“Despite all attempts at unlocking the secrets of the first age, none have been able to discern any of its mysteries. Not even the most learned of scholars can tell you something as simple as how long the age lasted. The only thing we know for certain is that it came to an end with the rise of the holy empire.”

  -An unknown scribe of the empire of Eternal Dawn, sixth age.

  Andrea crouched behind a large boulder, her heart pounding in her ears. The beast was close. She could hear its massive body crashing through the underbrush, its snuffling breath growing louder as it searched for them. Her grip tightened on the hilt of her sword.

  Across from her, Kalic was pressed against a tree, his massive shield ready, while Naiome silently notched an arrow. The badgermole—easily the size of a small wagon—was far stronger than any of them by at least twenty levels. But they didn’t have time to debate the odds. They either fought or became its next meal.

  “I still think this is a bad idea,” Derek whispered from behind, barely loud enough for Andrea to hear. “Its perception may be weak, but it’ll sense mana the second I cast anything. If we do this, we need to be quick.”

  Kalic shot him a sideways glance, the scale-kin asking. “You want to try to run for it?”

  “No, I want a better plan.”

  Andrea’s thoughts drifted, barely hearing their exchange as something swelled within her. Her body felt different, lighter somehow. The familiar sluggishness she’d lived with for years—the weight that always seemed to pull her movements down, make her feel like she was running underwater—had suddenly lifted. Every muscle was alive with newfound strength, her senses sharper than they’d ever been. It was almost… overwhelming.

  The badgermole growled again, closer now.

  Without thinking, Andrea shifted her weight and stood. Her fingers moved on their own, drawing her sword, the steel ringing out as it left the scabbard. Her heart surged in time with her pulse, an electric energy coursing through her veins. She could feel the ground beneath her feet, solid and steady. This was different—something had changed. She was awake.

  “Andrea, wait!” Derek hissed, his voice barely reaching her as she stepped out from behind the boulder.

  Kalic and Naiome froze, eyes wide in shock as Andrea charged straight toward the badgermole.

  Naiome was the first to move. The elven archer leaped into action, knocking three arrows at once, her bow glowing faintly as she activated one of her abilities. “Guess we’re doing this,” she muttered with a smirk, teleporting a few feet away for a better angle. Her arrows flew, striking the badgermole in the flank with deadly precision.

  Kalic didn’t need further convincing. His shield clanged as he raised it, sprinting after Andrea. “Let’s finish this quickly!”

  Behind them, Derek muttered something about reckless warriors, but his hands were already weaving a spell, light forming at his fingertips as he prepared to unleash a barrage of magic.

  Andrea didn’t slow down, her focus narrowing as she closed the distance between herself and the creature. The badgermole turned toward her, its tiny eyes locking onto her movement. It reared back, claws ready to swipe, but Andrea was faster. For the first time in what felt like years, her body moved without resistance. She ducked beneath its strike and slashed her sword upward, cutting into its thick hide with surprising ease.

  It let out a furious bellow, but Andrea was already darting away, her movements smooth, graceful. This was new—this was power.

  Kalic reached her side, raising his shield just as the creature swiped again. The impact rattled him but didn’t knock him back. “You better have a plan,” he growled through gritted teeth, keeping the badgermole's attention on him.

  Andrea only smiled, eyes blazing with adrenaline. “I don’t need a plan. Just keep it busy.”

  Naiome’s arrows struck again, embedding deep in the creature’s neck, while Derek’s spell finally released, a burst of arcane fire slamming into the badgermole’s side.

  The fight had begun in earnest.

  ***

  The first thing Lukas noticed when he began to stir was a warmth spreading across his body. It was a familiar sensation—the sun heating his skin, ready to burn his pale, wintery complexion. This was strange, though, since there were no windows in his bedroom that allowed sunlight to reach the bed. He had made sure of that when he built the cabin. He shifted, attempting to roll over in bed and find his covers. However, instead of the soft rustle of sheets beneath his bare skin, he encountered the prickly sensation of grass.

  Lukas’ eyes shot open, and he was immediately greeted by a perfect, bright blue sky. The sun was high, nearing noon. It shone down on him through a gap in the large trees that created a ring around a glade and framed the blue aperture above. Considering he'd expected to wake up in his own bed, surrounded by the familiar walls of his room, he was more than a little alarmed.

  Sitting up, he glanced down at himself and saw that he was, indeed, completely naked—not surprising, since that’s how he’d gone to bed. He also noticed that there were no cuts, bruises, or markings of any kind, only a few scratches from the rough grass. Why there would be any bruising or cuts, he wasn’t sure, but waking up outside warranted at least checking. Satisfied that nothing was wrong with him, he began to survey his surroundings.

  His head barely poked out above the tall grass, but he could still make out the forest surrounding the glade. None of it looked familiar. Which was odd, considering he often hiked his property and that of his neighbors. Even stranger was the fact that all the trees around him were conifers. The forest near his cabin was deciduous.

  “Where the fuck—?” Lukas muttered, utterly baffled.

