When first heading out into the unknown, an individual must plan for all possible outcomes. Do you have sufficient supplies of the energy source appurtenant to your species? Can you move around in the environments and conditions you will doubtless find yourself in? And, most of all, how will you defend yourself? The multiverse is a harsh and unforgiving place; without weapons or defences, your journey may be a short one…

  How to survive the multiverse: A guide for idiots

  Relit Gron

  Not expecting the chair to vanish when the starting zone began, Laurie had fallen hard to the floor. Now, he was lying flat on his back, looking up at the underside of the large trees. A notification had appeared, something about a quest, but he had dismissed it without reading it. Unfrozen, the forest was transformed. The sun was shining down through the thick canopy, and the trees were swaying from side to side, groaning with their gentle movements. Watching the trees was much easier than trying to understand what was going on, but, like a mosquito buzzing incessantly around him, his curiosity slowly began to take over from the fog of confusion and fear.

  After a moment, Laurie sat up, slowly, his armour creaking conspicuously as he moved. He didn't want to look down at himself, but made himself do it anyway. Oh good, the medieval cosplay is still there! Laurie lay back down, defeated.

  He sighed, and scrubbed his hands over his face. So, magic is real, let’s start there. He lifted his hands, looking at each in turn, and tried to focus inwards, at where he thought his magic might be, searching for that strange, sparking current that had flared to life after his affinities were assigned. Instead, he found something else, something that hadn’t been there before. It felt like it was condensed right in the middle of his chest, a heavy, shifting pressure like a water balloon, full to bursting, desperate to be thrown.

  He poked at it mentally, then tried to visualise it, but nothing happened. Instead, Laurie focused hard on his right hand. A burning sensation flared in his chest, as though the balloon had ruptured, heat running from his heart to his shoulder, down his arm and into his hand, branching into each finger. When it reached his fingertips, the energy stopped, as though beating against the barrier of his skin. It felt very uncomfortable, pressure building unbearably in his hand. He didn't know what to do, or why the energy wouldn't come out. He willed it to his hand, trying to summon it to his palm, but nothing happened. He waved, made a throwing gesture, even tried finger guns, but nothing happened. His movements became wilder, stupider, more exaggerated.

  “Exit! Fly! Shoot!” Nothing happened. The pressure was continuing to build, reaching the edge of pain. Laurie was just starting to panic when the vision of the eclipsing planet forced itself into his mind. Light and shadow. Shadow and light.

  Shadow, Laurie thought, and pictured the planet again, its dark, sunless bulk. As he did, the pressure slipped out of his fingers, pooling easily in the palm of his hand. Laurie sat bolt upright in surprise. There it was, in the cup of his palm. Magic. It had the texture of mercury - not quite liquid, but not a stable orb, either. The edges were rough and frayed, and energy seemed to be seeping out and escaping into the air. He could feel the flow of mana from his chest, through his body and out of his hand. He could feel the same energy in the shadow too, but more muted, a faint hum, rather than a buzz.

  The pool dissipated slowly, until he couldn’t feel it anymore. Laurie sat staring at his hand in wonder; he had just done magic, real, actual shadow magic. He laughed aloud, incredulous. Magic is real. I can do magic. It was surreal, overwhelming. What else can I do?

  Laurie looked at his other hand, this time thinking of light, of those sweeping, flaring tendrils of sunlight that had crested over the shadowed planet like a wave. The same burning sensation rushed through him, but this time there was no pause or build-up of pressure. He gave the energy direction, willing it to move to his left hand, and it did, a softly glowing puddle of light appearing in his palm.

  Laurie sat there for a while, under the trees, practicing. Everything else had been forgotten in the face of real-life magic. As he practiced, the light took on a more defined form. First, little more than a blob, hazy like a light viewed through frosted glass. Then, a sphere. Then, the rough edges became smoother, until they were as crisp as a knife edge. He found that as his energy fluctuated, the light became brighter or dimmer accordingly. He tried to pass the sphere from hand to hand, but the moment the light left his hand it dissipated.

