Dosumn 101 (rewrite)

Samuel leaned over the window’s frame, staring out into the strange city. His eyes were drawn to the colossal escalated pyramid in the distance. White, pristine and immaculate in its presentation. It had three layers, each massive in scale. From where he stood to its base he saw a sea of buildings of different heights and sizes. Then he noticed one thing that he missed before, on every level of the pyramid there was a wall and behind it, buildings.

Eventually his eyes were taken up to the sky and he felt stupid for not noticing that thing sooner. It looked like someone had stabbed a piece of cloth and that was the hole it made, the piece of cloth being the sky. The edges of it were of different tones of purple and pink, made of strings that weaved in the sky. Behind it he could see a sea of stars. He didn’t know much about astronomy but he could swear he recognized some of the constellations.

“What the fuck?” he asked himself in disbelief. His ears perked up at the sounds below, making him turn his attention down. A sea of people walked on the tight compacted streets. Merchants tried to sell their products with catchy songs and phrases, kids cheerfully played and ran after each other. He felt like he was overlooking a costume party in La Boca, the neighbourhood in Buenos Aires he grew up in.

“What is this place?” Finally, Sam opened his mouth. His eyes went back to the rift, the biggest source of his perplexity.

Sigh. Oh, how much he had hated that sigh, “Like I said, the best city-”

Chiyo started speaking, but Sam snapped his head to her and interrupted with, “That doesn’t explain shit!”

Azim stepped to the side, covering Chiyo from Sam,“Please, be calm. I was in your position once. All will be explained, I assure you.”

Salazar, who still was on the opposite corner, stepped closer with a finger lifted up into the air. “If I may? I explained this to people before, so…”

“Sure, you have a crack at it. It," she glanced at him, "is giving me a headache,” she crossed her arms and looked away.

“Samuel,” he uttered, annoyed. She didn’t reply, which annoyed him more. Azim put a hand on his shoulder, nodding in understanding.

Salazar walked on his knees over the bed, sporting a shaky smile. “Okay Sam. . .─” Samuel stared daggers at him, “─. . .uel. Samuel. Here is the easy explanation. Dosumn isn’t on Earth. Like Lady Shoda said, I literally took your soul and brought it here. Ehm- so, you died” Salazar’s voice was such a bizarre thing. The way he stuttered and lifted or lowered his tone, it made him sound like a toy running out of battery.

“Y-yeah, someone set me up. I got shot…” He shuddered and rubbed his forehead, where the bullet should have been, still feeling the heat of the bullet piercing his skin and skull. He snapped out of it thanks to the whiplash the second part gave him, “Wait, you took my soul?”

“Mhm, I can do that,” nodding and standing proud. “S-see, the world you died is what we call mundane which means that it lacks natural sources of magic,” he stood next to Samuel, digging inside his pockets, lowering his shoulders even more, “That’s why we summon people from your world; souls yearn for the supernatural. Which means, after being starved for so long, they feed and feed and feed on magic; until you come out as a giga mega person.”

“I think I am following,” nodding, “I am like a superhero?” Looking out the window, there were three people that stuck out. They were wearing normal suits and had purple ties. He shrugged, paying them no mind.

“Kind of? You may have heard something about a class and a subclass, right?” - Samuel nodded at that - “That’s just how magic works here. Only few dosumni get classes, while all summoned do. You are basically a super medic. Well, heh,” - fixing his glasses - “more than that, a super duper medic thanks to your subclass,” Salazar finally pulled out what he was looking for, a little notebook.

Feeling a bony shoulder bump his ribs, Sam was forced to look at what Salazar was showing him. It looked like a spreadsheet to him. “Stats, class, skills. . . What are you showing me?”

“Your stat sheet! It’s a vital magic object to have. See here?” He pushed his glasses and pointed at “Class”. “This is your class. Healer, like we said before. This, Medus, is your subclass. These things give you- wait a second. . . WHAT!?”

