It started with fire. The smoke encompassed everything, coating my throat. Burning my lungs. I could see it’s form lurki- Nah I’m just messing with you. It really just started on a Tuesday afternoon at 11:27 AM with thirty-four seconds on the clock. I remember I was going to- Okay okay! Geez, no need to get angry. But seriously… I wouldn’t be able to tell you the exact date it happened, there was no special happening. No big event. It just… Was… And now it is. This is the story of how his universe ended. And how my world began.

 

“How on Earth…” I said as I looked to the corner of my monitor. 4:18 AM. “How does this even happen?” I murmured to myself, despite knowing exactly how it happens. I was sitting there frustrated, just looking at the bright glows coming from my screens aimlessly moving the mouse from one monitor to the other.

 

I had a third one. It was actually my main one, a 4k tv. It decided that it would rather not turn on anymore so I was relegated to using the much smaller 1080p monitors that I usually kept to the sides. I’d been working with my cousin to figure out what had happened with it, and we believe we narrowed it down to one of the LED strips inside. If one of the lights goes bad the whole thing goes under. Good news, two brand new strips that match are under $20. The bad news is that it was gonna take a month for them to ship from China. Until then I was just going to have to settle with what I had. Ah, the woes of living in a 1st world country.

 

‘I should probably get to bed.’ I think to myself, shutting down my PC, my chair creaking as I shift my weight to reach the power button. I listened to the sounds of the fans winding down before everything clicked off. I got up from my chair, letting it roll backward, and slowly meandered my way through the trash of fast-food bags I’d ordered through a delivery service.

 

‘I’ll clean it up tomorrow,’ is what I tell myself knowing I wasn’t going to, despite the fact that having a cleaner room would make me slightly happier with the fact that I was a stay-at-home loser with nothing going for me. I set an alarm on my phone for 11 AM, before plugging it into the charger next to my bed. I tied my hair back before lying down in bed and closing my eyes. Praying quietly that tomorrow somehow, some way, through some miracle, that I would be better than I was today. 

 

But we all know that miracles only come to those who work for them.

 

I don’t remember waking up. All I know is that I was standing half-naked in a forest that looked like it was ripped straight from a science fantasy movie. I could hear critters scurrying around, something akin to birds chirping and calling in the distance, plants that glowed in a kaleidoscope of colors, trees so tall I couldn’t see their tops. The grass was flecked with bright yellow and red splotches, firefly-like insects floating around me. The most terrifying thing about this to me was the words I could instinctively read in my mind's eye.

 

‘Ping’ 

Welcome to Kelthas

 

There were a ton of other letters covering my screen but mentally I wasn’t prepared to read or even understand them. I fell to my knees and started retching, fear building up in my mind.

 

“No… nononononononononono. This isn’t real.” I whisper to myself while trying to get my stomach under control. “This isn’t real, one hundred percent fake. No. No.” I look upwards to the sky hidden by the canopy of alienesque trees around me. “Send me back! Put me back in my room right now so help me God!” I don’t know exactly who or what I’m yelling at, but there has to be something. I’ve read more than enough litrpg’s to have a semblance of an idea of what has just happened to me. And I’m nowhere near naive enough to believe that living in a world like this is going to be easy. All of them usually involve characters that have some sort of screw loose in their mind or nothing left to lose for themselves so they just go wild without fear of consequences.

 

 But I have so much to lose! What about my family? I love my parents, they’re kind to me even though I’m indecisive and have no goals or ambitions in life. They still supported me and encouraged me. What about all the series I was watching? I still wanted to know what happened next in the return of one of the Big 3 of anime, its last episode aired like a decade ago! I had also just ordered a TV that was in 4k but also had a 120hz refresh rate instead of the 60 I’d been stuck with. I lay down on my back with a sigh, trying to let go of all the tension going through my body.

 

I needed to calm down, if I was going to survive longer than the next few hours I was going to need to get my basic needs met, and that wasn’t going to happen if I was just sitting here having a mental breakdown. I could do that once me dying wasn’t a distinct possibility.

 

“I’m gonna need an essentials kit.” I chuckle to myself at the thought before focusing back on the words in my mind.

