Arriving back at the lake, I wash my leg wound on the same thread of water I drank from before. After that, I search for a spot to sit down, not too close to the lake to avoid drawing the attention of lake monsters that may be living there for all I know.

Now that I have a clear mind, I take a moment to stop and reflect on all the weird things happening since I woke up. Losing my memories, meeting weird creatures, killing ugly bugs...

I hope I can leave this cave soon or I will have to start eating moss and centipedes. I wouldn't eat those squidcrabs, they look too cute for that. Also, they surely have some sort of intelligence. Less than a human, sure, but maybe on the level of a cat or, you know, squid? I heard they are very smart animals. Would feel wrong to eat them... Maybe I was vegetarian? I don't really remember that.

Now, what the hell is this skill stuff? I try to fiddle with the HUD, trying to find more about it now that I have the time. Some sort of menu showed up listing some options.

Health Integrity Stats Resistances Skills --------- Runes Items Lore Message Log

Yeah, it seems pretty game like if you ask me. I will check through all of the options to know what I am dealing with.

Health Integrity Physical: 40% minor blood loss, major pain, minor toxins from centipede saliva, tiredness Mental: 50% Major anxiety, major depression, constant stress (-20 to endurance, -60 to willpower, -20 to charisma) Total: 45% Health

A body outline appears as well, with the leg and brain in red, probably representing the health issues I have at the moment.

Stats Strength: 101 (+1) Being physically strong. Endurance: 82 (+2) Enduring unpleasant or difficult processes. Reflex: 102 (+2) Your ability to react, quickly moving your body in dire situations. Intelligence: 101 (+1) Your ability to acquire and apply knowledge Willpower: 41 (+1) Your control to do something or restrain impulses. Charisma: 85 (+0) Your ability to inspire, intimidate or persuade others. 100 = Average Resistances Mental resistance: 1% your ability to resist mental stress, pressure, anxiety, and everything that affects your mind in a bad way.

Am I in a tabletop RPG or something? Maybe those eye lens, implants, or whatever are just quantifying in numbers things that we couldn't do normally, like how strong one is. Still, I feel bad about all this, nauseous even. How can someone measure how smart a person is? This feels wrong… the things that people would do if they knew how smart one was just by numbers, society would be horrible.

Well, I need to focus here, try to understand those numbers... If a few of my stats are at 100, and the description says 100 means average… 100 means either my normal or the average of a person.

I tried opening the “rune” option but didn’t work. I wonder what rune means, losing my memory does not help at all.

I look at the lake, there is no way to tell where is the end of it as it seems to make a curve at the end. Maybe it’s a river instead?

Meanwhile, there is a puddle on the ground right beside me and I take a chance to look at it and see my reflection.

“Huh, I guess I kinda forgot how I look like,” I say to my reflection on the puddle

In the water I saw a face, even if I don’t remember how I look, I am sure this face is mine. Very dark brown eyes with a tired look on them rested on a woman's face. On top of it, brown messy hair reached until the shoulders… Feels good to see myself, like a piece of me was missing and now I found it.

“Well, there we are, me and me. And squidcrabs. At least you don’t seem lost buddy” I say as a squidcrab approaches me, gazing his only eye on my pocket. I take out a mushroom and throw in their direction.

“I hope you like it,” I say and he then grabs the mushroom with his claws and backs off slowly with a cautious look on his only eyeball. After a while he starts to eat the mushroom.

◇New skill: Friend of the Squidcrabs (Level 1) Description: Squidcrabs are normally hunted for their meat. Instead of hunting them, you choose to befriend them. Effects: Squidcrabs trust you more often. +1 to charisma

“Well, I wasn’t expecting that” I say.

I guess I could stay here by the lake but something tells me danger resides in every corner of those caves, and I must find a way to get out of here and find out about myself. I take a few mushrooms from the wall and eat them, taking a break for my favorite rubber snack. After an hour of resting, throwing mushrooms to Squidcrabs, and talking to myself, I decided I should go. The health on the hud is now sitting at 75%, further inspection also tells me my mental state has improved a little. I take a look at my health integrity and stats as well and found out I could hide the description from the stats to keep it simple.

Health Integrity Physical: 80% (leg pain) Mental: 60% Major anxiety, major depression, constant stress (-10 to endurance, -45 to willpower, -15 to charisma) Total: 70% Health Stats Strength: 101 (+1) Endurance: 82 (+2) Reflex: 102 (+2) Intelligence: 101 (+1) Willpower: 56 (+1) Charisma: 86 (+1)

My health is higher and I feel much better, maybe those mushrooms improve recovery? Or maybe resting here in this calm place made a good effect on my mind. Maybe both. I should go now before I run out of mushrooms. Grabbing my light-crystal with my left hand and the centipede fang with my right, I stand up and go in the same direction I found the centipede, which was the only direction I could go besides returning to the strange room I woke up. This time, I keep the light brighter to avoid finding evil insects.

After a while, I got to the centipede corpse, small insects were already consuming the carcass I left behind. Passing close to the corpse while carrying the light-crystal made the insects run away and hide from the light. I keep going for quite some time without seeing any change in the cave indicating an exit. Still, I must go, I have some food and if I run out, I can get back.

Only after 3 hours of walking by the centipede, I see light. Filled with hope, I walk faster, the lights getting brighter as I go, my heart beating faster too. What I find out is that instead of sunlight, there is an open space with light-yellow artificial lights like those on the lake, just a little bit more yellow. Machines like those from before can be seen on walls and on the center of it all stands a circle with many unknown markings glowing with an eerie silver light, emitting a steady hum as I get closer.

