The next thing Tim knew he was lying flat on his back. It wasn’t on the ground, as it was far too soft for that. He went to move his head, but his neck muscles were super tight. Every time he tried to move them a shooting pain ran all the way from his neck down to the tips of his fingers. It was actually rather excruciating.

He heard a feminine voice say, “Ah, you are awake. It would be best if you laid still. The guards are watching you, so don’t try anything, please. I’m not sure you would survive another attack, even with your… uh… well, I guess I don’t know what it is, but even with how you changed bodies, I wouldn’t count on surviving an attack by four gold rank guards.”

Tim understood the words coming out of her mouth, but they might as well have been gibberish for all that she was saying. He vaguely remembered getting angry and feeling like he had lost control. Oh, and the sweet rush of life in a way he had never felt before.

It was like the richest drink had been presented to him. Even though he knew he shouldn’t drink it, all he could think about was just one more sip. No, it was not the kind of beverage that one sipped. It was meant to be slammed. To be consumed in mass quantities all at once. It was the fullness of life and couldn’t be enjoyed in tiny bites.

As he became more awake, Tim managed to lift his head a couple inches without the stabbing pain, and this allowed him to see that he was strapped down onto what appeared to be a relatively comfortable examination table like in the doctor's office. Of course, that immediately put his nerves on edge. Who could feel comfortable on an alien world, in the custody of people they didn't know, all while strapped to a table?

What really had him on edge was looking down at his body. The black robes were gone, as was his curved dagger—not that the latter surprised him. No one goes to the trouble of binding you to an examination table and leaves your weapon attached. What baffled him was that instead of being naked as if he were gonna be cut open or poked and prodded, he was in what seemed like sturdy chain mail armor.

Examining it produced the same confusion:

Standard Chainmail

Wt: 22.0

Defense: 6

Requirement: Hardiness 15

Beneath the chainmail he could feel padding, so it wasn’t like the metal was in direct contact with his skin. Still, this was definitely not what he had been wearing before. He could understand his captors stripping him down, but not why they would put armor on him. Looking farther down at his feet he saw he had boots on still, but they were heavier than the other boots and clearly larger.

Standard Combat Boots

Wt: 3.0

Defense: 2

Requirement: Hardiness 12

When he pushed his toe up, he could feel the steel plate inside the boot at its tip. Evidently, these boots were made for more heavy-duty use than the light leather boots he had worn before, yet they felt just as natural and comfortable on him. That didn’t really make any sense as they were clearly larger.

The straps that bound him went across his thighs, his chest, and then his lower arms. He was still able to lift his hand up, and the hand he saw looking back at him was neither the hands he had been accustomed to on Earth nor the hands of the 70-year-old man he had been since arriving here. Instead, they were slightly larger than his hands on Earth and were covered in the calluses of someone who did rough work for a living.

He started to panic. Had they done something to him? Was he even in the same body anymore? Tim called out, “Hey, somebody tell me what’s going on.”

He had to cry out several times before he heard a conversation. “I’m just gonna go check on him.”

Then a female voice, “No, our orders are to just watch him until the council decides what to do.”

The first voice said back, “I’ve read the accounts of what new arrivals experience, so maybe we can cut him some slack. It’s not like he actually hurt anyone. Besides, he is bound firmly.”

“Didn’t hurt anyone? Tell that to Simon. If it was anyone weaker than Simon, we might have a stack of bodies,” the female voice said.

A third voice added, “I will cover you. I took him down before. Honestly, I just want to know what he is. Who knows if he is even human or not. What with the ability to change shape like that.”

The first voice came back, “Bestials change shape all the time.”

“Bestials don’t use high-level magics, and when they take a new shape, it isn’t that of another human,” the female voice said.

“Fine, I’ll be careful, but you heard Armon, he is gonna cover me. You can draw your bow if it makes you feel better. I think the truth is that you are just upset that his spell caught you earlier.”

Tim heard some mumbling that he couldn’t make out, and then he heard heavy footsteps drawing closer to him before a face leaned over him. It was the face of the man who he had seen coming out of the guildhall earlier in plate armor during the time when whatever had affected him had been going on. The man smiled, and Tim noticed his nearly perfect teeth. His blond hair and blue eyes undoubtedly made him popular with the ladies, but his looks were rugged enough to be a man’s man too.

“Relax, no one will hurt you. At least, not if you can explain what is going on. Oh, and my name is Reginald.”

“I have no intention of hurting anyone. In fact, I’ve never hurt anyone in my life. Even during my time in the military, I was just in the reserves and far from the fighting. As for what’s going on… well, I have no idea. I was driving home from work, then suddenly the next thing I knew I was staring at this blue screen. To be entirely honest, I’m still not sure if this is real or a dream.” Tim’s eyes bulged a bit as his tone rose. He really wanted to be believed, but wasn’t sure if he believed himself.

