え

Having the hunch that the torch was actually preventing him to see everything beyond its radius, he then tried to lean the torch onto the wall and tried to crawl to the outside of the illumination.

'Mayday! I can't see nor feel anything!'

He felt like he was moving to a total void outside of the illumination.

Kivas then found a rock. He hit the ground a couple of times, making sure that he could hear it, and then lightly threw it just slightly outside of the torch's radius.

It didn't let out any sound.

When he approached it along with the torch on his third hand, the rock was there.

Shiver sent down his spine.

If he had any.

'Well, well, it seems like I couldn't see, hear, nor perceive anything outside of the torch's illumination.'

'Maybe it was because it had something to do with my body?'

He decided to think about this question later. For now, he needed to explore the place that he was currently in.

He might be in a new weird body, but that didn't mean that he wasn't a living being. Living things consume energy, and Kivas didn't want to die out of exhaustion if he failed to find any means of gathering fuel.

Not to mention, he could feel the change in fatigue kicking in already.

'I just got born into this world. No parent nor guidance, seems like the universe still bears a long time grudge against me for no reason.'

'Not like I still mind it anymore, I'm just as grateful with anything at this point.'

Upon mentioning the word 'parent' in his mind, he suddenly had the recollection of the mysterious pretty lady with a gentle smile in his memory.

He had the gut feeling that maybe this petite someone was his mother.

'Nah, impossible. She has the shape of a human, and I'm not.'

In the middle of his brain wrecking, he stumbled upon a wall of eerie yet beautiful iridescent crystal.

It lightly glowed, as if it contained some sort of energy. Upon its surface, Kivas could see his own reflection.

A blob with bluish translucent skin. His front body that he rubbed was smooth just like how he checked.

And beyond it, was a swirling purple cloud of liquid, surrounded by what he assumed as the water that was jiggling as he moved.

'Don't tell me…'

'I have become a slime!?'

'Wait, slime didn't shape like a tadpole, nor did they have a set of arms and another extra on the back!'

'Yeah, I still don't know what kind of creature I'm possessing.'

If he had a face right now, he would be amusedly smiling like an idiot because of how absurd his situation was.

Suddenly, the torch let out a golden bright light along with the sound of a passing wind chime.

It birthed a fiery purple orb that was floating and orbiting Kivas at the same time.

'W-what is this!?'

Startled, he moved away from the fiery purple orb, only for it to maintain its orbit around him.

His hand then accidentally made contact with the orb.

The sound of a chime with a different melody could be heard. The fiery purple orb exhausted its own life before converging into a pair of floating vertical-rectangle outlines, burning with a purple hue. Within both of them, scribbles of texts from an unknown language were transcribed out of thin air like a printed fancy ink, before the symbols of the respective screen appeared like burned paper on the upper part of it.

Above those symbols were three question marks.

Together, they were [???] and [???].

'I don't know what is happening, but it's certainly something amazing! And it seems like it wanted me to choose one of the two.'

'It can be that or it might be an unknown trap. The chances of it to be actually an illusion or a voodoo that will kill me instantly is not zero if it comes to an unknown phenomenon.'

The first [???] bore the symbol of a swung claw with wind lines trailing from every edge. The second [???]'s symbol was a torch with the illustration of it expanding its illumination to all directions.

'... Yeah, no. I can't read that.'

'Either they won't tell me what it does after I choose it, or I need to learn an entirely new language.'

Kivas' claw made a check-chin gesture in front of his front body. At this point, he had already acknowledged his smooth front as his face.

'This somewhat reminded me of a dungeon crawler gameplay that I binged on the internet for absolutely no reason back then.'

'If my guess is correct, the first panel will affect my limb or claw. It might add an extra one as well if the symbol means an additive and not an illustration. The second panel is probably the most convincing one to choose because of how it has the torch as its main topic.'

'Alright, the one with the torch symbol on it then. Wait, how do I even select it?'

As soon as he put an intent on picking the second [???], it let out a serene humming of wind as the other panel disintegrated into nothing. The second panel then rearranged itself, sliding into the center of Kivas' view before revealing its content into a language that he could understand under the golden light.

-Boon of Utility-

[Blight Expansion]

-Thou Disgraced couldn't perceive anything outside of the illumination from the Torch of Blight. The impurity within the flickering fire allowed the tarnished to comprehend, so let thy grace expand the 'blight' until the stars cometh within thy frame!-

After three seconds of speechless gazing at the panel that was burning in gold, it dispersed before converging into a flickering golden orb, hurling itself to the purple fire.

A burst of colorful flames were scattered to the surrounding area.

After that, the fire on the torch became purple again, and the illumination from the Torch of Blight was increased by one meter.

'Woah! I don't know what is happening, but something is happening!'

'Wait, it is literally an upgrade! What the heck!'

Overjoyed by the things he had never seen or experienced before, Kivas tried to calm himself down, as he didn't want his naivety to be his downfall.

'Hmm-hmm, So it is similar to a dungeon crawler game, quite a curious phenomenon. A nostalgic one, even.'

'Alright, torchy, how can I get another Boon?'

Kivas didn't really expect an answer, but it was awkward with how he asked towards his torch that barely had any sign of sentience.

'Welp, this event tells me two important things.'

