1 REBIRTH

'Sigh' "Another boring day done. . ." a man murmured, as he packed his belongings, ready to go home. He stepped outside the door of his office, and gazed up at the sky to see daylight fading. The few remaining rays of light hid behind the trees and buildings. "Is this it? Is this all I would be doing all my life? Is this the only thing this world has to offer?" he asked himself, as he had done every single day of his life.

He walked towards the side of the road, melding with the people as one of societies indistinguishable dots. In a glance the man looked alive and well, while he was standing, he would smile and wave to the people he knew. Checking his phone every now and then, to keep his mind busy as he waited to catch his ride back home. It had been like this for him for many years now. Each day it was more or less an exact copy of the previous, with minute changes like the weather.

However if one was to look deep into his eyes, one would see the truth. They would see that light no longer reached his being. He had become devoid of life, transformed to become a cog in society. A walking shell of a person that had once lived life. A bus screeched to a halt, waking the man from his stupor.

"Wouldn't it be nice if we also had magic and mythical creatures. I mean my commute home would be a lot more epic while flying on the back of a dragon." he imagined as he climbed aboard the bus.

Upon sitting down, he felt the tension disperse from his body. His vision blurred and the lids of his eyes turned heavy. He dozed off, as he usually does to recuperate for a bit. Like clockwork the man re-opened his eyes exactly to his stop. He collected the fragments of his consciousness and readied to board off. He walked the rest of his way home, all the while smiling and nodding to his neighbors and acquaintances. This time however it was different, glimmers of light seemed to spark from his eyes. Only getting stronger as he walked closer to his home.

He opened the door, brimming with vigor and a genuine smile on his face. "I missed you baby." He said, while eyeing the now lit computer. "Daddy's been working again. Once we get enough money, we can finally buy that new game." said the man, the delight in his voice evident. After he freshened up and dressed for comfort, he took a seat in front of his screen. He took as seat, feeling like a king that sat in his throne. "Let's see what we have in store for today!" the time went by fast, filled with shouting, laughing and merry making was done. When the hour grew late, he would set off to bed. Depending on the day, the air would be a mix of either contentment or frustration but always dashed with dread. Dread for the day he again, would be tied down to become a nameless cog of society. For yet another repeat of the days passed.

"Ugh! I wish something would change." the man slammed his head face down on his pillow. "God if you're there, take me to a world where I can be free." he added, disgusted at the idea of grinding another day. "Like my adventures on the worlds in my games."He recalled his gaming endeavors of the day, where he was able to take a whole garrison of orc for himself, and created an army to lead to battle. "I mean orcs, elves, dragons and the whole thing . . . . " He muttered as he drifted off to sleep.

"Would you really want that?" Asked a mysterious voice.

"Are you willing to leave, everything you've worked for here in this world for a chance to be in a world you desire?" the voice added.

Nid saw only darkness, he blinked several times yet still it was dark. "Have I gone blind?" he thought, but something inside him was compelled to answer. "Yeah, I mean it's not like I'm living the life anyway. I mean the only regret I would have, is losing my games and not having a chance to play the upcoming ones. Hahaha." He answered with a hint of sarcasm.

In a blink of an eye everything swirled around him and the next time he opened his eyes he was standing in a plain. Littered with grass and flowers of different colors. "This is a nice place. Picnics and book reading here would be great." he told himself, in awe of the beauty of the place.The ground shook, faint sounds of footsteps and drums boomed off the distance. He followed the source and peeked over the plateau. Human-like figures littered the land, on his right were huge and loud drums mounted to an elephant-like creature. To the left he heard loud chanting, from the armies marching for war.

He thought this was a weird dream. "Since they are riding elephants and horses, the game must have continued to my dream. Hahaha." At a closer look, the people on the right side was greenish in complexion, with tusks protruding from their mouths. The elephants, were not elephants at all. They were huge, but looked more like a mix of an elephant and a Hercules beetle. His eyes shone with excitement, "This is an awesome dream!".

