We arrived at the city gate at midday, I think? I question not knowing the metric for measuring time on this world, More questions for later, I sigh.

“You sigh a lot, mate, going to go bald with the amount of shit you have on your plate. Anyway, the guards will be approaching us for verification, standard procedure and all that.” Henry says as I’m lost in though again till his words register in my mind.

“Us?” I say, my anxiety leaking into my voice as Henry nods and responds, “Yeah, don’t worry, having someone who can vouch makes the process easier.” He pauses and adds, “Well the people who are vouching need to have some requirements otherwise you might have a situation where one untrustworthy person is accidentally let into the city and then that leads to multiple people getting vouched by said person, next thing you know the city has been corrupted and is the centre of criminal activity and demonic rituals and shit in the continent.” He says with a huff before quietly muttering with aggression, “…ucking hereti…”.

Filling in the gaps of the words I decide not to pry, and turn my attention to the guards closing in, each looking straight out of a fantasy world in full body armour from the medieval times. “Hello gentlemen, state your business.” The first guard says, turning his attention to Henry then me than back to Henry, “Henry? Didn’t know you had any acquaintances outside the city?” He says curiously as Henry puts his face in his hands whilst groaning, “Mate, just because I haven’t mentioned any doesn’t mean they don’t exist, but no in this occasion it’s a little different, good kid though!” He says with more enthusiasm than the entirety of the time I’ve known him, I shoot him a questioning look before introducing myself.

“Uh, h-hellow, nice to meet you, call me David.” I say with a grimace as it registers, I messed up my introduction, “Sorry, not the most fluent in this languidge.” I mention as the guard turns his attention towards me, somehow, I can tell he is smirking even through his medieval armour, before he can point out my mistake, I cut him off, correcting myself, “Language, I’m not the most fluent in this language.”.

Chuckling at my semantics and changing the subject the guard, apparently called Jin by Henry, asks, “Okay well, you will probably get in even if you don’t have proper verification” He says with a shrug then continues, “It would be far more easier to go through the whole process with it but judging by your lack of, well, anything and trouble speaking a commonly used language in this region, its probably safe to say you don’t have any?”.

Blankly staring at him, I slowly start clapping, nodding, Henry has a, what I can only call, a ‘shit eating grin’ that makes me want to punch him in the face. Luckily, we continue the conversation.

“So, what do I need to do to, well, get into the city?” I ask, wanting to sleep on a comfortable bed, “Excited I see.” He says with pride, seemingly assuming I was excited to come to the city and not just civilization in general. Deciding to follow with the assumption I nod.

“I can show him around and let him know the rules and all.” Henry says whilst a shock of realisation swells through his body, “Oh fuck, what am I his parent?” He says with his face in his hands groaning, everyone however, was staring at him, once he noticed that gazes, he looks over to me and quickly mention, “No offence, just, we met like 2 days ago, I feel like I’ve been given a bunch of responsibility to someone I barely know.” He says quickly, trying to get his point across while trying not to offend me, “I would like to point out, you basically cooked the meat which would have taken me far longer, if I would be able to at all before it goes bad, than took me to civilization and-“ I look at the guards and back to him, “Y’know, other stuff. So water under the bridge.” I say patting him on the back while he ponders for a moment and nods his head.

…

Later once we went through the procedures required, I got acquainted with some of the guards and had acquired some form of “Verification”, that is to say I was given this little plaque for temporary residence in the city, till I get something like a job or I join a guild, in which would give me some form of connection to the city or organization that can be verified.

Henry, being the kind, generous and very leachable person he is offered to pay for my stay at a inn for a couple days, a week at most. An opportunity I took so fast that there wasn’t even an afterimage.

…

Settling into my room at the ‘GUM&STAY’ which I soon found out stands for, ‘Give us money and stay’.

I collapsed onto the bed given, in my heavily sleep deprived I could have sworn however, that this bed was superior to the ones back home on Earth, luckily the last shred of common sense I had left quickly dismissed the thought.

