FujiwaraPhoenix

Another Life in a Fantasy World (Invite Only)

Nicolas Li

??? — Forest Shrine

"...Shapeshifting?"

With nothing else to pay attention to with the witch guiding them, her apparent surprise caused him to respond in kind and turn to see what it was that had caught her off guard. The sudden replacement of Jor with a snake didn't take a genius to figure out, but the rest of the dialogue that he had caught now that he was properly paying attention caused him to squint and stare briefly at the pair.

"...Guess that sorta answers the 'cheat' question," he muttered to himself as he scratched the back of his head. Unlike the other two, he most certainly felt human enough, which left the giant question as to what the heck he got—if anything at all—dangling over his head as they approached their savior's cottage. In his eyes, it was certainly quaint, for lack of a better term. For someone so used to city life, seeing something like this in person was a bit surreal.

That was ignoring the fact that the odd shimmering, which he had originally written off as a trick of the light, soon grew defined enough to recognize at fairies. With all of the madness that they had seen already, though, fae were far from the most surprising thing he had seen today.

Of course, his upbringing required that he at least give them a bow of acknowledgement, even if he knew well enough to not play fast and loose with them in the first place—in both a literal and figurative sense. When they were shooed away by their guide, however, Nick's attention soon turned towards the gardens, and with that the more culinarily-inclined part of him quickly grew interested. The more he saw, the more certain he became that the plants being grown here weren't strictly for aesthetic purposes—though that was probably not all that surprising—and the presence of familiar-looking ingredients was quickly noted within his mind. If they were the same as (or close enough to) what grew back on Earth, then he wouldn't have to spend a ton of time relearning what was or wasn't safe to eat here beyond what might have been provided in a market.

With the old turtle straight out of a Lewis Carroll story, Nick simply decided to accept everything for what it was and resign himself to the incredulity of the situation. When it spoke it's greetings, the young man simply returned with a bow before quickly following after Ilsa. Once they were properly inside, though, and the witch spoke her piece, the young man nodded in return.

"Of course. With everything else you've already done for us, it'd be rude to impose," he responded before finally returning his attention towards their surroundings. Even if it was undeniably a fantasy world, though, there were still a ton of questions hanging in the air—questions that he wanted answered despite the possibility that he might not be able to do anything about them even if they were answered.

"But, uh... Sorry, do you mind if I ask a few questions?" he asked in turn; when provided with the go-ahead, the young man would promptly continue. "That... Thing back there; what exactly was that? And those... I'm assuming they're fairies, right? Is there a reason that they're hanging around here? I heard you mention fey realms, so I'm assuming that those are... A thing, but..."

@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze@Pyromania99

Another Life in a Fantasy World (Invite Only)

??? — Abandoned Inn

Though one might have expected the zombie to have been dispatched with a weighty swing to the head, Javal's attack had only managed to knock the zombie to the bottom of the stairs. The somewhat weighty thunking noises as it tumbled to the bottom might have drawn a wince or two had it been an actual human, but the undead monster seemed to have scarcely been affected at all.

All in all, the attack had simply stalled it's advance for a few moments. It took but a few seconds for the zombie to simply turn back towards Javal and continue advancing forward once more.

@VitaVitaAR@Crimson Paladin@Rune_Alchemist

Another Life in a Fantasy World (Invite Only)

Nicolas Li

??? — Forest

Though he considered responding to the insinuation that they were drunk, Nik chose to hold his tongue for the moment and instead listened to the girl's comments on the situation. The fact that it was a shrine might have meant that there was some possibility it had to do with why they had awoken there, but if that thing was lurking around it there was no world in which they could explore it to maybe find some clues.

Not that it was really important at the moment, but if they had been given a second chance it might have been good form to thank the one that gave it, if only in passing.

It was a bit insulting to be considered a weirdo, though.

Regardless, with the offer of lodging on the table until they could be shown somewhere a little less suicidally dangerous (and with no other options in hand anyways), Nick gave a small bow towards the witch before responding in kind.

"Nicolas Li. I, uh... Hm. I guess 'student' probably isn't enough, but anything beyond that might not make sense anyways," he said.

The fact that their walk to the witch's house was this brief was surprising, considering how long they had run in their attempt to escape that monster from before. Either way, though, with safe lodging for the night handled, the young man could breathe easy for the moment.

