1. Rushed Beginnings

"Your very existence defiles the idea of power and strength. You are a shell of a warrior, a scam of a mage, you pale in comparison to the raw power of monsters and beasts and frankly you're the most pathetic creature to have ever made it here. What gives you the right?"

"Possibility," The man replied curtly before lifting his eyes to the unfathomable beings before him. "The possibility that maybe I am something more."

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Caster was an average college student. He sat firmly in the center of his class's grade and had to work diligently to continue to pass his classes. It had taken four years of long nights and lots of studying, but he was finally at the end of the road. He had finished his finals, passed, and was waiting for graduation. For the first time in a long time he was going to get a drink to celebrate. Caster grabbed his keys and was walking towards the door when the world went black.

He woke up with pain in his head like an ax had cleaved it in two. His body felt burned all over. His every breath only brought more pain, but deep down he felt the need to live. Whatever this pain was from he had to make it out. He didn't understand why or where his drive to live came from, but he knew he needed to live. He opened his eyes only to be greeted by shadows. The blackness was swirling and moving like everything around him was constantly shifting. It continued, agonizingly for minutes. Finally, the pain started to recede. As it did his hearing also seemed to return, only for it to be flooded by an obnoxious, searing alarm to ring in his ear. Every five seconds or so it would blast his ears.

"Turn it off! Please! Make the noise stop!" Caster shouted, hoping that whatever was assailing his ear drums would stop.

"Turning notifications off." A monotone female voice rang out.

The noises stopped and Caster had a moment to collect himself. Readying himself Caster slowly rose from the ground to try to feel his way through the darkness, but as he fully stood, he came face to face with a blue screen. Scrawled across the screen read:

Caster Markson

Race: Error_Unknown_Entity-Race set to appear as [Human]

Level-1

[Attributes]

Strength-1

Vitality-1

Dexterity-1

Intelligence-1

Luck-1

Mana-10

Stamina-10

[Skills]

Still compiling skill information...estimated time to completion 13 hours 14 minutes...

Stat points: 0

Skill points: 0

Caster gazed at the screen for minutes trying to understand what or why this was here. Why was this screen here? The more he thought, the more he started to realize that he hadn't felt anything around him and his door, or at least wall should have been within arm's reach at this point. As he frantically looked around, he saw at the bottom corner of the screen, a mail icon with a red notification. Reaching out slowly, his hand touched it. A small holographic man appeared before him. Clearing its throat, he spoke.

"Caster! My boy, you finally woke up! Good, good, now follow me. I have a lot of important information that you're definitely going to want to hear." The holographic man excitedly spoke.

"Who are you. What do you mean?" Caster confusingly responded.

"Oh, how rude of me. I am the General Manager of the Soul Transplantation Corporation. I'm here in a more transparent fashion to make sure I could make this meeting. Now come, come, my time is short!" The holographic General Manager began striding away at a moderate pace.

"Hey, what is this? Where did my room go?" Caster frustratingly asked.

"Look, my boy, do you want the information or not?" The General Manager snapped his translucent head around and oozed devilishly.

Caster considered for two seconds and followed the quickly moving image of the General Manager. By the time he had taken 4 steps the surroundings changed. The black eerie surroundings became a grey 4 walled room with two couches facing each other. There were no decorations or defining feature in the room. The only thing of note was the green translucent center table with a steaming tea pot and two cups neatly set.

"Please take a seat. I have information to give you." The general manager took his own seat promptly and gestured to the tea. For the first time Caster looked at the details of the General Manager. He was an older looking businessman in a sharp suit with keen eyes. He gazed at Caster with eyes that seemed to look for the smallest flaws or prying for the first hint of a weakness. The displayed image of the General Manager had muted colors and details, making General Manager take on a rough appearance.

"So where am I? What is this? Where did my room go? Is my family..."

"Shush now and listen boy. I'm a very busy man and you're lucky I'm taking time out of my schedule to even talk to you." The General Manager quickly deflected Caster's questions.

"Caster, you are in the process of been graciously transferred to the planet of Echon from Earth. I can go ahead and tell you, no you cannot return. What I can promise you is that the Soul Transplantation Corporation always makes sure to give our customers the best service when transplanting souls to new worlds. In a short 13 hours your new package of skills will be installed, and you will be ready for your new life on Echon! Doesn't that excite you?" The General Manager enthusiastically explained.

"NO! I didn't ask for this! Send me back! What the hell kind of business is soul transplantation anyway? This has to be some kind of screw up!"

"My boy. My boy. The Soul Transplantation Corporation does not make mistakes. I can assure you that you are right where you are supposed to be." The General Manager soothingly spoke. "Now, my time is short, and you have a wonderful life to live! Great fortunes and happy reincarnation!" With that the General Manager and the room began to fade. As the last remnants of the General Manager began to disappear, Caster swore he could see that calm businessman poker face suddenly swapped for one of distress. Nothing could be done about it though, the General Manager was gone, and Caster was back in the dark, both information wise and literally. He looked around for the screen that was there before as it was the only thing, he had clearly been able to see before the manager appeared and he found it, once again right in front of him.

Going off of the only information that he could reasonably utilize, he looked back to the installation progress.

12 hours 58 minutes remaining to completion...

'Guess I'll just have to wait until this is finished.'