I walked out of the cave and saw a sweeping vista of forest and mountains. Trees, trees, and more trees. I could no longer deny that I was in a different world. Of course, this means that I really did die on my couch. My anger simmered inside me.

  The cave was set halfway up a large hill, about 80 feet about the forest floor. No towns or cities in sight as I looked over the forest. Apparently, I was alone in the vast wilderness of this planet. I didn’t see any roads or rivers. The trees of the forest could easily hide a football stadium, much less a small village. Suddenly, I felt very small and weak as I was confronted by the vastness of the forest. A feeling of danger emanated up from the forest, like a hungry beast watching its prey before attacking. I just knew that travelling through the forest is going to be very dangerous. The angel had mentioned monsters in his letter and I am sure I will meet many as I journey to the town.

  I walked back into the cave and decided it was time to eat. I pulled out my bowl of everlasting food and began to eat and formulate a plan. The gruel was pretty bland.

  I knew that I would have to go to the city Arigulius mentioned. However, as it stood now, I doubted I would even make it through the forest. With the exception of the knife, I wasn’t all that familiar with my weapons. So, I would need to practice with them. I would also need to explore my magic. I knew a few basic spells, and I would have to practice casting them. I have plenty of questions about magic but no one to ask. I think improvement will be tough. Lastly, I wasn’t completely comfortable with my new body. I mean going from a 67-year-old, out of shape body, to a peak human body, is a hell of a change. I mean I feel great. Hell, better than great and my new body was extremely powerful but I just wasn’t used to it. I decided I would spend a few days getting used to everything before I headed out.

  I started on a daily routine. First, I would do acrobatics and strength moves with my body, including my old martial arts forms. This helped with the anger I felt. It seemed I had a deep-seated anger at my death and current situation. I was unreasonable and I knew it, but it was there. I used the physical activity to help me get over it. Lots of pushups, hand stands, sprints, sudden starts and stop, followed by the martial arts forms. I modified the forms, because I found that I could include magic. Adding magic, that was a game changer.

  After physical training, came weapons training. Spear, sword and dagger. I developed a routine for each weapon. The dagger was the easiest routine to create. This was because I was already familiar with using one. I think because I had used the sword against the demon, that some sword techniques were already ingrained in my brain and using them to create the routine.

  However, the spear was totally different. I had no idea how to use a spear other than jabbing it forward. It took a few days for me to understand that using a spear was completely different than either the sword or dagger. I developed a routine that used the spear to keep my opponent away. Always moving with the spear pointed at my opponent. Jabs, thrusts were the easy part, but how do you block with the spear. I put a lot of thought into it. Deflection seemed to be a better path then straight up blocking. I imagine a sword being swung at me, and using my spear to deflect it to the side, a quick spin and hitting my opponent with the shaft, while getting distance. Distance always seemed to be the key. I also found that damage would be done by stabbing rather than cutting. Cutting something rather than stabbing was just beyond me for now. All the physical activity helped me deal with my anger, keeping it from erupting.

  Next was magic. The fact that I could use magic was truly wonderful, and it helped even more to alleviate my anger. I started by casting Mana Dart, Wind Blade, and Fireball until I ran out of mana. My quickest spell was Mana Dart. I think it was a combination of the low mana cost and the spell level. It was already at level 5, where Wind Blade and Fireball were at level 1. I practiced quick casting with each spell. The first time I tried with Fireball, it exploded before I could throw it. Thank goodness I had Regeneration. But that didn’t stop the pain immediately. I didn’t have a chance to cast Cure All or Heaven’s Heal because you had to actually be sick/injured, and apart from the Fireball incident (which I will never speak about again), I was never injured. I tried several times, but the spells just wouldn’t cast, and yes, I forgot about the Heaven’s Heal spell until after Regeneration had already healed me. The pain, once again, reinforced the fact that this was real and not a coma.

  If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

  I tried to keep myself busy during the day, and was successful in keeping my mind occupied. After about 2 weeks, I had successfully dealt with my anger. I realized that getting angry at everything wasn’t really doing any good. I needed to move past it, and did.

  However, nights were a different story. My mind would always go back to wondering how I could get back to Earth, to see my wife and daughter again. I tried to bargain with God, and Arigulius. Promising to be ‘good’, go to church every Sunday, be a better person. Even eat my vegetable, anything they wanted. Of course, I never got an answer.

