Ch. 1 Awakening

'Fuck my chest hurts, wait..what's that smell' my thoughts slowly came into focus as i realized my airbag had deployed and i was smelling whatever the hell the powder was they used to make these things. Looking around I could see I was parked in the middle of the road. 'Where's my phone?' I looked around and found it on the floorboard of the passenger side.

I leaned down and grabbed it, then dialed 911. "911 what's your emergency?" a calm sounding woman's voice came through the phone. "I think I hit a deer or something." I responded "Okay sir, are you injured at all?" I rubbed my chest and responded "my chest hurts, but other than that I'm fine." I heard the clicking of nails on a keyboard. "Okay sir, what is your name?"

I responded, "it's Odellin Hundai" more clacking as I spelled it out for her. "okay can you tell me your location? Is anyone else hurt besides you?" Again I responded "No ma'am, I was driving alone. I don't see anyone around other than the lump of whatever I hit." more clacking "Can you tell me where you are?" I put the phone on speaker and used google maps to determine my location then told her.

"Alright sir, I want you to remain in your vehicle and an officer will be with you shortly. Do you want me to stay on the line until the officer gets there?" I thought about it for a moment and shook my head, even though the woman couldn't see it "No I'm alright. Thanks-" then my phone died. I groaned, now I was gonna be bored while waiting for the officer.

I decided to get out of the car 'I wanna see this deer. I hate deer' went through my mind. Deer were always a worry out here in Ohio, besides this wasn't my first time hitting a deer. So I got out of the car and went to the front of my Accord and groaned. The entire front end was smashed in, 'must have been a big deer'. I sighed and was about to try and find the deer until I noticed the green blood splatter.

"No Fucking way." I said aloud in astonishment. Even I knew what that meant. Hell I've seen enough of it watching TV and youtube broadcasts. "I hit a goblin? Where is the little bastard?" anger overrode my common sense. Looking around with the help of the headlights that were not broken yet I found a small yellowish green body lying in the road about ten feet away.

I walked over to the body and saw a makeshift club with a chunk of metal that looked rough but round at the head of the club, in it's hand. The thing was only three feet tall but it's body was muscular. Yellowish green skin was marred with purple and blue spots on one side from where my car slammed into it. 'I know it's stupid but I want that mace.' this thought flowed through my head as I bent down.

Just as my fingers grasped the base of the weapon the goblin's body twitched. I reared back with the mace and smashed the goblin's chest three times. I knew instinctively I should be afraid of it, but I was more angry than reasonable so I pounded away. It coughed up green blood before finally dying. 'stupid goblin' I said as I continued to smash it's chest. That was when I saw it. There was a faint glow coming from the hole in the chest I had pounded into the goblin.

Reaching my hand in through some strange compulsion I grasped a faintly glowing stone. 'A Mana stone' my eyes lit up. I knew exactly what this meant. Everyone on earth who had access to the internet knew. Since the first Rift appeared a year and a half ago and these goblins and their draconic counterparts Kobolds had appeared. The things were damn hard to kill, but high powered guns had been able to hold them off until the first of the Mana stones was discovered.

Each mana stone had the ability to enhance the person who crushed it by giving them a boost to their body or mind. It was said when you first crush a mana stone that you are introduced to the system. Nobody knows exactly what this system was, but everybody who had crushed a Mana stone and absorbed its power knew what it meant. It meant they could become stronger.

As these flashes went through my head my hand closed instinctively around the Mana stone until it broke, bringing me back from my daydream. Looking around I realized my own body was being targeted by the Mana and then all at once it flew into my nose, ears and mouth.

I came to a couple minutes later laying on the ground. I could see something flashing in front of my eyes and tried to bat it away, but I couldn't touch it. So I concentrated on the annoying blinking dot for a moment to see if I could tell what it was, then my eyes widened in shock as I saw my name on top of what looked like a character sheet.

Name: Odellin Hundai

Level: 1

Str: 12

Dex: 9

Con: 11

Int: 10

Wis: 12

Cha: 12

HP: 230

MP: 220

STA: 110

SKILLS:

One-handed - 1

Two-handed - 1

Survival - 3

Evocation - 1

SPELLS:

Force Missile

'What the hell?' the question ran through my mind for a few moments before I realized what this meant. 'I can become a Rift Breaker?'

I was floored. Rift Breakers were those lucky or rich enough to get their hands on a Mana stone before the International Rift Breakers Association (otherwise known as IRBA) agents showed up to collect the bodies of dead monsters. It was dangerous work being a Rift Breaker, but if you became one the rewards would be worth it.

You could go into Rifts and do battle with the monsters inside of the rifts, the ones that send the goblins and kobolds out as advance forces. I had heard stories of Orcs, Trolls, Wolves twice their normal size (Dire Wolves) and all sorts of creatures you could only see in movies and games. Speaking of games 'wait, what is a force missile?' I thought to myself as I looked at my Character sheet. Concentrating on the spell Force Missile brought up a different Screen.