  As he worked, Laurie became aware of an increasing level of exhaustion. A headache started to beat at his temples, and his eyes felt sore.

  He pushed one more orb into his palm, thinking that he would have to stop, soon, and a box popped up in front of him:

  Spell Template Gained: Light Ball (Basic/upgradable)

  Laurie froze and his concentration slipped. The light in his hand lost cohesion, but before he could try and understand what had just happened, another box appeared over the first.

  Title Gained: Template Pioneer

  Laurie felt a sudden, violent rush of energy and fell back onto his elbows, reeling. What just happened?! The feeling passed and Laurie quickly opened his character sheet to see if any changes had appeared.

  Name: Laurie Tamworth

  Pseudonym: Puck

  Faction: Earth (unaffiliated)

  species: Human

  Health: 40/40

  Mana: 32/40

  Dexterity: 4

  Strength: 4

  Wisdom: 4

  Intelligence: 4

  Vitality: 4

  Mana: 4

  Affinities: Light and Shadow.

  Titles: Template Pioneer

  There were indeed changes - his attributes had increased by three, his health and mana had also increased, and he had gained a title. Laurie could feel the effect of his rejuvenated mana pool - it felt amazing, as if he just had a restful sleep, refreshing him completely. There were also two new tabs at the bottom of the screen: ‘Starting Zone’ and ‘Spell Templates’.

  Laurie struggled to keep up with the flurry of new information. He focused his attention on the new title:

  Template Pioneer: Be the first in your Starting Zone to create a spell

  template

  +3 to all attributes

  Laurie read it through several times. He had gained a title because he had created a spell template (whatever that was) and it had given him a three-point bonus to all his attributes. Clearly, titles were powerful - the energy he had received was nearly overwhelming.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Laurie focused on the Spell Template tab next, and it opened up yet another new screen:

  Spell Template: Light Ball (Basic/upgradable) 1/5

  The writing had a simple glyph next to it - a vertical squiggle with three small dots above it. The moment he saw it, Laurie felt the glyph glide into his mind, settling into place at the edge of his consciousness, hovering like something half-forgotten, half-remembered. He focused on the glyph and, without thought, pushed mana into it. As before, a burning sensation spread from his heart, but instead of running down to his fingertips, it shot up his neck, and into his skull, where it exploded into agony. He screamed out and fell backwards, flailing where he lay, as the energy rushed into his brain, eyes, ears, mouth and nose. In his panic, Laurie stopped focusing on moving his mana and the pain stopped.

  Laurie lay panting, his eyes closed tightly. What the hell just happened? He couldn’t make sense of it. Sure, the first time he had tried to move mana into his hands, it had hurt a bit - but nothing like that! And it hadn’t really hurt after that first try, anyway - the magic had moved without resistance. Maybe it’s just the first attempt and it won’t hurt if I try the glyph again? If it only hurt to move mana somewhere new, like he was opening up some sort of pathway, then it stood to reason that it wouldn’t hurt to do it again. Or it will hurt even more, and I’ll explode my own head. One of the two.

  It was as good a hypothesis as any, and there was only one way to test it. The glyph was hovering, dormant, in his mind. After a few moments of deep breathing, Laurie steeled himself and slowly nudged some more energy toward the mental image. He felt a strange sensation, like the memory of pain, and then nothing. The glyph lit up in his mind, and a ball of light appeared in his hand. It was much easier, now. Before, using magic had felt as if he was trying to force a tsunami into a bucket. But now, everything was smooth, like sailing down a charted river in a well-fashioned boat. He barely had to concentrate at all, except to regulate how much mana he sent the glyph.

  So, if I practice a spell enough, I get a template that makes it easier to cast the spell. It was only a guess, but it made sense. The screen said this was template ‘?’. Does that mean I can only have five templates? Or that I can level the template five times? Vowing to test his theories later, Laurie cut the energy (and his wild speculation) off, releasing the ball of light, and turned his attention to the other new tab.

