You have two weeks.

Prologue.

I woke up with a start.

“What the hell?” I looked around my small apartment bewildered. “You can’t be serious…” I looked over at the computer with its soft blue tinged light. I got out of bed feeling a pounding headache and glaring at the sunlight seeping through the curtains. “This has to be some elaborate joke right?” I sat down and opened up my trusty laptop fully

On top of the page I had opened yesterday was the numbers:

13: 23: 59: 24…

And their last digits were slowly kicking down. Nothing else, just a single line of text was left out of all text in the absurdly long and in depth contract I had signed. I snickered at the absurdity of it all. I leaned back in my comfy chair and massaged my temples.

“I most certainly did not drink that much yesterday.” I spoke to no one in particular. “Besides, my memories from yesterday are still clear…” I trailed off looking at the screen. The timer was slowly ticking down and I sighed mulling over what was probably a very rash decision on my part.

“We welcome you to the world of Savani! A world of magic, heroics and adventure! A place of endless possibilities and wonder!”

That was the text that had greeted me when I opened the suspect looking email. As I kept reading I learned about a game world that sounded both interesting and exciting. It had skills, levels, magic, demons, angels and gods.

As the fantasy nerd I am, I was immediately snared and as I read I became hooked thinking that if this game managed to deliver it would be beyond amazing! So after reading the info I skimmed through the first pages of EUA and did what any sane person would. I scrolled to the end and entered my E-signature without reading any of it. That was the last thing I remembered.

I frowned at the screen.

“Well, if this is a practical joke it is a damn elaborate one.” I looked around my small flat with only a tinge of paranoia gripping my heart as I spoke.

Nothing jumped out at me and everything looked in order. I sighed deeply thinking of the words that I had no memories of reading anywhere.

You have two weeks to prepare. You may bring anything you can carry and for anything new you bring to Savani you receive an equivalent reward.

“So either I imagined that…” I looked at the screen suspiciously. “Or it was deleted after I read it…” I did not voice the final option, almost more afraid of that than it all being an elaborate ruse.

I just sat there in my chair for a good while glaring at the computer as the sun made its slow climb towards its peak. My mind was abuzz with countless scenarios and I was glad it was Sunday.

It was only when my stomach growled that I rose from my chair, stuffed some leftovers in the microwave, and took a quick shower as my loyal sous chef prepared my lunch.

Stepping out of the shower as my ancient microwave croaked out its electronic beeps I walked over and retrieved the reasonably hot plastic container. I gave my long-time companion a pat on the cheap plastic and walked over and sat down at my desk glancing over at the countdown.

By the time I had eaten, cleaned up and brushed my teeth I found myself seated by the computer again.

“What am I to do about this?” I asked the pc. “As that’d give me an answer…” I rolled my eyes and sighed. I stood and flopped onto my bed grabbing my stress ball and started tossing it at the ceiling as I thought.

“So, as I see it” Puck. “There are three outcomes.” Puck. “One, it is just a game” Puck. “and the strangeness is just all in my mind.” Puck. “Two, this is a practical joke” Puck. “and they put these strange thoughts in my mind somehow.” Puck. “With like, hypnosis or something…” I caught the ball and sat up on the bed looking at the pc with trepidation.

“Or…” I gulped. “This is all real and I have two weeks to prepare for a journey to a different world, a medieval world of magic and heroes.” I just sat there for a bit and shuddered. My gut was telling me this was real and that sort of terrified me honestly. “I feel like I might be in over my head…” ¨

I sat there and calmed my breathing for a bit. Thinking about the ramifications if this ended up being real. After quite a bit of time I decided that it did not matter which it was. I should do as I always had: ‘Prepare for the worst and hope for the best.’ Considering that I only knew what I considered the worst case scenario here I decided to accept that I’d be a laughing stock if it ended up being a mere joke. So I sat myself down at my computer and started planning out a way to survive and hopefully thrive in a new world.

“Now, since it is a medieval world a bunch of things come to mind.” I leaned back considering. “But I remember the document saying that you would start in the territory of a noble and that you would have their support.” I took a deep breath. “So I probably don’t need to focus too much on things on monetary value. Instead I should focus on ‘new’ things for the reward and on things that will help me long term.” Having come to this conclusion I started my computer.

The first thing I did was to look up a list of course material for doctors. My thinking here was ‘knowledge is power.’ And even in a world of magic, medicine would at the very least be useful to myself. I added books on architecture, economics, engineering, chemistry and a guide on plants. After adding books on history and tactics along with a book on painting I was up to a staggering 67 books and a price tag of 3551 euros.

