David woke up with his body soaked and his breathing hurried. His eyes blinked, it was still dark, and he was still on the blanket next to his girlfriend. They were still inside the tent they had set up early from their small camping trip. She was still asleep but quickly stirring awake.

"What are you doing?" She asked through a stifled yawn.

What was he doing? David couldn't remember, he just felt it was hard to breathe laying down. Like he was being crushed by a thousand pounds. A faint memory of distant transparent screens flashed through his mind, what were they? A dream?

David laughed to himself momentarily forgetting his girlfriend was next to him.

"David?" She asked a little scared by his behavior.

"Nothing, it was just a dream." He told her as he calmed his breathing. Glancing at her he added, "Glad we took this trip, I guess I've been playing too many games with Malik."

She yawned again and nodded, but still looked worried. "Alright, then go back to bed. We still have to make it up the mountain tomorrow." Slowly she laid back down and closed her eyes.

David was up now, he wasn't tired at all. He pulled his white tee shirt that was glued to his body and had a look of disgust on his face. "I'm going to change and get some fresh air." He told her.

She mumbled something but he figured she didn't mind him being gone for a few minutes. David reached over to his pack that was stuffed with the various snacks, drinks, clothes, bandages, and the other miscellaneous things he needed for camping. Not that he was into sleeping in the wilderness, but his girlfriend Soo-Min was into hiking and camping, so he joined her whenever she asked. Which was whenever she was able to get a break from her tech job at Misoon back in New York. So basically, once every month.

Unlike her, David was pursuing other fields that most people looked down upon. Video games. He was an avid gamer with minimum social skills and anime as another enjoyment. David was by no means fit as a whistle, he should by all accounts be more plump but his genetics gave him a fast metabolism so he never truly gained much weight if any.

Which is why Soo-Min liked to bring him outside the house and the city see the outside world, and spend some time with him. She liked gaming as well, but not as into it as David was. However, she liked cheering on his e-sports club and watching her fellow Koreans play on the big stage. Something David has never accomplished with his small university team.

After finding a new shirt to wear David stepped outside the tent and saw the moon was still high in the sky looking down on them. His watch told him it was only 2:31 a.m. in the morning, not a time any sane person would be awake. However, he was used to putting in hours for a video game, especially ones where he could compete against others to get first clear achievements or being the world's first to max level. So being up at this time was not anything too out there for him.

Taking off his shirt the coolness of the night felt good on his skin. He should have grabbed a towel to wipe the sweat off but he wasn't really thinking. So, he let the natural breeze dry him off as he walked a bit away from their tent. He looked down the trail and saw how far they have come, only for him to turn and look up at the mountain to see how far they had remaining. 'Fuck me,' David wondered why was he up here in the first place. This was not for him nor his fragile body that has been honed to skillfully move a mouse and react to situations on the screen with his keyboard.

David picked up a rock and held it in his hand, getting ready to toss it as far as he can. He felt energetic, and he didn't know why. Instead of tossing the rock into the next century, he found himself staring at it. More freaked out by what he saw than anything else.

David blinked, stared, then blinked again. He saw a transparent window, once that he should never see unless it was part of a video game. He was not at home on his computer, and this was clearly not a game. His mind flashed with an image, it was blurry and he couldn't make it out completely. But his mind drifted back, and he could barely remember something.

'My dream?' David wondered but shook his head. Dreams weren't real, even the one he had wasn't real. David forgot most of what happened in his dreams after waking up, but the more insane the dream was, the quicker his mind got rid of it.

He dropped the rock, and the transparent window vanished just as fast as it appeared. David picked up another rock, this one different from before just to see if there would be any change. Maybe he was hallucinating due to him finding it hard to breathe earlier. Another transparent window appeared, this time there was only zinc and the amount was a bit higher than the previous rock.

'Ok, I'm definitely going crazy.' David said to himself but felt a smile appearing on his face. As crazy as this might seem, it could definitely be fun to play around with. Yeah sure, none of this was truly real, but that didn't mean he couldn't mess around a bit. Glancing back at the dark blue and grey tent David told himself he'd stay out here for ten more minutes. He didn't want Soo-Min to feel the place he was supposed to be at and notice he was still missing. She'd worry then and he'd get an earful.

Walking a bit further away he came to an area on the edge of the trail they were following. It was occupied by a bed of rocks of various sizes, all grayish in color. He didn't pick any of them up, instead, he knelt beside them and stared. Nothing happened, no transparent window appeared. He touched one with his index finger, and it window appeared.

'Ok, so touching makes it appear, but how do I see them all?' David asked himself as he tried various methods. He stood on the bed of rocks, waved his hand, and did other things that people would find suspicious.

It wasn't until he concentrated on the bed of rocks at large and touched one did the transparent window change.

Even now as he gazed at the transparent screen it was a bit different from before. Previously it told him something different, but this time it only asked him if he wanted to extract and transmute the metals. David went with it and agreed to extract the metals.

Drops of liquids as small as a raindrop appeared from the various rocks in front of him, they floated up with their different colors and merged into one large blob. It took on a spherical shape, the colorings merging and twisting around as if it were going through a washing machine. David was startled, he stumbled down to the ground.

He was really going crazy here, but it fascinated him at the same time.

