He screamed aloud, as the world as he knew it, became white light. Squinting into the ether, Rook desperately tried to swim, tried to flail, but eventually gave up as the shameful heaviness hit. Fuck, im stuck. What is this place? The thick moist air air around him began to hum with an unnatural energy.

  “This must be what the astronauts felt like. And now I’m talking to myself, wonderful.”

  Wait, am I dead? Rook pinched his arm. Yeah, it still hurt. Maybe next time I’m off shift I should sleep instead of drinking all night. The blinding white started giving him a headache so he closed his eyes. If the Army taught him any lessons, it was the importance of energy drinks, or nectar of the Gods, as it was more lovingly referred to. And to sleep anywhere. So he stopped flailing, placed his elbow over his eyes and began drifting into sleep.

  State Name.

  A blaringly loud voice rang out, scaring the colorful fuck out of him and bringing him right back into the white light. It took him several moments to recover, moments of spinning around looking for any logical place the voice came from.

  State Name.

  “State name!? What the fuck do you want from me?!” Rook yelled aloud, hoping to get a response from whatever psycho was in charge of this.

  Rook sighed and rubbed the heel of his palm into his temple. Wait? Name, if I’m dead shouldn’t they know my name? It seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere all at once, making as much sense as the white light did. It’s almost like it’s inside my head. He blinked, with a brain dead level of stupidity.

  “Who said that? This isn’t funny!” Rook called out.

  Invalid characters detected. State Name.

  Realizing it was coming from his head he sighed. “Rook.” He adjusted his helmet. “But I don’t see why that is relevant.”

  Name Rook. Class selection.

  The narrator said, words popping up in front of him in suspended gold letters, a stark contrast to the white. Great, class selection.

  Choose your class:

  Mage

  Rogue

  Warrior

  Shadow Walker

  Bard

  Pugilist

  Battlemage

  Necromancer

  Blood mage

  Mind Channeler

  Ranger

  Soul Search

  “Class selection?” Rook asked, breath hissing out his nose, jerking his head this way and that, in the smoky ether. He clenched his jaw, desperately trying to slow his heart thumping in his ears and his hands from trembling. “This cannot be happening.”

  Initiating calm

  A wave of serenity washed over Rook, and everything slowed. He was at peace and felt comfortable, despite the lack of gravity.

  Choose your class

  I guess if I pick Ranger, I would finally be Ranger-qualified like the Army’s resident alpha jocks. Nah. Pugilist seems weak. I’m likely to get killed with that class, and I don’t feel like seducing everything, so no Bard.

  “I have two different reasons for being here. I’m either dead and this is some kind of joke, or I’m in some type of Isekai. It would be cool to be able to fight and use magic. Then again, maybe this place knows better than me. Soul Search,” he said, and the list immediately cut down to two choices.

  Soul Search for class selected. Based on soul, Rook is best suited for Necromancer or Battlemage.

  Necromancer:

  Main summoning magic

  Necromancy

  Void Magic

  Spirit Caller

  Grave Healer

  Blood Magic

  Potential for class upgrades

  Battlemage:

  Main damage magic

  Cryomancy

  Psyomancy

  Pyromancy

  Aeromancy

  Attramancy

  Willomancy

  Obbomancy

  Shifomancy

  Scroll to page 2…

  Potential for class upgrades

  “I was not expecting that. If I choose Necromancer, I’ll probably end up in a cave somewhere, bringing something from nightmares to life. Give me Battlemage.”

  Class Detected. Pick an effigy to be born under.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  Effigy of power

  Effigy of strength

  Effigy of shadow

  Effigy of mana

  Effigy of the Ward

  Effigy of Fire and Ice

  Effigy of attraction

  Random

  I don’t even know what an effigy was if I’m being honest with myself.

  “Power, strength, mana, they all sound good. But what do they mean?” he muttered, and in a moment of immaturity, which he was prone to, he chuckled. “Might as well make the best of it, Attraction.”

  Effigy of attraction selected. Entering Yorthon.

  The words once again sounded like they were directly inside his head. Yorthon? Rook’s world shifted from snow white to pitch dark. That’s new. He began flailing his arms again as gravity came back. His body slowly sank downwards. After the initial shock of it all, he realized flailing his arms was just going to make him tired.

  As an Airborne qualified Soldier, he was used to floating down in a parachute–swaying, albeit sometimes violently, with the wind. This was not that; it was more like he was in an elevator descending floors, while also treading water. He waited there, sinking into nothing for what must have been 10 minutes.

  Suddenly, he was falling through a cloudless blue sky. The foggy interface room became a refreshing open air. He passed mushrooms as tall as skyscrapers. They were of differing colors, spotted reds and blues. He could see for miles beyond. There was a river that cut through a valley, between two mountains that rose above the fungi. The peaks were dark brown crags that were a night and day difference to the lush green forest that blanketed the rest of the slopes. The great mushroom caps appeared more quickly with his descent; they were broken in places, with what looked like large divots taken out. Next was the ground itself, bright, mossy. He descended as if he were riding an elevator from heaven. The speed was akin to how he imagined a feather would move. Thank God I’m not falling like a brick. Choose a class just to die from a fall.

  “I’m definitely not in Washington anymore.”

  Hell, I don’t know if I want to find out where I am.

  “The old man told me about edible and non-edible shrooms, but this. I mean, what about Empire State Building super-sized shrooms?”

  He finally reached the ground, and he realized all of the military gear he wore was no longer there. In fact, he was only wearing a pair of cloth pants tied with a thin rope.

