Seth awoke abruptly and shot to his feet. His mind felt extremely alert, which was especially odd given how many times he had passed out and or suffered brain damage in the last twenty-four hours. The pain he was experiencing before he passed out was totally gone.

After Seth made sure there was no hole in his head, he checked out his surroundings for the umpteenth time today. Everything seemed basically the same other than what looked like a long shadow in the distance. He would have been worried had he not spent over a day in this place half- conscious and had not been attacked once.

Peaking up at the sky to try and gauge the time, Seth was surprised to see it looked as if the halo hadn’t moved at all. Had he only been out for a minute or two? As he pondered over his lack of pain, Seth also realized he still wasn’t hungry in the least.

“Maybe it’s because I already know what’s on the menu,” he groaned. As soon as he finished with his complaint, black letters miraculously appeared in front of Seth’s eyes.

Main Menu:

Status-

Abilities-

Quests-

Notifications-

“What in the f-“ he trailed off as he watched the Notifications tab blink steadily.

“Am I just supposed to click it?” he wondered aloud.

Seth couldn’t help but feel like every clueless main character from an isekai as he experimented with the hovering menu. “Well, it appeared after I said menu, so maybe its voice activated...” In a hushed voice, Seth whispered, “Notifications.”

Instantly, the words morphed to form an iPhone like menu of banners. There was a number of new banners and two from eighteen hours ago. The time stamp on the older banner confirmed Seth’s timeline he had been building since he arrived. His attention turned to the contents of the older messages, and he discovered by just willing with his mind, he could pull up the message.

-You have consumed a Manufactured Language Shard (Class B ). Because you have no dimensional power, the excess energy has removed your ailments and dissipated back into the environment.

-By consuming the Manufactured Language Shard, you have gained the ability to understand all languages of your local universe.

So that’s why everyone seemed to be speaking English in the white room, Seth thought.

“It must have something to do with the morphing words as well.” Seth re-read the banner one more time. “Wait I can actually understand any language in my universe?” Even though I was abducted by a patchwork flesh monster and watched a dude turn inside out, this is still a kickass ability, he thought. Finally, he scrolled to the most recent banners.

-Congratulations! By consuming the Foundation Stone, your body has been infused with enough dimensional power to construct your Foundation. With your Foundation, you now have the power to shape dimensional energy around you on an infinitesimal scale.

-Congratulations! By constructing your Foundation, you have gained the basic ability to “Nurture.”

-Because of your nature, your “Nurture” ability has taken the form of the ability: “Menu.”

-Your body has reached its limit of dimensional energy, to increase your limit, achieve an evolution.

“An evolution?” Seth pondered, “Does it mean like a Darwin evolution? Cause that could take a couple million years I think.” He waited in anticipation for another line of text to appear, but he was disappointed as nothing showed up.

“So much for some cosmic help desk,” Seth said lamely. He was about to try experimenting with the menu when the last banner caught his eye.

-The construction of your Foundation has caused the collapse of a powerful warding ability around you. You are now able to be sensed by nearby entities.

The blood froze in Seth’s veins as he remembered the ominous shadow on the horizon. He could only let out a small whimper before a bloodcurdling screech more terrifying than anything he had heard before sounded off to his right. Seth was as pale as a ghost as he shakily turned toward the sound.

The scream sounded like it was at least a mile or two away. This fact further horrified Seth because if it was that loud while it was far away, it might burst his eardrums or worse when it finally reached him.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

He didn’t want to risk the monster spotting him, but he had to confirm its location. Not to mention the fact it was here at all basically meant it knew he was there. Seth threw himself to the ground and army crawled to the top of the dune currently between him and the ear-splitting creature. As he approached the top, he carefully peered over the mound, only to show his eyes and a little bit of his head.

The shadow had definitely grown closer and now it roughly resembled a bird, but he still couldn’t make out exactly what he was dealing with. The location of the thing was really all he cared about, so after glimpsing the figure, he promptly slid down the dune and continued to sprint in the opposite direction.

Feet pounded against the soft crimson and grey sand as Seth escaped the unknown creature. He ran with all his might, but it was becoming painfully clear that he would not be able to run away from the creature so easily.

The sand was quickly sapping his energy and his refusal to eat the pizza Lunchable seemed to be taking its toll as Seth’s body had no energy to continue with. He didn’t know the speed of the figure, but he guessed it would most likely be faster than him based off its alien mannerisms and the fact it lived in this unforgiving landscape.

While Seth continued his pitiful escape, a beating noise began to grow louder behind him. Another screech exponentially louder than the first erupted from Seth’s rear. He threw his hands up to his ears as the sound rattled his skull. Their seemed to be another much quieter girlish screaming sound emitting from nearby, but that could have been anything...