  Somehow, he'd woken up in the middle of nowhere, close to midday, in a place he had never seen before. How the hell had he gotten here?

  Frowning, Lukas’ thoughts shifted, and his scowl deepened. “If those two idiots did this, I swear I’ll bury them so deep in the forest that not even the animals will find their bodies.”

  It had to have been Johnny and Ken—those two assholes were always pulling stupid pranks around town for their ridiculous youtube channel. If they had decided to mess with him, they’d regret it. But how the hell had they managed to get onto his property in the middle of the night? He would’ve heard a car, and surely he’d have noticed any sort of light in the pitch-black forest. Even if they somehow managed that, how had they gotten inside? His cabin had one entrance, with a door designed to keep out bears. And they would’ve had to enter his bedroom—while he was completely naked. They must have drugged him or something, because otherwise, he definitely would have woken up.

  Gritting his teeth, Lukas growled, “Those two are dead! The second I get my hands on them, I’ll tear them apart!”

  Standing angrily, Lukas scanned the glade, half-expecting Johnny and Ken to jump out laughing, maybe even recording his reaction. But before he could unleash his fury, something popped up in his vision.

  Lukas took a startled step back, forgetting his anger. A weird black box of text floated before him looking like a command prompt. His surprise deepened when the box actually followed his movements.

  “What the hell?” He murmured, taking another step back only to have the box follow him again, he waved his hand through it, but it didn’t have any effect. “Is this a hologram? There's no way those idiots could pull off something like this.”

  Undeterred by the strangeness, Lukas moved his hands around the box in an attempt to find its light source. No matter what he did though, the box remained unchanged. Scowling, he glanced off towards the edge of the glade, looking for a projector. Except the box followed his gaze perfectly, as if it were imprinted right onto his eyes. Annoyed, Lukas shook his head vigorously, trying to dislodge the box, only to give himself a small headache and find it unshakeable.

  With a growl of growing frustration, Lukas read the text, hoping it might have some clue as to what was happening.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Title earned: [Prodigious Dimensional Traveler] - Your level means little to you and the boundaries between realities even less. For traveling from one dimension to another at a rank far below that of other dimensional travelers you have proven yourself a true prodigious dimensional traveler. Gain a resistance to space and dimension magic. +10% to all stats.

  As he read, confusion quickly rose, mixing with Lukas’ anger. “What the fuck? What does any of that even mean? Johnny, Ken, get out here! You win!”

  A minute passed and nothing happened. The sounds of birds and rustling of grass in the breeze were the only things to greet Lukas. He continued to wait, glaring at the forest around him as if to scare the massive trees into producing the two men. As he looked around his fury only grew, it was hot and vile, unlike anything he’d felt before. That was when he started to notice the changes.

  His head felt clear, incredibly so. It no longer felt like his head was full of cotton or submerged under water. Colors were sharp, crisp, and vibrant. The world was no longer dull and blurred. The invisible weight that had hung around his neck his whole life was gone. He felt light, and as though he could breathe deeply for the first time in his life.

  Was he on drugs? Was that what was happening? Had Johnny and Ken just snuck into his cabin and loaded him up with enough acid to kill an elephant?

  Despite everything that was happening to him, Lukas forced himself to assess his mental state. He ran through multiple mental exercises, doing math or tongue twisters all while tapping his finger tips to his thumbs. Hell, he even went so far as to perform a field sobriety test on himself. He was able to determine that he wasn’t under the effect of anything. The only issue was that he had done better than he normally would have. So the question was why?

  “What’s going on? What did they do to me?” he muttered, worry creeping into his words, “Johnny! Ken!”

  Lukas did yet another sweep, ‘They have to be around somewhere. They wouldn’t just leave me out here naked and defenseless. Right?’

  He stopped and stared into the forest as a terrible weight settled into his gut. He’d lived alone in the forest for a few years at this point and knew full well what he could find out there, or rather what could find him. He was still in North America, surely, even if he’d never seen or heard of the massive redwood sized pine trees before, he had to be. And that meant wolves and bears were his biggest problem, excluding smaller predators like foxes and coyotes.

  Lukas ran a stressed hand through his hair, trying to figure out what his next move should be, when the strange box made itself known again by blinking urgently at him.

  “Goddamn it, you’re still around?” he growled, feeling his blood pressure rising with each passing second, “What the fuck even are you? And what’s this shit about dimensions and stats—!?”

  As if summoned by his words a new box appeared, replacing the first.

  Lukas jolted, surprised by the even larger box. Was he going insane? Maybe he was dead. Part of him hoped he was dead. It would’ve been easier than dealing with the fact that he’d woken up naked in the middle of the forest, felt more alive than he ever had, and had strange boxes appearing out of nowhere.

  Running an exasperated hand over his face, Lukas moaned, “Oh, please fuck off.”

  And just like that his vision was free of text.

  Lukas froze, looking around cautiously, as though he might accidentally frighten the boxes into returning. When nothing happened, he allowed himself to relax just the slightest amount, that was one thing dealt with. But how had he been able to dismiss them? Could he control them with his voice?

