Jane open his eyes to look around. Seeing the familiar wall and its thin and rundown appearance, he sigh in exasperated manner.
Another nightmare for another 'great' day.
The familiar vibrating black phone on top of a table caught his eyes as he reach out to take it. Seeing that tons of missed calls was visible on his phone, he rolled his eyes after confirming the caller.
Jane yawn and stretch a couple of times before lazily making his way towards the bathroom. His reflection clearly showing his blood shot eyes and tired face despite him sleeping like a log last night. Looking at his reflection on the mirror, he could only lament of how his day couldn't get any better.
Just waking up alone was already taking a toll on his already depressed and sleep deprived mind.
Sighing, he gritted his teeth. " Curse that old hag." The image of an old and intimidating woman with her signature huge mole just below her left eye surfaces in his mind. Thinking all the injustice that he had experience with that old hag made him wanted to choke that thin neck of hers.
Closing his eyes, Jane plash his face with a cold water calming his raging nerves down. A moment later, as he open his eyes, what faced him wasn't the usual mirror that shows his reflection.
Wide eyes and heart thumping furiously, before he could process what just happened, a strong force took him in surprised making him fell down on the dirty ground. What happened next made him yelp in fear as hundreds of bloody and sharp saw-like teeth tried to swallow him in one whole. Fortunately, with his accumulated skills of evading and flexibility, dodging wasn't impossible. He quickly jump sideway as his eyes still on the huge scary monster that almost gave him the one way ticket to hell.
It was so close, if he didn't manage to avoid that quickly, he would have been in meat paste by now.
After creating a distance between him and the monster, Jane finally saw its whole appearance. It was a huge black like-dog monster with only one eye and its swinging tail amounting to three. It stood as tall as three meters in height, it had a bulky body and black fur which was thick and shiny. At this moment, the beast was opening its mouth, revealing its sharp teeth as its red eyes stared at the man with a ruthless look. At the same time trickles of blood flowed out from the gaps between the monster's sharp teeth, and seeped out of its huge mouth. Corpses of several human bodies can be found beneath its huge feet splashing blood every step it took.
Jane couldn't believe what he's seeing right now. Fear and anger immediately made its way to his heart. Cursing everything on his mind. What dog shit luck and situation is this!
Before Jane could even lament his situation, it once again pounce on him. This time, anger was visible on its sole big black eye as it could not believe that this puny insect could actually escape from its mighty paw.
"Fuck!"
Asking for help was Jane first thought as he couldn't possibly leave with his life intact on this kind of predicament while facing this never before seen beast in front of him. What's more, he didn't even think of killing it. As he ran and ran for his life, he realized that he wasn't on his apartment anymore. In fact, Jane now felt helpless and despair lurking inside of him after seeing that somehow he was transported to a forest with huge trees covering the entire land.
Everything felt so ridiculous. He felt like he's in a dream, but the pain that he felt as he ran across the forest earning him a lot of scratches and wounds on his legs made him aware that he's not dreaming at all.
Screaming for help wasn't an option as well knowing that he's in a god damn forest. Who knows what another monsters would he invite once he shouted for help. It would be akin to a domestic pig waiting to be slaughtered.
Gritting his teeth, his brain works with its full capacity thinking to get away with this predicament. Behind him was the huge black dog chasing him relentlessly as trees fell down one by one on its trail. Many curious small beast tried to watch the show but end up being flatten by the black dog. Some began to flee at the sight of the murderous aura of black dog.
He need to do something. Running wouldn't solve his current situation at all.
Suddenly, amidst the chase-run status something caught his eyes. He didn't hesitate anymore, wasting not a bit of a time as he rush down forward completely falling down on a inconspicuous black hole. Jane then use his two arms as shield covering his face and head as gravity pulled him down on a fast phase manner. He then landed onto a hard rock spraining his ankle on the process making him gasp in pain as he collapse. Not only his leg, his whole body is now covered with wounds and bruises.
Jane breathed roughly, his face was pale. He had escaped with his life, his face showed lingering fear, his back was covered in cold sweat. The thundering sound of the running monster above him made him cowered even more. When he finally heard that the monster ran past by the hole that he came in, only then did he breath in relief.
After a couple of hour of resting and patching his wounds using his clothing, he decided to find his way out of this cave. Indeed. The hole that he jumped in was the small crevice of this cave. Within that hour, Jane already settled all his thoughts of his current situation. One thing is for sure, whatever this was, is neither a prank or a dream. What happened are all real. Questions about how he get here and where that beast comes from, the answer is still unknown. The weird thing is that, amidst him being chased by that beast, he had seen quite a lot of small and big weird creatures along the way albeit blurry due to him frantically running for his life. He even faced a plant that had move and stricken his movement giving him a huge headache. Warranting him almost another ticket to 6 feet underground as the beast almost caught on him.
That gives him another assumption that the forest that he transported on wasn't anything normal. A mystical forest perhaps? But that's impossible, he never heard of such forest before. Regardless, he still have to come out alive from this forest. This forest screams overwhelming danger. And he, a modern man, is undoubtedly gonna die if he stay any longer.