“Dear god…” I looked at my phone and pulled up my bank account. Balance: 5201 Euros. “Damn, I really wish I had a better job or was any good at saving my money…”

My job at the local supermarket was not very lucrative and I could hardly be called financially inclined. So having saved up as much as I had was somewhat respectable in my own opinion. That being said, it embarrassed me a bit that I had so little money that I added a book on finances for 38 euros before saving my cart and moving on to the next things on my list.

“I need something to carry it all in and some survival tools should I end up in a situation where I need them.” So I navigated to an army surplus store. “Well who would have thought that you could buy backpacks for several hundred euros…” My eyes bulged at the cost of some of these bags. But eventually I found a backpack of Russian design with a staggering 120 litre capacity that should do the trick. This I ordered immediately as all my plans hinged on this and I winced at the 200 euro price tag with express delivery.

I also ordered an over the top titanium alloy army knife bringing the total to 407 euros. “I am sure they overcharged me but the reviews were good and I’d rather overpay and have the genuine article.” I sighed convincing myself that I would just return it if it was not what was promised. The two week free return policy was my backup plan should this not be real.

With that I had 1200 euros left. And after some additional deliberation I chose to do some more research before buying anything else. A few hours and two packs of instant noodles later I had added a book on plumbing, a book on music and a book on alcohol production to my order before pressing buy and crying as the charge came through. I had to press accept multiple times as apparently my order was ‘outside standard range’ but at least it worked.

I looked at the clock and opted to get ready for bed and planned to go to a survival store after work.

The following day I bought a firesteel, a multi tool, a set of lightweight pots and one twenty meters coil and two ten meter coils of paracord. I also bought 4 fishing lines and a handful of hooks. After that I found and bought what was called a foremen’s tablet with a solar charging kit.

With my finances down to terrifying levels I resolved to use my employee discount at the supermarket and buy some instant noodles both for my hopefully, last two weeks and to bring with me. I also made a note to buy a bunch of spices that would hopefully be worth their weight in gold in a medieval society.

A nerve-wracking week later my backpack and knife arrived. “So much for express delivery…” I complained with relief. The bag looked like it had on the page and much to my surprise it was extremely comfortable and sturdy.

Another pleasant surprise was the knife. It had a dark lustre and had a keen edge that according to the note that I got with it was extremely resilient to wear. The blade was slightly longer than my hand and the grip felt very comfortable in my hand. What’s more, it came with a special whetstone and a Kevlar sheet with a strap for the thigh.

All in all I was very pleased and it was not until three days later that my brilliant plan came crashing down.

“How am I supposed to carry this?” I wiped the sweat off my brow and looked at the three large boxes filled to the brim with books that I had bought and groaned. “Well at least I am reasonably sure I can fit it all in the backpack without issue.”

I sighed deeply and started packing, and was pleasantly surprised when everything fit. It took me almost an hour to get it all packed and when I lifted it I really knew I had a problem. Well the problem was that the backpack was still on the floor. I simply could not lift it. Sitting down on my bed I looked at the offending backpack and tried to think of a solution to a problem I really should have seen coming.

“So, do I leave some of the least useful books behind? Or do I try to download more books to my tablet leaving the physical copies behind?” I groaned. “I’m not even sure if the tablet will work in another world…” I hoped it would but I felt way more at ease with proper books.

I sat there agonizing over it for quite some time until I decided to see how much I could bring and after half a day of trial and error I came to two conclusions. One, I had to leave about half of the books behind if I wanted any chance of being able to hoist the backpack onto my back from the floor. Two, and most importantly I learned that I could bring almost everything if I did not have to lift the backpack from the floor.

Thus I put the backpack on my desk and used a stool to be able to fill from the top. My desk might have creaked disturbingly, but seemed to hold. I can’t say that my legs liked the strenuous action of straightening from the slightly bent position they were in when I fastened the backpack to my back. “But hey! I can stand. Walk?” Well... a few paces but even walking the 10 or so steps it takes me to go from my desk to the door and back again left me sweating and panting.

“Well that’s about what I can do…” I spoke in a sombre voice wondering if I had missed anything. I have long since been estranged from my remaining family and I had no close friends, only co-workers at my thoroughly boring job.

I looked at the screen of my laptop that I had moved to my nightstand as a precaution against my backpack crushing it should it fall over.

0:14:42:15

“14 hours…” I was feeling more than a little sick. “Well I’ll just set an alarm and take it as it comes…” Just to be certain I looked over the checklist I had made once more and tried to calm the panic that had been slowly rising over the last week.

It was one thing preparing for all this, but to be perfectly honest I was almost certain that this was some kind of elaborate prank, at least in the beginning. But as the days went by and all the stuff I had ordered started to arrive I began to feel a grown sense of dread.

