It was a typical day in New York City. People fought their way through overcrowded sidewalks. They pushed past one another without a word spared. They were so focused on their thoughts, worries, and problems they couldn’t spare time to hear someone else out. Just a little removed from the busiest streets, Solomon Andrews was sitting at a table on the side of the street. He held a slice of pizza in his dominant hand, a paper plate in the other beneath it. 

Saul worked at the local community college teaching history but, luckily enough for him, the school was on spring break. At that particular moment he was a guy enjoying a nice New York slice. He leaned down to take a bite of pizza and had to reach up with his free hand to his wipe long, black hair out of the way. He had the pizza folded in half, and it was halfway to his mouth when the ground began to shake.

Skyscrapers all around him began to shudder, visible waves running up the sides of the buildings. Somewhere up above, glass was heard shattering and moments later a debris of many kinds rained onto the blacktop below. Glass shards, office supplies, even pieces of scaffolding began to crash onto the ground up and down the street. Screams sounded out amidst the chaos from around him. When he saw a car crash into a hot dog stand on the sidewalk, he jumped up and sprinted inside the pizza shop. He leaped over the counter to put as many barriers between him and the crashing cars as possible, hoping it would be safer inside than out on the streets. 

He kept an eye on the streets through the window, drawing in a deep breath. His hand on the counter top was shaking. He grabbed it with his free hand in an attempt to steady it. Before his eyes, the ground beneath the street split open and an angry orange glow emanated from within that widening crack. Parked cars fell into the hole which expanded until it was roughly the width of the street.

The earth continued to rumble the whole time as something burst from the hole, massive slabs of red rock rising from within. One large slab parallel to the ground arose first. As the earth continued to quake, two more stones arose from the hole supporting the parallel slab, perpendicular to the ground and on either side of it. From his vantage point in the shop, Saul thought, ‘That looks kind of like a piece of Stonehenge… What in the world?’

Saul had no way of knowing at the time, but a similar event was occurring worldwide. Frantic pedestrians were filming the chaos to post to their YouTube channels or their favorite subreddit. News helicopters took flight to respond to the emerging story. These stone slabs were rising from the ground. As more and more of the stones emerged, Saul could see they were connected somehow. 

As fast as things had started, the ground grew still and the city fell quiet once more. Car alarms could be heard, as well as panicked screams here and there, but it was as if someone had put most of the city on mute. Throughout the city deafening silence had settled over things. ‘I’d better go make sure nobody's hurt...' Saul thought, exiting the door once he felt things were safe. Parked cars had been crushed under debris and large slabs of asphalt were strewn randomly about the street. It was decimation. 

He sprinted over to the car that had taken out the hot dog cart and pulled open the door to call in to the driver, "Are you ok?" The woman had a pained expression on her face, eyes unfocused. 'Better call for help...' Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his cellphone and dialed 911. He didn't address the operator. 'As far as I know, they'll come investigate if nobody responds to their questions.'  He looked around and saw that almost nobody had suffered a serious injury, at least on this street. "Help's coming!" He called to the woman, "Stay here for now." 

The earthquake had been of a sufficient magnitude to cause a lot of damage alone, without even considering the way the ground split. He turned to survey the street, the stone archway catching his eye once more. He walked towards the stone figure, looking it over with fascination evident in his eyes, ‘What in the…?’ It looked like an artifact from ancient Egypt or perhaps Babylon. There were numerous markings on either side of the stone. Saul inspected them from what he felt was a safe distance, his scholarly curiosity getting the better of him, ‘They look like Hieroglyphics. Curious, there shouldn’t be anything like this in New York.’ 

Light began to shimmer in the middle of the arch. The view of the street behind the open arch distorted, like a funhouse mirror, then the space between the stones was black. ‘That can’t be natural…’ Saul thought to himself. He walked a little closer, though he probably should have gone the other way. ‘It almost looks like some sort of magic.’ He picked up a piece of rubble from the street and threw it into the stone archway, but he never heard it fall to the ground on the other side.

He decided to get closer for a better look. He had it in mind to inspect the archway from about three feet away, ‘That should be close enough for me to make out details that would allow me to make a guess at the origin.’ As he took his final step the Earth shook once more and he tripped, falling forward. He yelled out as he stumbled forward and threw his hands out to try and catch himself but he wound up falling right into the doorway.  Darkness. Then, he was enveloped by a strange light.