Spell: Force Missile - cost 10MP per missile

Calls forth a ball of energy and force to launch unerringly to its casters target. Deals damage equal to Evocation Skill rank + Intelligence. Instant casting time.

"Hahaha, I have a fucking spell. Yeah baby." I said as I pulled myself off the ground and stood up. Only then did I realize I was still holding the club/mace. I chuckled to myself and looked down at the goblin. What I did was one of the dumbest things I could have done, but I was so glad I did. Then I heard the sirens.

Three hours, it took three hours of intense questioning, admonishments from the officers as well as waiting for a tow truck, along with a call to my wife and the insurance company. My head was pounding at this point so I rubbed the bridge of my nose as I was being given a lift home from the officer.

"You're an idiot for getting that close to a goblin. What if it wasn't almost killed by your car and got up to beat you with it's mace? You would have died easily, you're lucky. So what are you gonna do now?" he asked me. I took a look at the officer driving the car and chuckled.

He was in his early twenties while I was almost 34, his hair was short and straight where mine was curly and down to my shoulders. He had a strong wiry build whereas mine was muscular, but fat. He had no beard whereas I had a nice trimmed beard and moustache.

"My wife is gonna hate this idea, but being a Rift Breaker would be the coolest thing ever. I'm tired of making pizzas, you know?" I had been working at Dominos pizza for too long and I wanted a change so bad. Now that I had a spell, which I just confirmed again by looking at my character sheet, which I had to confirm was still there as well after all. I just had to chuckle.

The officer dropped me off a little after 2 in the morning, the wife was asleep and so were the kids. 'Let them sleep, I'm going to go outside to check this out.' I walked outside, looking around for something to try out my new spell on.

'Fucking raccoons' there it was, a raccoon going through my trash. I concentrated for a moment on the name Force Missile and five bolts of force shot out of my fingers and thumb. The raccoon saw them coming and tried running, ducking under a bush, but they caught up to him and a bang that sounded like a small firework went off.

It was at this point, I definitely felt sorry for the raccoon. I walked up to the bush and saw nothing left except blood splatter. Then I notoced three smaller raccoons hiding by a tree, their bodies shaking in fear. 'Oh come on. don't make me feel for the damn thing.' the universe is evil I tell you.

I reached in and grabbed the three little bastards and got bit twice for my trouble. The funniest part about the bites though, they each did 1 HP of damage. I laughed when I read that. Bringing the raccoons inside i grabbed a cardboard box and placed an old throwaway blanket inside, then set them in it.

Grabbing some food from the fridge and a small bowl I put some water in, i placed them all inside the box. Closing the lid and bringing the box to my room and getting undressed all I could think was 'I wonder if I'll be able to buy a new car after my first gate.'

I woke up the next morning to something furry on my face 'what the hell?' Then when I noticed something blinking in the corner of my vision I concentrated for a moment on it and a screen popped up.

Skill: Animal Handling acquired. Current level 10. With your current level you can have 1 Animal Companion you designate. This Companion will automatically be set as level 1 and will grow with its owner. Every ten skill levels you can gain one more Animal Companion.

'Huh? But we don't even have any animals. Wait what the hell is this fuzzy thing on me.' I reached up to my face and felt three fuzzy lumps. 'Wait a minute, new skill, three fuzzy lumps. No, no no no. Im not choosing a racc...' the raccoons claws dug into my face as I tried to pry them off. The claws did about 3 damage each and those little bastards had four sets of claws each.

-36 HP later I'm finally able to get out of bed. then I look down and three horribly cute faces are looking up at me. 'damnit, I'm going to have to choose one. Alright which ones the biggest.' looking at the three I see one of them is about 2 inches taller. Her fur, yes I picked her up and checked, was soft, but slightly red as well.

'Now how the hell do I designate an Animal Companion.' then I grinned for a moment and pulled out my phone to google it. Apparently it was as simple as thinking it. Most spells and skills just required a thought and intention and it would happen. "Nifty" then I looked down at my raccoon and said out loud "Alright Bella, you will be my Animal Companion" as soon as I said it the air started humming.

No clue what the hell was going on, I started looking around and saw green streaks of light fly through the air and wrap around my raccoon picking her up. She squealed, waking up the babies and the wife and they all watched, horror written on their faces. Bella began growing, first to the size of a small dog, then to the size of a pit bull. Finally she stopped growing as she became the size of a German Shepherd.

The only thing I could think was 'dude this is so awesome'. I know, not the most articulate guy in the world but meh. When she finally was set back on the ground her eyes were wide and she was doing circles, looking at her new body. After a few minutes she stopped and looked up at me. The second she looked into my eyes a connection was made.

I could feel what she felt and she could feel and hear what I was thinking and feeling. Then I looked over and Bella and I put our heads down at the enraged look on my wife's face. "Just what in the hell is going on here honey?" her sweet angry voice hit me like a sack of bricks.