2 Into the Unknown

...he woke up, gasping for breath as sweat dripped down his face.

The first thing he noticed was that the blood had dried and formed a crust around the wound. The second, that he wasn't in California anymore. Or America, for that matter. The ground he was laying on had faint, illuminated lines running through it, merging into a circle with stones placed intermittently in the circle. Kyung-Ju turned around, so that his stomach was now on the ground, before placing both arms on the ground to push himself up.

*My head is killing me,* He thought, before finally managing to stand shakily. He quickly looked around, inspecting his surroundings. He was standing on some sort of glowing circle, with stones and intricate lines lying throughout it, though he was still in a forest. Just trees for as far as he could see. He sighed, doing another quick survey of his surroundings. It was...a bit strange.

The enormous trees were shaped like mushrooms, towering so far out that the leaves were barely visible from his view on the forest floor. Smaller trees filled the ground, the bulging foliage so burdened with sap that it's branches sagged towards the ground in an arc. The larger trees were grey, intermittent with the smaller vegetation and plants, pale blue and full.

Suddenly, a sense of alarming danger filled his head, and he instinctively ran out of the circle before silently moving the branches away from his face and slowed down his pace into the undergrowth to avoid making noise.

From his peripheral, he saw a hulking figure, with a head so large the being was hunched over. It had black skin, with red scales overlaying its entire body. A thin tail whipped back and forth, as it stood on two legs with its three horns protruding from its head. It made a grunting noise, looking at the bright blue glow in the middle of the circle.

"h̙ͮs̎̆̇ ͓̂̅͊ͅa͉͔̬̐ͬ̆s̤̮̠ͣ͐ͦ̏d̮̹ͤ͐̓̊̑ḧ͖͈͓͌̀̍ ̻͎͔ͩ̒̐ͅs̳̩͑̃ͤ͂h͉̩̟̽ͪn̝̑ͥ͌c̮̅e̋" the monster said, split tongue coming out, and then looked in Kyung-Ju's direction before glancing back.

A little black furred creature on two legs and a thick mane walked behind the larger monster, jittering with a "h͐̽u͎̩͇k͚͋̒l̙ͭ̚p͕ͣs͑." In its hand it held a little golden stone which glowed ominously.

Kyung-Ju's eyes widened, panic finally settling in. His heartbeat sped up, mind whirling with unbidden thoughts.

*What the hell was that? What are they saying? Where am I?*

He controlled his breathing though, because he knew if he was found, he couldn't possibly fight off both of them (especially that larger one). The hulking monster suddenly stopped in front of the glowing center of the circle, before kneeling down and grabbing a bottle filled with a blinding white light. The bottle itself was very fancy, filled with intricate details of a strange language; Kyung-Ju knew it was important from the way the monster was holding it, as if it were very fragile.

*I have to leave,* Kyung-Ju thought. He felt as if there was an enormous amount of pressure coming down upon his head, making his breathing faster than normal and causing sweat to bead upon his head.

He turned slowly, making sure to make no noise, before slinking out. There was a point where he'd felt an intense chill, but when he looked back, all he saw were ripples in the air.

——

*I'm hungry,* Kyung-Ju thought, wiping the blood away from his forehead. He'd been walking for hours, creating distance steadily but marking his path with a stone that had a hole in it (he'd found out the liquid in the leaves was corrosive by popping it with a sharp stick whilst extending his arm out) so that he could find his way back to the rune circle.

He'd woken up there; it had to have something to do with his way into this strange world, he knew. Kyung-Ju took his backpack off his back, looking at the contents inside.

*Thank god I packed for my hike,* he thought, looking at the two water bottles, mini first-aid kid, three energy bars, a whistle, flashlight, and trail snacks. He took out an energy bar, taking a bite out of it before looking up.

*Something's burning,* he thought, sniffing the air. He walked around the mushroom tree blocking his way, before his mouth dropped in surprise.

He knew this smell. Smoke.

Grey rounded houses were gathered together in a messy framework of a village, although the streets that once must've been filled with laughing people were empty blazes, charred corpses littering the streets. The purple, blue, and white colors of the flames burned itself into his retinas as he witnessed the death of an entire village.

