“Okay, we dealt with those guys, are we going to pay Mirdew a visit before leaving?” Anarak asked.
“Mm, but first. We really should check up on the mortals,” Driima replied.
“Eh? They should be fine. I sent them to a pretty safe low-level area,” Anarak said.
“I know, I know. I’m just curious. You know, Anarak. You’ve become really nice these days, you even saved a plane full of people,” Driima smiled.
“Aw, come on. It’s not like I saved them for their own good or anything,” Anarak said with an awkward look and summoned a holographic projection with the wave of a hand.
“If you say so, but hey, I’m not complaining, I think it’s worthy of pr- Fuck!” Driima screamed as he caught sight of what was on the projection.
-----
When they came to, there were billions of lightly pulsating lights rotating in a spiral around them, with sinister cackles echoing out and the group desperately trying to escape. But, no matter how far they ran, the dark mist extended for eternity and the lights were infinite in number.
“Another batch! Another batch!” a barely audible voice gasped.
“I know, I know, Sir Antoin. Ahaha, we’ll finally have a chance, a chance to be reborn once more,” a distorted voice said. Jake felt his limbs begin to dissolve and vanish into nothingness. W-What’s happening?! N-NO!
He tried to scream, but not even a squeak could emerge, and the sinister eyes drew ever closer, until they were touching. Before Jake could react, it plunged straight into his body and he felt it bore through the deepest recesses of his mind.
“Kekeke, finally, a vessel.” a ghastly voice said.
As the world drew dark and his thoughts vanished, he heard a familiar voice telling them to back off.
-----
Jake jerked up in terror and cautiously looked around, but all he could find was an endless field with hundreds of other people chatting away and pointing to the sky.
What was that?! -- A dream? Was. Was that just a dream? What was that. I remember being rescued by Anarak, getting a briefing, a god went berserk, and then… And then… Everything went dark. And then… That dark void… And now, this… Is this the world he sent us to?
He looked up and saw a cube, a giant glowing crystal, and three moons in the sky. Well, this certainly isn’t Earth.
“What the hell is this?! What’s going on?!” a man screamed. I’d like to know too. I hope they don’t expect us to slay dragons or something ridiculous like that. I wouldn’t be surprised with how those two were talking about game worlds. This is probably stupid, but let me try something.
“Status. Inventory. Menu. Log out. Teleport. Authenticate. Login. Is admin equals true,” he shouted.
Yeah, I didn’t expect that last one to work, but who knows. Anything’s possible considering this absurd situation.
“Oh, come on. Do you really think those would work?” a man in his early twenties asked.
“Well, those two were talking about game worlds, so it was worth a try. Better than standing here confused as to what the hell is going on, ugh they could have at-least given us an explanation,” Jake said.
“Well yeah, true. Say. Did you have the dream?” he asked.
“The dream?” Jake asked.
“Yeah, the one where we were steeped in darkness with those lights… It’s slightly blurry, I feel like I’ve forgotten something really important,” he said.
“Yes, but… Well, you know. All dreams are like that. You wake up and quickly forgot. I wouldn’t be surprised, if we all had strange dreams with that encounter with Anarak. Considering that we had no clue what was ahead of us, it’s only natural that we had a nightmare or two,” Jake explained.
“True, I’m probably overthinking it. Ugh, if only I could remember what that was,” he clutched his head.
“Don’t think too hard on it. Say. Who are you and how did you get mixed up in this mess?” Jake asked.
“Me? I’m Leonard. Or Leo for short. I was a programmer working on a new algorithm when a strange laugh came out of the speakers. I thought it was a video ad and went to close it, when a hand emerged from the monitor and dragged me in. What about you?” Leo asked.
“Well, I was a pilot for Hawkins Airlines, when we discovered that the plane was nearly out of fuel, not only that but there was a typhoon. I thought we were all going to die, but before we hit the water, Anarak conjured up a vortex and well… You know how the rest went,” Jake said.
“Wow, that’s quite some timing. Right when you needed it most, on the same day we were all being abducted. How likely is that? With that sort of luck, you’d win the lottery hundreds of times over” Leo said.
“It’d be better off winning the lottery than being dragged off to this shithole to be honest,” Jake said as a black-haired man in his late twenties walked towards him. He wore a blue suit and stylish glasses. That’s right. He was the very same man who was transported with the podium, the Mayor of Tremence City, Nathanial Donapartes.
He was accompanied by fifteen people of various ages and builds and has a grim expression on his face.
“Excuse me, you two. As you know, we’ve been transported to this strange world by that so called god, Anarak. We have no clue where we are. We have no clue if this land is safe, and we have no supplies.
