The place where the souls of the dead gather. Samsara. Reincarnation. Just like "that person" whose soul remained in this place together with the memories of his past life sinking deeper, waiting for their next life.
TL Note : Samsara is the Cycle of Death and Rebirth (or reizilla’s digestive process if you will) – Sumguy
There are times where souls that gained a new life are pulled up, but most of the memories the people have are the ones they had acc.u.mulated since the time they were conscious in this "place". A "place" that seems to be filled with silence for all of eternity, "that person" who was supposed to be added to it, is swaying heavily because of the strong feelings from his past life that were engraved into his soul.
TL Note : Depending on which aspect of buddhism/hinduism/shintoism this author is referring to, the following could be wrong. Souls are eternal, the samsara is where the “life experience” of a particular life the soul have lived gathers. The souls that are “pulled up” are given -instincts/embedded memory- according to their next role in the cycle of karma. This means that the vast majority of the memory are from life experience as opposed to instructive knowledge – Sumguy
Together with a small amount of memories, a single soul, together with his spirit, but he was drawn by another world and fell down through the door of life.
[……… This place, where could it be.]
Inadvertently looking up to the stone ceiling, crossed by cracks like black lightning, the light that came from that part was lighting up the surrounding area. The figure on the old altar like monument, repeatedly asked himself with a blurring consciousness.
[Just who……. am I.]
Gradually the consciousness that was full of gaps, began to have a firm grip and remembered thathe was once human. He can"t remember his name or age, but the remains of his spirit understood from his habits that he was once a man. He felt like he lived a pretty long time, yet he felt that he was young.
[Why, I wonder, am I here.]
Since this isn"t a place from my memories, I"ve understood that this is a different world and I am aware that I am a foreign substance in this world. The light illuminates up the whole place from time to time, emphasizing the shades of the old altar. While looking around beyond the decayed stone floor, that continued for a while, was a wall with some carvings on it.
[Just what should I do.]
Not seeing something like an exit from the altar, not trying to do anything, not knowing just what he should do, just floating on the altar while s.p.a.cing out.
For how long he did that, the white light had changed with the light of the moon, when he felt that it had become night, he who was just floating there like a ghost, heard footsteps from a shadow and directed his conscious to it.
Just where did it come wandering in from, a rat the size of a full grown cat, it was squeaking about, whilst moving around on the altar. Without being able to move from here, he was jealous of the rat that was able to move around freely.
Then, while he was observing the rat for a while, he felt a gap like hole on the nape of the neck of the rat. It wasn"t that there was a hole in the body, but the feeling of "there is a hole there".
[What would that be?]
The moment he focused his conscious on that part, he was flowing in it as if he was being sucked in, when he noticed it, he was already inside the rat"s body. Rather than merging, he was controlling the rat"s conscious, the so called ‘state of possession’.
Unless he strongly urge it, the rat will move according to its own will, it seem difficult to freely control the body, but maybe because he directly touched its conscious he was able to understand the thought process of the rat.
I was able to read from the rats mind, that this area was where they live and where they get their food, and that it"s a danger zone.
A big s.p.a.ce in the dungeon. Exits where only small creatures could pa.s.s through, big pa.s.sageways which even big creatures can use, information about this place was coming to me little by little.
It seems like this rat pa.s.sed through cracks in the wall and ended up on the altar. because of the influence of the possession, its head got a little heavier but without minding it, the big rat headed towards the hunting ground which was a danger zone.
Since he couldn"t see much of his surroundings from the possessed rat"s point of view, he began to look around from the nape of the neck.
[Somehow, it feels as if the rat is the one moving around.]
I saw the light of the exit, within the small crack, from the running rat"s head. Eventually pa.s.sing the exit, there was a giant open s.p.a.ce. When looking up to the ceiling there was natural rock like a cave, but the walls and the floor looked like they were man made. It seems that it"s a wide pa.s.sage.
