Awareness returned.

  Yuki had eyes but couldn’t open them. Her body felt strange, unresponsive, and wrong. There were no noises, no everyday city rustle, not even the sound of her frantic, panicked breathing. Only the constant ringing sound in her ear. It brought to mind memories of that one time inside of a sound proof chamber.

  Terrifying.

  Was she deaf and blind?

  Then, there was the trembling. It was freezing, and she felt no clothes on her body. Had she been reborn as a deaf and blind baby and left alone in the wilderness?

  Fear gnawed at her now existing bones, but a rough… something, she wanted to say hands — it didn’t feel like hands — pushed her into a warm, fluffy blanket. The thing was so cozy she immediately relaxed and forgot all about her blindness. Then, something soft, warm, and leathery wrapped around Yuki from all sides. It was heaven; it was safe, comfortable.

  Better yet, amidst the incredible fluffiness, someone pressed a tit to her strange-shaped mouth. She didn’t have time to question things. She sucked on that with all her strength. It was ambrosia, her favorite ice cream, a cup of hot cocoa on a cold winter night, and it was over way too soon.

  Not that Yuki was still hungry. The small amount of nectar she drank left her feeling full and satisfied, but it was so good that she wanted more.

  Warm, safe, and cozy, Yuki decided it was time to face the music.

  “System,” she said.

  Her mouth moved, and she felt the air leaving her throat, but no system windows appeared.

  “Menu,” she said again.

  The warm, fluffy blanket moved. Was Mom still here and responding to Yuki’s calls?

  “Status!” Yuki yelled this last one. The system window showed up, and at the same time, something moist and ticklish pressed to Yuki’s sides, then to several other spots in sequence. What was that? She hoped it wasn’t anything gross. Gross or not, she relaxed. It was like her body responded to the touch, not her mind.

  Now calm and comfortable again, she looked at the system windows.

  Name:

  Gender: Female

  Race: Mutant Dwarf Horned Rabbit

  Race Evolution Tier: F

  Exp: 0/1000

  “…”

  Yuki decided it was too soon to worry about this. She was warm, safe, and cozy. The twitching of the leathery pillows around her wasn’t enough to disturb the paradise. Maybe she was blind and deaf, but she had a family that loved and cared for her. Yuki would have years to grow up. Anything else could wait; for now, she would enjoy being a baby again. She wasn’t a rabbit. No, the system was just pranking her. Tomorrow after a little nap. That’s when she’d see her real status.

  A notification blinked into existence. Yuki read it.

  New quest received:

  New quest: Survive until age of maturity.

  Description: Being the runt of the litter, hornless in this wild, dangerous world isn’t easy. Survive until adulthood.

  Reward: Full system unlock.

  The air reverberated around Yuki. Something startled her awake. She felt for things around; the fluffy pillow wasn’t nearby anymore. Mom had left? Some of the leathery pillows were also missing or misplaced. She sniffed the air, another one of those things her body did, not her mind. Mom’s scent was nearby.

  The air vibrated again like an impact had happened close by. Then, she smelled it: the coppery scent she knew all too well — blood.

  Yuki froze, body locking down against her will. Her heart sped up, beating so fast she was afraid she’d die her third death by cardiac arrest. There was no flight or fight response. There was just raw, freezing terror. The smell didn’t linger for long, soon it started to dissipate. Yuki counted the milliseconds.

  An eternity later, Mom’s smell returned, and with it, a hint of blood. Yuki remembered some half-watched documentaries about wild rabbits: the mom sometimes ate the babies.

  No, that was just paranoia. Yuki wasn’t a rabbit, and there was no way Mom just killed and ate some of her siblings, it was just a bad dream, right? Right?

  Yuki turned around and cuddled the pillows. Hallucinations. She was getting crazy.

  Exp: +1.

  “Status,” Yuki said.

  Name:

  Gender: Female

  Race: Mutant Dwarf Horned Rabbit

  Race Evolution Tier: F

  Exp: 11/1000

  One measly exp point per day. It would take almost three years to reach full experience. Did rabbits even live that long? Maybe horned ones did? She wasn’t a normal rabbit, after all. Yuki had long accepted her new status in life. Being a rabbit wasn’t that bad. She slept as much as she wanted, drank Ambrosia daily, and had amazing fluffy pillows to lie on.

