Quinten rummaged through all his belongings, grabbing anything and everything he could find that might be useful. His gym bag and a small bugout bag were found in the trunk. The laptop, bags of Christmas gifts from his recent shopping trip were in the back seat. The coat he took off after he noticed the heat was sitting on the passenger seat. A Taco Bell bag filled with trash was also in the back. "Got some kindling here I guess," he said to no one in particular as he thanked himself for being a slob. His gun case was under the driver seat, while the ammo box was in the trunk with his buyout bag and gym bag. There were even 10 cans left from a 12 pack of soda reserved for his commute to work. He left the change in his cupholder but took the phone resting on top. And finally the roll of paper towels. He tore off a few and pressed it against his wound while wrapping his gym shirt around it. They were some random things he found as well, a few lighters, his registration and insurance card, a bunch of receipts for the trash, a blanket for when he took his nappy naps, the jack and tire iron for changing the tire, the tow bar and a few flash drive USBs. The bags from Christmas shopping contained everything he got for his family. He already knew what they held: a video camera for his mom, a fishing pole and tackle box for his stepdad, a toolbox set for his cousin, the laptop for his brother, a chef's knife set for his wife and a few bags of chips and a bag of beef jerky for himself. The gym bag and bugout bags were both duffle bags carrying various items usually associated with them. The bugout bag was the more important thing for now. It contained a lot of good things he could use for survival when the zombie apocalypse hit. The most important thing right now was the full first aid kit. He opened it grabbed out what he needed then closed it back up. He dry swallowed a couple ibuprofen and grimaced as he peeled off his now blood-soaked shirt and paper towel. He splashed some water on it and carefully dabbed the blood away with more paper towels. With an antiseptic wipe, he cleaned around the edges and dried it with more paper towels. He smeared a good helping of the bacitracin onto the gauze and firmly pressed it against the wound. He wrapped it with the bandage and tied it off to finish the dressing. The moment he was finished tying the bandage, a new notification popped up and something tickled his mind again. It wasn't uncomfortable, but definitely strange. He looked back at his bandage and it felt like some new information entered his mind. He noticed a few mistakes he'd made while fixing it up. The wrapping was too loose and some of the gauze was bunched up and wrinkled. "Weird. Maybe I just got a new skill? Like [First Aid] or something..." he said excitedly. He untied and readjusted the bandage and this time when he finished, the bleeding debuff flashed out of existence and his health started ticking up this time. Slowly, but it was definitely increasing. "Whew! That was intense!" His face contorted into a wry grin. "This is shaping up to be one hell of an adventure." he looked over to Django as the excitement bubbled up and drowned out the fear from earlier. Within the last couple of hours, he'd driven to another world, crashed into a crazy looking tiger horse, fought a giant green bunbun, almost died more than once and learned a new skill. After a moment he took out the new camcorder he was supposed to mail to his mom and set it up to start documenting everything. "She won't miss it I guess. But maybe if this ever gets back she'll like the story?" He unwrapped and unboxed the camera. After he put in the included battery and SD card, he took it through the initial setup procedures. Once it was done and everything was working, he set it up on the included stand and hit record. "Okay okay okay, big news! You'll never believe it but I seem to have found myself transported to another world! Yep! You're looking at the newest member of the Isekai club!" He proudly boasted in front of the camera. "Sadly, no OP magic powers have been discovered yet but it's only been, what, two hours now? I did, however, get at least one skill, maybe more? No idea, I can't understand the language here. I'm pretty sure I got [First Aid] when I wrapped this bad boy up." And he pointed to his freshly dressed shoulder wound. "That's the bite I got from the jolly green giant Terrorbun I just killed! The fight was intense! Sorry, I didn't have the camera set up yet to record it but I was going through some stuff and didn't even remember I had it. The little fool thought he could take me but I curb-stomped the pipsqueak and won. Sorry to all the animal lovers out there watching this, if I'd had a choice I would let it live on in peace but survival comes first when you're a man out in the wild." And he continued to recount the events. "Oh shit! I left its corpse