Matt woke up, he had just had a nightmare it was still ever so fresh in his mind, yet so blurry at the same time, he had been a great dragon soaring the skies and brining pestilence and death wherever he went, he was so forced on trying to remember his nightmare that once he snapped out of it he realized that he had missed the bus
“Shit…”
Matt snapped out of his state of dream remembrance and hurriedly got dressed before stuffing some slightly stale toast down his throat, entirely without butter, then he rushed out of his small apartment and almost forgot to shut the door after himself before he jumped down the stairs, soon he reached the street, busy as always, then he remembered to pace himself as he began jogging towards the bus stop
In the nothingness, something stirred
After Matt got seated on the bus, he breathed a sigh of relief and tried to calm his breathing as he glanced around to check if anyone was looking at him funny, midway he locked eyes with a dog that was neatly seated in the bag of its owner that stood up on the bus, Matt showed a smile, he had always liked animals more than people, though he restrained himself and asked the owner, a woman in her 20s
“Excuse me, do you mind if I pet your dog?”
The woman showed a smile and shook her head before she spoke, her voice was clear and sounded like a bell
“No, not at all, he’s very sweet”
The size of it was unclear, though nestled around a star it was clearly on a cosmic scale and yet, it was alive
Matt was in pure bliss as he got off the bus, though he snapped back once he saw the gates of the University, he hurried along clutching his backpack strap as he navigated through the crowds and eventually arrived at the lecture hall assigned on his schedule which he had checked on the bus, he was late, so he lowered his head as he walked in, feeling all eyes on him Matt hurriedly found a seat and sat down
As it breathed in the void, the plasma of the star funneled into its mouth, clearly done with its snack it closed its eyes again, waiting
Matt breathed a long sigh as the lesson ended, luckily he had not missed too much and the teacher had not singled him out when he was late, he looked over his notes before stuffing them into his backpack, though not stuffing them, these were the gold coin that would pay his passage to a well paying job, so he treated them like a treasure, then he walked out of the lecture hall, continuing to the next lecture
Slowly its eyes opened again, still wrapped around the star its flesh less wings covered most of the orange star, a deep dark green light flashed in its hallow eye sockets, now, finally, the time had come
Matt walked out from campus around evening, he had attended all his classes and done some self study in the library, now all he needed to do was get some food on the way home, cook it, eat it, review, play some games and then go to bed before the cycle repeated, Matt took a steep forwards, then a flash of dark green light flashed on his body before it disappeared from the pavement without a trace
Matt’s eyes snapped open, he was falling through the air, he was in free fall, below him was an expanse of green, Matt let out a scream of fear as he fell through the air, the green below him was rapidly expanding, by now it looked like trees below him, he covered his face in the last moment and closed his eyes, then he felt extreme pain, like his flesh were benign cut by numerous blades before, as all falling things do, he hit the ground and like a bug hitting a windshield, he was dead on impact, his blood, minced organs and shattered bone spread over the area of a football field, over the next few moments however, something strange happened, a dark green light formed the shape of Matt’s body in the middle of the small impact zone, then his blood, minced organs and shattered bone was pulled together by some invisible force as it was forcefully mended together, midway through a bone-chilling scream sounded out as Matt’s consciousness had reformed, everything he knew at that moment was pain, his mind couldn’t take it, and such the neurons inside his brain was fired, though just as quickly they were rebuilt, he existed in agony for what felt like an eternity, when it finally ended night had declined on the forest Matt now found himself in, he laid sprawled on the ground for a bit before his mind seemed to be forcefully awoken as he rose his body
“How am I still alive… Where is this..? I was on my way home from university… And then… Then what happened?”
