The living trees, woodlings, closed in on Aaron. While the woodlings were much faster than him with their giant strides, the thick forest made it harder for them to get close to Aaron.

"What the hell is wrong with this me. Why can't I wake up?" While running, Aaron was pinching his hands, slapping his face, and doing all sorts of things to wake up from this bad dream.

What else could this be if it was not a dream? The last thing Aaron saw before waking up in this forest was the system notification from his Augmented reality chip that he had fainted. Suddenly Aaron remembered that the AeR chip works even inside dreams. One was able to play VR games with much more realism inside the dream world of AeR. If he enabled the setting to allow the chip to control his body, he would be able to wake up.

With a wave of the hand, Aaron summoned the Aer Interface.

AeR - offline mode - Functions that require the internet are disabled.

GPS - sensor error - no GPS satellites found - geolocation functions disabled.

New sensory organ detected - calibration 3.8% (5 Hours 25 Minutes remaining)

Aaron looked at the errors, stupified. How was he offline? AeR chip had four different ways to connect to the internet. And in this era, even inside the tunnels deep inside the earth, one would be able to connect to at least a low-speed internet connection.

And what the hell was this new sensory organ? Did he grow a new organ or what?

For now, Aaron dismissed the errors and changed the settings of the chip to allow full control of his body. But when he selected the function to wake from sleep, what awaited him was another error window.

Error - unable to wake user - User is already awake.

Before Aaron could think about what the error implied, a tree branch as thick as Aaron's body struck a few feet from where he was standing.

"They already caught up?"

"AeR, run a full health diagnostics, also run an environmental analysis."

If he was not asleep, there were only two options left. Either he was hallucinating or teleported into this strange world. Aaron was sure that it must be the first option. He was a physicist, and current technology was nowhere near achieving teleportation.

Running full health diagnostics - (0.5% complete) 3 minutes left

Running full environmental analysis - (0.3% complete) 5 minutes left

Aaron dodged a few more branches aimed at him. His body was already exhausted. But fortunately, the actions of the giant woodlings were slow, so slow that even Aaron, who had subpar physical fitness could dodge them.

But more and more woodlings had caught up to him. As Aaron was about to dodge another strike, he stumbled and fell on the ground. And at the same time, the health diagnostic result appeared.

Physical health report - all-clear-

warning - unknown organ found - calibration 6.1%(20 minutes remaining)

Mental health - all-clear -

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"I'm not hallucinating?" Even when he stumbled, Aaron was not that worried as he was sure that he was hallucinating. But now that he realized that he was not, the sense of grave danger rushed over him. He had to dodge this strike, or he was dead.

Having no other option, Aaron rolled to the side and dodged the strike. But the tree branch didn't fall and strike where Aaron was. Instead, there was a ~ thud ~ sound as the flat side of a sword blocked the branch.

The next second, Aaron found that he was being lifted, not by the woodlings, but by a burly man clad in iron armor. The armor-clad man kicked on the floor, jumped back ten feet, and landed in the middle of four other people.

"From when did woodlings start chasing people?" A girl in the group asked. She wore a black cloak and held a black wooden staff as tall as her in her hands.

"I don't know Rea, this guy doesn't even have an ounce of magic in him and wouldn't even be able to hurt a normal tree, let alone a Woodling. Even if he hurt one, they would scare him away, not try to chase and kill him. Anyway, now that we are here, they should sense our magical powers and run away." The burly man said.

"Why aren't they running away then?" Another girl in the group asked. she wore leather armor that accentuated her body, her belt held a dagger on each side.

"Because we are going to. I'll be the rearguard." saying this, the swordsman that was leading the team unsheathed his sword.

"Why are we running? There are only a few giant woodlings, and they are all meek. Wouldn't they run away if we take a stand?" Rea, the cloaked girl asked.

"They are about to get some heavy reinforcements. I am sensing some Woodling elders closing in." The last member of the group, a guy in his 20s, said. Unlike the two other rough and tough men in the team, this man was pretty. His long green hair and clear skin would evoke envy in even beautiful girls. He currently had a green aura as he sensed the forest around him.

