Aria felt like a kid in a massive, terrifying, entirely unfamiliar, candy shop. She used her new Inquiry skill on everything she could find.

Northern Ocia Tree

Greatoak Tree

Needleberry Bush

Shrub

Grass

Beetle, Level 5

Butterfly, Level ?

Even the bugs are higher level than me. Aria laughed at that. Here lies Arienna Dubrai, eaten by a fucking butterfly. She laughed again, shaking her head. She’d been walking for almost half an hour, using Inquiry on everything she could find. The skill was… less than helpful. But hey, at least I know the names of plants.

Despite being naked and alone in the dangerous world that was the afterlife, Aria was feeling better than ever. Her newly reformed body felt packed with energy, her muscles were absolutely brimming with power. She itched to let loose and run, but the dense forest kept her urges down.

Aria’s feet were bare against the clutter of the forest floor. More than once, she had stepped over sharp rocks and sticks, but besides a bit of discomfort, nothing had managed to truly hurt her. Hehe. Super Aria. She giggled at the thought. The afterlife is so fucking weird.

She stopped now, staring up at the tree.

Northern Ocia Tree.

She wasn’t close enough to inquire about the large fruits hanging off the branches, but she did know that they made her stomach rumble. Aria ran her hands through her shoulder length hair, feeling it all matted and snarled, smeared back with blood and grime. Her body was still positively covered in blood, sand, grime, sweat, and the rot of that damn bird. I’m such a mess. She sighed.

But her stomach didn’t care for her disastrous image, grumbling to make itself known as she looked at the plump fruits. “Oh yeah, those look tasty.” Aria licked her lips, immediately regretting it as the taste of sand and blood coated her tongue. “Aech, fuck!” Aria cursed, spitting onto the ground.

The nearest branch to the ground was at least twice her height, but it looked large enough to support her body. “Hmm…” She rubbed her chin contemplatively. “Well, I wanted to test what my new and improved self could do.”

Aria stepped up below the branch. She crouched, testing her legs before she jumped with all she had, her hands reaching up toward the branch. Aria went a surprising distance in the air, but she was still barely short of the branch. “Fuck! Stupid short body.” Before dying, she’d been five feet on a good day, and it seemed like sadly, her death had not changed that. “Come on. Isn’t there some afterlife magic bullshit to fix my tall gene deficiency?”

Aria stepped back, getting a bit of distance from the tree. “Whelp, not the first time I’ve had to work around my height.” She chuckled, shaking her head at the thought. With a grin she took off pumping her legs as she charged the tree. When she drew close, she pushed off the ground, her jump carrying her several feet off the ground. Aria’s feet impacted the bark of the tree, and with another powerful jump, she rose up several more feet, wrapping her hands around the thick branch. With a pull and a bit of gymnastics, Aria swung around the branch, finding herself sitting on the bark with her legs hanging over each side.

She patted the branch happily, giggling as she sat there. “Aria one, god of height zero.” She bounced up onto her feet, balancing gracefully as she stretched to her full height. She’d always had extremely good balance and years of training and gymnastics had only ever increased that, add on her new and improved body, and she probably could’ve given olympic gymnasts a run for their money.

With a hop, she grabbed another large branch, swooping and spinning around it to land upright. She repeated the action several times until she found herself seated on a branch thicker than her thighs. One leg fell on either side of her, as she glanced over the edge. The ground looked to be at least fifty feet below her, making a fall from this height a sure way to the next afterlife. Aria grinned at the thought. “How does that even work?”

Despite the height and danger, Aria felt absolutely no fear. The danger made her heart beat faster, spreading a grin over her lips. Aria refocused her attention, zoning in on the fruit at the end of the branch. She flexed her muscles, lifting her legs over her head as she felt the muscles in her core tighten, her abs pressing against her skin. She held the position for several moments, enjoying the sensation of her taut muscles, before she dropped her legs, landing gracefully on the branch.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

She walked daintily, her weight hardly enough to even shake the branch as she tip-toed along its length. She came to the end, crouching as she grabbed the fruit. It was a simple thing to pop the red fruit from its perch. Aria inspected the fruit in her hand, spinning it in her grasp. It seemed like a bright red and oversized peach. It was more than twice the size of her fist and felt plump in her hands as she tossed it back and forth. She shot the fruit with a quick inquiry.

