As we descended, the tranquil sounds of birds chirping and the gentle rustle of wind through the trees lulled me into a sense of peace. It was almost idyllic, the kind of moment you wished could last.

  And that was when it decided to rain.

  Being on the side of a hill while it was raining was never fun. There were two possibilities. Everything was either slick with rain covering the rocks, bark, and roots, or it was just mud. Mud might seem like it would hold a person in place, but on a hillside, it only made the slide faster.

  I then began to slip for the millionth time and fell. It wasn't a sheer drop. It was acutely angled with trees growing sideways.

  Yes, trees could and did grow sideways on some hills. A lot of them had hit me, so I knew for sure. They would always break my fall, but boy, did it hurt.

  I flipped over and over, and this time, I lost my bag and twisted my arm back. Just as I was bracing for another painful impact and considering the inevitable wait for regeneration, a familiar voice cut through the chaos.

  “Watch out,” Rabbit said.

  I replied with a dismissive “It doesn’t help, but thanks.”

  As soon as the words left my mouth, an object struck me out of nowhere, catching me completely off guard. At first, I thought Rabbit's 'Watch out' was just his way of teasing me after I fell, as he often did. He seemed to get a strange kick out of offering warnings only after I was already in trouble, pretending to help when it was clearly too late. Such antics were typical of his twisted sense of humor.

  The next thing I knew, I was on the ground, and for a moment, I started to feel like I was being choked. Panic set in as I realized I was unable to move, my limbs trapped by a massive serpent's coils. All I could do was struggle and move my free arm from below the elbow. But my efforts were futile, as the snake's grip grew stronger with each passing moment.

  As it squeezed me, I stopped being able to breathe. I quickly checked my status screen and watched as my health slowly dropped to 60. Though it wasn't as low as I would have expected given the dire situation, I knew that the snake's primary tactic was suffocation, and I had only so much time before I would die. My remaining health points were irrelevant.

  I screamed in my mind, “Help!” Unable to voice my distress aloud, the mental shout somehow eased my panic. Struggling to find any other words, this silent plea was all I could muster.

  Rabbit responded with unnerving calm, “What do you want me to do?” as if my life wasn't hanging by a thread.

  Damn, what could he do anyway?

  Rabbit wasn't tangible. He was merely a voice in my head, incapable of intervening physically.

  “Is there anything about snakes you know that would help? I’m getting squeezed to death here,” I thought desperately, each word strained under the crushing pressure.

  “Lots of things about snakes. But you only have one hand free and can’t breathe. No matter what you do, you will be dead. You could damage it a little by trying to bite the snake, but it won’t loosen up and may only make it angrier. Also, you are thinking in your head. You don’t need to sound like you are being choked,” Rabbit replied.

  He was right on all counts. I was being squeezed, and even my voice sounded off. However, he wasn’t physical and didn’t understand how it felt. You couldn’t just separate your feelings from your inner voice. We bio-bags didn’t work like that.

  “Help,” I pleaded one last time.

  I was staring at my status page, wishing that my regeneration could overcome this obstacle. Then, I remembered my other Ability: Soul Absorption. I reached out my hand and placed it on the snake and thought with all my might, Soul Absorb this stupid snake, and suddenly a prompt appeared:

  Warning: Soul Absorption is safest when used on the dead. Trying to absorb the soul of a living being might kill you or damage your soul. Do you want to proceed? Yes - No.

  I thought yes and instantly regretted it.

  It felt like I was being burned alive. The pain from not breathing, from being crushed to death, was nothing. When someone gets scorched with fire, the instinct is to pull away, and then the pain receptors are killed, leaving behind only a lingering sensation. This was the affliction of being burnt everywhere, but instead of the pain fading, it only kept getting stronger.

  My only thoughts were that I had made a mistake, and I should have let myself die. This was not worth it.

  I only had a little air left, but since I triggered this Ability, my life force seemed to drop extremely fast. I was down to only 8 health when the pain began to slow and then stopped. It was the most enormous relief I had ever felt. The absence of that pain was euphoric. Even the pain in my chest from my resumed breathing didn’t bother me.

  I lay there, slumped in the snake’s coils for some time, zoning out, ignoring Rabbit.

  The pain I just experienced was terrible, but oddly enough, I was getting used to the aftermath. Yes, while it was happening, I did still freeze up. But throughout the day, I had been tortured one way or another, and each time it became easier to deal with. I started to wonder whether it was because my body healed rapidly or because I was becoming callous.

  Eventually, I gathered up enough will to check my prompts. As I opened them, I could hear something like a chiming bell.

