1 A Vast but Boring Forest

Stumbling out of the office, Ivan was slowly walking towards the nearest bus stop.

He and his co-workers had been hard at work fixing the remaining bugs before their next big title, 'Legends of Lowheart', was released.

After many excruciating hours of work, Ivan had finally finished his last assigned task and was able to go back home. After working in the video game industry for four years, Ivan experienced this kind of situation many times.

Unpaid overtime was a part of the job. Since most of the people working in this industry were young men, it was pretty easy to exploit their deep passion for video games.

Most people only worked in the industry for two years. However, Ivan was a veteran. He had been playing video games for a long as he could remember. And had worked in the industry for six years. After school, when he was young, Ivan would rush home to get five more minutes on the computer before his parents came home.

When Ivan learned that it was somebody's job to make video games, it became his dream to make video games for a living.

When Ivan was 13 years old, his parents died in a car accident. This event left an everlasting scar on Ivan's mind, and since then, he has focused on nothing but work. He began to concentrate on all school subjects.

The world was nothing more than a game to him. The school was but a new high score to beat.

Ivan would regularly faint due to work; this had become a bad habit that would surface during stressful last-minute sprints of overtime work.

And unfortunately, today was one of those days; as Ivan was crossing the street, he started to feel lightheaded.

In one moment, he could feel his body tumble as if he had been hit by something, the next, and he felt excruciating pain throughout his body.

Then suddenly, he felt as if he was falling through the sky. The pain was gone, and a euphoric sensation spread throughout his body.

He felt a damp sensation on his face. As Ivan slowly opened his eyes, he noticed a sprawling landscape below. As he passed through a thick layer of clouds, his fear of heights kicked in; quickly, he shut his eyes tight and awaited his death.

However, his demise was yet to come. Ivan felt his body begin to slow down. As Ivan slowly opened his eyes, Ivan started to see more details in the landscape below him. He was falling towards a densely populated forest.

On one side of the forest was a majestic mountain range, and on the other was an enormous body of water. Ivan was now only two kilometers above the dense forest below. However, as he fell, it would seem that his speed was decreasing continuously.

When Ivan was 100 meters above the ground, it no longer felt as if he was falling, but more akin to him slowly levitating down towards the surface.

Ivan tried to steer away from landing in the forest. He spotted a small clearing to his left and began to move towards it. As his left foot touched the ground, the seemingly magical effect disappeared instantly.

And he lightly fell over onto the grassy floor below him.

Ivan stood up and began to look around; he was standing in a small meadow surrounded by thick forest. In the middle of this small plain stood a giant tree.

Towering above the forest, its dark shadow covered half of the meadow. To the left of the tree was a small river about one or two meters wide.

Shocked by this strange experience, Ivan slowly walked towards the river, crouching down and bending over. With both hands scooping a handful of water and splashing his face.

"I really need to stop working overtime..." Ivan muttered under his breath.

Ivan had already accepted the reality he was in. Due to his background in video games, Ivan was familiar with the 'Transported to another world' genre of fiction.

Although it was hard to accept that it just happened to him, Ivan couldn't help but get excited.

Nevertheless, what he found most shocking was his face. Although similar to his previous life, the Ivan of this world had a dark crimson-like red color hair. And from his facial features, Ivan estimated he was about 14 or 15 years old in this world.

When he realized, Ivan jumped high up into the air and began shouting in joy.

"Hahaha!! MY YOUTH! I HAVE REGAINED MY YOUTH!! DAMN YOU OFFICE; I SHALL NEVER RETURN!!!!! NEVER!!!!" when his outburst of joyous laughter had stopped, Ivan sat down underneath the large tree and began to go over the typical scenarios he had heard about.

"By now, I should have either been contacted by god or received some system or cheat ability. How come it has yet to happen?" Ivan said with a worried tone.

In his original world, he had heard of multiple novels. The protagonist didn't receive his ability for a long time. In some cases, they never received one. This scenario worried him deeply.

After completing the search of his mind, Ivan concluded that this would not be as easy as he had anticipated. By this time, the protagonists should have received powers beyond most people's imaginations.

Ivan started to contemplate his next move.

While deep contemplation, Ivan heard what sounded like footsteps from within the forest. He quickly stood up and prepared to run.

'How the hell am I supposed to fight anything in this forest when I haven't received my powers.' Ivan thought while panicking slightly.

As the footsteps slowly approached the small meadow, Ivans's heart began to beat faster and faster. It felt as if he had just run a marathon.

Ivan started to notice leaves and tall grass rustling. And then the creature appeared before him.

However, it was not what he had expected. Approximately 40 meters in front of him stood not a giant beast or bloodthirsty mercenaries but a tiny girl not much older than 11 years of age.

When he noticed the little girl, Ivan finally began to calm down. As he looked back up at the girl, he saw that she was looking back at him.

Their gazes met. However, the girl did not seem scared but somewhat relieved.

As the girl approached him, Ivan noticed the state this girl was in. Her hair was dirty.

She was wearing what seemed to be some discarded sack; it would seem that she lived alone in this forest and for quite some time.

"Hello! my name is..." Ivan panicked as he did not know the naming standards of this world.

He wasn't even sure if she would understand him. But before he could finish his thought process, the girl spoke.

"What are you doing here, mister? this is very far from any of the big cities you know." The little asked while tilting her little head to the side.

Ivan was relieved since he could understand her, but it didn't seem like speaking any language he had ever heard on Earth.

Looking back at the girl, he panicked and tried to come up with a plausible-sounding story as to why he was here alone deep in the forest.

"I can't remember much. Even my name is a bit hazy. How about we start with this. What is your name, little girl?" Ivan asked while trying to sound as confused and helpless as possible, which wasn't that hard since he was currently lost in an unfamiliar world.

"My name is Sari, and I am eleven years old," Sari proudly announced. It appeared she thought of herself as a bit of a genius for knowing her own age. This might be due to the lack of education in this world.

"Hello Sari, You can call me... Beri, yeah, Beri. Do you know where the closest village might be?" Ivan, now Known as Beri, asked.

"Brother Beri! I also don't know where we are! I think we are in a forest, thought..." Sari said happily. It would seem she was just happy to no longer be alone in her plight.

After talking for a little while, both Beri and Sari began to know each other better.

From what Beri was able to gather from Sari, this world is without a name, and the continent they are on is called Depun. From what Sari told Beri, magic was commonly used, but it lacked any substantial power.

A talented mage was not much more powerful than an ordinary knight. Due to this lack of power, mages were mainly seen as healers and 'religious leaders.'

"Brother Beri! Brother Beri! What is your class? Can you remember? I should let you know that I am an excellent archer." Sari asked childishly, not knowing what deep fire she had just lit within Beri.

"What do you mean 'Class'? Like 'Mage' or 'Warriror'??" Beri asked faster than he had ever asked somebody before.

"Yeah! You know, like what comes up when you say 'Status' in your head!!" Sari said with a wide smile on her face.

'Please! Please! Work like it does in the novels back home' Beri closed his eyes and began to chant in his mind.

'Status! Status! Status!'

As he opened his eyes, a translucent screen had appeared in front of him.

It seemed to something that looked very similar to a computer terminal he had used daily in his previous world.

The word Status had appeared in a text field at the bottom. Beri quickly imagined hitting enter on a non-existing keyboard and completed the command.

As he did, the text field became empty, leaving only a blinking text cursor. After 5 seconds, the command seems to have been processed and displayed text in a spreadsheet-style format table of statistics. Presumably, it was describing him.

First Name: Beri

Last Name: Null

Age: 15

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Level: 1

Experience: 0

Class: Kernel Mage

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