-Checking for dimensional destination...-

-None determined. Finding location capable of sustaining existence...-

-578934572732 locations available.-

- E-grade Human, Please choose from bonus options to improve filter-

“B-bonus?” Marcus said/thought groggily.

Trying to look around he couldn’t tell where he was, in fact he wasn’t sure he was anywhere. It wasn’t dark as he thought it might be, thinking that it might have been a lie after all, that they’d all just died, but it was instead an impossible kaleidoscope of colour. It hurt to look at, but he found he couldn’t close his eyes, or do anything but talk for that matter.

- E-grade Human, in exchange for being transported from your consumed reality without the aid of an assisting civilization, you will receive a bonus that will be matched with a suitable location. Choose-

“What options do I-?” he began before three lumps of colour separated out from the space around him and hovered in front, each with a single word written on them.

-Class-

-Race-

-Item-

“These are the bonus options? What do they do? What’s it mean by race-?”

-Race bonus confirmed. Narrowing destinations-

“What?! No I didn’t-”

-Generating rarity. Narrowing destinations-

“Rarity? What are you-”

-Calculating changes required. Narrowing destinations-

“Can you answer me? Can you even hear me?”

-Comparing options to previous reality... Destination selected. Please brace for entry-

-Welcome to the System-

~

Light and sound seemed to snap into focus around him, like he’d been sleeping and someone had thrown open the curtains. Everything hurt and felt wrong, his head was killing him and he’d kill for some cold water. Opening his eyes from his place lying on the ground, he was greeted with the blurry image of green shrubbery.

“Not a burning hellscape then. Yaaaaay.” He muttered to himself, his voice dry and hollow, sounding foreign to his ears.

Blinking a few times to clear his eyes, he tried to get to his feet and immediately noticed more significant changes than his voice.

Since he’d been young he’d been one for indoor activities rather than outdoor, something that hadn’t changed since, though he’d kept up playing basketball socially to keep in shape. But while he hadn’t exactly been built, he didn’t use to be wrap a hand around his own torso. He also didn’t remember having four fingers instead of five, or his skin being that colour. He’d always had a dusky complexion, but now it was an almost walnut brown, as well as becoming rough and textured...

“Hang on a tick.” He paused.

He poked and prodded his arm for a moment, then grabbed a stick off the ground and compared the two for a few seconds.

“Yep,” He said with a sigh. “I have bark. I'm skinny as a twig, and I have bark. Oh god, I am a twig.”

Standing up properly, he was surprised when it took longer than expected, since by the time he’d stood up straight his head was amongst the branches in the tree canopy above.

“Okay, maybe not that skinny, maybe just... stretched? With very long arms. And legs. And hands...”

Carefully trying to take a step, he found his balance wasn’t as bad as he’d feared, though walking felt a bit like balancing on a tightrope. His feet had become big lumps of roots he realised, smiling at the idea of never stubbing his toe again.

Brushing branches out the way of face he continued to mutter to himself. “I can’t really be this tall can I? I need to find something for scale...?”

Beginning to find his stride, more just falling forwards and trusting his long legs to catch him, he began to cover ground at a decent pace, his heavy footfalls muffled by the undergrowth. Holding an arm up in front of his face meant he couldn’t see where he was going very well, but it was better than being slapped in the face by branches he didn’t notice in time. Pushing forwards, he fell several times on half covered rocks and slick rotting leaves, but he eventually pushed through, catching the sound of running water and making his way towards it.

The canopy parted for a few yards, the sunlight reflecting brightly off the small streams waters in contrast to the darker forest around. Turning he saw that there was a small mountain further up stream that appeared to be its source, though the forest closed up again before he could see where it led.

“Right, those survival people say that to find your way to civilization you go... up... no, downstream. Ok I can do this, but first, let’s see what I'm working with here.”

Getting down to his knees, he found a still enough pool of water that he could get an idea of his appearance.

“Huh, it’s amazing what you don't notice. No nose. No teeth either, but I got that one. I have no idea if I'm ugly or not for whatever I am, but it’s certainly a look.” He said to himself, twisting as he studied his face.

He didn’t seem to really have much of a neck; it was all thin so it was hard to tell wear his body ended. His head was slightly more defined, though missing a few bits he’d expected. Ears were gone as well he found, just some holes in a similar place, though his hearing seemed as good as before. His eyes were solid brown, no iris or pupils of any kind which left him with questions but he was hardly a doctor. His hair was gone, unsurprisingly, but he now had some small sprouting branches growing on top of his head and shoulders, with small green leaves budding.

Of everything his mouth was his greatest concern, and not because of the lack of teeth. Opening his lipless mouth he’d seen a green tongue, misshapen but still a tongue, but there didn’t seem to be an actual throat behind it. He had no idea how he was supposed to eat, let alone how he’d apparently been talking.

