The first thing Kirian registered after regaining consciousness was all-encompassing agony. It wasn't physical pain, not like breaking your bone or getting a migraine, it wasn't comparable to anything. Her senses were all scrambled. She couldn't tell up from down. The world kept spinning even as she tried to dig her metaphorical heels in and reorient herself in this strange place. It felt like her soul got ripped to pieces, and the fragments mashed together in a poor imitation of what it used to be.

  Maybe she felt like this because that's exactly what happened. If she just ceased trying to wiggle around, the soul implantation would have gone much smoother. Poor Kirian didn't think of heeding the advice, though. As a matter of fact, she didn't have any thoughts at the moment, lacking a brain and whatnot. It happens when the inside of your head ends up on the outside, more specifically, on the pavement next to your body.

  After some incomprehensible amount of time, Kirian got her wits together and finally formed her first thought.

  "What the fuck just happened?"

  How uncouth. This brilliant first impression was followed right after by another bright question.

  "Where am I?"

  System initialization...

  "What is that?"

  If she only waited a couple of minutes, there would be no need for these pointless queries. Kirian wasn't known for her patience, though. Her first instinct after regaining the ability to think was to go on a long tangent, talking to a non-sentient box that would never respond to her questions. At last, the gods must have smiled upon her because she got at least one of her questions answered.

  Welcome to the world of Arkadia!

  You've been chosen to take the mantle of a [Hero] and save the world from the vicious [Demon King].

  The task before you is formidable, so you'll be presented with many opportunities to grow before the final battle. If you succeed, you'll be granted a wish from the Grand System itself.

  Train, fight, and gather allies. Good luck!

  She barely had time to read the previous message when the next shoved itself before her non-developed eyes.

  Granted the Trait [Otherworlder]

  You came from a different plane where limitations do not exist. You have the Potential to learn every Skill

  If Kirian were a gamer in her previous life, she would have screamed in delight... or horror after reading the messages. Unfortunately, her gaming experience starts and ends at Minesweeper, and that didn't tell her much about her situation. If she felt bewildered by the previous messages, then she should have been terrified of the next ones.

  Granting the Path of a [Hero]

  Error

  Erorr

  [Hero] Path already granted to another soul.

  Recalibrating...

  The true [Hero] got here first. Not surprising, he died before her after all. The System was in a pickle, or maybe Kirian was, depending on how you looked at it.

  Compensating

  New Trait acquired

  [Minor Unveiling]

  The Grand System will show you some of its secrets

  A small gift to wipe the tears. Nothing as impressive as the benefits of a [Hero] Path, but it's better than nothing. Ah, the system truly is generous in this cycle. Kirian couldn't appreciate it back then, but she will... In due time.

  First, she has to grow a little bit.

  ***

  Kirian was bored out of her mind. She tried talking to the weird, glowing words, but since the last message about some kind of trait, it hadn't shown itself again. She rattled on about everything and nothing, but she never tried what a true isekai consumer would do after realizing they were reincarnated, saying: "Status screen".

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  "I've been here for ages!" It has not been ages, barely 13 weeks.

  "How long is it going to take? What about the task the glowing words talked about? What was it... 'saving the world from the Demon King'? How am I supposed to save anyone when I'm stuck here?" The [Hero] will save the world, not some insignificant tag-along. Isolation was not good for Kirian's mind - she started talking to herself more and more as time went on. Good thing her solitude wouldn't last much longer, or she would have really gone insane.

  Suddenly, something tickled her shoulder. It was fleeting at first, so her first thought was to blame her imagination, but when the feeling came back, this time much stronger, she couldn't ignore it any longer. She still couldn't see anything, but if something can touch her, then there's a high probability she can touch it back. With trepidation, Kirian extended her limb? appandage? and tried to feel up her void mate. She missed, of course. Her neighbour must have already moved away. Maybe another time.

  She was tired anyway... Just a quick nap won't do any harm.

