So, I'd been in New York... and now I was sitting here, in the middle of nowhere.
There was a strange, inexplicable longing in my chest, as if I'd forgotten something important, but... maybe not enough to remember it.
Putting the note in my pocket, I glanced at the lion statues that vaguely reminded me of the Alliance crest from the Warcraft world, and headed for the exit up the towering steps of the tomb.
On the way out, the cool air of the stone walls merged with a warm freshness. A bright archway appeared, and the spilling light hit my eyes mercilessly, warming the skin of my face. I expected to see the tall houses and bustling streets of New York, but instead I fumbled for the last step up, and the warm air of endless fields hit my nose.
Instead of a bustling city, I found a vast green forest with short green grass and a bunch of thick trees. Light-coloured squirrels, dark-white birds, red, blue, and in their own way unusual birds that I had never seen before in my life hopped along the branches.
I put my hand to my dry mouth and tried to take a quick look around as if I'd just been hit over the head.
None of the views I saw reminded me of familiar places. This was my first time here, and judging by the clear horizon ahead, there were only trees for about a kilometre.
This place was far outside the city, and probably far outside America, if my knowledge of geography was still good for anything. And it was unlikely that a couple of hours of sleep could move from a winter country to a sprawling summer forest, unless someone had forcibly locked me asleep in a private jet... nonsense.
I decided to go back to the tomb and examine it properly. Maybe there was some clue or address there. But when I turned around, the tomb was gone. What the hell was that?
Waving my fingers through the air in hopes of fumbling for the tomb, I found nothing. It's empty. It was gone! It's like it never existed, like I'm crazy.
Oh, no, I'm not falling for that. I've worked too hard to develop my brain to go crazy that easily.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the note that had brought me here in the first place. If it had disappeared, I would have thought I was crazy. But no, the note was still there.
So my eyes were not deceiving me. There was indeed a tomb, and now it was gone.
Resigned, I headed forwards.
In the distance, the blue roof of a house appeared from behind a hill and gradually began to grow larger. Beneath the roof was a strange structure made of wood that looked like... a sawmill. I surmised this based on the large sharp serrated blade that must have been sawing the logs lying nearby. I've never seen one of those in real life.....
To the right of the sawmill was a small house with a blue roof, and not far from it was a barn, and the look of these buildings seemed painfully familiar to me. But why?
There was a small path leading to each structure, and I followed it to the house to find the owner and ask him where I was.
The house itself resembled a Disney structure, old, kind, and with a powerful, stone chimney. It had white walls, a base of stacked logs on top of each other, and a blue tile roof.
Going round the house, I found a door with a small porch and knocked as humbly as possible, taking a polite wait.
Silence. I knocked again. Silence. I stepped back to the window, it was open and the sheer curtains didn't obstruct the view of the house from inside. It was made by a real craftsman. Inside there was a table, three thick wooden chairs. There were cupboards, plain but straight and without irregularities. On the shelves were rare books. A wolf pelt hung on the wall. And everything in this inventory radiated some unfamiliar sense of foreignness, as if it belonged neither to America nor Russia.
I stepped back and looked around. The forest around me was still empty. As I listened to the grass swaying in the wind and the birds chirping, I felt a slight unease.
- Is there anyone here? - I shouted.
I caught the slight dissonance, and the occasional sense of deja vu kicked in thinking, 'you've been here before, you've been here before.
'This world is real, but its a game version you've seen'
- The forests of the Wakraft world, it seemed.
All that was missing to be convincing was running into a Gnoll or maybe a Murloc, who... looked like fish with legs, and usually attacked people with weird funny noises like 'avlu-vlu-vlu-vlu-vlu-vlu-vlu-vlu' and god knows what they did afterwards. Eating, I suppose.
Stupid, of course, but what if I really am in the Alvin Forest?
Come to think of it, how did I get here in the first place? I must have worked so hard that I fell asleep at about five in the morning, just before dawn, and opened my eyes here.
