Chapter Two – 002For the second time in a day, he woke on a beach.
A firetruck blared into his ears, a cacophony of bells that rattled his sore head. He groaned and tried to roll over, covering his head with his arms. The tangy scent of his waterlogged clothes hit him hard, and he retched.
Smells almost as bad as that squid, he thought.
He lurched upright, suddenly remembering the sea monster. He looked around frantically, heart pounding with adrenaline. It was early morning, the sun just beginning to shine on the gray sands and dull green sea. There was a heavy mist in the air, as if the sun hadn't had a chance to burn it away yet, and it clung to the low places around him. He could see his left leg where the creature had grabbed him, the skin was blistered and torn. The same was true of his left forearm, and my god, they hurt so bad!
He held himself still, riding out the pain until he could get a handle on it. He focused on details to cope, running his hands through the coarse gray sand (why is it gray?) and noticed that both of his wounds had small, circular ridges where the flesh was torn.
Suction cups. He shuddered.
A bell rang brightly in his ear three more times, spiking the pain in his head but distracting him from his arm and leg. Then he saw it: a small icon shaped like an exclamation point was flashing in the corner of his vision.
"What is this?" He thought it looked like...No, that wouldn't make sense.
Looking directly at it was impossible, it kept moving to the side. He stood up, his legs protesting as the blistered skin stretched tight. He tried spinning toward the blinking object, but it'd dance away immediately. After five minutes, he had had enough. "AGH! What the hell! Open!"
And it did.
His vision was suddenly inundated with small blue boxes, semi-transparent and filled with large off-white script. He couldn't place why they seemed so familiar until he read one.
"No way."
The Continent Welcomes You, Unbound!
Choose Your Race!
This is insane, he managed, his mind reeling. It's like a game. What's an Unbound?
Dozens of names began to populate beneath the Race header, and he caught a few. Human, Elf, Dwarf, something called a Traxik. But then there was a stuttering glitch with the screen and sparks of crimson light bled onto the blue. Three notifications appeared in rapid succession, all save the last tinged by that crimson hue and accompanied by a droning tone.
ERR0R((#)! Extra Options Granted!
ERROR#12! Race Already Selected!
You Have Chosen: Nym
Nym: Will Unyielding, Soul of Fire. A Lost Race.
+1 to WIL, INT, DEX And END Per Level, +5 Bonus Stats Per Level. -5% XP Gain.
All Choices Have Consequences.
"What? I didn't choose anythi--"
Before he could finish the sentence, his jaw snapped shut as his body was wracked with Pain. Capital 'P' pain that hurt so bad it felt like his blood was on fire. Screams tried to worm their way out of him, but his throat had swollen and his lungs felt like they'd burst. That droning tone grew louder, more insistent, more textured; it rattled through him like a subwoofer had been installed beneath his skin, shaking his bones until everything just came loose. He thrashed in the sand, in silent agony.
Then, in an instant, it stopped.
The pain disappeared, as if it had never been, and his notifications cleared and repopulated.
Race Successfully Changed.
Prepare For Your Reveal!
My what? What the hell is going on?
Congratulations! You Have Revealed Your Omen!
ERROR! Omens--ERR-0R!
Omens Are--#F(=)
Y*% H*@V3 ReV$al$#: (#$ F00--ERROR
More red light, more noise, though each subsequent notification was met with more and more blue and gold. A pain slowly gathered behind his eyes, intense any only getting worse at each flashing box.
A burst of blue and gold sparks inundated his vision, completely obscuring everything else and drowning out that irregular static with the sound of a ringing bell. A single stout-bordered blue box appeared. There was not a hint of red to it.
You Have Revealed: The Magician
+2 to WIL, +1 to INT, And PER Per Level.
A wave of rainbow light exploded outward from him, like an expanding orb. It happened so suddenly, he could only watch as it whisked into the distance, a receding line that didn't touch the loose sand at his feet.
What? He looked down at himself, confused and slightly terrified. Omens? Magician? He didn't even know what that meant!
And then he did, as if the knowledge was shoved into his brain:
The Magician: The Will To Know.
That's...less than useful. He ran a shaking hand through his dark hair, slicking it back with an increasing amount of sweat. All of this had him covered in a flop sweat, not to mention the building heat in the air. He was overwhelmed. Whatever was going on had more rules to it than he could grasp. And that light show was...concerning, to say the least.
And the pain...it still tingled his fingertips, an echo of torment he couldn't shake. The pain more than anything had him sure that this, whatever it was, was all real.
But it couldn't be...could it?
As stupid as it sounded, even in the privacy of his own head, it felt like he was in an RPG or MMO game. Fantasy races, blue menu screens, magic and monsters...it all felt terribly familiar. Save that he wasn't familiar with the Nym race in any fiction, and the term "Omen" was also unfamiliar, though he guessed it was something like a class. If this was all a delusion, his imagination was smarter than he had ever thought.
In less than a breath, another notification popped up.
Choose Your Born Trait!
This time the window was populated by dozens, hundreds, then thousands of options. A scroll bar on the side of the notification window slowly grew smaller and smaller, until he could barely see it. The error messages didn't reappear, thankfully, and he found himself staring at more options than he knew what to do with. The growing list of options ranged from useful to downright bizarre.
Mighty Thews: +2 to STR and +2 bonus to any Feats of Strength performed.
Talented Voice: +2 to VIT and +2 bonus to all Negotiations with sentient creatures that share your language.