Sunlight peered through the gaps between the foliage, a breathtaking sight for most.
'What a lush green forest,' was what most people would think.
It would be such a magnificent view if not for the fact that half his body was gone.
"Damn it! Damn! Shi— ngrkh."
All kinds of profanity slipped out of his mouth.
Or at least, he tried to, if not for the fact that blood and some weird jelly-like substance continually bubbled up his throat, turning his curses to incoherent guttural sounds.
He dragged his dying body slowly; he didn't even know why he tried so hard to get away from this place.
It might be his instinct taking charge or perhaps something else, who knows?
As he crawled on the ground like some pitiful worm, one of the 'conversations' with the unknown voice in that mysterious place came to his mind.
((Please, just let me pass away in peace, you don't even have to put me in heaven, damn it! Look at me! Look at my whole damn history! Do you think a stupid, lazy ass piece of shit like me could survive longer than three days in a world where there are literally monsters and in constant wars?!))
Now, lo and behold.
Let alone three days, he couldn't even last an hour!
Scratch that— he hadn't even made it to the half-hour mark.
At this point, he was genuinely questioning his decision to 'dodge' the paw of that giant feline monster.
Obviously, even that 'dodge' was purely dumb luck.
Maybe he should've just let it hit him straight in the face and ended this whole isekai fiasco right then and there…
So, how exactly did he end up in this predicament?
Well, for that, let's rewind a bit.
Approximately fifteen minutes earlier…
Before he was fully conscious, his mouth opened up as he shouted.
"—Fair!"
His voice echoes loudly throughout the silent forest.
If any humans were close by, even if they couldn't understand what he shouted, they would feel the wrath contained within his roar.
As the echo of his shout faded, his mind finally cleared, and he became fully conscious.
He quickly tried to cover his mouth, only to notice the weight in his right hand.
Looking down, he saw a small bag. No, it was closer to a pouch, lying in his palm.
When he saw the pouch, he forgot about how he was screaming with a voice full of hatred just a moment ago, and quickly got engrossed in looking through what was inside the pouch.
Such is the life of someone with a short attention span.
"Let's see, a knife, a ring, and a… piece of paper?"
"Oh, it's a note, not just a random piece of paper."
[To: James Arkensius Vermillion
From: The Secretary of SO Organization[1] The Great True Immortal
Subject: Starter Kit & Personal Talents Overview
Dear Mr. James Arkensius,
With this letter, we extend our congratulations on a safe start to your new life. We hope that you will have a happy and exciting journey from here on.
Moving on, we would like to explain your natural talents. These talents are not fixed, and you may choose a path that is least suited for you, although we encourage you to pick the most suitable ones going forward.
Ascender Talents:
-Knowledge Paths: grade D
-Supernatural Paths: grade B
-Fighter Path: grade C
-Ability Seed Availability: YesUnique Ability already Awakened
Natural Ability Awakening will provide one of the following:
-Awakening Ability (AA)
-Unique Ability (UA)
With the Ascender Talents explanation completed, we would also like to inform you of the provided Starter Kit:
1 Gold Coin
10 Silver Coins
100 Copper Coins
Language Pack
Identification Tag
Map to the nearest city
All provided kits have been adjusted under the country you reincarnated in.
Although the kit is good, it's too mediocre. Instead, I'm giving you this Extraordinary Knife, a Food Identifier Ring, and awakening your ability seed.
Other than that, I repositioned your spawn location to help you inevitably attain greatness.
Oh, I'm also giving you the name 'Vermillion' and taking you in as a part of our big family. With time, you will eventually understand how great it is to be a part of the Vermillions.
Best Regards, Sincerely,
Secretary of SO Organization The Great True Immortal
P.S. Your Unique Ability is not regeneration; if you regenerated, then it's not your ability. Don't die in a misguided attempt to test regeneration as your ability.
P.P.S. I relocated you to a place far from human civilization. You need some buffer time to become strong, so you don't have to start from a weakling when you first interact with other humans.]
James stared at the letter in silence.
His grip tightened; he wanted to tear this letter apart, but alas, it was not meant to be.
The strange, silk-like paper in his hands was surprisingly resistant to tears.
He huffed out a sigh, "Oh wow, thank you so much, oh Great Immortal. Now I can finally live my life in peace. With this amazing knife, I shall slay every single monster I face!"
Gripping the so-called 'Extraordinary Knife', James lifted it and looked to the sky.
"Even though I know absolutely NOTHING about fighting, I will surely always come out on top in each encounter!"