A holographic panel lights up close to it with the symbol of a hand. Caught my attention, I scan both the circle and the panel.

SCANNING MACHINE Name: Unknown Purpose: Circle control Description: The panel seems to be used to interact with the circle in the middle of the hall. SCANNING MACHINE Name: Unknown Purpose: Unknown Description: A circle with many markings on it. scanning shows it’s the same kind of technology from before, albeit the purpose is unclear.

There is not much of a choice here. 4 other passages leading out of this hall can be seen but at this rate, I could get lost if I try to delve deep, I don’t know if they bifurcate into more passages, I have to do it. My hand is shaking as I place it on the panel.

ENTITY ACCESS GRANTED Teleportation circle ready. Destination: Teleportation circle 367. Destination state: Safe Stand on the circle to start teleportation.

I wonder what is the definition of safety for the beings who built this. Well, there is no choice, wherever this leads, I just hope it’s better than here.

looking at the machine in front of me, I move my feet one step at a time. Worries filling my head, heart beating faster and faster, I stand in the center of the circle.

The light emanating from it turns brighter. Symbols shine on the circle, each one a unique color filling my vision as everything seemed to spin. A blur of all colors I ever saw is everywhere for a few seconds. Then, It’s all dark. nothingness.

I blink and a bright light blinds me for a moment. Then I open my eyes, adjusting it to the sunlight... YES, SUNLIGHT! I am not stuck in a cave anymore, I will live! I am free here! Wherever here is…

A lack of humidity permeates the air. Few trees with red leaves can be seen in the distance, while in the other direction, the land gets drier, fewer plants the farther it gets. Below me, a familiar circle with markings stands. By the look of the bushes full of dust close to it and the fact that the land around the circle is higher than here, dirt was covering it before, probably thrown away because of the teleportation.

Now I have to find something… People, more machines… Anything for me to get an idea where I am, what happened to me, and who I am. I need to go somewhere and I think those trees are a better choice than going the other way, as plants like water. Maybe I can find some settlement? All I can do is hope.

My legs start to hurt. How long was I walking? I think around 2 hours since teleporting and some more before at the cave.

The vegetation is dense, but nothing hard to move by. Leaves falling from the trees, usually red and orange, rarely green, while the tree trunks were mostly gray. Birds with many colors are flying and singing normally, the only weird creature a black rabbit with a rubber-like skin, equally black eyes and red paws, I do get a closer look but I get some strange vibes from the bunny... Better to avoid it.

Now I can finally see a small river, not too deep, not too wide, easy to follow. The problem is, after a few minutes, I find myself in front of a wall of rocks of 10 meters or so, an almost dry waterfall falling from it into the river, no easy way to get up on either side of it. I sit on a rock to rest a little, eat one of the mushrooms, and drink some of the water as I prepare myself to try and climb it.

10 meters huh? I think I can do it. Slowly, I put one hand on a rock, then one foot, trying to find the best place to place each limb. Luckily, the stones are dry as the water is scarce.

With lots of patience, I succeed in climbing it. From up here, I can see that I am now in a valley, big mountains to the right and the left. I should probably go in the direction of one of the mountains just so I get a higher view.

The treetops are beautiful to see from here, as are the birds flying in the sky... I take a moment to appreciate nature, the view surely is welcome after being in those caves, walking for so long, and climbing those rocks. Oh, there’s a notification in the hud.

◇New skill: Climbing (Level 1) Description: Climbing is going up while avoiding going down. This skill will help with that Effects: Climbing is easier. +1 to endurance and +1 to strength.

Maybe I should try to develop skills so I can get stronger, the effects seem really useful. In a world I don’t know anything about, I may need to do things in a rush to escape some situations, so practicing should be useful to make me more confident and less afraid of things going bad.

As I was lost in toughs appreciating the view, I notice a pair of red eyes looking at me. A wolf with black fur stands in my way, studying if I were easy prey. slowly I try to walk back and say “easy there doggy” with a mushroom on my hand.

“there you go, you can have it.” I say while slowly throwing the mushroom in the wolf direction

The wolf growls. I run, the wolf also runs. I feel my heart beating faster than it should, I am acting purely on instinct, no time to think. The wolf, however, is faster and as we run, the distance between us diminishes little by little. I keep going down the hill and the wolf makes a weird noise that remembers a bark but twisted somehow. Then a second wolf appears and starts following me, a third joining too, after a while, a pack of 5 wolves surrounds me. I put my back in a tree trunk while I get my light-crystal and fang on my hands. The crystal shines but the wolves care not, they come close while growling and before I could react, one of them jumps on me, then another and another, I feel so much pain from their bites, I see blood on my arm, my leg… I try to fight off but I can not, the pain is too much and those wolves know what they are doing, I can barely move, let enough fight back… I am gone for real now.

Just as I was close to faint from blood loss, something exploded nearby. I see some pink lights dancing all around and a hooded figure with a weird staff jumping into the wolves, beating them up with the weapon. Each strike made the wolves contort themselves as if electricity ran from the staff. One of them bit into the hooded figure leg but a metallic sound was made. the wolves then run away or fainted from the shock.

The hooded figure then approaches me and I can see their face. A Weird bronze skull on it, probably a mask... Or death itself is paying me a visit. They then say something with a metallic voice, but I couldn’t understand any of it as the world goes dark...