As Trevor slowly started to awaken, the first thing that he perceived was the dull feeling of grass beneath him. He could feel himself lying down on his back, and sense the small beams of sunlight lightly bearing down on him. Slowly, he weakly opened his eyes and looked through half-lidded eyelids. He was in a lush and green forest, the light shining through small openings within the canopy and wind lightly blowing the leaves and branches.

Trevor finally remembered what had happened to him before waking up here, from his experience on the docks through his talk with Baz. He slowly smiled, happy that he was alive. Yes, he was definitely alive! It wasn’t a dream, he could tell, as he reached a hand up to the trees, clawed fingers spread out wide. Wait, claws?!

Getting up into a sitting position, he held out both arms and hands to inspect them more closely. They were mainly humanoid in appearance, with four fingers and a thumb hand, but the similarities ended there. Each finger had a long, sharp claw, and paw pads on his palms. Looking from the tips of his fingers and down the rest of his body, bright orange and brown fur enveloped everything.

Not accounting for the fur covering his entire body, Trevor was completely naked. His legs were shaped in an unfamiliar way, with an extra joint pointing backwards between his feet and knees. Feeling his backside and face, he caught a bushy wagging behind him and a slightly muted muzzle for a mouth. There was one last part of his body that both mystified and horrified him, and he was unable to look away.

“Whe’r the fuckin’ shite is my dick?” he asked incredulously to no one.

He could see his pearly orbs, now covered in white fur, between his legs, but there was some form of abomination attached to the top of it. Shaking his head clear as much as he could, Trevor lowered his hands to inspect the weird new feature. It didn’t take him long to find what he was looking for.

With awkward embarrassment and a slight blush to his cheeks, he pulled back from his investigations. Trevor guessed the male red foxes were more different from humans than he first thought. Even if he’d hunted and skinned them before, he never paid much attention to that area.

Ignoring that for now, Trevor stood up, expecting to wobble on his feet but feeling strangely comfortable, and started roaming around the immediate area. Since he had absolutely nothing with him, the first thing he should do, as his father had taught him, was to establish his surroundings and then look for food and shelter. That got him thinking about why he didn’t have anything on him, not even clothing. The god, Baz, had said he would give Trevor some help in this new world. He didn’t think turning into a human fox was what they meant.

‘So, what the fuck was that for anyway? And what wer' those words? System?’

As soon as Trevor thought ‘System’, a series of five lines appeared into his view.

Level & Attributes

Abilities

Skills

Messages

System Configuration

The sudden appearance caused him to jump away in surprise, but definitely not fear. He almost fell back down onto his back but some newfound balance kept him standing, thankfully. He mentally forced himself to calm and willed the words to go away, and they obeyed him. This was a weird thing that he had, and he almost parsed it up to a mad hallucination. But seeing those words before and keeping Baz’s mention of boons in mind was enough to ground and let him accept this as real.

“Well, sure look. Let’s see what is here.”

He decided to start from the top and work his way down to the bottom. He focused on Level & Attributes and willed it to open.

Name: Trevor MacFerris

Age: 19

Species: Beastkin (Fox)

Level: 13 (104/130)

Strength: 10 (-3 due to Species Shift)

Agility: 16 (+4 due to Species Shift)

Constitution: 10 (-3 due to Species Shift)

Mind: 15

Perception: 12 (+2 due to Species Shift)

Charisma: 9

Attribute Points: 130

Another screen, as he’s just decided to call them, appeared before him. It contained his name and age, as well as his new race. Apparently, he was now called a Beastkin. Pretty accurate and self-explanatory. He doesn’t know what the “Level” part meant though. He also guessed that the numbers represent how good he is in the specific attribute. He hates how his Strength and Constitution were lowered, but the higher Agility explains why he feels more nimble and sure-footed. The ones next to his Level probably indicate how close he is to the next ranking. Trevor decided to experiment with the Attribute Points later and switched to the Abilities section.

