A few minutes had gone by since Eren realized that his partner that had been with him for his entire life was now gone. He had given himself a thorough checkup to try to understand his body a little more. But instead of his body… it was completely a her now.

*****

A few more minutes had gone by.

Eren was now completely aware of her body... and she had somewhat come to peace with it now. Not really. Her head hurt from slamming it against a tree multiple times, but it was enough to return her to her normal functioning train of thought.

From analyzing her body, she discovered that the purple material that was attached to her was some sort of natural body armor similar to the carapace of insects on Earth.

She didn’t entirely know if the purple color was necessary, but that didn’t linger in her mind for too long.

She couldn’t take it off, and even if it was slightly uncomfortable and wasn’t the best color in a lush green forest, it did seem incredibly durable. It would probably serve as protection from whatever might try to harm her.

She tried testing how hard the carapace was with her new claws, but those barely left a scratch against her armor like skin.

The claws, however, were much sharper than she first thought. She poked at a nearby tree with a claw, and it had almost pierced completely through the outer bark of the tree with just a slight bit of force.

She then tried to slice the tree as a cat might have done so.

The results? From just a small swipe, the bark of the tree was completely torn off, and the harder parts inside the trunk had a shallow mark from her claws. Couldn’t she cut down a tree with just her claws then?

Wait, this wasn’t important.

What mattered far more to Eren was the state of her attire. Considering how she had just been born, or whatever she had been since she had just come out of an egg, she was completely naked.

The only thing that covered her in any way was her purple carapace, and that itself was about as thick as regular skin.

Her private areas were practically completely exposed, and even if she had accepted that her body was now that of the opposite gender, seeing it every time she looked down was a bit too much.

In order to find something suitable to wear, Eren searched around the area for anything that might have worked to serve as material for clothing. There obviously weren’t going to be clothes just lying around to wear, but if she could manage to salvage some decent materials, she could probably make something useful to cover herself.

Seeing as how she was in a forest though, there weren’t many things to use. She was only able to find some leaves and branches.

The only possible solution Eren could see with what she had was to try to tie some leaves in a way for it to wrap around her waist. There wasn’t much she could do with just leaves…

After struggling for a little while to gather enough leaves and tie them together, she was able to successfully make something that resembled a skirt. For now, she considered her clothing problem settled.

‘It’s just a skirt ‘cause it’s the easiest to make. Skirts are fine. Totally fine. Guys wear them all the time too, right Eren? You know, kilts?’

Her chest was, thankfully, still flat, and so she refused to try to cover it. Being forced to hide what she didn’t have gave her a sense of having lost something important to her.

Anyways, with the problem of her wardrobe or lack thereof settled, Eren decided to turn to the next problem she needed to address.

Her encounter with the weird creature when she first emerged into the forest still made chills run down her back. She didn’t know if there was anything she could do about it until she understood more about her present situation, so she decided that trying to get out of the forest was her first priority.

Once she got out, she might be able to find someone who could explain what led to her being in the forest… if they didn’t run away from her considering her strange appearance.

Eren began walking forwards in the direction opposite of where the weird creature had left. Even if it didn’t hurt her, having to come across it once more wasn’t something she wanted to happen.

After walking for a little while, she spotted a small hill a little ways away. She decided to try to climb it to see if she could get an understanding of her surroundings by getting a look over the forest from higher ground. Perhaps this way she would be able to determine what direction she would walk towards.

When she finally got to the top of the hill though, she was shocked by what she saw. No matter what direction she looked, there were only trees, trees, and more trees. The only thing for as far as she could see was a vast forest of green. The forest of trees seemed to go on forever, but in the distance she could see a silhouetto of a mountain.

Setting her new destination as the mountain for now, Eren decided to keep walking. It wasn’t like there were any other better options that she could take.

And so she walked. And walked. And walked some more.

‘So thirsty…’

The sun was already beginning to dip below the horizon, and while fortunately, it wasn’t too hot, Eren hadn’t found anywhere water to drink from. Every now and then, she saw some small animals like rabbits or squirrels and once even a fox-like animal with sparkling silver fur.

She figured the last one was just her imagination, but she knew that there had to be some source of water nearby just by the fact that those animals were alive. Despite this though, there wasn’t any sign of a creek or river, and she was still slowly getting thirstier as time went by. Hungrier too when she thought about it. So she tried not to. Think about it that was.

Once more, she saw another squirrel run past her and then scurry up a tree.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Where are you getting your water?!”

The squirrel simply looked at her for a second, tilted its head, and then disappeared from view.

‘Sigh. What would yelling at a squirrel do anyways…’

The sky was beginning to grow darker as she continued to trudge along. Her legs were growing heavier and her feet felt as if they would fall off from her legs.

What was the point of going on? She wasn’t even herself anymore with this new body and all. No one could possibly miss her either. She was already dead. Even if she could get back home, what could she tell anyone? ‘Hey guys, it’s me Eren. I know I got run over by a truck, but it’s still me… I just look like a purple monster.’

No one would believe her.

She stopped walking to take a short break and leaned against a tree. The rest felt so blissful, and she slowly felt her body sinking into a sitting position. Her hands fell to her sides and they brushed against the grass.

Absentmindedly, she pulled on the ground, experiencing the odd sensation of the blades of grass against her claws. The mud felt pleasant as she grabbed a fistful of it and rolled it in her palms.

The mud…

Mud…

Eren’s eyes shot open. She turned her body, and behind the tree, she could see a small river running its course. How she didn’t hear the splashing of water she didn’t know, but she could hear it loud and clear now.

