"Okay! Okay! I get it, you can stop yapping about it, jeez..."
Finn didn't want to admit how much the words hurt. He turned away and looked at the strange landscape around him.
They were in a grassy field with a forest in the distance and those strange floating islands slowly moving above them. He could see what might have been mountains in the distance, but their tops were hidden by fog.
He asked in a low voice, "What am I supposed to do now?"
"First of all, you need to get to the capital city within the next twenty-four hours," Lumia said, her voice becoming a little less rude. "Right now, you are signed up to be a new student at Astralhart Grand Academy, the biggest and best magic school on the continent."
"Tomorrow at noon is your entrance exam. If you miss it, you lose your spot in the class.
"Academy of magic?" Finn felt a little better, even though he didn't want to. "Like, real magic?"
"Yes, real magic. This is a made-up world, so try to keep up." Lumia jumped onto his shoulder and stayed there like the strangest parrot in the world. "The capital is about thirty kilometers northwest of here."
"There is a main road that goes through the forest and will take you most of the way. It shouldn't be too hard as long as you don't do anything dumb."
"And what if I do something dumb?"
"Then whatever is making that growling sound behind you will probably eat you."
Finn stopped moving. He turned around very slowly.
At the edge of the clearing, there was something that resembled a wolf, but it was the size of a horse and had an excessive number of teeth. It was partly hidden by the tall grass.
Its fur was a mix of gray and green, which helped it blend in with the plants. Its eyes were a bright, predatory yellow. Finn saw it take a step forward, and he could see the muscles moving under its fur.
Finn said "Lumia" very quietly, never taking his eyes off the creature. "What the fuck is that?"
"That's a Direblood Stalker," Lumia said with a smile. "Mid-level predator that usually hunts in packs."
"It probably smelled you from a few kilometers away. The good news is that you have the system now, so you can technically fight it."
"And what about the bad news?"
"The bad news is that you don't know how to fight at all, and your stats are only a little better than those of a normal person."
"Oh, and if you see one Direblood, there are usually three or four more close by."
The wolf-like creature took another step forward, lowering its head and showing its teeth. Finn could swear he felt a low growl come from its throat and shake the ground.
Finn hissed, "This sounds like something you should have told me before!"
"What's the fun in that?" Lumia said. "Also, this is a great chance for you to turn on the system for the first time!"
"You just have to stay alive long enough to meet a woman you can connect with. Easy, right?"
"Am I going to die again?"
"Maybe! But there is a bright side to this. At least this time it won't be like falling on a keyboard and dying like a loser!"
The Direblood jumped. Finn did what his scared mind told him to do.
He ran across the clearing with the wolf-like creature chasing him. Lumia somehow stayed on his shoulder even though he was moving around a lot.
His new body was faster than his old one, but that didn't mean much because of how he used to live. He could hear the Direblood gaining ground behind him, its giant paws pounding against the ground.
"Left! Go left!" Lumia yelled in his ear.
Finn turned left without thinking, almost tripping over his own feet. The Direblood's jaws snapped shut on empty air where his body had been a second before.
He kept running toward the trees in the forest ahead. He could lose it in there, climb a tree, or do anything else to avoid becoming the first person to die because of reincarnation.
"Fuck you, Lumia! You're to blame for this!" Finn yelled at Lumia while he was out of breath.
"Is it my fault? You're the one who died because you played too many video games!"
"You told me I had twenty-four hours to get to the capital! You didn't say anything about the murder wolves!"
"I told you that something big would eat you if you didn't hurry. What makes this surprising?"
Finn ran into the woods, and branches hit his face as he crashed through the underbrush. He could hear the Direblood's heavy breathing and smell something bad and meaty right behind him.
He jumped over a fallen tree, slipped on some moss, and barely caught himself before hitting a tree trunk with his face. At that point, he heard a voice, clear and sharp and definitely human, cutting through the noise.
"Hey! Hey, you big dog!"
Finn took a quick look to the side and saw something that made his brain short-circuit because it didn't have enough oxygen. There was a girl, probably about his age, with short pink hair tied back in a side ponytail on her left.
She was wearing what looked like a mix of leather armor and a school uniform. She was looking at the Direblood with an annoyed look on her face, and she was holding a sword that glowed with a faint blue light.
The wolf-creature came to a stop, its attention split between Finn and the new person. It growled, and strings of drool dripped from its teeth.
"Run, you fool!" the girl yelled at Finn. "I'll take care of this!"
Finn's legs, which were apparently smarter than his brain, did what he said right away. He stumbled away from the fight and fell against the trunk of a tree that was a safe distance away. From where he stood, he saw the pink-haired girl move with smooth, practiced grace, her sword flashing as she fought the Direblood.
"Well," Lumia said from his shoulder, her voice suddenly more interested. "This just got interesting."
Finn wheezed as he tried to catch his breath. "Who is she?"
Lumia said, "The fuck do I know? But the system says she has a Bravery-type affinity. This means that if you don't completely humiliate yourself, she might become your first bond."
"Great," Finn said under his breath as he watched the girl drive the Direblood back with a series of precise strikes. "What a first impression I gave to her, like a fucking pussy."
Finn couldn't help but see a small blue window appear in the corner of his vision as the girl fought. It was see-through and sparkled like something from a video game. There was text on it that moved across it in a cold, mechanical way.
[ACTIVATED THE AFFINITY SYSTEM]
[TARGET FOUND: UNKNOWN WOMAN]
[TYPE OF AFFINITY: BRAVERY]
[CURRENT LEVEL OF AFFINITY: 0]
[STATUS: FIRST CONTACT MADE]
Finn looked at the window, then at Lumia, and then back at the girl who was saving his life from a monster he didn't even know existed ten minutes ago.
He had officially started his second life in a different world. And for some reason, he thought it would be just as hard as the first one.