Deep in the dense thicket of the Wyvern Woods, in the dead of the night, obscured by a thick malevolent white fog.
A slender girl with fair skin, and modest proportions had an unmistakable look of pure horror etched on her delicate face.
Her hair was messed up from constant disheveling and her eyes were red and bloodshot, exhausted from ceaseless streams of tears.
A stray strand of snot had dried below her bright-red nose, as well as countless beads of sweat upon her flushed face.
A miniature hourglass fastened to a chain dangled around her neck in accordance to her frantic movements.
She had fallen on her hind and raised her hands trying to protect herself from the harbinger of terror that had manifested before her.
She opened her mouth and screamed, "STAY BACK!"
At least, that's what she meant to say except no sound escaped from her mouth.
She had lost her voice.
THUMP!
The powerful sound of the earth shaking reverberated across the field along with the sickening sound of tree roots coming apart.
SHIFF!!
The young girl crawled back on her hind in terror as she watched the spine-tingling scene before her.
Reflected on her retina was a frightening envisage.
WHOO...!
An eerie sound filled the air as the mist of the Wyvern Woods began to settle.
The thick white mist swirled around the young girl, obscuring the view of all the Wyvern Trees around her...except one.
A lone Wyvern Tree.
The girl watched it in horror.
But why did she?
Why did this single Wyvern Tree fill her with so much dread and despair?
The answer to that was very apparent.
The lone Wyvern Tree had a face.
A face which seemed so odious and wrathful.
A face that brought terror to all who witnessed it.
But the horror didn't stop there.
The young girl who had just witnessed the Wyvern Woods Tree grow a face also witnessed one other envisage.
It was the envisage of the Wyvern Woods Tree metamorphosing.
Metamorphosing into something else, something otherworldly, something from a nightmare.
SNAP! SNAP! SNAP!
The Wyvern Tree's branches merged together in a crude yet coordinated pattern, the numerous branches which usually were so high up and seemed to scrape the sky, fused together to form three hands.
Two on the left side and one on the other, each spotting two to three to four fingers.
The very placement of the hands itself spoke to how wrong the figure's existence was.
BOOM!
The crudely-formed hands placed themselves on the ground, sending a powerful tremor through the earth, raising mighty gales that uprooted several blades of grass and displaced tons of soil in its wake.
The gales were so strong that they sent the cowering girl flying several meters back into another Wyvern Woods Tree, and even caused her to sully her clothes...a second time.
The hands of the revolting tree pushed down on the ground as if trying to uproot itself.
The young girl watched this process in extreme terror, never in her life had she seen such a horrifying scene so vividly and never in her life was she supposed to experience something this morbid as her reality.
But here she was nearly blacking out from terror as she witnessed the creature's horrid birth.
Her despair-filled eyes remained fixated on the tree monster as it struggled to uproot itself.
The monster exerted as much force as it could but failed to free itself, it tried continually until finally giving up.
A spark of hope made its way to the girl's eyes when she saw this. She began to believe. She began to gain back albeit a shred of confidence.
Maybe I can escape?
Is what she thought.
Just as that thought process flowed in her mind, something unthinkable happened.
The Wyvern Woods Tree opened its mouth.
And from within it came...
...
SCREECH! SCREECH!
[Bloodlust detected.]
[Level 3. Tree Troll.]
[Bloodlust detected.]
[Level 3. Tree Troll.]
[Bloodlust detected.]
[Level 3. Tree Troll.]
Three bark-skinned short monsters wielding clubs crawled out of its mouth, their expressions no different from the tree's face.
They were itching to kill me.
"EEE!!"
"EEE!!!"
The three trolls dashed towards me, club in hand, seething with barely-concealed bloodlust.
NO! STAY BACK!
I immediately got up to my feet and ran into the woods, desperately trying to escape the hideous trolls' murderous wrath.
HA...! HA...!
I ran as fast as my legs could take me, not even sparing the trolls a glance.
Help! Help!
I cried out from within as I ran.
Gripping the Empty Dial, I desperately thought.
Please...Empty Dial do something! Save me!
In response to my cries, the Empty Dial was silent.
"EEE!!"
"EEE!!!"
The dastard trolls screamed as they gave chase, and from the sound of their voice I could tell that they were getting closer.
N-no!
As I ran my legs began to grow weak and my lungs were starting to hurt. Each breath I took felt like a sharp needle was stabbing my abdomen, but I had no choice.
I didn't want to die.
HA! HA!
I ran and ran, enduring the biting breaths and silent pain that encroached my muscles.
While I ran, I suddenly noticed something.
The silence.
I could no longer hear the trolls any longer.
Did I lose them?
I thought as I turned my head to look back, but I dared not stop.
Once I saw that they were no longer chasing me, I let out a sigh of relief and slowed down.
HA... HA....
I lost th-
[Bloodlust detected.]
[Level 3. Tree Troll]
I heard the voice of the game speak and froze.
"EEE..."
I heard a low sinister growl and momentarily turned back.
H-H-
BASH!
And was met with a brutal blow to the face.
[You have been wounded.]
My body swayed from the deadly strike and I collapsed to the ground.
A-ah...
The world seemed to spin and its colors seemed to jump at me.
I felt a cool warmth flow down on the left side of my face.
No one needed to tell me what it was though...
It was blood.
"EEE!!"
"EE!!"
"EEE!!!"
The bark-skinned trolls gathered around me, and danced in dark jubilation.
But I could barely make out their silhouettes.
The world was going dark.