Confusion

…

…..

'Where am I?'

Looking around, all he could see was black. He couldn't see or even feel himself move.

'Do I have a body anymore?'

'Wait, who am I?!'

Thomas.

He knew that single word in his mind was his name. He couldn't question it; as soon as he thought it he knew with his whole soul that it was his name.

Even that one thing inside his mind wasn't complete though, as he didn't even remember his own surname.

He felt as if his entire existence was in someone else's hand.

…

At that moment, *ding*

…

A high pitched sound went through the area, startling him.

'What's going on?'

"Hello." A voice said. It sounded feminine but he couldn't see who was talking to confirm it.

"You have been brought to The Deep. The Deep is a new world, created by the gods to find the strongest champion among the humans, throughout the past few centuries."

All her words were laid into his mind with no other memories to impede it, become deeply ingrained within him immediately.

"The gods became bored with your path. In a few centuries or even decades, your world will have become filled with peace and prosperity, which is dreadfully boring to watch. So the gods decided to find the strongest human and grant them any wish."

'A wish?'

He started contemplating what he would wish for. He didn't really want anything. Money, women, fame, he didn't even know what those were.

The voice kept talking.

"To become acknowledged as the strongest, you need to do one of two things: Holding the #1 position in the official rankings for 3 years, or delve to the very bottom of The Deep."

He felt a sinister energy coming from those words, even though they were just words he instinctively knew that possibly millions had already died trying to complete those tasks.

Suddenly, a few strange marks appeared in the void in front of him.

Three complex runes appeared in the endless expanse.

When he focused he noticed that he could feel something from these runes.

The one on the left has a reddish tinge, and made him imagine close quarters and bravery.

The middle one has a tame, yet strong, green aura that gave him thoughts of patience and ruthlessness.

The right one gave off a deep, royal blue and made him think of precision and elegance.

"The gods decided to give everyone an equal chance through allowing everyone to choose a path before they start. This will allow everyone to have an equal chance in the beginning, so only the talented and determined few will survive and progress."

"Choose one path to walk on. You can change your path later, although it will be very difficult, or you can choose the right path now and advance it and yourself until you reach the peak."

The voice stopped speaking and he waited for a while for it to come back, but it seemed like it had finally left.

'I wonder what this is?'

He looked towards the first one, or rather directed his thoughts at it, and a strange cracking noise rang throughout the space.

[ERROR]

[ERROR]

[FIXING]

[ESTIMATED TIME BEFORE FIXED: 1:00]

The timer immediately started lowering, but at 58 seconds he heard another voice, this one masculine.

"I only have a short time, so listen good."

The voice was powerful and commanding, he followed its directions easily as he couldn't do anything else.

"Firstly, look deep inside yourself before choosing your path."

[50]

"Second, find a man named Bjiörn in the starting city and say these words to him: alpha charlie indigo delta echo one two route."

[40]

"Third, stay true to your chosen path to the end, and follow the path of your own soul. They will serve you well."

[30]

"Fourth, use your instincts. You have a better start than most, so use it. Your instincts will not serve you wrong."

[20]

"Fifth, you are a part of a infamous bloodline. Many may try to harm you if they know of your family name, so keep it hidden at all times."

[10]

"Sixth, become as strong as you possibly can.

In this world, power is everything so to live even a normal life you need to become strong first.

[2]

"Seve-

[0]

The voice cut out as the timer hit zero.

[ERROR HAS BEEN REPAIRED]

He could tell that this man had no bad intentions, but felt a terrible premonition from what he had said.

His brain whirred as he tried to understand what it meant. Not knowing what else to do he sat there and collected himself.

After he got around this startling change in his so far peaceful time in the dark, he decided to press onwards.

Now, instead of directing his thoughts toward one of the runes, directed them into his own floating, dark body.

At first, he didn't notice anything.

He just felt like he had closed his eyes and say like that for many minutes. Right as he was about to give up his search though, he saw something.

A light.

He focused on it and saw that it wasn't just light, it was sparks. Jumping all around in a small area was a small spark of electricity that was slowly, almost imperceptibly, slowing down.

He felt a great terror as he realized that, as if his very being was telling him to not let it die out.

He knew that he had to be quick.

As he opened his 'eyes' he focused again on the first rune.

It glowed softly and then expanded into a line of rectangular shapes with writing on them. He looked closer and realized they were names.

[The Path of The Sword. Mortal, upgradable.]

[The Path of The Spear. Mortal, upgradable.]

[The Martial Path. Mortal, upgradable.]

[The Path of Sparks. Bronze, upgradable.]

There were four books, but the final book was different. It gave off a completely different aura than the previous ones.

Even reading the name he felt that it was much stronger than the others. It gave off a strong brown luster compared to the other books.

What he didn't see earlier was that after he noticed the spark, all of the runes in front of him changed slightly.

When that happened their colors got slightly lighter, and a new glyph appeared on each of the already complex runes. Because he was so focused on the spark inside him at the time he didn't notice this change.

He directed his thoughts on the middle rune and it expanded into three books: the path of the dagger, poison, and lightning steps.

The lighting related one was bronze grade again, while the others were just common

The final rune had five books. The path of the bow, sling, rider, mana, and charge.

The Path of Charge was bronze, although he had no clue what it did.

It was definitely lightning related, as it was bronze grade, but the word meant nothing to him.

He knew that he couldn't pick a common book. This was obviously not normal as he could feel something different from the electricity books.

So he had to make a choice between The Path of The Sparks, The Path of Lighting Steps, and The Path of Charge.

He knew they would all be powerful.

He wasn't sure about charge and didn't feel anything in particular for it, so he ruled it out.

Zap Steps seemed better to him as he could almost hear it calling out to him, trying to teach him of lightning-quick moves and bright disorientation.

The Path of The Sparks in particular seemed to yell at him with its fierce aura.

When he focused on it he got a strange trance like feeling that made him imagine a scene of a man with a spear facing a horde of beasts alone, standing before them, before suddenly disappearing and reappearing in a flash of light and splash of blood.

He knew what he had to pick. He reached out with his thoughts towards it, trying to take it in.

It started glowing brightly and floated towards him, mixing with his soul-like body and becoming a part of him.