I was about to move when I heard a voice coming from behind me. “Please don’t move, it takes a lot of energy to keep you in this state.” I whirled my head around only to find a young man in his twenties wearing black shorts and a yellow t-shirt with colourful shapes on it. I pulled my dagger out of the chest of the dead monsters, barely holding it in shaking hands. “Well, that’s no way to treat someone who just saved your life.” The man said in a sarcastic tone.” I slowly got up, being mindful of my stamina, watching the man the entire time. His winced a little when I started moving. “You know I wasn’t kidding when I said that it takes a lot of energy to keep you in this state.”

“And what state would that be,” I said while carefully examining the motionless claws. The entire monster has stopped moving. Actually, that was wrong, it was moving very slowly. I was interrupted by the man’s voice.

“Seriously don’t move it takes a lot of energy to keep you like this.” For some reason, I didn't think of this a second ago, but WHO WAS THIS GUY! I didn’t see him come in, I mean I could’ve missed him in all the commotion but that seemed unlikely. Even if he did come in how did he freeze, or at least slow everything down. I came back to myself when he spoke again. “You are probably wondering who I am. Well, in essence, I am a god, a god of kinetic energy, or motion if you wish to be simplistic about it. I am also the person who brought you here.”

That statement brought me short, I spoke the first thought that popped into my mind. “Can you bring me back.” While saying this I brought my dagger up, I didn’t know what I could do to a self-proclaimed got, but who knows, maybe his weak to concussed, exhausted level one newbies with a dagger?

He grimaced when I said those words. “Ahh, no. I can’t bring you back, you died and your soul has transitioned to this realm. I didn’t actually bring you to this world, you could say I just hijacked your soul to bring you this forest. He gestured to my body and said. “You really should be thanking me, if not for me you would have “spawned”. He made air quotes. “In a random place on this planet or in a gods torture chamber. Not me god some other god.” He spoke that entire speech quickly, like he being rushed by something.

My face fell and hands dropped to my side. I thought I might still be able to go back, or this was some kind of practical joke or a dream, I knew it was irrational but I still hopped. At least I was right about me dying, my head shot up as I remembered something. I was with friends when I died, they could have been injured or dead as well. “Do you know how I died, are my friends alright?” I rushed out through wide eyes, dreading the answer.

“Sorry, but no. I only felt your soul when it came through the barrier and I couldn’t divine how you died. If it helps I don’t think your friends died if they did die I probably would have sensed more souls come through the barrier from the same location. Now I know you have more questions but we need to cut this short. My power is already failing.” He pointed to the claws, I was confused for a second but then I saw it, the claws were starting to move visible faster. “My power is limited and I used most of it to bring you to the forest and give you your abilities and items. So shut up and listen to me, when I’m done you can ask questions. Cupish.” I nodded my head.

“Good, as I told you before, I am a god of kinetic energy. That is how I am slowing everything done. More accurately I am speeding you up, around 30 times normal. But that's beside the point. I brought you to my glade and gave you your stuff so you could help me.”

The god waited for me to nod before he started talking again.

“A long time ago, I and many other gods waged a large war. Our goal was to quarantine an area of space and time from, well everything. We succeeded and created the barrier but there was a problem. One of us was a traitor and sabotaged the barrier. I’m paraphrasing things here, like a lot, but you get the gist of it. The ‘god’ said that all in a rush, no stopping for breath.

“I still don’t see where I come in…” I tried to say before he cut me off.

“I was getting to that.” He said in a huff. “The barrier between our universes are weakening and is how they brought you into this world after you died. So I hijacked your soul and brought to the forest. This is where you come in. Since I am god and gain power from followers, and right now I have none. I was hoping you could become my follower. Doing this will increase your power and will help both of us. If you do not wish to become my followers I will let you keep the gifts I have given to you. ” He looked at me and put a jointy smile on his face, looking slightly desperate. “Any questions.” I was about to open my mouth but he interrupted me. “Make them fast, I can only hold this for another 40 seconds at most.”

