Where am I?

I began asking myself. Currently, I had no idea of the situation. It tried moving, but to no avail. I was left with only my mind to think. No sight, touch, hearing, smell, nor taste.

What's happening?

My consciousness was the only thing left. I was unable to assess my current situation due to my lack of senses at the moment. I could only think to myself.

Wait, am I dead?

Everything's fuzzy, I can't remember…

If it wasn't just my consciousness left right now, I would've already scratched the back of my head trying to remember everything prior to this "predicament" I'm in right now.

I was at the mall with Naomi…

Then something... happened?

Then it clicked. Almost all the things that happened at the mall were suddenly brought back to me in vivid detail. There was something missing though…

Who...killed me again?

Wait, who am I?

Who's that girl? I know I thought of her name earlier! But I can't recall!

I panicked, even though I had no idea who that girl was. I wanted to know. No, I needed to know. I couldn't let myself forget.

But as I tried scavenging for that single memory of her name, all went blank as if something rejected the thought of me knowing. I now had no memory of her name and most of my memories of her went and disappeared. I couldn't remember a majority of my past memories. All that was left were memories of past knowledge, things about myself, and a small amount of experience in life. But I can't remember my name though, strangely enough.

I remained silent. Confused by my current situation and the fact that I had little memories left. I was a bit...depressed to say the least.

What's going to happen to me now?

I thought of all the logical things that would become of me since I've already died. It was sort of easy to deduce since I already had all the clues right here in my head.

If this is the afterlife, what's the purpose of wiping majority of my memories clean? Right, there's none. And if I am going to hell, then shouldn't I know everything at least? To increase the pain I would have to suffer knowing that all that was my fault?

Right, I know what's going to happen now.

But the conclusion I arrived at, was so conventional that even I could just stand there, unfazed and somewhat disappointed at whoever the hell made this a thing.

I'm going to get reincarnated...I guess?

I was still completely unsure if such a thing would happen since for all I knew, there already was magic in the world I once lived in. Like, what the hell did God think? But now that I think about it, God wouldn't like to be repetitive since he made us humans uniquely. Or did he? I don't think I was that religious so let's not dwell on it and just wait.

A few moments or so, my senses seemed to return ever so slowly. But there was something unusual as I tried using my body.

My movement seems to be restricted. It's also surprisingly small compared to my past body.

There was also something I haven't felt before dripping on my face. And the wind was pretty warm and blew in succession like the panting of a hairy beast like a bear. Also, there was this horrible smell akin to a dog's breath.

And just because of that horrible smell, my eyelids jerked open, letting me see everything around in blurry vision.

Then and there, I knew that there was something about to eat me. I had no time to sink in whatever the things in my surroundings are. And even though the light was so dim, I could see the outline of my predator. It was definitely a bear. A very grisly and big one in fact, bigger than any bear I've encountered up until now.

It's baring its fangs at me ever so slowly, probably savoring the fact that it's being given prey that isn't even fighting back. Well, that irritated me and I tried moving my arm to hit that gluttonous bastard on the jaw. But well, I couldn't move my body.

I wondered, why am I not feeling fear? As if I'd gotten desensitized to experiencing such an emotion. But that isn't right. I know I can still feel fear, but not towards this beast above me.

After a few more attempts to move my body, I seemed to regain control. And as if it were second nature, I enhanced my physical strength using magic then swung my fist at the jaw of the bear.

It was enough to send it at least a dozen feet away from me. And while it was still regaining itself, I jumped away from it and gave my all to running away and finding an exit to this murky place.

I still didn't know where I was currently and how I ended up here but now that I was free from anything that posed a threat to me, I finally had time to observe my surroundings. It was as if I was inside some sort of labyrinth or dungeon.

And all the monsters attacking me from time to time was pretty weak compared to that bear from earlier. I was sure that I was getting closer to the exit. Also, every time I killed one, they'd drop a tiny purple crystal after turning into smoke. They seemed important so picked them up and wrapped them in cloth for safe keeping.

Roughly three hours have passed since I ran away from that bear and I still haven't seen a single sign of an exit, or even a set of stairs. And I'm slowly but surely losing energy. I'm even trying to restrict the amount of mana I use. This current body of mine is still too weak compared to my last one, my mana pool is a lot smaller than the past one so I had to conserve.

After running for a few more minutes, I reached a part of the dungeon where there were no monsters to be seen. All I could hear were the sounds of my heavy breathing and my bare feet hitting the stone floor.

Eventually, I arrived at some sort of door. It was giving me some sort of weird vibe making me want to open it. But since it was a double door inside of a dungeon, well, I already knew what was inside.

Do I still have enough mana to spare for this?

I asked myself before trying to evaluate if I did have enough mana. From my estimates on how much I'd use, it's pretty much enough.

Wait, don't I need a weapon of some sort?

That was right, I haven't really used a weapon going through this place. I couldn't just fight the boss on hand to hand combat with a bit of magic spells here and there. I needed a weapon to increase my chances of damaging the enemy.

"What am I wearing again?" I said out loud, looking down at my body to see if I even had something to cover myself with.

Luckily, I seem to be wearing a tattered pair of shorts below what seems to be cloth tied on my waist. It's like I was wearing one of those types of robe things and just didn't wear the top properly and let it flap around. Basically, I'm topless.

Now back to thinking about the weapon, I simply can't beat a boss without one, unless I'm a fucking monster or something. Maybe I could find weapons inside the boss room. Other people had surely died in there trying to kill the boss, but I have knowledge and experience in fighting, I just don't know who I fought against, who taught me how to fight, and basically any name of anyone I knew from my past life.

Sigh…

After that moment, I pushed open the large doors. Inside was sort of what I expected, a somewhat large room, with skeletons to the sides with some weapons and other stuff, and the boss somewhere in the middle.

