Chapters 1-4 (Early Versions)

Chapter 1 - Strands of Fate

The war had started at the behest of the elves when they were still one people.  The First Children spoke of the great devourer, the herald of the end that would consume all things and leave this world a shrivelled, cold husk of rock.  They predicted that Mana, the god-gift which flowed through all things, the giver of life and the hope of the future, would be ended by this grave new threat.

- On the Cataclysm by an unknown Quassian Scholar circa 103 AC


The place between dreams and control is one where the imagination is free to run riot.  In my dream state, I had flown over vast endless plains of grass filled with giant majestic animals, walled cities filled with stout armoured knights, and a great blazing desert populated by worms that could swallow small suburbs whole.  A cold breeze played across from the open window, bringing with it the sounds of an awakening city.  The radio blurted out the morning news, the announcers' sonorous voice filling the emptiness of my small single room.

Lately the dreams have been growing more vivid, more real, I mused as I forced myself to get out of bed.  I almost tripped over a pile of books in my rush to the sink to brush my teeth, only correcting myself by flailing my hands to keep balance like some demented cartoon character.  Staring into the mirror I turned once more to the dreams, how stimulating would it be to live in a world like that?

After my morning toilet and getting dressed, I had a quick search in the mini-fridge in my room.  The investigation revealed a half-eaten chocolate bar and a loaf with mould merrily growing on it.  I quickly scarfed the bar down while hurriedly placing the mouldy loaf in my bag along with some books that I would need for the day.

Moving to the door to leave, I noticed a new letter from the management company of the building.  I already knew it was going to be asking me to pay this month’s rent which was two weeks late.  My last job didn't pay as well as it had promised, so I would have to beg or borrow money from friends this month, or heaven forbid from my parents.  Always I wondered how the management could charge so much for such a terrible room.  There was a leak in the roof and the room was permanently damp in winter.

Making sure to lock the door, I decided to take the long way to school through the park.  I passed a jogger going the opposite direction who was determined on destroying their eardrums with the loud music blaring from her headphones.  For a moment I could be sure that I heard the sound of an army marching to the beat of war...when the wild neigh of a warhorse was abruptly replaced by the harsh honking of a car in reality as a stray cat crossed the road.

Snapping out of my episode, I crossed into the park and was greeted by familiar birdsong.  Few people used the park at this time in the morning, and for a few precious moments it felt like this section of the park was truly mine.  Lately I had the recurring notion that my life had been spiralling out of control.  My recent break-up had done more damage to my confidence than I cared to admit, and it had started to affect my studies and my part-time job.  I replayed in my mind the phone conversation with her again, my curt "Okay," before putting the phone down.  Should I have begged instead?  Bought a present with my non-existent money?  Round and round the scenarios swirled.

Torturing myself with these thoughts I continued walking through the park until I reached a small pond.  Ducks swam lazily across the brown surface, quacking and occasionally diving down to feed, tufted bottoms in the air.  I noticed a few indistinct shapes of fish lurking in the murky depths.  Reaching into my bag for the mouldy loaf, I began feeding the ducks and fish.

A frenzy of activity whirled wherever I threw the bread, and I smiled as two birds squabbled over a larger piece.  I was just about to throw another piece when a large shadow appeared beneath the birds, a shape growing so suddenly I was forced to step back in surprise.  Something flew towards me and I instinctively closed my eyes.  I could have sworn I felt water graze my cheek, but when I opened my eyes there was nothing but the peaceful scene of ducks and fish.  Shaken, I quickly threw the rest of the loaf into the pond and took off.

Feeling disorientated I hurried to my lecture, making it with a little time to spare.  I had few friends and none of them had chosen this particular course, so I found my customary corner near the back and sat down to prepare.  My mind began wandering again to the dreams and my encounter in the park.  Overactive imagination, I thought to myself.  Too rich a diet of video games and fantasy books.

The history lecturer’s sonorous voice, as it had done so many times in the past, brought me back to reality.  I loved the subject and had already looked over the section of the text we would be studying, but the lecturer on the podium’s voice was just so monotonous.  Ever since primary school I had been gifted with great teachers who made it one of the more enjoyable subjects taught, but it seemed that I had lucked out in higher education.  It required memorization of facts and dates, but the main difficulty was giving these things life through good prose that answered the limited number of questions that could be posed in a concise manner.

Here again my mind was wandering.  An errant thought drew me to picture fields of the most brilliant emerald grass, a viridian sea swaying softly in the wind...

