He peered deeper into the reflective surface of the shattered blade.
He didn't know what to do. Now there was about half a meter span between the impending walls and the room wasn't getting any bigger.
"Why a dagger? Why?!", he exclaimed to the eerie voice but there was no answer.
The shards on the ground were scattered abroad and some were piercing his sides as the walls closed in even tighter.
He was beginning to feel closterphobic and the compressed air was making it hard to breath.
'You have chosen your fate.'
Does words echoed in his head in those few final seconds.
'What does that mean? What does it mean?'
Understanding struck.
'No! Does he expect me to… no, no, no, no, no, no.'
The ominous words gained immediate lucidity and became heavy with meaning.
'The artifacts…they are my fates.'
'And I chose a dagger. So those that mean…,' he said with tremor in his words as he slowly raised the dagger
His arms were staggering as he struggled to raise it up.
He sponsored his thoughts with the grip of both his hands.
'...that if I ever want to get out of here, I must seal my fate.'
"And that means…I must kill myself!"
He immediately thrusted the wounded blade into the core of his heart and let out a loud shriek.
He laid on the ground lifeless, in a pool of his own blood.
***
[Acquiring reincarnation data]
[Resuming reincarnation]
[Reincarnation in progress]
[Reincarnation complete]
[Congratulations, welcome to Dimension X]
[Warning: No further reincarnation would be possible after present life]
***
Drip, drip drip.
Droplets of water from a mesophytic leaf, fell silently onto the head of a brightly tinted boy.
The immediately jerked up, his breath spiking for a moment before returning back down to earth.
He wandered his gaze about the scenery taken in by the wonderful sight.
He lowered his view and could see toes, legs, arms and they were his.
He ran his arms through one another astonished and over whelmed with joy.
"So it worked. It actually worked! I am back world."
His celebration halted for a moment when he noticed a young fair girl lying beside him.
Her hair weaved with bright stripes of red and yellow racing competively through her hair and her crimson coloured apparel coated in chains of gold lining.
Moments later, she awoke from her slumber, rubbing her eyes, rising from the ground.
The beautiful face before him was definitely familiar but he couldn't make any substantial guesses.
He decided to break the silence and the imminent awkwardness first "Hi, I am…", for a moment he forgot his name.
'Shouldn't there be a…'
[Congratulations Max Fentanyl. You have been reincarnated into Dimension X.]
'I knew it!'
"Hi, I am Max. And you?"
"Me? You don't know who I am?"
The question struck hard. The face bore similar resemblance to someone he must have known before and he was absolutely sure that he didn't know anyone here so he had no option but to fess up and face the music.
"So you really don't remember me? Okay, I am Melfina, the goddess of reality."
'A goddess! That's why her face looked so familiar. Probably the one that penultimately reincarnated me.'
"Sorry, about that. I think the reincarnation has got my head all fussy."
Then as for what she was doing here, well that was rather too obvious so he didn't want to bother her with peeving questions.
Perhaps, she was rebuked for he messup and banished to live a mortal life probably for some years as punishment.
"Where are we anyway?"
"Probably in some kind of forest. The vegetation here is quite novel."
"Twighlight is drawing near. I suggest we take a walk around separately to cover more ground. The forest is quite large and we are gonna need to look for a nearby village to reast our heads for the night. Meet here in the next hour?"
"Okay. Fine by me."
The two diverged in opposing directions, following the forest path.
Max walked for a while, before another thought crashed in his head.
'If I am not mistaken, I think there should also be a ...'
Name: Max Fentanyl
–Class: Phantom
–Blood line: Fentanyl
–Type: none
–Soul: 10
–Constitution: 7
–Element: _
–Ability: Anti-magic –
–Points: 0
–System-based skill: Insight
'Yeah, I knew it.'
He glanced quickly through the numerical representation of his ability and deemed it alright for someone that has been inactive for almost a decade.
But there was an anomaly, two infact.
One was his soul. A soul saturation degree of 10 was considered abnormal especially at this stage.
It belonged to mages who over the years had absorbed countless orbs and cores but even a minute fraction ever achieved such a feat.
Perhaps, the number of years he had been disembodied left the ambient mana hypotonic to his membranless surface.
That is probably the reason why his hair was coated in a ghost white tint.
As for the other– his skill.
Anti-magic! That ability didn't even exist let alone being rare. Could he even be compatible with real magic?
More thoughts and questions like this resonated within him.
He decided to try out some magic to assure himself that his fears were just elusive.
He tried but nothing happened. He continued some more but nothing still.
He didn't want to believe that his unique skill posed as an obstacle in magic use.
He decided to ignore that fact after all he hadn't even awakened though in some of the other worlds he had been to, some people usually awaken from birth while some others need an inducer like an orb or a serum and the rest, duds.
But this reasoning was slightly opposed by the null value on his element and ability type but he didn't let that discourage him.
He walked further up the forest path and spotted a berry bush. He approached it and crouched a bit to pluck some out to taste.
[Iris Berries: Special type of berry only grown in temperate climate and mana filled air. Purple gritty but sweet taste. Slightly acidic. Safe to eat.]
He found the detailing a bit much but what he was really after was it's edibility so he indifferently tossed a few into his mouth.
"Hmmm," Max smiled as the juicy berry collapsed within his mouth with pleasing outburst of sweetening delight.