Chapter 1, Adapt to Thrive


"Haaaaaah" I moan as I stretch.

"Where am i?" As I open my eyes, I see that I am in a MASSIVE cave, like the Minecraft Cave Update but 20 times that size. 'There doesn't seem to be an exit nearby so I'll have to search for it.' There seems to be glowing orbs on the walls and ceiling, and water a small ways away, like an underground lake.

As I get closer to the sparkling water-probably rich in various minerals- I see my own reflection and "Wow, this is stupid, I look like when I was five, albeit with a few differences. Actually, I probably am five. Wait, why is my hair red? And my eyes?" One could barely tell, but the ends of my hair and my eyes had a dark red to them, but it's pretty much black.

Alright, next thing to test out is magic. Kind of childish to think it exists but considering where I am and my circumstances, it's the next thing I could logically come up with.

As I focus-which I rarely do with the only occasions being tests or very difficult situations like in video games- several minutes pass until I come up with, a small orb? No it's not even the size of that, the thing that's supposed to be my mana core-at least that's what I think it is- is a speck of dust. The most I could probably do was recreate a flame the size of a small lighter or something similar could.

"This is going to take awhile"

Attempting to ignore the work ahead of me, I explore around the cave. I arrive at the lake first. 'Considering it's underground and sparkles, it's probably rich in minerals.' Keeping in mind that I'd have to boil it to ensure I don't die of whatever diseases it inhabits.

After that, I move towards the glowing orbs on the walls. Upon closer inspection they appear to be, berries? Praying that I don't die, I eat one, then another, and some more.

Now carrying a bundle of berries the size of my head around, I notice an idle animal from afar, testing out my power I shoot a thin but sharp water bullet at it. I get a good hit on it but it wasn't fast enough to kill it, and my aim was a bit off, landing lower than I'd anticipated.

Charging after me the lizard-like aims to slice me with it's claws until I.. anticlimactically kick it in the face, rendering it unconscious.

As I crush it's head and use it's bones to cut, skin and gut it. I cook the parts that I think are edible using the stems of the berries and the little mana I have left to start a fire.

As I finish up the berries, I leave one and clean out the inside, making a sort of bowl and using it to scoop up some water and wash myself of the blood and dirt(of course nowhere near the lake, can't have that get contaminated even further now). Using said bowl once more to boil the water to drink.

Feeling full and calmed, I take in deep breaths. As I start to meditate, I feel the mana within me and around me. I try to gather in the mana that was almost on top of my skin and absorb it, leaving me exhausted afterwards.

"This really is going to take awhile" I think to myself, sighing.


Time Skip, Two Years

because honestly, without a proper sense of time AND stuck in a cave, it's going to be boring as heck.


After exploring much of the cave without an exit, I dedicated my time to helping my mana or killing monsters. Now "monster" is a word thrown about casually in games or shows, but the monsters here could easily beat most pro wrestlers, so I tried avoiding those guys as much as possible until I'm strong enough to handle them. Having anime, manga, games, and literature as hobbies, I've developed an internal ranking system on the creatures within the cave. As of right now I'm high E-rank, capable of handling E-rank monsters such as horned rabbits and weaker "boars" and the likes. There are up to C-rank monsters in the caves, but I've only witnessed them from afar along with D-ranks(they're the ones that can easily beat pro wrestlers).

The tiny speck of mana I had before had grown to a circle the size of my palm, still relatively small but great progress. I also added a few "runes" on them, in reality they're actually just a bunch of drawings and polygons as well as more magic bullshit. How would I know you may ask, well I was a huge otaku for magic but that was when I was around 7 and reoccured when I was 13 and had absorbed anything related to magic and whatnot. That was an excuse, all I did was add whatever I think felt right and made me feel better.

In terms of physical strength and speed, it was just slightly above average for my age.. I think. Most of that development came from the monsters keeping me on my toes and narrowly avoiding death wherever I go.

While making my rounds for food, I saw a chest which eerily resembles an exquisite chest from Genshin Impact(obviously i don't own it and belongs to Mihoyo).

And whad'dya know, it has a sword in it. Though too large and heavy for me to handle, it's probably a two st- ahem a standard sword at best.

Near that sword though was a short sword, which I almost missed. It has a good design, almost minimalistic and reminiscent of a Tanto. It has good weight and distribution so I can tell it will be very useful in the future. Other than that there were various miscellaneous items in the chest which were all mostly useless.

Seeing a light underneath the chest, I move the thing over and look down the hole. There was a huge drop so I made a small earth tower to stand on and make steps to go down. 'DAMN, I shouldn't use that again anytime soon, that felt terrible. Like a huge chunk of my insides got taken out.' Little did I know that "emptiness" was a third of my mana. Yeah, a "huge drop" was an understatement and I overestimated how much mana I actually had.