  You have earned 2,016 experience points from killing Level 7 Giant Snake.

  Congratulations, you have leveled up! As a Grey Elf, you received 1 ability point in Agility, 1 in Intelligence, 2 in Constitution, and an additional 2 points to distribute each level in any category. You have reached level 4 and received a total of 6 freely distributable ability points.

  Warning: Every even level, you are awarded 1 leveling point into the most useful skill of that level. You have no skill and have accumulated a total of 2 leveling points.

  Congratulations, you are useless. Don’t worry. The world is full of incompetent people, and you happen to be one of the best of them. You have done the undoable. You have progressed in levels without ever acquiring one skill. As impossible as that sounds, since you have no skills, you are allowed to choose one skill without restriction.

  Be warned. Choosing a skill is not without repercussions. If you select a skill with low affinity, you may soon find yourself maxed out. Choose wisely and choose where your strengths lie.

  Any skill I wanted?

  I could practically hear myself salivating, if that were even possible. I could do anything. Oh, Life Magic. No, wait, Stealth. No, wait, Joke-Telling. Nah. I probably already had that at level 100 in the real world.

  “Okay, so we are going with my plan?” Rabbit questioned out of the blue.

  “Just as a refresher, what was it again?” My head was still buzzing from nearly being crushed to death. I had tuned him out while he rambled.

  Rabbit sighed. “Fine, you were not paying attention. For the skills, you should try Spatial Magic. And before you argue, it may not exist as a skill, but it is worth trying.”

  “Why Spatial Magic? What about Life Magic? Come on, that would be so useful in situations like this. Or Fire Magic. Just think of burning this snake alive.” I grinned at that thought after what it had put me through.

  “We have been over this. Most magic will be a dime a dozen. You want something rare and hard to find. I am certain wherever you get to, you will be able to find any ordinary skill as long as you look around. However, I doubt you will be able to find something as odd as Spatial Magic. I’m not even sure these people will have the concept of such things.”

  “If we are looking for rare, then why don’t we do something like a rare hand-to-hand skill? Something like Death Touch,” I questioned.

  “While it would be cool if that exists, magic is the key to power. No offense, but you aren’t the best warrior I know. As I mentioned earlier, this could be a way out of this situation. If we achieve some form of space magic, then we may be able to return to our home. My best guess is that the hallway we traveled down was a barrier between our two worlds. If you remember, our game magic didn’t work in that area. Magic from this land may work in that barrier, but that is just a guess,” Rabbit stated coolly.

  “That makes sense,” I remarked.

  At that moment, choosing a fighting skill seemed pointless for me. While I knew others had devoted their whole lives to mastering martial techniques, my own life had been quite different so far. I believed that magic offered my best chance for survival.

  I willed one of my leveling points in Spatial Magic.

  Congratulations, you have learned Spatial Magic Level 1. As you have no affinity, you may not progress past level 1.

  At level 1 in Spatial Magic, you have learned the spell: Teleport. Cost: 15 Mana. Cast Time: Instantaneous. Cooldown: N/A. Range: 1 foot to 25 feet.

  Teleport: You may teleport an object no more than 25 feet in distance. The object you teleport cannot be larger than 1 square foot and cannot weigh more than 3 pounds. All forces or energy on the object will be transported with the object. For each level increase of the underlying skill, you will gain a 5% multiplier of the size and weight requirements.

  You have one leveling point remaining.

  Congratulations, you are a one-trick wonder. You have spent your whole life practicing and honing one skill and have reached the maximum of your affinity. As you cannot go any further in that skill, you will be allowed to choose one skill without restriction for your remaining leveling point.

  Be warned. Choosing a skill is not without repercussions. If you opt to select a power with low affinity, you may soon find yourself maxed out. Choose wisely and choose where your strengths lie.

  “It looks like I maxed out this skill because I have low affinity for it. You think it’s because rare magic like this is harder to advance?” I said after reading the prompt twice.

  “Don’t see that as a bad thing. You got an interesting spell, and now you can add a point to another type of magic. Yeah, it sucks that it’s maxed out, but if you look on the bright side, you might be able to learn another spell,” Rabbit said, trying to lift my spirits.

  It was true that being maxed out was bad, but having the ability to choose an entirely different spell branch was even more valuable. Plus, the spell seemed interesting, although it had some odd limitations.

  “I like it, but the restrictions are horrible. I can live with twenty-five feet in distance, but the size not exceeding one foot or three pounds makes combat out of the question unless I can raise my level.”

