...
I woke up on a lofty bead of what seemed to be... dry grass? It felt like little needles poking what seemed to be my smaller body.
Large reeds of dried grass stood in front of me, seeming much taller than I ever remembered grass being.
In the distance, large, elegant trees stood tall and proud, watching over the clearing I seemed to be located in in a very neat line.
I could feel little legs crawling over what seemed to be my crouched position. Those trees had to be AT LEAST 50 feet tall.
What the actual fuck happened?
Is this another question?
I didn't feel the weight that was on me last time, meaning I was probably able to control myself.
Last I remembered the bearded man was calling me a fool before he snapped his fingers and everything went black.
I felt my butt get struck by some particularly pointy grass as I reflexively jerked myself backward at the surprise of have a blue screen pop up in front of me.
And on the holographic blue screen, there were... words? Only one explanation: This was another test.
What was odd was how the messages seemed to talk about skills, which most possibly meant that this test had something to do with a game.
Of course, there was another explanation, and it was that the man had literally transported me to another world.
That's not possible... Right?
'It could be. Didn't you see what that man had done?' A voice in the back of my head said. But I didn't have time to dwell on that as another blue box greeted me happily.
I looked over all of this information carefully, lingering on each and every piece of it.
From what I understood, this was all me. 'What kind of test could this be? It looks like those profiles in video games...' I ran my eye over the information again.
I frowned mentally when I saw that I was level 0, F- rank, and also my health was at a 20..
That was when something caught my eye. 'Wait... I'm female? What...?' My eyes widened, well, not my rabbit eyes but my mental eyes did as I looked over the information listed next to gender.
What if this wasn't a test?
'Save your mental breakdown for later. Now, just figure out everything...' I realized that throughout this whole thing I had not moved.
Possibly because I wasn't comfortable with this body, but at the same time, I didn't feel comfortable with ants crawling all over me.
{Hello.}
A voice spoke to me a greeting out of nowhere, which caused me to jerk my body back again. I Immediately shot up from my position on my back and looked around for the source of the voice. I tried to speak, but all that came out was a squeak.
My heart started to hammer. What was in the trees that was talking to me?
Hell, for all I knew, the trees were talking.
{Remain calm. I am your [Legendary] skill, [Syndria's Voice].} The voice replied to my squeaking.
'Huh. Skills...' I thought. Oddly enough, I was calm even though I should have been worried, or panicked. Must be the [Calm] skill.
{My recommendation would be to move and get used to your new body.} Syndria said. I internally sighed. Of course I would become a rabbit. Nevertheless, I followed her orders.
At least, I think it's a her.
Soon enough, I found that walking as a rabbit was sort of like crouching on all fours. One foot, next foot, and next foot. The problem was, with my bigger feet, I was stalking across the ground really slowly.
I decided to move on to a walk, so I tried to hop a little bit. It took a while to get used to, mainly because I kept underestimating the strength of my feet. Eventually, I easily hopped to the tree I was aiming for, which was a few meters away. Now, I turned around and decided to run.
So I hopped a little faster, then a lot more faster, making my way towards the tree on the other side of the clearing, which was 60 meters away. 'Woah!' I thought, as all the trees around me turned into a blur while I cantered towards the other tree.
I made it there in an amount of seconds, and I was now calibrated to my body rather easily. Subconsciously, my ears perked up and honed in on a sound from the bushes on my right. Gingerly, I stalked towards those bushes, stopping right in front of one that seemed to be shaking.
It was then that my mind almost turned to mush.
A blue, iridescent orb slid through the thorns of the bushes and stopped in front of me, jiggling.
It was larger than me by a fair amount, and looked like a literal slime.
'Legendary, huh? I like the sound of that.' I thought, distracted.
Then I was nailed in the face by a squirt of blue liquid from the placid slime, sending me falling back with such force I heard a crack.
Ignoring me, the slime hopped away, bouncing up and down rhythmically. I was still on the ground, so I could feel its thumping even though it shouldn't have had any weight at all.
It made no sense.
<-17>
I ignored the blue screen and rolled onto my side. How had water packed such a punch? I had 3 droplets of health left.
And I still didn't know how I felt about my life being represented in numbers.
I felt extremally weak as I struggled to put myself on my noodle-like feet, using all for of my paws for leverage. Do rabbits have paws?
Awesome.
Why was the message so different from [Observation], though?
'Too many questions, not enough answers.'
{I am here to answer all questions you may have, but first of all, I recommend to go and eat some food and regain health. In the meantime, I will warn you of any potential threats.} Syndria said, and I mentally nodded.
Too much. Too much. Really, Imagine getting beat up by a slime.
Weakly, I started towards a bush far away from wherever the slime went.
I stopped in front of it. Rabbits eat leaves, right? Just to make sure, I decided to use [Observation].
'Observation?'
Nothing happened.
'[Observation]' I thought, with the intent of using the skill.
Did the bush have a higher rank than me?
I assumed that the reason why I didn't see a lot was either because [Observation] was a low level, or it was really just a normally bush. At least it was edible. With another hop, I took a tentative bite out of a leaf.
I assumed that leaves would taste horrible to me, but it was at this time I realized that my tastebuds were different. It tasted like a mixture between really good salad and chips, if there were ever salad flavored chips.
Nevertheless, it was good. I took another bite, then another. My health was slowly getting full and the bushes leaves were halfway gone before Syndria interrupted me.
{Hide. Another beast much stronger than you is coming into the clearing.}
I tore off another leaf to snack on and went ahead to hide in a bush a few meters away from the one that was obviously eaten.
As soon as I was hiding, I crouched low to the ground and attempted to calm my breathing, quickly swallow the leaf.
I felt every muscle in my body knitted tight, ready to move like a spring. I truly felt like an animal.
<[Nibble] is now level 2!>
A wave of calm washed over me as a foot covered in silky black fur appeared, followed by the identifiable body of a panther. Only, this anthro stood on two legs and had fully opposable thumbs, but it didn't change that it looked like a predator, and stepped with the grace of one. A bow made out of wat seemed to be dead wood and had a semi-rigid but elastic arc made of silk was held firm in the left hand.
This was followed by a wooden quiver on his back, with a few arrows I could see from this distance. The strap of cloth was what held the quiver. The cloth also seemed to be the same material used to cover his unimportant bits.
I immediately used [Observation].
<[Observation] is now level 2!>
'So that's all it'll show me? Guess I have to level it up a lot more.' I thought, though how I was so calm was still a mystery. Well, not a mystery. Probably due to [Calm], like I thought before.
Kin's ear twitched and then swiveled towards my direction, just like mine did. Kin's eyes wandered over to my hiding spot, and he narrowed his eyes. Stalking towards my bush, he readied his bow.
'Damnit!' However, he wrinkled his nose, made a decision, and fled the way he came rather quickly. I breathed a sigh of relief, but Syndria didn't let that slide.
{Most likely, he sniffed you and is going back to tell his pride what happened here.}
'Hmm?! Why didn't you warn me BEFOREHAND?'
{The skill [Syndria's Voice] does not have knowledge of the future or any living things whereabouts. It only has knowledge of the world at the time you started your new life.}
'W-Wait, new life?'
{Yes. You were chosen by the [Vice System Master].}
'H-Huh? Wait, so everyone.... Mom, Dad... They're all gone?'
{Yes.} I, despite myself, relaxed in my hiding position. I felt sleepy... Too sleepy for this to be natural, but it didn't matter, because I was calm. So calm. So peaceful, yes... I'm peaceful.
'Bad start to my new life, huh? The world hated me so much that they sent me to hell.'
{Yes, yes indeed.}