where we fought!" He smacked his head and looked at the camera with an embarrassed look. "I'll show it later, it looks crazy! Buuut it's not the only thing I killed this night either." He picked up the camera and pointed it at the Mooger. "I'm calling it a Mooger right now. I don't know what it's really called but it looks part moose and part tiger, hence the name. Django here hit it when I was transported here and it died, so I guess he's technically the one that killed it. Isn't he a good Jeep? Anyways, I get these popups like in a game but I can't read the language here. Which means I don't have any sort of translation ability." He said sadly. Everyone knows you're supposed to get a translation skill when coming to a new world. It was a little unfair. He brought the camera to the front and pointed it at Django. "Not even dented! Django is a beast. Proud of you Django!" He went quiet and thought for a bit. "I think I'm gonna go for now. I guess I need to start preparing. It's getting late and I need to start the fire and make some food. I hope you guys are well. If this ever gets to you I want you to know I love you all." I pulled out my ring and kissed it. "I hope I can get back to you babe, if I take too long... you don't have to wait. I hope you can find a way to be happy..." He turned the camera offset it down to start working on the fire. After a few minutes, he had a decent sized fire going. A couple of napkins from the Taco Bell bag easily catching fire with one of the cheap Bics. Once it was stable, he took a quick trip back to the battle site for the rest of the firewood as well as the rabbit carcass and made his way back. When he got back he took out the hunting knife from his bugout bag and proceeded to butcher the Mooger and Terrorbun. Quinten started with the Terrorbun. He cut open the belly to remove the innards. When he got to where the heart was, his hand seemed to brush against something odd. There seemed to be something hard and sharp nestled in the gore right behind the ribs. With some finagling, he managed to extract the object. To his surprise, what came out was a small, purple crystal roughly the size of the end of his thumb with glittering specks of light floating in the center. It was a curious sight for him, usually, animals don't have stones in them. At least, he didn't think they did. He took the time to check the Terrorbun and sure enough, there was one here too. The one from the Terrorbun was almost half the size with fainter lights but oddly a brownish-green instead of purple. "Wonder what the colors mean? Maybe grade? Or element? Bah! I really need to find someone to teach me the ways of this world" he cleaned off the blood with a bit of water and grass then stashed them in the cupholder of change and continued about his work. He did his best to skin them but failed miserably, and cut off a freshly mangled portion of the back leg of the Mooger to put over the fire. He took an extra-long, thick branch and speared the Terrorbun whole and set it to cook as well. With the rest of the Mooger, he cut off strips to hopefully make some jerky and spread them out on some flat rocks he'd found. He really didn't know what to do with the rest, there was just too much left so he chose to leave it for whatever else wanted it. Another suite of notifications swept across his vision and some new information was injected into his brain. He looked over his work and a bunch of errors seemed to pop into his mind. "Really botched that all up..." He couldn't help but release a self-deprecating chuckle. "Nothing I can do to fix this mess. Must have been some sort of [Skinning] or resource gathering skill." The Wonder of this world hit him again. He backed up the Jeep and put it further away from the butchered corpse and viscera while pointing the floodlights towards the fire. Once everything was set up he sat by the fire to wait for everything to cook. After a few minutes of staring at the fire, going over the events, he came up with a bit of a plan. There was still plenty of gas in the Jeep, not to mention the gas canisters are full so he could probably make it a good distance, hopefully to a town or something. But he had no idea which way to go. It was too dark so he hadn't seen any distinguishing landmarks, aside from the trees, so he didn't have a particular direction to go, though he'd need to find some water sooner or later. The trees were on a fairly large hill so he decided to check there in the morning to see if he could anything in the distance. From the survival shows he used to watch, he knew to at least head downhill if he couldn't find any water or roads to follow. Water flows towards sea level usually so it would be easier to find a stream or something that way. He had a compass in the bugout bag so he at least wouldn't get turned around. "If this world even had a magnetic north and south... Might be something