Chapter 1: A Wrong Turn

  Gen was having trouble finding his way to the store. Normally he went the five or so minutes it took to get there by car, but his SUV was in the shop, and wasn't about to waste fifteen bucks on a cab. He could hardly afford rent as it was.

  He had downloaded an app that gave directions for people traveling on foot, and somehow he had ended up traveling through dark, poorly maintained alleys. He glanced back and saw nothing but a long narrow gap, and a strip of sky high above. The GPS on his phone had frozen several turns back, as if there was no signal. But that had never been a problem in this part of town.

  Sighing, he pocketed his phone. He could tell it was not going to be any help. He wandered for around a half hour, or so he thought. His phone had frozen entirely; not even the time changed.

  “Piece of shit,” he cursed quietly, slapping the screen to no avail.

  He should have known better than to buy that cheap off-brand garbage, just like he should have known not to try to find his way to the store. With his condition, he got out of breath climbing stairs, and his sense of direction was equally abysmal.

  He glanced up at the sky again. The strip was a flat white with no visible sun. He hadn't remembered it being cloudy, but he had been walking for a while.

  This was so strange, he didn't know there was a maze of alleys like this in his small town.

  He took rights and lefts at random, waiting to emerge into the town, but he only went from identical derelict alley to identical derelict alley. Slowly, the oddity of the situation became apparent to him.

  Eventually it felt like he had been walking for hours, and he could feel the weakness in his muscles that came when he overexerted himself. His confusion and annoyance had long ago transformed into fear. He was not stupid, he could tell that these identical alleys, the white sky, and the frozen phone were not a coincidence.

  He slumped against one of the slimy, grey-brick walls, and caught his breath. This was just perfect. Leave it to him, to get trapped in some kind of limbo, trying to find his way to the store. He was probably going in circles, and when he got out his parent’s would only grow more disappointed and overly protective. But in the back of his mind, he knew: something worse was happening than getting lost.

  When he felt rested, Gen straightened up, but then froze. He saw white light shining from around a corner. How had he not seen it? Suddenly invigorated Gen ran around the corner and finally emerged from the alley.

  He squinted at the bright sunlight, suddenly it didn’t seem cloudy at all. In fact, when he looked up, the sky was mostly blue.

  What?

  He turned around, but the alley looked different. Instead of wet, grey stone, the alley was made of red brick and it had a clear end, from which a busy street was visible. The air smelled strange: somehow cleaner and full of rustic scents like bread and manure. He heard no cars, just the chatter of voices.

  Finally, he turned back to face the street and his eyes widened. There were no modern buildings, no asphalt streets, and no technology. What he saw looked medieval. There were thatched roofs, cobble streets, and chimneys leaking woodsmoke. He shivered, just noticing the brisk air. People walked by, speaking heavily accented english. They looked normal, though he had been unable to make out a face.

  Holy shit! He thought, unable to suppress a mix of rising nervousness and excitement. I’ve been fucking isekai’d!

  The thought was quick to fade though. This was real life, not some novel. Whatever had happened in those alleys had felt like an aberration. He doubted this world was going to adhere to his childish hopes.

  He retreated into the now normal alley, not wanting any of the people to see him. He must look odd to them, and who knew how their culture would treat him. Excitement was replaced by mounting panic. He could already feel the cold growing uncomfortable. What was he going to do to survive? Everyone he knew was just… gone.

  The thought that this was all a dream or a simulation came and went just as fast. It was too real. The crispness of the air, the detailed roughness of the brick in front of him, his clear emotions, nothing could fake that.

  It was then that he noticed a blinking icon in his lower right vision.

  No way. There’s just no way.

  Responding to his thoughts as easily as his arms or legs, the icon expanded and several floating screens appeared in front of him.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  BY CHANCE YOU HAVE STUMBLED INTO A NEW REALM. YOU ARE NOW A TRAVELER.

  BY TRAVELING THROUGH YOUR OWN WILL YOU HAVE BEEN FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGED.

  YOU HAVE RECEIVED [PERFECT AFFINITY: GOLDEN LIGHT] YOU HAVE RECEIVED [FLESH OF GOLDEN LIGHT] YOU HAVE RECEIVED [IDENTIFY]

  [PERFECT AFFINITY: GOLDEN LIGHT]

  YOU HAVE RECEIVED THE UNIQUE MANA AFFINITY: GOLDEN LIGHT. YOU HAVE A 100% AFFINITY. YOU MAY NO LONGER USE ANY OTHER TYPE OF MANA AFFINITY, HOWEVER, YOU MAY STILL SENSE OTHER AFFINITES. YOU RECEIVE TWICE THE MANA FOR EVERY POINT OF WISDOM. YOU SPEND HALF AS MUCH MANA WITH EVERY USE OF GOLDEN LIGHT. YOU HAVE SUPREME CONTROL OVER GOLDEN LIGHT MANA.

  [FLESH OF GOLDEN LIGHT]

  YOUR BODY HAD ADAPTED CHARACTERISTICS OF YOUR AFFINITY. YOU CAN CHANGE FROM A STABLE STATE, TO A FLUID STATE, TO A HEALING STATE, TO AN ATTACK STATE. YOU CAN FURTHER ADJUST YOUR BODY ACCORDING TO YOUR AFFINITY. EFFECTS IMPROVE WITH LEVEL.

  [IDENTIFY]

  YOU CAN IDENTIFY OTHERS. SCALES WITH LEVEL.

  AS PENANCE FOR YOUR BOONS, YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN THE QUEST: DESTROY THE SCOURGE OF VORDEL.

  MISSION: DESTROY, GARDEL, THE SCOURGE OF VORDEL WITHIN 100 YEARS.

