Flames danced across the fields around him, figures flickering behind the crackling heat. A lone figure ran forward, trying to escape the inferno that was consuming the void. He felt a rush of wind howl at him, sending him tumbling down. Crashing into the floor of darkness, the man heard distant shouting and the clashing of blades. Lifting his head up, he saw shadowy forms gather around him, keeping a clear distance away from him. One figure approached him, and the man gathered himself and raised his blade above his head. Tightening his grip, he lunged forward, a scream escaping his lips…
Victor awoke with a gasp. Clutching his blade tightly, he darted his head around the cave. The ray of light that broke through the ceiling only illuminated a patch in the middle of the cave, and his eyes were still adjusting to the darkness. As he continued to scan the room, his eyes focused on a figure crouched against the wall on the other side. A yelp almost escaped his throat, but he could only cough hoarsely. His hands trembling, Victor raised his blade. Then, he waited.
It only took a few minutes for him to recognize the figure; the familiar skeleton he got the sword from.
Groaning, Victor heard the sword clatter onto the ground and let out a deep exhale. How long was I holding my breath? He took a few moments to breathe deeply. In… then out. As he was doing so, he lightly pressed his thumb just under his left wrist. My heart’s pounding, he realized. He was restless, too restless, and needed a way to cool off. As he exhaled once more, he felt himself coughing dryly again. Victor had an idea on where to go next.
…
The water felt even colder than before. He let the icy water flow through his fingers for a bit before he cupped some into his mouth. A few more repeats occurred before he started to splash his face, wincing from the cold as he rubbed his neck. Kneeling down, Victor dipped his face into the stream and drank deeply. He hadn’t realized how thirsty he was this whole time. The hydration should certainly help clear his still pounding head.
Leaning back, Victor felt the frosty grass against his neck as he stared into the sky. Whispers of last night's dream came and went as he attempted to recall those distant… memories? Visions? Even as they faded in his mind, the things he saw last night seemed nothing like any dreams he had before. It felt so… concrete?
No, it felt REAL. That thought scared him.
As he brushed aside those thoughts (he didn’t want to deal with them now), Victor sat up and focused on his current objectives. As much as he liked sleeping inside a dark cave with a creepy skeleton, Victor needed to find a better source of food and shelter. As delicious as they were, the peanuts were not a long term or fulfilling solution to his hunger. He still needed a more stable source of food. More desperately, he wanted to get out of this damned forest he was in. If the wolf was any indication, the forest wasn’t exactly a kind or safe haven. If he was lucky, the wolf was only a rare occurrence, and there weren’t any more dangerous beasts waiting for him. If he wasn’t… then he was probably screwed. And so far, he didn’t feel very lucky.
In any case, the course of action was clear. Blade in hand, Victor rose to his feet and marched along the stream. Where there’s a river, there’s probably people nearby.
...
Eyes scanning along the creek side, Victor saw only disappointment. There were no more peanut plants anywhere in sight. Crap. Those peanuts were pretty tasty honestly. He wasn’t too worried about finding more food, not now at least. There was still a decent amount left over from yesterday. Plus, he realized, he actually didn’t feel that hungry. In fact… he felt pretty energized and full still, like he had feasted the day before rather than snacked on a few nuts. My head feels clearer too, he mused.
Okay… okay! That’s good news, he thought. Despite all the exhaustion he felt the other day, things were actually looking pretty decent! After all, he survived that encounter with the wolf AND found a source of water. No risk of dying from dehydration, probably. And as long as he continued along the stream, he’s got a good chance to find other people. At the pace he was going at, Victor could cover a decent distance without losing too much energy. As long as he kept an eye out for a clearing or a simple break in the trees, he could try to get a grasp of the local geography. He noticed that the ground had begun to slope more and more as he had walked. Excitement raced into his head. This was it! All he had to do was to get past the dense tree cover which prevented him from getting a clear picture of the local area. This was his chance! Maybe he could find a small city, or a local town, or get some sight of a civilization-
A deep growl shattered his enthusiasm. A deep, familiar, and dreaded growl. Victor instantly turned, sword raised at the ready, his heart once again racing, threatening to burst out of his chest. What he saw only rose his fear even further. Two grey furred beasts staring back at him, just a few yards away from where he was standing.
