It took a minute for Nate to come to terms with the possibility that he may be in a different world.

'How do I get back...' Was Nate's first thought.

Most protagonists of the isekai novels he had read were generally okay or indifferent to being ripped apart from their home world, but he was different. He had someone that depended on him back home. He couldn't stay here, wherever it was.

Nate stood up to try to look for clues on how to get home, but then noticed the state of his clothes. He was wearing something different from what he wore before in the white room. He had been previously wearing jeans and a white shirt with a black jacket, but now he was wearing some sort of grey long-sleeved cotton shirt and pants. They looked as if they were part of a set. As for his sneakers, they were now switched with black boots.

'Again, strange. But less strange than the other things that have happened.' Nate thought. The two swords that he had taken from the white room were also with him. The falchion was now in a brown sheath attached to his left hip, and the Greek sword was in a sheath secured to his back by a belt wrapped around his torso. Nate tried to pull it out with his right hand and found that he could easily do so. The problem was putting it back. 'Shit, it's hard...'

After trying and failing for a while, he eventually succeeded. He then picked a random direction and started walking. Staying in place rarely benefitted him, so he would move and see how it went from there. Action was better than inaction, after all.

He wasn't even able to make it a few steps forward until a loud, high-pitched scream reverberated all around the forest. Nate was immediately forced to cover his ears and curl up from the pain the shriek had caused him.

'What the fuck is this...!' Nate cursed inwardly. His ability didn't shield him from pain, so he really wasn't having the time of his life at the moment. The deafening wail continued for what could have been an hour or a few seconds, then stopped just as suddenly as it started. Nate remained curled up on the ground, covering his ears with his hands as much as he could. After a minute, and the strange cry didn't start again, Nate finally stood up, and ruminated on the odd phenomenon.

Most people wouldn't have understood what the ear-shattering screech meant, but Nate was somehow able to. The meaning was infused into his mind as he endured the pain.

"Survive for six months, or touch the Altar in the middle of the forest." The bellow meant. Together with it came the odd sense of where the altar was.

"..." After Nate recovered from the shriek, he then wordlessly started walking towards where the Altar was. He couldn't wait here for six whole months, since his mother's memory would likely reset in less than one. Naturally, he had to go for the Altar. It was a no-brainer for him.

As he trudged on, his foot would sometimes fall into a rabbit hole, or get caught on plant roots. His clothes would also get caught on a variety of things, making the whole trek through the forest, one of the most bothersome experiences he had ever experienced. And Nate was someone who had experienced plenty of annoying things. On top of all that, he had to make constant detours since his path straight to the middle would be interrupted by deep cliffs or large, insurmountable hills.

"Well, I now know that I absolutely hate forests." Nate dryly remarked. The trek was so boring that he felt like he had to talk to himself, or he would turn mad from boredom before he turned mad from annoyance. The silver lining here was that he couldn't get tired due to his power, which meant he wasn't out of breath despite how arduous trekking through this forest was. Just as he was thinking that maybe it wasn't that bad because of his power, his left foot fell into another rabbit hole. Nate didn't bother actually counting, but he was quite sure he was nearing the twentieth time now. He sighed in annoyance.

"I swear to god, there are so many of these, but I haven't seen a single rabbit--ACK!! SON OF A--!!!" He quickly pulled his foot out, but then felt a sharp main to his left calf. He bent over to take a look and found a leaf-green-colored viper with its teeth lodged firmly into the flesh of his leg. Nate cursed at it as he tried to pull it out by grasping it by its neck. He was beginning to feel lightheaded, likely due to the viper's poison, so he really wanted to get it off already. "You fucker... get off will ya?"

Squeezing its neck some more seemed to make it ease up, and Nate was finally able to pull it out. "Got you. Your dead meat, lil guy."

He pulled out his falchion with his right hand, lined up the viper's head with a nearby rock, then ruthlessly began beating it with the sword's pommel. By the time that he had taken out what anger he had for the viper, the bite wound and the lightheadedness were already gone. He was troubled with hiding his powers back then, but they were really coming in handy right now.

As he was examining the holes the viper had made on his pants, he heard soft galloping sounds and the rustling of leaves. The sound was getting louder and louder, making it obvious that whatever was making the sound was getting closer and closer. Nate quickly found a tree to place his back to. Whatever was running towards him, there were a lot of them. He couldn't get surrounded, so he readied his falchion as he waited for his guests to arrive.

'Please don't be some sort of unbeatable monster...' Nate pleaded to whoever would hear him out. The Gods, his ancestors, or even Elon Musk if he was listening. Perhaps someone heard his wish? After a moment, what arrived wasn't some eldritch monstrosities, but rather a pack of grey wolves. Despite the situation still being bad, Nate couldn't help but heave a sigh of relief. 'At least I can handle these somewhat. If a dragon or something showed up, I would've been doomed.'

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Nate's mind began to rapidly think of what to do. First of all, his decision to position his back towards this tree was a good idea. At least he didn't have to worry about anybody coming from that side. As for the wolves themselves, he could somehow deal with them as long as he didn't die outright. As far as he knew, wolves didn't have the capability of instantly blowing someone's head up or severing it from their body, so he wasn't in too much danger. Nate didn't want to give them the time to experiment, though.

'I count... six, huh? There's probably a few more hiding behind bushes...' Nate assessed. As he was examining the wolves, they were doing the same to him. They were glaring at him with their fangs bared as they slowly surrounded him.