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  “True, but no cooldown and instant cast time? That’s huge. Now quit talking and try it,” Rabbit said, practically buzzing with excitement. Using magic was every kid’s dream, and yet here I was, finally able to do it, but I was wasting time talking about it.

  I picked up a twig and thought about a prompt to teleport the twig.

  Do you wish to cast Teleport? Yes or No.

  I chose yes. In an instant, the twig was exactly 10 feet away, precisely where I had intended it to be. There were no lights, no sound, and no incantation. It was instantaneous.

  “Odd,” I mumbled. I had been expecting a long chant and at least some glowing as I cast it, but it seemed ordinary.

  “Underwhelming is the best result we can hope for,” Rabbit reminded. “If it was loud or you had to say a spell, it might give away what you are doing. This is way better. Stop trying to think about the prompt, and just cast the spell.”

  “How?” I replied.

  “I don't know. Just as you willed the prompt. Think about the end destination and everything all at once.”

  I went over to where the twig was and willed it another 10 feet away, and this time, it teleported without me even getting a prompt.

  “I think I have the hang of it, but I am still unsure what is happening,” I said, noticing how one moment it was here and the next it was precisely where I wanted it to be. Without the telegraphing, it was like I blinked and the world had shifted slightly.

  “That is what I am wondering too,” Rabbit said, his tone full of curiosity. “From what I understand, the spell works by creating a temporary void in space. In normal physics, a true void doesn’t stay empty, but energy and particles spontaneously appear to fill it. What seems to be happening is that instead of forming random particles, the magic tags an object, and the surrounding space, not wanting to remain empty, fills itself with that object. There’s only one way to test my theory. Try it on a solid object. If it fails, then we’ll know my theory is right because you can’t create a void inside solid matter.”

  I picked up the twig again and tried teleporting it into a rock, but it didn’t work.

  “I guess I can’t just teleport a knife into someone’s head. That would make life easier. Fire Magic next?” I asked, excited for my next spell and picturing my hand glowing with flames.

  “I think you need to rein in your excitement for a moment. Let’s say you spend your point on Fire Magic and get a fireball. Then what? You hit that snake and it only singes it. Even on you, it might do little more than burn some hair off your arms. That’s hardly worth it.”

  I considered that before answering. “What if I could level it up? It could become dangerous quickly.”

  “Exactly. Let’s say you get Fire Magic and are able to level it. Then we lose the chance to take advantage of the system letting you choose any skill. That is an advantage that may never come again. I think we should go for the most esoteric skills possible while still giving you the biggest edge.”

  I thought about it for a moment. He had a point. I had earned levels quickly, and I should take advantage of that while I was still at a low level, and progress came easily.

  “What do you suggest?”

  “Temporal magic,” he replied. “If we get lucky and get a spell that can reverse time, we might eventually get home.”

  Sometimes, Rabbit thought he was clever, but he was being obvious, even if he did not realize it. Time and space were his two suggestions, not because he wanted to get me home, but because they were the pillars of Human understanding and still not fully grasped. Fire was simple. Humans had mastered its uses long ago, likely because we understood all its facets. Time and space were different. We could measure them, map them, even see how they bent under the right conditions, but the deeper truths still eluded us.

  Rabbit lived inside a quantum computer, his thoughts existing in states that could be both there and not there at the same time. For him, time and space were like staring into his own reflection, as if studying the canvas his very thoughts were painted on.

  Still, as I dwelled on it, he was right in a sense. I doubted I would ever find a spellbook on Temporal Magic, let alone a teacher. Fire Magic, though? I was certain that if I lived long enough, I would eventually learn it.

  I debated back and forth, but survival was more concerning than long-term gains.

  “I think we should wait for now. It is a big decision, and there is no need to rush.”

  “That is where I would have to argue with you. Here is how I think skills work. You either have to be taught, which your prompts suggest is unlikely, learn them through practice, or earn them by killing. Meaning, if you start swinging that sword or using your bow, there’s a chance you’ll unlock the skill. Would that skill be taken out of your free point? I don’t know.” Rabbit paused just long enough to deflate me. “If you want to play it safe, I suggest avoiding using your weapons entirely until we spend the point.”

  He was right. The order of operations mattered immensely. If I learned another skill, it might automatically consume my free point, even if I did not want it to. That meant I could not use my sword or bow at all without risking it, and that was unacceptable.

  Yes, I could gamble that skills only triggered after kills, but that was a stupid risk to take when I had a guaranteed pick right now.

  If I were lucky and skills only came from killing, my new strategy would have to be injuring animals as much as possible before finishing them off with soul absorption. But even that was speculation.

