I was promised magic powers, adventure, wonder and purpose. All I had to do was accept the request to go to this other world. It turned out there were ten thousand of us chumps from earth that selected yes. At least that’s what the shimmering translucent magical screen told me.
I was excited at first. I was even given the choice of what sort of magic I would receive. Which was what really enticed me in the first place. The only restriction was what my soul would allow.
I’m unsure how many things there were to choose from, but I had so many options it was overwhelming. If you’ve ever spent hours aimlessly scrolling through Netflix, desperately seeking that perfect show to fill the void within, then you know the difficulty of my choice.
I didn’t realize there was a time limit. Yes, I noticed a number ticking down, but I really didn’t pay any mind to it. The floating screen mentioned nothing about it and there was just so much happening.
Long story short, the timer ran out while I was reading over the perks of choosing a lightning class of magic. Suddenly, without warning, the system randomly assigned me a class called Cryomancer. An Ice based magic.
This in itself was fine, as I’ve never had any magic and Sub-Zero was a total boss. The issue was that the timer was not only for the class selection but for my name, race and god knows what else.
When I arrived in whatever this new world was called, I was confused, to say the least. Everything was dusky dark, and I felt strange and full of energy. At first, I thought it was my new magic. Then I looked down at my hands and I realized they weren’t hands at all but some sort of fur covered paws. I still had five fingers, but claws protruded from the tips of them. It’s then I began to examine myself.
This black fur covered my entire body, and I had a bushy tail. That’s when I may have freaked out a bit. The sound of my oddly squeaky yells only added to the panic and confusion. But I didn’t get far in to my dismayed screams before my eyes widened in fear.
A massive wolf with a large scar across its face stood only a few feet in front of me. It was the largest wolf that I had ever seen in my life. It had to be twice as tall as a horse and it was looking right at me.
I froze, hoping that it was looking past me. Then more of these insanely enormous wolves began to appear. None as tall as the scarred wolf in the front, but still all ridiculously huge.
I remained frozen in fear and confusion. There was no way all these giant monster sized wolves were looking at me. Compared to them, I would barely be a snack. Suddenly the largest wolf rushed me.
I darted to the left, then back to the right, then left and right again before I even realized what I was doing. To my horror, I was standing back in the same spot I started in. I was breathing hard at this point and I noticed a little yellow bar in the top left corner of my vision. It was steadily draining and was nearly half empty.
Not giving this more than a passing glance, I turned my attention back to the wolf. To my surprise, it looked to be moving in slow motion. I was confused, scared, and had no idea what was happening. But the instinct to survive was strong, and I darted away.
It was then that I took in the details of my surroundings. I was in some sort of cave, which explained the unnatural darkness. Darting around massive bones and a half-eaten carcass of what had to be a twenty foot tall deer, I looked for an exit.
The yellow bar was now at just under a quarter, and I took a quick glance back at the wolves. They looked to still have barely moved. The problem was I couldn’t find an exit anywhere. I continued to come to wall after wall. Suddenly, the yellow bar ran out, and I heard a course of howls and snarls.
A quick glance back at the wolves had me realize I only had seconds before they found me.
For whatever reason, I looked up. I thought I saw a crack in the wall. My breaths were coming sharp and quick. I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep on running before I collapsed. My paws were trembling with fear and exhaustion at my mad dash around the cavern.
I heard another course of howls and the clatter of claws on the cave floor. I knew they were coming towards me, but my eyes were locked on the crack. It was my only hope. I used all my strength and jumped at the wall. Using my new found claws, I gripped the cavern wall with everything I had. It felt like my claws were going to break or rip out of my body.
I continued to slip as my claws didn’t always find purchase, but I continued scurrying up the wall. My arms were burning and felt like they were going to give out at any moment. I knew if they did, the pack of monster sized wolves below would eat me.
My claws finally reached the crack and I drug my exhausted body into the opening. The crack was small but led on, hopefully away from the massive wolves. No sooner had I crawled in my body collapsed in exhaustion.
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As I laid there trying to ignore the howls from below and gasping for air, a prompt appeared in my vision. The prompt resembled the one I received before coming here.
Congratulations: You have learned the skill, Hard Climber.
+12% easier to climb hard surfaces.
+10% less stamina consumption when climbing hard surfaces.
+10% to speed when climbing hard surfaces.
“What?” Blinking away the notification, I just lay there, catching my breath.
