Walking through the village, Elix felt different. There was a mixture of excitement and anxiety churning in his stomach. When he reached the meeting spot where his father had told him to meet Ren at the entrance to the village, he noticed that there was no grand entrance, just a small, broken wooden sign pointing in the general direction of the village center. As he stood there he smiled as the realization dawned on him that he might not see his home for a long time.

  A voice came from behind Elix.

  “What ya thinkin’ about?” Ren had appeared out of nowhere.

  “Dude, what the hell? Don’t scare me like that!” Elix spun around in fright.

  “Lesson one kid: keep your wits about you. It was child's play to sneak up on you, and if I had sinister intentions, I would have killed you before you even had a chance to notice me. But on the positive side, you’re here.” Ren lectured, giving a slightly off-kilter smile.

  “Right then, this is it. We really gotta go, kid.”

  In one movement, Ren grabbed Elix by the shoulder, turned, and bounded through the open fields that bordered the village. With Elix’s feet off the ground, Ren sprinted at an inhuman speed.

  Ren was faster than any horse Elix had ever seen. They traveled at a ridiculous pace; the surroundings blurred, and Elix began to feel sick. Although the journey only lasted a few minutes, it felt dizzying to Elix. When they came to an abrupt stop, Elix found himself on his feet, but the sensation of movement lingered, leaving him disoriented. Tears streamed from his eyes, and snot poured from his nose as he staggered over to a tree and vomited.

  “Pull yourself together, kid,” Ren laughed.

  Elix looked at him and, for the first time, took in his appearance. Ren was tall and muscular, wearing a green cloak with the hood down, messy brown hair resting on his brow. His piercing green eyes stood out, but it was his haggard face that struck Elix most, rough stubble and a worn expression lay upon it.

  Ren retrieved a card from his inventory and handed it to Elix, who examined it.

  Name: Vitri Potion, Rank: G, Level: 5 Description: A bright red concoction brewed by a mad alchemist whose experiments were probably more "chaotic genius" than "well thought out." effects: looking cooler than you are, it’s a bit sour.. Requirements: Level 5.

  Elix nodded and closed his eyes, and took the card from Ren. He could feel the card in his hand and focused on it, imagining the card activating. He visualized the potion in his mind, and a flash of red pierced his closed eyes. When he opened his hand, he felt the glass bottle materialize, and when he looked, the Virti Potion was in his grasp.

  “Ha! See, kid—I knew it!” Ren exclaimed. “We will make a Cardmancer out of you yet. When I used Unveil on you before, it showed a Level 5 human, G rank. What is remarkable is that you used a card above your level. Now drink up, I have some questions I want you to answer, kid.” Smiled Ren.

  Elix uncorked the potion and downed it in one gulp. A sharp jolt hit his mind. His senses sharpened, leaving him clear-headed and alert. As the bottle vanished, wisps of smoke evaporated into nothingness.

  Damn, this feels awesome, Elix thought to himself.

  “Okay, kid, now that you’re back to normal, let’s talk. Tell me—when you look at your stats menu, what do you see? At Level 5, you should just have the basic stats menu, with no profession or skill class.”

  Ren walked over to a tree stump and crossed his legs, sitting on top of it.

  Elix opened his stats menu and began reading aloud.

  Name: Elix Greenacre Race: Human Level: 5 Rank: G Vitality: 200 Stamina: 150

  Ren stroked his stubbly chin, head tilted to one side, looking slightly perplexed.

  “What is it?” Elix asked.

  “Well, those are the basic stats of a normal human who has never practiced card magic or trained in any way. You’ve used card magic for a long time at base level, so I’d expect you to be at least Level 10 by now. There’s also the fact that when I released my aura to suppress the cow’s disorienting skill effect, it didn’t affect you at all. That thing was Level 15, so I released enough of my aura to suppress beings around that level. This is really quite strange, kid.” Ren stared at Elix as if assessing him.

  “Oh, and there’s the fact that you can clearly use cards of a higher level than what you are. Tell me, what happens when you gain XP?”

  “Well, I have an XP goal to move to the next level, but every time I get to it, it resets back to 0 XP, and the total I need to reach the threshold gets higher each time. I don’t get prompted to distribute stats, and I’ve never achieved access to any profession or skill class.” Elix was visibly downcast, explaining his frustrating XP level situation.

  “Interesting. From what I gather, you’re leveling up like normal, but your XP resets, and your level doesn’t progress. It’s like your level stat line is broken. But from what I’ve seen, you can use cards of the level you should be at. This leads me to believe you are leveling up. Come here and sit down—I want to try something.” Ren pointed to the ground in front of the tree stump.

  Elix walked over and sat down. Ren reached out, his open hand hovering above Elix’s head, palm facing down. The wooded area around them grew eerily silent.

  “What are you doing?” Elix asked.

  Ren didn’t respond. He whispered almost inaudibly, his words in an unfamiliar language. Elix decided to close his eyes, thinking it might help him focus. Time seemed to stand still.

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  In a greyscale space filled with twisted trees and statues, Ren wandered as though searching for something. He soon came to a stone pillar topped with a circular stone platform. Resting on it was a scroll bound by a blue ribbon and sealed with blue wax.

  “Found you,” Ren said.

  He reached for the scroll, but his hand phased through it and the stone. Suddenly, the scroll began unrolling, and the greyscale space faded away into nothingness.

