Rupegia Ch. 01: First Day

"You may now kiss the bride."

But no kiss came. The warmth of her hand suddenly vanishes; the feeling of standing on the stable ground switches to the stomach-churning pain of free-falling, and then my consciousness is severed.

--

"Lily..." I murmur.

My back hurts, my whole body feels like stone, nausea prevents me from trying to get up, and my nose is filled with the musky smell of nature. I finally realize I'm laying down with my eyes closed and my belly up.

Once the nausea subsides, I decide to open my eyes, and I see huge trees that almost cover the entire sky. Like cracks on a wall, the crown shyness of the canopies let only small streaks of light pass through.

After regaining control of my body, I manage to sit and look at my surroundings. This is a forest with trees bigger and thicker than anything I have ever seen before, but bushes prevent me from seeing too far. The air is damp and slightly hot, reminding me of the subtropical climate I was born in.

I get up and notice my body feels weird, then I look down and see I'm not wearing my tuxedo, but instead, I have a leather jacket lightly padded with a gambeson, a woolen white shirt, woolen black pants, and some rather uncomfortable leather shoes. On my waist, there's a belt where a sword and scabbard are hanging.

I draw the sword and notice that it's rather light. Oddly, I don't find it difficult to handle, and it's almost as my arm moves on its own as I swing it. Its blade is straight and double-edged, about 90cm in length. There's space for only one hand on the hilt, which has a cross-shaped guard. The edge is sharp and can easily cut the bushes I swing at. This is not a prop.

"Am I in a renaissance fair?" I ask the air, astonished.

<i>I don't remember how I got here. Did I hit my head? The last thing I remember is being at my wedding ceremony.</i>

Then a small amount of panic enters my heart.

"Lily...!? LILY, WHERE ARE YOU!?" I scream in panic, but no response comes, I'm completely alone. After a few moments, I calm down and continue taking in my situation.

My body still feels weird, and I don't know why. At least I'm not nauseous anymore, but now I'm starting to feel scared.

I don't know where to go because there are only trees as far as the eye can see. I also don't remember how I got here and in which direction I can go to find someone. I'm truly lost in the woods with no idea of what to do.

Besides, I've never seen a forest like this. I'm a Canadian living in the cold north where it should be winter and the trees are much smaller. Did I travel to a faraway place to the south, or is it summer and I simply forgot the passage of time?

Time passes while I think about what to do, and I start to feel an itch slowly growing inside my head. It's not on the outside, on my hair, but actually <i>inside</i>. Like when water gets on your ear and it gets uncomfortable. It feels like I can almost "touch" it, but it's barely out of reach.

I keep trying to "scratch it" while shaking my head, and little by little, it feels like I'm getting closer. Then, suddenly, I somehow "scratch it," and a menu opens.

Like a light projection in front of me, I see various columns of black squares with white letters on them, similar to a touchscreen on a phone.

Now I feel like I'm going insane. There's no source of light or medium where the light hits to explain this as a mere projection. It's a floating object that passes through the bushes near me as if it's non-corporeal, and as I move around I notice that It follows my torso but not my head.

Curious and scared, I use my finger to touch the square that says "Status".

A new black square opens with a lot of information written on it.

--

<i><b>['Info']</b></i>

<i>[Name: PRESS HERE TO CHOOSE | Age: 18 | Race: Human]</i>

<i>[HP: 100 | MP: 100 | Magic Power: 175]</i>

<i>[Level: 0 | Experience: 0/100]</i>

<i><b>['Stats']</b></i>

<i>[Strength: 7 | Endurance: 8 | Dexterity: 9]</i>

<i>[Speed: 10 | Intelligence: 20 | Wisdom: 15]</i>

<i>[Willpower: 11 | Charisma: 10 | Piety: 0]</i>

<i>[Perception: 15 | Sanity: 9]</i>

<i><b>['Other']</b></i>

<i>[.Status Effects: 'NONE'.]</i>

<i>[.Titles: 'NONE'.]</i>

<i>[.Affiliations: 'NONE'.]</i>

<i>[.Companions: 'NONE'.]</i>

<i>[.Crimes: 'NONE'.]</i>

--

<i>I can't believe this. Mom told me this would happen but I didn't listen. I have now officially gone insane, I'm seeing a video game "status" in real life.</i>

I start panicking a little. This situation isn't funny. Compounding on my loss of memory and waking up in an unknown place, now I'm seeing something impossible to explain: a ridiculous looking menu that makes me believe I'm into some ultra-realistic virtual reality game.

