This is it. This is what I have been waiting for, this is my world. I am at the edge of a forest that includes the scent of pine and earth. Trees of all sorts beneath the blue and white clad sky. It is a bit warm but with the wind cooling, it’s nice. I take a deep breath and smile.

It is time to explore. I pull up my map and read that shows the town to the north, south is forest as is west. To the east planes. A message is blinking off to my lower right. When I look at it, it expands to cover my entire vision.

Welcome Michael, would you like to change your name at this time? It read. I thought, “no,” and the message was replaced with a person in white robes with white wings out of his back.

“This will be the final chance to change this character when you leave this clearing you are completely of this world.”

I nodded.

“To the north is the town of Lendt and that is where your family lives. They have a tower just west of the town. Farther west is the Ninhiunm forest and beyond that, miles away is the forest town of the wood elves.”

I nodded and checked my map.

“Your parents' names are Ilia and Horun Alain, you are Michael Alain. Your family has been in that tower hundreds of generations. Based on your brain scan you have few friends but an extra sorcery skill. You trade social states for knowledge and power, it’s who you are,” it continued.

“Your family’s tower and the land that it’s on is separate from the country of Awl that surrounds it. The next closest wizards tower is in the country of Ireckistan, the neighboring country with strained relations with Awl.”

I nodded and continued to listen.

“You have an empty sack to fill with herbs and other reagents for spells and enchantments. When you are done your family expects you back with them. You have one weapon, your staff. You are bad at fighting with a staff, but you are armed.”

I nodded, “this is a quest?”

“Yes, it is a timed quest, you have until midnight to be back with the herbs, one if you bring back ore.”

“I need a pickaxe,” I said. Within a moment I felt the weight of a pickaxe on my back. A strip of leather fixed it to my shoulder. I had a bag, a pickaxe, and a walking staff. I was ready.

“That’s it, I am ready,” I said.

“No more questions? Not even about your interface?”

“I know how to summon my interface, after all, I designed it,” I said. I figured that it could be a good idea to explore the interface while I am in a safe zone. I called up my menu. I checked stats first.

Strength 7

Intelligence 17

Wisdom 16

Dexterity 10

Constitution 7

Charisma 11

My strength is below average as evidenced by my struggling with the staff and pick. The average adult male has a strength of ten. He could lift about 100 kilos. On average people were stronger here because they lived a harder life than in the universe I was born in.

As my intelligence is 17 I find myself smarter than the average person by a lot. My memory is sharp and my wit is sharper. I can think faster as my sense of time slows allowing me to do more mentally in a shorter amount of time. I can craft more challenging spells and enchantments.

My wisdom allows me to understand the consequences of my decisions. I can make connections between facts that others would not make. I have a better understanding of the flow of magic energy also known as mana. While meditating my recovering of mana taken from the world around me is much better than normal.

With a Dexterity of ten, I have an average ability to dodge an attack or walk a plank. Being no better or worse than the average person I know that I won't be throwing knives or even blocking any kind of skilled person, but I can try.

My constitution is my second stat below average. I am an old man, even with my regenerative treatments. My strength and my constitution will need to be raised as they are far below average. I needed those stats up. If I die here I lose this character and its abilities. The beautiful thing about this special world I have created is that it transfers to the real world. In other words, I learn magic in this world and I can use it in both this world and my own world, the real world. I don’t completely understand the technology, but EIS does. Mine is the first and only with this property.

My charisma is above average. I am happy about that. It is my ability to influence others with my verbal and non-verbal communication. It is my ability to gather armies and command them on a battlefield.

I return to the menu and pull up my inventory and equipment screen. I see them both next to the other. On the left side, I see a picture of me. I am dressed in black homespun clothes with a pickaxe on my back, a large pouch on my left side and a staff in my right hand. I needed better equipment. On the right side was my inventory. It was empty. I put my staff into my inventory.

Next up was my quest screen. I had one quest available. Its name was Picking Flowers. It was to get fifteen flowers and herbs, and if I can one ore. With our kind of magic, it is best if we got our own reagents. So my parents sent me on this quest for materials. I then went on to my menu.

I selected my skill sheet and looked it over. It was short. Enchantment, Spell Crafting, and Magic Theory. These reagents would let me craft the spells and enchant myself so that I could cast a particular magic spell. I had no spells yet, but that’s okay.

Next was my logout map. In order to get back to my home world, I needed to get to a special portal. This portal would lead to one of the planetary colonies, or Earth itself. Then, feeling ready, I stepped out of the no combat zone and into the world. I turned around to find myself again alone in the forest.

The first group of herbs was for magic healing spells. They were bright in colors and light. I would have no trouble carrying them. Even I could carry herbs. They tended to be found near lakes and rivers, so I looked for signs of a river. Animals would be heading towards a local river, so if I followed tracks I should be okay.

I chose a random direction and started walking until I found some tracks. I followed them as best as I could with the tracks vanishing from time to time. I got lucky then and found a bunch of tracks heading in a certain direction. I followed. After about an hour of walking there was a notice on the lower right side of my vision. I focused on it and it expanded to provide a somewhat transparent message.

Congratulations, you have earned the skill Tracking.

This is one of my most enjoyable features, I was and am proud of the skill acquisition feature. Practice a skill and you have a chance, based on your intelligence and wisdom to gain the skill. Some skills needed to be taught, those could be learned from books and then practice. It became easier for me to track.

It wasn’t long before I found the river. I saw a few deer. Not wanting to disturb them I walked looking for my herbs. It wasn’t long before I found the flowers and herbs for healing. Next up was the rocky herbs, found in caves and rocky areas. There were no rocky areas present, but there were caves. Before I could set out for the caves, I noticed the deer bolting. Something scared them. Whatever it was I didn’t want to be around to see it.

I turned to see a large grey coated wolf racing toward me.

Sorcery, Wizardry, Magic, the ability to control your environment through will alone. There were two types of magic in this world that I created. One type allowed you to create rituals on the spot, to cast spells on the flash. The other allowed you to prepare specific spell rituals ahead of time. I didn’t know any spells to precast, so I had to use a quick ritual. I needed time for a ritual, so I had to run.

Fortune was on my side, and thus I found a tree with low hanging branches that would be easier to climb. I ran as fast as I could and jumped to grab a tree branch. I pulled myself up, swung my feet towards the tree so that I could walk-pull myself up. That was when I felt sharp agony in my calf. A wolf had grabbed onto me. It was trying to pull me down.

Stupid. I was so stupid to come out here without a way to protect myself. I was weak. Again and again, hugging the branch against my chest, I swung my right leg up into the safety of the tree while again and again, the wolf would pull me down. I screamed.