are...”

Kaveh gave a grim nod.

“Yeah. Military shit. Whatever this is, it wants us to be soldiers. I really don’t want to think about the implications of why.”

Mandla focused on one of the Legends and willed it open.

Legendarium

Infantry

Swordsman

Bowman

Axman

Spearman

“So these are going to give us positions in some army?”

Kaveh shrugged again.

He focused on the other categories, fully exploring the options.

Legendarium

Cavalry

Charger

Dragoon

Raider

Legendarium

Artillery

Engineer

Gunner

Legendarium

Support

Sapper

Smith

Farmer

Doctor

Defender

“What are people choosing so far?”

Kaveh rubbed his chin with a slight grin, stroking the stubble sprinkled across his jaw. He always did that when he’d figured something out before Mandla. The shorter man rolled his eyes.

Now’s not the time to be smug, idiot.

“See that’s the weirdest thing, we’re not all getting the same options.”

“What?”

“Only about half us woke up with access to the Legendarium. Of those, maybe a third can choose all the categories, everyone else can only pick support Classes.”

“Classes? Is that what they’re called?”

“Yeah, Nicola gathered everyone up earlier, well, everyone that was awake, and we recorded as much as we could. That’s what we were doing until you woke up and stole the show. We haven’t figured out the why yet.”

She did, did she?

He looked back at her, still talking to the now completely tamed crowd. She’d definitely grasped the true nature of their situation.

“What else did you guys notice?”

Kaveh broke out into a smile at that.

“So much, bro. She’s so smart. Apparently an atavism is some sort of reversion to a previous state or form. We use guns these days so we figured the “atavism” part was referring to bringing us back to some previous way of fighting, like with axes and shit.”

That seemed a bit too simple to Mandla, but he didn’t know enough to dispute it.

“She smart enough to figure out which of these is the best to pick?”

“Of course I am.”

Mandla turned to see Nicola standing behind him. He raised an eyebrow.

“Aweh then, let’s hear it.”

“Follow your gut.”

Mandla rolled his eyes slowly, to make sure she saw. She blushed.

“No, I know how it sounds, don’t be a dick. One of the guys back there chose to be a swordsman before I managed to talk most of the others out of choosing. He said that when he chose the Class, he got the option to pick light or heavy swordsman. He felt an… affinity? Resonance, I think it was? Something inside him reacted to the light swordsman option. But when he went for it, a warning screen popped up.”

“A warning screen?”

She reached over him into Kaveh’s car, searching through the inside.

“Yes, I wrote what it said down somewhere he- ah!”

She pulled back with a notebook in hand. Flipping it open, she paged to nearly the end.

“It said ‘Warning: Bloodline Resonance detected. This Class will make you a candidate for the Bloodline Ascent. Power demands sacrifice. Glory demands blood.’”

Mandla couldn’t stop a look of hunger from flashing across his face.

Power? Glory? Tell me more.

“I see. That’s not ominous at all.”

The notebook closed with a snap.

“Yes, so it’s obvious what we need to do, right? Andrew shied away from the Bloodline Ascent but that’s because he’s afraid and confused. We need to enter the Ascent. It’s how we win this thing.”

We?

“Win?”

“Obviously. Have you guys ever played Skyrim?”

Manda and Kaveh shared a look.

“You think we’re in a game?”

She tossed the notebook at Mandla’s feet and stood with her hand on her hip.

“We have to be. We have access to a status screen, we can choose Classes and we have levels. Or, we will once we choose. It’s all in the notebook from the few who jumped the gun. Whatever this Bloodline Ascent is, it’s clearly the high-risk, high-reward route. We’re leading this group, so we’ll need to be on it.”

Mandla raised an eyebrow.

“Are we?”

Nicola smirked in response.

“Indeed we are. Like it or not, we’re all here for your party. As the hosts, everyone’s already primed to listen to you two. And while you were catching up on your beauty sleep, I kept everyone together and stopped a panic. In fact, I got away from the crowd earlier by telling them I was coming here for answers. So like it or not, they listen to me too. And we’ll have to come away from this little chat with some sort of plan so everyone doesn’t run wild.”

Crossing his arms, Mandla considered her for a second.

“Fine. So your big idea is to hop onto this Ascent thing and hope we don’t immediately die or become flesh monsters or something?”

“Yes. Look at Andrew right now, he’s the guy in the armour.”

