The Server Transfer didn’t fade in. It dropped him.
The atmospheric rupture hit like a concussive wave, slamming Will into the dirt with enough blunt-force trauma to instantly rupture his left eardrum.
A high-pitched, chanical whine imdiately hijacked half his hearing, drowning out the ambient noise of the world. Will lay completely still, his face pressed against a carpet of thick moss, his brain fighting to catch up with the fact that his lungs were still pulling in oxygen.
The air tasted wrong. It wasn’t the sterile, cordite-laced ozone of the Tutorial. It was a sickeningly sweet mix of wet earth, blooming vegetation, and the undeniable, tallic tang of a hundred-thousand-year-old rot.
He forced his eyes open.
Pale blue sky, enormous and unfiltered, crossed by a flock of birds he didn’t recognize. They moved in formations that seed almost deliberate, banking left in unison, gone behind a canopy of black thorns.
Will pushed himself onto his hands and knees. The side of his head throbbed in ti with his pulse, a thin trickle of hot blood sliding down his neck from his left ear. He patted himself down, assessing the toll of the transition.
His clothes were stiff, baked with a permanent layer of ash and dried monster ichor that had fused directly to the fabric during the friction of the transfer. He grabbed his belt pouch. The iron clasps had permanently lted, warped into useless slag that sealed the leather shut, trapping his two remaining rations and a water skin inside.
Bow across his back. Quiver empty. Short sword gone—handed off to Zeraya right before the amber tear collapsed.
He grit his teeth and stood. Reflex pulled up the stat screen before he’d consciously decided to check it, but the System didn’t greet him with the polite, translucent blue windows of the Tutorial. The notifications burned directly behind his retinas, jagged and flickering like wet ink-wash text. Every line of data arrived with an invasive, static-laced hum that vibrated in his dental work.
[PLAYER: Will Wick]
[TITLE: The Anomaly (Mythic)]
[LEVEL: 1]
[STRENGTH: 10/20]
[DEXTERITY: 10/20]
[INTELLIGENCE: 15/20]
[LUCK: 30/20
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