Even if we assume the craziest scenario and say I was kidnapped and taken here against my will. How much time has passed since then? I passed out around 5:00 a.m. I'd had a couple of meat leg burgers before I went to bed, and now I woke up feeling hungry. So I'd slept about seven to twelve hours, but hardly more than that, or my stomach would have bloated even more and ached more eloquently.
Since I had gone to bed early in the morning, I should have woken up in the evening, according to my subjective calculations. But now, high in the sky, I could see the hot sun shining brightly through the dense crown of trees. Why?
It must be at least sunset or night now, but definitely not morning. The birds hummed to me about it.
No, I'm definitely not home. I'm somewhere far away. Maybe not even in Russia. Either something terrible had happened to me and I'd slept more than I thought.
Every way I looked at it, all five of my senses were screaming at me, 'this is all wrong.' No matter how hard I tried to find something real in this place, it all seemed like some incredible fiction.
And then a wolf's howl tore through the silent forest, and the birds on the branches of the trees flew up into the sky in fear. The uneven hills of green fields prevented me from seeing any approach of the wild beasts, so I sped up and hoped for the best.
Soon a wide, stone-lined road, partially enclosed by a wooden fence, showed itself. I felt a little calmer when I noticed the wooden posts with rectangular lamps that were now unlit. I ran my fingers over them and didn't find a drop of dust, which meant that someone had cleaned them recently.
That meant civilisation was close at hand.
I stared at the structure for a couple of minutes, trying to remember if it was the same lamp in Warcraft or if it was just my imagination. Four out of five times, something inside me screamed, 'Yes!' you're right. But was it worth trusting one hunch when you found yourself in the forest with a gap in your memory?
The feeling of hunger evaporated, and instead my heart raced. There had to be a clue, right? But where?
My call was answered, but not in the way I expected. A flash suddenly appeared in the background of the forest road, which took on a rectangular shape and exuded an otherworldly blue glow.
When I looked closely at it, I realised that it was a semi-transparent window floating in the air, a bit like a classic game interface.
You could touch this surface with the palm of your hand and feel the warmth, and even move it left-right.
Written in gold text on the plaque was what appeared to be my name and data:
Name: 'Alteran.'
Underneath it, my class, race, level, characteristics and talents were prominently displayed. Even lower down, the skills stood out.
'Character Class: Destiny Architect.'
'Character Level: First.'
'Race: Human.'
'Characteristics:
Strength: 1.
Dexterity: 1.
'Intelligence: 3.
'Talents:
Great Creator - allows you to create servants and empower them with otherworldly will.
Racial Abilities:
Diplomat - faction attitudes improve faster.
Will to Live - removes all stun effects.
My race's basic abilities included Diplomacy and Will to Live. Diplomacy most likely helps me get along with people faster. Will to Live - removes the effects of control from me, like when I get a hard blow to the head and use willpower to regain consciousness. This is a very useful ability in itself, but when you think about it, not everyone is capable of recovering from such a situation. I thought that 'Will to Live' was only available to 'Heroes', and I was one of them.
But with the talent 'Human Spirit' I had a big question, because I categorically did not remember what he gave in the game.
I clicked on the name 'Human Spirit', and oh wonder, the description popped up:
'Bonus to all secondary stats (speed, critical hit probability, proficiency, and versatility) from all sources increases by two per cent.
It seemed like a small thing, but it played a big difference in the long run. For example, if I train in swordsmanship for two days - the two per cent would be almost useless. But if my training stretches over decades, I will turn two paltry per cent into the undeniable skill of a seasoned swordsman that an 'ordinary mortal' cannot reach.
After reading this, I at least realised that I was moving a bit faster thanks to this passive. I even got a critical hit probability, some skilfulness and versatility. And if the first two are clear, the skilfulness and versatility left faint questions.
Unlike the classic Warcraft classes, such as warrior, mage, or witchcraft - my class was called the Architect of Fate. This class specialised in creating homunculi - artificial people who did my bidding. And judging by the high level of intelligence in my characteristics, it was a kind of magical class.
