Relieved to see it was just Furby that fell out of the hole in the sky behind me, I turned around and focused on the problem at hand.

...For some reason, I can't activate any of my magic right now.

The only thing that seems to at least have some sort of reaction when I mould my mana, is my abilities.

I tried activating my afterburner ability several times, but it just acted like a car engine that's stalling, the only moment it worked properly was when I used the 1 mana point I earned when I first learned my mental ability.

My mana crystals are still inside my body and fully charged as far as I can tell, but for some reason, I can't seem to utilize the mana inside.
The mana almost feels like it's frozen in place.

...This could be bad.

Even inspecting myself seems to barely work.
Some of my status information is entering my mind, but it's all jumbled up.

Thankfully I'm still somewhat able to move around using incorporeal movement.

I looked back over at Furby falling behind me.

"WAKE UP BIRD BRAIN!" (Scarecrow)
I won't die of a fall from this height, but if I can't use wood magic to repair myself, it's not gonna be a fun time.

"HEY!" (Scarecrow)

...

He seems to be knocked out cold.

Well, this is a problem.

I would use my 1 mana point, but it's still recovering from when I attempted to use it in a panic.

On the way down I slowed myself down with the incorporeal movement skill as much as possible.

*Crash!*

The crash sound was Furby landing at full speed at the mercy of gravity.
I'm sure he's fine though, he's a tough bird.

I barely managed to soften the landing in the end.

(Looks like I made it somehow...)

Luckily I didn't break any body parts.

Now... where are we?

I looked around me at the oddly primitive man-made structures surrounding me.

It almost seems like I'm inside some sort of starting area from a video game...

The biggest contributing factor to that conclusion, is the clumsily build wooden sign that says:
"Welcome to the starting area, please listen to your instructor! He will guide you!"

I looked around again but saw nobody that looked like an instructor.
The only thing worthy of note is the strangely out of place pile of materials under Furby.
All kinds of rocks and plants of all shapes and sizes are assembled together in a somewhat humanoid form.

It took some effort, but after intensely focusing on the pile of rubble, information came into mind like usual.

...

...Huh?

Our instructor died.

Well, I guess I'm just supposed to follow the road that stretches off into the distance behind the sign anyway, that seems simple enough.

Hopefully, we're not missing any crucial information from the dead instructor guy...

I floated over to Furby slowly with incorporeal movement to wake him up.

Usually, I'd slap him awake with wood magic, but I guess I'll just use my hands to prevent his breathing for now since I can't use my magic for some reason.

"Wake up~" (Scarecrow)
I covered the nostrils on his beak with my wooden hands.

Furby's face started to look uncomfortable, when suddenly-

"K- KWEK!" (Furby)
He made a funny startled bird noise and got up in a panic.

"What?! Where-" (Furby)

Furby spotted me floating next to him and asked.
"...Where are we?" (Furby)

"No clue." (Scarecrow)

"How'd you end up here? Did you fly into the hole too?" (Scarecrow)

Furby looked confused for a moment and suddenly seemed to remember something.

"Hole? ...Ah- no, the last thing I remember was the earth beginning to rumble violently after you jumped into it..." (Furby)

"After that, everything suddenly went black, as if the sun just disappeared from the sky entirely..." (Furby)

Odd...

"This is the other side of that hole in the ground." (Scarecrow)

"I flew into it and ended up here." (Scarecrow)

"What, for real?" (Furby)

Furby began to look around, intrigued by the surroundings.

"...This looks like the starting area of a video game." (Furby)

After looking at the sign he echoed the same thought I had before.

Furby suddenly seemed to realize something and began to look around confused.

"Where's the instructor that's mentioned on the sign?" (Furby)

Already having anticipated his question, I quietly pointed at his butt.

"..." (Furby)
He looked under himself and slowly moved off of our deceased instructor.

"D- did I do that?" (Furby)
I shrugged in response to his question.

"No sense, worrying about it now I guess? Let's see where that road goes!" (Scarecrow)
Feeling kinda motivated by the video game-esk setting, I urged him to forget about it.

"..." (Furby)

"I can't use my mana properly right now for some reason, so let me ride you!" (Scarecrow)

He quietly relented and took off into the sky.

◇◆◇

After several hours of flying, it became quite apparent this world was a lot more vast than the previous one we were in.

For some reason my wood began working again when we got far away enough from the starting area.

During the flight, I also couldn't help but wonder what happened to everyone else.

Furby didn't seem to have any answers, as he just repeated his answer from before that everything went black for him after I jumped in the hole.

I hope everyone else is alright.

And despite our years of living together, I'm feeling pretty ambivalent about Alcazar's fate.
That lunatic nearly killed us several times now.

"Hey look at that! Look at that!" (Furby)
Furby interrupted my stray thoughts, seemingly having spotted something in the distance.

Up ahead there seemed to be a small city with sturdy defences all around it.
Hundreds of roads, including the one we're following coalesced from all directions towards the city.

There appear to be 2 entrances to the city, right next to each other, manned by several guards.
Both entrances have people lining up at them to get into the city.

One of the entrances is clearly a lot fancier than the other though.

"Let's check it out!" (Scarecrow)

Feeling strangely excited, we began to descend.

We lined up with everyone else at the end of the line of the fancy entrance.

People seemed surprised to see Furby, but they're all seemingly disinterested in me.

They eventually lost interest in Furby when it was their turn in line.

Speaking of the people in line though...

I have so many questions... this is truly an odd bunch, every person in line is completely different from the next.

Everyone seems to be here in pairs just like us. Feeling curious, I focused on the biggest looking guys in line.

There's a giant walking golem made of lava rock and a floating humanoid mass of water in line in front of us.

The one made of lave rock was standing next to some sort of large floating spoon, whilst the water elemental-looking one was standing next to a walking ladder with arms...

And even the guards at the gate are strange amalgamations of rocks.

For some reason I can't inspect their individual magic abilities or titles, every status just shows a tally of everything they've got.

But most importantly...

Why is every single person here except for Furby named Will?

Even the humanoid spoon and ladder have the name Will.

That's what my name used to be back on Earth...