There was darkness.
Then, a faint chirping that gradually sharpened into a chorus of birdsong. A scent of damp earth, pine needles, and something else... something acrid and metallic, filled the air.
"Huh...?"
His eyelids fluttered, heavy and unfamiliar. He lay on his back, the rough texture of grass digging into his skin. The canopy of the forest offered a dappled shade, but slivers of sunlight still stabbed at his eyes. He squeezed them shut, shielding them with a clumsy hand.
"Where...?, Was this the void?"
With a groan, he pushed himself upright, his head swimming. Towering trees surrounded him, their branches swaying in a gentle breeze. Red birds flitted between the leaves, their melodies strangely cheerful amidst the unsettling quiet.
"Where am I?" The words escaped his lips in a hoarse whisper.
A wave of dizziness washed over him. This wasn't right. This wasn't... Was this heaven?
The forest blurred, memories flooding his mind in disjointed fragments: the blinding flash, the searing heat, the sensation of his body dissolving into ash. He'd been so tired, so utterly done with his monotonous existence. Had he even tried to escape the explosion? Or had he simply welcomed the oblivion?
A translucent screen flickered into existence before him, jarringly out of place in the natural setting.
[You have been chosen by the God of Death]
[Please, choose a class]
[Fighter]
[Mage]
[Assassin]
"What the...?" He stared at the floating options, his mind struggling to reconcile the serene forest with the blatant video game interface. God of Death ? Class selection? Was this some kind of elaborate joke?
He reached out a tentative hand, expecting his fingers to pass right through the illusion. Instead, his hand met a solid barrier. Startled, he flinched back, his fingers brushing against the [Assassin] option.
[Your class has been chosen]
"Wait! No! I didn't even—"
The screen vanished, replaced by a new message:
[Your trial starts now!]
"Trial?" Panic flared in his chest. What kind of trial? Where was he supposed to go? What was he supposed to do?
He scrambled to his feet, his gaze darting around the forest, searching for any sign of what was to come. "God of Death?" he called out, his voice trembling. "What's going on? Where am I?"
Silence answered him, broken only by the rustling of leaves and the distant calls of birds. The normalcy of the forest seemed to mock his fear.
He looked down at his body. He was younger, smaller than he remembered. The clothes he wore were torn and stained with blood, the fabric clinging to his skin. A cold dread settled in his stomach. This wasn't his blood.
His fingers traced the jagged scar that bisected his neck, a grim testament to a life violently cut short. He remembered the pain, the terror, the desperate struggle for breath as his lifeblood gurgled from the wound. Someone had murdered him.
He staggered back, his breath hitching in his throat. He had to get out of here.
Ignoring the throbbing in his head and the tremor in his limbs, he stumbled forward, pushing through the undergrowth, desperate to escape the suffocating stillness of the forest. He didn't know where he was going, but any direction was better than this.
He pushed his way through a thicket of thorny bushes, ignoring the stinging scratches on his arms and face. He walked blindly.
But something made him stop.
THUD!!!!
He paused, then, slowly approached while covering his presents in a nearby bush.
THUD!!, THUD!!!
He heard the loud thud again, even louder. He braced himself for the worst scenario, maybe the person who killed him was still here.
Using the bushes for cover, he cautiously approached the direction he heard the sound.
Finally, he got close enough to see what it was. It was an old man trying to cut down an oak tree, with each swing of his axe, his body weakly followed the rhythm, sweats dripped down his face as he struggles to pull the axe out of the tree.
He pulled the axe out and kept it leaned against the tree then grabbed a wooden container, drank from its contents and went back to work.
Staring at the old man made the reincarnated soul feel like he had seen him before, he wasn't sure but he felt certain that he knew him.
He decided to approach the man, he carefully came out from his hiding place then cautiously walked to the man till he was close enough and called out to him.
"E-Excuse me, sir!"
The man stopped almost immediately and turned around, wielding his axe like a sword that was ready to cut through anything. As soon as he saw the seventeen years old teenager, he paused before yelling
"Where have you been, boy? You almost gave me a heartattack!" The old man shouted before dropping his axe on the ground. "You know I'm supposed to take this woods to the next town by tomorrow, so you better get to work if you want to receive any payment!"
_Work?, What is he talking about?_
He thought for a while, unable to grasp what was going on he simply answered
"Y-Yessir!"