What the actual heck just happened here? One moment I'm walking into the kitchen at home to start making food for the family, and the next, I'm standing butt-naked in a forest. The trees are tall and some are thick, and the forest floor is a little bit dense.

To make strange things stranger, there's an actual notice in my vision, hovering in a semi-transparent blue box as if I'm in a video game. The message appears to be at about a distance for a computer screen but also a little lower, angled up a little. When I try moving my arm through it, my arm actually does pass through it.

What the actual heck?

I examine the notice.

Welcome to Alzradis, Jamie Krazval. Status Link: [English Language] 6 Skill Granted: [Zolmar Common] 10 Special Trait Realized: [Human] Special Trait Realized: [Unlimited Potential]

Nothing improved with my English, but I did notice the information for another language entering my mind, including but not limited how to speak, read, write, and understand it, as well as various accents and dialects of it. The difference was probably because I already knew English. I likely obtained the Skill because of the implanting of knowledge into my head, not the other way around.

This is definitely like a video game. One possibility is that I'm unconscious and in a coma, my mind putting me through some sort of game-like experience even though I never really played any games due to having to take care of my siblings. Another is that gods exist and one brought me here. Or maybe someone summoned me? I think that was a common thing in some of the shows and stories some of my siblings watched and read.

Either way, this is somewhat annoying. Hopefully, this world is a better place than the hell of my family. Regardless of what the situation is, though, I need to figure out what to do from here. Why did I get dumped into a forest, and why was I brought here?

Do I have a menu? It seems I have Skills, but I want to see if there's some form of Status. No menu pops up when I try speaking and thinking of one, but the moment I think about pulling up a Status, one appears in my vision.

Name: Jamie Krazval Age: 18 years Species: Human Sex: Male Primary Class: Rank: 0 Mana: 5/5 Mana Regen: 0.003/second Strength: 8 Constitution: 8 Agility: 9 Dexterity: 11 Perception: 12 Mind: 1 Magic: 1 Affinity: 1 Luck: 9 Aging: 1 Vitality: 1 Soul: 1

What most of those do can be assumed pretty easily, but just to check, I try to see if the System will tell me. Fortunately, it seems there is a feature for that here.

Strength is my average muscular strength, while Constitution is my body's toughness. Agility is the ability to react, so it's basically my reflexes, not my running speed. That makes sense, as speed is partially based on the muscular strength. Agility will help with it. Dexterity is my skill with hands, and I'm not surprised it's a little higher than the others considering how much I've had to do with my hands in my life.

Perception is my ability to notice and perceive that which is around me, but the Attribute doesn't increase my actual senses themselves. It's probably more useful if there are a lot of smells and sounds going on at once, or when moving at a higher speed.

Mind is my resistance to mental magics as well as my strength with them, while Magic is my actual magical power itself, and it grants 5 Mana per point. Affinity is magical dexterity, and it grants 0.003 Mana Regen per point.

Luck isn't pure luck, but rather, the chances of getting loot from a kill and the rarity of loot drops. It also mentions that it can affect 'a few other events', though doesn't specify what they are. Aging is my aging rate of years passed to how many aged. At 1 Aging, I'll age a year for every year that passes. At 2 Aging, I'll age a year for every two that pass.

Vitality affects my healing rate, so a higher Vitality means I'll heal from injuries faster. The Attribute also affects how well I recover from poisons and resist illnesses, though Constitution will factor into that as well.

All Soul says is that it is the might of my soul, nothing else.

My Status mentions a Class system, and I'd actually like to check it out a bit. Sadly, the System doesn't tell me how it works, so I don't know if there's a limit to how many Classes someone can have or not. Fortunately, it seems that whatever deity brought me here was kind enough to at least give me the knowledge of a language.

Hopefully, it's the local one. If so, that would make asking about the System, especially the Classes, a whole lot easier.

Thinking of the Skills reminds me of them, so I decided to check out the Skills menu.

Skillbook Languages

So it sorts them by category? I access the only one available to me at the moment and find it lists a Tier I option. Upon opening that, I find both Skills listed. There aren't any other Skills, though, which I find strange. Why did it give me [English Language] but not others? I've spent years cooking and other things, so unless there aren't any Skills for them, shouldn't I have them?

Maybe it's because I was receiving a Skill in that category already? Or the god that summoned me (if one) decided to grant me my native tongue's Skill without me needing to use it. I might do the same thing if I were a god, just so that the native tongue was listed first.

