Clutching his head, he let out a scream as the pain overwhelmed him, far surpassing the discomfort he had felt upon awakening. Gasping between stings of agony, the pain fluctuated in pulses, ranging from head-splitting to mind-rending. Whimpering between gasps, he writhed on the ground, helpless to do anything but endure the torment. Time blurred—what felt like hours might have been only minutes, before the pain began to recede. Gradually, through the fog of constant pain signals, thoughts started to take form again. What had happened? What had caused the pain? It occurred right after he managed to remove the box from his vision. Could it have been the box's fault? Wait, he had accepted a companion. Companion? This thought made him frantically scan his surroundings; he was alone, with the forest around him remaining indifferent to his suffering. His head still throbbing, he inspected it with his hands but found no wounds or irregular bumps. It seemed the pain had originated from within.

He drew his knees up, put his head between them and wrapping his arms around his calves waiting for the pain to fully fade. The emotions of the ordeal came crashing down, his heart strings raw after the torment, all his emotions so far overflowed. The confusion, agony and the fear that had lurked in the corners of his mind welled up and he sobbed, tears flowing down his face. He desperately wanted answers, to everything. Where was he? Who was he? Why was he here? What had happened to his memories? He sat for a long while, letting the tears flow, in his turmoil he had forgotten to be alert for dangers and when a new box popped into his vision he was startled back to reality.

Notice Companion bonding successful. Irregularities detected. Anamneses process interrupted. Memory state: Fractured. Records integration process completed. Records state: High Blocking, Cause: unknown.

As soon as he read over the text a new box appeared, taking the place of the old one.

Notice Path reassembly protocol launched. Error detected: Episodic paths missing. Beware: Functionality limited while reconstruction protocols are engaged.

Companion bonding? Anamneses? He did not even know what that word meant. Memory state being fractured must refer to his own memories. Had this bonding been the cause of his earlier pain? He could still feel the pain linger in his temples, had this companion caused him so much pain? He felt a small spark of anger flicker, before he subdued it. There was no point of getting angry, he did not know the companion was the cause for his pain, and either way–there was nothing he could do about it. The messages did not make much sense to him, but they seemed to revolve around his memory. Assuming that was the case, perhaps the "Path reassembly protocol" was referring to fixing his memory? And what was that about limited functionality? What functionality? He sighed, it seemed everything that happened just brought more questions. He hoped that the stuff about reassembly was about his memory, maybe he could at least find out what his name was.

Notice Semantic anamneses 2% complete. Information displayed to assist in natural memory reconstruction.

* Name: Mikal

* Race: Human

* Origin: Not of this dimension

The new box stunned him. As soon as he read his name, he knew it was right. He was Mikal, the name felt familiar, comforting. It felt incredibly heartening just to know this simple thing. He had a name. He felt like there had been more to his name, like it was incomplete, but just knowing what to call himself was enough for now. The last line on the other hand, was... disturbing. He was from another dimension? What did that even mean? Was that why everything felt so alien, because it was? Again more questions. Noticing the panic rising, he forced himself to focus on the positive. He now knew his name. It felt like an accomplishment, like he had regained a little of himself. The feeling made him want to forge ahead, to discover more. He was about to set out again when he realised the box was still there.

"Right, this again. You figured it out last time Mikal, you can do it again."

He spoke to himself, really just wanting to use his newfound name. He was a little scared that trying to remove the box would cause a repeat of what had happened the last time. Not eager to experience that excruciating pain again he steeled himself. Last time he had willed the "Yes" button to activate, there was no button this time so he tried to simply will the box to disappear. And just as suddenly as it had appeared it vanished. His vision clear again, he scanned his surroundings.

Realising that in his earlier writhing he had moved out in the middle of two trees. He looked to the ground looking to see if there were any markings he could use to find the tree he had initially discovered the stone line on. He quickly found a path where the leaves had been pushed aside, revealing the black dirt beneath. He walked over to the tree the path led to, wanting to figure out which direction he had come from he focused on the tree.

Flora Name Avian Pining Description Large brown tree with a crown of needles, shielding the forest ground.

