Sigh....
Rivan opened his gloomy eyes, "My friend Sam, sigh... he must be in panick not seeing me there. Oh God, please protect my friends mental state. If only he were as calm and wise as me, sighhhhh..."
" And my parents, ufff... They will surely hand over my share of property to my little brother. And that little demon won't even hesitate devouring it, might marry his girlfriend as well. And now that I am not there to show him the correct path in the darkness of the world, he must be dying of happiness, planning trips around world with his friends sigh..... But what can be done?sigh..."
"Aaahhhh....no way....Like hell I can let this happen I am still single and he..ahem..I can't let my little brother go astray. But where the hell am I? What's this shitty place? And what the hell was that vacuum-like thing that sucked me in? Do they think I'm garbage or something?"
Rivan knew he was rambling, but there were no answers to his growing list of questions. His limited human knowledge offered no clues, and the situation was too surreal to fit into anything he'd ever heard of."Wait… maybe it does sound familiar, but can I trust it?"
He racked his brain. The only place he had heard anything remotely similar was in those manga, animes and novel.
Those stories where protagonists dies and get transmigrated into bizarre, dark cave and somehow end up becoming stronger by devouring creatures with a cheat like interface, building kingdoms, making harem full of godly beauties with big boo...ahem..ahem, Could that really be what's happening to me?
Could it be… I'm the protagonist of this world? Sent here to save it? The thought filled Rivan with a sudden, subconscious sense of pride. His chest puffed out as a confident, almost domineering expression spread across his face. He opened his arms, took a deep breath, ready to embrace his destiny—then instantly regretted it.
"Ugh, what the hell is that smell?" he gagged, the stench hitting him like a brick wall. The fantasy shattered as quickly as it had formed, replaced by a wave of nausea. His proud expression twisted into a grimace as he frantically looked around, trying to pinpoint the source.
His eyes fell on a crumpled bundle of tissue lying not far from him. Instinctively, he glanced down at himself.
Rivan : (O_O) ...???
***
Somewhere in the middle of an unknown forest, with trees so huge they seemed to reach the sky. Darkness seeped from every corner of existence, gradually devouring the moonlight, contained within which was a faint tinge of red. The moonlight persisted in its effort to brighten the forest, expanding its reach with the passage of time.
In the midst of this battleground stood a looming castle, its ancient walls absorbing the moonlight. From one of the narrow windows on the lower floors, smoke curled into the air, adding to the sense of loneliness.
Inside a silent room, the diminishing smoke revealed an extraordinarily beautiful face, her presence a blend of pain and sadness, yet also commanding and sophisticated. And though there were a few small cracks on her porcelain-white face, they did not diminish her beauty in the slightest.
Her eyes were fixed on the ground, or to be precise on a blood-red pattern on the ground, it was cracked as if the earth itself bore the scars of some ancient, violent force, with smoke still seeping from the fissures.
" Tch.. It failed again." A screeching yet gentle female voice echoed through the castle. To which there should have been no response; normally. However, a huge dark figure emerged from the shadows near the door, formed by the moonlight entering the room.
"It seems so," it said in a monstrous voice that contrasted with it's submissive tone. Standing with unsettling elegance, a sinister smile spread across his face—or at least, what was discernible of it. Was it mocking her? It was hard to say.
***
After wiping his ass, Rivan stood up, adjusting the shirt tied around his waist, as it was the only barrier between him and total humiliation. He then glanced at the huge creatures ahead, staring at the light coming from somewhere between them.
With determination to get out of this place, he started climbing the wall—or at least he tried to—but fell on his back.
Massaging his sore back, he stood up again and looked closely at those creatures. A sense of familiarity hit him.
This smooth, slimy texture... hmm... "Haven't I seen it somewhere before? "
He then observed his body, which was covered in green, and touched the surface of the creature, confirming his suspicion. "Eureka! Eureka! It's algae!"
While he was lost in thought, something jiggly, smooth, and slippery brushed against his foot. He jumped back, screaming, "Ah, a snake! A snake bit me! I'm dying!"
He fell while doing so but continued crawling backward until he was sure nothing followed him. Then, he inspected his leg for bite marks and was relieved to find none.
But what the hell was that?
Squinting in the darkness, he looked at the spot where he had been standing moments ago. Something was still there, something snake-like and about the length of his arm. But its movements were definitely not those of a snake—in fact, they were so slow and sluggish that it was painful to watch.
Scrunching his face in caution, he slowly closed the distance. And was surprised as there were more of such creature and they were eating soil from ground.
Rivan : (-_-)
"Earthworms...." he proclaimed, unable to decide if he should be relieved that it wasn't a snake or surprised that the earthworm was this huge.
Then, as if something clicked in his mind, he looked at those creatures. Huge structures that entered the ground, their surfaces covered in algae, and the earthworms, that's also massive. "hmm.....If my calculations aren't wrong, these structures should be the roots of giant trees."