  “Oh, it’s like that, is it? Fine—keep your secrets. I’ll find out eventually... Elix.” Ren whispered to himself, Elix unaware of what he was talking about.

  Elix opened his eyes, feeling as though nothing had happened. Ren stood on the tree stump, arms folded, with a strange grin.

  “What happened?” Elix asked.

  “Oh, nothing at all, kid. But introductions are over—time for some fun.”Ren took a deep breath.

  “Kid, we’re a long way from your village. We’re in Carthor, you’ve heard of this place, right? They say the monster population is quite high. A lot of travelers who’ve tried to pass through this forest have never been seen again.” Ren was still grinning but it made Elix feel uneasy.

  "My party is camped at the base of the mountains on the other side of this forest. Make it through this last part and reach my camp. Turning back is pointless, kid, as we’re already three-quarters of the way through. See ya!”

  In a flash of green, Ren vanished. The air stirred with dust and leaves from his sudden exit. The tree stump he had been standing on was now a burnt crater in the ground.

  “Wait, Ren! Come back, you bastard!” Elix shouted as he sat in front of the spot where the tree stump had once been.

  The sounds of the forest seemed to come alive, as though muted before. Elix got to his feet and looked around. The first thing he noticed was the trees, these were not like the ones he was used to. They were gnarled and bony, with gray bark resembling stretched, taut skin. The leaves were a deep, dark green.

  All of a sudden, a smell hit Elix like a punch. Rotten and sinister, it was unlike anything he could identify, but it turned his stomach. After assessing his surroundings, he decided he needed to choose a direction to travel.

  Well, which way now? If I go the wrong way, no doubt I’ll run into some kind of monster and probably be killed. Damn that idiot, he didn’t tell me which way to go! I need to think this through.

  Elix stood for a moment, staring at the crater. Then he noticed burn marks on the sides of the trees.

  Burn marks—that’s it. These indicate Ren went that way. I guess that’s obvious. If he went that way, then no doubt it’s the right way.

  Elix set off, walking as quietly as he could manage, carefully avoiding branches on the ground to make as little sound as possible.

  After an hour of walking, he stopped as he came upon an ashen gray tree. Its trunk bore strange carvings, they were jagged symbols unlike anything he had ever seen. The tree had no leaves, and tied around each branch was a blood-red ribbon.

  Getting closer, Elix stopped in front of the strange tree. Staring at it, he watched as the runes began to morph and glow green. An M.i message appeared next to the tree, which Elix read:

  Translation Skill Unlocked

  Skill: Translation Level: 1

  A passive skill giving the user the ability to translate and converse in non-ancient languages.

  A skill? What the hell? I can now gain skills? What is going on?

  This was the first time Elix had ever received a skill message. The message disappeared after he had read it.

  The runes shifted into words Elix could now read. As he read them, he suddenly felt cold and fear washed over him.

  The words said:

  No path. Go back. Grier’s domain.

  Elix shut his eyes, looked up at the sky, and let out an exasperated sigh.

  I can’t go back, and now the only way forward is into whatever Grier's domain is. Well, I have no choice, I have to go forward. Maybe I can get through unnoticed.

  Elix walked forward, taking four steps past the gray tree.

  As he moved, he began hearing high-pitched laughter from behind him. The voices were clearly not human. Picking up his pace, Elix soon found himself running. Yet the laughter persisted, more than one voice trailing him, no matter how fast he ran. Realizing whatever was behind him would soon catch up, Elix spotted a small alcove on a bank with a large tree growing out of it. He climbed down and hid, wrapping his cloak tightly around himself.

  Elix heard heavy footsteps entering the area of the forest where he now hid. Slowing his breathing, he closed his eyes and listened to the voices approaching.

  “It’s round here somewhere! I can smell it, boys,” snarled an evil-sounding voice.

  “We’ve been running for ages. I’m starving. You’d better be right, Kelek, or I’ma gut you,” replied an equally disgusting voice.

  “Quiet, or I’ll rip out both your tongues,” growled an angry third voice.

  While hiding, Elix decided to check his stats. He had been running for over an hour and wanted to make sure he still had enough stamina in case he needed to make a run for it. Summoning his stats menu, the M.i window opened in front of him:

  Name: Elix Greenacre Race: Human Level: 19 Rank: G Vitality: 200/200 Stamina: 150/200 Mana: 50/50 Strength:100 Agility: 100 Intelligence: 50 Wisdom: 50 Available Stat Points: 500 Skill Selections Available: 3 Active Skills:1

  Elix stared at the menu in disbelief.

  But how? I’m Level 5!

  As the thought crossed his mind, the menu screen flickered and changed before his eyes:

  Name: Elix Greenacre Race: Human Level: 5 Rank: G Vitality: 200 Stamina: 150

  What? No—where did all the stats go? Shit!

  Elix didn’t understand what was happening. The stats menu had changed right before his eyes.

  Now’s not the time. I have to get out of here.

  The footsteps were right above him, accompanied by loud sniffing sounds.

  “I guess we lost it, boys. Better search ahead,” said the voice of the third creature.

  Elix couldn’t see the creatures, so he had no idea the third one had raised its hand to signal the other two to hide in the trees. Elix heard the footsteps moving away from him.

  Waiting a few minutes to ensure the coast was clear, he jumped out from his hiding spot. Quickly scanning his surroundings. He was just about to continue further into the forest when he heard the loud snapping of branches behind him.