 

Welcome to Kelthas

 

‘Ping’ System has been unlocked - 15 ability points awarded

‘Ping’ You’ve entered a new realm - 5 ability points awarded

‘Ping’ You’ve visited the most ancient part of the Nalthien Forest - 5 ability points awarded

‘Ping’ You managed to get over yourself. Congratulations. - 1 ability point awarded

 

“... Now that’s just uncalled for.” I griped, reading the last of the notifications I received. From the material I’d read I knew the System usually had a tendency to be sarcastic, but this just felt personal.

 

‘Whatever, I’ll have time to think about this later. I see now I’m in a place called the Nalthien forest. Although knowing the name of the place isn’t going to help me get out of here.’ I stood up and brushed off my butt and pulled a few blades of grass out of my hair. I took exactly one step before I felt something cold touch my neck, and glancing to the right I saw a sword with a blade of wood.

 

“If you like your head where it rests you will not move a single inch, Human.” The voice I heard was soft, it sounded feminine but I wasn’t certain of that fact given that I don’t know what exactly was talking to me, although I had a pretty good guess. I did as my mystery captor demanded and stayed as still as I could, not even speaking to affirm their demands.

 

“Whom are you and how did you enter the Heart?” Despite the tenderness of the words, I could feel, figuratively and literally, the implications behind not answering the questions I was being asked.

 

“I’m uhh.. My name is Alex.” I swallowed heavily, my throat and tongue feeling extremely dry while my heart was pounding so hard it was painful. My eyes felt like they were burning and my ears felt like I was underwater.

 

“I don’t really um, I don’t…” As I stumbled over my words in my proficient display of decorum, I felt something running down my face, my mind felt clouded and I couldn’t really process what was happening. In a moment of forgetfulness, I moved my arm to wipe off the snot and tears from my face. I heard a hiss of air from behind me and the sword bit deeper into my neck drawing blood.

“I said don’t. Move. Human. How did you get here? I won’t ask again.” The words that came out felt… Powerful, almost overwhelming to my mind, I glanced downwards to see my hand and noticed it was extremely red. Like, very red. I looked up and realized everything was starting to turn red.

 

Finally, everything clicked. I was looking at my blood. Blood profusely poured out of every orifice in my body. Eyes, ears, nose, mouth. A few other places I don’t care to mention.

 

“Oh… Thaaat’s… not good.” I whispered.

 

I don’t even remember hitting the floor.

 

I awoke in a room of pure white. The walls of the room were almost blinding to look at. I was lying in a bed of extremely soft sheets with a single pillow under my head. And I very much could not move. Not even a little. With handcuffs or any other sort of strap or binding, you’d be able to move a little or struggle. But I couldn’t even do that. The only physical actions allowed to me were blinking and breathing. 

 

I took several deep breaths to calm myself and re-orient myself in my surroundings. I was in a weird white chamber, assumedly magically, bound to a chair. And I really needed to pee. Things were not looking great for my first day in magic land. Since I had nothing else to do I looked at the new notifications I’d received from the System.

 

‘Ping’ you’ve survived being in close proximity to the Heart of Nalthien - 5 ability points awarded

 

‘Ping’ You’ve survived high mana density - 5 ability points awarded

 

‘The Heart of Nalthien huh? I guess it makes sense that something that powerful would be in a place that’s old as fuck. I mean it nearly killed me just for being around it. Although I don’t even have a class or anything like that… CLASSES! I completely forgot to check my actual status page! Maybe it’ll list my deficiencies so I can finally find out why I have no motivation to do anything.’

 

I try to focus on a status sheet of myself and sure enough, words start spilling across my vision.

 

Name: Alexander King

 

Ability Points: 36

 

Class -

Ability -

Ability -

Ability -

Ability -

Ability -

 

Class -

Ability -

Ability -

Ability -

Ability -

Ability -

 

General Skills - 

 

Status -

Vig - [14]

End - [10]

Str - [11]

Dex - [23]

Agi - [16]

Int - [18]

Wis - [19]

Health - 140

Stamina - 100

Mana - 190

 

Well, the mystery remains for now. No classes, although that’s not particularly surprising given that I haven’t done anything to get one yet. I have an interesting stat allotment. I assumed they covered the proficiencies and skills I’ve honed over my life, just given statistical form.

 

I heard a light step to my side but wasn’t quite able to see who, or what, it was next to me.