'I refuse to believe that I was stuck in a bonus room for however long I was stuck there.' but alas, for I wish for that though to be true the evidence is overwhelmingly against it.

Pushing away my almost comedic sorrow, I begin to explore the larger, NOT bonus room cavern. From how large the place is, it'd be what I would imagine the size of a dungeon would be like. 'meaning I'm either really deep underground or in a mountain'

Mostly clear from monsters, there were various abandoned camps and a few items like a backpack and rope that I took with me.

As the cave begins to narrow, torches and other light fixtures decorate the walls. As I begin to see the exit of the cave I hear the screams of a child.


I rush out of the cave only to be blinded by the sunlight. There was a short, blue haired girl near the entrance that is being chased by a horde of horned rabbits.

I rush to her aid and made it rain fire, no not literally. I would die from mana exhaustion, realistically I sprayed them with small fireballs the size of palm. Lighting some on fire and killing a few.

'Seems like I won't have to worry about dinner. Oh right, where did that girl go?' I didn't have to look far as she ran behind a conveniently placed rock.

"Are they gone?" She asks timidly

'Not exactly Kanna cute but she's a kid so I'll give her some moe points. But that's besides the point, thank God the language of this place rolled off my tongue."

'Must be plot convenience.'

'Whatever, I remember a few things but that wasn't really much regarding this body's backstory.'

"Yes, they're gone. Are you alright?" Again, I didn't really have to look to see a few bruises and cuts, probably from some of the faster ones.

"Here, lie down for a minute" laying out some cloth from the abandoned camps and setting my backpack as a makeshift pillow, I get to work with ointment on my hands.

There are times when I had to go to the doctor in my past life, and usually just simply having a conversation was enough to ease the pain. As I applied the ointment I could tell that wherever I touched there was a slight flinch from her.

"So, what were you doing out here?" I began.

She keeps silent.

"What's your name?"

"...Roxanne" She says quietly.

"Nice to meet you Roxanne, I'm Max"

And silence ensues until I finish up putting the ointment on. As we walk I ask her: "Where are we going?"

"To the village, obviously." She replies.

"There's a village here?" I ask again

"Mhm, not too far from here."

Silence

"Where'd you get that ointment?"

"Oh, this?" holding up the white container.

"I made this from the berries inside that cave." I said as I pointed to the cave.

More silence

"So, how did you do that?" She asks me

"Do what?"

"That fire spell you did, how did you do it?"

"Oh, all I did was just think of the air igniting then made the fire shoot forwards."

"Without an incantation?"

'SHIT! I didn't think of that. Of course in most shows and book they'd have the characters speak out the spells. But what I did was just subconsciously omit that part from habit and go straight to creating the spell.'

"Uhh, yea... all you gotta do is have a clear image of how you want the spell to work."

"Really? Because most people in the village uses magic with incantations and didn't bother telling me how to do it without. Can you teach me?" She says giddily with sparkles in her eyes.

"Well, sure. Why not?"


As she started to get the hang of it, she was quite close to succeeding though we had to stop as we had arrived at the entrance of the village.

'It is possible she hasn't even touched magic, so this is amazing progress.'

Ending my line of thought a man came running towards us.

"Roxanne! You're back! Who's this kid?" Shouted a man, coming from inside the village. He had a sheathed sword on him, hair the same color as Roxanne's but had a few strands hanging down.

"He's the person who saved me." Said Roxanne plainly.

"Really? this scrawny kid?"

Here, I looked at her worriedly.'

'Don't say anything, at least not the magic.'

As though she got the message, she nodded and said

"Yup! He cut them to shreds, it was so cool!"

'So she saw the dagger. Perceptive kid.'

"C'mon it was just a few rabbits." Trying to act modest.

"Hmm, what's your name kid?" The man asked me.

"Max, Max Ricard."

'Last name? How? Why now? The most I got was flashes of how I got in the cave in the first place, nothing other than that. And the language thing, was it subconscious?'

"The name's Rowin Migurdia." The man smiled at me

"Thanks for taking care of my daughter. Now Roxanne, shall we go?"

'Holy, I saved myself from that one. That was actually her father?'

"Dad! We can't just leave him here."

"Well, kid. You got a place to stay?" The man, weak from his daughter's plead.

"There's a cave-"

"That cave from earlier? That's where you've been staying? Unacceptable, you're coming with me." She grabs my wrist, almost dragging me.

"Wait wait wait, let me get my footing first at least." She lets go.

"Fine, but you're still coming, and don't think of going out there alone."

'Damn, this kid's bossy. At least I'm on her good side.'

Rowin simply sighs knowingly, as he tails us.