1 1: A Stranger in the Woods.

It was as normal a day as any other in the Hyrell forest, Tetra was out exploring along with her twin sister, Petra, and their friends. The werebeast village of Rondel, where they came from, was right at the edge of the forest, not far from where the kids currently found themselves.

The forest was a natural wonder, supposedly old even during the age of the ancients, with dense vegetation and abundant flora. It was an almost magical place, always alive with the buzz of nature.

"C'mon, Tetra," one of the kids said, "tell us, what skills would you have if you could pick anything?"

"I can't tell you, Kylo," Tetra blushed, "you'd think it's stupid,"

"No stupider than Caleb wanting a skill that lets him spy on your mother changing," Kylo smirked, ribbing another of the boys

"I never said I wanted invivibilty to do that," the young teen blushed

"Caleb, we all know you want to fuck our mom," Petra teased, "it's a little wierd, but also kinda sweet in a way."

"I'm telling you, I don't want to have sex with your mom!" Caleb declared, rather overenthusiastically.

"Alright, if you say so," another of their group added, "but I total get it; their mom is hot."

Caleb groaned loudly, the blush on his face was still evident.

"Anyways," Kylo said, steering attention back to Tetra, "so, what your dream skill?"

"Fine," she said, "I would love to get a flying skill."

"Flying? That's all?" Kylo asked

"It doesn't seem like a big deal to you, but imagine being up over the clouds, like a harpy."

"We can't fly that high," their harpy friend, Ella, commented, "only things that go above the clouds are dragons, and angels."

"See? I told you you'd think it was stupid," Tetra accused,

Before Kylo could respond, the din of the forest suddenly cut out into an unnatural silence, triggering the primal instincts of these animalistic humanoids and putting them on alert. Suddenly, a blinding pillar of light erupted from the forest and shot into the sky.

"What the...?" Petra demanded, as the kids sheilded themselves from the surge of wind that rushed passed them.

"Incredible," Tetra realized, "for such strong anima to be released... do you know what that means?"

"But we've explored these forests dozens of times," Kylo said, "we've never seen a hint at a vault before."

Vaults. The lasts remnants of the ancients left in this world. No one knew how many existed, or when one would randomly open up, but the opening of a vault was considered by many to be an omen of great change.

Even before the light could fade, Tetra and her friends were rushing towards it's source. They came across an unfamiliar clearing, at the center of which was a large outcropping of rocks. On the largest boulder was an ornate set of doors made of glossy dark stone, a fading light coming from the golden designs engraved onto them.

"I can't believe it," Petra exclaimed, "we actually found a vault!"

"I wonder what we'll find inside?" Caleb asked as they approached cautiously.

The doors rumbled as they slid apart, groaning loudly as air rushed in the widening entrance, filling the vacuum within.

"Get ready," Kylo warned his friends as he drew his knife. They mimiced him, each readying their own weapon of choice in preparation to face off against whatever monster might be released. Vaults could hold anything; sometime priceless treasure, sometime relics of the ancients, and sometimes powerful and dangerous new types of monsters just waiting to tear whoever was outside apart.

For a tense several moments, nothing happened. Then, they heard the slapping echoes of bare feet on stone as a small figure emerged from the vault.

Tetra wasn't sure what to expect, but she was still caught by surprise when a man walked out of the vault, naked as the day he was born. He looked around dazed and confused before settling his eyes on the teens before him.

He studied them curiously, as if trying to tell whether they were really there, then he just stared into space before speaking,

"What the fuck...?" Was all he said before stumbling over and falling to the ground with a thud.

Petra, ever the sweet compassionate girl that she was, rushed to check on him before anyone could hold her back, "he's passed out."

The others came over to inspect him as well, finding him to look fairly human, except he didn't smell human.

"Why's he naked?" Ella asked, her eyes travelling down to his crotch.

"Nevermind that," Tetra said, "why did he come out of a vault?"

"He doesn't seem to be hurt anywhere," Petra said, "what should we do?"

"We need to tell the elders." Kylo decided.

The others nodded in agreement as they began carrying the strange man back towards their village.

* * *

Darkness. That was all he remembered. He had been in that darkness for what felt like an eternity then, all of a sudden, there was a blinding light before him that got larger and larger until he saw a door had opened before him.

When he walked out he found himself in a forest, ahead of him were six teens who... did they have animal ears and tails? And did that one girl have bird wings? It all felt so surreal, he was sure he was in some sort of dream, but it all felt so real, too real in fact.