'Firstly, this torch is called Torch of Blight, and it is the only thing that allows me to comprehend the things in existence. I'm really sorry for doubting you, torchy.'

'Secondly, the message within that selected panel is referring to me with the word Disgraced, and another horrible thing like tarnished.'

'As if I'm some sort of a stigmatized criminal. Well, not like my hand is free from the contact blood in the past, but calling someone a disgrace is unnecessarily mean.'

'It definitely didn't hurt for a single bit, sniff, definitely not for a single bit.'

With an extra perception range, Kivas noticed that there were some gaps within the crystal wall, revealing that there was another room beyond it.

As he didn't have anything to do in particular, he tried to circle the source of the crystallization centerpiece and seek an entrance to the otherwise oblivious possibility that there might be a danger instead of a candy that would welcome him.

'While I'm still wondering if I can get another Boon like before, it kinda makes me curious on who the hell inscribed that message on the selectable panels.'

'Maybe the mysterious lady within the corner of my memory has something to do with it.'

Despite Kivas still yapping to himself in his own mind, he ventured bravely to the unknown as his torch uncovered more of the crystalized ground.

While his heart was filled with excitement, he was still as cautious as a round white feline that was surrounded by snow. Eventually, he stumbled upon a teeny weensy part of something gigantic, caught within the radius of his Torch of Blight.

'T-this is…?'

Black and scaly. Intriguing yet beautiful to look at.

With fearsome claws and talon. The existence of that otherworldly sight was laid there, motionless for Kivas to feast his eyes, or front blob, reflection, whatever he used to anatomically perceive.

It was the giant leg of a lizard.

But why did it not move if the owner of the feet would have a normal sight perception? They would clearly be aware of Kivas' presence, walking toward them, right?

Did this dragon lookalike use the same torch that Kivas held?

Well, it would be unlikely for another being to acquire this suspiciously important sounding item, right?

While in a state of awe, he circled the foot, both in haste and attentiveness.

The scales were badly damaged in some parts, and some smell of blood could be sensed. Kivas was more alarmed than a rooster in the morning, but his guts told him that the leg of this mysterious gigantic being is not the focus of what he should be afraid of.

Even though Kivas had already wasted around half a minute examining the gigantic object, the entire thing didn't budge an inch. He crawled up to the back of the soles and raised his torch.

He managed to glimpse the line on the giant lizard's leg where everything above that had been turned into a crystal.

'Yup, I need to get out of here. Reaaal faaaasstt.'

That thing was definitely being preserved, Kivas thought. The smell of the blood didn't give any sign of it being rotten, and the fact that this dragon-like creature had something prisoning it for another occasion was more than a danger flag if he had the time to put one on the ground.

His torch glowed in gold again, humming the sound of the chime due to Kivas' discovery. The floating purple fiery orb made him want to scream in excitement because of the new Boon that he would acquire, but his mind was already set in motion on keeping himself alive.

As fast as he could, he tried to get away from this place.

Alas, it was already too late.

He began to feel his soft and squishy tail harden and became heavier. The sensation crawled to his belly and back, and eventually to his whole body.

He was frozen, turned into a magnificent work of art out of crystal. The flame on his torch became weaker and weaker. Until eventually, his consciousness blacked out.

Because of the mere four meter radius of the torch's illumination, he would never know the creature that was turning him into a lifeless statue. At some point, he even assumed that the place itself put on a curse that would slowly turn his body.

And now that he had his life taken away from him once again, the truth would never be revealed. Forever, the horror beyond the pitch black void would always be sealed inside the jar of possibility.

Kivas wished that he didn't enter the place. Then again, he didn't even have the slightest clue if it would result in his death.

Curiosity killed the cat, and if not for the fact that being subjugated into nothingness for an inconceivable amount of years had dulled his common sense, he would think twice on staying there for a second. In which case, he would probably end up analyzing the unknown phenomenon anyway.

This didn't change the realization that he had the chance, and he was sad that he couldn't make the most of it.

A very anticlimactic end. Unable to use the second chance of his life. Doomed to die and hope to cry.

Or so that's what he thought.

'HOLY MOTHER OF GOD! I FELT LIKE I'VE DROWN!'

He came back to the void of nothingness once again, as the consciousness that floated indiscriminately into nowhere.

'Wait, am I still alive?'

Yeah, no.

'Huh, so I came back to this once again, huh.'

Kivas was both glad and depressed at the same time. He was glad that he wouldn't be exposed to something unknown. He was depressed as he thought that he might need to wait for an insufferable amount of time for something new to happen.

'All of those stories circled on the internet with the protagonist reincarnated into something that's not human, and managed to stay alive in his first try is definitely not applied here.'

Just like a tired and disappointed grandpa on his old couch, Kivas would sigh if he was physically able, as he decided to let go of what had happened as something that he couldn't change.

'Whoever or whatever the thing that is giving me that second chance, they must be really disappointed, huh.'

Just as when he wanted to stay asleep forever, the familiar purple glow of the torch appeared within the middle of the void, once again.

At first, Kivas thought that he would be hallucinating. But he was dead, so there was no way that he would be.

Like a hungry cheetah, the veteran soldier lunged onto his target like there was no tomorrow.

'YOU'RE GOING NOWHERE, TORCHY!'