The "Corner of the World" inn was drafty, smelling of old hay and cheap ale, but it was the only place the Queen's gold would cover. We sat around a scarred wooden table, the flickering candlelight casting long, dancing shadows against the stone walls. For a long time, no one spoke. We just stared at each other—four strangers thrust into a legend we didn't ask for.
"I was walking my dog in Seattle," the woman in the white robes finally whispered. Her voice was shaky, her fingers twisting the hem of her sleeve. "The sky turned purple, there was this... static in the air, and then bang. I woke up in a field with this staff."
The Monk, a tall woman with calloused knuckles and a focused gaze, nodded slowly. "Chicago for me. Leaving the gym. I thought a transformer blew, but the next thing I knew, I was staring at a King who told me I had to punch dragons to get home."
The Red Mage leaned back, her crimson hat casting a deep shadow over her face, though her eyes glinted with a sharp intelligence. "London. I was tinkering with my laptop during a storm. I don't know how the physics of this works—lightning shouldn't be a portal—but here we are. My name is Elena. That's Maya," she pointed to the Monk, "and the healer is Sarah."
"I'm Alex," I said, feeling a strange surge of relief. "I was hit, too. It seems we're all 'glitches' in the system. But the Queen said we have to beat this. Not just this kingdom, but eight of these worlds if we ever want to see a skyscraper again."
Maya slammed her fist onto the table, making the ale mugs rattle. "Then we don't sit here rotting. If this is a game, we need to stop being Level 1 nobodies. There's a forest outside the walls crawling with goblins. If we're going to face Garland, we need to know how to fight."
We left the city gates as the moon reached its zenith. The woods were thick with a low, magical mist. Almost immediately, the first encounter found us. Two small, hunched figures with jagged knives and mismatched armor leaped from the brush. Goblins.
In a game, you just press a button. In reality, it was chaos.
My heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped bird. One goblin lunged, its blade whistling past my ear. Instinct took over—a cold, sharp clarity I didn't know I possessed. I swung the broadsword. It felt lighter than it should, guided by an invisible force. The blade connected, and the goblin vanished into a spray of glowing blue pixels.
"Alex, left!" Sarah cried. She raised her staff, and a shimmering barrier of white light deflected a second strike.
Maya moved like a blur, her fists striking with the force of hammers, while Elena chanted a low incantation, a small spark of fire erupting from her fingertips to singe the remaining monsters.
As the last goblin dissipated, a sudden, euphoric warmth flooded my body. It felt like a rush of adrenaline mixed with pure electricity. I watched as a faint golden aura enveloped Maya and the others. My muscles felt tighter, my vision sharper. My mind suddenly flooded with the basic forms of a swordsman—parries and lunges I'd never studied.
"Did you feel that?" Sarah asked, breathless, her cheeks flushed. "It's like... I just learned how to knit a wound shut without even trying."
"We leveled up," Elena said, looking at her hands with wonder. "The 'grind' is real. But we're going to need a lot more than one level if we're going to storm the Temple of Fiends."
I looked toward the north, where the jagged silhouette of the ruins pierced the night sky. We were no longer just four victims of a freak storm; we were becoming the weapons this world needed.