I turned my face down into my pillow to get try and get rid of that fuckin bright light shining straight into my eyeballs. To my great surprise, my face did not land on a nice comfy pillow, instead, my nose got pressed right into some muddy soil. I quickly shot my head up when I sniffed some soil right up my nose, only to groin in pain, My head hurt, LIKE IT HURT A LOT! It felt like someone was pounding my head into an anvil while a mini hammer was inside my brain and they were trying to meet in the middle. Grabbing my head, I ever so slowly opened my eyes, and soon realised that was a big mistake, a ray of light stabbed right into my eyes and somehow made my headache even worse. I winced by still opened my eyes a crack, and my mouth opened with shock. There was a blue rectangle with white writing right in front of my eyes, but that was not what really surprised me, I was in a forest, like a real forest. Quickly realizing that I was not in a soft comfy bed, and instead was lying on hard cold dirt I jumped up and winced at the pain in my head. To my great shock, the blue rectangle stayed in the forefront of my vision as I got up. I moved my head around but the rectangle continued to stay in the middle of my vision.

Realising that there was writing in that box I tried to ignore the pain and continue reading. 'Hello Jacob Fox, and welcome to Adorne!' I already had fifty question pop up in my mind, like WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON and WHERE THE FUCK AM I! Deciding to save my questions for when I was done reading the rest of the screen, and seeing as I didn’t really have anyone to ask my questions I decided to continue reading.

You have gained an ability from an unknown source

Regeneration - any wound taken will heal significantly faster.

Huh, well that's useful I guess, but I WOULD RATHER KNOW WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW. Suddenly having an idea I quickly pinched myself, and nope, I'm not dreaming.

After I read the first block of text another screen appeared right in front of my face.

Name: Jacob Fox level:0 (0/1000) Race: Linn

hit points: 100/100

mana: 100/100

stamina: 100/100

Professions: locked

Abilities:

Regeneration: Fast health regeneration

Deity: none

skills: none

Spell: none

Titles: none

Attributes:

Strength: 10

Endurance: 10

Vitality: 10

Perception: 10

Dexterity: 10

Agility: 10

Intelligence: 10

This kind of looks like MMO games and those Litrpg/Gamelit books stat sheets. I could guess what most things here did, the hit points probably determine how much health I have, the stamina how I can move, and the mana is used for stuff like spells and skills. But if that’s true then that means their actual spells in this world. I could already imagine throwing fireballs and laughing like a maniac. Clearing my head of thoughts I turned my attention to the Attributes. I could what they are but I decided to focus on them to get a more detailed picture, and to my surprise something actually appeared.

- Strength determines how much weight you can carry and how hard you can attack with a weapon or hit unarmed.

- Endurance determines how much stamina you have, how resilient your body is to damage, poisons and toxins

- Determines the amount of health you have, health regeneration and stamina regeneration.

- Perception determines how easy it is to spot things, this includes traps and hidden people or objects. Perception also enhances all senses.

- Dexterity determines how nimble and flexible you are. Dexterity also helps your fire rate and accuracy of range weapons.

- Agility affects your speed. E.g. how fast you can run, swim and move.

mental fortitude

- Intelligence affects how large your mana pool is, your spell effects and increases pattern recognition

Attribute points gained for race: 5

Attribute points from chosen deity: 0

Attribute points from chosen profession: 0

Attribute points from titles: 0

Well, that answers that, it seems like gain 5 points to distribute to any of my chosen attributes per level and I can increase this by choosing a god to devote myself to, getting a profession, or getting some title. I wasn’t religious in my old life but if I get more stat points to play with, I would consider becoming a theist.

Thinking back to games and how I would usually build my character, I came up with a few ideas of what I might want my build to go. Becoming a stealthy assassin, or a fire breathing, earth splitting, dragon killing wizard! MWAHAHAHAHA! I may have gotten slightly ahead of myself, seeing as I was, you know, in the middle of a forest. Before I do anything drastic I should find some civilization and get some more info on where I am how the mechanics of this world work.

Looking around I found I was in a clearing around a roughly 100m long and wide. It was filled with luscious grass and with some flowers interspersed. There was also a blue, green and red bar in the top right of my vision. I tried to turn to look at them but they followed my vision. I focused on them and more information appeared. The blue bar was my mana, the green bar was my stamina and the red bar was my health. My endurance and mana both have 100/100 while my vitality only has 75/75, after than minor mystery was solved, I started to look around again.

I was under a tree that had a large canopy that blocked most of the sunlight, blazing down. There were also a few other trees in the glade, but after around 100m the trees started to become a lot more common. A gentle river passed to the right of me, going into the forest, and from what I could tell was coming from a faraway mountain. The soft grass under my bare feet, and the light wind rustling the leaves, the sun was beating down on the glade and it seemed to warm and the gorgeous view slowly made me relax. Deciding to stop lazing around and panicking I lifted my foot and took my first step in my new life, and abruptly fell flat on my face. Groaning in pain I turned over to my back, only to hear a squirrel laughing at my predicament. After shaking my fist at the squirrel. I stood back up again and took a tentative step forward, my foot tripped and I had to steady myself on a tree. After a couple of minutes practise I slowly got the hang of it but everything still felt weird. After a few minutes of consideration, it hit me like a truck. I had shrunk! From what I could I was now 155 -160cm, shrinking from my previous height of 175.