He observed further, scanning the field with his eyes. There he noticed other details like some people were carrying some staff dressed in what seemed to be robes. "Wizards" he exclaimed. On the horizon he saw winged figures which looked like an amalgamation of different animal parts. "Are those gryphons and what are those?" he looked on the other side and saw reptile-like bats. "Flippin awesome!" they flew around in the vast sky, but this had purplish hue. Around him small trails of light flutter like insects, tossing and turning like a firefly but much brighter. As he began to realize the beauty of this alien world, he noticed that the land where he stood on was moving. He ran and saw that in the distance there were huge chunk of floating rock. "I thought I was on a plateau! But this is a floating rock!" he squealed with excitement. "This is awesome! Now just add dragons and the dream will be complete!"

Then the voice from earlier suddenly spoke, disrupting his hypnotic-like joy. "This is a glimpse of the world that you want. It's a place where magic and mythology are real."

Before he could even answer, a chilling wind swept the field. Making him turn his head to see what was causing it. The soldiers from earlier were now close to each other. The vanguard of knights on one side, advanced slowly with their shields on front and spear pointed at their enemy. The orcs on the opposite side had now began to grunt and roar towards the enemy. In a few moments, these orcs would rush, like crazy beasts of war. They meet head-on with loud thuds and clashing steel. Death and gore permeates the area with every slash of blade, crush of a club and spell thrown. Lightning, fire, ice shot out everywhere, zapping, burning and freezing their enemies. In the sky, aerial dogfights between the gryphons and reptilian bats were all over the place.

"This world is in constant conflict, danger lurks everywhere. Are you sure you still want this world?" the voice exclaimed.

Nid however still thought he was just having an awesome dream. "The death and gore might seem too much but it's still alright. Haha". He still enjoyed the sights with glitter in his eyes. He answered the voice's query "Yeah! This is a perfect dream, wish I could wield magic and stuff right now though."

"Confirmed, then I shall now commence mind and soul transference." The voice stated.

Nid didn't mind the voice's mumbling, he was too fixated on the scenery before him. Trying to memorize what was happening before he forgets this dream. Everything started to fade, until there was nothing but pitch black darkness.

"Create your new vessel." An emotionless voice demanded.

"This is a different voice from before, oh well." he commented.

Suddenly, information flooded his mind. It was as if he was on a character creation screen.

"Neat, time to create a character!"

In the past, he always played as an elf on his RPG games. This time was no different, he still chose to be an elf.

"To have a character creation in my dream, maybe I've been playing too much. Haha"

He proceeded to customize his elf, "This game have many elf subspecies huh? Hey a dark elf!" Upon seeing the option, he immediately chose to be a dark elf. This was because he idolized a dark elf in a book he read.

"Vessel created. Proceeding to spawn." stated the voice.

Nid thought "the voice sounds like an artificial intelligence in a game or something."

"I see you're done, hopefully you won't regret your decision. Have a good life in this world, now choose where you'll spawn." Said the voice, as if to warn Nid of what he's gotten himself into.

"Hey you're back! Where did you go?" Asked Nid.

Nid's question was met with deafening silence, but an image of a map flashed in his mind. At this point Nid was already bored, thinking that he might wake up anytime, "I wish there was a random spawn button and a skip button." Sighed Nid.

He thought of a meme where gamers tend to skip the tutorial and right after the game begins, has no idea what to do.

"That won't happen to me, I'm a veteran after all. Hahaha." proudly nodding to his genius.

By intuition he quickly selected an area on the map and proceeded to spawn. He vanished from sight, at the same time as when the voice was about to explain things crucial for his survival.

"Now that you have the world map, there will be key areas to maximize your survival. It will be marked with big yellow dots. This will be a huge boost as you will be spawned as . . . . And he's gone. Great. "

"Well, good luck then, I guess your life in this world will be short-lived. . . ." Added the voice, as if shaking his head with frustration. The area that Nid chose was not a marked area, meaning it didn't have the best probability of survival.

Meanwhile, Nid was blasting into this world like a meteor. Still unaware of the fact that this is not a dream. An explosion erupted upon his land fall down on a forested area, evaporating the closest trees.