  Starting Zone:

  Participants: 4998 of 5000

  Starting Zone Quests: Collect one or more Quest keys. 0 out of 5.

  Time Remaining: 29 days 22 hours 36 minutes 30 seconds

  Laurie tried to focus on each section to see if any more information appeared, but none did. It took a moment, but he suddenly realised the significance of the numbers. 4998/5000. Does that… does that mean two people have died? Actually died? All while he'd been lying there, playing with his magic balls and nearly exploding his own head? This place was dangerous. Laurie hadn't given much thought to the quest itself; he had been too excited about understanding magic and what he could do with it. Maybe that was a mistake…

  Laurie hauled himself to his feet and finally looked around at the forest surrounding him. The trees were tall, reaching far above him. They were much like evergreens, but the needles were a foot long rather than an inch, and the trees were taller and wider than any evergreen had the right to be. The trees were spaced sparsely, tens of metres apart, no branch touching another. It made for a strangely open forest, filled with dappled light rather than green shadow.

  Laurie headed to the nearest tree and placed his hand against it. The bark looked textured, but now he was close enough to touch it, Laurie could see that it was smooth and had a shine to it as if it had just been rained on, though it was dry. Laurie tapped on the trunk; it felt solid, but the noise his fingers made was louder than he expected and musical, somehow, resonant and echoing, rather than flat and wooden. He made his way around the tree, tapping it. It was only a slight difference, but the higher he tapped, the higher the tone of the note. It took him twenty paces to fully circle the trunk. Laurie looked up at the tree in wonder and awe; it was massive and, looking around, it seemed to be one of the smaller ones in the area.

  Laurie was pulled from his musings by a snuffling sound behind him. He spun around, looking for the source. About thirty feet away, there were some bushes at the base of one of the trees. They were dark green and thick, conspicuous by virtue of the fact that very few other trees had them.

  “Hello? Is someone there?” Laurie called, in an uncertain voice. After a moment the bushes rustled again, and a large snout poked out. The snout sniffed a few times, large nostrils flaring. The snout was quickly followed by two curled tusks, a wide head with small beady eyes, and two ears that were flicking back and forth. A boar emerged from the undergrowth, its hairy, powerful body looking deceptively small next to the oversized trees. As it stared in his direction, Laurie had the unpleasant realisation that it would be taller than his own waist in height and was significantly wider than him.

  “Well, look at you little piggy, you’ve been eating well, huh?” Laurie joked awkwardly. As he focused on the creature, a screen appeared above it:

  Boarling Charger: Level 3

  “Okay, I'm going to go this way, you go back to your bush back there, alright?” Laurie said, as he stepped slowly back, away from the Boarling Charger. “No need for this to get nasty.” Evidently, the boarling disagreed. It began stamping the ground with its ridiculously small trotters, grunting loudly.

  “Well, shit,” Laurie muttered, resigned, as the boar lowered its head and charged. Panicking, he tried to draw one of his swords, but it was an unfamiliar movement and he was too slow. The boarling was barrelling towards him, closing the distance between them far faster than Laurie had thought possible. He threw himself to the side as the boarling neared and was satisfied to hear a deep clang ring out, like the chime of an old bell, as the boarling charged straight into the tree behind him. Laurie rolled to his feet, moving away from the tree and creating space to draw his swords. Both slid from their sheaths easily now, and he moved further back, moving instinctively into a vaguely defensive stance, his knees bent, swords raised.

  The boarling shook its head, before turning back in his direction. Something felt off about the way he was holding the swords and the way he was standing, as if he was doing it wrong, as if his body wanted him to do it differently.

  “Come on piggy, come get me,” Laurie muttered under his breath, ignoring his discomfort. Adrenaline rushed through him; he could feel the needles rolling under his feet, the shadows and light moving around him as the wind moved through the branches above, shifting the dancing lights of the forest floor, and he felt suddenly, wonderfully alive.

