(Danmachi-Hell's Forge)Chapter 1: Reincarnation is a bitch (Patreon)

You know how everyone of those reincarnation stories have the main character just show up in a new world just fine and totally not on the verge of death? Yeah I didn't get that treatment. Instead what I got was one second making a deal with some weird blinding thing(I refuse to consider whatever that was a person) and the next I was screaming because it was like a truck hit me and I didn't have the good luck to die immediately. The next part got a bit .... fuzzy.-

Look I'm not making excuses or anything but I legitimately can't recall exactly what happened as panic set in and I tried to do anything I could to fix myself. All I know was I felt a surge of something rush out of me before I passed out. When I came to next I wasn't in pain anymore and was in for quite the shock. First thing I noticed was that I was half naked with only a simply pair of rough shorts on. When I say rough I mean it too as it was like burlap or something with literal rope holding the waist up.-

The second thing I noticed however was that on my chest and stomach were black markings like a tattoo I definitely didn't have before. It probably would have looked badass if I wasn't kinda out of shape and had a little bit of a belly on me not fat mind you. It looked kinda like a ring of flames with a weird symbol in the middle of it. At the back of my mind I somehow knew exactly what the markings represented, my cursed technique {Hell's Forge}. I instinctively knew what the technique did but that didn't mean I couldn't be a little irritated that I had no idea how to use it.-

With a sigh I could only choose to ignore that for now and take a look around to see where the hell I was.

'Trees, plants, and rocks as far as I can see. This tells me nothing beyond the fucking obvious, I'm in a forest.' I thought with a groan. 

"What was it all those survivor shows kept saying about situations like this? I think it was to head west, maybe?" I muttered before checking the suns position.

To this I just looked at the shadows the trees cast. I watched the shadows for a good hour or so before I felt confident that I had figured out which direction I should go. 

'Even if the sun sets in the east or north or some other weird shit in this world I at least know I have a direction of some sort.' I thought with a smile as I ventured forth. 

"Fuck! Shit! Damnit! Ow!" I cursed like a particularly verbal sailor as I walked because as I failed to realize previously walking barefoot through a forest is actually painful as hell. Every few steps on the otherwise soft forest floor led to me stepping on a small sharp rock or hidden stick or my personal favorite, antlers. Did you know deer apparently shed those damn things? Because I very much did not until now and believe me stepping on them barefoot is not a fun experience.-

I kept them though as I was trying to get my technique to work since some shoes would be fan fucking tastic. My technique {hell's forge} was quite simple in how it worked and had a lot of potential(kinda why I chose it). The way it worked was that I could take anything that came from a living being and through the technique "forge" it into a different shape by my own imagination. Deer antlers qualified obviously so I wanted to "forge" the ones I had collected via stepping on them into a pair of slip on shoes, crocs.-

My problem came in the form of me not actually having cursed energy to use the technique. No fucking idea how that happened to be honest with you as an innate technique and cursed energy to use said cursed technique were kinda a package deal but here I was with a technique and no energy. The worse part was that I know for a fact that the energy I did have was NOT the curse variety. Why because none of my anger at the constant pain in my feet was doing anything to it at all of course.-

The energy just flowed through my body in a nice calm manner regardless of how I tried to get it to do anything at all. Honestly speaking if it wasn't for the pain in my feet I might even appreciate the view as like most forests it was kinda nice in this one, cool yet warm and full of life. As a result I noticed immediately when shit got quiet all of a sudden.-

"Gihehe~"

I heard a sound coming from my left and my attention narrowed in on it as a sort of primal fear came to me. The sort of feeling one might get at the zoo when a lion attacks the glass separating you from them. I knew why too the moment the source of the sound jumped into view. A humanoid creature standing about four feet tall with green skin and a scrawny build holding a wooden club, a goblin.-

The creatures weird yellow eyes that reminded me of a goats locked on to me and my fight or flight instinct kicked in. I immediately got in a boxing stance while holding an antler in my hand like it was a weapon. "THUD-UMP THUD-UMP!" my heart beat was the only sound I heard as it pounded in my ears and I prepared to enter a tango of life and death with the very much hostile monster.-

"THWACK!"

An arrow came out of seemingly nowhere and sank into the goblins forehead before I could however. The creature fell on it's back without any fanfare and twitched a bit before going still. It was so sudden that I couldn't even flinch before my foe was dead. This didn't make me relax however as logic told me that whatever or whoever killed the thing might be a far bigger threat. 

"You can relax, if we wanted you dead you wouldn't even realize it before you hit the ground."

A female voice spoke from behind me causing me to leap away from the sound by reflexively.

"Rather twitchy this one eh captain?" another female voice asked sounding amused.

From the shadows around me several woman walked out where I could see them in various types of clothing including metal armor and even some that were wearing almost nothing at all. Those ones I noticed all had dark hair and skin and were eyeing me in a way that made me uncomfortable. A woman who appeared twentyish like me with reddish brown hair and a green cloth shirt with no sleeves and brown leather pants with a sash and gloves spoke.-

"I am the captain of the Artemis familia, Rethusa! Why are you here in the forest? And why do you lack any clothes beyond those shorts?" she demanded with a serious expression.