Ren Tatsuki was like the majority of his peers: ordinary and just trying to make the best out of his life. He was neither one of those smart elites that was guaranteed to enter only the best of universities nor was he an athletic superstar whose achievements had raised the school's reputation and name. He was just a seventeen-year-old teenager with a little streak of mischievousness and a love for books, namely light novels.
He definitely was not a hero either.
Lying on the frosty hard ground and staring at the line of trees blocking parts of his view of the white sky, Ren was trying to grasp on what the hell just happened to him. The harsh cold of winter seeped through his clothes and into his bones. He shivered but made no movement to rise up from his position.
First of all, did he just seriously died because of a peel of banana? Couldn't the world just let him be a good person that tried to save a bumbling toddler from going onto the train's tracks and becoming an unrecognizable lump of flesh? Was it wrong of him to want to do something as great as saving a life for once?
He could have had a cooler death. However, a single banana peel had made him slip into the tracks and he was crushed by the oncoming bullet train, causing his life to end. Who would have thought he would die because some dude decided it was alright to litter a banana peel on the ground? At least let him die of old age if his death was preordained to be lame.
Ren turned his line of sight to the left and to the right, and repeated the action several times. He pursed his lips, and furrowed his eyebrows. "So…why am I still alive? Wait a minute… Is this the famed reincarnation trope?" He gasped, a white cloud of breath escaping from his mouth.
Before he could contemplate more on the matter, his body shuddered and his limbs grew increasingly numb from the cold. "I'd prefer a better place to be reincarnated in, though…"
He struggled to sit up as he pushed his hands against the ground, his body stiff. When he managed to sit cross-legged on the ground, he was already busy running his hands up and down his arms, trying to generate some much needed heat. His teeth chattered and he could not even be happy that he had reincarnated.
"Am I going to die again? This time because of hypothermia?" Ren stood up and jumped in place. "Have to generate that heat. Sweat, come forth!"
Him jumping helped, if only for a short while before he exhausted himself and resorted to just pacing back and forth in place.
Should he try find a way out of this forest? He might get lost, but he did not know where he currently was in the first place, so that point was moot. Still, he could end up deeper into this godforsaken place; he also could not forget to mention the wild animals roaming around the forest, and even though most of them were hibernating in the winter, he could not take the risk of running into a predator like a tiger or something. However, he could not just stand here and do nothing either.
"Do I have anything useful on me?" He stopped his pacing and muttered to himself as he inspected his garments.
This new body of his wore a pair of black pants that did little to block out the cold, a white buttoned shirt, a black robe, and a pair of black medieval boots with laces on both of its sides. Ren checked the pockets of his pants to no avail before patting the insides of his robe. To his delight, he found a secret pocket inside the robe containing something that was made of a strong material.
He took the said object out from the robe, and examined it closely. It was a triangular plate of sorts with strange carvings of seemingly random lines on it. Was the plate made of platinum perhaps?
He put that unimportant question aside before he gave himself another thorough check once more. Besides the plate he found, he discovered that he had nothing else on him.
Ren then held out the plate in his left palm and scrutinized it further. "According to the unspoken laws of light novels, an unassuming object such as this is of a high importance. But, I don't have a clue as to what this thing is supposed to function as."
Could whoever was in charge of his reincarnation not give him such a hard puzzle to solve? He was not exactly one with the best of brains out there.
Still staring at the plate, he narrowed his eyes and entertained a ridiculous notion that brewed in his mind.
He opened his mouth and said in a low voice, "Abracadabra." Nothing happened. He continued, "Open sesame." The cold wind fluttered his robe. He sighed, "Maybe if I were to trace these strange carvings, something might happen?"
With no expectation, he used his index finger to trace the odd patterns on the plate. For a moment, nothing occurred. "Yeah, I knew it won't be that easy—whoa!"
Realizing he had let out a shout, he quickly clasped his right hand to his mouth. He turned his head and strained his ears only to see nothing out of the ordinary and hear nothing but the cold wind blowing. He sighed in relief before he looked at the thing in front of him.
A transparent screen of words had popped up, the plate projecting it like a hologram. "Oh, wow, I didn't actually think that would work." Ren scanned the screen, and tried to touch it, only to have his hand slip right through the thing. "It's seriously a hologram of my status window…"
STATUS WINDOW Name: Ren Age: 17 %~?@$#?!? Race: ?*+@$#! Human Level: 1 STATISTICS Strength 30 Endurance 25 Agility 45 Magical Intelligence 600 Magic 300 Luck 60 Skill(s)
¤ Language Comprehension
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
¤ Magic Manipulation
¤ Creation Magic
Title(s)
Nonenonenonenonenone
Nonenonenonenonenone
Nonenonenonenonenone
Nonenonenonenonenone
He looked at the status window before he frowned. "A status window is fine and all, but could it not be so garbled? And why is my last name missing? What does 'Magical Intelligence' mean? Is there no 'Intelligence' stat because I'm too stupid? What is even the baseline for the normal statistics anyways? Aren't these values too extreme? I mean, the other stats are far too low compared to 'Magic' and 'Magical Intelligence'. And what's with the title section? I get that I have none; I don't need it to be four lines long." He fired off a series of questions. "At the very least, I think these should be enough to confirm the fact that I am currently in a fantasy world..."
