Chapter 3: A New World.
A drop of water accumulated on the edge of a stalactite, glittering in a fluorescent green glow before gravity took hold, dragging it down to the earth below, spinning through the warm air, to land squarely on the forehead of a young man who appeared only moments before.
A man with brown hair and handsome features that remained unconscious on the cavernous floor until the feeling of ice cold water shocked him into wakefulness.
Jace gasped as he shot up into a sitting position.
Wide amber eyes took in his surroundings in a slight panic, scanning over the cavern he found himself in at a rapid pace.
It was a small space, about ten feet in diameter of a circle with a somewhat smooth rocky floor and a ceiling full of stalactites. It was humid, yet comfortably warm.
The sound of dripping water took Jace’s gaze to a small pond formed from water trickling in from somewhere above. Each drop shining like diamonds at they fell, landing in a pool of crystal clear water with a distinct sound.
The space was illuminated by dimly glowing green moss at a low enough tint for the dark around him to be prominent, but bright enough for him to fully see the ten foot space all around.
The only other thing of note was an adult male sized crack in the wall to one side, a sight that successfully removed the initial slight fear that he was trapped underground somewhere.
Only after he took it all in and saw no threat did everything come crashing down.
‘This….this is really happening.’
There was no doubt. Somehow the way Elm did things left no room for him to doubt that he really met the man. The moment he opened his eyes, he just knew it without a shadow of doubt.
However, alongside the knowledge of what happened came everything that was repressed during their talk.
Sadness, greed, fear, anger, surprise and disgust.
Sadness of what he lost.
Greed of what he gained.
Fear of his future.
Anger at how little of a choice he really had.
Surprise at how well it turned out compared to how it could have gone.
And disgust at how happy he was to lose everything.
A rapid mix of emotions pounded through him like the world’s most toxic cocktail.
Jace stared down at the palms of his hands with shaky eyes. ‘I wasn’t even mad at Elm for doing this to me.’
Even when his anger was suppressed during their talk, he was never mad at Elm for what was happening. He was mad at how little of a choice he had, sure. But he wasn’t even the least bothered by going at all.
And he still wasn’t mad about it.
‘Wasn’t this the dream I always wanted? Didn’t I fantasize for years about getting Isekai’d? If that’s true, then why do I feel so disgusted with myself?’ Tears dripped from his eyes, landing on the clenched fists held before him.
He just lost his family. Sure, he wasn’t close to them anymore, but he liked to think he had more time to get around to it. His parents and brothers, Joseph and Kyle, sent him text’s all the time, even if he rarely responded due to work and stress.
He never fell in love and got married. His brothers successful marriages and young kids went a long way toward his personal stress. There he was working for years to make it big yet living alone, while his brothers were back home, working lower paying jobs but having the full package. ‘Although, I can still do that. I’m an eligible bachelor, new life or not.’
He never finished the last game he was working on at work. ‘On one hand, Linda was a bitch of a boss, and I’m glad she’ll actually have to work without me to dump stuff on in the name of a promotion years away. On the other, I’m OCD about completing things I start.’ That was going to irk him for years to come.
At the end of the day, that’s what he truly gave up. His apartment? His job? The years spent getting a piece of paper called a diploma? None of that truly mattered to him.
The rest however, no matter how small, they mattered to him, and he left it all behind. Deep down, he knew he would have taken the offer even if he knew it was real, he couldn’t lie to himself about that.
It wasn’t in his nature to mull over the past. He was a realist. He took what came, he accepted his choices, he planned for the future, and he moved forward. That was what he always did, and that’s what he would do now.
But this was more than he had ever dealt with before. More than he ever imagined he would have to deal with. More raw than he ever thought he could feel.
So for at least a little while. For just a few hours. For just this one moment in a quiet corner by himself.
Jace let himself grieve.
00000
There was no way to tell how much time had passed in his little space. But by the time Jace gathered himself back together, his ass was killing him from sitting on the hard stone and his eyes were red. He wasn’t all there in the emotional department, but for the moment, he could deal with the world again.
He wiped his eyes and stood up, patting the dust off his backside. ‘Alright, enough moping. What’s done is done. Time to face the music.’
He wandered over to the small pond on the side of the cave, only a foot deep and a few feet wide, and looked at his reflection.