  Furrowing his brow, he concentrated, what had been said that made the large box pop up? “What the fuck even are you?” he started tentatively, “And what’s this shit about dimensions and stats—”

  Once more the massive box popped into existence.

  “Go away?” Lukas ventured.

  And it was gone.

  That was progress, and Lukas felt the slightest amount of control return to his life. Whatever had been set up was voice activated, which was a big discovery. Maybe it was some kind of virtual assistant like Siri or Alexa modified to fucked with him.

  “Where am I?” he tried.

  Nothing.

  “Location?”

  Silence.

  “Where is the nearest road?”

  No boxes.

  “Goddamn it, is it broken?” Lukas complained, “Dimensions and st—”

  Before he could even finish the box reappeared, and this time Lukas decided to actually read it, hoping for more than the last box.

  Lukas Hellstrand

  Race: Human (Outworlder) - Level 0

  Class 1 - (SEALED)

  Class 2 - (SEALED)

  Health Points: 110/110

  Stamina: 70/70

  Mana: 70/70

  Stats

  Vitality: 11

  Endurance: 7

  Intelligence: 6

  Wisdom: 7

  Agility: 8

  Perception: 6

  Toughness: 8

  Strength: 9

  Willpower: 9

  Free Points: 0

  Titles:

  Prodigious Dimensional Traveler

  Abilities:

  Racial abilities: (Dimensional Traveler), (Tribute of the Fallen), (Steel gut), (Tongue of the Multiverse), (Stranger in a Strange Land).

  Lukas read, and as he did his brain slowly began to fry and shut down the further he got. He could feel his eye twitching and felt like he was about to have a heart palpitation. This was just too much. Something was going on, and it couldn’t be Johnny and Ken. Their pranks were never this convoluted, their most elaborate being to put someone's air mattress on the river while they were still asleep on it.

  He felt like his sanity was going to shatter into a million pieces. What was with the video-game boxes? He’d never played much himself, usually forced to by his sister, but he knew about stats, health points, and stamina. He wasn’t sure what to make of any of it, he wanted to believe it was all just some kind of prank, but how could it be?

  Despite knowing full well that finding a way out of the forest should be his highest priority, Lukas couldn’t stop focusing on the goddamn boxes. If he could figure them out, then maybe he’d be able to find out who had done this to him.

  ‘Class, resources, stats, titles,’ he read, ‘but what are racial abilities? Will—?’

  And just like that another box.

  As Lukas’ eyes roved over the new text, he couldn’t help but grind his teeth, “Oh, you read my thoughts too? This shit is getting old fast.”

  Racial Abilities:

  (Dimensional traveler) - During your journey between realities you have gained insight into dimensional forces giving you access to a personal dimensional storage ability. Gain access to a personal inventory.

  (Tribute of the Fallen) - After the slaying of monsters and beasts, your foes leave behind a tribute to you. Gain the ability to loot enemies that have fallen by your hand.

  (Steel Gut) - Finding yourself in a new world can make finding edible food and clean water difficult. Gain an increased constitution, providing poison resistance, as well as a decrease in the need to eat and drink.

  (Tongue of the Multiverse) - Throughout your travels between worlds there is no doubt that you’ll come across those who speak another tongue. Gain the ability to understand and speak all languages.

  (Stranger in a Strange Land) - Due to the mysterious circumstances surrounding your arrival in this new world some are likely to show interest. Gain the ability to obfuscate certain aspects of yourself under the gaze scrutiny. Gain the ability to view a personal interface. Gain the ability to allocate free points.

  Nothing. There was nothing useful in the wall of text. Sure it seemed interesting and whimsical, but there wasn’t anything that would help him figure out where he was, why he was there, or who had brought him there.

  “What is with all this shit!” Lukas fumed, “There is no way I have some inventor—”

  The wall of text was replaced by a grid of 56 empty squares. At the bottom of the box were a bunch of different counters next to strange icons, all at zero. What the icons were Lukas had no clue, and he certainly didn’t want to make any guesses. Hell, he didn’t even want to say or think anything for fear of pulling up more fucking boxes.

  “You know what fine, I’ll play along. You hear that!” He shouted to the surrounding forest, “I’ll play along if it means getting pants and going home!”

  Spotting a nearby rock the size of his fist, Lukas picked it up, and shoved it towards the box. To his horror it vanished, completely disappearing from his grip. An image of the stone appearing in the inventory grid.

  He froze for several seconds, his sanity cracking and chipping with what he’d just done. A ball of intense emotion was gathering in Lukas’ chest. It was made of rage, worry, fear, confusion, stress, and dozens of other things he couldn’t put name to. He was beginning to feel overwhelmed and he was about to snap if he didn’t do something.

  “Go away,” he whispered, the box complying.

  Clamping his eyes shut tight, Lukas took in a long and slow breath in an attempt to hold himself together. He wasn’t sure how long he stayed like that, taking in one breath after another, but once he finally felt like he wouldn’t crumble to pieces he opened his eyes.

  Fist clenched tight at his side, Lukas said “No more. No more of that. Existential crisis later. Right now, I need to find clothes and a way out of here.”