The closer Glenn got to the forest, the lesser the number of bodies. The scent of rot, flesh, and blood lessened, replaced by the smell of fresh mud and resin. He shook his head slightly, feeling his heartbeats calming down as the risk of disturbing one of the corpse-eating monsters disappeared.

It wasn’t exactly zero risk, but he would probably be okay as long as he didn’t yell or something. Probably.

Glenn still couldn’t wrap his head around the craziness of his situation. The adrenaline still pumped into his veins, although less than when he woke up, back in that bloody macabre mess…

He fell to his knees, his insides moving up and down in a much too bothering way. He held his mouth with both of his hands, grimacing as he swallowed back whatever was threatening to leave his body.

‘Wait, I shouldn’t even have anything in my belly, thanks to the monsters of earlier, urgh—’ Glenn couldn’t continue this train of thought as the need to puke intensified. He breathed in and out calmly for a few minutes, kneeling in the middle of the forest. After finally catching his breath, he pushed himself up and threw a look behind him at the bloody battlefield.

Terrible mistake.

That look was enough to force the primal need back up Glenn’s throat, and he finally barfed for the second time, getting rid of whatever was left inside his stomach, mostly gastric acid and water, as well as a bit of blood. The blood was probably not too worrying, considering he had his guts out minutes ago.

Glenn heaved heavily as he forced himself to stumble further into the forest, reaching from any place further than the bloody mess behind him. Suddenly, as he walked with only thoughts of survival, reality struck him like a direct meeting with Truck-kun.

“Wait,” He stopped dead in his tracks, “...Did I transmigrate or something? Oh shit, what the fuck is this world?”

Glenn grabbed at his chest, finding the hole in his shirt/tunic where the spear had previously impaled him. No, no, this wasn’t at all what he imagined back when he read isekai novels! What the hell was that?

“I…I need to see my face…” He mumbled, glancing around with a slight feeling of panic, soon finding a river a dozen meters away. The sound of water flowing was unmistakable, and he didn’t take long to discover the river.

He almost ran right away to the water, but remembered that predators were usually found around water sources. He hid behind a bush, spying for a few minutes, but he couldn’t find anything in

the darkness of the night, despite the bright crimson light of the massive moon in the sky. Its smaller, white sister was completely outshined by the bigger one. Glenn almost wanted to bawl his eyes out just at the sight of the twin moons.

What the hell was that? How did it even work? Gravity-wise? Could two moons just be sticking around each other like that while they gravitate around Earth? And, darn, this certainly wasn’t Earth if there were two damned moons!

Glenn breathed in deeply, shaking these thoughts out of his head and approaching the river. He tried to be as stealthy as he could, but between the twigs that seemed to find their way under his feet and his ragged breathing, that was probably a failure.

Thankfully, the water wasn’t far. He fell to his knees, looking at his reflection in the water.

“Thank god…” Glenn sighed in relief as he found the same face as he was used to. That, at least, was excellent news. After all, he considered himself to be quite handsome, and another face would simply not feel right.

“What do I do now…?” He spoke softly as his eyes shot around the dark oak forest, trying to perceive some hidden threat. His situation was dire, but it could probably have been worse. One thing he couldn’t help but question was why wasn’t his isekai-fication—or whatever the name of the process was—done properly? Where was the cute priestess? The king in need of a hero to slay the demon King?

“This sucks!” He swore softly, not daring to speak too loud. Instead of some cozy castle, he landed in a half-dead state right in the middle of—

“Urgh…” He almost barfed again when he thought back to where he woke up, but he held himself back successfully, that time. That had been enough barfing for his whole life, and there was nothing to puke in his stomach anyway.

“Alright, now isn’t the time to complain, now is the time to get the hella out of here… But first…” He drew a deep breath and pointed at the sky while whispering;

“Status!”

…

“System!”

…

“...Inventory? No? Nothing?”

…

“Fuck!”

Glenn grabbed at his head, before angrily kicking a rock. The rock didn’t move, but his foot did feel quite the shock. He swore and cursed as he grabbed said foot. He bit down his lower lip, before sighing deeply.

“...No golden finger, then. Alright, this…Sigh…this really makes me want to spit on whoever brought me here. I’m sure it’s some hidden god fuckery, like in all good stories, right? Right?”

Only silence responded to him, shutting him up. Yeah, it certainly wasn’t a good idea to get angry and annoyed now. Maybe his energy was better spent finding a way out of the forest that was far, very far away from the battlefield.

