Awareness returned to him in degrees.
First, there was a sensation of drifting. It wasn’t sure how it knew this as the Entity no longer had any senses. By all logic, it should not be feeling anything. Yet the sensation remained.
But drift it did for an indeterminate amount of time.
It stopped. This was not a natural coming to rest, it was more akin to the collar of your shirt getting caught mid-sprint. It was a brutal sensation that interrupted the state of tranquility the Entity had been in for all of its limited memory. This inspired the entity''s first thought since it became aware.
What am I?
The Entity grappled with that question for a while before it was disturbed by the pulling again. Perhaps it would have been better described as yanking, as each bout of it was quite uncomfortable. The Entity yearned for the soothing stream-like sensation of before.
It was then that the Entity became aware of a new sensation. Swiftly approaching, he could detect … light? No, that wasn’t quite it. Warmth? Closer. Perhaps …
Connection?
That was the closest word he had for it, though the Entity felt It was all three of those words and more besides. The most important thing, it realized, was that there was something else on the other end. That was equally aware of the Entity. In fact, many things were aware of It. Many thousands of them.
They appeared like a sea of stars to him. Each independent being like an infinitely complex pool of lights. As the Entity drew closer and then entered amongst them, the Entity now realized that it had an answer to its earlier question.
I am Dante. A human. I … died.
Memories of his former life flashed through his mind. Watching TV as a toddler, his parents screaming at each other in the background. A resounding smack, then sobbing. The back seat of a car, Father driving and Mother laughing. The screech of tires, up became down, and blood was everywhere. His Father was forever silent and his Mother crying. A new home filled with many other children, his sister''s small fist in his hand. Another home, the one with the peeling wallpaper, alone. A prison cell, hard to tell which one exactly, they all looked so alike.
That was it huh? he thought, That was my life…
It had been a pretty awful life if he were to be honest with himself. He had done so many things that he now regretted. Dante was not surprised that had ended up in a place like this. The only constant that had made it bearable had been his sister. She had helped him turn it around at the end, though it looked like it had not been enough.
That’s right, Sophia!
It felt like a fog across his mind was clearing now. Of the bus crash, the frantic moments spent saving the passengers and his sister, and his agonizing death in the fire.
She had been standing pretty close to the bus when the explosion occurred. If the shrapnel had flown in the wrong direction it could have … no … he … could not think that. Soph was fine, she had to be. That boy certainly got her to safety.
He knew that her heart would be broken because she made them go back into the wreck. She always held herself up to the highest standards — impossible ones by his measure — even when she could not possibly change anything. It was both her greatest flaw and strength. He was sure this would be no different.
Something was wrong. For all that those facts should bother him, he felt nothing. It felt like the previous sequence of thoughts occurred more by rote pattern than any real concern.
It should not be this way.
He remembered every agonizing moment of being burned alive in visceral detail, but he couldn’t even muster anything beyond a faint pang of discomfort. Even that seemed more like the memory of discomfort rather than the true thing. It was more of an intellectual understanding if anything.
Perhaps it was a result of not having a body? Still, the thought of his sister … Dante wasn’t religious but he prayed, If anything out there is listening, please let Sophia be ok. Don’t let her feel any guilt over the accident, it was my choice to go back. Even with all that happened, it was the right one.
And that was that. Dante found it disturbingly easy to accept that he had done all he could and could now move on to more pressing matters.
After all, he might have eternity to revisit that issue.
Where was he anyway? The afterlife? He had never been much of a believer, he always seemed to have something more important going on than pondering such questions, but this scene didn’t match the afterlife of any he had heard of. Though Dante supposed that perhaps some small, relatively unknown religion had been right this entire time. He surveyed his surroundings again.
If so, then this was probably not their heaven.
He noticed something new appear at the edge of perception and refocused his attention. Was that another light that had just appeared? It was getting closer in spastic bursts, much like he had been brought here. Then, he felt yet another one. They were being gathered.
Dante began to count them. It wasn’t like there was much else to do here after all. He had gotten up to well over six thousand when one of the lights he had just counted had its connection to him ‘flare’. It was the only way he could describe it. Focusing on it appeared to strengthen the connection further and gave a vague impression of who might be on the other side.