"Sorry trees, I didn't mean to that." He apologized jokingly.

He was ready and all geared up to have a blast in the dream, when he realized something.

"What . . . What . . . What the! I can't stand! I can't even talk. . Talk about lame. . . wait is this a baby's hand? Damn this dream is starting to suck! What RPG starts with the character as an infant? Am I gonna cry the mobs to death?" Nid told himself.

He was fully aware even though he is an infant, but seeing as he can't do anything he decided to doze off. After a few hours had passed, Nid yawned as he woke up, stretching his baby limbs. Upon opening his eyes, he noticed that he was still in the same spot. Cold sweat ran down his spine,he was starting to get bothered.

"Why is dream taking so long? More than that, why is this dream still the same as when I was last aware. The only difference is that it's almost night time! This is starting to look more like a horror game than anything else! I don't want a nightmare! This dream even started out promising!" Nid begrudgingly said to himself, unnerved by the situation.

A few moments later, the sun began to hide behind the mountains. Nid noticed a faint glowing dome surrounding the area cleared by his crash. He doesn't know what it is, so he decided to ignore it. "Well at least there's a bit of light."

Having nothing left to do, he just stared at the sky. The remaining light from the sun vanished, turning the surrounding dark. He saw a familiar scene, stars, and then he noticed three circles of different sizes in the sky they exude an eerie magnificence, they were this worlds moons!

"Wow, a world with three moons! At least I got to see some nice scenery before I wake up." His eyes darted to each one of the heavenly objects. Carefully observing each one, eyes filled with fascination and awe. "The third moon is a bit weird though, being all black with a purplish hue. The big one is all icy looking and has rings! Awesome! and the other one is just like the one on earth just red." observed Nid.

After a while of star gazing he started to get bored again. The looming feeling that the dream was not ending started to creep in. As the thought came to him, he felt the hair on his body stand on end. He tried to think about the times where he forcefully manipulated his dreams just by knowing that he is dreaming.

"Come on! Grow up! Switch dreams!" thought Nid, trying to manipulate his so called dream.

Nothing is working, it felt like his heart was about to burst, his blood run cold, it doesn't seem to be affecting his dreams. He panicked, which translated to his infant body to wail and cry.

"What the heck is going on?! Why can't I do anything in this dream?! Why isn't this dream done yet?!!" Nid cried.

His current body could not handle the stress, his sight and consciousness started to fade. He closed his eyes and started to internalize, before his brain fully shuts down. Nid has always used meditation to calm himself down in the past. Whenever he gets anxious he starts to meditate and find the best outlook in each situation. Now he is trying to do the same.

"I've got nothing better to do. . . in this dream, . . .might as well chill . . . ." Nid internally convincing himself.

Just as he meditates a picture of a cross made of five points flashed in his mind. He seemed to be hypnotized by the points, drawing him closer. He felt a familiar sensation, it's as if he was trying to access a menu inside a computer. All the points were dimly lit and he is not able to do anything but looking at the points he can feel that they were important.

"I don't really know what this all means. . . I gotta keep it in mind. . ." He told himself.

Suddenly a bush outside the illuminated area rustled, jolting him awake. Remembering he's located in the middle of a forest, he thought "A. .a . . . a wooded area, it usually holds animals and other dangerous creatures as inhabitants."

"Come to think of it, the leaves and bushes around me had been making sounds for some time now." He whispered into his mind nervously.

It was the dead of the night, the Moons were positioned directly above him. "It's probably midnight. . Damn."

Moon rays penetrate that forest, together with the light of the dome surrounding him kept the darkness at bay. Yet this was not enough to make him see through the forest's shadows. He started seeing eyes in the distance, he could feel some ominous presence lurking in the darkness as if waiting for a chance to pounce on their prey. He also heard mischievous laughter reverberating all around him. It was another roller coaster ride of horror, he felt helpless as he had the body of an infant.

"This RPG dream is a nightmare!" he screamed internally.

