"So this is another world… I don't know what I was expecting."
Standing in a dense forest, surrounded by trees and dirt, the world's new residence, Noctis Ashen stood in disillusionment.
"Where are the people? I don't even sense any animals." He glanced around, scripting his jaw in puzzlement.
"Although I wasn't expecting anyone to welcome me, there should be some form of life other than trees nearby, right?"
I can't have ended up in the middle of nowhere again, right? I don't even know which direction to go.
Though the sound of waves behind him indicated that he was near the sea shores which in turn indicated for him to go straight.
"To onwards and beyond!"
As he was about to move though, he felt the earth underneath his feet begin to tremble.
"Hm?" He halted as glanced down, wondering if it's an earthquake.
But soon, a shadow appeared over him blocking the sun.
Glancing up, Noctis sucked in a cold breath.
"…What exactly am I looking at?"
Even though his eyes were obscured by his hair, he could still see very clearly—better than everyone even.
But still, the sight before him was so illogical, he might have doubted for a second if his eyes were tricking him.
Towering over him, nearly as tall as the trees, huge figures stood in the distance.
They were way too big to be animals, and their shapes were strange enough that he couldn't even tell what they were supposed to be.
They didn't look human, the proportions of their bodies were too… uh, non-human—yes! That's the word, non-human.
Though their attire does resemble those martial artists with the beads and everything back home.
They didn't really look quite like beasts either. Maybe if you change their colors a bit they might be mistaken for Orcs.
But that would be disrespectful.
These freaks just looked… wrong.
Then he noticed movement closer to him.
From between the trees, long shapes began crawling out onto the dirt.
At first glance, they looked like oversized centipedes, their bodies moving slowly across the ground.
But when he focused on their heads—
They had human faces.
"…Okay. That's creepy," he muttered quietly, taking a small step back in utter disgust.
The creatures weren't rushing him.
They were just slowly getting closer, one slow movement at a time.
Noctis scratched his cheek lightly, trying to stay calm.
"…So this is another world, huh? Yeah, figures."
He exhaled slowly, eyes still fixed on the approaching monsters.
"…If I wasn't sure I was in another world before, I sure do now."
Before he could even finish his thoughts, the smaller creatures suddenly shot forward.
The centipede things rushed toward him all at once, their movements no longer slow.
Not planning on wasting another second around these things, he circulated his chi and in the blink of an eye, every critter was simultaneously pierced by meter long rods made of light.
Soon the solid light rods began melting and spreading over each of the insects before both burst into light particles disappearing in the wind.
Noctis didn't linger on it, instead he focused on the giants.
The monsters themselves didn't seem to care about their companions' death as one lifted its arm.
Its fingers intertwined, forming a strange hand symbol as the air around its hand felt different somehow.
"…Ninjutsu?" Noctis eyebrows raised in bewilderment.
The giant stepped forward and threw a punch.
"Oh. It's a punch. Makes more sense…"
Noctis made no effort to dodge.
He simply stood there and took it.
The impact shook the ground and rustled the trees, but when everything settled, he was still standing in the same spot, unharmed.
He glanced at his arm.
"…That felt weird," he said casually.
More rods of light appeared around him.
This time, he didn't even bother looking directly at them.
A brief flash.
And the towering figures were gone.
Noctis looked around once, then turned and started walking further into the island.
"…Yeah," he muttered, hands in his waist band. "This place is definitely strange."
And just like that, he left the scene behind.
***
"…My lord," Noctis muttered, rubbing his temples.
"Did I accidentally wander into a monster world or something?"
He'd been walking for an hour now, but the deeper he went into the island, the worse it got.
At first, he thought the earlier creatures were just unlucky encounters.
Yeah? No.
A butterfly fluttered past him—beautiful wings and all—
until he noticed the faces.
A damn human's. Pure nightmare fuel.
"…Nope," he said quietly, turning his head away.
The damn things even tried to pierce his skin with their stingers. He thanked his lucky stars his skin was harder than diamonds.
He shared a prayer for any unfortunate soul who might have had the "luxury" of experiencing the aftermath of such.
Further ahead, shadows moved between the trees.
Creatures with mismatched forms appeared one after another.
Some had human torsos with animal limbs—hell, some had multiple pairs.
Others looked like beasts stitched together with human features.
Giants walked slowly in the distance, their silhouettes towering over the forest like living mountains.
One of them even looked like a monk.
It stood upright, draped in ragged robes, hands clasped together like it was praying.
Noctis stared at it for a few seconds.
"…Yeah, I'm not dealing with that," he muttered and quietly changed direction.
Since it might've not noticed him, no need to invite the uglies to give him a scripture lesson.
But the silence didn't last long.
A voice suddenly echoed from ahead.
"—So you're the outsider." Someone called out to him.
Noctis stopped.
"…Huh?"
He looked forward.
Standing on a broken stone platform was a strange figure. Its body was mostly humanoid, but its head—
Is that a grasshopper?
Noctis could only sigh.
Its eyes were sharp, intelligent, and way too calm for something that looked like that.
Behind it stood several giants.
But these ones were different from the other giants before. They're unbelievably tall.
Their faces were blank and mindless.
And in the places where their eyes should be, protruding from the sockets were hands.
Actual hands.
Fingers slowly opening and closing like eyes.
And in their actual hands, both monsters each held a Shakujo.
Noctis stared at the scene in silence.
Then he sighed.
"…Yeah," he said as he crossed his arms. "I definitely picked the wrong world."
Can this world get any creepier? I want to go home.
[Current world: Jigokuraku
World library: Velantera, Jigokuraku]
F**K!
The grasshopper-headed being tilted its head slightly, studying him before aggressively,
"Hmph! An unusual being! Are you human by chance!?"
"Yea, so what if I am." Noctis realizes this one can talk so he poses a question of his own.
"What are you freaks anyway? Mind telling me where we are?"
"Hmph! How impudent! You human dare to question me? Hmph! I'll have you know that I, a great Doshi serving under Lord Tensen, have come to identify the disturbance on Kotaku Island!"
The grasshopper mouthed in one go.
"Haaah!? So you can question me but I can't?"
Noctis immediately picked up on a few key words like "Lord tensen" and "Doshi," along with the name that seems to be the island's, filing them away for later as the other person seemingly about to initiate a fight.
The grasshopper headed man pointed towards him,
"And now that I've identified the wretched human… I shall turn you over to Lord Tensen for further study! Get him!"
The two giants behind him sprang into action.
Both swung their staves at him at lightning speed.
DOOM!
Chapter 3 end.