A cold breeze shook me from my train of thought. 

” Yeah... ” I muttered under my breath after the sudden chill.  ” I can't stay here forever, I need to move... ” 

Considering my situation and surroundings, the best way to go was to set some immediate goals. The philosophical talk could wait for later. 

First, I needed to know where the hell I was. 

’Yeah... Plains and a forest... This is not helping much... Next.’

Since any hope for external help from other people— or other elves— was close to zero, I didn't really know what to do... Being an elf, it was more logical to think that I should be seeking help from my new kind rather than other humans, right? No matter how strange that sounded in my head...

Anyway, since there was nothing to suggest any kind of civilization around, I was basically on my own. If I wanted to survive, I had to at least find and secure a source of water and shelter. And, of course, acquiring something to eat was the next one in line. 

’What de hell do elves eat in the first place?’

If my memory served me right, they lived in the woods so maybe some vegetables and fruits in general... That was a tough question. I didn't want to poison myself with something strange... or meat. I had to take my new biology into consideration. 

’Or maybe elves eat meat as well...? Whatever, I'm not going to take unnecessary risks if I can find something else.’

Not to mention that I couldn't hope to get any meat in the first place... Not by myself anyway. I was nothing close to a hunter after all.

That made me a little sad though...

The elf and the bow were my default image when it came to elves but there was nothing I could do. I wasn't a real elf. What can one expect from a couple of minutes old elf? Or maybe a couple of hours? I didn't even know myself. I didn't even have a bow so that was out of questions. 

My reincarnation kit included some basic pieces of clothing— which I was really grateful for— and nothing else. No bow, no hunt, no meat. It was pretty clear to me.

” Good. The first destination is settled on the forest. ” I said out loud to gain some courage.

The plains weren't a good idea. The forest probably had something to eat like fruits or maybe edible plants. It was easier to find shelter as well, not to mention that it sounded more elf-like too...

What made me a little uncomfortable was that since I turned out into a fantasy creature, there was a very high chance for other such creatures to exist too. Not like a normal wild beast wasn't enough, but one thing was a bear and another was a freaking dragon. No matter how cool that might be, I didn't want to meet one at the moment. 

After a few steps, I discovered that my race and gender wasn't the only thing that changed. I was a little shorter than I was supposed to be, which made my gait quite funny. 

” I think I'm younger too... ”

My voice was quite childish, high-pitched, and combined with the height... It wasn't impossible. Or had it something to do with my new race?

’Fuck... I don't know... My head is starting to hurt just thinking about it... And goddammit, not being able to walk properly isn't helping at all.’

*sigh*

” Alright... aaalright... Breathe in, breathe out. Keep calm. Think about the positives. ”

The elves were supposed to live long lives. 

” Yeah, that must be it. I’m a long-living race. These changes must be adjustments to my new race. I'm a freaking long-living race! ”

A smile bloomed on my face.

” At least I'm a long-living race. ”

I didn't know exactly how much longer elves lived, but longer than a human. If not, I would be quite disappointed. 

With new resolve, I started to walk toward the forest. With caution, of course... I didn't want to throw my potentially much longer life into the belly of some fantasy beast. That would be unforgivable, a complete waste.

​After what seemed to be maybe half an hour I reached the forest boundaries. My walking technique improved as well. I looked less like a retarded duck and more like a person at least. 

’Good! Let's head in. One step at a time though. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to find a water source or something equally useful.’

I continued to advance while looking around for everything that looked even remotely useful. 

I spotted a lot of plants and trees that I was unfamiliar with but that wasn't something shocking. Even in my former world, if you took me from my home and tossed me in a different part of the world, I wouldn't be able to recognize much of the flora anyway. Much less in my current situation.

But even so... What the fuck!? There were some... unique ones to say the least. I wasn't going to approach the blue-leafed and slightly growing ones for sure. Not unless I want to be grabbed and eaten. It was better to stick with the green ones.

” Yup. Let's try to find some fruits. ”

Fruits from normal-looking trees and also staying as far as possible from any kind of mushrooms. Definitely not the mushrooms route! 

You had to be retarded to take that route. Everyone would agree on that one if they were to be in my shoes. 

” But even so... The place’s quite peaceful... ”

I had seen a couple of birds and small rodents but nothing bigger. On that field, all was surprisingly normal. Maybe I was wrong and this was a peaceful world without monsters and dragons.

’Yeah... Highly improbable since I'm a thing here. Stay vigilant me! Lest you're eaten by a wild dinosaur or whatever.’

Thinking about it, I let a silent prayer for the little green ones to not exist there. The famous little green ones that seemed to plague most of the fantasy stories I had read in the past. Meeting those guys while being a girl was probably even worse than death. It didn't matter how I tried to put it, the fact that I was a girl was a constant factor of discomfort whenever I remembered it.

”I still hope for magic though. ”

Yep... Better to focus on the positives.

