Zephyr woke up, gasping for air. It seemed that he was standing upright at the edge of a ravine. Zephyr's eyes couldn't acclimate to the world as he stepped forward, unaware of the ravine in front of him.
SHIT
The adrenaline coursed through his body as he fell, jolting him awake. Zephyr's mind was racing; dying right after getting reincarnated would not be ideal, to say the least. His hands immediately tried to grab onto the rocky wall of the ravine, as his hands were being scraped away, but it was his only option if he wanted to live. He began to slow himself down, cursing the goddess for not just immediately getting his power back. He tried to resist the pain and clenched his teeth as his skin began to be ripped from his hands. His fingernails were almost completely broken, and he lost his grip, tumbling down, hitting his head on a piece of stone.
... am I dead? No, please, not like this. GET UP GODDAMMIT!
Zephyr flung himself upwards as he immediately clutched his leg, writhing in pain. He tried to move his leg, but a sharp pain shot through his leg. His leg had immediately snapped when he had fallen to the bottom. Zephyr groaned at the situation he was in, lying back down, catching his breath.
Who the hell is this suicidal maniac, standing right over a ravine?
Zephyr tried to gather his thoughts, thinking about how he should stop the calamity this time around, but most importantly, try and survive this insane predicament he's in right now.
My hands feel like they've been through hell, but right now I have to treat myself if I want to survive.
Zephyr felt all over his body to feel for any injuries and counted them up. His left leg was badly broken, his left palm was cut open, probably by a rock as he was coming down, both hands were in tatters, and the back of his head was overflowing with blood.
I need to find something to stop this bleeding quickly, or I'm about to pass out from blood loss without any help nearby soon. Alright, relax and think, Zephyr, you've been in this situation countless times before.
Zephyr gathered his medical knowledge from one of his past lives and turned his head, searching for anything that could serve as a bandage. He spots something white and slowly crawled towards it to check if it is what he thought it was.
Yes, it's the polypore mushroom, perfect for its antimicrobial properties and as an adhesive. Perfect.
He ripped it out of the ground, flipped it around, and cut a thin layer on the back with a decently sharpened rock to have a thin layer serve as a bandage to cover his head and hands for the time being.
Alright, now for my broken leg.
Zephyr grabbed a sturdy stick nearby to attach to his leg and hold it in place.
Ok, now for something to wrap it with.
Zephyr saw nothing in the general vicinity, so he turned to his only option: his clothes.
I can't take off my pants in this condition, so I suppose my shirt will have to do.
He took off his shirt and wrapped it around his leg and the stick. With this, he got up, resisting the sharp pain in his leg, and searched his surroundings.
Yeah, it's hopeless. My best bet right now is to eat the shrubbery and rest for a couple days until my leg fully heals before I climb back up this massive ravine. I suppose I could plan my return to save Umbraxis for now, though.
Zephyr grabbed another stick and drew the map of the world on the ground. Dragging the stick on the dirt floor, Zephyr drew a massive rectangle and placed a circle in the center. Then he created four quadrants without having the lines enter the center circle.
Alright, cool. So we're back to Umbraxis.
In the realm of Umbraxis, five different continents make up the world. Kyomora, a continent in the southeast that used the power of qi and sword arts to fight. In the northeast, Mystharow, a medieval civilization that used mana for mages and warriors, contained a monarchy that ruled over the entire continent. The Nyxthorn thicket, a continent in the southwest containing a dark and eerie forest with Banshees, Chimeras, and shadow wraiths. A continent in the northwest, The Eclipsed Realm, where the sun never shines contains astral guardians and starforged beasts.
The last realm, the circle in the center, was in the center of Umbraxis, the Voidscar Abyss. No one has ever come back alive from this mysterious abyss, and even in Zephyr's 999 reincarnations, he had never gone inside the abyss. Inside the abyss, there were rumors of an all-knowing book of some sort that enticed many adventurers, who never came back after trying to search for this item.
I swear that item is just a hoax, trying to lure the strongest adventurers to venture into its den, and eventually just serving as a cemetery for anyone who wandered in there. I've seen people stronger than me never return, I really wonder who controls that place.
Alright, never mind that. The first thing I need to do is determine which continent I'm in.
First, Zephyr looked up, observing the sky and the shrubbery around him.
It's definitely not Mystharow, because that place is mostly industrialized with only some forests around, and even if I did reincarnate into someone who was in that area, the shrubbery does not match that place. It's also definitely not the Eclipsed Realm, since that place is all a dark, desert wasteland. So then it has to be in the south, either the Nyxthorn thicket or Kyomora.
