You have died. A chance to live again. Accept intervention? [Y/N]

Steven stared at the prompt for what felt like years. The last thing he could remember was feeling a large snow plow barreling through him as he stared out the driver's side window of his car. Then blackness, and these floating words in a red stylized font that reminded him of some sort of death screen on a game.

But he wasn't playing a game. Dismayed, Steven stared at the prompt. He had never believed in any kind of afterlife, and had assumed that death was just simply the absence of life. Nothing, complete nothingness. Contrary to what he's told others, he was afraid of death. The great unknown. The nothingness of it scared him. Why shouldn't he take a chance?

Steven tried to speak the word yes, but in the absence of everything, no words could come out. He was afraid of not being able to take this chance at something other than nothing. He had already tried looking around to figure out where exactly he was, but if he had moved his vision, there was no indication that anything happened. Just the words unceasingly floating in front. Steven decided on another strategy.

Even though he couldn't directly look at the Y, he focused his attention on it and thought as hard as he could. Yes.

Immediately, the Y exploded in a burst of white flames. Steven felt a sensation not unlike gravity pulling him downwards, but also stretching him. It wasn't painful, but felt almost like his spirit or soul was being pulled through a pasta extruder. After a moment the sensation stopped, and he noticed the darkness giving way to light.

As the grey became whiter, Steven noticed a warmth growing with it. Soothing at first, in the lack of normal sensation, the warmth became almost unbearable as the light became blinding. As soon as he was sure he'd burst into flame, he saw shapes forming around the edges of his vision.

Focusing on these shapes, he tried to ignore the oppressive heat. The shapes slowly solidified into a rocky corridor. The ground became visible and was dotted with puddles and lichen of very dark green. Still unable to move his eyes or head, Steven could see far enough into the distance that he knew wasn't in a cave, but more of a canyon. A drab sky, grey without clouds stretched beyond.

Words appeared again, this time inside of a computer window or screen. Black words on a light grey background.

Use [previous form], or [create avatar]?

Steven stared again, not sure what to do. He still felt hot like he was in an oven, the view of the canyon only distracting him temporarily. He mulled over the screen. Steven had used fantasy avatars in online games in the past, but he was also not unhappy with his own form. Thoughts of becoming a cat girl or giant dragonman piqued his interest. If this could completely change who he was, maybe it was worth doing. He could be exactly what everyone he knew fantasized about. He could be anything in this new chance at life.

But he didn't know if it would make a difference. He was completely ignorant as to what was going on. Wherever he was, he didn't know what was normal.

With a mental sigh, he focused on previous form and selected it. Whatever magical chance gave him this opportunity, maybe it will magically happen again in the future.

The heat stopped, and he felt a tingling sensation start at his eyes, and then move down the rest of his body. His quickening heartbeat made him realize he had a heartbeat. The tingling in his arms reminded him he had arms. Soon the tingling made it all the way to his toes. He felt his feet hit the ground and immediately collapsed into the nearest puddle.

Steven's heart was pounding as his body twitched and convulsed on the ground. He tasted blood in his mouth, and realized he had bit his tongue. He grit his teeth and groaned as the convulsions turned to body wide cramps.

After what felt like an eternity, the convulsions subsided and Steven had control of his body again. Feeling out of breath, he closed his eyes and stretched out into the puddle, breathing hard. The ground was cold smooth rock, but he twisted around and found a patch of lichen to lay his head on while he recuperated.

After a moment he opened his eyes again and watched the grey sky, Steven heard a small chime and another window opened in front of him.

Select class from list, or reroll list. Focusing on class name brings up detailed class information.

Swordsman

Archer

Mage

Cleric

Steven was kind of expecting something like this would happen sooner or later. If he hadn't just experienced extreme discomfort by being remade, he thought maybe he would believe he really was inside of a game. And the only thing he could do was assume this was a game and proceed as such. Generally, Steven would have an idea of what the game was, which allowed him to informedly select how he was going to play. In online games, he tended to play support roles, making it easier to find groups for content. Single player games he would usually try to make a beefy melee character that could dish out great amounts of damage while in heavy armor. He never did particularly enjoy the move, stand, and cast playstyle of a wizard.

But now, he wasn't informed. Without any clue to what the future holds, he decided he needed to gather as much information now as he could. He focused on the word Swordsman and the detailed screen popped up.

Swordsman

Strength 5

Dexterity 3

Endurance 4

Intelligence 1

Wisdom 2

Pain 0.5

All weapons except casting weapons. All shields except great shields and casting shields. Can evolve at level 25 depending on attributes and equipped weapons. 2 free attributes per level.

Select Swordsman? [Y/N]

This was what he expected. A class focused on weapon use. Steven noticed that at level 25 the class can evolve, but wasn't sure how it would evolve. It seems the evolved class would depend on how the original class was used. He was inclined to select Swordsman immediately, but refrained. Instead, he selected N, and took a closer look at mage.

Mage

Strength 1

Dexterity 2

Endurance 4

Intelligence 7

Wisdom 2

Pain 0.8

All caster weapons and catalysts. Small blade. Small shield. Can evolve at level 25 depending on attributes and spells learned. 2 free attributes per level.

Select Mage? [Y/N]

Steven saw that this class was close to what he had expected of a magic class. It had much less strength and a higher intelligence. He assumed that intelligence had something to do with the potency of spells. He would hate to select Swordsman only to find out that the class had intentionally made him dumb. Steven had a bit of pride concerning an above average intelligence. At least he thought so anyway.

Instead of closing the window, he focused on Strength and even more detailed description appeared.

Strength

The ability to move objects. The higher strength, the bigger and heavier objects can be moved. Strength attribute determines which physical weapons can be used.

Closing this description, Steven pulled up Intelligence.

Intelligence

The power of spells. The higher intelligence, the more powerful a casted spell will be. Intelligence attribute determines which caster weapons can be used.

This confirmed his suspicions. He can select Swordsman, and the lower intelligence only meant that he would cast weaker spells. If he could cast any spells anyway. He closed the description and selected N to the Mage class. Steven had one last thing to try. He looked at the top of the class screen and selected reroll. Instantly, the screen flashed. Nothing had changed. All classes that appeared on the screen were the same as before.

Steven was disappointed that the reroll didn't reroll anything. He would be happy with a weapon focused class, but he felt he needed more options before he made a selection. However, the screen remained unchanged after the flash. He selected reroll again.

Rerolls remaining - 4. Are you sure? [Y/N]

Selecting Y, Steven watched the screen flash again, and once more there was no change. A bit frustrated, he rerolled the class selection screen until there was only one reroll remaining. He was more than disappointed that nothing had changed, but this last chance would solidify his decision. He thought maybe the reroll ability was to give him some sort of false sense of hope there would be something bigger and better. He's not sure why, since he evidently already cheated death and has been reborn in this bleak cavern.

Yes, Steven would be happy with a swordsman class. He selected reroll for the final time, and the screen changed.

Select class from list. Focusing on class name brings up detailed class information.

Mimic

"Huh... Maybe I messed up."