Warmth.

When I eventually opened my eyes again, I found myself under a nest of trees. The cool breeze caressed my face. Blades of grass tickled my skin, and the chirping of birds tantalized my ears. The faint sounds of water crashing against rocks echoed in the background as the warmth of the sun radiated onto my body.

The smells of life swirled into my nostrils as I laid on the warm ground. For a few moments, I believed that I was in heaven. The crystal blue sky and white cotton candy like clouds could be seen peeking out from behind the light green leaves of the canopy of trees.

Everything was just so colorful and sparkling. It was breathtaking.

I took in a deep breath of clean fresh air as tears began to fall from my eyes.

How long had it been? How many times had I fallen asleep, wishing that when I woke back up, there wouldn’t be any undead chasing me or humans trying to kill me for food?

How many times did I wish that I could wake up and see the forests again, to feel the warmth of the sun on my face, and the chirping of life?

And then, how many times did I dream of waking up to only see darkness, death, and the dust of the world when I actually opened my eyes?

It was like being stranded in a desert without any water for weeks, only to finally find a small puddle of water to drink when you needed it the most.

A desperate man would immediately drink as much water as he could to quench his thirst, but a man who knew that he was destined to die; he would savor the small puddle of water. He would swirl it around in his mouth until his mouth was moist and wet. He would only swallow each gulp when he had completely imprinted the taste and feel of the fresh water into his mind as it flowed down his parched throat.

His reason? He did not want to forget the simple pleasure of a fresh gulp of water in the unforgiving desert.

And that’s what I was doing now, imprinting every sound, smell, and sight into my mind, so that I would never forget it.

I had lost so much from my world that just the simple sight of a clear blue sky and the chirping of birds could bring me to tears with joy. It was all a surreal experience. I laid there just soaking it all up and letting it invigorate and fill my soul. Reminding me what life was supposed to be like, what it should be like, before the abyss.

As I came back to myself, I remembered that I was in, what the screens called, the ‘main world’ now. Not unlike my own, but completely different all the same.

As I sat up and gripped the vibrant green grass and the soft brown dirt below my hands, I smiled and started to cry in earnest.

There was still a part of me that was thinking that I was dreaming and that I was dead; but now, after realizing that I was really here, I was overwhelmed with how alone I felt. My entire species was slaughtered, and I was now in a world where I didn’t belong, enjoying such a beautiful sight that every person from my world longed to see again.

It was crushing.

I thought I was alone before, when I was hunted by the undead; however, I still felt like there were others out there, somewhere, fighting like I was, to survive. But now I knew, everyone else from my world was gone and the realization of that fact was taking its toll on me now.

I sat there and silently cried for a while, just letting out all my frustrations and pain. What’s worse, the realization that the abyss would be coming, and the fear of watching another world slowly die and spin into chaos sent shivers down my spine. Even more, if I failed, that would be it, we would all cease to exist, and I would have come to this world and struggled and suffered a second time for nothing.

I started to tremble and cry louder, holding my head in my hands, wishing that the abyss would never come, and I could be happy with those that I loved. But the universe was silent to my begging.

It always was.

I stayed in that state for a while. It wasn’t until much later that I managed to calm down enough and let my more rational mind take control and bury all my darkness and sadness down deep into my mind again.

It was better for me to keep those “distractions” buried. I decided long ago that I could cry and morn all I wanted when I was dead. Now, while I was alive, I had work to do, and I only had 62 days to get ahead of it. I couldn’t wallow in self-pity here. I needed to get ready, to prepare, to follow my plans.

I looked at the brand on my right hand, my reminder, my hope, and held it close.

‘I need to survive……no…I will survive.’

With a deep breath and my tear stained, determined face, I got up. Not standing, mind you, but crouching just below the bushes to the sides of me. This was the best position to duck and hide, weave and bob, and attack your enemies. In this position, one could be in a state of motion in one breath and be completely still in the next. It took a long time to master, but when your life depended on it, you learned fast.

Once up, I observed my surroundings again and started to berate myself for making so much noise while not knowing where I was. I hadn’t even confirmed if the area was safe before letting my guard down. That was so unlike me.

I decided to just blame it on being transferred to a new world and forgetting to check, but now my 9 years of honed instincts of survival quickly kicked in and I started to get back to work.

When you boiled it down, that’s what survival was, work. If you weren’t willing to put everything on the line to try and survive, then you would quickly be the one that died.

Noticing that I was alone, and no noticeable predators were around, I calmed my breathing. I had gotten ready to run or fight if an animal or otherwise heard me carrying on like that and came to investigate.

