Zach looked down at his body.

He wore a familiar white tunic which was now stained with a few drops of picante fruit juice, a pair of tan trousers dirty from the river, and a pair of awful sandals he made last time.

He shivered from a gust of wind and the small, blonde hairs on his arms stood up.

‘There’s no way this is a dream. It’s all too realistic. Subconscious, you lied to me! You are actually a regular conscious!’

The betrayal was real. Actually, everything was real.

‘I need to do something,’ he thought.

He turned his gaze to the ashes of his fireplace. No smoke rose from the ashes, but it felt warm when he touched the centermost ashes, which meant not much time had passed in that place either.

He briefly thought about restarting it with his magic again, but there was no need. He summoned his status window.

[Zach: Level 1]

[Health: 50/50 Stamina: 10/10 Mana: 12/12]

[Classes: {Dreamer}, {empty}]

[Titles: none]

[Stats:]

- {Litheness: 10}

- {Constitution: 12}

- {Power: 12}

- {Will: 10}

- {Intelligence: 12}

- {Consumption: 11}

[Abilities: {?????}]

[Skills: Observation (level 2), Clothes Making (level 1), Tool Making (level 1), Stones Throw (level 1), Candle (level 1)]

For one, the window appeared successfully. For two, his [Health] had fully recovered. For three, he had all his skills.

Right now, his number one priority was to figure out the rules of this world. After that, he would decide what to do.

Based on his experience with the previous night and the current night, it seemed he travelled between worlds every time he went to sleep. The last time he was here, he woke up at noon and wandered around in a daze, mistaking everything for a dream. Not this time.

This time, the sun was near the horizon and climbing steadily. He had a full day to work, and he would use it seriously.

Looking over his window, there were more than just skills.

He had stats, titles, and classes. He had to find out what each one did. He clapped his hands together.

Zach’s attention flicked to his first class, {Dreamer}, and ‘desired’ to know what it did.

[Classes:]

- {Dreamer:}

- - {Dreamers are those who can recover faster while resting. A good night’s rest also improves concentration and total energy and enthusiasm while awake. Exponential recovery while sleeping. Faster learning while awake.}

- {empty:}

- - {New class unlocked at level 50}

The class he currently had, {Dreamer}, spoke volumes of his situation, but several questions about this surfaced. What if he fell asleep during the day, or took a nap? What if he pulled an all-nighter? Was he transferred to another world every time he fell asleep, or only at night? Lastly, what happened to his body after he was switched to another world?

He didn’t have the answer to these questions, so he would have to do some tests later.

His mind shifted back to the game-like windows.

The default class apparently had its perks. He could recover faster while sleeping, and also learn faster while awake. He didn’t know how much it amounted to, as the window hadn’t even decided to quantify that for him and he had no comparison, but given the cut on his foot had healed up overnight, not even leaving a scar, and the welts on his hands had also healed, it must’ve been a lot.

Of course, he had gone back to Earth for a day, if the cut had taken that time into account as well… Wait, do wounds and injuries get carried over?

It was yet another thing to experiment with, unless he wanted to find out the hard way.

Zach returned his attention to the display. He had another [Classes] slot called {empty}. The description for it seemed pretty self explanatory. He would just have to level up to level 50 to find out what other classes there were. Though, the fact that he could choose multiple classes was pretty odd compared to most video games he’s played. Zach clicked out of the [Classes] list and went over to the [Abilities] category this time.

[Abilities:]

{?????:}

- {Unlock description upon use.}

He let out a disappointed sigh. The only ability he had was blocked by question marks and an unhelpful description. By the time he used it he would already know what it was.

Since he hadn’t unlocked any new abilities yet, he had no sure way of knowing how they functioned differently from [Skills]. It could be as simple as [Skills] being active actions while [Abilities] were passive.

Zach closed the abilities page and stared at the raw information window again.

Next he summoned up the description of each of his [Stats] to look over, rubbing his neck as he was finally getting used to controlling the window with his mind.

[Stats:]

{Litheness: 10: Denotes the player’s speed of movement. Elemental connotation: water}

{Constitution: 12: Denotes the player’s general toughness. Elemental connotation: ground}

{Power: 12: Denotes the player’s influence on the world around them. Elemental connotation: fire}

{Will: 10: Denotes the player’s presence and presence detection. Elemental connotation: air}

{Intelligence: 12: Denotes the player’s speed of thought and maximum mana. Elemental connotation: light}

{Consumption: 11: Denotes the player’s energy use and energy tolerance. Elemental connotation: darkness}

{Points to distribute: none (go to ‘Quests’ to earn more points)}

There was a lot to process here.

