Chapter 2 — The Transformation

Dr. Byrd’s device slid across the table when we hit. For a moment, I thought everything would be fine. Then, the machine buzzed like a chainsaw cutting down a whole forest at once. The whine filled the room.

A whole paragraph about Dylan’s gear in his favorite game Dungeon Royale glowed on the control computer’s screen. The AI started writing more text, rambling about dungeon balancing and gear and environment biomes. What’s worse, we’d bumped the knob reading “Scale” to it’s maximum setting.

Dr. Byrd said a bad word, dropped his phone, and dashed toward us.

Thousands of tiny needles rose from the machine’s top panel, but rather than pointing at the sample plate. The needles aimed at all of us.

The whole class and even Dr. Byrd stepped away from the device.

Before any of us could run, or move, or shout, the needles detonated with light.

Dissolving didn’t hurt.

I became weightless and the science class’s walls and sink stations and equipment and books and all my classmates glowed pure white.

Shapes morphed and twisted into new combinations. A weight settled on my shoulders and wrists. Surprised, I fell to my knees. Wait, I had knees again?

My hands and feet had returned. They looked the same except... well, except that I had a silver and brass watch covering my wrist and half of my arm. It had a tiny keyboard, and a little rectangular screen that flashed two numbers on top of a red and green bar. One read, “Health 100%,” and the other said, “Magic: 100%.”

Magic? I stared at the watch. What was it talking about?

Light congealed around my shoulders and I found I was wearing an old leather shirt of some kind with rivets holding together a couple of heavy plates. I rubbed my thumb along the leather’s rough edge, and suddenly the watch around my wrist started glowing. A cone of light displayed text in front of my face.

Leather Armor: Level 1 - Adds +1 block to incoming physical damage.

I took my finger off the armor. The light disappeared, and I touched my own arm with the same hand. The light returned:

Character: Samuel D.

—Type: Human

—Level: 1

—Class: <Not Selected>

—Skills: <Not Selected>

—Stats:

— —5 Might

<Scroll for more.>

My hand dropped. The class room’s walls solidified, but rather than the splotchy, poster-covered mess of bins and backpacks and pencil sharpeners, everything was ancient stone.

The machine’s thousands of needles still zipped in every direction.

Beside me, Dylan’s red hair had grown down past his shoulders. Oh, and he also had a beard. A beard! What the heck? And his nose... wait... his whole sneering face stretched out to look like a jackal.

Character: Dylan K.

—Type: Gnoll Grunt

—Level: 1

<Cast an inspection-type skill for more details>

The classroom’s lamps morphed into flaming torches, and the door to the hallway became a steel portcullis. Shouts echoed in from the other parts of the school, and with them, strange animal cries that I’d never even heard in a zoo!

Miss Libby looked mostly the same except for stipes of white paint smearing her cheeks and the huge battle axe resting on her shoulder.

Even with Dylan turning into some thing called a Gnoll Grunt, the weirdest transformation was Dr. Byrd.

His glasses rounded into reflective circles, hiding his eyes completely and mirroring his device’s spinning needles. Even though he’d worn a business button-down when he’d presented, a labcoat now covered a worn pinstripe shirt and tweed pants. His skin shrank back against his bones, and he grew thinner and thinner. Then, he started smiling.

I thought he might laugh and tell us this was all some prank, but his smile only grew wider and wider. His cheeks stretched back to his ears, and more of his teeth showed. His lips stretched so I could even see his molars!

Then like someone pulling a table cloth off a table. His cheeks vanished, and only his skull remained, still smiling. I rushed forward to see if he was okay, but his reflective glasses turned to face me at my movement. My watch flickered with a description:

Character: Dr. Byrd - BOSS ENEMY

—Type: Techno-Lich

—Level: 57

<Cast an inspection-type skill for more details>

He leaned back and let out a manaical laugh. Dr. Byrd’s voice echoed out of his skull like he was shouting from inside a hollow shell, “I told them! I told Vance and the stupid Sequoia investors this would change everything! How wonderful that it’s begun without them... Now I only need time.”

Frowning, Miss Libby shook her head, and pushed my classmates—who all now wore medieval armor—away from Dr. Byrd. Her voice resonated deeper as it echoed over the class. “All right, remember the fire zones. I want everyone outside and on the opposite curb in our zone in ten minutes.”

“Fear not, the children cannot be harmed.” Dr Byrd circled around the desk and he held out a skeleton hand toward me. I backed up. “In this place, however, they can grow far more powerful if they show more wisdom than our investors.”

Miss Libby shoved Dr. Byrd away from me. He flew backwards and slammed into the stone wall where the blackboard used to be. Miss Libby looked shocked at her own strength, but she collected herself and motioned toward the exits. “Fire zones! Hurry.”

The class filed out, but I saw a shadow rise from the crumbled rock. It was Dr. Byrd. “Ah, even as you doubt me, they doubted me. A little demonstration of my good intentions is in order.”

He extended his hands and inky shadows started to pool like water in the stones around his feet. A moment later, they formed miniature skeletons that all had shiny glasses like Dr. Byrd.

The only problem was, they were all carrying swords as long as their entire bodies.

Dr. Byrd’s skull couldn’t smile wider, but it felt like he was trying. “Go. Learn the truth of my path.”

The skeletons shouted tiny battle roars and rushed the few of us who were still in the classroom.

Then, everything went absolutely bonkers.