"What in the hell did you do to anger woodling elders? And why are you this deep in the forest without any magical power?" The girl clad in leather armor asked Aaron, who was currently lying on the shoulder of the burly man, as they all retreated. Her knitted eyebrows showed her dissatisfaction in the current situation.

"I don't know." Aaron was still unsure of what was going on. All he did was pick a few berries and cut a bamboo tree to drink some water. Was cutting a tree that big of a sin?

At that moment, another notification arrived from the AeR Chip.

Environmental analysis complete - Unknown environment.

flora and fauna recognized - 0%

Starcharting complete - location not on earth - location unknown

synopsis of analysis - User is on an unknown planet. No flora and fauna match 100% with any offline database entry. The atmospheric constitution is like earth. But an unknown element is present.

AeR stats temporarly disabled - more data required

"Guess I got teleported here," Aaron said, half-jokingly.

"I thought so too." The swordsman said. Teleportation arrays were uncommon, and only five existed in the kingdom. But looking at the weak guy in front of him, Blake realized that it was the only way he could have got into the heart of this place, the forest of life. And his weird dressing style was another dead giveaway that he was from far away.

As for Aaron being a spy from outside, Blake was not worried about it in the least. Teleportation arrays had a limited range and required a portal at both ends. Even with the highest tier teleportation arrays, one wouldn't be able to teleport from the nearby empires to here. As for traveling across the forest, it was an impossible feat for humans.

"You are not surprised?" Aaron asked. Why was he taking me seriously? It was a joke.

"Although the teleportation arrays of the Swordlight kingdom are reliable, and accidents are rare, it can still happen. Usually, no one ventures this deep into the forest. You are lucky to have run into us." Blake said.

"Oh," Aaron started to understand this world. From what they said, I am currently in the Swordlight kingdom in an unknown world. Blake and the team were the top experts from the nearby town, Southwood. It was a stronghold of the Swordlight kingdom and the border town between Swordlight kingdom and Empire.

After an hour of travel through the lush forest, they reached the town. The path Blake took was one where they wouldn't encounter any troubles. But even then, they had to fight around five or six times against dark beasts. But with the strength of Blake's team, each fight was over in a few seconds. Only Aaron, who was now walking along with them, was almost scared to death. These dark beasts were like wild animals, but they could also use dark elemental magic. Aaron, who had never even seen a wild animal in the wild, was aghast seeing these scenes straight out of an RPG game. He silently took a note in his mind to take some martial arts class after making some money.

Soon the hundred-foot trees that filled the jungle became sparse, and finally, the town walls became visible. The giant 30-foot walls secured this border town from both Enemy invasion and dark beast attacks. Dark beast blood stained the lower portions of the town walls black giving a warning to anyone and anything daring to attack the town. Archers were observing the surroundings from atop the walls.

Walking into the town, The guards guarding the gate saluted Blake and respectfully allowed them to enter. After getting into the town and thanking Blake's party, Aaron decided to find a library to read some books.

"1 Silver?" The town had a small library, and Aaron had a hard time finding it, but once found, he realized that one needed to pay money to read there. Sighing, Aaron turned around to leave.

"I'll pay for him." Aaron looked at the source of the sound and found the girl that was with Blake. She no longer donned a cloak, but he recognized the black staff on her back.

"We meet again. And it seems like you now owe me a silver." Rae said.

"I was about to browse some books as I wanted to find where I am. Although I don't want to be yet again indebted to you, I can only accept your help for now. " Blake's team knew that he had randomly teleported here. So they didn't find it weird that Aaron wanted to learn more about this place. But hey didn't know that he had come from another world itself.

Rae smiled and walked away. She had come here to buy a book and was on her way out already. And as a top expert, a single silver was like a drop in the ocean for her. As for Aaron, she didn't have the slightest of interest in a weakling like him.

After collecting the day pass from the librarian, Aaron walked into the library. He had to find a way to make money and repay the silver.