 

“I see you’re finally awake, Human. Although I guess I’m partially to blame for not quite realizing that a Human would not be able to withstand the dense mana environment within the Heart.” The voice speaking to me was the same one that had been holding a blade to my throat. I had plenty of questions I wanted to ask this mystery person who I assumed was an Elf. I mean, the name of the forest sounded vaguely elfish in nature and the way this person spoke sounded elfish as well. When people tell you that their voices have a harmonic and musical nature to them or that they are akin to the sounds of nature, either the rustling of leaves in the wind or the chirping of birds. What they don’t tell you about is the raw power behind those sounds. Even with me not being magical and never having seen magic or felt its presence before now. I could feel it. The pulse of mana flowed over me with every syllable uttered.

 

“You’re probably still bound, here, let me undo those. The Speaker would like to have words with you.” The voice spoke in a mildly amused tone, like speaking to a child who got caught in the cookie jar. Although I guess from the perspective of a being that in most works of fiction tends to live in ranges from hundreds of years to literally immortal, someone that’s lived only two decades and some change is a child. That doesn’t mean the notion doesn’t grate on my nerves.

 

The person who entered my vision was definitely female and subsequently, the most beautiful person I’d ever seen. Even if you took the most attractive model from Earth and used photoshop to make her look even better, she still wouldn’t compare to what I saw before me. She had chestnut brown hair that came down to her waist unbound, but unnaturally straight without a single strand of hair out of place. Her skin was alabaster and without blemish, much like a masterfully crafted doll except with the uncomfortableness you would feel seeing it on a lifelike entity. Everything about her was perfect. Her armor was clearly magical in nature, wood custom molded to fit her frame perfectly. Slung across her back diagonally was the wooden sword, and slung the opposite direction was a bow. Interestingly no quiver, or arrows, to be seen.

 

She made eye contact with me and gave a knowing smirk before snapping her fingers making my muscles go slack as they were released from whatever magic was holding me there. My face flushed in embarrassment at the knowledge that she had so easily read my facial expression upon seeing her.

 

“That’s completely unfair,” I complained under my breath. I couldn’t even bring myself to hold her gaze.

 

“What’s unfair, Human?” She spoke in a very clearly amused tone, drawing out her enjoyment of my reaction.

 

“Even to someone like me, who has never seen or known of anyone that could use magic, it’s clear there is magic involved with the way you look.” I was genuinely curious as to what method was being employed. Through all the different fantasy materials I’ve read there have been many different ways Elves achieved their perfection. I doubted she was using an illusion, that just seemed cheap, and for someone practically glowing with mana, it didn’t seem like the best long-term solution. Although I guess I wouldn’t know that without understanding the finer intricacies of this world's magic.

 

“Come along young Human, before you get yourself into any more trouble.” She gave me another slightly condescending smirk before turning around and walking out of the room with a gesture for me to follow her.

 

I didn’t get to see much of the actual city that the elves lived in, but what I did get to see was impressive. Completely one hundred percent cliche, but impressive nonetheless. Everything was molded into the massive trees, and these ones made the ones in the Heart look like toothpicks. Hundreds of feet around the bases of the trees and potentially scaling miles into the sky. Have to guess, not like I can actually see where they ended with all the leaves in the way. I was being led through tunnels and across bridges that were molded from the wood of the trees. We never once set foot on the ground in our journey from what I can only assume was my cell to wherever this speaker person was. Everything seemed to hum and pulse with magic, the trees, the people, even the bridges. It was suffocating.

 

From the moment I stepped foot out from the white room I started sweating and struggled to breathe. The further along we went on our journey the harder it became to breathe, each step requiring a monumental amount of effort. Eventually, I had to stop and lean against the wall taking deep breaths of air.

 

“Not much further, once you make it to the Speakers chambers we alter the mana density to be more friendly towards your biology.” My mystery captive gave me an apologetic look. “Take your time to recover, but the sooner we get to our destination the less you’ll have to deal with the feeling.”

 

I took the offer and rested for a moment before taking one last deep breath and pushing myself up, giving her a slight nod to affirm I was ready to continue. The scenery didn’t change much from that point on. The floor was inclining up and the tunnel now curved slightly to the left. We walked along for a few more minutes before she abruptly stopped and turned to the wall on her left. She gently placed two fingers against the wood and moved her lips in silent recitation. When she finished a pulse of mana emanated from her fingertips which glowed a soft yellow and the wood opened up to reveal a room on the other side.

