I couldn't believe my eyes, literally; my eyes were filled with images I couldn't believe were in them! The images were part of a Heads-Up Display, or HUD, and were typically meant to display important information for the gamer, such as the health or location of their character, however in this situation the gamer and character were one in the same: me. I had heard of stuff like this with VR headsets, but this was for real. Everything was in my peripheral vision where I could see it, but it wouldn't hinder my focus on things in front of me. After I had acclimated to this new and exciting reality of mine, I decided to see what all was included.

First there was the upper, left-hand corner, which had my name, level, and three bars, a red, a blue, and a green. The bars were obviously my Health, Mana and Stamina, 'Thank you, Skyrim.' however, I thought it better to be safe than sorry, so I got off the bed, onto the floor and started doing pushups. I got to 22 before my arms gave out, and when I looked, the green bar was depleted. 'I should ask if they have gyms in this world, not much of a Hero if I get winded going up stairs.' I think to myself as I sit there, panting. I wasn't sure how to test my Mana, since I was still unaware of what kind of magic I possessed, and testing my Health was something I would rather not do, seeing as it would likely mean game over. Above the bars and next to my name was my level, which was currently displaying the number 1. 'That tracks,' I think to myself, begrudgingly accepting that I had only started being a Hero yesterday and that my level would reflect that, 'Still, being Level 1 sucks! You have to scrounge for every cent, and everything available to you is crap. I can't wait till I'm so OP I can kill Blood Shrooms with a thought.' The image put a satisfied, albeit sadistic, smile on my face, the kind of smile one wears when they slaughter a town of annoying, low-level NPC's, not that I would do that in this world, however I found the idea of being so powerful motivating.

I snapped out of my daydream as I remembered the flashing arrow icon next to my level, a clear indication that I had leveled up. I tried focusing on the icon, hoping this all worked via thought rather than hand gestures. 'I've seen videos of people using VR gear, hopefully I can spare myself from looking that ridiculous.' Thankfully, focus was all that was required as a window opened full screen, filling my vision. The window in question was what I would call my Character Sheet, where I was able to see my stats, along with the image of a person's outline. At the top were my Health, Mana, and Stamina bars, each with the text "100/100" in them, with my stamina being the exception, however it was recovering at a steady pace. A second later the texts flashed and had changed to "105/105," 'Only a 5% increase, that sucks.' Below that was a hexagon, and at each point was either Strength, Speed, Agility, Vitality, Endurance, or Perception. I recognized the imagery from mobile games where the hexagon would display the stats of a character, showing what they were good at, like being a Tank or a DPS, unfortunately, my stats were all even at the lowest tier, meaning I generally sucked. Thankfully, there was text below the hexagon saying I had "1 point available," I assumed that meant I could upgrade one of my attributes, 'But which one?' I made educated guesses as to what each attribute affects, like Strength being how much damage I can do, Speed being how quickly I can do damage, and Agility being how well I can avoid damage. The others were a little less obvious, 'Like, how is Vitality and Endurance different from my Health and Stamina?' I doubted there was a guide to be found in my HUD, so I went with my gut and put the point in Endurance. 'I feel like that's my most immediate problem right now.' With a thought, the 1 became a zero and the hexagon changed shape, not drastically, but enough that it would bother someone with OCD.

My best guess as to what the outline was, was that it would display equipped items, like armor and accessories. At the moment I wasn't wearing anything more than a t shirt and boxers, neither of which offered very much in the way of damage resistance, so the outline was blank. I thought about putting on a piece of armor just to be sure, but it had been a long day and I was tired of wearing armor.

I closed my Character Sheet and scanned the other icons. Focusing lower to the three boxes, I opened the one with the dagger image. A window opened to show a spider web like pattern with the image of a dagger in the center. I had no idea what I was looking at and it seemed like I couldn't interact with anything, so I closed it and moved on to the box with the circular symbol on it. The symbol looked similar to the ones for the other Elements, so I figured this was where I could see my magic, unfortunately, when I opened the window there was only a continuous list of blank spaces. 'Maybe I need to unlock my magical abilities?' I let out a heavy sigh, 'This is why I hate being level 1 - no, wait, I'm level 2 now. Still sucks though.' I closed the window and went to the last, the box with the image of a treasure chest on it, and once again, it was blank. 'I'm starting to get really tired of this. I know a hero's journey is supposed to have obstacles for them to overcome and be stronger for it, but this is just ridiculous!' I fumed, closing the window.

Next, my attention went to the timers in the upper, right-hand corner of my vision, which read "1500:06:09:22:18:45" and "20:13:43:26." my best guess was that the top one that was counting up was the time and date, meaning in this world it was June during the late-Middle Ages. 'Assuming they use the same 12 month system as my world, which would be weird since July and August were the result of two Romans being douches.' I brush the thought away and look to the other timer, which was counting down. 'That one's probably the one to indicate The Blight's arrival. 3 weeks, huh? Guess I've got to get grinding.'

Last was the circle with a grid inside, what I was pretty sure was my mini-map, which would show me where enemies are. 'Oh, that's probably what the Perception stat is for!' I realized. I focused on the mini-map, and opened the window that showed a more detailed map, unfortunately, as with most of the other parts of my HUD, it would appear most of my map was blank, save for the areas I had already been, such as the castle and the forest. 'Maybe I ought to buy an atlas or something, I'll add it to this list along with "Learn to read."'

I closed the window and lied on the bed, a bit flustered at my overwhelming inability to do pretty much anything. I tried to shake it off, saying 'I just need more experience, pruning a few Blood Shrooms isn't going to get me where I need to be. Calianna said there were Direwolves at that village she mentioned, can't say I'm all that excited to deal with something referred to as "dire," but I don't think I have a choice, if I'm going to become a Hero, I need to start now.' A surge of confidence and determination washed over me, I wasn't sure I was going to be able to get to sleep that night, but I thought it best to try at least, not wanting to be tired and sluggish tomorrow.