Welcome to the Tutorial!

A strange blue screen opened up in front of Sam. He reached forward and swiped his hand, watching it pass through the strange apparition.

“What’s going on?” Sam groaned as he rubbed his temple. His eyes danced, noticing he was now in a room with stone walls. There was a single ornate wooden door in the center of one wall. Next to the door stood a desk with a dagger sitting on it. The room was unlit, but it had a strange ambience keeping the darkness at bay, as if the stone was aglow.

The blue screen vanished from Sam’s sight, and he realized -then- that he was alone. He panicked for a moment, still uncertain about what was going on. His last memory had been of laying down to sleep after a long day’s work.

Sam’s thoughts cycled. He had been kidnapped; it was the only possibility he could think of.

He wondered what the blue screen was. It mentioned a tutorial. More possibilities popped into Sam’s head, albeit most were fanciful. He genuinely considered if he had been sent to another world like some light novel protagonist.

One thing was certain to Sam: this was no dream. He could feel his heart thumping in his chest, and he could smell the dust in the air. He was very awake.

Sam leaned forward and climbed to his feet. His body felt strange, and he fumbled with the new height. He was taller than he remembered, and his limbs felt foreign. His body was changed. He was now wearing a simple gray cloth shirt, soft shoes, and gray cloth pants.

Gazing down at his hands, Sam shivered. Fear and excitement welled up inside of him. He didn’t recognize his own body. He traced memories of scars he no longer had. He wasn’t in his own body anymore.

Without a way to see his reflection, Sam was unable to verify his appearance. He could tell he was taller, and his new body seemed well built. His muscles, when flexed, stood out against his skin; it was something that never happened before.

Sam took a full hour before he accustomed to his new body. He jogged lightly in place, did pushups, and even rolled across the floor. He took up the dagger on the table and practiced slashing with it, showing his complete inexperience with real weapons.

During his acclimation period, Sam repeatedly mumbled the words ‘Status’, ‘Analyze’, and ‘Menu’ along with various other variations of those three words. Nothing happened. He was disappointed. After accepting that the blue screen he had seen during his first moments appeared, Sam had hoped that he would have access to other game-like features. Unfortunately, nothing of the like seemed to happen.

The original screen mentioned the word ‘Tutorial’, so Sam had yet to give up on having a -status- screen. He assumed being able to access it would be part of the ‘tutorial’.

Once he finished preparing physically and mentally, Sam decided to finally open the door in the center of the room. He gripped the dagger tightly, still unsure what he would find.

When the door opened, Sam caught sight of the other side: a long tall hallway with torches along the walls, flickering with green flames and dancing shadows.