A young woman awakes to see a huge pitch-black room not remembering how she got there.
"Why I am seeing through my body and where am I? She asks looking around still on the floor.
She hears a voice saying, "Your soul is incomplete, please select the three animals in the origin room to fuse to your soul, you have two hours and thirty minutes remaining."
"What is this a new game?" She asks as she gets up from the floor.
"Please select three animals to fuse to your soul." "You have two hours and twenty minutes The voice replies again.
"I guess I'm not getting an answer." She thought, staring at the ceiling.
Looking around the pitch-black room, she sees hologram full of what looks like pictures floating in a circle in the distance.
"Please select three animals to fuse to your soul, you have two hours and ten minutes remaining." The voice chimed.
"Why does it have to be so annoying and what's with the timer anyway?" She asks.
Starting to run over to a picture see starts to see words at the bottom of the picture saying "Standard Chimera" in bold letters.
She presses on the picture, as the voice rings out "This is not available! Please select three different animals to fuse--!"
Taking back her hand from the picture, she scratches her head for an answer blurting out "What? Then why is it here?"
Silence is her answer. "R-right it's not an answering service." She says as she runs over the other pictures.
"Please select--"How annoying!" She says shaking her fist at the sky.
She stops at an album of pictures labeled "Land mammals" as she clicks on it, the picture expands.
"A giraffe, an opossum, jackal, a hyena, a wolf, all sorts."
"If I were to pick, I guess a wolf." I click on it, and the picture disappears."
"You clicked on grey wolf." "Starting test."
"Wait a test!" She screams as she feels herself being teleported to another room.
"Loading room elements." The voice says.
A room with its vast amount of trees circling around me, and soil beneath my feet. "A forest room?" She asked questions.
"Please "tame" the wolf to obtain it." "Now loading wolf element."
"You have obtained mana please use it to tame the wolf." The voice continues.
Her body starts to glow grey starting from her fingertips.
"Mana as in magic?" She sees an aura around herself.
The wolf crouches and starts circling the woman. Looking around nervously she tries to watch its movements.
"If I have mana, does that mean I can use elements? How about earth?"
She starts to gather her mana towards her left hand as the wolf lunges at her head.
Slamming her hand to the floor she yells "Stone Pillar!" The pillar hits the wolf in the jaw knocking it unconscious.
"You have knocked the wolf element out, task completed."
"You have learned "Stone pillar" and "Earth mana" "Now transferring to Origin Room."
"Yes!" "I defeated it!" She says as she jumps up into the air.
"You have selected one animal, please chose two more to fuse to your soul." "You have an hour left to select."
The voice snapping her back to reality, she looks down to see that half of the pictures have disappeared.
"Now what?" Looking at the rest of the pictures.
She scrolls down to see a tiger, leopards, and a bunch more cats. Everything related to dogs has disappeared, but cats and other animals are still here.
She scrolls down to see a cloud leopard, and she clicks on it.
"Clouded Leopard has been selected." "Now transferring to room."
"Loading room elements." The voice continues.
The room turns into a rocky, snow-covered cliff.
"Starting test, now importing cloud leopard element."
"Here we go." Tensing herself for the next task.
"Please, play spot the cloud leopard, and hide and seek with the cloud leopard element."
She cocks her head wondering what it meant when the voice adds something else to the task.
"You have ten minutes to complete this task."
She races to a covered rock, "Shoot where is the clouded leopard?" Looking around she notices her eyes feel sharper than her usual crap vision. She spots the clouded leopard straight above her but a little further up the cliff.
"It's waiting for me as the prey to move into its line of sight. "
"Five minutes has elapsed, task one of two completed play spot the clouded leopard element."
"All I have to do is sit here, it can't be that easy." She thought as she shifts in her spot ready to move if necessary.
"Loading clouded leopard element." Three minutes has elapsed."
"Another one?" She scans around to see it to the left of the rock she is at.
She looks further down the edge of the cliff which is out in the open.
"Crap, I have no choice the only way is down."
"Loading clouded leopard element." "One minute has elapsed."
"Crap, another one." She glances as she moves slowly down the slope towards the cliff, spotting it to the left of where she was. However, the leopard further up on the cliff is steadily gaining ground towards her. The leopard that was to her left is currently at the rock where she was just at.
She continues down towards the slope when she feels a presence near her. She looks forward and sees another leopard right on the edge of the cliff looking the other way.
"What about the others?" She looks back and they are close behind her too. She ducks behind another rock cluster shielding her from all sides. She starts to feel her heartbeat as they start to increase, she breaks out in a sweat, and her body starts to tremble until she hears the familiar voice chime. "You have completed task 2 of 2, play hide and seek with the clouded leopard. "Transferring you back to the origin room."
"You learned stealth movement." "You have learned beast sense, and beast eyes."
"I was lucky that the time ran out, or who knows what would have happened." As her body untenses but is still shaking from earlier.
"Please pick an animal with wings to fuse with your soul." "You have twenty minutes left."
"What that time doesn't make sense." She stares at the ceiling waiting for an answer that will not come.
"Please select an animal with wings to fuse you have fifteen minutes left."
She walks over to the winged animal's section.
