Jared awoke with a start, bolting up into a sitting position with a disoriented yell, which tapered off into an agonized groan as he suddenly became aware of how sore he was. He reached to massage his aching lower back, only to be met with a muffled clang. Jared frowned. Then he noticed the sunlight intermittently gleaming through the foliage above him as it shifted in the wind. He was under a tree on a grassy rise, no sign of his apartment or downtown Tokyo, just rolling hills and fields with the occasional stand of trees, the walls of a town nearby, and a pleasantly warm breeze. He raised an eyebrow, then shrugged.
“Not New York, but I’ll take it.” His voice was different, he noticed. He also became aware of a weight on his shoulders when he shrugged, and something was poking him in the back of the head, and he still hadn’t figured out what made the clang-oh, full plate armor. And he was wearing a hat. And he had...a sword? Big one too.
“Cenadin. It’s Cenadin. I’m Cenadin?...Must be dreaming,” he mumbled. Everything seemed awfully clear and coherent for a dream, but that was still the best explanation. Alternatively, he’d been pulled into Emerald Odyssey, but that seemed highly unlikely.

Jared stood up, the aches in his body fading away rather abruptly. He set off down the hill at a steady lope. His movements felt free in natural, despite the weight of the armor, and most undreamlike. He broke into a full sprint down the hill. Still free and easy, not the running-in-waist-deep-water effect of most dreams. He stopped at the base of the hill as movement caught his eye, a slow moving brown something in the grass. A pig-no, a boar Jared corrected himself as he saw the creature’s tusks. As he looked at the boar, a yellow reticle popped up around the boar. [i]Level 37 Boar-Neutral[/i], it said, also displaying a red bar. That didn’t seem very dreamlike either.

Well, if he was Cenadin, dream or no, then he should be able to...he took a running start towards the boar and jumped. Luminous wings appeared above his shoulders and pulled him into the sky, then shifted and sent him hurtling down at the boar. “GET WREKT SCRUB” he yelled, and punched the boar directly across the face, even as the wings dissolved into golden motes that blasted into the boar. The unfortunate pig slid backwards a few feet and collapsed.

“Neat.”

The possibility that he’d somehow been sucked into the world of Emerald Odyssey as his character was beginning to look more and more likely. He had been playing last night, prepping for the update... The sword poked him in the back of the head again and he sighed. The model for that particular sword had always been a little janky in the game.

Jared-or Cenadin maybe, it seemed strangely appropriate to think of himself that way-set off into the fields at a leisurely pace, thinking things through. He had a few town portal scrolls on him, but he wasn’t sure heading into that area would be a good idea, not before getting his bearings and figuring out how to defend himself properly. Another boar trundled across his path, largely indifferent to his presence, though it ambled away from him as he got closer.

“Wonder if I can taunt...OY DICKNUGGET” he yelled. The yellow reticle around the boar promptly turned red, the boar squealed and charged him, catching Jared in the midriff and knocking him flat on his back. He let out a loud whoop as he went down, but was able to quickly right himself before the boar could charge him again. “Oh you are BACON my friend” he said at the irate pig. It charged again, and Cenadin drew his sword and held it over his head, imitating the animation which had accompanied Sacred Armaments in the game. A sword of light lanced down from the sky, exploding onto the boar’s back. It’s red bar shrank to almost nothing, and it abruptly turned and bolted off towards the road. Jared set off after it with a yell; “Get back here bacon!”

The boar was partially concealed by the grass, but Cenadin could keep track of it well enough. It burst out of the field and onto the road just outside of the town’s gates, giving the pursuing paladin a clear line of sight. A small icon in the corner of his vision seemed to indicate that Righteous Leap was available again, so he jumped after the pig, the wings once again bearing him aloft then driving him towards his target. This time, he stabbed out with his sword, neatly impaling the pig and killing it before the golden motes from the wings even reached the animal. 

“Git Gud,” he declared triumphantly.

It was then he realized he was not alone. Two women-which his HUD identified as a ninja named Deneb and a cleric named Viridian-were on the road just beyond the town gate, looking at him oddly. Two guards at the gate, which his HUD did not provide names for, were also staring. He tried to pull his sword free from the boar to lean on it casually, but it was caught on something and refused to come out all the way. He tugged it more, causing the pig’s corpse to flop around awkwardly, until the sword caught an artery and a small spurt of blood caught Jared in the face. The sword came free at the same time, causing him to stumble back a few steps while he tried to wipe the blood away, though he only succeeded in smearing it around with his gauntlet. At last, Jared was able to plant his sword between the cobblestones and lean on it. Real casual.

“Sup.”

[@Anza][@PKMNB0Y]