P.O.V Shift

As I enter the portal, I feel like I can't breathe. I hold my breath and keep my eyes closed. A feeling in my gut tells me I should not look at my surroundings mid-travel. Although I may not know why, I still decide it would be wiser to not tempt my luck. After what could be 1 second or a year, I feel the wind caress my skin and the world press me down, physically and what could only be spiritually. If I was unsure of the existence of souls before Odin and somewhat unsure after, I can now feel it completely. Almost like the world itself was rejecting me or my soul and the world were rejecting each other.

Almost by instinct and most likely, the world pushing me, I recite an internal oath "I, Adam, relinquish my old world, and shall adopt this world as my home, to protect and defend from Outsiders." 

As soon as the words form in my mind, I feel as if a weight pressing my mind was lifted. I didn't understand where the need to recite this oath came from, but I understood the need for it if my guesses were right. Most likely this world has hostile relationships with other worlds or dimensions. Whether they are aggressors or victims remains to be seen.

What surprises me now that I think about it, is the world itself seems to have a level of consciousness or maybe it was an automated response, I'll have to research this more thoroughly in the future.

I most likely wouldn't be able to gain any power from this world if I was seen as an invader. I would probably need the help of a different dimension or world, to assimilate resources from here. I do not have that kind of backing, so assimilating myself in this world is the best solution.

Now that I'm considered a new denizen of this place, all I feel is the higher gravity level. I am still holding my breath so I am unsure if I can safely breathe. I seem to be located in a forest. Either this world has high levels of Oxygen or an extra element in the air, as all the trees I see are abnormally tall. Their lowest level of height seems to be equal to some of the tallest trees in my previous world. They're all easily 250-300 feet high. I feel for my bag and find it still attached to my back. I open it, take out a telescopic shovel, made from durable alloy, and dig myself a hole. I make sure to not break the grass, I need it to cover myself. I make the hole just big enough to curl myself with my bag so that I can extricate myself later. Once inside, I speak to my A.I " A.I, you shall now respond to the designation zero.", the A.I, now named Zero "Acknowledged, do I activate the nanomachines sir, your body is currently running low on oxygen". 

"Yes activate them, in the meantime, I need you to analyze the air and bacteria in our surroundings."

"Affirmative, I shall activate the nanomachines and have them analyze the air, sir, it seems that gravity is higher than what you can comfortably handle. I recommend ingesting the nutrients and supplemental shots, have the nanomachines process them to enhance your musculature and skeletal structure."

"I understand but give me the readings on the air first, if the oxygen level is higher I might need to adjust for it as well."

"Affirmative." About 2 minutes later, Adam receives the data. As he reads the data over, he is a little puzzled. "Hmm the air is close enough to not affect me, then why does nature look so big. There might be something I am currently unable to analyze, I would attribute to the same reason this world seems to have a mind of its own.". As he ponders to himself, still in the hole, he takes a few capsules out of his bag. They're about the size of a fingernail. He lifts his shirt and orders his nanomachines to ingest them. Right under his left pectoral, where the heart is located, the skin suddenly pales and splits while a small metallic tendril envelops the capsules. "Sir, the nanomachines have ingested the capsule and are currently ready to start. Do you have any other instructions before we begin?" Adam responds "No you may start, just make sure to watch my body temperature and smell, we do now know what kind of organisms are in this forest." 

"Affirmative, I shall put you into sleep mode, I shall awaken you once proper testing has been made to ensure no mishaps occur." As soon as Zero finished speaking, Adam blacks out. While he's in his hole, undergoing minor reinforcement, a black tawny owl is watching the place where he buried himself. The owl has been there the whole time, from his appearance to now. Adam, while looking around was never able to spot it.

In a city, about a month of walking distance from his hiding place. 

