Hello again! Welcome to the first chapter of the story! Now's where the plot begins to unravel. Well, not really... anyway, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Now let's begin!

Chapter 1: Welcome to Ruben

"...don't know. I just found him unconscious near the Tree of El, so I brought him over."

"How long has he been unconscious?"

"I brought him in a couple of hours ago. Before that, I'm not sure."

The sound of people talking slowly awoke me once more. I found myself resting in a really comfortable bed, in a neatly furnished room. For some reason there was pink all over the place, which was a bit off-putting for me, but the room itself felt warm and welcoming.

After stretching for a bit -like I usually do after a nap, or... all the time, actually- and smacking myself for passing out again at the Tree of El, I began thinking who or what could have caused this ridiculous event. My first suspect was, of course, the "Cobo Mysterious Express VIP Ticket", but I couldn't just blame the ticket for everything. That's when I realized that I hadn't even paid attention to who had given me the quest. The word "Cobo", however, clearly pointed towards the Cobo Service and, particularly, the one girl in charge of representing Cobo in almost every single town in the game. If I wanted answers, I'd have to go to speak with Ariel.

"Oh! You're awake!"

A female voice brought me back to my senses. A young woman, with short pink hair and a tiny mole under her right eye, smiled at me from the doorway. Behind her was a brown-haired man with a very thick beard, who was staring at me with a mix of astonishment and curiosity. I could recognize them easily. They were Ann and Hagus, the shop owner and village chief of Ruben, respectively.

"How are you feeling?" Ann asked, smiling kindly to me as she sat on the bed. "Not bad, I hope..."

"I'm okay, thanks," I replied, stretching my arms a bit more. "Just a bit lost, that's all."

"You're not from around here, are you?" Hagus asked, "I certainly don't recall seeing you in this village before."

"That's correct," I nodded, "It's the first time I visit this place."

"In that case, I welcome you to the town of Ruben, young man. I'm the village chief, Hagus," Hagus announced with a grin, and then pointed towards Ann, "The woman next to you is Ann."

"Nice to meet you... uhm..."

The good thing about a strange new world where no one knows you is that you can be whoever you want. Your name can be Jack Powers, John Doe, Volaverunt, Cthulhu, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, or whatever you can come up with. Or take from somewhere else. So it should come to no surprise that I...

"...Lucas. Name's Lucas. Nice to meet you both."

...used the exact same name I had all my life.

"Lucas... quite an interesting name," Hagus noted, thinking for a couple of seconds before turning towards Ann. "Well, if either of you happen to need anything, please let me know."

"I will, Hagus," Ann replied with a smile, "Thanks for the visit."

With that said, the village chief left the room, and I found myself alone with Ann, in a place that was now clearly her room. Most people would have found it awkward, or would have gotten nervous. Not me, though. I was far too relaxed to even think about that. I did feel a little guilty for taking a nap on her bed, though. Only a little.

"So where are you from?" the young woman asked, looking at me with her light blue eyes, clearly curious about me. "And what brought to our little village?"

Now, this was a delicate question. Several movies, series, games and other kinds of media in which transdimensional travel was a topic taught me throughout the years that, no matter how carefully or how many times you explain it, only about 5% of the people will rationally believe you if you tell them you are from another universe, world, dimension or the like. The other 95% will think you are crazy and/or freak out immediately. So, in order to avoid such an outcome, I clearly couldn't just tell her that my computer teleported me into a game. Which meant I had to make up a story. Something that people could believe blindly.

"Well... I actually lived in a small island to the north," I began, "But a fire broke out a few weeks ago. Burnt down the entire island, including my home."

"Oh, poor man..." Ann exclaimed, "It must be awful not having a home..."

"It's not really that bad," I explained, continuing my castle-sized white lie. "It gave me the courage to do something I'd always wanted. Without a home to look after, or anything to hold me down, I get to travel whenever I please... as long as I have enough money and food."

"Oh, that's good!" Ann replied with a smile, "Well, if you need a place to live in for the time being, I'm sure someone will be most glad to let you stay. Oh! Maybe Adams has a spare room! Why don't you ask him?"

Adams. Ruben's former alchemist before he was removed. At some point he went all the way from "Alchemist NPC" to "that one guy crying in the background", and was pretty much forgotten by almost everyone.

"I'll be sure to ask him. Thanks for all the help."

"Not at all!"

After about an hour and a small meal, I said goodbye to Ann, and decided to head over to Adams' house... wherever it was. However, during my search, a strange duo caught my attention.

One of them, which I recognized as Lowe, was rather tall, with short gray hair and a stern expression. He was running backwards, yelling at the other that he should "put some effort into it", and calling him "rookie" quite often. The other, far shorter, had crimson red hair that looked like a can of hair spray had exploded right on his face, and was carrying a huge backpack with a really strong air of determination.

In a matter of seconds, the drillmaster and his 13-year-old recruit made a small turn and got out of my line of sight. So I simply stood still for a few seconds, with my eyes wide open, until my brain began working properly again.

But even though as I finally located Adams' house and knocked on the door, I couldn't help but think about how strong Elsword was, even though he was merely a kid.

Well, that's it for today. Didn't really know how to end this chapter, so... there. I promise the plot begins in the next one.
Either way, thanks for reading so far! Feel free to leave feedback if you want to, and I hope to see you again soon! Until next time!