Compared to the altar, it doesn"t seem to be that old, but from time to time there are some cracks and openings on the wall and floors which didn"t seem natural. It looked like a situation after someone used force to damage it. On specific places on the wall, were torch like fires lighting the place.
The rat that was running along the wall, raised its nose and began sniffing at certain places. Then it reacted to something. Concentrating my conscious on the rat"s senses, it seemed that the presence of "Human" was close.
[Are there humans close by?]
When I made some distance between me and the rat"s body in order to see the surroundings from a higher point of view, I found a few shadows of some humans deep within the wide pa.s.sage. If I focused my eyes their figures would become sharper and the shadow’s figures could be seen clearly.
[…….?]
Three at the front and two in the back, the group was together in that kind of formation, he knew from his past memories, that they were dressed far from from the common sense of ordinary people.
From those wearing leather armor and donning a sword, to ones like magicians and alchemists with robes and staves, and those that had armor made from fur and leaves, having a bow in hand. They don"t seem like normal modern people, and they don"t look like they"re j.a.panese either.
[Modern people…..? j.a.panese….. j.a.pan…. Game….. Cosplay… Culture.]
When I started sorting out the missing memories that came to me and forming an image, the woman dressed with fur and leaves shot an arrow from her bow. "A~tsu" by the time he noticed that, the rat that he was possessing was pierced by the arrow.
The soul was parted from the body through the strong wave of the death throe of the soul, his conscious was floating away from the big rat"s corpse. The last things he felt from the rat"s mind were, "It hurts", "Run" and "I"m hungry".
"Alright, I killed it with one shot."
"Something like this is easy."
"Well Leader-san, can you just lead us to the lower floors already."
"I"m already bored with fighting against bats and rats."
The group came close from the depths of the pa.s.sage, in order to confirm the kill, while having a conversation, skinning the rat, and taking its fangs, the battle hardened middle aged man with fine armor came close.
"Don"t underestimate the monster of the dungeon, it is still too early for you guys to go down below."
The middle aged man called leader, was telling off the youths br.i.m.m.i.n.g with vigor.
n.o.body noticed "his" existence floating around close by. "He" did not understand the language they were speaking in, but as if reading subt.i.tles, he was able to understand the meaning of their words. Since "he" who is a spiritual body, has surpa.s.sed common language, he focused his "will" on the words that they spoke.
From their conversation and spilled out thoughts, he was able to understand that their group had come here with the objective of hunting.
This place is what they call a dungeon, an underground labyrinth, it’s a dangerous place where the monsters get stronger with every floor. Since they"re able to trade the monsters’ materials, they came here aiming for gold.
Those that want to test their sword or magic skills, those that want to train, those that want to find treasure, for these adventurers, this place can be called both heaven and h.e.l.l.
[So it"s a dungeon~]
As "he" muttered so, while processing the information, he was able to deepen his understanding of his situation little by little.
After the group led by the middle aged man left, "he" who was floating alone in the dungeons pa.s.sage was, as expected without doing anything, not knowing what he should do, just floating there, s.p.a.ced out.
The corpse of the rat was becoming the dinner of little insects, until nothing was left.
[……. I wonder if no one will pa.s.s by.]
At the time, he remembered the feeling of "sadness" and "boredom", close to him was a bug with an elongated body with a pincher on its tail at the end. According to his memories, it was a bug that resembled an earwig, but it was an big earwig about 42 centimeters long.
When he focuses his conscious on the unmoving earwig, he notices something like a hole near its head. Just like the big rat, when he focused his conscious on the hole, he possessed the earwig as if he was sucked in by it.
[Alright, with this I"ll be able to move around.]
He, who now obtained legs to move with, began moving around the dungeon with a rustling sound. He didn"t have a particular goal in mind. If he had to give one, it would be that he wanted to find someone human like.
[Ah, it"s a human…… Earwig-kun, go that way!]
Because of his strong influence over the Earwig’s mind, the earwig went toward the human through the pa.s.sage. Together with incomplete memories and being in spiritual form, "he" who came to this world started his dungeon life like this.