The sun had just risen above the horizon, tinting the sky a light blue. A few gusts of wind blew through the forest, and the branches swayed slightly with them.

On this early morning, the birds were chirping as usual, nesting in their homes above the ground, occasionally moving from branch to branch or off in search of food. An ordinary morning for all the inhabitants of the forest.

"Ugh..."

However, there was an anomaly in this view. A figure lying on the wet grass that did not look like it belonged to the rest of the area.

A human, an adult male, was lying down at the base of the forest, in the shade of the branches above, with his eyes closed, and oblivious to the world around him. His eyes however scrunched up every time the wind moved the branches and leaves far apart to let a few rays of sunlight hit his eyelids.

Slowly, the wind caressing his body, the sun beating down on him, the chirping of the birds, and even the feel of the wet grass beneath him all had an effect on the man. He began to move lethargically, his body squirming every time a gust of wind caressed his skin, his hands reaching out to grab something that wasn't there, and his face turning this way and that every time the light managed to hit his face.

After a few futile attempts to grasp at something, the cold starting to creep into his bones, and the dreamlands looking like they were going away for the day, the man opened his eyes. His face, scrunched up in annoyance at a disturbed dream, slowly morphed. His eyes looked blankly ahead, but after a moment, a confused expression took over his face.

This... what? he thought, still fighting the last vestiges of sleep.

His hands, which had been reaching for the blankets at his sides, rested on the grass, his fingers clutching some of its blades, and his eyes narrowed a bit, following his hand movements to stare at what his body was telling him.

Green grass, dirt, a few shrubs, tree trunks, and a few fallen branches and leaves were all his eyes could see. The birdsong also began to filter in for him, causing him to look up, focusing on some small birds he could barely see above, and when another gust of wind moved some branches to let sunlight down on him, he was forced to avert his still tired eyes.

From the top, he moved his eyes from side to side and saw green and brown all around him. Trees and bushes were all around him, and he himself was in a small grassy clearing with nothing to speak of. Just him, and at that, he also lowered his head to took a quick look at himself.

His black tank top with a sloth logo on the front and a pair of black shorts he had worn to bed last night. The man’s eyes started to lose focus, but then he shook his head from side to side to concentrate.

"Right. What the hell is going on..." he muttered. The figure took another quick look around, but nothing had changed. Grass, shrubs, trees, a few rocks and branches, normal forest stuff, and just him in the middle of the clearing.

Is this a dream? But I feel too lucid to be in one, and shouldn't that wake you up when you realize it?

And then there are the sensations, his right hand moved to a small stone nearby and grabbed it, bringing it closer to his face so he could examine it. The man seemed to concentrate on the stone for a while, turning it this way and that, seemingly searching for something. He spent some time inspecting it, as if it held some kind of secret.

Turning it over, he felt its wetness, probably from the morning dew, a little dirt, but otherwise it gave him no answer beyond the obvious. Just an ordinary grayish white stone.

"Hmm..."

With a sigh, he tossed it behind his back, sat up slowly, dried his hands on the sides of his tank top, and then rubbed his eyes.

What is going on here... he thought, clenching and unclenching his hands a few times, turning around, trying to look for any sign of people or civilization.

"Hello? Is anyone here?"

As he said that, he continued to slowly scan the area around him, trying to find something, anything familiar to him, apart from shrubs and trees. But as it took longer and longer, and no one answered his calls, his face scrunched up.

He started looking on the ground, concentrating on finding something, and seemingly not able to locate it, he reached into his shorts’ pockets, but came up empty again.

Sigh… What the hell was I doing last night?

From what I can see, everything looks real, it feels real enough, he stomped on the ground a bit, not too hard, he was still barefoot, careful not to hurt himself, just feeling the grass give way and the resistance of the earth beneath him. I think I would have woken up if someone had decided to move me, and as far as I remember I just finished my workout, took a shower, and... his eyes narrowed a bit, I can't really remember what happened after that... I remember going to the kitchen to get some water, but after that…

Slowly, with a bit of apprehension on his movements the young man started scouting the area again. He stopped suddenly when an idea latched into his mind and wouldn’t go away.

That would be too ridiculous. I mean, I have read a few books about situations like this, but reading about them and being in one is different. And I don’t know if that’s what it is, or do I just wish or fear for that to have happened... He took a deep breath and his face became pensive as he thought about it.

[Ding!]

[Congratulations! You have met the requirements!]

[The Kharlux System welcomes you!]

[Please wait...]

That had an effect. The man's eyes had frozen for a moment, then they moved, as if reading something that wasn't quite there. He went over the words again, his hands unconsciously clenched at his sides, his body flooded with adrenaline.

