Theo finished the last of his joint before obsessively scrubbing out the ember that had taken hold of the cardboard filter. He was tempted to light another one, but his lungs already hurt and he didn’t want to get that high. Instead he spent a few more moments on his back porch, enjoying the icy winter breeze that stole the fog of his breath away.

  He took that moment to just be, letting the wind steal his thoughts away too. One of the only forms of meditation that had ever seemed to work for him. He imagined the air swirling around him in great sweeping bundles of wind. Each gust and breath forming a whole that twisted around in the winter air of his backyard like playful ghosts.

  He let his imagination wander to where the wind might take him if he were able to follow. But despite how refreshing the cold might be. It forced him back to reality with body quaking shivers. Theo’s lungs rasped from the harsh smoke moments ago and his fingers hurt from the cold. He fought back the shivers as he turned to go inside. Letting one last breath go to join with the world outside. Even if he couldn’t fly away, at least some part of him could.

  It was a silly little tradition. Something he had started a long time ago, a bored kid at school. But it had followed him. Sometimes he would put a wish into that breath. Other times a prayer. But lately it had just been the truth. He knew what he wanted wouldn't come true. He just didn’t want to leave it unspoken.

  “I don’t want to be here any more.”

  Before he stepped back inside and shut the door behind him.

  Theo shivered as he waited for the tap to heat up. It had been a harsh winter. A polar vortex had shown up with little warning after days of icy rain. Everyone had been effectively frozen into their homes waiting for the worst of the weather to pass.

  Theo had always loved days like this, it was as if the world had personally given him an excuse to hide away. There had been a family get together coming up and he had been dreading it for weeks. But now his schedule had clear and he was still on vacation. So instead of being productive he unfroze some of his “Emergency” chili and got ready to binge a show he had been meaning to watch for weeks now but lacked the energy to do so.

  He was half way through his meal when his mind grew hazy. Something washed over him like a hot bath. It wasn’t heat, but that something sent his nerves into overdrive. It was like tasting and smelling electricity. But he could feel it, hear it. His brain had already started to adjust to the total sensory synthesia and he could even see it.

  It wasn’t a haze in the air, it was just another layer to everything around him. This energy made things look and feel more them. It was the same difference as looking at a photo of a room verses actually standing the room. Reality had simply become more to him, and Theo could feel it with every part of his being. He had gained a new sixth sense that was comprised of all the other senses he had.

  Theo thought he was dying. Something in his brain must have popped or somehow his weed was bad. But as time ticked away, unsure if he should call an ambulance, clarity continued to return to him. He never lost the new sense, but it melded with the others more cleanly. But what had once been mundane was no longer.

  Theo’s new sense told him that even he wasn’t immune to this sudden shift in reality. The energy sunk into him until every part of him had been bathed in it. From hair to marrow, the strange metaphysical “weight” was now a part of him too.

  He had barely a moment to process words suddenly appearing in his vision before his world warped.

  [System integration initializing…]

  “What the f-”

  There was a brief flash of light, then nothing.

  Theo was falling, his eyes snapping open to take in the briefest moment of the world around him before he slammed into a soft powder that left him buried and struggling to orient himself.

  Scrambling to free himself, his eyes and nose burned from wherever the powder was had forced its way into them. Thankfully it compressed enough under foot and hand to allow him a modicum of traction and a few moments later he tore free of his sudden burial with a gasp that dragged air and dust into his lungs. Sending him into a sudden fit of coughing that made his chest hurt.

  Gasping like a drowning fish, he panicked as he wiped his eyes and tried to clear his airways. Still half buried he dragged himself completely free before gravity once again took hold.

  Tumbling down a powdery slope until he hit the ground at it’s base in another cloud of dust. He impacted hard enough that he lost consciousness with another flash of white.

  When Theo came to and the coughing started again, but this time he was able to draw blessedly clean air into his lungs. Even if it didn’t smell all that clean. He finished wiping his eyes as he groaned. His body hurt, the impact with the ground and the massive pile of punked wood he lay near the base of had definitely not been gentle, but pain drove Theo to move his body.

  Even if he knew he should stay down and check for more serious injuries, his instinct was to move and flee. Even if there wasn’t anything to run from. As he limped around trying to draw steady breaths he took stock of his situation as he shook the pain away.

  Nothing felt broken, and while his eyes were still stinging and burning from the dust his vision was clear enough to make out his surroundings. His pained stumbling ground to a slow halt as even the pain wasn’t enough to prevent a “What the fuck?” from leaving his lips.

  He was standing at the base of a great mound of dusted wood, rotten and powdery from untold years of decay. The dust had come from the ruin of a great tree. Larger than most buildings on earth, it was far from the only one. Dozens of other great, dead trees stood around him. None living, but the one he had been closest to was the worst of the ones he could see. Its pile of dusted wood large enough he could have buried his home in it.

  Shattered remnants and chunks of his house were scattered about as if a tornado had picked up the building with him inside and cast it to the ground like an angry child. Various appliances and chunks of floorboard were strewn about. His fridge had buried itself almost completely near the top of the pile of sawdust he had landed in.