“Mah mah mah, blub blub blub, grah grah grah...”

He was so intent on figuring out his voice, that he almost missed the sound of rustling foliage nearby. But the huge stag that stepped out of the forest certainly got his attention. With antlers that rose up even higher than himself, it was a massive animal, but fortunately it didn’t seem to care about him one way or the other. Until he got back to his feet to run away at least, which caused it to lock its eyes on to him immediately.

Before he got the chance to try and retreat the animal rounded on him, realising that most animals are a lot bigger up close than people think. As his life flashed before his eyes for the second time in a matter of hours, the stag leaned up to him and gently bit his shoulder, tearing off a few of the budding leaves.

More in shock than pain Marcus stumbled back, pushing at the large stag which may as well have been stone for his efforts. It seemed to be satisfied with the mouthful it had fortunately, letting him go as it finished off its snack.

“Just what is going on today!” he exclaimed with a groan. “First I get sent to whatever place this is, then I find out I'm apparently a stick now, and it seems an edible one at that. And now a giant deer just ate some of my... shoulder branches? Leafy bits? God, could today get any weirder?”

As if to answer his question there was another rustling from the other side of the stream, revealing a bear, with black fur only slightly smaller than the stag. He was worried it was going to attack the stag and spook it into trampling him, but was instead confused to see it give a short howl and turn rapidly, running in fear back into the trees.

That confusion was cleared up when the stag howled towards where it had run to, its lips peeling back to reveal large, razor sharp fangs before it ran off in pursuit, smaller trees being thrown aside by its passing. Marcus sat in silence where he’d fallen for several minutes, simply staring in the direction the animals had run.

“...I think I can fully accept now, that this planet isn’t quite the same as earth.” He said quietly to himself.”

Rubbing his shoulder, he saw that it seemed the injury was only superficial, with just a handful of leaves ripped off and some scratches from where its fangs had scrapped on his bark. Considering it had just begun hunting down a bear, he felt he’d gotten off lightly, especially since he was pretty sure the leaves would grow back.

“At least I assume trees work the same way in this system.” He said, poking at the scratches.

-New citizen command detected-

-System Version 27.82.6 performing initial booting...-

-Boot successful-

“Oh god the weird voice is back. Please don't turn me into anything else!” he begged, throwing his hands over his head.

After nothing happening for a few seconds, he risked opening his eyes, hoping he wasn’t back in the weird coloured space, and was glad to see he was still sitting by the stream. The only difference was a pale yellow glow in the corner of his vision.

Trying to focus on it to see what it was, it spread about and snapped into focus, becoming a screen of text.

-Congratulations,

You and your reality have successfully been added to the System, the greatest force of knowledge and power in all existence. While its own power is limitless, it gives its loyal citizens a far more limited version allowing them to see their own nature and the gifts it has granted. Over the countless eons it had existed, these menus have undergone many changes, but we have compiled this helpful information packet to allow all new users to easily navigate its latest version, 22.1!-

“How long ago was this written? How out of date is five versions for something measured in eons?” he thought to himself as he scanned the notes presented in his vision. “Glad to see marketing in the system isn’t much different from earth though.”

“Ok,” he said after 10 minutes of studying the notes. “People have six basic stats, strength, dexterity, and wisdom... simple enough, looks like it seeds that concept into nearby realities if it knows a merge is coming. Wonder if it did that to ours? Let’s see... People gain skills, the system helps track, guide and compensate for their use... people’s classes give more powerful skills and abilities... ha! Magic is real! Awesome! Right where was I... races give passive effects... wait so that’s what the bonus stuff was about? Why didn’t they give us this first!

Ok, here we go... and none of this matches the file. What’s that? What’s this supposed to be?”

Name:

Marcus Gillian

Level:

1

Race:

Wood Walker (lesser)

Age:

29

Health:

79/80

Mana:

0/6000

Body

8

Grace

7

Thought

11

Spirit

6

Presence

10

Racial Effects:

Plant Biology

Thick Trunk, Shallow Roots

Bark Skin

One with Nature

Racial Abilities:

Greensight - Lvl 1

Green touch - Lvl 1

Share the Burden - Lvl 1

Defences

Physical Damage Reduction - 2

“Well all of that is profoundly useless. I have no class, no skills, not even the stats I'm apparently supposed to have.” He muttered grumpily. “Ok this worked once, I just hope I don't attract anything that’ll eat me trying it again.”

Standing up and making sure there was nothing around he began once again shouting at the sky, hoping to get answers.

“SYSTEM! YOUR MENU IS WRONG, WHAT DOES ALL OF THIS MEAN?!”