Matt was confused, though at the same time his mind was clear… He knew that this was real, after all, that pain wasn’t something his mind could invent on its own, though as luck, or rather bad luck would have… He wasn’t alone in this forest, Matt heard a growl and turned his head, then a blur entered his eyes before terrible pain once again assaulted his body, though this time it was concentrated in his chest, neck and left arm, then he was shock around like a proverbial chew toy, his body being ripped to shreds in the process as he screamed formed the pain before it snapped and he was sent flying over to the side where he slammed against a tree and by ‘it’ it was naturally the half of his chest, left arm and most of the left side of his neck that had been separated by the jaws of the giant jet black wolf in front of him when it had shaken him like a dog would a chew toy, Matt felt the pain assaulting every inch of his brain as he attempted to scream once again, the last thing he saw before he lost consciousness was the giant wolf tuning into a blur as it rushed at him again and then its maw opening to bite his head…
In the void, still nestled around a star, the skeletal dragon that had sent Matt to Alpha world opened again its eyes reflected the gruesome scene of Matt having been torn to pieces by the monster that left without eating any of the ‘whatusedtobeMatt’ its purpose was clear, killing anything that wasn’t a monster like itself, the skeletal dragon’s flesh less jaw opened slightly in a smile, a slightly nostalgic one at that
Matt woke again, he was made to be awake as the pain that shot through his bran made him wide awake, he screamed once again as his body once again was forcefully reconstructed, by the time it was over it was a little before dawn, the sky had begun to turn blue as light shone from beyond the horizon, Matt laid on his back once again, his face laid listlessly to the side, the damage to his mind was clear in his hollow eyes as he shed tears quietly, tears of blood…
Time passed as Matt laid there on the ground, eventually his pinky finger on his right hand twitched slightly, the twitching turned into a shaking that soon spread to the rest of his right hand as one word kept repeating in his mind
‘---Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why—’
Then suddenly, a dark green light shone in the bottom of his eyes as the shaking of his right hand stopped, then he clenched his right hand into a fist as a will seemed to return to his hollow eyes, then after a bit he sat himself up and muttered
“Fuck the ‘why’... I am here… And I don’t want to be turned into a chew toy again… heh, death is obviously not an option either…”
Matt gritted his teeth before he stood up and looked around before he realized that he was thirsty and looked around, then he began walking in a random direction, as he walked the sun gradually rose, as it turned Matt wasn’t completely out of luck and soon came across a large river, the water was muddy, still he kneeled down and formed a cup with his hands and scoped water up to drink, then when he was done he stood up again and muttered
“Since I can’t die, then all I can do is live…”
Matt stood and watched the river flow for a bit before he walked back into the forest, as he walked he looked up trying to spot some fruits hanging in the trees above, as well as that he was alert for the surrounding sounds, he could hear birds singing and animals letting out calls in the distance, the forest wasn’t quiet at all, then soon he spotted some fruit, however he had to climb a bit up a tree for them, Matt felt his rumbling stomach and eventually decided to climb the tree. The fruits tasted quite sweet, Matt ate a quite a few before he walked back to the river and decided to follow it down stream, a few days passed like this, other than being mauled by a large primate with 4 arms which smashed his body into mush, Matt was doing great, he lived off river water that had jet to give him any problems and eating fruits from the forest ‘Good thing there are fruits around… Or I would probably have starved to death…’ The night of the 4th day soon approached, Matt found a tree and
Matt’s breathing gradually stabilized as he calmed himself down, then he grabbed the torn off limb from the bear and tore off a claw from it before he walked over to the carcass of the bear and grabbed its remaining front limb before he pulled it to the left rolling the bear over on its back, then he grabbed the tron off claw and used it to cut open the bear’s chest, as he tore into the skin of the bear the smell of blood and raw meat became overwhelming, still Matt continued cutting until he found it, a small monster core in situated just before he reached its heart, he grabbed it and pulled it out, then he tossed the claw aside and walked over to the river and washed the blood off his body, when he touched his chest he was surprised and muttered“...Well, would you look at that”The 4 long cuts on his chest had already closed and had stopped bleeding, Matt speculated that it would take no longer than a few days before they were completely healed, then he looked at the core in his ha