  “Weird.” Rook smiled. “Almost like I’m a level one character in an RPG,” he said, words trailing off along with his smile.

  He remembered the voice that rang out from the ether. Name, class. Effigy.

  His knees felt weak. “That’s it, where in the colorful hell am I? And where are my clothes?”

  Rook took a minute to adjust to his surroundings. Whenever you’re in a new spot, get your bearings and use your senses. It was the best way to ground yourself, and he never forgot it.

  “OK, first things first, what’s the terrain?” Rook peered at the sky and scanned the surroundings. The forest was littered with mushrooms now that he really paid attention, there were small brown ones, man sized ones and up to the skyscraper sized mushrooms he’d seen on his way down.

  “Looks like this one might be edible,” Rook said, picking up a small white mushroom that reminded him of some he’d buy from the grocery store.

  You have obtained poisonous mushroom x1. Added to inventory.

  “Well, I guess not.” He tried to toss the mushroom from his hand, but found his palm was empty, which presumably added to his inventory.

  “Where did it go?”

  Confused, he patted the cloth pants, and the mushroom was just gone. Is there a way to access my inventory? This place smelled of earthy mushrooms and buzzing Insects from somewhere nearby. Up in the sky, far above the mushrooms, were birds, brown and with long trailing tail feathers like kite strings.

  “That solves nothing.” He looked down, he wore nothing but the colorful tattoos on his exposed upper body and the cloth pants.

  At a second glance, three black triangles in the shape of a star just beneath his collarbone. That’s new. They didn’t even have the decency to give me boxers. If I didn’t feel insecure before, free balling in mushroom land didn’t help.

  “Well, if I’m going to be here, might as well make the best of it. At least Knox isn’t in this nightmare with me.” Rook sighed, desperately wishing his friend were here to give him some sense of security.

  Just ahead, a beaten trail caught his eye, leading deep into the forest. He stepped onto the spongy path. Strange, this ground feels almost cake-like.

  “This shouldn’t be soft,” he said, before looking up at the towering mushrooms stabbing into the sky. “Right.” He shook his head, following close to the trees on his right until he heard the sounds of a bubbling stream. Thank goodness.

  “Who needs a map when you have good hearing?” Rook said, then gasped in surprise as a see-through parchment terrain map popped into view.

  On the map itself was a small red circle and a blue line making its way horizontally. There were giant circular outlines, which he figured were the mushroom caps. Rook squinted at the parchment map, concerned at the large portions clouded, besides the path he walked. He put the map away and shook his head. Am I in a video game? Rook’s mouth watered like he was going to throw up.

  “How big is this map? A better question is how the hell do I get out of here?” He asked the questions in quick succession and sighed. “What to do, what to do?” Rook craned his neck up to see the giant mushroom caps. “Do the right thing.” He brought his map back up. “I’m guessing the red circle is where I am; that would make the blue line the water.” I have to adapt if I want to survive. Make the best of it, and be the best at it.

  Current location: Woods of Sorrow.

  “Healthy, the Woods of Sorrow. I wonder if I can get closer.” The map began to zoom in until it reached his desired magnification. “Zoom out.” The map began scrolling out until the local map, where his circle was, expanded into a zone map the size of a state. Next to his zone were countless others; most of the map was greyed out like a locked area would be. “More.” The map zoomed out until he saw the globe. There were six different continents making a hexagon-like shape: Centrulia, where he was, Khazinmar, Thrakkamar, Marshspire, Colossus Peak, and Sylnaria. Above the whole of the map was written Yorthon.

  “Alright. Map off.”

  He turned the map on and off over and over again until he was comfortable enough to do so without speaking aloud. I wonder what other things I can do? Sunlight glinted off the curves of the stream. He bent over and smelled the water. There was no foul smell or taste, so he took a small pull. The refreshing water must have come from further inland. Taking another drink, he was satisfied.

  Hydration replenished.

  The narrator said.

  “Satiety?” Rook asked aloud, and a separate menu opened up. There was a screen with status bars.

  Hydration: 100%

  Satiety: 80%

  Current status- normal

  Rook looked at the top right of his peripheral vision and noticed there were three bars. Red, Green, and Blue. “Let me take a wild guess. Red health, green stamina. And blue magic?”

  The Narrator’s voice came loud once again.

  Hit points: 100%

  Stamina: 100%

  Mana: 100%

  “Perfect. What other stats do I have?”

  A light blue window popped up in front of him with bold black lettering in a script-like font. Not Arial? Wouldn’t cut it in the Army.

  Name: Rook

  Rank: Copper

  Effigies: 1 of 5

  Challenge Coins: 0 of 8

  Level: 1

  Experience: 0/55

  Core Attributes

  Strength level 3:

  Governs athletic ability

  Dexterity level 3:

  Governs physical actions, professions, and the ability to perform finer tasks

  Arcane Wisdom level 5:

  Governs spell damage and mana recovery capabilities

  Charisma level 10:

  Governs Persuasion, deception, and intimidation

  Constitution level 3:

  Governs overall health and stamina abilities

  There were several other skills listed within a category called core competencies.

  Core competencies

  STRENGTH

  Unarmed 10/250

  Blunt 4/250

  Block 8/250

  Dexterity

  Sneak 0/250

  Survival 15/250

  Alchemy 2/250

  Crafting 0/250

  Arcane Wisdom

  Pyromancy 4/500

  Cryomancy 4/500

  Psyomancy 4/500

  Attramancy 10/500