Sleeping in a dangerous place where you shouldn't sleep, typical Dustin, getting too familiar with terrifying places, adapting too quickly, but this time, it wasn't his fault though, this sleep came unexpectedly, it was like he was being dragged.
'what was that dream all about?' Dustin who had just woken up with sweat on his face and hard breathing looked at his palms.
'it was... Beautiful, it's not like anything I've ever dreamt' he thought to himself, he was engrossed in his thought, he completely forgot about his harsh surroundings and where he was, I wouldn't blame him though, as he said, it was a really beautiful dream.
In his dreams, he saw a vivid view of the wide open ocean, it was vast and majestic appearing as if it was infinite, there was no end to the ocean in sight, as it was beautiful, everywhere was also dark.
Dustin looked down on the ocean, he saw a star rise from the ocean, it glowed brighter than the sun, but it's light wasn't as blinding as the sun, it was warm, a warm light, it rose above the ocean and made it's way to the sky, the sky was filled with countless stars but when this warm star reached the sky, it illuminated the whole ocean, the ocean then shined, the shine on the ocean was beautiful, a sight so beautiful it can make a grown man cry.
The sky was filled with countless stars but this one start came and outshined them all, and dusts fell from the sky, Dustin looked at the dust, it was like sparkles, light sparkles, they were sprinkled from the star all over the ocean, all over Dustin's world, all over Dustin, and he woke up.
'does this have something to do with Jonas? His power is related to light after all.' Dustin rubbed his chin with his thumb and index finger and was thinking about it, he got no idea and came to a conclusion.
"i'll think about this later, I have to survive first" He stood up from where he was and glanced around the area, the sky was still filled with blood red mana, foul stench, carcasses, but the only thing different was that the further he moved forward, the more the corpse he saw kept being rotten and more decayed, it got to point that he only saw Skeletons.
'when is this going to end? I can't even see any monsters.' he was tired, he had been walking straight without any destination for five days straight, he couldn't sleep, he couldn't eat or drink, although he had witnessed hunger, he had not witnessed this type before, to go five days straight without a single drop of water.
Tenth day:
"I've been walking on a single straight path without food or water now, I feel pain, I feel hunger, but strangely, I don't feel weak anymore, I feel like I won't die, like I can't die, it's exhausting." Dustin muttered to himself
"I miss bread, I miss, tofu" he kept walking, not knowing where he was going, at this point his mind had already gone blank, but the will to survive had been inprinted into his body already, so his body kept moving.
Twelfth day:
He encountered a pig like monster he called orc that separated from it's herd during patrol, he fought with this orc for more than three hours desperately so he could eat it's flesh, he was growing stronger, but he didn't care, he just wanted to eat.
He killed the orc and ate the raw flesh, he got poisoned, he coughed out blood, but he still ate the rest of the orc, not minding the poison.
Twentieth day:
His body was turning slightly blue as if he was suffocating, it was becoming harder to breath, over the course of eight days he had fought different monsters he came across, he fought them bare handed, he didn't have a weapon, he fought a wolf like monster, he named it a kobold and killed it after thirty minutes, he encountered a monster as green as the mall goblins, but bigger and larger than them, they were even taller than him, about six foot, and Dustin hated people that were taller or more handsome than him, including monsters or whatever, except Jonas, he called the monster an ogre, he killed it after twenty minutes.
He encountered a giant monster, it looked like an ogre but it was at least two times bigger than an ogre, more uglier, less green, more crude and less intelligent and they wandered alone without any group unlike the other monsters.
This one was a bit tricky, it could regenerate, despite it's arm being torn off with raw strength from Dustin, or being eaten alive, or it's head getting blown up, Dustin just cut off it's hands, legs, fingers, toes, took the fingers and toes to eat as snacks on the way, and buried the remaining body parts underground in different areas to avoid the trouble and he kept going forward, without a single fear or doubt, he had become strong enough to fight on his own. "That shit was strong, I'll call it a troll." Dustin said as paused to take a look at his body.
He could feel it, he could feel the poison from the monsters he had eaten circulating in his body, he could feel his immune system fighting against them, he could feel the red cells in his blood get tainted with mana, his whole circulatory system was baptized with mana, he became a super human, he replied on this new power he got after countless fighting with different beasts and the orthodox fighting style that Jonas, a fighting genius even before he got blessed with Mana, taught him.
Dustin wasn't excited about his new found powers though, he only had two things in his mind: 'i want to eat some real food' he thought to himself as he chewed on the middle finger of the troll he fought.
??? Days??
The mana he felt in his body was dispelling the poison without even doing anything.
"I miss Jonas." He said with a blank expression on his face as he said:
" I know I said I would get out of I keep trying but" he bit his lower lips untill it bled and he shed a single tear.
"Will I really be able to get out of here?" His mind was cracking, that unique mental toughness of his was cracking and breaking, his will power was dwindling, I can't blame him, he had endured what a normal human can't, in a world where no concept of day or night, cold or dark, he didn't know time, he could only roughly count the hours, then the days then the weeks.
After a long time of walking:
He was walking in his straight path as usual when he came across something, he set into his orthodox fighting stance as usual without caring what it was, ready to fight with his toughened, hardened body. The figure was approaching him, it was shaped like a human.
"Calm down child" the human shaped monster told Dustin to ease his worries.
"You... Can speak? Are you human?" Dustin asked the monster, Dustin's eyes was heavy, he had dack circles under his eyes and his red eyes was glowing a fiercely bright shine.
"No, a humanoid" he let his guard down for a moment and raised his two hands up.
"Do you have... Food?" He gathered all his strength to say this before slumping to the ground like a lifeless doll, he slept at the smallest sight of relief, the humanoid monster just stood there looking at his body
"I hope he isn't dead" the monster said.
"I have a lot to do with you so don't die yet" he grinned evily and put Dustin on his back walking into an unknown opening, almost like the opening of the red gate, but... Different, it was less ominous.
"Kehahahaha" the humanoid monster laughed.
Somewhere back on Earth in the streets of New York:
"Just where the fuck are you Dustin? It's been days" Jonas, who had been looking for Dustin round the whole city like a mad man, or a pirate searching for his lost treasure, sat on a broken down taxi, tired and exhausted of looking for Dustin.
"Just come back" he said in a tone not lower than a whisper.