I can feel the pain in my body; I can breathe in the smells of the forest; I can perfectly see a level of detail only a real eye can; I can feel a slight hunger in my stomach; I can feel how uncomfortable these ridiculous clothes are; and I can taste my saliva inside my mouth. Just to make sure, I lick my hand and taste the salt of my cold sweat. All of my senses tell me that this is <i>real</i>.

Is this the future where I purposely erased part of my memory and entered this virtual reality just to feel like I've been transported to another world? This is the only logical explanation that does not involve a supernatural event. But if this has really happened, then there's a huge problem: I see no "Quit" or "Logout" button.

My heart beats like crazy, my vision loses focus, and I start to gasp for air because I feel like I can't breathe. My mind is slowly filled with fear, then my vision darkens, and my knees start to buckle. I'm having a panic attack.

--

I blink, and suddenly I regain my awareness. It seems like the worst has passed.

Apparently, I had laid down at one point, and at least I didn't collapse and hit my head against the ground.

I sit up and look around, still a bit dizzy, but dismay hits me as I notice that I'm still in the same stupid forest as before.

<i>Fuck!</i>

I need to focus on my only ally here: logic. Logic is my friend, logic is my ally, and logic will help me get through the insanity and ridiculousness of my situation so that I can make a proper decision and that won't get me killed in this horrible world.

First things first, I have to explore my options. There are more buttons to press on this menu, so let's just pull off the brakes on my skepticism of this fantasy.

On the left of the menu, there are buttons on a column, they are: "Status", "Items", "Skills", "Magic", "Notes" and "Messages".

"Messages" has an exclamation point near it, and I assume it signifies that there's an unread message. I open it, and it shows me the only unread message.

--

<i>Sender: God.</i>

<i>"I'm sorry about this, but there's no way for you to go back."</i>

--

Logic doesn't help when God fucks you over. My vision is darkening again, I'm having another breakdown.

Then I see my "Sanity" in my "Stats" window going down a point.

--

This time, I forcefully bring myself back from the stupefied state I was in.

<i>No, no, no, no, no, no, no~~! I can't get mad, this is a prank, someone is messing with me. A camera is hidden and soon someone will jump out of a bush and laugh at me. I have to keep calm so the entirety of the internet, and then the world, won't have a reason to point and laugh at my situation. It's okay, keep calm, it's all a prank.</i>

<i>Since this is a prank, why not use magic? I want to see what kind of special effects they're going to use.</i>

I press the "Magic" button and... a blank black box appears.

<i>So, I guess I don't have any magic skills yet. Well, let's see how "Items" works. I don't have a backpack, so how are the items going to appear? Hah, it's going to go *poof* and materialize from thin air or something?</i>

I press the button and a list appears.

--

<i><b>['Items']</b></i>

<i>[Item Name: Quantity | Item Name: Quantity | Item Name: Quantity]</i>

<i>[Empty backpack: 1 | Spare clothes bundle: 1 | Rock bread: 10]</i>

<i>[Dried meat: 10 | Deer waterskin: 5 | Sleeping bag: 1]</i>

<i>[Flint: 1 | Kitchen knife: 1 | Skinning knife: 1]</i>

<i>[Cooking pot: 1 | Whetstone Q100: 2 | Wool cloak: 1]</i>

<i>[Firewood: 10 | Rose coin: 1 | Gold coin: 10]</i>

<i>[Silver coin: 50 | Copper coin: 100]</i>

--

"At least you gave me money, you shit stain of a god," I grumble to myself.

I press the "Sleeping Bag" button and the menu suddenly closes, then a transparent sleeping bag starts to hover above my finger.

Scared at the sudden apparition of a ghost sleeping bag, I step back and pull my hand away, but the ghost follows my finger as if it's glued to it, even going through the nearby bush without disturbing it.

I swing my hand trying to unglue it, then I press my finger against my jacket, and the sleeping bag suddenly materializes in front of me with a *poof* and falls on my feet.

I think I'm starting to get used to the insanity. A sleeping bag materializes from absolutely nothing and I don't really feel anything. Is this "shock"?

<i>Now... how do I put it back?</i>

I notice that there's an icon on the corner of the item screen that's animated. It shows a hand grabbing a sword, then bumping a button, and the sword disappears, then it loops.