to check." This new world might not work the same way. The stars are completely different, the moon looks massive compared to Earth's. "Is. Is that a ring around the planet? This world is wild!" Quinten stared at the vast cosmos stretched out before him in awe. A band about the width of his thumb stretched from horizon to horizon in a lazy arc. Every now and again a little glint sparkled out of the corner of his eye, drawing his attention this way and that around the icy band. At the furthest point of the arc, he could see the belt was actually split into two bands and the moon was situated between the two. He'd never seen anything like it before. Not even the artists back on Earth could create such an awe-inspiring vision. The expanse of stars beyond it was just as grand. A thick, almost cloudy belt crossed the planet's at an acute angle, resulting in a skinny X shaped cosmic wonder. Quinten assumed the outer belt resulted from the Galaxy. He was speechless for a time, just gazing at the cosmic masterpiece stretching before him. "You can't find a scene like this anywhere back on Earth Django. Even without the light pollution, the Earth just doesn't have such a grand back yard." He shook his head and just enjoyed the view. After a bit, his stomach growled. The smell of the cooking meat wafted across his nose and stimulated his appetite. One last admiring glance at the sky and he turned his attention to the food. He leaned forward to grab one of the meat kabobs and tore it open to check if it was cooked. "Still a bit pink in the center... Better let it go a bit longer, no telling what diseases this thing might have" he put it back over the fire and flipped all the other roasting skewers over to get both sides browned. After another few minutes, he checked again and it was cooked all the way through. After wiping his hands on the grass to get rid of the grease, he was just about to take a bite when a new set of prompts appeared and disappeared. He guessed he just got the [Cooking] skill. "Awesome! Maybe I can become some sort of OP Chef, bringing modern delights to the beautiful women of this world." He loved to cook, it was one of his passions. He was just sad he didn't have any spices or anything. It smelled delicious regardless so without further ado, he grabbed the Mooger leg and tore into the crispy meat. "Oh god..." He couldn't help but moan. It tasted exquisite. Imagine the juiciest, most tender cut of prime rib you've ever eaten. Seared to perfection, rich and hearty. This charred hunk of meat rivaled anything he'd eaten in the past. It had a spicy hint of game that added a delicate punch to the face and completed the experience. Before he realized what was happening, he was happily chewing on the bone trying to extract the juicy marrow at the center. Within seconds, it was picked clean and he let out a satisfied sigh. Still hungry, he eyes the roasting Terrorbun with ravenous eyes. He quickly grabbed it, not fearing the hot grease, and before even checking if it was done cooking, he tore into it like a starving ocelot. From the first bite to the last, he was lost to the world. Nothing existed for him but the sweet, oddly porky taste of the Terrorbun. The sweet grease was like a mild honey glaze coating every bite inside and out. Each bite was Nirvana and sent his taste buds to heaven again and again. All too soon, the experience was over and he was back to his normal. Both the leg and carcass were picked clean and his protruding stomach was the only sign there was ever meat on the bones to begin with. He shuddered at the enrapturing memory of the meal. "Well those Terrorbun's better hide before they go extinct." A sharp look around and a not quite concealed predatory smile crept to his face. He belched and leaned back, undoing his belt a notch to let his food baby breath. After a few minutes of blissful rest, he returned to his normal, albeit far more fulfilled self. A split-second decision found him rummaging through his stuff for one of the cans of soda. A loud pop and hiss echoed across the plains and within moments, half of the carbonated, sugary soda was gone. Another loud belch and content sigh later, Quinten set about cleaning up. Between sips of the like warm pop, he packed away his belongings and scooped dirt onto the fire to put it out. He stashed the dried jerky strips away in the other jerky bag and ended up with an extra 5 lbs to make 6 lbs in total. With everything cleaned up the best he could, he climbed into Django, locked the doors, covered up with the blanket and fell asleep staring at the picturesque expanse of the night sky. --------- "And so ends our hero's first night in his new world." The goddess smiled softly as she looked upon the man's handsome face. A surprise snore caused her to snort. "I wonder what surprises you have in store for the future of this world..." She said softly into the ether.