"I've never seen a creature so small before," a low growl emerged. Somebody didn't actively speak those words but vibrated them as if the vocal box was projecting the sound. "What should we do with it?" the strange voice continued.
"Leave it be." a more motherly-sounding voice said. "he'll wake when he has made the full transition."
"Is he the one?" the first voice questioned.
"He is a piece, how big is unknown, but a piece nonetheless. Only time will tell.." the motherly voice responded.
Oscar-Blane Jones, or Ob, began his day like every other. Wake up, work out, shower, make lunch, go to work, come home, eat dinner, sleep, and repeat. He didn't hate this routine; he loved it. It was familiar, like an old friend who had always been there for him. So when he fell asleep in his bed, after completing his regular routine to wake up shivering cold and hearing strange noises, he was pretty confused.
Ugh. my head, he thought. Why am I so cold? Why can't I open my eyes? Why can't I feel my body? Oh Great! Is this… what did my brother call it? Sleep paralysis, I think... Is this that?
Ob finally could force his eyes open to see flashing exclamation marks all over the place. Notifications. There were so many. "What the… notifications. How do I? What is happening? How do I acknowledge these things?" He said as he was swiping his hand at nothing in the air. Then, he began realizing that maybe he had just to say it out loud. Ob’s voice was deep, but not too deep. Ob’s had the tone and cadence of a podcaster. It was smooth and it was attractive to the ears. Ob spoke with passion and emotions. It was clear how he was feeling by how he spoke.
"Ehhh, open? Read?" he said out loud nervously.
"You have died." a text box appeared at the bottom of his vision.
"I-I have died?" he said somewhat skeptically. "Died whatchu mean… Did I die? How am I talking or living or feeling if I am dead?"
Objective: a new loud voice rang in his head. Find your body and reconnect the link. You've been given the objective to travel to find your resting physical body. This process will resurrect you.
"Huh? What kind of foolishness, man? Quit playing with me. Where'd that voice come from, body? What the hell is happening?" Ob responded as panic was setting in.
Help? the voice said again.
"Yes!" Ob replied, panic washing away with excitement.
Objective: find your body and reconnect the link. You've been given the objective to travel to find your resting physical body. This process will resurrect you.
"Awesome, you just repeated the same damn thing," Ob yelled in frustration. Ob began to think about his options. He decided to do what he always does. Act. Ob pushes himself to his feet to find he can see through his hands. Mmm, Ob thought, if I am looking for my body... Is this my soul? Souls are real? What a trip, man. These DAMN exclamation points are pissing me off. WHAT?!
Status: the voice read Oscar - Blane Jones.
"Ew.. just Ob," Ob interrupted.
Status: Nickname chosen. Status: Ob Jones.
Race: human subset, earthling.
Normal Tier: Level 0
Power: Natural - Unknown, Nurtured- Unknown, Federation- Unknown.
Skills: None
Ability: Dimension Skipper
You wake up in a new dimension. Death? Fate? Whatever it is, you are here for a reason. This is your chance to figure it out.
Dimension Skipper comes with the ????, ????, and ????
Ability: Earthling
You have the ability to adapt. Your adaptation comes with a heads-up display and user interface.
Adaptation comes with a voice-over Narrator. Would you like to name it Voice over Narrator?"
"Um, sure? I could use a buddy right now. Are you sentient?" Ob responded.
Would you like to name Voice Over Narrator?
"Right, you have a knack for repeating things. Bet. How about V.O.N. Von?"
Status: Nickname chosen for voice-over narrator. Voice Over Narrator, will now be known as VON, VON said.
"Cool… are you sentient VON?" Ob asked.
Help: I am VON. I am your guide based on your earthling ability. In a dimension that is not your original home, I am here to help you feel at home and to understand the brand-new mystical world around you. VON said.
"Oh-kay then, VON, not really an answer to my question, but we'll keep it pushing," Ob responded with annoyance. "Fasho, that was a lot of information that made absolutely no sense to me... Where to then? Gotta find my body... I must be trippin."