‘The changes were real.’ His fingers wandered over his face. It was still him, just slightly different. Enough to be noticeable, yet still definitely him. ‘I’m missing the little scar on my chin from when I fell off my bike.’ He rubbed over the area curiously and took a hard look at himself. ‘But I got handsome. Look at that, ma, I’m the handsome one now. Eat your heart out Kyle.’
He chuckled ruefully and splashed some water in his face. ‘Going to have to test if this water is drinkable later.’ His eyes trailed to a crack in the middle of the pond, draining the clear water slowly, if surely. ‘It’s moving water, plus with how clean it looks, it’s probably safe. God, I hope this world didn’t suddenly make all my wilderness survival knowledge useless.’
He shook off the droplets and examined his surroundings once more with a much calmer mind. Taking in the cave with a thoughtful hum. ‘Small, comfortable, stable looking, warm, with a small pond? Well, at least I don’t have to go far to find shelter. Couldn’t they have given me some clothes though?’
He looked down at his body with a disgruntled expression. He was standing there in briefs. Just briefs. ‘Just some shoes would have been appreciated. At least this cave is warm.’
His eyes focused on the light source in the cave, the glowing moss. ‘Does that grow naturally?’ He couldn’t help but walk over and poke it. It was a natural human instinct to poke unfamiliar things.
It felt soft and moist, just like any other moss. ‘Not my first time seeing glowing moss, but still cool.’
Glowing moss, also known as Goblin Gold, was found throughout the world on Earth. It was cool, but not what he expected of a fantasy world.
Spinning back around, he ran out of things to procrastinate with and rubbed the back of his head with a sigh. ‘Alright, best to get to the main point. Final test before I really believe this isn’t a fever dream.’
There was a difference between intellectually knowing something was real, and actually experiencing it as real. Who knows, maybe someone drugged him in his sleep and stashed him in a cave somewhere. Unlikely, but not impossible.
Deciding to get it over with, Jace tapped his chest over his heart, where a six diamond tattoo stood out prominently.
With a gesture of will following the instincts engraved into him when he gained his new body, a gleaming blue river of light streamed out of his chest, and before his very eyes, a grimoire took shape. Floating and gleaming with wisps of blue energy radiating off its black leather.
Six gleaming blue diamonds were engraved into a dark brown leather cover, pulsing with energy like a drum as it sung with a sirens call of jingling chimes.
Jace’s eyes drowned in its image, falling deeper into its spell as it called to him. Entranced, unable to look away, he reached forward and clasped a hand to its spine.
A groan left his lips as a feeling like electricity flowed through him from the contact, filling him with new information on the books functions in the most pleasant manner, like a puzzle piece sliding into a pre-set slot.
How long he basked in that feeling went unsaid until the impact of his knee’s hitting the warm stone shook him from his trance. ‘Holy shit.’
Breath rapidly filled his lungs as he calmed the beating of his heart and looked toward the book floating before him with wide eyes, knowing it had just fully integrated with him. It was connected to his soul already, but he had to make physical contact for the bond to finish.
From that day on, until the day he died, the book was with him. Connected to him more intimately than anything he had ever felt before.
Jace felt a full body shiver as he shook off the sensation. ‘Well, there goes my last trace of doubt.’
He now knew what the grimoire could show him.
[Status], [General Skill Tree], [Class Skill Tree], [Summon List], [Notes], and [Backlog].
Those six functions were the basis of his Grimoire.
It was intangible to any other than himself. No one else could see it without his input. And it was no weapon or shield.
‘It almost reminds me of a hard light projection.’
He waved a hand casually as the book responded to his will, more than his physical action, and shot into his palm like an eager puppy.
The leather cover was soft to the touch, almost vibrating with excitement to be used. With only a thought, it snapped open as the pages turned by some unseen force. It was decently thick, about two inches at the spine, and filled with pages that were coarse, made of some kind of rough parchment that has been sanded down over the ages, giving it a mysterious yet ancient feeling aura as the pages spun with a resounding flutter.
The pages soon fell apart at an unspoken point, revealing to him the same status page he saw back when this all started. Only with a few extra details.