“Well, I think I’ll just crawl into bed in the foetal position…” I looked around my room which I had already thoroughly searched for hidden cameras. “I think this would be a good time to pop out and have a laugh at my expense…” My face twitched as I looked around almost hopefully.

“Pling.” I’m a big enough man to freely admit that the sound of my doorbell made me jump out of my skin and nearly piss myself. “Pling… Pling”. I turned to the door and felt apprehension, hope and fear. I walked over and opened the door.

“I have a delivery for…” The pizza man looked down at his phone. “Kurt Koubin.” The man looked up with the flat expression of someone who was doing a job he had absolutely zero interest in.

“Umm, that’s not me, I didn’t order this…” The two of us just looked at one another.

There was a brief moment of very awkward silence where I considered just closing the door but in the end the man stepped back and looked at my apartment number, then at his phone and then back again. The man shrugged.

“Well this is the address so here you go.” The man shoved the pizza into my hand and walked off.

“I didn’t order this!” I yelled after him but he simply put his headset back on and walked into the elevator. I looked down on the pizza feeling quite conflicted.

“What the hell…” I looked down at the receipt. “1. Hawaii, extra cheese, extra pineapple, mozzarella crust, with bacon?..” I just looked at it and honestly did not know what to think. “Well at least he was right about the address…” I stepped back in and closed the door. “Well whoever you are I guess I’ll be taking this.”

I took the pizza to my desk that doubled as my dinner table and opened the strangest and most over the top pizza I had ever seen. Sitting down I wiped the cold sweat that I hadn’t even noticed until now, off my brow. I was apparently very hungry and the pizza was surprisingly tasty. Also it turns out that sleeping is much easier when you are not hungry.

I woke up without an alarm today, a truly momentous moment for a night bird like me. Although I did so because of stress so maybe I should not celebrate.

I had work today but that would be after the timer which was at 3hours 27min, had run out.

“Well there is no way in hell I’m making it in time for work if this is all in my head or something…” I grumbled as I stared into the ceiling. “So either way I will not be on time today… the only difference is whether I will be yelled at or if I will go to another world.”

I had some leftover free pizza for breakfast and noticed a blinking notification on my phone. Opening it I found an unread email sent from my own e-mail and it read as follows.

Notice: Today is the day of your departure, when the countdown reaches 0 the sequence will start. Make sure that you are not observed and are standing away from any walls as this can interfere with the process.

During the transfer you will be allowed to select a single boon and you will be rewarded for any new item you bring to Savani.

“Well, I suppose that I have done all I can.” I looked around my apartment. I looked at the ancient microwave, the old stove, my tiny bed, my desk with the oversized bag. I looked at the many books that I had placed on the floor to avoid the desk breaking. I liked my apartment. Sure it was small and a bit old but was more of a home than I had ever had. “I feel like this will be my last day here…” Did I make a mistake?

I shook my head no, despite my fear and anxiety I was also terribly excited. I mean, who hasn't dreamed of living in a world of magic and bravery at least once?

I calmed myself and made some final preparations such as filling the airport bottles I had bought with the various liquors I owned. It might seem stupid since they were small bottles meant for shampoo and such, with a volume that’d be no more than a shot or two. However, I was betting that these liquors would be counted as new items. The last thing I did was to fill the remaining spices I had into plastic bags and stuff them into a side pocket of the backpack. After doing this I looked over at the countdown.

0:2:32:46

“Shiiiit… what do I do now?” I’d need about 10 minutes to fully pack the last books into the bag but I did not want to do that prematurely as my desk kept creaking ominously with all that weight on it. So I would have to wait before I could fully pack, considering that I was unable to lift the backpack off the ground when fully packed. So if the desk broke I would have to pack significantly less.

Also I feel like I should mention that I was only capable of carrying the backpack for about five minutes when it was full. Or rather when it was packed with everything I wanted to bring. The backpack would only be filled to about ¾. Any more and I doubted I’d be able to even stand with it on my back.

“Now I can’t just stand here and watch the countdown tick down…” I sighed deeply, I have been doing that a lot recently. “I suppose that I’ll read one of the books I have yet to pack.” And so I did. The book at the top was unsurprisingly a book aimed at medical students and it was horribly advanced and dry. Still it passed the time.

“Beep, beep, beep.” My phone started vibrating and beeping. I looked over at the countdown.

0:0:11:56

“It is time.” I stood, swallowed hard and quickly packed the last books. Every time I put another book in the backpack my desk creaked in protest and I flinched every time , but I did not slow down and with a full five minutes left I had finished. I was sweating profusely at this point, not from exertion but from the tension I felt.

