I peer through the dense copse, my eyes piercing the foliage and into the darkness beyond. Bushes hindered my vision but it wasn’t enough to stop me from gazing into the distance. Dimly, I can faintly hear my blood pump through my body, my heart palpitating as I held my breath, waiting for the monster that I knew was coming.
Honestly, I didn’t even how it came to this. It was so sudden, it happened so quick and decisively that by the time I came to grips, I had already woke up here, in a dark forest, all alone.
The last thing I remember was of cramming and exhaustion. I remember writing scraggly notes down on a yellowish worn down paper, bloody desperate to sear the knowledge into my brain. I can still recall the formulas, my sheer awe at the system, the numbers I juggled in order to satisfy the solution. I remember doing my best for tomorrow’s test, a test that now had become obsolete.
I am all alone. Hiding like a coward, cowering between tree roots as big as my thighs, under the trunk of a specie I had no idea of, crouching and bidding, mud-covered as if some frightened pup. The comparison, I suppose, was fitting, for currently, I am a cornered animal.
I literally had nothing on me besides my bed clothes. I am on my pajamas, where before were streaked with blue floral patterns are now caked in dust and dirt. I had several gashes on my elbows and forearms, a few even scarred my face and my thighs felt lead due to overexertion. I couldn’t see my feet but based on the sticky feeling, I’m sure they are now full of blisters. Clearly, I had been underprepared.
Everything that happened since my awakening was surreal. Impossible towering trees of thick, musky brown bark loomed around me. Shadows of several canopies covered the ground and the only cracks were where light crept in are in between crown shyness. The air was stale, the smell of putrid decaying leaves and the strong wafting odor of ground and stone irritated my nose. I am in a forest, in an area I’m sure no human ever reached, in a world I am horrifyingly sure not my own.
The rustling sound of leaves attracted my ears and in an instant my eyes zeroed upon the offending bush. Dimly, I can hear the thumping sound of my heart increase in beating. My eyes narrowed and my pupils dilate to see in the dark. Adrenaline rushed through my system and as the twisted monstrosity entered my sight, I instantly turned towards the blue screen on my right and clicked the option that would most likely change my entire life.
A series of prompts entered my vision and I flicked the stone I held in my hand towards the incoming rabbit.
<You are now a Warrior Lv1.
STR increased by 1.
Warrior skill: [Invictus Lv1] has been learned.>
