Kiel distinctly remembered sleeping in class, which is why when he woke up in a dark forest all alone, it took him a while to realize he wasn't dreaming. When he tilted his head down, paws, black fur and an entire forest replaced his previous surroundings. It was even harder to dismiss this as a weird dream when he looked up at the sky and noticed not one, but two, moons decorating the sky.

A light grey moon was decorating the sky in the middle of the day, and just breaking over the horizon was a bluish one, almost like a little brother hesitantly following along.

He moved his head, trying to orient himself, or if he was dreaming trying to wake up. He tried to imagine an exit door somewhere as a trick he had heard someone on the internet use, though it didn't seem to be working.

Looking around, everything was bigger, louder... it was somewhat intimidating. Everything felt weird, and it all started with his body. For starters, he was no longer a human, he got that quickly enough. Ignoring everything else threatening to overtake his mind, he focused on his body. It did not help.

He examined his body more closely. His paws refused to work properly and his gait was like that of a newborn kitten's. Which for all intents and purposes, he was. Thankfully, he was situated in a wide clearing with soft grass cushioning his bare paws and trees all around him.

Confusion and a mild panic attack were starting a war over who would lord over his thoughts.

Admittedly, however, if he wasn't lost to high heavens, this would have been a nice picnic place. He shook his head, wrong line of thinking. Instead of wondering about his situation aimlessly, he focused on what he could do to improve his immediate situation.

Trying to move one paw at a time he found it difficult to coordinate his limbs. Nineteen years of walking as a human had hard-wired his brain into using his limbs like a human would. He was a cat.

Again and again he tried moving with any sort of fluidity, but each time he felt like it was wrong. His body was wrong, moving was wrong, the entire world was wrong. Nothing made sense!

Seriously, he fell asleep in one class! Was that too big of a sin for the world to throw him into another one?

Two or so hours later, he screamed in anger and annoyance, not caring how he sounded like a hurt cat. After letting everything out, he sat in the cold grass, out of breath and disoriented. He was also weirdly cold, despite the sun's warmth.

He looked up at the sky, turning his back against the ground. Instead of smog and clouds from end to end, there was an endless blue. He sat like that staring at the sky, losing track of time.

If he had been in a better state of mind, he would have turned to check his surroundings, found a more secure place to vent his frustration. Gaming logic and instincts screamed at him to move from the open field, but he ignored them.

When he calmed enough to be able to think rationally, he took heed of his instinct's advice. The first step was still being able to control his body. With more patience for himself than before, he took each step slowly, getting better as time went on. It took him more time than he'd like to admit, but soon he was able to walk without tripping. In hindsight trying to force himself to walk would draw upon his experience as a human.

The sun had started to descend slowly, and he moved from walking to running. It was honestly more fun than he expected. He could run way faster than back on Earth, and his body tired less easily.

He ran around the clearing, which was deceptively small, getting better with each lap. Running turned out to be easier to learn than walking, which left him perplexed as to what his next steps were.

Channeling his inner survival guru, he decided he needed to find shelter, water and food in that order. Having a goal in mind helped him focus.

He still didn't have the perfect fluidity he had when moving his body as a human, but calming down and just letting his feet move one after the other was almost natural. It didn't feel natural, but his body felt his.

Looking at the tree next to him from up close, it was a lot larger than he'd expected, and his expectations were already pretty high. The first branch looked like it was five meters above him, though that couldn't be right. Well, he needed a shelter, didn't he?

Looking at his paws, he tried getting the claws to appear to no avail. Remembering how he 'fixed' his walking, he tried calming down and focusing on his nai- claws. He wasn't a psychic, so just being mindful of his claws did nothing for him. Instead he tried pushing his paws against the soft ground and feeling his way through.

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Somehow that was the trick that made them appear. Which didn't mean he was ready to climb the tree in front of him, but the success invigorated him.

He spent the next few minutes testing and learning how his new body worked. He hadn't forgotten the original goal, but not seeing any threats nearby he wasn't about to hurry into this climbing venture. Heck, he'd never climbed in his previous world as a human, and he was about to do it in a new one as a cat!

Not that he didn't feel confident in himself. The hours he spent walking, running and clawing at the trees and the ground was very entertaining and helpful in feeling more in sync with his body. He wasn't about ready to race any experienced cats in any event, but he felt like he could win against a year old cat any day of the week.

"Progress!" He couldn't help but think.

With his spirits high, he made his first attempt at the tree.