[Status]
[Name: Jace
Race: Human
Title: -
Alignment: Neutral 0
Class: Summoner – lvl 0 {EXP 0/100}
HP: 50/50
MP: 50/50
SP: 50/50
Unspent Talent Point(s): 0
Unspent Class Token(s): 3-Point Class Skill Token x2, Rank: E - Unlock Summon Token x2, Guardian Summon Token x1.
Base MP-Regen set to 5% per minute.
Base HP-Regen set to 1% per minute.
Base SP-Regen set to 1% per minute.
]
‘Well, it’s a start.’ The alignment section surprised him, but it wasn’t anything new to him. If his guess was correct, doing evil stuff made the score go down, and doing good stuff made it go up. Some games even added buffs and debuffs if you went too far in either direction. ‘I’ll have to figure out how actions are measured, but it’s not something I need to worry about without other people around.’
He expressed his desire to see his Skill Tree and the pages turned to show him two pages filled with an interesting sight.
[Class Skill Tree] [General Skill Tree]
On the left page was his Class Skill Tree.
The Skill Tree was a simple diagram showing six core skills in a horizontal line at the bottom of the page, and a spread out line of six more bubbles in a vertical line up the center of the page.
Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
[image [https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/792095442053496832/1219464027428622416/image.png?ex=660b6560&is=65f8f060&hm=df398064920c7fbd0e7cf79e0685e428db6faf7ace872e34b15eee46635fec67&]]
Each bubble had a mark in the bottom right corner showing: [0/3]
‘I guess each skill has three levels to them?’
The vertical line was listed with a single letter for each progressive bubble moving up. [E] [D] [C] [B] [A] [S].
‘My Classes beginner package came with two Rank: E - Summon Tokens, so I think I get how this works. I start with E grade and work my way up as I level up. I guess [Villager] doesn’t actually count as a real class since I don’t see anything at F grade here.’
The horizontal line was listed with six skills.
[EXP-Share I] [Pre-Load I] [Expansion I] [Lifespan I] [Sense Share] [Auto-Mapping]
‘I guess the ones with the roman numerals mean there are higher grades that follow? But why can’t I see any information on the skills?’
He tried to express his will to see more information on them, but nothing was coming up.
‘Maybe it’s because they are all greyed out?’ He double checked the tree and noticed only one bubble was a different color.
At the very bottom of the page, beneath everything else, the bubble for [E] was lit up. ‘Is it saying I have to activate it before it will let me look at the skills? That’s rough.’
This time, when he focused on the active bubble, the pages turned to show him new information.
[Rank: E Summoning – The ability to summon Rank: E Summons.
Level 1 – Unlock.
Cost: 1 Talent Point.
Level 2 – Rank E: Summons at 2/3rd MP cost.
Cost: 3 Talent Points.
Level 3 – Rank E: Summons at 1/3rd MP cost.
Cost: 5 Talent Points.]
‘So it really does need me to unlock my summoning ability first. That’s a bitch and a half. I have to reach level 5 to get Talent Points. But how the hell am I supposed to get to level 5 without my main ability?’ He shook his head but ultimately didn’t see a use in complaining so he didn’t dwell on it as he turned back to the other page with skills.
This page had [General Skills] listed across the top. ‘At least these ones aren’t greyed out.’
Six bubbles lay horizonal in a line through the middle of the page. But unlike the Class Skills, these had number bubbles with higher limits.
[0/6]
His eyes skimmed over that and focused on the skills.
[Inventory] [Identify] [Meditation] [HP-Regen] [MP-Regen] [SP-Regen]
‘So there are more ways to increase the resource regen rates besides Class benefits? Nice.’
He expressed his will to see more information and the pages turned once more to provide him with answers.
[Inventory – A pocket space to store non-living things.
Level 1 – 20x20x20 Squares x10.
Cost: 1 TP. ]
‘An inventory! Man, I’ve always wanted one of those. I hate carrying shit everywhere.’ As a man who spent a great many years with experience in camping, hunting, and outdoor activities, Jace had always worn pants with a dozen pockets to be able to carry things and leave his hands free. ‘Plus, I bet having my hands available is pretty important if I have to fight.’
The skill didn’t show him anything beyond level 1, so he assumed he had to reach level 1 to see about level 2.
[Identify – See information on your target.
Level 1 – See the targets level, race, or basic information if it’s within 10 levels above your own. Personal information is hidden from anyone with an Identify Skill one or more levels lower than your own.