To figure out what the fuck is going on, we’re all going to have to work together to scout out this place. And we don’t have a moment to waste, we’re in a vulnerable position in the middle of a grassy field. I don’t know what abominations that brat Anarak has left us, but every moment we dawdle is a moment which’ll bring us closer to our deaths.
To avoid us all tripping over each other, I’ve persuaded the various members of this group to follow my instructions. You may or may not have heard of me before, I’m the Mayor of Tremence City, Nathanial Donapartes. Not that it means much now,” he gave out a bitter laugh.
“Yeah, Anarak really made a mess of things. I’m pretty lost here, to be honest, I’m not even sure how to accept all of this, it came pretty out of the blue,” Jake said.
“I understand, I was like that too when I woke up, it’s a pretty ridiculous situation. Who would ever think they’d get abducted by a god?” Nathanial sighed.
“It’s not just that, I’ve been thrown from one ridiculous situation to another. Say, are there any others from Flight 5477 here?” Jake asked.
“Flight 5477. The flight which got transported, right? There are a few people, but it seems like Anarak split us all up when he transported us, there’s only a few hundred of us here,” Nathanial explained.
“Really? Who?” Jake said.
“I can’t really remember their names. But, I do recall a woman in a suit, and a man wearing a flight attendant uniform,” Nathanial said.
“Was he really black haired middle-aged guy with big muscles and a long beard?” Jake asked.
“Yeah, that’s the one,” Nathanial said. Ugh, that coward’s here too. I still remember how he howled in the cockpit. Fucking hell. I understand that we were under a lot of pressure, but did he have to do that?
“Ugh, yeah. I definitely know him. A little too well,” Jake grimaced.
“Did he do something?” Nathanial asked.
“Let’s just say that he doesn’t handle pressure well. At all. Before we got transported, we were in a plane in a typhoon with next to no fuel hurtling towards the ground before Anarak transported us,” Jake explained.
“Ah, I understand. I’ll have the others keep an eye on him then. I don’t want any trouble. I’d like to catch up with you later as to what exactly happened on that plane, but we really are in a dire situation, so we can’t dawdle for too long,” Nathanial said.
“I understand, what happened to those people with haloes?” Jake asked.
“The gods? We didn’t get any, they were probably transported somewhere else. If I had to guess, Anarak probably has a special surprise for them. And well, what else can I say. It’s a shame, as they would have been a huge asset to us, but there’s little we can do about it,” Nathanial grimaced.
“Okay, if that’s a-” Nathanial was interrupted by a high pitch squeal.
“What the fuck was that?!” he screamed as he and the other fifteen drew their pistols.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
“Damn it all, why did I have to be abducted on a plane? If I was in New York, I’d have one too. Who knows what sorts of monsters Anarak’s lined up for us,” Jake and Leo scampered after them, quickly arriving at the edge of the human wall. Before them were dozens of green corpses with a green liquid squirting out and a trembling man holding a shotgun.
“What happened?!” Nathanial screamed.
“These creatures came out of nowhere, armed with knives. I tried to reason with them, but they wouldn’t stop and in the end, I had no choice but to shoot them,” he said as held back the urge to throw up.
“Damn it all, of all the things, why did it have to be them. It could have been wolves or bears or even people. That would have been more reasonable, but why the fuck did it have to be fucking goblins? Fucking Anarak, is he toying with us?” Nathanial screamed.
“Right. This is exactly what I warned you guys about, this world is dangerous. There are countless creatures like this who are out to kill us. If you don’t pull yourselves together, we will all die. Stop staring at the sky or mumbling about stupid dreams and get back to reality.
I don’t know how many of these things there are out there, but what I do know is that a few men with shotguns are not going to cut it when the horde comes for us. We need to build up a barricade to stop them, for that we’re going to need a heck of a lot of wood.
We need to find a source of food, water, and wood. We might run into those guys again, but are we really going to sit here waiting to die? Are we going to be scared of their scrawny green asses? Hell no. Who’s with me?” Nathanial shouted and the crowd chanted his name and cheered.
“Hell yeah! We’re not going to let those pieces of crap push us around. A giant crystal in the sky? A cube? Who gives a toss about that, they could stick a giant naked mannequin in the sky for all I care,” a man screamed and the group followed Nathanial and his merry men through the endless plains.
Wow, he really has a way with words, I can see how he ended up as the Mayor of Tremence City. He is right though, this is no time to be in a daze or to talk about silly dreams. I had a suspicion we might be attacked, but to think Anarak would send goblins.
And that was only the first wave, who knows what other abominations there are out there. I wouldn’t be surprised, if there was a real-life dragon.
