The sky was bright, and a blinding light was piercing through Josiac's eyelids. Josiac quickly got up through the nausea he was feeling.
How did I get here?
What is this place?
Josiac was standing in the middle of an elevated stage, looking to be 3 meters above ground.
Josiac could see a bunch of people walking through the streets with weird clothing on. Men were usually seen wearing plain brown tunics that reached their knees and the women wore long tunics or gowns that reached even further. Their was also an extreme minority that could be seen wearing colorful robes with blue, red, green, yellow, and many other colors on their clothing.
This scene was reminiscent of medieval times, and this confused Josiac, what was he doing in medieval times?
Of course the biggest seller to the times was the constructs in this seemingly city like place. But there was also a sense of fantasy origin, from his elevated position he could see alchemist shops, enchantment boards at magic blacksmith's shops and many other bizarre additions.
Looking at all this Josiac gained a sense of...foreign familiarity?
He was stumped even more now, why did he have a sense of familiarity? Whether it'd be the statue that is related to the mark of a future invasion north of his position or the old lady in the dark alley way who's displaying an evil expression on her face while beckoning him to follow her, he did not understand.
How did I come to such a conclusion about the meaning of that statue in the north?
How did I notice that inconspicuous grandma with an evil expression, no, better yet how did I perfectly turn around and direct my gaze directly at her exact position?
He started repeating his train of thoughts such as "How did I get here?" and "What is this place?" but now with a new strain of thoughts such as "Why do I know about this?" or "How did I notice this?", he was confused and his mind was spinning in circles getting nowhere.
He's never had to think this hard or have been in such a unique position. Suddenly he heard a loud shout.
"A Runic Warrior!!"
"What? That's impossible!!"
"Indeed, there is one up there, how else is he to appear up there in hobo clothing"
"True if people were found on the stage they would instantly be sentence to death"
"Mhmm, no one is crazy enough to try there luck, not even hobos"
"From what I know there is 2 elite guards that guard the base of the stairs which lead to the top of the stage!!"
"What!! Wouldn't that guarantee that the man up there is truly a Runic warrior!"
"Quick, we must verify if what that man said is true"
Josiac noticed the sudden change in the crowd of people, as practically everyone in the streets was now staring at him with shocked expressions. A large portion of them suddenly darted towards a particular area of the stage.
Once again, there was a wave of familiarity he got when he witnessed this scene.
This...
How come I am getting a sense of Deja vu?
A foreign one at that as if I had experienced it but not in a first person point of view or not actually directly?
Thoughts were pilling in his mind, but none of it could be answered right this instance, so he pushed it all to the side and he too ran towards that same particular area as he had realized that that was where the stairs was.
Still confused by this whole ordeal he bolted for the stairs. It was when he had finally appeared there that he had realized he was a step too late.
Two guards were rapidly ascending the stairs and once they reached him they immediately subdued him. A hit across the back of his neck knocked him unconscious once more and Josiac was transported away.
He awoke wrapped in a blanket on a not so comfy bed. Looking around with confusion evident on his face, a voice snapped him out of his thoughts.
"Your awake"
The voice was stern and disembodied as the voice didn't come from any particular area. Looking for the origin of the voice Josiac asked the voice,
Where am I? Why am I here? What do you want from me?
Josiac asked these questions hurriedly, as he didn't understand what was going on. The voice replied saying,
"That will be decided once we identify who you are exactly."
What do you mean? Josiac asked this not understanding what the stern voice meant.
"Just wait, it will make sense later"
Josiac asked more questions and repeated them until he realized he wasn't getting any replies, eventually he gave up and started summarizing his experience so far and soon came to a conclusion.
He was in a game, an overly realistic one at that. He came to this conclusion upon realizing he had a character panel. He also realized the peculiarity of it as the stats were recorded in a weird or unique fashion.
________________________________________________________________
Username: Josiac
Skills: None
Abilities: None
Stats:
Vitality: 1 max: 1.5
Constitution: 1 max: 1.5
Strength: 1 max: 1.5
Agility: 1 max: 1.5
Dexterity: 1 max: 1.5
Willpower: 1 max: 1.5
Intelligence: 1 max: 1.5
Equipment: None
Potential: 5*
________________________________________________________________
As he stared at the stat system something from the depts of his mind surfaced. 1 and a half years ago there was a game he played. It was a PC game called "3 Pillar's Reign".
Josiac also remembered a bit about the entire goal of the game, he also realized it was quite similar to the VRMMORPG game's (Three Flowing Shadows) late stage goal.
Now, he most certainly didn't remember everything, but he does remember some things, like that old grandma and how the crowd would charge the stairs at the beginning of the game.
But what is this place really?
Am I in "Three Flowing Shadows" right now?
Josiac found it hard to believe that he was in a game right now, this shabby room was quite realistic, but then again if he looked real closely something was off about it.
But he quickly pushed those thoughts to the side and got off the bed and went to the only door he has seen in this room. Opening it revealed a living room, a dining room, and a kitchen. There was a cloaked figure in the kitchen, this person was cutting carrots and celery, and had some leaves ready to be cut up as well.