Naturally, he wanted to pick the girl's brain for as much information as he could on the world they had fumbled into, but that could probably come after they were a bit less on-edge from their last encounter.

@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze@Pyromania99

Another Life in a Fantasy World (Invite Only)

??? — Abandoned Inn

The tension in the air as Javal reached for the cellar door was palpable. With only Sephily's word to go off of, the possibility that the group wasn't alone in this abandoned inn was a concern...

But given the state the building was in, what could possibly have been moving around even now?

Slowly, the hinges on the door creaked as the door was pried back. The smell of aged wood and salt could barely be made out as the stale air within slipped out...

And with it, something moving towards the now-opened door. The steps that the petite elf had heard before were now audible, however faintly, as their source steadily plodded towards the steps that led down below.

The light that eventually shone upon the half-rotted, dried out face of the undead as it turned to stare at them would promptly reveal the true nature of what was moving down below. With the living now apparent in front of it, the zombie slowly began to shamble up the stairs—not stalled in the least by their structure in spite of it's appearance—and moved straight towards the first person that it could.

In this case, that meant the man who had opened the door to begin with.

@VitaVitaAR@Crimson Paladin@Rune_Alchemist

Another Life in a Fantasy World (Invite Only)

Nicolas Li

??? — Forest Shrine

With his heart beating out of his chest, Nick could barely even pause to think as whatever otherworldly monster continued gaining on them. The forest was quickly blurring together in his mind, and with every tree and bush looking near-identical it was difficult to even try and thinking about anything but escape. This might have been a new world, but that didn't necessarily mean that he had suddenly come across the power to outrun something this fast.

Even if he did, this was far from the best time to test anything crazy like that.

It was only the sound of something crunching behind him that caused Nick to falter for but a second in order to glimpse at what had happened. Unfortunately, that also happened to coincide with a stray root catching him off guard and causing him to trip over himself and tumble to the ground. Where he had expected a gruesome and painful death, though, he instead found himself watching a small girl in a witch's outfit staring down the monster that had been intent on killing them.

"...Ah, yep, that's certainly magic," the young man uttered to himself as he watched the scene unfold in front of him. If anything, this whole ordeal felt more cinematic than anything else, and so he could only stare at the scene in shock.

Honestly, even if negotiations broke down, the situation was still probably screwed up enough to lead to his demise. But when things didn't break down and the monster retreated, Nick let out a deep sigh and let all the tension in his body slip away.

Unfortunately, that moment of reprieve soon gave way to an interrogation—one that Nick wasn't all too keen on taking lying down.

"While I really can't thank you enough for saving us, I don't think it's fair to accuse us of intruding somewhere when you wake up there to begin with," Nick responded, wincing as he pushed himself off the ground and attempted to brush himself off. "If your... Uh... I'm going to assume they're a familiar? Right, if they saw us, wouldn't they have thought it was weird for us to be as disoriented as we were? I don't know when they caught sight of us, but we were pretty out of it until we heard that thing coming."

Honestly, given how mismatched the three of them were when seen as a group, their excuse for being here should've at least made some sense to their savior.

@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze@Pyromania99

Another Life in a Fantasy World (Invite Only)

Nicolas Li

??? — Forest Shrine

"Ah... Don't worry about it too much," Nick responded, waving off the slightly awkward atmosphere as his joke missed the mark. By this point, Jor had taken the initiative and picked up the smaller foxgirl with surprisingly little issue. Keeping pace with him in spite of the extra weight was a bit surprising, but it didn't take long for the young man to shrug the matter off and accept what it was at face value. If the alternative was letting her fumble in her run away from whatever was so brazenly approaching, throwing away the logic of his old world was far more reasonable.

Any sort of absent-minded thoughts he could have in the interim, however, were promptly thrown out the window as his surroundings grew darker despite the rather obvious midday sun that had been shining overhead mere moments before. The encroaching darkness only served to push him to run faster, and in between dodging any trees or detritus on the ground Nick had little time to do anything but make sure that the others weren't lost to whatever it was chasing them.

Unfortunately, whatever it was that was chasing them did not work in the same realm as any creature on Earth; even the briefest glance towards his newfound companions would incidentally reveal to him the slightest bit of the eldritch creature closing in on them.

The centipedes, obviously enough, made the matter far worse.

