If I- Yusof Harim, woke up on a day like this, I would easily say that this day is beautiful. The weather is great, it's not too hot, it's not too cold, just perfect. I could go outside and walk around in a T-shirt and shorts, passing people on the street waving my hand to whoever passes.
The only problem is I'm supposed to be dead.. and I'm in the middle of a forest.
I see green leaves and plants, the brown color of trees and dirt along with the grey color of rocks of different sizes scattered around my surroundings.
Yep, this is a forest no doubt about it.
As much as I don't want to accept it, this is not a dream. I pinched myself a couple of times to the verge of bleeding and I'm still not waking up.
I'm confused, why am I alive? Why am I here? The biggest question however is my appearance.
I still have features of a human, all my body parts are attached. I still remember looking from this eye level, in other words, my height hasn't changed.
I can feel my hair touching above my ears, on my eyebrows and above the back of my neck. My hair length from when I was alive hasn't changed either. I pulled out a strand of my hair and it is black, the color of my hair when I was still alive.
My skin tone is still white with a hint of brown. I'm wearing my white short sleeved shirt which is normally under my blazer, but my blazer is nowhere to be seen. I'm also wearing some black slacks with the belt still wrapped around my pants through the belt loops, I am also wearing some black shoes. These are clothes I wore at work right before I died.
I lightly tapped my pockets to see if there was anything in them. My phone is still in my right pocket along with some change from when I bought sodas from the vending machine.
As if it isn't weird enough that my body features and the clothes I'm wearing are the same as before I died. I also still have my belongings.
In confusion I took out my phone to see if it was still working.
[POWER ON]
The screen has a perfect crack severing the top half and the bottom half of the phone. The bottom half was black while the top half was still functional.
Luckily the part of the screen that has the clock wasn't affected. I immediately directed my eyes to the date and-
[Saturday - May 24/2023- 1120]
It's exactly one day after the day I died. I remember going to work on the 23rd.
I continued to check all over my body and I confirmed that my appearance was exactly like yesterday.
It's as if I was teleported here just before I am about to die.
Although I still remember it as bright as day.
That I lost my life.
Aaah I give up. I have nothing to gain by trying to figure out what happened and how it ended like this because I don't think I'll get any answers anyway.
I swallowed my saliva and felt my throat was dry. I need to find something to drink.
What is there to drink in the middle of the forest though?
Then I remembered something.
I closed my eyes to focus my hearing. I read somewhere that if you're absolutely quiet, you can hear a water stream in the distance.
After staying still for a minute I heard something.
shhhhhhhhhhhhhh
It was a waterfall. I think I heard it from my left.
I opened my eyes and let out my breath in relief. I'll have something to drink after all.
I proceeded to walk in that direction.
____________
After approximately 5 minutes of walking, the sound of the waterfall became louder, and before long, the river was within my eyesight.
As I approached the river I noticed that the waterfall was up ahead at my right side. It wasn't a really big one, but it is big enough for me to hear it's stream from a distance.
I continued to walk to the river and when I arrived I examined it.
The waters depth and current are on the normal side. I think I can cross it without having to swim. The water was extremely clear and there was no aquatic life in it.
I looked into the clear water and saw my face. I look.. a bit younger? My skin surely is still the same elasticity as my last day of living but my face doesn't have pimples and I no longer have bags under my eyes.
Oh, I looked younger because my face got much cleaner. I was embarrassed at myself for not taking care of my face because I didn't know it would change this much, even I was surprised.
I continued to examine my myself. Straight silky black hair that no beauty product can produce these results. Blue eyes that are more apparent because their appearance were overwhelmed by deathly eyebags.
In conclusion, I'd say I look pretty good.
I swallowed my saliva again, my throat was really dry and there was water in front of me. I didn't think twice about what kind of diseases I could get. I made a cup with my hands, scooped up water from the river and drank It.
Refreshing.
I drank enough water and now I'm hydrated. I lifted my head and examined my surroundings again.
To my right, I think around a few meters, I see the waterfall. It was falling from a considerable height which made a noise loud enough that I could hear it. I'll have to thank it because if not for it I might not be able to find something to drink.
Across the river was just more of the forest. I don't want to risk walking forever or possibly getting attacked by wild animals.
To my left, the river keeps flowing and flowing as far as my eye can see.
I had an idea.