  After a while, my mind would wander back to my family. I missed my wife and daughter terrible. I am not ashamed to admit I cried when thinking of them. I was sure they knew I was dead and had moved on because I was actually dead back on Earth. As for me moving on, it was different. I felt their loss as if it happened yesterday. I tried to imagine them having recovered from my loss and being happy. This helped with my depression, but it also made me very lonely.

  Sometimes, the mornings were the worst. I would wake up and not remember I was on Tellus. For a few brief moments, I would still think I was on Earth and had to get ready to go to work. It only lasted a few moments, but then reality would reassert itself, and I was be devastated. Each time I picked myself back and continued. The past needs to stay in the past.

  I was also getting tired of gruel. Bland just didn’t cover it anymore. Completely tasteless was a better fit.

  From sheer boredom, I started combining magic into my weapons routines. I discovered a way to cast Wind Blade from my sword. I also was able to light my spearhead on fire. It took many, many, many attempts to get it to work. After getting to a point where I was confident in my ability to incorporate the magic into the weapons, I started modifying my weapons routines. In the end, the routine was so different, that I decide to call my new physical and weapons martial arts: Earth, Wind and Fire style. I am from Earth and it incorporates wind and fire. Besides, I really loved that band. In time, I was able to think about my family without becoming overly depressed. I was still sad and lonely, but was able to function and move on.

  Two more weeks of training and I began to feel very comfortable with my ability to defend myself. I took to taking short trips into the forest. These trips also helped improve my morale. These trips usually lasted about an hour. I am not really an outdoors person but something about being outside of the cave made me happy or at least less angry. I also used the trips to familiarize myself with how to move through the forest. I wouldn’t say quietly, as I am not woodsman, and I am sure I made a hell of a racket. I used Identification on everything. I spammed Identification so much that I almost automatically called it whenever I looked at anything. I also decided to looked for game trails. But after multiple attempts, I realized I wouldn’t recognize them if I was standing on one.

  During the next few weeks, my anger vanished, being replaced by more of a sense of loneliness than I ever felt. I was never a lonely person. I always had lots of acquaintances before I married. After marriage, I always had someone around. Now, nights were the worst. I didn’t have anything to distract me from thoughts about my old life. It made for some painful times.

  After six weeks of training, I brought up my skill status to check my improvements:

  [Skills:

  Combat 5

  Magic 5

  Weapons 5

  Sword 5

  Dagger 10

  Spear 3

  Unarmed Combat 5

  Identification 10

  ]

  [Spells:

  Cure All 5

  Heaven’s Heal 5

  Cleanse 6

  Mana Dart 5

  Wind Blade 3

  Fireball 3

  ]

  Skill and Spell levels have been increasingly harder to come by in the last few weeks. In the last week, none of the spell levels or weapon skills had increased, except Identification. I had used it hundreds of times. Physically, I was as ready as ever. Mentally, I was also ready, as I was tired of talking to myself and needed some human interaction. Thoughts of my family made me happy even though I still missed them.

  I have to asked myself, was it worth staying to try to raise my levels, or should I start my trip to town. Who knows how much more time I could spend trying to increase them before something leveled. It could be a day, a week, a month or a year.

  I needed to come up with a short term and long-term plan. Arigulius said I needed 5 years to recover using the ambient essence, and I couldn’t do that length of time alone, as I was already a little stir crazy and beginning to talk to myself. To be frank, I needed human interaction to avoid becoming really crazy, and to have that, I had to travel to a city.

  I spent some time planning what I needed to do to survive for the next 5 years.

  The plan:

  Step 1: Start my trip through the forest.

  Step 2: Find a city to live in.

  Step 3: Start a career that would sustain me through the next 5 years.

  Step 4: Learn about magic.

  Step 5: Make friends to help pass the time.

  Step 6: Live a happy life.

  Okay, not a great plan and not very detailed, but it was something to get me started. With that, I decided I was as ready as I was ever going to be and that in the morning, I would head off toward the rising sun and hopefully reach a town after a few days. With the decision made, I packed all my stuff. When I slept that night, I had pleasant dreams for the first time in a long time.