That is, I was a kind of summoner, only instead of beasts or demons, I controlled homunculi. Or not like that... I didn't summon creatures from other worlds like demonologists did. My class allowed me to create creatures from nothing, so my class was fundamentally different from typical summoners.
After poking around the System Window interface a bit, I finally found what I was most interested in - my personal class abilities.
The first and almost only ability was called extremely simple: 'Homunculus Creation'. To use the spell, I had only two key limitations:
One, I could only control one homunculus at a time. Perhaps in the future, my power would increase and the number of subordinates would increase.
Second, it took twenty mana out of the current thirty to create a homunculus, which meant I couldn't do much with it, no matter how much I wanted to.
Fortunately, I was only level one, and my potential would only increase.
I wondered where the first homunculus would go if I decided to create a second one. I immediately came across an explanation in the interface that said that the extra homunculus hides in a spatial pocket and sits there until I summon it. Convenient, damn!
So what would my first homunculus be like?
The spell required mental tension to apply. I closed my eyes and visualised myself creating a homunculus. It came out easier than I thought. A flash of energy burst from my fingers, and soon something was at my feet.
A clay puppet, very much like a clothes dummy, was lying on the ground. It had neither eyes nor any expressive facial features, just vague body contours and a faint resemblance to a real person. The doll didn't move, but it exuded a faint, ticklish vibration.
There was no soul in the doll now, and almost all of the mana had been spent essentially creating an empty shell.
I was to make an artificial man out of this shell and breathe life into him. And not just any life, but the greatest possible life. The spirit of the Creator in me trembled.
I turned to the interface again for help.
It turned out that in order to give a homunculus a 'soul' or 'personality', it was necessary to get it from somewhere. And as it turned out, there was only one way to get a soul - using the Gacha built into the System.
As a professional player, I quickly orientated myself and got into a frenzy.
The next moment, a golden system window flashed before my eyes and gave me the choice to spin the gacha or not.
I clicked on the 'Details' button and began flipping through the list of possible personalities that could be obtained from the gacha.
'Sakura (Naruto).'
'Ciri (The Witcher)'
'Clementine (Overlord)'
... and so on.
The selection hinted at a crossover gacha.
I could twist absolutely any personality from any universe and embed it into a homunculus.
But there was one condition that required my intervention. I couldn't just take someone else's personality and crudely insert it into the homunculus' empty body. It didn't work that way.
First, I have to prepare an empty homunculus shell that acted as a vessel, and then move the character's soul into that shell. After that I have to manually mould the appearance of the homunculus so that it looks like the character, or at least roughly.
How accurately I mould the face of the doll will determine the power and effectiveness of the homunculus.
The shell of the homunculus must match the appearance of the character. In other words, if I'm going to mould the personality of Sherlock Holmes out of a gacha, I'll have to make the homunculus look like a British old man with a wise-ass face.
Hmm... that sounded tricky, because I didn't really know what Sherlock Holmes looked like in real life.
- For the Alliance! Die, you filthy brigand!
Screams. I heard screams, and my heart jumped in my chest with excitement.
It didn't take me long to find the source of the voice. It belonged to an armed guard in Alliance lats further down the road, on the slope below. And from the looks of it, there was a heated battle going on not far from me further down the path.
Hidden behind a thick tree, I watched out of the corner of my eye as two Alliance guards, apparently patrolmen, and three bandits with red bandanas clashed. Although the latter were almost naked and armed only with swords and daggers, they were giving the guards a lot of trouble. Particularly because of the fact that behind them stood a wagon with defenceless people.
What confused me was that despite the success of the Alliance guards and the retreat of the bandits, the people were still open to surprise attack. I've seen a lot of things in my life, and I knew what that meant for the guards. Forced to protect ordinary people they would easily part with their lives.
And it seemed that I could see nothing new, but suddenly a silhouette of a man appeared at my side. And again I was surprised to notice something: this man was transparent, like a ghost. And he did not notice me, walking forward like a revived memory.
