Interlude:

A disembodied soul floated in front of what appeared to be a cloud of darkness, the cloud pulsed growing small or big and it moved all around in swirling patterns never to remain in one place too long.

Well, this soul once was a man, but it died, no, not it – He; Even in death he had a strong sense of self. He looked around there was only emptiness and this nebulous ever-changing blob of darkness.

The soul felt the overwhelming pressure coming out of this cloud. There were only a few things to assume.

“Are you here to take me to the afterlife?” He asked still unsure of the ability of the cloud to speak.

But, oh it spoke, directly into his mind. “Mortal,” the booming voice penetrated his very core, “there is a life after, but not the one you might expect.” The cloud of darkness surrounded him from all sides. “I’ve won your soul and so you will be reincarnated.”

He didn't remember gambling or selling something so important…

The entity continued. “Worry not, Mortal, I’ll put you in one of my worlds. In a place where no one would expect, so you’ll be safe for a while.”

“This world it’s not Earth?” He asked having a hunch already.

“A world of strife and magic; a harsh place. But be not afraid, I shall bestow upon you a few boons; the standard sort.”

He had a hundred questions he wanted to ask, but he felt his soul body to become overwhelmed by the power the entity was emitting. The swirling cloud of darkness thundered and lit with purple colour, much like a thunderstorm, and then one of the stray bolts of lighting hit him directly; likely on purpose. And then it hit again and again. While it was scary it only tickled his soul a bit. The lightning bolts were harmless but they did a thing, or three…

Three lines of text floated in his vision:

[Perk Resurrection [1] obtained.]

[Perk Language Comprehension obtained.]

[Perk Chaos Blessed obtained.]

The last one sounded ominous. It made him wonder about what sort of entity this was.

“Off you go, Mortal.”

Everything went black, he didn’t even get to ask the name of the entity or even the place he would be… reincarnated?

...

[You have entered The Dreaded Place] – a mysterious message filtered into his mind and vision.

“A dreaded place?” This didn’t sound good, at all. It didn’t look good. “A jungle?”

He was surrounded by thick trees, imposing bushes and creeping vines. The vegetation was so dense that barely any light reached the ground. Despite the lush greenery, it was eerily quiet. At least, he wasn’t a floating soul anymore; he had a body. He recognised it as his old body, but a much younger version.

He checked himself over, everything was in place and he looked healthy enough. Actually, he felt great! But the jungle start wasn’t the best. He expected a temple, or even some small town or anything like that. But the looks of it, he will be far away from any decent civilisation.

“First things first, to find a water source.” It came back to survival first. “And maybe a village.”

He looked around anxiously taking in the sight of this untamed jungle, and then he looked at himself.

“Or maybe not.” He was put in this world without even a single piece of equipment. He was naked! Not to mention the lack of a weapon. A divine thingamajig tool would be mighty useful, but the entity didn’t feel the need to give him that. Or even tell him where he was reincarnated.

Well, maybe he shouldn’t expect too much from a mysterious cloud of darkness… at least he was alive again.

“Deities work in mysterious ways…” He rationalised to himself.

He looked again, and while he had nothing, that didn’t mean he couldn’t make something. The plants offered themselves to him and he was able to fashion a type of skirt using a large leaf and a vine. It turned out really well and he was proud of his craftsmanship. A masterwork - worthy of a king no less!

[You have crafted a leaf skirt of poor quality. Crafting +1exp.]

Another message. This was interesting. He wondered if his creation had some special properties. Another message popped out in his vision.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

[Leaf Skirt: -1 fashion. +1 Rep with Elves.]

“Elves?” He exclaimed in surprise and then looked around in suspicion. He hated elves. They were arrogant nature-loving hippies!

Anyways, there were messages floating in his vision, so there was another thing to try.

“Status!” Nothing happened. “Status Screen. Info. Character Sheet.” Nothing at all.

“Oh come on!” There were allusions to Crafting skill and exp but no further explanations.

Regardless, he wasn’t going to stay bummed out about something trivial as that. If it granted him exp, that meant that this was good no? So he decided to make something else. “Now a weapon.” He went looking for suitable materials.

In the end, there wasn’t much laying around, but he had a weapon now even if it was just a random stick he found on the jungle floor. “Yeah, no message.” He wondered if he needed to alter it more to receive it. “I have no tools. Not yet, this will have to do. Now, a river.” He listened intently for the sound of water. There was none. There was no sound at all, not even the wind rustling the leaves.

“How strange.”

He walked aimlessly for quite a while. The anxiety began to set in. Not only there was no sound of water, but there were also no sounds of animals. Nothing at all. Spooky!

“If there are no animals here I might starve… if I don't die of thirst first.” His heart filled with dread.