“Jake. Jake.” A voice called and Jake snapped out of his inner monologue.
“Hm? What is it?” Jake asked.
“You saw how there were goblins, right?” Leo asked.
“Well yeah, what, do you think there’s going to be more fantasy beasts?” Jake asked.
“Well, obvious. But that’s not all. Assuming that Anarak’s been playing a load of videos, I’d assume this is some sort of newbie area. Like a tutorial area for us to come to grips with the new world, he wouldn’t want his valuable testers dying after-all,” Leo said.
“Well, that makes sense, better than fighting a fucking dragon,” Jake sighed in relief.
“If this follows the patterns of most games, and if Anarak isn’t a complete jerk, then the only way to survive after the tutorial is over is to make sure we’re strong enough to do so. This means familiarising ourselves with combat and seeing what exactly these ‘rules’ Anarak put in place are,” Leo explained.
“You don’t think there’s a level system and that we’ll get experience by killing goblins?” Jake asked.
“Maybe, I doubt it would be that obvious though,” Leo said.
“I agree, I see no harm in folks racking up some combat experience, as-long as you don’t ask them to go hand-to-hand against a bear. Silly notions of RPG mechanics aside, we could all do with the experience, especially since our ammunition is finite. We’re going to need weapons. A lot of weapons.
Luckily, we have a source of weapons, the little daggers the goblins run around with. Not only that, but that means that their civilisation is capable of forging metals and there’s a vein of ore nearby. However. We have no clue how many of them there are, and if they’re all tiny. For all we know, they could have ten foot giants back at the village. Let’s not look for trouble, if we can help it.
Anyway, we need to stay alert. No time for talk.” Nathanial said as a forest came into view.
He stood on guard as a white hawk with glittering claws flew towards the group, several men raised their guns, and just as he was about to give the order, the bird suddenly shot to the skies over the group and a large clop of poo fell on Nathanial’s head.
“Fucking birds!” Nathanial screamed. He quickly pulled his gun out and noticed that the bird was already gone. Jake sighed and turned away. Well… That happened…
“Okay, ignore that little incident. Stay alert, we’re going in,” Nathanial said, the group proceeded into the forest and discovered how truly vast it was. The trees were thick enough for three people to wrap their arms around it and seemed to reach the sky. Oh great, this is going to be a monster paradise…
Nathanial constantly looked up for monsters, while Jake wielded a tray from the plane, which he convinced a passenger to part with. A tray. A fucking tray. Couldn’t you give me a real weapon, Anarak?
Leo was no better, as he was carrying a keyboard which he grabbed onto while he was being dragged into the computer. Several people in the crowd sighed at the makeshift weapons, and yet understood that it was their best chance at making it out of here alive.
Nathanial made a hand sign to the rest signalling them to slow down, when he was suddenly dragged up by a net, dropping his gun, and flailed around trying to escape. Dozens of goblins armed with spears poked their heads out from behind the trees. These guys again…
They grunted and snorted at each other as if speaking some unintelligible language. One with a bird feather hat and a horn blew hard. As the low octave echoed out, several dozen goblin archers up on the trees aimed their bows.
The two sides stared at each for several seconds, when the net suddenly snapped and Nathanial fell to the ground. He grabbed his gun and shouted, “We come in peace!”
The goblin with the feather hat grunted and snorted in response. Nathanial tried several gestures to convince them of his good will, but they responded with ever more hostile grunts and snorts, even jumping up and down. Ugh, we all know how this is going to end…
Nathanial opened his mouth once more, but he was greeted by countless arrows spearing several dozen people who responded by opening fire on their attackers. The spear wielders also closed in, and Jake held one off with his trusty tray.
He grabbed hold of the spear, kicked the scrawny goblin a few times in the crotch, and took hold while it reeled in pain. To his side, a goblin collapsed as Leo smashed its head with a keyboard.
Countless goblins fell from the trees, as countless bullets hit them, and Jake finished off his adversary with their very own weapon, while wielding his tray as a shield. The creature gave out an unearthly shriek as it went through its eyeball and destroyed its brain. Ugh, disgusting. I never thought I would have to do this crap…
He held back the urge to throw up, and thrusted his spear towards another fiend, deflecting its shield and severely wounding it. The feather cap goblin turned to run, but before it could move a single step, a bullet hit it in the back and collapsed.
Jake looked around and saw that countless green corpses surrounded him. Several people had arrows lodged in their arms, and various cuts, but they were otherwise unharmed. That went surprisingly well… I expected one or two of them to hit the bucket or be severely injured.
Several doctors stepped up and started treating their injuries with a gun wielding group in the outer ring standing guard over them. Jake looked down at the corpses once more, when he heard a strange pitter patter. Huh?
