Chapter 1: The Beginning

"Well damn, now what?" Asked the man to himself. His name was Jared, he was a 25-year-old man who worked in the sales department of a relatively small computer hardware company. Such a question as "What now?" seemed to be asked often whenever he played games. It was always so fun to play, but once he got to the end there wasn't much to do. Unless you add mods to the mix. He played a combination of Fargo's Souls, Calamity, and some quality of life mods. His little character named Ku-Gath(yes, he had a shitty naming sense) went on to slay gods. Now that the journey was over in these two great mods there wasn't much else that could compare.

"Well, it was fun while it lasted. Maybe Thorium? I don't know." He pondered. He turned on his phone to look up some good mods before widening his eyes at the realization. "Oh shit, it's late!" He exclaimed. 3 AM in the morning, and hadn't even showered. Jared had work tomorrow, and he had to get up quite early. If he showed up to work half asleep again he was sure he'd be fired! Quickly, Jared ran off to shower. He elected to skip putting on pajamas before quickly hopping into bed, all the while his memorabilia and action figures on the nearby shelves swayed at the ruckus. He fell asleep rather quickly but was too unconscious at the moment to show his astonishment.

Jared normally had difficulty falling asleep, even if it was quite late. As he fell asleep, Jared's body suddenly disappeared in a flash of indiscernible color. No one ever found him, his family strangely hardly seemed to care, and his disappearance was mysteriously never investigated. How odd.

-POV change: Jared-

I feel foggy and hazy. I can't feel my limbs, as if they fell asleep, but I can feel the warmth of the sun on my face. I don't hear my alarm though…

'Oh shit, did I forget to set my alarm?!'

I move my body to the best of my numbed capabilities, and before I even know what happened I'm standing upright. My limbs no longer feel like they're asleep, if anything I haven't felt this great in years despite my relative youth. I look at myself to realize I'm wearing clothes. It may have been late last night, but I remember not putting on any clothes. They looked not only quite charming, but edgy, and oddly familiar. Despite their fancy looks, they were quite heavy I could tell. Yet for some reason I had no trouble walking around in them.

I was interrupted by yet another revelation, one I had somehow not seen.

I wasn't in my house.

I was surrounded my nature from all sides, I could hear the rustling of leaves as the wind rolled by. I could see birds and squirrels stop their daily activities to look and stare at me. I could see every minute detail of each of them. The strands of fur on the squirrel, how their muscles stood rigid under their skin. I could see how the feathers of the birds were slick by their pruning and the pores from which they stem. Not only did I feel incredible, my perception was also incredible. While these sights are nice, I need to find out where I am. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll be able to find a settlement and call for help.

I move forward, past the frozen animals who all followed me with their gaze, which in itself is a strange sight. Normally if animals are afraid they would just run, not stare. Perhaps I should be careful in case something is nearby. As I walk I notice with my new perception that the grass almost seems as if it tries to make a path for where I walk. It must be a trick of my new strange perception though.

Finally, after a few minutes of walking and repeats of the previous scene, I make it to what seems like a cliff. Peering over I find myself in front of a great view. This cliff overlooks a vast pond that seems to stretch on for a while. The forest seems to go on endlessly, while in the distance there are stretches of mountain ranges with the sun almost beginning to set on them. Unfortunately though, no human settlement. I don't know anything about survival though, so I'll either have to keep looking or learn the hard way. Going to the mountains is suicide and I don't see any other clean source of water, but if I follow the pond I'll probably reach a river, and rivers usually mean society.

I look for a safe way down, seeing a path to my left that seems to wind down safely to the pond. All this time no animal has ever made a sound, which I don't know much about the wild but I know that's usually not a good sign. Walking down is followed by the sounds of my footsteps and distant thumps. Looking around I see nothing, but I just keep walking as I'm not particularly keen on seeing what's making the noise. It just keeps getting louder, and there is more than one now. Whatever this is I hope is not a pack hunter. I start jogging, but now that I am I notice I can go incredible speeds. I was just casually jogging but it's as if I was going full tilt in my youth.

Using my new keen sense of hearing I now notice the sound is also coming from in front of me. It's coming from everywhere now, seems I'm surrounded. Damnit, if I was quicker to get out of here I wouldn't have been caught! Too late now, there's only one other way. Fight!

I grab a relatively long and sturdy-looking stick from the nearby ground in preparation. Fists aren't bad, but I would prefer to have some kind of weapon when I don't know what I'm fighting. The thumps get louder and louder as the minutes go by, either they're taunting me, my sense of hearing is a lot better than I though, or I've doomed myself by standing and waiting and they're just really loud. The grass line that seems to hide them shakes and what comes out are… slimes? A palette of colors ranging from red, blue, green, and purple.

In my stupor, I almost forget I'm probably in a life-or-death situation. I hold my stick and prepare for a fight, then a green one begins to hop up to me. I tense, ready for a fight. It's so small though, what harm could it possibly do? What am I thinking?! Slimes don't actually exist so I don't know what kind of threat they pose! I seem to think this in a millisecond, as by the time I realize I probably shouldn't let them get close they haven't even hopped a meter from their original position.

I aim my stick-spear at them, as to threaten them. I don't know if I can fight these things, so better to prevent the situation than fix it. It ignores my implied threat though and just hops past it next to my feet. Unsure of what to do I leap back before it reaches it's Ark in the air, to see it land next to where my feet were. I aim my spear at them again and take a stab, but they hop out of the way before the strike lands. Now I'm in an awkward position, I'm overreaching my strike and they're aiming straight for my chest. I tilt my body a bit so they instead land on my arm. The tilt catches me off balance and I'm sent to the ground with the slime still on my arm.

I sit and stare at the thing on my arm, as it seems to do nothing. It's slimy, as expected, and surprisingly warm. Did I overreact? It seems to just lay there. It's friends eventually hop over, and try to join them. I get up with the thing still on my arm and try to look for a way out. They begin to close in, fully encircling me and closing off all chance of exit. I removed the green slime guy from my arm, which was surprisingly easy to do. I brace myself to try and trudge through the slime wave and to book it down the path I was originally treading. Why didn't I try this before? They all eventually stop and begin to vibrate in place. Their gelatin bodies juggling and rippling on the surface. Then they all start hopping around me like a bonfire.

What is going on? I walk past them before they begin following me, like a bunch of puppies. I start jogging down the path again, trying to get away and I succeed. What is wrong with this place? Slimes don't exist outside of media, so where exactly am I? I must be really really far from home. I eventually make it down to the pond. I don't drink any of it, but I do try to look at my reflection.

Is that demonshade armor?