He passed numerous green plants as he went, but none of them looked edible. And even if they were he wouldn't eat them, that would be a quick way to die. The fact was that he wasn’t someone like an elf so It was much safer to cook a fish or even eat some rodent than experiment on some random shroom or tuber.

If there were fruits or nuts. He hasn’t seen them yet.

It must have been hours since he started the quest for water. There was no sound of it.

“I’m royally buggered. Am I not?”

It was getting dark. And chilly.

*Brrr.

“A human can live without water for three days. I will find something tomorrow.” He was trying to remain optimistic.

“So for now, it’s a fire.” He changed the priorities.

As he was gathering dry scraps of wood, grass and leaves he stepped on some wet mud. “Yuk.” It felt slimy and gross. However, this was a good sign. Upon further investigation, he was able to uncover a stream.

“Some fresh clean water at last!” He scooped it and drank with unadulterated greed.

*Brrr. *Shiver. It was ice cold, but small victory worth celebrating.

At the source of the stream there was an outcrop of rocks and small boulders; washed and polished by the water.

“Just what I needed.” He picked the best-looking one.

Cast rock onto a rock, bim bam bosh, and there it was – A sharp shard of stone was made and then attached to the stick he had found earlier. Like so, a mighty weapon was made; a legendary one. Easy!

[You have crafted a stone spear of poor quality. Crafting +1exp.]

Now, he was a proud holder of a whole 2 exp… “Oh well. Better than nothing.”

The message dispelled the delusions and reminded him of the distractions he was surrounding himself with.

“Sparks! I was here for the fire."

There was a lot of effort put into it but he failed to make the fire, it was just impossible without lighting fluid or matches. Well, there were ways but he either lacked the skill or technique so in the end he had to give up.

*Brrr. *Shiver. – the night was spent in a nest of twigs and leaves.

He worried that a random snake might bite his ass and poison him. But he was too tired to worry and quickly fell asleep exhausted.

Upon inspection his ass was fine. Not even a single bug bite. Not only there were no snakes or insects, but there were also no animals of any kind at all. Nothing!

“What a weird place. Starve I shall not!” He announced to the whole jungle a new challenge.

Yet starve he did. It was already dark and no sight of anything edible, he was so hungry the tree bark began to look tasty.

“I will not give in to weakness. I will prevail!” He cheered himself. “…Tomorrow.” He yawned tiredly.

Okay...

The place was devoid of life except for the greenery. He could try eating some roots or flowers. He could… and he did try a few most edible-looking things, they were bitter or tasted like grass.

“To the dust with it!” He cursed losing hope. “This is indeed a dreadful place.”

No matter how hard he looked he just found no fruits, nuts or berries, this jungle was devoid of such things. Through trial and error, he managed to find something he could barely stomach. It was a young green vine growing on a thick white tree. The young sprouts were juicy and despite the bitterness, it seemed something he could stomach. So yeah, he was eating an equivalent of a weed, but there was just nothing else here.

He kept walking for days, subsisting on nothing but Bitter Vine, yeah he even named the damned plant. Heck, where were those elves when you needed them? He was ready to put his prejudices away for anything that didn’t taste like concentrated bitterness.

He munched on another stem while walking.

[Perk Chaos Blessed activated.]

“Eh!” He screamed out in shock.

His vision dimmed and he felt like he was dreaming. Again he found himself disembodied and surrounded by nothing. Unlike last time there was no mysterious cloud of darkness to fill the emptiness but he did feel something greater than himself, some power emanating from… from his very core, from his memories or even his soul. Visions began to flash in his mind. Images of flora and fauna. They were plants and animals he knew from his previous life. For a split second, his mind was filled with an image of a juicy burger, the first image out of the thousands which felt like food-food and not some raw barely edible plant. And then the vision cut abruptly.

[Perk Poison Resistance: Lesser obtained.]

[Perk Enhanced Nutrient Processing obtained.]

“Eh!?” He almost choked on the bite still in his mouth. “It was poisonous!”

Regardless, he had gained something unexpected, and quite useful.

“I take it back!” He took the bad words away he had made in the past few days. “This world is amazing!”

This meant that he could eat other barely edible plants growing here. Well as the perks went it felt slightly underwhelming, but at least he didn’t grow pointy ears and began acting as if a stick was stuck up his ass. Or did he? He quickly checked himself over.

“Phew.” His fingers detected no physical changes. “Let's put this perk to a test.”

He stuffed some fern leaves into his mouth.

“Ew!” It tasted just as bitter as the vines.

He waited for some reaction in his stomach, the unpleasant kind. He braced for it. Nothing came. He ate some more.

The leaves tasted awful and they barely filled him. Everything in this place, even if edible now, tasted like grass.

“Disappointing!” He screamed into the void.

He felt cheated by the perk. Why couldn't he have gotten something like Laser Eyes or Conjure Food?