The city itself was weird by earth standards. It was a mix of modern and medieval. The modern part would be the tall spires and a few of what looks like apartment buildings spread throughout the city. The apartment buildings seemed to be made of a mixture of glass and wood. The spires though were made completely of glass. It was impossible to see inside from the outside, and they were a lot less numerous than apartment buildings. They were 2 types, one that was so high you can barely see the top, which there was only one of, and the second type was about half the size of the first. They were only 4 of those. Spread in different corners of the city, away from the crowds and other establishments or houses.

The city was separated into three sections, the outer section seemed to be dedicated to businesses, the second section was a mix of residential and schools while the middle belonged to the tallest spire. There was nothing around the spire for a good 20 kilometers. The city seems to contain about a few million people. Its size was large enough that while it seemed active, it did not seem stuffed.

On the top floor of the tall spire, a person was looking in the distance. The person was a woman, about 2 meters tall (6'5-6'6), her pale skin seems to be glowing at random intervals. Her white hair, while it moved like regular hair, seems crystal-like with the way it reflects light. Her facial features placed her anywhere between a young adult to a youthful mature woman. Her electric blue eyes were currently glowing and unfocused. Once out of her trance she started speaking to herself

"Aurora sent me a warning of an invader, however, the warning left as soon as it came, while the invader is still there. He seems to be a regular untrained human, he has no mana in his body, but he seems to be a host weird to micro-organisms. Is he a parasitized host? Is he a hive? Also, why did the warning subside? Is it because he's too weak, maybe, but I don't believe so. It may be the lack of a portal. Either way, the world's rejection will take care of him, he's too weak to endure it without a domain from a stronger invading lifeform to support him. I'll have my familiar keep an eye on him for a while. My instinct tells me I should interact with him, in what way is the mystery. I shall watch him and then decide how to approach him.".

The woman walks away to a sitting mat placed near a glowing portal. She sits on the mat and observes the portal, "It looks like the encroachment is almost done, about a decade left, I should be able to step inside when it's done. I need more resources to consolidate my breakthrough. The council said this should be a tier 5 or tier 6 elemental world. I should be able to take it over easily...." She closes her eyes and goes back to watching the invader.

Back to Adam

A few days later, Zero sends a small jolt to Adam's brain. He's instantly awake, no grogginess whatsoever. "Zero give me a summary of what has been done to my body".

"Yes sir, nothing complicated has been done, we have simply enhanced your cardio-vascular system, along with your musculature and skeletal structure. We have also increased your height from your previous 2 meters to about 2 and a half meters. The only downside will be the increased intake of food required to stay at peak efficiency. The analysis concluded that in this type of environment, food should contain more nutrients, so we don't foresee any problem in this regard in the future."

"Good, have the nanomachines replicate scar tissue on my throat." 

Zero responds " Affirmative". As Adam digs himself out, he looks around, it seems to be nighttime, it was completely dark, almost pitch black. He looks up at the sky and notices there is no moon or something that could pass for it. Only the stars seem to provide a modicum of light. Not enough for the regular human to see, just like him currently. He orders the Nanomachines to help his eyes see. His eyesight shifts from color to different tones of grey. Now able to see properly, he looks around, making sure not much has changed. He decides to first find civilization, so he looks for a source of water. He focuses while staying still to see if he can hear running water. A few seconds later, he hears what seems to be a small trickling of water. He orients himself and walks towards the sound, while walking he grabs a sample of the soil hoping to see what it's made of. It's similar to his previous world, a mixture of organic, non-organic (minerals), air, and water. As he keeps walking towards the source of water, he still fails to notice the owl following him.

While walking he notices that while the insects, size-wise are about a size bigger, their shapes remain consistent enough that their differences are minor. " Is there some sort of cosmic blueprint when it concerns life in general? What are the chances a different world is similar to earth or vice-versa? Maybe it's all math? That this is simply the most efficient equation to reach life? Start with oxygen, then micro-organism to larger forms of life? I guess the only difference would be the unknown factor that caused the growth of those trees. Maybe that variable has also induced changes in the larger life forms? I need to observe any civilization before interacting, to make sure that I can at least blend in as an illiterate mute." 