Grass...?  I could hear the whispering susurration of each individual blade dancing to the cool spring breeze.  The taste of the crisp clean air pervaded my imagination, a striking contrast to the acrid aftertaste of the city.  I saw a small hill with what looked like a large acacia tree overlooking it, a vision that would make for the most perfect of landscape pictures.  I yearned to go there, and one step later I was...back in the lecture hall as the lecturer continued listing the reasons for the fall of an empire.

I listened with half an ear to the lecturer, occasionally casting a glance at a girl a few seats away on my right.  Hair like burnt gold cascaded around her shoulders and framed a heart-shaped face with eyes of cornflower blue.  A cute button nose, a little upturned, was perfectly positioned above blossom soft pink lips.  I knew her name as I had heard her friends greet her once before, but I never had the courage to introduce myself.  Sighing, I entered an almost zen-like autopilot for the rest of the lecture, my subconscious taking in all the relevant data.

After the lecture finished I checked my timetable on my phone.  The next one would be in the late afternoon, providing me a little time to carry out a few errands in town.  With a smile, I was reminded that I had scheduled to play a game online with a friend later in the evening.  It was so difficult recently to find time to do things together as we both lived in different time zones.  But first I needed to go to the post office to pick up a package.

Whistling an off-key tune I made my way to my next destination to find a long lunchtime queue had already formed.  Patiently, I waited in line, part of the tune on endless repeat in my mind.  Finally my turn had arrived.  The cashier was a bespectacled mousy woman of middle years, hair tied in a tight bun with small streaks of grey just beginning to appear.  She pretended to carefully check over my details before handing me a small brown package and an invoice for import tax.  I grudgingly counted out the necessary money.  As an aside I asked her the cost of sending a package back to its country of origin.

With a sigh, clearly already irritated by my presence, she replied, “Well, you will have to choose between...”

“Choose!” a voice thundered somewhere behind me.  Eyes wild, I turned searching for the source of the voice.

“...will be more expensive but faster...” I half-heard the post clerk continue.

“Choose!” the voice thundered even louder, and this time there was a burning sensation in my heart and lungs.  It felt as if chains were constricting them, squeezing ever tighter.  I leaned against the counter for support as I tried to desperately breathe.  “I did take my medicine this morning, didn’t I...?” I panicked before remembering my rush to leave early.  Screaming a silent "No," as my eyes glazed over and I began to fall to my knees.  Some of the people in the queue behind me rushed to help.  The last thing I remember was the clerks' change of expression from annoyance, to worry, then to perturbing awe.  As the pain became too great, I felt something important give way inside.

This is what death is, I thought to myself, as I felt a sensation of falling.  I was travelling through a place filled with a bright incandescent light before I was wrenched into a brand new reality.  Suddenly next to me was...the girl from the lecture hall?  Cornflower eyes once so warm and soft now seemed cold, and the lines of her mouth and lips had become hard and unyielding.  A wave of disorientation passed over and I could hear a ringing in my head before her features fully shifted.  In front of me now was the perfect ideal of classical female beauty, like the ancient Greek statues of yore.  It felt so strange, yet somehow absolutely right.  As if this was fated, like the final piece of a puzzle finally slotting into place.

A perfect veiled symmetry of face and form.  Piercing cobalt eyes both familiar yet utterly alien under sheer cloth were framed in a delicate, now oval face.  Her loose gown, similar to a roman stola, billowed slightly as if floating in the water around a more luscious figure.  Beneath a lovely high nose, sensuous lips stained crimson hinted at the beginning of a playful smile.  With a rising sense of panic in my throat, I began to question what this experience truly was.  The encounter was so distant from anything I could have ever imagined in any vapid daydream.

“You have been chosen,” the figure intoned with the lightness of an angel, yet carrying an ominous echo of ages long passed.

Through some intangible power, I sank to my knees, overwhelmed by a mixture of absolute reverence and adoration.  I could not bring myself to raise my head.  I am not a religious man, but a small corner of my heart communicated that I was in the presence of absolute divinity.

“I am justice and you shall be my herald.  All that you do will be in my name.  You will be the avatar of my will,” the goddess proclaimed, for there could be no doubt that she was indeed a goddess.

My heart missed a beat with every exclamation, and I could do nothing but bow under that divine gaze.  Still, where bravery failed, panic and fear rallied.

“Why?” I croaked under the weight of the holy countenance.

“You have been judged and have not been found wanting.  A life lived without sin and in service to your fellow man.  A soul that is compatible with our needs.  Forged anew to be a tool of the righteous.  This will be our covenant,” she stated in a voice filled with total control.  I felt a burgeoning sense of excitement and forced adulation invading my inner being.  But still, the fear remained in the leftover hollow places of my soul, crying against the wrongness with every beat of my heart.