As he was still trying to tell if he was dreaming or not, a chime went off in his head and a holographic window appeared before him;

[CONGRATULATIONS NEX LOKI! YOU HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFULLY REAWAKENED IN THIS NEW WORLD! YOU ARE NOT YET FULLY SYNCHRONISED WITH THE WORLD, BUT YOUR EXISTENCE IS COMPATIBLE. YOUR ANIMA AND STATS HAVE BEEN RESET; YOUR HALO AND OTHER PRIVILEGES HAVE BEEN LOCKED. BEST OF LUCK IN THIS NEW LIFE!

-ADMIN 0.]

"What the fuck...?" was all he could say.

Nex Loki? Was that his name? Also, 'anima' 'stats' and 'halo', he recognized those terms somehow. They were part of the system mechanics for... what was it? He felt like he should know all this, but his head was all fuzzy, and everything was spinning. Was it supposed to do that?

His body felt incredibly heavy all of a sudden and he fell to the ground. The last thing he saw before passing out was one of the animal humanoids rush towards him... werebeasts, that was what they were called.

When he came too, he found himself in a room he didn't recognize. He was on a bed, and for whatever reason he could sense that there was someone else in the room.

He sat up, groaning looking around. The room was mostly bare, just the bed and a desk. His eyes focused on the other person, who was sitting on a chair not far from the bed.

"You're finally awake," the woman noted, "thank goodness; you were out for three whole days."

She was an older woman, looking in her early to mid forties, definitely older than he was. She had wolf ears sticking out of her thick brown mane of hair. Her eyes were a deep teal color, alert and sharp, watching him closely.

She was a rather attractive woman, with a buxom figure and more than a little muscle mass from how her arms looked. She was dressed in a sleeveless blouse and a long skirt. Across her lap, her tail rested, brown and shaggy, yet meticulously groomed.

"Uh, where am I?" He asked, "what happened?"

"You're in our village," the woman said, "I'm Sara Clawthorne, one of the village elders. Some of our youths found you in the forest, naked and dazed."

"Naked?" He asked, confirming it with one quick check under the sheets.

"Yes," Sara said, "can you tell me your name? Do you remember it?"

He responded without really thinking, "Uh... Nex Loki." That was the name that welcome screen had called him and it sounded right to him.

"Hmm, a rather unusual name," Sara said, "So tell me, Nex-"

"Uh, Loki, please," Loki interrupted,

Sara furrowed her eyebrows, "alright, Loki, so how did you end up in the middle of our forest?" she asked

"I don't really know. I remember a deep darkness, like I was asleep, the next thing I know, there's this flash of light and I find myself here."

"Sounds rough," she comments, "so what are you?"

"Come again?"

"While you were out, we tried an appraisal on you because your anima certainly wasn't like that of a normal human, but you were shielded. Was that the effect of some sort of skill or what?"

"You appraised me?" He wondered.

The fog in his mind lifted some, and he found himself remembering some things. He now knew that anima was a form of energy present in all things. It was unique to each individual and was what allowed them to utilize skills, special abilities that users possess.

"Of course," she said, "you showed up naked outside of a newly opened vault, we wanted to know what you were,"

"Wait... a vault?" Loki asked, "what's a vault?"

Sara looked incredulous, "seriously, you've never heard of a vault? The huge tombs left behind from the time of the ancients? You came out of one."

Loki just looked at her, confused, he couldn't really recall anything from hearing her explanation. Maybe it was something he didn't know.

"I was in one of these vaults?" Loki asked, wondering how he got there.

Sara studied him, "you're not joking, are you?" She asked, realization dawning on her, "you really have no idea what a vault is?"

"Not really, no," Loki replied honestly

"But you knew about anima, and skills," Sara noted, "you recognized those terms, you even understood what I meant by appraisal."

Loki shrugged,

"I need to convene with the village cheif about this." she mused to herself. She obviously had her suspicions. "Wait here,"

"Not like I can go anywhere without clothes." He quipped, earning a soft chuckle from the elder woman.

After she left, Loki took a deep breath. Since he first woke up, he'd felt off; not entirely himself. He knew that there were massive gaps in his memory, but those gaps were slowly being filled with knowledge that seemingly came from nowhere.

He figured he was acclamating to this world, just like the welcome window had said. His body felt more solid the longer he was awake, more real. He was becoming more a part of this world.

