The very next moment Theo was somewhere else, his mind turning blank for just a moment as his brain tried reconciling the sudden shift. All around him were trees of a radiant brown with emerald leaves, needles and nuts hanging from lush branches and a lingering, sweet scent he couldn't quite place. The air felt lighter than he was used to, his nostrils and lungs inviting it in with more comfort than he'd ever experienced. It was... clean.

  Bird song was what he noticed next, though the canopy made the sources too elusive for him to spot. He then heard the slight trickle of a nearby brook, causing him to turn in its direction to find the slightest of water running down a steep, rocky cliff, pooling in a minuscule pond. There the elusive bird, small of stature despite its loud voice, landed and flapped about with rapid wings.

  Theo took in the beauty of the place before his mind started reminding him of what had just happened to him. He'd died. He'd been sent somewhere, talked with a woman claiming godhood before she flung him down here, wherever here was. He felt the unfamiliar weight of a book in his hand and gave it his full attention. It was supposed to help him with a new start, after all.

  He inspected the cover, finding it tired and faded with no text or graphics to explain what it was about. Then, the second supposed gift of the woman revealed itself, surprising Theo enough to drop the book after awkwardly fumbling it.

  Item: Rookie's World Primer

  "The fuck?" he gasped just as the suddenly appearing floating text vanished about just as quickly.

  Theo looked around some more, finding nothing resembling the same thing. He then stared down at the book resting on the forest floor.

  Item: Rookie's World Primer

  "Huh... That's different," he mused, then picked up the book. Once Theo found it rather in the way, though, the text reduced in size and floated to the upper right corner of the very book it was... naming?

  He opened the book to the first page, finding a hastily scribbled note of a rough, ancient paper mushed between the harder, equally aged cover and a stack of pristine, brilliantly white paper.

  Item: Arcana's message for Theo

  "Why not just tell me earlier?" he sighed, opening the note.

  'Hiya, brat. Say 'hi' to Luni for me. Oh, and don't forget to entertain me.'

  It wasn't even an important message, just... 'oops, I forgot'? The ancient paper then crumbled to dust in his very hands, once more surprising him enough to almost drop his book. This time he managed to keep it firm in his grasp, though, and with a hard roll of his eyes, he took to inspect the first page.

  On the perfect piece of paper were scribbles of obscure, annoyingly simple symbols. Three of them littered the page in a haphazard manner, none of them being as wide or tall as the others. That wasn't the worst of it, though. Theo couldn't understand any of it one bit.

  He turned the page, finding more arcane symbols, each one seemingly different. Skipping ahead quickly, Theo found that the amount of symbols, as well as some kind of interaction between some of them, increased the further into the book he peeked. The final pages were filled with hundreds of the mysterious glyphs, each one seemingly fighting for the white space between them. There were lines drawn between them, circles almost perfectly uncentered around different clusters of them and squares, triangles and more seeming randomly placed on the page.

  Theo shut the book with a chilled expression, his hand growing both red and white where he clasped the book hard.

  "That bitch-"

  Thunder rumbled angrily and the very air around Theo grew heavy, a phenomenon that was starting to grow a bit too familiar to him.

  "-witch!" he attempted to correct himself to save his own skin. He instantly regretted the first and only word he could manage to make the original one sound like.

  Surprisingly, the air smiled at him and stopped building up tension. He'd been fearing a wrathful lightning strike or something, judging by the sudden shift in the air.

  'Note to self, don't anger the god,' he promised himself, then flipped the book around and started from scratch again, this time upside down. While it didn't help his understanding of the contents, it certainly didn't make matters any worse. It was still just a bunch of scribbles.

  No, that wasn't even the right word for it. While he'd thought so originally, each symbol was decidedly drawn as if there was no other place for them to be. They had to be on that first page because that was how it worked. There was no hesitation, just facts on paper. He recognised the intent, yet all he saw was indecipherable drawings.

  "How is this helpful?" he asked breathily. He didn't get a reply.

  A rustle caught his attention, but only because of the lack of any accompanying breeze. He turned, seeing the low brush propping up against a nearby tree shake and stir. Again, something suddenly popped up in his vision, blocking the tiny creature that appeared simultaneously.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  Danger! Powerful Forest Squirrel

  This message was a vibrant red, and after squinting and tilting his head to try to look past the block of text, it moved above and slightly to the side of the minute animal, allowing him to see it in full detail.

  It was bright red and had a long, poofy tail. The tail was more than twice the length of its main body, which had a tiny head with proportionately large front teeth. Its short legs had similarly large claws, though all-in-all they weren't terribly dangerous-looking. It was actually pretty cute.

  The squirrel squeaked and Theo could swear he saw its eyes flash red for just an instant. Then he turned directly away from it and sprinted as fast as he could as the monster pounced, its tail growing even larger, sharp spikes.

  "Fuck!" he screamed, unwilling to turn his head to look back.

  He heard whooshing projectiles flying past him and while he ran across the forest floor, twigs and rustling leaves still sounded behind him. Luckily, it seemed like his massive legs, relatively speaking, were doing great at keeping a similar speed to the beast.

