Most of my skills were pretty self-explanatory. I had no frame of reference for what the ranks meant in this world, but judging by the fact that my fist could leave dents in solid metal, I thought it was safe to presume that C-rank strength was pretty good.

Although that armored knight did kick my ass pretty thoroughly.

My attention was instead directed toward the more exciting stuff.

[Quasi-Immortality]

You are near-immortal.

[Regeneration: S-rank]

You possess S-rank regeneration.

A thing I quickly noticed about the descriptions was that they were brutally straightforward and ridiculously vague. The second thing I noticed was that some skills had a lot more flavor text than others.

The best example was the difference between [Fire Affinity] and [Witherflame Affinity].

[Fire Affinity: B-rank]

Your affinity with fire is at B-rank.

It was a bit lackluster, in my opinion. What exactly did an “affinity” entail? This description told me more or less the exact thing the name did, just phrased differently. And then there was the other one.

[Witherflame Affinity: F-rank]

A fusion of hellfire and rot. Withers all that it touches. The sound of the flickering of its lightless flames echoes with the screams of the damned. Your affinity with witherflame is at F-rank.

It simultaneously told me a lot about what it was while telling me practically nothing at all.

For starters, how was I supposed to use any of this?

I looked around me. The forest was pretty desolate, with little other than the stray animal here and there. But given what I had seen so far, I highly doubted I would remain alone for long.

So it would be pretty damn useful if I could use any of the skills I had. But no matter how I tried, nothing seemed to work. If I hadn’t experienced my [Quasi-Immortality], [Rapid Regeneration], and the physical boosts firsthand, I wouldn’t believe anything this status was telling me.

I could understand the passive skills, at least. If I could reach people, I was sure someone could explain their use. But the active abilities were a different story.

[Energy Absorption]

You can absorb energy through touch.

[Resurrect]

Bathe a soul in holy light. Provides target with a [Second Chance].

[Summon Elemental]

You can summon an elemental.

[Oath of Loyalty]

You can create an [Oath of Loyalty] with a consenting target.

Now, ignoring the utterly useless descriptions, I tried. I really tried. Probably not everything, but I’ve done my absolute best to activate any of these skills—to zero success.

[Resurrect] and [Oath of Loyalty] required a target, so I surrendered those two. Being unable to use them made sense. But why couldn’t I use [Summon Elemental] and [Energy Absorbption]?

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It was driving me insane. Also, what kind of energy does [Energy Absorbption] even absorb? Thermal? Electric? Radiation? Magical? And what sort of elemental could I summon? Was it tied to my affinities?

And finally, there were the titles.

[Symbiote]

You are in a symbiotic relationship with another living being.

[Otherworlder]

You have arrived from another world.

[Aberration]

The existence of your race is considered impossible.

[He Who Passed Heaven’s Judgement]

The heavens have judged your sins, intent, and nature and found your existence acceptable. You have been granted immunity to [Holy Magic]. Beware the consequences of committing a [Sin].

[Traitor of Hell]

[Evil] by nature, yet [Good] by choice. You have rejected your path and severed ties with Hell. You have lost your immunity to [Unholy Magic]. All [Evil] creatures will feel hostile toward you.

Although it was already pretty obvious, seeing the [Otherworlder] title finally made it sink in. Not that it changed the fact that I had no clue where I was, but at least it silenced my idle wondering.

Now, onto the disturbing ones, starting from least to most.

Apparently, I still had cancer. And also, I seemed to be in a symbiotic relationship with it. Lovely. Frankly, I’d prefer not having cancer at all, given all that it had taken from me, but the fact that I was no longer paralyzed at least gave me some hope that it wouldn’t cause me trouble in the future. However, I’d still be looking for ways to eliminate it if possible.

I did try mentally checking for an option to “unequip” it from my body. As I should have probably expected, it didn’t work.

The Heaven’s Judgement one would have been comforting if it wasn’t for that last line. Now, I didn’t consider myself a bad person. But that didn’t change the fact that I had absolutely no idea what constituted a “sin” in this world. Did something like swearing count? If so, what would happen? Would I get smited?

Next up was the fact that I had apparently backstabbed Hell. I’d prefer to have never been an ally to begin with, because, now, “evil creatures” will feel hostile towards me! Wonderful! I sure hoped that the forest I was in was full of evil things itching to tear me apart!

Taking a few calming breaths, I finally reached the one that frightened me the most.

[Abberation]

The existence of your race is considered impossible.

This one just creeped me out. Considered impossible… by whom? And why?

For the time being, I decided to take my mind off these subjects and focus on the present. These were all problems for future me. Present me was lost in the middle of a spooky forest, and judging by the sun's position, it would soon be late afternoon.

Just as I got up and prepared to leave, I spotted movement in the corner of my field of view.

I turned to face the shambling figure of what seemed to be a massive zombie wolf around twenty meters away from where I was. For a long moment, I simply waited for the panic and fear to set in, but… nothing happened. I felt no aversion at the sight of the beast, and it simply didn’t intimidate me.

Logically speaking, I knew that this creature was something horrific. But emotionally, my response was lukewarm. Not the sight of its guts trailing on the ground below it, not the smell of rotting flesh, not the fact that it was approaching me—none of it bothered me in the slightest.

That being said, I had no intention of getting closer. I briefly pondered simply running away, as this thing was far too slow to catch up to me. But it was a target. If I came across something I couldn’t escape, I wanted a tried-and-true way to defend myself.

Thus, I looked around, scanning the environment. It took me maybe two seconds to realize that my only real options were branches or rocks.

So I picked up a stone off the ground and threw it as hard as I could. It flew so swiftly that it whistled through the air, but it missed the wolf entirely, slamming into a tree trunk with a rather loud crack as it bounced off and skittered across the ground.

It seemed that my enhanced physical abilities didn’t make me better at aiming. Duly noted.

I picked up another rock and threw it again, trying a bit harder to hit my target. This time, I hit the wolf straight in the forehead, and the stone sank in as if the zombie’s flesh was the consistency of a wolf-shaped cake. Its brains exploded out of its ears, and it crumbled onto the ground, unmoving.

I stared at it for a few seconds, waiting to see if it would rise again. “Yeah…” I concluded, “that thing is dead as—”

You have slain [Zombie Wolf]!

Congratulations! You have acquired the [Rookie] class!

My eyes widened in surprise. The voice continued.

You have acquired 5 new skills!