It was weird to wake up again. It was even stranger that my body was no longer human. I looked around me, a near perfect 360 degree field of view, which showed nothing but dark stone. Studying my surroundings I noticed it wasn’t completely barren, some small bits of moss and insects within the minute cracks, leading me to believe this was more a natural cave than I would have originally thought. Thinking of this brought me to remember what brought me here to begin with, a weird turn of events that led to me going from a human on Earth to a crystal in a cave.

It was relatively sudden, the brakes in my car going out, sending me right off the edge of a cliff. I was driving around in Colorado, exploring one of the many places I had lived during my life. I could never quite find a place to settle, always going from one place to the next, just trying to find a place to belong and actually enjoy the small things life had to give. I was never really sure about the whole “life flashing before your eyes” bit, but seeing how short and empty mine was, it didn’t make much difference. The only thing I can say that was a relief from the whole situation was there was no pain. I don’t really remember hitting the ground, a few hundred feet down, as the next moment of awareness I was just a floating blob in a grey room.

Not the blinding white of Heaven, or the red and heat of Hell. No unending darkness or soul-sucking void. Just a grey room, with four walls and no entrance, and that was it. I turned around, looking at my surrounding before I noticed the presence. One moment nothing, the next a void like form was across from me. There was no wondering what the void was, just an instantaneous knowledge that I was before the being that had created everything.

We existed there, two formless voids, facing each other in a grey empty room. I felt no urge to talk, no need to ask why or what or where this was. So we stared at each other in complete silence for an unknown amount of time.

“What would you do next?” It asked me, its “voice” the perfect blend of man and women, purely neutral in a way that could never truly be explained.

As I existed there, choices of what I could do, what I could become, came to me. I could do anything, be anything. But a memory from my past life came to me, of stories I had read on a website for people who just liked to write. And I knew what it was I wanted from my next life.

“Then that is what you will be,” It spoke before disappearing.

My awareness faded, and then I was here.

The small cave I was in was about 8 ft. in diameter all around, in an oval like shape. A small crack on the northern side let a bit of light inside, showing me that I was not far from the surface. At finding that out, new instincts kicked in, telling me to burrow deep and escape from the light. Though they were there I felt no need to actually follow them immediately, more like a small pressure at the back of my mind that said the faster I do it the better. Instead I took a moment to look closer at the small insects that lived within my field of view.

The insects themselves were what you might expect from a small cave, a few spiders in their web, a single centipede, some beetles, and some gnats flying around. The moss that the insects were feeding on did not seem special in anyway either. It was not glowing, nor did it seem to hold any special arcane or magic features. Just the most average, slightly green moss one would see anywhere. The moss grew in cracks that seemed to be slightly wet with moisture. The moisture itself seemed to be coming from further in, seeing how not all the walls were wet, leading me to believe the humidity was not to high. In fact, other than a few cracks on the western side of the wall, the rest of the cave seemed near completely dry. The only exception was the crack that led outside. There moisture dripped from the top area, slowly dripping down the crack’s walls, leaving a smallish puddle near the floor.

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After thoroughly inspecting the area I was in, I finally took a moment to inspect what could only be new body. In the middle of the cavern was a small pearl. It floated a few feet off the floor, letting out a nearly imperceptible amount of light from within. I was stationed in the most centralized location of the small cave. Though it was the shape of a pearl, color seemed to dance around its outside, never choosing one over the other. Much like light off an oil slick, or rain refracting to cause a rainbow, the colors seemed to swirl in unrecognizable patterns across the surface.

Even though my pearl like body let out light in this rather dark cave, the flying insects seemed to be unable to get close to it. There were a few that seemed drawn in but as they got close suddenly veered away, as if they decided there was something else more interesting. Even the few that just seemed to be flying close turned and went around the pearl by a few inches. Thinking about all this brought up a screen. Even though my vision was 360 degrees, the screen seemed to pop up right in front of where I was focusing. If I focused elsewhere the screen seemed to follow, though it never actually blocked my view. I figured now was as best a time as any and checked it out.

Welcome!

This is the beginning of a new life for you. To begin a short tutorial to learn how to use your new powers please select Yes below

Yes/No

Many times I felt I had seen people complain about tutorials and skip them. I myself never truly understood that, as a tutorial was only there to help you learn the rules. Even in stories they usually showed the protagonist either skip or miss the tutorial, letting them learn techniques that seemed to bypass the rules of the world. But that also led them to be outcast, or abominations in the face of the system, making them targets. This wasn’t a game, but a brand new world with new rules, and I wasn’t about to die right off the bat because I decided I knew better than a system that had been put in place to specifically help me. Having said that, I mentally selected yes.

Immediately my mind went white. When I could see again I recognized I was in a familiar grey room. This time though instead of being a formless void like before I realized I was still in my new pearl body. Once again a table popped up in my vision.

Thank you for choosing to participate in the tutorial. Here we will teach you how to use your new powers and the basics you will most likely to survive.*

These basics are only for normal circumstances and we are not responsible for any outliers or sudden disasters, thank you for your understanding.

Reading what could only be defined as small print left me a little uncomfortable, but then the screen went away replaced by a neutral toned voice, eerily similar to the God being I had met before.