The monster was a bear, again…, but this time it seems a lot more aggressive and it's mainly covered with white or gray fur. I could also see that it's a feet bigger than the one earlier. Whether this one is stronger or not, it's pretty obvious that it's ways above the other.

Weapons, weapons… I have to find a suitable one before it starts charging at me. Oh! That'll work!

I quickly dashed towards a pile of bones and swiftly took a dagger from the dozen weapons there. And as a reaction to my sudden movement towards the pile, the bear started dashing towards me, roaring as it went closer.

Weapon has been secured, now to find out how to kill this thing.

I first enhanced my physical strength then my speed. Thinking just that was enough, I dashed towards the rushing bear.

I wasn't just going to hit it head on, alternatively, I twisted and maneuvered my body into moving to its side then behind. With quick movements I jumped on its back and near its nape, I stabbed…

Once,

Twice,

Thrice before jumping off and running with the knife I used. I did some pretty good damage but it didn't seem to be a considerable amount. If I was going to continue stabbing, I'd need to do about a hundred more times at least. Without using all of my mana of course.

To be completely honest, I have no idea if this world's magic is the same as my last one. And I don't really know if I was gonna be able to use spells. And since body enhancement was just a simple distribution of mana through my body, it was easy to pull off. But right now I need something stronger to inflict greater damage.

What's something I can use that's not wasteful of mana and can do a lot of damage? Wait, I think I have an idea…

Focus…. I started to cast the spell. Like I said, it was pretty simple. But I still needed a bit of focus to effectively cast it. In my past life, I never really focused on making this skill stronger since its element wasn't compatible with my mana. But since this is a different world, something different might happen.

Everytime the bear would try to slash at me with it's claws, I would just quickly dodge and keep my focus. And after a few moments,

Water Bullet!

Marble sized blobs of water immediately materialized then immediately moved at speeds my eyes couldn't follow. A few of the bullets I cast were effective and drove a hole through both its legs and right arm. I expected the attack to be ineffective but I should really believe in myself more.

I leapt back farther away from the bear due to it looking to have gotten a lot angrier after my attack. Well, that's to be expected, it's probably getting to a second phase.

Loudly and hoarsely it roared, shaking the room by a little. Eyes glowing a radiance of purple, it's fangs and claws seem to get larger and sharper as well. And the mana that surrounded it seemed to turn much more menacing and heavy.

Yup, this is going to be a bit difficult…

I stood there, in a stance while holding the knife waiting the bear to charge at me with it's larger fangs and claws. But it was just circling me, probably looking for an opportunity.

Damn this thing is smart. Well, animals are pretty much all like this…

Think! I needed a plan immediately. Something that would end this as quickly as possible. The water bullet isn't enough. But with just this amount of mana, I wouldn't be able to…

I had a slight glimpse of what was above. Since this place was similar to a cave, it was to be expected.

Stone spikes! That's it! All I need to do is…?!

The bear started to charge at me, earlier than when I expected it to. But this was fine. I just had to time this right

Water bullet!

A single bullet of water shot up above me before I quickly leapt away to dodge the bear. And to what I expected, it didn't immediately come after me and stayed in that single spot.

I took a few glances at the rocking spike above it to see if it's starting to fall already. It still didn't fall so I immediately shot another bullet. Then it fell. But of course it was already too late and the bear dodged the spike.

It was still too fast to get hit by the spike, so that plan wasn't going to work anymore. Just this has gotten quite annoying. I don't want to drag this fight out for too long, I need to finish this as fast as I can.

What if…

I quickly took a glance at the knife I held with my right hand and thought to myself.

It was a short while, but it was nice using you.

Before the bear could fully react, I immediately dashed towards it, holding the knife reversed with the intent to stab with full force.

I remember seeing this attack from some show in my past life, but I don't really know if this would work as much as it did in that show. But well, this is a fantasy world, almost anything could happen.

As I was only a meter away from stabbing the stomach of the bear, it quickly tried to stop me by swinging its claws. I tried to dodge and only had my left shoulder grazed. It was a neglectable wound, nothing to worry much about.

Then as I finally closed the distance, I stabbed it, full of the intent to kill and destroy. And before it could attack me, I immediately yelled out.

"Burst into flames!"

As if the world followed up with my wish, a powerful surge of heat and steam came from within the stabbed bear. My plan was working.

"Again!"

Just like that, the surge repeated, burning and damaging the bear from inside. It roared and wailed in pain as the burns from the inside reduced its insides to a crisp.

"And again!"

I yelled once more. Inflicting damage to the inside of the bear once more to make sure its death was sure.

Again and again I repeated the same spell, giving the bear no chance of retaliation against my barrage of attacks. Time was of no worth to me that moment. It was as if I turned into an animal, preying on the predator that once preyed on myself.

It had a different feeling from fighting the last battle I had in my past life. This time, it was truly a fight for my survival, and not a fight to protect someone.

After many more attacks, I stopped, letting the burned corpse of the bear to drop on the ground and disperse into smoke, leaving a small chest and a purple crystal roughly six inches in length behind.

I was so fatigued at the time that I didn't even notice it and took the crystal, as well as open the chest. Inside it was three of the bear's claws, a fur coat(probably made from the bear's skin), and a dark gray colored dagger as long as one feet.

Just as I took the gray dagger and looked at its blue radiance in the dimly lit room, the dagger I used earlier shattered to pieces. I guess the recoil from the dozens of fire attacks was too much. But that was kind of expected.

Then and there, the fatigue finally got to me, making me lose dense of whatever what was around and making me faint. But I was pretty sure that before I closed my eyes, I saw two figures walking towards me.

A man and a woman...