A soft warmth spread throughout, every fibre of my being was filled with purpose, and every word struck my soul with the force of a hammer.

A look of puzzlement crossed her face for a fraction of a fraction of a second, as if she was analysing all that stood before her.  A hesitant smile tinged with sorrow grew across her face and once again I felt my soul rise with joy as tears tracked their way across my face.

Lifting my face she spoke unto me, “But, let it not be said that there is no justice without mercy.  Though it will cost me greatly, you will be given a day to settle your affairs.  I am Avaria.”

The last was said with such lament that I was filled with nothing but shame; a being such as myself was unworthy of such benevolence.  Slowly I felt the warmth start to fade from my soul as my dream began to fade back to reality.  The peace was followed by a sudden and jarring sensation of falling...

The idyllic dream and sense of complete fulfilment were shattered totally as tendrils of shadows ripped across infinite universes…stabbing into my very soul, drawing me into a gaping void of utter darkness.  I flailed my arms and legs, seeking a way to escape whatever dire fate awaited me.  The maw grew closer as it drew me steadily in.  I struggled more, howling animal noises as I devolved into an absolute panic.  I sought the calm within the storm.  A flash of understanding swept across my mind as the tendrils bored ever deeper into my being; I was Avaria’s chosen.  'The goddess would surely not abandon me...'  I clutched to this fleeting hope before it was swiftly snuffed out as I was finally pulled with a sudden force within the maw.

My being was stretched and compressed before finally being spat again into the void.  Darkness was so absolute that it was more than just the absence of light.  As primal fear finally overcame me I sensed a consuming presence.  I could feel it breathing behind my neck, yet suffusing all around me; a paradox of being.  Yet the embers of divine revelation still flickered, and somewhere I found it utter the word,

“Who...?”

A voice rumbled with laughter which betrayed an infinite slowness of aeons and the volume of a meteor impact.

“What are you...Are you a god?” I squeaked as fear once again ruled my soul.

Laughter sounded again that evoked images of barren deserts and the death throes of dying stars.

“I am not a God,” it intoned, followed by a pause which held the time of the rise and fall of empires.  “I am a higher Truth.  The final Truth of all things.”  It spoke as I felt my very sense of self shredded, rewritten and analysed again and again.

“Avaria is a mere mortal and flawed concept.  She has Chosen and Claimed, but in her mercy broke the Rules.  She thought to prepare you from my brothers and I, to gift you sweet precious time to settle your affairs.  Foolish child to think that we would not notice.  No respite can be given in the Rules of the great game.  I claim you now child of Earth,” the voice exclaimed with all the dread of a dying world.

Sibilant whispers skittered across my mind intruding upon my consciousness, shaping it so that I might better understand the being and prevent my mind shattering against the cliffs of insanity.

The whispers, echoes of the great being, spoke directly in my mind with voices like sharpened glass.  Every word was a lesson in pain.

“We will gift you nothing but our curse.  We care nothing for your success or failure.  We will simply try again as this moment will fold into itself once more.  Know utterly the futility of your existence.  However, we will curse you with that which so often shapes mortal existence.  I give you pain, as a small reminder that here you exist for a blinking of an eye to the eternity of the cosmos.  Take this and know a fleeting joy, mortal.  The pain I give to you, you will give to others, as is the nature of your being.  The pain will guide your growth in your new world, guide your understanding.  An endless spiral of lost energy to chaos.  As it once was, so shall it all be again,” intoned the being.

Then an agony filled me across long moments, flaying the fibres of my soul.  All thoughts of the goddess burned away.  A moment stretched across infinity.  And all I could do was hear the hollow laughter of a thousand uncaring gods.




Chapter 2 - A Choice

I sojourn now in blessed lands of the Rawesan for a time, the birthplace of Her church.  Many are the prophets who venture into the deep deserts in search of guidance, but few return with the divine scripture.  Those who do are often blessed with the gift-spark and write on parchment, paper, or vellum the instruction of the divine that others may know greater communion with Her.

- The Fanciful Travels by Beron de Laney 376 A.C


As suddenly as my soul torture began, it stopped.  I sensed a shift and I was no longer there, but elsewhere.  With a sudden sense of vertigo, I fell face forward into what felt like earth and grass.  Curled in a fetal position, I whimpered as the aftershock of pain played across my mortal body.  Shadowy purple tendrils continued to whip across my consciousness, yet fainter now, slowly replaced by a plethora of error messages.  I kept on begging for the agony and torment to end before exhaustion finally claimed me.  I fell into a nightmare-fuelled sleep filled with visions of the deaths of everyone I had ever loved or known.

