Books and stories don't entirely paint the whole picture of what your first day in a new world can be like. TV shows and anime make it out to be a wondrous experience where you get to be the hero and save the world. They made it seem that you were a chosen one and automatically liked by all. Books usually portrayed it as an experiment gone wrong in some form and are sucked into a rift to the alternate world. One commonality I remember is that for some reason the person is somehow always prepared. Whether they just so happen to have a knife or gun on them at the time or they find one almost immediately as well as allies.
I can safely say that all of that is bullshit. I wasn't chosen to save the world as part of some ancient prophecy nor was I even prepared when it happened. I was minding my own business and trying to make it on time for my 5th job interview of the day when all of a sudden the ground was no longer beneath me. Between one second and the next I found myself flailing. While the fall was only a few feet it was enough for me to have landed on my back and had the wind knocked out of me.
“Ow,” I wheezed.
Struggling for breath I looked around and only saw thick foliage. Not knowing where I was I tried to rationalize what had happened. When panicked my imagination usually gets the better of me and right now I was coming up with more and more improbable theories as to what had happened. My first thought wasn't that all of a sudden I was in another world but that I had been kidnapped and dumped in the middle of nowhere. I didn't think that's what this was seeing that I lived a quiet life and had no enemies that I could think of. My second thought was that I had blacked out and wandered somewhere. After coming up with more and more possibilities as to how this could have happened I found myself able to breathe again.
“Don't panic, I just need to figure out where the hell I was and make my way back” I thought to myself as I tried to stay calm.
Deciding I needed more information I got up and took a better glance at my surroundings. Nothing looked strange or out of place. While not an expert in botany I did have some experience from working in a nursery and it helped me to identify some familiar plant life. I could say where I was but I didn't notice any poisonous plants either which was a plus. Looking around I spotted a massive tree to my left and decided to make my way there. I figured that if I could get higher up I could look around for the nearest road or town.
Making my way there I kept my eyes peeled for any sign as to what had happened to me. I was still trying to rationalize things in my head but just couldn't seem to find something that fits. As I got closer to the tree I saw that it was truly massive and must have been hundreds of years old. It was taller than the other trees around it by a good 75 feet and had some massive roots stretching around it. It amazed me how tall trees could grow when left alone. Having lived in the city for most of my life I never had the chance to see much natural growth. There everything was carefully controlled to be most effective and beautiful but looking at this titan of nature made me see how fake it was.
The size of the tree made climbing it a real problem as there were no low-hanging branches for me to grab. The trunk was too large to hold on to so the only real way was to use the knots and bark as handholds.
After several false starts and some minor cursing I got the hang of it and started to make some progress. It took me almost 30 minutes but I finally made it to the point that I could see over the other trees. Carefully pulling myself onto a sturdy-looking branch I got my first good view of my surroundings. I would love to say that the beauty of nature took my breath away and gave me hope but all I could focus on was the fact that there were no immediate signs of civilization. Looking at the sky I saw the sun was right above me making it impossible to know which was east or west.
As I was about to head down I saw a reflection in the distance. Squinting my eyes against the glare I saw that it came from a small clearing about a mile in the direction I had just come. Because I had no other clues as to where to go I decided to make that my goal. Looking down I found a new problem waiting for me. At the base of the tree was the biggest snake I had ever seen.
At first, I thought it was another large root of the tree but when it started to move what I was seeing made better sense. The brown and green coloring of the scale made it blend in perfectly with the forest ground and the tree's roots. It must have had a diameter of about 5 feet and a length of 50 if I wasn't mistaken. Simply speaking it was the scariest thing I had ever seen.
“Holy guacamole!”
As I stared down in horror at this titanic snake I could feel my heart beating out of my chest. While on the best of days I hated snakes and wanted nothing to do with them this one caused an instinctual fear from its mere size. I couldn't remember if snakes could smell fear or not but it didn't matter as either from my staring at it or exclamation it looked up at me.
Its eyes were a dark red color and as it opened its maw to hiss I saw its fangs were at least 3 feet long and dripping some form of venom. The stench from its breath was intense and smelled of rotting flesh and poisons. Its breath alone was almost my downfall as the smell made me step back and almost fall as I lost my balance on the branch.
Regaining my balance I saw the snake begin to coil itself around the tree and start to climb. Knowing I couldn't escape the same way I had come I looked around for alternate options. A few branches down it looked like it extended far enough out to the nearest tree that I might be able to make the jump. Quickly deciding I made my way down as quickly as possible I tried to keep track of the snake's progress towards me. It was already a little more than halfway and when it saw me climbing down towards it I could swear it smiled at me and then picked up its pace.
