I sat up and grabbed my head as a wave of pain and nausea flooded through me. It felt like someone had been stomped on my head. "Damn it. Why do I feel like I have been the practice dummy for Mike Tyson? When the pain subsided I looked around. I was sitting on the banks of spring. The surface of the water rippled as if a jet was releasing the water from below. I stood up on shaky legs. I took a few steps, giving my legs the chance to adjust to carrying my body. It was like learning how to walk again. I did two laps around the spring before I felt normal again. I then took stock of the situation. I was still the same from what I could remember. A quick look into the spring told me everyhing was where it should be. My locs looked as if they had just been done.

"Thank you" I wasn't sure if the strange woman could hear me but it felt wrong not to say something. Part of him thought that everything had been a dream or delusion from alcohol. Since I didn't drink much nor did I do drugs both of those options seemed unlikely. There was also the fact that there was black sand on the ground. As far as I knew earth didn't have any black sand deserts. Lastly, the clothes I wore cemented the situation. I wore a loose-fitting brown robe with a lighter brown face covering. There was nowhere to buy clothing like this in my hometown. I patted myself down and raised an eyebrow. I had a belt around my waist with a water skin connected to it. I unlatched it and brought the nuzzle to my mouth. When nothing came out I let out a sigh. I looked over at the spring and raised an eyebrow.

"Fresh spring water should be safe to drink. All water came from the ground ultimately so this should be fine." I did my best to convince myself that I was relying on something besides a guess and what I hoped was true. I made my way to the spring and dipped the water skin into the clear liquid. It only took a second for the skin to fill with water and I pulled it free. I placed the now-filled skin to my lips and began to drink. The liquid was warm, a bit like drinking warm apple juice. As soon as the liquid hit my lips a transparent window blocked my vision. It looked like a message box from a video game.

You have tasted the water from the Spring of Well-Being. Your heart will be calmed and serenity will be your guide Your Stamina, Magic, and Health have been restored.

I nearly spit out the water in surprise. Had I just found a potion! Not just any potion from the description. It was a genuine "heal all". Alex would be cursing up a storm if she found out about his luck. Her memory filled me with a strange tangle of emotion. I am not sure where the feeling came from but before I could really think about it. I tipped the water skin to the side and let the valuable potion spill out onto the ground. A puddle of wet sand formed at my feet before I was satisfied.

"Alex, I hope that you're happy." I said solemnly. I took a moment to gather myself before I shook off the dark storm of emotion and focused on my current situation. I filled up the water skin and connected it to my belt again. I turned and gave the area around me a proper look. There were a handful of plants but nothing that drew the gaze. Just as I was about to chalk up the area to being empty I noticed a book. I made my over and picked it up. As soon as I raised the book to my eye a prompt box, like from an RPG came into view.

You have found:Tome of Lesser Light Ray Durability: 20/20

Item Class: Uncommon

Quality: Above Average

Spell Level: 1st

Spell Type: Lumos

Traits: Fires a concentrated ray of light at your target. For every three skill levels the caster has in Lumos magic, the spell will fire another Ray.(Max 10) Damage 5-7.

Weight: 1lbs

I let out a low whistle and pulled the book open. As soon as I read the first words, the book began to thrum with power. The words repeated inside my head as if an orchestra of people were speaking all at the same time. I felt a vague sense of fear that told me to close the book. I tightened my hands on the page as if someone would come along and take it from me. The book began to crumble. The arcane secrets seared themselves into my mind. I wasn't sure how long the process took but when it was done I wiped my eyes. My vision had gone blurry and hazy but there was no actual damage done. Once my vision returned to normal I noticed a blinking symbol in the upper left of my vision. It looked like a red exclamation point. When I concentrated on it another notification box appeared.

Attention! You have learned the spell: Lesser Light Ray. Fires a concentrated ray of light at your target. For every three skill levels the caster has in Lumos magic, the spell will fire another Ray. (Max 10) Damage 5-7. This is a Lumos spell of the first level. 10mp Duration: N/A Range: 30ft. Cast Time: 1 second. Cool down: 5 Seconds

Notice! You have learned the skill Lumos Magic. One of the basic elemental magics, Lumos magic is the light of the universe. It is the first thing that all living creatures look for and it is the last thing to die. Masters of this magic are capable of seeing the future, the truth of creation, and destroying cities.

"Now that's what I am talking about!" I turned and aimed at a spot in the sand about ten feet away and began casting. My body moved without conscious thought as if I had done this hundreds of times before. My fingers felt oddly heavy, as if they were moving through syrup but the process lasted only a second. As soon as the motions finished I called out an arcane word and a ray of light shot from the palm of my hand. The light hit the black sand and immediately cut through it. It didn't quite burn the sand nor did it turn the sand into glass. It was more accurate to say that the light cut a hole through the sand. I walked over and quickly tapped the edge of the impact sight and found there was no heat. I made a mental note to remember that for later.

