The mini went and unveiled a giant machine. It had a large blue crystal that was the size of a soccer ball. The machine also had a backboard with dials and numbers, some in a foreign language. He then proceeded to dust it off before talking to everyone here. "Now then, let's measure your potentials, shall we? Line up and we can get this done quickly!" He floated over to the first person near the machine and snapped his fingers. Instantly everyone was in a neat single file line. The first in line was a buff guy who looked like a bodybuilder. He stepped up to the machine and put his hand on the machine like he was told to do. The crystal started glowing before the glow faded and the numbers on the backboard changed, eventually stopping at 12. "Hmm you are... Weaker than a baby! INTO THE DREADLANDS WITH YOU!! HEHEHE" The door that was all banged up and marked with damage flung open and black hands that looked like they were made of shadows flew out, grabbed the bodybuilder and dragged him into the door, with him screaming "NO! Please give me a second chance! Nooooo-" The doors flung shut as he was dragged in, cutting off his screams for help.

Everyone was shocked into silence after they witnessed what happened to the first guy. "Next. Next! I said next! We don't have all century you know. Oh wait we do...well hurry up regardless." The old man that was next was frozen to the spot and looked like he was going to piss himself, as did the others. He started slowly walking to where the machine was. The mini then spoke as if he realized something. "Oh right, I didn't introduce myself, how rude of me! I am a Demon Lord from a different planet! My name is Avrin Fornace, and you would do well to remember that!" He flew over to the guy that had finally made it to the machine and yanked the guy's hand, placing it on the crystal before the man could say anything. The numbers kept flying upwards before stopping at 430. "430! You, old man are one hell of a powerhouse! Walk through the gates to the left to claim your prize!" Avrin then smiled a rather creepy smile as if he was plotting something, but kept shoving the old man to the door while saying "Go on, shoo shoo!" then he went towards the rest of us and said "Alright, let's get this show on the road! You better hope you have good numbers or its to the Dreadlands for you!"

~~~

It had been who knows how long, probably hours or was it days? It was my turn finally so I walked up and pressed my hand on the crystal just like the thousands of other people that had gone ahead of me. The crystal glowed very brightly and then the numbers started to go up. "Wha? The hell is wrong with this thing?" Avrin said as he stared at the machine just like everyone else was. The numbers kept rising and rising until they hit 1000, then dropped back down to 1 and kept increasing again. They did this 4 times before stopping at 1. Avrin stared at the machine and started checking dials and buttons to see if anything was wrong. "Hmm the mana capacitor is fine, so is the energy crystal battery. I cant find anything wrong... whatever lets do it again!" So I placed my hand on the crystal again and the same thing happened again with the number eventually stopping at one. I paled as I realized what that meant for me. I looked at Avrin and his creepy freaking smile said it all. "INTO THE DREADLANDS WITH YOU! HEHEHAHA!" I couldn't even scream as the hands grabbed me and yanked me into the door before I even got the chance to scream.

After the door shut Avrin checked the machine for any errors before dusting off a particular section, revealing a screen that said "4000+Number on screen." Avrin looked at the machine, then at the door before realizing what just happened. "That guy had 4001 Potential?!?!?! And I just threw him into the Dreadlands?! Noooo!" He then started throwing a hissy fit, flinging magic spells randomly before calming down. "Haah, haah. Go and get him..." He said to the 2 guards at the door who had the names Dumb and Dumber. They looked at Avrin hesitantly but he then screamed "AFTER HIM YOU DUMBASSES!" and they scrambled to get into the door to the Dreadlands.

~~~

I wake up with a throbbing headache, everywhere I look I see nothing but complete darkness, except for the blue flames that were illuminating a path of some sort. It was pitch-black everywhere else, and not even a single speck of light could be seen when I looked to the edge of the path and peered past the illuminated area. I held the side of my head in pain, "This goddamn headache is killing me" is all I manage to say while struggling to get up. It was like gravity suddenly got ten times stronger the millisecond I got up. The headache kept on getting worse and worse, getting more unbearable as each second passed. "Gah! This fucking headache!" I say while holding my head. It felt like my head was going to pop, kind of like a zit. It was so unbearable that I couldn't stay on my feet, making me drop to the ground. As my knees hit the rocky surface, the pain starts spreading throughout my body, from my head to my feet. As I'm about to fall unconscious from the pain, it's suddenly gone. Just gone like snapping my fingers. "Man, I wish I was still alive. Being dead sucks. Well, I guess I'm technically not dead anymore."

I started walking down the path after I saw that there was nothing here for me to look at. I kept walking for a while and started to get that damn headache again. The farther I walked the bigger it got until eventually I reached a breaking point. It was like a dam had broken open, with memories flooding in. What happened when I was alive and other details were coming back to me. They stopped coming when I stopped walking. I continued walking forward and more memories came back. I decided I would continue forward to remember what happened when I was alive and how I died because at the moment I didn't remember anything. I kept walking even as the headache felt like my head was about to burst. I kept walking even as my head literally burst, pain flooding me as my head grew back. I kept walking even as parts of my body exploded one by one. I was determined to get my god damn memories and a bit of pain wouldn't stop me from remembering. Although the pain was far less than what I expected it still hurt like hell. The pain got less and less as more and more body parts regrew themselves.

After what felt like hours I had finally regained all of my memories and was gasping for breath as the last toe on my left foot regrew itself. "Well, that was...something. I would rather never have to experience that ever again." I said as I started to feel upset. I was upset at the fact that someone had tried to kill my family. Why couldn't they leave us alone. " I just hope dad and the rest got out alive, unlike me." There was a light up ahead so I decided to pick up the pace and head over as quickly as possible. What I saw when I got to the light was a empty battlefield with hundreds of dead bodies in various states of decay. Some fresh and some partially decayed while others were mere skeletons that were crumbling do dust. I walked forward through the bright circle of light onto the battlefield and the black tunnel disappeared as if I walked through a portal. "That probably was a portal if i'm being honest. That was one hell of an introduction to the Dreadlands. The pain sure makes you feel the 'Dread' part of the name." I chuckled at my own bad joke and kept walking forward.before I started to have a bad feeling about something. I mean the battlefield was bad enough but this was a whole new feeling of bad. Like I was going to die this instant if I didn't do anything. "Shit. I need to hide." I ran over to a broken horse carriage and hid inside it, grabbing some old sword from a dead corpse along the way. I didn't know why I would need a sword but I held onto it tightly as I hid.

No sooner had I hidden that I heard loud roars from some unearthly beast. I peeked out of the carriage and saw 2 large creatures that looked like ogres except on steroids, each carrying large clubs made of wood. One of them grabbed a fresher corpse and tossed it into its mouth whole. They kept growling and making odd noises as they looked for more corpses to eat. I scrambled farther into the broken carriage to hide. I then saw something that surpised me quite a bit. I saw a blue window appear in front of me.

Danger Sense Level 1 acquired

"The hell? how'd this window get in front of me?" I moved my body and the window kept following me. I eventually just gave up and waved my hand at the window and to my surprise it disappeared." I wonder what will happen if I do something super cliche and say 'Status'?". To my surprise a new window popped up giving me an even bigger surprise. One that made me forget about the ogre like creatures gobbling dead humans. "Are you freaking kidding me? You have got to be kidding me."