Taking a running start, he sprinted and jumped off shortly before he hit the tree. That ended up not being a smart idea as he basically headbutted the tree with a running start, falling back into the ground before his feet hit the trunk.

His nose hurt from where he slammed into the tree at full sprint, and he couldn't help but cover his face with his paws. After another failed sprint-jump start, he decided to switch tactics. While he hadn't gotten injured, he didn't feel like making a fool out of himself for much longer.

If he had knuckles still, he would be cracking them right about now. Okay, serious attempt now!

He walked slowly towards the tree and jumped off the ground as hard as he could. This time he actually managed to claw into the tree and grab on. His excitement, however, was short lived as he found himself stuck, unable to climb any further. He put extra power in his legs, feeling himself digging further into the trunk but losing his balance the moment he tried lifting one foot out.

He was reluctant to release his claws from the trunk of the tree before getting tired and letting go. Something he just realized was that the trunk of the tree was fairly soft. That or his claws were extra sharp. Looking at his dirty paw, he struggled to consider the idea he was supposed to be an apex predator. Well, at least he was cute, that was a win in his books.

He spent the rest of his time trying and failing to climb the tree. He did have some success in that he got closer to the branches, but he tired himself out long before he actually reached them.

With the initial excitement wearing off, his energy gave up with it, and his mind started to wonder about his situation. He had no idea what he was doing, what he wanted to do and what his long term goals were.

He dreamed of just sitting in a nice house, having servants take care of his every need and sleeping all day in the rays of the sun. Basically what a normal cat would have back on Earth.

That thought made him jump back on his legs. Just because it was a different world didn't mean he couldn't achieve this dream, maybe this didn't have to be as bad of a change as he was afraid of. He had to get out of the forest first, survive whatever beasts called this place home and befriend some humans, if there were any in this world, but it didn't seem impossible.

If he still had the energy he would have gotten another try at the tree again, but he opted on resting for the time being.

Without meaning to, his short rest turned into a short nap.

When he woke up again, it was in the middle of the night, and his instincts screamed at him. He found himself about to be attacked by a snake slowly making its way towards him. He jolted upright, finding his back against the tree. The snake approached much faster now that it could see its victim was awake, and he responded by swiping his paw at the striking snake with reaction speed he didn't know he had.

His claws fully extended didn't deal much damage, but it was enough to force it to back off a bit. They stared at each other for a moment. While Kiel was worried it was venomous, the snake didn't have that apprehension and so it charged again. This time it was him that backed off first. He still couldn't get the idea it was venomous out of his head, but with his back into the tree, something snapped in him and after managing to swipe off its attack again, he jumped at it and bit its neck, focusing all of his strength in making sure it didn't escape his jaws.

That was easier said than done, and while the snake thrashed he had a few scary moments, but minutes later it finally stopped struggling. He collapsed from the exhaustion, letting his sore jaw rest. At the same time he could feel some warmth enter his body. All of a sudden, it wasn't so cold any more.

Still, he'd gotten lucky, and getting himself to ignore that would be hard. He fell asleep in plain sight and managed to wake up before disaster struck. His mind was a mess, and he was certain he would have spiraled back down to negative thoughts when he noticed something stuck at the edge of his vision.

It was a translucent and faintly glowing blue ball, insistent in following him whenever he turned his head.

It was bothersome enough that he chased his shadow trying to avoid it, but after running around in circles for a few seconds, he focused on it and it burst into a game like window.

Error Resolved! System access has been restored.

He stared at the message in wonder for a few minutes. "I'm not inside a video game, right?" He considered everything that happened since he opened his eyes in this place and shook his head. If he hadn't fought for his life, hurt himself over a dozen times trying to climb the stupid tree and even fallen asleep, he might have considered it. But as it was, this was too lifelike to be a game.

Focusing on the system part of the message, another window popped up.

Name - Kiel

Level - 1

Titles - Traveler

Body - 2

Mind - 11

Spirit - 7

Skills - Body Adaptation (Lvl 3), Climbing (Lvl 1)

He didn't know where to start, but going by a hunch, he checked his title closer and an explanation popped up. Traveler was what it meant. A title given to souls that found themselves to this world from another. Its effects were pretty amazing, though he didn't know how useful yet. It increased space affinity by 100% and cut spatial related costs by 50%.

His inner gamer screamed at him to take advantage of his title and high mental stats, but he had one very simple problem... he didn't know how.

Nevertheless, he had a lot to think about with the system, his survival and escaping the forest.