'Okay. Calm down. This is a survival situation. You have mentally simulated this situation before and have watched countless survival films...'

F*ck that. What the h*ll was I supposed to do?

'Deep breaths Daniel, deep breaths.' I reminded myself again.

Panicking doesn't help. Be calm.

As I breathed in and out, I noticed how the quality of the surrounding magic particles were drastically worse compared to the magic particles at the academy. Whoops, off topic.

Maybe it was because I had imagined this type of situation many times throughout both my lives but it was much easier to adjust myself.

The current priority wasn't to figure out what happened, why, or how. It was survival. Act first, questions later. Even if I had questions, there would be no one to answer them.

I looked around my surroundings trying to find something that could help.

"Ugh, where exactly is your village?" Rachel said, finally getting off of me.

"It's not here. I have the exact same questions as you but I think the most likely explanation would be that we were tricked."

"Tricked? How?" She said, scanning the surroundings.

"I don't know. But what I do know is that we need to figure out where we are after securing our safety." I responded while sitting on the ground.

To that, she said nothing. I gave her a couple seconds to process what was happening since even I whose mental age was that of a young adult was perplexed.

While she was thinking, I got up to examine the place we were dropped off at. It was a large clearing in this forest of giant trees.

The sun was not exactly at zenith and it was a bit less than 45 degrees in the sky. It was safe to say that it was around 3 pm or 9 am but it could be different depending on the current season in this place. It could also be possible that this method of measuring time would not work since the logic I was basing it off of was from Earth. Ahh, what the f*ck. Who cares about time, I need to build a shelter first.

For a shelter, I would need sticks and leaves for a roof. I examined the surrounding plantation. There didn't seem to be any type of grass or hemp on the ground which meant it would be difficult to make ropes or tie anything together. Onto the trees, they were friggin massive, and I mean massive. The young trees shared a similar size in terms of width to me while I could literally run laps around the old ones.

The trees also had a variety of large and small branches. The leaves were also big. I couldn't determine the actual size but I could tell that a single leaf could cover my entire body. In other words, they were the size of my body.

As I was trying to figure something out, I felt a light tugging from my shirt. 

"What is it Rachel?" I said, without taking my eyes off the trees I was examining.

She answered with a harder tug instead of actual speech.

I turned my attention to her and she had a rather disgusted look on her face while pointing at the direction behind me.

Just what could cause her to be so obviously disgusted? It was the type of curiosity that drove even the most nonchalant cats mad.

I turned my eyes to where she was pointin—

"F*ck! Just Run! What the h*ll are you waiting for?" I said while escaping in the opposite direction.

I turned around when I noticed that Rachel wasn't following behind me. 'Why are you just standing there girl? F*cking run for your life!'

'Sh*t, you're making me lose my mind.' I ran back as quick as I could and hoisted her up over my shoulder and on my back.

'What the h*ll? Why are you so heavy?' I ran as fast as I could away from the approaching doom. 

—x minutes later—

No matter how fast I ran, the thing kept chasing me at an even faster pace with more vigor. I didn't know how to describe that creature without using words similar to horrendous and ugly. Sometimes, things were best left unsaid and if I even thought about describing it, I could possibly vomit to death imagining it.

Rachel seemed to be in an unresponsive state but every time the thing got extremely close, she would clench my shirt. Normally, I would be fine running for hours at a time but for some inexplicable reason, I felt a massive weight forced onto my back with every step I took. I was currently running as fast as I could but I knew I would not be able to keep the same pace after a couple more minutes.

'F*ck it.'

Staying alive was all that mattered so I abandoned my pride and spread open my wings.

Not expecting wings to suddenly grow from my back, Rachel flinched and almost fell off my shoulder.

Luckily, I was able to grab onto her but the same could not be said for her backpack.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

When the backpack hit the ground, I heard a loud thump but more importantly, I could feel the weight on my shoulders decreasing substantially.

"NOOOOO! MY EQUIPMENT!!!" She shouted.

She finally said something but what was this? You care about your equipment more than your god damn life? It didn't even take me a split second to figure out that the "equipment" was gym stuff. Well that would explain why my back felt like f*cking collapsing. What was up with this girl and her obsession? Surely no one in their right minds could be sadistic enough to carry a metric f*ck ton of sh*t on their back.

'Alright, calm down Daniel. You're using profanity excessively again.' I calmed myself down as I prepared for takeoff.

Spotting a large rock protruding from the forest ground, I took advantage of the minuscule elevation advantage and jumped as high as I could. It was going to be hard to fly when there were trees everywhere but I cared more about my life than a certain gym enthusiast.

Flapping my wings harder on my left side to balance out the extra weight which was Rachel, I was able to make my way all the way up to the top of the forest.

As I hovered in the air, I surveyed my surroundings for that thing.

It was directly below us and seemed to be staring at us with that stick like tentacle. Were those its eyes? It didn't seem to be capable of flight so we should be fine for now.