The next thing that I noticed was that I was naked. I mean, I noticed that I was naked before, but I was too caught up in my own emotions to really register that I had found myself buck naked in a forest. I assumed that I had lost all my possessions, whatever little I had, and clothes when I was transferred to this world. What’s more, I felt like my body was lighter and smaller than I remembered.

‘Right, I’m back into the body of my 18 year old self not my 27 year old self….’

This caused me to pause and stretch my limbs and move left to right and up and down a few times to remember my reach and movements for this slightly smaller and weaker body. The years of training I went through at the military base after the abyss came wasn’t there, nor was my body use to this crouching standing form. I quickly felt the aches on my muscles from standing like that.

This would be a problem I didn’t account for. My body, even in its dilapidated state, had been ingrained in certain movements after so many years. All that was gone now, and I would have to start over.

With a silent sigh, I changed my stance and changed some of my plans around. I decided to kneel on the ground and think through what I was going to do.

I couldn’t train myself in the short term in what I wanted my body to do. So, I was left with no other option but to adapt and take it slow.

After getting a better feel for my body, my reach, my strength, and my quickness in the small clearing in the forest I was in, I opened up my inventory. Thankfully, it worked just like before, with my will. After looking over everything and realizing that I still had all my purchases safely in my inventory, I quickly brought out a set of light clothes that I purchased before and put them on.

The set consisted of a grey cotton shirt, brown cotton pants, a leather belt, a pair of cotton socks, a pair of brown leather boots, cotton boxers, and a brown cotton cloak that covered most of the body. They were a perfect fit to me surprisingly and felt good.

I was attracted to another thing though. I knew that the screens said that the intelligence level for this world was lower than mine, but I didn’t really realize just what that meant until I put on the rugged clothes.

‘Interesting. The colors are muted and for most of the, more than likely handmade clothing I purchased, brown, black and grey are the major colors. No others were prevalent in them. This brings up so many questions on how clothing is made in this world, but that’s not important right now.’

Now fully clothed, I decided to arm myself.

Survival 101: Always be prepared to be attacked.

In my world, you could never guess when an undead or evolved would jump you or if the people you were sleeping with would jump you. It was a kill or be killed world. No-one could be trusted unless you were willing to give your life for them. But that wasn’t always the case too. I had seen family members killed by other family members just so that they could eat a fresh meal. I had seen lovers betray lovers just to get away from an undead. It was a nightmare, and I needed to be prepared and armed at all times. I may have not been in the apocalypse yet, but the most dangerous beings in the apocalypse were still around, humans.

After deciding on attaching the leather armguards, the leather leg guards, leather chest and back cover, and a leather cap, I moved onto weapons.

I realized that I may have looked silly, but I was in their world now, and if this was their version of armor and clothing, then it would be best to look the part so as to not stick out. Especially when I’m gathering information.

That’s the one thing that I needed more than anything right now, information. I had no idea where I was, how advance the civilizations were, what the political, economic, or otherwise this world was in currently. What’s worse, I was afraid that I would not even be able to understand them. The languages of this world weren’t listed as something that I could buy in the store, and I was afraid of wasting time trying to learn the language so that I could tell them what was coming. I was on a time limit and every day counted.

After deciding on the small iron dagger, of which I tied to my belt near my right hand, and the wooden bow with a wooden arrow on the string, prepped and ready if I need to fire; I finally looked at ease and took a deep breath.

I had chosen the cheapest weapons so people would not think I would be a target to be robbed or a threatening target in a fight. Act meek, strike strong.

Once I was fully armed and prepared for an attack, I smiled. What I was about to do could make even the hardened man smile and get excited.

‘I’m in the main world now, so that means I should be able to…’

"Status Screen"

Immediately a blue semi-transparent screen appeared about a foot or two in front of my face.

With a smile ear to ear, I quickly studied the screen. This was my first look into the functions of this world. Any information could help my progress greatly.

[Name: John Phoenix

Age: 18

Race: Human

Title(s): Survivor

Level: 1

HP: 80

MP: 340

Vitality: 8

Strength: 7

Agility: 6

Intelligence: 17->34(mana brain)

Wisdom: 23->46(mana heart)

Skills:

Spells:

Mana Manipulation Lvl 1, Meditation Lvl 1, Chanting Lvl 1, Runic Language Lvl 1, Sense Mana Lvl 1, Extract Mana Lvl 1, Empower Spell Lvl 1, Inspect Lvl 1, Mana Shield Lvl 1, Mana Bolt Lvl 1, Telekinesis Lvl 1, Spell Break Lvl 1, Interrupt Spell Lvl 1, Clean Lvl 1

Fire Spells:

Flame Control Lvl 1, Burn Lvl 1, Firewall Lvl 1

Water Spells:

Water Manipulation Lvl 1, Fog Lvl 1, Breath of Water Lvl 1

Ice Spells:

Freeze Lvl 1, Frozen Dagger Lvl 1, Ice Wall Lvl 1

Earth Spells:

Earth Manipulation Lvl 1, Earth Wall Lvl 1, Dirt to Mud Lvl 1, Mud to Stone Lvl 1, Quicksand Lvl 1, Mud Shot Lvl 1

Nature Spells:

Plant Control Lvl 1, Growth Lvl 1, Wall of Thorns Lvl 1

Wind Spells:

Gale Lvl 1, Gust Lvl 1, Feather-Fall Lvl 1, Wind Arrow Lvl 1, Air Dome Lvl 1

Lightning Spells:

Spark Lvl 1, Chain Lightning Lvl 1

Light Spells:

Light Lvl 1, Flash Lvl 1, Cure Lvl 1, Mend Lvl 1, Purify Lvl 1, Heal Lvl 1

Mind Spells:

Mind Shield Lvl 1

Shadow Spells:

Night Vision Lvl 1, Silence Lvl 1, Poison Cloud Lvl 1, Shadow Crows Lvl 1

Arts:

Dagger Arts Lvl 1, Bow Arts Lvl 1, Pugilist Arts Lvl 1, Siege Weapon Arts Lvl 1

Skills:

Tracking Lvl 1, Identify Trap Lvl 1, Danger Sense Lvl 1, Stealth Lvl 1, Running Lvl 1, Steady Hands Lvl 1, Precise Strike Lvl 1, Pain Resistance Lvl 1, Mental Resistance Lvl 1, Fear Resistance Lvl 1, Heat Resistance Lvl 1, Cold Resistance Lvl 1, Lightning Resistance Lvl 1, Poison Resistance Lvl 1, Soul Manipulation Resistance Lvl 1, Acting Lvl 1, Light Armor Lvl 1, Heavy Armor Lvl 1, Writing Lvl 1, Cooking Lvl 1, Herbalism Lvl 1, Architect Lvl 1, Mathematics Lvl 1, Measurement Lvl 1, Farming Lvl 1, Hoe Arts Lvl 1, Sickle Arts Lvl 1, Hammer Arts Lvl 1, Cartography Lvl 1, Trapmaking Lvl 1, Cleaning Lvl 1, Trading Lvl 1, Appraisal Lvl 1, Decrease Price Lvl 1

I calmly looked over the screen, analyzing all the components until I gained a basic understanding of all that I had now available to me.

The first thing that jumped out to me was my name. My original name was John, but my last name was definitely not Phoenix. I then noticed the brand on my hand, and something clicked in my head.

“Ah….I see. Phoenix, born from the fires of its old life to live a new one. Fitting.”

The next thing that I noticed was the race section of the screen. I felt that that was quite an ominous sign that there indeed would be things other than humans in this world. Unable to gain any more information from that section, I kept moving.

The next thing that stood out to me was my age.

‘This keeps a record of your age? Interesting.’

I then looked on at the titles on the screen and mentally tapped the title’s part with my mind. I was starting to get the hang of this system.

[Survivor: One who has survived against impossible odds to live. Unable to be turned into an abyss monster or undead. Allows access to Store.]

I gawked at that. So, you could earn titles in this world that could give you special abilities? This had given me another rabbit hole to wonder at. Thankfully, I already had a huge list of questions and that allowed me to just add it to the list. However, I would make certain I looked out for people with special titles.

‘So, I am given access to the store through my title? Interesting. Especially if other people can see my status screen, but I still don’t know that yet…..another question’

I then mentally clicked on each part of the status screen to gather more information. I was still intrigued on how the world quantified intelligence and wisdom, but I would not be complaining after having such high scores in them especially now with the mana heart and mana brain.

[HP: Health Points. The closer this is to 0, the closer you are to death.]

[MP: Mana Points. The numerical amount of Mana one can store and use in the body. The closer this is to 0, the less Mana you are able to use.]

[Vitality: The higher this is, the more HP you have and the more damage you can take. The higher it is the less likely you are to get sick or catch a disease.]

[Strength: The higher this is, the stronger you become physically and the more damage you can dish out with a weapon.]

[Agility: The higher this is, the faster and more agile your body and your weapons become.]

[Intelligence: The higher this is, the more MP you have and the quicker it is to initially learn skills.]

[Wisdom: The higher this is, the faster you can regenerate your MP and level skills.]