Josiac didn't know how to approach this person nor escape this room. He also didn't know if waiting meant staying in the room he woke up in or if he could explore the house.
Thinking about it so far this person hasn't done anything to him, at the same time who says they couldn't do something in the extremely near future. With that in mind Josiac ran for the door, as he closed in on the door however he heard a chuckle from the cloaked figure cutting vegetables. Suddenly the door opened up to reveal 2 muscular national body builder sized heavily armored men, both with giant swords only slightly shorter than themselves.
This scared Josiac half to death, the sudden turn of events was too much for him. One moment the door he was running for was the sole exit for him to escape through and then the next moment it was revealed to be hiding 2 body builder sized warriors with swords slightly taller than himself.
"Stop, don't move" one of the men shouted at Josiac.
Josiac knowing he wasn't their match complied with his hands raised up.
"Now now, we aren't here to hurt you, we are only here to see if your a Runic Warrior" A middle aged man who was behind the two heavily geared warriors replied.
The middle aged man moved into the house and gestured towards a chair, "Please, sit, I'll check your runic readings once you've sat down".
Josiac seeing no other viable option decided to comply to the middle aged man's suggestion. He was by no means strong enough to take on those two giant warriors behind the middle aged man.
"I'm Revecter, you can call me Rev, what is your name?" the middle aged man asked as he took out a magnifying glass with a turquoise lens.
My name is Josiac nice to meet you. With a little awkwardness in his voice Josiac replied not knowing what to make of this situation. He felt like a trapped mouse who was so unfortunate that he had been caught by 2 cats and had no room for escape.
After inspecting Josiac, Revecter revealed to Josiac that something has seemed to go wrong with his summoning as he only had one life as a Runic Warrior, this explained why Josiac's stats were far above what a newly started player/Runic Warrior should have if they were in "Three Flowing Shadows".
Sir Revecter what am I suppose to do now? It seems you guys had a plan in mind to deal with the surge of population caused by us Runic Warriors being summoned. Josiac asked this in hopes of getting to know the thought process of the people in charge here more. Also he couldn't help but feel weird calling himself a Runic Warrior. Also the laws readily set in place exposed their knowledge of the players soon to come.
"Oh, that, oh yes, actually we did have a plan in mind for you Runic Warriors, it consisted of first training you in a little swordsmanship for a week and then sending yall out to deal with some weak monsters to lessen the stress we have to deal with" Revecter stated this, then continued saying, "but your different, you don't got multiple lives nor have you came with any partners as something about your summoning has went wrong. Instead you'll have to stick around the city more and learn how to survive slowly instead of brainlessly running into danger.
"You must understand that your situation is far more dangerous than even the kids of this city. You as a Runic Warrior know nothing about the dangers of this world and is also less connected to this world whether for better or worst. You Runic Warriors were given the ability to revive multiple times to counteract that disadvantage. Without this ability your position has fallen into dense amount of uncertainty and if you want to live I suggest you keep close to the city at all times" Revecter stated this with a solemn expression, he wanted Josiac to understand that this was not a joke.
I understand Sir Revecter, I'll keep that in mind and ask around as well to understand what to avoid when out in the wilds. That's if I ever happen to need to step out for a while of course.
Josiac wasn't one to do reckless things if he could help it, especially in an uncertain situation like this, as the saying goes: in an uncertain position and in an uncertain thinking process why haste to make a choice, it's you who have to live with the decision after all.
"Good" with a nod of affirmation Revecter left the building with his two guards follow suit.
Once Revecter and his men had left the cloaked figure suddenly appears, closing the door, spooking Josiac and causing him to trip over the chair he had just gotten up from.
"Well it seems you are found innocent, well, if you weren't this situation would be a lot more messy now wouldn't it be" the mysterious figure said this as they approached Josiac.
Josiac instantly noticed the femineity of this voice and understood a little more about this mysterious person.
What exactly do you want from me? Josiac now having the chance to ask this question did not hesitate.
Sighing, the mysterious woman replied, "Well, what I wanted was a warrior who didn't have any ties to this world who also didn't have to worry about death as much". "Of course I understand I would have to train this person up".
But why? she didn't really explain why she wanted such a warrior but Josiac immediately replied, 'actually never mind'. Just thinking over the concept he could quite easily understand what use such a person/warrior would have.
"Since the situation has lead up to here do you think I should wait a little longer or do you want to be my little pet". She did this while failing to get into a...seductive position?
Um, I think waiting a little should do, it should only be a little ways away before a plentiful amount of Runic Warriors are summoned, like a week or 2 weeks at most. Josiac replied inwardly sweating. Her eyes were beyond piercing and would make a stone faced man feel discomfort.
"Oh, you know when their going to arrive?" the mysterious woman asked with a slight bit of intrigue in her voice.
Well no, I'm just guessing as to whether the time here is synced to...Josiac stopped for a moment feeling like he was saying to much about something he shouldn't be talking about, at least not with an NPC.
This caused the woman to assume a questioning posture, revealing her familiarity of being in a cloaked state with this action. "Synced time to what exactly?"