An Unexpected Find

After making this realization Neil began to think about everything he could remember about this new world. The game he had been transported into was a large open-world storyboard game in which a party of heroes adventured throughout the world becoming stronger and slaying whatever evils they encounter. Luckily for him, it had also been a board game that he had played through several times, sinking numerous hours into it as he did multiple solo playthroughs of each of the classes within the game.

With this experience of the game behind him, he felt overjoyed as he not only knew how the world worked, but he also knew the various areas, kingdoms, and biomes of the world. Furthermore and possibly more importantly he also knew the location of all of the various encounters of the world and what may spur them. This included the location of underground dungeons, secret weapons, and most importantly people and possible allies. Archemia was a large world, nearly equal to Earth but with many new and unknown biomes. With that being said overall populations were much less, even with the numerous intelligent species.

The asteroid show in the night sky he had seen upon his introduction into the world was an event that appeared throughout the entire world, signaling an oncoming age of chaos. As it meant the resurrection of old evils and their numerous underlings across the game that had now become his life.

'I'm exhausted of playing through this game on my own, I'm definitely forming a party this time around' Neil thought, knowing he wouldn't be lonely in this life as he had in his prior one.

Nonetheless, he needed to first find out his location and what was near him. As the night drew on it seemed some light began returning to the large desert he was in and he then realized where he was, the Great Blue Sands! The large desert of the world was named for its bright and vivid aquamarine-colored sands that stretched on for many miles.

Within the board you enter as unnamed characters who go on to become famous, a perfect situation for him and his youth in this new world. With this knowledge he stood, it seemed as though he had been given a basic set of clothes upon his resurrection, and with nothing else he began to march in the direction he best thought to be south.

As beautiful as the Great Blue Sands were he knew that they were a rather dangerous place and not an area that he was at all ready to explore. That being said due to its higher level of danger it also contained some strong weapons and artifacts that could be very helpful to him if he was able to pick them up and stay alive in the process.

Neil himself was not completely cut out for this new life of his. Even with his fit physique he still knew it would be a much more difficult life than he was used to, with him now lacking any money and being a world much more concerned with war and fighting prowess than Earth had ever been. This knowledge brought both worries about this difficulty but also excitement at living such a new and unique life compared to the one he had before.

A mental image of Archemia was created in his mind about where he currently was and the possibly beneficial places he could go to from there. He had been heading south and continued doing so as he was heading towards a village he knew lay at the southern edge of the desert, once he found this village he could be sure of his actual location and from there could begin to both meet people and make plans upon where he would go.

He had been walking for nearly 3 hours when he saw something unknown to him.

"What is that?" Neil muttered to himself as he could make out a tower on the horizon. This was a structure new to Neil, as he had never heard about any towers within the desert as he played through the game. It seemed as though there were still many secrets of this world that he had yet to discover.

'I really shouldn't go in there, but I can't fight the feeling that I'd regret not investigating it now.' He thought to himself, he gave in to his urges of exploration and the hope of luck and began to head towards the building. As he got closer and closer to the tower it reminded him of how a wizard's tower might look, he hoped this meant there'd be someone inside who'd be willing to help him.

His desire to see something other than the vast expanses of sand caused him to throw caution to the wind as he speedily approached the structure. He was now only a hundred or so feet from the tower and he began running towards it as excitement rushed through him.

He stood looking at a large door made of some unknown wood, he knocked on the door, practically pounding his fist on the door in hopes someone might open it. After a few minutes of waiting and knocking he tried to open the door himself. To his surprise, the circular handle turned and he was able to push open the door.

"Is anyone in here!" He yelled into the building, but it seemed to be empty as he had guessed. He walked into the building the room that he walked into was swiftly lit by what he knew to be the magic of this world. He gazed into the room and was surprised by what he saw.

It was a circular room that had seemingly been the location of some sort of fight, blood could be seen in streaks on the stone walls and floor. The furniture of the room had been thoroughly destroyed as wooden desks, cabinets, and chairs were strewn all across the room.

In the back left portion of the room, a circular staircase could be seen ascending the tower, and it seemed the fight continued up the stairs as bloody marks could be seen on them.

Neil decided to continue exploring the tower with much more caution than he had. He knew that if he came across any of the people who were involved in this fight he would likely be slain, due to his current weakness and lack of equipment.

The power of this world relied heavily on two things. A person's abilities and what could be called stats included their strength, intelligence, agility, will, endurance, resistance, vitality, and so on. These would increase naturally as own honed themselves through battle and training. Some specific consumables could be found to increase these abilities, but those were few and far between so for the time being he didn't focus on them.

The second determinant for power was a person's equipment, within the game, there were multiple equipment slots for equipment, though with him now living in the world it was simply based on what he wore. He hoped that this tower might contain some useful equipment for himself, and maybe even a place to rest before he continued onward to the village.

The tower was completely silent and with each step up the blood-spattered stairs he could hear the creak underneath him. After a few minutes of slowly creeping up the spiral staircase, he came across the next floor. This one seemed to be left in much better shape than the prior one. It was also decorated with much less blood as it seemed the fight instead continued up the stairs.

There was a couch in the middle of the room with a large table in front of it and two smaller ones on either side. In the back right corner of the room, a large ornate wardrobe could be seen.

'Awesome!' Neil thought to himself as he saw the wardrobe, in the hope that some possibly useful equipment and outfits could be found within it. He carefully walked over to the wardrobe, still trying to be silent in case there were any dangers within the tower.

Once at the wardrobe, he opened the two larger cabinets with a glint of hope in his eyes. Sadly though it seemed no clothing had been left within the larger cabinets as it was completely barren.

'That's alright, it's not as though I'm currently naked, these clothes work just fine' Neil thought in an attempt to negate the feelings of disappointment in seeing nothing. There were four smaller drawers underneath the larger doors and he then went to open each of these.

The first and second drawers were both just as empty as the prior cabinets, at this point, Neil was becoming annoyed at the wardrobe and slightly wished to kick it. But he kept in these desires and instead opened the last two drawers expecting nothing just like the others.

To his surprise, he was only partially correct, as the drawer on his left was indeed empty, but the one to his right contained what looked to be a beautiful bracelet.

He swiftly picked up the bracelet and began investigating it, it was made from seemingly pure silver with an inlay of multiple red gems. He chuckled to himself with glee as he looked at it.

"If only I knew what it actually did." He muttered to himself as he held it.

To his surprise a window seemingly appeared in front of his eyes, he truly couldn't believe what he was seeing.