I looked at the path leading away from my spring and considered what I should do. Part of me wanted to leave but the responsible part of me said that wasn't the correct way to move forward. I let out a sigh and began collecting plants from the spring bank. I couldn't find anything hard but I was able to fasten several make-shift targets. Once they were ready I began training. I cast my spell over and over again. I kept things simple aiming and firing once I was sure that I would hit my target. After the fifth shot, a sense of nausea began to grow inside me. I checked my vision but there weren't any messages so I ignored the sensation. When I fired the tenth ray I was ready to puke. I dropped down to both knees and placed my hands behind my head. When I thought about my body I noticed three bars appear at the top of my screen. One was bright red, the second bar was blinking a light blue color and lastly, the third bar was emerald green. I assumed that the red bar was my health, and the green was my stamina which meant the blue was my magic.

I pulled my water skin from my belt and sucked the liquid down. After the first swallow, my magic bar shot back up to full. I had to exert my will to pull the water skin away from my mouth. The nausea faded away as soon as my magic bar was filled. "So it looks like being low on magic would make me feel like shit. I guess that means the other two bars will do the same." I shrugged before refilling my water skin. A thought came to him and he swore. Why in the hell hadn't I tried to open a character sheet? I shook my head at my own foolishness before scanning my vision. There weren't symbols there now so I decided to use my voice. "Status Screen?" As soon as the words fell from my lips a large prompt box appeared.

Name: Level:1,0% Age:26 Species:Altazian(Human) Alignment:Neutral(0/0) Languages: All Renown:Insignificant(0) Characteristics Health: 100 Magic:100

Regen/min 5 Stamina:100

Regen/min 5 Attributes Agility:10 Charisma:10 Endurance: 10 Intelligence:10 Luck:10 Perception: 10 Strength:10 Vitality:10 Wisdom:10 Abilities Arcanum Infinitum:You always have 100% affinity with every magic. You are immune to the adverse effects of casting magic. You can teach any magic that you know.

Eidetic Memory:You have a have an enhanced memory.The effectiveness of this ability increases with the user's Intelligence attribute.

True Speak: The user can speak and understand any language.

I immediately honed in on the section for my name. The mysterious woman went out of her way to warn him so he definitely wasn't going to use his earth name. I considered for a moment while going through all the names I knew. When it came to me. I couldn't have my old life back but I could hold on to a piece of it. The more I thought about it the more convinced I became.

You have selected the name: Darterrius Solomon Maximilian Is your name Darterrius Solomon Maximilian?

Yes/No

I smiled to myself before selecting yes.Darterrius was a name from my mother. She had wanted a third child so she could give him that name. Solomon was my Grandfather's name and lastly Maximilian was from the user name I used when I played online games. A name from my mother, a name from my father's family and a name of my own. I wasn't sure if names would hold some kind of special significance but if they did then this name had to have something going for it? One day that name was going to be famous and spoken with awe and possibly fear. I hesitated for a moment at that thought. Did I want people to fear me? I had been stuck with the "Large Scary Black Man" stereotype for my entire life. Did I want that to come with me here? I pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind. I wasn't ready or willing to unpack that right now. I scanned the rest of my information. My eye was drawn to the Species section. The word "Human" was in brackets which was strange. It didn't take a lot of thought to realize that his overall race or "Species" in this world was human which meant the other part was the type of human I was. Concentrating on the words didn't bring up any additional information so I decided to leave that particular box packed. I had enough on my plate to worry about. Everything else looked normal so I turned my focus to the attributes. Each one opened up descriptions, so I minimized the prompt to the side of my vision. If I was going to get into all of this then I was going to need to get comfortable first. I took a seat next to the spring and dived in.

Strength: Affects damage with melee and thrown weapons, Your carry weight equals 10 times your strength score. Determines the speed of your attacks, and damage with ranged weapons. Accuracy of melee weapons. It also affects any task that requires physical brawn.

Agility: Affects your reflexes, Accuracy with ranged or thrown weapons. Determines your movement speed. Your ability to make quick movements, balance, and your ability to move undetected.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Vitality: Each point increases Health by 10 points. Affects resistance to poison, illness, extreme temp, etc. Affects Stamina regeneration.

Endurance: Each point increases Stamina by 10 points. Affects the ability to act while exhausted and endure tough situations. Affects the ability to resist detrimental status conditions and ignore their consequences.

Intelligence: Determines your Magic pool, Each point increases your Magic Points by 10 points. Affects your ability to resist mental attacks.Determines effectiveness of some skills. Improves your ability to reason. Will improve the ability to calculate and connect information.

