"Fuck," said Eric, wiping blood from his mouth. He was currently surrounded by more guys than he had time to count, each one of them armed to the teeth with knives, baseball bats, and even a gun or two. 'I'm so dead,' Eric thought with a cheeky smile, looking around at the various adversaries. 'This is what I get for fighting like a madman. Guess I'll go down kicking ass. Still it would be nice if I had a-' Eric tried to stand up, but he almost tripped on something. Looking down, Eric saw a section of chain links that might just work.

"Alright, fuckers," he shouted at the surrounding forces of delinquents, "LET'S SEE WHAT YOU GOT!?!" Holding the chain at both ends, Eric was smiling like a madman as he started a fight he couldn't possibly win. Eric Bane, seventeen years old, fought with more than a hundred people at one time. He was a human war machine, a one-man army like a terrible avenging Icarus fighting against the impossible odds of the gods' wrath. Eric fought with the tenacity of a cornered lion, the chains in his hands being painted red as he went wild with the people who were attacking him.

When all was said and done, Eric Bane walked home with more than everything in pain. For some reason, he was still dragging the chains behind him, leaving a trail of blood as he walked home. He was young, but he was built like a beast of a man from constant workout and the genes of a father who was built like a brick shit house. Still, he wasn't immortal, so he felt the pain with every step, but he was alive. His breathing was heavy enough to inhale an orange without noticing.

As he walked, there were several things he should have noticed. One was the enormous crack in the sky that stretched right over his head. The other was that the chain he held tightly were glowing with a mysterious white light. Eric Bane, the biggest, baddest delinquent from the toughest part of town, suddenly disappeared into the crack in the sky, dragged in by the chains that he held. He was barely conscious as he was pulled into the mystery.

Eric Bane woke up in an unfamiliar place, which wasn't out of the ordinary for him. Looking around, he quickly analyzed the situation on basic instinct. He was in a place that looked unsettlingly like an old fashioned hospital, the medieval kind of hospital. There was a curtain with patches stitched in places, the bed was made of a very soft and puffy material, and the sheets were heavy enough to anchor a cruise liner. Eric sat up, looking around the wooden walls with a curious glance as he tried to figure out where he might be. This had to be someone's cabin, or shed, but he wasn't restricted at all, which was new.

The door was two beds over and as Eric looked around, the door opened as a middle-aged woman wearing a nun's outfit entered the room. She looked up to see Eric, who stared at her with an intense gaze like a cornered animal. "Oh," she said, "it's good that you're awake. The king demands your presence as soon as you're feeling well enough to make the trip."

"The king, huh," said Eric, assuming he was some kind of gang leader, "crappy nickname." Eric looked at the clothes he was wearing, noticing that they weren't the same ones he had on before. "Might as well give him the courtesy." Eric stood up, his huge feet steady on the cold stone ground that bumped in an irregular fashion. He stepped over to the strange nun lady, who he didn't question because he had seen stranger fetishes.

"We'll prepare your clothes," said the nurse nun, "and then give you the royal makeover."

"Listen," Eric chuckled, "I'm fine as I am. Just take me to the king and I'll be on my way after that." The nurse was slightly taken aback by Eric's brazen attitude, but the seriousness in his voice was quite apparent.

"V-very well," said the nun, looking frightened at her predicament. She turned and led John through a confusing labyrinth of twists and turns, each time making him wonder what exactly this 'King' person was. All of the things he saw, the torches on the wall, the intricate rugs, the powerful paintings of royal men; they were all incredibly well detailed and impossibly expensive. It was whittling away at his doubt that he was in some strange mansion, or that he even truly understood what was going on here. The nun then exited the regular hallways, and Eric felt all of his expectations dashed in that single instant.

They entered an enormous hall with towering pillars of blocks holding up an extravagantly decorated ceiling. It was unbelievable, giving Eric's mind a relapse that this wasn't real somehow. As he stood awestruck at the magnificent splendor, taking in every detail as his blown mind tried to piece together how this was in any way possible. He went to one of the pillars and touched it, feeling the roughness of the stone's grain on his hand.

'This is real,' he thought, his mind bending just to accept this castle as a part of his reality. 'Wait, then that means this king is an actual king!'

"Excuse me," said the nun, looking at Eric with some concern, "but the king is in here."

'Shit,' thought Eric, unable to come up with anything else as he numbly followed the nun. The end of the enormous hall was an intricately carved pair of doors that had a series of human images engraved into it. It was just a line of people carrying weapons, and at the very center was a projection of light. The nun pushed on the door with all of her might, barely able to open the massive door. Eric stood above her and reached out to the door, pushing it open as easily as a person would open a normal sized door. The voices inside abruptly stopped as the door swung open on rusted hinges.

