There was a flash as the world abruptly stopped racing up at Jack’s feet, and he found himself standing on a bed of pine needles, a stone’s throw from the precipice of a rocky cliff. The sun was hot, the air was clean, and the turkey in his hand had just lost its mind.

“Clu-PUUUCK!” the turkey bellowed, flapping so wildly that it finally freed itself from Jack’s grip and sprinted away, looking back to see if Jack was pursuing it. Which was too bad—if it had been looking forward, maybe it wouldn’t have run straight off the cliff.

Jack watched as the turkey disappeared. As someone who had hunted quite a bit in his youth, he was well aware that unlike wild turkeys, domesticated ones couldn’t fly.

“Good riddance,” he muttered.

Sticking his hands on his hips, Jack’s attention was drawn to the strange feel of the fabric beneath his fingers. Looking down, he saw that his Earthen clothes had been replaced with items made of some sort of rough, homespun cloth like his mother had made in his youth. It was a decent cut and gave him a welcome sense of nostalgia. He could also feel the weight of a rucksack on his shoulders, which was good. This would be easier with some supplies.

Jack took in his surroundings.

“I have no goddamned idea where I am,” he muttered. Not that it changed anything. No point knowing where you were if you didn’t know where you were going.

Jack thought through his situation. Between that green idiot’s yammering and his great-granddaughter’s exhaustive descriptions of whatever games she was playing over the years—the kid probably didn’t even realize he was paying attention—it seemed reasonable to expect that he had some sort of “character sheet,” as she’d called it. And if he remembered correctly, the lizard said it would be in something called a Tome.

There was a faint popping noise, and a book appeared in the air in front of Jack. It was unexpected but no weirder than half a dozen other things that had already happened that day, so Jack took it in stride. He grabbed the book and looked at it closely.

The Tome was simple, just a beaten-up diary. Not like one of the fancy modern ones with flowers and crap where people moaned about how nobody understood them. A good, sturdy diary like the one he’d had during the war.

In fact, it looked exactly like the diary Jack had during the war, right down to the worn leather cover with the year embossed on it. It even had scorch marks that matched the ones his diary had received when Barty lit Jack’s pack on fire during one of the man’s idiot pranks. Other than the scorch mark, it was hardly a reminder of pleasant times.

“Guess that’s how that works,” Jack muttered as he tossed the diary aside and watched it disappear. He didn’t need to look at it right now—hell, he probably wouldn’t understand it regardless. What was more important was getting a handle on the situation, and right now, something felt off.

Jack looked around. He stared off into the distance and to the ground at his feet. Then he peered at the spot where the turkey had gone off the cliff.

Nope, his mind wasn’t playing tricks on him—his vision was fuzzy, and not in the way he was accustomed to. Curious, Jack took off his glasses.

The world exploded into a clarity Jack hadn’t experienced since he was in his 20’s. If anything, the world was clearer than he remembered.

“Ain’t that a treat,” Jack said, chuckling to himself. Pretty handy, not having to worry about breaking his glasses on this weird planet.

Now in better spirits, Jack swung off his backpack and took a knee in the pine needles. That was when he got his second big surprise.

“What the hell?” he muttered.

Jack stood. Then knelt again. Then stood. Then knelt. He stood and did a few jumping jacks, then some stretches. Every movement was pain-free. Even his thoughts had more clarity. Bringing up the Tome he had dismissed earlier, Jack took it and opened to the first page.

JOHN “JACK” MILSOM

Renown: Level 1 – Unclassed

Species: Human

Age: 95

Experience: 0

Experience to Next Level: 300

Base Attributes

Strength – 20

Constitution – 22

Endurance – 24

Dexterity – 21

Willpower – 24

Intelligence – 19

Charisma – 13

Luck – 32

AVERAGE: 21.9

Jack tried to work out what the numbers meant. Based on the first four values, he guessed that the 19 for Intelligence and the 13 for Charisma weren’t great. That was fine. He never claimed to be the smartest man, and he knew he rubbed some people the wrong way. That didn’t bother him. He didn’t suffer fools and had no regrets about the fact. But that 32 in Luck seemed an outright slap in the face. He’d buried a wife and a daughter, both in the prime of their lives. What did life look like in this world for someone with bad luck?

