Ch- 2 – reaching the city

“Oh damn, my eyes”.

Dustin squinted his eyes trying to adjust to the brightness coming from the pitch dark cave. The cave now looked like a black hole, inky darkness inside creeping slowly, waiting to devour any creature daring enough to enter and he had crossed this. On earth he would never inter in a cave or even a building this dark alone, it just looked too ominous, he will get spooked even by his own breathing in there, he would bet that it would need industrial light if someone wanted to see more than a few meters in the cave. But when he was in there, he was still able to see thru it, it looked impossible to do so from outside, but he was not going in there anytime soon. He attributed it to new worlds wonky physics or magical dynamics whatever it was. He stopped trying to solve the mystery of the dark cave which looked like it was getting darker by time and moved away while inspecting his surroundings.

“Huh, it doesn’t look like what I had seen from above”.

Outside the cave, he was standing in a narrow valley. The valley had a depressing blueish tint to it, the rocks looked very normal black in colour unlike the metallic colour and crystal like structure he had seen above. Dustin looked above to his disappointment a thick layer of fog blocked his view, the fog looked shifting like there was a little wind to stir it but now only he did notice the stillness in the air, not even a barest hint of breeze, the whole area looked dead. He shuddered.

“am I in a horror movie” Dustin asked himself looking at one end of the valley waiting for some movement, he expected a something to pop and chase him to death.

“It looks like the valley ambush area from Warcraft movie, with bluish tint and fog and without life”.

The fog covering the valley gave it appearance like a tunnel with both ends obscured by shifting fog.

It looks like rain had stopped for some time, “how much time I did wasted roaming inside the cave”.

The Valleys ground was covered with moist black soil, this valley looked cursed like a graveyard, boosting this effect it was freezing down here much more cold from above, he was releasing fog with every breath.

“I need to find some clothing otherwise I will definitely get frost bite or worst frozen to death in a foreign world”, he thought.

Dustin felt depressed thinking about his death if he really died he would waste such an amazing opportunity, his family’s sacrifice of a working member would go in vain, thinking about his family and there nature they would probably may not even notice his disappearance for a few months. his friends or more specifically his colleagues will definitely notice his disappearance first and check on him. Remembering about his colleagues he felt happy now he was here he didn’t need to pay the debts he owned to them though they could probably easily recover it from his property.

“Thinking about it did I die and this is a new body or I just transmigrated with my original body”, Dustin reckoned, it doesn’t matter now he would think about these things when he found a way to go back to earth. He dismissed his current train of thoughts there were far more important things to be done, heck there was whole world waiting to be explored. Dustin felt in himself a determination to live, a need to explore this world and unravel it’s mysteries.

Dustin opened his map to check the direction he will need to take to reach the city he had seen from above the plateau. According to the map he will need to go right of the cave he came from to reach the city, there was nothing else on the map other than a narrow valley he didn’t know how much he will have to walk before he will get a glimpse of the city. He started jogging, to reach the city faster and to heat himself it was freezing cold it didn’t help he had not eaten anything for the whole time he had existed in this world. He was surprised at his tenacity, on earth he would had collapsed within one day of going empty stomach. He felt happy at the thought of all those awesome powers and magical abilities he would acquire in future.

Dustin chuckled imagining all kinds of things he would experience which he would have been only dreamt on earth. He had gone around half a kilometre from the cave when he found something interesting on the ground there were remains of broken bones, examining them carefully he discovered they looked to be part of a skull, he remembered that he had kicked a possible undead skull down, he looked around there were not many pieces, he was pretty sure that it was the same skull he did kicked. The fragmented skull remained invisible on the map.

“Looks like I did injustice to this poor fellows skull”, he sighed but how could he take the blame it could had been and undead and if he had not kicked the skull it could had been the reason of his undue demise. He cherished his life especially now after coming to this world. Dustin prayed for the skeleton that the fellow remains dead, his eternal sleep remains undisturbed and he would never rise to take revenge for his kicked skull, to make sure his prayers effectiveness he crushed the remaining few complete part’s of the skull with his metal pipe and scattered them far from each other.

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“I am being paranoid, that was totally not necessary”, Dustin exclaimed to himself.

Dustin resumed his march toward the city he had wasted considerable time here, his body was demanding food and also he didn’t wanted to sleep outside without clothes. After walking for some time he noticed some movement at the other side of the valley in the direction he was going towards, shifting fog had obscured whatever it was, Dustin was not in the mood to take any risk, He immediately ducked toward the nearest side of the valley inside a little cavity behind a rock barely big enough to hide him. His heart was beating loudly due to the sudden eruption of adrenaline, he waited and clamed himself without making a sound he tried to take a peek.

They are definitely from the city for sure Dustin thought, there were three creatures walking in his direction, they had not seen him, Dustin sighed in relief. He ducked completely away from their direct view, he didn’t wanted to be discovered right now, without information on how they will react to him he won’t take any risk, specially now that he was sure they were not humans.

