Chapter 3

Oskar Dorn woke up on burning hot sand, dressed in his three layers of cold weather clothing and likely on the verge of heatstroke. He didn’t move for a moment, though, listening instead for sounds of life or movement, setting aside his confusion to assess his new situation. The first thing he noticed was that the anxious feelings he’d been fighting were faint, almost gone.

Was it all in my head… or is this?

He shook the thought away as there was no answer except the sound of a steady wind far overhead. After a moment of listening for movement, he opened his eyes. A huge, bright red sun was directly overhead, easily three times the size he was used to. The sky itself was red hued, but nothing moved in it he could see, not even clouds.

Peeling off layers of clothing, he sat up slowly and glanced around. He carefully undressed, sitting on his jacket to protect him from the burning sand as he removed the thermal Long Johns under his clothes. He put his gray cargo pants and tight long sleeve olive drab green shirt back on. Oskar moved methodically, trying to remember how his body was supposed to work after the past day…week maybe, of insanity. His movement felt sluggish after moving at such impossible speeds for so long after going through that strange door. He stopped himself from getting caught up in the why, and focused instead on the world around him.

Looking around, what appeared to be a perfectly straight six-foot tall wooden pole was sticking straight out of the ground. Other than a single bulb of cactus almost covered with sand ahead, the stick-like tree was the only thing other than huge sand dunes and red sky that he could see. He stood in a narrow valley between two massive dunes that gently sloped upward on both sides.

Above the dunes, the wind was so severe that streamers of sand drifted off the top of the dune in distractingly clean lines. Upon closer inspection, Oskar saw a tiny dot of color in the sand, only noticeable in the direct sunlight as they streamed overhead. He looked at the sand all around him, and finally squatted down to look closer.

Upon closer inspection, Oskar discovered scattered specks of dark cobalt, very much few and far between. Straightening, his eyes strained against the brightness of the expanse above, and he spotted a smaller blue sun alongside the red giant in the sky.

The only thing worse than being stuck in a strange desert was being stuck in a strange desert with two suns.

He rolled his shoulders, missing the weight of his pack. Somehow, he’d lost it, or it had been taken from him, effectively sentencing him to a hot and miserable death. Even in this heat, a shiver ran down his spine as his hand automatically slid to the knife that was always sheathed at the small of his back. It was gone, too. His brother's keys were gone, too. Not that they served a purpose here, but it was the principle of the thing.

“Well, great,” he muttered and then froze.

Frantically, he slapped at his right cargo pocket. He felt the familiar outline of his T handle Allen-wrench, still wrapped up in a green cravat, and let out his breath in a whoosh.

“Thank God for small favors.”

At least whoever dropped him off here wasn’t a complete jerk, but it was an oddly insightful choice, leading Oskar down the thought process that he'd been brought, or maybe led here. Without that T handle, any issues with his prosthetic would be impossible to fix, and in this environment, would almost certainly be a death warrant.

He stood there taking stock, his mind clear for the first time in what seemed like forever. How was it that - despite being in a strange place he was sure wasn’t on earth - he felt better than he had since he’d lost Erik? He almost felt guilty without the ever present, dull ache. Getting out of the Marine Corps because of his injury, then out of the hospital, and then losing his brother had left him reeling and without a shred of purpose, or more specifically, a reason to even have a purpose.

He’d felt helpless, and he had barely enough time to process his deployment before the Jenga blocks had continued tumbling down around him. Despite this strange world and the months of Hell that brought him here, the weight he’d felt on his spirit was gone. Oskar knew his brother was alive somehow.

The nightmarish torture and Erik’s screams were something I couldn’t imagine, but it was him. I’m coming, man.

Oskar shook the sand off his clothes and made a small makeshift pack out of the extra clothing by pulling the waist drawstring tight and stuffing everything- the leather jacket, two long sleeve shirts, three pair of socks and underwear, and a full set of long johns- in and then zipping it all inside the winter coat. Secured, he tied the sleeves together and put it on cross-shoulder as he glanced around for any movement, still squinting at the brightness. After looking around at the endless sand in every direction, he walked to the bit of tree poking out of the ground.

