Suddenly, I'm lying on something soft, which I quickly realise isn't so soft. In fact, it's... Sandy.

For once, my mind is clear and my body feels well rested after respawning. I can only credit it to having a better body stat.

I lift my head and brush off the sand I can feel sticking to my face before opening my eyes.

Bright white sand glittering like diamonds blind me momentarily, so I shut my eyes and let my other senses come into focus.

I can hear waves gently breaking, and the sound of some birds crying in the distance. I must be on a beach, specifically around one of the masses of water that Michael described to me.

Michael.

I'm disappointed that the relationship never went far. But since I'm probably on the other side of the world, there's not much point worrying about what's going on at the mercenary base. I have to worry about how to start my new life. Again.

Still lying on the sand with my eyes shut, I roll onto my back, slightly squashing my wings, and cross my heart. I notice with some mild satisfaction the flat chest indicating I'm a man again.

You have 2 unallocated stat points: Body (+)

Mind (+)

Soul (+)

I put both points to body again. I really need that stat to increase, and fast. I need a body stat that's not too abnormal for someone of my age.

Name:

Ventra Cass (The Cause) Hp: 270/270 (6.14%) Species:

Human (Immortal) Mp: 1896/1896 (6.14%) Level:

12 (11%) (+) Class:

(none) Body: 29 (+) Mind: 158  Soul: 614 Perks:

-Mana:

• [1] Big spells

• [2] Bigger spells

• [3] Soulful spells

• [3] Mana manipulation

• [4] Shapeless Magic

• [4] Hard Mind

-Soul:

• [1] Moulded Soul

• [2] Hunter Soul 

• [3] Neutral Soul

• [4] Soul of Magic

• [5] Strong Soul

• [5] Monstrous Soul

• [6] Hidden Soul

• [7] Powerful Soul

• [7] Surviving Soul

• [8] Alien Soul

• [9] Soul of the Fool

• [10] Wings Skills:

(none) Spells:

• Hard 

• Fast

Thankfully, all my stats are carried over to my new body, which I should have figured out from my wings still existing.

I notice there's a plus next to my level. That's something neither Michael or Declan explained to me. Before I try and figure it out, I'll try and ask someone else. I'm not in any danger right now, so I guess it can wait.

More importantly, I can upgrade my body. I select the plus next to my still proportionally low stat and am thoroughly whelmed by the two tiers I have.

10 base Body reached. Rank 1 body perks unlocked. Available perks: (1) Resilient Body (body stat influences resistances to a greater effect)

25 base Body reached. Rank 2 body perks unlocked. Available pers: (2) Near Strength (increase strength effect on damage for melee weapons)

Far Strength (increase strength effect on damage for ranged weapons)

I select all the available perks, excited to see how I might be able to use the increased strength.

Slowly, I open my eyes and let them adjust to the bright sun. The entire world is bright to me. The bright blue water and near-white sand are throwing around enough light to blind.

Once I can see clearly through squinted eyes, I take stock of my new body.

I already knew that my body was male, but I'm pleasantly surprised to see that I'm black. If I'm in an environment dominated by heat, a body that's naturally resistant to sunburns is a big advantage.

A voice in the back of my mind screams fears of being treated worse due to my skin colour. But from what I saw in the mercenary group, the only discrimination was between species, and even then it was suppressed.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I'm fairly well built for a newly spawns body. Far stronger than I was in my previous life as Ventra, but unfortunately I doubt I'll be as attractive.

The body of water ahead of me is constantly moving, but I crawl closer to the shore and using my hands, dig a small pit and channel into the surprisingly coarse sand.

I let the pit fill with water, and wait for the rolling sand to settle, and for the water to still. In my makeshift mirror, I can see a moderately handsome man staring back at me.

I have a square jaw, but aside from that, no really discerning figures. As usual, my teeth are perfect, and as I would expect from someone of my colour, my eyes are dark.

Surprisingly though, I'm completely bald.

I run my hand over my scalp damp with sweat and smile slightly. This is rare. I never pull off the bald look.

Overall, I'm happy with my new body. I appear to be of above average build, and of very average looks. I stand up to try and get a better view of my surroundings when I figure out what my inevitable shortcoming is.

I'm short.

By my best guess, I'm a few inches over five foot.

I sigh, slightly disappointed. I held so much potential to easily intimidate, but it's gone now.

At least with my (slightly) better viewpoint, I can get a better idea of where to go from here. I still can't see any hint of land on the far side of the water, but I can see how the Sandy beach extends in both directions until it disappears over the horizon.

Probably one of the oceans or seas Michael told me about.

I still have no idea of the scale of the world. It could be many times larger or smaller than earth, or even the exact same size.

