Zig was walking home on a Thursday. Not even a special day. A Thursday. And suddenly his foot landed on sloped gravel instead of flat concrete. He almost tripped. His ears felt really funny, like he'd changed elevation. The air smelled different. Zig had a weird feeling in his stomach, suddenly aware of something that wasn't there before. Oh yea, and instead of a suburban street he was halfway up a mountain.

  People react differently to stepping into an entirely different world. Some might scream and shout, throw up, demand a lawyer, pinch themselves, or simply shut their eyes and wait for things to go back to normal. Zig did all of these things. Eventually he just sat there on the side of a mountain. Minutes passed. Hours? Nothing changed. A worry started to take root.

  What if I get hungry, thirsty?

  Zig didn't do well that first day. Alternating between existential crisis and trying to find food or water. Near the end of the day he stumbled across a small stream with a little pool. He almost cried, grabbing handfuls of water and drinking it down. It was very cold. Zig was in paradise, for all of three minutes before he was attacked. He heard a quiet yowling getting louder, turned and saw a rabbit charging straight at him. It was terrifying. Far more teeth and fury than a little rabbit should have. Both rabbit and boy fell screaming and clawing at each other. Zig could feel tiny claws poking through the soft pads of the rabbit's feet, ripping at his skin and drawing lines of blood. It was psychologically distressing to say the least. As they tumbled around the rocks, his arms and legs grew slippery with blood smearing everywhere. Eventually, Zig reached out and grabbed a rock lying on the ground. He swung wildly, and got a lucky blow. There was a muted crack, a squeak, and the rabbit fell limp.

  Zig lay there panting. Trying to understand that a rabbit just tried to murder him. Trying to understand that he was cold and hungry and this weird mountain experience wasn't going away. Trying to understand the voice buzzing inside his head.

  You have slain a mountain rabbit!

  New skill acquired!

  Weapon proficiency - Rock (Basic)

  Another existential crisis. Notifications? Skills? Some kind of game? Zig looked around at all the rocks surrounding him. Each one now a deadly weapon in his hand. He knew that a second rabbit wouldn't stand a chance. Probably. Zig went to the stream, but the water was too cold to bathe, so he just washed off the worst of the blood. Then he looked at the dead rabbit. He needed food. The pelt was probably nice and warm too. There was a problem. Zig didn't have a fire, nor a knife, nor knowledge on how to skin and cook a rabbit.

  Zig swore softly. He wasn't some outdoor survival adventure man. He was a 17 year old kid. His hobbies included eating junk food and playing games. Oh he could survive if this were a game. If this were a game, he'd simply tap a few buttons and somehow there'd be a fire and a roasted rabbit. But this wasn't. Or at least, the hunger felt real. The blood and scratches definitely felt real. He couldn't stay here, he needed to find people.

  Zig left the rabbit where it was, and started following the stream downhill. At least he had a source of water. The mountain was big. "Big" is too small a word. Zig walked for hours, looked around, and realized he was still halfway up the mountain. Anxiety and hunger grew together. The only thing that kept him sane was the hope that very, very far away at the base of the mountain it seemed like there was some kind of city. Zig couldn't see very well, but as the sunlight faded he saw the glow of a thousand lights. Not streetlights. Fires. Zig could see them flickering, and smoke rose above the city, into the night sky. Zig kept walking, trying to pretend he would make it before nightfall.

  He wasn't even close. When the last bit of light left, Zig had seen that it wasn't a city at all, but what looked more like a large nomadic tribe of people. There weren't buildings, just the people and the fires, maybe tents? It was still far away. Zig would have to sleep on the mountain. In the cold. He tried to find a comfortable looking patch of rocks, but the rocks were freezing, dug into his back, and whenever he looked at them, all he could think of was how to use each one as a weapon. How he'd hold it, swing it, throw it...

  Zig got up. He wasn't sleeping tonight. Not like this. He kept following the stream downhill. It was a source of water, and he guessed it was a good way to navigate, since the stream would always end up at the bottom. The moon was surprisingly bright tonight. Incredibly large, with a faint rainbow glow around it. Zig's eyes could make out his surroundings, so he kept going. Right until he heard a faint rushing sound, and slowed down because the rocky ground... disappeared.

