The morning sun greeted me warmly as I climbed the last few steps out of Ithrak's temple, emerging from the cool stone passage back into the living world. Reaching the top, I paused, taking a deep breath of the crisp, cool morning air, filling my lungs with the scent of damp earth and pine. My head, however, felt anything but clear—it was a swirling storm of confusion. As if reincarnation itself hadn't been crazy enough, now Pip and I were supposedly the 'chosen ones' of some ancient, diminished god. Man, this is all insane.
But right now, something else interested me far more: Ithrak's blessing. I'd received several things, hadn't I? "What was it again? Voidseeker’s Gaze, Gravity Magic, a spell called Duality...and…Status window enabled…” I stammered out the last words, and just like that, a cascade of information flooded my mind, arranging itself neatly in my awareness:
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Name: Grim
Misc:
Soulbound: Pip
Blessing: Echo of Life
Blessing: Voidseeker's Gaze
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[Skills] - [[Status]] - [Spells]
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The information blazed in my mind, a neat, orderly list that felt completely alien. It was like trying to read a foreign language I somehow understood but couldn't truly comprehend. Slowly, I read the mental text again.
"Grim… Soulbound… Pip?" My gaze drifted unconsciously to Pip. She was sitting nearby, basking in the early sun, staring back at me with those uncannily wise and intelligent green eyes. Soulbound? Was that it? Was that the reason we both ended up here, together? Had our connection been so strong it had tethered my soul for however long it took for her to return? The idea was both comforting and staggering. As I pondered, lost in thought while looking at her, she flopped onto her side and began rolling playfully in a patch of warm sunlight, utterly content.
A small smile touched my lips. Shaking my head, I refocused. Voidseeker’s Gaze was from Ithrak, clear enough. But Echo of Life? That was the blessing from when I first woke up. Was this new life itself the gift? It felt more like a curse half the time, a series of trials designed by a cruel, cosmic entity.
Shaking off those thoughts, I examined the display more closely. Skills and Spells were listed at the bottom. How do I switch views? I mentally shrugged and said, somewhat uncertainly, aloud, “Skills…?”
Instantly, the information transformed:
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Skill: Appraisal (Inferior)
Skill: Fire Magic (Inferior)
Skill: Gravity Magic (Inferior)
Skill: Mana Manipulation (Beginner)
Skill: Survival (Adept)
Skill: Unarmed Combat (Adept)
Skill: Water Magic (Inferior)
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[[Skills]] - [Status] - [Spells]
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Blinking in surprise, I scratched my chin. "Mana Manipulation, Water Magic, Fire Magic, and Gravity Magic… okay, those are all things I learned or was granted here. But Unarmed Combat and Survival? And at Adept rank?" That sounded… skilled. Way more skilled than 'Beginner' or 'Inferior'. Sure, I knew some basic Krav Maga from those police outreach lessons, and I’d spent a decade homeless, which definitely required survival instincts… but were these really skills carried over from my old life? Quantified and ranked by a divine system? It was a weird, unsettling thought. Let's try the next one.
“Spells,” I stated clearly. Again, the mental text shifted:
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Spell: Duality (Inferior)
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[Skills] - [Status] - [[Spells]]
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Duality... I let the word echo in my mind, turning it over and over. Duality. The state of having two parts. Like life and death? Light and dark? Love and sorrow? It meant absolutely nothing to me in a practical sense. Can I get more information? I tried concentrating harder on the word, focusing my intent, but nothing happened. Great. Just great. Another mystery without a key.
Sighing, I stretched, my muscles protesting slightly from the earlier fight. "Pip, are you happy with the blessing you got from Ithrak?"
She glanced at me, tilted her head as if considering the question, then let out a short, decisive meow.
"I'll take that as a yes," I chuckled. Right. First things first. We should probably get somewhere… safer. Or at least somewhere that wasn't the basement of a potentially god-inhabited temple. Ithrak had said to travel north, that we'd find a suitable starting point. North it was, then.
Nodding to myself, I rolled my shoulders, adjusting my grip on the heavy club and the crude knife tucked in my waistband. Carrying these around bare-handed was going to be annoying. I really needed a belt, or at least some rope to fashion a holster.
Picking a direction that felt vaguely promising, I started walking, striding through the ruined temple entrance and back into the woods. After five minutes of enjoying the fresh, pine-scented air, it hit me. I had absolutely no idea which way north was.
My shoulders slumped. God, I’m an idiot. All that talk about heading north, and I didn't even know the direction.