 

“We are here.” Any familiarity in her voice was gone now before she guided me into the room. Immediately upon entering the heavy air left and I could breathe a lot more easily, no longer did each step feel like I was carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders. The room was dimly lit and similarly represented what a modern courtroom would look like except with a panel for a council instead of just a single judge. In the center of the room was a single chair grown out of the wood from the floor. Orbs of different colors hovered at various heights around the room, looking up I could see the roof slowly sloping to form a dome at the top. The obnoxiously attractive elf led me over to the chair and had me sit down before she took a position behind me.

 

I had been seated for a couple of minutes already just waiting, I was way too anxious to ask any questions from the person behind me so I sat there. After a few more minutes I began to let my mind wander, idly playing with my Status getting it to pop up and fade away. I shifted in my chair slightly looking around again, before looking behind me. She was gone. The wooden door was closed and I was completely alone in the room. I thought about getting up and looking around the room, but I was too paranoid to even move. I also assumed they had some way to monitor me through ways I couldn’t understand, maybe some form of scrying or divination magic. That usually seemed to be commonplace in a lot of litrpg series that I had read.

 

Sure enough, just as I had that thought, a different wall opened up, and leading a squadron of similarly dressed elves, both male and female, was my mystery captor. They all came and took a circular formation around me and came to rest, none of them moving a single centimeter, I couldn’t even see their chests rise with their breath. If they were breathing at all. After a brief moment, my previous babysitter spoke out in a soft voice.

 

“Ic thal nom, Kor nal Nalthien.”

 

I was apprehensively looking around expecting another door to open when out of the floor the wood bulged up and flowed outwards, at first forming a spire. That spire then proceeded to grow and mold into a humanoid form, two arms and two legs, a head with spike-like horns roughly a foot long. Upon the head rested four eye sockets. The topmost two glowed a fiery orange, while the bottom two were a toxic green. The form itself was roughly seven feet in height and had a slender build. What I could only assume to be clothing started to form last, ornate designs made out of wood and leaves covered the torso, legs, and arms of the creature before me. 

 

The creature took several steps to stand directly in front of me and looked at me. It felt like my soul itself was being observed, although with eyes like that who knows? After a tense moment, the creature stepped back and I heard a voice speak into my mind.

 

“Twas a most unfortunate place for you to end up, young Human. If someone had not come across you as they had, you would have perished.” The creature's voice was much like the Elf’s voice that I’d heard. It had a magical nature to it, like everything else about this place. The appeal was starting to wear off in my mind quite quickly. A famous saying came to my head as I thought, how did it go again? ‘Once everyone is super, no one is.’ Something like that.

 

I figured thanking them was probably the safest route to take here. “Thank you for that, I would have hated to die without a say in how I go at the very least.”

 

“How did you make it to the Heart without being seen?”

 

I hesitated, my mind racing. When it comes to answering this question it’s a half and half sort of thing. Depending on the type of culture and society that’s built up in the world there are few possible outcomes. The best one would be they’ve heard of realm jumping in some capacity and are open to people from other worlds. The worst case would be they’re aware and actively hunt those people down and kill them. I also figured lying just outright to them was probably a bad idea, I still wasn’t sure how magic worked and because of that, I had no idea if anybody had a way to tell if I was lying or not. I was going to have to treat this like talking with the Police. Answer the question they asked without answering their implications.

 

“I honestly don’t know how I got there. I went to sleep last night and when I woke up I was standing there. I mean look I’m still wearing my pajamas” There, the truth. I truthfully didn’t know how I’d gotten there, despite the fact that it was extremely likely I’d come from another realm.

 

“To arrive in the Hearts inner chambers you would have had to either walk in there, which would have been impossible for you to get past all the guards and alarms, or you have would have to cast extremely powerful magic in order to bypass the protections surrounding the Heart and the sheer volume of mana the Heart exudes. Given that you’re somehow hiding your classes and stats from us you clearly have illusion-based magics so it couldn’t have been you that cast it. Who helped you?” The Speaker gave me an accusatory look as he rattled off the information they had incorrectly deduced from the situation.

 

“I did not intentionally try to end up there. It was a mistake.” I was getting anxious, I needed a way to divert the conversation away from this topic. The longer we sat on it the harder it was going to be to cover up the fact that I wasn’t from here. And I really wanted to keep that under wraps for now.

 

It was at that moment that the elf that led me here walked forward and knelt before the Speaker, “Speaker if I may, I believe he is a Realm Walker.”

