WAKING UP

'VOID?'

'What does that even mean?' Countless thoughts rushed into his mind. He wanted to ask more about this so called 'Power of Void'. But he realised that he was already sent out of that place, Whatever or wherever it was.

He felt he was travelling several lightyears in each moment . All he could see was some occasional lines of light in the infinitely vast deep darkness.

He closed his eyes and pondered. Sorting out all the absurd events that took place a few moments ago. He felt he was in a dream. But it was far too detailed for a dream. Everything just happened defied all logic. But then again, logic tends to update itself with new discoveries.

'What am I supposed to do with this much little information?' he sighed.

'What the hell is power of Void anyway? Is it some kind of space technique. How am I supposed to use it.' His mind was barraged with countless questions, doubts and conjectures.

In that moment a thought appeared in his head :

'Everything is created from the VOID and everything will return back to the VOID.'

He abruptly opened his eyes with a gasp. The surrounding scenery is still the same. But didn't see anything. 'What was that? It just suddenly popped up in my head. It feels like someone's speaking to me yet also feels like it's my own thought. Is this one of the stuffed info he talked about? Most likely.'

He calmed down and started sorting his thoughts again. 'I wonder what the phrase even means. I guess every story of this genre should at least have one of these profound and cool sounding phrases. The thought just popped up, so maybe when ever I think about something, the related info might similarly pop up. But why does it feels like it isn't that simple. Anyway let's think about it after I reach there and see the situation myself. Now let's think about how am I going to get food and clothes when I arrive there. I hope I don't wake up in the middle of the street naked.' After that he began to think about several possible scenarios and other trivial matters required for his survival in the first few days.

' How much longer I have to wait like this. ' he was annoyed of the long wait. After some time he was feeling drowsy. 'Hm. A typical sign.  It seems like I am about to reach my destination.' Then he fell in to deep sleep slowly.

.......................................

It was dawn. But the darkness was yet to be wiped out by the morning light. The thick forest trees further deepen the darkness to some extent. In a remote part of the forest, There was a somewhat hidden cave. The mouth of the cave was mostly covered by thick tree vines. For some reason the animals avoid the cave like plague. As if it disgust them even to look at its direction.

Inside the dark cave, a naked figure who was laying on the ground sluggishly sat up. It was a handsome male figure. He looked like someone who became an adult not long ago. He looked around in half awake state. 'Its dark. Again. Why is it always dark?' He waited a bit to sober up. He noticed that a few rays of light coming in from a certain direction. Obviously the entrance the cave. But most of the light is blocked by the tree vines that covered the cave mouth. He then stood up then walked towards the entrance of the cave & started moving the blockage to the sides. It took bit of effort to move the tree vines and weed grasses off the entrance. It was rather uncomfortable to do the work in his birthday suit. It made the work twice harder.

"I really should get something to wear before some dog or anything alike get attracted to my hanging beef " He looked down on his waist and saw that the 'Wood Dragon Jutsu' is completely activated. " Or my heaven pointing spear". 'Morning Woods are seriously annoying sometimes' He thought with an embarrassed expression.

With nothing blocking it any longer, the light entered the cave and spread everywhere inside the cave. " Obviously no human ever comes near this place. I guess I'll have to make clothes using leaves or something huh. Back to stone age. But then again I never was that good at work experience." He lamented.

Before heading out he turned his head back to  the cave to take one last look , his entire body went stiff. He skipped a beat and his eyes was glued to a corner of the cave. After a few seconds he regained his composure. He walked to the corner of the cave. There was a silhouette sitting in that corner. He obviously didn't sense any other presence besides himself in the cave, that's why he was panicked for a moment there. But on a careful look the one sitting with its back on the wall is actually a corpse, more specifically a skeleton.

Whoever it was he/she had been dead for a long time. All the flesh was already gone. The Clothes it wore must be made by some Non-Biodegradable meterial. Even so it was tattered to the extreme. As far how long it had been here or its gender, he was no expert to tell. But its should be a few months if not years. There was a thick layer of dust covering the skeleton. He was feeling a bit uncomfortable, in his previous life he was somewhat an introverted person. He was by no means used to such scenarios, other than in screen.

He looked around the skeleton a bit. He then noticed a slight shine on its finger. ' A spatial storage ring!! ' he exclaimed. He took the ring off the skeleton without much effort. He felt a bit bad about plundering from a dead person. But since it is was a dead person they won't be needing any of the belonging any longer. And he certainly wasn't in any condition to care about any of these useless things.

The ring was pale silver in colour. It seems like it lost most of its lustre from extended usage or lack of maintenance. Nevertheless still quite useful. He put it on and focused his mind. Inside the ring there was a storage space around 10 cubic metres. The contents were emergency camping and camouflaging materials. A few random books, scrolls, talismans and a lot of other miscellaneous items along with a lot of gold, silver and bronze coins and around five thousand ordinary spirit stones. As for the higher forms of currencies, there wasn't any of it. Even then this much money is considered as a fortune by a lot of people or at least a decent amount of wealth. The emergency ration was already spoiled due to obvious reasons, same with water. There was also some decent rare materials and treasures. Judging by the contents of the ring, the previous owner of the ring, the now skeleton, might have been on the run. Or he/she ended in the forest for some other reason. Most likely died due to severe injuries. It doesn't matter either way. He immediately took out some clothes from the ring. He picked plain and most ordinary looking clothes since he doesn't want any trouble that comes if he were to be mistakenly identified as someone belongs to any particular group or power.

He was relieved and very happy to be able to find clothes this quickly, not to mention the other harvest. He stood up and walked to the entrance. He noticed a small heap of soil and some weeds growing on it before. But didn't feel anything strange about it. But now that he think about it there must be some reason why all animals and magical beasts in the area avoid this cave for who knows how long. And the way the heap is positioned at the centre of the entrance, he felt there must be some connection, at least it won't to hurt trying. He removed the weeds and the layers of solidified dust. There was a black dirty pouch inside the heap. Mysterious inscriptions can be seen in its surface. ' This might be the reason why no beasts came near this cave. Quite useful for my current situation'.

He instinctively reached out his right hand. At that moment a silver coloured '8' symbol appeared sideways on the back of his palm. Immediately the pouch disappeared without a trace along with the symbol. He was stunned and stayed still like a statue with his hand still reaching out to the ground.

" What the..."