Mentally dismissing the windows, another popped into view, another notification window to update him on quest progress.

  ‘Definitely not a game, at least not one I could imagine. No computer I have ever encountered has attitude, and that is what I’d imagine a game to be played on.’

  ‘Sorry, didn’t mean to offend you… right, store a heavier item to move on.’ Gregory scanned the area before moving into the kitchen and lifting one of the chairs up to the inventory. To his surprise, it absorbed the item, but adding no weight as he had originally hypothesized. Again, a notification window appeared, notifying him of something.

  At this point, laughter filled Gregory’s head, not just from one source, but from at least ten. In a laughing, almost joking tone, a voice filled his head. ‘Should you survive this…’ Pausing, it returned to a more serious tone of voice, ‘you will receive the FTH attribute, normally preserved exclusively for Paladins and Clerics. You will soon find out why this is all happening, along with everybody else when you are ready.’ The voices vanished, except for the new ding to let him know of his ongoing quest notification. ‘Skills,’ and the window opened, revealing the two he already knew he had and a “Riftwalker” skill.

  ‘What do the different stats do?’

  ‘Know all this about my status window, what does my unique class mean about me?’

  ‘My unique class is strong then, but means I must do immense training to make up the difference between others and myself. From the wording, it seems as if even having and using multiple later level standard classes couldn’t overcome the benefit of a strong unique class. It also seems to be so, even if their standard classes skills are at an earlier level and they know how to use their unique classes skills well. Just leveling up will not be enough to protect me from potential threats that other people could attempt to put me in.’

  ‘Interesting, it seems that everything is very game-like. It also rewards me for observations and other actions that are dictated by my skills. With that reasoning, I could more easily level up STR and AGI with training, than if I were to level them up with status points.

  ‘Informational, does that mean the tutorial is only partially completed? What if I want to know more?’

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Gregory was teleported to a location in a large medieval looking city, and realized that it was likely one of the locations in Realm of Heroes, the video game he was playing when this started. There were some significant differences though, in Realm of Heroes, the cities were all pristine. This city was crumbling, many buildings had significant erosion, while some had completely toppled, and others were obviously just rebuilt. While many of them would probably use the appearance to think it was Realm of Heroes; Gregory knew that wherever they were, Realm of Heroes was designed to look like a “perfect” version of this place.

  “Many of you are likely wondering where you are. This planet is called Tirax Barden, it is a place filled with magic, the magic which is seeping into your world through the rifts, and by which you all gained the abilities you have. In case you haven’t already guessed, there are monsters in this world, and while you are here the riftwalk magic will protect you. Getting within 5% of your max health will auto-teleport you to your own world, unless you choose to stay here. Know though, that if you die here, you will die. This is real, and even though magic exists, it will not save you if you are not careful. Also, since you are all here now, let me update your status windows to include the Health, Stamina, and Mana denotations. You are all truly something more than human now, so know that you will be the first line of defense for humanity when the two worlds have merged after the rifts have covered the entire planet. By the way, only you can travel between rifts, nothing from this side is capable, and no other regular humans can. Outside this area are sheep, deer, and boars. You can kill them for experience, or return to your home world. Either way, ‘Earth’ is in danger.

  The rifts will grow in size, and once they all meet, these two worlds will merge and become one. All the creatures and life from this world will transfer over to yours, while you will keep just about everything else from your world. This does mean that many of your cities will probably be somewhat destroyed, especially since the fauna from this world will be transferred over as well. Once the transfer has finished, everybody from your world will be as you are now, but they will not have the luxury to train themselves on weaker creatures to grow stronger, they will be fighting whatever is around them.”

  ‘Status Window’

  “To make things more interesting, you are all also capable of viewing the strongest person in each stat. To bring this up, simply think of the title of the stat, and then Rankings. That will show the top 10 in every individual stat. Otherwise, Overall Rankings will show the top 10 overall. You can use these to figure out who to team up with, or simply as a way of knowing where you stand in the grand scheme of things.

  Now, before you all get started with hunting the local wildlife, know that they are limited, and also that your world will not take care of itself while you are here. I’d recommend heading back to get affairs in order before returning here. Of course, some of you will not need to, but for those that do, I’d recommend getting it done. Well, it is your life, and your world that is at risk. Take care, and do what you can to protect them.”

  When this being stopped talking, many of the others around Gregory panicked, heading back to their families, jobs, and other responsibilities. ‘If they take the time to do things over there, they will fall behind us, and need to go out further to hunt. The question is, how do we hunt with what we have? Is our money good here, do they give us free weapons? Maybe a money exchange is possible…’

  “By the way, for those of you still here, please select a class, out of those available based on your stats anyways.”

  Gregory saw a window appear before him, it listed six magical classes, and three classes in what seemed to be an agility area. Looking through them, Gregory noticed two that seemed to stand out above the rest. There was a wizard and sorcerer class, and Gregory checked the info on each one. From what he saw in the information, the wizard used elemental magic, while the sorcerer had access to raw magical energy for attacks. Both had the same stat focuses, of which were INT and WIS, but the wizard focused on WIS, while the sorcerer focused on INT. Gregory decided that he had to pick the wizard, it fit best with him, and seemed it would allow him to grow strongest fastest. After having picked the class, he could feel information rushing his mind, and the clothes on him transformed. He was now wearing a blue elementalist robe set, was wielding a wooden staff, had a dagger on his side, and had full knowledge of a flare, bolt, and slice spell.

  “As you may have guessed, whoever left early didn’t get to pick a class. This is intentional, they will instead be granted one upon returning that best fits their base abilities. You may wonder why that is any different from what you had. Well, we take more into account than offense when considering a class, we also take defense heavily into account. This means that you were able to pick out of all the classes we would have possibly considered for you, instead of being granted a class that we feel best keeps you safe. Now, get out there, and get hunting.”

  Gregory started running, while at the same time opening his inventory. It seemed his normal clothes were there, so there was nothing to really worry about. He just had to fight to grow stronger until this area was cleared.

  When Gregory got outside the city, he saw a massive field, filled with exactly what the voice had told them they’d find. Gregory began channeling his slice and flare spell, he could feel the energies building up in him, and then he threw them together in front of him and toward a group of sheep. What happened was far more than he could have imagined though. When the two spells collided, they created a massive fire that was rushing toward that area. In just a moment, the entire area he had intended to attack was in flames, the sheep and deer in that area were running wildly, before they died inside the small inferno. Another window appeared before him as notification to another one of the benefits of this magic.

  As people killed their first opponent, many stopped, and Gregory was no exception. A window appeared to everybody, letting them know that the tutorial was completed.