Perception: The strength of your senses whether sight, smell, hearing, taste, or any other. Measures your awareness of your environment.

Wisdom: Determine your rate of Magic regeneration. Regeneration equals Wisdom Stat multiplied by .5. Affects magical resistance. Increasing will provide a minor improvement in mental fortitude.

Charisma: The stat representing a person's force of personality. Used to determine how well someone can influence others through speeches, diplomacy, fear, lying, etc. It has the potential to open up opportunities you might not have otherwise had.

Luck: This is the attribute with the least understanding, but it is certainly better to have more luck.

I read everything twice before grinning. Each of the stats was more or less what you would expect. The only question was whether or not I should put points into luck. If I decided to go with magic as my focus Intelligence and Wisdom would be my focus. Charisma would be pretty good to have. All of the attributes would be important. I banished the screen away before I started debating the benefits. I didn't have to make any decisions right now. I turned my attention to the other notification I had earned.

Congratulations! Your skill Lumos Magic has leveled up. Lumos Magic has reached levels 2 and 3. You can learn additional spells.

The last thing he reviewed was his abilities. Arcanum Infinitum was the first one and pretty much cemented the decision to be a mage. I looked up and silently thanked the mysterious woman. Between this ability and the spell book, I was pretty sure she had influenced things in my favor. The second ability was fascinating. Eidetic memory was something that people talked about having but no one actually had. The power of this ability would make itself better and better over time. The third ability was also a big winner. It basically allowed me to communicate with everyone. Language barriers were one of the biggest pains in the ass. My nightly lessons in Spanish were enough to make me swear off language classes for the rest of my life. Now it looked like that wasn't going to be a problem anymore.

Now that I had taken stock of everything in the area it was time to range out of my safe place and experience the wide world. I looked around one last time before making my way to the exit. I stepped over the threshold and was immediately hit with a wave of heat. It was worse than any heat from back home and I seriously considered stepping back across and staying right where I was. A moment later it hit me. How was it hotter over here than it was over there? I turned and stepped back into the spring. The heat immediately dissipated. I turned and stepped back across and then the heat returned. It slowly dawned on me and I couldn't help but laugh. The spring was its own space. I wondered if it would stop other people from entering the spring. Either way, it didn't matter I didn't have anyone to test it with and for the moment I couldn't be sure that other people would be safe to have around. I stepped back into the desert and looked around. I looked around and memorized everything around me. It would suck for me to lose this amazing starting spot. Once I was confident that I was ready I picked a direction and started walking.

I hadn't been walking for thirty minutes before the ground began to shake. I froze and brought both arms up like a boxer. The skin on the back of my neck stood up and my instincts screamed at me to move. I leaped to the right just as a black stinger erupted from the ground. The stinger shot into the spot where my head and stomach had been only a moment before. A moment later the rest of the scorpion appeared. It was the size of a Great Dane with a thick black exoskeleton. Two pincers large enough to crush my arms opened and closed angrily while its stinger danced in the air behind it. For a long moment, we just stared at each other as if waiting to see what the other would do. Our stalemate was shattered when I began casting. The scorpion rushed forward and the second long casting was the longest second of my life. I shouted the word of power and aimed the ray at the scorpion's eyes. The ray of light shot forward and carved into its face. The scorpion let out a panic-clicking sound. Green blood poured down its face. I took the chance to put more space between us while I waited for the cooldown on my spell to elapse. Thankfully the initial shot seemed to blind the creature. As soon as I was able to cast the spell again I unleashed the ray of light. The adrenaline of the battle began to fade as the scorpion grew more and more erratic.

Most of its eyes had been ruined to the point that it had no chance of seeing me let alone fighting me. I stepped further back and took a drink from my water skin in order to make sure my magic points didn't too low. Once I was topped up I stepped forward and finished the scorpion off. I looked around and made sure I wouldn't be ambushed before dragging the scorpion back to the spring. As soon as I got within a few feet of the spring a new notification came into view.

You have found Life Spring. The spring was created when the theurge Rabiah was slain. She had been lured into a meeting with a warlord as an agent of peace. She fought but was killed. It is believed that she prayed to her Goddess for the strength to protect the innocent. For her devotion on the day of her death, the spot where she died erupted with water. The water sprung forth and created a miraculous spring. It is said that the secret of the spring will reveal itself to someone worthy.

I read the message twice before dismissing it. I didn't know who "Rabiah" was but I made a note to look into her as soon as I reached a city or any place with a library. I dragged the scorpion across the threshold being very careful not to let the scorpion's stinger touch me. It would be stupid to get poisoned after defeating the monster. Once that was done I moved away and took a seat on the ground. I took a deep breath and pulled up the blinking notification window.

You have been awarded 150 experience points for defeating Black Iron Scorpion-Level 3