Ok, now that I've narrowed it down to two choices, let's see what powers I'll have access to this time around, and maybe I'll be able to figure it out from there. Hopefully, I don't get access to a power that I have to travel to another continent to activate, that cruel goddess put me in that kind of sick torture for countless lives until she got bored with it.
First, he focused on his abdomen, the storage area for divine energy.
What? I have access to divine energy? Please, let this not be true. I'm not traveling across Umbraxis again, just to gain access to this dumb power, Zephyr whined as he imagined the perilous journey ahead of him.
But in an act of desperation, he tried to access qi, the power stored in the heart, even though he knew it was almost impossible to access multiple powers at once.
No way. I can access my qi! So maybe it wasn't true after all, I don't have to put myself through torture again!
Zephyr, even though relieved, doubted the fact that he had made a mistake in detecting divine energy since he was a veteran in controlling all four powers. Zephyr tapped into his divine energy again, and for the second time, he was able to feel it.
What? Wait, is this what the goddess meant? If it is, then...
Zephyr tapped into his bones, the place where dark energy was stored. Zephyr smirked, confirming his speculation.
And lastly...
Zephyr, reached into the spaces between the muscles, the area where mana was stored.
Each reincarnation, he would be in a different area, whether it be in Mystharow or any of the other three continents, and only be able to absorb one type of energy. But in this reincarnation, he was able to absorb all four!
Hah, looks like the Goddess kept her word.
Zephyr was relieved that the Goddess was able to fulfill his request, but it was a shame he couldn't use any of the abilities he learned in his other lives. Zephyr deduced that to get out of this ravine, he would probably need to accumulate one of the four types of energy. Each of the four places had a specific type of energy that didn't let someone accumulate another type of energy in a place with a different type of energy. With this information, Zephyr realized that he could find out what place continent he was in right now.
Alright, let's start accumulating dark energy first. ... Nope. Divine energy? ... Nope. Qi?
When he started to accumulate qi, Zephyr felt a warm energy accumulating near his heart.
Kyomora it is.
Accumulating qi for the first time is dangerous since it is easy to mess up the formation of qi and blow up the person's heart in the process. People who start developing qi need someone else to control the qi in their bodies to find the right path to accumulate it efficiently and accurately. But Zephyr had done this dozens of times, so it was natural for him to find the right path immediately.
However, before he could do that, his body had reached the limit as he lay on his back, resting on the hard, packed dirt, hoping to get even an inkling of rest.
...
It was later in the day when Zephyr slowly arose, checking his wounds.
What the hell? These wounds would usually take days to heal, but they somehow healed overnight, and my leg... doesn't hurt?
Zephyr got up with ease and started walking. His leg didn't hurt at all, so he wanted to test his leg's limits. He started to lean into a run when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his leg.
I guess this is the limit of my recovery. I wonder who put me into this body, though. The goddess would never give me such an advantage, so there has to be a third party at play here. Damn, I'm really hungry though.
There was no food he could make with the resources around him at the moment, so his only choice was to eat the shrubbery. Zephyr walked over to a bush, plucked off some leaves, and chewed the bitter leaves, almost throwing up as he swallowed them.
Yeah, I need to get out of here. I'm just gonna spend a couple of hours gathering qi, then climb back up the ravine.
As Zephyr began absorbing the qi from the surrounding area, he discovered that with this body, he could absorb qi twice as fast as he normally could.
Wait, this body is amazing. At this pace, I could get this done in half an hour!
The cuts and bruises he had gotten during the fall immediately started healing even faster, and the qi had accelerated the healing of his broken leg. After thirty minutes, Zephyr was extremely pleased that he was able to accumulate this much qi in one sitting.
No time to waste, I have to find a way out of here.
Zephyr figured that it was about the birth of dawn when he fell down the ravine, and about half an hour until dusk. He couldn't waste any time and had to start climbing now or he would risk getting torn apart by the beasts that came out at night.
Even after almost falling to his death, he remained calm and collected. This little predicament wouldn't set him back, and finding out where he was and who he was in Kyomora was of utmost priority.
Zephyr started to climb. Even though it hurt like hell to even move a muscle, Zephyr didn't care. He had to get to the top at any cost. With each movement, Zephyr started to feel numb, and halfway up the ravine, he could no longer feel his hands or feet. Zephyr could hardly even breathe. But if he fell now, it would be over, and there would be no second chance.
When Zephyr reached the top, he pulled himself over the edge, lying on his back to try and catch his breath.
"Looks like I'm too late, I'm screwed," he muttered under his breath, staring at the dark sky.
Zephyr sensed a sharp movement to his right and wearily stood up, preparing for the worst.