The bright skies lazily rested above the vast grassland and trees which littered the lands. I took a class on this once -- this environment would be classified as a temperate forest. It is a biome typical of European landscapes. This kind of sight would normally be a rare treat in Spirit of Darkness, which preferred forsaken ruins and haunted grounds to bushy woodlands.

Although similar to the game, I realized this world was definitely its own entity. Spirit of Darkness never had talking skeletons, for one. I was shocked at encountering one in the cave. Previous experience alone does not guarantee my safety or success here. New and unexpected threats could pop at any second. The excitement made my blood boil with anticipation -- It's been a while since I've felt this way.

I reached into my bag and pulled out the skeleton head.

"My head! My- Oh. It's the outside."

He stared longingly at the sun.

"It's been so long. I forgot how beautiful it was. If only. If only I..."

I could swear he was about to cry. Perhaps this skeleton was more sentimental than he first appeared.

"If only I had my freaking body! Thanks for that, jerk, but I can't do much without legs or arms here!"

Not too sentimental. I decided to address him with honesty.

"You don't need them. All you need to do is answer my questions. I even asked you, and you confirmed that any method of freedom would be fine."

The skull gave me a glare of hate.

"Alright, wiseguy. Unlike you, I'm a gentleman, and will honor my side of the agreement. I fully expect you to act as my arms and legs for now, kapeesh?"

I nodded in agreement. It doesn't matter as long as he gives me answers.

"First question. What country are we in?" I asked.

"This is the Land of Tristaria. As for the cave, I do not know its name."

That's different from SoD's setting.

"You called me an adventurer before. Why is that?"

"Well, you were dungeon diving. That's what adventurers do as far as I'm aware. Keep in mind I'm not an adventurer myself so I don't know the exact details."

Adventurer was a title that was used to refer to the player character. I don't know what it entails here, but the definition appears broader.

"Do you know anything about the pendant I showed you before?"

"Well, let me have a closer look."

You showed him the pendant once more.

"It's a silver pendant. Judging by the pattern it's something of value. A magical item, if I had to guess. You'd need to ask a collector or a specialist to know for sure."

His answer was as I guessed myself. I know every single item in SoD by heart, but I have no idea what that pendant is. I can think of several similar looking items, but they don't quite fit. Well, no matter the utility of his words, he was far more informative now. The transformation was incredible.

"Hey kid, mind if I ask my own questions?" he said in an outburst that surprised me.

"Well, it's only fair, I suppose."

"First thing, you're not from around here, are you?"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"I guess it really was obvious, haha," I nervously laughed at his deduction.

"Yep. Second, what is your plan? What are you going to do now?"

I haven't thought that far yet. My main goal was obviously to gather information so I can survive, and hopefully thrive in this world. As for immediate plans, I was merely following my gut instincts instead of an overarching scheme. Thinking logically about it, however, there was one thread of curiosity gifted by fate upon me.

"This."

I showed him the pendant once more.

"I'm going to find out what this is. This is the only clue I possess as to my true identity and purpose."

The skull looked me over and sighed.

"I'll give you a bit of advice, coming from my experience in life, death, and life again. Trust no one. Not strangers, friends, allies, or comrades. Not even your momma. Heck, don't even trust me. In this land, everybody only looks out for one person, and more often than not that person is themselves. If you put too much trust in others then sooner or later you're going to get burned. That's not something I want to see happen."

Of course, I knew what the skeleton was talking about better than anyone else. I never relied on anyone else my whole life if I could -- any time otherwise was a grave mistake. In fact, I kept this in mind the entire time with this skeleton. There is a reason I chose the method I did in order to free him.

To explain: freeing the skeleton normally was always out of the question. He would have no concrete reason to keep his flimsy promise, and thus could simply attack me or run away at the first opportunity. It was far too big of a risk to take for little benefit. If I crippled him by removing his body, however, he instantly becomes dependent on me. He cannot betray me, as he has no other caretaker and cannot survive without my help. On the contrary, he now has every reason to help me and make sure I survive and prosper. I hypothesize that is the very reason he is giving me advice right now. What if I did act like a naive child and lose my life to trickery? He would be sore-out-of-luck, left out with no hope or means to achieve anything. Our success is mutually beneficial.

If my beheading attempt failed, the worst case scenario would be his death. That in itself could have advantages over what I chose- but alas.

"I appreciate the advice, skeleton," I paused in thought, "In return, I'd like to ask a question. This is something personal and different from the others, so you don't have to answer if you don't want to."

"What is your name?" I ask.

The skeleton was taken aback. He apparently did not expect me to be this courteous.

"Ha, I thought you'd never ask. It's Calvar, the trusty skeleton. And you would be...?"

My name- well, my real name doesn't matter. I never liked it, anyway. Since this is a new world, I may as well come up with a new name.

"It's Eren," I said.

The old me was undoubtedly a failure as a human. Eren, I decided, was going to be different.