Deep in thought, he crouched back next to the river, using the water to clean his face and his hands. He was covered in blood, both wet and dry, as well as many other unidentified substances; and it was probably better to get rid of—

“Ah!” He fell back on his arse, his eyes wide opened in fear as the bloated corpse floated down the stream, right in front of him, right in the water he was cleaning himself into. The water bringing the corpse was tainted red, a metallic scent surrounding the corpse and now the river. That smell was now familiar to Glenn’s nose, just after spending a few minutes back in that hell.

Glenn clenched his teeth and stood back up, taking a few steps back away from the river as he observed the corpse. He winced as he noticed that the body was missing his right arm, somehow ripped away. It was no sword wound, that was for sure, way too messy…But maybe he was wrong. He was no professional on the matter, that was certain. What he could see, though, was the corpse’s equipment, a ragged tunic, and brown legging, as well as a leather hood. He had a belt with an empty sword sheath hanging at his waist, and leather boots. Glenn looked at his own, finding them to be practically ripped open. He wondered for a few seconds whether he should trade shoes with the corpse, but decided against it. It was easy to loot a body in a game but in reality?

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He didn’t have the will to do so.

Glenn turned away, looking at the dark oak forest as he walked away from the river. He wouldn’t be able to use the water for anything anyway, and he’d rather be far away from something that would probably attract all the predators in the area. Perhaps even more corpse-eating monsters? He didn’t want to know.

Glenn dived back into the forest, fighting against sharp sticks and thorny bushes as he followed no particular direction. His aim was only to get further away from the battlefield, and the now-tainted river after all, so the direction didn’t matter.

And who knows, perhaps he would be able to find a trace of civilization, right?

...

"Well, fuck my life. Oh, never mind, it's already fucked!" Glenn spat angrily as he stared at a stump he'd passed three times already. He sat on the stump, trying his best to calm himself. He couldn’t continue to run aimlessly like that. He looked at the starry sky, trying to calm himself.

“...Wait, what about using the stars…the Big Dipper…?” Glenn squinted, looking at the sky for any astral formation he might recognize, but then he slapped his forehead while chuckling dejectedly.

“Haha, of course, the stars are different too, there are two moons here…Haha,” He looked at the ground for a few seconds, tears falling down his face. Nothing made any fucking sense, and he hated that.

Glenn sniffled before wiping tears off his face. Now wasn’t the time for self-pity. He had to find a way to find civilization because he was certainly not living in this creepy-ass forest, nor dying in it! He had a sister to find, a revenge to take, he had to survive this hell! Because this was hell, no doubt. Where else would there be a blood moon and corpse-eating monsters?

His resolution steeled, Glenn pushed himself up, revitalized.

“Now, civilization, where might you be…?” He glanced at the sky, but the trees’ tall canopy made it impossible to see anything. He’d have to climb up a tree to find anything…Glenn sneered.

“Well, if that isn’t a nice idea.”

He walked in front of the widest, tallest tree he could find, and evaluated the climb. The many branches should make it relatively simple, but it was a habit he had taken ever since he had done climbing classes. Fun times.

His short sword, which he had been keeping in his right hand for the last hour or so, was drawn back into a short sheath hanging at his belt. Glenn hadn’t noticed at first, but now that he did, he was happy that it was there. Nonetheless, climbing with something hanging from his waist seemed like a bad idea. Abandoning the sword at the bottom of the tree didn’t feel like a good choice either…Glenn moistened his lips, thinking.

After untying his belt and wrapping it around his back, he managed to make it so that his sword hung in his back as well.

“Witcher-style, baby…” He chuckled, before rubbing his hands together. Without further ado, he jumped and grabbed the lowest branch, grunting as he pulled himself up. His climbing skills weren’t too rusty, but his stamina was, and that was with a fair lot of effort that he reached the top of the tree.

Heaving and gasping with difficulty, Glenn wiped the sweat off his eyebrows as he gazed at the forest in front of him. The corner of his lips curved upward as he took in the phenomenal view. The treetops were painted in a crimson hue, a gift of the blood moon, and the forest was reaching further than he could see. The sky was clear, with way too many stars for him to even try counting them, empty of any pollution.

He enjoyed the moment of peace silently, listening to the wind whistling gently as owls hooted in the night. There were also a few howls, far away, probably some wolves, but that seemed way too far for him to worry. Glenn caught his breath and concentrated back on the matter at hand. On his left, unmistakable, with black smoke clouds that carried the smell of burning flesh, courtesy of the wind, there was the bloody battlefield he woke up in.

