Wren could only feel disgusted as he felt the blood smeared on his mouth and hands, he was sure that if he was seen by another human, they could think him a maniac. The metallic taste of iron lingered on his tongue and would not go away, he doubted he could do it again even if he had to.

His disposition was not helped by the fact that he was dragging a corpse with him. The monster's corpse was beginning to reek and it had only been a few minutes since it died. Wren was not an expert on biology, much less monster biology, so he could not comment on what that entailed. Perhaps meat in this world broke down quicker than back in his old world.

“This better work,” he mumbled to himself.

He had his doubts about his plan after all. Would the centipede take the bait? He was unsure how smart the monster was so perhaps it would know it was a trap. Or worse, he might arrive back to the light only to see that it moved elsewhere.

That might sound like a good thing, but Wren was sure he would never be able to sleep properly if he thought about that thing hiding somewhere else.

After another minute of walking, Wren stumbled upon the same giant light crystal from before. This time he took a more careful approach as he neared the place where the centipede was hiding. It would be a shame if the monster attacked him before he could throw out some bait.

But just as he got ever so close to the light and the thought that maybe the centipede did move crossed his mind, he saw it.

The lustrous black in the darkness.

Even though it was the second time looking at the giant bug he still felt his skin crawl at the sight.

However this time he focused more on the hanging antennas that worked like sensors to detect anything that moved below the monster.

Wren could only hope that it would not be such a smart creature.

Making sure not to make noise, he got the goblin by the torso and prepared to lunge it through the darkness. Taking a deep breath, he threw the bait out.

The result was almost instantaneous.

Before the goblin even touched the hanging antennas, the monstrous beast shot out from the darkness and wrapped itself around the corpse with stunning speed. The whole motion from jumping from the dark to enveloping its prey must have occurred in less than a second.

While Wren was surprised at how quickly the monster moved, he was enthralled by the sight before him.

Now, out in the light, he could see the centipede clearly.

Black chitin carapace armor covered most of its body and its length was somewhere around the ten feet figure. It looked like a massive boa wrapped around a child from where he stood, fortunately, it wasn’t extremely thick as he originally thought, only as wide as Wren’s arm.

But he still was sure that he would be no different than the goblin if he tried to fight it.

The plan worked however, the centipede had taken the bait and now the path was cleared as it was still busy eating, he could leave.

Then a dark thought entered his mind.

He wasn’t home anymore, wherever he was now he had a game system, so shouldn’t he try to level up?

It would be a good way to improve his chances of survival and unlike the goblins, the centipede would likely give him plenty of EXP or its equivalent.

Fueled by the thought of growing stronger, he got behind the centipede, who paid him no mind, and swung his falchion down with all his might.

The rebound of force he felt traveling up his arms was the least surprising thing that happened next as the sword did little but scratch the armor. Despite the perfect opportunity, his attack had done no discernable damage, so much that the centipede did not bother to look at him and instead swiped the edge of its lower towards Wren.

The tail-like attack was so fast that Wren did not manage to process what happened until he was sent flying backwards. Feeling the wind knocked out of him prevented him from screaming and the strong blow caused his chest to feel as though it would be caved in.

Trying to suck in air, he gasped as he tried to stand on wobbly legs.

Despite the heavy blow, he still had the good sense to keep an eye on the centipede and was relieved to see it was still eating.

Having learned his lesson, he limped away towards the light.

The way opening past the centipede’s trap led to a larger cavern, the path went from a tunnel structure to something closer to a dome. What really caught his attention was the moss growing on the sides of the walls, that and the several open paths that laid ahead.

The silent sound of running water filled his ears and upon closer inspection found that small amounts of water were running down the walls and into cracks on the floor.

“Can I drink this? I’d rather not, but I don’t know when I’ll find water again and this cave is starting to look bigger than I initially thought,” he pondered on the safety of drinking the water.

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Although it was running water, making it safer than something stagnant, he did not know for sure whether or not it was safe to drink.

But Wren was beginning to see a pattern, he had to drink it, the faster he went into survival mode the better off he’ll be.

The fact was that he will die in about three days without water, there was no way around that. Furthermore, going even one day without water will severely weaken him and make him prone to being killed by another monster.

So, his options were either drink and maybe get sick and die or not drink and die in a few days.

Audibly sighing, he put his mouth up to the wall and began to suck up any water he could.

“At least it’s cold,” he mused, more relaxed now that he found the water tasted normal.

After drinking enough to quench himself he took his eyes to the multiple routes ahead of him.

Four new paths branched off into different directions and seemed to go on for a while, there was no discernable way to figure out which one would lead to the outside.

Focusing on the basketball-sized crystal on the wall he wondered if maybe he might be able to pry off and use it for light.

Looking at the tunnels ahead he saw very little light, he was sure that there would be more dark spots somewhere ahead and something waiting in the dark for an easy meal. He needed light.

