John Wellerman was as normal as any drid herder, he starts his day by bringing them out of their barn and into the pasture to graze, then grooms them and opens up his shop for the day. Today started out like any other day, he woke up, dressed, and walked to the barn, except there was no barn. It was gone, everything gone. The drid, gone. The barn, ashes. The field, charred grass.

John squinted at a black dot on the horizon, assuming it was just a wild gling herd, but no. Something about it was off, somehow. The gling were...winged, they were flying. John rubbed his eyes and looked back toward the gling. Yes, still flying.

"What in the merry gods is going on?" John muttered to himself.

~New quest~

~Defeat: {Corrupted Gling}, (0/20)~

~Reward: {The Sword of Destiny}~

"Ok now I'm more confused, not less," John complained, "how is a holographic screen supposed to help me understand this, or is this just some crazy trick only the creator understands."

~Help~

~System~

~The System is a mind-controlled helper, only visible to you and those who you share it with~

"Ohhhhh so this is one of those mind games an evil dark wizard plays on me to trick me into converting and becoming a priest of necromancy of something," John said, "ok, I might as well play along, at least for now."

With that, John ventured into the charred remains of his barn to find an adequate weapon. He found a competent enough metal bar, and set off at a brisk pace toward the corrupted gling herd. He was close, only about 100 metres away, when they spotted him.

"Well, I guess now is as good a time as any to try my luck at fighting," John sighed, "I really wish I stayed in bed this morning."

The gling were fast, almost too fast. They practically flew across the meadow, their hooves barely seeming to move as they charged at John. He rose his bar as if preparing to hit a home run, then with a satisfying clang, one gling was already down.

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"Shouldn't that have taken more force?" John commented, "I know I'm not a scientist, but I thought something going that fast would put up more of a fight than that."

Not wanting to waste too much time pondering something he could never change, he hurried back to defending himself from the other 19 charging gling. The gling were fast, but weak. It seemed to John that the corrupted gling's speed was all they had going for them, no strength whatsoever. This made the creatures a threat, but not so much of one that he was scared for his life. One thing John learned was to never worry too much about the inevitable. If he couldn't change it, then no point trying to escape it. He figured that if he wasn't supposed to kill the gling, he wouldn't have been able to at all.

He made short work of the remaining gling, as only a slight tap would send them tumbling. Once he had killed the gling, a new screen appeared in front of him.

~Quest Complete~

~You have defeated {Corrupted Gling}, (20/20)~

~Quest Reward: {The Sword of Destiny} has been added to your inventory~

"What's The Sword of Destiny?" John wondered, "And since when do I have an inventory?"

~Help~

~Inventory~

~Your Inventory is a mind-controlled inventory for storing items, only visible to you and those who you share it with~

"Yes, I know what an inventory is, but how do I open it?"

It turns out, opening his inventory was just as easy as thinking it into existence. It was a simple thing, a ten-by-ten grid for storing items, with a max limit of 99 items per slot. At the moment, only one of the hundred slot were full, showing a simple sword, and grabbing at it in the hologram caused to appear in his hand.

~{The Sword of Destiny} (item, sword)~

-When used, the power of this sword will slightly increase, stackable

"Well that's OP," John said in surprise.

He would need to do some experimenting to find out more, but John assumed there were other abilities he had other than his quests and his inventory. Upon further investigation, he found his ability list.

~Abilities~

-Map

-Quest System

-Looting

-Inventory

-Chat

He played around some, checking out his abilities, which were quite simple. His map showed a map of where he was, becoming more unveiled as he explored. His quest system gave him quests and free rewards for completing them. His looting ability let him loot anything he killed. His chat would allow him to talk to allies over long distances.

"Did I get sucked into some video game version of Yarutusk?"