In a grand forest that has stood thousands of years, a small crack was created and a young man fell from it toward a stream. The stream carried him from one bank to another until he reached a meadow where his body was picked up by a few creatures.
These creatures weren't big in stature, all looking to be five feet tall with a thin build. Not only that, they had pale green skin with humanoid features. Leaves and roots sprung out of their heads, making them anything but human.
These creatures called themselves the druids, an ancient race that protected the forest and made sure it thrived despite the calamities. As they saw the young man, their eyes lit up as they hurried to carry him back to their village.
The road was long and the swinging made the young man open his eyes. A set of golden eyes, unfocused, sought to understand where he was and why his body felt so heavy.
'Where am I?' Arthur wondered as he turned his head to the side. He was being carried by vines that worked as a net, protruding from the hands of two creatures that he has never seen the like of before.
He tried to move his body, but it was unresponsive. He could only move his head with minimal leeway before the pain overtook his body. As if lead has filled every cranny in his body, Arthur couldn't move a muscle.
'Is this the backlash from using the chains?' Arthur wondered. He closed his eyes before they noticed he was awake. After all, he couldn't trust these creatures to be sensible.
This time, he tried to control the mana. As soon as his manablood entered his energy pathways, it started to destroy his body by leaking out before turning into mana.
It took all his willpower not to scream. The creatures then began to talk about something, but Arthur couldn't understand what they were saying. He opened his eyes just enough to look asleep as he peeked through the narrow slit of his eyelids.
There endless giant trees, looking as old as the world itself. They were on a trail between those trees, heading off to somewhere. The trip wasn't long, as signs of civilization began emerging. There were structures like houses and huts on the trees, high in the sky.
There were more voices now, all speaking a language he couldn't understand. As they discussed him, pointing at him from time to time, Arthur saw something that he didn't like in their eyes. Greed.
He decided it was time to teleport, even if he would be hurt, but he felt something unlike he had ever since his awakening. He couldn't use his runes.
'What's going on?' Panic began to overtake him. However, the creatures were unconcerned and they kept marching him off toward the center of the village.
They arrived at a large cage made of roots and vines. The vines opened up to let them in and Arthur was carried inside. Once he was in, they threw him toward the ground and left the cage. He was imprisoned.
'Well, no use in pretending to be asleep now.' Arthur opened his eyes to look around. He moved his head just enough to see the place he was in. It was a prison cell, made of roots and vines, and there was one other person inside of it.
He could see many cells other than his, each holding people inside. He turned his head toward the person he was imprisoned with.
It was a middle-aged man with white sideburns and a beard. He was wearing armor that reeked of blood and held many scratches and dents. Feeling his gaze, the man opened his eyes.
"Vanz Yura kel asa?" The man said but Arthur didn't know what that means, so he kept looking at him, hoping to convey that. "Veriz?" The man smiled at him and went back to sleep.
If Arthur had to guess, the man asked him what brought him here. He must have realized that Arthur didn't understand what he said. Again, the question demanded an answer.
'Where the hell am I?'
***
Arthur was kept in the prison cell for a few torturous days, to say the least. Every day, they made him drink a thick green liquid that worked to sustain him for the rest of the day. Somehow, no waste came out.
He hadn't regained full function yet, but he could move his torso a bit now. Other than the man saying things he couldn't understand, Arthur had to spend his days looking at the empty sky.
The events that unfolded to get him here kept repeating themselves in his mind. There were so many things that he could've done to prevent this that he wondered if he ever did anything right at all.
'It's useless to think about what could have been, as hard as it is to avoid those thoughts. I need to find a way back to Jerano, before the Enders, and Ellen, find the key.'
This was a realization he had, but his worries kept flowing in as his days stretched apart. What happened to his family? His friends? The city? Did they all arrive at this place or was he the only one?
He still couldn't use his runes, even after days of recovery. He opened his legacy and found that it worked just fine. When he tried to buy a new rune for communication, he received this message:
[The user's soul is too damaged to use the powers of creation. Recovery percentage: 13%.]
This made him despair. Luckily, he still had his skills and stats, even if he couldn't use the former at the moment and neither could he use the latter with how injured his body is.
'I'm lucky to be alive.' Arthur realized after he assessed how much his body was damaged. He remembered Jizo's warning, and he didn't know if he would do the same thing again if presented the chance.
It was a late night when the creatures returned with something other than the green fluid, but chains. Arthur frowned but he couldn't resist as they chained his hands and legs, before collaring him and fastening the chains to it too.
They did the same to the man, who tried resisting. However, the creatures controlled the roots and held him down. Arthur saw shame as the chains wrapped themselves around his neck.
'Are they selling us off?' Arthur realized. This was slavery, but how would these creatures, who were not humans, participate in this? Who would they be sold off to?
He got his answer the next day when a convoy arrived at the edge of the forest. Arthur couldn't see it before he was carried away toward the edge of the village. It was several wagons, with most of them carrying cages filled with humans.
There was another humanoid man with scales over his body and face. He talked to the creatures, handing them mana crystals before Arthur and the others were led to the cages.
The Slave Trader came over toward Arthur and inspected him, poking him in certain places as if to confirm nothing vital was damaged. He shouted at the creatures and they handed back a crystal as if Arthur was a broken commodity that they tried to sell-off.
As he was thrown into the cage, Arthur's mind began linking the dots. The memory fragments he had seen before had these demi-humans in it too, making him realize he was in Alka, the other world.
He had never heard that it contained such advanced civilization and several other races besides humans. Maybe the mythical creatures that humans fought against beyond the gates weren't simply monsters, but other races.
Once he saw things in such a manner, he couldn't help but realize that he was being treated in the same manner monsters on Earth, sold and tamed by humans.
However, that didn't make sense either. These creatures were humanoid, meaning they were at least half-humans. What had happened that made them so different from Earth's humans?
The wagon began to move, carrying Arthur through the giant ancient forest. Other than the middle-aged man, there were two other humans in the cage. They were a man and a woman, lethargic and cadaverous but otherwise well.
They looked to be in their late thirties and they looked at Arthur with pity due to his young age. As soon as he boarded the carriage, the middle-aged man began talking to them.
The three talked while stealing glances at Arthur, murmuring words he didn't know. The trip was long but they left the forest eventually, as soon as daybreak arrived.
They were fed hard cold bread and water, barely enough to sustain them. They were let out to take care of their other needs twice a day. Five days later, as Arthur was still recovering and trying to pick up some words from the rest, someone shouted.
All heads turned toward the source as they saw the man with scales pointing toward a large city. Arthur's eyes widened as he witnessed how far the civilization of this world had reached.