Chapter 2 Immersion

  Glenn awoke the next day feeling great. Better than he could remember in years. He had been having back pains for a long time after an accident at work. He was an engineer and had hurt himself moving some supplies when he was twenty five. It had been bothering him for a few years now. That pain was completely gone. Still lying in bed he said “Inventory” and pulled out all of the items one by one. The clothes appeared on him. He quickly put them back fearing blood staining them. He grimaced thinking of the sleeping bag, bedroll? The damage was already done though. The other items appeared in his hands. The food was standard Earth MREs which threw him off. Did that mean he was still on Earth? The gold on the other hand was in a leather pouch and had that weird pyramid from US dollars.

  “Best not to focus on that right now. I don’t have enough information.” When he called up the bow he was happy to find it came with a quiver and one arrow but every time he took it out another arrow appeared. They were hunting arrows with the heads aligned to go through animal ribs.

  “I wonder why I didn’t get a hunting rifle.” He thought. “Well if there aren’t guns here I may be able to get some made. I wasn’t a gunsmith but simple firearms aren’t too bad if I can get some good metal. That means people. Wait if this is another world which I think is likely based on the birds and plants I saw than it may not have people. So far I have seen no sign of them. “

  “Well time to stop avoiding the real issue, birds. They were too fast. They changed direction way too quickly. I don’t have any chance of leaving this cave with them there. Judging by the number of nests I saw there could be hundreds of them within just a few hundred feet of this cave and if each one of them is like that one I don’t think I can leave this cave. Sneaking past them could work if I stay under trees but judging by the lack of other animals I doubt I can sneak out. So that leave me with a few options. I can attempted to pick them off with arrows from the cave entrance or set a trap for them. Worst case maybe just start a forest fire to chase them off. I should be safe in this cave. It will also probably bring people to check it out if there are any. The more I think about it the better and better it sounds. It would clear the undergrowth as well. Alright next I need to see how video game like this is.” “Status.” He started to say but as he thought about saying it a window opened.

  Name: Glenn Cross

  Race: Human (Standard) Grade E

  Class: Scout (Lost) Grade E

  Level: 0 (0/100 EXP)

  Abilities: Map, Mark, Eagle Eye, Night Vision, Inspect,

  Stats

  Strength 10

  Agility 11

  Perception 12

  Intelligence 11

  Endurance 11

  Vitality 10

  “I suppose that sometimes being a bit of a nerd pays off.” Glenn chuckled to himself. Though something odd had occurred. He had known his stats before even reading them. Just like he intuitively knew what all of his Abilities did before he even opened them. It was as though the written text was only there because he wanted it to be. It was just easier for him to understand by seeing the information and so he did.

  Looking at his race and class he noticed they were graded. The knowledge in his said it would progress as some criteria was met but not what that criteria was. He also was aware that Grade 'E' was the lowest possible grade.

  He knew that [Night Vision] had kicked in when his normal vison would fail due to lack of light. He knew that [Mark] was the Ability that saved his life yesterday letting him know the exact position of the enemy no matter his position. He also knew that if he was in something called a party all of his party members would see the mark as well. He knew that [Eagle Eye] would give him telescopic vision and Inspect would let him see the information of anyone his level or lower or that had less Then half the perception he had. [Map] That one was special it would bring up a shareable map that recorded any places he had been and labeled them whatever he thought of them as. This had led to his cave being call Dragons Maw and the Forest to be labeled as Fucking Forest of Fowl.

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  As he labeled them he gained a full level for discovering both of these locations. Support class experience was increased for things tied to his class and reduced for combat. He received double for class activities and half for combat. All of this information was like it was in a memory waiting to be recalled. The key was knowing to remember it. He thought about every video game mechanic he could and nothing else came up until he remembered what that his class was Scout (Lost) and thought about what that could mean. As he did a new text box opened.

  “Lost Is a subtype of the class Scout. Subclasses modify the way a class advances including but not limited to Attribute distribution, Abilities available to select every twenty five levels, and future class choices.”

  “Well that is helpful I will get to choose new abilities at least every 25 levels and a new class eventually but that is too far down the road. Unless… I do have one selection available. It felt weird remembering something he knew he had never known before.

