It's A New World

When Michael woke up, he found himself staring at the sky through a gap in the canopy, tree branches framing his view. The clouds were orange lined from the rising sun, the sky only slightly bright, indicating that it was early morning. He was lying on grass wet from the morning dew. Sitting up, he took stock of his surroundings, and realized that he was in a small clearing amidst a forest. The trees were densely packed, with little visible beyond them. A couple trails headed away from the clearing; they were probably made by wild animals. Amongst the chirping of birds and animals, Michael could also hear a stream not far from his position.

As he stood up, he took inventory of what he was wearing; cotton shirt and pants with a leather vest. From his belt on either side of his hips hung a short sword and a hunting knife, both in their sheaths. At his feet Michael found a rucksack with a couple changes of clothes in them. He also had a money pouch that was remarkably heavy, so he kept it in his rucksack for now, but not before counting the coins in them. The total tally came to 2 white gold, 5 gold, 20 silver and 50 copper coins, which he had no clue if it was a lot or a little.

While Michael was deciding on his next step, he heard the sound of a ringing bell, and suddenly a floating message window appeared before him.

'Well, damn. That wasn't a dream after all.' Michael thought to himself. He had hoped that he hadn't actually met with a bored Goddess upon his death that decided that he was to perform to her whims in order to alleviate her boredom. But she did give him another go at life, so Michael couldn't complain too much. He decided to live his new life to the fullest, without any regrets and go from there. However, that comes later, because now, he had to see what this AR functionality is all about.

'I suppose I should start with my Status.'

Well, since he had nothing to compare himself to, Michael had to assume that his stats were normal for a level 1. Furthermore, he didn't even know what a level difference meant, so he had no clue what he should do against higher level opponents. 'Normally one would get a tutorial for these, but noooo. I am supposed to figure these things out by myself. You know what? I think I'll do just that.' Michael decided.

Moving on, he tried to look at his class information. According to Goddess Xena, his class as a Champion held certain powers. The sooner he learned about them, the better, lest the ability had some sort of side effect or not. It would be real bad if he somehow used it and then something bad happened in exchange.

"Tch. That was enlightening and confusing at the same time." Michael grumbled to himself. It'll have to do for now, but he needed to experiment with his abilities as soon as possible.

After Class, Michael tried to look at his skills, and they were very informative. Not just in terms of the skills he had, but also what skills entailed normally.

Just from the three skills alone. Michael could figure out that skills could be leveled up, could be active or passive and even have ranks. Since they had ranks, they could probably be increased too.

The skills themselves were relatively basic. A skill for understanding others was a must for someone moving to a different world. Two for getting information either actively or passively was a nice thing to have anyway, but he did wonder why he was given these to start with. He had no combat skills or anything useful for surviving in a forest, so that was a bummer. Plus, Michael had no idea where he was. Hopefully, he should be able to learn new skills by himself, so there's that.

Shelving his concerns towards his lack of survival skills, Michael moved on to the next thing that he wanted to look up; Inventory.

Just the fact that an Inventory existed was a relief for Michael. It didn't look like it had any limits, but he wouldn't know until he used it. It did mean that Michael didn't have to keep carrying his rucksack with him. Immediately, he placed the bag in the opened window and watched as it disappeared into the storage dimension. Michael quickly realized that the inventory was tab able, as his money and clothes were displayed in two different tabs.

From Inventory, Michael naturally moved to checking out his Equipment. Unsurprisingly, they were entirely mundane. 'One would think I would be given some amazingly overpowered stuff, but nope. Just your regular old sword and hunting knife.' Michael thought to himself.

Michael's current equipment were so normal that they didn't really needed further examination. The only thing of note was that apparently, equipment had rating, which he was going to assume are similar to skills in showing how effective the equipment actually was on an overall ranking. Michael did doubt if there was any way to increase the rating of an equipment. 'Meh, something to think about later.' he thought.

It was useless for Michael to continue to ponder over his lack of uber equipments. Now that he was unencumbered and had gone through the most basic of the AR function, it was time for Michael to get moving. He checked if there was a mini-map or map in general, and found himself to be only partially right. The map that was displayed was an ultra realistic three dimensional map that only showed places that he knew. So beyond the clearing was a mystery, and was shown as covered in a dense fog of war.

With that being the case, Michael moved towards the stream that he could still hear. Unsurprisingly, one of the trails led directly to it, having been made by animals looking for a drink. Once he reached the source of the sound, Michael realized that stream was an apt name. It was barely 5 feet across, and at its deepest it was only 2 feet deep. It flowed at a steady speed, the water clear as day, revealing the white rocks and pebbles it moved through. He could even see some small fish swimming with the current.

Taking a look around, Michael could see the peaks of a tall mountain range upstream, close enough that it towered over the forest, but far enough away that he wouldn't reach it in a day. He probably wouldn't reach it in a week. Besides, Michael wanted to head towards some form of settlement, and he couldn't do that in the mountains. At least, that's what he thought. In fact, the ice capped mountains with a rolling fog covering its foot looked more scary than inviting to him. When he turned to look downstream, Michael couldn't see much due to the meandering nature of rivers. 'At least there weren't any mountains that way. Hopefully, I will find some people if I headed that way. After all, the stream should merge into a river, and isn't civilization usually built along rivers? Meh, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. It's not like I could do anything else to begin with.' Michael decided.

andrew9495

My first attempt at writing original fiction.I plan on keeping chapters at a minimum of 2000 words, and will try to establish a regular schedule based on that. Let's see how it goes.