Getting a little more used to the messages popping into his vision, he noticed that this one was different to the others. Instead of following his vision, this one stayed next to the tree when he looked around. As soon as he looked to far away, the message disappeared. Curios he focused on the tree again. Was this the "functionality" the earlier boxes had told him about? Did his the Companion allow him to see information about things around him? Did it draw this information from his memories, like it had done with his name? No that couldn't be right, if it was true he was not from this dimension that meant there was no way he could know the name of tree from this dimension. Or could he? Maybe this type of tree existed in both dimensions. That did not feel right to him, he felt like he had never heard that name before, even though he had no way of knowing. He decided to trust his gut and conclude that this was indeed new information. That the Companion had given him this information. That raised the question–could he trust the information? Not that it really mattered in this case, but it might later on.

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Deciding to investigate further, he bent down to pick up a needle from the ground, he paused as he saw the cut between his fingers. In all the excitement he had completely forgotten about the wound. The blood had already dried and the wound didn't look to bad. It had bled a lot initially but there the bleeding had stopped and the wound seemed to have begun healing ever so slightly. He wondered a little at that, how long had he been laying on the ground? Pushing the question away he instead bent down and picked up a needle as he had originally bent down to do. A box appeared.

Item Name Decaying Avian Pining Needle Description Needle from an Avian Pining. In a state of partial decay. Type Ingredient Known uses and effects

* Brewing

Rarity Abundant

This box provided much more information than the last. Mikal wondered why that was, because this information was more useful to him? There was not much he could do about the tree, but this needle he could potentially bring with him and it seemed he could maybe use it to brew something. A tea perhaps? The part about rarity was also interesting, knowing the value of something was a useful tool to have. He looked around, realising that there was not much else around him to use his newfound ability on. He found a small stick, a new item box popped up. Listing it as coming from an avian pining, it was categorised as a material and could be used in simple woodworking. Nothing useful there. He thought back to the strange spike ball he had seen when he first woke up. Orienting himself using the tree he decided to go back and see if he could identify that with his new ability.

It did not take him long to find the creature again. He had ran a much shorter distance than he initially thought. He hid behind the trunk of a tree and watched the creature. It was using its front legs to root around at the roots of one of the avian pinings. He focused on it and a small box appeared over its head. This time with a name and something new.

Darkspike Treehog, Level 5-8

A level? 5-8? The small box followed the creature as it moved staying just above its head. Wanting to know more he tried focusing on the box and willing more information to appear. It worked and suddenly he saw a box in his vision like the ones he had gotten before.

Fauna Name Darkspike Treehog Description Treehogs can grow to about a 60cm in height. In its defensive ball form the tips of the spikes can reach about a metre in height. The regular Treehog usually feed on forest detritus and small insects. The rarer more agressive darkspike variant has the ability to launch its spikes. It utilises this ability to hunt larger creatures by taking advantage of other creature's hunger or curiosity, drawing them in close before maiming them with their launched spikes.

Ok, so he could get more information. The information also coincided with his own experiences, mollifying his fears about whether the information was trustworthy a little. But it seemed the information was more general, just giving details about the species of the creature not the specific creature in front of him. Thinking back to the needle he had gotten information on earlier, it detailed that it was decaying, which was specific to the one needle he had held. Curios, he dismissed the message in his vision and tried to focus on the creature again willing information about this specific creature to appear.

Darkspike Treehog Level 5-8 Species, Race, Sub-type Treehog, Darkspike, n/a Condition Healthy Description A full grown, typical specimen.

Okay so it was possible to access more specified information. Although except for the part that it was full grown and average for its kind. There wasn't any additional information he could not see for himself with the aid of the little box that had appeared over the creatures head. He wondered about the level, was that an indication of the creatures strength? How was that determined? What was his own strength? Getting an idea he tried to will forth information about himself, but nothing happened. He tried looking down at himself and focusing, but still there was nothing. Perhaps the Companion was still processing his information? It had seemed like the companion had had some difficulty with figuring him out. He would try again later and see if anything had changed. But for now he wanted to find more things to test his ability on.