But then, an old memory surfaced, something practical from a life that felt a world away. Finding north using the sun. Scanning the area for tools, I found a reasonably straight stick and jammed it vertically into a patch of clear, sunlit earth, where it cast a distinct shadow. Kneeling, I marked the exact tip of the shadow with a smaller twig. Pip, meanwhile, had flopped down nearby, looking utterly disinterested in my navigational efforts as she meticulously cleaned her paws. I sat beside her for a moment, stroking her soft fur. She immediately started purring, bumping her head against my leg. Okay. Now, we just had to wait.
After about twenty minutes, long enough for the sun to have moved noticeably across the sky, I stood up. Just as expected, the stick's shadow had moved. I carefully placed another twig at its new tip. Then, I drew a line in the dirt connecting the first twig-mark (West) to the second (East). Standing with my left foot on the West mark and my right on the East mark, I knew I was now facing roughly North. Assuming, of course, this world's sun and magnetic field worked similarly to Earth's… It was the best I could do.
Feeling a renewed sense of confidence, I headed off. Pip trotted up beside me, her tail flicking as she looked up expectantly.
“Don’t look at me like that,” I told her dryly. “If this doesn't work, our plan B is basically just walking until we stumble upon civilization.” She just blinked, apparently unconcerned.
We began our journey in earnest. The world felt vast, wild, and overwhelmingly alive. We traveled through dense forests where ancient trees formed a high canopy, sunlight dappling through the leaves in shifting, ethereal patterns. We crossed rolling meadows carpeted with unfamiliar wildflowers that smelled sweet and spicy on the breeze, their colors a riot of blues, yellows, and reds I'd never seen before. We followed quiet, bubbling streams teeming with tiny, iridescent fish that darted away from our shadows.
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Pip’s feline instincts, suppressed for so long, were now in full force. Every few minutes, she’d dart off, a black blur distracted by a fluttering monarch butterfly, a skittish, long-eared rabbit, or—alarmingly—the occasional wild boar rooting in the undergrowth. The first time she took off after a boar nearly gave me a heart attack, visions of her being gored flashing through my mind. But to my utter shock, the tusked beast took one look at the small black cat charging it, let out a terrified squeal, and bolted into the woods. Pip, looking immensely pleased with herself, simply strutted back to my side as if she’d just conquered a minor inconvenience. I decided it was best not to question the physics or sheer bravery involved.
Eventually, the trees thinned, and we stumbled upon a small, tranquil lake. For a moment, I just stopped at the edge, taking it in—letting the sight of the clear, still water and the gentle sound of lapping wavelets settle over me. The water was so transparent I could see the smooth, multi-colored stones on the bottom several meters out. Small, silvery fish darted beneath the surface in synchronized schools, their scales catching the afternoon sunlight. It was beautiful—peaceful in a way that made my chest ache with a bittersweet pang of loss for a world I could never return to.
Pip, however, didn’t seem nearly as impressed by the scenery. She was instantly captivated by the large, iridescent dragonflies hovering over the water's surface near the reeds, leaping and batting at them with a playful intensity I rarely saw back home.
At the water’s edge, I sat down, letting the cool breeze wash over my face. As I stared at the gentle ripples spreading across the lake’s surface, a memory surfaced—my father and I, years and lifetimes ago, skipping stones across a lake that looked uncannily like this one. A rare moment of simple happiness from a life that felt like someone else's.
A small, wistful smile touched my lips as a single bitter tear traveled down my face. Pushing myself to my feet and shaking the painful memory away, I scanned the shore for a good skipping stone. It didn’t take long to find one—flat, smooth, with just the right weight in my palm.
Grinning slightly at the nostalgia, I adopted the familiar stance, flicked my wrist, and sent the stone flying low over the water. It hit the surface with a satisfying plink and skipped once—twice—three times… before vanishing somewhere among the tall reeds lining the opposite bank.
Then, out of nowhere, a woman screamed. A raw, piercing sound of agony and terror.
"Shit," I hissed, freezing instantly. No. Please tell me I didn’t just nail some poor, unsuspecting swimmer in the head with a rock.
The screaming didn’t stop. If anything, it became higher pitched, more frantic. My heart hammered against my ribs. Okay. Okay. Not great, but maybe she’s just mad? Hopefully, an apology will be enough…
Pip, however, had already reacted. She shot past me like a black blur, a low, guttural growl rumbling in her chest as she headed straight for the reeds where the screams originated. It was that unholy rrrrRRReowww sound that only cats could make when truly threatened.
Something was definitely wrong.
Swallowing hard, nerves on edge, I ran after her, club and knife held ready. The moment I pushed through the thick wall of reeds, I skidded to a halt, the scene before me hitting me like a physical blow.