It could also be that obtaining most Skills is actually insanely hard and my skill with the tasks isn't enough to obtain them.

Closing the menu, I try to see if I can pull up the Special Traits one.

Special Traits Human: A member of the human species. +3 Luck, Aging, Vitality, and Soul each Tier Advancement. +15 Luck, Aging, Vitality, and Soul each Rank-Up. Unlimited Potential: One who has the potential to become, accomplish, or acquire anything. +100% to all Experience.

Unless Tier Advancements and Rank-Ups are common and easy, I'm going to assume that means raising those four Attributes is difficult and not something I might manage on my own. Not easily, at any rate. The fact that there's a Special Trait for being human suggests there are other types of people about and that the bonus for each Tier Advancement and Rank-Up is different for them.

Then there's my other Special Trait, [Unlimited Potential]. It says this was realized rather than granted, does that mean I always had this as well, just like being human? But because I was on Earth, it didn't do much for me because there's no System, Classes, or Experience. Or maybe the Experience bonus is a reward from the System for having unlimited potential? Either way, it's pretty neat.

I'm planning on becoming a wizard because being able to fling spells would be fun. If I end up back home once whatever task I was brought here for, if there is one, passes, then I'll hopefully retain my magical powers, too.

It would make getting away from my family easier, since I can't afford to leave them and was never able to get a job. If I tried getting one now that I'm eighteen, I'd get the boot from the house for not helping out, and that would be bad before I had a place lined up – and the savings needed to afford the up-front costs.

"You smell strange," a voice says from behind in Zolmar Common, startling me.

Me smelling strange is nothing compared to how strange he looks, though his appearance might not be that strange in this world. There's no way for me to know at the moment since he's the only person I've seen so far here.

I'd put him at about eighteen or nineteen, so my age, and he's about 5'10" in height, two inches taller than me. His hair is jet-black and his eyes are a gold-touched orange. A scaled, black tail is slightly visible behind him, and that's not the only sign that he's not quite human.

At the moment, he wears a pair of black pants, a black leather belt with a sword strapped to it, and a pair of black leather boots.

The lack of a shirt shows off his athletic frame and amazing abs, as well as the lack of body hair or a tan. On each side, he has black scales that contrast strongly with his paler skin. They're small and form a strip about an inch and a half on each side. It goes up and stops right before his pits, but he has another on his shoulders that fade into his upper arms and stretch up to his jaw.

It's kind of strange, but it doesn't detract from him being sexy at all.

"I was planning on taking a shower before bed," I say in his language, grateful that whatever force or group summoned me here wasn't an asshole and gave me the local one rather than one that would be useless right now. "But do I really smell that bad?"

"Not bad," he says, revealing that his canines are fangs. That makes him a little scary, though they aren't abnormally long. Just really fucking sharp. "Just strange. You aren't of this world, are you?"

"It's that easy to tell?" I ask.

"Yes," he answers.

"Is it a common thing?"

"Depends on how you define 'common'," he says. "There's a god that regularly pulls in random people from other worlds. It's 'random' depending on how you define that."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"He only picks gay guys on their eighteenth birthday," he informs me. "Other than that, it's random."

So I was brought to this world because I'm gay and it's my eighteenth birthday?

"That seems odd."

"He began doing this three thousand years ago," he says. "Rumor among my clan says that he was told to by another god that most others fear and obey. Considering the other god is a god of fun, it's quite possible he'd said it as a joke. Said god also don't make appearances often, and it was around that time when he last interacted with us mortals so it's possible that if the rumor is true, he doesn't know his joke was taken seriously."

I'm not sure how to feel about that. Hopefully, the rumor among his clan is false. Otherwise, I was brought here due to a joke made three thousand years ago.

"Was smelling me really all it took to tell I was from another world?" I ask.

His sense of smell is incredible, considering he's about three yards away from me and I'm not feeling a wind at all.

"No," he answers. "That mix of strange and pungent smells combined with the fact that you were focusing on something in your vision, have almost no Mana at all, and didn't react negatively to speaking with a Demihuman all pointed toward it."

The pollution of Earth probably does smell strange and pungent to someone who can smell it on someone that easily. I shower every night before bed and I'd stayed at the house today other than to go grocery shopping this morning.

"Two things," I say. "First, my small Mana reserves told you?"

"Yes," he answers. "Most people have small, almost nonexistent reserves. By itself, it wouldn't mean anything. However, when combined with the rest, it suggests it."

