Bernard adjusted his collar nervously, then picked a piece of lint from his sleeve. He was anxiously awaiting his turn to interview for a manager position at the local grocery store. It wasn't glamorous, but any job was a good job lately. Particularly when he factored his jobless status against the ever growing amounts he owed for rent and bills. The door he was watching opened and an applicant stepped out. Bernard studied the man's expression carefully as he descended the short flight of stairs that led to the office they were using for the interviews. The confident grin on the man's face did nothing to improve Bernard's mood though.

"Bernard? Bernard Reinholdt?" Hearing his name sent his blood pressure and heart rate through the roof. He arrived at the foot of the stairs as the previous man reached the bottom, and noted the slightly threadbare clothes and other minute signs of poverty and desperation. The man clearly made the same observation regarding Bernard and gave him a friendly nod of acknowledgment that Bernard returned readily. He had half expected to receive a quiet taunt or insult and prepared to issue one of his own in return, but the mutual recognition of a kindred soul put a stop to that. He instead adopted a 'may the best man win' mindset and put on a confident and determined expression as he started up the stairs.

He made it about halfway up before the lights went out and he froze in place. The office was at the back of the store to the left from the entrance, and the miniscule amount of light that reached the stairs he was on through the heavily tinted windows was nowhere near enough for him to see anything around him. Particularly after he had grown accustomed to the extremely bright fluorescent lights that, up until very recently, illuminated the entire store. "Fantastic." He mumbled under his breath. "Now they'll probably think I'm cursed or something."

Mere moments later the world rippled around him and he almost fell down the stairs. He swore as he caught his balance, but was rendered speechless when a woman's voice began speaking to him from everywhere at once.

Alert: Aegis initializing. Beginning conversion.

Alert: Planetary biospheres damaged. Long-term viability assessment: Low.

Alert: Database search has identified viable species. Commencing biosphere restoration.

Warning: Biomass required for restoration of planetary biospheres exceeds current reserves.

Warning: Sentient population density beyond optimal levels. Risk assessment: Extreme.

Alert: Converting 46.87% of sentient population to biomass.

Alert: Biospheres successfully restored.

Warning: Sentient population density beyond optimal Levels. Risk assessment: High.

Alert: Dispersing excess sentient population to lower population zones.

Alert: Beginning introd-

Bernard found himself unable to continue listening as an intense wave of disorientation blasted into him. He doubled over and vomited all over the stairs. The world spun around him for a dizzying moment before stopping all at once. Bernard looked around blearily, absently wiping bile from his face with a sleeve. Instead of a store, all he saw was trees. Large ones, close together and covered in vines and moss, with twisting tangles of roots covering nearly the entire forest floor. His grip on the railing of the stairwell tightened, as he subconsciously attempted to hold tight to the only sign of civilization he had left.

At least until he realized the only thing holding the stairwell upright was the fact that the top of the railing was precariously braced against the side of one of the more narrow trees. He decided he would prefer to be on the ground when the railing gave way and took a careful and slow step down. The shift in weight caused the structure to groan ominously, and he finally lost his balance. He tumbled backwards down the stairs as they came loose from the tree, then tumbled right back up them as they tilted down a slope, finally ending his rather graceless descent with a headfirst crash into a tree that almost instantly rendered him unconscious.

*****

Bernard returned to consciousness gradually, groaning at the aches and pains he felt. He sat up slowly, and gingerly tapped at his head, praying he hadn't actually broken anything. After assessing his injuries, his limited knowledge of medicine gained primarily from various television shows, he concluded that nothing was broken and he had a concussion. He winced as he climbed to his feet. "Small miracles I guess?" He muttered as he looked around. "Where on Earth am I?"

You are currently located within the forested area your people refer to as the Amazon Rainforest.

"Who said that?!" He spun around, then staggered and almost fell at the spike of pain the sudden movement brought him.

User has returned to consciousness, please select a starting class.

A floating list appeared in front of him. He tentatively reached out to touch it, and jerked his hand back when it moved. He decided that he must have hit his head much, much, harder than he originally thought. He looked around at the forest, the list staying in his view no matter where he looked and eventually he shrugged and began scrolling through it. He didn't get very far into it when he heard a scream in the distance. It was only at that moment that he realized how deathly quiet the forest around him was.

Warning: Threat to User detected, class selection will resume once User eliminates the threat or reaches safety.

Bernard thought about what he should do for a minute, then steeled his resolve and headed in the direction he heard the scream come from. He had no idea what was happening to the world, but whatever it was he knew his chances would be better if there were other people around. Safety in numbers and all that. More screams sounded, much louder this time as he had reached the top of the hill his flight of stairs had fallen down, and he realized the source of the noise was much closer than he thought.