My mind raced for what to ask. I had hundreds of questions acting through my mind but I had to get my priorities straight. My words came out in a jumble, trying to say everything at once. “Why should I choose you as my god.”

He nodded, “That’s a good question. Right now you will be my only follower so will you get special treatment from me. You will also learn my branch of magic, kinemancy. Which almost no one has.”

“Why did you choose me to become your follower?”

I start to see his face scrunching up in strain “Because your soul was a strong and in a convenient place. I can't hold this much longer, hurry up.”

“Uhh, where and how far to the nearest town.”

“The town is about two hours walk down the river. Now choose!” He boomed.” Will you, Jacob Fox become my follower and my champion.” He said this in a ritualistic and grand voice that echoed from the ceiling.

What to do. What to do. He had been helpful so far but that doesn’t mean he will always be helpful. I could tell he was hiding something from me but I didn’t know what. My thoughts came down to this. He could be lying about everything, but he did just save my life, and besides, at the very least I would gain some extra status points per level. “I will become your follower or whatever. Did I do that right? Do I need to do something else or … ” I was cut off again by him. He was doing that a lot and I was starting to get annoyed.

He gave me a wide smile showing his perfect teeth. “No that is perfect. For becoming my champion I give you s gift.” He walked forward and before I could stop him, he placed two fingers on my forehead and pushed back slightly. My eyes went wide and knowledge flooded my head.

You have unlocked the spell haste:

Level 1 novice

Spell school: Neutral

Cost - 30 mana and an additional 5 mana per second of the spell being active

Effect - +15% increase speed when the spell is active

Description: Empower your muscles with mana to increase movement speed.

You have unlocked the spell movement detection:

Level 1 novice

Spell school: neutral

Cost - 25 mana and an additional 2 mana per second of the spell being active

Effect - Detect any movement in a 5m radius

Description: Create an aura in a 5-meter radius around yourself. In that aura, you can detect any large movements.

“I hope you do great things in this world, I will talk to you again when we next meet.” He pointed to the claws that were coming at a noticeable pace now. “You better get in position.” I gave him a nod and took a step back. “Ohh yeah, one more thing. Make sure no one finds out you can you kinomancy or knows you are my follower, you may get hunted down and tortured by a lot of angry god on this planet. Have fun, bye” He said in a rush before promptly disappearing.

“WAIT WHAT?!!” I managed to get out before claws swept an inch in front of my chest. I could see the confusion on the monsters face right before my dagger plunged into it, taking its life.

I tried listening to anything moving straining my ears, but I heard nothing, except the slow patting of water against stone. I let out a sigh of relief, it looks like no more monsters were coming to attack me for the moment. I had a bit of time to rest and check my notifications. I opened the first one up and was bombarded with skill increase notifications.

You have increased the skill daggers.

Level 1 novice -- Level 4 novice

-+4% more damage when wielding daggers

You have increased the skill stealth.

Level 1 novice -- Level 3 novice

-6% less noise made and 6% harder for others to see you when stealth is active.

-27% more stamina consumed and 37% slower movement speed when stealth is active

You have increased the skill unarmed combat.

Level 1 novice -- Level 4 novice

-+4% more damage when fighting unarmed

Those were skill increase was pretty good for only a little bit of fighting. But I mean nothing gets your best self out of you like fighting for your life. Like seriously, going into this cave was a really bad idea. I mean I just teleported into a new world with completely different laws and the first thing I think is “hey I wonder what's in that monster-infested cave, maybe they’ll be some loot.” I thought about that for a bit and then my stomach grumbled. Ohh right, I went in to find a way to cook food. That reasoning seems a little flimsy now, but I guess it all turned out fine. “Now where was I... Ohh yea, going through my notifications.” I opened up the next notification to the sound of people cheering.

Congratulations! You have killed a level 5 Gibberling(✕5) for a total of 1250 experience and have reached level 1!

You have 6 free points to distribute. You have gained 2 points in agility and one in intelligence. (see character sheet for all attribute point sources).

