"… What the fuck…?" Lothar couldn't help but curse out those words as he looked at the status screen that took up most of his vision. Hovering his shaky hand on the screen, he tried to tap on it, only to have his finger go through the window like it wasn't there.
"…Okay… Lother, calm down. You're in a forest, far away from that nightmarish hellhole, and you have a barebones System, that has basic stats and a glitched Luck stat…"
Lothar took in deep calming breaths, his chest heaving up and down momentarily as huge gulps of air made its way through his lungs. His eyes closed, then opened once the exercise was done, and felt veritably calmer and a little further away from insanity.
'Okay, what should I do now…?' Lothar thought to himself as he recalled the snippets of memory he still had from his past life. It was blurry and foggy, due to the fact that he spent who knows how long in that accursed realm of darkness.
'I remembered dad saying what to do in a forest without supplies alone before… But I just can't remember the exact words…'
Lothar dug through his memories and found some useful tidbits of information.
"Remain calm… I'm already doing that…" Lothar muttered as he recalled more tidbits of information that were hidden deep within his skull. 'Next was… Remain in one place and find shelter…'
Lothar looked around the area and spotted no good areas to make a shelter. He walked forward while mulling over his thoughts, intent on finding some kind of shelter, and if not possible, making one. As he trudged forward, he heard the sound of rushing water filling his ears.
'… Water…' He turned his head towards the direction where the sound of rushing water was coming from. Not wasting anytime, he walked through the grass and shrubs, and after a few minutes, he reached a river. 'Alright, this is probably a good place to make shelter, since I can't find one…'
As Lothar looked around the area, he spotted something on the riverbanks. It was green, small, and wore only a single piece of fabric over its nether regions.
Beside it laid a seemingly ordinary wooden club. As to what the green figure was doing, it was drinking water from the river using its hands to scoop up the water.
'… Goblin…?' Alarm bells ringing in his mind, Lothar made a dash towards a nearby tree so he could hide from the green figure.
'I'm in a fantasy world? Then scratch this about staying in one place. If this forest is filled with fantasy creatures, all stronger than me, then I need to get out of this place!'
Lothar's thoughts took a dark turn, and his breathing grew stronger as his body trembled. He fully understood the gravity of his situation. Not once did he think that he would be a hero if he got isekai'd back on Earth, like the novels made the protagonists think.
He wasn't an overpowered God of fighting, nor was he the smartest person in the universe. He was just a normal college student that wanted to get out of college after graduating, take up a simple job to make ends meet, and possibly confess to his crush, which was totally impossible now.
Not very ambitious, one might say, but in that world full of contradictions, political debates, doomsayers, and shadow wars, what could an ordinary man do but just go with the flow until he dies of either an accident, a disease, or of old age?
His trembling increasing, he noticed the goblin from before taking a stand as it grasped the wooden club in its hands. It then sniffed around the area and locked on in his direction, its long ears twitching as it made a snarl.
It then rushed towards me with a cry, its club raised high.
"Oh shit!" Lothar gasped as he dodged to the side, the club harmlessly missing his body as it landed on the dirt. Seeing that the human wasn't wounded from its attack, the goblin growled and looked at the terrified human with a grin full of malicious intent.
It yelled once more and Lothar, being the pacifist, ordinary young adult that he is, could only freeze in place as the club went straight at him
'I'M SCREWED!!' All of Lothar's brain power was focused on this single thought, instead of actively finding a way to minimize the damage. This was a result of having no experience in fighting, as well as just pacifist behavior in general.
The goblin's glint in its eyes told Lothar everything that it would relish in his cries. Lothar closed his eyes, fully intending to take the bash and hope for the best, but then, he realized.
'THERE'S NO WAY I'M GOING BACK THERE!' His body revitalized by the fear of the expanse of darkness, Lothar willed his body to move ever so slightly. At this point, it was impossible to not get hit, so he could only do one thing: block the club with his arms.
Lothar braced himself as the club grew closer. Not wanting to see the result, he closed his eyes and waited for the impact to come.
A loud thud graced his ears and he opened his eyes slightly, only to see the goblin falling down on the ground as it tripped on the root of a tree. The goblin's club flew out of its hands and into the air, heading towards Lothar's direction.
Lothar, adrenaline pumping in his veins, quickly made a move to grab the club from the air. Clumsily grabbing the club, he hoisted it up above his head and glared at the goblin.
'It's me or him… It's me or him…' Thinking his mantra over and over ahead in his head, Lothar brought down the club towards the goblin's head hard. A sickening crunch of the skull later, the goblin made a sound of pain as blood slowly poured out of the cut on its head.
Lothar gasped, his hands holding the club trembling violently.
'It's me or him… It's me or him… It's me or him…!' Thinking of his mantra once again, Lothar brought the club up and brought it down towards the goblin.
Another sickening crunch and an explosion of gore later, the goblin slumped on the ground, lifeless, its head cracked open as its brain matter easily slid out of its open cranium.
Lothar, not used to gore, let go of the club and ran to the bushes nearby, retching out anything that was currently in his stomach.
'Fuck… The smell…!' If the sight of gore wasn't enough, then the smell alone could easily induce a normal person to retch. 'This is fucking bullshit…'