Cost: 1 TP.]
‘Seeing others information is a given. But it also hides my own information? That’s something that needs an investment when it comes time to enter civilization.’ He had a feeling that wouldn’t be for some time, so he left the skill alone for now.
[Meditation – Meditate to speed up resource recovery.
Level 1 – HP, MP, and SP recover 1% faster while meditating. Cannot move to keep meditation active.
Cost: 1 TP.]
‘A standard Meditation skill. It’s almost always a lifesaver in the long term.’
[HP-Regen – Increase Health Point Regeneration.
Level 1 – HP-Regen increased by 1%
Cost: 1 TP.]
[MP-Regen – Increase Mana Point Regeneration.
Level 1 – MP-Regen increased by 1%
Cost: 1 TP.]
[SP-Regen – Increase Stamina Point Regeneration.
Level 1 – SP-Regen increased by 1%
Cost: 1 TP.]
‘Resource Regeneration skills. If you could get them to a high enough level, you could become a beast.’
Jace quickly did the math in his head for regen rates and came to see what was possible. ‘If my Class gives me a base 5% MP, and I gain 1% every 10 levels for HP/MP/SP, then that’s 35% MP regen by level 300. The general skills show 6 levels, and if each level increases by another 1%, that’s 6% added in to make 41% MP regen. ‘So if I managed to spend the Talent Points on the general skill and reach level 300, I could shrink my MP regen rate to almost nothing no matter how high my mana pool gets. That’s incredible.’
1% recovery a minute at the base level meant he would recover his resource to full in 100 minutes from 0. The higher that percentage became, the less time it would take. 5% recovery a minute meant he recovered to full in 20 minutes.
‘With rates like these, every single percent of recovery is precious. If I can reach the max recovery rate of 41%, I’ll recover to full in just over two minutes, no matter how large my mana pool gets. That’s insane. Although, for the average person, even 5% would take someone around fifty levels to reach. The recovery system is broken in a great way. But I’m only starting with 5% MP recovery because of my Special Class. I wonder if it relates to how much summons cost?’
With that thought in mind, the pages turned rapidly again until it reached a new page, filled top to bottom with greyed out bubbles.
At the very bottom, a clear sign with the word [Summons List] in bold stood out. Sadly greyed out.
To each side of the sign were a few tabs. ‘They kind of look like buttons, but on a page. Weird.’ Rubbing a finger over them told him the page was flat, but the knowledge from the grimoire told him he could press them when they were active.
There were four in total, all with the same sight of [???] on them.
‘I guess this is something else I’ll find out when I unlock my summoning ability.’
He shifted his gaze to the list of bubbles, and sadly, couldn’t actually see the monsters offered.
What he did see, however, were 6 tiers of 6 types of monsters listed in vertical lines.
[Beast E] > [D] > [C] > [B] > [A] > [S]
[Insect E] > [D] > [C] > [B] > [A] > [S]
[Aquatic E] > [D] > [C] > [B] > [A] > [S]
[Avian E] > [D] > [C] > [B] > [A] > [S]
[Reptile E] > [D] > [C] > [B] > [A] > [S]
[Plant E] > [D] > [C] > [B] > [A] > [S]
’36 summons. Are the summons pre-set? Or do I get a choice in what I get?’ He turned back the page to his Class Skill Tree and double checked the ranks of Summoning before coming back.
Unlock Rank E Summoning Class Skill
- Rank E Summoning = 6 available summons.
Unlock Rank D Summoning Class Skill
- Rank D Summoning = Another 6 summons, a total of 12. 6 E grade, plus 6 D grade.
So on and so forth until Rank S, maxing out his summons at 36 available summons to call on.
‘I guess that’s why those tokens I got were specified as ‘Rank E Unlock Summon Tokens’. It means I have to unlock the individual summons as well. I have no idea how else I’m supposed to unlock them. No wonder the Class System said choosing Rank S would have a difficult start, this is going to be a real challenge.’
Rather than be put off by the difficult path ahead, Jace was looking forward to it. Anything worthwhile in life should take an equal amount of effort to achieve it.
He tried to will the tokens to activate but got nothing in return. ‘So it all comes back to leveling up. I need to reach level 5 to gain TP. I need TP to purchase skills. And I need to purchase the summoning skill to unlock the ability to unlock Rank E summons. At least I know where to start.’