  ***

  The next contact came a week later. Not that Kirian was aware of it, they didn't really have clocks here. The entity touched her again, and Kirian, not wanting to lose her chance, struck as fast as possible. She got her chubby beginning of a hand around... an arm? The sensation of touching another material being was so strange that she almost let go by instinct. This changed everything. If there were others like her here, that would make them kin. That means there might be a way to communicate with them in some way. Kirian felt a surge of excitement and... relief. She hadn't realized how lonely she was until now.

  "Hello? Can you understand me? Tap two times if you can." She paused, waiting for any reaction.

  But the other one was not interested in hearing her silent plea and silently slipped away from Kirian's desperate grasp, leaving her alone once again. Feeling the all-encompassing darkness more acutely than ever, she panicked and tried to follow after it, but her limbs weren't developed enough yet.

  Kirian thought dying was a better feeling than this. Weeks of being trapped in darkness, complete silence, alone, not being able to tell up from down, made her detached from her body. Initially, she thought it was all just a dream created by her dying brain, or maybe that's what people in a coma felt, when their brains were too damaged to function, but their bodies still desperately fought to live. Now that the reality of her predicament came back, it crushed her spirit completely. For the first time in weeks, Kirian felt something other than numbness and disorientation — true despair. The last threads of sanity slipped from her, and then her mind imploded from the inside. She started by kicking her legs, then her arms, then her whole body began to convulse. She felt claustrophobic even though there was nothing but endless space around her. The need for a way out was so intense that she was ready to carve her way through the void itself for an escape.

  Even though her rage was righteous, the fit wasn't meant to last. After only a couple of minutes of flailing her limbs around, her body grew exhausted, and she passed out.

  Maybe the next encounter will go better.

  ***

  It did not. Go better, that is. And the next one after that was just as fleeting as the previous ones. The touches were cautious, like trying to feel the fabric of a new sweater between fingers. It was searching for something. Kirian started to think the entity was toying with her.

  "It's testing my resolve, looking for a way to break me even more." That thought made her feel bitter, so as a show of rebellion, she stopped reacting to its provocations.

  It would have worked if not for a small little detail. Both of them were growing bigger by the day, but the void they were in did not. Not yet, at least. Touching was inevitable in such a confined space, even if only by mistake, so Kirian formulated a plan. It was simple, really.

  Her roommate couldn't touch her if she reacted fast enough to get away from it before it got too close.

  Kirian didn't have much to work with. She was blind, almost deaf, lacked a sense of smell and taste, but what she could do was feel.

  So feel she did. She knew the other one was close to her, she just needed to know where. She started by trying to anticipate when it moved too close, and when it did, she attempted to quickly move away.

  The first tries were a total failure. Working with only one and a half senses was hard, and her sense of feel was useless to her when she wasn't actively being touched. And touching was what she was trying to avoid, so she knew she needed to rely more on her instinct. Every creature had one, some better than others, but it was there.

  "How is it possible that people know when they are being watched, even though they can't see by whom?" She knew that if she tried hard enough, it would click.

  And it did. When it finally happened, she thought it was a fluke, but with repeated success, Kirian knew her plan was a success. Half the time, if she focused properly, she could sense something trying to reach for her. With nimble (for her development stage) body, she swam to the side, avoiding the grabby fingers of her voidmate. After some time, it grew even further. She got so good at feeling the entity before it came that she developed something of a sixth sense, even though she had only two at the moment, so that would make it a third. It was like feeling a warm breeze on her skin during a snowstorm, an unnatural feeling that automatically alerted her to something being wrong, and her mind reflexively moved before she even knew what she was doing.

  It was unheard of for one so young to achieve such a skill before they even took their first breath, but the system never discriminated against its users, no matter their age. That's why it rewarded her accordingly.

  New Common Grade Skill acquired!

  [Sense Presence]

  You become better at sensing presences, be it as a hunter or a prey. {Veiled information: Gives a 25% bonus to growing the Perception Stat.}

  Do you want to equip it in your Status?

  Y/N

  Truly a monumental achievement. Now, the only thing Kirian had to do was add her first skill to the Skill List, and the grind may commence, at last.

  "What the hell is Status?"

  But first, it's time for some introductions.