Eventually I got back to my feet, or paws. Now that I was no longer in immediate danger of being eaten, I examined myself once again. I had no idea what I was or what was happening.
“Okay, so I have sharp claws, dark fur, and I can stand on two legs, though to run I need to be on all fours. Also, a bushy tail.” Am I a chipmunk? Or maybe a raccoon, possibly something else entirely. Whatever was happening, I was not okay with it. Without any mirrors, all I could do was guess as to what I was.
“What in the world am I?” As if to answer my question, a translucent screen appeared.
Days remaining ~365
Name: Arthur Nutsy
Race: Tree Squirrel
Class: Cryomancer
Level- 1
Essence to next level- 250
Health- 43
Stamina-28
Mana- 189
Vitality: 5
Endurance: 8
Strength: 2
Agility: 29
Intelligence: 18
Wisdom: 7
Luck: 23
Charisma: 16
“What in the slippery nut, twisted tail dung eater is going on? There is no tree rotting way I was turned into a squirrel! I refuse! Take me back home! I don’t want this!”
No sooner had I spoken, than I reflected on the words I said.
Those were definitely not the words I was trying to say. Those words were completely nonsensical. Again, I tried to use the curse words that I have used many times.
“Fox loving hairless meat eating mammal.” Taking a deep breath, I sighed. Not being able to curse was not a big deal. The larger problem was that I was now a tiny squirrel!
Those wolves were not massive they were likely just normal sized wolves. When I was a human I was five ten, not overly tall, but I never had to look up to a dog. Also, I had a burning hatred towards all dogs and cats alike. I didn’t remember disliking dogs or cats before, but that was beside the point.
“Okay, okay, this isn’t all bad. Surely there is a way to turn back into a human. There is magic now, so it shouldn’t be that hard.” At least I hoped.
With no other options and to distract myself from being turned into a tree rat, I started on down through the crack. I really had no idea what to do, but I knew I needed to get out of this place. And I was extremely hungry.
Quest: Escape Dark Wolf Cavern.
Quest Type: Basic.
Time limit: None.
Failure to complete: Unknown.
Reward: Spell: Ice Touch.
I froze at seeing the floating words hovering in my vision. The name Dark Wolf Cavern was an absolutely stupid name. However, the spell had my complete attention. It was likely a basic spell and probably just froze things, but I didn’t care. Magic was magic, and I planned to be a powerful wizard. It was why I accepted the prompt in the first place.
This reminded me that there were ten thousand others that also accepted this fate. I couldn’t help but wonder if there were others here like me. For all I knew, one of the wolves was an earthling. Although most people probably didn’t spend as long as I did reading over class options. There were just so many.
I thought about the translucent blue stat page appearing again, and it did so almost immediately. I was hoping to gleam a bit more information.
Days remaining ~365
Name: Arthur Nutsy
Race: Tree Squirrel
Class: Cryomancer
Level- 1
Essence to next level- 250
Health- 43
Stamina-28
Mana- 189
Vitality: 5
Endurance: 8
Strength: 2
Agility: 29
Intelligence: 18
Wisdom 7
Luck: 23
Charisma: 16
“Arthur Nutsy! You have to be kidding me. My name was…” Now that I thought about it, I didn’t remember what my name was. Well, that didn’t matter at the moment. Changing my name was just another thing to fix. Also, what was up with the days remaining?
Shaking my head at the ridiculousness of the situation I found myself in, I examined my stat page.
Other than my name, the ominous count down and other basic stats, there was no other information. I tried to change my name. Even shouting settings and name change had no effect. However, I found a different screen labeled Quests. Though it just had the single quest to escape this cavern. I would just need to get out of here and speak to someone more knowledgeable than I.
Continuing down the tunnel, I had to squeeze through some particularly tight places, but eventually it paid off. The small crack opened up into a larger cavern.
There was even a river running through it. And mushrooms large enough to build a house inside of. However, my perception of how large things were differed greatly from when I was a human.
Glowing vines hung down from the cavern walls giving the place an enchanted feeling. There was also an enticing smell that reminded me of my grandma’s apple pie.
I stepped out of the crack before I even realized what I was doing and nearly fell to the cavern floor below. I quickly pulled myself back inside the crack. This saved my life as an enormous bat swooped out of nowhere and nearly snatched me up with its talons. Backing further into the crack, I began looking every which way for threats.
“Why does everything want to eat me!”
