Marty was a cook for Arctic Storm entertainment, creators of the game Oblivion Online. When asked, he agreed to become a beta tester for two of their new initiatives. He is one of the first to be able to play as a monster character, choosing to become a kobold ambusher. He has also been selected to participate in the first trials of long term immersion.

After many trials, Marty, or in the game as Angus MacG, has joined and climbed in the ranks of the church of Thanatos as well as gained entrance and some infamy in the alchemy guild. He underwent a transformation to change himself into a variant, and gaining the skill mystic vision that allows him to see the flows of mana. Through his journey, he has come to know three other testers, all of whom have helped each other out whenever possible.

Phoebe, who started the game as a gnoll and has since evolved into the terrifying loup garoup, finally managed to enact her vengeance upon the guild that slaughtered her NPC friends as they were hunting. She has since started her journey to master her curse, given hints by the being who helped with her evolution, the chained god Sin.

Jon, once a goblin, has now become a bugbear witchdoctor. Though his trials brought up a painful past, he has embraced the curses he has acquired. Having met up with Phoebe in the game, With no further obligations, he has agreed to join and aid Phoebe in her journey, to see where the game will take them.

Derrick, in game the troll Rock’m’Sock’m, is the only member of their group that has yet to evolve. Currently waging a campaign of nocturnal extermination against bandit groups, he is close to reaching the maximum level.

In his journeys, Marty was tasked with slaying four creatures that have avoided death. The first, a spirit caller who ended up draining spirits to prolong her life, was dispatched after Marty cleared the demonic dungeon she was hiding in. While moving on to the second target, a necromancer who was resurrecting the bodies of fallen heroes, Marty managed to stumble across a sealed mana well. As he was unsealing it, he channeled shadow mana for three days while condensing it into a solid crystal. Teleported back to the city he was living in seconds before the seal broke, he was stunned to learn he had kick started several world events.

For the next seven days the world will suffer through upheaval as the tides of mana seek to establish a new equilibrium. The mages guild has sent adventurers out to map the distortions and eruptions of shadow mana, and sent an open call to any who manage to learn a new spell as the ambient mana changes things randomly. Not to be outdone, the adventurers guild has placed bounties for shadow warped variants of creatures to add to their extensive beastiary, while the alchemists guild is offering rewards for anything and everything that can be used in a potion.

Upon seeing the messages naming him the player that brought about the magical mayhem, Marty decided it was time to evolve his character. When he unleashed the power of the mana stone he had created, he learned that it was a divine tier artifact and yet again he was named as the person responsible for unlocking a world event, this time as several divine artifacts that had previously been seeded across the world gained in strength. Craftspeople could hone their skills to the degree that they could even develop their own divine tier artifacts. As the developers had not foreseen using a divine artifact to evolve a monster character, Marty was logged out of immersion for a week of intensive physical therapy in order to relearn the coordination needed for his gross muscle control. During this time, the developers were challenged by the CEO himself to create a suitable evolution for Marty.

As Marty was finishing up his eighth day of physical therapy, being just shy of the goals set by his physical therapist before allowing him back into the game, he got a message from Frank, the lead developer, asking him to meet with his game manager Emily and her boss Mike.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” Marty muttered as he read the note.