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

  But when thinking about this new reality, she had suspicions about why she was a rabbit.

  “System, what is Heroic Trait: Reincarnation?”

  A new log message showed up. One that Yuki had read many times already.

  Heroic Trait: Reincarnation

  You are reincarnated as an animal or creature upon death. Your physical Attributes become those of the creature you are reborn into, but your mental ones remain those of your previous life. This trait can only be used once.

  There was a massive gap in Yuki’s memory. A 4242-day gap, to be precise. As for the title, it was more interesting— and troubling. She willed the system to display its effects.

  Heroic title: Summoned Hero

  Grants access to the restricted system interface. Allows limited manual selection of system options.

  How was the system restricted? The people in this world couldn’t pick their build at all?

  Heroic Trait: None.

  Heroic Title: Summoned Hero.

  Trait: Mana Sniffer.

  Title: None.

  The heroic trait was gone, which made sense if it was a one-time use. Now, she had a new trait.

  Trait: Mana Sniffer

  You can detect mana by smell.

  Yuki rolled her eyes. Super duper helpful. What smell? And how? Yuki was still getting used to her new rabbit senses, but her sense of smell was leagues above what it had been as a human. She could even smell weeks-old dirt on Mom’s fur. How was Yuki supposed to know which smell was which? She tapped on the attributes tab and willed the system to display the descriptions again.

  Core attributes: Body, Mind, and Soul.

  These represent the many subtraits that define a hero’s strength, resilience, cleverness, quickness, charisma, and more. Mortal races cannot naturally exceed Great in any attribute.

  She glanced over her current stats:

  Body: Poor

  Mind: Good

  Soul: Excellent

  Yeah. That sounded about right.

  Past-Yuki would’ve min-maxed the mental stats without hesitation, anything to become the perfect magic g—sorceress. Of course she’d max out Mind and Soul. Power, intelligence, charisma, those were the hallmarks of a true sorceress. Even if it meant bending the limits of her own race. A sorceress had to be powerful, intelligent, and charismatic, right?

  Yuki shook her head, dismissing that thought and the system interface. She was a rabbit now. No point in worrying about the forgotten past. It was better to focus on the now, like snuggling up to the fantastic pillows.

  The things Yuki had taken for leathery pillows were her siblings, and the awesome heavenly fluff was her Mother’s fur. But again, that was fine. Rabbit or not, she was living the life, feeding on the good stuff, sleeping like a queen.

  Even after eleven days, Yuki still couldn’t see. Her eyes felt like they would open at any time now. That was good because of how fast the other kits in the nest grew. They were, like, double her size already. But after a moment’s consideration, Yuki realized she didn’t mind being smaller. Her sibling’s fluff was oh-so heavenly, almost as good as Mom’s. They being bigger meant more for her to enjoy! Right?

  Exp: +1.

  “Oh no, you don’t!” Yuki charged at Sir Hopsalot.

  Four weeks had passed since her reincarnation, and she could see and hear again. Bunnies, who would have thought? Her screech attracted her sibling’s attention, pairs of eyes looking at her antics.

  Yuki’s brother was a tall, handsome bunny. He had terrific silky brown fur. His white eye glowed in the burrow’s darkness, and the horn on his forehead was the biggest of the litter. Despite that, Yuki was faster. She could run rounds around him.

  Sir Hopsalot, like usual, was too slow to react; before he could even look her way, Yuki had already zipped past, carrying the last nibble of the nut. She had no idea where Mom got those, but they were so tasty, almost as good as the ambrosia milk Mom wasn’t feeding them anymore.

  For the past few days, Mom had been an absent mother. The litter was big enough to keep warm without her, and Mom only showed up to feed the litter. She came once a day, fed the kits, then fled again. Yuki knew why; maybe it was rabbit instincts that let her know.

  Mother wanted to protect the litter. Her scent was strong: Earth, pine, and grass mixed with sweet vanilla. It didn’t make a lick of sense, but that was mom’s scent. The kits, however, had no scent at all. Even after days of just sleeping and eating and pooping, they were smell-free. Febreze-level fresh.