The terror just gripped his throat as one of them lunged forward.
His body moved faster than his mind did. Leaping backwards, Victor felt his arms release a horizontal swipe, feeling resistance as he rolled back onto his feet. He barely registered the streak of red that flowed across his blade as he saw the wolf crash onto the ground, blood oozing from its wound. Instantly, he leaped forward, and lunged the blade directly into the side of the wolf. The beast twitched for a moment, and Victor saw life extinguish from its eyes. Dead, he thought softly.
Suddenly, he felt himself crash onto his side, wolf blood splattering onto his arm. Pain seared from his leg and his thoughts screamed at him as adrenaline and agony filled his mind. He saw the wolf; the other wolf, which was still very alive, was sinking its fangs deeper into some kind of object below him. It's my leg, he realized, the wolf’s biting my leg. The pain that followed tore the air out of his lungs as a scream escaped his throat.
The wolf started to drag him away from its dead companion, and panic sank into Victor’s heart. The sword, he realized, as his hands grasped at nothing but the air. Need to… to get the sword. He tried to grab the blade behind him, still stuck inside the dead beast, but the pain increased in intensity as he felt himself get tugged further away. With one last desperate grab, he felt his hand grip the smooth leather. With his remaining strength, Victor pulled his arms forward and swung down with all his might.
The blade met the flesh and bone of the wolf’s head, and all he felt afterwards was relief and agony. Weakly, he tugged at the sword, trying to free it from the head of the wolf, but was unable to. Exhaustion left his limbs weak and trembling. The searing pain from his calf was rising as the adrenaline began to fade. Glancing down at his leg, he had to resist the urge to vomit. He saw the blade, still deep inside the wolf’s head, distorting the face of the dead beast, bone and blood exposed and flowing freely. But worse even still, he could still see (no, he could FEEL) the teeth of the wolf sunk inside his leg. Steeling himself, Victor leaned forward, slowly and painfully. He gripped his arms around the wolf’s jaws, and began prying the fangs from his leg. Resisting the urge to bite his tongue, he summoned his strength to move away from the beast, wincing as the pain once again coursed through him.
[For slaying an (Awakened wolf) you have earned one Achievement Point (AP)]
[For slaying an (Awakened wolf) you have earned one Achievement Point (AP)]
That voice again. Victor didn’t want to think about that right now. Limbs shaky and weak with the departure of adrenaline, Victor pulled himself over to a fallen tree to catch his breath and take stock of his injury. The wolf’s teeth had punched through his skin easily and torn the muscle when it shook its head. Now, only a slow but steady stream of blood oozed out of the wound. Gritting his teeth, he cut a few inches off the bottom of his shirt and began to wrap the injury tightly, wincing as the cloth pressed against the wound. The thin bandage quickly soaked with blood but the pressure seemed to have reduced the flow of blood to the point where it would not be a huge issue, at least in the short term. In the long term he had no way to clean out a wound and if it got infected he would die, simple as that.
With a sigh Victor leaned back against the trunk of the fallen tree and closed his eyes for a moment. He needed to find people. If he could just do that he would have a chance to survive. Opening his eyes he gazed down the valley, seeing the sparkle of a river that the small creek would eventually merge with. There, up on the steep slopes of the valley’s opposite side, what looked like a large temple sat below the clouds, with buildings rising up the slope until they disappeared into the mists that hung around the peaks of the mountains.
“Can’t complain about that.”