Unfortunately, the rock that encased the crystal was sturdy enough to resist his blade. And after the incident with the centipede, he was doubting the efficacy of his falchion, though that might have been caused by his own low stats.

Deciding to go to the rightmost path first, Wren started to walk in the tunnel with his weapon tightly gripped in his hand.

He had surprisingly kept his cool through this ordeal and was resolved to keep it that way. He knew only bad things would come if he acted and thought rashly.

It wasn’t long until he heard a quiet growling from up ahead. Taking silent steps, he began to approach the source of the sounds, a goblin.

It merely sat in the dark while it chewed on a bone, it almost seemed dejected that he had eaten all the meat, Wren noted.

But without making any noise, Wren was detected by the little monster. That long nose was probably useful enough to smell the blood on Wren, he would have to be careful about that too.

But like clockwork, the feral beast stood up from its position and made a mad dash towards Wren, just like the ones before him had done.

The goblins were fast, nimble, and ferocious; Wren could attest to that, but they lacked cunning.

They wasted their strong points by simply rushing at their opponents, which made them relatively easy to kill. You only needed to time their approach and have a weapon with enough reach to get them before they managed to get a hold of you.

It was like fighting a feral child.

This time the goblin jumped, Wren made sure to put in all the strength he had in the swing and his blade completely severed the monster in two. He wanted to reaffirm the edge of his blade what happened with the centipede.

The goblin fell as he was separated from its lower body and did not much more than a twitch or two.

Not interested in eating more monster flesh, Wren continued on his path.

He was looking for a dead-end or an exit, either worked. Worst case scenario this path would also branch off.

But just as he thought it was getting dark, a new texture was found in the walls. Rushing to verify what he saw; Wren was surprised as his hands touched what seemed to be primitive bricks on the walls.

“Civilization…” he said with excitement as he ran his fingers on the rough bricks that made up the walls.

It didn’t stop there as he went forward even the ground had become a proper floor with tiles. It wasn’t in great condition, cracks could be seen everywhere and it had obviously not been cleaned in ages, but it was something all the same.

His slow steps in the dark turned to a mild sprint as he made his way further with hope in his heart, hope to see people.

He was met with a steel gate that seemed to be encased in some kind of wood, it was difficult to see what was ahead but there did seem to be a lever on the side that seemed connected to the gate.

Pulling it and backing away he was happy to see the gate beginning to lift up by a kind of pulley system.

The whole thing reminded him of the old castles from his old world, he hoped that he wasn’t sent to some kind of medieval world but he didn’t bank too much on that. In all the stories he read people were never sent to a modern world, that was just the way it was.

Walking through he was greeted by an awful smell, something close to rotting flesh but somehow worse. It would normally be a good thing, it would mean that whatever was inside was already dead, but normal sense did not apply to a fantasy world.

A giant of a man stood in the center of the room he walked in, completely covered by rusted old armor that still had patches of silver. It was clear that the figure had been affected by time, overtly so, through the open helm, Wren was able to steal a peek at the man. And what he saw was horrifying.

A lipless face, lumps of flesh hung at his bones, and empty eye sockets. An undead.

Goblins and giant centipedes were something, insane even, but this was something else entirely. Goblins and centipedes were creatures, naturally, a human would think them monsters, but when it came down to it they were just biological organisms like everything else. Made of flesh, needed to eat, and most importantly died when they were killed.

This being crossed the boundary between reality and fantasy like nothing he had seen before. It stood defiant to all common sense.

To the Wren who had thought that he was growing accustomed to this world, it was a massive reality check. He froze as the undead knight pulled out a large chipped claymore-like sword.

Letting the sword drop to the ground, as though it was no longer able to hold the weight in its entirety, the giant took a heavy step towards Wren.

Hollow eyes offered no malice or passion, they simply moved forward without giving anything for Wren to understand, and all he could feel was insurmountable fear grip his heart.

He took a step back, but as though sensing his hesitation the undead exploded into motion.

Despite his large frame, it moved in a fury. Faster than Wren could fully understand what was happening the undead was upon him, blade at the ready.

And although he had the good sense to try to get out of the way, he simply could not match the astonishing speed of the knight and a large wound was opened through his chest as he was quickly cut down by the enemy steel.

The force was enough to send Wren falling on his back, fortunately, adrenaline was already pounding through his body and he was able to ignore the pain that coursed through his open wound.

Knowing that he would not be able to run, Wren attempted to counter with his own sword, he swung upwards with all his might.

His hopes of sneaking in an attack were dashed away as before his attack could even gain speed, the undead parried his sword with so much strength that his grip let the blade go.

Unarmed and injured, Wren could only stare in disbelief.

Things had gone from hopefully from seeing a new environment to the verge of death in less than a minute.

The familiar warm sensation of his blood flowing out of his body caught up with him, his vision grew fuzzy as he felt his body begin to shut down.

The undead cared little for his condition and brought down his sword once more, slashing at his neck.

Wren fell to his knees as he grilled his throat, but it was too late. He fell unconscious.