I wondered if the speed construct had a defined range. There was no indication of how far it would let me travel. While riding, I felt my head ache and again my stomach called for attention, so I slowed down to a stop. Since I had eaten burgers for two nights in a row, I wished for something more filling. A drawer appeared, and I jumped back in alarm; this one was red. It had the second wing symbol I had seen etched into it.

Wary about what the color and symbol could mean, I opened the drawer tentatively. I cracked the drawer open, a pale tentacle-like arm the size of a lamp post shot out of the drawer, striking me in the face with incredible force. I fell to the ground, stunned. I saw a girl, dressed identically to the one from the previous nights, running towards the tentacle in a flurry of red hair. Instead of a blue dress, she wore a red one and she threw something at the pale appendage. A short blade struck the appendage, severing its connection with the drawer. The cut tentacle fell to the ground and began to disintegrate as it writhed next to me. The girl rushed over to the drawer, closed it, and scratched off the winged symbol with a dull knife.

She examined me from head to toe, scanning me once over with machine-like precision. She pointed at the wall where the drawer disappeared into, and shook her head. Even while still in pain and shock, the encounter with the aggressive tentacle allowed me to connect the events of the previous night with the one that were now taking place. The Hall was not always helpful, or even cooperative; it could be dangerous. Wishing was a gamble. I had been getting lucky.

She helped me to my feet and placed a smooth, heavy, bronze colored coin on my palm. It was about the size of a quarter. As I was studying it, the girl tapped my shoulder. When I looked up, she gestured for me to flip the coin. I placed it on my thumb and flipped it with some difficulty, unused to the weight. The coin flew in the air and landed on the floor with a loud clang that made no sense considering its size. The coin vanished, inexplicably replaced by a sword. My mouth dropped open.

Some forgotten memory told me it was closest to a gladius. The blade was about two and half feet long, sharp on both edges tapering to a point. As I leaned forward to pick it up, the sword turned back into a copper coin. During the whole transformation process, the girl stared at me as if I’d turned into one of the tentacle beasts. She uncrossed her arms, apprehension visibly dissipating once the coin reverted to its original shape.

“Why were you not suspicious at all?” she asked.

“Suspicious of what?”

“Of me, of the coin I gave you.”

“I don’t know where or who I am, Nothing that is happening here makes any sense at all, the doors, the wishes, you, and now this creature.” I waved vaguely at the room around us. Questions tumbled out of me.

“Who are you? Where are we? What is this place?” I asked frantically. I would have continued asking questions had I not run out of breath. I didn’t want to miss my opportunity to get answers about my situation.

The girl narrowed her eyes as she studied me again. She had rounded features and auburn colored hair, which contrasted to the girl from the previous night. We stared at each other in silence for several seconds. I had run out of questions, and she wasn’t forthcoming with any answers.

I knew that she had no reason to talk to me, especially after saving me from the strange tentacle, but I felt roiling emotions surface. After I appeared in the Hall, I felt changed. I was not sure how, maybe it was because I had been removed from my previous way of living, whatever that might have been.

“You’re weak,” she said blurted unapologetically.

“Well, what did you expect? I have no idea who I am! All I have are my thoughts which… this weird place is somehow reading.” I gestured towards the speed construct. “I wished for this… or something similar to it, and this place answered. I wished for food, and it answered. I wished for clothes...”

She shook her head. “Don’t wish, it’s dangerous.” She turned to leave.

Placing my hand on her shoulder I said, “At least tell me your name?”

“Nara.”

That name... I had heard it before. Before I could get any answers to the dozens of questions I had surfaced, she had shaken me off. Surprised by her speed, she was already off in the distance, phasing into the Hall and its white, dangerous walls. There was something oddly familiar about the two people I had met. I was sure it had to do with the strange wishing hallway.

Nara had left the coin on the floor. Did she just forget it, or was she trying to offer me some kind of protection? Not knowing what her intentions had been, I chose to assume the best. Meaning I would have to learn how to use the damn thing without it always reverting into a coin. It would be useful to have a sword, but it had a strong preference for its coin shape and reverted the moment I tried to pick it back up.

After flipping the coin several times, with the same sword-to-coin, I gave up mid-flip and caught it in the air. For the first time, I felt the sword’s solid grip in the palm of my hand. As I held the slender leather hilt it flashed green and hummed joyously. I swung it experimentally, but it was incredibly heavy. After a couple of swings it slipped from my hand because of its sheer weight. The moment the tip touched the floor, it was once again a coin.

