I really hate my life.

Eric sighed, staring up at the ceiling of his room. He hated his life, hated it with an actual vengeance that he was sure very few people ever did.

And it wasn't even his fault that he hated his life. It was totally the fault of everyone else in his life, who had screwed him over every single day of his miserable existence. They were the reason why he was where he was in life, a social shut-in who still lived at his parent's house.

Right now, he was just counting down the time until his eighteenth birthday. Summertime was just beginning, and he had just barely managed to scrape through his last year of high school.

Most people his age would be preparing for the next stage in their lives, applying for universities and colleges, looking for jobs, enjoying time with friends, that sort of stuff. Eric, though? He couldn't care less about that sort of stuff. He was the definition of lazy, and he wasn't exactly looking to change anytime soon.

The one thing he was planning on doing over the summer was stay in his room all day, and waste away the remaining days of freedom he had on his computer. He wasn't exactly looking forward to doing anything else, anyways. Any enjoyment he had of the outside had vanished years ago.

He sighed, rolled over onto his back, and regarded the mirror in his room.

The person who stared back at him did not look particularly healthy. His skin was pale from lack of sunlight, and his dark brown hair resembled something akin to a small thorn bush. His dark brown eyes were currently rimmed with dark circles from lack of sleep, and he was bordering on the skinny side.

Well, five minutes until midnight, and my eighteenth birthday. That's something, anyways.

He blindly felt around his bed, pulling out a crumpled up manga volume from under a blanket. He idly thumbed through it, suppressing a yawn.

Four minutes left. Three minutes left.

He regarded the manga in his hands. Some sort of cliche fantasy story that he had bought off the shelves of the bookstore on an impulse. It was like every other fantasy story.

The hero is some random, good-looking guy from another world. Comes into this amazing fantasy world. Gets super powerful. Girls start falling for him, everyone loves him, and he saves the world.

Not the most original story to read, but it was the kind of story literally everyone loves, because secretly, everyone wishes they were that hero.

One minute left.

Eric yawned, rolling over and looking out the window, getting ready to go to sleep.

It was at this moment that something amazing happened to Eric. Of course, Eric may not have been the best choice to experience what happened to him, but in all honesty, the powers that be probably didn't care when they picked him.

Eric himself couldn't have said what exactly happened to him. He had been staring out the window when it happened, which was the only real reason why he was able to witness it, but suddenly, he saw a bright flash of light, like a lightning bolt, flash from the skies, shatter his window, and hit him.

And then all he saw was white.

When Eric came to, he was lying in a grassy field, staring up at a nice, blue, clear summer sky.

''What….?'' he frowned, sitting up, taking in his surroundings. He was on a clear, grassy hill, which sloped down on all sides into a wide, grassy plain. The plain wasn't exactly flat, but instead curved up and down with gentle hills. The hill he was on was the highest, high enough that he could make out everything for quite a distance around. Most of the area around him were grasslands, with the exception of one side, which seemed to end at smooth, white beaches, leading to a large ocean, which stretched farther than Eric could make out. As he looked around closely, he could also see a large forest in the distance, on the other side of the hill.

At the base of the hill, around a hundred feet down, was what appeared to be a large, paved stone path. It wound through the land for what seemed like miles, before finally ending at a large city.

The city itself looked like something ripped straight out of one of Eric's many fantasy stories. It was huge, with a large, circular stone wall surrounding it. Eric could make out the roofs of houses behind those walls, but what really caught his eye was the large, glimmering, white castle at the center of the city.

The city seemed to also be set next to the ocean, with a large, wooden dock. Eric could see ships moored there.

Additionally, the city seemed to be at a sort of crossroads. Eric could make out other paths leading to the city, and sprawling farmland in the distance.

Eric took all of this in, slowly. He rubbed his eyes, blinked, then looked again. Then he pinched himself.

Then he started laughing hysterically.

Eventually, he managed to control his laughter, taking a deep breath. ''Okay,'' he managed to gasp out to himself, ''Think, Eric. For all you know, this could just be some vivid hallucination.'’

He got to his feet with shaky motions, rubbing his eyes and taking a good look around again. A gust of wind blew, and he shivered. He was only wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt when he had been transported, and despite the sunny day, it was quite windy on top of the hill. Not the most promising start to this adventure, but whatever.

Eric walked towards the edge of the hill, looking down. It was a steep ledge, and it didn't look like a super easy way down, especially for someone like him, but Eric was determined.

