As whispers of conciousness slowly rocked him back to reality, he opened his eyes to a blinding light that seemed to sear into his very mind. Shielding his face with his hands, he tried getting up off of the cold rocky floor of the cave only to fall back down as intense pain shot throughout his body.

  As memories of yesterday slowly trickled back to him, he stared at the ceiling of the gave trying to gather his thoughts. As he lay there with his mind resembling a meat grinder of thoughts, one thing stuck out to him through the cacophony of noise and memories, the will to be truly free and independent.

  Forcing his pain riddled body to move, he circulated his mana again, this time slower. It seemed like his body was still mending itself but it was taking a lot of mana out of him. Still, it was a necessity that had to be carried out.

  Rolling onto his side, then onto his stomach, he looked outside again and squinted. What he saw had him holding his breath in his lungs. A scenery he had only seen on the flat of his TV. Sprawling green hills in the distance, pockmarked by trees all around. A depiction of serenity one thought lost made him feel for a moment that maybe it was what religions used to refer to as heaven.

  Bullshit. Religions did not exist anymore and he didn't even believe in humanity much less the divine. He started crawling on his stomach to make it outside and in a blinding flash it felt like he had been transported to a whole new world.

  Forcing himself to sit, he leaned back against a boulder and stared at this new world. Trying to gather his thoughts, forming plans, what to do next and what would most likely happen.

  First of all he needed to be in perfect condition to do anything. Second was to find a way to get down this mammoth of a mountain safely. Third was to find shelter or maybe civilisation. Thoughts about speech, language, acceptance, and more rushed through his head and he kept going over ideas as his body healed slowly.

  Finally when his body healed, he stood up and took a deep breath. Placing his hand on the cave and using magic he generated a snowboard that looked more like a surfboard. Taking it to the edge of the cave he could see a steep gradient of glacier and snow that stretched on for miles and with a final breath he took the leap of faith and went towards his new life.

  -----

  He did not know for how long he had been sliding down the slopes as knees felt numb and his legs heavy. His extremities would have been frostbitten by now if he had not been circulating his mana though them gently and his mind felt empty. Still with a single purpose he continued. He was already halfway down and the sun was right overhead.

  He kept going, sliding, swerving. Just taking in the unending landscape of white powder that seemed to stretch on for eternity like a party goer's dream. When only a fraction of the way was left his heart started bursting with joy as he became increasingly impatient for this ride to end and in his haste failed to realise the cliff that he ran off of. For a moment the force on his legs and back vanished it seemed like bliss until he started falling into more of his hated snow.

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  It knocked the wind out of him that had been battering him for the major part of the day as he rolled down the mountainside. Rocks and boulder that smashed into him at various points made him realise that the snow was thinner here but it gave him no solace as he eventually came to a halt again.

  Too battered to move, he realised he had ended up right where he started physically. He could only crawl again. His mana almost spent because of hours of careful use. Slowly crawling around the snow and gravel, he trudged his way through the landscape until he found a crevice by what seemed to look like a dirt path.

  Hungry and thirsty, his brain failed to process this monumental discovery as he holed himself up in it and fell asleep one again with the setting of the sun.

  -----

  What woke him this time was pain, thirst, and hunger. Specifically in that order as he realised most of his mana has regenerated by this point. With shallow breaths he tried circulating his mana again to heal himself but he realised that the recovery this time was abysmal. He had run out of those magical healing syringes and recovery seemed like a multi day job.

  On instinct he tried resetting his bones but the lack of energy didn't allow form him to be able to do even that. So he started off by emptying his small titanim backpack that was stuck to his back in a sleek design. Looked like an ergonomic hump that besides carrying supplies also protected his spine and saved him from dying a dog's death in the past few days.

  A thermos, 14 packs of rations that heat up when you add water to them, his dual kukri blades, a flare, his phone and headphones. A few pairs of socks and underwear, lasty an expired condom.

  Letting out a big sigh about is lack of luck, he realised that he never filled his thermos. So out he went again, crawling to the snow as he had to shovel as much as he could into it. Then he used fire magic on his finger and stuck it into his open thermos as the snow melted and turned into water. Placing the filter back on the thermos he kept drinking until it was completely dry again.

  He did this twice more until he was satisfied and had a full thermos as well. The filter would last him 10,000 refils so he wasn't really about water. What he was worried about though was now taking a leak, as he was still crawling around suing his elbows.

  Well screw dignity, no one is here to watch me anyway so without hesitation he turned to one side and started taking a leak letting out a big moan. With his eyes closed and the flood gates open, he didn't know when he had felt to relieved in the past.

  As he opened his eyes after a while he made direct eye contact with an old lady in the distance and a child who was helping her along. Both of them stared at him while stared at them.

  His first thought to flip around and not flash his manhood was replaced by the fact that there were actual humans here. They were clad in furs of different kinds and he could only see their faces and hands but he could tell they were human.

  Then he remembered that he was still wearing his combat helmet and from their perspective what they saw was an armoured guy lying on his side peeing while making eye contact with them the entire time, exposing him self to the elderly and the under-age simultaneously.

  Well his first contact with the new locals was fucked up to say the least.