It was a day like other and then it was also not a day like any other. The morning had gone exactly as he was used to, shower, work, reading, lunch. Everything as it should be. Then the afternoon turned into such strange chaos that anything normal felt like another lifetime.

  See, Bennie had walked out of the office, on his way to the corner deli, for his favourite lunch. It was a simple thing, a tuna mayo sandwich, with a side of chips. Maybe a soda to wash it all down. Simple, easy, fun to do. This is what Bennie liked. Simple things that required little to no thought.

  So when he entered the deli and found himself face to face with what his brain could only accept as a Dragon the simplicity of the day was gone. Rapidly replaced with confusion, frustration, and a slight pang of longing for a simple lunch.

  He stumbled backwards and hit his heel against the street as the stumbling took him further back. This tripped him and he fell backwards, with a heavy thud that only those over 20 can understand, he hit the tarmac. Except, it’s not tarmac. His hand felt sand, soft sand, and the street he through he was stumbling back to, was just a patch of dirt.

  The dragon, monster, thing, that stood in the doorway of the Deli breathed a sigh. Almost like it expected something else from him, and his calm stumbling was the preferred answer. It somehow moved through the doorway, except as Bennie looked the doorway, the entire wall, no, the building faded to let the creature through.

  And now that he can see the entire thing, it is definitely what Bennie knew as a Dragon. And not the things people refer to as a drake. No, this thing has four legs, two massive wings, and scales that glittered every colour of the rainbow as the sun shone down on it. Bennie knew dragons, he had played games, in his simple manner, he loved games.

  The ones where he collected monsters, had to level them, and fight with them against others are his favourite. After all, they are extremely simple, repetitive some say, but for Bennie he knew what they were about and knew never to expect more from them.

  So the Dragon in front of him was not a classification that he wondered about. He knew it, clear as day, it is a Dragon. And now it started moving towards him, where he was still absent mindedly trying to figure out with his left hand where the tarmac had gone. Picking up handfuls of sand and letting it fall back down.

  “Older than I would have wanted, but you will do.” The Dragon grumbled, the sound of its voice making everything shake in Bennie. It now stood in front of him, towering so far above him that he doubted he could ever forget the sight of such a large creature.

  It sniffed and with a ripple of its body it bent its neck down towards Bennie, or rather, bent further so that its head was the only thing Bennie could see in his vision. “Human, I am not a creature, I am a Dragon. You will do well to remember that.” It said.

  Bennie felt his blood run cold, clearly the Dragon could read his thoughts. With an amused snort, the Dragon focused one of its eyes on Bennie, the pupil dilating then narrowing as it took in all of him. “You will have to do; all the others die when brought here.”

  Stolen story; please report.

  Before Bennie could even respond the Dragon opened its mouth and breathed what looked like fire over him. He tried shouting only to find his entire body locked, as if gravity itself became a block of ice, keeping him locked where he is.

  The breathe came out and hit Bennie in the face first, somehow shaping itself even as the Dragon let out a low rumbling roar. Instantly every part of his body shouted pain and then nothingness, he could not feel where his skin ended, and the fire began.

  He passed out. But even as he lost consciousness, Bennie saw a screen pop up.

  You know, the screens every game on earth has and all those people in Mangas always talk about. One that had his name, his stats, and of course the amount of skills he had.

  All flashed, showing him that he had nothing but his own name. His levels, stats, and skills all stood at 1. Somehow that annoyed him, he liked being simple, but this felt like an insult.

  But, even has he fell into unconsciousness he saw a new thing get added to his status.

  Touched By The Great Dragon

  Then everything faded into blissful nothingness. Hopefully when he awoke there’d be nothing but the simple routine of his daily life again.

  Awakening

  Unfortunately, as he started waking up again, he felt the sand still in his left hand. Which meant that nothing simple happened. Instead what he remembered or hoped was a dream turned out to be a reality.

  Opening his eyes he enjoyed the stars dancing above him, framed by trees that seemed impossibly high. As he stared he didn’t recognize a single constellation, instead they all seemed oddly shaped, and he swore there were purple, green, and even what looked like entire nebulae.

  What finally forced him to sit up and take a deep breath was the sudden appearance of three sets of moons. With the largest one having rings around it.

  He was definitely no longer home. Looking in front of him he expected to find the Dragon laughing at him, instead that was gone too. He was sitting in a clearing, in a forest, a forest with massive trees in it.

  Whatever happened to Bennie it was simple. It was extremely complicated.

  And he swore he saw a status screen.

  As soon as he thought about it, the thing popped back open.

  Revealing the exact information he had read earlier, with only two new things added. The first was the title he had seen appear before he passed out, and a new skill he didn’t know came from where.

  The skill did however seem rather mundane. Advanced Appraisal. Lv. 1.

  So, unsure of what to do, he looked at the nearest tree and said “Appraise”

  With a soft clink a new window opened, revealing all the tree’s information.

  Normal Pine Tree.

  Experienced gained. 1.

  Frowning at the readout he looked at a blade of grass in front of him and did another appraisal.

  This time it just read blade of grass, 0.5 experience gained.

  His status did have a progress bar, reading that he would need another 98.5 experience points to reach level 2.

  Bennie felt the simplicity of levelling up comfortable slotting into place with everything else he likes to do. A world where he could level up seemed rather simple in a strange kind of way.

  With another thought going through his head, he decided to try and focus the skill. Looking at the clearing around him, it was only filled with grass, circled almost perfectly by the trees of the forest around him.

  “Appraise, grass field.”

  The clinking sound quickly became a chorus of sounds as each blade of grass in front of him was appraised. This had the effect of deafening Bennie for a split second, as each blade of grass in the clearing got appraised.

  Before he could even process what was happening several other notifications popped up. And he felt a splitting headache rush through his head. As he passed out again he was able to read one distinct notification above the rest.

  Congratulations! You have appraised 4 square meters of grass planes. Experience decreases with each level.

  You have gained 394 580 exp.

  Level 14 reached.

  Experience Requirements Will Adapt Once A Sleep Cycle Has Been Completed.

  And with that strange message, Thaddeus “Bennie” Poundsworth passed out for the second time that day.

  *****

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  Basic Puppets: ChristoM & J.R. Timmerman