First, apparently he was a player. The description clearly refers to him, the user of the skill, as a ‘player,’ so it was only logical to assume he was in a game. Though, what kind of game stretched across several dimensions and took place while he slept? Zach didn’t know.

Second, the things called ‘elemental connotations’ were equally mysterious until Zach recalled the first magic spell he had performed. The description appeared on top of the information he was already looking at.

{Candle (level 1): The simplest form of fire magic created by channeling mana to the fingertip. +1 power per level}

The spell {Candle} was clearly a fire-type skill. Upon learning it Zach had received a point to {Power} which had a relationship with fire. If Zach decided to learn another fire spell, he assumed more points would be distributed into power, whereas if he learned water magic, the points would be distributed to {Litheness} respectively.

His eyes bulged upon reading the last sentence displayed.

{Points to distribute: none (go to ‘Quests’ to earn more points)}

‘There’s a [Quests] section?!’

Up until now, he had only accessed his information window and the [Inventory]. Now he was slapping himself for not looking for more, for not looking for everything he could do. He backed out of everything then ‘desired’ to see every category he had. A list of categories appeared.

[Player Data] [Inventory] [World Guide] [Books] [Quests]

Again he slapped himself (since it didn’t hurt).

This was clearly the main menu.

The first thing that caught his eye was the [World Guide]. He ‘clicked’ it and more text appeared as the previous text vanished.

[Monster Bestiary] [Botany] [Zoology]

Zach took the time to inspect each category. Every plant he had identified the last time was listed out in nice, alphabetical order under [Botany]. And the [Zoology] category had only the two animals he had seen so far: a Duck and Goose.

He was disappointed that there was no map, or anything that might help him navigate to a town or village. He briefly recalled a game review that frowned on the overuse of mini-maps in games. This once, Zach disagreed with the author.

The [Monster Bestiary] was cause for concern in and of itself. It was empty, of course, but the fact that the system had something like this meant there were monsters in this world.

In video games, each one could kill the player (which was him) at any given moment.

His only comfort was that the monsters’ difficulty wasn’t very high depending on which area you were in. Thankfully, Zach was still in the spawn area, or so he assumed.

With this in mind, he wanted to stay in the starter area and level up until he could handle himself. Games also usually had clear, defined barriers that signified he was entering a high level area. The only question left was how “realistic” the game was...

Zach sighed.

He dismissed the [World Guid] data. He briefly opened up the [Books] tab, only to find that there was nothing in it. He figured he would have to collect his own books in order to make use of that category.

The sun was getting pretty high in the sky. He opened the [Quests] section.

[Quests]

[Daily Quests:] (2)

- {Running for Fun: 0 / 3 Miles Ran}

- {Duck Hunter: 0 / 10 Ducks Killed}

[Main Quests:] (1)

- {Defender: 0 / 1 Dungeons Closed}

Zach frowned. Only one quest looked immediately accomplishable. He clicked on {Duck Hunter} to see what he was supposed to do.

{Duck Hunter:}

- {Kill 10 Ducks level 1 and above. The following will be rewarded upon completion: +1 Stat Point for distribution. *Incompleted* 0 / 10 Ducks Killed}

There was nothing left to do but gather more rocks in his [Inventory]. Thanks to that, he didn’t have to worry about weight limits. The rocks disappeared in a shimmer of light. Next, he scanned the stream for some ducks.

‘Apparently, the duck I killed yesterday doesn’t count for today’s daily quest,’ he thought disappointedly.

He followed the water as it flowed down stream. It was time to get some levels tucked under his belt. Finally, he spotted four ducks.

He summoned four rocks from his inventory. There was a shimmer of light as the four rocks materialized, dropping into his hands. {Stones Throw}. His arm whipped out in a fluid motion as the system assisted him in throwing the stone. A moment later, he heard the cry of an injured duck. Several system messages followed shortly after.

[Defeated: Bungalow Duck (level 1)]

[Level Up: +1 to all Stats, Full Recovery]

[Item: Bungalow Duck Carcass (Rarity E)]

- [Acquire? y/n]

Zach’s body was covered in a shimmer of that same light of the [Inventory], and he immediately felt refreshed. ‘So that’s what it feels like to level up.’ Snapping out of his amazement, he readied another rock, holding it near his cheek. {Stones Throw}.

Another duck went down.

At this point the last two ducks decided it was best to get to cover, but before they could get to the shore, Zach used another {Stones Throw}. It connected with the third, but the fourth and final duck weaved into the grasses, disappearing from view. He threw his last rock at the brush the duck had escaped into, but no system messages appeared, so he assumed he had missed his target.

