Part one: the Verdant Cavern

Ugh… My head… Is it morning already? But it seems darker than usual. And… This doesn’t feel like my bed?

I open my eyes fully, allowing them to adjust to the darkness for a few seconds.

A cave?

Where am I?

I try to look around, but my neck doesn’t move how I expect it to.

I try to look down at my body.

I can’t.

This body… Isn’t mine.

This body… Isn’t human.

Could it be? No, No way…

I stumble around, trying to learn to walk.

This is a dream, right?

I trip, falling flat onto my stomach. A sharp rock stabs into my stomach.

This pain… This is real.

But, what am I?

I stumble around some more, finally reaching a small, still pool of water.

What I see in the reflection is a small animal, probably only around two times bigger than a rat. The body shape is like a cross between a mole and a small pig. Two absurdly large ears protrude from either side of the head. Right next to the ears are two beady black eyes, on the sides of the head. A prey animal.

Thin, bristly fur covers every part of the body besides the feet, which are thin, hairless hands with fingers that become thick claws halfway down.

What is this… Me?

I close my eyes, and think.

What was I doing before I woke up here?

Let’s see… Last night I stayed up late playing games, as usual. I ended up staying up until eight or so in the morning, then went to bed. And now, I’m a strange, small creature in a dark cave.

Yeah, there’s nothing else I can think of. This is that.

I thought I’d be more excited, but I’m… Scared?

Huh.

What should I do now?

I guess… Food?

Yeah sure, that seems important.

I begin walking down the dark tunnel, slowly getting faster as I become accustomed to this body.

Ah, wait, I guess I should at least try that once.

Ahem,

{Status!}

…

Nothing.

Well, didn’t expect much anyway. Back to walking.

[Yawwn…]

GAH!

What was that?

I swear I just heard something make a noise… Where did it come from?

Ugh, this cave is freaking me out. Why is it so damn dark in here! There’s some weird glowing moss that shows up in patches every once in a while, but other than that, It’s pitch black in here!

Urk… I’m getting hungry already.

Judging by my appearances, I’m definitely not the type of anima- no, monster, who eats meat. But, if I’m not a carnivore, what am I supposed to eat? All I've seen is rocks! Maybe that moss is edible? I guess it couldn’t hurt to try some the next time I come across a patch. Well, no, it definitely COULD hurt. The moss could be poisonous for all I know. But I don’t think I can worry about that, I need to eat something, and that moss is the only potentially edible thing I’ve seen. I’m sure there are bugs I could find, but it’s going to be hard to find any with how dark it is, and they definitely won’t fill me up.

Moss it is.

It’s really strange how different the senses of this monster are compared to the senses of a human. I mean, obviously my sense of touch is different because my body is entirely different now, but there’s also quite a difference for everything else. First of all, my hearing is insanely good now, I can hear water dripping from really far away. My eyesight is… bad. I’m not blind, but everything is blurry. When there’s no glowing moss to light up the cave, I’m pretty much completely blind. And my sense of smell is good. Too good. A dark, dank cave isn’t the best place to suddenly wake up with a godly sense of smell. As for taste, I don’t know. But I’m about to find out, because I just came across another patch of moss.

Apprehensive, I walk up to it.

Am I really doing this? I guess I don’t have much of a choice. It’s either eat this, or die.

I open my mouth, and quickly take a large chunk of the moss into my mouth, chewing it as fast as possible to hopefully miss the taste.

It doesn’t work.

My mouth is overpowered with two distinct flavors, dirt and another flavor I can’t even describe. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever had, in the worst possible way.

I desperately want to spit it out, but I force it down my throat quickly to get rid of the taste.

That was a mistake.

The sensation of the half-chewed moss going down my throat is bad enough to make me tear up.

Ah, I made the wrong decision. I’d much rather die than eat that.

Oh, could this be?

It is! Finally something familiar! I was worried when nothing appeared after I tried thinking of the word ‘status’, but it looks like I was right, and this world does indeed have some sort of game-like system.

But, how can I check my status if not like how I tried?

Of course, with apprais-!

[Where… am I?]

GAH!

It happened again? What is that? It definitely said something this time, but I didn’t quite catch what it said…

And, it seems like it came from inside my head?