He started, one foot forward to run to investigate before setting that same foot back.

A bead of sweat rolled down Kyung-Ju's face as he thought: *I should wait....the ones who attacked this village must still be nearby, since the fire is still burning, right...*

He then turned around, finding thin sticks and putting them in the path he came in before settling behind a tree. Kyung-Ju took a stick and began drawing random images of the things he had seen in the new world.

*I'll call this the OtherWorld,* Kyung-Ju thought, continuing on a drawing on the monster. *I came in here somehow; I don't remember much after hitting my head, but there was a strange blue light. *

He frowned.

*I must've come in through that blue light in that circle. I woke up there, so that must be where I can go back to my world. I'll lay low for a bit, before going back to that site to hopefully get a chance to get back to my world, although there are those two things…. Monsters? Whatever guarding it...*

He looked at the sacs of liquid hanging on the trees, before poking it with a stick. The stick seemed to disappear into the fruit's flesh, but it didn't pop.

This time, he stabbed the sac with more force slashing the plant to reveal translucent liquid, sizzling as it hit the ground.

*...Would it be ok to save these sacs?* Kyung-Ju pondered. It seemed like this world has monsters, or at least some sort of dangerous sentient entity. If he got attacked, he wanted to be able to defend himself.

*But...this thing is like a double-edged sword...It would break under too much pressure and could cause more harm to me,* he decided, and resolved to only bring his slightly sharp stick.

After some time passed, he walked into the burnt village, the purple flames having gone down already. He swallowed nervously, before cautiously lifting his stick and checking the houses. Inside the very first one he checked had a severely blackened large table with various spilled little bottles all over the surface. There were a couple that were unopened; they were plain red and green colors, although one was glistening. Most of the houses were one-roomed, so he was able to check quickly.

In the end, after all checking, he had gathered two bottles with an unknown liquid within, 60 blue, 30 purple, and 2 red coin-shaped items which he assumed were their form of currency, and a small dagger with the words "h̰ͩe͕͛ͫ ̱̥̥̊̉i͔̙͑́̔j̗́͋͑̅ ̼̩͌ͫ̒i̥ͭ̆̈ͪn̠̩̯ͤe̠̹i̼" inscribed upon it. Most of the other houses were either burnt down completely, or the items within it were burnt beyond recognition.

Kyung-Ju walked around the edge of the village, looking cautiously around, before going into one of the smaller houses. The burnt door creaked, and he coughed when ash rose up when he came in. Kyung-Ju examined the room, seeing almost nothing due to the blackness of the walls and flooring.

He walked over a spot, his ears suddenly perking up in curiosity. There was a strange sound coming from beneath his feet, and he felt around the crusty carpet, peeling the burnt layer off of the stone floor.

*It sounds hollow here,* Kyung-Ju thought, knocking on the ground. He looked around, and seeing a small symbol consisting of a crescent with a line intersecting it vertically, touched it instinctively. The symbol fizzed a little, as if broken, before a hatch rose up from the ground.

Kyung-Ju grabbed the hatch and opened it to reveal a passageway leading down to some dark room. He shivered, thinking, oh god this is so creepy. I really hope nothing is down there.

He was too curious for his own good.

He started walking inside, grabbing the flashlight from his backpack and clicking it on. It only had a limited battery, since he lost the other one before he went into the portal—but he was absolutely not going in without light. No way.

*What the hell,* Kyung-Ju thought as he looked at the walls. There were scribbled depictions of a blurry figure cloaked in black, first seemingly meeting an orange and black blur, before triumphing over various colorful creatures. In the end, the black figure stood amongst crumbling ruins as purple miasma rose up from the ground.

*This looks like those caveman drawings,* Kyung-Ju thought to himself. The pictures were incredibly chaotic—every second he spent looking, they became more and more difficult to make out.

After he went back out, he passed a lot of corpses littering the paths, especially near the front. At first, he'd gagged and felt bile rise up in his throat, but he'd then tell himself to breath and look away. They were green reptilian creatures with two legs and arms, and feathers along their back and side. He gathered all the items, put them in his backpack before slinging it over his shoulder.

