Hugo couldn’t find the type of bread he liked the most. There were many choices but they seemed to be out of the variety he most favored. Clicking his lips, he settled for a less favorable variety. It was one of the smooshier whole wheat kinds. He preferred the classic creamy peanut butter and jelly, at least on occasion, and placed one of each of the jars in his hand cart. He was also feeling like having some ham and cheese sandwiches this week, perhaps for a few breakfasts. Checking the isle signs, he strode toward his juicy delicious goal. Just as his goal of delicious meats was in his sights, Hugo felt a huge popping in his ears. It was like he had descended straight down in an air plain at top speed, he worried he was having a stroke. He attempted to call out for help, but the words wouldn’t come and he was alone in the isle. He clutched at his throat trying desperately to scream. Hugo fell to his knees. His last conscious thoughts before he blacked out were that he was going to die.
Hugo then woke up and found that, much to his surprise, he wasn’t dead. At least, he didn’t think he was dead. He was fairly certain, he wouldn’t be in this much discomfort if he was dead. His head hurt. As he reached for it throbbing noggin, he realized he was on his belly. He opened his eyes, and found that he was not in a hospitable bed, but some how was on a patch of lumpy grass. His eyes watered as they adjusted to the broad daylight, as if he had been sleeping all night and was just now getting up. Hugo sat up, and crossed his legs as he rubbed at his eyes and attempted to piece together where he was and what had happened. He looked around and gave up, so he just continued rubbing at his eyes and waited for them to fully adjust. Where ever he was, it was warm and the weather was nice. Maybe I'm in a park?
About a minute or so passed and he began to see clearly. His head still hurt but there was nothing to be done about it. Hugo took stock of his surrounding. He noticed that he was very alone, and there were no sounds of people nearby. The only time he’d ever heard only natural sounds like this was when he’d gone camping. His weirdness meter went off. Hugo wasn’t one to just suddenly panic, but he was definitely more on edge now. He was still fairly sure this wasn’t hell, but it wasn’t off the table entirely yet. The sounds of birds chirping in the distant were pleasantly serene. Probably no nice birdy songs in the under world. Hugo's strength and presence of mind now allowed him to get up now, and he clumsily got to his feet. He looked around, examining his surroundings more carefully now. He seemed to be right out side the edge of some forest. He was familiar with forests, having camped often in South Dakota, but the Pine Tree’s were some how..off. They didn’t look like any kind of pine he’d seen before, but he admitted to himself on being inexpert about trees. Still, it told him that where ever he was, it likely wasn’t anywhere he was familiar with. He looked to the horizon. In the distance he could see gently sloping hills and what looked like a river gleaming from sunlight. It would actually have been quite beautiful if he wasn’t on the edge of panic.
At least who ever, or what ever deposited him here had left him with his clothes, and even the contents of his pocket. He had his cell phone, a ball point pen, and his wallet. His khaki shorts and polo were totally intact, if a bit dirty from lying on the ground. Hugo pulled out his phone and turned it on, but their was not signal. Even in very rural area’s you would usually get at least one bar. Hugo wasn’t stupid, he’d read enough scifi and fantasy novels to at least suspect what had happened to him. The trees had been a clue as well. It was just that he wasn't quite ready to accept it as fact. He still reasoned the most likely thing was that he was just dumped some where rural for some unknown reason. He reasoned perhaps where ever this was, was just one of those weird places where there really was no signal and if he kept walking, he'd pick one up and be able to figure out where he was with the GPS.
All things being equal, Hugo decided that the best course of action was to walk toward the river, he made it about twenty paces before a sensation he could only describe as tasting the color purple, over came him. The only time he could remember ever experiencing anything remotely close was a brief experience in high school involving magic mushrooms and some pretty girls around a bond fire. This wasn’t quite that though, it wasn’t so much psychedelic, but more like an itch in his brain to do something he had never done before. Like an unconscious scratching, he had pulled up his character sheet with out even intending too. Hugo froze. His legs trembled and he almost fell right back flat on his ass he was so shocked. Now he was sure that he had been caught up in some fantasy bull shit and he had no idea what to do. He was also certain his phone was never gonna find that signal he'd hoped for. He looked at the opaque blue window that, instead of appearing in the corner of his vision like many story's suggest, it was almost like having a third eye. His field of his vision expanded in what he thought must be right above his nose, only instead of seeing the outside world he was able to look at his status screen.
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Name: Hugo Harris
Level: 1
Race: Human (Terran)
Status: (confused) moderate (anxious) moderate
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Strength: 10
Dexterity : 9
Vitality: 11
Wisdom: 12
Intelligence: 11
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Racial Trait: ???
Skill Attributes: none
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Description: Human variant (unknown) ???
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It was beyond a weird sensation to have a whole new field of vision that contained only a character sheet and blackness in his peripheral. He pondered his character sheet for a moment. Racial Trait ??? That was strange. Also human variant unknown, there were variants? As in there were other kinds of humans? That is what the strange message implied any way. It was almost a little disappointing not to have anything but the vague descriptor of variant. He really had no idea if his stats were good or terrible, having no context for where he stood. He assumed they were probably close to a baseline human adult, but of course had no way of knowing. The cynical side of him was betting that they were lower than average.