The next thing Eren knew, she was knelt against the riverbank, gulping down water as if her life depended on it. The water was so unbelievably good that it felt as if all the suffering up to this point had been worth it.

‘Wait, wasn’t the suffering the reason why I’m thirsty in the first place?

She took it back. She’d rather not have to be that thirsty ever again.

After drinking for a while and her thirst was quenched, Eren lied down on the ground next to the river. Her leaf skirt had fallen off at some point, but all the walking had drained her of all her energy, and she was too tired to care. The ground was too comfortable.

Her stomach also hurt a bit from drinking more than she needed to, but she welcomed the feeling. The feeling meant that she wasn’t thirsty anymore. It simply meant that she was no longer thirsty.

‘Now if only I could get some food…’

*****

The last of the sun had finally disappeared below the horizon, and although the clearing around the river was beginning to become dark, Eren could somehow still see clearly. Was it something else to attest to her new body?

*Growl…*

“Yes yes, stomach. I know. I heard you the last four times.” Eren said aloud.

She was once again, walking in search of something that could sate her body’s needs, this time though, in search of something to eat. She walked alongside the river to make sure she wouldn’t have water problems, but nothing she found seemed to be edible.

Eren looked up towards the sky, and she saw the two moons shining down at her.

She had seen the two moons when she lied down on the ground next to the river earlier and was completely shocked by what she saw then.

Looking over her body for the first time was one thing, but seeing the moons had confirmed her suspicions.

‘I’m in a completely different world aren’t I…’

One of the moons was a bright blue color. It was shattered with only half of the moon being whole while the rest of it was in pieces scattered around. The other moon looked identical to the one back on Earth though. They seemed to be revolving around each other, albeit very slowly. It just served to be another proof to the fact she was no longer on Earth.

“Sigh… well, I already died in my last life, let’s make the most of this one! I can’t say that my last one was very fulfilling at all.”

And with the newfound vigor powering herself up... Eren decided to lie down and head to sleep. She was tired.

‘The food problem can be tomorrow me’s problem.’

And with that, Eren felt her consciousness immediately begin to slip away.

*****

‘Shit!’

Eren was running as fast as she possibly could, which actually wasn't very fast at all… It wasn’t for the lack of trying though. Her short legs significantly lowered her ability to run, and with all the tree roots all around, it took everything she had not to trip over-

“Gaaahhh!!”

She tripped.

Eren scrambled back onto her knees, trying desperately to find a good footing, when she felt a warm breath on her neck. Without turning to look, she swung her hands behind her and immediately started running again.

The monster behind her let out a small yelp of pain, but the chill down her back kept her legs moving when she heard another growl that followed it. Blood dripped from her claws as she was running, and she cringed slightly when she felt some of it was splatter on her body.

A second monster was already gaining distance on her but this time, filled with rage rather than that of an aloof predator’s desire to play a game of cat and mouse.

‘Since when did wolves have red fur and suddenly want to eat people?!’

“Awooooo!!”

‘Right. Ever since I came into whatever kind of shithole this world was.’

Without any prior notice, Eren was forced awake from her nap by the sound of red colored wolves barreling towards her. Two right behind her, several more beginning to encircle her. The fact that she even managed to wake up before the wolves were already on top of her was nothing short of a miracle in itself.

The difference in speed between the wolves and her were astronomical however. These wolves lived in this forest, a part of their playground. They were uninhibited by the terrain and moved with ease, weaving through the trees as if they didn’t exist.

In contrast, Eren was practically a toddler in the hands of the wolves, running blindly in whatever direction was away from the wolves.

It couldn’t be helped though. The most exercise she had gotten in her past life was probably walking to her car to go to work, and the most exercise in this life was the grand total of a day of existence. Her muscles screamed in pain, unused to suddenly being forced to overexertion after an already exhausting day’s worth of constant walking.

As the pack of wolves were already beginning to overtake her, she figured that any more running would be useless, especially against wolves that could run much faster than any human could. Eren ran towards the nearest tree and began clambering up as fast as her short and pitiful arms could.

The plan almost seemed to work until one of her claws caught onto a snag of the tree. While trying to pull her claw free, a sharp pain in her left leg yanked in the opposite direction.

One of the wolves had leaped up and bit down on her leg, furiously trying to pull her down into the reach of the pack of wolves now surrounding the tree. Her right leg slipped from underneath a branch after losing balance, and her one free hand was barely clinging onto a branch to hold herself up.

The only thing Eren could do was desperately shake her leg, kicking in hopes of making the wolf let go.

A second wolf jumped up in order to bite her as well, but in the midst of the struggle, Eren somehow managed to swing the first wolf into the course of the second wolf mid air. It forced both to fall to the ground in a strike of pure fortune.

Not wasting a breath, she secured her footing once again and scrambled away from the reach of the wolves.

‘Holy fuck.’

Gasping for breath, Eren felt her hands go numb from grabbing onto the branch too hard. She relaxed her hand and adjusted into a more comfortable seated position where she could avoid having to hold herself up with her arms.

‘12..13... 14 wolves. Where the fuck is my tutorial?! Where’s my lone goblin or slime as the first mob?! Isn’t this too realistic? They’re hunting together as a pack, not as one or two stray wolves. How am I supposed to survive when there’s literally 14 wolves trying to kill me first thing in the morning? And they’re waiting for me to come down as well. What is this shitty difficulty spike from the get go?’

Below the tree, the wolves growled in anticipation, waiting patiently for their prey to come down. Without any way to break the stalemate though, they simply laid down in wait.