Chapter 1: To the End

" The Blade pierced his heart, his back was cold and wet, the world around him began to quiet, his sight would abandon him shortly after, And then, he too would abandon himself."

Is how the novel Alice had been reading abruptly ended, she tucked her phone away into her pocket as she let out an annoyed sigh, taking a sip from her drink. Months of build-up just to kill the MC off like that and then end the story with no other explanation, the author could've at least left a note at the end explaining why or something. Alice stopped at the crosswalk, waiting for it to turn so she could cross safely. There was nothing else for her to do today, she had a lecture in the morning but that was the only one for the day, she could do her work...nah, later. Once the stoplight turned red and the other one signalled for her to go, she made her way to the park and sat down on the bench. It was rather warm out, but not too warm, she wore knee-high shorts, and a simple shirt underneath her bomber jacket. She leaned back against the back of the bench, her hands sprawled out beside her, she turned her gaze to the sky littered with clouds of all kinds of shapes and sizes.

A voice suddenly rings through Alice's mind, causing her to abruptly sit upright, causing some of the passersby to stare. Alice normally heard voices in her head, they were her thoughts. But this one sounded odd, it wasn't hers. A wave of nausea hits Alice as she clutches her head, and then waves of strange images flood in. They had gone by so quickly that she couldn't make sense of any of them, and it unfortunately didn't end there. When she regained her bearings she was no longer at the park, in fact, she was no longer on Earth. Trying not to panic she made sense of her surroundings, which was nothing. She floated in the vast expanse of space, sitting really far away from her was an earth-like planet, but it clearly wasn't. Behind her was another planet, this one looked like nothing she had seen before, but before she could get a better look she blacked out, but before she could the voice from before returned and spoke to her once more, " Child from beyond, you must be ready for the Advent of ???" she couldn't hear that last part, but it didn't matter as her conscious faded.

Alice woke up in a forest. She sat up feeling fine, and after examining her body she found nothing wrong with it. Aside from her eyes, wherever she looked a strange pop-up window followed, like one of those things from a video game. At the header, it read "Tutorial", below it was an objective for her to do. Beside the two boxes were the two objectives, one was to find Yvrial, a city, and the other was to pass an assessment. Even in another world, she can't escape those...another world. Alice lay back down, closed her eyes and took deep breaths. The first thing to do would be to retrace what had happened prior to her getting here. 1, she heard someone speak to her, 2, she saw things...and then she was in space. She sprung to her feet, if this really was another world, like in the novels, then the chances of running into monsters when the sun fully set were high. Alice took a closer look at the pop-up to see if it would give her any clues as to how to find this, " Yvrial", lo and behold, beneath the first objective, written in slightly smaller writing, was a string of text that suggested she open the map to locate the city. The instructions were straightforward, ridiculously straightforward. To close the quest menu, she simply had to think it, and it was the same process for opening it back up, this applied to everything she guessed. The map opened up in the top right corner of her vision, if she wanted a bigger view she had to once again think it,

" map expand" was the right command, after she had spent a stupid long time trying multiple different commands. The full map laid out in front of her gave her a much larger view of her surroundings, and as it turns out she wasn't too far from the city. The map was also touchable, swiping her finger through it moved it, and when she touched the city it gave her more information about it, kinda like Google Maps. Alice managed to make her way into the city, its outward appearance was very old, but it felt new. Everyone was dressed in a mix of both really old and new, so her outfit didn't stand out too much. A smaller pop-up in the corner of her vision appeared, letting her know that she had completed the first objective. All that was left was to finish the second, which was to pass the Adventurers Assessment, whatever that was. Alice walked through the city until she found- assumingly- the right building, a wooden sign was hung out front referring to it as the " Adventurers Guild", when she stepped inside there were a lot of people, like a lot. All of them were properly equipped with armour and weapons, she sheepishly made her way to the front desk where a nice-looking lady was, and oddly enough all the loud chattering seemed to have dimmed when she got to the desk, magic?