You have 72 hours to distribute points before they are randomly assigned. Would you like to distribute points now; [Yes : No]

Awesome, I fist-pumped the air and gave out a whoop. I looked frantically around, right, I’m still in a dungeon, better wait to celebrate outside. I waited a few seconds, making sure nothing heard make, before contemplating what to do. I wonder what it would feel like to upgrade a stat, a better question would probably be what I should upgrade. I thought about it for a few seconds before I realized I had more notifications waiting for me. This one had a crystal lattice background with dark blue writing.

Congratulations! you have done a rare feat and have earned a title!

For killing a monster 5 times your level you have earned the title, “punching above your weight”. This title grants the following effects;

Intimidation is 20% more effective Damage dealt and received from enemy’s above your level is decreased by 5% +1 undistributed point per level

Wow. Just wow. Those were some pretty powerful bonuses. I guess power favours the bold.

There was one more notification waiting for me and this one had a background of gold and lettering of shimmering blue.

The deity Wade, the god of Kinetic energy has chosen you as his champion! He will protect and guide you, while you bring him to power and notoriety. More bonuses can be gained for doing great deeds for your deity, and remember as he rises, so will you. For now, you will gain these benefits;

-+10 to faith, +10 to agility and +5 to intelligence

-+2 agility and +1 intelligence per level

-All kinematic spells are learnt 20% faster

Warning: Servants of other deities will grant you and your god power. But beware, you will be hunted in return.

Congratulations! You have unlocked the Faith stat.

The faith stat corresponds to how connected you are to your god. This stat can be used to gain a temporary boost to health, mana, stamina a stat and many other things depending on the god you follow and your connection to them. (note: you can not add undistributed stat points to this stat. It can only be gained for connecting with your god.)

My body and brain felt all tingly for a few seconds. It felt like that feeling you get when someone touches you with cold hands except all over your body and also inside your brain. I was about to rub my head when I noticed my hand move quite a bit faster than I was used to. I adjusted slightly too late and smacked myself in my head. This will take a bit of getting used to, but it’s awesome. I ran around a bit, only tripping over a few times before I got the hang of my body. I tried ‘thinking’ to see what my intelligence did, but my brain didn’t feel any different, I didn’t feel any smarter at the very least.

But either way, those were some serious benefits, but something in the notification caught my eye. The almighty god of movement, saviour of the universe and fighter for freedom, name is Wade! Ha, I mean seriously, what kind of god is named Wade. All fear the mighty god Wade. Ohh no, the mighty Wade is going to kill us all. I had a good laugh before my mind slowly wandered back to earth and inevitably to my mum.

She had always been religious and wanted me to join her in her faith. I wonder what she would think of me, finally believing in god and it not being her religion. I thought about her kind smile and loving arms for a minute before a tear started to form in my eye. I was never going to see her… I shook my head, no, this isn’t the time for that. I can mourn for her and everyone else once I get into a safe place. I put the memory of her and earth into the back of my mind and focused on my current situation.

The new faith stat looked interesting and I would have loved to try and play around with it if my body didn’t feel like dropping dead. No matter what my stamina I was exhausted. The reasons I wasn't asleep was because I was still inside a monster-infested cave.

I had 6 points I could spend into any characteristic I wanted. Agility and intelligence were probably not my best choice seeing as I just got a large boost in those areas and getting extra points every level. So that leaves strength, perception, endurance, vitality and will. They all have merits and I could easily choose any one of them to increase, however, what I needed in the last fight was stamina. If it wasn't for Wade, I snickered a little, I would have died stamina depletion. I thought about it for a minute before deciding what to do. I put four points into endurance and two points into Vitality. Having more health is always fun.

