Scanning through all the still open Windows, James saw a few terms he didn't understand. Hoping this explanation feature was more in-depth, James focused on the term mana.

Mana (sustenance):

Locked.

Slightly confused, James looked through the rest of the terms he could and was met with similar messages.

Stamina (sustenance):

Locked.

Health points (sustenance):

Locked.

Shrugging, James turned to the image of him on the left side of the large window. For the first time, he noticed small circles over certain points of his body. Reaching out to touch one of them, James was reminded that the Windows were in his head, and not in front of him. Following another round of swearing, James decided to try focusing on the circle on his face. A small window with multiple sliders appeared below his face.

With no instructions or labels, James took a gamble and tried to move the first slider to the right a bit. He was met with the nose on his avatar becoming a little wider. Laughing a bit at how this small change had completely altered his look, James changed the slider back and closed that particular window. He was content with his own face, and not vain enough to try for something better.

Looking through the other body-altering circles, James discovered that most physical aspects of himself could be changed, but he noticed that as he changed things like leg length, and the number of muscles on his arms, the stats like speed and strength stayed the same. He supposed that after the initial scan of a person's capabilities, most things just became cosmetic.

As he was more or less happy with his body how it was, with a minor increase in muscle definition, and height. With his appearance changed, James supposed the last thing to do before he would leave this customisation would be to spend the stat points. It hardly took a genius to figure out how to add them, just focusing on the plus sign after each stat. As he had no idea what he planned to do with himself after his character was created, James opted to play it safe and added one stat point to each of the stats he had access to.

Once his points were spent, a new window popped up:

Customisation complete,

Are you happy?

"Of course I'm not" James spat, looking at the window bitterly.

Are you happy with your new body?

The message changed in response to his words. Mildly amused, James nodded. As he did so, he wondered why his physical body hadn't changed as he altered the avatar. The customisation screen disappeared, and James was once again surrounded by darkness, but curiously, he could see his own hands in front of his face. A quick scan of what he could see confirmed that he hadn't changed and that he was still fully clothed.

Customisation complete.

Initializing integration...

Hold on to something.

Puzzled at that last sentence, James was about to question the window before the floor seemed to disappear.

The previously unseen walls to this impossible room disappeared, and he stood high in the air, surrounded by clouds. Marvelling at his surroundings, James stepped to the edge of the still black platform and looked down. This was a mistake.

James' knees turned weak, and he fell backwards onto the platform. Suddenly lightheaded, James felt himself sinking into the platform. Worried that he was suffering from extreme vertigo, James opened his eyes, which he hadn't even realised were shut and realised he was actually beginning to sink into the platform.

The previously pitch black, the solid surface was becoming transparent and taking on a gel-like consistency. As he sunk further, the parts of him submerged in the black gel felt cold and hot at the same time. As more of him sunk deeper, James' limbs and spine began to feel stretched. The stretching turned into a grinding pain, and as the gel threatened to reach his face, James began to struggle. But this was futile. His body was stuck in the thick liquid, and falling faster.

Barely able to concentrate on the pain in his bones, James took one last deep breath before the gel-covered his mouth and nose and closed his eyes.

How long he spent in that gel seemed a mystery to James. What was likely barely a minute felt like hours. But before he knew it, James' back was through the gel and suspended as the rest of him slowly fell through as well. As soon as his head was free, and James was hanging from his elbows and ankles, he looked around. Unfortunately, he was still surrounded by clouds. What was even worse was the fact that there was nothing underneath him. Afraid of falling from a height that would surely kill him, James began struggling again, preferring the agony of the gel over the prospect of death.

Suddenly his hands were free, and James saw he had only a few seconds before his feet were freed too. James swung until he was hanging upside down, dreading what was about to happen. But his attention was taken by the three bars that flickered into being at the top of his vision. One red, one blue and one green. James read the words before and after them:

Health: 58/58

Mana: 62/62

Stamina: 17/17

Before he could make full sense of what he saw, his feet were suddenly free, and for a second he seemed suspended in mid-air. Then came the drop.

James fell, faster and faster, through layers of cloud. His stomach was not used to this, and James threw up in mid-air, managing to make sure none of it sprayed on him. Instantly feeling better, James realised he was free of the clouds and could see him. Working off the adrenaline in his system, his mind scanned the area beneath him, recognising that his target appeared to be his school, specifically the classroom he was in not long ago. Look in around more, James noticed the area was largely unchanged. The only thing he noticed, which shocked him more than anything else could, was that the sky was now snow white. The sun was barely visible, and the cloud layer underneath it seemed to glow, so it was no darker than it should have been.

As he approached the school, James began to panic again, how the hell was he supposed to stop? James had expressed an immense power of the mind to not scream before, but he did now, letting out a cry of fear that seemed foreign to his own ears.

In the instant, before he hit the surface of the roof though, his vision began to flicker, and he fell softly to the floor in the classroom onto one of the desks. Rolling off, a few gasps could be heard, and James was almost instantly covered by another person, who straddled him.

Not recognising the woman on top of him, James swung out in a blind panic. Striking her on the side, a squeal of pain and surprise reached James in an uncomfortably familiar voice.

Forcing himself to calm, and pushing himself into a sitting position, James looked over his would-be assaulter again. She appeared to be slightly shorter than him, maybe 5'9" when standing. And though she wasn't skinny, she had females solid build. Looking at her from the face down, James took note the blonde hair that curved naturally over her shoulders, he slender face, delicate features and piercing green eyes that were shocked and filling with tears. A bust that made James' eyes linger for more than a few seconds, especially when compared to her thin waist, and wide hips.

Curiously, she was wearing their college uniform, and not only did it fit her, it suited her. James' breath caught in his throat. He had never seen someone this perfect before, and he had just hit her. James and this woman both sat, staring at each other before she spoke.

"Jaimeeeee," she said in a soft, slightly whining voice.

James was confused for a few more seconds before the pieces finally fit in his mind, and he gasped.

"Dana?"