As he was beginning to leave, he saw that one of the "corpses" littering the streets suddenly moved a bit, groaning.

"p͎ͮl̻̏̑o͙ͮ̈ͤe͍̻ͦ̚ ̾̎͑ͤhͤ̐̍f̂̃p͐..." The creature groaned, limbs twitching weakly. Kyung-Ju quickly walked over to the villager, dropping down right next to it asking, "hey, are you alright? What happened?" The creature had a large gash in the middle of its chest, darkened blood clotting around it.

It didn't reply, as it didn't understand his language and squinted, as if it had difficulty seeing. Kyung-Ju noticed that it was larger than the other corpses, and its plumage was dark red and yellow instead of blue.

Kyung-Ju pulled out the red and green liquid bottles and gestured as if to inquire if he should pour it on the creature's wounds. He guessed that the bottles were filled with "potions", as if from an RPG--if he was in a fantasy world, then it was plausible.

The creature twitched again, indicating at the green liquid, before Kyung-Ju saw a fast movement and felt cold metal— or what seemed like it— slide into his side.

"Wha-" Kyung-Ju gasped, before he instinctively moved away and dropped the bottles. He felt his side, with the blade still inside him, feeling white-hot pain blaze up in the midst of his adrenaline.

"I was just helping you!" He yelled, before grabbing the dagger he had found inside the burnt houses on instinct.

"YE͕ͤLͪ̈͐Q̦͂ͥ̋͒P̳̲̠͔ͮ ̥͈̝͊̏S̖̥ͥ̌ͭJ̱͈̯̉͑A̞̥̓ͬH̗̆W͎," it screamed as he sunk the dagger into its chest, feeling something hard poke the dagger from the side. The veins on its neck and its slitted eyes bulged as it trembled violently. Kyung-Ju was breathing heavily as he stabbed it again, teeth gritted and shaking violently as he watched the life in the creature's eyes bleed out and die.

Kyung-Ju kept his dagger in the creature's chest for a bit of a time afterwards, making sure it was dead, before pulling it out. He looked at his trembling arms, heart filled with an inexplicable emotion. There was a light green glint from the corner of his eyes, and he looked down at the creature's chest to see a palm-sized stone stick out from its guts. He shakily grabbed the ostrich egg sized stone, feeling the slimy feeling of organs and blue blood mixing and sticking on his arm.

Then, he vomited on the ground next to it.

*I killed it— *

Warm liquid against feverish skin.

*—I killed.*

Kyung-Ju's entire form kneeled on the ground, trembling as he looked down at his hands covered in blood, spittle clinging to his lips. As he clutched the wound on his side with the dagger still in it, the translucent stone in his hand emitted a bright green glow. It looked as if a green flashlight was shining straight into his face—the golden stone in the maned animal didn't even shine as bright as this one.

*Calm down,* Kyung-Ju thought, forcing himself to stop thinking about the kill. I need to think about better priorities right now...such as this wound. He'd never gotten stabbed, so he didn't know the exact measures to treat it. He didn't take out the dagger yet, because he knew that once he pulled it out, he might die of blood loss--or, at least, he'd heard about this information on some video he'd watched a long time ago.

*I need to clean it and then put direct pressure on it...* Kyung-Ju thought. *Should I pull this thing out?* He looked down, before grabbing the red and green liquid bottles that had fallen. He gritted his teeth, pulling out the dagger and pouring the green liquid all over his wound.

He was taking a gamble. The green liquid was most likely the one used for healing, as the creature indicated to it before it died, but it could've also been a lie to distract him. It was either this, or die though; there was no way the mini first aid kit he had brought over from his world could stop bleeding from such a deep wound.

The throbbing in his wound faded away to a dull drum of pain as the wound amazingly began to stitch itself up to a small cut instead.

*Wow...it really is like a game,* Kyung-Ju thought, looking at the process. He wiped his hands on the clothes of the monster, before heading out with the stone in one hand and the creature's dagger in another—he shivered as that same chill came over him once more.

He turned to look back at the village once more, but, interestingly enough, it had already disappeared.