This river has nice water, I'm sure there is a village somewhere that uses this river for their daily needs frequently. If I follow it's stream, I might find civilization.
Thank god my brain didn't fail me in this trying time.
I stood up straight and began walking towards the direction the river is flowing, in hopes I'll find civilization.
____________
I've been walking for quite a while now. I have stopped 3 times for a drink and a rest, I haven't seen anything that can be of use to me.
Currently I'm sitting down on a rock next to a tree while massaging my feet. It's only natural they would get sore after walking a long distance with these shoes.
In front of me, the river was still moving normally. Its unchanging depth, current strength and direction makes me think that I haven't actually moved far from my original position.
Thankfully that isn't the case because the waterfall became inaudible around an hour ago and the environment had slight terrain changes like where rocks are placed and my encounter with some slopes.
I haven't eaten anything since I woke up here, and water from the river will only do so much before I really need food to eat.
"Please... The next few miles I'll walk, please let me find some sort of hope." I desperately prayed to myself. If someone were to see me like this they'll probably think I'm in a huge mess.
And they would be absolutely right.
Well, I wouldn't accomplish anything if I just sat down here, after regaining my strength, I put on my shoes and resumed walking in the direction of the river current.
"This time.. I'll find life.." I said out loud to motivate myself.
Around 10 minutes after I said that to myself, I walked and walked in the same direction, I could feel a change of current strength in the river, I disregarded it because I thought this doesn't mean much.
Shortly after, I saw a big light behind the trees. This must indicate the end of the forest. The river current is also getting stronger as if there is something ahead.
The light is getting brighter and I'm getting more excited, finally after all this wandering I got some development. I ran with all my might to the light. It gets brighter and brighter until I am out of the forest.
I can't say it's not within my expectations, but the view I saw astonished me to the point of disbelief.
I'm currently on a cliff, the river next to me became an extremely long waterfall flowing into a lake below me.
To my left and right, there are forests and also 2 waterfalls, both of which are extremely long flowing down into the lake.
I took a look below, there is a big lake getting filled up by the 3 waterfalls. Although it doesn't seem there is anywhere for the water to go, the lake isn't overflowing.
Around the lake were stone walls that the waterfalls are flowing down from. The stone walls are the land of the cliff I am standing on right now.
I lift up my face straight as I look towards the horizon. There are beautiful lands stretching across my eyesight, hills of green, rivers of sparkling breeze and clouds that decorated the blue sky.
In the distance I see numerous paved roads with existences showing slight movements which I can clearly see are not cars. They were caravans being dragged by something I think looks like giant lizards and tigers.
I observed their movements and it seems they are heading to a place which connects the roads.
I turned my head to see where that was and to my surprise, there was a kingdom that I can tell immediately is a sovereign government. Its walls cover a huge landmass that looks big even from where I am from. Inhabitants built their houses and castles around a great hill going towards the top.
At the very top of the hill lies a great castle so big, that when I stretched my hand out and compared its size with the castle, the castle would be bigger.
Looking at all these features of the world. I had a deep thought within myself. After a while of pondering everything that I saw up to this point, it led me to one conclusion.
I have been reincarnated into another world.
____________
Amazement and confusion filled my thoughts. I was reincarnated in a world I have no knowledge of, not to mention I started in the middle of a forest and not as a newborn baby. If I started as a newborn baby I'd probably have easily learned the knowledge about this world, but no.
Well at the very least I'm not dead again. Yet.
I was still basking in the thought that I was still alive. When my soul was in the darkness, I was lamenting how worthless my old life was and how I would want my next life to be better.
Now I'm alive. It's like my prayers have been answered.
I remember the last thing I thought to myself before I woke up in this world.
'I hope I live my next life as a better person.'
Yes. It was that. God gave me another chance in life as myself. I promised to myself to make it count and I will.
Those unfulfilling 30 years are now my past, one that I will leave behind.
Because now.
This is the start of the new life of Yusof Harim.
I made up my mind. I'll make myself a better person in this world. I'll have friends, a good job, a nice home and maybe a girlfriend.
No, a girlfriend is something I will have.
I hope there is a cute girl for me in this world. I don't mind if she's younger than me. No- honestly I'd prefer her being younger than me, and if it's not too much to ask, I'd want her to have a nice body.
What? I'm still a man with healthy desires. Don't judge me.
