《Labyrinth of Gods》1 - Another World, Another Struggle
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"Nngh.."
There I was, lying on the cold stone ground without any clothes on me. I slowly opened my eyes in accordance to the seeping freeze crawling into my back and legs.
"AH!"
I jumped up quickly to avoid any unnecessary chilly shivering. As I raised my head, I was greeted by an extremely large red door that had snake patterns on both sides and an orb in the middle.
"Wha..?" I didn't know what to think of such a thing.
'Where am I, anyway?' I wondered. I tried to remember anything prior to my awakening, but nothing came up except a blank state of mind.
I looked around in all directions, but it was quite dark to see further than 10 meters, the only light source being the red door which gave off a dim glow. There were tunnels that lead into the darkness beyond.
"No.... No... Fuck." I mumbled as I walked backwards onto the door and fell down. I was afraid, because I knew what it all meant.
'Another world.'
I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at this point. The ominous door and the dark tunnels started eating at my instincts. I didn't doubt that it was another world, but I was open to anything more explainable aswell. Teleportation? Human experimentation? It wouldn't be ridiculous at all if that were the case.
I gulped down my worries and determined myself to act according to the scenario. If it truly was another world, it would mean survival. There wasn't any time to act like a lost child and call for help.
"Menu." I said.
Nothing appeared.
"Menu, status, start, inventory." I said.
Nothing still appeared even after saying all those words in a row.
'So there's no MMORPG kind of menu.'
My doubts of another world grew larger as I wasn't able to bring up a menu that would suit my needs in this situation.
'What about mana?'
I concentrated on my hands and tried to feel anything of importance under my skin. The only thing noteworthy was my fingers twitching.
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I sighed and stopped my meditation. There wasn't any point in continuing if the process didn't show any results.
Going into a squatting position, I started grabbing small pebbles and throwing them on the rock walls. Unsure of what to do, I simply kept repeating pebble throwing.
After half a minute I stood up and turned around to look at the doorway. The white orb in the middle gave off no glow, even though it looked as mysterious as a black hole. I pushed the door, but it didn't budge. I was just pushing myself further away from it.
Seeing no merit in opening the door, I took my hands off of it and turned around.
'That's the only way..' I thought as I stared at the dark tunnels which were large enough to fit an elephant through.
I crouched and started walking slowly into one of the tunnels. The darkness came ever closer to shutting away my vision, but I did not falter and kept moving forward while using my limbs to determine the surroundings.
It all felt so real; the rocky ground I walked on, the dusty air I breathed and my heart beating furiously enough for me to feel like it wants to jump out of my chest.
After a few minutes of slowly crouch walking, I started to see faint light rays in the distance. My happiness meter started rising, being in the dark for a while wasn't the best experience to be had when faced with the unknown.
Once I was close enough, I peeked from around the corner of the tunnel to glance at the light source.
Revealed to me was a cave chamber that was twice the width of the tunnel. In the middle of the chamber there was a pond in the ground which had glowing water. Mud and grass surrounded it
I scouted the chamber again before heading towards the pond. Nothing out of the ordinary, charge!
I hopped towards the pond and looked into it. What surprised me were the glowing rocks in the depths of the small pond. I figured that the rocks were the reason for the light that guided me, not the water.
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As soon as I put my right hand inside the water to test it for watery-qualifications, I could feel my hand being soothed.
'Wha?!'
My hand felt so good, but it wasn't something like my muscles being massaged. It was on another level. I could feel a sixth sense developing as I further reached my hand towards the glowing rocks.
*GRRRR*
"?!"
Growling came from another tunnel that was connected to the chamber. I took my hand out as soon as possible and jumped back. From the darkness appeared a sharp and furry faced animal, it's sharp teeth under heavy saliva intimidated anyone who stared.
As the beast slowly came out of the tunnel, it's shape was fully revealed. It looked like a black wolf without eyes. The eye sockets were there, but it was mostly covered with fur.
'Shit!!' I screamed in my mind. This was not the situation to be in right now. Not only was I weaponless, I was naked aswell!
I just stayed still and hoped that the wolf would pass by without having to do anything with me, but that was not the case. It's nose was twitching towards my side as I tried keeping my breathing to a minimum. I slightly moved my hand so that I could cover my mouth, but that slight movement cost me my location.
The wolf immediately jumped towards my direction, saliva flying right out of it's wide open mouth, but I moved quickly to the side and dodged. Since I had unstable footing, the wolf didn't waste a moment and ran towards me.
I knew that running was of no use so I swung my right fist towards the wolf's direction in hopes that I would hit it's nose, but as soon as my fist got closer to the wolf, it bit my hand.
"FUCK!" I screamed as it's sharp teeth got deeper and it's claws tearing at my arm. It was agonizing enough to make me cry, but I still had strength to struggle.
With tears flowing down my eyes and a face full of pain, I yelled: "I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU!"
I put my legs around the wolf's chest tightly, my left hand swiftly grabbed the lower jaw of the wolf. I dug my right hand, even through all the pain, deeper into wolf's upper jaw teeth so that it couldn't struggle free. As I set up my position I started seperating the lower jaw from the upper jaw of the wolf. It struggled to escape, but unreal amounts of strength filled my arms as I tore apart it's head.
*SNAP*
The wolf went limp after I snapped it's head apart. I kicked it's corpse off of me and immediately put my right hand in the water, as my instincts instructed me.
The soothing feeling came back, but my wound wasn't repairing. While trying to hold in my wheezing, I noticed that my sixth sense developed even further. I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate on it as much as possible. My wounds were especially prone to this mystical feeling.
It was all becoming visible while I had my eyes closed. My hand, my injuries, the blood coming out.
I didn't have time to think about what I was feeling, all I knew was that it was helping me visualize my wounds in a way that couldn't be considered 'seeing with eyes'. With the help of the new sense I developed, I was able to also observe something else. It felt like... everything, but I knew it wasn't there since I didn't see it with my eyes.
In accordance to the excruciating pain, I abandoned all thoughts of physical presence and focused on the things I saw with my sixth sense.
Along with my visualization powers, I gained slight control over the mystical 'thing' that was flowing all around the water. The control felt like I had another part of me available to use.
With all my willpower, I started using the 'thing' to close my wound while sitting patiently near the pond.
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