” Magic and the long-living me! ” I nodded to myself and continued to push forward trying hard not to think about it anymore. 

The forest started to thicken a little and weird bushes started to sprout here and there. I tried to stay as far as possible from the really suspicious ones. You never know when one of the slightly glowing ones would grab and eat you. 

After some more exploration, I finally found something promising. It was something I recognized. 

’Wild berries.’

While not an expert, I prided myself on at least several mountain climbing expeditions. The problem was that even if the thing was looking familiar, I was currently in another freaking world. Nothing was guaranteed to be as I remembered it. I just passed by the weird mushroom-like giant tree not long ago. 

I approached the berry bush and took one for a closer inspection. The bush didn't attempt to eat me, which was a good thing. That was how it was supposed to be, but what followed after that was not. 

[*Ding: You have successfully examined a Wild Berry!]

[Wild Berry]

• [A species of berries that grows in the wild.]

 

” Is this... ”

*sigh*

I closed my eyes and waited for some second.

” If this is a bad joke I’d like to stop right now. ”

 And I opened my eyes again.

[Wild Berry]

• [A species of berries that grows in the wild.]

 

” Oh my God, the thing is still there! ”

The berry wasn't the problem, but the freaking screen was! If the berry disappeared after I closed the eyes, that would have been quite bad too but that was not the point. The point was that the screen was still there. Staring smugly at me in all its glorious screeny glory...

” Please disappear, Screen. I got through a lot already... please... Nope... You don't wanna, huh...? Yeah, I figured that was the case...”

’Oh my freaking God, I'm speaking with a floating screen! Maybe I am really insane after all.’

Something was definitely wrong there. Maybe I prayed to the wrong god? I was an elf. Since that was the case, was I supposed to believe in some sort of Holy Tree? It had to be that so I needed to try again.

I closed my eyes. 

” I don't know how it works but Divine Tree, I promise that I will not skip any of the daily prayers if you help me to understand what's going on there. I'm begging you! ”

And I opened my eyes again.

[Wild Berry]

• [A species of berries that grows in the wild.] 

 

” He... Hehe... Hehehehe... I give up. So it must be that kind of world. I still don't believe it. For fucks sake, nothing makes sense anymore... ”

I needed to calm down and analyze the situation but that was harder than I thought it would be. After some undeterminable amount of time that I spent just staring at nothing in particular while laughing like a madman— or to be more precise mad-elf-girl-thing— I started to collect some more berries and to search for a more suitable place. 

I looked around for a while, took a risk, and climbed a particular tree with flat and thick branches. One of the more normal-ish ones to be sure... While the tree had massive branches attached to an equally massive trunk, it wasn't particularly tall and the first branches started from quite low making it easy for me to climb it. 

” Good, it looks fine for the moment. ” I said to nobody in particular and prepared myself for what I was going to do next. 

” Status! ”

” Open status! ”

” Profile! ”

” Hocus Pocus! ”

” Sesam... Sesame something-ish...? Please... ”

” ... ”

” Shit, it doesn't work... B-But why!? ”

I was aware that the last ones were rather questionable but if you thought about it, for me, in the last several hour's nothing made much sense so I had an excuse. 

” Maybe I don't need to speak it out loud... Let's try it. ”

’ Status. ’

----------------------------

• Name: 
• Level: 1
• Race: Elven
• Sex: Female
• Age:  17
• ----------
• Vitality:  77
• Power:  32
• Dexterity:  27
• Spirit:  30
• Mana: 120
• ----------
• <Skills>

• Racial skills: 

1. [Child of the Forest]
2. [Elemental Magic Affinity]
3. [Enchanted Senses]
4. [Superior Bow Technique]

• Normal skills: 

1. [Appraisal 4]

• Passive skills:

1. [Amissi Common Language]
2. [Elven Language]

----------------------------

” Oh... I feel so stupid right now. ”

But at least it worked. The freaking thing worked which was good and bad at the same time. Good since the thing just proved my earlier suspicions to be true and bad since it further confirmed my theory that I was going insane slowly but surely. 

Ignoring the desire to laugh like some cheap villain from a bad movie, I forced myself to examine my status further. It was quite possible that the information screen was conected with the [Appraisal] thing somehow. Maybe it was some sort of description function. 

Starring at it for a bit longer, the screen changed and showed me something completely different.

[Appraisal: The skill is collecting information from the user and compile it with the general information from the rest of the world to create a description.

*The higher the level of the skill, the more accurate the description ]

At least I was making progress. 

’Ohh... Nice one to have. And it's at level 4 already...’

I didn't know if level 4 was high or low but it was better than 1, 2, and 3. I had to be positive. 

*Growl*

’Yeah, yeah... I got the hint belly. Don't be so impatient...’

In the end, I decided to just try a single berry and wait for at least half an hour to see what would happen. There was not much else I could do after all.