Nathan felt a tug on the back of his neck, and promptly felt his perspective shift once again.
His body went numb, a weird feeling of anesthesia as the scenery changed around him, brilliant lights and shapes, incomprehensible to his eyes.
He flew through that kaleidoscopic scenery for what felt like an eternity, until it all suddenly stopped and his eyes percieved light again.
'I will never get used to that...'
Nathan mused briefly, observing his body and surroundings while familiarizing himself with the new and old memories in his head.
He was in a small wooden cabin, sitting on the bed with his back against the wall...positioned almost like a puppet eith it's strings cut off.
He raised his hands, and smiled at the familiar gloves on them...he had his body back.
He had rememembered...some...things. But others still eluded him, not popping up no matter how much he tried to recollect them.
He didn't dwell on it for long, deciding to collect his bearings instead.
"Turns out, this is a test, huh?"
Nathan murmured to himself, leaning back again the wall he was sitting against.
"...Well, atleast I'm not a stick wearing rags this time."
He got up and began walking around the cabin, looking for clues and other useful goodies hidden around here.
The first obvious thing he took was a rifle resting on the nearby wall, it was old fashioned and, admittedly, very pretty, but he had no clue what particular one it was.
Any gun freak would undoubtedly recognize it as the world war 1 classic M1 Garand, recognized by it's wooden stock, shaped like a walnut, and dark green finish.
It was well taken care off, and decently heavy, as a real gun should be
"...This is nice, but I might just snap my arm trying to shoot this thing."
Nathan was not a gun guy.
Matter of fact, the only guns he could even somewhat recognize were the Ak47, the Ar15, and the Desert Eagle...that too, because of intimate encounters through video games.
Even though he didn't play many shooters, and those he did play, he dropped after a day or two.
He just wasn't a fan of gun fighting, and therefore, he knew nothing about how to use guns.
So, for a couple minutes, he toyed around with the rifle to figure out what does what...lest he tries to unlock the safety only to instead unload his gun in a crisis.
If the previous test was anything to go by, giant ugly monsters were within expectation...
"This is such bullshit."
He seriously began doubting these tests were made for humans.
Not to mention, he remembered there being a particular line of text on that tombstone, one that made him shiver with trepidation.
"The difficulty has been adjusted."
Nathan sincerely hoped that meant lowering it.
He had died in that previous one, even if intentionally, and he did not want death to become a common occurence to him.
Ofcourse, he also knew that was wishful thinking, and instead went on to continue his search around the cabin's interior.
In the end, he found:
A mirror, through which he observed his handsome face, the fully black, pupilless eyes and shoulder length black hair;
He didn't know what to do with it, but he would bring it along anyway.
Plenty of medicine, surprisingly, there were even some sleeping pills;
Those could be useful.
Quite abit of preserved beef jerky, aswell as a flask filled with water;
No need to explain why that is needed.
A knife, some rope, a backpack, and lastly, 3 magazines of ammunition for the rifle, 8 bullets in each.
That totals to about 24 bullets, not counting the 5 bullets he counted already inside the chamber of the gun.
He was abit confused by the type of cartridge at first, but after fiddling around with it, he got the gist of how it worked and stashed them inside his coat.
Speaking off, the second Nathan got up, he snatched a trench coat from the back of a chair.
It rested nicely on his shoulders, so he'd like to keep it.
Maybe whatever power brought him here would allow him to keep this loot?
Nathan could only hope.
.
.
.
After looting whatever he could, he fixed his attention onto the door that led outside.
"The previous test was called the...Test of Soul, wasn't it?"
That entailed a test of Body and maybe Mind, atleast, that's what Nathan could logically surmise.
Frankly, he hoped there weren't many of these 'tests' left. Whoever made them has to have a degree of expertise in being a sadist.
Why does he even have to complete them? What's the end goal of all this?
He didn't know, and Nathan hated not knowing things.
'No point complaining about it, I guess.'
With that thought, Nathan opened the door to find a snowy stretch of land, empty save for the trees in the distance, all around the cabin.
"Fricking great..."
It was windy as hell, he could barely keep his eyes open. The fact it was snowing also obscured his vision.
He could only somewhat make out the tree line in the distance...about a kilometers away.
"Figures I'd get spawned in a hellish equivalent of the Siberian Tundras..."
He walked out of the cabin, closing the door as he shuffled through the snow...thankfully, he was wearing boots, since the snow reached up past his ankles.
He had tucked his pants into his boots already, to prevent snow from getting in, it proved quite effective.
"What do I even do here?"
A test of Mind or Body...what could that entail?
Endurance or Will? Maybe.
Determination and Courage? Perhaps.
Or...it could be resilience.
The snowy forested areas was where people often died in the wilderness, either from the cold or starvation, sometimes even exhaustion.
