I open my eyes.

...

A...cavern?

Where am I?

I get try to get up and my hand touches something on the ground.

After looking that way, I see...a sword?

What's this?

Is this...mine?

...

Who...am I...?

...

W-wait...

Why can't I...remember anything...?

...

I grab my head with both of my hands while straining my memories.

But I can't remember a thing.

Not where I am.

Not how I got here.

Not even who I am.

...

Why?

Why?!

...

I feel a drop of cold sweat flowing down my cheek.

Even after intensely trying to remember, no memories are popping up.

...

"Ugh!"

I stand up while clenching my fists.

Sitting here idly won't solve a thing.

I should get moving.

Maybe I will meet someone who knows me.

As I look determinedly at the cave entrance, I remember the sword.

Looking down at it, I squat and observe it.

This...

I had it with me, so it must be mine...

Which means that I knew how to use it, right...?

But...I don't ever remember using a sword before...

Will I really be able to use it?

I momentarily close my eyes, before nervously grabbing the sword's hilt.

Holding the hilt feels somewhat nostalgic...or rather familiar.

I think I should be able to use it...probably.

With the sword in my hand, I once again face the cave entrance.

I step forward and crawl through the hole.

When I get outside, I look around and see that I'm in the middle of a forest.

A forest...?

Maybe I live in this forest?

Or maybe I was traveling through it and decided to sleep in this cave...

...or perhaps someone brought me here when I was asleep...?

Hmm...

At that moment, my stomach starts rumbling.

I'm hungry...

What did I eat before?

Some fruits in the forest?

But I won't remember what is safe to eat now...

...perhaps I can hunt animals...?

I silently look at the sword I'm holding.

...

It should be fine.

After all, I have survived up till now.

I must be skilled...right?

Or maybe...did someone take care of me up till now...?

...

I eventually decide to walk in a random direction.

Surprisingly, there aren't really any animals around this place.

The atmosphere is...eerie.

It feels like I'm being watched.

I keep nervously looking around as I continue walking.

Suddenly, I hear leaves rustling to my right.

I quickly turn my entire body and take a stance with my sword.

...

And then I feel a gust of wind on my face.

The bushes are also moving because of the wind.

...

Just wind...

I need to calm down.

I keep walking for a while without meeting any creatures.

And eventually, I arrive at another cave inside a hill.

It looks just like the one I slept in.

...

Wait.

It actually seems exactly the same...

I look around a bit.

...

And confirm that the surroundings look identical as well.

What?

Why?

Am I walking in circles?

Or does this just look very similar?

...

Is this forest a maze?

Damnit...am I going to starve like this?

After thinking for a bit, I decide to climb a tree and look around.

Picking the tallest tree I can see, I got close to it and started climbing.

Somehow, I was able to climb the tree in mere seconds with just a few jumps.

Was I a resident of this forest after all...?

I try to look around but it's hard to see through all these leaves.

Eventually though, I spot a group of squirrels in the distance.

...

But they have horns on their head and they seem to be munching on a corpse of some big animal.

I can't really tell what that big animal is, but I can see two big holes in its body.

Dangerous...

But I can't see anything else around...

I will starve if I don't find anything to eat.

Even after looking around some more, I fail to find any other creatures.

And thus, despite being a little hesitant, I decide to ambush the squirrels.

Jumping down the tree, I slowly creep in the direction of these critters while hiding behind trees.

I keep sneakily closing in on them while using trees as my cover.

Just silently running from one tree to another.

But then, when I peak their way again, they are nowhere to be found.

Neither the squirrels nor the monster corpse.

Huh?

Where did they-

Suddenly, I hear some squeaking to my left.

Turning my head, I see the squirrels dashing at me.

Without wasting a second, I prepare my sword and try to deflect their horns.

My sword flies through the air to intercept the horn.

But contrary to what I expected, the horn along with the rest of the squirrel's body got sliced in half.

I'm momentarily surprised at how easy that was.

My surprised reaction is instantly interrupted by another squirrel's attack.

I keep swinging my sword like it's my second nature and slice each of the squirrels.

Their remains splatter me with blood and make a mess on the ground.

...

How did I even do that...?

My body just moved on its own back there.

Even though they brought down that big beast, they stood no chance at all against me.

I guess I was right, this is my sword and I'm quite skilled with it.

After that, I approached the big animal's corpse.

Looking at it closely, it seems to be a bear.

But this thing...

It has long claws and its fur is more like sharp spikes.

How did these squirrels even manage to defeat this beast?

No matter how I look at it, it seems impossible.

All of a sudden, I feel chills on my back.

I jump to my left while looking to the right.

And there stands an even more menacing beast.

It's a boar twice as tall as me even while standing on all fours.

He has two long tusks protruding from his mouth and red eyes.

His fur is also colored bright red but gets gradually darker the lower down you look.

Unconsciously I gulp as the grip on my sword tightens.

The boar raises its front legs and stomps on the ground before dashing at me at high speed.

Once again, I try to block with my sword.

But his tusk overpowered my sword and I was flung to the side instead.

I crashed into a tree and landed on the ground, but got up immediately.

"NOT THIS TIME!"

The boar answered me with a squeal of his own and charged at me again.