Despite my exhaustion, however, I couldn’t seem to fall asleep, having nothing better to do, my mind slowly wanders back to the past few days.

My body starts trembling, it then starts to dawn on me that, though I appeared fine over the past few days, I had been intentionally avoiding the thought of the past without knowing. As my thoughts continuously push further into how I felt, how I delt with the situation and how close to death I was, I find trouble trying to breath and feel as if my heartbeat is hammering in my head, nausea suddenly knocks me even further into incoherence as my thoughts become further unintelligible as I puke and find it hard to so much as stand, as if all the strength in my body suddenly left, I felt helpless.

Flashing back to key moments of the wolf fight, slashes on my back, having been treated with some basic first aid, started to ache, the last attack of the piercing of the rock into the wolf’s eye as blood spew forth covering me, tears continue to rain down from my face on the disgusting stomach acid and leftover food on the floor.

Another flash and I’m back in the forest, fighting the Direwolf, What would have happened, if I didn’t get lucky finding a sharp rocking conveniently there? My shaking increases in intensity as images flood my brain, the corpse of the wolf, the blood covering my shaking hands.

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I black out.

…

“Henry what the fuck is wrong with you?!” A female voice shouts out, still gathering myself l look around, I’m in a bed cleaned up, Wait cleaned up from wh-, and the memories of the previous night rush back in as I begin to shake and quietly sob, far more collected than the previous time. Breaking my train of thought for what felt like the 7th time over the past few days a more quiet but still very loud responds, “I-I didn’t realise how bad he was, he seemed fine when I first met him, all the way to the city, ex-…” the familiar voice stops as if contemplating something, resuming his sentence, “Shit.” He says and the female voice responds, “What do you mean ‘Shit’?! The kid was lying in his own vomit with tears in his eyes as he shook uncontrollably, no fuckin way he showed none of that over the, what did you say, 3 days you’ve known him?!”

A silence rang out, until the male voice response, “Yeah, I-… there was an occasion on the first night, he woke up in the morning first, in a cold sweat, he was pale, shaking, tears leaking from his eyes. I was worried but the focus of the day changed to something more important, and I forgot, other than that, he was fine.”, the voice sounded empathetic as it echoed, “Wh-What DO YOU MEAN MORE IMPORTANT, THE KID IS TRAUMITISED!!!” She yelled as I quickly voice out, “Excuse me? Henry are you there?”

Silence lasting for multiple minutes as I hear footsteps approaching my room, “Kid, you alright?!” Henry burst into the room, concern emanating his big body, I take this moment to look at Henry, I never realised how much I wasn’t paying attention to things, the slightly tan white man wore a black singlet, countless small and large scars peaking and covering his body, one scar coming down from above his eye down past his lips, luckily his eye came out unscathed, short spiky black hair, and his emerald green eyes.

“Kid?” I ask but skip past it with the worry on the man’s face. “Sorry Henry, I didn’t realise how fucked up I was until I felt a semblance of safety, I’m all good now.” I say with a forced smile, trying to relieve some of his worry, but fail as he sees through my paper-thin façade, and then the female voice introduces herself as she comes into the room.

“Kid, nobody here believes that, myself especially, seeing you on the floor…” Her expression darkens as she recalls something from her memory but quickly flashes back to the present realizing something, “Ah, I haven’t introduced myself, the name’s Loraine, friends call me Lor or Lora. Nice to meet ‘Cha, would have preferred a more positive introduction but hey, beggars can’t be choosers.” She says with a shrug to hide her worried expression as she faces away from me so I can’t see her face, a thought flashed across my mind as I realise, Wait why are there so many phrases from Earth? I question but stash the thought away in the stockpile of questions needing answers that were piling up.

Coming back to reality I introduce myself once more, “Nice to meet you, my names David as I’m sure Henry has probably mentioned.” I say as I glance over at the man who nods, my gaze returns to Loraine as I take in her appearance, red auburn hair tied in a pony tail, on the taller side of the people I’ve met but still smaller than Henry who appears to be around 6’3. Hazel eyes, wearing some casual clothes with a apron still on, most likely having cooked recently.

