Nathen groaned as he found himself face down in… grass?
Shoving that thought aside he groaned and forced himself onto his back, staring up into the branches of overhanging trees. Had he passed out and stumbled into the local park? He hoped not, there were heavy fines for trespassing.
“Oh thank the gods, you’re wearing pants,” came a high pitched slightly feminine voice, startling Nathen from his thoughts.
“What?” he asked through a groan as he pushed himself into a sitting position.
“You’d be amazed how many people end up here naked as the day they were born,” the voice continued, revealing itself to be, to Nathen’s amazement, a tiny green person. They had androgenous features and wore a simple brown robe, but what drew Nathen’s gaze were the two pairs of diaphanous wings intermittently fluttering behind the small creature.
“I’d just as well leave all of you ascenders to figure things out for yourselves, but nooo, the gods have decided you need a ‘fighting chance,’” the tiny floating person continued, making air quotes and somehow rolling its pure white eyes.
“What’s going on?” Nathen asked, interrupting the tiny creature’s tirade.
“Right, my job. First off, yes I’m a Fairy, or Fae, or whatever your world called us. Now, where did I put that book,” the fairy trailed off, reaching out an arm into the air and seeming to rummage around for a moment before pulling out an equally tiny book with a cover like tree bark. Flipping open to the first page she continued in a monotone voice, clearly reading from the text, “congratulations ascender, through your efforts you have successfully surpassed the first world and found yourself in the second, as you may have noticed Vituss is denser here meaning-.”
“Vi… tus?” Nathen asked, clearly not understanding anything he was being told.
“Oh, my, gods,” the fairy groaned, “spiritual energy, life force, whatever you call it.”
“That exists?”
“What world did you come from?” she asked, flipping through the book only to pause and look shocked, “wow, your first world sucks, I’m surprised anything with a soul can survive with that little vituss.”
“Uhhh.”
“Right, fine, lets see here… first encounter with souls…” the fairy said slowly, once more flipping through pages in the tiny book, “never thought I’d actually need this section, who doesn’t know about vituss? Ah, here we are, ahem, Vituss is the energy of the soul, without it consciousness can’t exist. With it, souls can form and utilize Vituss to empower themselves and alter the world around them.”
“Like magic?”
“It’s NOT magic!” she snapped, “magic is stupid nonsense things that can’t be explained and don’t exist.”
“Magic is fake, but souls are real?” Nathen asked skeptically.
“Exactly, seems like we’re getting somewhere,” the fairy sighed, returning to the book, “Now that you have ascended past your first world, the amount of vituss is much greater here allowing for greater development of your soul. Now… back to the beginning.”
“How, exactly, did I ascend past my world?”
“How should I know?” she asked in return.
“Last thing I remember was going to sleep in my apartment… and…”
“Don’t care,” the fairy interrupted without looking up from her book, “now where was I… ah, there, vituss is denser here, meaning your growth here is unbound. This comes with various benefits, for one your body has been reset to the peak of health and all past injuries have been-.”
“What?” Nathen shouted, looking down at himself. He was noticeably thinner than he remembered, several scars along his arms were missing and he felt healthier than he had in years. He’d just woken up and, despite having no access to coffee, he felt more awake and alert than ever.
“Healed,” the fairy powered through, pausing only to glare at Nathen, “due to your efforts in your first world your nature will have solidified and will provide guidance as you continue up through the worlds, should you wish.”
“Wha-,” Nathen started.
“YOUR NATURE,” the fairy said loudly to cut off Nathen, “will be something familiar to you, and will be unique to you. To access it should be second nature, just do as you did in your first world when you desired to check on yourself. Be it meditation, looking into your cultivation base or testing your chakras it should be easy. Do so now.”
“Chakras?” Nathen said stupidly.
“Or whatever you did,” she somehow rolled her pure white eyes, “it’ll be something familiar to you.”
“All I did was work at the shop and come home to play games,” Nathen said slowly, “I’m not a martial artist or anything.”
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“No… really?” she said unconvincingly, “who would have guessed.”
“I think something went wrong, I’m no… ascender or whatever that is.”
“You’re here, you’re an ascender,” the fairy said flatly, hands on hips, “now think, something familiar to you that will provide information.”
“I’m no guru or enlightened person!” Nathen insisted, “I mean, this isn’t my work or a game, I doubt simply saying ‘Status’ will-.”
\-\-\-\-
*STATUS UPDATE*
-Physical abilities: Average
-Mental abilities: Average
-Willpower: Average
\-\-\-\-
“Ahh!” Nathen shouted as a small blue panel appeared floating in the air in front of himself, “what?”
“Good, looks like you figured out your nature,” the fairy said, opening the book once more.
“Is this some kind of game?” Nathen asked, waving his hand through the status display, “I didn’t know VR technology was this advanced… or that they’d let someone like me test it.”
“This is no game,” she sighed, “but of course you’re a nerd, to have such a nerdy nature.”
“I don’t remember signing up for a VR test…”
“Hey!” the fairy snapped, “I have a job to do so listen up! Now that your nature has been unlocked there are two more things you need to know about. If you decide to continue to advance yourself, you’ll need ‘Facets’ of your soul. A facet is an aspect of your soul that coincides with your mind and actions and will give various benefits based on the nature of the facet. As you learn more about yourself your facets will grow stronger or change. Since you are new to this world it will be easy for you to gain your first facet. To do so, answer this question: What do you want?”