“So, I’m in a fantasy world. Fantastic.” he said to himself dryly. Now I just have to avoid getting eaten by monsters, or killed by whatever the hell just waiting to grab up a defenseless human. Part of him was hoping where ever this world was, was more OZ that Tolkien but he wasn’t counting on it. Those flying monkeys were scary as a kid though, I really hope there are no flying monkeys. The logical side of Hugo’s brain, the part that wasn’t having an existential melt down as his whole world view and belief system came into question, was thinking about how he would survive. He assumed there were monsters, there were always monsters in these things. This place, whatever it was called, had a stat system like some kinda RPG. That implied monsters, if any of the parallels of Earth games and story's held up . Hugo did not think he could fight anything tougher that the weakest, most sickly monster. His battle experience consisted of a couple of fist fights he had in grade school and that was it. He didn’t have any delusions about his fighting ability. All he had was his mighty Pen of stabbing, and he didn’t fancy breaking his only pen. His old world diet of McDonnalds and HotPockets also hadn’t exactly equipped him to forage in the wilderness either, so if he didn’t find the basics soon he wasn’t sure he wouldn't starve to death before whatever monsters were out their got him.
Fortunately, it seemed to be summer where ever this was and he was dressed more or less appropriately, at least for day time. If he hadn't been in a life shattering, soul crushing state on the edge of throwing up he’d have said it was actually a pretty nice day. “Ok, so I need water, food, and shelter, in that order.” He mumbled to himself quietly. Water seemed to not be an issue, with the river in view. It looked a fair distance away, but he didn’t think it would take to long to walk there. Water could mean fish, but I’m a lousy fisherman, and setting up a fire could be problematic. He also had no pole. He looked back at the dark, intimidating woods, and decided that he would not try to forage in that unless he felt like he had no choice. The dark spooky forest was almost certain to be crawling with whatever monsters or wild animals this world came equipped with. Almost certainly there were wolves. There was always wolves in these kinda story's. At least he thought there probably was, he still had no clue about anything.
Hugo decided that following the river was probably the best coarse of action. Where water was, towns usually followed. It seemed like his best bet. He just hoped that if he did find people, they’d be friendly and amenable to a stranger in need. Here’s to hoping I can understand them if I do find them. He had no idea if he’d have to end up learning a whole other language or if there was some kinda magic system here that allowed him to understand. He also wondered if there was magic in whatever this world was, he was betting on it but just didn’t have enough information yet. What kid didn’t fantasize about becoming a powerful wizard after all. Hugo smirked at that. Who knows, maybe I have some kinda magic power that will make me super OP to the locals. Hec, for all he knew he was the only one with a stat sheet and everyone else was normal Joe Schmoe. It all came back to just not knowing anything.
The trek down to the river was not a hard one. The wild grass was tall, but not there didn’t seem to be an abundance of scratchy plants or rocks to worry about, and his sneakers were up to the task. On his way he spotted several interesting bugs. Nothing seems dangerous to dangerous, he thought to himself. Famous last words of every explorer, if uttered aloud. Maybe whoever or whatever had dropped him off put him in a starter area. Again, he considered himself lucky he didn’t find himself in some hellscape. As fantasy world’s went so far this didn’t seem terrible. It wasn’t a great situation, but it could be much worse. Eventually he reached the edge of the river bank. The river was seemed fairly wide and fast flowing. He wasn’t dumb enough to try to cross it in this area, the water seemed to fast. He checked the flow. He had no idea what direction it was flowing in, if the cardinal directions even applied to this world. He assumed they did but you never knew. He decided walking up stream was probably a good bet, so he starting heading in that direction.
Hugo wasn’t sure if he was lucky not to have spotted any person or not. On his walk up the river he spotted what looked to be a few elk that were drinking at the bank of the river. They weren’t exactly elk, but some kind of elk analogue. It was actually kind of nice to see something larger than a bug that wasn’t threatening looking. He decided not to get to close though, just in case. He’d seen a few birds over head, but so far but none had gotten close enough for him to get a really good look. The landscape was pristine, with lots of grass, scrubby bushes, and the occasional tree sprouting here and their along the bank. He felt like he must have been walking for about two hours give or take. Whatever time it was, he knew it must be getting late. He saw the sun moving closer to the horizon. Eventually the sun would set and he’d be out here in the dark. That would suck. Suddenly he pulled his phone from his pocket and cursed himself for not remembering to turn it off. Doubt I’ll be able to recharge this any time soon. He’d probably end up turning it back on when night fell anyway. He thought he’d still have at least a few hours of light.
Then Hugo spotted it, a dirt road in the distance. A road was an artificial structure and that meant some kinda of civilization. Civilization meant people, and people meant he could get some help. He hoped. He thought he’d probably be ok for one night, maybe even two or three because he had water, but he’d get hungry sooner or later. He just had no way of getting food or knowing what plants were good to eat. He hadn’t even drank the river water because he was afraid he’d get sick and had no way to make fire to sterilize it. Having stomach pains without toilet paper out here just sounds terrible. He supposed he could use leaves but that sounded..scratchy. Ignoring his parched throat, and slightly growling stomach, he approached the dirt path and began walking towards it. In perhaps less than a twenty minute hike, he was on the road proper. He even detected some wheel tracks on the road. They were much too narrow to have been created by modern vehicles. He assumed it was some kind of cart or old world style wagon that had created these. He also found what looked to be distinctly inhuman foot prints. That was ominous. Whatever let the tracks had distinctly long sharp toes and didn’t seem to wear shoes. He mouthed a silent prayer that the owner of the tracks were friendly.