I felt my consciousness return. A dull ache pulsed where my head should be, and my vision swam in a blur of indistinct shadows. No, not vision, awareness. It was a formless, disorienting sense of existing in a space.
What happened?
Instinctively, I tried to move my arms to rub my eyes, to find some anchor in the physical. Nothing responded. There was no command, no limb to obey. A wave of quiet alarm began to rise, but I forced myself to stay calm and assess.
I waited. The blurry shadows resolved into shapes. Stone walls. A high ceiling. The glow of strange crystals. I was in a cavern.
How did I get here?
I looked down, or tried to. A new, more visceral confusion spiked through me.
Why am I not on the ground?!
I wasn't lying down. I was suspended in the air, a fixed point in the empty center of the cavern. Panic, clean and electric, finally broke through. I willed myself to move, to flail. My perspective lurched violently, and I drifted, completely out of control, straight for the solid rock wall.
Ah—!
I braced for an impact that never came. Instead, a sensation of cool density enveloped me, passing through my essence without resistance. I was inside the stone, surrounded by its deep, silent pressure, before I drifted out the other side.
Did I just phase through the wall? Am I a ghost? What am I?
The questions were a storm. I needed to remember.
"Skill 『Memory』 is operating."
The command was my own. Instantly, the storm of panic was quelled, organized into a stream of data. My recall became instantaneous, my thoughts accelerating into razor-sharp focus. The collapse. The archive. The final, crushing roar. The voice in the dark.
I remembered. I had died.
And with that memory came the logical conclusion. The voice, the skills, this formless existence... The genre tropes I'd dismissed as trashy writing now presented themselves as the only viable hypothesis.
I might have been reincarnated into another world.
"Hello… voice," I thought hesitantly. "Can you tell me where I am?"
No response.
…Alright. Different question, then.
"What am I?"
"Skill 『Memory』 is gathering information through Analyse, Interpret, and Assess."
A skill, huh? I think I'm starting to understand.
This feels like reincarnation. An isekai.
I'd seen this trope plenty of times in manga and light novels. I never really liked most of them, too much wish fulfillment, not enough substance. Still, even I couldn't deny that some of them stood out.
"Skill 『Memory』 has completed information gathering."
A concept fused directly with my consciousness, seamless and unquestionable: Lesser Omni-Elemental.
More data followed. A rare spiritual lifeform. A being of coalesced intent and elemental affinity that sustains itself by absorbing environmental energy. They exist in both the natural world and the Elemental Realm and may lend their power to others at their discretion.
So… I'm a spirit?
Would this even count as reincarnation? I'm not exactly alive anymore… but not dead either.
A sigh, a purely mental habit, escaped me.
This is going to be a long day.
At least I understood the phasing. Now, to move with purpose. Moving felt unnatural at first; no muscle, no weight. I focused on the concept of forward. My perspective glided smoothly ahead. Better.
The cavern was vast, illuminated by clusters of softly glowing purple crystals. Tiny, resilient plants pushed through cracks in the stone floor. My gaze fell on one.
Hipokute Herbs: A medicinal ingredient used in healing potions. Thrives in areas with high magic density.
…I didn't even ask.
I just looked at them, and I knew.
So this is like an appraisal skill, except instead of seeing information, it just innately exists in my mind.
That's… actually kind of nice.
The air itself was thick with shimmering, motelike lights. I focused on them.
Magicules: Spiritual particles influenced by consciousness. Fundamental building blocks of magic and monsters alike.
So, this was the substrate of reality here. And according to the knowledge now woven into me, my form subsisted on it. As I moved, I willed myself to draw the lights in. They flowed toward me, absorbed into my shimmering core. A warmth, a sense of strengthening solidity, began to grow.
"Confirmed. Extra skill 『Magic Sense』 ...successfully acquired."