  The boarling stomped again, lowered its head and charged. Laurie waited until the last moment and, rather than diving, took a large step to his left. With a shout, he stabbed both swords into the boarling’s side. They sank deep into its hide before being completely ripped out of his hands as the boarling’s momentum took it straight past him. The boarling squealed in pain and thrashed wildly, trying to remove the blades from its side. It completely forgot about Laurie, who moved quickly away from the frenzied beast. The boarling turned and ran in the opposite direction, hurtling blindly into the trees.

  Laurie stood, stunned, for a moment before realising that the boarling had run off with his only weapons.

  “Oh, wait, hey, come back, you’ve got my swords!” Laurie yelled, and started to run after the panicked creature. Running came naturally - he was easily able to sprint through the forest, following the pools of blood and crashing sounds ahead of him. His legs were pumping, each muscle working and propelling him forward with the speed of an athlete, but even so the boarling was faster, and it was quickly lost among the trees.

  Laurie slowed, cursing in frustration. He tried to look around for tracks but had no idea what to look for - that slight indent of grass could mean anything, as could that scattering of twigs. There was no path, no obvious direction of travel. Spinning in a circle and looking at the identical trees, he realised with a sinking feeling that he couldn’t even remember where he had started from. Not that it mattered. It’s not like there’s a way out…

  Laurie stopped, took a few deep breaths and listened. It was very quiet. The rustles of the canopy tickled the edge of his hearing, the leaning of the trees making a subtle vibration in the air, rather than any audible sound. And water, the sound of running water.

  Laurie headed for the sound of the water, moving as quickly as he dared, pausing every few steps to make sure he was moving in the right direction. Ahead of him he could see a glimmer of reflected light, a shine that did not come from the sky above. He rushed forward and found himself at the edge of a large pond with bushes herding around its edge, the grassy carpet of the forest giving way to mud. The water itself looked brown and brackish.

  “Great. Absolutely great. I’m in a mad magic world, totally lost, dressed like Robin Bloody Hood, and an actual pig has run off with my only weapons. And now I'm talking to myself. A sure sign things are going well!” Laurie sat down heavily on a large rock at the water's edge to think. The sky was easily visible through the sparse canopy - blue with a small but bright star. It was whiter than the yellow sun he was used to.

  Laurie considered what he should do next, He knew he needed weapons if he were to survive. If there were more boarlings or other creatures he would never outrun them, as he clearly couldn’t even catch up to one fat old pig. But there was nothing he could do about that now. He needed to take stock and make a plan.

  Laurie pulled off the rucksack and had a look inside. There wasn’t much - an empty water skin and a dark brown cloak with a hood. The water skin was empty, but the pond water was murky with mud. I’m not drinking that. Laurie pulled the cloak out and found it to be made of a thick, coarse material. He threw it around his shoulders and pulled the hood up, before leaning over the water to get a look at his reflection.

  It didn’t occur to him until he saw his face that he didn’t know what he looked like. Hazel eyes, straight nose, slightly rounded chin. He had shoulder-length light brown hair that fell messily around his face as he leaned forward. None of it was familiar. The cloak was deep and if he pulled the hood forward it hid most of his features in shadow.

  Laurie sat back on the rock, overwhelmed but resolute. If he was going to survive, he needed to find food and water, he needed a safe place to stay at night, and most of all he needed to learn as much as he could as fast as he could about this new world and its inhabitants. He opened the Starting Zone tab.

  Starting Zone:

  Participants: 4990 of 5000

  That’s ten. Laurie grimaced and hardened his resolve. He would survive and get strong; he would seek out the answers to the questions that plagued him. Who was he? Where was he? Did he have a family? Would he ever see them again, whoever they were? What was going to happen to the Earth? And what other spell templates could he think up to aid him in his search?