Quest for Valor: Preface

The electromagnetic probe in its place placed above and behind the ear, it whirred into action upon its adhesion to the skull.

Small blue lights flickered binary messages about the process that was well underway. One corresponded to the connection of the unit to the host server. Another to monitor the user's life signs. Others showed the progress of the unit's invisible link to the central nervous system, as yet another made a diagnostic on the user's identity. It only took a matter of 20 seconds to execute terrabytes of data necessary for the operation our hero has experienced many times before.

The process complete, every nerve gave a slight tickle followed by a quick jolt as if one was awakening from a nightmare.

The messy bedroom that surrounded him faded into a room filled with shadows, illuminated only by a blue pool of water, the entrance to another world loomed, awaiting to consume the male figure.

He solemnly walked along a well-worn groove in the hard floor, and stepped up onto the cobblestone barrier around the motionless fountain. Taking a deep breath, and stepping forward, gravity pulling him into the liquid. It's smooth surface violently reacting to the new stimuli.

His weak body melted away as he plummeted toward the bottom, unable to breath under the viscous surface. Losing its form, it would look to anyone else barely human, if not even bipedal, in nature.

As his velocity increased, the male once again took shape. His normally short build was now increased by nearly a foot, his hair several inches grew in length, his build became more muscular, and his ears elongated into a point.

The pool slowly became no more, changing instead to an ill-formed tube of air. The faint light now grew in its intensity from the former twilight, to a bright sunny day. The world now came into view below as clothes and again a suit of armor formed around him. Eight rings appeared, one of each finger each a nameless gray metal substance with a different icon crafted onto each.

A small village revealed itself from a former uninteresting brown dot, and our hero landed in a crouching position within the marketplace with a large thump. The commotion scaring a few of the bargain hunters and attracting the attention of a few of the random adventurers. They flocked to him before he could even get his bearings on the new location.

A dozen voices barked all at once excitedly. Some meaningless praises over his shining tinted ever so slightly green embossed with gilded trim in the shape of a lower case t. A rather large broadsword was strapped to his back and it gave off a fiery aura.

Other voices were of disgust and ignorance, poorly covering their apparent jealousy. This commotion brought even more people from around the surrounding country as well as foragers stopped whatever they were doing to see the spectacle. Business as usual halted to see the long absent warrior.

"I can't believe he's back!" No voice in particular said.