Gasp! Is someone attempting to communicate with me via telepathy? Perhaps the person or thing who sent me here is finally going to explain everything to me?

…

Or not?

Rah, this is so frustrating! Someone keeps talking inside of my head, scaring the shit out of me, then not even being kind enough to explain anything or apologize!

Argh, whatever! I don't have time for this, I gotta get back to eating this gross miss!

I take another bite, forcing it down after the taste becomes too strong to deal with.

Bleh! I hope I can find a better source of food eventually. I definitely do not want to survive off of this moss.

[What's happening?]

Woah! Hello? The voice came back! ‘What's happening?’ huh… so whoever that voice is coming from doesn't know anything either? Dammit! Well, might as well try to talk to them anyway, couldn't hurt. But how do I talk via telepathy?

Hello? No, that didn't seem to do it.

Maybe I need to focus harder.

{Testing, testing? Hello?}

[Hello? Who are you?]

{Ohh! It worked!}

[What worked?]

{The telepathy!}

[Telepathy?]

{Yeah! It’s how we’re talking right now! Probably.}

[Nevermind that, do you know what’s going on?]

Aha! This person might not be able to tell me anything, but at least this is an opportunity to show off my knowledge!

{Well, somewhat.}

Yup, that’s good. Gotta be humble, act like what I know isn’t a big deal.

[Then spit it out.]

Huh? Isn’t this person being a bit rude? What the hell! I’m trying to help them, and they dare be rude to me? The audacity! Sigh, whatever. I should simply turn the other cheek, returning rudeness with rudeness is no way to live!

{W-well, if you’re in the same situation I am, then it seems we’ve been reincarnated into another world.}

[Reincarnated? The hell is that?]

Ehhh? No way, this person is completely clueless? Damn, they’re screwed. I feel bad. Hmm, I guess… if we found each other, I could teach them how to survive in this world. Though, I don’t wanna get killed because I was trying to help someone who couldn’t help themself… Argh! Whatever! Might as well help, if this person ends up dying, I might never find another person I’m able to talk to, and that might make me go crazy!

[Helloooo? Are you gonna answer?]

{O-oh! Yeah, sorry. I was doing… something.}

[So, what is it?]

{Reincarnation is, in this case, when you die in your own world, and then your soul gets sent to another world.}

[Huh. So that's what happened to us?]

{Maybe? I don't know, there's really no way to tell. Instead of worrying about that, we should meet up and focus on surviving.}

[Sure.]

{I think the best way to do this is probably for us to just both wander randomly until we meet.}

[Hmm… nah.]

{What do you mean ‘nah’?}

[Isn't the best thing to do when you're lost staying still? It'd be bad if one of us ended up finding a place where the other was, but we miss each other because we’re both wandering.]

That's a good point…

[And besides, I don't really feel like walking.]

Ah, that was your true motivation.

{Sure sure, fine. You just stay where you are, I'll try to find you.}

It's probably better that I'm the one doing the searching anyway. Sigh, what a pain.

I turn away from the moss and begin walking down the dark tunnel ahead of me.

This is fucking scary! Hopefully that wasn’t just a fluke earlier, and getting skills is easy, cause I definitely want some kind of night vision soon. It’d be bad if I just walked right into some giant scary monster’s nest because I can’t see where I’m going.

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[Hey.]

{Hm?}

[On second thought, I’ll start walking too after all.]

{Oh, ok. Why?}

[N-no reason. Just felt like it.]

{Okaaaay…}

This person is super weird! Can I really survive if I’m also trying to keep someone this incompetent alive too? They’re way too impulsive! And, now that I think about it, what if they aren’t trustworthy? What if… they're a murderer!? No no no, no way, calm down. They probably aren’t a murderer. Even if they are, I could definitely defend myself against them, since I'm more knowledgeable about this kind of world. At least, I think I could. I mean, for all I know, they could have been reincarnated as some kind of super strong monster, like a dragon, and they’re just trying to get me to come to them so they can kill me… Wait, what if they aren’t even a reincarnated person like me? What if they’re some kind of monster with hypnosis or some other kind of mental attack, and they’re just luring me towards them? Argh, thinking about this stuff is useless! All of these improbable scenarios have one thing in common: if they’re true, I can’t really do much about anything. So, there’s no point in worrying. If unavoidable death is what awaits me, why should I worry about it? It’s unavoidable anyway!