Will she be strong? Will she be intelligent? Will she have amazing cooking abilities? I won't know, because this world is a place I have yet to explore.
While dreaming about these things, my face became red with a bit of drool coming out of my mouth.
If someone were to see me, they would think I was thinking about obscene things.
Ignorantly dreaming about my ideal girlfriend, all of a sudden there was a presence that shook me.
All the birds in the forest shrieked and flew away in panic. The atmosphere around me suddenly became heavy and it was hard to breathe.
I slowly turned behind to see what was there. After a few seconds of observing, I saw a black beast with red eyes. The beast had the body of a tiger. However it's entire body is black, there are black spikes on its back. Its teeth looked large and sharp and its eyes are glowing a menacing red with black auras around them, its eyes had no iris. There are black auras like things seeping from all over its body. Its claws are black, almost as big as its paw, there is no telling how sharp they are.
I'm not a genius but at first glance I can see that this entity is dangerous. It was on all fours, in a position as it was going to pounce at me at any time.
I was on my complete guard, I will not accept myself being killed just when I got my second chance. I briefly looked around my surroundings. If this creature is a type that does pounces and doesn't run directly to me, I can evade its attacks.
I recalled that behind me, there was a lake. If there was absolutely no way out, I'll have to take the risky escape by jumping into the lake.
There were a lot of risks and uncertainties involved in that method. Is the water deep? Is the height from this cliff enough to kill me just from diving? Will the beast chase me? If it does, can it swim?
It has the body of a tiger and tigers can swim and don't avoid water. Right now it's just the body of a tiger, the rest is just black. However, that doesn't eliminate the possibility.
There were too many uncertainties in this plan, but I had no choice.
I don't have a weapon, so I can't injure it. In other words, as long as the beast has stamina and it hasn't gotten injured, its strength won't deplete, thus easily being able to kill me.
I then remembered that I do have a weapon. I slowly put both of my hands on my belt and carefully removed the belt.
After I removed it, I grabbed both of the ends of the belt. This is my Father's most dangerous weapon that he would strike me with whenever I did something bad, it's not lethal but it can slow the beast down.
This would have to do, because my only objective is to survive, I already have a weapon so I'll have to make do.
The beast who was in a position to pounce on me, finally leaped.
It was fast, but since I was prepared for it, I was faster. I jumped to the side and ran behind a tree. It looked towards me when I peeked from behind the tree and pounced again. This time it pounced directly towards me without adjusting its trajectory, this resulted in him running into the tree.
Without a second thought, I took the belt and whipped its front right leg with all my power.
"GUUAUAAAARGG"
It let out a demonic screech of a roar and started lifting its leg that I whipped. Turns out it only looked intimidating outside but its intelligence is low and has bad durability because it was already lifting its leg in pain after one strike from the belt.
However, contrary to the condition the beast is in right now. Its speed hasn't changed and I was caught off guard.
I was a second late in evading the beast's second pounce. Which resulted in my left arm getting a clean scratch.
I quickly retreated behind a rock while the beast was still recovering from its pounce since its front right leg was injured too.
I observed my injury and there were 3 scratches, they were very deep. I could no longer grip my left hand, I guess it would be because the beast severed some tendons, my hand was numb. I can feel the pain from my arm but I can barely feel anything from my hand.
I continue to feel the stinging pain from my left arm. It was so painful that I thought of screaming while holding my injury while rolling on the ground. But if I did that, that would be the end of me.
My mind was in shambles, I could no longer put on a brave front like this. I made One more wrong move and I'm already like this. If I do something careless again, I will end up dead.
The feeling of fear coursed through my body. I was breathing heavily and my eyes were flickering.
I don't want to throw away my life that I just got back.
I don't want to die.
As I was panicking, the beast seemed to have recovered itself.
I forcefully stopped my heavy breathing and stayed absolutely quiet. I was really hoping the beast would not know where I am and it would retreat.
But it seems to already know where I am. The beast's footsteps came in closer and its growling got louder. If I don't do anything, I'll die.
Move! Fight! Otherwise.. I'll die!
I'll die. I'll die. I'll die. I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'll die. I'll die. I'll die. I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'll die. I'll die. I'll die. I'm gonna die. I'm going to die. I'm going to die.
If I don't move. I'll die.
I repeated those words to myself. Ordering myself to do something.
