White Space. That was all Vali could perceive..... All his injuries vanished entirely. His body felt as good as new.
"Is this what falling into a Gate is like?" Vali thought.
His surroundings were as full of light as one could imagine a dark room without it. Yet, it wasn't blinding. Perhaps his sense of sight had improved or maybe time did not flow the same here as it did on Earth.
He wobbled around the room like an astronaut in space. That was until, he tried standing straight... to his surprise, he was able to. Then moving upwards and downwards like he was climbing a staircase, again he found success in doing so.
"What if this isn't simply limited to movement? What if I can conjure what I think of?" he thought. His curiosity would lead to disappointment when he thought of an apple and was not able to conjure one like he expected.
"WELCOME TO ■■■■■■, MORTAL." A voice boomed across the seemingly infinite space as if it were nothing more than a tiny broom closet.
"Where am I? Who are you?? Am I dead???" Vali launched a barrage of questions and turned his head around, attempting to find the source of the voice.
"I DID SAY WHERE YOU ARE, YOUR SPECIES SIMPLY DID NOT REACH THE LEVEL OF UNDERSTANDING REQUIRED TO COMPREHEND THAT INFORMATION. THINK OF IT AS A WRITER'S BLOCK - A GRAVEYARD FOR IDEAS THAT DIED BEFORE THEIR BIRTH. YOU, HOWEVER AREALIVE." The voice replied to two of this questions, ignoring one.
In utter confusion, Vali ran around. Why was he simply being compared to an idea? What did the voice mean when it said this was a graveyard? He attempted to find some escape from this place. If he could control how he moved in this space, perhaps he could figure out a way to escape this place, could he not?
"YOU HAVE OUTLIVED YOUR WORLD. I SHALL SEND YOU TO GEKAI WITH A GIFT - A SEED." The voice said, absolutely ignoring his attempts to escape this place.
Vali did not get any time to question the voice on the nature of it's gift. Within moments, Vali fell from this place. He felt the same way he felt while falling into a Gate. Absurdity seemed to strike him yet again. Once a great believer of pragmatism and fate - Vali seemed to understand the idea of hope now.
One would think outlasting their world is a cruel fate for anyone - the expiration of familiarity, the loss of certainty, family, friends and loved one would surely be enough to shock anyone but Vali seemed to only care for a fresh start.
His parents already lost their lives due to their job as Hunters, he did not have many friends and the few he did would have gladly turned on each other if it meant they got the chance that he did - to escape his world.
Then it struck him.. What would he do in this world? All he knew was how to fight. Perhaps this new world would have monsters for him to kill as well, with maybe some semblance of normalcy in his spare time to pursue hobbies like reading, swimming or maybe writing books? The only books he knew of in his world were instruction manuals and survival guides, but his father said he had once read a book of poems... so perhaps more books of that kind would be available in his new home world.
As he kept falling, he felt his body tear and reconstruct and every bit of clothing he had or item he carried disappeared into thin air. He felt his soul expand and a solid and permeate through layers of reality as a liquid. It was certainly a strange feeling to be torn and woven back together yet feel no pain.
Before he knew it, he found himself in this new world - Gekai as the voice seemed to call it. He noted that his body felt far weaker in comparison to it's state in his original world, only close to as strong as he were in the first few weeks of when he was training to be a Hunter. Though thankfully, he did seem to appear here with clothing appropriate to this place - perhaps that was the true gift he could have hoped for.
Suddenly a different voice seemed to call to him and strange blue holographic windows popped up:
[Seed Initialization...]
[Seed Registration.....]
[SEED IMPLANTATION: Error_404]
[SEED IMPLANTATION STATUS: FAILURE]
[SEED STATUS: DORMANT]
Despite what seemed to be a failure of whatever gift he got, for some reason, he seemed to understand the language spoken by the locals of what seemed to him like a more medieval world. He landed in that perhaps resembled a marketplace. From what he heard the locals say, he gathered that this city was named Orario.
Most locals looked like humans, however some were different, some were of consistently shorter height, had bestial features or had long ears and smooth skin. Many of them spoke of a dungeon... and monsters???
After all of what he's been through, one would think that Vali had enough of fighting monsters. Yet, his hand was itching, itching to hold a blade on one hand and a monster's head in another. He would not let a second world die to monsters.
So he went to the Guild, following the trail of information from the marketplace. He inquired about the Dungeon and monsters and in response, the female guild receptionist asked him a single question:
"What Familia are you a part of, sir?"
"None. Do I need to be a part of one to kill monsters?" Vali asked. He assumed that Familias were the equivalent of local gangs, after all that was exactly what local gangs were called in his world. Despite only having an assumption, he spoke with confidence to avoid seeming suspicious.
"You can go in as a supporter if you really wanted to, but I must insist that I do not recommend it. You seem well trained but the dungeon is a dangerous place.... I'm sure some Familia would be willing to take you in!" the guild receptionist said.
Hearing this, put a small frown across Vali's face. He did not yet understand why he needed to be a part of some gang to go to this dungeon but he would not question this kind woman who seemed to have a positive first impression of him.
"Thank you for the information. I am Vali Starling. If it is of no trouble to you, may I know your name?" he asked politely.
"I'm Gina Astel. I hope you have good luck finding a Familia, aspiring adventurer." she replied.
He almost missed it in a hurry, but Vali did find this woman attractive. She had long maroon colour hair and bright crimson eyes. She also seemed fairly curvaceous but a little petite in comparison to him, considering he was a little taller than 6ft. She seemed to belong to the species who had bestial features considering she had fox-like ears.
Had she not just told him that he needed to join a shady gang to be an adventurer, he would have preferred to spend some more time with her. Now he was in a hurry to join a "Familia".