It was a day like any other. After doing my morning chores around the house, I settled in at my computer and loaded up my current obsession. It surprised me that RuneScape had hooked me so quickly as I'm typically not the type that enjoys survival game. Something about the world and leveling system dragged me in though and I found myself always wanting to play it.
Today I had planned to focus solely on wood cutting to max out the skil, or well to reach the current level cap of 50. It didn't have a special unlock or anything, I just liked to see my skills maxed out.
As I opened the game and selected my character, who vaguely resembled me with its golden brown eyes and dark brown hair, I felt a shiver run through my body. My hand left my mouse to grab a hoodie nearby only for me to double over as a searing pain shot through my chest. My vision blurred and faded when I squeezed my eyes shut with the pain.
My mind and body began to feel heavy, and a haze settled over my thoughts. My brain pulsing with a piercing headache as information flowed into my mind.
"System?"
"RuneScape?"
"TBATE?"
Even though I didn't understand it, my mind seemed to take it for fact as it adjusted to the presence of something else that took up residence. My body shuddering at the implication that I now I had a system based of the game. That might have been cool by itself, but the other thing I now had to accept was that I was no longer on Earth.
Opening my eyes I was met with the hud reminiscent to RuneScape's own.
(Going to shorten RuneScape to RS from now on)
I had the health and stamina bars at the bottom middle of my vision though they were faded and only became solid when i focused on them. To the left I saw familiar Hydration, Sustenance and Rest meters, the right had a map, a spell book, building hammer and the inventory. To the top was the hot bar and compass.
I blinked my eyes and blinked them again, and again and again. Eventually rubbing them, pinching my arm, slapping myself across the face but no matter what I did the scenery in front of me didn't change. The only thing changing is that my health dropped 1 point but was nearly instantly refilled.
Looking at the health and stamina bar I could see the regen rate of 2 HP/s and stamina at 6 STA/s, though I knew if this was like the rate would go down as my Hydration and Sustenance went down. Hydration Stamina and Sustenance affecting HP. Rest as it dropped would limit the amount of stamina you had access to, as well as negatively affecting carrying capacity and spell casting.
Hydration, Sustenance and Rest were all divided into quarters, each time a quarter was lost the regen rate was reduced. Thankfully it was easy to raise them up.
With my tension slowly easing I finally took a real look at my surroundings, finding myself in a forest. Trees surrounded me in a near perfect circle leaving me in a small clearing, maybe 50 feet across. In the center, next to me, was a small canvas tent. When I touched it a prompt popped and gave a brief description: "Suitable for Resting, but offers little in protection from the elements or unwanted intruders. Visit the building menu for more sturdy housing options!"
I shook my head the prompt disappearing quickly. It was strange reading things this way. It didn't feel the same as reading a book or looking at the screen, it felt like it was a part of me. I looked at the inventory icon and mentally focused on it and the screen filled the upper left area of my vision, dropping down from where the hot bar was.
My hot bar had 5 items taking up slots, along with 3 more in the inventory space. The first slot held what looked like a letter, so I focused on it first.
"Taylor. Welcome to Dicathen, the continent the story The Beginning After The End starts on. I apologize for you current circumstances or if you happen to happy then you're welcome! But I imagine that's not likely so this letter was written with the former in mind.
Unfortunately this transmigration or "isekai" as you may call it was unavoidable. I was only able to hopefully ease your transition. Originally you would have been reborn into this world as baby with only your memories as a help. However I was able to "help" you, I'm sorry I couldn't prevent it, by giving you some gifts to go with a system I felt you would be familiar and that would help you progress.
Why are you here? I'm afraid I don't know. Why you? Again I don't know. The entity that summoned you seems to have summoned you and 3 others into this world and I don't know their intentions.
I would recommend getting stronger, but maybe my help was enough to make the one who brought you here feel like it's not worth the effort so you could perhaps just enjoy your life here. Though again I wouldn't recommend that. To my understanding you know this world from your reading of the story, that should help you decide what to do.
Also I can tell you that the current timeline is that the main character from the story, Arthur Leywin, was born only a week ago. Do what you will with that information.
Finally my last gift to you. At the end of this letter you'll find a list of weapons. Choose one to help aid you in your journey, it will grow alongside you having its own skills you can level up on top of the normal Attack skill. Of course you're free to use other weapons, but this is the only one that you will receive this benefit for. Good luck, Taylor.
Pick Wisely:
-Sword
-Dagger
-Axe
-Spear
-Club
-Hammer
-Mace
-Whip
-Bow
-Staff
I was struggling to process the contents of the letter. Of course I had started to read the web comic of TBATE, but I had only made it to the academy arc! The person who wrote this letter seems nice but what does that do for me when I'm trapped in a fantasy world?!
As I was raging internally I heard a faint chime and when I looked back the letter I saw a countdown begin.
30 seconds remaining, choose quickly or the offer will expire!
Panicking I just chose sword at the top, which just opened a drop down of an entire list of different sword types.
15 seconds remaining.
14
13..
"Agh! Just give me a normal sword! Why are you making this so complicated?!" I yelled as I mentally requested a basic sword. My knowledge of sword names eluding me as I was put against a countdown.
10
9
8
"Damn the bastard that brought me here!" I yelled and was shocked when a choice highlighted.
7
I didn't even get a chance to read the description I just mentally screamed for it to choose it.
6
Please confirm your choice, you won't be able to change it after this?
5
"YES! Confirm! Select! Agree! Accept!"
I slumped to the ground and the sword appeared in a sheath across my lap. I flopped back in exasperation, noticing my vision had a new icon that was blinking that looked like a notebook.
New weapon detected!
Bastard Sword
Soul Bound
New skill added to Skill tab labeled: Bastard Sword!
I closed the screen and looked at the remaining things in my hotbar. Slot 1 was now holding the newly acquired sword. 2: Axe, 3:pickaxe, 4:bow, 5: shield.
The three items in my inventory was 15 arrows for the bow, Magic Tome for Beginners, and lastly 1 weak healing potion. I instantly put that in my hot bar and clicked read on the magic tome. Within moments my mind was flooded with information on magic in this world and I knew that I now had a Mana Core Skill in my Skills tab. It had over written the Magic Skill and 4 more Skills joined the ever growing list of Skills I had.
Fire Magic
Water Magic
Wind Magic
Earth Magic
Each starting at level 1 and I knew small weak spells that I could use with them and I realized something that I wasn't restricted to the augmenter and conjurer classifications. I could use both styles due to the system.
Getting lost in the skills I was eventually dragged out of my thoughts by the dryness of my throat and hanger that panged my stomach. Checking my Hydration and Sustenance I saw why. Both had dropped from 100/100 all the way to 50/100, thankfully Rest had only dropped by 10 points so I was still plenty alert.
Looked like I had my first task: Find food and water!