I wake up surprisingly refreshed. The feeling of a fixed roof over your head and a full stomach apparently doing wonders for your ability to have a good nights sleep.

The air is crisp. A faint hint of the forest permeating the loamy smell of the cave itself. I keep laying there a bit. Just enjoying the smell and sounds of the early morning.

I don't have anywhere to be, and even though yesterday was the same, it was interrupted by the sudden arrival of Ronain. I crack open an eye, and sneak a glance at the cave entrance to check. The early light of dawn filters in, but it’s nowhere near light yet. I close my eye again. On one hand I'm disappointed, but on the other hand, it’s lovely to be able to wake up by myself.

There's something about the first few minutes of a day that makes them extra special. Even more so when in a lovely natural environment like this.

I smirk. I'm sure I can only think that because I have food now. Because I'm secure in my survival today and tomorrow.

That's starting to be a recurring thought. It’s a bit absurd since I can’t be sure I’ll make it through the next week, but days of worrying whether you’ll make it through the next hour, definitely shift your perspective.

A small voice at the back of my head is trying to shout that I’m only comfortable because I set aside my morals and decided to steal, but it is quickly shouted down by the rest, which is currently very comfortable thank you very much. I'm a hundred percent certain that had I known the outcome I'd choose to steal again in a heartbeat. Except I wouldn't have gone through the bother of trying to communicate with those lunatics first.

Anyhow, time waits for no woman, and as much as I like the bed, I better get myself to do something. I slowly sit up, enjoying the act of taking my time. My leg aches still, my shoulder feels as bad as before, but I guess I just can't do anything about any of that regardless, so I might as well ignore it.

I make myself a small breakfast from the contents of my satchel, and marvel at the quality of cheese. I guess I wasn’t able to enjoy it nearly as much while I was starving, but it’s actually really tasty.

I munch my food, and I suddenly wonder how my family is doing. Have they noticed I'm gone yet? At this point surely my workplace would have called my emergency contacts, to try to figure out if something had happened.

How will my parents react when they find out I somehow dropped off the face of the earth?

Thank god for having reliable older brothers…

I’m sure my brothers will be wondering what the hell happened too, but they'll make sure mom and dad are alright first, so at least I can rest easy in that regard.

I guess they kind of have to be, when they have such a flaky little sister…

I suddenly wonder if I could have been cloned, and there's just an extra copy of me in this world? At least nobody would have to be distraught by my absence. I chuckle at the thought, but maybe more at the thought that it’s so typically me for that to pop into my head. Anything to stop thinking unpleasant thoughts is it?

But if I’m teleported here somehow, could I find my way back?

I guess that’s generally the main concern of the characters in these kinds of stories. Or maybe not? Most of them seem to quite enjoy their new lives, which I guess stands to reason, or the stories would be really hard to read.

The way I arrived here doesn’t really suggest anything. I guess I might just as suddenly find myself in my own world again. There's nothing really indicating anything one way or another.

I glance at the now nearly invisible symbols on the wall. Maybe magic could help? If there is indeed magic. I’ve had a few indications of that, but not conclusive. There’s the recurring certainty of this being a new world, and the... attraction... that led me to the blue fruits. Then there’s the weird sensation that eating them brought, the weird second stomach that’s still more or less full. My heart tells me it's definitely 'something' supernatural, but my brain is hesitant to call it as such without conclusive proof.

Do I even want to go back?

I sweep my gaze through my cave, over the makeshift moss bed that I'm lying on, to the gently swaying trees outside the cave entrance. I breathe in the clean smells of the forest, and listen to the calls of a dozen unknown birds. Some unseen animal snorts in the distance.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Maybe not?

I'm surprised that I’d think that, but upon careful examination of my feelings on the topic I still find it to be true. Even given everything I've been through, am still going through, and presumably will go through in the future. It’s been madness, but this reset has been liberating. I do not even feel particularly guilty about it because I didn't have any choice in the matter. I might have said no if I had a choice, but now that I’ve come here I find I do not want to go back to the boring job, I do not want to go back to a world that I feel is full of nonsense.

It’s strange to find myself liking the world in which I’ve nearly died so many times so much better, and to some extent I think it’s a silly thought in the first place. I won’t survive in this world without a job either. Chances are it’s going to be just as boring as the previous one. What I’ve seen of the people doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence they’ll be any better either.