"Ah, whatever. I'll put that aside for now." Ren scratched his right eyebrow. "Let's see… For the skills, I have the standard 'Language Comprehension' skill, 'Magic Manipulation'—I guess that already having the skill means I won't need to struggle much for magic—and… 'Creation Magic'?"
He rubbed both of his eyes with his freezing fingers. "Goodness, that's cold." He let out a breath. "Let's try tapping the word. Maybe an additional info will come out… Seriously?" His hand touched thin air as the status window remained unchanged. "How am I supposed to know what the skill does? Should I just take a dumb guess?"
He folded his arms to his chest, his platinum plate in his left hand's grasp still showing the status window. Ren closed his eyes and hummed absentmindedly. 'It is named 'Creation Magic' after all. Then, is it safe to assume that I can create anything? Is there even any limitations to it?'
The best way for him to test out his theory was to try using the skill. He opened his eyes and dropped his arms to the sides. He held out his right palm in front of him. He imagined a blue flame appearing, radiating enough heat to dispel the coldness near him.
A flicker of blue manifested in his palm before it burst and flared to form a flame the size of an adult's head. The flame sitted itself just above Ren's palm, not quite touching the skin. The heat released by the flame traveled from his palm to the rest of his body, making him sigh in content.
"Just like I intended it, the flame doesn't burn me, so does it rely on my intention?" He hummed and crouched.
He directed his palm of blue flame towards the snowy ground, and the snow melted into a small puddle of water before evaporating as steam. The flame continued to burn, but before it could scorch the ground, Ren willed it to not sear the soil black.
And, sear, it did not.
Ren looked at the fire in his palm and gave a silent command in his mind for it to disappear. The blue flame did not even fizzle out, and just vanished into thin air. Then, with another thought, the flame reappeared in his palm.
A grin made its way across Ren's face as an idea struck his mind. "If I can create magic itself, that would be awesome." He reined in his excitement and kept his voice low. "First things first is to build a campfire and set up camp here."
A while later, Ren sat on a wooden stool near a campfire he had built by burning the logs of wood with a flame he manifested on his palm. A small portable tent with the mishmash colors of green and brown was set up behind him. He held a cup of hot cocoa in his hands and sipped the chocolaty goodness.
He puffed out a white cloud of cold breath. "Ah, this is what I call bliss." He put down the cup onto the small table beside him, and with a mere thought, a bucket of spicy hot chicken wings appeared out of nowhere. The smell wafted around but Ren was too hungry to care whether or not the wind would carry the smell elsewhere.
He took a wing and bit into it, the juice of the perfectly cooked meat permeating his taste buds. "Who cares about dying because of some banana peel? This must be why I died in the first place, to have this heaven-like luxury." He took another bite of the wing. "Goodness, this is so damn good. I don't feel the least bit tired from creating all this stuff, and that makes this whole thing even better."
He took another wing, but just as Ren was about to savor it again, a sudden rustle of leaves halted the meat's journey into his mouth. He looked around the surroundings and waited to hear more rustling, just to confirm it was not his mind playing tricks on him.
Another rustling that came from the thicket to his right had made him stood up from his stool with wariness. Ren gulped, and his palms were sweating despite the chilly weather. The rustling did not stop, and he stared at the thicket.
He dared not make any sound.
His heart thumped against his chest, louder than what he would like. The crackling of the campfire did not help with his anxiety either. The rustling became louder with each growing moment, and Ren had the urge to shout just so whatever it was that was making the sound would come out already.
Then, before he could act on his impulse, something popped its head out of the thicket. A huge brown bear quadraple of Ren's size towered over the copse as it stood on its two feet.
He stared at the animal predator with wide eyes. His hands holding the bucket of chicken wings shook, and his grip on it loosen; he involuntarily dropped the food with a thud, and the wings scattered onto the ground. A tantalizing aroma filled the air mixing with the smell of smoke coming from the fire he had built.
Ren's eyes almost bulged out of his sockets at his mistake. 'Crap! I should have been more careful of the smell!' He needed the campfire as a proper source of heat and warmth, but he could have forgone the chicken wings. 'Stupid!'
A deep growl came from the animal just a few meters away from him. He retreated a step while keeping an eye on the bear. Then, he retreated another step, slow and cautious. The bear had yet to make a move. He moved backwards once more, but his foot bumped into the table he had placed beside his stool, and he stumbled onto the ground.
Ren groaned in pain, but that was stopped when the brown bear that was meters away from him suddenly loomed over him. The animal's humongous frame cast a shadow over his figure that was small in comparison to the bear's.
Ren froze in fear.
'Shit. Shitshitshitshitshit!'
The bear opened its mouth and revealed a set of sharp white teeth. "Hey, you okay, kid?"
All thoughts in Ren's mind came to a halt and his eyes grew round.
.
.
.
Did the bear just talk?