Warning: This book contains strong sexual themes, violence, Extortion, crude humor, foul language… and adventure. Reader discretion is advised.

...

[ME]

Could life be any more perfect? All those nights I spent practicing drills and working out during high school finally paid off. Division 1 athlete? Check. Everyone expects me to go pro.

I’m at my dream school.

Also my girl broke up with me. I’m glad. That means an endless buffet at this college, and I’m so grateful to my parents for forcing me to join a dorm. I counted at least three six’s, four sevens, and I could’ve sworn I saw a nine as I was moving a box during move-in.

My roommates are chill. One of them is friends with a dealer so he’s always invited to events. Another one has a long-time girlfriend and is the funniest goofball you’ll ever meet. He’ll have you on the floor hollering with a cramping stomach within a minute of meeting him. Finally, there’s a weirdo who just hangs in his room all the time. I don’t know what he does in there. I sometimes hear loud fans from his room. Maybe he’s mining crypto? Whatever.

The first week was easy enough. Professors just handing out A’s for attendance and reviewing the Syllabus. I mean I threw that shit straight in the bin. It’s not like I’m here for academics. For the next four years, my life will consist of beer, tits, and a hangover the next morning.

“Joeyyyy!”

That was my roommate with crack friends I mentioned earlier. He was a tall dude built like an NBA player with a trimmed afro, flashy bling, and designer clothes. We passed each other in the walls of one of the nice air-conditioned hallways around the business wing of the school. I slipped in a hundred-dollar bill with a firm handshake. I kind of owed him for the line we did our first day.

Did I forget to mention I’m rich? My dad is the CEO of an automobile insurance company. I wiped my ass with one of those Benjamins once.

“Trey. My man,” I replied.

He gave me a smirk. “Funny catching you here. I was gonna wait till we got home, but I’m kinda in a bind.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You good?’

He shook his head and laughed. “Nah, man. I need your help. See, I got invited to a sorority party. You heard of the tri-delts?”

Delta Delta Delta. Who hadn’t heard of them? That sorority was plastered all over the university website. Every single girl in that pretentious all-girls club was picked from among the hottest, and everyone knew it.

“Yeah, I have. So what—?”

“So I’m in a pickle, my guy. There’s a bad ratio of chicks to guys, so we need some dudes. But I can’t refer just anyone, you know? You said you were a D1, right?”

“Yeah, I’m on the football team.”

He winked. “Good. They’re setting up decs around the sorority house. So I’ll catch you there on Saturday.”

I was trying to act cool, but I could feel my throat tightening up. My head was getting fuzzy just from those words. The first sorority party of the year. The tri-delts, no less. And a favorable ratio. Was God smiling at me right then?

He leaned in my ear. “Don’t wanna scare you, but those girls can get nasty after a few drinks. I mean last year, I made out with three at once while another gave me head.”

I almost choked. “Putting me in a tough spot here. But I’ll do it for you. Any dress code?”

“Ripped T’s and cowboy boots. It’s a rager.”

When Trey left, I gave myself a pat on the shoulder. I’m a real upstanding guy, you know? When a friend is in need, I just can’t say no.

* * *

[ELFINDOR]

My room reeks. My roommates think I’m some freak who never leaves his room, but they’re only partly right. But this smell. It can’t be me. I mean it’s only been a week since I moved in. Figures I’d get the worst room in this dorm. Just my luck. It never changes.

I finally get to college, and I’m stuck with three die-hard adrenaline junkies. They had a party the first night until 3 am. I didn’t get any sleep and ended up late for class! Was it too much to ask for three nerds instead of these maniacs?

First there’s Allen, the only respectable one of the bunch. It looks like he’s got a long-term girlfriend and he was nice when I met him. But he quickly changed.

Then there’s Trey. The guy is bigger than my future. He could easily pass as a bouncer, and he’s decked out in expensive clothes. Even his PJs sparkle, man! I think he’s the one who convinced the others to party the first night.

Then there’s Joey. I heard he’s a D1 athlete. He’s built like a Greek god and charismatic as hell, but I hate him the most. He stares at me like I’m the scum of the Earth.

I tried to be nice to those jerks. After I said no to hanging out ‘cause I wanted to get some early shut eye for the first day of class, I was marked as a loser. Their faces made that all too clear.

