Hyzen Serineriel.

That's me. A typical nobody with normal background and normal future.

I'm so normal, really.

I've been told I'm talented when I'm young but I wasted away that talent and now spend everyday in regret. Made some bad decisions, and then regret those as well.

Well, I'd like to pride in myself that at least I'm not consumed by alcohol or drugs, but that's a marginal concession at best.

While doing an underpaid job under a boss that's neither understanding of their subordinates' feelings nor cares about anything else but himself, I rot away unnoticed by the majority of the world.

But that all changed the moment I decided to save a little girl from a truck.

Cliche as it sounds, I found myself reincarnated.

Probably with cheats.

But I don't know what they are.

So I just spent time everyday trying to see if I can recreate those isekai protagonists — train as a baby.

Turns out, that actually works, but not in the way I thought it would.

By the time my magic practice yielded results, I was able to crawl on my legs, which implies that it took me months to just sense magic inside me.

But it's still fine.

And just like that, I spent everyday trying to act like a baby (mostly by following instincts, really), while spending the rest of the day doing my own thing: meditation.

I wanted to move the mana inside me to magic a fireball, but things turn out not like what I expected, as I instantly noticed the various vein-like branches that thinly spread out throughout my body.

Hypothesizing that it'd be bad if I did a mistake in circulating mana through the mana veins, I only limited myself to sensing magic power inside myself and mapping out all the tiny barely-visible mana veins.

That's until an idea struck me.

Why not try to absorb the mana in the nature all around me?

It took me until I was able to walk properly without support.

But I succeeded in sensing mana in the environment.

One moment there's just the normal boring world, then the next moment it's like an unopened gate opened and the world gained all sorts of colors.

As mystical a sight it is, I knew what is important, so I spent the next few days trying to 'bring in' the outside mana into myself.

Which proved to be more difficult than I imagined. Figures, nothing easy in life.

By now, I've become accustomed to the world around me, even though I was never allowed to go visit the outside world.

There was no library at home, so I knew nothing about the outside world. Which is significant, because it seems... I'm being cast outside?

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My mother is a beautiful woman. I've not seen my father, but looking at my mother, I'm assured in my knowledge that I should've at least inherited some of her beauty. Which is important, because no matter what the outside world says they always judge a person by their looks first then personality second.

At the risk of being redundant, let me reiterate: my mother is a beautiful woman.

She has long, flowing blond hair, green eyes, a slender well proportined body and long ears typically associated with the elves of fantasy tales. So I knew I was at least part elf.

I wondered if there is stigma against half elfs. It would certainly explain why my mother never took me outside home, nor showed me off to her friends and family.

But the days have been nice to me. Waking up with no worries, eating till mys tomach is full, and then training till my patience ran out, again and again. A peaceful life with nothing tying me down.

But that all changed on the day of the New year's eve.

One moment, I was spending the day with my mother, happily playing a game she put together, then the next moment, I woke up in the middle of nowhere.

Like, I meant that literally.

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Waking up to find myself in unfamiliar surroundings with nothing to protect myself was an... interesting experience.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

If not dominated by fear and confusion, I'm sure i would've noticed the approaching danger.

In the form of a small green humanoid.

A skree stopped my fear-induced musings and a thud against my side awakened me to the dire reality.

Falling to the ground, I found my assaulter deftly climbing onto me to continue their assault, but too bad for them, because the pain of being struck with a hard something awakend me from my stupid haze and I channeled mana through my hand, quickly and efficiently.

I still don't know any real magic but I can at least do basic body enhancement.

Because of the time constraints, I don't have enough time to do a full body enhancement, so I sped up the process by focusing only on my arm, and when my assaulter climbed on top of me and raised their hand high, I stuck with my hand with force.

I knew body enhancement is supposed to enhance my body and all, but I did not expect to instantly win with a single punch, so when I saw my assaulter get comically thrown across the forest floor, until they are stopped by a tree, I was startled.

 I could muse as much as I'd like about my power level, but I have an assaulter to take care of. Maybe they'll have some information of where this place is?

While thinking like that, I made my way to the now-unconscious assaulter, while powering up my whole body with body enhancement in case of any surprises.

I haven't tested my durability in my body enhancement, but I'd wager there's at least some magic defense.

While walking slowly and carefully, I only now noticed my surroundings.

It's night time, the moonlight is blocked by thick foliage and it should be dark but somehow I'm perfectly able to see in the dark. which is weird because in the past when I used body enhancement I didn't receive any such boost, but...