[Defeated: Bungalow Duck (level 1)]

[Defeated: Bungalow Duck (level 1)]

[Item: Bungalow Duck Carcass (Rarity E)]

- [Acquire? y/n]

[Item: Bungalow Duck Carcass (Rarity E)]

- [Acquire? y/n]

He gladly transferred his prizes to his inventory before looking at his player stats.

By leveling up once, he had increased his maximum [Health] by 10 and his maximum [Stamina] by 5. On top of that, he had gained one point in every stat.

It was unfortunate that his {Consumption} also went up, but maybe it was the cost of leveling up.

If this pattern repeated itself, how strong would he be at level 20 or 30. At level 1, all his stats were at 10, discluding [Consumption]. At level twenty, he would be twice as strong. At level 30, he would be three times. All of this accounted for just the level increases, not the bonuses from the skills he learned or the points he could get from quests. In only a few weeks, he could potentially become stronger than Olympic athletes.

Zach chuckled with disbelieving excitement.

‘I’m going Duck Hunting.’

[Level Up: +1 to all Stats, Full Recovery]

[Stones Throw has reached level 2]

[Level Up: +1 to all Stats, Full Recovery]

[Stones Throw has reached level 3]

[Quest Complete: Duck Hunter (+1 Point for Distribution)]

Zach quickly found more ducks. To his horror, some of them were willingly eating the picate fruits that had fallen off the tree! He killed them promptly, completing one of the daily quests while leveling up his body and his skill {Stones Throw}.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have the bodily coordination to run through the forest and complete the {Running for Fun} daily quest. The one time he tried, he tripped over a branch and lost 5 health points. He needed to find flat ground first.

Instead, it was time for a little test. Zach jumped straight up in the air.

‘Hmmm. Not a bad vertical. Now my arm.’

He picked up another stone, refraining from using the ones in his inventory, and threw it. It left a sizable dent in the tree.

Next, he spent the point he had gained on {Power}, figuring that was the most likely stat to increase the power of his throws. He briefly confirmed the point increase.

{Power: 18}

Then he jumped.

It was hard to tell, but it might be a little higher than a moment ago. But the increase in his strength was most apparent with the next rock he threw. Right next to his previous dent, the same stone created a deeper impression, even breaking upon impact.

‘Woah!’

Zach only had one move in his entire arsenal, and according to his system, this game had a {Bestiary}. That meant monsters existed in this world. That thought worried him more than anything else.

He took a couple minutes to stock up on more rocks as ammunition, then continued back down the stream.

As he walked, the stream started to widen. Now a torrent of water flowed through the woods and brush. About an hour later, Zach sat down on a fallen tree. Here the water had slowed to a crawl and was quite peaceful. It was a good location to make a quick fireplace.

He gathered some dry foliage.

{Candle}.

He stepped away from his creation, then extinguished the magic before it consumed the rest of his mana.

After ignoring his hunger, he decided he couldn’t stand it any longer. He needed to eat something.

From his inventory, he summoned one of the ducks he had killed and looked at it grimly. First he plucked as many feathers off as he could, which was tedious and made him squeamish, then used his flint tool to cut off raw chunks of meat. He then pinned the meat on a stick and held it over the magically created fire. It was rough going, and he had to wash his hands every step of the way, but he managed to successfully cook some (slightly charred) duck.

Steeling his nerves, he took a bite.

He nodded reluctantly, wolfing down the rest of the chunk.

His first meal, cooked quite literally from scratch, was not good, but it was the best he had.

It didn’t have much flavor since he didn’t use any seasonings. So, maybe he would try to find some salt later.

When he was finished, he safely scattered the coals.

...

After half an hour of walking and exploring through the forest, Zach stopped abruptly, finding an amazing scent in the air. Something smelled delicious, like cookies or brownies ready to be taken out of the oven.

A brownie would have been good with the duck he had eaten. With an ice cold glass of milk, he would sit on his couch with a warm blanket and eat his meal.

His mouth watered at the thought and he immediately decided to look for the source of the smell.

‘Perhaps I’ve finally found civilization?’ he thought.

[New Skill: Dungeon Detection (level 1)]

He made a puzzled face at the system message and continued walking. As he got closer to the supposed source, the smell of baking grew stronger as well. Finally, he saw it.

Floating in the middle of a small clearing was a floating black orb no bigger than a tennis ball.

[You Discovered a Dungeon]

Zach narrowed his eyes at the system message, then the black orb, then the system message again.

[End Chapter 4]