" I assume you're here for the Adventurers assessment?" The lady asked, pulling Alice back from her thoughts, she also tried not to dwell on the fact that she understood her perfectly despite being an otherworlder. Alice nodded and the lady flipped through her book, and when she neared the end of the list she was going over she frowned and looked back to Alice, " I um, haven't registered yet and was hoping if I could now?" Alice spoke quickly, she had no clue if there was a registration, but she had to say something. The nice Lady let out a sigh as her smile returned, " I'll allow it since the assessment begins in a couple of minutes, and not many people have joined this time," She clicked her pen, " Your name? And would you like any accommodations?" Alice told the Nice Lady her name after she explained that the accommodation was weapons and armour in case she needed any, and of course, she took it, who knows what this assessment is gonna be like. After she got geared up she thanked the Nice Lady and stood aside waiting for the assessment to begin. Alice fidgeted with the sword she had been given, it was a short sword that remained strapped to her side, and her palm rested on its butt as she shifted it back and forth like she was shifting the gear of a car. The guild didn't have any proper armor, just a simple set of gauntlets, a chest piece, and pieces that covered her thighs and her lower legs. Fortunately, when she was transported her bag was brought with her, and in it, was a hair tie, allowing her to keep her hair from being accidentally cut by herself. A good ten or so minutes later the talking died down, and a man walked to the front, he looked like an experienced adventurer, considering how he was decked out in a full set of... reddish black armor whatever it was made of. His blond hair was pulled back into a ponytail, a joyous grin sat on his face, like he was excited to be doing this. He clapped his hands together before he spoke, " Alright, you're all here for the Adventurers assessment, This month's assessment will be held in a 4-star dungeon, so even the most inexperienced of you will be able to make it through, and even if something were to happen you have nothing to worry about. With all that out of the way, let's go!" The young man had said all of that rather quickly but in a way so that everyone understood. The Nice Lady smacked him on the back of the head as she let out a chuckle, " WE will be assessing you in the dungeon, on what, you will find out when we get there," The Nice Lady said as the seasoned Adventurer rubbed the back of his head where he was hit, smiling sheepishly, the Nice Lady went over what he had skipped over. When she finished explaining the young adventurer pumped his fist into the air, and everyone cheered, he led everyone out of the guild and toward the dungeon, Alice made sure to follow at the very end of the group, it's not like she was nervous, but this whole thing was new to her. The Nice Lady would follow everyone from the rear just in case, she gave Alice a thumbs up of encouragement, to which Alice quickly smiled.

Soon enough they were back in the forest, the chattering returned but it wasn't as loud as before, the sun overhead was setting, which meant they would finish by nightfall. From the guild building to where they were now, Alice spent most of that time thinking about what she was going to do when the assessment actually started. The objective said she needed to pass, but what if she failed? Before she could ponder any further on that, she noticed that someone had fallen behind to where she was walking, an oddball perhaps? Alice kept walking, occasionally taking glances beside her at the odd person, every time she looked over she was smiling at her, which she would return. " Is this your first assessment or are you here for a rank evaluation?" the only part Alice understood was the assessment, which is what she assumed everyone here was doing, " A rank evaluation is for those who are in bronze and want to move up, but the highest you can go during the Adventurers assessment is gold, which is rare even then," the odd girl explained, " My name is Cleo, I'm here for the assessment," Cleo says,

" My name is Alice,"

" Are you here for the assessment as well?"

" Yeah,"

Cleo would then go on to talk about many different things for a while. Alice found the chance to speak up, so she asked the nice lady a question that's been on her mind for a while now, "Who's the leader?" the nice lady looked surprised, but answered the question, " He's Arthur, the youngest Adept rank Hunter," She says, but the look of confusion on Alice's face made her continue, " Hunters are referred to those whose strength goes beyond a normal adventurer, hunters are classified into three ranks, Mastwe, Adept, and Genesis," Alice nods her head as she explained it. Once they got to the entrance, which was just a cave, Arthur stopped at the entrance, joined by the nice lady,

" Alright everyone, once inside you're all free to roam around, we'll be watching you using Ms. Clair's observers. You will be assessed based on how well you perform throughout this dungeon, on how well you can fight and defend your teammates. Once inside you have two hours, these devices will help keep track of the time," Arthur says waving to the box next to him, " Once you all have one you should get into groups of two or three, and remember, once the two hours are up you are to make your way to the boss door," With that Arthur helped distribute the wristwatches, the screen beamed to life after Alice had tightened it around her wrist, it was a smartwatch, but it seemed to be powered by something else, this was surprising. She had no idea this world would have technology, now she was curious as to what else they had. As they all went in, Cleo stuck close to her, tapping her watch with Alices, causing both their screens to blink green before returning to the 2-hour timer.

" Now we're teammates!" she says excitedly. Everyone else got to killing the monsters, which were some odd-looking goblins. Alice and CLeo made their way through the dungeon, trying to find something to fight, or else they'd fail.

-MAIN OBJECTIVE-

FIND -NAME-, CITY OF ADVENTURE

open map to locate( to do so, just think it!)

PARTAKE IN THE ADVENTURERS ASSESSMENT AND OBTAIN A RANK

Reach Level 90

-SIDE OBJECTIVES

DEFEAT THE DUNGEON BOSS