After leaving the goddess, instantaneously or what felt like it, I awoke in a lush gathering of trees, unsure if the beauty before me extended into a forest. However, my main priority was not my location but rather my body and race.
'I should have asked about more specifics regarding the world, hah~' I sighed, as hindsight started affecting me. There were many more details and specifics I should have asked, but that's the past, and now I can only move forward to find out! I believe this is one of the scenarios where the saying 'you live and learn' could be accurately applied, but enough of that.
I began traversing through the trees as the sun was setting. Izanami said this world was much like Earth but bigger. I figured that the sun currently setting would be the lead of my direction. Was this smart? Probably not but I needed something to go off plus I don't lose anything by trying it!
Treading carefully and maneuvering around any beast I could see or hear, I traveled until the sunset gave way to the moon, which was a single moon like Earth's albeit much bigger. I started searching for a cave or spot to let the night pass, and that's when I found the two things I was looking for: a pond and a cave opening.
Quickly, I arrived in front of the pond but didn't get too close, as that would be foolish if a monster or animal, whatever lived within, could kill me without me being able to react. But, I got close enough to view my appearance, which was much like the goddess agreed to give me.
Starting out at age 15, my face showed signs of both childishness and an adult. My eyes (irises) were like refined and shining emeralds, with a white sclera background along with a slightly lighter green coloring in the pupil! This altogether made for striking eyes, which became even more striking with the sharp eyebrows right above them.
Snapping back to focus and away from my eyes, I saw ash-grey colored hair falling down slightly over my ears. My hair thankfully wasn't too long, but it also wasn't too short. With some styling, I can make it look good, but that will be for a later time as getting used to this world is the main priority.
My clothing consisted of a black and green combo. My shoes were black sandals, my pants were black and my shirt was a green long sleeve T-shirt.
'This clothing really resembles something from earth but why sandals?!' Sandals aren't hard to move in but in combat or traversing through a extreme environment it would be difficult in the long run. Thankfully, I hadn't met anything difficult strange on my way here!
After, 10 minutes or what felt like it at least, I made my way into the cave opening and thankfully it wasn't even a cave but more of just an opening as the inner wall wrapped around creating a perfect base.
I put my hand on the walls and tested their stability, but that's when another thought crossed my mind.
'How do I activate my abilities and how the hell do I even cultivate? I figure that it is much like those novels where you do something in meditation but that really isn't enough to go off of.'
I decided to go ahead and try, as it wouldn't hurt anything. I leaned my back against the wall on the right, as it felt the most comfortable. I didn't do any complicated or stiff sitting position because that would defeat the point of meditation. Closing my eyes, I entered a world of black! Minutes passed, and I felt nothing significant, but I didn't give up mainly because I knew for a fact that I wasn't talentless or incapable of cultivating.
'Hm?' After what felt like half an hour, I finally felt something within my body and chased that feeling. It was like a heartbeat but more mystical! Chasing that feeling brought me all the way to a blinding white orb floating in darkness! The white orb was completely pure and even affected the black surroundings to its will. To me, it looked like an observable representation of what white blood cells do, which is getting rid of impurity!
'Izanami said the stages ranged from black to violet-gold, with black being the weakest and violet-gold the strongest. If I take in that the surrounding color around the orb is my current stage then that means I'm currently in the black stage which makes obvious sense. So, in order to rank up, I have to do something with this white orb...'
My conclusion didn't seem far-fetched, plus the information I did get from Izanami also helped extremely even if it was short and sweet. The only question now was how to improve the stage and how to use my abilities. I could just wait and try dragging in mana from the surrounding atmosphere, but I don't know how or what mana feels like. 'I'll just continue trying then!'
I observed and memorized the feeling of the white orb then after making sure I knew for a fact of the feeling I returned my senses to my outer surroundings which were overloaded with new sensations I'd never felt before. However, there was one thing that stood out to me because in my last life this certain soothing but also chaotic feeling energy didn't exist! That's right, it was mana, but this energy felt...humid and rough? Then, I could feel a slight warmth and breeze with a twisting sensation and structured energy following right after.
'Are these different types of mana? If so, then I should memorize every feeling and compare to find the creation type mana! Perhaps you can specialize your core to be stronger towards your talent?'
Hours passed and all types of different sensations flooded my senses. The feeling of hunger started to assault me after what felt like six hours, so I had to stop since the feeling of hunger kept interrupting my focus. In that short six hour period, I experienced what I believe to be every single mana type but none of them felt like a creation type!
'Wait! Creation encompasses all things so maybe I need to absorb every mana type at the same time in order to advance my stage! This would mean that I could cultivate anywhere but I'm sure the drawback would be my speed in advancing unlike single attribute cultivators but in turn I could cultivate anywhere, so it definitely equals out!'
I got up and stretched my stiff body with the sound of bones popping in some parts being my wake-up call. The moon reached its peak which with this world being similar to earth, I figure that time works the same or at least similar give or take an hour or two. I could only find out later though when I connect with civilization but for now, I'll be going off a 24-hour clock.
Walking back up to the pond while maintaining a good distance in order to not get sneak attacked, I put my right hand to the ground and tried activating some mana-which I kind of got used to doing from meditating- to see what would happen.
Fwoosh~
The air stirred around my right hand and the ground cracked a very tiny bit but nothing crazy happened. Presumably because I just used mana in a very basic manner but not like I know how to properly use my unique magic!
'Is it something I just say...' I thought of creation-like concepts. Izanami said I'd really only be able to do projection first, so I opted to try something closer to that.
"Trace? UGH!!" I gripped my head with my left hand as I felt the foolishness of my decision. A 3D breakdown of the ground filled my mind with the information being separated and labeled but I couldn't figure out how this was possible even with magic! I didn't know anything about geology or metals at all, so all of the compounds and minerals appearing in my mind, I couldn't fathom.
"S-Stop! HAH~ HAH~ HAH~" My lungs felt hot and almost like they were about to collapse! I couldn't even last a second and my mana could only cover a little under a meter (2.95ft) before I felt drained. However, I was least focused on that or the pain, as the information instilled in my brain felt like I had always known it and it was astounding!
'30% sedimentary rocks, 15% clay, 5% calcite, 10% incomplete rock, 40% organic matter, water pH level 9.' This was just the breakdown but strangely the actual structural information didn't stick. 'Maybe in order to remember the structure, it's another chant?' I thought but now a sensation greater than death became extremely overbearing!
"GRRR~!" I need to eat! I'll try to recover some mana first then go hunting but for now, I'll eat some of the fruits around the pond. Due to the pain, I fell to the ground, and it was because of this that I was able to spot some red fruit on one of the trees to the left of the pond.
'Honestly, I shouldn't eat anything I don't know but I didn't want the pain of hunger to increase!'
I crawled very slowly over to the tree and grabbed the red-looking fruit off the completely normal tree and ate it! The juices flooded my mouth, and it felt so good that the pain of hunger became slightly more bearable.
The fruit was just an apple in both appearance and taste. The most normal thing to exist and my greatest savior! Not some fancy looking meat or special fruit but a simple apple!
'Simplicity was best...in most cases! Although, I shouldn't take such gambles in the future just going off Izanami's comparison isn't enough to put myself at risk. Oh, I just remembered that I haven't really come up with a name for myself...' I looked up at the moon still at its zenith and nodded. Then, I thought of my given name from my last life and nodded again.
"Simple is good like I just thought. Rael Zenith should work. Very simple but a name doesn't really need much thought if I genuinely feel an attachment to it." I continued on to the second apple and devoured it while recovering energy.