One, two... there were so many of them that I could barely keep up with each one. Each of them was standing where I was or a little further away, watching the battle between Alliance guards and brigands as if they were right next to me, but they were all unreal. No, they weren't watching this battle with me - they had been here... once upon a time long ago? They had been here long before me.
I felt a rush of goosebumps on my skin, and I tried to hold back the horror that had gripped me, and then I remembered the images and words that had flashed through my mind while I'd been unconscious.
I saw the past. I saw past lives. I saw people who had been here before me. They too had come into this world, they too had tried to survive here.
And they were all living in the moment like me.
How? I don't know. maybe it has something to do with the fact that my class is Fate Architect, which has something to do with other people's fates.
I watched closely as these 'images' of other people unfolded and walked away. They chose not to get involved in the conflict and then disappeared from sight like a dissolving fog. Their choice was honourable and clear - they did not engage in battle with the brigands and chose to leave to preserve their lives.
At the same moment, I saw that those who left were receiving the achievement 'Loner's Fate'. It greatly increased their stats and made them stronger, much stronger than I was now. It was like a choice each of them made when they entered this world. And for that choice, they were choosing the path of their... destiny?
Yes, I could see it clearly now. If I decide to turn around and leave now, I'll also get this achievement, and with it a nice characteristic bonus for almost nothing.
That's... definitely very favourable and easy. Just walking away and getting a nice bonus, what could be easier?
And what would I get if I interfered?
I gazed at the many images of my predecessors and tried to discern among them those who dared to intervene in the fight... and all of them were dying. The first, a girl, seeing a bandit running at a child to take him hostage, ran forward and before she knew it the second bandit had gone round her from behind and stabbed her in the chest. She dropped dead and never moved again...poor thing. Then I saw the second hero, he was a bloke, tall, strong, probably a martial artist. He was more cunning, went round the bandits from the back, but he underestimated the armed fighter and died of haemorrhage. The third guy tried to stealthily lead the ordinary people away from the battle zone, but a dagger thrown into the back of his head knocked him to the ground... the guards did not have time to help him, and his chest was pierced through.
Those who chose to leave did the smarter thing and survived, but I couldn't stop looking ahead.
Finally, among the many desperate and doomed attempts, I spotted a victorious one. A stranger of large build and shaved head, noticing a child in distress, made a decision without a second thought. Crossing himself and with determination in his eyes, he ran to the rescue, going round the brigands from the back, armed with a stone, and with military precision knocked out the first one. Without question, coolly and expertly, he switched to the others and continued the hard fight he had to put up. He had to risk his life, he had to be tough and brave. But he succeeded, and in him I recognised a real soldier, a military man.
For defeating the bandits and saving people, he received the achievement 'Hero's Destiny', which he got in the same System Window as me. So we really were similar. This person really is my predecessor!
After taking a closer look at the soldier's description of the achievement, I could finally understand what these 'Paths of Destiny' were. It turns out they weren't just 'Achievements for fun', but a selectable path for all heroes that gave them special privileges depending on the decisions they made.
Hero's Destiny gave a soldier far more characteristics than the Loner's Destiny that the runaway majority received.
The harder the challenge, the more rewards heroes received, but whether the risk was worth the effort depended on the hero's skill and ability. Considering the fact that only one out of a hundred people survived the situation - the hero's achievement was worth the cost.
However... if I were to believe everything I saw in my dream and the events of the past lives of the heroes who came here before me - even this soldier who received the Hero's Destiny did not survive what lay ahead.
He died like all the others.
Could I back down now knowing that? Missing out on such a strong achievement was definitely not an option, or else it would be worse from here on out.
I closed my eyes and crossed my fingers at the bridge of my nose-it was my special way of concentrating for important, urgent situations.
I had little time to think. If I abandoned the guards and the defenseless men now, the worst possible scenario would happen: one of the guards would die, the wagon would be robbed, and the child... without finishing that horror I dismissed it and sighed heavily.
What rubbish.
I had only one choice from the beginning.
Fight for the glory of the Alliance!