Yeahhh, that’s better. All calm now.

While I was thinking, I came across A fork in the road, with a few possible paths. Closer to the middle, there is a small, bumpy tunnel that has a pretty extreme downwards slope. Above it, there is a path absolutely filled to the brim with moss. The last path is a tunnel that looks the same as the one I came from, positioned to the left of the other two paths.

That moss path seems enticing, but it’s too high for me to get to, so I basically have to choose between the normal path, and the small, sloping path.

The choice is pretty obvious here, right?

Well, might as well ask the other person what they think anyway.

{Heeey. I found a fork in the road.}

[Mm. Me too.]

{Cool! So there are a few paths in front of me, but only two are accessible.}

[Same here.]

{There's a normal looking path, and a scary looking small path that goes downwards.}

[The paths here look the same.]

Are they pranking me? No way two different places in the cave have similar paths! Ugh, maybe I should just let this person die after all.

{R-really? That's weird.}

[Yeah. Although, one of the other paths might be accessible here.]

{Oh?}

[It's filled with glowing moss, and it's just a bit above the path that goes down.]

…what? Doesn't that sound exactly like the path here? No, but they said theirs is accessible.

{Are you sure you can get to that path?}

[Yeah sure. It'd be hella tough, but I could probably do it.]

{Alright, you go that way then. I'll take the left path.}

[Got it.]

I begin walking down the path to the left, sticking to the wall so I could be as far from the path that went downward as possible.

Man, that's weird. I guess there really are two different places in this cave that look the exact same. What are the odds! Unless… they aren't different places? Maybe… just maybe…

What if we’re not communicating from different places in space, but rather different places in time? Gosh, that'd be so freaking cool! Ahh, this is getting me excited… but how would we even know for sure?

Hmm…

Oh, if one of us scratches a mark in the rock, and the other sees that mark, we’d kno-

[Hey, I got a problem.]

Gah! Why is it so terrifying whenever they talk unexpectedly…

{What is it?}

[So, you know how I said I would go to the mossy path?]

{Yeah?}

[I didn't.]

{Why not? Was it too hard to reach after all?}

[No way! I could definitely make it up there! But, my body won't listen to me at all!]

{Hm? What do you mean?}

[Unlike when I was human, I can't directly control my body at all. Earlier, I thought I could at least influence what my body did, but I don't think that's the case anymore. I tried everything, but my body went down the left path for some reason.]

{Huh. That's weird. Maybe it's the type of monster you are? I know some animals on earth had limbs controlled by their own separate neurons or something like that, maybe you're like that?}

[I don't know, I'm pretty sure I'm a mammal.]

{You've seen yourself?}

[Just glimpses of my sides, mostly.]

{I see.}

[Oh, and by the way, ever since we started talking, my body stopped moving.]

{Really? That's weir- hold on…}

I haven't been moving since we started talking.

I'm gonna try something.

I hold up my front right hand in front of my right eye, covering up most of my vision in that eye.

[Huh?]

{What?}

[My body just covered its right eye?]

{I knew it…}

[What?]

I don't think they'll like what I'm about to say, but…

{I think… we might have the same body.}

They're silent for a few seconds.

[...you sure?]

{Pretty sure. I just covered my right eye with my right hand, at the same time you said your body did.}

[Hm. That's pretty damn convincing.]

{Yeah.}

[Heh, well I guess we found each other.]

{Yeah, I guess so.}

…

We’re both silent for a few seconds.

[What now?]

{Well, I guess we can start focusing on surviving.}

Silence again.

[Gimme control of the body.]

{Huh? Why?}

[Just do it.]

{No! I don't even know how!}

[Then try!]

{No!}

[Fine, then I'll do it myself!]

I suddenly feel nauseous, and my body begins to feel numb.

{S-stop! It hurts!}

After a few seconds, I can't move my body anymore.

And then the front right foot moves.

{You-!}

[Hahaha! I did it!]

{Give it back!}

[Huh? Why should I?]