"What the fuck sort of world did we get chucked into?!" Nick swore as he redoubled his pace. If a monster like this so intent on chasing them down, then there wasn't any feasible way of losing it that crossed his mind beyond simply running faster. So long as they didn't run into some sort of cliff face or impassable chasm, there was still a chance that they wouldn't die a horrible second death...

And even then, maybe that would be a better end than being consumed by thousands of centipedes tearing off his flesh piece by piece.

@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze@Pyromania99

??? — Abandoned Inn

The moment that Lena touched the armor upon the dead knight's personage, her mind would be provided with information as to the composition of what had been used to make it—or, more accurately, what was left of it. What had once been polished steel was now pockmarked with rust, leaving it brittle and far less useful than it had been.

Not like it really helped the deceased beforehand, unfortunately enough.

The same would occur as the doll reached out to touch the dagger, composed of simple steel and a leather grip that had most certainly seem better days. This, at least, was usable; somehow, the blood and open air had not corroded the weapon into scrap metal.

Searching the corpse's equipment proper was a bit less simple; though the body had been mummified to an extent, sifting through it's pockets meant coming into proper contact with the deceased's dried-out husk, if only indirectly. Unfortunately, it seemed that they had not been carrying anything that might have otherwise been useful in the current moment to the group. The most that Lena would find would be a small silver locket, it's luster dull but not tarnished despite the time that had had to have passed to have left the corpse in this state to begin with.

Sephily's move towards the wooden cellar door, however, would cause her to hear the faintest sound of something moving below. Her now-sharpened sense of hearing would be able to make out what the others couldn't, but the nature as to what was waiting below would be left indistinguishable to her—doubly so given how foreign that new sensitivity towards sound was.

@VitaVitaAR@Crimson Paladin@Rune_Alchemist

Another Life in a Fantasy World (Invite Only)

Nicolas Li

??? — Forest Shrine

With no real objections to be had to Jor's suggestion (as if he had anything better to suggest), Nick gave a noncommittal shrug and nodded his head. There was little to be gained from staying put, especially with no resources in sight. Moving in a direction and committing at least gave them a chance of finding something, and doing so as a group lessened any chance of getting lost from one another and something bad happening in turn.

"Then let's pick a direction and go," he stated simply before an ominous silence—and a sense of foreboding dread that he had come to know well enough from games and movies—seemed to pass over the group.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that with their current situation and equipment, flight was far more preferable to a fight.

"Opposite the FOE sounds like a good idea," the young man remarked, a sense of urgency beginning to overcome him as he pointed in the direction away from whatever was approaching. "How confident are you in running in that outfit? I'd rather an answer sooner than not."

By this point, Nick was already beginning to move, though it was clear by his body language that he wanted the pair with him to follow suit so that they could begin to move at a speed that would hopefully outpace their would-be pursuer.

@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze@Pyromania99

??? — Abandoned Inn

With the trio of reincarnators having finally been made aware of each others' presence, it would come as little surprise that the group would begin to explore their surroundings, if not with a heavy dose of caution. It was Lena who would head their expedition down to the first floor—not that there was much to those rooms in which they had awoken to begin with. Every one seemed to have been picked clean well before their arrival, after all.

The stairwell leading to the ground floor was surprisingly sturdy despite what could well have been months of being left untouched. The floorboards gave off an occasional creak, but though it had certainly seen better days the building seemed rather well-fortified.

That in and of itself was a bit odd, though. The windows were boarded up and some of the benches and tables that might well have once served customers were lined up against the doors. Across the ground, dried-out bloodstains streaked towards one of the side walls, where the desiccated corpse of a knight lay slumped against the wall. In it's dried-out hands lay a dagger, ever so slightly stained even now at the handle. It was bereft of rust, which was more than could be said of the deceased's armor.

To the back lay the kitchen, which by the looks of things was no better off than the front of house. Various cooking implements were scattered about the tables and floors, and the molding remains of what had once been prepared did the scene no favors. Oddly enough, though, the place seemed to be bereft of the ever-opportunistic pests that might have otherwise loved to make use of what was left.

@VitaVitaAR@Crimson Paladin@Rune_Alchemist

Another Life in a Fantasy World (Invite Only)

Nicolas Li

??? — Forest Shrine

Once the other girl had awoken from her slumber, Nick let out a small grunt as he pushed himself back to his feet and nodded his head in mild acknowledgement. Seeing as how this was a fantasy world, the name Jormungandr, while certainly a mouthful, did obviously bring to mind the world serpent of Norse mythology. There were... A lot of things that could be said about the girl in the moment, but seeing as how he was quite evidently out of his depth on almost all fronts with regards to the pair he was with, the young man chose to keep from making any comments on that matter in particular.