Nate decided to quickly pick up a nearby rock and throw it at the nearest wolf. The throw didn't have much force put into it, he just wanted to shock them into taking action. He didn't want the wolves to take their time setting up their preferred starting positions.

The wolf was startled but was able to move out of the way. It seemed Nate's ploy worked, as one of the smaller-looking wolves ran and then leapt at him on its own. Nate moved a bit to the side, then slashed at it diagonally as it passed by, his falchion digging deep into the wolf's stomach. He kicked it away to free his blade quicker, then returned to his previous stance, which was akin to how a baseball player would. Since he didn't have training in swordsmanship, he planned to use his sword like he would a baseball bat.

"Haa haa..." Nate's breathing became a bit ragged. It wasn't that he was tired or anything, but rather due to excitement. Nate had killed people before, but he had done it with guns. He had never used a melee weapon to kill anything up close and personal like he just did a moment ago. Nate could feel his heart beating rapidly, and the adrenaline was coursing through his veins. "This is... fun. Haha."

It was unknown if the wolves understood what he said, but two of them decided to jump at Nate from opposite directions. Perhaps they found his laughter provocative? They looked quite angry.

'Well, it's probably since I took out one of their guys.' Nate reasoned. Instead of staying in place and letting them come at him at the same time, he dashed towards the right wolf to get a jump on them. He quickly arrived before the incoming wolf, and slashed it vertically, instantly letting the blade dig into the beast's skull. He let go of the falchion and pulled out the sword on his back, then thrust it to his left, where he knew the other wolf was lunging at him.

'Oh shit!' He inwardly exclaimed. It turned out that he had the timing wrong. The wolf hadn't quite arrived yet, giving it time to react. Nate had still managed to make a massive gash on the thing's shoulder though. 'Shit, it would've been so cool if that worked out...'

He took this chance to quickly move backward, and place his back against the tree again, resetting the situation. Except this time, two wolves were dead and another one injured, while he had lost one of his swords. Nate thought that the situation wasn't bad, when two more wolves walked out of the bushes, replacing the two he had killed.

'Fuck.' He cursed in his thoughts. He gave his sword a short glance. The blade was shorter than his falchion, and it didn't seem to be as effective at slashing. It looked like it would be better for thrusting though, so Nate switched his stance a little. He held out his left hand to act as a shield of sorts, while he kept the sword close to his right chest while pointing its tip forward, ready to shoot forward into a thrust. Nate also mentally prepared himself to take a few bites. 'Just not the throat. I can't let them get to that.'

This time, three wolves ran forward. Two of them seemed to be heading straight for him, while the last one intended to delay his strike, waiting for Nate to show an opening. He inwardly remarked at how smart they were, as he dashed towards the wolf coming from his right again, letting it bite his arm. Nate endured the excruciating pain, and thrust his blade deep into the beast's stomach, he then quickly brought the skewered wolf's body and used it as a shield to block the wolf from his left. The wolf was about to lunge at him but stopped when it saw Nate block off its advance with a comrade's body.

"Hah." Nate scoffed at it. He threw the skewered wolf's body towards the wolf who had paused its attack, then used the moment he had bought to switch the freed-up Greek sword into his left hand and pull the falchion out of the wolf skull it was lodged into with his right hand. He rested the back of the falchion's blade on his shoulder, ready to bring it down on any incoming wolves, while he threateningly pointed the sword on his left towards the wolves who were standing back. He bellowed, "Come!!"

The wolves glared and growled, angered by Nate's massacre of their brethren. But three of them were now dead, with one injured. The injured comrade would soon die from bleeding as well. There were eight of them at first, but now only four were battle-ready. They'd lost too much on this hunt. If their pack lost any more of its members, they wouldn't be able to hunt in the future. If that were to happen, it wouldn't matter whether they had this large monkey with the sharp sticks to feed on. Their pack would still be finished.

The wolves quickly decided that any more fighting would be pointless. They growled at Nate for a bit, then retreated.

Nate took the opportunity to reposition again, placing his back against the tree in case the wolves were messing with him. He alertly stood there, ready for anything. After a few minutes, he finally relaxed.

"Haaah." Nate sighed as he fell on his butt. He leaned into the tree, thinking back to the encounter. "The wolves probably came running because of my shouting..."

When he had been bitten by the snake, he had yelled out in pain. That had likely been what alerted the wolves to his location. Nate decided to stay quiet as much as possible from now on. He had talked to himself to keep him occupied since he was bored, but the thing just now was a little too exciting. Even though it was a little fun, he didn't really want to do that 24/7, so he decided to semi-permanently shut up.

'And even if something happens, and I end up making a loud noise, I should quickly get the fuck out of there.' He reflected. He then turned his gaze onto the wolf corpses. 'On that note, I should get the fuck out of here too. I accidentally shouted at the end of the fight because I was hyped up, and the scent of blood might attract something else.'

Nate wiped off the blood from his swords using the nearest wolf corpse's fur, sheathed them, then walked briskly away from the scene of the crime.

It occurred to him that it would probably get more dangerous as he got closer to the center of the forest, but he didn't have a choice. He had to get back to his mother and set her mind at ease in about a month. If he made it to the Altar, he might get a chance to talk to whoever did this and maybe beg them to let him return somehow.

'I really hope this isn't the common trope where there isn't a way back...' Nate hoped as he trudged forward.

Further and further into the forest.