"Okay," I say. "Second, people dislike Demihumans? Why?"

"Yes," he answers. "Unlike most species of people, we Demihumans have an Experience penalty to gaining Class Levels. As a result of this we're seen less as people and more as beasts. Your surprised and curious gaze at my arrival could just be a personality trait, but when mixed with everything else-"

"It suggested I was from another world," I finish.

"Correct," he says. "I take it you are human?"

So there are species that look human but aren't?

"Yes," I answer.

"I'd assumed so," he nods. "You look like one."

Maybe not.

"What other types of people are there?" I ask.

"Fairies, elves, beastkin-"

"What's the difference between beastkin and Demihumans?" I ask.

"Beastkin are always a mammalian mix," he explains. "Such as a wolfkin. They also suffer no Experience penalty. Like most non-human species, they do have a bonus to their growth in something, though. Most the god bring to this world are granted a [Special Trait] that provides a small bonus."

He said "granted", but mine was "realized". Is there a difference?

"You said most?" I ask. "And they're granted it?"

"Yes," he nods. "If they don't already have an innate special bonus that would allow them advanced growth, they receive a Special Trait just for those the god brought here, and it provides a bonus to all Class Experience. I take it you had one realized instead?"

So he already knows about that. It must not be uncommon, either.

"Yes," I nod. "[Unlimited Potential]."

His eyes widen slightly in surprise.

"Impressive," he says. "I can see why the god picked you, then. That bonus the Special Trait grants applies to everything."

"Uh… the difference between that and Class Levels being…?"

"Everything includes Attribute gains and Skill Levels," he says. "There are a few other things as well."

"Is it really that amazing?" I ask. "You seem rather impressed, which could just be a rarity thing, but-"

"It's significant," he says. "Most people have an innate growth rate that's different for each thing. Let's say your innate is 1% Experience for Strength, Constitution, Agility, and Dexterity, 2% for Perception, Mind, Magic, and Affinity, and 3% for all spells in the Magic category. That 100% bonus doesn't turn them into 2%, 4%, and 6%. It turns them into 101%, 102%, and 103%. Your growth rate just became fifty times higher in that case."

Now that I have this extra bonus from the Special Trait, that means I can probably reach heights in even my physical abilities that would be unnatural on Earth, even without Classes.

"In turn," he continues. "This makes obtaining extremely difficult Skills easy. What may be impossibly high for most people might be trivially easy for you."

Considering the small percents he started with, either he used something small just to make a comparison, or he used more normal values for people.

"Okay," I say. "You don't seem at all bothered by a naked gay guy standing in front of you?"

"A very good-looking naked gay guy," he states.

"You think I'm attractive?"

"Quite," he answers. "While you were busy checking me out and getting hard, I took a few moments to return the favor. You merely didn't notice because you were examining me."

The tip of his tail flicks to the side a few times as he says this and his tone shifts to being a little more happy than he sounded before.

"You're gay as well?" I ask.

"Yes," he answers. "Would you like some clothes? I do have some that should fit you in my Inventory."

"There's an Inventory?" I ask, and mine pops up, though it's empty. "Ah. That can be useful."

"Quite," he answers. "If you want to travel with me, I won't turn you down. I'm on my way to a town at the edge of this forest at the moment. It has a Dungeon, and those are good for gaining Experience in for many Classes. Whether you wish to stay with me after we arrive in town, that is up to you."

"We can decide if we can tolerate each other for that when we arrive," I tell him. "Though I'll probably be useless in a Dungeon. While I'd like to learn magic, I don't know any at the moment and I don't have a Class to gain Experience in, anyway."

"All [Apprentice Wizard] takes is knowing a spell," he tells me. "And since you have [Unlimited Potential], that means you could have learned it easily on your world if you were taught how to use magic even before the Experience bonus was added."

Because of his comparison earlier, I'm going to assume that means I have a natural higher rate of growth and learning magic naturally and even did back on Earth. With the added bonus, it just became even higher.

"Do most other worlds not have magic?" I ask.

"Some do," he says. "But I can't smell any on you, so I know yours didn't, or at least, not any noticeable amount. Magic breeds magics, too."

I have no idea what that means, but there's something else interesting in what he said.

"You can smell magic?"

"Comes from my dragon side."

"That's pretty cool."

"It is," he nods. "Do you want some clothes before we begin walking? Boots to protect your feet from the ground? Pants to cover up a bit, perhaps?"

"Why?" I smirk. "Distracted?"

"Very."