Manda looked up to see the aforementioned Andrew, a few people gathering around him to admire his new attire. He had on a long shirt of mail armour, armoured gloves and boots, a full helmet, a large oval shield and a sword scabbarded at his side. He had his arms wide, showing off the armour, clearly enjoying the attention.

Nicola continued.

“That’s what a [Heavy Swordsman] looks like. There are about a hundred of us here and of those, only fifty-four of us can gain Classes. Of those, fifteen of us can use anything other than the Support Legends. Sixteen if I include you?”

Mandla nodded.

“Sixteen of us have a potential shot to get on the Ascent. But it’s obviously a riskier proposition, and look at him. He’s decked out with an actual sword and shield. Whatever mobs fuel this level system are designed to beat a man in full armour. We need power, and power is what the Ascent offers us.”

She had a reasonable point, and she seemed to have figured out a lot of what was going on. He just didn’t trust her motivations.

She’s figured out more than she’s telling us.

“But not everyone should get on the Ascent, huh? Diversification and all that.”

Nicola smirked.

“I knew you’d understand. If this really is dangerous, we should take on the riskiest path ourselves and leave the confirmed safer route for the other Legends.”

From what Mandla could tell, she was the only dangerous thing around. Still, she was right. He probably would’ve chosen that option regardless.

He picked up her forgotten notebook on the floor, rifling through it.

“You have this all planned out huh. Equal divisions of the Support Legends, one of each of the others, and two Bloodline Ascenders.”

He looked up to see her with a saccharine smile on her face.

“You can add a third one there for you.”

He glanced at Kaveh, who was looking at her with puppy dog eyes. He sighed.

“Well, you’re right. We should try for an even spread of Classes, so we’re prepared for anything. Let’s organise it, then figure out our next step after we’re all on this system.”

The smile morphed into a fierce grin of victory. She took the notebook from Mandla’s hands, curtseyed mockingly, then walked off to tell the group.

Whatever. She can play her games, I just need to get home.

Mandla had never been one for power plays. Growing up in high society meant you were exposed to ruthless graspers all the time. People who had to be at the top, making the decisions, no matter the cost. The first time he’d met Nicola, years ago, she’d been a sweet girl, just as separate from the social games as he was. It seemed she’d been watching and learning.

He turned to Kaveh.

“Did you not see what she just did?”

The tall man shrugged.

“Do you really have a problem with it? She’s super capable. Can you honestly say you’d rather be making all the decisions on your own?”

Yes!

“Fuck yes! Are you kidding me? I didn’t think she was the type, but I’ve seen her kind before. So have you. She sees an opportunity in this Ascent and she’s keeping it scarce. What if we need everyone to hop onto this thing?”

Kaveh just gave him a dry look in return.

“You don’t believe that. I saw your face when you heard the warning. It excited you. You want this just as much as she does.”

“Fine, you’re right. But that doesn’t change the fact that I don’t trust her.”

“Trust me then.”

“You know I do bitch, but your judgement is compromised.”

Kaveh threw his hands up.

“Well, it’s kinda done already bro. Look at her.”

Mandla looked over to see her charming the crowd once more, earnestly telling them to avoid the Ascent for their own safety and guiding people to pick a wide range of options.

Kaveh was right, she’d already cemented herself as a leader. Mandla had the sinking feeling that this was going to become a problem.

He sighed.

“Fine, whatever. Let’s find our Bloodline Resonance and see what the hype is about.”

Drawing his focus onto the screen in his face, Mandla perused the Classes. He knew the basics but couldn’t tell you the difference between a Dragoon and a Raider. He’d been more of a fan of grand strategy games like Crusader Kings or Civilization. No doubt, Nicola was probably a military history expert as well.

Searching through the Legendarium, Mandla finally hit something when he opened the Spearman category.

Legendarium

Infantry

Spearman

[Light Spearman]

[Heavy Spearman]

The [Light Spearman] Class was almost trembling on the screen. It seemed to be filled to bursting with an unrealised power. It only needed someone to tap it.

Warning: Bloodline Resonance detected. This Class will make you a candidate for the Bloodline Ascent. Power demands sacrifice. Glory demands blood.

There it was. The promise of power. Mandla had spent his entire childhood around people with power. He often thought about what he’d do with it if given some himself. He’d always joked about becoming just as corrupt as the old dinosaurs that ran the country, but really? He just wanted enough to be left alone. Without all the expectations, the political scheming, the unspoken pressure to live up to his parents’ reputations. This could be his way out.

He accepted the Class and everything went dark once more.