Quint found himself in darkness. He was conscious, but couldn't see, feel, or hear anything. As the feeling of panic began to surge, he finally heard a sound: a hollow ding rung from the deepest shallows of his soul.
He opened his eyes when he saw what looked like numbers accompanied with random words like "strength" and "agility", afterwhich they disappeared to find himself in a very unfamiliar place. The last thing he could recall was feeling agonizing pain before being scorched to death. The scenery in front of him was undoubtedly shocking: abnormally large ancient trees that were big enough to cover the entire sun.
He's never seen trees that huge before. The soothing sound of birds chirping and the smell of petrichor filled his nostrils, as he moved his head in confusion trying to understand what's going on.
He couldn't help but look at his body which was strangely a little bit smaller than usual, though. He was wearing a golden robe that matched his silver hair and exuded the aura of luxury and royalty .
He was very handsome considering his young age. He had perfectly curved jawlines with a milky white skin, deep blue eyes, small nose, sword shaped eyebrows, and thin lips.
Unfortunately his body looked malnourished and weak, with sagging skin and bone producing, offering knobbiness and sharp angles that made him appear frail and sickly.
This wasn't his usual world. "Am I dreaming?" He thought to himself. His current situation was a bit complicated, however. Is it just imagination or whatever he's facing is real? Did he by any chance cheat the matrix and fall into this alternative world? Numerous questions began cramming his weak skull, giving him migraines as they're desperately asking for answers.
Fear and terror began to seep into his heart as he thought of his fate in this foreign world .
At that moment a blue screen was projected
After looking through his stats again ,he noticed a small note at the end of the screen.
When he saw this screen he remembered some of the light novels from when he was a teen ,where the main character gets reincarnated to another world and gets a golden finger to help him ,when this realization hit him in the head he jumped from happiness and excitement .
Without anything to do he just sat on the ground near a large tree with a cautious look as dived into deep thinking .
After half an hour of simple waiting he heard some movements that caused a commotion nearby ,it sounded like a fight between two huge and ferocious abominations, was taking place right now and not far from him as the noise was growing louder and louder, he heard the sounds of the tree getting sliced and shattered as well as the a vibration of earth slowly increasing it's intensity.
In a short time he noticed an animal running on four with all his might, he had a short torso and a low hindquartres giving his back a hunched appearance with a long foreleg and thick neck .it was very much like a hyena but horribly big ,behind her was an even more terrifying lion ,with each step he took the distance between them shrink by a dozens of meters,and the hyena panicked as she felt the threat of death loom over her head.
Quint was horrified, his heart was beating twice as fast, threatening to explode, his body instinctively jumped to the bush behind him trying his best to keep quiet.
In a matter of seconds, the hyena instincts erupted with the feeling of danger,as he turned his head.only to be met with a huge mouth fraught with abnormally big teeth ,a few centimeters from his now vulnerable neck.
...
The Loren Forest,exactly in its outer region,a ferocious lion just finished killing his prey ,as he hurriedly returned to his small territory.
Horrified at what happened, Quint crouched behind a bush, desperately praying the monster doesn't notice him. His heart was pumping twice as fast and his lungs were crying for a grasp of breath, but he remained calm. For the longest minutes of his life which felt like forever, he kept hiding, waiting for a perfect moment in which he could come out safely.
The sounds of the strange beast stopped, hinting that it's the best time to come out from hiding. He took on the opportunity and got up. His legs were aching from crouching for so long. he looked cautiously around him ,he was clueless about this place, everything seems much bigger than it should,much colourful and mesmerizing.
The only thing he could do now is to find Shelter to hid in, avoiding the risk of encountering the strange and harrowing creatures that's lurking in the darkness.
*
Quint was making his way through the narrow and almost nonexistent paths of the forest , trying his best not to make any loud noise,
Half an hour of walking had taken a toll on his body and mind ,the sound of panting could be faintly heard in the surrounding area, suddenly quint felt a chill run down his spin ,as he detected a pair of eyes looking at him with terrifying killing intent locking into his figure.
He immediately started running as his brain entered an overdrive stat trying to figure out a way out of his predictement.
The wolf like creature immediately noticed it's prey escaping for dear life ,and hastly revealed it's body from the thick bush .
The wolf was huge , it's cold and cunning eyes were filled with bloodlust, it's metallic grey fur was reflecting the light of the sun ,and it's claw were so sharp to the point of cutting even diamond with ease.
The roar of the beast echoed behind ,any animal that heard it either run for dear life or decided to hid.
Meanwhile, Quint was running as fast as his legs can go ,the chilling roar of the abomination made him jump in fright as he increased his speed .
His feet's skin was slowly being torn and peeled, not wearing any shoes , he was bound to get injured.
Quint's face twitched as he bit his lips in pain, as a cultured man from earth he wasn't used to this wonderful feeling.
Barely enduring the pain, he looked behind him only to find that the beast was less than a minute from him ,hope was slowly seeping from his body as he couldn't decipher or find a way to to survive .
Memories of his past life began resurfacing in his mind , his lovely and beautiful past that ended with tragedy ,he recalled his parents and little sister ,he was 22 ,and a medical student in the prime of his life ,but fate wasn't always kind ,he died while trying to save his sister from a burning building,the traped little girl couldn't do anything to save herself,his desperate attempt to rescue her was futile ,as he died a horrible and heart wrenching death.
As he was about to lose hope ,he heard a faint sound of gushing water ,his eyes lit up and immediately changed his running direction to the east.
'Thud.thud thud' the sound of heavy and terrifyingly fast footsteps, became more and more apparent ,Quint turned his head only to see the wolf a hundred meters behind him,saliva dropping from his mouth, and eyes showing extreme hunger and impatience. Quint was very close to river.
He could only gritt his teeth and continue running.
Moment After, he was shocked to find out that in front of him was a cliff .that played a crucial role of stoping the thick fog from spreading.
The sounds of water became clear ,but the fog obscured his vision, the wolf was meters away from him ,he was helpless, Quint hesitated for a moment, should he jump or not? but as he turned his head and looked at the wolf his face lost all colour.
Taking a deep breath Mikhail covered his vital points and jumped directly from the cliff.
His body traveled with great speed through the air ,the sound of strong splashing was heard in the vicinity,as quint fainted from shock of the fall .