He went over the words a few times, his head moving a little to the side, but the text was still there, following his line of sight, standing firmly in the center of his vision, regardless of his movement or his blinking eyes. He tried to touch them, moving his hands slowly over the text, waving them in front of him, but where the text felt to his eyes, his hands passed through unimpeded, and the text, unchanging and always visible, cared not for anything in its way.

They were just... there. Somewhere his eyes could see and his mind could understand, but untouchable. They felt like a hologram, something he would see when he played his VR games, but at the same time, not quite.

Suddenly, the text began to move, startling him slightly, but the shock was a little less pronounced than when they first appeared. The words scrolled up steadily and slowly disappeared at an invisible line, replaced by new text.

[Ding!]

[Calibration is complete!]

[Your presence is registered and your systems have been initialized!]

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

It stopped with that last line. The young man went over the words again, two, three times, to make sure he was reading them correctly, and when the text began to move again, he followed it, and could see a faint, almost invisible line where the text began to disappear as soon as it met there. He waited a little longer, body and teeth clenched and a little on edge, but no new text came through.

Slowly, his muscles began to relax, his eyes started to focus on his surroundings again, and he began to scan his surroundings once more. He checked if he might have missed something, a hidden presence or something new. He scanned the ground, the trees, and up again to see if there was anything or anyone out there.

"If this is a prank, good job guys, you got me. But can someone please tell me what is going on?" He said loudly, turning around and spinning in place to see if anyone came out to laugh at him.

But there was nothing. Just a forest, and except for a few birds flying away above the treetops, nothing else happened.

As his body began to slump a bit and uncertainty danced in his eyes, he slowly walked over to a tree and sat down, his back supported by the massive vegetation. When he got closer to it, he could see that it was quite tall, probably 5 times his length, which made it close to 10-11 meters on the trunk alone, not counting the many branches that went higher and higher, seemingly trying to grasp the sky and any sunlight they could.

He lowered his head and scanned his surroundings once more, paying attention to some thorny bushes where he could sometimes see small red berries. What kind, he wasn't sure. But his stomach made a small growl at the sight of them.

At that moment, another gust of wind came through, its coldness making him hug himself and shiver slightly, his hands moving up and down his arms, trying to generate some warmth. Along with the cold, the wind brought something else. A sense of foreboding. It felt ominous, like something was out there, what exactly he couldn't put his finger on, but his eyes were lost, unclear, as he searched all around him to see what could be making those sounds, or where that feeling was coming from.

He did see something that caught his eye, a long, fallen branch, more like a stick, and he reached out and grabbed it, perhaps to use as some sort of protection, if nothing else. His eyes focused on the branch for a moment, then back to his surroundings.

There was something he had ignored for a bit at the bottom right of his vision, unsure if it was real or not, but when his eyes focused on that area in particular, it expanded, showing the text that had appeared on his vision earlier, still there.

So this wasn't a daydream, this really happened... Or I am still dreaming, though I doubt it.

Going over it to see if he had missed anything, he discovered nothing new. It was the same as before, congratulating him for achieving some requirements and welcoming him to the Kharlux System.

Kharlux System, is that where I am... His eyes turned pensive for a moment, but then the last word caught his attention. System.

With a slightly uncertain posture, Alvis' eyes focused on the words and his grip on the stick hardened.

Well, I'm not sure if that's right, but there's usually a way to test my theory...

"System," he murmured, ready for something, anything, to happen. He waited a bit, but nothing seemed to change. Still, undeterred, he continued.

"Status. Stats. Menu... ah, here we go," he said.

As soon as Menu left his mouth, new words appeared, this time in a blue box, which brought a slight smile to his lips.

Status

Attributes

Skills

So even though Status is there, it doesn't go there directly? I guess I have to go through the menu first. Feeling a bit better now that he seemed to have found a way to discover his circumstances, the man continued with a growing smile on his face. He scanned the screen, but since there were only three options, it did not take him long. He concentrated on the first one, starting at the top.

When nothing seemed to happen, he decided to say it out loud again, but at the last moment he remembered something and decided to test it. Instead of saying it out loud, this time he thought the word and said it only in his mind.

Status.

Status

Name

Alvis Olsen

Race

Human

Class

None

Level

1

---

HP

100/100

SP

100/100

MP

100/100

As the table came up, Alvis' body froze slightly. His eyes began to move from left to right, row by row, taking in all the information presented to him. This... system, it knows my name... class, level? HP? That part seemed to scare him a bit, his knuckles turning white from the strength of his grip.