  It took about thirty seconds before he finally caught a glimpse of the projectiles aimed at him. It was indeed the same needle-like spikes that had grown from its furry tail. One blood-red needle slammed into a tree just in front of him, sticking deep into it before the whirring sound and rapid vibration stopped.

  The escaping young man hadn't even considered this earlier, but he was so exceptionally happy that his clothes, shoes and all had somehow made the journey along with him, not just to Arcana's throne, but to this scary world as well.

  As he silently cursed the b-, or rather, the witch's world for having super-dangerous tiny squirrels armed to their large teeth with ranged weapons, he was coming up on a large pillar of mossy rock, forcing him to turn. He turned right, unknowingly heading straight into a path without an exit.

  Rock outcroppings grew more common as he darted through a more and more tunnel-like area of the forest. Rope-like vines criss-crossed the increasingly rocky area, growing above and around trees and branches as the very ground turned bumpier and more difficult to traverse.

  An angry squeak from behind let the running man know that he was the only one impacted by this. The squirrel was getting closer.

  Further ahead Theo saw another shift of terrain. A grey, brick staircase, wider than it was high, was leading up to a derelict temple of some sort, with tall and thick pillars holding a half-crumbled ceiling up.

  A statue stood resolute, defiant, almost, in the middle of the temple. While carved of simple, grey stone, it was noticeably discoloured by time and moss covered large parts of it. Still, the familiar figure was easily recognisable, especially after so little time since last he saw her.

  A sharp needle buried itself in Theo's lower back as an even sharper pain exploded up his back. The thinness might've been what allowed him to keep running, eventually starting to climb the stairs and gaining ground again at the tiny monster harassing him even after all this running. Then, the worst happened.

  Theo stopped feeling the pain of the needle stuck inside his back. His feet grew heavy. He stumbled as his right foot wouldn't lift high enough to reach the next, final step of the stairs, and he careened forward along the decrepit temple floor. His entire body was growing numb, much more so than exhaustion should've made it. He knew, then, that he'd been poisoned.

  In a final manoeuvre, Theo managed to turn his body and face up towards the ceiling as he finished his slide toward the base of the statue. The squirrel was on him in moments, savouring its kill as it laughed maniacally. It inched up Theo's leg, its sharp claws ready and tearing tiny holes in his trousers even as it grinned.

  'Filthy monster,' Theo thought, completely at the mercy of the fierce rodent as his body lay limp.

  The squirrel jumped playfully up to the man's stomach, landing less carefully than its earlier treading and opening small, paper cut-like wounds. In a sick twist of fate, or maybe just a sadistic twist of a squirrel, Theo could still feel every ounce of pain. The wounds stung like a burn, but the squirrel wasn't happy with just the one set.

  Again it jumped, twisting itself slightly as it launched to tear its victim's flesh more effectively. As it landed, it did so with lingering momentum, carving more skin even as it landed. As this was pretty effortless for the beast, soon enough Theo's stomach and chest was riddled with tears forming just the slightest of rivulets of blood. Death by a thousand cuts wasn't in this squirrel's vocabulary. Death by a million would be too quick.

  The sadistic rodent laughed even more, somehow finding an increasing amount of satisfaction even after blood started pooling beneath Theo's still-lying form.

  Knowing the goddess, Arcana, was likely watching, he looked up at the barely-there ceiling of the temple standing in her name, cursing her as he wondered if this was 'fun' enough for her.

  He noticed a faint white light creeping up the statue even amidst all its mossy gloriousness and he could swear it was looking down on him. Its dull gaze wasn't filled with amusement, but rather pity. That was somehow even worse.

  Its eyes turned a hazy white, radiating hues of various colours while still decidedly white in their centre. Lightning crackled around her head like a halo formed of thunderstorms.

  Arcana deems your gift worthy of a blessing.

  The next thing Theo knew, a single bolt of decisive lightning struck down from the heavens above, slamming into his forehead with a blazing pain.

  A shockwave of massive proportions blasted away with him at its centre, sending the evil squirrel of doom and torture far into the forest once more. He spared a thought for the monster, wishing it dead by horrific circumstance, like getting splattered across a tree or five.

  Arcana has granted you a blessing: God-touched Healing.

  God-touched Healing (Instant): God-touched Healing instantly restores you to 100% health and wellness. It restores stamina and mana to 100%.

  God-touched Healing (Instant) Critical Success! See calculation?

  God-touched Healing has applied Lingering Magic (Boon)

  Lingering Magic (Boon): The lingering magic of a Divine-tier spell runs through your entire body. Increases Mana recovery rate by 1000% until effect ends. Gives a chance of hallucination. Gives a chance to see through the veil. Gives a chance for a random, magical event to trigger in any of your affected limbs. Gives a chance for instant death that increases over time. Gives a chance for your physical body to explode. Gives a slight chance for spontaneous hair growth. Permanent Luck +10. Permanent Luck + 10%. Permanent Luck -10. Lingering mana remaining: 999.

  A whistling sound cut through the ozone-filled air as Theo's eyes gawked at the block of text telling him how absolutely fucked he was.

  "That's new," said a voice.