The area between the dunes was harder packed, but along the fringes, the softer ground was going to be a pain to walk on with his prosthetic foot. He knew he’d better be very careful with the sand, not letting it anywhere near the socket that came up to just below his right knee. Prosthetics were durable, but generally made for civilized people in civilized situations. He was pretty sure he’d left civilized life as he knew it far behind him.

As confusing as all this was, he forgot all his concerns when he touched the wooden pole sticking out of the ground and a massive gust of wind blasted outward from the base of the small tree like a radial pulse. Had he not been holding on, the force would have blown him onto his back. As it was, he still staggered and turned his head away to avoid getting sand in his eyes- with mixed results. He gently used his scarf to swipe away most of the sand and squinted down.

At the base of the tree, a small, ornate chest had been uncovered, or possibly simply appeared as it seemed completely untouched by the severe environment surrounding him. He kneeled and reached out. With a click, the small chest popped open as soon as his hand made contact with it, startling him. He pulled his hand back in alarm, but inside there were a pair of steampunk looking goggles, which were a plain, matte metal, but trimmed out in a dull pewter looking color. Also inside were two waterskins and, of all things, a leather scroll case.

He immediately pulled out one of the rough leather waterskins and took a grateful swig, forcing himself to drink slowly enough to not waste a single drop. Some of his underlying concerns subsided. Water gave him time. Time to work out where he was and what to do about it. He put the stopper back in the waterskin, looking back down at the perfect box. The scroll case it produced had symbols on the outside that were completely unfamiliar, except for the name Oskar Dorn in elegant writing.

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Frustrated with squinting to shield his eyes from sand and brightness, he lowered the goggles onto his head. His eyes effortlessly adjusted, allowing him to see clearly with no discomfort whatsoever. He noticed the same strange lettering in a digital overlay at the bottom of his vision and it flickered faster than he could comprehend until the letters flickered and settled into English.

“What in the…”

_RAT1_Goggles AwaitingSync

It flashed until his eyes had settled on it for a few moments, and then noticeably faded into a subtle dot in the bottom left of the lens. He focused on the dot for a moment, and the notification returned until he looked away again. Interesting.

He looked down at the scroll and noticed that even in this extreme heat, his shoes were still damp from the snow. So… he hadn’t been out long, which tracked with how he felt when he awoke. If he had been out for more than a few minutes, he would have almost certainly become dangerously overheated.

He took the black and white shemagh he had been using as a scarf and wrapped it around his head to block the direct sunlight.

Sunslight?

He shook his head and stood, checking his surroundings again, when he noticed the lettering on the outside of the scroll case in his hand was now entirely in English, and it didn’t look at all like an overlay.

The Goggles were translating the lettering.

Oskar Dorn, I have chosen you.

He pulled the Goggles from his face and squinted down at the leather case, and sure enough, the strange glyphs were there, illegible.

More information that he had no way of parsing. That goes right into the “maybe this will make sense later” part of his brain.

“I guess the Chosen One gets two bottles of water and a stick.”

Pulling the Goggles back into place, he went to open the scroll case and, upon removing the caps at both ends, realized the case was empty. The case itself was thick leather, about 5 inches wide and about 8 inches fully unfurled. The inside was soft, like fur except for a small metal disk about the size of a quarter in the top left corner. His goggles lit up with a new notification.

_RAT2_Bracer SyncAvailable

/ Sync now?

A Yes/No appeared just after the sync notification, and he had to stare at the Yes for a full 5 seconds before it disappeared, and the notification changed.

/ Please place the Personal Unit Bracer (PUB) around your left forearm, making sure the contact pad aligns with the inside of your wrist.

It was a Bracer, not a leather scroll case, then?

He hesitated slightly, feeling silly, before wrapping it around his wrist as shown and made sure the metal disk on the underside of the Bracer was just over the radial pulse on the inside of his wrist.

_RAT1_SyncInitiated

_RAT2_SyncRequest Received

He felt a gentle pulse of electricity shoot up his arm as the device continued synchronizing and another notification appeared, just as confusing as the rest of this entire situation. He felt a gentler pulse on both temples, courtesy of the Goggles.

/ Global network not found. Initialize local network?

Uhhh, why not?

Oskar focused on the “Yes” for a few seconds and his Goggles flickered with added information as a "Local network created” notification appeared with a 2 beside it, and disappeared just as quickly. He looked around and noticed the small tree had a golden outline that looked as if tiny bits of electricity were shooting through it.