Matt waited for the next arrow for a few moments before a thought popped into his head‘Maybe this little one wasn’t meant for me..?’’Matt walked over and pulled the arrow out of the boulder before he inspected it, it was made entirely from metal but besides that there were no markings on it or anything else to identify it, Matt shrugged before he looked into the forest, then he sighed and decided to give it a go“I wonder how they will react once a naked person comes running out from the forest with their arrow..?”Matt was of course wearing clothes when he arrived in this world, though it didn’t last long and was soon torn to shreds, so he was, as he said: Butt nakedMatt kicked off the ground and leaped onto a branch before he kicked off it and jumped to the next one, he moved in the direction where the arrow had come from for about a minute before he heard the sounds of metal meeting metal, the sound of battle, and soon the people fighting came into view, it was a particularly na
“Well first off, this little one got to go…”Matt looked down at the arrow that was still firmly planted in his stomach and sticking out on the other side on his back, grabbed the arrow head on his back and pulled the arrow out rather easy, the fact that it is a slim arrowhead specialized in penetration powers helpful when one needed to remove the arrows‘Not that any normal person would ever need to remove the arrow willy-nilly like me…’Matt looked at the arrow in his hand for a bit, then he shrugged and threw it aside before he walked over to the corpse of the swordsman, then he removed the metal paw that had flattened his chest before he tore through the skin and found exactly was he expected, the organs of the swordsman had turned to mush, but besides that there was a clear core in the middle of his chest“Guess if this is a monster core…”Matt gazed at the monster core in his right hand before he looked at the smaller core he had just tron out from a corpse“Then this is a peopl
Matt’s smile widened slightly before he nodded, then he spoke“Great, looking forward to working with you, Felicia…”Felicia nodded before she swung her long spear over her shoulders and walked over to Matt, when she reached him she clapped him on the shoulder and asked“Could you take me and a small group to where you killed the metal panther?”Matt nodded before he added“As long as I approve of the members of this small group, some of your people don’t look to take kindly to my presence”Felicia nodded before she showed a thin smile and turned her head to the side and called out“Jo, Bella, Ike! Get your tools, we have ourselves a free dinner to partake in!”3 people quickly grabbed their weapons from the camp before they jogged over to Matt and Felicia, Matt glanced at them, 2 were women and one was a man, they all seemed older than the other bunch. Matt didn’t detect any killing intent from them so he turned around and walked into the forest, when they were a little away from the
Matt returned the knife to Felicia and kept the cores in his pocket before he asked“Are we done here?”Felicia called out to Ike“Ike, how much longer?”“I’m done, let’s get out of here before some nastier things show up”Matt looked over and saw that Ike had bundled up the armor pieces with some robe, he handed the bundles to the others before he also handed a bundle to Matt, only Matt’s bundle was significantly bigger than the rest, Matt was confused for a moment before he figured it out and thanked Ike“Thanks Ike”Ike showed a toothy grin and nodded before he spoke“It is as it should be, now let’s get back to camp”Matt began leading the way back to the camp, they arrived without issue, Matt stopped at the edge of the clearing and sat down on the ground, Jo asked him with a teasing smile on her face“What? You won’t come join our happy group, Matt?”Matt sighed before he asked“And get shanked in the back? No, thanks, not in the mood to get stabbed today”“Not today, eh?”“Yeah…
Matt watched the show with an interested look on his face, the fact that the nun from the Right’s temple had stabbed a fellow member of their own temple seemed to carry a whole lot more weight that the actual stab, it seemed to be an expulsion from the temple, and a rather nasty one at that, if the recruits face was anything to go by, that is… But the nun was clearly not done yet and spoke“As for the rest of you—”Felicia hurriedly spoke up“I think an example has been made, as for the others, what do you say we leave their punishment till we return safely?”Felicia spoke to both the nun and Matt, Matt waited a bit, clearly thinking it over before he appeared to reluctantly agree“Alright, fine…”Felicia appeared clearly relieved and let out a sigh before she looked sternly at the other recruits that had attempted to seal Matt’s kills before she spoke“Alright, back to camp! We need to pack up and be out of here by midday!”Matt quickly called out to Felicia“Felicia, mind if I borro
Matt looked at the guards that readied their weapons and sighed before he spoke“Obviously I didn’t kill him, come you guys, never heard of the saying ‘don’t kill the messenger’?”The female guard captain narrowed her eyes as if trying to see through Matt, a few seconds later her eyes flashed with a blue light before she spoke“How are you only level 1 while you give off such a power rating!? Men, it’s a humanoid monster!”“I am not! For fuck's sake! Bring someone from the Right’s temple here, they can see through lies, right?”The female guard’s captain gritted her teeth before she sent one of her subordinates off“Go get a priest!”“Yes, Ma’am!”Meanwhile, the rest of the guards encircled Matt while the tension rose, that is for anyone other than Matt, he stood there totally relaxed and waited for the priest to arrive, he even let out a yawn which almost drove the guards to attack him if not for the guard captain’s timely reminder“He’s clearly only level 1, but the rating he gives