The change was immediate and profound. My simple awareness exploded into a full, perfect, three-dimensional perception. I could "see" in all directions at once by perceiving the intricate waves of magicules, the way they were disturbed by light and sound. I could see the cavern's every contour, the energy veins within the stone.
I could also see myself, a faint, fist-sized orb of glowing energy with a rainbow-hued aura.
I'm a glorified nightlight.
Drunk on this new sense, I drifted deeper. Then, my new sense brushed against something colossal. A vast, ocean-deep reservoir of power, so immense it warped the flow of magicules around it, obscured behind a layer of rock to my left.
What is that?
Curiosity, my oldest companion, overruled caution. I phased through the intervening stone.
The presence was a dragon. A being of scaled obsidian and terrifying majesty, trapped within a shimmering barrier of light. And there, on the cavern floor before it, was a small, blue slime.
They were motionless, silent. But to my Magic Sense, a torrent of concentrated information flowed between them—a dense stream of magicules carrying the shape of thought. A telepathic conversation.
A prideful dragon, speaking earnestly with a slime... If I had my camera, this would be a historic shot.
I wished I could listen. The observer in me itched to analyze the data stream.
Perhaps I can.
Their method was clear: structured magicule transmission. To intercept, I needed to attune my own energy to their frequency.
Kind of like turning a DM into a group chat.
Carefully, I extended a thread of my own essence toward that flowing stream.
"Confirmed. Extra skill 『Telepathy』 ...successfully acquired."
Connection established. The dragon's voice boomed in my mind, proud and dramatic.
...and so I, Veldora the Storm Dragon, was sealed by this "hero" from another world!
The slime's mental voice was calm, analytical, and oddly mature. Another world? What was she like?
They talked of the hero, of otherworlders. And then, the slime revealed it.
Well, I'm from another world too. Japan, on Earth.
He's from home. Seems even death could not distance me.
Veldora: Do you hear that?
Slime: Yeah, I thought I was the only one.
My focus wavered. A ripple in my observational field.
Veldora: Eavesdropping, are we?
Slime: The interference is coming from there!
The slime's body quivered, pointing a pseudopod directly at my position. Veldora's great head snapped up. Two colossal focuses of power locked onto my shimmering form.
Oh, no.
Slime: It's... a Lesser Elemental.
Veldora: Preposterous! A Lesser Elemental with such defined sentience is unheard of!
Slime: I'm a sentient slime. Couldn't it be another reincarnated person?
I've been found out.
Slime: Told you.
Veldora: You there, Elemental! Show yourself!
Maybe I could still phase away.
Slime: I can still sense your magical signature. You're leaking curiosity everywhere.
Curse this new skill set.
Veldora: Declare yourself! To eavesdrop on I, Veldora, is a grave offense!
The command brooked no refusal. Swallowing a knot of static anxiety, I willed myself forward.
"H-hello. Um... I offer my apologies for the intrusion, Veldora-sama," I projected, my mental voice thinner and younger than I intended.
Slime: Wow, you sound young. How old are you?
"I was sixteen. At the time of my death."
Slime: So you are reincarnated!
"I believe we just established that, Slime-san."
Veldora: It seems my domain has become a crossroads for wayward otherworlder souls.
"Slime-san, may I ask how old you were?"
Slime: Huh? Oh, sure. I was thirty-seven.
"Thirty-seven?" The number sparked a purely instinctual, juvenile reaction. "You're ancient!"
Slime: Hey! I'm in my prime! I'm only twenty-one years older than you!
"Exactly. You're practically senile."
The slime fell silent for a beat. Then it began jiggling in place.
Slime: Kid, didn't anyone teach you to respect your elders?
"So you do accept your elder status? Acceptance is the first step to recovery."
Slime: Why, you—!
Veldora: Ahem. I am still present, you recall.
"Oh! Right, apologies again, Veldora-sama," I replied. "I was merely stunned by this old man's advanced age."
Slime: I am suddenly, profoundly grateful I never had kids.