I grab the sleeping bag, press the button shown in the animation, and *poof*, the sleeping bag disappears. Then I see the entry "Sleeping bag" appear on the item list.

<i>So is there an item limit? Or a weight limit? Is it limited to things I can carry on one hand? Maybe I should write these on my "Notes" and test them later, it should be a priority to understand this if I'm going to be stuck in this fantasy land.</i>

Finally, let's see the "Skills" menu. On the right, there's a column with the writing "Skill Points: 10". Below it is written "Acquired Skills," and below that there is [Sword Use 1], which has a minus and a plus sign beside it. It seems I can increase or reduce the skill points at will with these ten "Skill Points."

On the right of this column, there's a large box with the tabs on top: "Physical," "Magical," and "Miscellaneous." And each of these tabs shows an uncountable number of skills.

"Physical" has things like [Sword Use], [Axe Use], [Shield Use], [Block], [Parry], and [Bow Use]. Some of these look like they might be overlapping, so perhaps the benefits stack, but it sounds troublesome to test. There are others where the name isn't very descriptive, like [Antushi Style], which is probably related to martial arts schools. Then there are some like [Enhanced Reflexes], [Muscle Explosion], [Hawk Eyes], and [Battlefield Perception] which are interestingly named. There are also dozens of crafting skills like [General Blacksmithing], [Armor Smith], [Weapon Smith], [Jewel Crafting], [Woodwork], and [Bow Crafting]. And finally, there are some ridiculous ones like [Enhanced Sexual Stamina], [Oral Technique], [Enhanced Genital Control], and [Enhanced Semen Recharge].

"Magic" sounds extremely interesting to me. It has all of the standard elements like [Electric Magic], Space, Light, Dark, Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, and Nature. Then there are more exotic skills like [Spirit Magic], Summoning, Conjuring, Blessing, Cursing, [Undead Creation], [Bloodwork], and many more. There's magic enhancements like [Mana Control], [Mana Efficiency], [Mana Recovery], [Mana Absorption], [Mana Reflection,] and [Reduced Mana Cost].

<i>Mana seems to be the name of the source of magical power in this world, so maybe MP means something like "Mana Points."</i>

Continuing, there are resistances, like [Poison Resistance], [Fire Resistance], and so on. Then crafting, like [Armor Enchanting], [Weapon Enchanting], [Jewel Enchanting], [Alchemy], [Potion Brewing], [Magic Tool Carving], [Poison Brewing], and [Golemancy]. The last one seems extremely interesting to me since I have a degree in robotics. And there are ridiculous ones too like [Slavery Magic], [Sexual Charm], and [Sexual Metamorphosis].

"Miscellaneous" contains things like [Weapon Appraisal], [Jewel Appraisal], [Metal Appraisal], [Ore Appraisal], [Flute Playing], [Lute Playing], [Musical Improvisation], [Singing], [Oratory], [Acting], [Writing], [Housework], [Cleaning], [Washing], and even [Folding]. Then there are some interesting ones like [Sense Presence], [Hide Presence], [Quiet Steps], [Quiet Action], [Intimidation], and [Charm]. There's even a bunch that's related to language proficiency, but I don't know which one to choose, so I'll leave it for later. Some look like they belong into the "Physical" category, but with things like [Charm] and [Sense Presence], maybe they revolve around some weak form of magic, so they are a mix of both physical and magical skill.

Luckily, at the top, there's a search function, but typing on this menu is very awkward. Unlike a keyboard, where you can feel the feedback of pressing a key, this keyboard passes through the finger, so I don't feel anything when I press a button. The feedback is even worse than that of a smartphone.

I can add and remove skills at will, and since I already have one point in [Sword Use], I actually have eleven skill points I can use if I remove this skill.

"Notes" operates like an office computer software where you create and organize documents, and simply write things in them with the awkward, floating, non-corporeal keyboard.

--

Now that I have seen it all, I need to decide on my next step.

I have some food, and although something like "rock bread" doesn't sound appetizing, I don't think I'll starve to death so soon. But still, if there's no civilization nearby, then I need to secure a source of food and water.

Perhaps [Conjuring Magic] will give me something to survive, but I'm not sure relying on it is a good idea. I have no idea what kind of nutrition magically created food has, and I also have no idea of the mana cost of conjuring it, or how fast mana recovers. I'll need to test it, but testing it now might cost me precious time.

