Consequences-

[! Congratulations You have been selected for -Re-incarnation-!]

The dazzling display message window appeared suddenly and lit up the now clearly empty white room.

“WHAT THE F- !?” he gasped. Seiren found himself reeling from shock. The last thing he remembered was falling 20 stories from the roof of his workplace to the pavement below. Now, suddenly he was here, sitting on the floor in this white room which was about the size of a large warehouse with no obvious ceiling. Seiren could sense that he was not alone even though he could not see anyone, he frantically looked around for some sign of life apart from the vibrant display before him.

Come to think of it, what was this thing anyway? Seiren peeked around it but didn’t see any wires. He assumed that it was a projection of some kind. Seiren looked up behind him to find the source of the projection but all he saw was a white wall.

“Are you looking for me?” a strangely cheery feminine voice asked. Seiren’s neck snapped back towards the spot where the display message was which had since disappeared and the space was now occupied by two short but distinct people. One figure was wearing a black hooded cloak with a white tunic and the other wearing the total opposite; a white hooded cloak with a black tunic. It was not immediately clear which of the two figures were speaking as their faces were shrouded by the cloak’s shadow. He sensed something was quite off about them, something not quite human.

Seiren was already getting tired of the surprises. They were giving him a level of anxiety he hadn’t reached in a long time.

“Try standing up” they said in cheery unison. He took a deep breath and stood up slowly, which he did with noticeably more ease than he was accustomed.

“We’re sure you realize this by now but the life you knew has come to an end by your own hand.” the figure in the black cloak said.

Seiren had opened his mouth to retort but before Seiren could say a word, the figure continued so he closed his mouth again.

“Normally in cases where the subject has taken their own life, we do not bring them here, to the room of re-incarnation.” They stated plainly “your name would have been erased from the book of life and your essence would have been fed to the roots of the world tree.”

Seiren’s face adopted a slightly pale and troubled look at those words. He knew that killing himself deliberately would not earn him any merit in death, but... FED TO THE ROOTS OF THE WORLD TREE?!

“We understand that this news might be unsettling-” the white cloaked one started.

“-First of all…,” Seiren cut her off “…where am I, who are you, why are a couple of brats walking around in cloaks acting all shady and-and most importantly what did you do with my clothes?!” His lower half was not visible, it was covered in a pitch- black shadow but he still felt naked.

“you can call me Hugh”, the one in the Black cloak said “and this is my sister Muni”, she said while gesturing to her white cloaked twin beside her.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“As we said before, you are in the room of re-incarnation. Maybe the best way for you to understand it is that after you died unceremoniously in Midgard, your essence was drawn here. If you died heroically you would’ve been taken directly to Asgard by the Valkyries. And…that would have presented a problem as there is currently no way to LEAVE Asgard in any capacity.

The only reason that we are not trapped there is because we are usually in different realms.” Muni continued, “As for our age, it might surprise you to learn that we are beyond 3000 in years.”

Seiren stood with his arms folded, this tale was a little hard to believe. He knew that he jumped from 20 stories so chances were that he was still in a hospital in a coma and just maybe this is some dream that he is having and he needed to wake himself out of it. “3000 years?” He thought, that alone sounded ridiculous. He stretched out his free hand and pointed his finger at Muni.

“why should I believe you?” he asked cautiously.

Hugh opened his mouth and after a brief pause started walking forward. His form became hidden by a black mist which swirled and expanded into a column of mist and feathers that seemed to hide what was happening in the midst of them.

BANG! A Shockwave violently dispersed the swirling mist and there stood what appeared to be a majestic raven of epic proportions, its talons the size of Seiren himself, its feathers seemingly pitch black and its gaze cold and blood red. It stomped it’s foot down and shook the entire room. Seiren was already pressed up against the wall at this point, his heart in his stomach, eyes open wide and trained on Hugh, dreading what was to come.

“Hahaha I think our little Midgardian gets the point now” Muni chuckled.

“As you can see, we are not all we appear to be. This is a lesson you should etch into your memory as the next time you try me, your insolence might be your undoing.” warned Hugh.

Seiren still hadn’t gotten over the fact that there was a cargo plane sized bird talking to him, nor the fact that it didn’t seem to like him at all. He slumped against the wall behind him and despaired at his situation.

“W-What is it that you want from me” Seiren asked timidly.

“We have prepared a trial for you.” Muni said nonchalantly as if nothing had happened.

“Should you succeed, we will compile your results and decide if you are better off as fertilizer.” Hugh added.

“what my sister means is – if you do well, we might have a special reward for you!” Muni butted in.

“T-Thank you!” Seiren said as a small wave of relief washed over him. “You won’t regret giving me a chance!” he exclaimed. He could not believe his luck. Not only had he managed to not become fertilizer but he was being given a second chance at life and one that probably won’t suck! All he had to do was pass some stupid test and he would be due for a reward.

“There are some things you must learn and I will try to explain them quickly.” Muni started.

[A display window opens in front of Seiren listing his name with various attributes and skills]

[Name] Seiren Kara

[Level] 1

[Race] Midgardian

[HP]   10/10

[Skills Acquired] None

[Stats] Strength (1/1) Intelligence (1/1) Dexterity (1/1) Stamina (1/1)        Constitution (1/1) Mental Fortitude (1/1) Luck (1/1)

“This is a menu of your attributes filled with your skills and stats. Naturally, your rank in each of them will remain at 0 or 1 unless you perform a special action to increase them. You won’t be able to even see some which are hidden to you until you understand the nature of them.” She said.

“Simple things like sleeping and eating can raise or lower stats too, so keep track of yourself whenever you can. To view this window again, just say “Raven” and it will pop up in a similar manner.”

“Normally we would start you on level 1 and have you work your way up but you don’t get that luxury as time is of the essence.” The figure in the black cloak said. She proceeded to open her right palm towards Seiren.

“Trial 5 EXECUTE!” She shouted. At the same time a low buzzing sound filled the room. Seiren blinked his eyes and found himself alone in the dark.

The last words he heard were “Remember! if you have any questions just say “Raven! And this is very important – NEVER TRUST A WOLF!”