It was a clearly feminine presence and felt domineering. He got the feeling that whoever this had been, they were accustomed to being listened to. The connection flared again and Dante understood the trick to it. They were switching between focusing on him and one of the presences neighboring him. He sent a pulse back to them and received one in kind an instant later.
He felt a whisper of excitement, at least as close as he could in this state. It was possible to communicate with others! He would just have to … what exactly? It wasn’t like he knew Morse code was no guarantee that his partner would either. It didn’t stop him from sending pulses to his new friend though, who would always respond after a delay.
It was something to do after all.
Their little game was interrupted when he felt something else approach. Something different. It was impossible not to notice as it was … something more. Something near undefinable. It was like they were candles before the sun.
The connection he felt to it was different as well. It was impossible to fully comprehend even a small aspect of its thoughts and what he did catch was alien to his experiences. It was like there was gravity around it and they were all orbiting it. It felt like this whatever it decreed, simply was.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Was it a God? Angel? Something Divine? That it was something more was undeniable.
Whatever it was, the Being settled amongst them all. It held all attention. They watched as tendrils unfurled from it and began to snake out towards every light around it.
One was coming for him.
He willed himself to move and pleaded with the Being to stop. It was all for naught, he was trapped like a fly in amber. He could only wait for it to arrive.
When it did, the tendril wasted no time diving for the ‘core’ of him. If he had a mouth, he would have gasped as he felt it impale the essence of who he was and alter something integral to him. It was violating. A sensation so unpleasant that he could easily compare it to burning to death.
The worst part was the helplessness, he could not even scream. Only wait until it was finished with him.
After an eternity, it lessened and then ceased entirely. Though tendril remained connected and he got the sense it was a part of him now. Not that he cared at the moment, as a … screen filled his mind.
<table style="border-collapse: collapse" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 99.3644%">
Name: Dante Embry
Race: Human
Class: Unclassed
Level: 1
Attributes
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 90.0644%" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 36.4036%">Alacrity</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 14.9015%">9 [+]</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 34.1037%">Endurance</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 14.6011%">13 [+]</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 36.4036%">Charisma</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 14.9015%">6 [+]</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 34.1037%">Fortitude</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 14.6011%">11 [+]</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 36.4036%">Cognition</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 14.9015%">13 [+]</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 34.1037%">Perception</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 14.6011%">8 [+]</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 36.4036%">Constitution</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 14.9015%">12 [+]</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 34.1037%">Strength</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 14.6011%">7 [+]</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 36.4036%">Dexterity</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 14.9015%">12 [+]</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 34.1037%">Willpower</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 14.6011%">14 [+]</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Skills
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 90.0644%" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 72.3152%">Brawl</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 27.6949%">2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 72.3152%">Deception</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 27.6949%">1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 72.3152%">Lock Picking</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 27.6949%">4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 72.3152%">Logic</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 27.6949%">4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 72.3152%">Menial Labor</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 27.6949%">3</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 72.3152%">Sleight of Hand</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 27.6949%">1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 72.3152%">Stealth</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 27.6949%">2</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Abilities
<table style="border-collapse: collapse" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 99.3603%; text-align: center">[Selections Available]</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Traits
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 90.0644%" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 72.2074%">Fickle Fate</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 27.8026%">MAX</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 72.2074%">Human Tenacity</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 27.8026%">4</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
If Dante was not mistaken, this was a character sheet. Like what would be in a game. Of him.
It was absurd, but it did trigger a memory. He had seen books or shows where something like this happened. If he recalled, some of his more nerdy friends called it Isekai. One of them that he counted amongst his close friends, Daniel, loved the genre and would often rave for hours about it. To get closer to him, Dante had read a couple of those novels so they would have something to talk about.
Character sheets or statuses were a frequent feature of such novels and this seemed oddly similar. Dante remembered that most of them had been pure wish fulfillment, which bode well for his future. Though … if his life up to this point had been any indicator, then he wouldn’t bet on that part. As if he would get a happy ending —
It was as if lightning struck him as he realized something. In a lot of those stories, the hero would return home after their adventure. It was a slim possibility, but Dante could very well see Soph again, as well as the few friends he had begun reconnecting with. Hell, he would even be happy to see Mr. McClellan again.