All I remember was Joey saying, “We’ll let you get your beauty rest, princess.”, with a nasty smirk. I turned red and bolted to my room as fast as I could, but that just made them laugh. When I made it back to my room with the door shot, my heart was racing. Knocks on the front door came a few minutes later. They had invited others from the dorm. Before I knew it, I’d just blown my only chance to be cool—to make a good impression on the people I’d be stuck living with for the rest of the year. Even the dorm’s Resident Assistant, who’s practically in charge of student conduct, showed up. I know at one point they were doing drugs, too!

Ever since then, I only came out to heat up Ramen in the microwave or go to class.

The only day I got to breathe was Saturday. It seems all three of my roommates had gone somewhere. I shrugged. Most likely some party.

The second week came and my classes were progressing smoothly after the blimp on the first day. I was actually a model student. I always turned in my work on time and never asked for extensions. I raised my hand promptly to be called to say the right answer to the professor’s lecture problem. I even brought extra pencils in case someone forgot theirs. Despite my rather square shape and Napoleon stature, I think I was even catching the eyes of one of the ladies. Hey, I may not flex in front of the mirror, but it’s surely been noticed that the classroom is where I shine.

At least, that’s what I thought. A cold sweat dripped on my face when my business professor said his next words.

“Alright, get into groups of five. I’m going to explain your first big semester project.”

Groups?

What do you mean get into groups?! I thought we left that shit in highschool! I stared awkwardly as my class of thirty somehow segregated seamlessly into their groups without me. There should have been six groups of five people evenly split. And yet, one of the last group’s members, some jock-looking blond dude with perfect wavy hair, raised his hand and asked if four was okay.

“What do you mean?” my Professor retorted. “You got five. You.”

He pointed to me. I could feel everyone’s stares.

“Join their group.”

Whispering ensued. Was it because my face was getting red? I slowly made my way to the group, hoping I would get struck by lightning somehow and be excused for the rest of the semester.

One of the girls in the group was the friendly, bubbly type. She immediately came up to me and said, “Hi!”

“H-hi.”

Doofus! How I could screw up a simple hello?!

My hands were shaking, and they always sweat when I’m anxious.

“I’m glad you’re on the team!” she exclaimed. “That means we’ll get an A!”

My face flushed. She was a gorgeous brunette with loose clothing that was somehow tight because of her curves.

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“Psh.”

That was the blonde guy from earlier. He looked annoyed.

Was he jealous of me? Of my academic prowess? Thinking that somehow made my courage return. We were supposed to pick a theme for our project. The first project was just a painting made of cardboard we were supposed to paint so the professor could pick the best ones and display them outside as a mural. I thought I had left arts and crafts in highschool, too.

After a few introductions, I found out her name was April. The jock was Grant, and the two others were Jack and Calie. I dreaded sharing my name because my dad gave me a weird fantasy name from a novel. Of course, Grant immediately cracked up when I let it slip.

I raised my hand. I was feeling ambitious. I wasn’t going to let my name get in the way of impressing April. “Uh… so about the project. Why don’t we paint something funny? I was thinking dogs at a bar exchanging tomorrow’s homework for dog treats. We could even put some of the school’s landmarks so people recognize it and think of it as an off-limits building or something.”

“That sounds fun!” April said.

“More like lame. I say we paint something that won’t take too long. Like the school mascot in a business suit. I just want an A. Jack, Calie?”

“Yeah, I agree.”

Calie nodded.

April shrugged. “I’m okay with that.”

My throat closed up. Why did it feel so embarrassing to have my idea shut down? It was just an idea. No one had made it personal. And yet I wanted to disappear. But there was still an hour left of class.

As the class went on, I noticed April and Grant getting closer. At first it was just light banter, but soon they were rubbing elbows. Jack and Calie were hitting it off, too.

This sucks.

I just wanted to go back to my room.

* * *

[ME]

After the party, I got at least five phone numbers. I don’t want to talk about what happened after 1 AM because I don’t like to brag.

But all I can say is Trey wasn’t kidding. Those tri-delts were just looking to get wasted. Angel in the streets, devil in the sheets. That’s how the saying goes, right?

Anyway, the next week I lined up three dates. I would have done more, but football practice was getting intense. We have our first game coming up. I got a friends-with-benefits situation with two of the Dorm Six’s. That should hold me over until I can get with Stella, the neighborhood TWU. That’s tactical weapons unit because she’s a bombshell.