Grumbling, Jack flipped through the diary’s empty pages until he came to a tab labelled “TRAITS.” Opening it up, he was greeted with a description that read:

TRAITS

Well-Aged (special)

This trait renders you immune from the negative effects associated with old age.

Evolving (human*)

As a human, you are capable of evolving into higher lifeforms. This requires a gift of essence from the target species and satisfaction of a species-specific quest chain.

*This trait is not lost upon evolving to a new form. However, subsequent evolutions must be to a more elevated form.

On the next page, there was a tab labelled “CONDITIONS.”

CONDITIONS

Muscular Atrophy: Stage 5 (-10 STR) – IMMUNE

Aged Appearance: Stage 4 (-4 CHA) – IMMUNE

Stooped: Stage 5 (-3 CHA, -5 STR) – IMMUNE

Arthritic: Stage 4 (-4 DEX, -5 CON) – IMMUNE

Flexibility Loss: Stage 4 (-6 DEX) – IMMUNE

Thin Skin: Stage 4 (Prone to bruising and abrasions) – IMMUNE

Optical Degeneration: Stage 3 (-3 CON, -3 WIL) – IMMUNE

Not Dead Yet: Stage 3 (+5 LUCK)

Osteoporosis: Stage 1 (-5 CON) – IMMUNE

Mental Degeneration: Stage 1 (-2 INT, -2 WIS) – IMMUNE

Memory Loss: Stage 1 (10% memory loss*) – IMMUNE

Prone to Nod: Stage 4 (60% increase in tendency to fall asleep throughout the day) – IMMUNE

Dental Health: Stage 4 (60% loss of teeth, additional damage to remaining teeth) – IMMUNE

Hearing Loss: Stage 5 (80% hearing loss) – IMMUNE

Loss of Smell: Stage 6 (Complete loss of smell) – IMMUNE

Balance Loss: Stage 3 (-3 DEX, prone to falling) – IMMUNE

*Additional memory loss due to conscious memory repression. Condition has been resolved.

That certainly answered a lot of questions. No wonder Jack felt better than he had in half a century. The item “Stooped” particularly caught his eye.

Stretching up to his full height, Jack was surprised to discover that he could hold himself upright again. “That’ll be handy,” he muttered, nodding to himself. He skimmed over the rest of the items, running his tongue over a brand-new set of real teeth. Then he popped out his hearing aid and grinned again. He closed his eyes and took a moment to smell the crisp pine air and listen to the sounds of a living forest.

The tiniest crack of a breaking branch brought Jack’s head whipping around.

An animal slunk out of the woods. It was dog-like and lanky, not burly like a wolf, with long legs and a mangy appearance.

Coyote. Not the first time Jack had seen one, but this was probably the worst-looking specimen he’d ever encountered. Its hair was matted, one of its ears had almost been torn off in some long-ago battle, and it was so skinny that its ribs were showing.

A small page of paper flashed off to the side of Jack’s vision and then disappeared. Once it was gone, a strange feeling surged through Jack’s mind, as though he’d just stepped out of a briefing on this particular opponent and could remember every word perfectly:

Threat Assessment: Level 1 Starving Coyote

The target has been ill and unable to hunt. As a result, she is weak but motivated. If she can kill you, she will soon regain her strength, so she has risked everything on an all-or-nothing strategy. Good luck, soldier: Only one of you is making it out of this alive.

You gotta be kidding me, Jack thought. Not only was it weird as hell, but the tone of the message was more like an old war movie than actual warfare. Was every interaction with this screwed-up world going to be that annoying?