For most things Dante needed rigorous proof, but for this one jump in logic he would make an exception. He vowed right then that he would complete whatever task he was assigned to accomplish and then return home. Perhaps save a world while he was at it, if he was lucky.
He scanned the character sheet again feeling slightly … unsettled. To think the entirety of his life, who he was, and all he had accomplished was represented by a single sheet. It was degradingly reductive.
Dante now apparently had attributes, of which there seemed to be ten. Some of which he was familiar with from RPGs, games, and web novels. Attributes such as strength, dexterity, constitution, perception, charisma, and willpower were classics in such media. Though Dante wondered just how much he could infer from his previous knowledge. The rest of the stats — that was endurance, alacrity, resistance, and cognition — were less conventional. He could hazard a guess what they did for nearly all of them, with the exception being alacrity.
Dante also had no idea what exactly each stat would change.
It was one thing to know that leveling charisma would likely make him more convincing, but it was altogether ambiguous what it would accomplish. Would it make him more attractive? Or, more frighteningly, would his words become more convincing than they otherwise should?
Which was a truly frightening thought. He would have to be careful of that.
Assuming that the baseline for these stats was ten, which was an assumption that he felt safe in making. Which meant … he wasn’t that bad with people, was he? Dante had friends after all. Not very many of them, but good ones. Though supposed he had never been good with women. He fought the sudden urge to dump points into it.
I should probably wait until I know what I want to do. It was still very tempting. Later, he promised himself.
At least his cognition and willpower were very good. Given that the average person would have ten in every stat and that there were ten stats, then the baseline should be around one hundred stat points. He had one hundred and five stat points, which was a little flattering. The pluses next to them reminded him of the few RPGs he had played, though it was odd that he was not told how many points he had to distribute. He decided to leave that alone for the moment.
Inspecting the skills … He was dissatisfied with them. He had no desire for that part of his life to define him so heavily. At least he had gotten the logic skill from his recent stint at the community college. It was worth more than all of the others combined by his measure. But, he could not deny that [Stealth] or [Brawl] would likely be useful in his new life.
Which brought him to the abilities section, which was empty except for a blinking tab that read [selections available]. As soon as he wondered how to access it, another window opened.
<table style="width: 90.0252%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 98.513%">
Abilities
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 98.513%">
Place Mark
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 98.513%">
Recall
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 98.513%">
Imbue Flower
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 98.513%">
Grow Epidermis
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 98.513%">
Command Steel
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
These options were certainly varied. And mostly useless. Who would ever want to grow an epidermis? There seems to be no guarantee that you could remove the epidermis. Maybe there is a way to get more information?
There certainly had been in the stories he had read. There didn’t seem to be a button for this, so he focused on the name. This didn’t seem to have any effect.
Perhaps, there is a keyword? Information? Details? Stats?
No response. He kept trying a few others to similar effect. Was he meant to select these without really knowing what they did? Dante HAD to be missing something. He would have to come back to this later. He began to scroll down the list.
After some browsing, he quickly concluded that there was probably a skill for everything if you spent enough time looking for it. Fortunately, there were more conventional abilities such as the traditional [Fireball] or the boring [Piercing strike]. It was hard to keep track of time in this place, but he had simply scrolled down for as long as he could stand and had not found the end.
In essence, these options are practically infinite. The main barrier is simply going to be my patience. And my memory …
He had quite enough of that, time to move on. The traits section only had two entries, [Human Tenacity] and [Fickle Fate]. Dante wasn’t quite sure what to make of them. The latter sounded like it was something all humans had. He had no idea what it affected either, as tenacity could refer to many things.
It was the other one that was more interesting to him, [Fickle Fate]. It held staggering implications. Could it shape his future? And what did it mean for it to be fickle? It sounded unreliable at best. Was it possible for a trait to be bad for him?
He focused again on the quite possibly divine being amongst them. Would it be this thing that controlled his fate? He can’t say he liked that idea.
Dante paused as he realized that something had changed while he had been focused on the menus. The Entity was now broadcasting something else to him through the tether, a single number.
9,752.
Cryptic.
As he continued to watch, it ticked down.
9,741.