Chapter 3 - Fantasy

Darkness and an undescribable haziness is what Damien stirred awake to. He was on his back and he could feel what felt like grass brushing against his neck. His heart thumped when he squeezed his hand it a fist and his hands came away with grass and soil. He could hear birds chirping and a light breeze and a piney smell enter his nose. Looking past his shaking hands he could see light shining through a canopy of trees like he was in a forest and the air left his body shaking breath.

"Holy shit I've been kidnapped he screamed!"

The last thing Damien remembers being at his PC getting ready to log into EverTale one second and now....he feels a breeze in a forest? Praying that this is just a lucid dream, Damien groggily and slowly sat up as his eye adjusted to his surroundings. Damien to woke to a scene straight out of a beautiful nightmare.

He was in a grove or maybe a forest with tall grass that nearly came up to his chest and mixed in were with various sized wildflowers of every color everywhere around him. On the outside of the grove was some kind of forest with a thick undergrowth that you could not see through and massive trees... really really large trees.

The trees surrounding him were towering and larger than any tree he'd ever known. To the north was a great mountain range with one of the largest mountains he had ever seen or fathom could even exist that easily went up past the clouds. The fact that he could even see them over such massive trees had let him know how insanely massive the mountains are. He was fairly certain that they could be seen even from space.

"This...this isn't right! Where am I? What is this!"

Damien didn't want to even formulate the thought that he wasn't on Earth so he thought that he was in another country instead. A wide-eyed Damien frantically wondered where he was. He stomped as hard as he could with pain shooting through his foot. Then, he slapped himself followed by a painful pinch that bruised his dark skin which had shown Damien that this was not a dream at all, for sure. Damien began to tear up not because of the pain, but because he figured out the impossible had happened to him and he was kidnapped and transported to a different...well..wherever this was.

There where all kinds of weird and exotic sound that Damien had never heard before. Damien was sure because he's watched animal planet for years. These sounds were straight out of a nightmare.

In that same moment, he also noticed he definitely wasn't in a different country either. He was looking at a furry pink 2 foot half turtle have feline features and eyes and furry pink wings. The weird creature jumped from flower to flower eating the bud and leaving the rest.

He was breathing on this new plane so there was oxygen, atmosphere, and there's gravity so, it is similar to earth. He heard all kinds of animal sounds All Damien could think was, "My GOD!" Then a massive shiver of fear shot up his spine. Not because he suddenly awoke in a new location but because he knew his 6 year old was lying in her bedroom all alone without anyone there when she wakes up.

"Please God someone hel-!" Suddenly a plethora of words quickly spread across Damien's vision and he fell on his butt as his head pinned with new information.

(Ting) Divine System initializing....50%....69%....82%...100%... Divine merging process completed. Host has become one with the system and it has merged into your soul and mental integration was successful.

A female robotic voice spoke in Damien's mind to his astonishment.

"System..NO..NO..NO this is real life, not some crappy novel or video game!! Why am I here and WHAT ABOUT MY DAUGHTER!!"
Damien responded loudly, wide-eyed.

Sentient host is correct this is reality. The hosts' new reality and the host must prepare for what is to come. However, to ease the transition period onto a new planet and to calm down the hosts mental function this Divine System will gladly provide any assistance available before we begin the second staging of the merging process.

To answer the hosts' first question, the host's daughter was transported to the child's mother's location upon being portaled to this planet. She is completely safe and the host does not need to worry about her.

Damien just silently nodded to the voice and listened.

This planet is the most recently created planet outside of the natural evolution process. The answer to the hosts next question is, the host is on a new planet called Damascus that is well over 3 times the size of the hosts home planet called Earth. The host is in the same universe just on the other side of it. Also, the host does not need to speak loudly to communicate with the Divine System. Mental communication is all that is required. Refer to the Divine System as a 'System'.

Upon hearing the safe transport of his daughter, Damien was instantly relieved and drastically calmed. He felt himself struggling to breathe at the thought of what was once his worse fears coming true. Now, his relief was replaced with immense frustration and anger. He was brought here completely against his will and no explanation beforehand what kind of sick bastard could do such a thing.

"Especially TO ME! I'm no one! A nobody! I stayed away from people. So I've learned not to get close too people outside of work or school.

Then, that made Damien think that maybe that could have been part of the reason for being brought here. Who would notice or care? I pushed my family away with my anxiety. I felt like keeping those bonds were too taxing emotionally. How big of a fool I've been. Maybe by including them in my life as much as they had wanted would have at least helped me to still be in my own goddamn universe! Damien thought all of these cryptic thoughts and more and it just fueled his anger.