  “Whe-” another cough forced him to clear his throat “Where am I?” he murmured, though he didn’t dare hope. As if he had been asking the world itself, it responded.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  [Trial of the Wind God.]

  [Find and Eliminate the source of the blight to unlock the trial]

  [Reward: Unique skill]

  Theo completely froze. He had easily spent a third of his life, if not more, imagining scenarios such as this. He had always been a fan of fantasy media and literature, but his favorites had always been the transmigration stories. The idea of simply going far away from the mundane to experience something truly magical had latched onto him from a young age and never let go.

  ‘There's just no way…’ he thought to himself as he read, then reread the words hovering in his vision. They didn’t obstruct his view, more like a second layer to his vision had been added. Even if his entire vision had been blocked, he still would have been able to see through it, but as his focus shifted once again to his surroundings the magical words faded to the background unobtrusively.

  Sure, he had imagined this kind of thing before, day dreams to escape the mundanity of life. But actually having it happen? His world view had been shaken and Theo was frozen with confusion and no small amount of fear.

  His mind went back to the words he had seen in his home before he had found himself falling. The strange sensation of a new sense that he still had even now. He was caught between terror and a small spark of excitement that he refused to burn. He had died, or was dying.

  He was crazy.

  Drugged?

  There was no way his weed had been tampered with, it had been legalized years ago and he couldn’t even imagine the legal trouble a company would have if they started adding other things to it. On top of all that, he felt completely lucid and didn’t know of any drug or chemical that could make him experience something like this with such vivid clarity.

  He looked down at his hands, the same as they had ever been sans the coating of dust that felt gritty between his fingers.

  ‘Do I…Status?’ even if he had been expecting it his heart raced, that spark of excitement flaring as more magical words appeared in his vision yet again.

  [Theo Caulder]

  [Tier 0]

  [Skills]

  Despite the lack of anything else to go on, this was what really cemented reality for him. As impossible as it was, it really did seem something had happened to make his day dreaming come true.

  The real question he had on his mind was ‘What now?’ he struggled to formulate any real response to that question. Even with all of his past musings.

  Turning in a circle, his pain mostly forgotten, he echoed the question again and again.

  One common theme with the stories had been danger, always there was some monster or challenge to overcome, and since the other tropes seemed to be holding up for the moment he had no reason to assume that one was any different.

  As much as Theo liked to imagine himself as the hero, he was under no illusions about his actual capabilities. He was out of shape, not the worst he had been in his life, but years of smoking weed and the munchies that came with him had left him softer than he’d like for something like this.

  He thought back to the system quest, his focus on it bringing it to the forefront of his vision again.

  [Trial of the Wind God.]

  [Find and Eliminate the source of the blight to unlock the trial]

  [Reward: Unique skill]

  He was no hero, and yet opportunity…

  “Okay.” he said out loud, using the sound to shock him into motion. ‘I need a vantage point’ he thought as he began searching for something to climb. The mound of rotten wood could work, but the idea of climbing a pile of choking dust felt like a bad one to him at the moment. He might try climbing a tree, but that also felt like a stupid idea. He was no athlete and all it took was one bad handhold on the rotten bark to send him to the ground again.

  Unwilling to risk a broken neck at the moment, he put that idea on hold as he began to look around for something he could at least defend himself with.

  Luckily, along with most of his kitchen, it seemed whatever had displaced him and his home had also taken a large portion of his house with it. About half of his home was strewn around him.

  It took time to go around and collect the various things he figured he would need. First thing he did was grab a bottle of water, using it to wash the dust from his face, sighing in relief as the burning in his eyes faded quickly.

  Next he took the time to smash the wooded handle from one of his kitchen knives, using a nearby rock to knock out the pins. He taped the metal blade to the end of a broomstick he had broken the bristles off of. It looked hideous. A bulb of duck tape with the blade sticking awkwardly off one end of the stick, but it would have to do.

  Once he had finished arming himself, he spent time collecting the remnants of his pantry. Various canned goods and snacks, along with a a full pack of sports drinks. It was enough food to last him for quite a few days, though he realized as he stared at the pile he had made that he didn’t really have a great way to carry them.

  That thought sent him on another search around the area as he created another pile of clothing. He thanked his luck when he found his old schoolbag, forgotten about in the back of his closet years ago, it was quite large and allowed him to carry a good portion of the canned goods he had. Though there was still simply too much for him to carry comfortably.

  Lastly, he put together a small bundle of all the medical supplies and various tools he could find. It wasn’t a whole lot, but even the tube of antibiotic could be a lifesaver if he got a nasty cut.

  Once he felt as prepared as he was going to get, he sat down and ate a full meal with the food he couldn’t carry with him. He would hide the rest incase he had to come back, but he figured it would be better to move on with a full stomach and as hydrated as possible.

  While he ate, his mind wandered. More than a little lost at the sudden change to his life. There was an undercurrent of melancholy at the loss of his home. It hadn’t been much, but it had been his. Now it was little more than scrap wood, bricks and dusted plaster.

  He wondered if something had happened to his family, or if this was something isolated to just himself and he couldn’t help but remember the words he had spoken to the wind.

  “Guess I got my wish huh?” He snorted as he spoke to himself.