*

I awoke naked, gibbering nonsense to an uncaring universe.  Dull sunlight mercilessly pounded my senses as I tried unsuccessfully to raise myself on fever drunk feet, retreating instead to curl on a soft bed of grass.  Rocking back and forth to a rhythm known only to the mad, I chanted “Not real...not real,” to myself.  Over and over, a litany to a world that did not care.

Looking across the sea of green I saw that it was a grey and dark day, clouds pregnant with rain on the distant horizon.  At the edges of my vision, the hint of shadowy things scuttled back into the recesses of my mind.  Across from me in the semi-distance, I saw a picture from what felt like a lifetime long past; the imposing tree on the hill.  I was vulnerable, naked, and alone in a place known only to my madness.

Memories from another place smashed into my consciousness, a high trilling of sound flooding my senses.  I wrapped my head in my hands and closed my eyes, willing the world to go away.

As inexorable as time itself, a message played across my inner eyes in a bold script;

CHOOSE YOUR CALLING

Flustered I could not help but be drawn to the message, and as my awareness brushed against understanding new text was shown to me;

INITIATE and below another choice STUDENT

Just as I was musing on the incongruity of ‘Student,’ the text flashed static across my vision and there was a ringing in my ears.  The ‘Student’ option had changed to display ‘Acolyte.’  Could I get any crazier?  I felt instinctively that I had to choose quickly or there would be dire consequences.  I knew in my gut that the ‘Acolyte’ must be some sort of hidden class.  Those were usually harder to play but tended to have some real endgame advantages if you could master their skills.  With nothing else to go on, no wikis, guides, or even friends to explain the choices in front of me, I mentally chose Acolyte.

I heard a rumble from within as text blazed and imprinted across my mind.  A rushing sense of power filled me, a feeling of completeness.


STATUS
Calling: $%^& Level 1 Acolyte (v@ri%
Strength: 8
Dexterity: 8
Constitution: 8
Intelligence: 8
Wisdom: 8
Charisma: 8
Luck: 8


SKILLS & PROFICIENCIES
Pain Nullification (lvl.1)


SPELLS & MAGIC
-


GIFTS
-

Experience to next level 0/100


It looked like the user interface, or UI, of one of the many games that I would often play.  What was this?  Pain Nullification!?  Shock and indignation rose to the fore of my mind with this notification of a skill.  Before I could fully comprehend this, new numerical markers blossomed in the lower-left corner of my vision;

Health: 5/6
Stamina: 16/16
Mana: 2/6

Feeling vulnerable with my nakedness, I pinched myself to make sure this was no dream, then pinched again harder to draw a little blood.  "This must be a game, this can not be real..."  I felt my mind teetering once again on the brink of insanity, sibilant whispers reassuring me that it was real, followed by a far off scream of a distant divinity.  At the edges of my vision, I could sense the impression of dark shadowy tendrils, ever-moving just out of sight.

The pain proved this was genuine, I must be here.  Was this really the place of my dreams?  An escape from the meaningless doldrum of a pedestrian life?  The idea both disturbed and thrilled me.  Looking at my hand, I curled my fingers into a fist before straightening them again.  What power awaits me in such a world?  Love?  Immortality...?

As I contemplated the bewildering scale of my circumstance, the next message appeared;

New Quest: First Steps

My being was once again hammered by the importance of the message.  Finally forcing myself to my feet, I drew with leaden steps to the tree on the hill.  Barefoot, step by painful forced step I made my way to the place of revelation.  Arriving after what seemed an eternity, I drew a long breath and looked at the scene before me.

A majestic tree that looked like some sort of acacia but with bladed green leaves, with branches that rose from its great trunk like an accusation against the heavens.  A smell of strong pine mixed with lemon blossoms saturated the air around it.  Beneath its generous boughs stood a crude stone altar.  At its foot, fallen from its place, lay a stone carving of a female figure, a crude facsimile of the goddess.  “Avaria...” I croaked, somewhere between desperation and joy.

There was no answer.  Yet I thought I heard again the screaming of a distant female voice.  Shaking my head I wondered what madness on top of madness was possessing me.

There, an echo.  A tinkling echo of joyful laughter.

“Who are you?” I asked in a quiet hopeful voice to no one.

“I am Power Strike.”

Impressions of a female voice tickled my mind, a resonance close to my ear that left me shivering.  Renderings of war and conflict, the press of the melee, an image of a peasant bringing down a cruel warlord, and an unsung hero alone atop the battlements unleashing savage blows against unspeakable horrors.