After a week of grueling practice and mediocre dates I was ready for the weekend. I had to block the phone numbers of those dates I went on because I was waking up to a spam of missed texts. Clingy girls and hangovers are not a good combo, friends.

On Friday, Allen said he was going to be gone during the weekend to visit his girl out of state, but he wanted us to chill before he left.

“Sounds good to me,” I said.

There wasn’t much to do so we just fired up the Xbox and played a round of Cry of Valor Zombies. Trey went to the fridge and fetched us all a couple of beers. Trey was twenty-one so if anyone asked, they belonged to him. We ended up gaming a lot longer than we anticipated. I guess it was just a good time with good company, so the time can get away from you. We ordered pizza and were getting ready to call it a night when a loud crash came from the weirdo’s room.

Sounded like something broke. Maybe his PC?

I got up and knocked on his door. “Yo... uh. Elfindor? You good?”

I leaned in close and pressed my ear against the door. It was faint, but I could hear laughter. It sounded maniacal. I knew he was weird, but this just confirmed it. I wanted nothing to do with the guy.

“Joey? What happened? Can you tell?” Allen asked.

“Let the guy beat it in peace,” Trey said, shaking his head. “Poor dude obviously ain’t getting any.”

I forced a laugh. “I couldn’t hear anything. Probably just elbowed a cup or something.”

* * *

[ELFINDOR]

When I was young, I remember there was a tiny crack in the air around a shrine of a relatively unknown Goddess I was visiting in Japan with my family. It looked like the kind of crack that would form on old, stiff concrete, or the wall of a building. I touched it of course, and what would you know? It was solid.

Ever since then, I’ve been fascinated by the supernatural. Aliens, occult, fantasy, hell even Catholic church doctrine. I knew something was out there. But of course, when I told my parents they thought I was a kid with an overactive imagination.

I begged my parents to visit the shrine in the years to follow, and we ended up going three times. But I never saw anything remotely fantastical ever again.

But I didn’t give up.

My first attempts to get noticed by a higher being were unsuccessful. I made a little altar in my room and dedicated it to the Goddess depicted in the shrine. I think I probably prayed every night for over a year.

Eventually, my excitement deflated, and as the years passed, I forgot about that crack in the air.

Until today.

I was trying to get some homework done and was looking to my usual search engine for answers when I started getting sleepy and typed in “How to gather the strongest spellcards in the world”.

I don’t know why I typed that. It was as if my fingers moved on their own. The result of the search engine was a single a link saying “Are you a Hero who defends the people, or a Sorcerer who defends himself?”

That was weird.

I was sure the results would be something like the popular trading card game or a sponsored ad of some sort. I humored the search results for a bit.

Hero or Sorcerer?

I didn’t know what to think of the question. On the one hand, being a Hero makes you popular with the people, and you’d probably get to experience a kind of life unavailable to people like me. The kind of life people like Joey, being a D1 athlete, got to live.

“That’s easy,” I said. “If I have to choose, I’ll be a Sorcerer. I don’t see why I’d risk my life for people who laugh at my name and won’t give me a second thought.”

I started to imagine myself shooting fireballs at Joey and my other roommates. It got a wicked chuckle out of me. It was so sinister it actually scared me into shutting up. I clumsily elbowed the cup of punch I had next to my computer by accident. It shattered on the floor.

Fuck!

“Yo… uh. Elfindor. You good?” Joey called out from behind the door.

Crap. Did he hear me just now?

I stopped making noise and closed my eyes. I heard the noise of Cry of Valor Zombies from the common room tv and Trey say, “Let the guy beat it in peace. Poor dude obviously ain’t getting any.”

My face turned beet red. I ran to turn off the lights.

Shut the hell up, you crack dealer. What would you know?

I reached for my phone and started opening up a new incognito tab to my favorite adult site. Lately, I’d gotten into camgirls. There was a new girl around my age livestreaming from the school Wi-Fi. I’d found her by accident and recognized the dorm wall paint and furniture style. She seemed to be awkward and unsure of what to do. Man, innocent girls were the best.

It had been a shit day. Watching her would make me feel better.

I proceeded to type the URL of the cam website in the search bar. It didn’t load. In fact my phone short-circuited and started making noises. It became so hot I dropped it. The screen went black.