The buildings filled him with a small rush of hope and excitement; people were nearby. Heading to those buildings was step one of surviving. From what he could tell, he had been walking along a smaller valley that had just merged into the larger one with the river running through it. Judging by the size of the buildings on the far side of the valley, it would probably take a day to get over there. But going over broken terrain would slow him down, adding time. And he still needed to keep a sharp eye out for more wolves or other dangers in the valley. And his leg was injured.
Sighing, Victor popped a handful of peanuts into his mouth. As he finished chewing the nuts, he gently closed his eyes. It would be a long day ahead of him. He glanced again at the dead wolves before turning away in disgust. Wolf meat just wasn’t appealing to him, not when civilization was so close by. Still, Victor was torn. Right now, all he wanted to do was close his eyes and rest, break from this awful reality and feel a few moments of respite. But civilization was so close. And he knew it was his best option to get moving as soon as possible, especially if his leg was going to get infected.
With a heavy sigh, he dragged himself upward. Sword propping him up, he waddled his way toward the distant hope of civilization.
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Victor continued walking down the slope following the creek as it was joined by others and plunged down into the valley. Gradually his limping faded as he got used to walking on his injured leg, the throbbing becoming noticeably less as the day went on. No more wolves showed up thankfully and some time after noon he began to hear the sound of the river up ahead. Not trusting that his luck would hold, Victor continued forward, carefully, until he stumbled out of the dense trees and found himself on the edge of a swiftly flowing river.
...
Kneeling by the water and wiping down the blade, Victor was pleased to see his reflection in the metal now that it was clear of the blood and grime. He looked at his narrow reflection in the metal, his grimy face staring back at him with a few days of stubble and the leavings of a few days in the woods without a shower. Victor hoped he wasn’t going to scare off anyone looking like that, people would hopefully be understanding of his situation. Placing the sword down for a moment, he cupped some water into his hands and began splashing at his face, the icy liquid reinvigorating him and washing away at least the most egregious of the grime. He briefly contemplated trying to shave with his weirdly sharp sword but decided against it, a nick from that thing would be almost inevitable and he had just finished cleaning his face.
He was no longer in such a rush. Crossing the river shouldn’t be an issue, not with the stone bridge nearby, and the road from there led straight to the buildings he was headed towards. He wanted to stay here, just splashing his feet in the water and embracing the warmth of the sun above him. He allowed himself to relax in the calm moment, for the time being safe enough. The gentle breeze hummed lightly into his ears as he heard the distinct sound of buzzing around him. Across the river he could see green grass, a meadow decorated with flowers of all varieties. His eyes tried to focus in on some of the flowers, seeing if he could make out any that were familiar to him. But there were none that he could identify at this distance. Still, they were so oddly beautiful in their own way. A scattered array of vibrant colors, mixed reds, blues, and yellows on a canvas of green. They sprouted from among the grass, each plant seemingly enhancing the other's colour, making them even more animated and lively. With the clear river water below him, the scene in front of him seemed picture perfect. The green field, covered with a beautiful mix of blooming flowers, was sandwiched between the clear blue sky above and the water below, reflecting the blue of the sky. The river itself was lively, streams of water flowing around larger rocks and wooden poles below the bridge. Fish jumped up from the water, one leaping into the mouth of a blue bear. The sky above contained only a few thin clouds, with the bright sun shining down and leaving a glowing circle in the middle of the-
Wait what? Victor stopped daydreaming for a second and scanned the river again. He saw something he shouldn’t have. He was sure of it. Looking around, he could see the river poles, and the bridge, and some big rocks, and a bear, and the sun reflecting-
And a bear.
With a horn like a unicorn on its head.
...with a fish in its mouth.
Sitting atop the bridge.
...are you kidding me.
There was a giant blue bear, just chomping on the weird fish it just caught, lazing about on the bridge that connected his side of the river to the side that had civilization. He saw it roll over on its side, holding the fish in its giant blue paws before dropping the rest into its mouth. After a few more large chomps, the bear seemed to yawn before staring back down at the river. Victor had already moved away from the river bank by then, desperately hoping the beast wouldn’t spot him.