A solemn note entered my mindscape.  A soft choir of angels.  A cry of anguish and salvation.  The music built up to a crescendo until there was a new voice.

“I am Heal,” spoke a motherly voice, exuding gentle authority.

New images were brought to my mind.  A man bleeding by the road only to be saved by a blue light, a dying man coughing blood only to rise again.  A hope to rectify a little of the pain and hurt of the world.

I felt the budding feeling of real, true hope.  Like a game I was being given my initial class skills, I enthused to myself, my heart growing a little lighter.  With these I could grow to be a mighty paladin, slaying all who stood before me, advancing in strength and making the world a better place.

Then something very wrong invaded the last notes of tranquillity.  A sense of uncaring, of change and hunger that knew no bounds.  Shadowy tendrils once again played against the edges of my mind, but this time demanding attention as they pressed firmly against my consciousness.

“I am Rust...” a voice uttered in a sibilant gravelly voice behind me.

I turned around finding nothing, met only with dark hollow laughter.  Images assaulted my senses, violating my sense of self.  A sword forlorn, rusting as a grave marker to a forgotten soldier.  Its serrated blade marked red with blood, corrosion failing to cut through the hide of a majestic beast.

Then a pause, pregnant with all the future of a dead promise.

Shaken but undaunted, I optimistically chose not to look a gift horse in the mouth.  Another skill, this one a little more dark and edgy, probably a debuff that reduced enemy weapon damage I thought to myself as I applied my gamer logic.

“But first...you must look...must look!” thundered the voice, now sounding a thousand strong.  I felt the shadowy tendrils force my attention to the places at the edges of my vision.

Curse of En^r*<y
-20% all starting attributes.

Gilt in black was an error message, the name of my curse.

“What is my name?” demanded the voices, insistent and wheedling.

I coughed blood as I was struck by a blow as sharp as any sabre.

“What is my name?” the legion cried again in savage demand.  They had grown ever more unrelenting with a wrath that spoke of the last death throes of a supernova, the echoes of the silence of the grave.  Visions of the dead, rotting flesh and the slow decay of alien civilisations filled my consciousness.

“I don’t know!” I wailed to the uncaring voices, my voice harsh as I screamed with all my might.

“What is my name?  What is my name?  What is my name?” again and again, each utterance a hammer blow to my psyche.  New visions now of the cosmos, explosions of light, the scattering of the stars, the cruel end of all things.  The heat death of the universe.

I saw that my Health was failing as it plummeted.  A flash of inspiration struck me then, fuelled by utter desperation.  “...An endless spiral of lost energy to chaos”, a fragment of a half remembered communion with the ultimate end of all things.

“Entropy...you are Entropy!” I cried in a last gasp bid to live.

Impressions of a smile, a tear in reality a galaxy-wide, as the true name of my curse was revealed;

Curse of Entropy
-20% all starting attributes.

A myriad of new system messages then flashed across my vision with the cessation of the pain.  Finally I saw a simple line of text at the end that made me smile in satisfaction as darkness once again claimed one of their own;

Quest Complete




Chapter 3 - Struggle

The diviners and the truth seers of the elves called for war against a small country far to the west, across the Untouched Sea, ruled by a mage-king they divined would bring about the end-times.  The High King of the elves, acknowledging the words of the prophecy, sent his envoys to the realms of man and throughout the civilized lands.

- On the Cataclysm by an unknown Quassian Scholar circa 103 AC


I awoke still naked, sodden, and shivering.  Teeth rattled in my skull as I futilely fought against the cold.  My earlier joy at being transported to a new world had now mostly evaporated.  This world was full of pain and suffering greater than anything I had known in the old world.  My discomfort demanded that I look with my inner gaze to the notifications;

100 Experience gained.
New Skill: Power Strike (lvl.1)
New Spells: Heal (lvl.1), Rust (lvl.1)
Level 2 attained - 3 unassigned attributes have been distributed automatically.


STATUS
Calling: $%^& Level 2 Acolyte of Avaria
Strength: 8
Dexterity: 8
Constitution: 9
Intelligence: 8
Wisdom: 8
Charisma: 8
Luck: 10


SKILLS & PROFICIENCIES
Pain Nullification (lvl.1)
Power Strike (lvl.1)


SPELLS & MAGIC
Heal (lvl.1)
Rust (lvl.1)


GIFTS
Curse of Entropy -20% all starting attributes.