  Zig was standing at the top of a waterfall. It was hard to gauge the height. Enough that there was no way he could jump down, even if he landed in the small pool at the bottom. Zig stood at the edge, leaning over to see down to the bottom. Something caught his eye—a small fire near the pool. A fire! Zig almost shouted down to the figure at the bottom. Almost. He was so relieved to find someone was there, with a warm fire. Zig wished he'd brought that dead rabbit with him. Maybe the people around the fire had some spare food. He almost called out. But something was off. Something that made Zig's blood run cold. The figure sitting next to the fire, cutting strips of meat from a deer lying next to it.

  It wasn't human.

  Zig ducked behind the cliff's edge, so only his head was poking out. His heart was beating furiously. It was a troll. Or a goblin. Or... something humanoid but not a human. Green skin. Bulky build. Something menacing and angry in the way it moved. Just the sight of it gave Zig an instinctive fear. That creature was not a friend. Not at all.

  But it had food.

  Zig spent the next hour pacing back and forth, trying to figure out what to do. It had food. It was the most terrifying thing Zig had seen, and that was after encountering the murderous rabbit. It had food and a fire, and Zig needed both. It wasn't human but it was human-ish. If it was a wolf or bear, Zig would have no problems throwing a rock at its head. But it was humanish. But Zig was desperate. But Zig wasn't a monster. But the monster was, literally, a monster.

  Zig's moral dilemma was cut short by a distant shout.

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  "Ho, stranger! May we share your fire tonight?"

  It was a group of three humans, coming up the slope of the mountain. They must have seen the fire. The monster didn't hesitate. He picked up a spear and threw it. It sailed for several seconds, the distance was so great, before impaling the one who had called it. The other two stopped and hesitated, in shock and disbelief. They should have run. The monster came hurtling toward them. The men were just starting to move when a green hand reached up, grabbed one man by the neck and ripped out his throat. Just... ripped it out. Zig barely noticed a trickle of warmth going down one leg. He was frozen dumb, just staring. The other man had time to get his spear into position. He thrust forward, and the green creature grabbed the spear, wrenched it out of the man's grasp, and ran him through with it.

  Zig could hear his own blood roaring in his ears, as he watched the monster drag the three corpses back to his fire, depositing them next to the half-butchered deer as if there were no difference between the two.

  Zig took another hour. Not in moral quandary, this time. Just in pure fear. He had a big height advantage, he just needed to drop a rock. But he had never seen... He had never...

  Zig stayed in his hiding spot and watched as the monster roasted and ate most of the deer, then settled down to sleep. Zig stayed in his hiding spot as the monster's breathing started to become rhythmic, and it didn't move for a long time. Zig stayed another hour after that, because he was absolutely terrified. Then, eventually, he moved. Zig grabbed the biggest rock he could still aim with. Thankful for his rabbit encounter and the "Weapon proficiency - Rock" skill he had earned. He held the rock in two hands, walking carefully so he didn't slip or make a noise. At least the sound of the waterfall was covering any small mistake he might make.

  He leaned over the edge and saw the green monster was still there, still asleep. Zig lifted the rock, high above his head, and threw it down. The rock tumbled in slow motion as it fell. It fell quickly. It took an eternity. Zig felt confident. He knew it would land...

  The monster moved.

  At the last minute, somehow, it woke up and shifted. The rock was falling at the perfect angle, aimed right at the creature's chest, but when it moved it only hit an arm. There was a deep cracking sound as the rock shattered and fragments flew at the impact. The green thing screamed, very hurt, very angry, and very much still alive. It looked up and Zig locked eyes with certain death. He gulped.

  Zig never knew he could run this fast. On uneven, rocky terrain, going uphill, Zig ran faster than he ever had in his life. He knew there was green death behind him. He didn't know when, he just knew he was going to die. He ran. The slope started to get steeper, much steeper, but Zig felt like he was flying. Loose gravel and rocks made his steps slip a little, and Zig looked back. Big mistake. The monster was close. Really close. With a whimper, Zig tried to keep running, but the gravel underfoot was too loose. He was losing speed. He was...