I dashed right at him as well, but just before we clashed, I jumped.

As I flew over him, I jammed my sword deep into his back.

The creature started squealing even louder and jerked around as I tried to hold onto the sword.

As he was flailing around, the sword got stuck deeper in his body and the boar's screams got even louder.

His chaotic movements smashed several trees around us.

But then, I was smashed into the side of a tree and accidentally let go of the sword in the process.

When I fell on the ground again, I hastily started pushing myself off of the ground right away.

As I got up, my eyes met with his.

I could see the rage reflected in his pupils.

Once again, he charged at me while squealing.

I clenched my fist and punched in his direction.

"UAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

[Phantom annihilation]

With a loud bang, the beast's head burst into an explosion of blood.

The shock wave also made the rest of his body do a back flip and land on his side.

As the mass of flesh lands, the ground shakes a bit.

I stood there for a second with my fist stretched out while looking at the aftermath.

After realizing I defeated him, I blinked a few times and pulled my fist back.

...

What...

Just happened?

What did...I do?

I stare at my hand as I flex my fingers.

After a few seconds, I look at the bloody mess in front of me again.

This thing...

Why did I feel that immense urge to kill him?

It wasn't even about self-defense or getting food.

I just felt the need to triumph over him no matter what.

I keep staring at the corpse for a few seconds before closing my eyes and letting out a sigh.

After getting out of my daze, I finally approach it.

I walk near his back and grab the hilt of my sword, which is still stuck there.

With a few twists, I successfully pull it out of the beast.

I then walk over to his leg and using my sword, I slash it off.

After that, I grip it and lift it up.

Surprisingly light...?

Or maybe I'm strong?

...hmm, probably the latter.

But what now...

Should I eat it just like this?

It feels like something's missing.

...but, what else would I do with it?

Let's just eat it.

I shave off the fur and bite into the raw meat.

The taste is bad, but somewhat manageable.

I keep eating until I feel full.

And after that, I decide to search for something to drink as well.

Once again, I climb a tree and try to look around.

It doesn't take too long until I spot a pond in the distance.

I land back down and walk in its direction.

And after a few moments of walking, I arrive...

...back at the bear corpse.

What the hell?!

I swear I was going forward!

Ugh...what is happening?

I find the tree I climbed last time and use it again to look around.

The pond is in the same direction and at the same distance.

...

This time, instead of jumping down and walking, I decide to jump in the trees while keeping my sight on the pond.

I keep hopping from tree to tree, until suddenly the pond vanishes...

Or rather, it moves to my right.

...

What the hell?

Why am I so disoriented?

This feels way too unnatural...

It must be this forest after all...

After a bit of tree jumping and adjusting my direction from time to time, I arrive near the pond.

And there stands a really big frog.

Its body is light blue and partially transparent while the eyes are dark blue.

But what caught my attention, is the weird swell on its neck.

The bulge is even bigger than its own head.

That part of its body is even more transparent and there is some water inside of it.

Or...is it not water...?

Hmm...

At first, I think about avoiding it and approaching the pond from a different angle.

But then, I decide to just defeat it.

I think I should be strong enough.

As I approach it, it takes a notice of me right away.

I take a stance and get ready for its attack.

However, instead of jumping at me, it opens its mouth and spits out some mucus at me.

I try to dodge it to the side, but a few drops still hit my foot.

And the moment they do, my leg gets sluggish.

Shit!

This is not good!

Somehow I manage to keep myself from tripping.

But the frog doesn't give me any time to recover and spews more of that nasty stuff at me.

This time, because of my leg, I can't dodge it at all, and it hits my entire body.

After that, I fall on my back as my muscles stop responding.

SHIT!

The frog then shoots out its tongue toward me.

Since I can't move at all, I just helplessly watch as the tongue sticks on me.

The tongue then retracts back to the frog's mouth and pulls me with it.

As I curse in my head, the mouth closes...

The acidic saliva inside then starts slowly melting my skin.

After a while of suffering, I finally lose consciousness and...

...

...

...

...

I open my eyes.

I'm standing on a mountain overlooking a forest.

...

I sit on the ground and hold my head as I look away from the forest.

...

What the hell...

Is that how I act without my memories?

Pathetic...

...

It seems like my 'spawn point' is here now.

...

Also...why do I remember everything now?

Both my original memories and the memories of what happened back there...

The curse should have erased them...but I remember everything clearly.

...well, I won't complain.

I turn toward the forest again and sigh.

Now...how the hell do I deal with this?

Bonus:

These location names are really uninspired.

Cursed forest?

Lightning mountain?

Really?

Well, not many humanoids got very far in exploring this place.

And as such, they couldn't think of creative names for places they didn't even know existed.

In other words, the one who named all these places is...

"Hey, give me a break!"

"I had to think of some default name for most of the world's areas!"

"I couldn't keep coming up with something super original every time!"

Why didn't you just leave them blank and wait for some humanoids to name them?

"Well I had some cool ideas for names so I started naming things..."

"And I kinda thought I would be able to keep it up..."

"But as expected, after naming over ten thousand different areas, species, objects and who knows what..."

"Well...you know..."

Couldn't properly finish the job eh?

As expected of you.

"Hey!"

"Don't make it sound like I never do anything right!"