James’ life had been going perfectly, or at least he thought so. He had been in his final year of undergrad, having taken only two years where everyone else took four. He had always had trouble understanding why others didn’t see the system the way he did. Classes for credits, credits for degrees, degrees for money. At least for the most part, he wasn’t some bleeding-heart idiot who wanted to study poetry or communication or any of that crap. Not all degrees meant money, but people kept choosing them anyway. Moreover, people intentionally took classes that didn't quicken their path to graduation. Saying they enjoyed the experience? What nonsense. Truly this world was a bizarre place and populated with bizarre people. And people, James had discovered early in life, we’re mostly just simple-minded herd animals.
But at least that world had made sense. At least he had understood fundamentally what was going on at any given moment, even if he disapproved or disliked it. Then, he’d been spirited away like this was some god damn Japanese cartoon.
It was the middle of the night, and James had been up late completing another inane assignment for one of his engineering classes. He’d taken a step away from his dorm room desk, now an acceptable size after combining it with the one that was supposed to be his roommates. James had seen to that imbecile within a week of term starting so that he’d have the room to himself. But as he opened his door to the glaringly bright fluorescent light bulbs, eyes snapping shut from the sudden brightness compared to his dimly lit room, he felt a sudden pull from all directions. Like his skin, muscles, bones, every part of his body was being simultaneously tugged upon trying to go anywhere but where they were.
His eyes fluttered open moments later as air reentered his lungs, like James had just emerged from a warm lake where he’d been holding his breath. None of what he’d experienced had been painful in any way, in fact he felt almost relaxed from the experience, but it had still left him with a profound sense of vertigo.
Looking around, the first thing he became aware of besides the intensity of the bright landscape around him, was the biting cold. He was dressed in gray sweatpants and a black t-shirt, making the environment around him of wind and snow oppressive in its welcome. Squinting his eyes against the sun- or suns as there appeared to more than one fucking sun- reflecting off the snow, James hugged his arms around him and began shivering as he tried to figure out what the hell was going on and what he was supposed to do.
He saw, far off in the distance, a neighboring mountain to his own, as he realized he was undoubtedly standing on the peak of some mountain. And there, on that distant peak, he saw the lights and colors of a town or city. Cities meant people, and people meant warmth and hopefully a way out of this mess.
But just as he laid eyes on the city, and just as he comprehended the need to get there, a small window appeared in front of him, and a voice spoke in his ear with what could only be described as obnoxious and intensely enthusiastic.
- - - - -
New Quest!
A New Perspective: You have awakened in an unknown place in an unknown land. You have limited skills, limited tools, and limited knowledge. But one thing's for sure, dying would totally suck! Find a way through the mountain ahead and get to the village in the distance for help. But be warned, you are not alone in this snow...
- Objective: Survive the mountains and make it to the town ahead.
- Time Remaining: 6d:23h:59m:53s
- Reward: Class Selection
- - - - -
James stood in silence for a long time after the narrator had finished reading the window in front of him. He was still shivering, still hugging himself, teeth still chattering. But his eyes never wavered from the words that hovered just in front of him.
Finally, dismissing the window with a thought, and seeing to his muted delight that it worked, James took one more look around. Yes, there was the town ahead, but if he didn’t get out of this cold one way or another, he would… There behind him, half obscured in the wind and snow, was the unmistakable outline of a building. Grateful for his luck, at least as much as there was at somehow ending up in a frozen wasteland, he stumbled his way there. What he found, though, was disappointing in the extreme.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
It wasn’t a building; it was barely even the remnants of one. Though it was slightly warmer as he entered the decayed stone structure, James was still shivering from the cold as he began to investigate the small singular room, he was in. One thing was quite clear to him: this wasn’t a building, but the top of one. He could see at the center of the space what remained of a spiral staircase that he assumed wound its way down to what was once the rest of the building, but which was now entirely buried in packed snow. He might have been able to dig the place out if he’d had several days or weeks with specialized equipment, but with bare hands? He’d likely accomplish nothing more than losing his hands. Other than that, there wasn’t much to speak of about the place. It was hardly larger than a two-car garage, and the shape of a hexagon with ornately carved pillars at each of the six corners. The slanting snow drifts built up to block all but the one entrance through which James had come, realizing now that it was actually supposed to be a window.
James turned his attention to the only object in the room to speak of: a small stone table that seemed to be cut directly out of the wall itself. Walking over to it, he tried to look and see if there was anything useful hidden or even just the remnants of a tapestry or something he could use to fight off this cold seeping into his bones. The moment he touched the top of the table, however, the carvings on all the pillars around the room, the eyes of what he now saw to be faded murals on the ceiling, even the snow in the staircase took on a faint glow of light, and from the table rose a small ornate black chest. Without even stopping to consider, James flipped open the lid, and was further disappointed to find a simple leather pouch inside about the size of a softball. However, what he found inside was an entirely different story.
~ ~ ~
Exiting the stone room the way he’d come James stomped forwards through the snow on feet losing feeling as he went. Before more than five minutes had passed, he stumbled across… well, he wasn't quite sure what he'd found. It was some giant bug the size of a watermelon that scuttled backwards along the snow pushing a giant snowball and was, for some disgusting and off-putting reason, covered in a thick layer of wool poofing out its profile.
Too cold to care, and just wanting to somehow take the wool for himself before he froze to death, James just had time to idly think “what the hell is that!?” before charging forwards to stomp it to death as quickly as he could. He got some weird haptic feedback at the mental question, but nothing otherwise happened as he closed in and began kicking at the tiny creature with the drenched and frozen converse he had on.
Chattering angrily at him, and snapping small mandibles on its face, the beetle stood up on its front legs and attempted to launch the massive ball of ice and snow it had been pushing. But given that it was right in front of James, he simply did what a part of him had really always wanted the ability to do. He pulled out the flaming katana like sword and slashed downwards in what could only be described as an amateurish and clumsy swing. Still, the beetle hadn’t been remotely expecting the blast of warmth that radiated out from the sword and was, apparently, stunned into inaction as the blade cleaved through not only the snowball but the bug itself.
Dropping the sword into the snow as it began to sear his hands, James was rewarded with another window.
- - - - -
- You have defeated Wooly Snow Beetle - 1-Star - Common.
- - - - -
- NEW QUEST!
Managing the Mountains: You have had your first kill! And to the victor goes the spoils. Before you're out of the cold, you're going to have to kill again. But at least this way, you get something out of it!
- Objective: Kill {10} 1-Star Monsters
- Progress: 1/10
- Time Remaining: 23h:59m:50s
- Reward: Cloak of Embers - Common
- - - - -
Quickly lunging for and putting the flaming sword away in his bag before it sank too deep into the snow as to be lost, James got his feet once more shivering from the cold. He did notice in that moment, however, a few other things that had appeared in his bag. Taking out the only one that really mattered in that moment, quickly stuffing the piece of wool into his shirt and spreading it out so that it covered most of his chest and torso. It wasn’t much, but immediately the front of his body felt, if not quite warm, then at least not as cold.
James looked at the new quest he’d received one more time, then dismissed it with a mental command.
This place was bullshit. This system was bullshit. A sword he couldn’t hold without developing second- or third-degree burns was bullshit. Only getting enough wool to cover one part of his body was bullshit.
But he knew one thing for sure if he wanted to survive this frozen hellscape, he’d have to kill a lot more beetles.