Then, he bowed exaggeratedly, his right hand still holding the knife, pressed against his left chest, "Oh, the Great Immortal, your herald shall show the world how awe-inspiring your benevolence was."
A second later, he threw his head back upwards, "Damn it! Damn! Shit! GODDAMMIT! Like hell I'm praising you!"
His hand shook as he tightly gripped the knife. With a sharp hurl, the blade struck a nearby tree and buried itself deep, leaving only the handle jutting out.
James couldn't care less whether his shout alerted any monsters or predators in this forest.
He saw no way out of his current predicament.
If he were someone who had learned how to survive in a forest, perhaps he could be optimistic.
If he were someone who had learned how to fight, perhaps he could believe in his capability to fight predators and monsters.
But James? He was just a normal warehouse manager.
Hiking buddies to teach him about survival? Drinking buddies to toughen him up in a brawl? He had neither.
Outside his immediate family, the only people he knew were work acquaintances and his uncle, who was kind and understanding enough to give him a job with minimal human interaction.
"To hell with this! Who in their right mind sent someone like me to an isekai—?!"
He wanted to continue lashing out, to keep cursing, but before another word could leave his mouth, his stomach growled.
Once again, his focus completely shifted from anger at 'the Great Immortal' to figuring out how he should fix his hunger problem.
Pulling out the 'Food Identifier' ring, he quickly skimmed through the manual and slid it onto his right middle finger, the universal sign of gratitude and respect to the benevolent 'Great Immortal'.
He approached the knife he'd thrown earlier, yanked it out, and looked over it.
On the clear, mirror-like blade, he could see the reflection of his face.
"Heh, as expected, I still don't like the way I looked in my teens,"
Black hair, brown eyes, lean build, and average-looking features, complete with smooth caramel skin.
There was also a golden colored eye, complete with its thin vertical pupil at the corner of the reflection right beside his head.
"Wait, what?!"
Spooked, James quickly turned around and swung his knife. His random swing didn't hit anything, and his posture broke.
When he looked ahead properly, what he saw made his blood run cold.
It was a gigantic white tiger, although there were no stripes on its fur; there was no doubt that the feline before him was a tiger.
'Just how the hell does this tiger manage to get so close, literally breathing down my neck, and I didn't notice?'
His hands trembled, and he could feel his legs starting to turn into jelly.
Even so, he quickly fixed his posture, propped the knife in his right hand with a forward grip, and lowered his torso.
The stare off didn't last long, as the tiger made its first move.
He didn't know whether it was deliberate or not, but with the distance between the tiger and him being just about two to three meters at most, the tiger's movement seemed to slow down.
At first, he thought that perhaps it was his unique power awakening, but with his mind going in overdrive, he could feel that it wasn't, and the slow movement of the tiger was just his mind playing tricks on him when in reality, the Tiger was moving its paw with terrible speed.
He didn't have time to think as he quickly moved and ducked to the right.
Even though he had chosen the correct action, his normal human body wasn't fast enough to follow the command from his brain.
The result?
The paw slammed onto his left torso, pulverizing his left half and a large chunk of his left leg into a bloody paste.
The tiger's swat was so fast and strong that his whole body didn't get pushed downward, leaving him standing with half of his body.
It took a moment before the pain registered in his head, and before he could feel it, his right hand moved and stabbed the tiger's eye with his knife.
What happened next completely snuffed out any thought of fighting back from James' mind.
With a loud *clank!*, the 'Extraordinary Knife' shattered like glass.
'...Really?!'
With his weapon shattered and the pain finally registered in his head, a silent shout flew out of James' mouth.
He immediately turned around and tried to flee from the inexplicable monster, which he conveniently named 'white tiger' in his mind.
But what could someone who had no training and had half of his foot literally in the grave do?
The burning pain in his left leg and torso— or what was left of it— made him try to curse continuously.
He wasn't so much running as more like limping away, and after just a few steps, he tripped over a root. And now he crawled like some dumb and miserable caterpillar on the ground.
It was impossible to note how long since his left half had been pulverized, but he continued to drag his dying body until eventually he saw a light, a sign that there was a clearing beyond.
When he finally managed to reach it, he couldn't feel the soil with his hand. In his panic, he fell headfirst onto the slope, causing him to lose consciousness.
The last thing he saw was the appearance of a construct in the shape of a tesseract far in the distance.
[1] I can't seem to find strike-through in here, so I will just bold it and please remember, for BOLD in the letter, it means it's crossed out.