Mana Attunement: Level 1 - Major - Your body and mind have attuned to the very essence of mana itself, allowing you to control and shape it. The amount you can control is determined by your Mind attribute and the level of this ability. You also gain 10% resistance to Mana-based attacks and damage from Mana environments.

Mana Conversion: Level 1 - Supreme - Divine Blessing - You have reached the epitome of mana manipulation. You can transmute mana into any other element. The element you change the mana into gains a 15% bonus to all damage.

The Sight: Level 1 - Minor - Divine Blessing - You have the ability to see things that you normally shouldn’t. You gain the power to see the name, level, and species of any other living being.

Forest Pathfinder: Level 3 - Major - Racial: Divine Blessing - You have been given a great gift only available to your species through the benevolence of Baz. Through a deep connection with nature, you may travel between trees and other plants by touching them. The distance you may travel is determined by your Perception attribute and the level of this ability. Once per day, you may also increase one of your attributes by 25% for 5 minutes while in an environment with plants.

Enhanced Memory Retention: Level 5 - Major - Through dedication and practice, you are able to remember things more clearly. Gain a 30% bonus to learning and improving all skills. Level 5 Improvement: You can use half of your bonus and give it to someone else when you teach them or help them improve a skill or ability. You must have the skill or ability yourself and it must be a higher level than the person you are helping for this to take effect.

So these are the official boons that Baz talked about. He had to admit, some of these are impressive. Three of these held Trevor’s attention the most, making him giddy with excitement. The mana Abilities were amazing, but the Forest Pathfinder Ability? He could contain himself any longer and went to the nearest tree. He placed a hand on the trunk and waited for the Ability to activate, but nothing happened. This was expected, as Trevor didn’t think it would be easy to use the Abilities.

He looked back on the wording of the Ability and focused on a specific part. It said he was connected to nature, so maybe if he focused on that it would make the Ability work. The reasoning, and his experience with reading magical fantasy novels, hinted that it was likely that. Looking at an area 10 meters away from him, since Forest Pathfinder had a limited range, he focused on having the Ability take him there.

Trevor felt his arm get pulled into the tree, his body quickly following. He was surprised by the sudden movement at first, but then he became strangely calm. He wasn’t scared as his senses were overwhelmed, literally sensing that he was the tree, and even the forest itself. He could sense every leaf, branch, shrub, and piece of bark, all working together. It was amazing, but as quickly as the feeling came, it went away.

He was shunted back out, still standing and with his hand on the tree. Only, it was a different tree now, and the scenery in front of him was slightly different than before. Turning back, Trevor saw the exact spot he was standing at a moment before. A minute passed, the only sound being emitted was the rustling of leaves and wind. The silence abruptly ended as Trevor raised his arms in the air and shouted as loud as he could excitedly. He just teleported!

He ran around in celebration, literally bouncing with each step. It took him a few minutes before he could calm himself, but his heart was still beating at a rapid pace. Not only had he teleported, but he had done it using magic. He gave a prayer of thanks to Baz. He would live up to the deal and live the best second life he could possibly have in this new world.

Those thoughts gave him pause as they went through his head. He took in several deep breaths to slow his heart rate and to think more clearly. His emotions went from confusion to complete horror as he remembered all the conditions. Trevor's legs felt weak, giving out from under him and making him fall down. He turned over onto his back, looking back up the canopy with disbelief and fright.

"Did I fuckin’ agree to become the hero of an entire world now?" he whispered to himself.

He didn't have to ask, he knew the answer. Trevor covered his face with his hands as he let out a long groan. He wanted to say how foolish and idiotic he had been, but he knew it didn't matter. If he were given the choice again, under the same circumstances, Trevor knew that he would still accept. It was either life, or oblivion, and that was a shit choice to make.

Something bad was coming to this world, one that even a god feared and said would wipe out all life here. And Trevor had signed himself up to stop it.

"...I am goin’ die again."