[Would You Like To Accept?]

***

Soft...

Wet...

'Mmm, death feels different from what I expected.

Matron Agatha always said if you were good you go to Heaven and if you were bad, you go to Hell but I always just thought the other side would be an empty abyss...

Actually, I always HOPED it would be an empty abyss.

If my impure thoughts alone will send me to hell, I'd rather roll the dice on emptiness being a sure thing.

It will be quiet and boring but at least I won't be in eternal torment.

But I guess boredom is a sort of torment itself.

Hmm... It seems an awful fate either way.'

Not once did Vincel consider Heaven as his location. He felt he was not pure enough to even expect it.

Vincel flexed his fingers and grabbed what he felt to be grass. The softest and most succulent grass he had ever had the opportunity to touch.

'I can move my fingers... That's good- I think'

He moved one of his legs -the one that felt wet- and he felt the swirling of water.

As he felt the coolness of the water he was in contact with, his sense of touch all over every inch of his skin became active as well.

Vincel could now tell that he was naked and lying down on his front on a bed of soft grasses.

And then he opened his eyes and the first thought that came to his mind was;

'The afterlife is a Forest?'

From his angle, lying down, Vincel could see a collection of trees and on every single one of those trees, he could now hear the *Tweet* *Tweet* sound of birds.

Vincel rolled over and sat up on the ground to grab his head in confusion.

"Where am I?"

The trees around him were tall and had wide branches that shielded him from the mild heat of the sun shining above.

The smell of the forest was earthy and 'clean'. Vincel had lived all his life in an industrial age and region and never in his life had he ever smelt or felt something so devoid of pollution. It was refreshing... But it was also disorienting.

With Global warming and pollution being an issue on his earth, this forest did not seem like the world he knew.

"I'm thirsty"

Right in front of Vincel was the river his barefoot had been touching before he turned over and sat up. It was just there sitting calmly and unbothered.

The water was crystal clear.

Following the theme of the pollution-free smelling forest, the water of the small river was also not polluted. Vincel could see to the very bottom of it and the river bed was properly settled and as clean as any collection of dirt could possibly be.

Vincel wasted no time scooping water from the river with his hand into his mouth. The fact that his leg had been inside it did not deter him one bit.

"It tastes-- clean"

Vincel observed while swirling the water in his mouth and once he swallowed, he took even more scoops until his thirst was quenched.

As he took his last scoop, Vincel finally took a good look at his reflection in the water.

Even before he did, he had already noticed there was something different about his body. He no longer felt pain all over. He felt healthy-- Healthier than he was even before his disease began.

Also,

"My eyes aren't yellow. My skin, it's not pale"

Vincel recognized his face, his body was still his own but it felt and looked so different. Scars he had gotten from injuries all throughout his life were now missing. In their place was unblemished skin.

Vincel was in awe of his reflection. He had almost forgotten how he used to look before he started getting weighed down by his disease.

He raised his hands up to look at them and then his vision was blocked by a strange message written in computerized script;

<System Initialization Loading...>

<20%... 40%... 60%... 80%...>

<... Initialization Complete!>

"What in hell?"

Vincel mumbled, his eyes widened and he blinked many times but the messages were never interrupted.

Whenever his eyes were closed, everything went black and only the messages would remain against the darkness.

<Status Screen Updated>

Vincel furrowed his brows in confusion.

"What's a Status screen?"

Immediately he spoke, a blue holographic screen appeared in front of him and the top was labeled 'User Status Screen'.

Vincel could look through the screen but everything through the screen was tinged in blue.

[Name: Vincel Grey]

[Race: Human]

[Job: None]

[Specialization: None]

[Title: None]

[HP: 50/50]

[Mana Reserves: -/-]

[Strength: 5]

[Stamina: 5]

[Agility: 5]

[Resistance: 1]

"Wh-what is this?"

As Vincel was staring blankly ahead at the status screen in front of him, he failed to notice a strange movement in the river he had just drunk from.

The water had settled quickly after he took from it but now something was disturbing it. Something not visible to the naked eye.

Water began to move out of the river and quickly wound around Vincel's leg,

"Huh?"

*Whoosh*

Before Vincel could react, a tentacle, transparent and clear like the water from the river, grabbed him tightly and pulled him into the river.

*Splash*

"Mmmm!"

The tentacle pulled Vincel until he was completely under the river and then, other tentacles came at him and began wrapping around other parts of his body.

His waist, His neck, his knees.

Vincel raised his hands and grabbed the tentacle around his neck, trying to pull it off his neck.

The tentacle was the same color as the water all around so it was basically invisible but once his hands touched it, Vincel knew what to pull. Unfortunately, his pulling made no difference.

His strength was insignificant against the tentacle trying and doing well to strangle him to death.

"Ack-Bluuu--- Bluuuu"

Fighting for his life, Vincel was easily able to forget about the status screen he could still see in front of him but it caught his attention when the message changed to a single *Danger!* sign.

The Danger! sign flashed three times before another message appeared beneath it;

[User is at risk of a premature end. Would you like to accept the System's Job along with the instant grace and eventual burden it comes with?]

'Yes!'

Quickly reaching his limit, Vincel yelled in his mind.

He had no idea what he was agreeing to but yelling inside his head was enough consent for the mysterious System.

[User has accepted the System's Job: Arcane Initiate]

[User has received one Job skill: Arcane Augmentation]

[Training Arc has commenced]

[Instant Grace;

[Job Skill: Arcane Augmentation activated!]

Vincel felt a surge of power all over his body.

A mysterious energy was now present in his body, coming from the pit of his stomach. It mixed with his muscles to grant his entire body strength greater than normal.

Vincel was at his limit but in one last ditch effort to keep hold of this life he still did not understand, he doubled his grip on the tentacle choking him and he pulled it off.

The tentacle broke into water bubbles under the strength of Vincel's hands and Vincel pulled his ankles out of the one grabbing him below.

As that tentacle also broke, Vincel ripped up the one around his waist and then the one grabbing his knees.

'I'm free!'

Vincel kicked up out of the water in desperate need to breathe.

*Splash*

The moment his head broke through the surface of the water, Vincel took a big gulp of air before quickly waddling to the river bank.

Just as he pulled himself to solid ground and completely out of the water, a large bubble emerged from the water but instead of bursting, the bubble changed color. It went from crystal clear and transparent to green and slimy.

The more it emerged, the clearer it was that this was not an abnormally large bubble-- it was some sort of tentacled creature.

"Jellyfish?"

The creature had the bowl head of a jellyfish but it had set black eyes that no jellyfish Vincel had ever seen in pictures, had.

The creature was now floating unsupported above the water and it raised six tentacles, four of which were cut short.

'The ones I broke to free myself' Vincel thought in realization while he started to back away.

His eyes were still on the creature and he watched as the four broken tentacles began to regenerate until they were back to full length.

Vincel wasn't afraid.

He was still confused as to why everything that was happening was happening but at least he now believed he had the strength to deal with it.

He stood to his feet, naked with his member swinging, and took on a defiant pose.

"Come at me!"

The creature moved but before it could even reach the river bank, something swished through the air from behind it.

*Swish*

In a split second, an arrow pierced through its bowl head, and the creature shriveled, flopped, and collapsed into the river with a massive Splash.