  So I returned to the only decision that mattered.

  Was Temporal Magic the right choice?

  The books I had read about regressors and loopers all repeated the same idea. Control over time could turn the weakest person into something unstoppable.

  That thought sparked an idea. I closed my eyes.

  One skill point in Regressor.

  Nothing happened.

  Not discouraged, I tried again.

  One skill point in Time Looper.

  Still nothing.

  I sat there for a while, trying to think of the most overpowered tropes I could remember. Eventually, I thought of Resurrectionist, which didn’t work either. I kept going down the list, each one less appealing than the last, until I finally gave up when even Cloning didn’t work.

  “What am I doing wrong?” I muttered, more annoyed than confused.

  “You’re treating it like a cheat code,” Rabbit said. “But the prompt didn’t say you could choose a spell or Ability. It said a skill. And skills are broad categories, and not specific powers.”

  “So… what? If I wanted resurrection, I should’ve picked Necromancy?” I asked, knowing full well I wasn’t going to do that. If a Necromancer could resurrect themselves, it would probably be as some undead monstrosity.

  “Exactly. Assuming it exists, that’s the right path. But even then, there’s no guarantee you’ll get the spell you want. These branches probably lead in different directions. Look at Temporal Magic. You might become a regressor, a looper, get the ability to stop time, or end up with something completely different. Your skill is a direction, but the path you start on is up to luck.”

  I pictured it then. Not a flashy fireball, but the ability to freeze an enemy for just a moment. A single heartbeat. Enough to dodge. Or to kill.

  Time magic did seem overpowered. I smiled at that thought.

  I wondered then if Rabbit had already played out every possible scenario and was guiding me toward the best path. I was almost certain he wanted this because of his curiosity, but maybe I was wrong. Or maybe he was trying to have the best of both worlds. He could satisfy his curiosity while still picking something good enough for me to choose.

  It didn’t matter in the end. He had picked a good skill branch. All I needed was a little luck to make it work.

  I closed my eyes once again and chose the skill.

  Congratulations, you have learned Time Magic Level 1. As you have no affinity, you may not progress past level 1.

  At level 1 in Time Magic, you have learned the spell: Fast Time. Cost: 100% Mana regeneration. Cast Time: Instantaneous. Cooldown: N/A. Range: Self-5 feet.

  Fast Time: You may cast a bubble that surrounds you or up to 5 radial feet. In this bubble, you can speed up time up to 1% per odd level and a 1% decrease in mana cost per even level of the underlying skill.

  I stared at the screen.

  One percent. That was it.

  I knew it was a gamble from the start, but after getting Teleport, I had hoped for something just as good, even if it couldn’t get me home.

  But one percent? That was nearly useless. It didn’t matter how fast I moved if everything around me barely slowed.

  “Not ideal,” Rabbit said, “but there are a couple of potential paths forward. One of the main reasons I advocated for Temporal Magic is that it might have synergy with Space Magic. In physics, space and time aren't just neighbors. They’re part of the same structure. Affect one, and you nudge the other.” He paused before continuing. “The second path is leveling the skill. If we can raise it high enough, you could end up moving faster than most enemies can react to. The problem is that both your spells are locked at level one due to low affinity. Figuring out how to raise that should be one of the first things we ask once we reach civilization.”

  He was right. As disappointing as the spell looked now, maybe it was a blessing that it was capped. A one percent boost wasn’t something I could even notice, and two or three percent wouldn’t change much either. But if I could somehow raise it to level ten or twenty, I might actually be able to outpace higher-level enemies in speed and reaction.

  That was something to worry about later. Right now, I just had to use the weapons and hope the system didn’t hand me weapon skills for it. If I had to gain anything, let it be from killing animals, not from practice.

  I pulled up my character page and looked over my stats.

  Stats

  Max Health: 160

  Max Mana: 130

  Attributes

  Strength: 10

  Perception: 10

  Constitution: 16

  Charisma: 10

  Intelligence: 13

  Wisdom: 10

  Agility: 13

  “It looks like when you level up, a point goes to Agility, Intelligence, and two points are allocated to Constitution, and you get two to distribute how you want. I say, let’s see how good you are with the bow and sword before we distribute those points,” Rabbit said.

  I then realized I had no clue where my equipment was. “Where is my stuff?”

  “How should I know? You soul-bound the sword. Can’t you tell where it is?”

  I thought about the sword and had a slight feeling that it was down the hill to the east. “I think it's this way, but I’m not sure.”