Unlike the lettering, the outline was an obvious visual effect to bring his attention to it. As he looked away, he also noticed a red indicator around his right leg. A damage indicator of sorts? He smirked as he looked away from the notification and back to the tree that had obviously caught the attention of the Goggles.

He reached out again to the tree and, to his shock; it now came out of the sand easily, off balancing him for a moment. Instead of roots, a sharp point revealed itself. “A spear?” he whispered to himself.

The rough surface felt good in his hand, as if designed for grip. Like a pinecone, the sharp point hidden in the sand had a thorny texture, and the whole thing seemed to shimmer for a second before solidifying again. It felt solid.

As soon as the spear cleared the sand completely, a genuinely concerning notification popped up, and Oskar finally let the insanity of his situation catch up to him with a short laugh.

/ Divine Weapon- Branch of the Omnitree obtained.

Synergy Detected

Unique Druid Class: Wayspring Wanderer

Accept? Yes/No

Synergy with what? A class? This place had classes? Like in a video game or Dungeons and Dragons?

Regardless of the strangeness, it felt genuine... real. This felt like the moment everything he’d been through led here. This new beginning. The tinge of fear that remained after he woke up disappeared.

He didn’t know what was going to happen to him in this place, but turning down any resource seemed like insanity. And so, having nothing to lose, he selected “yes.”

/ World Gambit Initiated

Step 1: Master The Magic Above

Difficulty: Hard

“What in the-“

Oskar was interrupted as he felt his body grow rigid. His arms outstretched as he became momentarily weightless. Knowledge completely overloaded his mind, but was gone in a flash. In that brief flickering moment in time, he felt a great need. A not-quite alien, but overwhelming need to grow life on this planet’s barren surface.

The loneliness he’d felt in his spirit for the last year was replaced by a budding confidence he’d never actually felt in himself. He’d seen it in Erik, but never himself. He’d never needed to be the strong one, and so despite the self-assurance he now felt, it came from a place inside him he’d never explored. He’d been chosen, which meant this world needed him, and something inside him responded to that need. To being needed. Especially by his brother, but this still resonated with some part of him. Despite being a new part of him, it still felt… familiar. The relentless wash of knowledge continued to pour into him.

With all the knowledge he now had access to, it all felt so logical, without self-doubt and conflicting emotions. Like he’d lived his whole life and come to this conclusion on his own. As if he’d grown to understand the world and realized he needed to guide it, and then someone had shown him that life to speed up the decision to do so. This planet was broken, and there was a path to change things.

And then it was gone, leaving a lingering longing for something just out of comprehension that faded over the next few moments. The only tangible thing that remained from the experience was the knowledge that the World Quest, or Gambit… was vitally important, and he had a part to play in it.

He came back to himself on his knees, unable to remember exactly what he’d felt so urgently, only that it was important. Something was poisoning this world, and the stakes were devastating. Uncaring, the PUB sent more notifications.

/ Language Integrated - Aletheia

Again, knowledge crashed into him, not nearly so much this time, but his mind was filled by a flurry of unfamiliar words and symbols, the torrent like a relentless drumbeat that grew faster and faster until he couldn’t separate his own understanding from the newly “integrated” information.

/ Would you like to know more about Rarities? Yes/No

Would you like to know more about Class- Wayspring Wanderer? Yes/No

With a sudden final buzz of electricity, a notification flashed across his screen somewhat dramatically, and the previous two notifications changed.

_SyncComplete_

// Would you like to know more about Rarities? Trust me, they’re super boring and mostly self-explanatory. No/Yes/No //

// Would you like to know more about Class- Wayspring Wanderer? This is the obvious choice. Do this! Yes/No/Yes //

Whenever he hovered over the “Yes” option on the weapon rarities and the No option on the class, it shifted slightly, making the smaller option very difficult to focus on. Great.

What. The. Hell. Is. Happening?

Oskar let out a snort and had to suppress a strong desire to laugh hysterically, pressure building in his head. The flash of hysteria gone, he blinked a few times and exhaled slowly. He wasn’t sure he’d ever recover from the last 6 months, much less the insane way he’d been thrown through a portal to his probable death on a planet that felt custom made to finish him off after the worst year of his life.

He could almost hear Erik’s voice in his head telling him, “So far. Worst year so far.”