  REWARD: YOUR BOONS WILL BECOME A PART OF YOU.

  PENALTY OF FAILURE: YOUR BOONS WILL BE STRIPPED AND YOU WILL BE CURSED,

  STAT PAGE:

  NAME: GEN FROST

  LEVEL: 1

  INTELLIGENCE: 5

  WISDOM: 5

  PERCEPTION: 5

  STRENGTH: 5

  ENDURANCE: 5

  AGILITY: 5

  MANA: 20/20

  HEALTH: 10/10

  STAMINA: 10/10

  CLASS: NONE

  RACE: TRAVELER

  SKILLS: [FLESH OF GOLDEN LIGHT ] [PERFECT AFFINITY: GOLDEN LIGHT]

  QUESTS: DESTROY THE SCOURGE OF VORDEL.

  It felt surreal. He had a notification and sheet with stats, health, and mana. There was so much to unpack.

  I suppose magic must be real. Gen thought absently.

  He glanced from side to side, making sure no one had noticed him, and then started analyzing. It would be a good distraction.

  The detail that bothered him the most, was the first notification that said he was a traveler. In the stat page, after “race,” it said traveler instead of human. Had going through those alleys changed him from a human? He had no way of knowing.

  After that there was the quest: “destroy the scourge of Vordel.” He had no clue what that meant, but he had a feeling it was something hard. It seemed connected with the two skills he had gotten. If he completed the quest, he got to keep the skills; if not, he would lose them and be “cursed.” Also he had one hundred years to complete it. Based on that and how powerful the skills looked, there was no way it could be something easy.

  And those skills: [Perfect Affinity] and [Flesh of Golden Light], they felt strong. He had no frame of reference, but something with “perfect" in the name could not be weak. [Perfect Affinity] said it halved mana cost and gave 2X mana per wisdom. That effectively quadrupled how much mana he had. It also gave supreme control, and a unique affinity. That sounded broken.

  As for [Flesh of Golden Light], it apparently adapted his body to fit with his affinity. He certainly didn’t feel different, but it also said that effects improved with level. Since he was level one, the skill was probably at its weakest.

  The final part was his stat page. The math appeared to be two points of a resource for every stat, except for mana which was four per stat. At five in all stats, he guessed that he was completely average for a level one, assuming that people here had the same system. He would have expected there to be more spread among stats, especially given his condition…

  Wait, he still have his condition? Gen, searched for a feeling of weakness but had a hard time telling. The condition was dormant until he overexerted himself. It was possible though. A powerful sense of hope broke though the cold and the fear.

  “You there,” said a deep, thickly accented voice, “turn around.”

  Shit.

  Slowly, Gen turned around. Standing at the entrance to the alley was a man, but his face was wrong. His skin was tough and ridged like frozen waves, and his features too strong. He had jagged black eyebrows and a strong sharp chin. Above his head there were three floated the words GARDIC LEVEL???

  Gen gasped and took a step back. “Uh, hi. I don’t suppose-”

  The man growled bestially. “Human scum.” faster than Gen could follow, he blurred forward, and then everything went black.

  ~

  Gen woke to the rattle of wheels on rock. He was in a cage in a caravan. Sitting up, he saw that he was traveling down a long rocky road. The grass was bleached and the trees were barren. The cold air had bled deep into his flesh while he was asleep and he shivered uncontrollably. He wished that he had at least worn a long sleeved shirt, instead of a thin t-shirt.

  He was at the end of a long line of cages and he thought he saw a normal human in one of them, instead of a ridge-skinned creature like the one who had knocked him out.

  Earlier today I was walking to the store to get eggs. The whole situation felt almost too surreal for him to be scared. Almost.

  “Hey!” he waved to the person in the closest cage, but the thin man in ragged clothes, cowered away. Eventually he gave up and sagged against the metal bars.

  Hours dragged by in the caravan and Gen grew so numb that the cold stopped bothering him. Logically, he knew that was a bad sign, but he was just relieved. He spent the time searching his body for the “golden light” mana. It was surprisingly easy to find. There was a very slight sensation of energy all throughout his body. It vaguely reminded him of the aftereffects of electricity.

  The trouble was getting it to do anything. The mana was barely responsive to his attempts to move it, flowing back into place like disturbed water. He felt like he was getting better as time passed though. When around two more hours had passed, Gen had successfully moved a decent amount of mana to his hand and was now holding it there, veins standing out from the strain.

  He had achieved rudimentary mana movement, but he still didn’t know what to do with it. How the hell did he make it do magic?! Slowly the mana drained out of his hand, Gen unable to force it to stay.

  He heaved breaths of freezing air. At least the strain of trying to move his mana was helping him keep warm. Come to think of it, hadn’t the notification said he had supreme control over his mana? Shouldn’t it be easier? Or maybe he was actually making great progress. Once again, he had no frame of reference.

  After hours more of trying to make his mana do something, Gen gave up and instead focused on practicing moving it through his body. By now the sun had half set, and the barren landscape was lit a faint gold. He could feel it get even colder. The temperature was moving past uncomfortable into dangerous territory.

  When there was only a sliver of orange over the mountains, the caravan came to a stop and Gen got his first look at his captors. There were five ridge-faced, wild-haired creatures that went from cage to cage. They appeared to be giving each prisoner a bowl and a rough brown blanket. He practically drooled at the idea of warmth from the biting chill. Even food was secondary.

  When they came to him, a man with a tangled black beard stopped in front of his cage door.

  GARDIC | LEVEL 5

  “Human, how did you enter our village?” He said in a voice like a bear , “Answer or you will get no food or warmth for the night.”