As he fell through the door, he didn’t hit the ground. In fact, there was no surface to stand on. It felt as though Saul was floating beneath the surface in a pool of warm water, a softly glowing azure light surrounding him.

“Welcome to the Dungeon.”

A voice intoned.

“Analyzing…”

The voice was loud and seemed to come from everywhere around him. Saul called out, “Where am I? What’s… What’s going on? Help!”

A translucent blue screen appeared in front of him, glowing. He turned his head to look away, blinded by the light, but the screen followed him. He closed his eyes but the screen displayed itself on the inside of his eyelids. “Character Creation…?” He read to himself, looking everything over. ‘Please select Class’  His confusion was evident but he was no stranger to Role Playing Games. “Must’ve hit my head…” He grumbled softly, then he looked over the various options. ‘Fighter’, ‘Mage’, ‘Summoner’, and a huge number of other options seemed to be available.

'Just go with it. I'll wake up before long.' 

“What does my class determine?” He wondered allowed.

“Class determines starting abilities and attributes. Classes are flexible and may evolve into higher tiers, and you can train under an expert to switch classes, but your starting attributes and abilities will remain with you.”

That same voice, soothing and soft answered. “Hmm…”

“Monk? Can I get some more info?” 

A text box appeared before his eyes containing the following information:

'That's interesting, but it doesn't sound like my style. Not that any of this is real anyways.'

Scrolling through the classes, his next thought was the Summoner class. “Info” He requested.

'Not exactly my cup of tea. I like the idea of summoning minions, but I don't want to be reliant on something else's power...'

His gaze wandered over the Ranger class. "Info"

'That sounds really cool... Very versatile.'

“More info on Druid, please."

'Tough choice. I like the idea of a Druid, but something about it makes me hesitant. Ranger sounds really cool. Something like a mix between Legolas and Aragorn... Yeah. That's the one.' Clearing his throat he said, "Select class: Ranger."

‘You have selected the Ranger Class. Please select two Talents.’ A list of talents appeared before him. Things like Dual Wielding specialty, Befriend Animal, Ranged Weapon Mastery, and others were listed there. Some had unique names that seemed to describe them totally, like Limitless Quiver. There was one that caught his eye in particular, titled simply, ‘cultivate’. “What does Cultivate do?”

‘Tapping into the energies of their surroundings, a cultivator can use that power to strengthen themselves over time.’

Hm… Interesting. “Is this the only chance I have to pick talents?” He wondered aloud. The voice responded,

“Talents can be selected at various levels. Additionally, many talents can be unlocked through training, combat, or as quest rewards. Talents level up independently of your actual level, though they can’t be more than five levels higher than your actual level.”

‘It’s almost like Skyrim. I can learn by doing. If that’s the case, I’ll pick a few that seem useful from an early stage.’ He spoke clearly: “Select Talent: Befriend Animal. Select Talent: Cultivate.” He didn't know at the time that the Cultivate skill was actually pretty easy to pick up, but it sounded too good to pass up. A blue light enveloped his vision, so bright that he had to close his eyes to avoid risking blindness.

When he next opened his eyes, he found himself looking out onto a wide open plain. There was hardly a cloud in the sky, and what a sky it was! It was the kind of blue you only see on the clearest days, which were pretty rare for a New Yorker. Surrounding the plain far off in the distance were cliffs, some jagged and some topped with flat plateaus. The blue sky contrasted heavily with the green grass and golden wheat that dominated the plain. Breathing in deeply, Saul didn’t detect any of the grime or pollution that he was so used to smelling in the city. In fact, the clean air almost smelled wrong to his nose.

"Where am I?" Saul asked himself, and the voice answered once more.

"This is the Prairie. It is the first level of the Dungeon. As the introductory point, questions will be answered here but no further help will be offered at deeper levels."

He looked down at himself and found his clothing was the same as before: A t-shirt and a pair of athletic shorts. 'I knew this was all a dream... Still, it wouldn't hurt to ask questions.' He drew in a deep breath to help steady shaking hands, trying to quiet the part of him that was wondering if maybe this wasn't just a dream, "I don't want to be here. Let me out, please." The response was swift and final.

"Exit is not permitted at this time. You must reach the fifth level in order to travel between the Dungeon and the outside world. The only way to proceed is forward." 