I guess there’s still a chance the geopolitical situation will be better than in my previous world? Looking at the medieval surroundings doesn’t make me feel like I’ll have to worry much about nuclear fireballs either.

I’ll have to figure all of those things out, and then maybe I can decide whether or not I enjoy my enforced stay here. Right now I don’t have a lot of choice in the matter regardless.

The best I can do now is learn more about this world, and right now I think my best bet is those symbols.

image [https://pub-43e7e0f137a34d1ca1ce3be7325ba046.r2.dev/Group.png]

I make my way to the front of the cave, and have another look at the poor imitation of the symbols I sketched yesterday. It’s a shame they’re only really visible during the night. If I squint hard I can see what I’ve written on the bark yesterday on the wall, but especially the complex symbols are hard to make out on the wall now.

There’s something about the way the symbols are arranged that speaks to me on some level. I stare at the bark. I’ve definitely missed some parts, especially regarding the complex symbols, but the simpler ones form a pattern by themselves. If this is magic, it’s pleasingly complex. I wonder what the effect is, and whether it’s the simple or the complex symbols that generate most of it.

The complex ones do not seem to be a combination of simpler ones. At least not the simple symbols I’ve written on the bark, but the structure looks different enough that I don’t think it's the case regardless.

I spend some more time pondering the symbols, but I make no significant progress. I picture the simple symbols in my mind one by one, as that generally seems to be the way to make these things work, but there is no effect.

Sort of convinced they’re related, I try to make that inner pile of fruit juice work and do something together with the symbols.

As I try to figure it out, there’s a sudden jolt, and my perception slows down. It’s hard to follow what is happening, but I’m still sort of internally looking at the pile of fruit juice, which has taken the shape of a second stomach overlaying my existing one. Experimentally, I twist what I imagine to be the muscles of my abdomen and the pile sloshes around a bit.

It’s a bit startling to realize that no actual muscles moved, the sense of my body is separate, though no less real. It feels more like a mental version of my body, though it isn’t really mental either, as it doesn’t exist solely in my mind. I realize that the whole thing is overlayed on my body, with just as much sensations as the real one, even if I have no idea how to interpret them. Maybe there’s just not many?

The stomach only stands out to me because it’s where all the fruit juice is. My real mind is starting to throb with a painful pulse trying to follow what it is I’m doing.

I experimentally try to jerk some more of the muscles in this overlayed body, not really knowing how to do it, but somehow managing to do more or less what I expect. The same musles do not appear to affect my real body. Moving the familiar ones works fine though, and I can stand up and down while sloshing fruit juice around without issues.

Maybe I should give it a more epic name than fruit juice? Calling it mana just feels boring. I don’t even know where that word comes from. Ether? Aether? Essence? Maybe fruit juice is actually pretty nice. I guess I just want to avoid falling in tropes, but it doesn’t really matter what the name is.

It’s actually kind of funny. When I move the right muscles the fruit juice splashes around within the confines of the overlayed body, but never really leaves it. Moving my arm rapidly while there’s fruit juice in it splashes it around even more wildly than me smacking it around with the secondary muscles. I’m not really certain how I can see any of this, as nothing is visible to my eyes, but I know it nonetheless.

Eventually, I push some of the juice through a symbol I’m picturing in this secondary space overlaying my body, my mindspace, and there is an indescribable reaction. The symbol in my mindspace shatters, and I’m jolted back to reality. I’ve never really been gone from reality, it’s just like bringing your focus back from somewhere far off to something close by.

I shiver involuntarily. Regardless of what that was, maybe I shouldn’t be trying to stick unidentified power into unidentified symbols in the hope that something happens? If it’s anything like I imagine it could be, I could do anything from burn my eyebrows off to twist myself out of reality.

Though I guess the symbols on the wall do not appear to do anything like that, and I should probably be fine.

I inspect my body, but do not feel any new damage or negative effects from whatever I just did. However, I’m now nearly certain this is indeed some form of esoteric magical knowledge, I stick the bark in my satchel, determined to eventually figure out what the symbols do, but too shaken by the attempt to try it again right away.

Happily, I have enough things to do today, and I push myself to my feet with determination. It’s time to attempt something else I previously didn’t have time to try, but which will serve me well in the future.

Making fire!