Chiyo took a glance and stared back at her nails, then she looked again, leaning over Samuel’s shoulder to look at the page. Azim simply looked from above his head. They both also screamed “WHAT!?”, in unison.

“What what? What happened? Anything wrong?” He frantically looked from one to the other. Then at the sheet, not understanding anything in it. Chiyo pointed it out for him, his stats.

“Every single stat you have is 0. All. of. them. Except for your intelligence. This. . . just doesn’t happen,” she kept tapping the number. Over and over. The sound of her nail hitting the paper got buried into his brain.

“And that’s bad?” He snapped the paper out of Salazar’s hands, taking a closer look. “I don’t feel weak or whatever the other things mean.”

“Yes! Of course it is!” he blinked a few times and rubbed the back of his head, “I think. Look, I never saw this in my life. I-it is way beyond me,” Salazar admitted, trying to steal the sheet back, something Samuel didn’t allow.

“What it means is that you won’t serve in the arena, everyone will body you.” She lifted up her hand to Azim, who took out a little ball and gave it to her. She began to squeeze it and control her hyperventilating breathing.

After staring at her for a second, one of uncomfortable silence in the room, he clicked his tongue and walked back to the window. The three well dressed men were nowhere to be seen, making him arch an eyebrow. “I probably imagined it,” he thought.

But then he saw one of them again, looking up at the window. When their eyes crossed, the man quickly looked away, poorly acting like he was looking for someone. He then saw another, climbing up the outside stairs of a nearby building. And then the third, walking to the entrance of their building.

“Ehm, look, Samuel- It’s fine, you can-” Salazar approached him but Samuel lifted up his hand to shush him.

“Something’s not right. . .” A fourth showed up, he saw him out of the corners of his eyes, standing on a roof about thirty metres from him and ten below. Something was flying towards him from that direction, too quickly to see what it was. Too fast to react, “Fuck. . . Not again!” He closed his eyes, brazing for impact, but only felt a potent gust of wind hit his face.

When he opened his eyes, Azim loomed over from behind. His hand had caught a javelin made of some polished metal. When he looked at the roof, the man was gone.

“What did you see, Samuel?” Azim had broken the javelin with his bare hand, offering the pointy side to Chiyo and the blunt one to Samuel. He accepted and took a step away from the window.

“Four suited men. Purple ties. One of them threw that shit to me. Why? Who the fuck are you lot?” Chiyo went pale, eyes wide in shock. Her arms shook and she almost dropped the improvised weapon she was given and her legs trembled, threatening to make her fall. Azim grabbed her shoulder, keeping her on her feet, and squeezed.

“Chiyo, you have to go. Now. Remember what I told you,” he shook her, Chiyo didn’t reply, “Chiyo! Go. NOW.” That seemed to do it, she slowly got back to her senses.

“Ye-yeah, you are right. Samuel, with me. Do you know how to fight?” Life seemed to come back to her face and, to Samuel’s distaste, her attitude. She turned around grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and dragging him away.

“Yes, I know how to fight but what’s going on? Who are those people and why-” Chiyo shushed him with a finger pressed to his lips before they took a turn towards the building’s stairs. He opened his mouth and was about to bite her finger when he also heard the hushed steps of two people climbing up.

“Okay, we wait here and we-”, she whispered, peeking through the corner, “Behind you!” Then screamed and pushed him to the side.

Behind him, he heard a big heavy thing break into the wall, so he looked over his shoulders. It could very well be Halloween because the man had a realistic looking cow mask. Samuel quickly turned around, facing him. He was taller, wider, meaner than him. Not smarter though. Samuel slid a leg next to him, dropping low to the ground and immediately followed with a punch to his crotch.

If Chiyo’s scream previously hadn’t notified the others where they hid, his surely did. Keeping with the theme of his mask, his scream sounded like mooing. Sam stood up, took Chiyo’s hand and ran down the corridor. It was long, extending over a hundred metres easily, there had to be another stair somewhere.

“I DON’T WANT TO DIE AGAIN, DAMN IT.”