Seth’s cheap blue Nikes were tested to their absolute limit as he ran faster than he had even tried too before. It was to no avail as the pounding behind him grew louder and more frequent. It sounded like the creature had just turned to its next gear and Seth was already no match for its first so he began to despair.

“Please give me some bullshit accidental kill like in those shitty Manhwas!” Seth shrieked.

His wish was unfounded as something huge hit him in back, causing him to launch into the air in a somersaulting motion. There was a series of what Seth believed was bones snapping as he skipped on the ground like a stone on a pond.

He finally reached a stop when the arm he attempted to brace himself with folded underneath him in an unnatural position. Sand filled every orifice of his body as he lied there in quiet agony waiting for death to claim him.

An absence of sound met Seth’s tortured thoughts.

He painfully opened his eyes into a squint as to not increase his body’s sand to flesh ratio. What he saw made him wish he had never done so.

The creature in front of him was something he could not even have concocted in his worst nightmares. His gaze of fright was met by a pair of small beady black orbs. There was no irises or whites in the eyes. That might have disturbed Seth if not for the eyes being attached to a giant human like skull.

Its sockets were higher than usual and insanely small compared to its car sized head. Emerging from the ear holes of the skull were two ginormous filthy red wings that looked like they had been through a wood chipper. And to finish the demonic ensemble was a pair of shrimpy crimson legs covered in what looked to be some sort of chicken pox, but much larger and oozing a tar colored substance.

“What. The. Fuck.” Seth muttered without thought.

The movements of his jaw sent shocks of pain to lance through his neck. The pain finally brought him back to reality and allowed him to think again. He was struck with a stupor of confusion directly after because the creature in front of him was oddly just floating there. It flapped its blood wings at a constant beating rhythm and Seth just sat and stared at the monster while the monster just sat there and stared back.

He wondered why the thing didn’t just end him already.

Its beady void eyes continued to watch Seth as he shakily got up on his surprisingly not broken legs. The movement caused him to wince as his ribs and left arm cried out in pain. His neck felt like it had a nasty crock in it as well but as long as he didn’t turn his head it was bearable. He threw out his good arm in front of him to balance, to which he finally noticed the difference around him.

The crimson, grey desert that he had been accustomed to had been replaced with a new type of terrain, it was straight black, no other color to be seen. It seemed to be a landscape consisting of onyx black glass shards that littered the ground. Large pieces of them stuck up from the ground in the distance forming fang-like structures. As he glanced back at the monster, he realized there was a clear cut border between the sand and the glass that the monster was flying right above.

Seth hoped the monster was confined to the desert, and that’s why it didn’t pursue him. He preferred not to think to much into it because he was safe, and if he thought too much about it, the other reasons would disturb him. Seth gingerly took a step toward the spot where the creature continued to float in silence.

As he got closer, Seth discovered the human like skull he observed earlier that made up the main body of the creature, was actually covered in a thin pale sheet of skin. Black veins were visible underneath, although very thin and spider-like. Closing in on the thing, Seth became overwhelmed with an urge see if it was actually real.

Although it had appeared to hit him earlier, his situation still didn’t seem real to him, so he had know. Reaching out with his healthy arm, Seth closed his eyes and felt like “How to Train Your Dragon” as he searched with his fingers for a brief contact with the unknown being.

His peripherals lighted up when he felt an ice-cold wet stone-like surface underneath his middle finger. Seth willed his menu into being and yet again chose the Notifications button that was flashing like before.

-Congratulations! By coming into contact with an unknown organism, you have discovered the “Index” Menu option.

-Congratulations! You have discovered a new species of Dimension 4297: Fouler.

-Open the “Index” option to inspect the new species.

Seth promptly opened the new flashing Index tab in the menu. The tab actually had a convenient filter option to get the most recent discoveries to the top of the list. What appeared in front of him was a rough picture of the Fouler along with its name next to it. There was a small details button under the picture that Seth went to push. A new line of red appeared in front of his that read:

-Not enough information collected on “Fouler”

“Well, a lot of help this thing is,” Seth huffed. As Seth continued to fiddle with the index, he didn’t realize his finger was still in contact with the Fouler. Nor did he notice the Fouler’s beady eyes shift to focus on Seth’s outstretched hand. Before Seth’s eyes the details button started to blink under the image of the Fouler. He wondered what had changed but eagerly pushed the button.

-When the Fouler’s mighty jaw latches onto its prey, steel is not even a match for it, much less the flesh and bone of a lesser being.

Right after Seth read the last line, the Fouler finally clamped down its huge jaw that had been unhinging while Seth was reading the banner and tore Seth’s right hand off in a bloody fountain. Seth released a bloodcurdling scream and fell back onto the onyx shards, further cutting his back. He continued to scream and convulse while the Fouler resumed its soundless flight on the border of sand and glass.

The Avengers lunchbox was forgotten at Seth’s feet and his sudden fall knocked it open into his growing pool of blood.