Lucas woke up with a headache. He slowly and unwillingly opened his eyes. All reluctance disappeared from his head at the moment in which his brain registered his surroundings. What the hell is this?

He was lying on the floor of what appeared to be some sort of a tunnel made from dark grey rock with the occasional bluish tint. There was moderate amount of illumination and Lucas saw the source were white crystals glowing with soft light, embedded in the walls. This seems at least partly natural. Could I be underground, maybe even trapped in some cave? The thought made his hearth pound in his chest.

He propped himself in sitting position and observed his environment more closely. The tunnel was not claustrophobically small. It was around three meters high and four to five meters wide and extended in both directions for about dozen meters, after which it made turns.The air seems fresh and there are no dead ends in sight.

Lucas attempted to remember how he got here. The last memory he had was of him going out of his apartment to buy food.

Did someone kidnap me? But I don’t have any enemies, especially ones capable and willing to execute such actions. Ransom as a reason is unlikely. Also I am not restrained and the location seems strange.

He considered asking aloud if someone was out there but refrained. Shouting in a surreal underground tunnel does not seem to be a good idea.

Lucas checked his belongings and found that nothing was missing. So not a robbery either. He took out his phone, but it was completely dead. That is unexpected, the battery should have been almost full. How long was I out? It should not have been too long since I am not feeling thirsty or hungry. The situation looks more and more bizarre.

Is this perhaps a covert black ops experiment? He felt cold sweet trickling at the back of his neck as he realized that the kind of people inclined to engage in such activities may not leave witnesses.

I should not make hasty conclusions. Lucas closed his eyes, started taking deep breaths and tried not to think of anything in an attempt to calm down.

Several moments passed and he had moderate success, but then something unforeseen happened. After his mind became quiet he was able to feel a very vague and strange, indescribable awareness. What is this?! The sensation was faint and difficult to put into words, it almost seemed like he had some kind of completely new sense.

He opened his eyes with surprise and alarm, but the new perception instantly vanished. Great, now I am having some kind of hallucinations. Was I drugged? But I don’t feel euphoria and my mind seems to be otherwise functioning normally.

After the initial surprise passed, Lucas became curious and tried to repeat the experience. He again closed his eyes, concentrated and was able to discern the peculiar awareness. Lucas strived to focus on it as much as he could.

A minute or two passed without any results but then suddenly information flooded his mind making him gasp. He understood the contents almost instantly.

[Species]: Human

[Age]: 0.22

[Level]: 8

[Celestial Harmony]: 5

[Harmony Points Available]: 5

[Soul Sigils](…)

[Energies](…)

What the hell, am I going insane? This is too particular for a random hallucination. Is that supposed to be some kind of description of myself? It almost looks like RPG character profile. However the age is presented in an unusual way and seems wrong and if level normally starts from 0 or 1, why would I be 8.

He repeated the process by which the strange information was obtained and the result was the same.

Doing it for the second time was even easier and Lukas noticed the last two categories had different feeling than the others, almost like there were more details just out of reach. Let’s see what else my brain can conjure.

He concentrated his attention on the [Soul Sigils] category and after several attempts successfully unmasked another layer of information. There were four subcategories under the [Soul Sigils] and he decided to check them all in one go.

[Classes]:

-no Classes

-Total Class Slots: 1

-Free Class Slots: 1

[Skills]:

-no Skills

-Total Skills Slots: 5

-Free Skill Slots: 5

[Traits]:

-no Traits

-Total Trait Slots: 1

-Free Trait Slots: 1

[Attributes]:

-Total Attribute Slots: 9

-Free Attribute Slots: 0

-Unspent Attribute Points: 16

-Strength: 0

-Agility: 0

-Endurance: 0

-Constitution: 0

-Vitality: 0

-Mana: 0

-Mana Exuberance: 0

-Aether: 0

-Aether Exuberance: 0

That confirms it. It really is RPG character profile. The big question is what it is doing in my head.

Let’s see if the final piece of mental data reveals something interesting. Lucas proceeded to examine the [Energies] category and this time easily found two subcategories.

[Mana]:

-base Mana: 10

-maximum Mana: 10

-Mana regeneration per hour: 3.16

[Aether]:

-base Aether: 50

-maximum Aether: 50

-Aether regeneration per hour: 3.53

So there is even Mana. With this the RPG set up is truly complete.

Lukas considered the possibility of him being in full immersion virtual reality, but dismissed it. Such a technology will be at least several decades or even centuries ahead of anything currently available.

What if it is aliens? Maybe they put something in my head. The possibility was chilling but he didn’t quite believe it.

Extraterrestrial intervention is even more farfetched than human made virtual reality. Occam’s razor dictates I have simply gone nuts. I should focus on my immediate situation and survival instead of dwelling on this. After I get back home I will have all the leisure to worry about inconsequential things like my sanity.

Lukas decided it is time to start moving. He thought about which way to go. The tunnel has no slope and appears the same in both directions without any indication of where the exit is. No notable noises until now either. I may as well pick at random and come back if there is no success.

He stood up and started walking. The floor of the passage was relatively flat but the sides and the ceiling were not smooth and had a lot of small irregularities. The glowing crystals however were at even intervals. I am not aware of any crystal that can emit light continuously with such intensity. Maybe they are not natural objects but just made to look the part?

If the tunnel is at least partially artificial, it means there is a way out and one can only hope it is not blocked.

Lucas moved along the tunnel and after a few hundred meters it ended in an underground cavern. He immediately froze after entering the cavern. Inside, three or four meters to his left, there was a spider-like thing. It had a height of thirty to forty centimeters with eight legs, two tentacle like appendages and a body as big as a football.

The being noticed his presence almost instantly and charged towards him. Lucas had no time to think and reacted on instinct. He tried to kick the creature away. The being was nimble and managed to evade, but its progress forward was stopped for a moment.

Lukas started backing away and kept kicking at the thing every time it approached him. For the next several moments he was able to keep it at bay with this tactic. Right until his back came to the wall of the tunnel, which startled him and made his next kick a lot weaker and slower.

The creature used the opportunity and attached itself on top of his right foot with its tentacles. Then they started glowing with ominous dark emerald light and Lucas felt cold numbness in the lower part of his leg.

He tried shaking the being off of his limb without success. As the icy sensation creeped upwards in his calf, panic gave way to rage and his face contorted in a furious grimace.

Lucas turned his body so that the wall of the tunnel was next to his left side and shifted all his weight to his left leg. Then he performed anger powered round kick with his right leg towards the wall, placing the monster between his foot and the stone.

The creature was not able to withstand this and its body was smashed with a sickening sound. Lucas almost vomited. He tried to slow down his breathing and then shook off the remains of the thing from his leg.

Fuck. That was no ordinary animal. What is this godforsaken place? His thoughts were interrupted as something even more amazing happened.

Blue vapor was rising from the remains of the creature. Lucas watched with wide eyes as the parts of its corpse started shrinking and dissolving with speed visible to the naked eye.

In less than a minute it was completely gone, even the blood evaporated thoroughly.

What the hell just happened?!