He ended up managing to make it down the hill through a combination of tripping and stumbling. It was lucky that the grass was both soft and dry, because he wasn't wearing any shoes.

Note to self: get actual shoes as soon as possible. And better clothes.

He finally reached the bottom of the hill, stepping onto the stone road, which, due to his lack of shoes, hurt his feet a lot more than the soft grass did. Hopefully, he could reach the city before he got any blisters, though considering the distance he had it was going to take a while.

He took a moment to look around the trail, the full weight of what was going on finally hitting him. Most people in this situation would probably panic, wondering what their friends or family might think, now that they've abruptly vanished. They may not know what to do, or how to survive.

Eric, however, was fully prepared. He knew exactly what he needed to do to survive this, because he had read dozens of stories with this exact same scenario. He couldn't care less about the past life he had left behind, and he decided, in that moment, to commit himself fully to making the best out of this situation he was in.

Besides, if any of the stories I've read are any indication, what I'm about to experience should be way better than my crappy old life!

So thinking this, Eric grinned and headed off for the city, eagerly preparing for any possible scenario that could happen.

In most stories, when a person first gets transported into a fantasy world, they will almost always encounter someone significant first. This situation is almost always a random encounter, and could happen at virtually anytime.

This is what Eric was thinking as he jogged down the wide, stone, path, his excitement allowing him to ignore the burning pain in his feet. He kept a careful watch around him, making sure that whatever his first random encounter was going to be, it wouldn't take him by surprise.

Unfortunately for Eric, he could be as alert as he wanted, but he was ultimately an average eighteen year old with no particular skills, so he was, unfortunately, taken by surprise.

He hadn't even realized he was being followed, until it was too late, and he found himself on the receiving end of a wooden staff that seemed to emerge from nowhere, right in front of him.

The staff struck him dead-on, right at his chest, and he fell back, hitting the stone road hard, desperately gasping for breath, unable to move at all.

As he lay there, gasping for breath, someone stepped up to him, looking down at him. He couldn't really make out who they were through his blurry vision, so he decided to instead focus on the fact that his chest felt like it was going to cave in at any moment.

''Sheesh,'' the figure said, a tone of disblief in their voice‘'One jab is all it takes to take this guy out? I told you all he wouldn't be worth it.''.

As Eric's vision slowly cleared, he found himself looking at a young woman. She looked to be about his age, maybe a little older, a bit above average height, with shoulder-length, dirty blond hair. One hand gripped a simple, gnarled wooden staff, as tall as she was. It was her attire that stood out, however. She wore a red robe, covered in what looked like golden designs. It fell past her knees. Underneath, she wore what looked like plain brown boots, and plain brown pants.

The robe greatly contrasted with the rest of her average appearance, and she wore it a bit loosely, like it didn't quite fit her. She glared down at him, raising her staff so that it was above his face.

‘'Exactly what Elain said, Talfryn,'’ Another voice said, and another figure stepped into the corner of Eric's vision. The voice was clearly female, but the person talking was wearing what looked like heavy, black and grey, plate armour. They seemed to be more on the short side, however. Eric couldn't make out any distinguishing features, but he did notice the spikes on the shoulder guards of her armour, as well as the massive greatsword she held in her hands. The thing must have been taller than she was.

''I didnt target this one because I felt like we should rob him, I targeted him because he looks interesting. Seriously, who walks down the road to the biggest city in Allaria in...a shirt and pajamas. He doesn't even have any shoes on!''. Unlike the first two, the person speaking didn't bother entering Eric's gaze, but their voice was distinctly male.

''Hm, what kind of shirt is this anyways?'’ the woman who had been addressed as Elain asked. She kneeled down, setting her staff to one side, clearly deeming Eric not enough of a threat to need it. She poked his bruised chest with her finger, causing him to cough in pain. ''Looks like....honestly, I don't even know what that design is.'’

The design on the shirt was that of a video game controller, but it wasn't like Eric could tell them that, in his current state.

''Doesn't matter,'’ the man called Talfryn said, ''Just knock him out. We can talk with him later, I guess. When he doesn't look like he's going to die. Hurry up and put him to sleep, Elain, before someone bumps into us on the road.'’

''Yeah, yeah, gotcha.'’ Elain muttered. She raised one hand over Eric's face, and whispered one word. ‘'Sleep.'.

Purple light seemed to gather in the palm of her raised hand, before slowly brightening into white. And for the second time in roughly 15 minutes, Eric passed out, again.