As if reading his mind several figures crept from the shadows. "Wolves?!" The first thought that came to his mind after seeing the creatures. They circled his perimeter, as if gauging him.

"I love animals but I don't want to become their food!" he thought, as Nid observes their movements.

Without warning, one of the creatures lunged at him. He closed his eyes and braced himself, anticipating a painful end to his nightmare. Afterall, he was just a defenseless infant. Nid's every fiber filled with tension making his consciousness abandoned him. As he slumbered, he sensed a familiar atmosphere.

"Hmm. It feels like I've been here before."

He noticed a faint glow going in and out of existence, as if calling him. His eyes widened "I've been here before! It's the same cross like points as earlier."

"Hmm. From what I remember, none of these points were lit, yet now the center point is." As if clicking on lit point, he was able to see what it contains. "abilities huh? Let's see."

He navigated 'menu' as if it was second nature soon he was studying his new abilities and its effect. While reading, the tech enthusiast in him emerged, "It would be a lot easier and more user friendly if this had some voice assist."

"Voice Assist unlocked!" A feminine sounding voice exclaimed.

"Ability: Mind Read

Effect: You can read the thoughts of a selected individual, granted that the individual has permitted you or is weaker than you."

"Ability: Dream Weave

Effect: You can manipulate the dream of an individual, granted that the individual has permitted you or is weaker than you."

"Ability: Mental Map

Effect: Deploys an overground recreation of an explored map mentally."

After having read the abilities, Nid closed the menu. He opened his eyes, gentle sunlight blinded him. He thought to himself "Finally that nightmare is over!"

He then stretched his body to prepare for another day of grind at work. As he was doing his routine, his eyes started to adjust and what we saw baffled him. He was still an infant, worse he was still in the forest.

"WHAT IS HAPPENING??!! WHY AM I STILL HERE??!! THIS NIGHTMARE SHOULD BE DONE BY NOW!" He screamed in confusion.

"I read about this on an article online. What did it say again. . . Oh yeah, I need to introduce a new stimulus like a pinch, to wake up." still trying to convince himself that this is all a dream.

He then realized that he can't do that either as he had uncoordinated baby hands.

"Curse this body!"

Still not trying to give up that this is all just a bad dream. He concocted another plan to wake up from this supposed dream.

"Maybe if I sleep again, I'll wake up from this absurdity."

He tried different things, struggled, all of which translated into the baby language of wailing and crying. Yet still it all failed, he gave up and accepted his fate, "this might be my new reality."

Amidst the confusion that, he felt a looming presence walking towards him. This presence seemed harmless, with this however he suddenly had an epiphany. He was surrounded by an aggressive presence last night, yet he was still unscathed.

"What happened after I passed out?" He asked all disoriented.

While he was racking his brain trying to remember what happened, he noticed a silhouette. There stood a figure of a lady, with long hair and slender body. She was unnaturally attractive, but something appears strange about her body, she seemed to have branches and vines sprouting off her.

"What do you want?" Nid asked, then realized he was just making baby noises.

"I wish I can at least communicate with them with telepathy." He mused.

As he was talking to himself, the woman bent down and tried to reach him. He freaked out and wailed, she did not know what the woman wanted.

"Oi! Oi! Oi! What do you think you're doing?" He screamed in his mind.

The woman's eyes grew wide, suddenly taken aback, a confused look drawn in her face. Nid who was observing her also seemed more confused by what is happening. Then the woman spoke "okh lurne n'fal?"

Nid did not understand what she said. She seemed to be speaking to him, but she was using a language not known to him.

"Boodle translate would have been very helpful right about now!"

The woman's eyes widened yet again, her eyes darted from left to right, as if scanning the area. Nid tried to follow her gaze, yet gained nothing but more confusion. The woman's gaze stopped on him, he did not feel any ominous ulterior motive, but he's not taking any chances.

"Why are here? What are you trying to do to me?" He repeated his thought.

He was not expecting anything fruitful from what he's doing. Yet being a non-speaking baby, he didn't really had much options. Unexpectedly however, she looked bewildered. Nid did not know what is happening, maybe he looked strange or foreign or something. Seeing the lady directly eyeing him made him feel awkward.