The inside was a throne room, a single long carpet stretching from the doors to a set of stone stairs that led up to a large pair of thrones. Sitting on the larger throne was a man dressed in a flowing red robe and a crown, the crown bringing to mind the words 'compensation'. He had greying hair and a fair number of wrinkles, but there was something about him that seemed young. There was a small crowd at the base of the stairs, people dressed in old fashioned armor carrying various weapons. On instinct, Eric got into a position to defend or attack if necessary, but nobody moved.

"Majesty," said the nun, instantly getting on one knee, "I've brought the final hero. I apologize for his attire, but he was insistent on meeting as quickly as possible."

"Ah, all is forgiven," said the king, then he waved his hand dismissively. "Your timing is impeccable, as we are just about to separate the volunteers into groups. Come here, we'll start introductions again." Eric followed the directions given to him, and as he approached the king said, "It's good that you were revived, else you would have gotten only the spare volunteers. Heroes, would you kindly introduce yourselves to this man?" Eric got to the front of the group to see five people standing in front of the king himself, all of them with insanely detailed weapons.

"Hey," said the first one, a blonde pretty-boy who carried a massive spear, "the name's Tyler Jinx. I'm a spear-wielder and heartbreaker. Listen man, this is some strange shit here, but don't let it worry you too much. We've been talking," he gestured to the other heroes, "and we've got some stuff to share with you. Do you see an icon over your right shoulder?" Eric turned to see something was over his right shoulder, it was a little white cog inside of a square with rounded edges. "Focus on it for a second, and you'll get your inventory screen."

"What," Eric said, unfamiliar with the lingo Tyler was using.

"Just focus on it," said Tyler with a cheeky smile. Eric looked at the tiny cog, staring at it intently. Without warning, a large light-grey sheet appeared in front of him, blocking his view of Tyler. It was a wide open sheet with a large section of boxes in the lower left, a profile picture of Eric in the top left next to some titles, and a series of tabs on the right side of the sheet. Tyler stepped around to look at the white sheet, and he began to explain, "This is like a video game where you can use this as your inventory screen. See in the top left? That's your hero status and title, so you're... 'Hero of the Chain'?"

"What's that mean?" asked one of the other weapon wielders. "Hi, the name's Benny, by the way."

"Look at this," said Tyler as Benny, a nerdy guy with messy black hair stepped around to look at Eric's inventory screen. In the top left, next to his picture, were the words 'Eric Bane(lv1)' and under that 'Hero of the Chains'.

"Maybe it's like chain combos," suggested Benny. "He's good at successive hits, or something."

"No," said a girl with dyed purple hair, "we all have weapons, so he must have chains as a weapon. I'm Emily, by the way, Hero of the Sword."

"I'm John," said a black guy with a scraggly goatee, "Hero of the Fists, and chains aren't a weapon."

"Maybe it's like God of War," guessed Benny, "and he's got some weapons on the end of the chains?"

"Try summoning them," said Tyler, only to receive an unphased look from Eric. "Oh yeah, there's a tattoo somewhere on your body. Just focus on that and your weapon will appear." Tyler acted this out as he said it, pulling his collar to the side to reveal a small lance tattoo in the center of his chest.

"It's on your wrist," said Emily, pointing it out. Eric lifted his hand to see that there was a chain tattoo going around his wrist like a bracelet. Once he looked at it for a little while, there was a quick flash of light as though someone had taken a picture, and he was suddenly holding a length of chain. Everyone was quiet as Eric held the chains, then he remembered the last thing that happened to him.

"That's strange," said the king, "I wouldn't expect something like this being a divine weapon. Is there some secret to it?" Tyler touched it, feeling the links one at a time.

"I think... it's just a regular old chain," Tyler surmised, his face contorted in confusion.

"That's stupid," remarked Benny, "how are you even supposed to fight with a chain?" Eric was staying quiet through this whole debacle, his mind fractured from all of this new information coming at one time.

"This is certainly unprecedented," said the king, scratching his chin in confusion. "We should not underestimate a hero, regardless of what his weapon may be. Hero," the king regarded Eric with authority, "reveal to us your name."

"Eric," announced Eric, "Eric Bane."

"And what was the last thing you remember?" the king asked curiously.

"Well, some guys were ganging up on me," said Eric, slowly sorting out what happened, "then I saw this chain next to me and picked it up. After the fight, I was going home, then... that's all I can remember."

"Hmm," said the king thoughtfully, "and is that the chain you used to fight?"

"No, the one I found was rusted, but, yeah, it was this long."

"I see what might have happened," said the king with a cheery smile. "You're quite something, taking something that isn't a weapon and turning it into a divine weapon! Because you fought with this chain, you've accepted and acknowledged that it was a weapon, so it became your weapon."

"Dude, that's sweet," said John with a broad smile. "I just found these gloves in a pawn shop and thought they looked cool."

"Yeah, I just got this in an attic," said a skinny guy with glasses. He showed everyone a long wooden handle that lead to a curved blade weapon that Eric vaguely remembered seeing in a cartoon once. "Oh, I'm Todd, by the way," he said, offering his hand for a handshake. "Hero of the Scythe."