“I guess I got time for a quick visit to the can.” I almost ran to the can. On the way out I decided to use some extra deodorant and even ended up putting it into my pocket on my way over to my desk.

0:0:2:43

I just stood there until the countdown hit one minute then I put the backpack on and immediately hoped that the destination that I only vaguely recalled was correct.

“I’m pretty sure that it said that I would be transferred to a city…” I looked at the countdown and preyed that I didn’t have to walk far with this weight.

“I haven’t forgotten anything right?” I was getting that itch that you feel when you have forgotten something important.

0:0:0:27

“I’m sure that…” I looked over my apartment and it was then I was it. “FUUUCK SIMON!!!” My damn hibernating pet snake! “How did I forget?!” I ‘rushed’ over to the vivarium that I had placed on the ground with a sheet covering it as Simon was hibernating.

0:0:0:24

“DAMN IT ALL!” I had to squat down if I wanted to be able to bring Simon with me.

I really did not want to leave Simon behind, but I was terrified as I tried to make up my mind. Terrified of what you ask? OF TOPPLING OVER! I’m not sure I have gotten this point across but my backpack currently weighs more than I do!

0:0:0:19

“Jesus, Buddah, God, Allah, anyone really please watch over me!” I screamed as I bent down, sweat pouring from every pore of my body.

My arms were shaking and I ripped away the sheet and reached for my scaly friend, out of the corner of my eye I could see the countdown.

0:0:0:5

“NOT FAIR!” I shouted and ripped Simon out together with the ‘snake house’ I had bought for him.

0:0:0:3

“HAUDAJLF!!!” I screamed incoherently and with a titanic effort I straightened my legs. I almost fell on my arse and was forced to take a step back. Somehow I ended up almost in the centre of the room because of this.

0:0:0:0

“Transfer initiated.” The inorganic voice spoke and the world turned black around me.

“IT WAS REAL!” I tried to scream but my voice was lost in the blackness.

“Scanning.” It felt like a cold intrusive wind swept over and into my body. “Scan completed. Compiling data.” There was an almost electrical hum. “Sending data for evaluation, standby.” The first inorganic voice was soon replaced by another equally inorganic voice. “Evaluating data from id no: 0021” Another much deeper electrical hum started up as it spoke and then a third voice now far more human spoke. “O brave one, we welcome thee.” The voice was female and sounded pleased. “As a reward for your bravery you will be granted a boon of your choice, but first.” The voice paused and my head was immediately filled with knowledge of the world of Savani. It was really just basic info but even that greatly shook me.

“How can the world of Savani be more than eight times the size of earth?” I was not a physics professor by any stretch of the imagination but I’m pretty sure a planet like that shouldn’t work. At the very least the size should make it impossible for it to share the same basic parameters as earth, yet it did. It had a very similar gravitational pull, similar day/night cycle, almost the same length of a year and so on.

“It is not uncommon for worlds with gods to have parameters similar to your earth as your world has very advantageous qualities for the development of life.” The female voice answered my question much to my surprise.

“Wait, does that mean that there are many worlds? And are those worlds modelled after earth? Also does earth not have a god?” I rapid-fire asked my questions as soon as they came to me and I could somehow feel the voice smile at me.

“First of all I can only give you information that you already know or that is obtainable on Savani, so I can only answer one of those questions.” There was a slight pause before she spoke again. “There are at least 65473 worlds out in the endless universe, as that many have been confirmed by experiments on Savani.”

“Holy cow…” I wonder how an experiment that confirms the existence of another world works.

“That’s an apt reaction.” There was a light chuckle. “Now since our time is limited I will give you a lift of boons to choose from as your rewards are being calculated.”

Before I could ask any more questions the voice was gone and my field of vision was suddenly filled with a screen with countless ‘boons’. It seemed that the screen could scroll endlessly but I somehow knew what I wanted and found it rather easily. It was almost like it had already been prepared for and presented to me.

Boon: Esper.

Esper boon grants the following skills: Telekinesis 1, Sixthsense 1, Mind 1.

I mean… who hasn't dreamed about having superpowers? I smiled widely.

“Data, evaluation complete.” The second voice spoke once more and a barrage of text scrolled down in front of me. “’New items’ discovered, total value of new items: 4674.” There was a click and the voice continued. “Incompatible items: 6. Backpack: exceeds transfer size limit, Titanium alloy combat knife: material incompatible with Savani, Fishing line: material incompatible with Savani, Kevlar sheet: material incompatible with Savani, Tablet: technology incompatible with Savani, Cell phone: technology incompatible with Savani” Suddenly there was some static.