A system, levels... MP, is that for magic? Even though he was pretty scared, the fact that there might be magic seemed to erase his growing fear. His face began to change into an uncertain smile that slowly but surely grew, his hand unclenched a bit, and his eyes even got a spark of excitement in them.

Magic! Alvis stood up straight, trying to imagine what that would be, but a few rays of sunlight falling into his eyes and another cold breeze quickly pulled him out of his thoughts.

Right. Focus, there's a lot more to go through... Hmm, well, name, race, those seem pretty normal, class, none... not quite sure what that's about, though all the games and novels I've read give me some ideas... Considering that there are levels and more, yeah... Pretty likely. Level 1, I guess that means I can level up, hopefully. Get stronger too?

His face crumpled up slightly, thinking about that. That means, if I am not the only one with the system, which I doubt, there are others out there, people... maybe even monsters, who have the system, levels, and if I guess right, I am just at the lowest point here.

He got goosebumps at that and stood up straight, his hand still clutching the stick for whatever comfort it seemed to give him, turning his head to look around, to see if he had missed anyone or anything out there that might come up and devour him for a quick snack.

Seeing nothing, and thinking that it would be best to go through the system to find something, anything that could help him, he moved to the table once more.

HP, SP, MP, I guess it stands for Health, Stamina and Magic Points, so many hours spent playing games and reading GameLit novels have prepared me for that much... unless they stand for something else, hmm... Alvis tried to concentrate on the HP part to see if something happened, and indeed a small description appeared.

[HP: An entity’s Health Points, when they reach 0, the being dies.]

Encouraged by the successful attempt, he went through everything else on his list and came up with a clearer description.

[Status: An entity's status, which gives general information about it.]

[Name: An entity's name.]

[Race: An entity's race.]

[Class: An entity's class.]

[Level: An entity's level, how much they have participated and grown in the system.]

[HP: An entity’s Health Points, when they reach 0, the being dies.]

[SP: An entity’s Stamina Points, when it reaches 0, the entity passes out.]

[MP: An entity’s Magic Points, when they reach 0, the entity goes into shock.]

Well, pretty much what I expected, but at the same time give so little info about them... Good to know the basics, I guess... Not sure how 100/100 is going to work, if it is like some games that count every hit on the body the same way, or if it depends on where you are hit... Will go with the second option unless I find evidence to the contrary, Alvis thought, scanning his surroundings once more to see if anything had changed. When he found nothing, he moved away from the table to check the other entries.

Right, so how do I close it? Hmm... Close. Ah, that's easy, just will it to do so. Well then. Menu, he thought and the options appeared again.

Status

Attributes

Skills

Willing the second option this time, a new table came up.

Attributes

Strength

10

Endurance

10

Dexterity

10

Perseverance

10

Intelligence

10

Clarity

10

---

Free points

0

Alvis took another look around and when he did not find any new threats, he concentrated on the attributes one by one, wishing that the system would give him more information about them.

[Attributes: An entity’s attributes, are the System given points on making one stronger.]

[Strength: It measures an entity’s total HP and their physical prowess.]

[Endurance: It measures an entity’s HP regeneration rate.]

[Dexterity: It measures an entity’s total SP and how well a being can influence their body movement.]

[Perseverance: It measures an entity’s SP regeneration rate.]

[Intelligence: It measures an entity’s total MP and their magic’s strength.]

[Clarity: It measures an entity’s MP regeneration rate.]

[Free Points: An entity’s free points, to use and distribute them how one chooses.]

Hmm, seems to be divided into three groups of two, each going into the total or regeneration of HP, SP, and MP.

But since they are all 10, I suppose it has to do with the fact that these are points given by the system, not what we are really capable of even before the system...

Another point to consider is that when you go through all these entries, they do not say the attributes of a person, but the attributes of an entity.

I'm not sure if that's just how the system decided to phrase it, or if it's because the monsters or even other things have the advantage of the system' he frowned slightly and let out a breath. I think it's the latter... Let's move on, just one more, Alvis thought, and as he pulled out the menu again, his breath stopped, and with a slightly hesitant smile, he willed the last option.

Skills!

But it wasn't meant to be. As soon as the new table appeared, he heard a rustling from his right and turned quickly, the happiness draining from his face and an ominous breeze seeming to appear out of nowhere, taunting him for daring to forget where he was.

The table was still in front of him, so he willed it to close as quickly as possible, and with cautious eyes and a slight tremor in his body, he waited impatiently for what was to come.

He brought the branch before him, just in time as a small figure shot from the undergrowth into the clearing.