Again, he coughs out black water and stands up. He is no longer in the heart of darkness for he sees the twinkling stars in the vaulted night sky. A green and sapphire full moon stares back at him. The wind blows on his wet body, chilling him like an ice cube causing the hairs on his skin to stand up. Seeing this sight, he looks at his surroundings, a clearing surrounded by a dark forest.
“I must get to civilization,” he thinks.
He starts to carefully trek through the forest.
The moonlight peaks through the dark canopy but as he treads deeper and deeper into the forest the moonlight becomes dimmer and dimmer until finally it is once again pitch-black. A still silence permeates the wood. Seeing that this is happening, he starts to try to use the power of Sight to find his way through this damned forest.
True Sight or Sight as it is called in the shorthand allows an Awakened to have a general idea of his surroundings in a three meter radius. It is well-known that thanks to the developments by Archmage Derrakken that Sight is almost impossible to detect by most monstrous creatures, an indispensable tool for explorer parties. This ability helps the user practice their mana control.
But a weird thing occurs when he uses True Sight. He can clearly see his surroundings as if in broad daylight when he looks around with his eyes; however, a weird fog of different colors occasionally appears in his line of sight. This puzzles him. After one hour, the exhaustion of using his mana for Sight and the mental fatigue is bearing down on him. He decides to walk again for another five minutes before deciding to rest. Then, he sees a blinding light with his True Sight. He stumbles backward and closes his eyes. He stops using True Sight and gets back up. He sees a pale, yellow fire in the distance where he saw that blinding light. He takes his time to quietly place a complicated Trap ritual in the nearby area. The mana in his body unwinds like a ball of yarn and wraps itself on the ground below him. He then quietly approaches the fire.
The sudden smell of burnt meat mixes with the odor of crisp pine. He then hears voices breaking the silence.
“I am telling ya Ram I saw the sky split open like an egg!”
He creeps toward the voices carefully.
“What kind of nonsense are ya spouting Spam?”
He inches closer and closer.
“I’m telling ya the truth, Ram, the sky literally split open like a good crow’s egg over a frying pan!”
The wind wraps around his face and body, chilling him.
“Stop being a delusional idiot, Spam!”
Sweat drips from the back of his neck.
“Why don’t ya believe me, Ram?”
“Because you are being an idiot!!”
Over their shouting, he sees them. Two dark trolls roasting and eating dead human meat. He knows because he sees a half - bitten human head with its tongue sticking out. He slowly backs away.
They stop.
“Do you smell that Ram?”
“Why indeed I do, Spam!”
“HUMAN!!!” roars Ram.
“HUMAN!!!” yells Spam.
He books it out of there.
They grab their large, bony clubs and break a small tree lighting it on fire.
The earth shakes.
“BOOOM!!!!”
“BOOOMM!!!!”
“Where are you?” said Spam.
“Come here little human I won’t hurt you,” said Ram.
Their torches light up the forest around them.
They see the man off to the distance 750 feet away.
“There you are!” said Spam.
They rush in to kill him, breaking trunks and lighting up the forest canopy.
He makes a hard left. They follow him. Another left. They continue the pursuit hoping to taste human flesh.
“Um, Spam, is it really a good idea to bring this much fire with us?”
“Of course, Ram, how else would we able to find the HUUMAN!?!”
He makes another left and narrowly passes the trolls and zips past the encroaching forest fire.
“Spam, we’re surrounded by fire!!”
“Ouch!!”
The trolls are now surrounded by fire and smoke. Unfortunately, in their confusion one of their clubs knicks him like a golf ball and he flies into the trunk of a tree. Momentarily stunned and bleeding out through sheer force of will, he makes himself stand up. Some bones are broken.
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“You really think I would fall for such a paltry trick, human?”
Seeing the man, Spam grabs him with its right hand.
“Ouch!! Spam, this fire hurts!!”
“No pain. No gain, Ram.”
He looks at the human.
“Although I am covered in hair, this hair is resistant to fire. Goodbye, human.”
It then moves its thumb to crush his head. The thumb stops. In fact, Spam can’t move his arms and legs.
“WHHAATTT!!”
In fact, he can’t move his lungs.
“Can’t breathe…”
“Spam, don’t how him all for yourself!”
Ram then runs toward Spam.
“Idiot...,” Spam thinks.
The man looks at the dumb troll running at him and makes a big smile. He clicks his tongue. The rampaging forest fire that the trolls made in chasing him moves away from the trees and underbrush and move towards the dumb troll surrounding hm in a whirlwind of flames.
“AAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!!!”
“RAAAAMMMMM!!!”
The winds pick up and clouds filled with lightning roar like a lion. A tree of blue light descends from the night sky and strikes the whirlwind of flame.
“CCCRRRAAASSSHHH!!!!”
The flames disperse and a charred, black corpse remains. It falls to the ground.
“Huuummmmmaaaaannnnn!!!!”
Spam roars in his mind unfortunately; he looks at the human in his hands with a smug grin on his face. No despair can be seen. The man looks at him delighted.
He says, “That Spam fella seemed quite close to you. Are you guys relatives, brothers, or lovers?”
“Stop mocking me!”
Spam looks at him with the same gaze as before. His face is slightly blue due to oxygen deprivation.
“Clearly, you guys are lovers. I am not familiar with troll biology but even if you guys are both male or both female. Who am I to judge?” he says laughing.
“Despicable human!!”
“It is a shame that he died being struck with lightning. The Gods are fickle they say. If you were only more patient and listening to that Ram fella, then maybe she could have survived.”
“HUMAN!!”
Spam’s face has become bluer.