“Error, living organism: Diadophis punctatus, designation: Simon detected…” Saying this the electric humming intensified but aside from that there was silence for a good while. “Error is outside standard parameters, escalating.” The electrical humming ceased and I was alone in the completely silent blackness.

“Well this isn’t terrifying at all haha…” My mouth felt dry and no matter how much I turned my head and strained my eyes I was unable to see anything. When I felt like I was about to go insane the second voice returned along with the humming.

“Reward determined by administrator.” A whirring sound reminiscent of a dental drill could be heard in the background. “Installing rewards.” In that moment I felt something wiggle around inside me and my mind went completely white. I did not know how long I was out but what I heard next was.

“The rewards have been installed.”

A list of my rewards appeared in front of me.

Interface (Special): Comprehensive and configurable user interface for managing and monitoring the user and the world around them. Compensation for incompatible items: Tablet + Cell phone.

Skill point system (Special): Rewards skill points on level up and initial transfer that can be used to improve and acquire known skills. Compensation for loss of data from: Tablet + Phone. (Note an additional 2174 points was taken from total to upgrade to this reward.)

True familiar, Simon (Special): Familiar bound to the very soul of the user. Growths with and can be summoned and dismissed by the user. Error correction.

Storage 3: Extradimensional storage. Compensation for loss of: High capacity supply backpack.

Soul weapon 8, Knife: Weapon forged with a fraction of the soul of the user, capable of evolution and strengthening the user.

Mind Palace 1: Mental space used for storing information. Compensation for loss of: ‘The human body’, ‘Tissue and molecules’, ‘Clinical surgery’, ‘Applied engineering’…

I was pretty sure that the long list of books contained all the books I had packed but I could be wrong. Knowledge contained within these works was moved into the Mind Palace.

“Lastly due to: ‘Skill point system’ the remaining 2500 points were converted into 25 additional skill points.”

Having said the last part, the second voice faded and the first voice returned.

“Evaluation completed, building bridge, stabilizing, finalizing…” The humming became almost deafeningly loud. “Transfer ready, transfering.”

It was like being sucked into a toilet, a toilet made of swirling light instead of water. It was incredibly disorienting and suddenly it was over.

I found myself lying face down on a stone floor. My once clean clothes were covered in sweat and my legs ached.

“Welcome honoured traveller!” the voice of an old man rang out and I unsteadily pushed myself to my knees.

As I raised my head I almost fell back down instantly as my mind was overwhelmed by my new sixth sense. The wave of ‘colours’ being emitted from the many people that filled the large throne room around me made me nauseous.

I tell you, having a new sense ‘installed’ into your head is not great.

Still I somehow managed to get to my wobbly legs and look around. I was definitely in an exquisite throne room. The floor and walls were made from grey marble and there were eight symmetrical white marble pillars that ran from the door behind up to the throne. The entire room was truly a work of art.

As for the people, they were all dressed in incredibly intricate and expensive looking clothes. Well everyone besides the old man who had spoken to me and the soldiers. Well I say soldier, but I guess with the halberds and plate armour they wore they were most likely knights. The amount of knights did scare me a bit but what made me really uncomfortable was the ‘colour’ the well-dressed men and women were emitting.

‘Yellow’, that was the colour I saw with my sixth sense, it was the first colour on the left hand side of the spectrum, the ‘negative’ side. Uh Oh… this can’t be good. What was worse than this was that when I looked up at the throne and the stunning young woman with dark golden hair, I saw orange.

Unlike yellow, which broadly means cautious, orange signifies hostility. Was I not supposed to be transferred to a friendly noble who would support me?

“I am glad to see that…” The old man emitting a blue light signifying trust was interrupted by the beauty on the throne.

“Chancellor.” She spoke in a stern and imperious voice. “I believe that we were promised a champion.” Her eyes were cold as she looked at me.

“Yes, your grace…” The chancellor was interrupted once more.

“This man is covered in sweat from a simple transfer and looked about ready to collapse from the simple act of standing.” Her eyes board into the chancellor.

“Your grace, you can hardly call…” Once more the chancellor was unable to finish his sentence.

“Enough chancellor, this is hardly the champion we were promised.” She looked at me with disgust. “Guards give this ‘man’ some gold for his troubles and send him on his way.” She almost spat out the word ‘man’ and then spoke to the crowd. “The great duchy of Eliano hardly needs a weakling champion to achieve greatness.” Having said her peace to the nodding of most of the well-dressed people around the throne room she stood and left.

The chancellor shot me a panicked look before running after the duchess.

And this was the auspicious start to my new life in the world of Savani.