Experience to next level 100/220


I scrambled closer to the tree, sitting against its hard trunk.  Gathering myself, I closed my eyes and tried to draw a deep even breath.  Gazing to the bottom left corner of my vision where my Health, Stamina and Mana were represented, I scanned my new status;

Health: 5/13
Stamina: 14/16
Mana: 4/6

My thoughts scattered as I realised my Health was just over a third, really more when I thought about it...no, just under half.  This must be responsible for the stabbing pain that throbbed all over my body.  Incomparable of course to the banquet of agony that I had gorged on previously.  I noticed the irony that two of my randomly assigned points were allocated to Luck.  This was my new reality it seemed.  I was stuck in a cursed game that felt like a thousand other games I had played across my life.

I could not stifle a manic laugh that possessed my body.  Great shakes filled me with pain as the madness tore through my being.  My hysteria ceased abruptly when I realised my Health had dropped by one point.  I was going to die here.  Ripped across time and space to die to exposure under a tree in this unknown and alien world.  I needed to think rationally before insanity overtook me again.

I needed to regain Health.  My eyes darted, panic drove a manic scramble of my thoughts as I desperately sought something to save me from this predicament.

“Heal!” I desperately shouted, willing something, anything, to save me.

A pulling sensation shifted energy through my body, followed by a hint of soft warmth, then nothing.  Echoes of absolutely nothing.  It would appear that my spell had failed.  I cried tears of frustration at the futility of it all.  Magic was tantalisingly out of reach.  "What can I do?" I puzzled to myself as despair began to rise again.

Unbidden returned memories of a mathematics lesson once long-forgotten.  My mind reviewed the calculations involved with factoring, polynomials, and double-decked equations.  I smiled brusquely; I was never good at mathematics but I was surprised about how much I was able to comprehend in my new mental state.

You have gained 1 Intelligence

The message floated across my vision.  Incredulously I looked at my status, noticing that despite no change to my maximum Mana, I had increased a point of my available Mana to five.  "What did this all mean?" I wondered to myself as another dull wave of pain hit me.

Shivering I rose on shaky legs, leaning against the tree to survey my surroundings.  Under the tree lay the familiar sight of the dilapidated altar with the fallen statue of the goddess.  Yet as he looked down at his feet he noticed something unfamiliar; a bundle of rough-spun cloth.

"The third person, I must be losing it..."

I gathered the bundle to myself and opened it.  Inside was a coarse robe of a similar fabric to the cloth bundle.  Hastily I scrambled to put the robes on my still shivering body, ignoring the itchy sensation that reminded me of sackcloth.  Finally tying the robe closed, an immediate sense of security stirred me.  A tear tracked down my face as the constant hum of vulnerability finally lessened, if only moderately.

I grit my teeth and forced myself to focus.  The world I was in resembled a game, and I had played many games.  There were rules and I needed to find and test every aspect out as soon as possible.  I wanted to live, in defiance of all the suffering I had experienced.  Hands still shaking, I whimpered in pain.

My available Mana had risen to five now from four.  Perhaps I needed more Mana to cast the spell or was the earlier dull pain the result of a miscast?  Some games I knew had a chance of spell failure, especially for novice magic users.  Last time I had definitely felt something when I tried to cast Heal, and I refused to give up.  “Heal!" I shouted out to the world, willing myself to be made whole.  Once again I felt a power shift slowly and flow sluggishly through me, yet this time an unpleasant ripping sensation coursed my insides.  This was followed by a pleasant sensation of healing warmth.  My Mana had bottomed out to zero, but my Health had increased by two points.  I now had exactly half of my Health.

Everything felt such a burden, my earlier enthusiasm was fleeing from me as I was assaulted by a painful attack on my mind.  Stabbing needles beat against my brain as I wearily struggled back to the tree and sat.  My breath began to slow.  I fought against closing eyelids that weighed like a mountain, remembering a platitude from a previous life before they shut.

“The serenity to accept the things that you can not change,” I whispered as a troubled sleep came over me.  How apt...

You have gained 1 Wisdom




Chapter 4 - Growth

When facing a manticore it is prudent to note that the beast has little to no blindspots.  The scaly hide is dense and thick and will repel most non-magical weapons, though across the belly one’s weapon may find purchase.  One must also observe that despite being a beast it has some capability with the arcane, with an ability to cast elemental magics from the fire and ice domains.  I would recommend a party of a least five highly skilled adventurers to best one of these fearsome creatures.

- Monsters of the Mortal Realms by K. D. Fidditch


Groggily I woke to the night.  Above, stars shone in the sky like a sparkling beautiful tapestry gilt with soft silver.  My eyes wandered to the heavens and I saw a single oversized blue moon through the boughs of the tree.  Squinting, I fancied I could perceive great craters on the large moon’s surface.  Its light bathed the world with a soft ethereal glow in blues and silver, and the grass rustled to the chilly night breeze.

