1 Chapter 1

"Marcus..." a voice called out, awakening me from my sleep, "Marcus!" I snapped my eyes open and looked around, there was a bright blue sky, no clouds, the grass I was laying on was rather soft. "Marcus!" the voice shouted at me again - "What?!" I instinctively shouted in response. My heart dropped, I saw a transparent orb like entity which was shouting at me. Where am I, why am I not in my bed, this isn't a dream? I thought to myself in rapid succession.

"Good, you are awake!" The voice rang out about a foot above my face. "My name is Garrison, nice to meet you!" I sat up and the floating transparent orb-like thing named Garrison moved out of my way. I looked around and saw flat grasslands with blue balloons floating about four to six feet above the ground everywhere, though spread out a few yards from each other.

"Yes, you aren't dreaming, no you are not dead…" Garrison began to rattle off answers to questions in my head. "And yes, I took you from your bed, congratulations you have been chosen as the Champion of Elys!"

I blinked a few times, crossed my legs , placed my elbows on my knees and rested my chin in the palms of my hands. 'What the fuck…' I thought to myself. I can clearly feel my hands, the heat from my face and the warm moist air from my nostrils.

"So… to start you need to select a core ability. I have a list here…" Numbers and foreign looking characters flash across his face-or at least the face of the orb-like surface facing towards me. "Luckily I got a rebate for you! Which means I was able to augment myself to make it more safe for your arrival!" Garrison said excitedly while more characters scroll across his face. "Safe?" I asked going along with the orb, my heart still racing and my nerves shot.

"Yes, allow me to explain…" Garrison made a sound as if clearing his throat, meanwhile I watched a balloon float over towards me, I reached out with my left arm to poke it out of curiosity. My fingertip reached the balloon. "Oh wait don't do that!" Garrison interjected. But it was too late. The balloon moved away from my fingertips, the same way a balloon full of air will move away when lightly tapping it, and exploded with such force that my left arm was destroyed along with the left side of my head and face. I fell to the ground dizzy, but the pain I felt was mostly in my ribs and head. "No! No! No!" Garrison shouted above my face, I could barely hear him at this point, the ringing noise in my head drowned out most of his words.

"A healing ability… now… uh…" Garrison sounded frantic, "no magical abilities, no natural abilities either, oh Elys please forgive me, there are only three abilities left to choose from… Regeneration it is! Say Okay!" He shouted at me before my consciousness left, "Okay..." I spat out blood, my breathing was labored and I fell drifting towards darkness.