“Caspian are you ok?”

  Caspian nods rubbing his head the welt on his forehead is likely to disappear soon but for now, he can feel it pulsing there. No one prepares you for how dense a coffin is especially when you seem to walk straight into them every day. You would think he would get better and avoid the hundreds of empty wooden and stone coffins in his family’s store after living and working there for roughly 17 years but nope they still seem to always appear out of nowhere.

  Caspian lifts his backpack back onto his back and continues out the front door.

  “Bye Mom see you after class”

  He yells back as he turns heading for the bus stop and the end of the block. After waiting just a few minutes he sees his bus make the corner and head down the road. As it gets closer he can tell today won't be his day. The bus is packed he prays to his guardian angel a whole lotta people just happen to be riding the bus to his little corner of town and he's about to witness some mass exodus. No luck not a single person gets off just shuffle around a bit to make room. Not that he needs too huge a space he isn't exactly some massive dude but if he were probably wouldn't have been called Casper the unfriendly ghost all of high school now would he? He wasn't even that standoffish in high school he got good grades, had friends, and even participated in the blacksmithing shop club something he still questioned the efficacy of in a town with only about 500 people in the middle of who knows Idaho. Alas, none of those things seem to matter to people just his pale complexion and the knowledge that he spent his nonclass time surrounded by bodies, Dead bodies.

  Caspian eventually reached his stop about half an hour from his town at The Tower. The Tower was well a tower. It had been built by some enthusiastic startup as the next thing in virtual reality and technology. It was supposed to have allowed willing participants to truly live out that urge for a different life. To be an adventurer climbing the tower where projections of beasts visible through special glasses could fight to grow stronger. That dream had never quite panned out funding had been cut and now it was an empty fantasy environment used solely for online college courses. Not a bad place to spend all day learning about anatomy and physiology but community college was still community college.

  Caspian had followed the same routine wake up bonk his head on something, go to class learn something, then go home and get lectured about something for the past two years. He was beginning to get a wee bit sick of the monotony he just wanted to go live in the real version of the tower a place of exploration and adventure or at least a place where he could punch something without consequence. Hed watched enough Isekai anime to know the only way any of that was happening was a world-ending disaster, a portal, or getting hit by a delivery van on a rainy day, and for some reason that didn't seem very likely.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  The way home wasn't anything major same cramped bus, same long ride, different bus driver but that was likely the single difference from yesterday and the day before that. That was until the train slammed into the bus.

  The train was odd in two ways one it was a steam locomotive looking straight out of the 1800’s, and two it was on the highway, the middle of the highway. These two facts hit Caspian at roughly the same time he felt his fists collide with the wall of the bus brought up just in time to protect his head as he flew from his seat, but not all that helpful as the rest of the crown crushed down on him, and certainly nothing to stop the bus from becoming a meat tenderizer as it rolled end over end.

  “We've got a whole lot coming through just probe them and send them it's not worth it to filter for ascension criteria with this kind of a backup they'll prove their worth and all that … welp good luck this time around”

  Caspian heard the words but couldn't place the speaker as if they were everywhere and talking through him, not to him. His vision cleared into a pale almost translucent box floating in front of him ‘Heck yeah’ he thought here came his OP abilities and life of glory. As he began to fade back into unconsciousness the box seemed to slam into him and he was woken again seeing the words displayed more clearly.

  |Do you wish The Troden Path or The Path of Exploration|

  An easy choice really but he concentrated on the two options the first seeing to pull at him slightly. He felt new knowledge fill his mind and the two options faded into a new understanding.

  |The Troden Path|

  Live along the path trodden before you history has paved a way for you to walk Ascendant take it and make your duty known.

  Receive bonuses for passive skills and social-related abilities

  Receive a small amount of xp for killing beasts and a large amount of xp for improving your community.

  |The Path of Exploration|

  Journey forth on your own or with companions discover new things walk the path of danger and discover both fears unamaginable and vistas unseen. Depend on yourself and none can stand in your way, become complacent, and lose it all.

  Receive bonuses to tests of body and mind and combat-related abilities.

  Receive a bonus to xp earned outside a community and that which is hard fought.

  Receive a higher chance to find rare or forgotten places and objects.

  The choice seemed easy but he could see many others making a very different one with the additional information either way that wasn’t him Caspian chose and felt a flood of what felt like pure energy rush his body.

  |Choice: The Path of Exploration|

  -Bonuses received

  -Stats added

  -Class choices are available!

  Choose a class: errrrrrror

  -New Ascendant class is automatically chosen

  Class: Fighter

  Subclass: EMPTY

  Blessing: EMPTY

  Path: UNKNOWN