Saul sighed to himself and looked around once more, ‘What should I do?’ He took a seat on the ground with his legs crossed and his hands folded in his lap. Drawing in a deep breath, he began to meditate while trying to decide on the best course of action. Suddenly, another message appeared

As he drew breath, he felt the way the air moved into his lungs. He felt the way his blood was infused with oxygen, the way it moved throughout his body. It was almost as if he could feel the energy. Exhaling slowly, he felt the energy leave his body, then he drew in another nice, slow breath. Energy seemed to flow into his body again. 'It's different than back home,' He thought to himself, but he felt as though he had a slightly deeper understanding of the world around him.

After an hour, he'd decided on a plan. He stood and stretched and prepared to get started. "Status." 

He didn't know what any of these numbers meant, but he assumed the baseline was somewhere around what his endurance and willpower stats were set at. ‘I knew I shouldn’t have skipped Cardio in the gym. Still, my stats seem pretty high. Must have gotten a lucky roll. I'm sure there's a limit to base stats.' He considered his next move. He thought carefully about what he should do. 'I should wait.'

He remained seated for a long time. Enough time passed that the sun began to sink over the horizon. Saul sat there. Waiting. 'If I wait long enough, I'm sure I'll realize this is all some sort of weird dream.' He alternated between meditating, 'cultivating', and simply waiting. He was a patient man. He'd sat through countless hours of history lecturers that managed to make some of the most exciting events in all of human history boring. He could wait until he snapped out of this delusion.

As the sun set and the prairie began to cool he started to consider that maybe he wasn't going to wake up from this situation. The moon, 'A moon', rose. It was bigger than Luna. Brighter. It was better than the biggest full moon he could recall. He could actually make out vague details on things several meters away from him. Most of what surrounded him was... Wheat. As far as the eye could see, wheat.

'Maybe... Maybe this is real.' A weight settled on his chest. The kind of weight that felt like it was suffocating. He struggled. 'Breathe. Calm yourself.' A breeze stirred. Cool. It was the kind of thing he could focus on. The kind of thing he could use to center himself once more. 'If this is real, then you need to act like the consequences are real.' He reached into his pocket. Treasures. He extracted what he found within. 'Multi-tool. My favorite survival aid. Lighter. Always good to have a lighter. Burger wrapper from earlier. Oops. I forgot to throw that away.' Okay, two of his items were super useful. One of them was trash. He stuffed them back into his pocket, including the burger wrapper. 'Like the park rangers always say, leave no trace.'

He shivered. He looked down at his outfit: a t-shirt and athletic shorts. Inadequate. He reached up to is long hair, tied back in a pony tail, and removed the hair tie to let his mane fall around his shoulders. It was long, black, and thick enough to help keep his ears and neck warm. 'I need food, water, and shelter. But first, I need warmth.' He began to look around for anything he could use to light on fire. He did find several sticks nearby, lucky enough to find a variety of different sizes. 'Kindling. Now I need some logs.' He stood. Surveyed. He thought he saw the faintest hints of a tree rising up against the night sky, leafless branches indicating it was likely dead.

He gathered up his sticks and walked over to the tree, moving through golden grass that came up to his chest. It didn't take long for him to reach the tree; it was an island in a sea of gold. 'Dead, just like I hoped.' He reached up and grabbed at some of the lighter branches, just low enough for him to reach. They didn't give. He jumped and grabbed at one branch with both hands. He let his weight hang there. It snapped. They fell. It hurt his tailbone a bit, but he had a decent size stick to work with. One end of the branch was pretty pointy.

He went about halfway between the tree and the surrounding grass before using his stick to dig a hole there. He was lost in his thoughts. It was hard to believe any of this was happening. 'Maybe I'm in a coma. I could have hit my head. Maybe I'm dead.' The cold would remind him that he was probably alive. 'Best to do what I can, then.' Before long, he had a nice hole to build fire in. It was close to a meter deep. "Let's see... For an in-ground fire, I need to dig another hole for ventilation" Talking to himself felt good.

He worked on a secondary hole, then dug a tunnel that connected the two. He moved back to the dead tree and walked around its trunk while looking at the branches. He picked a few other pieces that seemed good and jumped up to grab hold of them one at a time. Three more short falls to the ground. Three more loud cracks and he had three more nice branches. One of them was nearly as tall as he was and seemed to be pretty straight. 'I can carve a point on this for defense. Save that for after the fire.' 