"A goblin?", an unwitting mutter left my throat at the sight of my now-unconscious assaulter.

Adernaline covered me so I didn't notice previously, but my assaulter is some...thing of small stature, is green, has long pointed ears, is wearing cheap loincloth-like thing, and is generally disgusting to look at.

It should have a weapon, probably a wooden club or something because the pain I clearly felt couldn't be not from a weapon, and goblins are only ever known to use cheap wooden tools. In fiction, anyway. Ugh, I should stop stereotyping fictional races; it'd bite me in the ass later, I'm sure.

Anyway, I kicked the head of the now-named goblin, just for good measure, and crouched down to inspect if it had any belongings. Loot is important, right?

Only, I don't want to touch this fugly thing. So I used a branch at the side and turned it around. I came up empty, but at least I learned a lesson to not space out in the middle of an unfamiliar place.

As such, I got back to the place where I first woke up, and as expected, there was something there.

Hidden by my panic, I neglected the book lying just beside the place I woke up in.

It was an unadorned book, but thick for its' size.

The first thing I notied when I opened the book is that it's super light.

And that its' paper seems special?

Then I noticed that I can't understand the characters in it, so I quickly closed it.

No need to bother wondering about who sent it and what it says when I don't have enough knowledge or time.

Well, at least it seems like a magic book? It has magic circles and fancy designs all throughout the book, but I might be wrong.

I scoured the surroundings, and when I found nothing but only the book and the wooden club(really?) that the goblin used, I knew I'm dommed.

I wondered why my mother abandoned me here. Did she even abandon me willingly? Or is there some sort of underlying plot I haven't uncovered yet?

One thing is for certain, I won't find anything if I just stand here in the middle of a forest in the night, like a fool.

So I started moving through the forest.

I know not the way, neither did I know how to find the way.

Despite living in a forest ( I saw thick foliage through my home's windows), I never ventured outside.

Of course, I knew not any fancy elf skills such as hunting skills and archery and such.

And my toddler body is not uncooperative of putting it through strenuous physical activity.

Well, at least I have magic, and I can enhance my body like that.

What's more, basic body enhancement takes practically nothing to maintain constantly. I could maintain it all year long and I wouldn't feel a thing. It won't remove my need for sleep or food, but it's a neat trick.

Thinking that I should make finding civilization my top priority, I moved through the forest when my stomach growled and my attention was once again brought to the fact that I'm feeling parched and hungry and sleepy and drowsy and...

Fcuk.

Now my still-underdeveloped tear glands decided to make their presence known.

Life never goes the way we want, does it?

It just has to sucker punch all my expectations, throw my perfectly normal life down the gutter with condescension, and watch me flailing trying to survive.

Now that the adernaline rush from my first fight ran out, I'm acutely aware of all the things that could've gone wrong.

If the goblin had been a little wiser, it could've totally used its' height advantage over a toddler like me and struck me in the head.

I'd be dead if I turned unconsciousness, but the goblin was dumb like that and struck my side.

I also could've been crippled from the first wound but somehow survived with only stinging pain and a probable bruise.

Then there was the fact that any monster stronger than a goblin could've probably defeated me.

Or I could've been eaten while I was still unconscious.

Even now, my situation is not looking good.

I'm lost, thirsty, hungry, tired, and sleepy. I don't know the way to civilization and I don't know if I would even find one before my fuel ran out.

And murphy's law states, all things that could go wrong — will go wrong.

So I can't lose my tension and attention.

I should always be aware of my surroundings even in my weakened state, and it would certainly be taxing on my mind in the long run.

At least I can sense any ambush with the help of my environmental mana sensing. I never thought the skill I picked up because I was curious and bored would help me out like this in my hour of need.

Surrounded by some frankly nightmare-inducing forest sounds, like wolf howls, some dangerous sounding monster noises, and rustling and insect noises, I thought I'd go insane.

I have to distract myself from my fear or it'd be bad when somet-

Then it struck me.

Just what happened? Where's my mother? Why am I here? What is this book?

Questions without answers.

My situation demands my attention, but now I can't stop thinking about my peculiar situation.

I got isekai'd. I got no cheats. And now I'm in a life-or-death situation.

All questions with no answers. At least thinking those things keeps out my steadily building dread and fear. Merry accompaniments in my journey through nowhere. Joy.