Quintin pinched the bridge of his nose, which elicited a stuffy groan born of stiffness. He cracked open his right eye, which was met by an overwhelming whiteness and forced him to reclose it. With a wince, he brought his hand over to brush his left eye but found it empty.

His right eye flared open, and he shifted into a sitting position as he pressed a finger around the socket.

Empty. Gone! What... happened to me?!

In his confusion, he did not notice that the pain was fleeing, nor that a blue pulsation steadily began to build from the place his left eye once was.

"Oltoi!"

Broken plinks of sound escaped his dry throat, out into the dense fog that surrounded him.

"Oltoi! Yell out if you're out there!"

He breathed in quicker and quicker as the realization that he was alone, somewhere unknown, began to grow.

"Oltoi... please. Brother, if this is a joke, you've won already. Just... come out. I'm not well. I need your help... Master..."

Nothing responded but the cold and bitter ground against his legs. His hands came up to cover his face. After a moment, he finally realized that his hands felt strangely icy there.

What... what's this feeling? Like someone is pressing cold steel metal against my cheeks.

Looking at his hands as he slowly brought them away and into focus, he became horrified with shock as he held them out in front.

These... are not my hands! They're completely changed! Where are my normal hands?! What is this metal, what are these grooves?! What are these nodules?!

In a panic, he tried to remove them like a gauntlet or glove, but they stayed firmly attached. His hands all the way up and around the elbows were wrapped in a metal of some design and function. Five rivulet lines ran down the length, ending in five nodules a bit bigger than a quarter of roundness each.

You've got to be joking! Just what happened? Where am I -

Distraction was quick to come when the apparition of a blue, text-filled box became strong enough for him to notice.

Oh, what now? What is this blue light?

System Initialization: 99%

Version: 1.0.0.0

Upgrades: Pending Discovery

[System] is now operational. *welcome to Whorrl, user designation: [Quintin Julle]. *General Skills has been updated:

-[Pain Tolerance Lv. 1] has been prescribed.

-[Concentration Lv. 1] has been noted.

please be aware: certain functions are [Locked] at this time,

*post response: go forth and discover! signed, F.

Commands: 'Stats' , 'Skills' , 'Quests[Locked]' , 'Storage[Locked]'

'More Information [insert keyword]' , 'Dismiss' , 'Body Modifications[Locked]' ...

Quintin tried to stand up in his surprise but was quickly back on his butt; an intense spiral of pain assaulted his mind and body. He reached out with straining hands while the veins on his forehead became pronounced, and his mouth opened wide.

"AHHHH-AH-..."

Just as soon as it began, it ended as if a tooth was yanked out, and his gums were shot full of Lidocaine, but on a much larger, body-wide scale.

"What the fuck!" Quintin screamed with no one to target

"Am I trapped in one of Oltoi's video games as it plays out this Hellish tutorial? Hell... no, it couldn't be. Am I... in Hell?"

That's not right. Get a grip. Think. This... System said, 'welcome to Whorrl.' Is that where I am? Let's see, maybe I can use these so-called Commands to gain an idea of what's going on. More Information [Whorrl]. Also: Fuck you!

More Information: [Whorrl]

*Classification: Planet

*Designation: error.

[reconfiguring data based on Host Background.]

*Designation: Fantastical Land.

*Hostility Index: Very Pronounced / Extremely Deadly.

*Races: [Human] , [Elf] , [Dwarf] , [Demi-Human] , [Beastkin] , ... [>????+ entries].

*+[>????+ [Locked] entries].

Error: Also: [Fuck you!] unrecognized.

Quintin thought while rubbing his temples feverishly, So this isn't Earth after all...

An empty mindedness passed through him at the thought of being alone, on an unknown planet, far from anyone he knew or cared about.

Off to his right, a sharp intake of wheezing breath resounded. Squinting his eye in that direction, he made out the vague outline of a medium-sized shape that seemed to be clinging to the side of something off the ground through the fog.

*[General Skills] has been updated.

-[Identification Lv. 1] has been gained. [Intruder Wolf] Lv. 5

- Pack Beast

- Mountain Climber

- Territorial

HP:100/100 MP: 0/0 SP: 1000/1000

During mating season, these wolves charge up the largest mountains

in a suicidal-like frenzy to see who can get the highest up,

and thus rights to mate with the most females.

He got to his feet quickly and steadily this time. Even in his confusion, he was prepared for a fight that his life-long training had instilled in him. The shape revealed itself by bounding off the surface it clung to and onto the platform he was on.

Large needle-like claws gouged away at the rocky ground it landed on, the grooves pinching deeper and deeper from the slight tension of the wolf's muscles as its high-pitched snarl and upraised gums showed off an aggressive authority. It stood on four burly legs and had a wiry, thick mat of bristling black fur which accentuated its pointed, snarling face filled with razor-sharp teeth.

Barely a moment was allowed for Quintin to register the abdomen-high wolf in front of him before it leaped again to close in in an attempt to sweep him aside. The wolf's paw raked out in a frontal sweep when it landed, but Quintin was prepared. His right arm whipped out underneath the paw, gripped, and guided the sweep down to the ground.

A crunching sound tickled his ears like twigs through a wood chipper, followed by a torrent of blood as the wolf's paw and a section of its lower leg were wrenched away by his grip. Quintin frowned and made to back up, while the remnants of the paw slipped through his metallic fingers and plopped to the ground in a wet puddle. The wolf yipped madly, and seemed to have other ideas besides giving up in the ensuing chaos.

The wolf pivoted off its remaining three legs and went barreling through the short distance between them. At that moment, Quintin knew he had no chance to dodge. He had planned to diffuse the force downward, not dismember its leg, and because of that, the wolf was able to body-check him onto the ground in a tangle of limbs and squirming desperation.

[Body-Blow has been calculated.

-100[HP]

+Status: +{Confusion} +{Primal Urgency}]

Pain rocked Quintin's body while trapped within a blur of thrashing movements. His sight turned bleary, and his mind turned into mud. The wolf's claws dug trenches into his skin, leaving scrapes and dig-points all over. He reached out for anyone or anything in a mad grab of frenzied flailing and finally grasped a handhold of dense, bristling back-fur.

He pulled and twisted his body out, using his handhold of fur as leverage and climbed onto the wolf's back. The wolf tried to stand as his elbow entwined its neck and began to strangle it. Quintin screamed out at the top of his lungs while bringing his left arm around to connect with his other and pulled back hard.

Crunch.

Pop.

Snap.

Gurgle.

The wolf's head detached and propelled forward, a spray of blood shot out from its neck covering Quintin's upper body in the steamy, hot liquid.

*[Intruder Wolf Lv. 5] defeated!

—800 exp. granted! *[Nameless Grappling] has been unlocked. [Nameless Grappling]

— Innate Passive

— Martial Collection

— Rarity: Unique

*Series of ancient techniques collected from Host.

*Damage and critical precision enhances all unarmed damage-types.

*Based on techniques and understandings from another World.

*Does not [Level].