“I…” Nathen hesitated, “for as long as I can remember I’ve been subject to rules that make no sense to me. They exist to, supposedly, restrain me and protect others from me. But it was restricting… all I want is to be free to make my own choices.”
\-\-\-\-
*NEW MAJOR FACET:* Freedom
You desire little more than to be left alone
-Passively increases mental abilities and willpower
-Increases resistance to control effects.
\-\-\-\-
“Ooh, I felt that one form,” the fairy said, but Nathen wasn’t listening. The instant the window had appeared it felt like something inside him suddenly relaxed. A part of him he didn’t know existed, that had been tensed or locked up for so long he didn’t even realize it was suddenly released. The sense of relief was incredible and hard to explain.
“In addition to facets,” the fairy was saying, “you will figure out abilities, which indicates when your soul is able to exercise its Vituss to assist you and manipulate the world around you. Abilities can link to one or more facets, increasing in power while benefitting the facet. In short, abilities are how your soul interacts with the world, while facets are how your soul understands itself. Both are needed to grow stronger in this world and are part of yourself. Understand?”
“No,” Nathen said slowly as he explored the newfound sense of freedom within himself.
“Good,” the fairy said regardless, putting the book away, “now, as part of the giving you a ‘fighting chance’ thing I’m to offer you a weapon to help you survive. Before you ask, I can’t give you a gun or anything silly like that. Most people pick a spear or staff, but I can offer a bow or sword or-.”
“I’ll take a sword,” Nathen said instantly, “a longsword preferably.”
“Why?”
“Swords are cool.”
\-\-\-\-
*NEW MINOR FACET:* Swords
Swords are cool!
-Passively increases physical abilities
\-\-\-\-
“Oh my gods, really?” the fairy groaned, “that was all it took to form a facet? Seriously?”
“I’ve never used a sword before though,” Nathen admitted.
\-\-\-\-
*NEW ABILITY:* Learn to Fight
You will need to fight to survive, figure out how
-Improved ability to learn or create a combat style
\-\-\-\-
\-\-\-\-
*ABILITY ‘LEARN TO FIGHT’ HAS LINKED TO MINOR FACET ‘SWORDS’*
-ability effect improved but is now restricted to sword combat styles
\-\-\-\-
“Great, here,” the fairy said, seemingly angry at Nathen, waving her hand and causing a three-foot sword, with a simple leather sheath, to appear out of thin air between them, “at least you didn’t ask for a katana.”
“European swords are superior,” Nathen shrugged, pushing himself to his feet, “harder, sharper, more durable.”
“Whatever,” the fairy interrupted, “Final thing of note, when you arrived here the gods placed a protection ward over the area, to prevent monsters from bothering us. You should be safe here for a day or so.”
“I still have questions!” Nathen said as the fairy turned to leave.
“Good for you,” she replied before shooting into the sky faster than seemed possible.
“Well, thanks,” he said sarcastically picking up the long sword and proceeding to figure out how to buckle it to his belt.
With little else to do he drew the blade but was unable to determine how good quality it was. He did notice it was surprisingly light for a three-foot-long length of steel. Taking a few practice swings, he did his best to get a feel for it. After a few minutes he realized there was only so much he could do by himself, to really learn how to fight he needed something to fight against.
“Stupid fairy didn’t even give me a starting quest,” he grumbled, “I’ll have to let the devs know when the test ends. Until then… I guess I’m supposed to fight boars or wolves or something. Maybe a horned rabbit?”
\*\*\*\*\*
“I’ve always hated how people treat me, I just… I want to be stronger… to be in control,” Gregory said to the small green fairy.
\-\-\-\-
*NEW MODERATE FACET:* Control
All you want is to take control of your life
-passively increases mental abilities and willpower
-improves strength of your control abilities
\-\-\-\-
“Great,” the fairy said before continuing to explain about abilities, Gregory listening with careful attention, pushing aside the feeling of relaxation within him for the moment. Something about this situation told him it was very important.
“Ummm… I’ll take a spear,” he said when offered a weapon, “easy to use, good utility and-.”
“Great, don’t care,” the fairy said, a six foot spear with a steel tip appearing in the air between them and falling to the ground, “the gods placed a protection ward on this area when you arrived, so you should be safe for a day or so. Now, if you don’t mind, I have others to welcome.”
“There are others?” Greg asked quickly.
“Obviously,” the fairy said with a roll of her eyes, “did you think this entire world was empty? I swear, a thousand years with only a half dozen ascenders a year, then suddenly I get a dozen in one day. How does that make sense?”
Before he could say anything else the fairy flew off, darting through the branches above him and quickly vanishing. Picking up the spear Gregory thought to himself.
“If I’m going to survive… I need water, food and shelter. If there are others then there will be towns, surely,” he said to himself, “I don’t know how long I can survive out here by myself… maybe if I can find a river I can follow it down stream. Be a good source of water… ya, that sounds like a plan.”
Nodding to himself he put the spear over his shoulder and, after picking a direction mostly at random, set off into the forest.