"Now, I'll speak with you later about the specifics, but for now, we have volunteers waiting eagerly to aide you," said the king. "For now, the volunteers will group with the hero of their choice, then funds will be passed around." The people in armor started walking around, approaching the other heroes and speaking with them. Eric looked in his inventory screen, trying to figure out how to close it. He fiddled with the boxes, pushed on the sides, then he experimented with the tabs on the right.

There were four tabs, labeled: inventory, stats, settings, help. Eric pressed the help tab, only for a pop-up screen to appear telling him that the help section was for learning information on the world around him. He was then confronted with a table of contents listing more information than he could handle at once. He read through some of the names, then he found a section about inventory. He pressed it with his finger, then the screen changed to a long paragraph with occasional pictures with highlighted areas.

Eric spent most of his time reading through this, discovering what could be done with his inventory screen. He could store items, some of which could stack over each other, but the weight of the items would be cumbersome. The picture and title would change as he grew and leveled up('whatever that means'), and the title could change based on achievements. Eric was so engrossed by all of this information, when he read to the end and found out how he closed his inventory screen by focusing on the small cog over his shoulder, he realized that the adventurers had all separated. And he had no one.

"Now that you have your parties," said the king, oblivious to Eric's predicament, "you'll each receive 800 silver pieces as the starting pay. As word spreads of your deeds and you grow stronger through your experiences, you'll receive greater pay as heroes." The king stood, then he announced graciously, "Now go! Prepare yourselves for the coming demons! Be the heroes you were destined to be!" There was a cheer from the crowd as Eric stood there, just now hearing that he would be fighting demons. How exactly was he supposed to be fighting demons? The king looked at him, then motioned for Eric to follow him.

Eric walked up the steps, past the thrones as the king slowly walked towards a side door neat a curtain. The king stepped inside and Eric followed to find what could only be described as a stage set. "I would first like to extend my gratitude towards the Eric Bane for being a hero. As I had explained to the others before, our kingdom is under attack by demons that appear in waves. Normal soldiers are ineffective against the hordes, so we require the aide of heroes to fight for us. We've summoned you from a land we know nothing of to fight for us, giving you whatever you ask as compensation for your efforts."

"What all heroes have to fight the demons are divine weapons from the other world that can change and adapt with the hero, in your case, your chains. These weapons are the staple with which you fight the demons and monsters you encounter on your trip. You can never get rid of them, as they are a part of your person."

"I must warn you, there is only so much leeway I can give you as a hero. There are laws you must follow, rules you must adhere to. Should you break these laws, you will be punished as any citizen would be. The time before the next wave is still a few weeks, so I implore you that you prepare in any way you can. The wave is merciless, and it will rend your body if you aren't properly prepared for it. For now, you must go and train yourself, become powerful for the wave so that you may defeat these monsters which assault our people. I suggest you begin with the fields around the city, where the monsters are weakest."

"Yes, sir," said Eric, and he left with his brain on full learning mode. As he walked out of the enormous rooms, he noticed a group loitering by the door. The black haired nerd, who seemed anemic, suddenly broke from the group of adventurers and approached Eric.

"Hey," said Benny with a friendly smile, "I was wondering if you know what's actually going on here?"

"Yeah," said Eric, "the king just told me there's a demon infestation." Benny smiled and shook his head in a way that made Eric want to punch his lights out.

"No, that's not what this really is," said Benny like a know it all. "Have you ever played video games?"

"Not really."

"Then this is going to be hard. Well, this world is kind of like a video game. The inventory screen you can conjure is a feature of video games, the same with the stats screen. Look at this," Benny opened up his inventory, then pointed to the parentheses next to his name. "This is another thing in video games called a leveling system. When you fight monsters, go on quests, and other things, you gain experience points that level you up so you can get stronger. I don't know about anything else, but we'll figure it out as we go along."

"Okay," said Eric, getting the gist of what Benny was saying. "Hey, what's your weapon, by the way?"

A quick flash later and Benny was holding an old longbow, which he proudly held up and declared, "I'm the Hero of the Bow."

"Don't you need arrows?"

"Check this out," said Benny, and he pulled on the bow string. Like magic, a shimmering shaft appeared between Benny's fingers and the notch in the longbow. When he pulled it back as far as it could go, there was a glowing arrow between the two points. "Pretty cool, right?"

"Dude, that's sweet! Do you have infinite arrows then?"

"I don't know, but I'm going to test it out right now. Want to come with us and see how these 'divine weapons' work on monsters?"

"Hell yeah!" shouted Eric excitedly, looking at his chains as he tried to imagine the best way to fight with them. He had a feeling in the pit of his stomach, a sensation that he hadn't felt in a long time. Eric smiled as wide as his mouth could stretch when he stepped outside with Benny to explore this brand new world.