Mesmerized by the morphing, I repeated the process of flipping and catching several times, until I felt I could do it on command. After a few successful tries in a row, I became frustrated. Just summoning a sword couldn’t help me learn to fight or overcome my “weak” state. I had no idea how to properly hold a sword or swing it effectively.

“I don’t know how to use this! How am I supposed to get out of this place with this sword! Gah!” I yelled in frustration while glaring at the walls. As I finished my little tantrum, I noticed a wooden door.

It was a sliding door made from bamboo. It was held together with a red cord woven between the stalks of rounded wood. An uneasy feeling erupted in the pit of my stomach and I wondered if my frustrations had led the Hall to interpret a wish where there was none? Not knowing what to do, I decided that waiting to be eaten was worse than diving head first into the mouth of a beast. I slid the door open and went inside. The room was square, with a low ceiling. It looked empty and dark, so I cautiously stepped in to investigate. The moment my feet crossed the threshold, the door slammed shut.

Dark. I was stunned for a couple of seconds. I had forgotten what complete and utter darkness was like; it had been a long time since I had been in anything other than the ever-present white glow of the Hall. The door clicked behind me and a single thought crossed my head, “Am I done for?”

The floor dropped out from underneath me. The next instant, the adrenaline of falling kicked in and altered my focus from the future to my imminent present. I felt myself panicking, but I took a deep breath of the cold rushing wind, clearing my head. I reached for the walls around me, but my hand dragged on it with such friction that I yanked back in pain. In my left hand, I clutched the odd coin that I was still holding. Taking a chance, and hoping that I wouldn’t lose it as I fell, I tossed it down gently and caught it again.

The sword formed in my hands, and I held the hilt as tightly as I could. The wind was tugging at me, but I found the wall with my hand again and drove the tip into the wall, stabbing it downwards at approximately a forty-five degree angle. The sword stuck in place, but I continued falling. My shoulders and arms screamed in pain as I held onto the hilt for dear life. My lower body hit the wall as I came to a stop, saved by the sword.

Without the wind to force my eyes shut, my vision adjusted to the gloom of the shaft. It was as square as the earlier room had been and everything inside was a shade away from pitch black. As I looked around, I saw dim light filtering in through the crack my sword made above me. As my eyes became more adjusted to the darkness, a very convenient doorway with a small ledge on the opposite side of the shaft took shape. I took a moment to mentally shake my head. Everything in this world was bent on testing me.

Swinging from the hilt of my sword I picked up speed, but before I had momentum built up my sword dislodged from the wall. I flew across the abyss, but knew I would fall short of the door, and in an instant had accepted death with unsettling ease.

Death was not ready for me just yet. A hand grasped my own. I looked up at my savior, only to see a pair of silvery eyes staring down at me. Nara had opened the door and grabbed my hand just in time to save me from the fall. She hoisted me up into the room and a bright light shone directly into my eyes and the message,

You have entered one of the Great Realms.

Become who you were meant to be!

Was displayed in black lettering. I blinked and the text disappeared.

I was assaulted by a rainbow array of not only colors but scents. I was in forest as far as the eye could see, filled with all types of strange and unfamiliar plants. There were blue and green trees, red grass and all manner of colored flowers. It would have been a botanist’s dream.

The least surprising thing about the new place was that Nara had been there to catch me. Her and her Hall buddies seemed to be everywhere at once. I was not entirely sure her presence and the appearance of the sliding door were connected, but I was alive and not one to complain.

After my full minute of infatuation with the kaleidoscopic forest, I stood.

“So…What now…?” I asked Nara.

“Train, you idiot,” she responded.

“How do I do that?”

“Survive.” With that, she tapped the right side of my temple and jumped into the black depth of the shaft.

She made it seem as if it was jumping into a small pond. I stared after her, listening for a sound that might indicate she had landed somewhere. There were a couple more seconds of silence and I hoped she had faded into the walls like her counterpart. As I stared after her, the void I had barely escaped called to me. Thanks to some unknown instinct, I turned back to the forest, pushing further from the doorway.

I understood what she meant by survive. With no food, a towel, and a sword I didn’t know how to use, my chances of even finding food, much less catching it, were slim. I scratched my head while thinking of what I should do, and my fingers passed where Nara had touched my temple. Another flash of blinding light struck me. However, this time there was a table of information hovering before my eyes.