{Because-! Uh…}

[I think I'm better suited to be the one controlling the body anyway. You said that mossy path was inaccessible, but I'm pretty sure I could make it there.]

The body turns around and begins sprinting.

{No! Don't!}

[Lalala, not listening to you!~]

We reach the fork, and turn towards the mossy path.

{I'm serious, don't do this! If you don't make it-}

[But I will make it! Watch me]

We jump towards the wall underneath the mossy path, and latch onto a rock that juts out.

[Gwahaha! I'm the best!]

We begin slowly climbing the wall, getting us closer and closer to the small, mossy path.

{This is not a good idea! Climb back down while you still can, please!}

[No way, I'm not doing what you sa-!]

Suddenly, the rock we’re grabbing cracks, and falls off the wall. Us with it.

[Shit!]

{I told you this would happen!}

Our back slams into the rocks jutting out of the wall as we fall.

I try my hardest to regain control of the body so I can stop our fall, but it doesn't work. We continue falling, until we fall right into the sloping, bumpy path.

{No no no no! This isn't good! Quickly, grab something!}

[I can't!]

{Just try!}

[I am trying!]

{You're not trying hard enough!}

[Shut up, you wouldn't be able to either if you were in control!]

{If I were in control, we wouldn't be in the situation in the first place!}

The path suddenly slopes even further, turning into a sheer, ninety degree drop. Our body stops slamming into the sloping surface beneath us, and enters freefall.

{Oh God, we’re dead! There's no way we can survive this!}

[Just shut up already! Let me think!]

The ground slams into us. Even without being in control of the body, I can feel the air rush out of our lungs.

Urk... Everything hurts... But I'm alive, at least. I wonder if the other person is fine, since I am.

{Hello? Are you ok?}

No response.

Did they pass out or something? That's weird, I thought we’d both pass out if one of us did.

I attempt to regain control of the body, to no avail.

Urgh, this is harder than I thought.

I try again, finally regaining control.

Now, I should take this opportunity to look around before they wake up and take over the body again.

I stand up, noticing a soft, puffy patch of moss beneath my body.

This is probably what broke our fall.

It doesn't glow like the moss from before.

…I wonder how it tastes.

No no no, I shouldn't. It could be poisonous. I didn't really focus on it at the time, but the glowing moss gave me some kind of paralysis resistance, didn't it? I'm lucky it wasn't a more deadly kind of poison.

…But I really wanna try this new moss.

Argh! I shouldn't, I shouldn't! If I eat this moss, aren't I being just as reckless as that idiot who threw us down a pit?

…But I am feeling hungry…

I bend down and take a bite of the moss. Liquid floods my mouth as soon as I bite into it.

Bleh! It tastes like medicine!

It's definitely not as bad as the other moss though, so I keep eating. It has an overwhelmingly cool taste, like a really powerful mint. Unlike mint, however, I couldn't describe this as tasting good.

It's very filling though, and I'm pretty full now after only five bites.

[Hnngg…]

Uh oh, they're back.

[Ew, what the hell is this taste!]

{Moss.}

[Why were you eating moss?!]

{I was hungry, and there's not really much else to eat around here.}

[Still, moss? Look for something else!]

{At least it doesn't taste as bad as the glowing moss. Doesn't seem to be as dangerous either.}

I walk around to the side of the moss patch I haven't taken a bite into, and lay down.

{Hey, aren't you gonna try to take the body back?}

[...no.]

{Why not?}

[Because!... I'm too lazy.]

Yeah, right.

Sigh. I'm gonna regret this.

{You can have it back if you want.}

[Really?]

{Yes, but you have to listen to me. If I say not to do something, don't do it.}

[...alright.]

{Good. You can go ahead and take it now.}

I let my muscles go limp as they take over the body. Having your body taken over by another consciousness isn't nearly as bad when you're letting it happen.

{Now, since it seems we’re going to be stuck together for a while, we should get to know each other. My name is Fir, what's yours?}

[Gloria.]

{Huh? You're a woman?}

[Yeah. You couldn't tell?]

{No, I couldn't.}

[Rude.]

{O-oh, sorry…}

[It's fine. So, what's the plan now?]