But my body was frozen.
I can't.. do anything.
This is the end already. My vision is blurry and I lost too much blood.
It's.. the end..
I closed my eyes in defeat. The beast is slowly closing in. I was surrendering myself to its victim for it.
Because I can't do anything.
…...
Lost in myself. I felt a sensation in my head as if someone was going to speak to me.
[[Don't forget what you promised yourself.]]
A deep voice spoke to me inside my head.
A promise to myself?
That's right, my promise to myself.
Work harder, never give up, seize every chance, leave no regrets.
I was ready to give up so easily. I was about to repeat the same course I took in my old life.
But not this time.
This time- I'll live.
I opened my eyes and mustered up what courage is left in me. I lightly peeked behind the rock and saw that the beast was really close now.
I formulated a simple strategy and I executed it.
I stood up and whipped the belt on the rock with my right hand, this startled the beast. I'm still unable to move my left hand at all, so I'll have to be careful.
After I whipped my belt on the rock I did the first strategy I did when I injured him and ran behind trees. The beast recovered from being startled and entered a pouncing position.
I kept running back and forth behind trees until it pounced. When it did. It hit another tree because it thought I was in its pouncing range.
Once again, it was immobile for a while from the impact from hitting the tree from its failed pounce attempt.
Now! I hit it again with the belt, this time on the back.
The beast let out an even louder roar of pain.
"GUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH"
I repeated this 7 times. Evade, strike, evade, hide, strike. Even with this crazy pain, I forced myself to fight.
But it was not enough, its ferociousness had not changed. My left arm had become completely useless and I can't inflict considerable damage on it.
I have no choice. I'll have to use that escape route.
I stood behind the same tree for the 3rd time. The beast's unchanging ferocity emitted at my direction as he leaped.
Once again I evaded in the nick of time, went behind the tree and whipped its face.
"GAAAAAAAARGH"
The strike caused it to roll around. I took the chance as it was recovering, I didn't think anymore as I ran towards the cliff and jumped.
I looked below me and it was the lake. I was in mid-air so I couldn't look back. I was swinging my arms and legs trying to control my fall.
I was about to splash into the water. This height could kill me if it was solid ground, the result may be different with water but it will still be painful.
I looked up and down as the falling sensation became even rapid.
I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, covered my left arm and braced for impact.
____________
SPLASH
The sound of my body hitting the water was really loud, it was like throwing a big rock into the water
Luckily for me the water is deep, and I didn't die from the landing impact.
I was a few meters into the water because of the height I jumped from.
I made swimming maneuvers and I forced my left arm to do it too even in excruciating pain. Before long I was at the surface.
I didn't want to think too much so I forced myself to swim to the edge of the lake with the land, Which was not far from where I am from.
I was in pain. My arm hurts really bad, but I have to do it.
"Fi..nally"
My breathing was bad, I was tired, my left arm hurts like hell, my vision is blurry, my body is wet. I was in a really terrible state.
I lifted up my head and saw the beast staring at me from a great height. I jumped from that height and survived. I should be given praise. Most importantly, I escaped from that beast, it's no longer chasing after me. A feeling of happiness surged to my heart.
I'm living another day.
I did my first great deed. I'm one step closer to fulfilling my promise to myself.
"Aha.. ahahaha.. ahahahahahaah" I was laughing to myself. I am in a pathetic state, I couldn't move anymore.
It doesn't matter, because after all that I'm still alive
It was a naive thought
GUUUUUAAARRRGH
The beast roared, I saw it on the cliff looking at me as it jumped into the lake without a second thought to chase after me.
I wanted to believe I was hallucinating but after a short while I saw the tiger shaped beast splashed into the water.
That monster didn't give up on chasing me. It stills wants me to die. How persistent are creatures in this world?
Maybe it's because of the beast's low intelligence that it chased after me and is now going to drown. It was a desperate thought, simply because I have no energy to stand up, let alone fight.
Even if it survived that, I hit that beast's front right leg with all my might. I did that so that it couldn't swim should it chase after me after I jumped into the lake from the cliff.
My entire strategy is just one big gamble.
It was calm for a moment. Then the beast popped out of the water.
What happened next was to my absolute surprise.
Its entire body of black was above the water. The surface of the water where the beast is standing turned black, acting as a surface for it to walk on.