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Ob spent the next few moments learning how to move. In awkward stumbles, he found his footing. It was an odd sensation, moving without muscles. He is still determining how he managed that. After what seemed like an hour, maybe more, he finally got some zombie walking down, if you can even call it that.
Man. This is tough, Ob thought, so I got this jerky movement down. I feel like a newborn giraffe. I guess I head ehh this way? He said rather unconvincingly. As he was stumbling over that way, he felt a strong pull going in the other direction. Oh, okay, okay, I got it, damn! Going the other way…
As Ob wandered in that direction, he couldn't help but notice he noticed nothing. There were no landmarks; there was nothing but a shiny haze. What could have been miles, Ob finally saw something different from this haze: a figure on the ground and a flickering light above the figure. The light was dim, and it was red. Ob cautiously approached the flickering light; to his surprise, it was a little heart. The heart was a standard love heart, not the anatomically correct one. Most of the heart was black, with a tiny red near the bottom.
"I feel like I am in a video game. The heart, the walking, VON, all of it," Ob said to himself, "What is happening? I know for a fact that this is not my body." The body under the heart was pale. It had long, stringy black hair barely attached to the wrinkled body. A long neck led to a short, chubby torso. Following that was the next strangest thing that Ob had seen so far… the legs were goat legs. Black fur goat legs. Ob, a fan of Greek mythology, started to wonder, "Is this a ---" The eyes shot open, the mouth released this hideous screech, and they lunged at Ob.
Objective: Survive:
You have been attacked by a wraith. Survive the attack until the wraiths return to their near-death state.
"Hell nah, bruh. What.." Ob Yelled as he bolted in the other direction, "A wraith… the hell is a wraith."
The wraith did not respond in kind to Ob. It continued to pursue its victim. Ob was sprinting as fast as he could to outrun this monster. Ob started to realize he wouldn't be able to outrun this wraith. The wraith was gaining, and he was also shocked that he was running and running FAST.
Before Ob woke up here, he was an athletic man. Standing 6 foot 4, he was above average in height, weighing a solid 210 pounds with little body fat. A former track athlete, Ob competed at the top collegiate level and had a small stint as a professional before he decided to hang up his spikes. Ob was no stranger to running fast; however, this was much faster than he had ever run.
He couldn't outrun this monster, and in no way did he want to find out if that thing touched him. As Ob was running, he felt that strong pull again, pulling him back toward the direction of the wraith. His strides slowed; he felt like he was running with a weighted parachute in a windstorm. He had to fight the wraith.
Ob stopped and thought. He decided to see if there was a way to harm the wraith. Not much of a fighter, he knew how to fight. He used to cross-train in boxing and grapple in his off-season, but this did not give him the most confidence to win this fight or even survive. The shriek grew louder as he got into a stance, getting prepared for the battle. He swung. Ob put all the frustration, the anger, the annoyance, the confusion into that punch, everything he had. The punch connected. It impacted the jaw of the wraith with a loud CRACK. The wraith's jaw exploded in a mixture of bone and black liquid. The wraith's head snapped sideways, and the vile monster fell limp, the heart above its head empty.
Ob stared at his fist. No pain from the punch. He has hit stuff bare-knuckle and knows it is supposed to hurt. With that force, there should be something on his hands. Nothing. Was it the lack of nerves, muscles, or skin? Was he more vital than before? What was that power that caused such a devastating hit... He staggered, feeling wobbly, and he sat on the ground to catch his breath.
Objective: Survive - completed
Wraith defeated.
You have survived the wraith attack. A reward has been sent to your body.
Slayer Nurture power +1
Bonus growth for slaying the beast instead of waiting for its demise. Reward was sent to body.
Ob looked in shock at what he had just accomplished. How come that was so easy? Where did that strength come from? How was it even possible to have tangible contact with that thing? His mind was whirling with all the questions and none of the answers. Wiping his arm and getting to his feet, Ob grew frustrated at the lack of answers. Then he remembered VON.