It didn’t work. The bear locked eyes with Victor and he froze. His heart seemed to stop as the bear rose and began walking forward toward him. He felt his mind scream at him to run, to get as far away from that monster as he could. Yet he could not move. His legs felt like they were chained to the ground. He watched with agonizing fear as the bear stood on its hind legs, stumbling forward… and placed its paws flat on the air in front of the bridge. Confusion replaced fear as Victor's eyes widened. The bear pawed at the air in front of it, unable to move any closer to Victor. With what seemed to be a sigh, the bear turned around and sat again in the middle of the bridge facing the upstream of the river.
….
Victor only screamed a little when a bolt of electricity surged from the bear’s horn, zapping the water and erupting it with sparks. He felt a tingle surge through his body, only to be surprised when he realized that he wasn’t dead already. And in all honesty? He probably should be dead, him having the brilliant idea to start swimming just a few hundred meters upstream from where the bridge was located. It would have worked swimmingly, had physics not existed.
Victor was only halfway across when he realized the current had carried him uncomfortably close to the bridge. But considering the bolt didn’t kill him, and the bear didn’t jump into the water to tear him to pieces (electing only to give him a death glare as he swam), Victor considered it a victory as soon as he reached the other side. Oh right of course, the bear could shoot lightning from its horn, because of course it could why would he think otherwise!
His fingers were tingling a bit too much for his liking as he dragged himself up onto the far bank, but he hoped it was just the adrenaline of almost dying and not some aftereffect of the electric shock. He could still see the bear, no longer glaring at him and instead choosing to try catching some fish again, but Victor had no intention of seeing if it could chase him down on this side. No, he instead chose to walk away from it, as far away as he could while still reaching the path again.
When he was finally back on the road, he glanced back at the bridge. Seeing the bear still on the bridge was such a relief, he would have leapt up in joy if he wasn’t still afraid of the damn thing. He had enough encounters with monsters for a whole lifetime already.
Trying desperately to focus on anything besides what he just saw, Victor continued along the stone path. It was blue, but not exactly a vibrant kind of blue. He guessed that years of being… well… a path, had turned the stone into the faded and worn trail they were now.
Glancing around at the field beside him, he saw the floral life and array of colors from before. Up close the scenery was even more beautiful. He stepped close to a small bundle of white flowers that sprung up from the roadside. Now, looking at them closely, Victor really couldn’t match the flowers with anything he remembered. They certainly were familiar: each petal spread out from the middle, overlapping each other to form an odd yet soothing pattern. Grasping at the stem of one, Victor used his blade to cut the flower off. He brought it under his nose and sniffed; a sweet scent, like cotton candy. A nice smell that lingered in his mind just for a moment.
He paced forward, slower now, letting the flower flutter from his hand and onto the grass. His gaze lingered along the field, scanning the flowers again and again. He didn’t want to think about the blue bear. He didn’t want to think about the weird flowers. And he definitely didn’t want to think about his weird blade and that inhuman skeleton where he borrowed the sword from. But the more he looked around him, the more Victor had to accept that maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t exactly in Kansas anymore. Not that he was originally from Kansas, but none of that mattered anymore. This world, this place that he found himself in? It wasn’t like his old one, and he was absolutely certain that whenever he was… this place had MAGIC.
Magic. That would certainly explain much of what he’s been encountering the past few days. The lightning blue bear, the weird issue with using the sword, and the voice that seemed to pop in his mind. Was it all magic? At this point, that was the only explanation Victor felt comfortable with. But even then, he wasn’t really keen on dwelling on those thoughts. He dreaded the ramifications that could come with those ideas: magical worlds in stories are rarely the safest of places.
And dwell he could not. Because as he continued to stroll along, finding himself sandwiched between a field and a forest, his eyes managed to focus on a glow in the middle of the field. Laying down on its side was a glowing, white furred, and very large stag. Victor instantly raised his blade: he had enough of magic creatures and wasn’t too keen on seeing what exactly this one had in store. But as he watched to stag carefully, keeping a healthy distance between them, the stag turned its head and glanced at him.