In other words, the beast was walking on water.
The fear within me resurfaced. This time I was out of tricks. I don't have anything left.
This is the end.
The beast growled one last time as it fixed its eyes on me.
The beast pounced, going for the kill.
It was then.
"Earth Wall!"
I heard a feminine voice call out some sort of chant. It was something like those fantasy games I played before where one of the spells is the 'Earth Wall'.
I was astonished because a wall of rock appeared in front of me. No- more accurately, it was dirt that combined together to form a solid wall.
The beast who pounced on me hit the dirt wall. The wall didn't show any signs of damage taken.
The wall was blocking my view, I wanted to see what was going on behind there.
Then the beast went around the wall and found me again. I opened my eyes in pain while looking straight into the beast's eyes.
"That'll do." A rather cute girl's voice spoke. The voice sounded younger than the girl before.
She started to chant a spell. I couldn't see where she was but I could hear her voice.
"Water Form : Ice Blades" Now it's definitely sounding like those abilities in Fantasy Games.
After a short time. 4 ice shards stabbed the beast. 3 in the stomach, 1 on the head. It instantly died.
I had been surged with the feeling of relief. I ceased movement and squinted my eyes to rest them, but opened them just enough to see things.
After a short while, 2 girls came into my sight.
One of them was a tall beautiful woman with snow white skin. She looks like in her late teens. She had dark purple eyes. She has long jet black hair tied in a half ponytail- I think it's called- and her hair was probably reaching half her back. She was wearing armor that covers only her upper body, shoulders and forearms above a dark purple shirt and pants, which was under a miniskirt for some reason. She is wearing some black boots for battle along with dark purple gloves and is holding a sword.
The other girl looked much younger, about 14 years old and she looked adorable with sparkling blue eyes. She also had white skin and she was much shorter than the first girl. She has short blue crystal hair reaching only her shoulders, she is wearing 2 yellow hairpins on her hair. She is wearing a blue robe like those wizards' clothes and is holding a yellow and blue staff that is a few inches taller than her.
As soon as the dead beast came into their sight, they started interacting.
"Good Work Mira!" The tall girl said with cheerfulness as she sheathed the sword on her hip and immediately she hugged the smaller girl.
"Hey! Don't hug me like that.. and don't treat me like a kid."
"But Mirara is just so cute, I can't stop myself from hugging her."
"Don't call me Mirara! Stop it! Not so tight! Ack! I can't breathe!" The small girl who I assume her name is Mira told the tall girl to get off her.
The tall girl apologized and sent her gazes to the dead beast.
They both approached it and examined it closer.
"Ooo.. Good thing we came here when we heard those roars. Will this thing fetch us some good money? I'm really hungry.. I haven't eaten anything since morning."
"It probably is, look at its dark aura, Old Man Mikra would want this fur pelt to make decorations, and this meat would probably fetch a fine price.. maybe.."
"Why maybe? I'm hungry.. I want to eat a lot when we get the money."
"Luno, we have to be frugal because you always use half of our commission rewards to pay for food. Each time you eat, half of our balance is gone. if this keeps up, we won't even have somewhere to sleep one day."
"But the food is too good.."
"That's not a good reason to finish 200 silver coins!"
"But.. un.. who is this?" The tall girl who's name was 'Luno' finally noticed me behind her wall of dirt. She was curious about who was behind her wall and was surprised when she saw my condition.
"Ah Mira, Mira come here quick!" Luno urged the smaller girl named Mira to come look at me.
"What do you mean- Oh no sir! Are you okay?" After she saw my bad condition, she was also panicking
They both approached me closer, I opened my eyes but I was too tired to talk. Suddenly my vision is getting darker, my tiredness is slowly taking over.
"His arm! He's injured! Mira, I'll carry him! We have to bring him somewhere safe so you can heal him."
"O-okay! Hurry, he is losing a lot of blood."
"Sir, Hold on! We'll get you somewhere safer."
Luno and Mira were talking about healing me and bringing me somewhere safe. I'm too tired though. I can't move or say anything. My consciousness slowly fades as I drift into slumber.
The last thing I saw were their cute panicked faces.
What am I thinking at this time? Even I can't answer that absurd question
All I can say after being blessed having to be able to gaze my eyes at a goddesses face before I sleep was-
I'm glad I wasn't reincarnated as a baby.