Walking carefully over to river I looked down into the slowly moving water to get a better look at myself. I could only see a distorted visage of myself in the water, but I could see enough to tell that my face was not the same as the one from earth. My short black hair came down into fringe a few centimetres from my brown eyes, and a bit below that were my cheekbones that were definitely higher up than they were on earth. All of that ended in a sharp chin, that made my face look gaunt. However that doesn’t mean I looked bad, all of that gave me a slightly exotic look that that seemed strangely attractive (at least in my expert totally not biased opinion). My body also seemed to go through some changes as well. It looked more lean, with shoulders that were less broad. For some reason I kinda felt like a cat, I have no idea why, I just do.

After staring at myself for a few uncomprehending minutes the implications of what I was seeing finally hit me. I was no longer human. I still had mostly human characteristics but they’re enough difference to tell that I am not. Ahh, who gives a shit. I mean it doesn't really matter what race I am, I still look human, and not half bad if I do say so myself. Actually now that I think about it wasn’t there something about that on my status sheet?

Name: Jacob Fox level:0 (0/1000) Race: Linn

Linn:

Linn are an intelligent race that prefers to live in congregated groups of people (i.e. villages, towns and cities). They are often hired as assassins for their small size and dexterous fingers.

Linn get a boost to agility and dexterity but suffer a penalty to strength and vitality

That's probably why my health is less than my other stats. It's 25% less so that probably means that I have 25% less strength and vice versa for my agility and dexterity. This also crosses a few builds off my list, since I probably can’t be a front line fighter with my low HP and strength, I also can’t be tank, but I mean who wants to be a tank? I mean there they’re useful but let's just say I would rather not get pummeled, thank you very much.

Well, it's about time I start heading off in search of civilization. There was only one tinsy winsy little problems with that plan. I HAD NO FUCKING IDEA WERE I’M MEANT TO GO! There was also the problem of me not having any clothes, and not knowing the language of the local people but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. Looking around for any hint of which way to go I saw a chest further down the stream. Walking closer to it I could tell that it had a very similar look to a treasure chest. It was made of wood with copper strips running through it. Stopping just before the chest I slowly lifted the curved top to reveal something that solves at least one of my problems.

You have found woollen pants.

Quality - average

Durability - 30/30

Rarity - common

Weight - 0.25kg

These pants will cover your legs.

You have found a woollen shirt.

Quality - average

Durability - 30/30

Rarity - common

Weight - 0.2kg

This shirt will cover your chest.

You have found woollen lined leather boots.

Quality - average

Durability - 40/40

Rarity - common

Weight - 2kg

These boots will cover your feet.

You have found a bronze dagger.

Quality - average

Durability - 200/200

Rarity - common

Damage - (5 - 10)

Weight - 0.4kg

This dagger will cut objects or people.

Everything so far seems self-explanatory even the status screens that appeared. The last item, however, was different. It reflected the light in an odd way, almost like a prism when looking at it from certain angles. I reached down and grabbed the oval from its resting place in the chest and a description of the item appeared with red shimmering text instead of the usual white.

You have found a memory crystal.

Quality - masterwork

Durability - 500/500

Rarity - rare

Memory - unknown

Memory crystal contains information or memories the creator has imparted into it.

Would you like to use the crystal [yes, no]

I am pretty sure I know what a memory crystal from games and books but I have no idea what the memory inside it is. Could it be a trap and was actually a cursed item, and when I used it I would I explode into flying chunks of flesh., or would it show me something so terrifying I would turn into a vegetable when I saw it? Probably not, seeing as whoever brought me here could have killed me in easier ways. The crystal was a sphere around 12cm tall and 5cm wide. It was translucent, and when I peered through it the image on the other end was slightly distorted.

Thinking about it for a second I said “yes” out loud and waited for something to happen. It took only a second before the crystal started to shine. The light beamed out started to focus on my eyes. The light but bright but didn’t seem to blind me. The light stayed on my eyes for a second before it turned off I fell to my knees grasping my head, spraying crystal dust in my hair. That hurt like a bitch. It felt like someone pounded a book on my head in hopes I would learn something. The pain vanished as suddenly as it started and a new prompt filled my vision.

You have learned common tongue; you can now speak, read and write fluently in common.

It was a strange feeling knowing an entire language that you have never seen or heard. but it was still amazing learning an entire language instantly. I remember “learning” Italian for 5 years in primary and middle school. For all that I could only count to ten, and just barely at that. So I am seriously glad I don’t have to learn another language.

After getting my senses I slowly stood from my kneeling position and tried to say a few words in ‘common’. To my inexperienced ears, it sounds like a mix between Spanish and Japanese, which, truth be told sounded weird.

After dropping my head into shaking it in the stream to get rid of the dust done, I reached back into the chest and pulled out the last two items.

You have found a leather belt.

Quality - average

Durability - 25/25

Rarity - common

Weight - 0.2kg

This belt will help keep your pants up.

You have found a coin bag.

Quality - average

Durability - 10/10

Rarity - common

Weight - 0.1kg

This bag will store any small item/items.

On the bottom of the bag was five-round silvery looking coins. When I reached in and picked one up a new notification appears.

You have found silver coin × 5

Durability - 200/200

Rarity - n/a

Weight - 0.15kg

I had no idea whether that was a lot of money or was just barely enough to buy some bread. But from what I could remember from history class that was a least a decent bit of money. There was only one way to find out, I stood up and started to dawn on my clothes. The shirt was only halfway down my chest and I already knew that I was in for a hell of a time. It was the itchiest and scratchiest shirt I had ever put on, and my grandmother had sewn me a shirt. The pants weren't as bad, but I knew I was going to get a rash in my inner thigh before too long. The coin sack and the dagger fit nicely on my belt. well, at least I knew what I going to do when I found civilization, buy new clothes! Having nothing left for me to do here I headed downstream as that was the way the chest was pointing me, at least I hope.