Gazing across the field, Victor saw the stag’s bright eyes peering at him. He lowered the sword, feeling calmed by its gaze. Unlike before, where the other beasts seemed to glare with killing intent, this creature only lazily stared back. He didn’t feel in any danger, his instincts seemingly indicating that there was nothing to stress about. Victor watched as the stag raised itself onto its legs. Now that it stood on all fours, Victor realized that the beast was even larger than he had initially thought. And without any hesitation, the glowing stag pranced away, bounding into the forest and disappearing between the trees. Victor could only sigh in relief, knowing that not every creature in this world was out to kill him.
He continued onward. And his journey past that was short, as it wasn’t long before he had reached the buildings he had seen in the distance. In front of him was a massive wooden and brass gate, easily three times his height, separating him from whatever, or whoever, was inside. Each door was made from a dark brown wood with cut brass plates decorating them. The left depicted a stag with a massive rack standing proudly between two trees while the right depicted the gates themselves opening beside a picture of a stag's horns.
Below both pictures there were a short set of unrecognizable characters that likely explained the pictures more thoroughly but Victor thought it was fairly obvious. The more troubling part was what it seemed to imply, but why would the horns be the key? Being able to catch and kill an animal in the woods was a terrible way of verifying if they had permission to enter, it made for awful security. Which implied that both this and the bear bridge were part of a test rather than security, which implied … what exactly? Victor didn’t know, but what he did know was that he was not going to be able to catch that deer and use its horns as a key.
Deciding to start with the simplest solution and go from there he tried knocking on the door to see if anyone would answer, the door and wall looked well maintained so there should be someone around. His fist barely made a sound when it hit the wood, so he looked around for a suitable branch. It didn’t take him long to find something in the forest, and after fashioning it into a crude club he proceeded to pound the door with increasing levels of force. Not only did the stick break but it failed to make a sound that would be heard more than 10 meters away.
Taking a step back he reexamined the problem from another angle. Higher up on the door there were two of what he had assumed were decorative handles. On a second examination however, he supposed the brass plate they rested against would make them excellent door knockers if they were in easy reach. Preferring to try knocking once more before attempting to climb over the wall he quickly found another longer branch and used it to lift the heavy brass piece. Lifting it as far away as he could, Victor released the piece and let it strike the panel.
As metal struck on metal, a long low sound rang out, causing Victor to wince and cover his ears. He didn’t expect it to be THAT loud, the note slowly diminishing down to a tolerable level. A few seconds passed after the sound faded and the gate swung open. Inside was a plain stone courtyard with another set of doors across the other side. A long grey carpet with brown outlinings connected the two sets of doors. Surprisingly, there was no one on the other side of the gate, some sort of automatic system then? Stepping through it felt like a wall of static electricity but his hair didn’t stand up on end.
[Hand aperture cleared, energy insufficient for System activation, increase internal energy]
[Mouth aperture cleared, energy insufficient for System activation, increase internal energy]
There were the messages again, Victor may have been sceptical but he was also able to read the writing on the wall: he was clearly either losing it, a horrible possibility that he could do nothing about, or he was transmigrated and had to get used to it. The messages about apertures had sounded very cultivation like and the horned bear was exactly what you would expect from a fantasy novel. Then there were the pictures on the gate that strongly implied that you should go kill a stag in the forest to open them.
His thoughts were interrupted when he heard the distant creaking of wood and metal. A figure in white stepped out of a doorway on the opposite side of the large courtyard and walked towards him. The brisk steps of the man closed the distance quickly and soon he came to a stop in front of Victor. The Cultivation style talk of apertures and the vaguely eastern style of the buildings had him expecting something very different from the vaguely middle eastern man in front of him.
“Congratulations on overcoming the examination!”
The what now?