“Alright girl, easy there,” Jack said to the coyote as it stalked towards him. “I get that you’re not doing so well, but I ain’t such easy pickings, and I’d rather not start killing things. I will if I have to, but only as a last resort.”

The coyote ignored Jack’s words, continuing to stalk him in a circle that elicited a sigh from Jack. “Have it your way.”

Grabbing the backpack, Jack held it in one hand and moved in a circle, mirroring the coyote’s movements. He scanned the area for a makeshift weapon and saw a large stick that he could hold in one hand. It was gnarled and a bit bent, but it had a lump at the end that would make it into a serviceable club. Not ideal, but it would have to do.

The Coyote lunged toward Jack in a feint, but he wasn’t fooled and instead used the opportunity to shift himself over to where the stick was, scooping it off the ground and standing firm against the coyote, stick and backpack wielded like sword and shield.

“Last chance, girl,” Jack said. “I mean it. Hell, if all you want is a meal, you should just make your way to the bottom of that there cliff. Should be a nice juicy turkey waiting for you.”

The coyote’s response was to leap at Jack, but the old soldier wasn’t about to be caught by surprise. Tossing the backpack into the animal’s face, Jack took advantage of the animal’s momentary confusion and smashed the club down on her head, causing the coyote to whimper and retreat. It wasn’t enough to outright kill the animal, but it was sufficient to take the fight right out of her.

The coyote stumbled in a circle, then dropped to the ground and put her head under her paws.

“I told you, girl, I didn’t want to do that,” Jack said. He put his hands on his hips and scowled at the coyote. Little slips of paper kept appearing in the air, and it was annoying the hell out of him, so he just kept waving them aside. Once that stopped, Jack retrieved his backpack and finally looked inside. It wasn’t much, but there were more than enough rations, especially considering that he was in a forest that seemed like it might have some decent forage. Glancing at the coyote again, Jack pulled out two of the packages of rations and dumped the contents on the ground in front of the coyote.

“You eat those and get lost, hear me?” he muttered.

The coyote looked at him distrustfully, then nudged the food with her mouth. Gingerly taking a bite of the hard, beige substance, the animal quickly switched to gobbling it up. Jack shook his head at his own behaviour and sat down on a log. The coyote was still there, but they were both well aware of who was the alpha. She would leave him alone.

Putting the coyote out of his mind, Jack focused on the task of survival. The first thing he did was clear an area of dirt in a sunny patch of ground, then stick his camp knife in the dirt, point down. Taking a pebble, he placed it on the ground at the tip of the knife’s shadow. Once that was done, Jack set about seeing what supplies had been included in his pack.

There was rope, which was good, as well as some fishing line. The spool was small, but the low gauge suggested okay length, probably 50 metres. By his guess, it was maybe 10 lbs test, good enough to grab a trout or bass if he found some decent water. Hopefully, he wouldn’t hook anything bigger than that, or it could snap the line and make off with it. And if that did happen, well, maybe he’d live long enough to come back and do some proper fishing.

The rest of the bag was simple survival gear, nothing too special, so he sealed up the backpack and settled it onto his shoulders. Now he just had to head roughly northwest to get to Palmyre. Which meant finding out which direction was northwest.

Enough time had elapsed for the shadow of Jack’s knife to move, so he took another pebble and placed it where the shadow’s tip now rested. Pulling the knife out of the ground, Jack used it to draw a line in the dirt through the two pebbles, which created a line that he now knew was running roughly east-west based on the direction of the shadow’s movement. He then bisected that line with a perpendicular one and designated its points as north and south.

Another one of those damn papers appeared in the air, and Jack decided he should probably read at least one of them to find out what they were all about.

NEW GENERAL SKILL LEARNED!

Orienteering – Level 24 (Tier-II)

Hey, you need to read these things! I’ve been writing all kinds of witty stuff; you’re not supposed to just ignore it.

Tier-I Bonus: Inherent sense of north and south when outdoors.