Looking around the area, it seems that we have traveled quite the distance since I could not see the clearing which was where we started.

Since it was relatively safe in the air, I looked down to assess the thing that made me aware of how handsome I was in comparison to it.

'Appraise.'

~~~~~~~~~~

Name: NONE

Race: Majestic Tentacle Slug

Title: Calamity of the Cargen Forest(Legendary) 

Class: Slug Devourer(Legendary)

Life Force: 10000/10000(62 years)

Strength: 427.98...

Agility: 102

Mana: 30/30

Physique: Divine Commander(Intermediate) - Lvl.22

Magic: Ordinary - Lvl.0

Active Skills: Enhanced Sensory(Rare), Mental Corruption(Rare), Devour(Legendary)

Passive Skills: Slimy Secretion(Common), Sleepless(Rare), Impact Absorption(Legendary)

Evolution Requirements: 99789/100000 devoured

~~~~~~~~~~

Hold on, just what part of that blob of sh*t was majestic? Who the h*ll named these things? If these disturbing creatures were majestic, then I was the incarnation of beauty itself.

As I had assumed upon first seeing it, the slug's ugliness correlated with how strong it was. It was kind of like an unwritten law among monsters. The more wretched and disturbing they were, the more dangerous they were.

Now that I was a considerably safe distance away, I could finally think properly.

Was that monster considered an apex predator in this forest ecosystem or was it considered some sort of secondary or tertiary consumer? As a science major in my previous life, I knew how important it was to understand the surrounding ecosystem.

If that monster slug was an apex predator, that would be for the best because it would mean that they were pretty rare creatures. But if they turned out to be a common monster in this environment, then that would mean that the creatures we encounter in this forest would be similar in strength. It would also suggest that there was an even more dangerous apex predator.

"Daniel! Look out!" Rachel interrupted.

As I was about to tell her not to bother me while I was trying to come to a crucial conclusion, I noticed a strong disturbance in the wind.

'Holy sh*t, it threw the giant rock at me!'

I immediately flew backward to avoid the incoming rock.

Looks like this bastard was seriously thirsty for me. God damn, why can't you be like a normal slug and eat leaves or dead stuff? With so many trees here, shouldn't it be more natural for you to be a herbivore instead of a carnivore?

The rock came crashing down after reaching a certain altitude. The slug did not move at all as if it did not care if it was directly hit by it. Was it blind or something?

As expected, the rock directly hit the slug but instead of getting pounded into fine dust, it was absorbed into its slimy body, ultimately nullifying the impact of the rock. Wasn't it more accurate to call this thing a slime instead of a slug?

As I finished that last retort in my head, the slime-like slug shot a bunch of dirt up into the air like a volcano spewing out ash.

'Screw this, I'm out.' There was no way I could fight this thing that also had tactics to hunt things in the air.

—x minutes later—

"I can't see it anymore." Said Rachel.

Hearing that, I slowed down and prepared for a landing near a stream.

Once we landed, Rachel did not start questioning me like I had expected. Was she not the least bit surprised that I had wings? Was it not even remotely cool?

Her attitude kind of hurt my pride. Was she still shocked from knowing that we were in the middle of nowhere? Looking at her, she didn't seem to look surprised at all, it was almost as if she had already expected it all. This level of calmness was definitely abnormal but considering it was Rachel who had a sadistic level of obsession with physical training, what could one even begin to expect?

Oh, I almost forgot to ask.

"Do you know about the Cargen Forest?" I said.

"Cargen Forest? Isn't that the one known for its danger? Why do you want to know about it?"

"I think that is where we are."

"Then that would mean we are somewhere in the Kingdom of War." She said.

There was definitely something strange with Rachel but I had no reason to bring that up to the person in question.

"Alright, we'll need to figure out a way to create a safe shelter before trying to find our way out of here." I said.

...

"Master, what are we doing at the Kingdom of War?" Said Sam.

"Of course, for you to gain some battle experience! Why do you think this place has "War" in its name?" He said.

"Battle experience? But isn't sparring with you considered battle experience?"

"With me? No no no. I'm way out of your league so you could barely learn anything from fighting me. The only thing you could learn from fighting me would be to not piss me off. You need opponents at your level. Which is why we will be going to the Cargen Forest so that you can gain first hand experience fighting against monsters." Said Dray.

"But I didn't even bring my sword!"

"This again. The reason why we are going to the Cargen Forest specifically is because the monsters there are known for their physical strength and their high resistance toward physical attacks. Due to the Kingdom of War having low quality magic particles, the monsters here are susceptible to magic attacks and very few of them can use magic. This is a perfect opportunity for me to teach you how to use your magic efficiently in an actual battle." Said Dray.

"Is that so." Replied Sam.

Unbeknownst to Sam, Dray actually had another motive. Two in fact: making money, and finding the dungeon he created with his heritage inside.