His knuckles tightened into a fist until they nearly bled and he grit his teeth and wanted to lash out at anyone and anything. That's when the ground began to loudly rumble and shake and fissures began to open in the earth. Even a couple trees had fallen and loudly crashed to the earth around him. The ground was shaking so hard Damien fell to his hand and knees. Damien's breath caught in his throat and he felt like a giant fissure was about to open under his feet.

"Wait what was that! Did I just do that?!?! Damien and a shiver of fear crept up his spine again. When his hands touched the ground he felt a tingling pressure go up through his arms and he heard a ringing in his mind.

(Ting) 'Host absorption has been completed. The host has unlocked the absorption skill given to him by the system to assist with his mission. '

'The host has successfully absorbed physical natural elements from the planets surface up to 100 feet in a 360 degree diameter around the host. Host can now covert wood, stone, tin, copper, lead, iron, and steel into structures, weapons, and use the earth based spells using mana. '

'With the assistance of the system, the host can build certain structures up to the hosts' hero level.'

'Absorbtion is a system given skill so the populus will not be able to use any appraise skill to see this technique, no matter the level.'

" Wha-, Spells! Like in real magic spells! Where the hell am I?! Merging! What did you do to me you alien piece of Sh-"

'System would have figured the Host would be excited to be a spellcaster, as seeing how a mage was what you were playing as, in many of the roleplaying games that the host played on earth. System figures this would ease your transition into his new role. '

'Host has successfully absorbed mana elements from the spirit transfer up to 100 feet in a 360 degree area. Host can now cast Air and Earth, branches of magic up to 1,000 yards around the host. Host can cast created or learned spells up to the hosts current level of ability and also bend the elements with the host's willpower. '

"Wait absorbing, mana,spells what the hell is this. Are you an alien or something?"

'The Divine System is not an alien lifeform. The Divine System is and Artificial Intelligent assistance module provided by the great Divine one to assist the Harbinger.'

Due to the Host's in-game elemental Archmage profession hosts absorption rate of all things elemental are near instantaneous but, is limited to the Hosts' Hero level and what you come in contact with.'

'It is recommended that the host creates shelter as soon as possible due to unknown dangers surrounding the host. Your protection barrier provided by the Divine one will wear off soon. '

'The host is currently in the center of an unknown forest to the host and dangers are everywhere. To prevent injury or death it is recommended that the host complies to the system's warning.'

Damien completely ignored the warning. Too much came at him at once and he was struggling to keep his sanity dispite the system saying he should be calm. Damien froze and something just came to him.

"Wait, hold on. Absorbing elements, building structures, and an Archmage? This sounds just like my character EverTale or a transmigration novel or both! System how will I be able to cast spells and use mana? How do I build structures?"

'Host can use DP or divine points to build special structures or can use his earth element to build certain general structures. The host is required to build an empire by any means possible and bring followers to the creator. '

'That is Hosts' current task. Host will only be rewarded DP when tasks are done for this purpose. Even if the people worship the Harbinger, that is still good enough for the Creator seeing as you are his direct product as Harbinger.'

Damien was overwhelmed by all of this sudden information. Building a kingdom, converting people into followers, being harbinger to some random god! Damien could barely think. He felt sick and began to get light headed for a moment. He dropped to his hands and knees and began hyperventilating. His whole world was turned upside down. He began to get angry then infuriated at the suddenness of it all.

There was a loud rumble and the ground began to shake. Trees began to fall in the distance, animals began to run away in a frenzy and birds took off in any direction, but where the earth was shaking.

Damien began to breathe in and out and calm himself. Then everything began to still. He had to get control of himself. He was not sure, but he believed he felt like the earth was begging him to stop. Almost like he was about to rip the whole planet apart.

'Host is correct. The spirit of Terra Gaia was visibly reaching out to you to stop. You were hurting the planet. You created fear in an entity that has never known such a thing. Any more and it would have been forced to defend itself and resulting in dire consequences. Host is an unbound elemental Archmage. Without any control, Host is a danger to his surroundings and must learn to control his untapped mana so that this will not happen in the future, or at least, to the extent of nearly shaking a planet apart.'

Damien forcefully got control over himself. He was terrified at what he could potentially do. After he was done having a complete meltdown. He had to think of this situation as logically as he can. For one, he was on an alien planet largely based off of a video game, two he had some kind of assistance with the system, and three he was pretty much a vassal to a god who he had to get followers for somehow while building a kingdom with magic.

"This sounds completely crazy but here I am standing in a pile of world complete and utter insanity."

Now that he had a basic general assessment as to what was going on, it was it's no point in acting clueless anymore. After giving himself some time to think he felt a bit better.

I'm pretty sure that if I have a system, then there are stats and a menu.

With these new thoughts, Damien took a deep breath to calm himself some more and thought about the system. A system. He read novels before and they usually had status screens and other options available. Damien turned his attention back to the internal system in his brain.

"System I need to see my stats, I guess,"

Damien thought to the system.