I pulled my thoughts from the stunning beauty that surrounded me.  Slowly I hugged my knees to my chest, trying to draw some warmth from the bitter cold.  Shivering, I forced myself to look across my notifications, confirming the changes to my character.  I noticed that despite gaining one Wisdom my maximum Mana had not changed yet.  Still, I was standing now at the full six points of Mana.  Perhaps the Wisdom attribute affected Mana regeneration?  More importantly, I breathed a sigh of relief as I noticed my Health had climbed to an eight after my indeterminable rest and the painful healing spell.  I had also gained a mystery skill ‘Endure’ in my sleep which was at level one.


STATUS
Calling: $%^& Level 2 Acolyte of Avaria
Strength: 8
Dexterity: 8
Constitution: 9
Intelligence: 8
Wisdom: 9
Charisma: 8
Luck: 10


SKILLS & PROFICIENCIES
Pain Nullification (lvl.1)
Power Strike (lvl.1)
Endure (lvl.1)


SPELLS & MAGIC
Heal (lvl.1)
Rust (lvl.1)

GIFTS
Curse of Entropy -20% all starting attributes.

Experience to next level 100/220

Health: 8/12
Stamina: 14/16
Mana: 6/6

I was hesitant to try Heal once again.  In some games, the system punished you if you ever reached zero in a statistic.  A lack of Stamina would mean you lost the ability to move, depleted Mana stymied your ability to cast spells, and having zero Health meant, most obviously, that you died.  I didn’t want to die and I was willing to brave the pain again.  I tried to think of it as having a very painful injection shot.  I hoped the pain from the previous time was a side effect of bottoming out my Mana.

Wincing at the expected suffering to come I gingerly said “Heal,” and willed the spell to restore me.  Once again I felt a shift of some sort of energy and an uncomfortable pulling sensation.  Expecting daggers to assault my mind, I scrunched up my eyes and closed my fists tight.  A comforting warmth filled me, but there was no pain.  Looking down at my status I saw that my Health had risen a further two points to a much safer ten.  I breathed deeply as tension fled my body.  My Mana had fallen to one; I felt a little woozy but there was no hateful pain.

Fighting a wave of mental fatigue I tightened my robe and rose to my feet.  No doubt that if this was a game world, then this robe represented my pathetic starting gear.  The mystery skill was to be investigated later.  A growling in my stomach and dryness in my throat reminded me of my immediate and more pressing needs.

Searching around the stone shrine I was prompted with another Quest;

Restore the Shrine of Avaria?  Yes/No

"No," I thought to myself, dismissing the notification from my inner eye.  I owed nothing to the ‘goddess’ who tore me from my comfortable life and thrust me into a world filled with pain and suffering.  I needed to find food, water, and some form of protection.  I shivered as I remembered my encounter with Avaria in another life.  The cold realisation that she had all but stripped me of my will with feelings of forced adulation; deigning to mould me as a mere instrument of her awful indomitable will.

With the moon high in the sky, there was more than enough light to see.  Searching around the altar I found a broken spear.  It was split and broken about halfway up the haft.  The spear point seemed to be made of sharp stone bound to the half by sinew.  I had one of man’s oldest and trusted tools as a weapon.  Buoyed by my discovery I searched more of the area, revealing a rolled up piece of leather parchment tied with what looked like rawhide string.

Untying the cord I noticed that there were further knots on the string at varying points down its length.  I slowly unravelled the cloth under the moonlit sky, wondering if there was enough light to see by.  I was not to be disappointed.

Written across animal hide, esoteric symbols glowed a dull red.  Fractals and other mind-boggling geometric shapes writhed and changed across the surface.  I traced my fingers across the shapes awed by what I saw, feeling an electric sensation playing across their tips.  A smile unbidden rose to my face as a voice whispered and a notification flashed across my inner eye;

Learn the spell Identify?  Yes/No

“Yes!” I shouted with joy, the inner child and gamer within me feeling a rush of accomplishment.

Another presence made itself felt with images of mouldy tomes in a forgotten library, an explorer holding a torch searching the dark ruins of a long lost civilization, and a wise sage pouring over a mountain of scrolls.

“I am Identify.  Call and the mysteries of this world you will know,” whispered an echo of a scholarly voice fading into nothing in the recesses of my mind.

The esoteric symbols stopped moving, their glow fading as the scroll began to crumble to dust.