Through a gap, I saw her—a young woman, completely naked, thrashing and struggling desperately on the muddy bank, her body twisting. Heat flooded my face as I accidentally caught sight of her bare body. My eyes snapped away instinctively, my head turning, trying to grant her some small measure of privacy. She must be terrified, probably thinks I hit her with that rock, I thought frantically.
But she didn’t stop screaming. Her cries grew more desperate, laced with panic—and then Pip started shrieking, a high-pitched, furious sound that cut through the air.
Steeling myself, knowing I couldn't ignore this, I took a breath and stepped fully through the reeds, finally seeing what had the woman so terrified.
Two goblins. Ugly, wretched, green-skinned bastards, identical to the ones I’d encountered before. Each one was trying to wrestle the struggling woman to the ground, their leering faces twisted with vile intent. Their intentions were disgustingly obvious from the state of their loincloths.
Disgust, cold and sharp, curdled in my stomach. My grip tightened on the knife in my right hand, the heavy club in my left. There was no thought, no hesitation, only a white-hot surge of protective fury. I lunged forward.
The first goblin had its filthy, clawed fingers tangled in the woman’s long, dark hair, yanking her head down towards the mud. I didn't aim for subtlety. I swung the knife with all my strength, driving the crude blade deep into the side of the creature’s skull, right behind the ear. The impact jolted up my arm. The goblin let out a choked, gurgling screech and simply collapsed beside the woman, instantly lifeless. The moment its dead weight fell away, she let out another terrified scream, curling in on herself, trembling violently like a cornered animal.
The second goblin, seeing its companion fall, wasted no time. With a guttural snarl, it ignored me completely and lunged for the woman, grabbing at her legs, trying to pry them apart.
Pip shrieked again and launched herself forward, sinking her sharp teeth deep into the goblin’s grimy calf. The creature yelped in pain and surprise, momentarily letting go of the woman. With a furious snarl, it kicked out violently, sending Pip tumbling away with a pained cry.
That was all I needed. Seeing Pip hurt ignited a blinding rage. With all thought erased by it, I gripped my club with both hands and swung at the goblin’s head with every ounce of force I possessed. He must have sensed the killing intent, because he barely managed to twist away at the last second. The heavy club missed his skull but clipped his pointed ear hard. It wasn’t a clean hit, and to my absolute horror, the sheer force of the uncontrolled swing ripped the club from my sweaty grasp. It flew through the air, landing somewhere in the deeper water beyond the reeds with a loud splash.
Shit. Shit!
The goblin stumbled back, clutching its bleeding ear, startled by the near miss. But the moment its beady yellow eyes registered that I was now effectively unarmed, holding only the small knife, it bared its rotten teeth in a wicked, triumphant grin.
Not giving him the chance to retaliate or turn back to the woman, I rushed forward. Forget weapons. I threw a hard punch, my knuckles connecting solidly with its bulging eye socket. As it recoiled with a squeal, I grabbed its disgusting, greasy head with both hands and, using its momentum and my own, shoved it face-first into the shallow water at the lake's edge.
It thrashed violently, kicking and clawing at my arms, trying to get leverage in the mud, but I threw my weight onto its back, straddling it, forcing its head down beneath the surface with all the strength I could muster. Its wild struggling sent streams of bubbles racing to the surface, obscuring its hideous face. I held firm, ignoring the claws scraping my skin, feeling the frantic, panicked drumming of its limbs against me, pressing its face deeper, deeper into the suffocating water.
The seconds dragged on, feeling like minutes. Its movements became weaker, more frantic, then sluggish. Then, finally, it went still.
I stayed there for another long moment, chest heaving, breath ragged, heart hammering against my ribs. Only the sound of the woman’s quiet, terrified sobs broke the sudden silence. Slowly, cautiously, I pushed myself up, standing on shaky legs in the ankle-deep water.
Frantically, my eyes scanned the surrounding for Pip. Relief washed over me as I saw her limping slightly but seemingly okay, sitting protectively beside the terrified woman, who was still curled into a tight ball near the first goblin's corpse. From my angle, standing over the second goblin's body, I could see far more of the woman's vulnerable form than I should have.
Face burning again, I quickly averted my eyes and turned around, giving her my back. “It’s over,” I said, my voice rough, trying to inject a gentleness I didn't feel. “You’re safe now.”
But all I heard behind me was the frantic splashing and sucking sound of running footsteps in the mud. When I turned back around, alerted by the noise, all I saw was the fleeting image of her bare ass disappearing rapidly into the swaying reeds. She was gone.
For a moment, I just stood there, dripping, breathing heavily, a strange quiet settling over the clearing.
“You’re welcome…” I muttered sarcastically to the empty reeds, feeling suddenly, utterly drained.