  I walked instinctively and saw my bag hanging from a tree on the side of the cliff, also noticing some of my arrows scattered on the ground among the rest of my belongings.

  “Well, what are you waiting for? Start climbing!” Rabbit commanded, and I sighed.

  Directly below me, a large tree from the next level seemed within reach. The mountain's face was uneven, featuring terraces at various elevations. My bag was caught in the tree, suspended between the levels, while my other belongings were scattered around the tree's roots below. Faced with the choice of a laborious climb down and then up again, I decided to jump onto the tree, hoping to cut down on my descent time.

  “One, two, and three!” I counted before leaping, adrenaline surging through me. My grasp found a branch, which snapped promptly, sending me tumbling down the tree. I clutched at anything within reach to slow my fall. Eventually, I came to a halt at the base of the tree, battered and scratched, regretting my decision. Next time, I resolved to choose the longer, safer path over a shortcut.

  Initially, I had planned to climb down to retrieve my bag. However, after falling from the tree, I was not only forced to consider climbing back up but also faced the added complication that branches on one side were broken, making it challenging to reach where my bag hung. I could climb back up the rock wall and try that jump again, but my bruised tailbone advised against it.

  After spending some time staring, I started to think that climbing the tree would be safer. On the bright side, I was able to access some of my supplies since I was on the ground. It looked like I only broke one arrow by landing on it, but a bunch of the rest were lying around as good as new.

  “I figured it was going to happen at some point. Drop a point into Strength, and you should have an easier time,” Rabbit replied.

  I pulled up my character page and allocated one point to Strength, and immediately felt like my grip was sturdier. I grabbed the first branch, and with newfound power, I started to climb. It wasn’t a giant tree, but as the branches became thinner, climbing higher would become more difficult. I had broken most of the branches on one side, where they were weak, yet those were precisely what I needed to reach my bag.

  With the next sturdy branch out of reach, my choices were limited. I could either leave my bag behind, risk a perilous jump in hopes of retrieving it, or try an unconventional method. Reluctant to part with my bag but not eager to gamble with my safety, I chose a different path. I decided to use an arrow as a means to retrieve it.

  I used my new teleporting trick and teleported the broken arrow from the ground right into my hand. It was interesting that I could teleport objects both toward me and away from me. I would have to try more stuff later when I didn’t have a big chance of falling off this mountain and dying. Sadly, I couldn’t teleport the bag as it was just too large.

  I grabbed the arrow and stabbed it into a knot just out of reach in the tree. Clasping the trunk, I shimmied up, marveling at the strength I couldn't muster just moments before. The increased strength made all the difference. I ascended slowly until I could grasp both the arrow and the knot below my shoulder. Leveraging these as support, they bore some of my weight, allowing me to stretch up and seize the next branch.

  “Finally!” I shouted when I grabbed the bag.

  “Now, all you need to do is get down,” Rabbit said with a smirk in his voice.

  “Crap bag!” I exclaimed, yanking the bag open.

  “Try the rope.” Rabbit said at the same instant my eyes landed on the coiled line. “It should be the last thing to fall out since it’s flexible and light.”

  I froze mid-search, lips pressed into a thin line. Rabbit wasn’t smarter than me. Actually, that wasn’t true. He was.

  The problem was that he sometimes made it seem like I was an idiot, even though I would have eventually figured it out on my own. He was just faster at thinking, and it was often annoying to hear the answer when I knew I would have gotten there if he had just waited a moment and let me think.

  Ignoring my frustration, I used the rope and shimmied down while using the branches as support to reach the bottom of the tree. I found just about everything except for a couple of arrows and my sword.

  “My sword isn’t in here,” I told Rabbit like he needed a status update. I closed my eyes, concentrated, and got the feeling where it was. “It’s over the cliff.”

  “That time I was paying attention to what you were doing and got the sense as well.” What Rabbit said was unusual. If the item was soul-bound and I was feeling something with my soul, could he sense it? Was Rabbit somehow connected to my soul? Did he have a soul of his own?

  Ugh, too many thoughts that didn’t help. Where was my sword?

  “Unless you're considering climbing down that cliff, we'll need to find a different route to the sword,” Rabbit concluded. He was right. Descending that cliff wasn't an option. The drop was steep and direct to the point where the ocean met the mountain, and rivers flowed into the sea below. It appeared that the waters of the ocean's bay had eroded this part of the mountain over time, creating the sheer face on this side of the cliff.

  Trapped on this small plateau, I realized going down wasn't feasible in any direction. My only choice was to retrace my steps upward and plan a descent from there. So, I began climbing back to where I had encountered the snake.