Colors flood into my vision as dark heavy wooden doors float into existence in front of me. The three doors have deep intricate carvings with different symbols or animals on all of them making them look fancy yet homely at the same time.

  Behind each door you will find a scenario that you have to choose from. You may look at all the doors and respond to them all, but once inside your actions have consequences and cannot be changed. You may perish in the scenario, but all that will happen is your consciousness will revert to before you stepped through the door with it firmly closed instead. Choose your actions or inaction wisely.

  The First Door slowly opens and behind it I see a small feeble child and a withered elderly woman cowering away from a ferocious horned beast of some kind. The village around them is on fire and the streets are littered with bodies of others with blood pooling beneath them. The fear building in the small child is overflowing into the tears that are running freely down their cheeks and the elderly woman seems resigned to her fate while trying to push the child away from the scene. I slowly look away towards the second door as it opens.

  Behind Door Two is a strong wide shouldered man dragging a woman behind him by the collar of her shirt. He has a richly colored button up shirt with the top button undone and dark sunglasses covering his eyes and the woman is in a cute forest green woolen sweater with a long light brown skirt over her legs. Her long black hair reaches down past her shoulder blades and splays partially in front of her, covering her face. She’s sliding across the sidewalk on heels while he is walking in fancy black dress shoes with gray slacks tailored perfectly to his frame. He looks like either a Mafia, Yakuza, or some other mobster and the other people around them seem afraid to look him in the eye. He seems taller than anyone in the vision and the woman is unable to fight back much more than balling her fists and pounding against his strong shoulders and back. I feel the anger boiling inside of me, but I let it simmer as I shift my vision to the final door.

  Door Three creaks open and reveals a large grey wolf sized gangly creature with mangy matted dark brown fur. The limbs seem weakened beyond reproach and the creature is lying next to a muddy puddle. The small pool of water is slowly turning crimson from a deep gash that runs across the underbelly of the beast. The creature itself seems to be yelping weakly in pain, but no one is around to hear it. The thing seems to be a mix between a wild dog of some kind and a bat with four long thin limbs. Along the forearm of each leg are webbed wing-like protrusions of skin that seem to be for control of flight. Along the spine of the lupine body are leathery wings, but I notice bloody patches and holes that seem to not allow this specific one to fly. The long tail seems like it once could have been strong and full; but now is thin with matted, bloody fur in patches. There are charred marks all over the beast that show black leathery skin beneath the mangy fur. It has a shortened snout compared to most dog-like beasts with two long protruding fangs that follow the jawline of the beast.

  I turn and look at Angela with wonderment in my eyes from the sad scenes.

  “Will I be able to do anything in the scenarios? And how will I carry out my actions in the manner that I want to?” I question longingly as I flicker my vision between all the scenes.

  Whatever you desire can be done. Just do whatever you find naturally comes to you and your body will respond with practiced ease depending on the actions you wish.

  I nod, now assured of my choices, and walk to the first door. I step quickly through and run into the streets of the burning village around me. I spring into action as I run full speed towards the woman and child. My mind is racing trying to decide what I will do. I can’t think of anything at the moment and all I want to do is help them escape while making sure I don’t die in the process. Suddenly I feel lighter and see my skin strengthening and gaining a silvery metallic sheen.

  I jump between the woman and the beast with a flying kick. I land the sole of my shoe straight into the lower jaw and hear a sickening snap as the beast is blasted to the side. The movements I displayed show a form of trained fighting I’ve never done before and, even more strangely, I noticed that when I connected with the beast there was blast of wind pressure around the impact zone that flapped my pant leg while pushing the fur and skin of the leopard like beast flat against its skull. I look down at my own hands and legs and question what happened, but now they’re back to normal with no trace of change. I quickly gaze up to the beast and ready myself for its return, but I can tell from how it’s laying after crashing into a dilapidated building that it’s dead. The jaw is hanging at an awkward and loose angle and the eyes have glassed over with no sign of life remaining. I struggle not to vomit as a deep despair takes me. I love animals and would never hurt them normally, but I feel I had little choice in the matter.

  “Thank you stranger, but you need to take the child and run! More will come and they must survive.” The woman weakly pleads with me.

  “No, you’re both going to make it out of here with me.” I state as I walk over to them. I pick up the child and carefully lay them across my chest and over my shoulder while giving the woman my forearm as support and slowly we shuffle down the muddy road and leave. As the fires burn further and further behind us I blink the tears for the beast out of my eyes and I’m back in front of the doors again by myself. I take a stabilizing breath after shivering and crying for a little while. Then I slowly look up towards Angela.

  “Why did you make me kill that animal? I refused before being here to hurt anything so much so that I didn’t eat any meat since I was a small child.” I spit and glare in the direction of Angela.

  You chose what you thought you had to do, but in all reality, you were only limited by your imagination as I warned you before entering. Now proceed into the second door.

  I sneer angrily at Angela as I walk into the second scene. I suddenly hear the woman start screaming and sobbing as the man steps heavily onward.

