Welcome back to The Realm, Aacek.

  Aacek blinked; the message persisted. He looked around and found himself on the now familiar gravel path with stone buildings on either side. The large leafless dark tree loomed up ahead, and the mansion beyond that, up the hill, complete with the mounted gargoyle-like heads. The Dancing Tiger signboard still creaked on his right.

  So, I really am back.

  Aacek went straight to Pamral; if this was real, he wanted to select his class as soon as possible.

  “Welcome, Aacek. I hope you didn't have much trouble dispatching ten Alzam Spawn. Are you ready to hand in your quest?”

  Aacek panicked suddenly. He wondered if he was supposed to collect the bones or something else from the Spawn. He had received only one item from the Spawn Leader, and he had almost forgotten about it.

  “Am I supposed to hand in some item to prove that I killed the ten Spawn?”

  “Don't worry, Aacek. The Realm sees and knows everything. You don't have to prove anything.

  “You just have to confirm that you are ready to claim the rewards for the quest,” Pamral said.

  “I am ready.”

  “Good. You may now choose a class to specialise in!”

  Despite his misgivings, Aacek felt a sense of joyful anticipation. He remembered the first time he had played an RPG, chosen a class and named it before starting the gameplay itself. He remembered the feeling he had when doing so. He felt exactly the same now.

  He was presented with a wall of text.

  1. WARRIOR

  Master of the one and two-handed melee weapons, shields.

  2. ARCHER

  Master of the ranged weapons: bows, crossbows, slings and mechanised pellet throwers.

  3. MAGE

  Master of the magiks. Wield the elements and magik your foes to oblivion.

  4. SUMMONER

  Aacek felt a wave of longing wash over him as he read this. He remembered whole summers spent on playing just a SUMMONER on his favourite RPG. He read the intro.

  Summon the undead and master death itself.

  He almost chose this class without a second thought, but he saw two more classes remaining. The last one caught his attention as it had a glow around it. All the other class selections were kind of greyed out.

  5. HEALER

  Master life and keep death at bay.

  6. CHRONOSCHIST

  This class had a glow around the letters. He had never even heard of such a class. Curiosity piqued, he read on.

  Master time, bend it to your will, fracture it and wield it to your advantage, walk time yourself or send your foes hurtling through the maze of time, or you may choose to just loop them.

  Now, this seems beyond interesting!

  “Can I not select the classes other than Chrono…schist? The others seem greyed out.”

  Pamral raised his eyebrows. “Is the Chronoschist class name glowing?”

  “It is.” This was the first time Aacek noticed the deep furrows on Pamral’s forehead.

  “The Realm offers the Time Mastery class—the Chronoschist to only those who it deems are worthy of it. There are lots of people with the chronost element in their essence, but they are not all worthy of specialising in the chronoschist class.

  “You must be very special, Aacek. I can’t even remember the last time someone was offered the class, and I have been here for almost two millennia.”

  Aacek was a kaleidoscope of emotions right now. I so badly wanted to play the Summoner, but choosing a class no one has been offered for more than two millennia….

  “Can I choose the greyed-out classes even though they are greyed out?”

  “You can. You can choose any class you want. The Realm has analysed your essence and its elements and recommended the glowing class to you.”

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Aacek took his time deciding. “What do you mean by essence and elements?”

  “Essence is what you are made of. When you lose your physical body, whatever remains is your essence.”

  “Like a soul, you mean.”

  “If you want to call it that.”

  “And elements?”

  “So, the essence of a person is unique. It has a mix of elements in unique proportions that make the person different from others. The chronost element is present in a person's essence very rarely.”

  “I see,” he said and thought, *I don't really see. I never knew choosing a class would be so difficult. “*Can I change my class later?”

  “No. You can choose a new class only when you start anew, that is, after the death of your physical body and your essence finds a new body.”

  “So, the soul never dies, is it?”

  “It is complicated, but the short answer is no.”

  “Then, if I don't like the class I choose, I can just get myself killed and start over again with a new class, isn't it?”

  “It does not work like that. Death in the Realm means death in your physical reality as well.

  “Then, your essence has to find a suitable body. It is not necessary that you will find a human body. You may go through generations of animal bodies before you enter a human body. And then, you might not even Awaken, even when you are in a human body. “

  “What do you mean Awaken?”

  “Awakening is the process by which your essence finds its way back to the Realm or discovers it for the first time, like your essence has discovered now. When an essence rediscovers the Realm, it regains its memories but restarts at level 1.

  “Besides, the entire cycle of birth and death in the physical world before Awakening may take thousands of human years. So, I don't recommend dying in your reality or the Realm as a method to reset your class,” Pamral finished.

  Aacek's mouth hung open. “This is not really a game, is it?”