He couldn’t think of anything else to ask the book to show him so he shut it. A simple thought had the glowing blue grimoire fade away into particles of light that flew back into his chest. ‘That’s cool, but maybe do it without the light show next time. A flash like that in the open is like saying ‘here I am’ to anyone in visual distance.’
A chuckle left his lips as he stood and dusted himself off. ‘What now?’
There was nothing else to see in the small pocket of a cave, drawing Jace’s gaze toward the crack in the wall. ‘Time to see where I ended up.’
His bare feet stepped lightly on the warm stone, carefully navigating to avoid any loose gravel so as to not cut himself.
The crack was too narrow to walk straight, but wide enough for him to move through it at an angle.
Minutes past as he crept forward at a snail’s pace, trying to steady his heartbeat and listen to the smallest of sounds he could pick up.
An effort that was rewarded around a bend as the sound of rushing water hit his ears. The walls of the tunnel grew damp, and soon enough, Jace found himself stepping into inch high water.
His toes curled pleasantly from the heated hundred degree water (37 C), glowing slightly in the dark like a guiding path in the dark, urging him on to find its source. A source that announced itself a minute later with a roar as Jace stared at the sight before him in amazement.
At the mouth of the path, a wall of shimmering neon blue water followed gravities pull and fell onto hard stone with a resounding rush, sending a spray of mist into the air toward the interior of the cave. The curtain of water was mesmerizing, reminding Jace of a an old video he had seen of plankton on the beaches of New Zealand.
‘Wo.’ Jace stepped forward slowly, carefully wading through the inch high water to get a closer look.
The water didn’t directly fall into the mouth of the path, but rather fell a few feet below into a pool at least forty feet below. His sight ahead was blocked by the wall of water, but his eyes traced a foot path in the stone, hidden behind a massive stalagmite growing from the ground up, being matched by an equally large stalactite on the ceiling around forty feet above.
The ground was littered with gravel, forcing Jace to slow his pace as he made his way around the pillar of stone, but the moment he did, his jaw dropped as amazement made way for childlike wonder at the wide cavern spread out before him.
‘It’s…beautiful.’
An image that he could have only seen behind a computer screen stretched out before his eyes. With his current vantage point, he could see the cave stretch out in an oval like shape, a quarter of a mile wide, and half a mile long in each direction, filled with giant pillars of stone connecting the ceiling to the cave floor below.
Where each pillar stood, the earth rose high like a mound, creating bowl like pockets through the cave, only interfered with by the flowing streams of water.
Water that originated from the waterfall behind him, draining into a large pool at its base, before streaming forward as it rolled over the stones, branching down the middle of the cave, illuminating the space with its bright blue glow mixed with the glowing green moss stuck to the walls in large patches, spreading in twisting patterns through the cavern like an artistic carving, and ending in a second pool before a large rectangular monolith of black stone, directly across the middle of the cavern from the waterfall.
To the far left of the cavern, half a mile away, orange light bled in from a V-shaped crack.
To the far right of the cavern, half a mile in the other direction, a similar shaped crack stood, bleeding whitish-blue light into the interior.
The mixture of it all painted a picture worth a thousand words that wanted to roll off Jace’s tongue, and yet he found no words to say. He could only stand there and gape at the reality before him until a random spray shower from the waterfall finally shook him from his trance.
He blinked and shook his head hard to clear the cobwebs as the pure excitement and joy radiating from inside him painted a wide smile across his lips. ‘This is stunning. I could stand here and stare at this for days.’
Sadly, he didn’t have that luxury of time just yet.
His smile dimmed as he refocused on safety over gaping at the natural beauty. ‘It’s warm, but I’m still in briefs. It’s warm enough to not need a fire to stay comfortable, but I still need clothes, not to mention food and drinking water.’
His gaze skimmed to the glowing blue water and crossed that option of his list. ‘I don’t know anything about this environment. Elm said mana changed things, and until I know what’s safe, I’m not drinking the neon blue water.’ The dripping water at his starting location came to mind. ‘At least that one wasn’t glowing. I’ll test that one first.’
With a path to the most important resource set, he began seriously scanning the cave for anything else. ‘There’s nothing moving. I can’t hear shit with the waterfall next to me, but this place is bright enough to spot anything in visual distance.’ The pillars blocked his sight somewhat, but he could still make out 80% of the cavern.