Tier-II Bonus: Inherent understanding of your location relative to a target location.

3,950 XP Earned (cumulative)

Really? These things were just notices telling him what he already knew?

Jack batted the paper aside and resolved not to bother with them anymore. He had more important things to deal with.

Now that his compass points had been established, Jack set about defining some landmarks. There was a mountain range far off to the north and another one to the east, as well as another solitary mountain south by southeast that he could probably rely on for some directional sense. So long as the tree cover didn’t get too dense. The land itself seemed to slope towards the northwest as well, at least at this point. He couldn’t rely on that, though, so he used his makeshift compass to point himself northwest, then identified three trees off in the distance that were growing roughly in a line. Walking to the closest one, he stopped and once again sighted three trees in a line, using the latter two from the first set and adding a third, farther one. It was a boring as hell way to walk through a forest, but it would at least keep him from walking in circles. And if he hit some sort of natural barrier, well, he’d just have to go around, take a new reading, and do it all again. Lather, rinse, repeat until he hit Palmyre.

It was time to go home.

The turkey clucked throatily as she flailed her legs, wedged upside down in a small pine that jutted precariously out of the cliff face. Ten metres below her stood a cougar who had noticed the commotion and now paced back and forth in anticipation of her forthcoming snack. The turkey, however, remained oblivious, thanks to the dirty newsprint that hovered directly in front of her face.

TURKALETTA MILSOM-SULLIVAN

Renown: Level 1 – Poultry

Species: Turkey

Age: 15 weeks

Experience: 50

Experience to Next Level: 250

Base Attributes

Strength – 2

Constitution – 2

Endurance – 1

Dexterity – 1

Willpower – 1

Intelligence – 1

Charisma – 1

Luck – 3

AVERAGE: 1.5

The turkey repeatedly pecked at the paper, but it kept appearing and disappearing with every movement of her head. Finally, her upside-down position became more annoying than the paper, and she sought to right herself, but the tree kept bouncing with every movement. Eventually, the chaotic flapping of the turkey’s wings brought her feet into contact with the base of the tree, and she clawed frantically at the cliff face, inadvertently knocking free the clumps of dirt and rock that secured the tree’s roots. The loose soil fell onto the face of the cougar below, but she didn’t care. A bit of dirt was a small price to pay for a full belly. Hopping up on her hind legs, the cougar put her paws on the cliff and strained towards the turkey as though that tiny bit of proximity would cause her meal to arrive quicker.

Eventually, the turkey’s incessant digging became too much for the precariously situated pine. Roots began tearing out of the cliff face one-by-one, and with each loss of support, the process accelerated until finally, the tree broke loose and plummeted downwards, bearing the turkey with it. Unfortunately for the cougar, this happened at precisely the moment when some dirt had fallen in its eyes, so it didn’t see the tree plummeting towards it at an alarming rate.

You have slain a Level 8 Cougar Matriarch

Unmonitored Legend. No kudos necessary.

4,000 XP Earned

RENOWN LEVEL UP!

Level 2 Achieved

RENOWN LEVEL UP!

Level 3 Achieved

RENOWN LEVEL UP!

Level 4 Achieved

RENOWN LEVEL UP!

Level 5 Achieved

XP: 4,050

XP to next Renown: 1,050

Strength +1

Endurance +1

Dexterity +1

Willpower +1

Luck +2

ALERT: Non-Humanoid species. Base attribute change not allowed.

Strength -1

Endurance -1

Dexterity -1

Willpower -1

Luck -2

Animal growth process… not permitted. Tome present. Conflict requires Celestial intervention to prevent possible edge-case scenario.

Contacting Celestial representative: Carl.

No Celestial response. Edge-case scenario unresolved.

The turkey spasmed wildly, her feathers puffing out as some outside force ran through her. When the moment passed, she got to her feet and deliberately pushed the paper aside. After determining that no other threats were present, she extricated herself from the tree and bounded off into the forest.