While he came to terms with that revelation, he decided to test how much of the system mechanics he could remember.

"System Access." He commanded in his mind, then a holographic window appeared before him;

[STATUS]

Name: Nex Loki

Race: prime deva (fallen)

Sex: male (fluid)

Karma: neutral

Condition: wary

Jobs: trickster/master maker/lore master

Affiliation: N/A

Level: 1

Tier: Ace

HP: 100.00%

Anima: 100.00%

Points: 0pnts (cannot spend. shop not open.)

[SKILLS]

Anima Manipulation(fixed); Appraisal(fixed); Awareness(fixed); Concentration; Devil's Luck; Elemental Resistance; Faker; Foresight; Golden Rule; Heresy(fixed); Hero's Fortune; Illness Resistance; Iron Flesh(fixed); Iron Will(fixed); Joker; Longevity(fixed); Mental Fortitude; Night Vision(fixed); Opportunist; Pain Resistance; Poison Resistance; Parallel Thinking(fixed); Recovery(fixed); Shapeshifting(fixed)(locked); Survivor; Thought Acceleration(fixed); Trace; Universal Translator(fixed); Word is Bond;

(Only race skills and passive class skills are available at the moment. All other skills are locked. You must raise your level to begin unlocking them.)

[EQUIPMENT]

N/A

[TITLES]

Ace; Admin; Primordial Being; Lore Master; Rebel; Fallen; Sage; Survivor; Realm Lord; Inventor; Adventurer; Traveller; Dragon Slayer; Genius; Strong Willed; Supreme Commander; Observer; RISEN; EXHIBITIONIST;

[CLAN]

(Locked. Conditions not met)

[OPTIONS]

Inventory(Locked. Conditions not met)

Maps

Messages(1)

Info

[OBJECTIVES]

Welcome (complete)

Find Shelter (complete)

Find clothes (...)

Apparently he could only use his race skills and passive class skills, with whatever other skills he possesses being locked and inaccessible. He didn't understand how the [Shapeshifting] skill was both 'fixed' and 'locked', but he was sure it would make sense eventually.The two new titles gave him pause, but given his current situation he begrudgingly accepted them.

As he stared at his system window, he noticed that he had a new message. Telepathically opening it, he was greeted by a new message window;

[HI, LOKI. HOW ARE YOU ENJOYING THIS WORLD SO FAR?

LIKE ANY GOOD REINCARNATOR, YOU HAVE TO START FROM THE BOTTOM, WHICH IS WHY YOUR PRIVILEGES, GEAR AND LEVEL HAVE BEEN RESET. AS YOU HAVE DISCOVERED, YOUR MEMORIES ARE SLOWLY COMING BACK AS YOUR COMPATIBILITY WITH THE WORLD INCREASES, SO YOU WILL EVENTUALLY FIGURE OUT WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT HAPPENED TO THE WORLD.

I KNOW THIS ALL SEEMS UNFAIR BUT I AM NOT A CRUEL ADMINISTRATOR, SO I'LL LET YOU IN ON A LITTLE SECRET; YOUR VALKYRIES ARE SOMEWHERE OUT IN THE WORLD. WITH THEM YOU CAN REGAIN YOUR SEALED PRIVILEGES AND SKILLS QUICKLY AS YOU LEVEL UP. ALSO DO SOME ERRANDS FOR ME AND I WILL GIVE YOU ALL SORTS OF NEAT PERKS. INTERESTED?

Y OR N]

The Valkyrie. Fresh information flashed through Loki's mind. Fenris, Thor, Yggdrasil, Heimdall, Freja and Odin; they were his companion. He wanted to find them, it would be nice to have someone familiar with him.

He stared at the message and selected the Y option. The message changed;

[I KNEW I COULD COUNT ON YOU. THE VILLAGE OF RONDEL IS A NICE PLACE. I'M SURE YOU WILL BE ABLE TO LEVEL UP IN SUCH AN ENVIRONMENT. YOUR FIRST TASK IS TO REACH LVL.10.

YOUR REWARD FOR THIS WILL BE A SURPRISE FROM ME. I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT. ; )

-ADMIN 0.]

Loki stared at the message, not sure if he liked this Admin 0.

"So I just need to reach level 10? How hard can it be?" Loki scoffed, "But first, I'll need to get some clothes. I'll ask Sara when she gets back."