I felt the tingling all across my body, slightly weaker than last time but still noticeable. When the tingling stopped a few seconds later I didn’t feel any different. I checked my stats to see the changes.

name: Jacob Fox level: 1 (300/2000) race: Linn

hit points: 105/105

mana: 150/150

stamina: 180/180

Professions: locked

Abilities:

Regeneration: Fast health regeneration

Deity: Wade (The god of kinetic energy)

skills:

Combat skills:

-daggers (novice 4)

-unarmed combat (novice 4)

Rogue skills:

-stealth (novice 3)

Gathering skills:

-herbalism (novice 1)

-Skinning (novice 1)

Magic schools/spells:

Neutral:

Haste

Movement detection

Titles:

Punching above your weight

Attributes:

Strength: 11

Endurance: 18

Vitality: 14

Perception: 11

Dexterity: 11

Agility: 21

Intelligence: 15

Faith: 11

For some reason, I have an extra 1 point in agility, vitality, dexterity and 2 points in endurance. I tried racking my brain for when I might have gotten the bonus stat points from, but I just couldn’t remember getting them. I was about to give up and just call it an unsolved mystery when blinking the bottom left of my vision caught my attention. I must not have looked at all my notifications.

For your excursions, you have gained stat points!

+1 to strength

+3 to endurance

+1 to vitality

+1 to perception

+1 to dexterity

+1 to agility

I was going to explore what to do next when I saw something on the status page. I had spells! I thought about how to cast the spells and suddenly I was not so happy. A slight blush crawled up my cheeks when I recalled what I have to say if I want to cast the spell. And that was only what I had to say. I also had to do some weird ritual dance thing as well. Sighing I got ready and started to cast.

I flailed my arms around circles while also starting to move in circles. After half a second, words escaped my lips in a quiet a voice as I could speak. “speedy, speedy, I want to be speedy. Speedy me going to be, I wanna move super fast, woosh, woosh.” While the words and movements were happening I could feel pressure from inside my chest, and after a few seconds, I could feel that pressure explodes out of chest into my entire body. When I finished the last words around 7 seconds later I could feel my muscles ‘strengthened’. That was the best way I could describe it. It felt like energy entered my muscles and gave them strength. That was not the only effect thou. My brain suddenly became more fatigued. It felt like I just did half an hour of math problems in an instant. I assume that would be because of the mana drain.

I moved around a bit and could feel my speed increases. This will take some getting used to. As I practised I could feel more and more pressure in my head, and after roughly twenty seconds a splitting headache crashed into me. I dropped to the ground clutching my head in my hands. It felt like someone was bashing on my head with a sledgehammer. With every beat of pain, the vice-like grip on my head slightly decreased. It took another 20 seconds before the pain was manageable to think through.

“Oww, stupid god and his stupid spells and his stupid not telling me to not use all my mana. I am definitely not doing that again.” That was by far one of the most painful things I have ever experienced. +1 intelligence, well that was interesting. It looks like something good came out of this at least. Actually, now that I think about it the pain from my previous fight is all gone. Even my concussion is gone. I guess regeneration is way faster in this world. Or maybe the god did something?

Even when most my mana regenerated I still felt mentally fatigued. Looking at my mana I seemed to like it regenerated at a rate of 1 mana every two seconds. That would mean it would take a total of 5 minutes for all my mana to regenerate from zero.

Waiting the necessary time for my mana to regenerate I got ready cast my second spell. This one wasn’t any less embarrassing than the last spell. I let out a sigh of resignation, I was just going to have to live with saying stupid shit to cast spells. I got my footwork in the correct place and started my chant.

“I create circle to see move move. I am going to see all the move move. No sneaky on me.” While chanting these degrading words I had to do a spin in a circle with my arms to the side, pretending to be a Beyblade. While chanting and ‘dancing’ I could once again feel that power swell up inside, and this time instead of going into my muscles I could feel it come out of my skin and enter the air. It was very slight and I would have missed it if it were not for me paying close attention. Unlike the last spell, I felt no difference. Moving my arm in front of my face to see if I could sense anything thing, I concluded that I could not. That was probably a good thing if I could sense my own movements that would be confusing and probably distracting.

Now how do I dismiss my spell? The last one just stopped when I run out of mana, but I would rather not go through that experience again. I tried just thinking to stop the spell but nothing happened. My bar was dropping quickly and a pulse of fear went through me. I focused on the trickle of mana escaping my skin. I ‘pushed’ with my mind back onto the mana and it stopped exiting my body. With that, my mana stopped draining.