Stolen novel; please report.
Reaching the branch I got down on my hands and knees and started to crawl to the end as I did not trust my balance with the snake as close as it was. Just as I was nearing the end and psyching myself up to jump I felt the branch heave.
“Just don’t look down. Just don’t look down.”
Looking behind me I saw the snake looking at me with a small smile on its face and that long forked tongue whipping in my direction.
It made that terrible hissing noise again and this time I could see down its terrifying and impressive maw. I saw bits of venom and blood mix on its fangs. As it got more of its body onto the branch and coiled to strike I got my feet under me and began to back up. I had always kept myself in relatively good shape but right now I wished I was a little more strength as I looked back and saw just how far of a jump it was to the next tree.
Looking back at the snake made the decision easy for me. Turning to jump I felt the branch behind me quiver and pushed myself to jump. Unfortunately, the universe still wasn't done messing around with me just yet. Just as I was starting my jump I heard a thunderous crack and once more the ground was no longer where I expected it to be. That damn snake had broken the branch and now for the second time that day, I was falling.
Looking down at the ground it was only 40 feet away and closing fast, having been close to the other trees I saw foliage and small branches in my path but knew those wouldn't stop my momentum. As I began to flail about for something to grab on to I started to give up hope. Crashing through the first layer of branches hurt like hell and the soft but rough wood cut me as I fell.
Amazingly my frantic flailing was what saved my life. My arms got caught in some vines and jerked me to help slow my fall before snapping taught and stopped me cold. Pain exploded through my shoulder as I heard a pop. Then a boom and crack from a heavy object hitting the ground and crushing trees caught my attention for a split second. The vine I was on slowly turned and I saw the snake had landed a few yards away and lay unmoving. Before I could look closely the vine I was hanging from snapped and I fell the rest of the way down to the ground and landed again on my back.
Once more I lay on my back unable to breathe but this time I had the added pleasure of what I assumed to be a dislocated arm. Things didn't seem to want to go my way today. Looking over at the snake I couldn't see any movement but figured I better do something before it comes to its senses.
Groaning, I sat up and looked around to see what I had to work with. Several branches had broken in our fall and lay strewn about. Grabbing one with my good arm I gave it a practice swing. Luckily, if you could call it that, it was a left arm that was dislocated and I was right-handed. As I approached the freakishly large snake I heard a faint wheeze coming from it and by the time I reached its head I winced as I saw why. It was not so lucky in its landing as I had thought.
It had fallen on a broken tree and its head was impaled through the said tree. I didn't think I was aware I was there and seemed to be mostly paralyzed as not even its tongue was moving.
I felt sorry for the creature. I mean yeah it had just tried to kill me but it was only doing what wild animals do. Sure this wild animal just happened to be unnaturally large but it was still a predator doing its thing. I took pity on it and decided to end its misery and slow death.
“I’m sorry about this but you can rest now.”
Raising my makeshift spear I drove it into its eye with as much force as I could with my one arm. After a few more seconds and some wiggling of the spear, it stopped breathing.
[System Initialization]
[Titan Snake Killed: Calculating Experience Gained]
[400 exp awarded]
[Level Up X 2]
[Congratulations on reaching level 2!]
[Skill learned: Spears (Basic)]
[Class selection now beginning]
[Life Analysis Complete]
[Choose one of the following classes based on your life so far]
[ 1. Vagabond
2. Worker
3. Monster Hunter
4. Random ]
After seeing the floating screen materialize out of thin air and tell me to choose a class I would like to say I handled it well and calmly. Unfortunately, I, as they say, freaked the f*** out. I thought that I was losing my mind but the blasted screen wouldn't go away and kept asking me to choose from the options.
Seeing all of these impossible things from giant snakes to freaking video game screens appearing in my vision I knew I wasn't in Kansas anymore. Pulling myself out of my pity party of losing my life as I knew it I needed to get away from the rotting corpse before it attracted something else.
I couldn't continue towards that clearing I saw with this obstructing my view so I had to do something. Looking at my choices I immediately ruled out the first two as worthless. Monster Hunter sounded cool but looking back at the corpse of the Titan Snake as I now knew it was called I didn't want to have anything more to do with that. Crossing my fingers and hoping for something useful I selected Random.
[Random Class Selected]
[Class Unlocked Chef]
[Chef Level 2!]
[Skill learned: Basic Cooking]
Looking at what class I was given I took a deep calming breath and exhaled. MEntally I was screaming at such a class that provided no immediate benefit.
Gathering my emotions I looked around and started to make my way towards the clearing hoping for some sign as to what had brought me here.