Jane started to walk slowly at he stretch his sight across the hallow and empty cave in front of him. Sensing that nothing was a threat to him, although quite eerie and dark, he had no choice but to continue walking taking with him a sharp rock that he had found somewhere. While he was thinking all sort of thoughts a while ago, he wasn't idle either as he explored a little bit so to make sure that there's nothing of a threat to threaten his life at that moment. He found this empty cave after a little bit of walking from where he fell on.
Jane was vigilant despite all his precautions. Lighten steps, soft breathing, and eyes frantically wandering around. Jane doesn't know but he feels something eerie and slightly dangerous on this seemingly empty cave.
Jane then suddenly stopped. His eyes quickly adapted to the darkness as he finally saw a conspicuous silhouette. He then took a sharp intake of breath when he saw a scary looking skeleton sitting crossed leg before him. Besides it were scattered books covered with heavy dust and spider webs. And just below where it sat on was a blurry drawing of a complicated diagram that made of red ink. He also saw what looks like an exquisite tray for fruits facing the skeleton. Maybe because of the darkness engulfing the whole cave, he only saw this skeleton now.
Everything was creepy as it gets. However, joy then instantly leaps inside him. A human skeleton is in front of me. Doesn't that mean a human civilization is not far from here?
Jane then carefully inspected the things that had left behind by the skeleton. Trying to find something useful. Minutes past by, Jane found a very old sword. But the strange thing about it is that it's still shining with not a hint of degrading at all. Old because of its hilt that is almost unusable. Delicate lines drawn on the surface of the sword makes it even more pleasing to the eye. It felt mysterious. Plus it was still very sharp. Jane got greedily excited at the sight and started to rummage through the rest of the things. The following items made his heart jump in joy as he found a couple of books with words that he could strangely understand even though the language written on it are unfamiliar. The rest were trash as they got eroded by the power of time and couldn't be use anymore.
Only the sword and the strangely written books were useful. Jane then thank the skeleton guy mentally for the sword and the books. Afraid that he would cause something unexpected, he immediately rush out and come back to where he fell on. Only then did he examine the things that he had brought.
He first examine the sword that he got. Although the hilt is old and is about to be broken, Jane estimated that it would last for more or less 3 months. Jane then cast his eyes towards the 2 barely surviving books.
'Elkia's Diary' and ' Basic embodiments of nature'
A diary and a book about nature. Jane's forehead creased. He better get something out of this.
Pondering a bit, Jane decided to read the diary first to know who exactly the skeleton was.
'I wrote this diary to share how my adventure goes. My name is Elkia von sech, a lone adventurer, a swordmaster, and the youngest son of a baron in the Kingdom of Sech'
'My mother weep crazily after finding out that I would travel across the continent to train myself. Father was upset and worried. Brother scolded me like there's no tomorrow persuading me not to go. He told me how dangerous it was to travel alone, but still I did not yield. In fact, it even boosted my willingness to travel more.'
' Two months had passed ever since I left home. I found a fine lady that got injured while crossing the path inside the forest. She asked me to help her, in return that she would introduce me to a mere mercenary guild. I thought she was talking to a small time mercenary guild. However, I was surprised when she said the name Utah guild. She said that she was the daughter-in-law of the guild master and if I escort her she would reward me greatly. Hmm, should I trust her? In the end, I decided to help her. '
Jane sneered. It looks a trap to me.
' The girl was very talkative but I didn't mind it. Her injuries were not critical. Simple bondage was enough to stop the blood and infections.'
Jane flip the next paper.
' I was right. It was a trap. The girl was the bait and the rest of the four were assigned to kill him. From the start I already knew that it was a trap. After killing them, including the girl. I found out who ordered them to kill me. It was my uncle. '
Ugh. Internal conflict between nobles. Classic aristocrats strife. Thinking a bit, Jane learned quite a bit of how this world works and its societies structure. Swordmaster? Baron? Utah Mercenary? Never heard them before. More like a keywords came from a fantasy world.
Jane chose to skip the part of noble cat-fighting as he searches to see a way to get out of this forest first. Soon he found out something unexpected.
' I underestimated the danger of the Utah forest. I thought that this forest is similar to the ones that I traveled to, where exaggerated rumors flying around regarding the forest. However I was wrong. Extremely wrong.'
' I almost died. Where did that beast come from? Such beast is disgusting. So strong that even I, a swordmaster, could not fathom its strength. Fortunately, I escaped successfully albeit devastatingly.'
' Damn that beast! I want to skin it alive, use its skin as my clothes, and use its bone as my bed terribly! I want to torture it alive and let it feel what truly pain is!'
'My third time fighting it. Almost killed it but a smaller version of it arrived and gave me a finishing blow instead. Fucker! '
Jane only stopped his reading when he heard his stomach complaining loudly. Unknowingly, he was already hungry due to the bizarre adventures that he had gone into. Moreover, half a day had already passed since he came to this creepy forest. Half a day being chased and fell into this hollow cave.
Jane pondered solemnly. Forehead furrowed, he thought that there's no way he would go out in there where that beast is freely walking around waiting for an ambush. But then, should he stay here and starves to death without doing anything?
He heaved a sigh. He then stood up as he look up above.
Now then, how to climb up?