Since I have no idea where to go, maybe it's best to find a vantage point where I can look over the surroundings and search for a river or a man-made structure. The problem is that I can't see very far in this thick forest, so I might have to wander about for a long time before I find a hill. I'm also scared of sleeping in an unknown forest and what might hunt at night, so I absolutely don't want to waste time.

Suddenly, an idea comes up to me. Since I can add or remove skill points at will, I can see which magic gives which spell, so maybe there's something useful in there. Once I put one point into a magic school, it gives me at least one spell. Most magic schools seem to require ten points until the next spell is unlocked, but some require five, and I don't know what's after level eleven since I don't have enough points.

Although [Golemancy] seems interesting, it doesn't look like it's useful right now. [Conjuring Magic] gives me [<i>Conjure Water</i>] at level 1 and [<i>Conjure Bland Meal</i>] at level 5, and [<i>Conjure Dirt</i>] at level 10, so at least I have a source of water, but I'll have to test it later for how much water it gives me. It might also be a good idea to have at least one offensive magic since I seemingly have good stats for magic if it's based on "Intelligence" or "Wisdom" like most RPGs.

I wanted some healing magic, but since my "Piety" is zero, I'm uncertain if it's a good idea since healing magic is tied to religion and piety in plenty of games.

<i>I'm starting to wish I wasn't an atheist.</i>

If this truly is a different world, then I better start believing in the divine seeing how supernatural things are happening around me.

After I look at [Summoning Magic], I get an excellent idea. The first spell for Summoning is [<i>Summon Small Bird</i>], which might be my best way of finding my way around this forest, so I put a point in it, go to the "Magic" tab, and press the spell's button.

For a second, I feel like my blood is being sucked out of my body through every inch of my skin, then a ball of light appears in front of my finger.

Not knowing what to do, I decide to touch the ball, and gravity suddenly starts to apply on it, so it falls on the ground and then stops shining. Suddenly, I'm looking at the sky again.

--

When my head stops spinning, my senses are overwhelmed by the oddest combination of feelings I've ever felt. On one side of my vision, I can see the sky, and on the other, I can see the sole of my own boots as I appear to have fallen on my back; my body feels really weird and tired while also light and energetic at the same time; I feel like I've "grown" more limbs, yet I can't "control" them; everything sounds a lot noisier and louder than before; and my stomach feels both hungry and full at the same time.

After getting a little bit used to the situation, I raise my upper body. On one side of my vision, I see a small brown bird that looks like a fluffy ball, on the other side of it I see... myself? I don't remember looking like this. I'm younger, much younger. This baby face that I didn't see for more than a decade is staring at... me?

After a long minute staring at the bird, all the weird feelings start to make sense and I get over this mind-fuck. This little bird in front of me is my <i>summon, </i>and I'm "sharing" its senses. Things like sight, hearing, touch, taste, proprioception, heat, and maybe even more. There are so many that a headache starts to flare; my mind isn't ready for so much information.

<i>I wish that I wasn't sharing all of those senses</i>

Suddenly, the sharing stops, and I feel so sick that I almost puke.

A flush of information followed by a sudden cut is too much for me to handle. I have to spend a few minutes controlling my stomach so that I can keep whatever's in there.

After getting my stomach under control again, I look at the bird and notice that it's still in the same spot, with its beady little eyes staring intensely at me.

<i>If all I need is to wish for this "sense sharing" to stop, then I wish that I could only share the sight.</i>

And now my vision is back to seeing two images.

It's not like my vision decreased, it "expanded," and now I can see much more, which puts a strain on my brain and makes me feel a little queasy. At least now I'm sure that this little guy is the perfect thing to help me find civilization.

I look at my "Status" and notice that my max MP has been halved, and that my current MP is now at fifteen points. It seems that either summoning is an advanced form of magic, or I'm just bad at magic even though I have good stats. Also, I didn't put any points into things like [Mana Control], [Mana Efficiency], or [Reduced Mana Cost], so maybe that's why this magic is so expensive. That was a mistake, so I wasted a lot of mana points.

But it doesn't matter now. What I need to do is learn how to control this bird.

First, I try to wish for it to move like I wished to stop the sense sharing, but nothing happens. Perhaps it only works with voice commands, which makes it impossible to use it as a puppet.

"Sit on my hand," I order, then I open my palm, and it obeys.