  Level 0 Ability Selection Available (1/1)

  [Stealth]

  [Tracking]

  [Cure]

  [Ensnaring Roots]

  [Animal Companion]

  Note choosing your level 0 Ability will also come with one Skill Book chosen from a random selection relevant to your (Class)

  “I need to choose something that is helpful to me right now. I am in about as bad of a situation as I can get in so long term planning is off the table. That crosses Ensnaring roots off the list that’s probably not helpful against birds. I know Animal Companion would require me to have an animal to train so it’s off the list. Cure would be great but I have those potions… wait.” Finally getting up he walked to the boxes with the potions in them and used inspect.

  Potion Health (Full)

  Potion Mana (Full)

  Potion Stamina (Full)

  “Holy Crap. These things are a damn miracle imagine the people that a healing potion could have saved and this came in a basic camping kit? I think the real question is where it even came from. No I need to stop if I go down that route I’ll sit here far too long I don’t have enough information yet just keep working.” He told himself while reopening the ability selection Glenn selected [Stealth] as it seemed like the best choice in the circumstances he found himself in. It would grant him the basic knowledge of stealth as well as a better chance at not be noticed based on his agility only using Mana when something would have noticed him without the skill. The higher the enemies perception compared to his agility the more mana it would cost to avoid detection.

  A new window opened upon selection. “Congratulations for choosing your first skill you have been award the Skill Book [A Beginners Guide to Vardova] Use of this Skill book will grant common knowledge of the planet Vardova, Including major locations and the names and uses of local flora and fauna.”

  “That seems too convenient. Unless I am not on Vardova. I mean if there are two inhabited planets there are probably more what would be the likelihood of getting a guidebook to the world I’m on at random. Also if I am honest if I were not in a horrible position I really would be leery of putting knowledge in my head any more than it already has. That said I don’t really have a choice. As he thought about the book that had been automatically deposited in his inventory a new window opened asking if he would like to use the [New Arrivals Guide to Vardova] He selected yes and immediately passed back out barely directing his fall so he would hit the sleeping bag not the ground.

  Dreaming while all of that information was being crammed into his head had led to some of the strangest dreams he had ever had. Landscapes of rolling hills passed in front of him. He was fully lucid but had no control of where he was. What he could do though was open his map. And so he did as the landscape raced in front of himself the map began to fill in. While it was too fast to accurately label when he saw a city He would name it City ‘A’ or City ‘B’ . This didn’t happen too often though and he stopped at City ‘H’. The cities he saw were large sprawling things though. With vast tracts of land inside some kind of large fortress like buildings all surrounding large areas of suburban sprawl. The few people he could make out were a mix. He decided that while it may be wrong he would think of them as the closest video game like reference that he could. Humans elves and dwarves were all present in different numbers in the cities but there were also others, beastfolk and birdfolk as well as golem like creatures. He was sure there were more but was unable to make them out. He suspected it was because this was only a beginner’s guide.

  By the time flora and fauna went by his map had most of the landmass he was on filled in. Glenn saw that most of the animals were like those on earth but different, bigger and fiercer. He saw what looked like squirrels that was until he saw that they had large fangs. Seeing them leap from the trees and latch on to some large elk like creature appearing to drink its blood. Vampire Squirrels might just be the most terrifying thing he could think of with a forest right outside his cave. He saw plants actively chasing a large sloth like creature in what had to be the slowest chase in history. The plants were winning oddly enough, no respect for sloths.

  He watched as a group of adventures hunted a giant gorilla with large boney spikes sticking out all over its body focused mostly on its back elbows knees and fists. The adventurers throwing fireballs and wide arcing sword slashes at it while someone in the back healed them.

  That was until the end. As the dream came to a close the vision moved to show his cave. It was already labeled Dragon’s Maw the nearby forest was only a few miles outside one of those fortresses on his map now. He was sure it was his cave, however, he noticed that he may have been a bit clairvoyant. Behind his cave were two more, and in those caves was what he could only call a dragon, massive and crimson, clearly taller than some of the trees nearby. Worse yet in the other cave he saw its brood perhaps twenty young dragons about the size of horses, tearing into several of what he now knew were Forest Rocs like they were rag dolls.