While walking he keeps an eye out for any signs of predators, from what he knows they typically mark their territories with urine, or maybe a few scratches here and there. From what he remembers some bears scratch the bark off trees while wolves use urine. He hasn't seen any scratches and he's not knowledgeable enough to spot different scents of urine or different types of feces. He soon reaches the water source, because of the night, he hasn't encountered any critters. The lack of a moon most likely prevents many of them from having a nocturnal way of life, as opposed to earth where many of them become nocturnal to avoid as many predators as possible. 

The water source seems to be a small river. He doesn't see the need to analyze the water, seeing the soil and air are similar to his previous planet, any surprises the water may provide would have to wait for later. 

The shore is empty of vegetation, there seems to be many marks on the ground, signs of animals using the river in the daytime. A few claw marks here and there proves that there are predators in this area. He has not found any traces of hunters, traps, and the like, so he assumes any civilization would either be a distance away or that they are unable to deal with the predators. 

He looks around for any sign, to use as a direction. He never was the outdoorsy type. He enjoyed hikes like the next man would but not enough to be at ease in the wild. He decides on a direction and starts walking. He tries to be as quiet as possible without compromising his speed. As he's walking, he starts thinking over his plans. Depending on the level of civilization, his interactions will differ. If it's medieval, or something similar, he will try to see if he can get in as a victim. If the denizens are regular humans, passing as a mute lost in the wild should be enough to get temporary accommodations. If they aren't humans, he will try to observe them from afar and see if their way of life would be detrimental to his survival (slavery, cannibalism, etc.).

As he keeps walking, he chastises himself, he never thought of climbing one of the trees to get a higher vantage point. He picks a tree on the larger side and takes out a rock pick, a harness, and steel footholds.

He makes sure the rope surrounds the tree, connected to his harness. He shimmies himself higher while using his rock pick to hammer in his footholds. Once he deems himself high enough, he looks around, and at about 4 km to the east, there's a significant break in the trees that restart a bit further away. The break stretches further in the distance. "It must be a road or walking trail of some sort. There must be civilization at both ends." Once he gets down, he heads towards the road, it takes him about an hour to get there. Ever since digging himself out, he's been walking for about 3 hours, and there's still no sign of the sun. "Either I woke up at the beginning of the night or it takes longer for a full orbital rotation."

Once at the road, he looks around the ground for any signs that can help him make an informed decision. He sees tracks of claws and hooves mixed with traces of carriage wheels. "It seems to be a medieval era, or maybe this area isn't developed enough. But these claws are worrying, what kind of creature, with claws this size, can be used to pull a carriage. It seems that while the area is backward in technological level, their level of animal husbandry is adequate."

While walking, he hears hooves hitting the ground behind him. He turns around and sees a dot light slowly getting bigger, coming towards him. Making a quick decision, he grabs some mud, dirties himself, and lays against a tree by the side. "Zero, perform an incision on my forehead, make it skin deep. Stabilize my heart rate. Simulate unconsciousness."

"Yes sir. Proceeding with incision and simulation"

On Adam's forehead, above his right eye, an incision, the length of a pinky finger, appears. Blood proceeds to drip down his face. "Zero, shrink the incision, simulate scabbing with leftover nutrients" 

"Sir, nutrients are currently at a low level, I recommend ingesting another capsule, to keep some in reserve"

He spots the carriage getting closer, cursing himself for the lack of time, he takes out a Nutri-capsule, swallows it, and proceeds to lock and tightly tie his bag to his chest and waist then closes his eyes. All this was caught by the owl still following him.

Author note: I have a bit of an issue with the POV shift. Something I hope to figure out as I keep learning. I re-read the chapter, and it didn't seem too confusing since there was only Adam around. I'll see if I can figure it out within the next few chapters. Leave reviews and comments, let me know how you feel, I may not care but I will still read it.