Prologue
When I woke up this morning I was expecting to feel like shit, I was expecting to get yelled at for not taking the trash out last night, I was even expecting to put on a dirty work shirt and pretend to enjoy my day so I could tell rich assholes that it’s entierly my fault their ‘Superduper flashy whatever the fuck its is 9000’ wasn’t working and grit my teeth and appologize while they look at me like I’m a piece of scum on their shoe and not a person just trying to earn enough money to pay off my student loans and pay rent in the same month. Hell, I even expected to come home hungry and immediately go to bed so I could repeat the same shit show the next day.
I was not expecting to find myself naked, lying on some type of stone, and hearing a womans’ voice in my head.
*Hey! Wake up! Please wake up!*
Why did they sound so desperate? They’re not the one freezing in a strange pit of darkness, I never thought I’d miss my threadbare sleep pants, but damn what I’d do for them right now, my ass felt like ice right now.
*Thank Stygian that you’re awake!*
This voice is… who the fu-
*Listen, we don’t have much time! You need to pick yourself up and start moving, there is something coming that I can’t hide you from and it’s moving much faster than I anticipated!*
Whoever they were, they sounded terrified
*Please... make your way to Scalefal, it’s a village north of this cavern, I’ll contact someone there to watch for you... I know you have no reason to trust me, I wouldn’t trust me in your place, but this was the only way I could find to save them*
Wait, save who? What the fuck is going on right now!
*I will try to reach you again when you have found somewhere safe, until then I will open your source so you can keep yourself safe... please forgive me*
Forgive you for wha-
1
A bright flash of light flashed across my vision, blinding me with the assault of every colour imaginable streaming into my mind. Pain wormed its way into the forefront, bypassing the colours in dominance of my thoughts, it felt as if molten iron, glacial claws, and a live wire were fighting for control of which would torure my flayed brain next as pulses of the coloured lights continued to pierce into my very soul.
After what must have been hours the pain and lights finally ceded their conquest, releasing my mind so that I could think and see once again. I sat forward, rubbing my eyes, trying to make the memory of the pain fade away into the same darkness as this room. Sadly, some of the lights were hanging on at the edges of my vision.
A pulsing silver light remained in the lower right of my sight, after trying to rub and blink it away I finally tried focusing on it, seeing if it would float out of view like the squiggles that sometimes passed by. Focusing on the light it seemed to grow in size, taking up my entire vision with a translucent rectangle, allowing me to see through it as if it were smokey glass. The screen, at least that’s what it looked like to me, started the shimmer and roll, as if filled with silvery clouds, until finally it settled into a mirror like surface that somehow held my entire pale, and very nude, body in its frame.
“Well then, this isn’t strange at all”
The duplicate ‘me’ on the screen moved its mouth in sync with me. To test a theory I moved my arms and legs a bit and watched as the miniature copied my gestures. Turning to the side the screen didn’t move, yet the miniature spun, as if it were the one turning instead of my own body. Suddenly I had a thought that made me think of those old books and games from my parents' generation.
“Is this a character creation screen?” I asked aloud, hoping to get an answer
As if summoned by my words small boxes and circles appeared on the edges of the screen with threads leading from them to different parts of my body. Focusing on a box would highlight it and I would get the impression of what it did ‘Height’ ‘Foot Size’ ‘Eye Shape’ ‘Hand Dominance’ it went on and on, there must’ve been thousands of boxes, circles, and options within each that I could mess with.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Not sure what else to do I pressed a few of them, watching as my body seemed to bubble around the affected area, rolling and morphing to change into the selected form.
“This is fucking weird” staring down at my now mismatch sized feet “well, the strange voice in my head said I should hurry so lets stick to the basics, I know how to survive as me, no need to change what little I do know and screw up my ability to walk or something” reverting the mirror back to a ‘Default’ version of myself I added a few inches of height, a little muscle mass, and changed my hair style to better fit the outdoors long hair doesn’t work well, gets caught in everything as I finished these adjustments I looked over the mirror seeing a slightly better taken care of and groomed version of me.
“This will certainly work far better than what I currently have going for me, alright. Let’s figure out how to leave this thing” speaking these words the mirror flashed silver and I was once again blinded by the light, wishing the universe would give me some warning of this shit. Rubbing the spots from my eyes I noticed that my body seemed to feel much better than I had when I first woke up, my muscles moving with more power and my body responding faster than previously.
Stretching out my newly enhanced self, not missing the now absent pains and tension that had been ever present in my body since highschool I looked about myself, noticing that I was still inside the mist filled abyss.
“Ok, what now?” I asked the void
A translucent box appeared in front of me
* * * * * * *
Please Wait As Your Patron/Matron Selects Your Benefits
* * * * * * *
“WHAT FUCKING PATRON?” I yelled at it “I STILL DON’T KNOW WHERE THE HELL I AM” First I hear voices in my head while sitting naked in the dark, now I’m being told there is someone that is in charge of me. These thoughts spiraled into a rage filled rant that was fueled by the past few years of retail work combined with the raw confusion due to the bullshit still happening around me.
*DING*
A notification popped into the corner of my view, breaking my internal tirade. Mentally selecting the blinking dot another box rushed into my sight
* * * * * * *
Your benefit has been selected:
Name: Divine
Rank: Godly
Much like the Common skills ‘Appraise’ and ‘Inspect’ Divine allows the user to more thoroughly comprehend or understand whatever is the focus of the user. Due to its nature the skill is disguised as the Common skill ‘Appraise’ to all who view your ‘Sheet’ unless given permission by the user, also giving the user the Rare skill ‘In Plain Sight’
Bonus Skill
Name: In Plain Sight
Rank: Rare
Allows the users ‘Sheet’ to appear far lower and simpler than in actuality when viewed by those without the users permission. Also adds bonuses to stealth, blending, camouflage, or disguise attempts.
* * * * * * *
Well then. I now have whatever the fuck those are. Neat.
Unsure of what to do next I tried pulling up this ‘Sheet’ that the little boxes had mentioned. Another box appeared, this time with a yellow outline.
* * * * * * *
No Personal Analytical Device found nearby.
Data Sheet unavailable at this time.
* * * * * * *
Fuck. Looks like I’m going out naked and blind. Wooo. Whatever, not the first time I’ve had to make shit up as I went.
Relegating myself to the fact that I was just going to have to take this experience by the seat of my nonexistent pants I looked around, just now noticing that the abyss that I had been standing in was now the cave agai, yet now much brighter. As if a hidden blacklight had been turned on everything seemed to be lit with a soft purplish light, enough that I could now see the entire size of the ‘room’ in which I had awoken. Less than ten feet from one wall to the opposite I had apparently been laid upon a stone table in the center. Sitting up I noticed the floor seemed to be covered in a thin layer of dust. Glancing about I couldn’t find a track within the fine covering, as if nothing had entered this place in millennia.
“How the hell did I get in here?”
I figured I might as well ask the room around me, because I was coming up empty on ideas.
The room had no reply for me, as it was a room and couldn’t speak.
Getting to my feet I decided to forgo all caution and Just get the hell out of this cave. My bits were cold and I needed pants, dammit.