Lucas thought that after death, there was nothing. No thoughts, no sight, and no concept of time. To him, death was a wasteland of time that stretched infinitely longer than the minuscule amount of time he spent alive. And he was right. After he died in a car accident while walking home from school, he found nothing.
The short 17 years of his life were spent fearing the unknown that came after death and trying to find a purpose, but he was met with the answer sooner than he wished. In the infinite black void, there was nothing—no sight, no sound, not even thought. To describe this situation is easiest in a short Latin phrase:
Si non cogito, ergo non sum.
"If I can't think, therefore I am not."
And so an infinite stretch of time passed, and nothing happened. Until, at some point, Lucas noticed that the darkness, once impossible to see light in, had slightly illuminated. A moment later, he opened his eyelids.
'Eyelids?'
With a brief thought, he realized:
Cogito ergo sum.
It didn't take long before he spoke and moved. When he looked around, he found that everything was similar to his previous life. A modern desk and chair sat in the corner along with a computer. His bed wasn't made of springs or feathers; instead, it was a material akin to memory foam. The room was at least twice as large as his old one, and he found himself becoming confused.
'Where am I?'
Then, the sensation he missed the least overwhelmed him.
Pain.
He couldn't stop himself from screaming not just from the pain, but from the lack of control he held over his new body.
After five agonizing minutes, the pain ceased, and he was finally able to relax. As he lay back in bed, memories that weren't his flooded his mind. Seventeen more years of life rampaged through his brain.
"I am now Lucas Hollow."
The new memories explained the life of his new body. This new world was not one of simple politics or warfare between countries, it was a world at war with invaders. Portals had appeared across the globe 250 years before, unleashing monsters of immense strength. Nearly every continent of this new Earth had been overtaken. This world, he realized, was thousands of times larger than his original planet.
When all hope seemed lost, a person stepped into one of these dungeons and came out with power—power strong enough to defeat the monsters. Inside the dungeons were countless treasures, protected by horrors beyond imagination. Fifty years later, the first person to clear a dungeon, now known as "The First Delver," created an academy to train young adults in the skills needed to clear dungeons and reclaim the world.
Lucas was now one of these students, with the Delver Academy semester beginning in just a week. The only problem? He had no training and no Lineage, no family of Delvers to support or guide him.
His new body was weak, not just physically, but mentally. The original owner had committed suicide after receiving his acceptance letter into the Delver Academy. For most, it would be a cause for celebration. For him, it was another nail in the coffin, another reason to believe his life was being guided by a higher power toward an inevitable end.
All Lucas could do now was wish that poor soul peace in the void they both once feared.
Buzz.
Buzz.
Looking over his shoulder, he saw a phone on the nightstand beside his bed and picked it up. A message notification lit the screen. He opened it.
[Unknown Number: You have been selected for integration. Please wait on standby for process start. Failure will result in death, again 😉.]
The message confused him, but the end freaked him out.
'How did it know I died before?'
Unfortunately for him, no questions would be answered. A translucent screen appeared in front of him.
[Integration will now begin.]
The screen pulsed faintly with each word, as though reacting to his thoughts. Lucas felt a strange warmth building in the center of his chest. It wasn't painful like before, this felt more like energy flowing into him, like his body was being plugged into something far greater than itself.
A soft chime echoed through the room, and the interface began to change.
[Welcome to the Upgrade System.]
[Please think the word 'System' to begin.]
Driven by curiosity, Lucas did as instructed. Another screen appeared.
[Name: Lucas Hollow]
[Age: 17]
[Skills: ]
[Traits: ]
Attributes
[Strength: 1]
[Agility: 1]
[Endurance: 1]
[Mana: 1]
At the top of the system were two other tabs labeled [Upgrades] and [Inventory]. Clicking on [Upgrades], the screen shifted again.
[Upgrade Points: 0]
[Note: To obtain Upgrade Points, you must complete quests or achieve feats the system deems worthy.]
[Upgrade Tree] (!)
[Note: Upgrade Points can be used on things besides the Upgrade Tree.]
[Quests] Locked
The exclamation point next to [Upgrade Tree] continued to flash. Lucas assumed that meant it wanted him to click it, so he did.
A sprawling diagram of hundreds of circles appeared on screen, shaped like a massive branching tree. All were greyed out except for one at the very bottom.
[Upgrade: Quests]
[Description: Unlocks the Quests tab and enables earning Upgrade Points. Serves as a tutorial for the Upgrade Tree.]
[Cost: 0 Upgrade Points]
[Purchase?]
Since it cost nothing, Lucas clicked [Purchase] and watched as the light blue icon turned black, presumably signifying that it had been unlocked. He went back to the previous screen and saw another exclamation point, this time on the [Quests] tab. When he opened it, a single quest was waiting.
[Quest: Physical Growth]
[Time Limit: End of the Day]
Goals:
100 Pushups: 0/100
100 Sit-ups: 0/100
5 KM Run: 0/5 KM
[Warning: Failure to complete will result in a punishment. This could be a stat decrease or an loss of a skill, please remember to complete your quests on time.]
Lucas turned on his phone to check the time.
He had five hours left.