In front of him…Trees, trees, and more trees. On his right…Oh! Ah, no, just more trees… He grimaced and looked behind him, his face lighting up as he saw a gray mountain sitting there. It was a weird one, with no vegetation growing on it, but it was something. He’d have to climb it, but it wasn’t that high of a mountain, but that would do a much better job as a vantage point compared to this tree.

And it wasn’t like he had many other options. He could go back to the battlefield, but…

“Nah, I’d rather go on a midnight climb instead of going back to that hell…” Glenn chuckled, trying to laugh away the tension and the horror he had seen. People, living ones, had probably lit up the fires, but he couldn’t risk going back. He didn’t even know what camp he was in! What guarantee did he have that he wouldn’t get pierced by yet another spear the second he showed up?

Having made up his mind, Glenn glanced down and began his descent carefully. It would be way too ridiculous to just fall and die when he had miraculously survived having his guts out of his body and a spear piercing through his chest, right?

He placed one foot after another on the thickest branches he could find when he suddenly heard a low growling. Instinctively, he crouched down on the branch and stuck as close as he could against the tree, the bark smelling of dirt and resin. He threw a quick look down, biting down on his lip when he saw a majestic black wolf, its pelt as dark as the night and its head lowered against the ground. The wolf had its teeth out and was growling softly as it took one step back after another. Glenn would probably never have noticed the beast had it not been for his position and the crimson moonlight washing down on it.

The wolf could probably eat ten Glenns for breakfast, though, so he was quite happy he wasn’t down there to be chewed on. Nonetheless, despite the wolf's majestic look and powerful muscles, it looked…Scared, somehow? It took further steps, its gaze not leaving a certain direction in the forest.

Glenn gazed intently in said direction, trying to find what was intimidating the beast so much, but—

Thump!

The wolf whined as something red shot out of the bushes and wrapped itself around the beast’s torso.

A second later, the wolf was gone. Glenn's heart pounded as his vision tunneled. He gripped a branch tightly, feeling a cold sweat drip down his spine.

Fear and adrenaline were pumped back into his veins, preparing him for whatever that was. Glenn muffled his mouth, struggling to regulate his shaky breathing while holding onto the branch with his other hand. His sweaty palms weren’t helping much in this endeavor, making him fear a slip and fall to his end.

He cursed mentally at his trembling limbs, before glancing at the top of the tree.

‘Should I just spend the night in the tree? That might be the better option…’

Glenn almost wanted to swear at the creature wandering in the woods.

‘I walked in this god-forsaken forest for HOURS and didn’t see anything. The second I leave the ground, something terrifying happens!’

Glenn bit down on his lower lip, trembling. Perhaps he should consider himself lucky. No, if he was, he wouldn’t be in this damned forest to begin with!

Sigh.

‘At least I’m not dead…’ He thought with a bit of sarcasm, trying to rationalize the situation. Even if the branches were easy to climb, he didn’t trust himself to not fall asleep at some point and fall like an idiot. He had no rope to tie himself to the tree, and his belt certainly wasn’t long enough.

Glenn also had no guarantee that whatever got that wolf couldn’t find him in the trees. What if it could even climb them?

‘Yeah, no sleeping in the trees,’ he concluded, his teeth clenched as he threw a tense look around, failing to find whatever pulled the wolf into the darkness. As he did so, a stupid idea formed itself in his head. He was staring at a nearby tree with a particularly thick branch, wondering if he couldn’t just jump from tree to tree.

No, this was a stupid idea…

Or was it?

Glenn wasn’t confident in his acrobatic abilities, but thinking about it, he didn’t have much of a choice.

He knew his “safety” in this tree was very relative, and would probably not last for much longer. He couldn’t sleep now unless magically four walls and a roof appeared out of nowhere and protected him.

‘That’d be great!’ Glenn thought as he looked at the sky, but nothing happened. Why would it? He shook his head and stood back up on the branch, getting rid of the stiffness in his legs from crouching for so long. He drew a deep breath and took the best position he could to jump, cursing at himself for finding this idea, and he aimed.

His objective was the thick, sturdy-looking branch of the neighbor tree. It was what, three meters away? Easy. If he could jump from tree to tree until he reached the mountain, maybe he’d be able to survive until dawn—and that was assuming that the mountain was safer than the forest.

A hopeful thought indeed.

‘Come on…’ Glenn gritted his teeth, ‘One…two…three!’ He huffed and pushed in his legs with all his strength, trying to reach as far as possible. The branch he was standing on suddenly broke under his feet, making him fall toward certain death.

In this situation, only one word came to his mind.

Shit.