-Processing request... Menu queries can be raised by focusing on the term or subject in question. Free question granted from system entry has been expended-

He lowered his arms and rubbed his eyes“...How would I have known I had a question? Why did I have a- no, now is not the time Marcus, just be happy you actually got an answer. Lets ‘focus’ on all this nonsense.”

Lesser Wood Walker - uncommon

A sapient plant-based life form, normally only found on densely forested worlds. Generally peaceful by nature, these tall genderless beings often stay clear of more built up civilizations, choosing to remain in the wild, leading them to be regarded as a more savage race despite a lack of aggression.

Racial stat gains per level: 1 Body, 1 Spirit, 3 free points.

Racial effects:

Plant physiology- Your body has moved far enough from the average form to be considered an effect in itself, and may change as you do. Most items and many abilities will not work correctly or at all for you.

Gain Immunity to critical hits based on location of impact, and can naturally recover and regenerate from all physical injuries.

Food and water consumption is replaced with processing of nutrients taken in via root system.

Statistics altered from standard to account for Race.

Body - Affects your physical strength, durability and life force.

Grace - Affects your ability to make fine movements and avoid disturbing surroundings

Presence - Affects your effect on surroundings, effect on others

Thought- Affects your strength of mind, effectiveness of magic, clarity of thought

Spirit- Affects the strength of your soul, mana capacity and ability to resist hostile magic

Bark skin- Your wooden form is covered with a layer of thin but durable bark, giving you Physical Damage Reduction equal to a quarter of your Body score.

Thick trunk, Shallow roots- you have the ability to hold far more mana than normal for a being of your level, but at the cost of your ability to use it well or to produce it yourself. Mana capacity increased 100 times, magic effectiveness reduced and permanently unable to naturally generate mana.

One with Nature- greatly increased affinity with untainted plant life and animals. Affected by Presence.

Racial abilities.

Greensight- Lvl 1- Concentrating on surrounding vegetation allows you to gain information on both them and the area around them. Affected by Thought and Presence

Green touch- Lvl 1- Manipulate plant life by thought or touch. Affected by Spirit and Presence. Mana expenditure affected by scale.

Share the burden- Lvl 1- able to transfer mana to and from healthy plants. Affected by Thought, Spirit and Presence.

Looking at the wealth of information suddenly available to him he focused on three pieces that stuck out to him the most. Firstly he wasn't a stick, but something called a wood walker, apparently a lesser one. Secondly, he was very, very weird. Even in a universe with billions of different races, he was still considered an outlier, enough of one to be running off a different set of rules than everyone else.

The final part was that while he'd realised he’d been running about naked, and hadn't seemed to care that he'd been running about naked, was that he'd lost some other equipment as well.

"I suppose," he thought with a shrug. "That compared to losing my universe, planet, and species, losing the old wedding tackle isn't that big a deal. Smalls is going to give me hell for it though."

The thought of his little sister unblocked whatever damn and been holding back his emotions, dropping him to his knees in grief. He was completely lost in a space bigger than he could comprehend while his family was completely unreachable by any means available to him. And there was nothing he could do about it.

“No.” he said aloud after a minute, forcing himself off of those thoughts. “They’ll be together, and they’ll be fine. They have six months of being protected, and humanity has gotten through tough times before. I just need to stay alive, and find them. There has to be someone around who can tell me how to get off this world.”

Pulling himself together he got up and began to trek downstream, hoping to find a town or city, anyone who could help him get homes, wherever that might be.

~

Night had fallen. Marcus had been trudging forwards now for what felt like hours and hadn’t found any sign that he was going the right way. He was mentally exhausted from the search, though his body seemed fine to keep plodding along, for which he was thankful. By the time the sun set he’d lost all idea of how far he’d come, his now lengthy stride throwing off any sense of scale he could use. He’d tried to count it out, but even the faintest rustling in the trees would make him panic, worried that a predator would find him unawares.

He groaned as he sat down by the stream he was still following, resting his legs and rubbing his feet.

“Why’d it have to be a forest?” he whined to the empty air. “I've spent the last 7 years as an architect, making urban places even more urban. I don't know how to live in the woods; I barely managed to keep my lawn in check.”

Looking up, he had to admit to himself that at least the night sky was an improvement over the one he’d grown up with. There didn’t seem to be any pollution in the air, and combined with an increase in the actual number of stars, it was a beautiful sight. If he squinted he was fairly sure he could make out a few clouds of faint colour amongst the black, and it felt as if space was close enough to touch. Like his family was almost within arm’s reach.

But they weren’t, instead it was dark and cold, and he was alone.

“Guys, I hope you’re doing better than I am.” He said with a prayer, before curling up by a tree and tried to get some sleep.