With every step he took toward the now fading screams a sense of foreboding grew in the back of his mind, yet he doggedly pressed on. One final scream sounded from nearby, ending with a strange gurgle that sent chills down his spine. He stopped in place for a moment before slowly working his way around yet another dense growth of trees as quietly as he could. After that last scream he doubted the screamer was still alive, but figured he could at least find out what happened.

The very last thing he expected to see when he finally laid eyes on his goal was a smoldering gorilla-thing chewing on a man's intestines, and the sight made him gag. He would have thrown up again, but his stomach had been thoroughly emptied on the stairs. The monster's head snapped up and Bernard could practically feel the malevolence and cruelty in its gaze. He spun and ran, staggering and stumbling. He always put a bit of effort into staying fit, but going for a jog twice a week and doing sit-ups now and then definitely did nothing to prepare him for sprinting through a jungle with a concussion in a desperate effort to evade a monster.

Some primal instinct had him retrace his steps. The thought crossed his mind that his knowledge of the terrain in this direction was rudimentary at best, and that it abruptly ended at the foot of the hill, but it was smothered by the overwhelming need to flee. An inhuman roar sounded from behind him, and he risked a glance over his shoulder to see how close the abomination was to him. It was a mistake.

The moment he took his eyes off the ground in front of him he tripped. All he managed to see behind him as he toppled head over heels was a crazily spinning view of gnarled trees and foliage. For reasons he couldn't fathom, he momentarily forgot his fear of the monster chasing him, his confusion brought about by his sudden arrival here, and was left with just one single, matter-of-fact, and dry thought. I'm about to fall down those thrice-cursed stairs again.

Bernard was grateful that he at least wasn't caught completely off guard this time around, and that the stairs weren't nearly as steep at their current angle as they would normally be. He reached for the railing on his way down in an effort to stop his tumble down the hill before he reached the trees at the base of the stairs again. Or was it the top of the stairs still? Unfortunately the structural integrity of stairs that had been removed from their original building and casually dumped down a hill thousands of miles away left something to be desired. A large section of the railing simply tore free in his hands and all he got for his trouble was a nasty cut on his arm and about four feet of dented metal tubing to accompany him on his fall.

He hit the ground flat on his back with enough force to thoroughly wind him, and as he laid there wheezing the monster came into view. It didn't even pause at the top of the hill, the moment it laid its malevolent gaze on Bernard's prone form it leapt into the air with its fists clenched above its head. It clearly intended to bypass the stairs entirely. Bernard wanted to scramble to his feet and run, but found he barely had the strength to move. All he could do was quite literally stare death in the eye. His last feeble attempt at survival was to raise his arms up between himself and the monster.

There was a bone jarring thump as the thing came down on him, accompanied by a disturbing squelching noise Bernard didn't recognize. The monster writhed around above him for a moment before it issued a strange coughing roar and collapsed. Bernard groaned as the massive weight of the thing settled across him, but he didn't dare move for what felt like an eternity as it just laid there on top of him.

Congratulations! You have slain a Voidling *ERROR* times your level!

ALERT: Error detected. Assessing. Error resulted from user level zero due to unfinished class selection, access to a hidden class and an additional feat will be awarded upon class selection for successfully slaying a level six voidling while at level zero.

Bernard nearly had a heart attack when the voices started speaking, sure that they would wake the monster up or something. It was only after they went silent and the window popped back up in front of him that he processed the fact that they said the monster was dead. He struggled to get out from under the monster, a process that took him several minutes of effort and would have been impossible if it weren't partially propped up by the piece of railing he had torn free during his most recent trip down the stairs.

He realized after he got free that it was that piece of railing that saved his life, he hadn't realized that he never let go of it during his fall until he was out from under the beast and saw it sticking out of the gorilla-thing's back. He stared at the gory mess for a long while before eventually shuddering and turning his focus back to the semi-transparent window obstructing his vision.

"That voice said something about a hidden class? Is there a way to sort this list?" No sooner had he asked the question than the list blurred and reshuffled itself, leaving a single class at the very top highlighted. Arboreal Warden: The forest protects its guardians as the guardians protect the forest.

Bernard glanced around at all the trees surrounding him, with foliage so thick he couldn't see the sky. "That's almost too convenient, but I gotta admit that taking a forest-based class while stuck in one of the biggest forests on the planet seems like a no-brainer. Assuming that voice wasn't lying when it said I was in the Amazon." He selected it and a confirmation window popped up, but he didn't hesitate, simply choosing yes and skipping past the cosmetic change window before waiting with bated breath for whatever was going to happen next. Of course, the last thing he expected was a roiling cloud of silver and black mist to manifest around him and a euphoric rush to practically slam into his mind.

He spent an indeterminate length of time blind, deaf, and shrouded in a pleasantly warm sensation before an overwhelming wave of exhaustion washed over him and he passed out.