Each one of the descriptions for the stats intrigued me, but none more so than intelligence and wisdom. Apparently these two stats were mainly responsible for mana regeneration and mana storage, something that was an entirely foreign concept to my world. I didn’t really understand mana yet or how this world used it or gathered it, but from what I learned from the skills I purchased and the descriptions of wisdom and intelligence so far, I was a step closer to grasping it.

The next thing that stood out to me was the fact that skills can increase in “level.” How this impacted the skills themselves or how I used them was currently unknown, but this in itself was concerning to me. This brought me back to the level aspect to my status screen as well.

The existence of levels made me think of RPG’s and video games. It also made me think of the age-old belief that if you are a high level, you are strong. However, I shouldn’t fall into that belief. What if someone is low leveled but has high leveled skills? Until I can confirm how leveling works and how it impacts your overall strength, I needed to treat everyone with weariness.

‘Caution is always the best, but damn do I need to find a library or something.’

It then also occurred to me that I didn’t understand how one leveled either. Is it that old trope of fight monsters or animals or people to level? Or perform something akin to quests? There’s a system in place so anything is possible.

I quickly realized that more and more questions were being added to the list.

Thankfully and possibly unfortunately, was the nonexistence of a class section. I was thankful because it did not look like people were forced to adhere to a specific class structure of some kind, but also rueful due to the increase in difficulty I would now have in understanding an enemy’s fighting style.

Now that I had finished looking at the top of the status screen, I then looked down at the bottom, i.e., my skills. Thankfully and surprisingly, most of the skills were fairly cheap ranging from a couple points to get them to a few hundred or thousand. The only big one that cost a lot was Heal, but surprisingly Cure, Mend, and Purify were also the most expensive of all of the spells I purchased coming in at around 10,000-20,000 or so a piece.

The next expensive ones were the Arts section of the skills. I quickly realized what all weapon capability meant when I tried to get all of the Arts. When I clicked on something like Sword Arts, a prompt would tell me that I did not have the affinity for Sword Arts. I would then be unable to purchase it. I realized that I would probably have seen the same screen if I didn’t choose all magic capability when I was purchasing spells.

The only Arts I could purchase due to me having an affinity with them were Dagger Arts, Bow Arts, Pugilist Arts, and Siege Weapon Arts. I could understand dagger arts because of how often I used a dagger or knife to protect myself. Bow arts was interesting as well as pugilist arts. I fought in hand-to-hand combat for my training, but I didn’t think I was that good at it enough for it to be an affinity with me.

Then, there was the siege weapon arts. This one I could understand completely. I spent so much time training myself to use the cannons and large weapons we would fire over the walls at the undead back on my world. I didn’t want to toot my own horn, but I was pretty good at it. Like a cog in the machine to get the cannon firing.

All the others I didn’t have the affinity with. So, no sword, ax, spear, etc. I was stuck with a bow and dagger for now. However, if I let an enemy get close enough to force me to fight it hand to hand, I had screwed up majorly. I didn’t want to be anywhere near the heart of the fight. Unless I was using the dagger to stab at a sleeping or helpless enemy.

Anyway, the arts themselves cost 10s of thousands of points. Thankfully, the regular skills that I bought after that were really cheap. Farming only cost 3 points in comparison.

I then looked in my metaphorical library with the information on my spells and skills and brought one to my mind. The spell took shape in my mind, my will brought it forward, the energy inside me, which I now know as mana, moved through me to my fingertip as I finished the spell without chanting or drawing it in the air.

The spell I cast was Mana Bolt. Hovering above my fingers was a baseball sized, purple, sphere of pure mana ready to be released with but a command from my mind.

I quickly shot it to the ground about 5 feet from me. It was fast, not as fast as a bullet, but still too fast for me to see it moving or to move my body out of the way if it was heading towards me. When it impacted the ground it made a decent sized noise and a small crater the size of a small dog.

I was in awe of casting my first spell. The excitement was only dampened by the fact that I had made a loud noise. Attracting predators in the forest was not a good idea. The excitement and the weariness wared inside me before I quickly decided that I needed to move to a better spot to practice my spells and get a feel for all of them so that I could use them competently.

That then brought up an interesting thought I had when I was thinking in the void. I then began to test my thought by trying to open things that the system may or may not have like a map, a store, or radar by calling them out to open with my will.

Sadly, only the store worked. It popped up the same store screen I saw before that I have access to due to my title. The only difference was the fact that I now I had no points to spend. I mentally closed the screen and thought quickly about my next steps.

Since I did not have a map to let me know my location and the direction of where I needed to go, I closed my eyes and listened.

I could hear it. The one thing that all life follows like children, fresh water. I opened my eyes, checked my gear and my surroundings, and began to slowly make my way towards the sounds of running water.