  “It is not a game in the sense you think, Aacek. If you ask me if it is a simulation, it could well be. After all, your physical reality is just a simulation running off of The Realm. The Realm is where the physical realities of all the universes unravel into their base form. But we have a suspicion that The Realm is itself a sim running on an even baser reality.”

  “Well, at least my suspicions of a simulation within a simulation were not entirely unfounded.

  “I choose the Chronoschist class.”

  Do you confirm?

  He chose yes.

  He felt the same wave of warmth wash over him that he had felt when he had levelled up near the portal tree.

  “Congratulations, Aacek. You are now a Chronoschist. We expect great things from you. Maybe you will even deliver us from the evil Alzama.

  “You may now choose your first skill.”

  He saw the skills available:

  Chronoschism: use on an object to make the two halves of the object travel through time at different speeds, essentially splitting the said object through shearing time force.

  Chronotachy: use on an object to reduce the time taken for the object to complete its ongoing motion, essentially accelerating its motion.

  Aacek saw several other skills greyed out and assumed they were not available yet, but he could see certain skills were grouped under headings. There were three groups of skills: active, passive and ultimate.

  Chronoschism and Chronotachy were under active skills.

  Talk about an entirely new class! This is beyond new!

  I can see different use cases for both skills, but I don’t know how it will help me defeat those monsters out there. Still, this skill seems more useful right now.

  “I choose Chronotachy.”

  Confirm?

  Yes

  *“*Good choice. Now, let me introduce you to your attributes and stats:

  Strength

  Vitality

  Dexterity

  Intelligence

  “Using your active skills requires mana, of course, which refills slowly on its own or by drinking potions.

  “The attributes will affect your stats, life, mana, stamina, what gear you can wear and so on. You will discover more as you spend time in the Realm.

  “You may use your inbuilt identify skill to identify the loot you loot on your journey. Use it now on the Spawn Shadow Tunic you looted earlier.”

  Aacek just had to think of identifying the tunic, and he was greeted by the now familiar display in front of his eyes. It read:

  Spawn Shadow Tunic | Rare |

  Grants Night Powder skill - you are invisible and invulnerable for ten seconds. Can be used once per hour of Realm Time.

  +2 to Intelligence

  Equip now?

  Aacek chose yes without hesitation.

  He felt the tunic wrapping itself around him. When he looked at his torso, he was dressed in the same black silk-like material that had covered the Alzama Spawn. As to feeling more intelligent, he was not sure if he did.

  Just when he wondered what his actual stats were, he was greeted with another wall of text:

  Aacek | Lvl 2 | Chronoschist |

  Strength: 15

  Dexterity: 10

  Vitality: 20

  Intelligence: 15 (+2)

  Health: 100

  Mana: 85

  Stamina: 75

  Realm Time remaining: 50:49

  The Realm Time was a timer counting down. Most of it is self-explanatory.

  “I am going to log out in another fifty minutes or so, aren’t I? Can I gain Realm Time by doing something, or is each session limited to one hour?”

  “You still think of The Realm as a game; it is not. Anyway, you gain Realm Time or RT by helping us, Aacek. Now that you are a Chronoschist, you gain bonus Realm Time every time you do something of repute.”

  Not very specific guidance, but I will take it.

  “Anything else I need to know?”

  “Oh, lots of things in fact. You will have to discover them mostly on your own. For now, you can repair your splintering shield for free. It is my gift to you for killing the Alzama Spawn. It normally costs Realm Time to buy and repair stuff.”

  “Oh! Where do I meet the… blacksmith, I guess?”

  “Fernir is in the next building. After you get your shield repaired, I want you to head back to the Portal Tree in the town square and go back to Horic Grassland. Then, proceed north.

  “There are reports of livestock disappearing from our sheds. I want you to investigate the matter and find out what is causing these disappearances. We know it is the Alzama, but have not been able to pinpoint any specific group.”

  Aacek scratched his head and looked at Pamral for a few seconds. “See Pamral, I appreciate your introduction and granting quests and everything. You said this is not a game, but you just gave me another quest with not much specificity.

  “What if I do not want to play this game anymore? What if I get bored? Besides, a lot is happening in our real world right now, and personally, we are living on edge, facing a death threat. Maybe I don’t need this distraction right now?”

  Pamral stayed silent for a few seconds now. Aacek thought he was assessing how much to tell him. “Markena will keep coming after you people. There is no escape till you defeat him here. Perhaps you and Aesira are the only people who can.”

  Aacek was stunned by his direct answer; it felt like a punch to his nose. “You mean Markena is here? How do you know all this?”

  “The Realm is where it all actually happens, Aacek. You just see it being played out in your world. Markena is but a pawn in the grand scheme of things.”