He moved over to his soon-to-be-fire pit. None of his branches would fit. He picked the weakest looking one and tried to break it over his knee. It snapped after a struggle. He repeated that a few times, then lined the pieces up in the hole. On top of that, he threw the smaller sticks. Finally, he threw a bunch of dead wheat he'd found nearby on top. 'Now, it's a good thing I have this handy, grease-soaked trash.' He introduced his lighter and the wrapper to each other by way of flame. Once it was burning he tossed it into the ground. Ignition. His fire burned low and hot and over time more of the fuel caught. He fanned it along through the ventilation hole when he needed to, but before long he was warming himself by the fire. The light was limited and there wasn't much smoke. 'Perfect.'

He settled down with the stick he'd picked for defense and his multi-tool. Picking the end he'd snapped off, he began to sharpen it, careful to work his knife away from his body. 'The knife won't last long, but it will get the job done. Maybe I'll find a place to buy another one... Or maybe I'll just wake up.' By the time he was satisfied, the moon was high in the sky and he had a decent primitive spear. "Okay, time to get some sleep." He knew his fire was safe. 'Nothing will burn underground but my fuel.' He lay down near the hole on the ground, which yielded nicely to his body. Tucking his arm beneath his head and wishing for a pillow, he tried to use a deep breathing exercise to bring on sleep. His mind was still racing as he considered the possibilities. 'Is this real? If it's real, what do I do? Am I still alive?' Eventually, blessedly, sleep came.

When he opened his eyes, he wasn't alone. He heard movement in the clearing. It sounded big. He looked around for the source of the noise but wasn't able to identify it at first. He tried to play dead, or asleep, moving as slowly as possible. Eventually it came into sight. It was a large rodent. Like a capybara. It was sniffing around by the base of the tree. 'Spear's right here...' He reached forward to grab his weapon. He moved as slowly as he could. His fingers felt the wooden shaft and found it comforting.

He decided to try and sit up. 'I hope it's not aggressive.' He moved slowly to show he wasn't a threat. The animal didn't seem bothered. He reached for his multi-tool and pocketed it. Then, using his spear as an aide, he stood up. It didn't like that. The beast charged him with a vicious snarl. It opened its mouth. Saul saw its teeth. They weren't the teeth of a herbivore. He yelled and raised his stick. 'Scare it off! Like a bear!' The beast seemed emboldened by the move if anything. 'Forget it. Plant your feet. Stick it with the pointy end.'

He stabbed at the beast but he didn't know how to use a spear which made his awkward attempt ineffective. The beast leaped at him, and he was just barely able to get the sturdy branch between the animal and himself. He turned and pressed as the animal caught on the stick, using its momentum to fling it away from him.

'That'll teach it. Surely he'll run aw-... Ok, it's coming at me again.' He jabbed at the beast, but the motion was awkward and slow. He managed to hit the beast, but with the force he used, it was more of a poke. The beast barreled into him and knocked him down. He rolled as he fell to reduce the damage his vision flashing red momentarily as he took notice of a red bar in the bottom right that read HP: 18/20. 'No time for that. He's coming again. Be firm. Brace this. Stick him with the pointy end!'

He did just that, bracing the stick against his body. The beast's momentum impaled it on the stick, which stuck gruesomely through the back of its head.

It let out a pitiful noise. Light left its eyes and then light filled Saul's eyes:

His stomach rumbled. He looked between the fire pit and the beast he'd killed.

'You've gotta do what you've gotta do... I hope I wake up soon.' He extracted his multi-tool from his pocket once more. He foraged about for sticks and kindling. He snapped one of the other branches into several pieces for fuel. 'I am Prometheus, for I bring fire to this land.' He lit another fire, then sat down and began to skin the large rodent as it heated up. 'Let's see... I guess... The back would be the tenderloin?' He did what he could with the small pocket knife, carving a chunk of meat which he promptly impaled on his stick and held over the fire.

Before too long, it was beginning to roast nicely. Crackling. Delicious fat dripped from it into the fire. Flames leaped higher. More, they said.

'I hope this thing is safe to eat...' He took a bite. 'Maybe I am dead. Maybe this is heaven. Maybe, in heaven, the rats all taste like Wagyu ribeyes.'