"Hello?" He blurted out.

Just then the lady blinked and regained some composure. "Are thee the one talking to this one's mind?" the lady asked.

Nid just had a mini-heart attack, He just heard something he somewhat understood. He looked around, as much as his baby figure permits. He saw no one except the lady in front of him.

He then asked "Are you talking to me?"

His thoughts were clear yet all his infant physique can do is produce some baby sounds. This was met with a smile from the lady in front of him.

She reached out for Nid's chin and give it a little tickle,"Aye I am talking to thee, and I assume that the baby in front of me is the one talking directly into mine own head."

Nid found the way she spoke to be a bit archaic. Despite this he was glad about being able to communicate at all.

"You're not gonna eat me? Are you?" Nid questioned.

Nid had a hunch that the woman can be trusted, nonetheless this didn't mean that he can't ask more questions to make sure he's on the safe side.

"What does thee think?" the lady retorted with a smile lightly tapping Nid's forehead.

He attempted to add humor to his answer with "You don't look carnivorous to me. Haha."

She just smiled at him. She then proceeded to ask "Do you have a name little one?"

"Umm. Yeah, my name is Niadra Veste. How about you? What's your name?"

"This one is called Andrasyl, mistress of the forest." She replied with a radiant smile accompanied by a majestic bow.

"May I trouble thee with another query Niadra Veste?" she asked, with a bit of worry in her face.

"Sure, fire away. Please just call me Nid, saying my whole name is kind of awkward. Haha." Nid replied with a jolly tone.

"Fire away. . ? What . . ? Anyway, what I did want to ask, is about thy situation, you seem to already possess intellect and abilities, however you still look like an infant? do you have a need for sustenance and care?" She asked with a mix of confusion and concern.

With the mention of sustenance, Nid's mind filled with food and drinks. He had not eaten nor drink since yesterday. He did not seem badly hungry but was also feeling like he needs some food or drink now.

"Now that you mention it, I haven't had anything to eat or drink since I came here." Nid stated while gauging his hunger level.

"I have another question, How did you find me?" Nid added.

Although Nid already had a rough idea of how he was found, having cleared area in the forest through the impact of his spawning. He still wanted to ask her as she might provide more light on his current situation.

"I think most of the inhabitants, if not all, are aware of thy presence here Nid. Tis not everyday that someone can witness the birth of a being from the sky. Tis also why diff'rent beings from all over the forest have been scouting the area. Remember the sigbins from last night? those gents were sent here to investigate about thee. " Andrasyl answered.

"Beings have been scouting me? sigbins? What do they want from me?" Nid thought.

Nid forgot that he was able to talk to her telepathically, thus he unexpectedly told her what he thought.

"I'm sorry, if I confused thee. sigbins are the creatures that surrounded thee last night. As for what they want from thy little one, i'm afraid cannot provide the answer.." She apologized.

Nid went into deep thought again "from what Andrasyl said, it seems that my presence is known to all the inhabitants of the forest already. Not only that but it seems that I am already under scrutiny of the inhabitants of this woodland."

A nagging feeling suddenly bloomed in his mind , it's like he's forgetting something important. "Come to think of it, I seem to be forgetting something important about the creatures what happened to me last night. . . " he mused.

The whole time Nid was thinking not to mention leaking his thoughts. Andrasyl just stood and smiled, patiently waiting for him.

He racked his brain brain for the answer, then it dawned on him.

"I remember now, I was surrounded by wolves last night. One of those wolves lunged at me, trying to attack me, but I lost my consciousness." he recalled.

" If all of this is real then I should have died last night, because I was attacked by those wolves. How am I still alive?"

Nid felt like Andrasyl knew what had happened, based from what he told him. So he decided to probe for the answer.