You have learned Identify (lvl.1)

Finally a success in this inscrutable new world.  I dared not cast this new spell, memories of my previous agony still haunting me.  I decided to wait until I had achieved full Mana once again.

Giving myself a mental pat on the back, I began humming the victory tune from my favourite game.  Though I knew my night was far from over.  I needed to explore my surroundings more.

Walking behind the altar I saw a sight that brought relief to my weary soul.  At the foot of the hill, I saw a small pond glistening silver.  "Water," I thought as I licked dry and parched lips, before noticing small shapes moving around the shore and moonlit waters.

I clutched both halves of the broken spear to my chest as I cautiously moved down the hill at a half-crouch.  My heart beating in my chest, I stopped perhaps forty paces before the pond.  There I saw dark fish-like shapes about half a metre high and two metres long with high crested dorsal fins.  On the far side, some were swimming lazily in the pond, while others basked in the moonlit glow making odd yet undeniably musical gurgling mating calls.  The creatures reminded me of mudskippers that I once saw in a nature documentary.

So alien was the scene in front of me that I took pause.  As quietly and as silently as I could, I lowered myself to the ground.  Crawling along the soft moist grass I edged ever closer to the pond.  Thirst drove my actions as I finally reached its edge.  From earth and grass, my hands quested forwards and found fine-grained sand before the water.

Resisting the all-conquering thirst for a moment, I peered at my reflection in the water, hazy in the moonlight.  Wild frazzled short hair framed a gaunt clean-shaven face.  It was hard to see, yet everything felt even more real than my old world.  It was as if everything was set to a higher resolution.  Gingerly I touched my face before a small wave disturbed my crystalline reflection.

Snapping out from my reverie, hands cupped I drank from the silvery water.  Slurping quickly, uncaring to the world, sweet blessed relief as I slaked my thirst.  I continued to drink heavily as another small wave lapped against the shore of the pond, this time one not of my own making.

A few paces away from me two googly eyes on miniature stalks rose up from the water.  Bubbles formed where its mouth would be before a ball of water shot with great speed towards me.  I flinched and ducked down to the ground, making myself as small as possible as the solid ball of liquid passed over me.  A moment later I heard its splash as it landed somewhere behind me.  Adrenaline flooded my system, my fingers gripping my scavenged weapons.

This close to the creature I felt an equal mixture of sudden surprise, wonder, and fear, which was soon overridden by a another scathing hot emotion.  Perhaps it was the constant agony that I had been suffering, or possibly the frustration against an uncaring universe, but in that moment I felt a rage I had never felt before.  Hot anger boiled within me screaming for an outlet as I scrambled to my feet, launching myself at the oversized fish.  My eyes rapidly scanned over the piscine form, the size of large wolfdog, looking for places to attack.  I loudly splashed into the waters, breaking the serene tranquillity of the night as I struck, stabbing with the half-spear in my left and swinging the broken haft like a club with my right.  As I engaged the strange creatures I noticed new bubbles had formed again just below the surface.

A part of me registered the surprise drawn infinitesimally slowly on the fish’s face as my twin blows hit it with a force filled with all of my desperation.  The fish creature made a gurgling scream as it reactively launched another ball at my midsection.  At this range, the creature could not miss and it felt like a cricket ball had impacted my chest.  The pain only spurred my frenzy to greater heights as I repeatedly stabbed and clobbered the creature with both halves of my scavenged spear.  A dark purplish film stained the roiling waters as the creature turned tail to flee as I gave a last savage twist with the spearhead.

Panting heavily I noticed more of the foul creatures making their way towards me, entering the pond and swimming with considerable speed.  I ran with desperation from the water, drawing rapid panicked breaths.  My robes were cold, sodden and heavy.  I heard splashes on the ground to my left and right, before one of the water balls clipped me on the left shoulder, almost making me drop the half-spear.  I doubled my pace as I struggled up the hill, sparing a glance at my status within my inner eye.  My Stamina was around half and my Health stood at just under two thirds.  A final dash led me to hide behind the tree as I peered down at the ugly fish creatures below.

I gave silent thanks that they moved slowly on land.  They seemed to have stopped near the bottom of the hill, a scant few metres from the shore.  Panting I continued to look at them, willing them to withdraw.  After what seemed like an eternity, but what could have been mere minutes, they turned back as one towards the pond, slipping once again into its silvery waters.

I cried, breathing a long sigh of relief before new notifications flashed before me, bringing a sly grimace to my lips;

You have slain ??? 10 experience gained
You have gained 1 Dexterity
You have gained 1 Strength
You have learned Stealth (lvl.1)

It seemed that today I did get the one that got away.