"Hey Von," he said out loud, "can you tell me something?"
Help?
"Yeah… What is a wraith? Where am I? What am I? What do you mean by reward sent to body? How did I kill that?"
Monster Log: Wraith
Deadly vengeful spirit. Wraiths deploy deafening shrieks to stun and disable enemies. While the enemy is stunned, the wraith will attack their life force. Needing to feed on the life force of others so they can return to the place where they were killed. They attack with sharp fangs, weapons, and claws. Immune to physical attacks. Wraiths can only be destroyed by a spiritual attack. Magic can harm a wraith but not kill one.
You have died. Your body is making a transition. Your soul must reconnect to the link to your body in order to be resurrected.
You are a soul in search of your body.
"So the question marks mean you don't know, or I can't learn. Okay," Ob said, and he began to walk towards the strong pulling again, "I have an objective. I have to find my body." He didn't know what was pulling him, but he felt it was the right thing, calling it instinct. No markers to show his journey, nothing to indicate the distance traveled or how far he has to go.
As he journeyed, he talked to VON, asking many questions. Before Ob died, he was a naturally curious person. He loved learning. It did not matter what subject he was so curious about the world around him. The enjoyment of asking VON these questions helped Ob feel calmer and familiar. He wondered absently about his life before, though. Had he really died? What would his family think? Ob was a nice guy with a solid community. He was a number in a rather large family. The black sheep. He grew up with four brothers and four sisters. He was the fifth child. Directly in the middle, he was the third boy out of five, fifth out of nine total kids. His older siblings were all married with kids or kids on the way. Most of the family interacted without him. It was the way he liked it, though. But a deep part of him lay dormant, a part that wants to be a part of something bigger.
Shaking his head at those thoughts, he recalled what he had learned from VON. He messed around with his Heads Up Display (HUD). It showed a minimap in the top right corner of his vision. To the left corner, he saw a yellowish-brown bar and a blue bar running side by side. He learned stamina is the yellowish-brown bar and manna is the blue bar. The bottom left was where his messages and notifications stayed.
He learned how to check his stats purposefully, not accidentally. He noticed something interesting every time he talked to VON.
Status: VON
VON has leveled up. VON is now level 2. VON's answer pool has increased. VON's ability to engage in conversation has increased. VON is now closer to a tour guide than a specified help feature. Progress to level three. 1500 exp is needed to level up. VON must rest in order to be used again. The current wait is 10 minutes.
Ob wondered how many levels VON had. Did VON become sentient after a certain amount of levels? After he rechecked his stats, he learned he was Normal Level and had zero powers unlocked; VON could not tell him what that meant. The slayer bonus was still looming; he wasn't sure what that was. After looking at the notification, it told him he could apply it to a power, but since no powers were unlocked, he could not use it.
A loud screech halted his progress. There was not a loud screech, but there were MANY loud screeches. He looked up and found what he was looking for. His body, there it was, lying on the ground still, with that same flickering heart. What he also saw made his heart fall.. Ten wraiths swarmed his body, seemingly like they were waiting for him, for Ob to reclaim his body so they could attack him.
Yeah.. that ain't happening. I got lucky with my one-punch man routine the last time. I will not be as fortunate, Ob thought. As Ob started thinking of his next plan of action, a bright blaze of orange and black flames erupted out of nowhere, eliminating all the wraiths.
"Come closer, human," a melodic voice vibrated, "It is time for your journey to begin. Collect your body, then you and I will have a chat. Away from these awful creatures," Ob couldn't see anything making that noise. He suddenly felt a strange feeling that whatever was speaking to him was dangerous and strong. "There are more wraiths on their way. I sense your hesitation. All will be answered in time. For now, touch your body and wake up." A bunch of screeches emerged from behind him as if it was planned in a movie.
Ob moved towards the voice and his body, fully expecting to wake up from this crazy dream. As commanded, he touched the body, and everything went black.