With the patience of a desperate hunter, he refused to move until he studied every last inch of his surroundings. And his patience was rewarded when something sparkled at the corner of his eye. It was hard to make out over the glow of the water, but before the black stone Monolith, a blue crystal hovered a few feet in the air at the edge of the pool of water.
‘A Knowledge Crystal.’ Jace’s eyes lit up as he recalled Elm showing him what they looked like.
With measured steps, he made his way down the stone path, avoiding anything sharp looking as he wandered through the cavern to his destination. The farther he got from the waterfall, the better his ears adjusted to the steady sounds of dripping condensation echoing through the cavern from stalactites above.
The air was humid, causing moisture to stick to his skin like a film as he worked his way through the cave. The blue water in the stream splashed along the sides, spraying blue specks of light like fireflies in a fantastical display.
Jace marveled at it all even as he kept his guard up. ‘I feel like I directly entered a video game. Yet it feels real. This is surreal.’
His hands trailed over the damp rocks. His feet stepping on moist stone and sand. There was an energy in the air, vibrating in a way that set his senses alive in a way he hadn’t ever felt before.
‘This is real. This is reality.’ His mind had already known it, and he had been slowly experiencing it since he pulled out his Grimoire, but the full fact of it was only now truly sinking in as he walked and took in the fantastical sensory overload. ‘It was just a dream yesterday. A fantasy. An illusion I could see myself dreaming up, only to wake up to Scott’s annoying laughter or Linda’s piercing howls back at my desk.’
He could almost see it now, that boom of noise shattering this illusion like reality had always done before, bringing him back to the sad fate that awaited him back on earth.
But with each step he took. With each sensation he felt. It became more and more real. More fact over fiction. Something a dream couldn’t supply him with.
And as his feet touched down on a carved stone step, one of five leading to a platform around the Monolith he was approaching, that shaky foundation of his new reality firmed like drying cement.
Each step that took him closer to that shining, glittering, Knowledge Crystal reverberated through him like a drum.
Before he knew it, he stood before it.
A two fingers width tetragonal neon blue crystal, floating at chest level, spinning gently and giving off a sound like chimes set to a low volume.
His hand reached up, inching closer to it as the chimes grew louder in pitch until he was an inch away from its surface.
Jace’s palm froze there for a moment in indecision. Long deep wounds from realities hammer rising up like festering scars. Insecurities and fears. Shame and pain. All sort of negative feelings clawing its way from inside him, screaming at him that the second he touched that crystal, he would wake up and it would be all over. That the dream would end. That he should just give in and accept his fate like he had done so many times before. That it was time to wake up to reality and work a nine to five job, six days a week, for the rest of his life.
That moment of hesitation stretched on, and it was in that moment that Elm’s final words to him reverberated through his mind.
"You have lost much, Mr. Mace, but you have much to gain from your new life.
When you arrive, your emotions will rush back in full.
Your fears will take you in their icy grip.
And that is normal. Embrace them. Overcome them.
Take your time and grieve if you must, but don't let it crush you.
Those you left behind shall be fine.
Focus on yourself now.
This is your chance.
This is what you have always been waiting for.
This is the fantasy you sought.
Seize it and make it yours.
Thrive. Live. Love. Laugh. And when the time comes, you shall be ready.”
The speech connected to him. Resounding in his soul, echoing back louder and louder with each thrum. His heart beat sped up. Blood pumped through his veins. It rushed in his ears.
And in that moment, Jace finally, truly, accepted it.
This was his reality now.
There was no dream to wake from.
He could be free.
With a mighty swing of his own hammer, one built from his own will, the thick walls he built up his whole life around his heart shattered as one.
His grip snapped on the Knowledge Crystal like a vice, shattering it alongside his insecurities to the beat of his heart.
Jace Mace, the game developer from North Dakota was gone. He was just Jace now.
And he wasn’t hesitating any longer.
The sound of chimes exploded in his ears as the crystal broke into pieces, fading into the air as streams of blue particles shot into his grimoire as it appeared from his chest in a shower of blue energy.
The pages rapidly turned and fell as one as the new information appeared.
[Knowledge Crystal #1 of 12: Dungeons For Dummies]
Chapter End.