 

… 

 

Well fuck. It’s out now. What gave it up, was it something I said?

 

“A Realm Walker… What would make you suggest that he would be one?” The Speaker didn’t sound disbelieving, just interested in the idea.

 

“I’ve talked with him briefly back in the holdings and his exact words were ‘Even to someone like me, who has never seen or known of anyone that could use magic.’ seeing someone who can use magic is one thing, but knowing not a single person ever to use magic is impossible. Unless you live in a world without magic”

 

“If that is true… Human, why would you not speak of this? To hide this was to your own detriment.”

 

“Well, it’s not exactly like I can trust you. I’ve woken up in a world that completely defies any and everything I once knew. I also have no idea what the intentions the residents of this planet have in store for me, let alone you.” Since the truth was out and they didn’t immediately take hold of me under some sort of mind magic or by force I could reasonably assume they didn’t intend to harm me. Manipulation still remained to be seen, or experienced was going to be the more likely outcome if it came to that.

 

“If we had meant to harm you we would’ve done so. Even if you had classes you would be hard-pressed to defend yourself from an elf that’s lived thousands of years.”

 

“That was only half of what I was worried about, if you were going to kill me, sure, you would have done so by now. You could also try and manipulate me, or take me as a slave. Maybe you want something from me that I have to willingly give, like a true name or some bullshit. As it stands, I have no guarantees other than your words at the moment, and if push came to shove… I have no doubt I’d die. Not exactly a comfortable situation to be in.”

 

“INSOLENCE, you would doubt the words of the Speaker?” one of the elves to my side had an outburst and I heard the sound of wood scraping on wood.

 

“SATH!” The single word blasted through my mind and blew away any thoughts that were in there before slowly fading from my mind. As it faded I felt something warm trickling down my neck. I didn’t even have to look to know I was bleeding, although I did have to look to know that there was a wooden sword being held to my neck.

 

I let out a soft sigh before I turned and gave the elf holding the sword a death glare. I knew I was being petulant and that doing this could come back and bite me in the butt. But I still had a shred of dignity left inside, most of it had disappeared back when I dropped out of school and quit my job. But I still had a little left.

 

The elf holding the sword was staring back at me, and to say they were livid would be an understatement. This was a righteous fury, if they ever got the chance they would kill me. That’s the kind of look they gave me. The Speaker had raised its hand in its use of magic and slowly lowered it back to its side.

 

“Sheathe your blade and leave the chamber. You are excused.” I could see the veins pulsing in the elf's neck and temple as there was an extreme mental effort to put the blade away on his back before he marched out of the room like clockwork. Not a single step out of place, every stride perfectly measured.

 

The Speaker waited until the wood closed up behind the guard before continuing as if nothing had ever happened, “I understand your worries. I have nothing to guarantee that I seek you no harm should you have the same intentions for us, my word is the only thing to go off of. Nor are we willing to go out of our way to prove ourselves. You will just have to believe us, or not.”

 

“Fair enough I guess. So how do we go from here? I think at this point it’s quite clear I didn’t deliberately go to that area and I also believe it’s sufficiently the case that I don’t intend to cause any problems, not that I could even if I wanted to.”

 

“Yes, it seems acceptable to release you at this point, however, I’m sure some of the other primary figures would like to speak with you to determine your intent and knowledge.” The Speaker seemed disinterested in me at this point, which was fine by me. However, I don’t like the implication that I was going to be made to hand over everything that I knew. The last thing I needed was someone pulling advanced chemistry out of my head and somehow reverse-engineering nuclear weapons. I wouldn’t put it past some immortal beings to be smart enough to figure it out with a couple of clues, although I guess poison magic might be a thing, and creating something similar to radioactive environments wouldn’t be beyond a high-level caster.

 

“Is telling them what I know mandatory? There are some things I’d rather not bring to this world if I can help it.”

 

The Speaker stopped for a moment before answering, “What you choose to tell them is of your own accord. At this point, I deem you are not a threat and you may leave now if you wish.”

 

“Okay, if I can choose what I answer that makes me feel more comfortable, I’ll talk with them then.”

 

The Speaker nodded its head before it began melding with the floor and left the room. I let out a long sigh as the tension evaporated from my body.

 

‘Ping’ You’ve conversed with the Speaker of a Heart - 5 ability points awarded