{Hm… well, all we can really do for now is try our best to survive.}

[Easy!]

{Is it? Because I seem to recall you falling off a wall and almost getting us killed.}

[Shut up! That’s in the past...]

Only about five minutes in the past…

{Whatever. You just focus on exploring and finding food for us to eat.}

[And what are you gonna do?]

{I'm going to make us stronger.}

[How are you gonna do that?]

{I'm glad you asked! From eating that glowing moss earlier, I learned that this world seems to work how I thought it would, and we can gain ‘skills’ pretty easily by-}

[Hold up, what are skills?]

{Hm… they're kinda like… man, this is hard to explain. Did you play video games before you died.}

[Nope.]

{That makes this hard… well, I'll use the one skill I know we have as an example, paralysis resistance.}

Or at least, it was something like that.

{Having paralysis resistance means that things that would cause paralysis, like certain kinds of poisons, are less effective on us.}

[Woah! That seems strong!]

{It will be one day, but for now it's only level one, so the effectiveness is probably not that great just yet.}

[Darn…]

{Yeah. So I'll work on trying to get some useful skills while you look for food.}

[Got it!]

We get up, and begin walking down the dark tunnel in front of us.

{Oh yeah, one more thing. While you're looking around, try looking for things in the darkness. It may give us a skill that makes our eyesight better.}

[Will do.]

With that, I can hopefully leave the food to her. Now, time to do some experimentation! I've been looking forward to this since I realized what was happening… But what should I do first? Obviously I can only work on getting mental skills for now, since Gloria is in control of the body.

But which ones should I try to get?

No, I shouldn't think about it like that. I don't really know what skills exist, so I shouldn't try to get any skills that I merely assume exist. Rather, I should simply use my brain normally. If I do that, I'll get skills that are helpful for the situation we’re in. Probably.

So, how do I do that?

Wow, this is harder than expected. Hmmm…

Oh, I have an idea! I'll try to think about ways to use our body in battle, that’ll probably give us some useful skills.

Ahem, let's see.

Our small body seems like it would be good for focusing on evasion, but… how can I say this… we’re a bit… chubby. So that might not be the best idea for now. Besides that… we seem to have good hearing, so using that to avoid fights altogether is feasible. Our claws seem pretty sharp, so that's probably our best bet for attacking if we get into an unavoidable fight, but they're probably more so meant for digging rather than fighting. That could be another way to stay out of fights, if we dig traps and set up a little place to live somewhere, we could be pretty safe.

…

Oh, it worked! It took longer than expected, but we got a skill!

[What was that?]

{That was us getting a skill.}

[Weird. It feels like I was thinking those words unintentionally. I don't know if I like that…]

She's kind of right. I thought getting skills would be more like hearing someone else, but instead it feels like there's a thought being put into my head… creepy.

Anyway! While I was working on getting the planning skill, I decided on a strategy that would probably work pretty well for us. I think we’re probably a herbivore, but if leveling up exists, then killing things is probably the best, or maybe even only, way to do that. So, if we need to hunt, the best way is traps! If we dig a small hole and fill it with sharp rocks and then cover the top, we could easily kill a few smaller opponents. The only problem is, I don't know what we’ll cover the top of the hole with.

[I found something?]

{Hm?}

[Look. A tree.]

A tree? No way, we’re in a cave rig-

She's right.

There's a tree right in front of us.

It looks like it's nearly dead, but it's a tree nonetheless.

How'd it get here? Trees need light to grow, right? How could one grow in a cave?

[I think I see light a bit further ahead.]

Oh? Maybe we won't be stuck in a cave for as long as I thought!

{Run! I wanna see what it is fast!}

[Yes sir!]

Gloria begins to run, our claws creating a clacking noise against the dark gray rock.

Suddenly, light floods our vision.

[Woah! That's crazy!]

{Amazing…}

Well, we’re not getting out of the cave just yet. But, I don't think I mind, because this is close enough.

In front of us is a large cavern, lit up by glowing yellow stones, filled with bright green foliage. Waterfalls cover the walls of the cavern, and there are herds of deer-like monsters grazing on the thick grass.

[Well, I definitely don't have any doubts about this being another world anymore.]