He looked around, but couldn’t think of anything which would make such a noise. Am I imagining things…? No… But I don’t see anything…
He was about to brush it off, when Nathanial shouted, “Look up! Attack!”
Up above them were a dozen green man-sized spiders who were camouflaged by the foliage. Shit, the battle from earlier must have drawn their attention.
He looked at the green blood and thought, Could it be the blood?
The spiders charged down, and were greeted by dozens of bullets. They started dropping down as they accumulated bullets, but were hardy enough for three of them to reach the bottom. How the hell do the goblins survive in a place like this?!
One of the spiders grabbed one of the men being treated and crushed his ribs with its pincers.
“Damn you!” Nathanial screamed as several bullets went into the side of the spider and it collapsed.
Jake held out his tray shield as a giant leg smashed into it sending him, he thrusted his spear into one of its compound eyes and it shrieked in pain. It bent back ready to lunge forward when several bullets followed the spear into the eye and finished it off.
A thin man in his thirties danced around dodging the third spider’s thrusts as dozens of bullets flew into it and brought its arachnoid life to an end. Did he train in martial arts or something? Or as a dance instructor?
“Damn it all, we already have a casualty, I never thought they would come from above so silently, I didn’t notice them at all until they were right above us,” Nathanial sighed and looked down at the injuries.
“I probably don’t need to ask, but… Is there anything we can do for him?” Nathanial asked a doctor.
“I’m afraid to say that even if we were back on Earth, we wouldn’t be able to treat this wound, let alone out here in a forest in this god forsaken world Anarak dropped us on,” the old man said.
“I see… “Nathanial said as the blood soaked the ground and the man breathed his last breath.
“The least we can do is bury him, does anyone have a shovel?” Nathanial asked and the other shook his head.
“Ugh, can’t we do that little?” Nathanial sighed, as he kicked bits of loose mud and dirt onto the corpse. The others joined him and before long, a small mound of dirt replaced the rotting corpse before them.
“Let’s go, I don’t want to stay in this forest another moment, there must be somewhere else we can go outside this hell. Who knows what sorts of abominations there are deeper in the forest. At the very least, we won’t be sneak attacked from above outside, damn those spiders,” Nathanial led the group back towards the forest entrance.
Nathanial constantly looked-for enemies, especially ones directly above, while Jake heard a strange sound from below. Spiders from above… What if…
“Nathanial! Below!” Jake shouted and Nathanial shouted, “Quick. To the exit. Run. They’re coming from below!”
The ground suddenly burst in-front of Nathanial as a giant worm shot up with sharp teeth capable of swallowing a man. It shot towards him and Nathanial jumped to the side to dodge barely missing it. He turned and fired off his pistol while moving away from it.
Several other bullets joined his in hitting the worm, but they could do little against its giant frame. Jake took the opportunity to stab the worm with the spear and part of its skin turned black where it hit. Could it be… The goblins…
“Nathanial. The spears. Goblins. Poison.” Jake shouted and Nathanial got it.
“Attack it with the goblin spears!” Nathanial shouted and several spear wielders rushed in as it went back into the ground preparing for another ambush. But, before it could fully enter, several spears entered its abdomen and it collapsed on the spot.
“It’s down. Quick run!” Nathanial shouted and the group sprinted for the entrance which was coming into view. They crossed the boundary back onto the field and breathed heavily as they looked back at the peaceful forest which now looked like the gates to hell.
“Finally, we’re finally out of that hellhole!” Nathanial shouted and they sighed in relief.
What are we going to do now though? If we can’t enter the forest, then how do we get wood?
“I think we’re going to postpone the gathering wood part, until we can handle those… things… One thing we do know though is that the goblins despite their weak frames are able to survive in this hellhole, this is in part due to the poison they apply to their spears.
However, there must another reason for this, as these worms would likely kill a dozen goblins before they accumulate enough damage on it. And let’s not even talk about those spiders, those things could snatch a goblin away before they even realise it,” Nathanial said.
“You mean… Another type of goblin, right?” Jake asked.
“Exactly, I hope we never have the luck of running into them, but I’m guessing that these are merely scouts, they noticed our group and sent people to scout us back and collect data,” Nathanial said.
A different type of goblin… Something with the reflexes needed to handle with worms and the senses needed to deal with spiders… What type of monster would that be…
“Nathanial, there’s movement at the entrance!” a man shouted.
“What?!” Nathanial gasped as a dozen goblins riding spiders and wielding spears emerged. Behind them were dozens more goblins wielding spears and several archers. Well… That explains the spider part… It’s their fucking mounts…