The Confused Explorer

When people dream they dream of what they d.e.s.i.r.e, or the happier times in their life or, of times they wished could be brought back and changed.

After Mike had fainted from fear, he watched his life go by in his heart, looking at every single important thing that had happened to him up until that moment of the 'explosion' he knew his life had been nothing more than stale, something that everybody dreads, a life that no one truly wanted; even Mike didn't want to live such an uneventful life. He had dreams all the time as a teenager, of being whisked away to a magical world of amazing sites and creatures only told of in books, yet the second he got that wish the only thing he wanted more was to go home to his old boring life of working at a desk job that he'd done for over 20 years.

However what Mike wanted most of all was to see his parents, granted they'd been dead and gone for 15 years and, like all lives like his, he was so busy for such a long time he never got to spend a final goodbye with them. He had missed that warmth, like a soldier on the battlefield about to die crying for his mother one last time before death.

Maybe they didn't treat him with the most love, and they were very strict on him at some points in his life, but they still loved him dearly and that's the most important part about being a parent.

While Mike dreamed of a different time and place, the apples didn't remain still, these apples were all volatile and anything could happen to these 3 apples.

One of the apples a couple minutes into Mikes rest flew off, this apple had grown a pair of soft white dove wings and flew away to an unknown destination.

The second apple had a portal suck it in, from a glimpse into the portal, the other side looked chaotic beyond proportions with random particles appearing and dispersing millions of times over every single second.

The last apple sat there with its pink almost red sheen slowly morphed into a crystal in the shape of a tear. This crystal radiated a aura of purity and holiness.

After what was just a little over 40 minutes, Mike awoke with eyes fully open and a soft m.o.a.n escape his lips, Mike felt even more drained and tired than when before he passed out and just wanted to close his eyes for good.

The feeling in his body slowly came back as the ever shining stars brought light to his surroundings. With a swift movement of both body and mind Mike had realized that he wasn't dead, but also that he was still near this cursed tree.

Looking at his surroundings it all seemed to be a dream that he had conjured up. The only thing that even somewhat proved that it wasn't was the tear shaped crystal the size of his hand.

Picking it up, and with some realization, Mike realized one of those apples must have became this crystal, while the other three must have done something else, maybe even that one that was about to explode popped into a crystal.

With a quick search of his memories over the past hour Mike knew he still had that 'Explorers Log' as he called it, and one of the tabs was 'Materials' maybe he could use that one to figure what that apple became. Luckily it was somewhat safe to be in this area still since Mike didn't miss any of those Jack Apples when climbing the tree. Though Mike was kind of scared since it was one of those apples that had become this, but it didn't look or feel dangerous like those apples did.

"Log" said aloud Mike felt like an idiot, but with a short surprise the screen magically appeared in front of him, with that same beautiful background, but it seemed different.

The Explorer's Log:

Name: Mike

Age: 19

Explorer: Level 2

This part of the screen was new, and with a line under this was what was originally there with nothing new about it. A series of tabs on the left hand side of the screen still selected on 'flora' with 'The Jack Apple' still there in the middle box, and on the right hand upper corner was the magnifying glass.

However, what truly perplexed Mike was that it said his age was 19. Mike was over 40 years old since before coming to this world.

"Was it the Jack Apple that made me go through so much pain yet also made my skin really smooth and me feel really nice?" The thought dawned on him that, that apple had let Mike regain his youth and vigor.

"The Log did say that it could do anything, so you'd assume that's also possible" With excitement Mike had forgotten about the crystal as he looked at his body marveling at how good he looked and strong he felt.

After finally calming down over his new revelations after about 10 minutes of jumping and moving around, Mike moved back over to the tear shaped crystal. When examining it the crystal gave off a sense of purity, like it shouldn't be touched.

Mike moved his tabs over to 'Material' and when he did the magnifying glass again took over the middle screen again, because he hadn't had anything in this tab yet.

Cl.i.c.k.i.n.g on the magnifying glass with the crystal in front of the screen, it had asked him if he wanted to scan it.

Would you like to scan this item?

[Yes]/[No]

Cl.i.c.k.i.n.g Yes, the crystal burst into a multitude of strange symbol like lights, but unlike with the apple that was done relatively fast as compared to this, this time it moved so slowly it was like he was using a 1970's computer to load modern games.

This crystal took so long to try and finish that Mike didn't bother with sitting there and staring at it, waiting for it to be finished because although the Jack Apple took over an hour, this one looked like it'd take the whole day.

However before Mike could get a sense on what he should do next in order to get away from this tree, he was alerted to another window popping up to the right of The Explorers Log.

{Congratulations on reaching Level 5! Here is a gift for reaching your first of many more milestones to come! : CLAIM}