Andrasyl pointed upwards. Then said "wolves? I know not of wolves, as only sigbins were around. Look up there at the light, this dome is a barrier to protect thee from harm. It prevents entry of malignant beings or objects, and absorbs any damage and returns it at the attacker"

"I analyzed this magic earlier, this is a very stout magic. One so ancient, it exists only in legends. This magic is so potent that it holds up for a whole week, shall last for 6 days more before it expires. Whoever cast this is indeed powerful" She added with clear awe.

"So it's like a form of novice protection that can be found in some games, since I am an infant and unable to defend myself. If that's the case how come Andrasyl was able to enter the barrier." Nid monologued to himself forgetting that he is telepathically leaking his thoughts to her.

"Novice protection? what magic is that? are you not the one who cast this magic? but if it be true then why would thee ask why you are alive?" Asked Andrasyl who was switching from questioning me to self-monologuing.

"Also like I have said, the barrier only stops entry from those who wish to harm thee. So this one was able to pass, as I have no intentions of bringing you harm." She added with a smile.

"Oh, novice protection is nothing really. I really need to stop my thoughts from leaking like this. haha." Nid smiled awkwardly in his mind. "It's just something from some games back where I'm from. Haha." Nid explained.

Andrasyl looked more confused, and Nid felt that he would soon be bombarded by lots of questions. So Nid took the initiative and explained his situation, his past life and how he got here. While failing to include the part where he haphazardly chose his spawn point, without listening to what the voice was saying.

"I see, so this little one is not from this world originally, but some place called earth. I can not say that I fully comprehend all of this, however I believe thee." looking a bit dumbfounded about the situation.

Andrasyl took a deep breath recollecting her composure and said "I'm here to offer thee care under mine own protection seeing as you seem to be unable to fend for yourself."

"Really?!!" Nid exclaimed with surprise. "I mean, that would be great! I really don't know what to do with myself at this point. Haha." he said with bliss.

One of his greatest fears upon realizing that he is stuck here has now been answered. He no longer have to worry about his day to day survival, like how to acquire food and drink especially as an infant. Out of the bloom, he remembered, he's an 'infant', he should not even be capable of communication. So he then asked her:

"How am I able to talk with you anyway? Did you use some sort of magic?" asked Nid.

She looked a bit confused, then replied "Nay, I do not have any magic like that. This one thinks the little one is using such ability."

After Andrasyl denied that she cast such magic, Nid then remembered that he was able to access some sort of menu that gave him information on some things like abilities. So he tried accessing them again via mediation. There he noticed the flashing light on a point, the same point he selected when he was trying to learn about his abilities. He re-selected the said point to learn about what has changed.

A feminine voice from before then read the newly added abilities.

"Ability: Language Translate

Effect: Translate language into an understandable form for both the speaker and the listener.

Ability: Telepathy

Effect: Communicate directly through a selected one's mind."

"I had these abilities and I didn't know about it?! Man I wish I had an AI assistant or something to inform me of such things!" Nid frowned.

All of a sudden, the feminine voice said "Permission granted, Voice Assistant is now able to notify when new abilities are acquired."

"Just like that? Well it's not like I'm complaining, so thanks." he thought.

He then returned to his senses, with a woman standing before him. It was Andrasyl, she was waiting for Nid to snap out of his trance. To Andrasyl, the moment Nid started meditating she felt some sort of calm enter him and the area in close proximity. As she was one with the forest, she knew that he was doing something and decided just to wait for him.

"Were you waiting for me? How long was I out?" Nid asked her.

"I was, and t'was not long. What were thee doing?" Andrasyl queried.

"Oh, I was meditating, sort of examining myself. Haha." Nid replied.

"I see" She still had some questions but felt that it could be left for later. So she asked "Are you ready to depart and go to thy new home?"

"Yup!" Nid replied happily.

She leaned down, picked Nid up and walked into the wood elegance emanating from her every move. It was a long walk but now, Andrasyl stood still facing into a meadow. She sat him down in her arms, soon Nid's vision filled with grass and flowering plants, there were small fairy like creatures glittering the field and at the center of it all was a gigantic tree. This tree towered above all the others and had a regal and magical feel to it.

Andrasyl smiled at him and said "Welcome to thy new home."