  “Stop it! Nobody cares and you’re disrupting the fine people on the streets here!” The man shouts at the woman and raises a hand towards her.

  I’m already pissed off from the first “room” and I charge into action. I’m upon them like a flash and my fist flies into his hand before he can swing a backhanded slap towards her.

  “Knock it off Chucklenuts!” I yell angrily at the man as he slowly turns towards me.

  “Who do you think you are? Do you have any idea who I am or who I work for? People more powerful than you have requested her presence so leave now and I’ll forget this pathetic little attempt at being some kind of hero from a manga.” The man angrily stammers at me with fury behind his eyes. Everyone around us is looking back and forth between the man and I but refusing to move for fear or repercussions or lack of courage. The woman pleads to me with her eyes as fear and hope battle in her.

  “P…Please don’t do anything r…rash. They’ll hurt you and me even more by proxy for anything that happens…” She stutters weakly, resigning herself to her fate as all the fight leaves her fists and eyes as her arms hang limply at her sides.

  “Forgive h…her and don’t mention her and I’ll come freely with you…” She mutters.

  “Now that’s what real courage is. See, miss? She’s choosing to come of her own free will, so you don’t need to be mad anymore huh?” He mockingly states as they slowly start to walk away.

  “Not a chance.” I seethe as I shove the man away with all my strength.

  He lets go of the woman and flies about ten feet away before hitting the ground and rolling across the street. He scrambles to his feet angrily and starts stomping back towards us.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  “Now look what you’ve done to my shirt! The boss is gonna be pissed about this and you’re gonna be the one paying for it!” He screams as he swings a wild haymaker towards me. I duck and put my fists up like a boxer as the wild swing screams past my head.

  “Leave now and never come back.” I state stoically, trying to imbue my voice with as much confidence and willpower as I can manage.

  The man looks at me confused at first and slowly nods.

  “Guess I got better stuff to be doing with my time.” He says confusedly as he turns and walks away without even sparing a glance at the woman. What just happened? Did I mind control that man or did he just realize how abnormally strong my slam was?

  “How did you do that?” The woman asks with a slight edge of fear to her eyes.

  “I don’t really know…” I say as I look at my hands as if searching them will give me answers.

  “Please gather your things and leave this place before someone else comes back for you.” I say as I turn and start to leave.

  “T…thank you for the help. My fate would have been much worse without you stepping in.” She says as she gives a respectful bow in my direction, her long flowing black hair covering her face in a sheet of smooth beautiful silk.

  “Don’t worry about it. Just please keep an eye out and leave soon.” I wave back as I continue down the street from where I came. I blink rapidly and suddenly I’m in front of the three doors again.

  Interesting… Well, continue to the next room after you’ve taken a breather and are ready.

  “What just happened in there?” I question as I lock my eyes onto the glowing form of Angela.

  There is nothing more I can reveal to you about these recent developments.

  I sigh and take a seat down in front of the last door. I slowly try to notice anything abnormal or strange happening within my body, but nothing I can sense seems different than normal. After a few minutes of rest, I clamber to my feet and step into the last doorway.

  The rain is heavily falling on me and I hear loud shouting and heavy metal clanking in the distance. I run quickly up to the creature as it cautiously growls at me and keeps its eyes on me. I slowly raise both my hands in a calming gesture towards it and gradually step the last few feet towards it after pleading with it to let me help.

  “That’s it. Take a breather while I try and help.” I reassure the animal. I quickly search for the most grievous wounds on the animal.

  “This is probably going to hurt a lot.” I mutter as I slowly press my hands to staunch the bleeding of the deep gash along its underbelly. The beast finds a new wind and roars in pain. I hear someone in the distance yell for the others and I start to panic.

  “Please try to keep it down. It looks like they’re trying to come finish the job they started. Now, how do I help you?” I question rhetorically as I frantically scan the area for anything that might help. The beast nuzzles its snout into my arm cautiously.

  “Okay okay, let’s try to put our heads together and think huh. How do we help you get out of here so you can rest big guy?” I ask into the eyes of the bat-like lupine. It slowly nuzzles my forearm again and this time it manages to roll part of my sleeve up to slightly above my wrist.

  “Are you saying you need to like feed or something like a vampire and you’ll get stronger?” I question cautiously to the animal. It shakes its head and looks down at my arm again.

  “Oh, you can understand me? Huh… Okay well try and show me again how I can help you then.” I acknowledge as I keep a hand firmly pressed against the beast’s wound to stop the bleeding. “I don’t have any knowledge or training of anything related to animals or medical things so you’re taking point.” I nod to it, more assured in our predicament with our newfound understanding. It slowly raises my sleeve slightly higher and presses its snout against my arm and closes its eyes. I can see a slight flow of energy coming from the chest of the beast and I feel a burning sensation on my arm. I grit my teeth and bear it for the five or so seconds that it’s there and then finally the beast lifts its head and looks into my eyes. I slowly look down at my arm and see burned lines creating a star pattern on my skin where the snout was.