“Most of what you just said sounded like gibberish to me, but the gist that I got was that you don’t know how you changed bodies or what you did to Simon. Is that true?” Reggie asked.

“I remember Simon. He was like the gatekeeper guy. He asked me a bunch of questions and then let me in. That was cool by the way how the gates turned into mist. The last thing I clearly remember was him asking me why I was so old. I tried explaining to him that back on Earth I was only twenty-seven years old, but here my body was like crypt-keeper old,” Tim replied.

Then, thinking about it more, he added, “The more I thought about that, the angrier I got, and that is when everything started to get fuzzy. I remember hearing this rushing sound and feeling this incredible sense of connection to these bubbles of power all around me. I think I saw you and a couple other people run out of the building, but then you stopped moving.”

“So, you don’t remember casting a spell that froze us all in place? You don’t remember ripping the blood out of the birds your spell caught?”

“No. Oh my god, did I hurt you? Did I hurt anyone else?”

“Scared but not hurt. Well, other than maybe you hurt Lacinia’s pride since your spell pulled her out of stealth, and she wasn’t able to go all stabby stab on you.”

“Oh, was that the woman in leather armor? I wasn’t sure if I dreamt her or if what was happening was real.”

The female voice suddenly said, “It was real. Actually, more like terrifying is what it was. I’m not used to being manhandled like that, but your spell caught me as helpless as a spider in a web. I’m not ashamed to admit that when I saw you drain the blood out of those birds that I may have pissed in my armor a bit.”

“I’m so sorry. You have to believe me; I would never mean to hurt any of you. Well, I mean, I guess you don’t have to believe me, but I really hope that you do. I’m not a pacifist or anything, but I don’t go out of my way trying to hurt people who never did anything to me,” Tim said with genuine remorse in his voice.

“Well then, I guess we are lucky that Armon wisely stayed out of the range of your spell.”

“Armon? Was he the one in yellow and blue? He electrocuted me or something didn’t he?”

Reggie said, “That’s right. You seem to remember quite a bit of the detail.”

“It’s more just impressions. I don’t quite know how to describe it other than to say it was like my head was in a bowl of water, and everything around me was muted. The only sound that I could really hear was this thumping and rushing sound like streams pouring through tiny canals.”

“So, let’s say I believe you. None of that explains why you look different now. Is this your true body or was the other body your true one?”

“As far as I am concerned, neither of them is my true body. My true body is still back in my car on Earth,” Tim said, and this time some of his frustration came through in his tone.

“Well, based on the magic that you were using before, you were likely a blood mage—” Reggie began before Tim interrupted him.

“Yes. Yes, that’s right. He had me roll a die, and it came up as a 10. Then he said that would be interesting, but I didn’t know what the class was until I looked at my character sheet. It said blood mage. But how did you know that?” Tim was excited now that he might have a line on what his actual class was in this world. Getting to live in a game world was a dream, but he at least wanted to know something about the class, or it would be more of a nightmare.

“So, if that is the case, why did you fall to the ground and suddenly morph forms? You went from being a frail old man in a black robe to being over six feet tall and wearing chainmail. Even the dagger at your side changed into a long sword and scabbard.”

“I swear, I have no idea. Maybe if I look at my character sheet, it will give me some information.”

“Okay, I’ll wait,” Reggie said.

Tim’s eyes glossed over, and what he saw shocked him almost enough to make him lose the sheet and return to the outside world, but he dug in and tried to learn as much as he could.

Trait: Ephemeral activated. Change is life. Consistency is a lie. Control is an illusion.

Unconscious roll for new class: 2/16—result: 1- Warrior

You now have 19 level gain stat points to assign

If the notification wasn’t enough to freak him out, the character sheet was. He apparently had an entirely new class now to go with the new body.

Name: Timothy Stein

Age: 25

Ht: 6’4

Wt: 238 lbs.

Class: Warrior*

Level: 19th

XP: 113,800/132,600

Hardiness: 18

Flexibility: 14

Acuity: 12

Sagacity: 12

Hit Points: 275

Mana: 95

Offense: ?

Defense: 14

Faction: Terran: +40 (-10), Roshya/Asmar/Ogria: -10

Traits: Ephemeral

Equipped Class Skills/Spells:

1) Master Swordsmanship

2) Heavy Armor Proficiency

3)

4)

5)

6)

7)

He was brought out of looking at his sheet when he heard a commanding voice ordering Reggie to step back. A thick short man in plate armor looked down at him on the table. “I am Charles, guild master of the Terran chapter of the Sojourner’s Guild, and you, my mixed-up friend, have some explaining to do.”

The man then turned to look away from Tim and said to others in the room that were out of his line of sight, “Bring him to the Book of Names. Let its magic test him as true or foul.”

There was some arguing that followed, but, in the end, it was all quashed when Charles’ deep voice said, “That wasn’t a request.”