Awakening

{Awaken traveler. You had met your doom wherever you were before, but none of that matters now. What is important is that you are here, and that makes you special. Only a select few of the deceased get selected for this opportunity. So, what are you called, brave traveler?}

That was the first thing i had heard when i got there. The monotone voice of a woman I couldn't see. Maybe that was because of the fact that I couldn't see anything at the moment. I thought about her question and deliberated for a bit before answering.

"It's Kollecter Jenkins ma'am. With a K."

This was the extent of what I could remember, besides basic knowledge. Trying to recall anything else felt like it was shrouded in a fog, blocked but not gone.

{Traveler Kollecter, you are here to explore. In the place where you about to appear, none of the previous bodily processes you previously had are not apparent. Aging will be halted, and death of any kind will be reversed. Even if you were to be eviscerated, your body will be restored.

The objective of you being here is to explore many environments, facing various enemies, collecting items, and gaining talents. You do all of this to most likely die and start over, save for gold bars and town building materials. You can use these to unlock new talents, weapons, and armors. These will help you to survive longer and travel farther into the depths to your likely doom.

Now traveler Kollecter, open your eyes and enter the cave. Survive the depths and defeat the beast!}

As she said the last sentence, her voice started to fade. Slowly, my vision filled with color and light, showing me a fountain and cave. Looking around, i saw a screen behind me. The screen had six buttons, and four counters all reading zero. Each counter had a symbol for different types of materials that I could later have. Out of the buttons, only one could be accessed at the moment. It had the words 'Leaderboard'.

I raised my finger to click the leaderboard button, and once I did, a list showed up. At the top was a name that read 'Fladnag'. I wondered who the one occupying the top spot was, but ended up leaving it be.

I turned away from the screen and faced the cave. It looked... relatively normal. But it was off somehow. Just ominous. I tried not to think too hard about it and walked toward it. As I stared at the entrance, I felt like it was the jaws of a beast, opening wide to swallow me whole. The smell of blood wafted from the depths of the cave, and a wave of fear washed through my very core.

Attempting to enter this place felt like a sin, as every fiber in my body wished to be as far away from this cave as possible. What had the voice sent me to do? What sort of primal evil was waiting for me in the depths, awaiting my doom? I ended up being more curious that fearful in the end, and took the final step, even though my body was begging me not to. Suddenly, the voice of the woman sounded again, but somehow even more monotonous than before.

{Please choose a weapon.}

Suddenly, the light from behind me disappeared, and a single screen faded into existence in front of me. Five weapons were shown: A sword, a bow, a staff, a spear looking thing, and a knife of sorts. Each weapon looked just as good as the last. No information was given on them, and I was left to my own devices to choose a weapon. I put in a lot of thought, and ended up just choosing the sword.

After touching the sword option on the screen, my eyes filled with a white light, and my body felt like it was melting into the white before...