“What the hell?” I muttered.

I picked it up back and repeatedly tapped on the screen, pressing all the buttons. It wouldn’t turn on anymore. My parents were going to be pissed. That phone was my graduation present.

Can this day get any worse?

I went to turn the lights back on. I wanted to pick up the pieces of the cup I’d broken and see if I could fix my phone.

Though I turned on the switch, the lights didn’t turn on.

Okay, what? Is there an outage?

I went back to my laptop but the screen had turned off, too, and wouldn’t turn on. I started to panic a little. Okay, fine. I freaked out. I mean, what was happening to all my tech?

I was about to go out the room and ask my roommates if their lights were still on but I could still clearly hear the tv. I looked down through the gap under the door and saw light. Why was it just my room?

Something is messing with me. Does God hate me or something?

“I could not hate someone so devoted to me.”

Suddenly in the pitch darkness of a room without any electricity, a figure manifested over my bed. Before me stood the outline of a girl in armor becoming more detailed by the second. Her helmet left her face uncovered, but it was adorned with bolts of lightning. Her armor clasped tightly around her body and she held something like a trident or spear. Maybe it was a staff?

“The seed I planted has borne fruit,” she said.

Her eyes were fixated on me. I had recently come back from April’s place where the five of us had gathered to work on the project. And she had hugged me for a brief moment, so maybe her perfume was still lingering on my clothes. All I could think of was how glad I was that it would mask my usual musk in front of this ethereal being.

But she didn’t seem too concerned about that. Or even what I looked like. It was like she staring deep into my soul.

“I sense a great rift inside of you, Elfindor.”

“You know my name?”

“This rift is so wide, even I cannot tell the true nature of your soul. Hero, Sorcerer… maybe,” she said, cupping her mouth with a realization of something. “…Something else.”

I didn’t care much about what she was saying. There was a mystical babe in my room, gorgeous from head to toe, despite all her armor. But what was she doing here? In my room, of all places?

Wait, what was she was saying about hero or sorcerer? Was she manipulating the search results?

What did she want from me?

I could feel my throat closing.

Her eyes suddenly went cold and her face was expressionless.

“Elfindor. Because of your devotion, you have been selected for a trial. You will be transferred to another world with your soul and memories intact and inhabit the body of one of its residents. You will have the option to choose among those who are compatible.”

She took out something she called the Orb of Remote Viewing. Images filled the glass. They started to move. Like if I were watching a movie. I don’t know how, but I could tell that the people being shown who glowed blue were the only ones compatible with whatever nonsense this girl was spewing.

Hold on… is that a… world? Another world?

As if reading my thoughts, she nodded. “It is a world known as Trevia, over which I rule. And it is where you will go, should you wish for it.”

“What… would happen to my life here?”

“It would be no more.”

“As in my body would die?”

“Yes.”

I gulped. The thought of my parents finding my lifeless body wasn’t something I really longed for. Some might even call it bad.

“I see. So that is your answer. It seems I was mistaken,” the girl said. Her body began to disappear slowly. Her armor, face, everything was returning to nothingness.

“W-wait! I want to go!”

So I said, but was it just that I didn’t want her to leave? I didn’t know.

The girl returned.

Transfer Accepted.

Please select one more human to participate in the trials.

As those words appeared floating in the air in front of me, the girl’s body began to shine a cascading white and blue light. Her eyes shot out like lasers.

Huh?

I wanted to ask her what those words meant, but I could tell she couldn’t hear me. Her laser eyes shooting light were fixed to the ceiling.

Another human?

I scratched my head. I tried to imagine someone I’d bring with me. The first obvious choice was my mom.

Transfer Rejected. Penalty encountered. Select a human in close proximity. Five seconds before End of Cycle.

5…

4…

Huh? It has to be someone close? But there’s only my roommates here.

3…

2…

I don’t know why, but as I saw the counter flash to 1, Joey’s smug face entered my thoughts.

Transfer Accepted. Initiating Transfer.

A powerful light erupted from the girl’s body. It filled the room faster than I could scream for help. My body felt lighter, as if I were turning into a ghost. My self-preservation instincts kicked in. Everything in my body was telling me I’d made a huge mistake. I wanted to live more than anything in that moment.

But the color white was soon all I could see. Then finally, black.