  “Are they hunting you cause you’re demonic or something? Cause that pentagram on my arm doesn’t look super holy or anything.” I inquire towards the creature. The mark doesn’t hurt or anything and in fact I feel a newfound power in the arm. I slowly try to focus on the patterns and see energy flooding to the area. It starts overflowing and breaking the intricate symbol, so I stop and focus on controlling the flow and where it goes. The light originates from my chest and spreads through what looks like my veins towards the intricate design like water being released into a pool. I control the flow and focus on every small turn and line on the design as I fill it with energy carefully. After the lines have all taken a green glow to them the pattern twists and raises off my skin and floats into my palm. I press against the creature again, eliciting a small yelp and feel the energy entering its body. I see the large wound almost look like it becomes covered in ash along with the holes in the wings, the burn marks, and other small scratches or cuts. A warm breeze slowly blows the ashen material away and I see newly created flesh covering where any small wounds were. The large chest wound is now a big, jagged scar, but is no longer bleeding freely. I slowly take my hands away and study where the pattern was on my arm, but no sign of it remains.

  “I guess that’ll do it then. You better take off before that mob gets here.” I say as I smile at the lupine figure and slowly help it to its feet. It nods at me like a dog getting a treat and it starts to run and gain speed before it jumps powerfully into the air and takes flight away from the scene. I watch it fly into the dark rainy night for a few moments with my hair and clothing becoming wetter and more stuck to my skin as the seconds pass. I close my eyes, satisfied with the outcome, and take a deep calming breath. When I open them again, I’m completely dry without any sign of change to my clothing from before I went into any of the doors. I turn towards Angela with conviction in my eyes and wait for any movement or sound from the world around me.

  Your energy control, courage, and ability to adapt to the situation are quite remarkable for a human. I’ll improve upon your base constitution to make use of those talents. As for the class, I have a few different basic questions to narrow down the choice. Will that be okay with you?

  “That’s fine.” I respond quickly.

  “What do you mean you’ll improve on my base constitution? Am I going to remain human? And how is this all happening? I don’t remember getting to work.” I ask as the questions come rolling out of my mouth as fast as I think of them.

  The changing of your constitution will allow me to upgrade upon your race by adding additions to your basic instincts and heightened energy control. As for the other questions I will explain everything after we get your class narrowed down. First off, when it comes to fighting, do you enjoy the feeling of being close to an opponent or would you prefer to be a marksman of some kind through physical weapons or magical means?

  “Uhhhhh… Probably up close. I’ve never been good at ranged weapons in video games.” I respond slowly while raising my hand to my chin and thinking through everything. It seems odd that Angela doesn’t want to just answer my questions, but I guess as long as I get them eventually then I don’t care.

  Very well. We’ll add strong ability for magic to work well with your energy control. Do you have a specific weapon in mind that you’d like to be able to use?

  “I have absolutely no preference. I’ve always been adaptable to whatever my friends are using so just give me something fun. Maybe make the class a little bit stronger than normal cause you like me a lot.” I say as I wink at Angela.

  I look up again and even though Angela hasn’t physically moved at all when “speaking” to me, she seems to somehow be staring blankly at me without even a little bit of amusement.

  I’ll give you something nice for showing me reactions I haven’t seen from another human, but other than that you’re on your own. I think I’ll have the class adapt with you as you go to make use of your natural skills, but be warned, you won’t be able to change anything between skill choices. At level five you’ll gain a skill of your choice based on your actions. From there nothing can be changed until level fifteen, then thirty, then fifty and so on and so forth. Unless you go and learn proficiency with weapons you won’t be able to use any in actual combat and the same goes for magic.

  I nod along at the explanations Angela gives and make sure to memorize every word she says.

  As for the questions you asked earlier, well I have some bad news. This isn’t a test or a dream. You are being fully initiated into the world of Azurios. Your body outside of here no longer exists and your being and soul are being transferred. I cannot say as to what caused this as it isn’t within my purview. I apologize for waiting so long, but I did not want it to influence your choices and actions.

  I stare blankly ahead and fail to process what she said. I feel empty and confused. The air deflating out of my lungs leaves in a sad sigh.

  Again, I apologize, but we must continue as I don’t have much more time that I can hold you in the evaluation area. After you leave here you will be on your own. I recommend looking for shelter and people with the mastery levels to teach you the skills of their weapon of choice. The more you do a skill action like sneaking, climbing, and tracking, the more you will level them and gain proficiency and assistance from the System. AKA me. Ask to get your affinities tested at any village with a guild headquarters. Your race will be quite unique and rare, whether you keep that information to yourself or share it with others is up to you, but it may be perilous information. You will get the option to choose how you look, but you won’t be able to edit any other information in the following introduction. I wish you luck.

  Beginner sequence activating in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…

  Everything around me slowly fades to darkness and I feel the sensation of falling as I spiral into the void around me.