  Something in Zig's brain clicked. Some basic understanding of using rocks as a weapon, as predator and prey raced up a steep slope of loose rock. Zig looked around and saw a big rock lying nearby. He jumped for it, then with all his strength pushed it down the slope behind him. It was heavy, he almost couldn't move it, and then suddenly it gave. It slid, started rolling. It hit other rocks and they started to roll downhill with it. Then more rocks followed. The green monster looked up with hatred in his eyes one more time before a wall of falling rocks smashed into him and carried him down the mountain.

  Zig couldn't believe it. It was working. It was actually—

  It was working too well. The rocks were smashing into other rocks. Entire gravel floors started sliding away. Booming sounds were echoing throughout the mountain, so much that Zig put his hands over his ears. He gazed out as what seemed like the entire mountain began to slide away. Giant trees fell over when the rockslide reached them, adding to the momentum without stopping it a bit. After several minutes, Zig was still starting bug-eyed as the landslide kept rolling without pause.

  "Oh no. Nonono. Oh."

  The landslide, after a long long time, had reached the encampment at the bottom of the mountain. Half the fires winked out as they were buried. Zig had been in a state of shock from stepping into a new world. From being attacked by a vicious rabbit. From seeing three men slaughtered. From running for his life. He barely had any shock left to give. He just stared numbly at a new landscape, devoid of trees or ravines, just a smooth continuous floor of dirty rock, with little bits of wood fragments every now and then.

  Zig might have fainted. Just a little. Eventually, when he came to, he found that voice in his head was back.

  Class Shift Event - Basic -> Legendary

  Skill upgraded - Weapon proficiency - Rock (Legendary)

  New skill acquired! Troll legacy - Eat Anything (Legendary)

  New skill acquired! Goblin legacy - Goblin Crafting (Legendary)

  New skill acquired! Yeti legacy - Cold Resistance (Legendary)

  New skill acquired! Rabbit legacy - Multiplied Progeny (Legendary)

  Zig had received a skill when he killed that rabbit. That one rabbit. What had he earned by killing an entire mountainside? He realized he didn't feel cold anymore. Not a bit. He felt like he could jump in the stream and bathe all night without a single shiver.

  Weird.

  He sat and thought, trying to process everything. The best way, he realized, was to just think of this as a game. World's best VR, or something. Zig stared down at the base of the mountain, and noticed he didn't get any kind of "human legacy" skill. Could it possibly be, that the encampment wasn't human? Zig wasn't sure, but he really wanted to believe. But those three men, they were human... Zig blocked that thought out, and looked at his skills. Eat Anything looked promising for his survival. So did Cold Resistance. Goblin Crafting? He had no idea, but maybe something to do with ramshackled steampunkish contraptions some games showed?

  Zig pointedly ignored the rabbit skill. He took the awareness of that skill, put it in a bottle, and buried it way, way down in his subconscious. Way down.

  Zig bent down and picked up a small pebble. It was a rock. Not edible at all. But... Eat Anything. And legendary? That sounded like, well, you could eat anything. With a lot of hesitation, Zig slowly lifted the dirty pebble to his mouth.

  He was saved by a sound. A sound he had heard earlier that day. The yowling of a manic rabbit wanting to fight the world. Zig turned and saw a streak of white fur flying toward him from further up the slope, where the landslide hadn't broken the mountain. On instinct, Zig threw the rock he was about to eat. It felt like a normal throw. It really did. Only, when the stone hit the poor creature, there was quite a loud bang, and the rabbit disappeared into a spray of blood, with a few tiny remains of white fur floating down to the ground. There was no body. There was a paste, lying on the ground. There was a long pause, then—

  "Ah. Legendary. Aha. Hahaha"

  Was all Zig could say. The laughter sounded forced, because it was. Well. At least rabbits weren't a threat anymore. Zig picked up some rabbit paste, tried not to hesitate this time, and shoved it into his mouth and swallowed. Eat Anything? At least he could start by trying organic stuff. Some cultures eat raw meat right? Like a delicacy or something? Zig's eyes drifted between the red paste and the rocks lying next to it. It was a difficult choice. Eventually he tried a pebble, and nearly broke his teeth. He spat it back out, and ate more of the paste. Zig made a vow to eat normal, human food for the rest of his life. Just because he could eat anything, didn't mean he should.