Charlie’s perspective

Earlier today, I was finally getting a good night’s sleep after moving into my brand new home, and when I woke up, I was here. All that I had were the clothes on my back and my trusty transformation headband. Those two fuckers had also taken away all my powers somehow. When I get powerful enough again, they’re definitely going to die by my hands.

Right now I’m exploring a small building that looks like it used to be a mom-and-pop restaurant. The place is as dreary on the inside as it is on the outside. There doesn’t seem to be any danger in the main dining room section, so I head in towards the kitchen. In here I spot quite a few rats infesting the place. I also see some nice kitchen knives hanging on the wall. Earlier I put most of my points into agility, this seems like the perfect place to test it out. I quickly run past all the rats and pick out the two knives that look the nicest. After that all it takes is a quick stab to the head to finish them off. This isn’t my first rodeo, these piss poor excuses for monsters aren’t worth my time.

Just from that, I already level up. I take a look at my stats and distribute the new ten points I earned.

Charlie Ryan Team: White Level 2 Health 150/150 Stamina 185/200 Mana 100/100 Vitality 15 Endurance 20 Wisdom 10 Strength 10 Agility 30 Intelligence 10 Free Stat Points 0 Free Ability Points 0

I may not be as fast as I used to be, but with this leveling speed, it won’t take too long to get back to moving around at a blistering pace. Just you wait, you little shits. I’ll win your stupid game, and then I’m coming for you. After close to 25 years in that last shitty world, I was finally getting close to settling down. And now here I am, in another world. Fuckin’ perfect.

After I’m done clearing the rats out, I go outside to try to kill a pigeon. My headband allows me to transform into a selection of three different animals/monsters. As long as I’ve killed them before. If I replace one selection with another, I’ll have to go kill another to make the swap back. That’s another thing that was taken from me, my previous three forms (which happened to be my favorites).

It takes a little bit, but I eventually get the jump on one. I’m sorry little guy, but your form will be very useful to me.

I transform and start flying over this boring excuse for a city. I plan on trying to find another person to work with. Although I usually can’t stand other people, I know there is merit to working together. I just hope it doesn’t take forever to find someone.

It’s been close to an hour already and now I’m running low on stamina so I might have to call it quits. I hate being this slow again, my old dragon form was so much better. The endless sea of dull grey buildings isn’t helping either.

I also need to find some food and water. Or booze, that’d be much preferable to water. I’d love to be sloshed right now, that’d make today bearable.

Just as I’m daydreaming about my favorite type of whiskey, I hear something I haven’t heard in a long time, since I lived on Earth. A loud ass truck horn. What kind of bloody idiot is doing that? I understand going around trying to find someone else, but do you need to keep blasting your horn like that? Your damn vehicle is loud enough as is, you don’t need to wake up the whole damn neighborhood.

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David’s perspective

I’ve been driving for almost two hours now and I haven’t run into a single person yet. I’m glad I came up with the idea of using my horn, though, that’s got to get someone’s attention.

The whole city has been extremely quiet. Other than a few pigeons and rats around, I haven’t seen any other signs of life. There have been a couple of things that I’ve learned that’ll be useful, though. The first is that my mana seems to regen at a little over 10 an hour, which means that my mana will take exactly 24 hours to regen to full. I’m assuming that’s what it’ll be no matter how much mana I get.

The second takeaway is that this planet is really small, and I mean tiny. By going max speed in the direction the sun is traveling I can already outpace it. This means if I want to always stay where it’s light, I can.

If I don’t meet up with anyone soon, I’m planning on getting out and risking it by going into one of the smaller buildings. I’ll be able to conjure up a spear before I go in, so I won’t feel too defenseless. If I can kill a few things and see how long it takes to level up, I can get more Wisdom and confidently bring a shotgun inside. I can already feel myself getting behind everyone else, so I need to catch up. I need to make sure I don’t bring my team down!

As I’m making a turn to try my luck in a different direction, and suddenly I see a pigeon land on the ground when suddenly it turns into a little girl. She looks about 11 or 12 as her hair is in two braids and she’s wearing a floral patterned shirt covered by short overalls . She also has a belt with what look like two knives tucked away into it. The strangest part of her ensemble is on her head. It’s a cute little headband with cat ears. What the hell? Did those two really abduct a young girl for this game of theirs? I already knew they were both terrible, but this is a new kind of low. Also, didn’t they say that everyone was transported to a different world before this one? She must be so afraid right now. I wouldn’t normally do this, but let’s see if we can help each other out.

I step out of my truck, and try to approach her in the least threatening way possible.

“Look here you loud wanker, you don’t need to be acting like that. I may look this way but trust me when I say that I’m closer to your parent’s age. When whatever divine force transported me to my last world, they turned me into this, and made me immortal, so I’m stuck this way. I spent 25 years in that terrible world, and close to 30 years in just as miserable London before that.”

She is frowning while saying this, as if recalling some bad memories. Wow, I wonder what she’s gone through. She might have just as bad of luck as me.

“Oh, wow, I’m sorry, I didn’t know. If you had told me that any other day before today, I wouldn’t have believed you. But it’s been pretty crazy today, so I’d believe almost anything you told me at this point.”

“Wait, is this your first day seeing magic? Weren’t you on a world other than Earth for a while, too?”

“Nope, I had just been transported to a different world and was immediately picked up and brought here.”

“Bloody hell, of course the first person I run into is someone completely inexperienced. No offense to you, sonny. I normally wouldn’t want to team up with you, but I’ve yet to run into anyone else in this godforsaken place, so you’ll have to do. You can call me Charlie, by the way.”

“I’m David, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

I hold my hand out for a handshake but she begrudgingly takes it. She’s not the nicest person in the world, but she is a person, and it sounds like she’s really experienced in this sort of stuff, so I’m sure she’ll be a great help!

“So, David, what are you able to do? Do you have any fighting experience? I hope I don’t have to babysit you the entire time we explore and fight together.”

“Nope, I don’t have any experience or do much right now. The main thing I can do is summon a lot of different mundane things in the back of my truck.”

“Wait, does that mean you can summon me some whiskey?”

“I could, yes. I don’t really want to waste my mana on something like that, though. I’m already low, and I’ll need to make some fuel for the truck soon.”

“Listen here, boy. You saying that is one of the best things I’ve heard in years. Whiskey is what’s going to get me through these games. I guess I wasn’t unlucky running into you. If you keep me supplied I’ll train you as much as you’d like.”

After this, she hops right up into my truck, humming what sounds like an old drinking song. Well, at least she’ll help out, even though it isn’t for the best of reasons. And why did she hop into my truck? Shouldn’t we go out and start leveling up or something?

With that, I made my first friend in this crazy new world.