After reorienting myself from the fall, I realize I’m in a clearing with trees all around me. Interesting place to reincarnate in… Before I panic, I flex my hands. Looking down, it looks like everything's where it's supposed to be. It feels strange having a body again after spending who knows how long as a consciousness. Taking a look at my body, it looks the same as it did before I died. At least… the natural parts. I was a bit of a delinquent in school so I had quite the collection of tattoos and piercings. My hair is also back to its natural black, a color I hadn’t seen in a while. Hopefully hair dye exists in this world.

The goddess, who I never learned the name of, seems to have given me comfortable clothing. I'm in a pair of black trousers and a white button-up shirt tucked into the waist. A long coat completes the look, one with plenty of pockets on the inside and large pockets on the outside. A decent-sized satchel is hanging across my shoulder while a sword is hanging on my waist. Resisting the temptation of the sword, I dig through the satchel to see what's in there.

Looking into the bag… it looks bottomless? Putting my hand in, information immediately enters my brain about its contents. There’s books, maps, a compass, a waterskin, a bedroll, some rope, a matchbox, an identification card, and a pouch of coins. Identification card? I pull that out and a sleek metal card the size of my driver’s license appears. Huh, it has all of my information on it.

Name: Misaki

Family: None

Sex: Female

Date of Birth: 19/06/17

Height: 177 cm

Weight: 66 kg

Class: Unknown

Guild: None

There’s also a picture of me to the left side with an official looking stamp of approval on the bottom right corner. Interesting, it’s an actual ID card like the ones I had back in my original world. I’m curious about the class: unknown specification, but I’ll figure it out later. I stash the ID card back into my satchel and pull out all the maps and books stored.

I place them all out in a neat pile in front of me. There’s history books on Athania, history books on each of the countries, history books on magic, history books of the adventurers’ guilds, history books on monsters, and history books on demons. I scratch my head. This is going to be… a long study session.

Glancing at the maps, it seems I have one for the entire world, one for the continent of Terra I’m on, and one for each country on Terra. There’s two continents on Athania, one called Terra and the other called Hell. It doesn’t take much to guess which continent harbors demons. Hell is significantly smaller than Terra, it’s probably a tenth of its size if I were to guess. Terra itself is separated into five different countries that are separated by wide swaths of land and bodies of water. The country I’m in right now is… no clue honestly. I’ll also worry about this later.

Putting the maps away, I start pouring through the books I have in front of me. I put away the books on the countries and adventurers’ guilds and focus on the information I immediately need. A general synopsis of this world, what magic is and how to cast it, and the bestiary on monsters.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

After a few hours pass and the sun hangs low in the sky, I close the books. A loud sigh escapes from me as I lean my cheek against my hand. I’ll have to spend time studying these as I go because there’s way too much information to retain. From what I read, I’m going to need to head to Mythia since it’s where most schools of higher education are located. It’s also where I can find the world’s greatest libraries. More reading… yay.

Right now, I need to gather as much information as I can before I make a move. Finding out what exactly is going on in the current political climate, what current events are happening, what kind of beef people have with each other, etc are just some of the things I need to know. There’s unfortunately a lot I need to learn before I can figure out how to prevent the world’s end. Especially when I was given zero hints at to what could be causing it.

I can already feel the stress building up from how much I’ll have to do… I let out a groan before laying back on the grass. That’s a problem for tomorrow. Putting the rest of my books away, I get up and stretch. From what the bestiary said, there’s a lot of monsters that wander the areas outside of the walled countries. I’ll have to be careful in case I get ambushed, especially at night. Looking up at the sky, the sun is dangerously low. I’ll need to figure out how to use my magic before it sets or I’ll be in deep trouble. How embarrassing would it be if I died the same day I was reborn?

From what I read, magic is a reflection of our souls. It manifests from our pride, what we feel is our greatest strength. This makes magic a deeply personal thing, something that grows with the user as they grow into themselves. It’s not uncommon for someone to have different magical abilities throughout their life. Everyone has magic in this world with the exception of demons. I’ll have to read the books on demons to find out more about the curse power that they have in place of magic.

The goddess told me magic is my mind so I should just… will it to happen? Taking a deep breath, I concentrate on my hand. Moments pass as nothing changes. Hm… the book also said that sometimes magic doesn’t work without a target. Glancing around, I settle on the tree right across from me. Aiming my hand there, I try and will something to happen.

Nothing changes. I leave it there for a few more moments to see if anything changes but… nothing. What am I doing wrong…? As I contemplate that, the tree I aimed at starts giving off a dull glow. Huh?

I pick up my things and make my way over to the tree. As I approach, the tree glows brighter until the entire tree is covered in a shimmering layer of light. My magic is… buffing? I concentrate on myself this time, placing my hand over my chest. Not much time passes before I can feel the rush of energy and vigor that envelops my body. I stare down at myself in awe. I’m covered in the same layer of light as the tree.

That’s… huh. That’s interesting. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. I’ve always played the support to other people in my previous life, it’s only fitting I’ll have to continue to do so here. It’s a bit problematic being a support by myself in the wild though… Time to skim the book about demons.

Just as the sun fully sets, I close the book after finding the information I need. Alright, so curse power is the inverse of magic in origin. It’s not someone’s pride, but something that they are ashamed of. It’s strengths they mustn’t use. Things like necromancy or vampirism or mind control. This sounds quite different from what the goddess said. Of course, this book is written from the perspective of the people living in Terra so it’s probably extremely biased. That also means they have no clue how to use it…

With that being a bust, I’ll just have to rely on my buffing magic. Monsters roam more freely at night so I need to set up an actual camp. I… should’ve done this earlier before daylight ended. There’s some random broken branches around the clearing edges so I pick them up and place them all in a makeshift campfire in the middle of the clearing. I’m not sure how I’m supposed to make a shelter so I’ll just stay next to the fire until morning comes.

Looking at my little campfire, I’m going to need actual kindling. I quickly glance around at my surroundings… it’s a little too dark for my tastes. I’ll just pray to Miss Goddess and hope she has some pity for me. Taking out my matchbox, I ignite the fire without much trouble. It just took five matches before it caught fire. My vigor spell? Not sure what to call it yet, but my spell is finally running out. I reapply it in case any trouble happens tonight.

Taking out a pack of rations and my waterskin, I absentmindedly fill my stomach. It tastes bland but it’s something. This is going to be worrisome, I have no clue where I am and it’s likely I’ll need to hunt for food sooner or later. It's a huge problem considering I grew up with butlers and maids attending to my needs. Hm…

I've played some survival games before but that's not exactly a good guide for real life. I guess I'll just make it up as I go? As I contemplate that, a low growl emanates from my far right. Slowly turning my head over, a dark shadow emerges from beyond the bushes.

The growling continues as it steps close enough for me to see its form. A large panther-like creature with glowing red eyes and dark fur that bristles like spikes is revealed. Ah. Well this is unlucky.