  Yuki posed in victory. She held her head high, nut displayed between her teeth.

  Then, the vixen showed up. The temptress walked closer, with gentle red eyes and limbs moving in elegant hops.

  Bunbun McFluff had the fluffiest fur of all; even Mom couldn’t compete anymore. Bunbun wasn’t as big as Hopsalot, but she was still two times Yuki’s size. The temptress didn’t waste time; she enveloped Yuki in an almost hug. Her soft, warm fur made Yuki forget everything, even her hard-earned prize.

  Bunbun and the nut were long gone when Yuki broke free from fluff heaven.

  Dangit. Yuki needed to get her shit together. A bit of soft fur, and she lost her mind. Dejected, she walked to Flopsy Mopsy. He wouldn’t betray her trust.

  Mainly because he was always sleeping.

  Big, but not the biggest of the litter, he was cuddly and floppy, which made him the perfect pillow, even if Bunbun’s fur was fluffier. But that little vixen had learned how to weaponize her fluffiness. Yuki needed to steer clear of that. Her sanity was on the line here.

  From her comfortable spot, she saw the biggest of them. The bully, the brawler, the hothead: Captain Nutjob and his smug mug. He glanced at Yuki and sneered, nose twitched with self-importance.

  By his feet was poor Whisker Wigglebottom. Whisker’s nose twitched in a desperate plea for help.

  Yuki looked away, ashamed of not helping her sister escape from the big bully. But what else could she do? The one time she tried, Nutjob almost skewered her with his horn. A horn Yuki didn’t have. Even if her race was called Horned Rabbit.

  No, Yuki’s fur was white and silky, whereas her siblings were shades of gray and brown. In her modest opinion, her fur was even better than Bunbun’s S Tier fluffiness.

  Exp: +1.

  Today was finally the day! Yuki bounced up on the cuddle pile; her siblings’ noses twitched at her sudden movement. She jumped and bounced and danced. Yuki and her siblings had explored every nook and cranny of the burrow. She knew every scent, every curve, and every dead end.

  Bored out of her mind, Yuki had picked a fight with the neighbor’s litter. They were annoying and kept smelling her, pushing her, shoving her. In retaliation, Yuki stole their food and ran behind Captain Nutjob for protection. Her bully of a brother had grown even bigger, and when presented with the chance to bully, he always picked the strangers to suffer his wrath.

  Yuki left some of klepted food behind in his corner of the nest. It was just a safety measure, she wasn’t afraid of him — nope, not at all.

  She had also explored — again — all her system tabs. The Skills tab, for some reason, was still grayed out. She couldn’t access it. She had no [Analyze] or [Identify] function; her Appraise spell was a bust, a waste of spell slot.

  Appraise:

  Assesses the quality of physical objects. The spell does not work on organic things. Neither does it list flaws or magic effects present; only that they exist.

  Yuki jumped, ran, sang, and danced. But no system message said her skills improved, which was a shame. Was she locked out because of her race?

  The only thing that ever changed on her character sheet was the daily experience pittance.

  But to say she learned nothing was untrue. She knew how to cast the spells, sort of. Somehow, the knowledge had been implanted in her mind. The only problem was… There was chanting, hand-waving, material components, and ritual circles.

  The only one that — maybe — she could cast was [Contract Familiar]. The only required component was the ritual circle, which Yuki could draw with her paws. With this one, the chanting, hand-waving, and material components enticed a better or particular familiar type.

  For example, she could use crow feathers to entice a crow.

  Still, Yuki could cast it, but it wouldn’t be worth it, at least not right now.

  Rabbit fur to bind a fluffy temptress rabbit?

  But enough of that. Mom was finally here. Her pine and vanilla scent spread out in the warren the moment she crossed underground. The kits lined up. Yuki bounced more than Sir Hopsalot. Even Flopsy Mopsy was awake and alert. It was finally the day to see the sky again. The big blue, the sun, the stars! Yuki was sure nothing would go wrong. They were just going to enjoy the open air, the fresh food, and the new neighbors. Right? Right?