A long list appeared before him, many of which he had no clue what they were or what they did. His mind raced for a second before he decided to keep it simple. David chose gold, and the liquid sphere spun around in the air as the mixture of various colors settled on one. After it condensed itself into a small sphere that fit into his palm, a bit larger than he imagined.

David felt it, rolled it around, and even knocked on it. It felt real, too real.

David shook his head, no. The sphere was the size of a golf ball, but he wanted to make sure he wasn't going coo-coo for cocoa puffs. He went back into the tent where Soo-Min was and shook her.

"Babe! Babe!" David said as he gently rocked her arms back and forth.

Soo-Min opened her eyes and turned to look at David. His brown hair was still tied back in a ponytail but she could see loose strands, and his upper body was bare. Why wasn't he wearing a shirt? She noticed something in his eyes and she shot up. "What? I'm up, I'm up." She said.

David chuckled a little. He hesitated for a moment but decided to show her the gold sphere. "Do you see this?" He asked.

Soo-Min looked at his hand that was outstretched then glanced at his face. Seeing the serious expression he had she glanced back at his hand then at him. With a yawn, she laid back down. "I'm tired, I'm going back to bed. What are you showing me that for?" She asked him.

"So you can see it?" He wanted to confirm.

"Yeah, I can. Why are you excited about that anyway? What is it?" She asked rhetorically knowing it couldn't be anything outstanding since they were in the wilderness.

"Gold." David said more to himself than her. He was still trying to comprehend how this happened, but Soo-Min instantly woke up once she heard what he said. She reached out and grabbed the sphere in his hand as she examined it.

"Gold? This is gold?" She asked as if in disbelief. David was finding it hard to believe himself.

"Impossible! Where'd you find this, and why is it a circle?"

David shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know why it's a circle, but... I didn't exactly find it." He confessed.

Soo-Min looked at him suspiciously, was her boyfriend a thief? No, David was harmless, he stayed to himself and barely yelled. She found him cute and he had a charismatic side to him after he opened up a bit, but he didn't seem to have it in him to commit crimes. That's why she liked him, and the fact they both liked Rayman, an old classic video game.

"What do you mean you didn't find it?"

David rubbed the back of his neck unsure of how to say what had happened. This could still be a dream, a weird one at that. One that he was now controlling, but wasn't truly aware of. He pinched Soo-Min on the cheek.

"Ouch!" She yelled out and slapped him as her first reaction.

David's cheek stung and he realized this wasn't a dream.

"What was that for?" She demanded an answer.

"I was... testing something. Seeing if this was a dream." He told her.

Soo-Min rubbed her cheek where he pinched her. "You're supposed to pinch yourself."

He nodded. "Yeah, I know. But, I thought your reaction might be more realistic. It'd tell me if this was a dream."

"And?" She asked.

"It's not."

"So, where'd you get this?" She asked him once again now that he knew this was not a dream and was actually reality.

"Um, don't freak out alright." David said.

Soo-Min hesitated a moment wondering what was he saying that for. Did he actually steal this? But, from where? When did it happen?

"I'm not covering for you if you stole this." She said.

David nodded then hesitated for a moment. Was it truly ok for him to tell her this? Maybe she'd think he was crazy, which he seemed to be from what has happened so far. Yet, her hearing this might be the driving force he needed to come back down to reality. So, he went ahead and spoke.

"I made it." David said.

"Made?" Soo-Min looked at the sphere of gold then at David. "This? You? When?"

"Outside..."

Soo-Min laughed a little after staring at the sphere for some time in silence. David had no idea what was going through her head but she just laughed. "Ok, good one. You planned this, didn't you? What is it really?" She clearly didn't believe him, and David didn't see a problem with that. He was still finding this whole situation hard to process.

"Okay, okay! Look, I'm going to do something and don't get freaked out. Alright?"

Soo-Min rolled her eyes, but agreed. She was already up, no way was she going to have an easy time going back to sleep now.

David reached out and grabbed the gold sphere from Soo-Min, with it in his hand the transparent window appeared before him again. Instead of denying it when it asked him if he wanted to transmute the golden sphere he agreed, and the sphere went from golden to silver right in front of Soo-Min. The process was fairly quick and if you blinked you'd have missed the entire thing.

Soo-Min who held the golden sphere saw it change colors, but she wasn't believing it. This had to be some sort of magic trick. Some kind of sphere that changed colors, but how? She didn't know.

"I don't really understand it, but I can change metals from one to another. Cool right?" David asked her as he settled the silver sphere in his hand.

"David, this is some kind of magic trick right?" Soo-Min asked for confirmation. 

"No, it isn't." David told her as he looked around their tent for anything he could find. Then he spotted one of the Pepsi cans he had before going to sleep. He grabbed it and hoped that this worked.

David agreed and the Pepsi can became a silver liquid ball that hovered in the air. Soo-Min's eyes grew large after witnessing this, and once again David decided to make it gold. Creating another sphere of gold, but this time a bit smaller than the first one.

"Holy!" Soo-Min was stunned, she couldn't really understand what happened. However, she knew it was magical, no, it was magic.

"Do you know... you know what this means?" She asked David.

He nodded.

"We're rich!" David said.

"You're a magician." Soo-Min told him.

Obviously, they were thinking of two different answers but David's was more practical. He wouldn't have to return to his job at Best Buy where he worked part-time. He could make some sort of metal and sell it for easy cash. This was perfect. The idea of him being a mage was not on his mind, that was too far fetched for even him.