"I see insects, bats, and birds." Scrolling through the selection, she goes passed the insects.
"Either a bird or a bat." She ponders as she continues to scroll through the selection.
"I guess I'll go with a random bat."
"Brazilian free-tailed Bat has been selected." "Now transferring you to another room, now loading room elements."
This room was like the Origin room, but the difference is that it is damp and has sounds like it echoes. "A cave maybe?"
"Please locate and capture the Brazilian free-tailed bat. You can only use two senses to locate and only mana to capture it."
She walks through the cave concentrating hard to hear the bat's movements, she puts her hand to the wall to get a better sense of where the bat was. She feels the vibrations of the numerous other creatures in the cave but one stood out.
The one that stood out was a light-moving target that took rests on the top of the cave, she was certain it was the bat. She uses her stealth to get passed the other creatures in the cave. She comes to a wide chamber in the cave and hears the same sound as she did earlier.
She hears the voice chime again, "One of two tasks completed locate the Brazilian free-tailed bat."
"Yes, I just have to capture it!" She measures its flight path with her hearing and starts to gather mana in her feet and hands. She ready herself to the floor, "Earth sphere!" she screams in her head as she puts her hands to the floor the earth starts to form into a ball to catch the bat. She feels herself graze its wings, "Crap not fast enough!"
She starts to gather mana in her feet again as she braces herself to jump waiting for the right moment. It stops resting on the cave roof, that time she also gathers her mana into her hands. "Mana net!" she screams into her head as she jumps to catch the bat.
Task two of two completed locate and capture the Brazilian free-tailed bat." Transferring you back to the Origin room." "You have learned echolocation" "you have learned Mana net." "You have learned quick and agile feet." "You have learned Flight, glide and speed burst."
"Wow, more skills what's next I wonder?"
"Congrats! You have picked all three animals, now randomizing your body choices please select one." "You have twelve minutes left."
Three choices popped up in front of me.
They are "A head of a Brazilian free-tailed bat, with a body of a grey wolf and a clouded leopard, with Brazilian free-tailed bat wings."
"A head of a clouded leopard, a body of a grey wolf and Brazilian bat wings."
"A head of a grey wolf, a body of a clouded leopard and wings of a Brazilian bat.
She ponders a bit going through the answers in her head she finds her answer "How about this one?" she clicks on the third opinion.
"Are you sure you want this body?" The voice answers.
"Yes, I am sure." She replies with a smile.
"Congrats you have completed all tasks; your human soul and memories will be restored." "Time limit is now removed."
"Wh-hurk?" She suddenly feels like she is going to hurl as the memories come flooding in.
"My birth, my first day of kindergarten, elementary, middle, and high school. As well as my graduation from high school. The flash backs slow down at age twenty where I look like I am living an unhappy life."
"I hate my job at some sort of company, where I work late hours that I don't get paid for. It looks like my landlord is angry with me, I must have back rent to pay. My past self looks over to a picture on the table, my parents died soon after my graduation. My past self was lonely, and grief stricken unable to get passed the mourning faze, to cope she ended up playing video games, and eventually started to stream to try to earn some more money.
"Sadly, it doesn't help at all with bringing in money, that's when it starts effecting my job. In turn my job starts pressuring me to work harder and to cope with the long hours I start doubling down on energy drinks, having three for every meal and barely getting any sleep."
"If I would have to guess I died of huge stress on my body and/or a heart attack, the police found me dead in my apartment after a couple of days. I have no next of kin so, a small funeral was held the only ones to come were the police officers who found me."
A flood of feelings washed over her, sadness, frustration, and sickly feelings all at once.
"You can ask six questions before you are transferred to another world."
"The time limit is ten minutes."
"Where am I? "She asks as her feet start to disappear.
"You are in the space between your old-world Earth and this new World called Umbra Astra."
"Five questions and eight minutes remaining."
"Can I ever return to my old world?" "I get the feeling I know the answer." She thought balling her fists.
"No, you are dead and cremated or burned to ash your soul cannot return to it." "Three questions and six minutes remaining."
"Damn I just wasted a question!" She says to herself in frustration as she feels her legs disappearing.
"I got to think of more questions quick!" "Can I communicate and read the language of this new world?" "Can I become human again?" "Can I have a map and a guide the reading the language of this world?"
Her body becomes less as she asks more questions.
"Yes, you can communicate in this world, with the animals that are fused to your soul." Humans and different species of animals you will have a tough time with. You are currently unable to read the language."
"You can become human again for a short time by transforming with your mana."
"Uploading a map of the world into your brain." "Transferring how to read manual into your human inventory."
"One question remaining." "Four minutes remaining."
"Who are you?" She asks as if only her head was visible.
"I am one of many higher beings, you will come across on your journey."
"Please before you go choose a name for yourself, you have a minute and a half remaining."
"A name? I guess my body has been turned to ash. "Ash, which feels too common." "This place feels like a dream." "Dream." "Something that combines Ash and dream." "Think damn it, think!"
"You have ten seconds left!"
"I remember a name from one of those random name generators!"
"Aisling!" She cries out as she disappears.
"Time is now up, now transferring soul and body Aisling onto the world of Umbra Astra. Good Luck and remember this life is not a game."