“Great, now that introductions are over, time to get to the meat and potatoes of the situation, David, would you mind telling us about what happened?” She kindly requests as I unintentionally flash a worried face, before replacing it with a blank expression and accept her request.

So, I begin explaining everything that happened, excluding the, being from another world and not knowing what the system is.

…

Finishing up the story to present day I wait quietly for their response, Henry muttering something about the wolf pelt and Loraine deep in thought, eventually cutting the silence, Loraine speaks up, “Okay, first, I can tell your hiding things, I won’t pry but It might be easier to help you later if you tell us at some point,” I glance at Henry and look back to Loraine and nod, she however picks up on my glance, “More important than being traumatized huh?” She says staring at Henry as he averts his gaze. “Look, its his secret, if its getting told, it should be on his own terms.” He says firmly but still avoiding looking at her face. Loraine sighs and nods continuing the earlier subject, “Back on topic, you were both incredibly lucky and unlucky, David.” She says staring at me intently, I stare back confused, How was I lucky? I mean the lucky rock that I used to kill the wolf, sure, other than that? Maybe meeting Henry? I ponder as Loraine cuts through my thoughts, “Yes, you were incredibly lucky and unlucky, not only were you Level 0, but you were in a forest full of dangerous monsters that would annihilate you in a moment, you were lucky to run into a unusually low level Direwolf which usually is around level 10 – 25, you were unlucky to be put in that situation to begin with, you had nearly no information on how to survive, cook and hunt on the go, you had no equipment or preparations to help with, but you were lucky enough to survive, while you did use your momentary chance to end the fight, if you hadn’t you would have died, if there wasn’t a rock to begin with, dead, you were lucky running into Henry since he cooked the food for you, which you most likely would have burnt, undercooked or attracted animals to your locations if you tried doing so yourself, he showed you the way back to the city and vouched for you, a person who he barely knows and has no form of identity or verification.”

She says, taking a breath and continuing, “And that’s not taking into account things like, your injuries probably becoming infected, you narrowly evaded deaths scythe, with a bit of knowledge and a shit ton of luck.”

I’m silent, I go over everything she said, and I recall all critical moments throughout the past 3 days and come to the same conclusion, She’s right.

If one or two things went wrong, I would be dead, If I hadn’t known a small bit of knowledge about how to bandage myself, I would be dead, hell, thinking back to it, I was awoken shortly after passing out, and I’m pretty sure, the only thing that would have woken me up is, System notification.

“A-ah shit, yeah, I was extremely lucky.” I say with a sad smile, before either of us says anymore, Henry speaks up, “Hey, uh, not to interrupt and all, but I think Lor is trustworthy enough to not tell anyone your secret. As I said, I’m not going to say, but I would recommend you do so.” He mentions, “Ah fuck it, Loraine, I’m from another world, got transported into the middle of the forest and got attacked by a wolf, and this world is far different then my one. Nor do I know how I got here, just that I woke up in the middle of a forest, with an extra moon. And soon after, killing the Direwolf, the system.

Loraine, froze in shock, expression not moving, her eyes glazing over, I swear I can hear cogs turning in the distance as she stands up and immediately gets closer, eyes glistening.

The next few hours I was barraged with so questions and queries, until eventually, my saviour Henry, could see how uncomfortable I was getting, and y’know I was still trying to calm myself over my recent panic attack and well, coming to terms with life, which I’m definitely not doing while getting questioned on Newtonian laws that might not even affect this world at all.

Anyway, Henry drags her out, still muttering something along the lines of, “’What do you mean more important, the kid is traumatised’ Traumatised my ass, you forgot the moment he menti-“what I could hear ending there. I lightly chuckle as I slowly collapse under the mental exhaustion of the past few hours and my still exhausted body from the journey to the city, which I found out was called Lour.

Slowly my vision darkens, and I’m pulled into my subconscious.