Looking away from the shore, I can see sand dunes rising high above me. Annoyingly high.

I sigh, not looking forward to the difficult climb I have ahead of me, but get on with it. I'm already thirsty from the hot weather, and even with the power I know I hold, Michael warned me that the world outside of civilisation is a dangerous one.

Steeling myself for the small yet daunting challenge ahead of me, I begin the incline.

----------------------------------------

Ten minutes and several minor failures later, I'm at the top of the dune.

Doing a full 360-degree rotation, I'm disappointed with the results. In the past, I've almost always woken up at least near some civilisation. Usually, I wake up slap bang in the centre of a town, or encampment, and once a secured fort. It was impossible to answer how I got in there, so without any answers, that life ended before it had really begun.

At least I'm not under any extreme threat here. Yet.

Away from the sea, there's a large woodland expanse that surrounds the beach. The trees that make up the canopy are far taller and densely packed than those near the mercenary base. The leaves are much larger and darker, seeming to become almost black at the edges.

The overall effect of this has resulted in what I would call haunted woods. I wouldn't be surprised to fund all manner of nightmares under that dark cover.

Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to any sort of sentient evidence anywhere around the sea. I would have expected at least one fishing village, but as far as I can see, there's nothing.

Despite the seemingly bleak choices, I'm in a good mood. I got too weighed down with responsibility too quickly as Ventra. I mean, I was promoted to a high level of responsibility and was planned to be used as some kind of trump card after only being there for a day. Declan must have been really desperate for the help I might have been able to provide.

Shrugging, I look around at my feet, which are unfortunately bare, and pick up a broken piece of shell. Its interior side is pearled nicely, while the piece that would have been the exterior of the shell is rough and coloured orange.

Pearled for the sea, orange for the forest.

I flick the piece up into the air with my eyes shut, and with centuries of practice at my back, catch it in my open palm. The texture alone tells me what it is already.

Looking at my randomly determined fate, I'm still excited to see the bright orange exterior of the shell glaring at me.

The beach might have been safer, but it would have probably been boring. I want to do something stupid.

With an impressively high jump, I begin my descent of the far side of the sand dune. I slide the rest of the way, letting the breeze cool me slightly. With the hot air and the shade of the forest, I'm looking forward to the potential comfort.

There are a couple hundred meters between where the sand ends and where the forest starts. ln this grassy stretch, I can see all manner of basic materials. Deadfall is scattered around, and fairly large rounded stones can be seen.

Time to go... primitive.

I'm well versed on primitive survival. When you spend some of your earliest lives pushing technology through the iron age and then some of your latest digging it up again, you really grow aware of the simplicity of it.

I take a minute to gather an armful of appropriately sized branches and a few large stones.

With slightly rusty expertise, I use my enhanced body to break them over each other. After the first few stones yield no useful results, I turn to some of my... stronger means.

I point at my target stone, and violently think: fast!

Repeatedly.

As Declan said, spellcasting is easier to do when vocalising the command. When I killed myself using the spell, I had tried to mentally activate it for fear of being stopped by the illusionist, but being able to cast the spell eight times at once seemed to have overridden any defences he might have put on me.

"Fast!"

Still, nothing happens.

I try to think back to the exact motions I went through before I activated the spell. I imagined the energy that responded with the mind swords moving within me.

Closing my eyes, I try and replicate the feeling. The blue energy of the mind leaving my brain and flowing through my chest, to my arm then my hand. Finally, I let the energy pour into my outstretched finger and push it into the tip of the finger.

I open my eyes, and while I think I can feel the tingle I felt before in my finger, there's no visual evidence at all.

Still, I point at the stone.

"Fast!"

Spell cast

-20mp

There's a sudden blue flash and for an instant, I can see a cone of blue light the size of a large bullet fly towards the stone. The stone itself explodes, throwing dust and sharp pieces everywhere.

I recoil, protecting my eyes at the expense of a few small scratches in my arm.

"Wow."

The single spell displayed such a great power that there was no wonder I could kill myself so easily.

With such power at my literal fingertips, I'm much more confident about venturing into the forest.

Just in case, I use the first sharp piece of stone I can find to cut long strips of soft bark off a young tree on the forest border. Without a fire, I'll have to settle for the raw fibres, so I tie the sticks into a bundle and sling it over my shoulder. Just in case I can't find enough burnable wood to cook something.

That's my focus for now. Finding a source of food and water. Without any knowledge of this world's flora and fauna, I can't resort to testing out plants. My body is still far too weak by this world's standards for that.

Then again, learn by doing.

I decide that if it really comes to it, I'll eat a plant before I die. It'll either sustain me or I would have died anyway.

With my hand in the shape of a gun, mana charged in my outstretched fingertip, I venture forth.

Into the dark.