Only the most resilient ones could possibly survive a place like this.
Ofcourse, that did not make his goal amy clearer, so he began looking around for any clues.
'There might be a time limit...'
He was not certain, but something told him he didn't have time to dilly dally.
That's also why he didn't try to go back jnto the cabin and wait out the blizzard, or just decide to settle down here in the quiet snowy forest.
He has to complete certain objectives, hidden ones, tasks that are not revealed.
That brought his attention to the equipment he was so graciously granted.
A rifle.
'Do I need to kil something? A cryptid maybe?'
He did not like that train of thought. Anything involving giant, ugly monsters was something he did not like.
He looked up, past the tree line, and scsrclely made out the shape of a mountain...
"I guess that's as good a destination as any..."
It was the only one he could see, anyway...
.
.
.
Whike trekking through the forest, unavoidably, dusk had descended, the chance of stumbking onto a bear or worse, a giant ugly monster, motivated Nathan to find shelter.
The blizzard had not died down, it was still windy as hell, but Nathan was slowly getting used to it.
His distance from the mountain has halved, he had been walking for several hours, only ocassionally pausing to eat and regain his stamina.
'This current body of mine is in quite good shape'
He was not sure if this was his original body or some new body, but he was thankful for it nonetheless.
If he was still that blonde, skin-covered skeleton from before, he would have already died seven times over.
After abit, he finally managed to find an incision in a rock formation, a small cave with a roof, and that was enough for him.
He didn't need a fire, not only did he not have a way to start one, there was no way he could ever keep one up in this goddamn blizzard.
His clothing, strangely enough, did not get wet at all, and they were ridiculoudly warm...he had noticed it awhile ago, and that made him confident in surviving without making a fire...he wasn't cold, and that was one big problem anulled.
Food, water and a method of self defense were also covered by whatever power brought him into that cabin.
"Huh..."
He paused, leaning his back against the stone wall of the cavern, bumpy and uneven, but it was better than standing.
"I've got a bad feeling about this."
It was too good to be true, really.
He was safe from the elements, and had plenty of food to last him a few days...even having a method of self defense.
'Something's off.'
He hadn't noticed at first, but it was too quiet.
Normally, there would atleast be some noise in the distance. Maybe a crow or raven cawwing, or a wolf howling.
But not, save for the sound of the wind, it was utter silence.
He could hear his own breathing more so than he could hear anything else.
.
.
.
Nathan instantly reached for his backpack, where the rifle was strapped to the side of it...he unclasped it, undid the safety, and held it primed on the entrance of the small cavern.
The butt of the rifle pressed against his shoulder, his finger already resting on the trigger.
'I'm trapped in here, no matter what it is, I'd rather waste a bullet than bother discerning the threat.'
Then, Nathan heard footsteps. Loud ones, groundshaking ones.
They were slow, wandering, the noise of it made him slowly and quietly pull his back pack over his shoulders and retake an aiming stance.
'Is it a bear?'
He wasn't certain, but he didn't hear the chaffing noises that bears usually made, so instinctively, he thought of something worse.
'...you can't be serious...'
Unfortunately, his fears were made true as a gigantic, humanoid sillhouete waddled past the cave entrance...it was so tall, that he couldn't even see it's shoulders.
Hr could only see the claws, sharp and long as machetes, encased in black, tree bark-like hide.
He heard strained breathing coming from the creature, almost wheezing. It seemed to be looking around, sniffing for something...thankfully, Nathan wasn't eating anything.
'If it peeks inside, shoot and flee.'
His finger rested on the trigger, the trembling easing as he repeated the sentence in his head.
'If it peeks...shoot and flee...shoot and flee...shoot and flee.'
Nathan did not know whether the creature could smell him, if it was aware and trying to pretend it wasn't. He didn't know if it was intelligent or stupid, didn't know if it could maybe sense his fear.
That didn't matter, not right now.
'If it peeks inside, shoot and flee.'
Then, it peeked inside.
Instantly, Nathan pulled the trigger.
A gunshot was heard, a flash of light was seen, as the creature staggered back, roaring anf crying in pain.
"Huuuurts...meeee..."
The voice Nathan heard was eerily human like, distorted and strained, as it the vocal cord was being stretched and ripped open.
It was also accompanied by growls and gurgling.
Nathan didn't care about any of that, he just ran, not looking back as he held the rifle in one hand, running like mad.
'What the fuck! What the fuck! What the fuck! What the fuck is that?!'
His thoughts screamed as he ran with all his might, snow kicked up by his movement as he tried to run as fast as he could without tripping.
He did not dare trip or slow down.
He wasn't even sure where he was running.
All he knew was...
'That fucker barely flinched from a headshot! This is bullshit!'
And with that thought, Nathan ran.