Emilio coughed up blood on the ground, the pain in his midsection was the worse thing he had ever experienced in his whole life up to this point, and it was growing worse by the second.
'I'm going to die here.. Already..' he thought internally as he was bleeding out.
Nobody would know what happened to him, or that he ended up in this new world, and his parents... oh my god his parents, his home, everything that he ever cared about... his planet: Earth.. If he dies here, he'll never see any of it again.
This didn't sit well with Emilio, because he always wanted to end up in the history books, not to die to some stupid little green creature
With a stubborn resolve he pushed himself on his stomach; the blood loss made him feel woozy. He had to figure out a way to fix this and fast. That's when he remembered... the goblin who poured out the old bag dropped a red vial of liquid with it too.. It couldn't be right?..
Emilio crawled as hard as he could, his life literally depended on it as he clawed his way to the red vial
Finally, he reached it, as his vision began to blur, but he opened it.
There was a red trail like aroma that came out of the opening, and upon just smelling it... It smelled almost fruity, like a smoothie of sorts. However he didn't care what it smelled like, and he quickly drank it down.
The results were instantaneous... and the pain fully went away
... And on a surprising note, it tasted like Grape Tylenol, specifically the drink kind his mom used to give him whenever he was sick in bed as a kid, and for some reason it tasted really good whenever she gave it to him; that was very strange, yet it worked.
Emilio carefully got to his feet, and slowly but surely stood up; he was in utter shock. Not only had his hypothesis about it being a healing potion had been correct, but also... Magic did indeed exist in this world.
Now, this would probably be a traumatic experience for most other people, and he knew that a regular Isekai MC would probably develop some sort of hatred or become cold from an experience like that... but not him
He jumped up in joy yelled "I WAS RIGHT!!" before quickly covering his in embarrassment mouth and stopping, worried it might attract more monsters, but his excitement remained
'I wonder if Ill be able to cast spells eventually?' He thought with hope. Maybe he could potentially survive in this world and see his family again... his.. family...
Oh yeah, his family, friends, and world... he barely gave it a thought since he got here. They don't know where he is, or what happened to him. The excitement faded as emotions began to well up inside as he thought about how his family must feel. His mom, his dad, his brother, his sis-...
He suddenly shook his head "No, can't think about it right now, if I was summoned here to this world, there has to be a way back" Emilio said to himself as he pushed the emotions back down. Worrying about his family wouldn't get him anywhere right now. So he took a deep breath and remained calm, now what he needed to do was at least find a way forward.
Then Emilio remembered the other item the bag held that the Goblins just tossed aside. So, he got up and went to the old satchel which was laying on the ground, and he picked it up; Then he looked around on the ground for its contents, unfortunately he couldn't find the coins he saw from earlier; but he did spot the Old paper from before.
When he picked up and turned it over, he saw that it wasn't just paper; but an envelope with a massive brownish red stain on the left side.
So, he opened it, and took out the letter inside. It had the same stain on it as the envelope near the left corner of the page, and it also showed signs of age and water damage, as the paper was a yellowish color
The letter read:
Dear Lili
I'm writing to you on this sad day in hopes this letter one day reaches you in Sharic, I've fought well and hard for the kingdom of Linera; but unfortunately, I'm on my last legs right now. I'm sorry that I won't make it home to you and our little girl, I hope you'll forgive me someday in the future; but my death was not in vain. I send prayers and regards to you and your family; May the tree deliver us to the great world above my beloved
Sincerely,
Mattais
Emilio looked at the letter with intrigue. Sharic? Kingdom of Linera? This is proof of another civilization, hopefully it's still around. Also, the last part of the letter: 'May the tree deliver us to the great world above' repeated in his mind, as if to try and decode its meaning. In the end he thought it's probably part of the Religion of this world.
As he continued his examination of the letter, he turned it over out of curiosity and found a.. Drawing? It was a spiral shape, as the tail began from the left side, and spiraled to the right into the middle; yet the line of the spiral wasn't straight, it was loopy, and each loop was facing out of the spiral. However, the strangest part was that it was drawn in the same reddish-brown liquid which stained the left corner of the letter.
However, Emilio shrugged it off, thinking it was maybe a spell rune or something magical to protect the letter from harm or something. He could only guess at this point.
'So... this "Kingdom of Linera" is probably my best bet' he thought with a contemplative look in his eye. So, he gathered up the empty vial that the "healing potion" was stored in, and the old letter that he just found, and put them both in the satchel; which he slung over his shoulder. He was all ready to go now.
However, he was faced with a problem: Which way to go next? The forest seemed massive and infested with monsters, and if a goblin could do that much damage to him; there's no telling what happens if he encountered a Troll or Cyclops, or something crazy like that
Emilio stood puzzling for a bit on which way to go, then he shook his head, knowing he can't just stand here all day. This was his major hurdle since he's a big overthinker when it came to problem solving situations
But he took a deep breath and began thinking of a way to tackle this, and he decided to head in the direction of the bird sounds that he hears, since if there's birds that way; possibly it could lead him to water, food, or possibly a town. So, with a determined smile on his face; he began heading towards the bird noises.
__________________________
It had been maybe 2 hours since he decided to go that way, and so far, only trees were visible in his sight, and he began to wonder if he was walking the right way. The bird noises were still distant, yet just loud enough to hear them. This was making him start to doubt if they were even real or not...
That was until he noticed an opening in the forest, yet what lay past was obscured by sunlight. However, this didn't deter him, hopefully it brought him somewhere he could rest for a while?
Emilio ran over to the opening and walked through, the light blinding his eyes for a sec as they adjusted to being in the sunlight again. But as he stepped out of the forest and into the new clearing...
A few things stood out to him. First the ground was black and grey, as if a fire had torn through the land and scorched all the life within, only stopping at the bounds of the forest. Secondly, the sky was a red color, as opposed to the natural blue of the sky he was used too. And lastly...
There was a massive set of mountains, maybe taller than a skyscraper, or double the size of the sandia mountains, and they formed a giant wall that stretched both directions into the distance, and lining the wall were gigantic symbols carved into the side of it, coincidentally they looked closely like the same symbol that teleported him here from UNM...