They were humanoids all with four limbs, a head, connected to the main body but there proportions were off by huge margins. There bodies being same height as humans but there upper body far more bigger and looked like a inverted triangle with two equally massive limbs attached to it, comparatively there legs looked like kids leg, they looked cartoonish and extremely funny. There body structure matched the skeleton he had found some time before.

These creature clearly belonged to a advanced civilization at least compared to for what he was expecting to be present in a magical world subconsciously, he was expecting something more medieval looking or magical. They were wearing some kind of protection suit, it looked like yellow hazmat suit complete with second world war's iconic hazmat mask. Mask, gloves and boots being complete black. They were also carrying a bag, some equipment that he couldn’t guess use of and guns. They have guns, at least the general shape matched he couldn’t be sure about function of those objects.

Dustin questioned his previous assumption that if he was in a magical world, but this could be magical technology. He really wanted to just walk and ask them.

Dustin discovered one more crucial intel, that to his map they were invisible, his map didn’t show living creatures, he assumed them to be living. Other than this he also discovered another piece of information which could be game changing and extremely important for his survival, if these people were hostile to him he could use this information to his advantage and escape from there pursuit. They walked slowly and if he didn’t considered there magical, technological and any unique capabilities they would never be able to catch him if he ran thanks to there little puny legs. He still decided to hide his existence from them for now, they could definitely use some powers or just bend there backs and start walking on there hands like a gorilla, would running like a gorilla work he didn’t know how fast a gorilla ran, he regretted his lack of this very important piece of information, all his time surfing web, getting random facts felt wasted. Dustin decided to reserve his judgement for now, he will need more information to make a judgement.

He waited for them to pass his position, he had remained undetected and he was sure he would remain until he was in there direct line of sight or draw their attention toward himself by some other means like sneezing, he was desperately trying to hold one. Dustin recovered from his predicament after holding his breath for some time he just felt more miserable about his situation, he was here freezing, completely nude with nothing to save his dignity, starved for days, hiding behind a rock and he can’t even sneeze peacefully.

“Damn it these buffoons are taking there time, fucking run like this valley is collapsing on you”, Dustin was cursing loudly in his mind.

They didn’t detected him and passed by him, they were talking about something but he was not able to hear it. These creatures used vocal cords, Dustin found one more similarity between humans and these odd looking creatures. He was sure that his ability aura suppression had something to do with them not able to detect him. At least he didn’t have to worry about someone detecting him through his aura. He waited for some time to make sure they really had gone faraway before getting out of his hiding place, if they took a single glance when they were close to his position they would have seen his naked ass trying to get into the walls and disappear from the face of this world.

“Damn it, I wasted so much time, I need to hurry”, Dustin exclaimed.

Some time later, Dustin reached the end of the valley he could even see the few constructs, city was still obscured by the fog but he was close to it.

He was contemplating his next course of action and trying to come with a plan in which he could safely get something to wear, food and a bed to sleep without requiring to introduce himself to the city inhabitants. He was failing miserably his brain just wasted calories and didn’t come up with an idea, and now he had a headache too. After wasting an hour or more he decided there was no way he could come with a full proof plan and completely hide his existence from city dwellers while getting the required materials and services he needed desperately, he decided to take the risk but he will do so stealthy like a ninja, his virtues were stealthy, fast, and deadly.

“I am not sure about being stealthy or fast but definitely I am deadly”, Dustin grimaced. Being deadly meant if he got jump scared he could die of a heart attack.

“Be strong and stealthy. Dustin you could do it, snatch the fate itself. Gooo!” Dustin hyped himself and went forward.

What he saw when he reached close enough distance didn’t look like a city more like a abandoned town where bandits had taken over. A dilapidated wall greeted Dustin, it had been extremely easy till now because he didn’t saw anyone outside the walls. If he hadn’t seen the three buffoons he would had thought it was abandoned. The walls looked in desperate need of repair, wall surrounding the town looked to be 4 or 5 meters high he couldn’t be sure nor he needed to be, the material used to construct the walls looked like black stone blocks. Dustin moved towards the nearest hole and peeked inside. It just looked like a normal dense town, buildings made of black stone, inside the town looked clean, from his vantage point Dustin was only able to see a single street, there were very few pedestrians on it. Also these people looked very similar to humans if body structure was ignored. Dustin felt a little more comfortable thinking that that at least they would not kill him on sight but remembering about human history and there behaviour towards someone who didn’t looked like them or even just looked ugly, he choose not to trust his feelings, he would remain vigilant and stealthy.

Dustin moved toward the nearest crack big enough that he would be able to squeeze in and after checking for anyone’s presence on the other side he slid inside. He emerged in an ally and immediately ducked towards the nearest object, a dustbin, and hid behind it, not in the direct line of sight. He relaxed and thought about his next course of action. It had been surprisingly easy reaching here, If he had walked all the way till here sticking his chest out like he owned the whole area he would still remain undetected absolutely no one was keeping watch, there were no guard’s. He didn’t had to use any of his non-existent ninja skills.

“I need information, clothes. Uhh, not in this order”.

I will first find some clothes then food after that I will decide anything else.