NAME

TITLE

LEVEL

Faust Swift

None

1 (0% to LvL)

HEALTH

MANA

STAMINA

100 (Regen 0.5/sec)

100 (Regen 0.5/sec)

100 (Regen 0.5/sec)

ATTRIBUTES

Vitality

0

Strength

0

Endurance

0

Dexterity

0

Intelligence

0

Willpower

0

Charisma

0

Luck

10

SKILLS

First Aid

1 (15%)

Construct Operation

1 (20%)

TRAITS

Universal Favor

10 to Luck

RESISTANCES

EVOLUTION

1 (0%)

Even after blinking repeatedly, the semi-transparent lettering and borders in my field of vision did not disperse. It was as if they were stuck hovering a foot from my face. With my initial concern dying down, curiosity found a burning ember to latch on. At least one of my questions had been answered. I was Faust Swift. How this ghostly table knew that, I hadn’t the foggiest idea, but it was better than remaining nameless.

“I am Faust Swift...” I said, savoring the name.

As soon as the words left my mouth, a gong reverberated all around me. Startled birds could be heard taking flight.

You have identified a part of yourself. You are on your way to becoming who you were meant to be! You can now gain experience as you find your place in the world. Breathe, you will be here a while.

Once again assaulted by blinding light, I was not shaken as much. It appeared to be a regular thing in this new Realm, that everything relevant leave you seeing spots. In an attempt to reduce the bright light, I covered my eyes and when I opened them again, the table was gone. It occurred to me that I might have control over the table and I touched my right temple again, prompting the table to return. Increasingly more confused, now a definitive trait, but immediately excited I tapped my head like an idiot several times, opening and dismissing the table like a child with a new toy.

I studied the table closely to see if it had any new information. I focused on the individual attribute categories and more floating text sprouted beside each word that I wanted to learn more about.

"Health, Mana, and Stamina are the core of your being and connect to your life, magic and physical potential”

Vitality! "Affects maximum Health and lightly affects Health Regen"

Strength! "Affects proficiency with heavy weapons and general damage as well as carrying capacity of objects"

Endurance! “Affects maximum Stamina and lightly affects Stamina Regen"

Dexterity! "Affects proficiency with light and range weapons as well as movement speed and flexibility"

Intelligence! "Affects Maximum Mana, lightly affects Mana Regen, and affects proficiency with the Mystic Arts"

Willpower! "Significantly affects All Regen, increases pain threshold and overall constitution."

Charisma! "Affects interactions between sentient beings and allies."

Luck! "Who knows?"

That last descriptor was particularly uninformative. I looked at the values associated with the Attributes and was slightly offended that they were all at 0 except for Luck. It took me a moment to realize that it was essentially saying I was like a baby. I wanted to feel hurt, but with the recent turn of events I felt that might have been the case. I had no real experience or memories to help me in this new world of nonsense I found myself in.

There was even more information in the table.

First Aid! "Mummify your friends, how could they not feel better?"

Proficiency in this skill affects your use of bandages and healing tools.

Construct Operation! "What is an Ancient’s Machine to you but another tool?

Proficiency in this skill affects a wide variety of traits while operating magical constructs.

This strange world must have pulled these skills from my experiences in the Hall, considering I could not remember anything from my previous life except the occasional words that I had very little context for. The First Aid skill must have come from my bandaging of the blue dressed girl on my second night in the Hall. As far as the Construct Operation skill, my time on the ethereal machine had not been wasted. I focused on the rest of the table and the prompt disappeared. Getting another look at the table told me there was some kind of growth possibility for my skills and for myself in the form of Levels, even if I was far from progressing in either category.

The last entries on the table only gave me more questions. I inspected the Traits, Resistances and Evolution sections, but no clarifying text popped up. An unrelated alert appeared.

Universal Favor! "The universe has an eye on your peculiarity"

I considered if my coming here had been by chance. I had been lucky to find two people in the seemingly endless Hall, to not get killed by the Hall’s mysterious inhabitants, and to be given the opportunity to grow in the strange realm I found myself in. Maybe my high Luck made sense after all.

Having already spent way too much time on self-reflection, I figured it was time to put my ‘newborn’ form to the test. The strange forest beckoned me and a nervous energy consumed me. Hoping that the blue and green curtain of the forest canopy would share some of its treasures, I ran in.