Ocia Fruit

Aria snorted. “Very helpful.” She shrugged, holding the fruit close as she tip-toed back to the trunk. She sat down on the branch, shifting uncomfortably. Her inner thighs were getting chafed from the sand sticking to her and the rough bark of the tree, and she didn’t even want to think about her preciousness a little higher up. She sighed, gently wiping as much sand from her thighs and lily as she could. The sand was stuck within dried blood, making the task difficult, but after a few minutes of gentle care, she was feeling a lot more comfortable with movement. “Alrighty, then. Bon appetit.” Aria brought the fruit up, taking a small, testing bite from the flesh. Her eyes opened wide as the juice hit her tongue. It was equal parts sweet and oddly spicy, refreshing and tingling her tongue at the same time. Aria smiled as she chewed, spreading the tantalizing juice around her mouth.

After several moments of enjoying the sensation, Aria swallowed, feeling the fruit tingling her as it slid down her esophagus. “That’s so good.” Aria grinned, opening her mouth for a second bite.

Warning, You have been poisoned.

Aaand that’s what I was afraid of. Aria sighed just before a terrible pain grabbed her gut, making her double over, almost falling from the branch she straddled. “Fuck!” She cursed, a feeling like claws tearing at her stomach. Alright, time for the test.

Aria could hardly keep her concentration through the twisting in her gut, the feeling spreading through her body. Still she focused, willing obedience from her mind. “Flames of Twilight.” Aria croaked out, feeling that unfamiliar energy leave her as the world obeyed. The flames rampaged within her like they had a will of their own. The dark flames ran like wolves, devouring the remaining poison before the white flames followed, soothing and repairing the damage to Aria’s body.

“Haaa…” Aria sighed as she leaned peacefully against the trunk, her clamping legs loosening around her perch. She looked indecisively at the large fruit in her hand, the running red juices rolled down her hand, making her skin tingle where it passed. Two sides of her mind were fighting a silent war. On one hand, the fruit was clearly not meant to be eaten. Poison was clearly bad and if the pain was anything to go off, the poison was strong, probably capable of doing some real damage. On the other hand, the fruit tasted sooo good, and she was positively ravenous, and her weird afterlife superpowers were clearly able to combat the toxins. Almost like the world was weighing in, another notification popped in her face.

You have learned the general skill, Poison Resistance.

Poison Resistance: You are not great at determining what you should and should not eat. Word of advice, if it burns your skin, don’t eat it. Hopefully this skill will help you overcome your ineptitude. Increases resistance to poisons with level.

Aria snorted, finding no small amount of humor in what seemed to be the world scolding her. Like Imma let some stupid text box tell me what I can and can’t eat. Out of spite for the world, Aria took another delicious bite of the plump fruit. She savored the dance on her tongue before swallowing down the mouthful, and immediately doubling over as the poison wracked her body. A pained chuckle escaped Aria as she once again used her superpowers to clear the poison, the cooling sense of her flames instantly receiving the gut wrenching pain.

“Hahaha.” Aria laughed mirthfully. “Magic is so fucking cool.” She waited for the flames to finish devouring the poison, smiling at the magic in her veins. “Maybe the afterlife really isn’t too bad. It really had me going at first.”

Aria waited before eating any more of the fruit. She pulled her legs up, sitting cross legged and finding her balance on the branch. She set the large fruit in her lap, placing her hands open palms up on her knees. Aria took a deep breath, closing her eyes as she let the world fade away.

“I am the ocean and the waves, the sand and the sea. I am the sun and the moon, the world is me and I am the world.” Aria almost hummed the familiar phrase, falling into her mind as she did. The world fell away, and then she was back again.

Aria opened her eyes to a heterochromatic world. The sky shown brilliantly in white light, but the dark ink of the ground let nothing pass. She looked around curiously, standing on the strangely solid inky ground. Floating in the space about twenty feet from her was an hourglass marbled in a mixture of black and white. The device was as tall as her, a swirling mix and black and white filling where there should be sand. The top half was empty but still, more sand poured in, changing when it met with the fire already within. “Weird afterlife mumbo-jumbo.” Aria blamed the same thing she’d been blaming the entire day.

Aria reached her hand out, gently laying a palm on the glass. The glass was warm to the touch, pleasant, familiar. The fire within the hourglass swirled, forming an ethereal figure of swirling fire that laid its own hand opposite hers. Aria smiled, feeling a comfort radiating from the figure before her.

“Hello.” A voice like a chorus came from the figure, sounding like a thousand voices all speaking in tandem. Aria’s head shook, her hand falling from the glass as she gripped her head. The figure swirled away, returning to fire as her concentration broke, the space shattering around her and banishing to the dark.5