The small kitsune, however, was a different story. There was no meandering about any 'what-ifs' when it came to her assertion of the situation, and seeing how she was quite confident in claiming that it was reincarnation of some sort at play, Nick could only assume that she was in much the same boat as he was...

Which meant that the snakelike girl was probably much the same. In a few ways, it was convenient; a shared background meant that there was at least some expectation of social norms that he could use as guideposts. On the other, well...

It was a bit awkward, once he considered the situation a bit more, that he seemed to be the only guy here.

"Well, if we're all introducing ourselves," he chimed in before slipping his hands into his pockets, "my name's Nicolas Li; feel free to call me Nick. As for navigation... Sorry. I was born and raised in the city; never had any interest in even hiking, much less camping or anything like that. The best I can do is offer vague factoids from survival videos, and I'd rather not gamble on that if we can help it."

@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze@Pyromania99

Another Life in a Fantasy World (Invite Only)

Nicolas Li

??? — Forest Shrine

Given how the last thing he had felt was the one-two of a speeding car and hitting the cold, hard pavement before blacking out, the last thing Nicolas had expected to feel was a mix of grass and stone upon waking up. Sure, there was something between him and that, but seeing as how he had most certainly gone flying through the air like a ragdoll, surely there had to have been someone able to call an ambulance to pick him up.

...Or maybe someone had tried to dispose of his body after the fact? It wasn't impossible, but theorizing didn't mean much if he didn't at least try to move.

With a grunt, the young man attempted to push himself off the ground and into a seated position—a feat that wouldn't have been possible had he actually still had the dozens of broken bones that would have resulted from being rammed into by a ton of steel—as he finally took in the scene around him. There was an odd serenity to the ruins that surrounded them, but shaking that sense of unease that was still poking at the back of his mind was not so easily dismissed. Nowhere near his college were there woods this overgrown, much less ones that housed old stone ruins that looked like they came out of a game or off a movie screen.

It was then, though, that Nick finally chose to examine himself. There was no sign of injury to be found; the pristine clothes (minus a few dirt stains from where he had been lying moments before) and perfectly able body proved that much.

It didn't take long after that for everything to click, especially when he noticed the fluffy-tailed girl poking another unconscious soul nearby.

"Mmm... Reincarnation it is, then. Damn, what a shitty way to go out," he mumbled to himself as he finally rose to his feet.

"Sure hope being gone doesn't mess everyone up too badly. It was bad enough when gramps died, so I can only imagine how everyone else feels right now..."

Some thoughts, however, were still left unspoken.

"...Right, can't linger on that too long, though. It'd be stupid to die twice in a row," Nick sighed, rolling his shoulders a few times before walking over to the two girls that were probably in the same boat as him and squatted down. "Any luck getting her to wake up? As pretty as this place is, it's not somewhere I'd like to stick around in the long term."

@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze@Pyromania99

Another Life in a Fantasy World (Invite Only)

??? — Abandoned Inn

The haze that seemed to cloud your minds after you had closed them for what felt like the very last time soon gave way to the sight of an unfamiliar ceiling. The mattress upon which you lay was stiff and the blanket covering your body had a thin layer of dust upon it—one oddity among many, and far from the last. The room itself is rather rustic, if not unkempt; wooden floorboards and rough-hewn stone make up a majority of the workings of the room around you, and there is not a single piece of modernity in sight even as you rise and take stock of the situation around you. A glance out the window reveals some rather grim sights; even from this distance you can make out what appear to be rusted weapons and skeletons bereft of flesh lying on the streets... As well as some odd figures barely visible in the shaded alleyways nearby. But it doesn't take long for the focus to shift from your surroundings to yourselves in turn.

Your bodies feel no worse for wear in the briefest moments before you examine them, but once you do it is rather evident ere long that you aren't in your own—or, at the very least, the one that you used to know.

Regardless of whatever you do to take stock of the situation, leaving these rooms would bring you to a hallway, likewise connected to other rooms—as one might expect. Having woken up alone, however, one might find solace in the presence of others, equally disoriented by the situation though they might be.

@VitaVitaAR@Crimson Paladin@Rune_Alchemist