“What, Ram’s a guy? Who knew? And judging by your grip strength, I think you are a guy too. I did not think trolls would be into gay relationships.”
“Die Human!”
“What, you guys are actually brothers? But I was sure there was a romantic relationship between you two? Wait, can it be that?!?”
“Die!”
“Die!”
“Die!”
Spam’s face is now very blue.
“I am shocked by your depravity! Please let this man petition all the Gods for their mercy.
“Amitabha! Amitabha! ….”
“DIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIE!!!!!”
“A spiritu fornicationis Domine, libera nos ….”
The blue on the troll’s face is darker.
“DIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIE!!!!!”
“O great and mighty, Ezna, whose Hammer echoes throughout the Ages!!!”
The blue is now almost black.
“DIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
The troll’s face is pitched black.
“…”
The man now stares closely at the troll. The light is gone out of its eyes. It is dead.
“Huhh..”
The man breathes out and releases the spell by clicking his tongue. The troll’s grip loosens, and he gets himself out as the troll falls face first.
THUD!
The troll crashes into the underbrush.
The man, dead tired, attempts to make sure that the troll is dead.
“I am certain that these trolls or their campfire made that blinding light since, Sight ‘sees’ by detecting the mana in the surroundings. What was that light then?”
“XXIIIIIIIII!!!!”
An echoing screech can be heard as bright blue storm clouds swirl overhead. They are filled with lightning.
“So that is what made that blinding light?”
He jumps away from the troll.
“CCCCRRRAAASSSSSHHHH!!!!”
A black lightning bolt creates shockwaves around the area. A beast can be seen. It possesses many wings filled with feathers and scales and has many tentacles for arms. It has many yellow, beady eyes on its head and has a gaping may on its body filled with razor-sharp teeth. Electricity can be seen pulsating through its body. The mana in the area kneels before it. The troll beneath it is surely dead and the gaping teeth in its maw start swirling about shredding the troll to bits.
After it eats this troll and the charred one, it looks at the human. Although the human is foaming at the mouth, it decides to eat it anyway. It picks the human up with one of its free tentacles.
The tentacle dies like a bug curling in on itself like it got zapped by electricity dropping the human. Burnt flesh can be smelled.
It collapses on the ground black and blue liquid pouring out of its maw. It takes its black appendages and starts stabbing itself with them and beats it head and body and the ground. It cries out in pain.
“XXXXXIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!”
Nearby trees are blown away and the mana in the vicinity spirals out of control forming upside down waterfalls, whirlwinds, and moving trees.
After five hours of an intense struggle, it lies dead surrounded by a pool of its blood. The sky then opens up, DARKNESS can be seen. IT looks at the dead creature and the still barely alive human. IT has no expression.
The world of Gray Fog
Gray Fog covers the world in its embrace.
Ages come and go but here lies Eternity.
He wakes up looking at this bleak world.
He stands up. He foolishly calls out for anybody to call back to him. Silence answers back. It says you are alone in this world. He breaks down in despair. Then Hope comes down to him. A fulgin, black key dangles in front of him with his name on it in English, Adam. He thinks to himself, “If I seize this key, then all my sorrow and loneliness will vanish.” He takes it.
The human man wakes up.
The World of Arda
The fire is dead, only small embers remain. There are not trees as far as human eyes can see. They all disappeared. Adam wakes up. He is surprised that he was not burned or eaten. His memories from last night seem like faint dreams. He looks around and although he saw the dying fire the trolls made, he cannot find the bodies of the trolls. He tries to find that massive black creature that sometimes appears in his memory, but he cannot find it.
“Did I smoke weed or ingest some mushrooms by accident?” Adam thinks.
Realizing that he cannot find any trace of those creatures, he decides to head west to find civilization.
As he starts hiking west, he feels for the key he found in that dungeon where he almost drowned … twice.
Taking it out he realizes that this key looks exactly like the key he saw in hid dream. His named, Adam inscribed as white letters on this key.
“There are too many coincidences. There must be a connection between this key, that dungeon I was in, and my dream. But what is it?” Adam thinks.
“I can think of parallels between the name Adam and that door in the dungeon using my knowledge of Earth and the Organization, but is that right? Although I transmigrated here at that dungeon, I don’t know if this vision and dungeon are more related to the destiny of the man who inhabited this body and that I am just an outsider. Or that there really is a connection between my transmigration and this key and door and vision and that I am just unaware of this world’s knowledge of secrets, other worlds, and the divine? Or that it really is somehow a cruel and twisted combination of both? There are really two many possibilities. What I need now is more knowledge.” Adam thinks.
Steeling himself, he hikes across the treeless forest of stumps in search of civilization. This occurred for two days. He woke up and hiked west and pondered about the key, dream, dungeon, and himself for about an hour or two and then moved on focusing on practicing his mana control and refining his mana in his magic core which is located near his stomach. He was surprised when he found out that there was a bunch of weird, almost foreign mana surrounding his heart. After a few attempts, he realized he use this mana but sensed that it was so far not harmful for him and contained great power.
On the third day after several hours, not much has happened besides seeing a large peaceful mooseburg grazing on the shrubbery on the forest floor and truffles. They were discovered by an explorer named Burg during the Great Journey west after the Second Calamity. He originally wanted to name it Burgson since he had one as a pet that saved him from a pack of dire wolves during one of his scouting missions. He treated them like his own children. Unfortunately, there was a dispute with the taxidermists at the time. Eventually, after many fierce negotiations and even a duel, they settled on the name mooseburg, which means Burg’s happy roundness since mooseburgs look like gigantic blobs of fat with massive antlers.
He then saw an explorer party hunting some dire wolves after another hour’s journey. Civilization is near.