The first thing that went through my head was how hot it was.

I was still pretty sleepy from just waking up, but I was able to tell it shouldn't feel this hot in December. It had to be at least ninety degrees, and I was sure I did not have a heater that strong.

When I opened my eyes I realized a second problem.

I did not live in a cave, but in a cave I was. That was a little disturbing.

Sitting up and looking around, I tried to get my bearings, and observe my surroundings.

Currently, I was sitting next to a wall of dark orange stone. It looked like I was just sleeping in here. Looking around, I saw a slope going upwards. Even though I couldn't identify any light source, it was bright enough to see.

It then occurred to me that there were no strange orange caves near my apartment. Also, there was no way it should be this hot in December. Did I mention how hot it was in there? It was ridiculous. After months of acclimatizing to the snowy weather, it was painful to be thrown into a ninety degree cave.

I was starting to panic a little, and my breath sped up. That was no good, I had to be calm right now. The most important thing when you were lost somewhere was to calm down and lay out your options.

As I forced myself to slow down my breathing, a ping resounded through the cave, and a white message appeared in the air in front of me.

Fear Resistance: Level 1 Acquired

"Oh, so it's that kind of situation."

Seeing the glowing words in front of me I realized that there could be a few things going on. 1) I was hallucinating or dreaming, which was unlikely due to how vivid my senses were, 2) I was in some kind of virtual reality simulation, which could be possible but we just don't have the tech for that right now, or 3) I was in a different world with all those lovely isekai game abilities.

I was personally thinking number 3, but in case it was something else and people were watching me I didn't want to run around talking like I was in a different world. If I was wrong, that would be really embarrassing.

But on the inside, I was actually pretty happy. I read light novels and manga and personally thought it would be pretty fun to reincarnate and use magic. However, I was very apprehensive because you never know the genre you're in. This could be a situation where I get really overpowered or a situation where I get tortured and stuff.

I did not want to get tortured.

There appeared to be fine dust covering everything around me, exactly the same color as the stone walls. A crushed-up version of the same rock, maybe?

I grabbed a pinch of the stuff and let it fall through my fingers. It was incredibly fine, the granules much smaller than sand. It fell through the air relatively slowly as it dissipated into an orange mist drifting to the ground.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Perception: Level 1 Acquired

Hey! I got another thing! I didn't know what it did or how to use it, but I probably got it from perceiving the dust stuff on the ground. Thinking about it, I got Fear Resistance when I calmed myself down. Maybe by doing certain things I could get more messages. I was sure they would be useful later on.

So first things first, I needed to find water and food. I basically had a decent shelter with this cave, but I would die of thirst in days if I didn't secure water so that would be the number one priority. Which meant I needed to explore.

Nodding to myself and beginning to walk up the cave slope, I quickly realized a problem. As I walked I kicked up a huge amount of that orange dust. I remember reading somewhere about how the dust on mars is toxic and could cause cancer. I didn't really want cancer, so I pulled my shirt over my nose and mouth and walked more carefully.

The shirt was pretty gross because I was sweating like crazy, but breathing through a sweaty shirt is probably much better than getting toxic dust in my lungs, so I just had to deal with it.

Foresight: Level 1 Acquired

I wasn't sure how to feel about that. Does that mean I got Foresight because it was smart to breathe through my shirt? It sounds kind of lame that I got such a useful sounding thing for such a stupid reason! Or, maybe it was just the foresight I put into the action; thinking about the future, and all that.

As I was thinking, I continued walking up the cave. It seemed like it was getting steeper, eventually getting to be a real exercise to keep climbing. It got to be around a 45-degree slant, then nearly 60, and I was climbing with my hands when another message came.

Climbing: Level 1 acquired

When that message flashed in front of my eyes I literally felt my body speed up. It wasn't a huge difference, maybe only around 10% faster, but it really excited me. Was that ability actually helping me climb faster? That's so cool! Did that mean the perception ability would help my eyesight? I didn't notice any sort of change when I got that skill, though. Maybe it was just more obvious with climbing.

After another ten minutes or so of climbing up the cave, I finally saw a light at the top. I was nearly out! A grin was on my face as I climbed even faster than before. I was so preoccupied I barely noticed the temperature was steadily increasing as I neared the exit.

As I was only a few meters away, I realized it was getting extremely hot. It must have been at least over a hundred! But I couldn't stop now, it had taken a long time to get here from where I woke up, I needed to see what was there!

I pulled myself up and stuck my head out of the cave when the heat hit me.

It was like a physical blow, it was so hot.

I couldn't even see, it felt like my eyes had dried up, and my skin felt so hot it burned.

I let out a yell and threw myself backward, losing my grip, slipping down the cave wall, and before I could realize my mistake I was falling down.

I quickly stuck out my arms to grab the edge of the cave but it was too late.

I only saw the world spin as I rolled too fast to stop, falling...

I slammed into a small ridge on the edge of the wall, and pain shot through me.

Gasping for breath, I looked upward to the cave mouth. It seemed like I had tumbled around twenty feet, and landed directly on my side.

I groaned and rolled over before yelping as I realized how small the ridge I was resting on was.

If I had missed and fallen past it I would have probably rolled all the way down the steep cave. As I was now, it looked like I had only sprained my wrist. If I had broken an arm or something, that would have been bad. In the middle of nowhere with a broken arm is definitely a game-over scenario.

Thinking about that, I remembered the ridiculous heat I felt at the top.

What was that!

Where the hell am I, death valley?

How am I supposed to get out of here! I can't even leave the cave, my skin was nearly burned off my face!

I realized that there were two messages in front of me, I hadn't noticed them.

Heat Resistance: Level 1 Acquired

Bludgeoning Resistance: Level 1 Acquired

That heat resistance is probably from the temperature at the top, and bludgeoning resistance from my fall. Makes sense, I guess.

Wait.

Heat resistance, you say?

This might not be as hopeless as I thought.